Team E-Race Hate

I have wanted to write a blog on the recent murder of 15 year old Lawerence King but haven't really known exactly what to say. This was a tragic incident on so many levels. It is so hard for most people to grasp the reality of this that they don't even begin to try. It just gets written off as a tragedy.


I don't want to write this off. I want people to understand that when we live in a society where a 14 year old boy kills a 15 year old boy in his class room that is filled with other students we are failing as a society. It has been labeled a hate crime stating that Lawerence King was shot because he was gay. No! That is NOT why he was shot.


Lawerence King was shot because our society has sent a message about being gay that is so strong and rage full that it would cause another human being to feel the need to go and commit an act of murder. You may say that Brandon McInerney, the 14 year old classmate that shot him, was just a minor and did not understand the severity of what he was doing. Well guess what people? Brandon McInerney will pay the price for his action but in my mind he will be serving time that is rightfully ours.


By "ours" I mean society's. Brandon IS a 14 year old kid and the fact that he pulled that trigger signifies a second crime. The second crime was committed by our society. It is time that we understand these incidents that happen are our OWN. We OWN them. All of us! Whether we choose to accept that or not.


It isn't just about the "gay" issue or the "gun" issue or the "violence in the media" issue or the "video game" issue or the "macho" issue. It is one big mess that results in incidents like this one. Where does it begin? Where does it end?


I'm not exactly sure what the answer to those questions are. I do know that we are not at the beginning or the end so we can disregard them and focus on where we are RIGHT NOW. Right now we are at a point where a 15 year old gay kid gets shot by his 14 year old class mate. Right now we are lacking in many areas of education that expands on understanding the differences in a society.


It seems on the surface that we are moving in the right direction regarding the "gay" issue. However, this incident has me questioning that. Do I feel that we are headed towards equality because there was a show called "Will and Grace" or "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy"? Do I feel that way because you are seeing talk and some action of Civil Unions? Possibly. But really, I think that for the most part gay people in this country are just one big lame novelty. I mean, civil unions aren't even close to the equality of marriage. And the gay people that you see in the media, well, does that really add to truth and understanding. I don't think it does.


Long Pause....


Okay this blog is proving to be way to hard for me to write because I grew up knowing that I was gay at about the age of 4. I lived with it silently until I was 19. Then I came out and then I had to "come out" again when I started this whole triathlon thing. My perspective of it is all over the map and I am finding that evertying I know and understand in my head about it is too complicated for me to wirte in a blog. Besides, so much of it can never be understood unless you experienced it for yourself. So let me try and get back and focus on the incident in Oxnard as best I can.


What we need to do is start with education. We need to get past the point of taboo around the subject. We can't move forward until we realize that addressing gay issues at younger ages is okay. If it was addressed when I was a kid I would be a completely different person. At times it saddens me that it wasn't. I don't want someone to go through what I went through and I certainly don't want more shootings or hate crimes to take place. I can guarantee that it will continue if we don't begin to take action now.


You may wonder how you can take action on this. Luckily I have created a way for anyone to help through a new program that I have started with The Matthew Shepard Foundation called Team E-Race Hate.


Matthew Shepard was murdered for being gay almost 10 years ago. In fact, the anniversary of his death will fall on October 12th of this year, the day before the Hawaii Ironman. His mother Judy has dedicated her life to his foundation which educates and enlightens others on the importance of diversity, understanding, compassion, acceptance and respect. While her son was murdered for being gay she feels that the mission of the foundation is meant for all.


I have decided to dedicate my entire triathlon career to help Judy Shepard spread her message. I love this sport so much and I see how so many come together to better themselves and everyone they come in contact with. What better forum for me to work in than triathlon?



What I have done is set up a fundraising program that works in two ways. The first is simply through financial donation to the program. I have created my own fundraising page that you can link to below and donate on line. The second is to decide that you want to dedicate a race you are doing to The Matthew Shepard Foundation and create your own personal fundraising page. My main goal is for Team E-Race Hate to raise $100,000 dollars by Oct 12th. I encourage athletes that decide to raise funds to commit to raising $1,000 dollars or more. We do have a marathon team that is recruiting specifically for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon which falls on Oct 12th. Anyone is welcome to the program and can recieve free coaching from me by signing up.


There will be fundraising incentives along the way and I am having Team E-Race Hate kits, visors and other gear made. I will keep you posted on how that is coming. In the mean time you can check out the website and my fundraising page below. You will also find all the information you need regarding The Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Team E-Race Hate Page:

http://www.matthewshepard.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Take_Action_Team_eRace_Hate_Lobby


BDC's Fundraising Page:

http://www.matthewshepard.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1203161&pg=fund&fr_id=1120


The best thing about this cause is that we have our cure! We just need people to start distributing it. Please find a way to do what you can.

Thank you,

BDC

Basic Week

Here is a pic from a while back when I was down in Wanaka for the Challenge race. That's Bevan James with me. You can hear him in all his raspy glory on the Ironman Talk podcast. I hosted the show with him that day while Johhny Newsome was out hammering the bike. Doing the podcast with Bevan is always a huge laugh for me!


I'm still down in New Zealand taking advantage of the nice summer weather and long days. The week after Epic was a bit of a recovery week for me. I wanted to take a some time to let things heal up so I could focus on my next task at hand which would be consistent weeks of training. I don't really enjoy these kinds of blogs because I find talking about training in too much depth to be boring and unnecessary for my blog. But since this is going to be my first year racing pro and my first year with an actual coach I figure I would take time once and a while and break it down.


I meet with Gordo, my coach, after Epic and we came up with my game plan for the rest of my time in NZ. The plan was built around the idea that I will be racing Wildflower in May and then Ironman CDA in June. Of course everything I am doing right now is built first on the idea of health.


Gordo is not a coach that is going to give you workouts on a daily basis. His philosophy, which I strongly believe in, is doing the same "week" for blocks of time and then building off of each block. I like that because it lets you have a set schedule and you can then manage the rest of your life around it. I am amazed at how well this process works for me. I have not been doing it like this for very long and already can't figure out how I trained before this.


Here is what my week looks like:

MONDAY-
Rolly swim (He is the squad coach) >6K.

JZ workout (Joanna Zeiger hooked me up with a really good gym routine that helps me not only build some strength but also ads to my flexibility issues. Gordo has added to that routine as well.)

Optional 90-180 Brick. Mostly I will just commute on the bike to the pool and do a 30 min run. If I am too tired I ditch that so that I can be sharp for the rest of the week.

TUESDAY-

Rolly Swim >4K

Gorges ride. That is one of the long rides we have here in CHC. It takes you out to the base of the hills for some rollers and then has a really nice long stretch that is a good hour 30 of either nasty head wind or sweet ass tail depending on the weather. I have yet to get a nice piece of tail. The ride from my place is 165K

Easy run 30-45 min. I don't really run straight off the bike yet. I like to stretch and refuel first.


WEDNESDAY-

AM run 30 min

2hr flat ride. I ride with Dave Dwan one of the crew guys from Epic and we head over to sumner for a nice coffee shop ride. I really enjoy a nice coffee on the beach in Sumner!

PM run 30 min

Yoga.


THURSDAY-

Rolly Swim >4K Make this a day where I go a bit faster. I either lead my lane or jump up a lane.

JZ workout.

Easy 30 min run.


FRIDAY-

Rolly Swim >5K

Ride to Little River. This is the ride we did first day of Epic but we went past to Akoroa. The ride is between 3-4 hours depending on where I start. It is pretty flat but the winds can be really hard and the road surface is rough as.

Easy 30 min run.


SATURDAY-

Ride to Corsair Bay. This is a bay just past Littleton. I ride to Sumner and then take Evans Pass (steep climb but short) over and then put on the Blue Seventy for a 2 loop swim in the bay (30-45 min). After the I go for a 30 min run and then ride back.


SUNDAY-

Ride Long Bays. This is a ride that has a nice flat section to start and then climbs a bit and then goes into rollers followed by an hour of flat.

Easy 30-45 min run

Yoga.


So there it is. I repeat this week until I leave. I am going into my third cycle of it tomorrow. Of course there are variations to it when weather forces you to change the day. If I have to miss something I don't "tack" it on to the next day or make it up. I just carry on with my week. Being anal just makes life miserable and a miserable life makes for poor racing.


There is nothing complicated about my training. I am working on making sure that I understand that and don't "think" about it too much. So many people obsess on their training, which is fine if it works for them, but I would rather not be that way.


I am rebuilding my website now and will try to get things updated with in the next few weeks.

Cheers,
bdc

Epic Camp Day 6- A Storm's A Brewin!

This photo is way better when you take me out of it. But the one with me not makes you think it isn't real....

Spell Check is not working so I appologize for looking like I didn't pass 4th grade.

For the last year waking up has been a very "stressful" time of day for me. It ussually starts with me wigling my toes and moving my left ankle around. If I flex and rotate my foot and feel pain in my heel it is never a good sign. If I don't feel that I then have to give it a test on the ground. Of course I spend a good five miniutes massaging the foot and calve. I would say that one out of seven days I feel pain in my heel when I get up. I'm on the right track and have grown accustomed to my AM ritual. Today I had one more to deal with becasue of my knee.

I had decided that the knee was no big deal but it could still possibly cost me another day in the van. So as I got up I noticed I could still feel it but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was the day before. When something goes away by a large percentage in one day you can almost always rest assure that it is minor. I was happy with that and decided that I would give the ride a go. I knew I may have to get a ride up the Crown Range but I could just get back on the bike after I got over.

We had a swim to take care of first and the option was to either go to the pool or hit the lake with Gordo. Sitting there eating breakfast I decided to go to the lake. I'm not sure why I did that becasue we were all chatting about how bad the wind was today and the fact that a storm was clearly on it's way towards us. The lake would be a mess of waves no doubt.

When we got to the lake it was just as I predicted. Cold, windy and big chop. I had my sleveless Blue Seventy with me and was sooo not in the mood to be cold. I was already cold standing there in my wetsuit. When I got to the water it seemed pretty damn cold and I just watched everyone get in. I just stood there. Gordo had taken the van key with him in the water so if I got in and then wanted to get out early I would REALLY be cold. Most of the time I can bring myself to get in and just deal but this camp was proving a challenge to do certain things.

So I got out, put on Mikes jacket and finally got the quiet time I was looking for. It was time needed to clear my head on many issues going on outside the triathlon world. It was very ironic that when I first sat down the lake was dark and gloomy but by the time people were getting out of the water it was graced by a giant rainbow. That was a similar pattern that my mind took.

After the swim we all went on a run. I was game to give it a try but I had to walk and stretch alot as I could feel the knee. So I just turned it around and got back to the van and waited for the rest. I was still set on riding.

Once we were back and ready to get on the bikes we could see the storm getting closer. The ride went out nice and slow but by the time we got out of town I couldn't stay with the group. It seemed that I was fine but I had to ride at a very high cadence and couldn't go fast. I was okay with getting dropped and just happy to be riding. I couldn't stand up on the bike either but it seemed that it was warming up as I went on even thought the temp kept droping.

When I got to the climb I looked back to see where the sag waggon was. The entire time I thought that it was right behind me but I never looked back becasue I didn't want the temptation to stop. I did have a few moments of irritation when I was going realy slow and wanted to tell them to just leave me and go with the group. To my surprise it wasn't even there LOL! I'm glad it wasn't becasue it forced me to keep going.

The climb wasn't as bad as I thought. I could stay seated for the most part and actually caught up to a few of the other guys. It was so close to starting a massive down pour on us. I wanted so bad to make it down the other side before that started. I did just that and only had to deal with minor rain on the decent. My hands were completely locked up from all the braking! It is a very windy decent.

Once at the base the rest of the group was there pretty much frozen. I passed Rob Chance on the decent and he had NO warm gear on. I was frozen in a jacket. I think he was about delerious! Quite a few of the guys got in the van for the rest of the ride. My knee didn't get any worse so I figured I would do the rest of the ride. Tara and Albert were getting ready to take off so I got some dry clothes out of my day bag and took off with them. Little did we know what we were in for.

Twenty min into the rest of the ride we got hit with massive cross winds and rain. The temperature was also being influenced from the south so it dropped a good 15-20 degrees on us. It confirmed that I am certainly not soft because I was having a blast. I have ridden in most types of extreme weather and always feel good about getting through it. I guess I just have a very low tollerance for injuries.

Albert and Tara and I stayed together as there were sections that were actually a bit dangerous. When we crossed bridges the cross wind was extra strong. Luckily we had a great crew that was watching us all very closely making sure nothing bad happend. At one point a bird was flying and the wind actually slamed it into the road. Tara saw it and we both had a good laugh about that later in the day. "It" wasn't funny, but the fact that we riding in weather that bad kinda was.

We came up on Molina who got a flat. Now that is a shitty time to get a flat. He was fine so we just left the old guy out there LOL. We wouldn't have been able to help anyway as our hands were frozen.

We made it to Q Town and the crew had some awesome soup wating for us with all our bags already sorted in the rooms. They are so freaking good! I took a 30 min shower and felt so good that I was back on track. However, I missed my swim in the AM so as son as I got out of the shower I got my bag and walked to the pool that was luckily only 5 min away. I put in 4K and that was iceing on the cake for my day.

Later that night I went into town and got some dinner by myself. Again, needed some more BDC time. Then I hooked up with Ron and John and we decided to take the Gondola up to the top of the mountain. One of the best views you could ever ask for!

cheers,
bdc

Epic Camp - Day 5 "Never Get In The Van"

Never say "never". I woke up knowing we had a really decent day ahead of us. We were riding from Wanaka to the "hard" side of the Crown Range just outside of Queenstown and going to do a TT up it. The ride to the Range is pretty decent as I did this ride the other direction last year. To TT up the Range would prove to be a challenge given what everyone has done thus far.

Me, well I was in a pisser of a mood. My knee was bugging and my new rule is that if you feel pain STOP! I know that there are times when you need to push through pain but I have been an athlete in the running world long enough to know the differnce between "suck it up" pain and "don't be a fool" pain. Most pain at this early stage of the year would fall under the latter. Why? Because I don't have an IM until June and there is no reason to suck it up.

The big problem with me is that I still see a reason to "suck it up". Who wants to miss a day like this on Epic!? I had been looking forward to the climb up the Crown since last year when Newsom and Gordo decided to put it on the books. But as it seemed now, that would not be happening.

I walked around our kitchen living space trying my best not to be outwordly pissy. It was hard becasue so many things were going through my head. Not just the idea that I probably wasn't going to be able to do this ride but more along the lines of WHY THE FUCK DO I KEEP GETTING INJURIES! I still have to baby my left foot a year later.

Gordo gave me the idea to just ride the first bit to Cromwell and see if things warmed up. I was fine with that but had the internal strugle of wanting to make a clean decision and just stick to it. I didn't want to try and then get in the van. I either wanted to ride or not ride. Bottom line.

But I choose to give it a try and ended up getting in the van within several miles from the start. In the end, getting in the van wasn't actually as bad as I thought. Of course I had all the stupid shit going on in my head about what other campers might think. Does this make me soft? Is this knee thing going to be on going? Now I have to be out on the damn ride course all day when I could have been back at the lodge doing something else like a swim, etc etc etc.....I had a nice moment of PURE NEGATIVITY. It was probably the most negative I have EVER been. My head was even planing a rental car back to CHC so I could pack it up, fly home, screw triathlon and become a slave to some job I would hate by the end of the week. WOW! Where the hell did all that come from? Well, I think after a year of injury you get a little sensitive to say the least.

When I got in the van Chris was driving and I stayed quiet at first. He is a great guy and after a bit of conversation I began to realize the major swing that my head had just gone through. I began to see the light and decided that I was doing the best thing for me. "So what if you miss a day on the camp?" I told myself. It is better than missing a season. I was still a little irritated that I was now stuck in a van for most of the day but I got over that when I realized that I could be the photo guy for a while and stick my head out and take pictures of the other campers. I also decided that I would run the TT (not physically- I mean manage) up the Crown Range.

The guys looked pretty good on the early bits of the ride. Being in the van you don't realize how fast or slow the group is going but you certainly see which riders haven been beaten down a bit by the camp. It seemed that a few like Albert and Newsom were playing it easy and saving up for the TT.

Once we made it to the base of the climb everyone re-grouped and I would then send them off in 30 second intervals. The climb was no joke. I knew what they were in for and had shifted to a better mood which made me really eager to watch how it went down. For the most part the order was slowest to fastest (as best they could decide). Bevan was last to go and would shread through the field. However, John Drewery had gone about 3rd and was the only person that Bevan did not catch. John was the first camper to the top and had an awesome ride. Good on him! I mean, Bevan still killed him....but good on him!

After the TT we drove the van back to the lodge ahead of the riders and got there well before they did. I decided that I would give a run a try. The knee only seemed to bug me on the down stroke of the bike. At this point I wasn't concerned about it becasue I had time to reflect on what I actually did the last three days. No doubt it was quad overload and a tiny bit of time off would be all that it takes.

My run was okay. Just a 40 min easy jog. I was entertained as the riders came back in becasue Johno thought he was being slick and tacking on but then Albert rolls along right behind him to tack on too. The two of them were doing 5K loops LOL! JOHNO- DON'T BEAT THE SPONSOR LOL! I can't belive that was me last year doing all that tack on shit. I got tired watching them and had to walk a bit haha.

The goal now was to stretch, get some massage and a good night sleep so I could make the ride to Queenstown the next day. We would ride the other side of the Crown Range and then direct to Q Town. Not a super long ride but the climb might be dodgy for me. I really did not want another day in the van!

SIDE NOTE-

One thing that really helped me on this camp came a few days later when Molina and I were having a chat in the "oh so nice" hot tub. We were sitting there with John Drewry shooting the shit about running days that seem like another life already. The convo took a turn toward injury and Molina shared a bit about the mental strugle he had when he was injured with Plantar Fasc. It was just nice to hear someone like him admit that it what a SHIT time for him. Three years of it! You would never think that Molina had a rough time with anything. I guess what I am saying is that it made me feel somewhat normal that I have such feelings of frustration and that it is common for the head to do a 180 on you. But the conversation ultimatley helped me find new ways for me to stay positive when the body breaks down. Hopefully that will be less and less this year.

In the end you are training your own body and you need to take responsibilty for knowing what it can and cannot do. If you continue to compare your training to how others go about it and never learn from your own journey you will constanly be going against yourself! When I look back at my mental state in the van it was simply my ego having a major tantrum. Lets just say that I gave my ego a pretty bit "time out" for the outburst.

P.S- Tara is still SCHOOLING the boys on this camp. DANG!

Epic Camp Day 4- Was that really only 10K?

This is a picture from Wanaka. We rode back into Trebble Cone and this is the view on the way back. IF you look close you can see Mark P cresting the hill.

EPIC CAMP DAY 4.


Okay I am not going to lie. I am tired. We have been smacking it pretty hard for the last 3 days and I am happy to say that a "rest" day has arrived. For our "rest" day we are getting up early to do a 4.5K lake swim race and then a 10K run race with a time prediction component.


When we all got down to the lake for the swim I was kinda dreading it a bit becasue of how tired I was and how shitty the swim part of the Aquathon was for me. But alas I look at the bright side and am thankful that the lake is like galss right now and the mountains surounding us are holding back any bad weather. Really though, how bad can it be? In Wanaka to do an open water lake swim with a great group? Life ain't that bad.


The swim took off and of course the big fish in the group took off. I wasn't going to go out that hard but normally I would at least try and stay on G's feet for as long as I can. His feet are not really "reality" for me right now especially since he is trying to be on Molinas feet LOL. BUt normally I like to give it a try.


I did most of the swim on my own leading Tobby around. It was two loops and I had him pull for a wee bit but you know my massive strength and impeckable swim form just made going that slow speed too boring so I had to pass him up LOL...Kidding of course! We had a nice little kick for the last 300 or so. He is a great guy and always makes open water swiming more fun for me. There wasn't anyone real close behind us.


After that we trucked back towards the lodge and got out of the vans on a road that we measured out a 10K run course. It would be a two loop out and back. The fun part was that it was a race but it was alos a point challenge to try and guess your time. No watches for the race obviously. I predicted 41:11. That would be pretty slow for me under normal conditions but I figured i would try and run 4 min K's and then when you add in the fatigue of that last 3 days I woudl be a bit slow. I am pretty good at these guess your time things. The first year I was 1 second off my guess of a 1/2 marathon time.


The race starts and I am NAKERED! My quads hurt so bad that I was actually wondering how I would get through a 10K run! I figured that I would be way off my time but tried to keep the shuffle pace I was going. Bevan was pulling out all the tricks and took it out and ran himself into second place overall. I wanted to try and run fast so bad but it went against my "stay injury free" moto and probably wouldn't have been there anyway..


AS I got close to the finish I really thought it was going to be slow but turned out that I was only 16 seconds off my predicted time. I totally forgot that all my race runs end in a kick and I didn't do that. Maybe that would have hit it on the head? Anyway, I was glad it was over. My quads were DONE.


Later we rode out to Trebble Cone which is a really nice 60K ride and has some pretty amazing sights. I will get some phots up when I get back to CHC. Mark P and I gave "riding easy" a new definition. I was starting to get a bit of a sore spot in my knee so I spun as slow as I could. I felt the mental cloud that goes into my head when something starts to hurt physically arrive. My ability to remain calm when I begin to feel pain like that is almost zero. I have spent so much time being injured that psychologically I really can't handle anyting major happen again.


When we got back into town from the ride Gordo, Bevan, Mark and I went and got some tasyt hamburgers. I think Bevan and Mark had about 5 cokes each! Even I can't do that. the spin back to the lodge was pretty hard with all that food in our stomacks. We ordered way too many fries as well and I was on the verge of barfing. The ride back confirmed that my knee was getting sore. We were do for a big ride the next day and normally I would just take some time down to let it heal up but in this environment it was making me extra pissy. I can only keep those feelings to myslef for so long and then when that period is over you will definantly know what is up if you are around me.


I just went back and chilled out by myself. I needed a good night sleep and thought that if I got a good rest the knee my feel better in the AM. Who know's? Anything is possible.


Again- No spell check.

Epic Camp Day 3- Wana get to Wanaka.

I think we had about 10K to go. This is how we felt due to the wind....

Epic Camp day 3.


The plan was to get out of my bed that overlooked the lake up in Tekapo to go on a 50 min run. I slept through that! I had taken a small sleeping pill the night before to ensure that I would get some and well, it did the trick. When I finally got up to get ready for another big day of riding I was pretty groggy to say the least.


We rolled out on a side road that paralleled a man made river. It was nice becasue it was flat with some tail wind and their were no cars at all. We stayed as a group for the most part so I could suck wheel for a good while until I woke up.


Apparantly I did wake up becasue at some point I ended up on the front and things began to feel good. I decided I would stay on the front for a while and go for first to lunch again! They give double points for doing that. Oh wait, no they don't. It was nice becasue I found a pretty steady grooze and just rode right along. We were riding two abreast so I got to have new company often.


After lunch we were going to be going into the hills which I knew that I wouldn't do that well in. Mark P and I pulled again and pushed a decent pace to the base of the climb. Not as many went with so we were actually in the race to the top at that pouint. Of course Bevan pounded it and won the climb. Gordo climbed better than I have ever seen him. Mark and I were simply there to try and displace points between the guys going for it so as we climbed we kept looking back becasue we knew that Molina was behind us and that he would be launching his attack on us at some point.


Looks like Molina called the troops a tad too late as Mark and I mangaed to keep our lead on him by a matter of seconds. But he must have been motoring up beacasue he was a ways back at the start.


The decent is where the crazy shit began. We hammered the next bits with Mark P of course pushing the pace trading of with Molina and myself as much as we could. that bridged us back up to Beavan and Gordo. Newsom dropped of at some point. The four of us rode very hard until the aid station. Bevan kept attacking and Mark and I were on some kind of mission from god. It was great! That is the kind of riding that I live for. You just get smashed to bits and go forever!


We hit the last aid station and I pretty much said "screw this, lets get there" and got to the front and motored along for most of the way back. I did just want to get there....There was pretty far away LOL. But when we did we had to walk up a big dirt hill to get to the lodge. Being so tired we decided that John Newsomw was voted off the island. But actually the accom turned out to be really cool and was a perfect choice for the camp.


Later that day (there wasn't much left of it) we went to town for an Aqua-thon (swim run). I have never swam so freaking slow in my life! I was laughing duringit becasue I thought I was going to get to experience what it feels like to come out of the water dead last. But as I came out I turned around and saw Bevan and Tobby among others LOL. How the hell anyone swam slower than I did is a mystery to me. Serioulsy!


I just cruised the run at my slow trainng pace and stopped in the bathroom a few times as my stomach is gooooone! Any progress I made on the gas issues is OVER! I fell bad for the rest of the campers.


Anyway, that is the update from the road. Maybe I will be able to be a litle more entertaining in the write up next time. I'm too tired to be witty or spell check so you will have to deal with all my spellinmg erers.


bdc