The Chomel Boys (pic)

At the “Tiki Bar” in Metamora, IN

Pictured (L to R) Rick, Jeff, Jason

Dawn Patrol

There’s nothing quite like the calm feeling I have when leaving the water after a nice, relaxing surf session. The smell of the salt on my skin mixed with the unmistakable scent of surf wax is like a soothing balm that wipes away any tensions or worries.

After an absence of almost a year and a half, it was really nice to get back into the ocean this morning. That marathon last year, with all the training time and recovery period, seriously took a toll on my desire and ability to go out and get wet on a regular basis. Not quite sure what it was that clicked in my head, but I suddenly got the craving this week, so instead of sleeping in on a Saturday morning, I woke up with my alarm just as if it were a normal workday. After pulling on my shorts and filling a travel mug with fresh coffee, I was out the door. When I got to Tourmaline, it was going on 6:30, and the parking lot was already about half full (you just can’t beat some of those crusty old guys no matter how early you *think* you’re getting up). I saw a lot of familiar faces, and it was almost as if I hadn’t been absent for so long. The Saturday morning dawn patrol was in full swing.

I had a couple of nice wipe outs, as can be expected on my first time back out, but I also managed to catch a handful of really decent rides too. The surf was so-so, but for me at least, it never really matters. Don’t get me wrong, I love a perfectly formed wave as much as the next surfer, but just being out there is typically all it takes to put me in a better frame of mind.

Bicycle (pic)

Here’s my mean machine…

Baja 500 weekend is about to begin

Ben and Jane arrived today. I met them at the hotel after work, and we spent some time catching up before driving over to Jimmy Carter’s for some dinner. Barbara caught up with us back at the hotel.

Tomorrow, Ben and I go fishing on San Diego Bay. Daryle and Todd will arrive mid-morning, followed by the rest of the gang (Jeff, Mark, Miles, Randy and Ryan) tomorrow night.

We’ll be striking out for Ensenada on Friday after breakfast. We’ve got a leisurely trip planned with overnight in Ensenada. The big race is Saturday, then back to San Diego.

Recap to follow.

I Love Me a Three Day Weekend.

Three day weekends are so awesome – it’s like having two Saturdays back to back. Saturday morning, you wake up and you’re like ‘Sweet, it’s Saturday morning!’ Then on Sunday, you can wake up and do it all over again. It only gets better when the crappy, rainy forecast for the entire weekend turns into fairly decent SoCal-type weather after all.

So it’s Sunday morning and the weekend is before us again. Barbara and I have a breakfast date to meet Kendra and Alex over at Brian’s. We’ll be riding our bikes, as we have taken to doing on the weekends lately, and might just take a stroll through the farmer’s market afterwards, before toddling off to the gym. My consolation for going to the gym two days in a row will be finally going to see the new Indiana Jones flick (it’s only been out for, like, 4 days. Gaaaa.)

Anyhoo, that’s my plan. Wish me luck, y’all. Oh, and no flat tires today, no flat tires today, no flat tires…

Honorable post number 1

What? You mean I can throw a bunch of useless crap up here for the whole world to see? The Interwebs are really cool!

Late to the party

I know that all the cool kids have probably already been here and done this, but I have finally gotten around to creating my very own WordPress blog. Don’t everybody get all excited now, I’m just a newb, so I’ll be feeling my way around this little by little. I guess the reason I haven’t done it up ’til now is that I am afraid I don’t have enough to say. Time will tell how that one works out.

In the meantime, to check out the minutia of my day to day, feel free to check me out on Twitter.

Yours truly,

J