After living my life la Vida Loca (the Crazy Life) for the last 5 years since this At Home Dad’s son was born I was finally getting used to the craziness the day brought on.

Since my son started Kindergarten 2 months ago my life has been anything but crazy (unless you consider daily naps the crazy lifeJ).

What to do, what to do…

I am working out still but now instead of losing weight I want to gain back 10 pounds, in muscle that is. So I am still watching what I eat only I am now consciously adding Whey Protein to my diet to get my weight back up to 155 pounds in time for my holidays in the land of Cheese.

Can I do it, 2 ½ months, 10 weeks till Christmas, not a problem!

So there this At Home Dad (me) was, at the elementary school dropping my son off at Kindergarten after riding our bikes to school as we always do. I was standing near the flagpole which I lock his bike to school which is near the closest in bike rack that is always full by the time we get there; it is not like we need to lock his bike up as most of the other bikes are just sitting there unlocked with helmets hanging, I am just teaching him responsibility and how to care for things he truly cherishes.

Anyway, I was standing there checking the compression on my front shocks and thinking what a great day for a ride and where to go on my ride seeing how I just broke my RD mountain bike out for the snow season and let my K2 Dad cruiser bike have the winter off and I heard it, pssssst. Strange I thought, that sounds just like air escaping I thought as I looked around for the culprit thinking somebody is going to be bummed after school when they find a flat tire and then I smelled it!

You know the rubber like smell air has after it has spent time inside an inner tube? My shocks just got squishier when I noticed the my front tire was squishy; only it did not take me till after school to be bummed as I just got bummed in the here and now, that flat was mine! I now had to walk and push my bike home, all .62 miles, oh well it was a beautiful morning for a walk and I was going to do a ride anyway so off I went. I had a few minutes to plan my strategy for the day and how to get to Target to get not 1 but two inner tubes, yes I will pack a spare from now on while thinking I was oh so luckily to be within .75 miles of home when the dreaded pssssst happened and I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened.

I log near a thousand miles most summers and never had a pssssst till last summer when my rear tire decided rebel on the way home from the pool a ¼ mile from the house!

I learned my lesson this time as I won’t be so lucky next time it happens, 2 summers, 2 flast and both were within .75 miles of home!

I know, I know, but I was told this by my Kindergartner tonight while lying down with him.

2 weeks of elementary school for my son, two bike crashes for yours truly enroute to school. Not high speed skids and roadrash epic crashes you see, but those slow humiliating, I see those coming thuds; worst thing is my first one was right in front of the 1^st grade teacher lady. AKA the humiliating, you didn’t really see that did you, kind of crash.

At least I am teaching the kids the value of a bike helmet, which I’ve been struggling with lately with my 5 YO. Ya, that’s it!

I was getting off my bike because of the young, growing crowd, you know being responsible and trying to show proper etiquette but I had my Bob attached and my foot got caught on my rear pack making me fall when she came over and tried to pick me up from under the arms causing her to strain in her attempt. I got up myself and thanked her. Parked my bike and commenced in our morning ritual of finding a place to park his bike, stow his helmet in the Bob and then locking his bike; I deposit him in line to get his name badge teacher cheat with little Miss Brooke, then I can punch-out for 5 hours and leave for a Dad Ride ending at the KS mini Starbucks a mile away.

Then there was this morning, we hung at the playground for 5 minutes longer than we should have before riding the rest of the way to Rock Ridge, mistake! Foot traffic of moms and kids were everywhere and within 50 feet of the bike park zone I made a wide birth through the grass to catch up with my son around the last group of three foot passengers. I tried to merge back onto the sidewalk over a three inch sidewalk curb edge from some dirt when my front tire hit the edge and just skidded left sending me into a slow roll to the right where I could either try and take on a 4 foot brick wall fence, or try and melt the best I could before I impacted the wall; I opted for the later. Let me explain before I get too far along, I run semi bald mountain bike tires I inherited from my wife when she decided for real mtn. bike slicks for Ride the Rockiestwo years ago and they had no gripchion to climb the small step and just skidded forward sending me down.

Anyway, as I lie there in a hump with my Bob folded around me, this mom comes running up saying “this makes my epic morning” and tried to pick me up under the arms like the teacher did, baby like. As she grunted and groaned she asked me if I could walk, I said yes I can walk I’m not even bleeding but my ego is another matter. I thanked her untangled my mechanical mess and walked to carry our morning drop off ritual out.
That must have been a good looking crash and burn I just performed, Miss Brooke’s mom asked our mom tonight at pickup if I was OK because she saw the whole thing but didn’t want to rush over me like the rest, giving me some needed space.

We “knuckled” our have a good day departing ritual, and I set out for the biggest bike hill I could find to punish me. This hill I have been a little scared to ride up, but not today.

That hill was nothing and will be on my “daily” till the snow flies. I got home did another 15,000 aerobic steps to give me 21,000 aerobics for the day and was happy and tired; my bike does not count steps so that bike spin is added aerobic value.
I had lunch and caught a 30 minute power nap before my dishes duty in the kitchen. Got the kitchen back in order and had time to post yesterdays 365 photo before heading to Denver for a fitness program meeting that we are designing, all without training wheels!

Today’s 365 made me feel better and it was so worth the humiliation!