Posts Tagged ‘cycling’

Day T-44 and counting…

Posted: July 22, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Today I picked up Ceecee’s wedding ring from the jewelery shop. It really turned out nice. I can’t believe I waited this long to do this. I’m so ashamed of myself, but I am going to write her a love letter and give it to her with the ring. I haven’t decided exactly how yet, but I’m going to have it be a surprise and I think her heart will melt and she’ll understand. I have to believe that she still loves me deep down and that this will allow us to break through all the defenses she’s put up.

In the afternoon, I went and rode the bicycle course for the Tiger Tri, the triathlon Ceecee and I are going to be in this August. It was tough, but it was also a blast. I don’t know why I waited so long to get into road cycling. Going down some of those hills at those speeds was amazing!

Day T-53 and counting…

Posted: July 16, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Monday, June 14, 2010

Never imagined today could turn out the way it did. We joined a bike club here in Springfield because we heard that they had group rides for beginners and tonight was one of their cookouts, so we showed up. Everyone ignored us and it seemed totally disorganized, so after a little while, we just left.

We were hungry and in a bad mood, so we stopped at a deli to get something to eat. While we were eating, Ceecee said she thought maybe we needed a separation. She said that we just seemed to be stuck and that something needed to change to get us out of where we were. She said she felt friendship toward me, but that was all, and she wondered if spending some time apart would make things more clear.

Of course, I was devastated and totally against the idea, but I mostly just listened and didn’t know what to say. I never thought it could come to this. I don’t know what to think. Apparently, she’s already been thinking about this, because she told me that she had priced some downtown apartments and some were affordable. I just said that we needed to sleep on it and could we talk about it again another day. Tomorrow is her first day at Dillard’s and everything is changing so fast. Am I losing her?

She wasn’t angry when she talked about it, or even emotional at all. She was just calm and rational, like she’s thought this through and it doesn’t bother her. What’s crazy is that she actually seemed hopeful, like separating could be a good thing. I couldn’t tell if she really meant that maybe it could be a path for us to work things out, or if she really just wants out of the marriage and hopes that if we split up that I will just let her go.

Day T-56 and counting…

Posted: July 13, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Friday, June 11, 2010

We went back to the bike shop and put in the order today. I think the guy was pretty shocked.

We’ve been working out pretty hard. We’ve both been swimming more and I did some interval running with Ceecee today. We ran/walked 9 miles, which is my farthest since high school. I’m not going to say it didn’t hurt, but we made it.

Day T-57 and counting…

Posted: July 12, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, June 10, 2010

This afternoon, we went in to Queen City Cycles, a bike shop downtown and Ceecee fell in love with this Masi Italian rode bike. They didn’t actually have it at the store, but she saw it in the catalog. We talked about it and she’s really excited.

Then, I walked to the farmer’s market by myself and she was going to meet me there after her interview. She called me as she was on her way and told me she got the job at Dillard’s. She’s going to start at $10 an hour.

At school, she gets all of her summer paychecks in June, so we agreed that she could go ahead and order the bike and pay for it out of her school pay, then make it up out of her Dillard’s checks. It will take two or three weeks for it to get there and we will have the money by then. She’s going to let me ride the Raleigh temporarily.

Day T-73 and counting…

Posted: July 2, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Ceecee took her bike out to the Wilson’s Creeek National Battlefield to get some riding experience. I guess it went pretty well. The road out there is pretty hilly, but she said she handled it ok.

I was in jury duty again. The trial finished up and we decided against the plaintiff. His lawyer was one of those ones that has the ads on tv, so it was pretty weird being in there watching all of it. I’m glad it’s over so I can take some time off.

This marriage stuff that this guy, Mort Fertel, is emailing me is pretty weird. He calls his program “marriage fitness,” which is interesting. He talks about why counseling doesn’t usually work and that you need to step away from your problems and focus on doing things that will change the dynamics of your relationship.

He gives really practical things that people can do, and he says you can “build” your marriage fitness like you can build muscle by working out. I’m trying to take some of the advice. I’m willing to do most anything right now just to get things back to going right.

Day T-85 and counting…

Posted: June 21, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Ceecee was really angry and awful today, insisting that we weren’t celebrating her birthday and she didn’t want anything. She kept saying she wasn’t having a birthday and no one was to do anything for her. Of course I couldn’t let that stand, but it was really ugly for a while.

In the end, I took her to Old Chicago, one of our favorite restaurants, where Angie and Taylor were also showing up with a few small gifts. We ended up having fun, and after she loosened up, Ceecee let the waitress take some pictures of all of us with a digital camera. After we ate, instead of going home, I drove to the bike shop. I didn’t tell her anything, just drove there.

When she asked why we were there, I just told her she would see. She was so completely baffled when they wheeled the bike out, that she just said, “What is it?” I said, “It’s a road bike,” and she said, “but how?” I told her I would tell her later, when we weren’t in the store. I also got a bike rack to put on the back of the car, and one of the guys from the store came out and installed it for us.

That night on Facebook, she wrote, “Well, turning 39 wasn’t so bad and I had a nice birthday in spite of my protests. I’m so excited. I have my bike!” Surely everything will change now. She can’t stay mad at me forever and she has to see that I still love her, no matter what she might be thinking or feeling.

Day T-90 and counting…

Posted: June 18, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Saturday, May 8, 2010

Ceecee started her Galloway training this morning. It’s every Saturday morning, so I went to the gym while she went to run with her group. She showed up and said she didn’t even break a sweat the first day. I figured they start slow and it will get tough later. The marathon isn’t for six months.

Steven showed up and we were trying to communicate about the bike in secret. I called over there to try to get information about the brand and any details and all Angie could tell me was it had “skinny, skinny tires.” Later Steven called me and said he looked it up on the internet and it was worth about $900. It was a red Raleigh Gran Sport and it was really nice.

At one point during the day, we snuck away and took the bike to a local bike shop for a tune-up and general getting ready. Steven’s girlfriend almost accidentally gave it all away, and at one point, I thought Ceecee had figured it out, but we kept up the act and hoped for the best. We decided it was better to just leave it at the bike shop so that it couldn’t “accidentally” be found at Angie’s.

Day T-91 and counting…

Posted: June 16, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Friday, May 7, 2010

Every year, on one of the last Fridays of the school year, our junior high sponsors what they call “eighth grade weekend.” It’s a field trip for eighth grade only where they get to go on an all day trip to Silver Dollar City. Ceecee and I both got to go this year because she was recruited to walk around with some special needs students. It was a nice day and we had a good time. I’m still pretty freaked out from last night, but today didn’t seem any different than any other lately.

Ceecee found out today that her brother from Tennessee is coming for a surprise visit to celebrate Taylor’s graduation. What she doesn’t realize is that the surprise is on her. She really wants a bike that she can start training to race in triathlons, but even used, they are really expensive and we’re pretty broke right now. I’ve been shopping on line, but we haven’t been able to find anything that way.

Somehow, I was talking to her stepmom in Tennessee the other day and she told me that they have one that is almost new and they would be willing to let me have it for next to nothing. Then we were trying to figure out how to get it shipped here and this idea of Steven coming to visit materialized and there it was. He has a pick-up truck and he’s driving out. He is bringing the bike and is going to take it to Angie’s house where we’ll keep it until Ceecee’s birthday. I can’t wait! I love pulling off these kinds of surprises!

A surprise I didn’t like was finding out I have jury duty the Monday after school gets out. What a way to start my Summer vacation. Oh, well. Maybe it won’t happen. A lot of times these things get cancelled.

Day T-131 and counting…

Posted: May 28, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Sunday, March 28, 2010

I took Ceecee to The Starting Block, a store for tri-athletes today. She is really excited about all this and wants to start training for what she calls “mini” triathlons. I don’t know what that means, but I support her and I bought her an expensive swimsuit to race in.

For some reason, she seems to have turned somewhat cold toward me in general. I know that work isn’t going well for her and she’s frustrated, but things at home are different.

It came on all of a sudden. We went to a resort in Branson over spring break called The Falls and it was supposed to be a really great time together, but it wasn’t quite what I expected. We had fun, but something just wasn’t right. Then, after we got back home, she just seemed to get angry and turn cold. I don’t know what I did, if anything, and she won’t talk about it. She just says she’s fine, but I know when a woman says that, it’s never that simple.

Moonlight Restoration

Posted: August 21, 2011 in Love and Marriage
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Just because a calendar year went by doesn’t mean that everything that was ever to be completed as part of the restoration tour came to pass.  Like it is with a house, you’re never actually finished restoring it, because there will always be more that needs to be done.  You will always find things that you overlooked or that need your attention from time to time.  So it was yesterday.

Last night was the annual Moonlight Ride, a bike ride for Springfield’s Discovery Center.  Last August, it was the first organized ride that my wife and I had ever been in.  We had only started cycling in May of that year, when I got Ceecee her first road bike for her birthday.  The moonlight ride is a seven mile untimed ride that has groupings for advanced riders, leisure riders, and families with small children.  As beginners, we thought it would be fun to participate in something that wouldn’t be intimidating.

Unfortunately, earlier in the day of last year’s ride, we hit one of those bumps in the road that came with the early days of being back together.  We had been living together again for almost three weeks and we were very happy to be restoring our marriage, but we were still dealing with a lot of the junk that went along with having previously split up.  On this particular day, we had met for lunch at the mall (we were both still working our second jobs – Ceecee at Dillards and me at Macy’s) and the conversation had gone down a painful road.  We were both upset as we went back to work and it seemed that the ride wasn’t going to happen for us that evening.

She got off work earlier than I did, and when I called her, she was still angry about the way I had spoken to her and the things I had said at lunch.  I’m not sure how it ended up working out, but by the time I was off work, she had bought me a new headlight for my bike and gone and registered both of us for the ride.  All I had to do was change my clothes and grab my bike.  I was relieved and grateful, and we really enjoyed the ride.

Yesterday morning, as we were out running errands and I was thinking about the evening’s ride, I remembered all this.  Yes, August 6th came and went, and yes, the restoration tour concluded on that day as scheduled.  Beyond that, I saw an opportunity to add another to the list of restored memories.  Will there be more?  Maybe.  Will we ever stop working hard at love to make sure we never reach a place like that again?  Not as long as I live and breathe!

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