sneaky UPS man

for those of you that may not recognize me with long hair (or if there actually happens to be people reading this that have NO idea what i look like) ...yes that is me in the picture above looking some what in the direction of the camera and screaming from the depths of my soul. if you happen to look a little closer at the picture, i am in no way facing the band that is playing, and to be completely honest with you, had no idea there was a camera to my immediate right and was caught off guard when a bright flash obscured my view of the show for a moment while in a passionate rage caused by the overwhelming rush of emotions from the live music. i'm a small dude...most people know this, but when it comes to music it makes feel as if i could conquer nations with the power that is pulsating within my pinkie. we're connected, you know, me and and the mystery that is the get up kids, or underoath, or in the case of this picture as cities burn. there is really nothing that i can do about this sacred bond between me and love ballads from the place that i've been raised, or ridonkulous (see theres that word again) break downs that literally force tears on to my face without any sort of nice gesture or an appropriate written consent of such acts, or in the last bands case, connect me with the God that has created me and this whole crazy world that should be riding bicycles in ways that i never thought words could. hence the reason it has not only been words that have done this connecting, but it has been music...it's always been the music that has moved me from this place to the next.

now on to why i wanted to write this thing in the first place...

today i was at the bike shop for a brief moment, usually it's not so brief, and stephanie and i were talking about how awesome it was that garret received his bike almost 3 weeks earlier than trek's dealer website had said that it would arrive at high gear cyclery. then almost like it were planned by one of those savvy directors in an over priced indie film in walked the UPS man carrying an elongated, rectangle, beautifully brown cardboard box. no doubt, a box in which contained a bicycle. stephanie was closer to the delivery man so therefore she saw the box before i did and immediately said outloud "flat black"..."x-cal? could this be your bike bobby?" and of course i was dumbstruck by just the sheer idea of my bicycle being here, in my town, in my bike shop, when once again the website that tells us all that we must know about new bicycle arrivals that my bike should not show up until the 8th of the month of march. "this must be some sick joke" i thought to myself. "steph is just trying to make me cry, yeah thats right...she just wants to see little bobby tears all over the place" i said so reassuring to myself, trying not to let my heart rate get to high by actually thinking that this might be my bike. because as garret and i found out today my resting heart rate is right around 75...which lelan has known for quite sometime and likes to equate my pulse to the pulse of a lab rat running and running and running and running and running and running around in circles in one of those metal contraptions. then finally i get a closer look and sure enough, there sits in front of us a x-cal...but i look closer and it's a 19" frame size. "oh no" i thought, "they sent the wrong size." mine is going to be a 17.5" and now all i can think of is how much longer it is going to take them to get me the correct size and that x-cal's will probably be stopped in production because of the lack of flat black and green paint so i may NEVER get my bike...my heart rate is ridonkulously through the roof now...and then matthew e. brown walks in the front door and brings with him the good truth of the afternoon. "oh yeah, thats a demo bike we ordered." relief washed over me and my heart rate subsided to a calm and cool 92 bpm.

so it looks like there is some hope that my bike will be here before march 8th and therefore i'll have more time to get used to it on some killer training rides before ouachita which is on march 28th. i just hope that everyone else gets their stuff a little sooner as well so the team can be settled in with the new gear and ready to tackle the new season of killer races. if you get a moment to think about matt and steph and the new shop that is underway do so with a positive outlook. there is a lot to be done, and they are some brave people to be taking this step forward, a step that i think is phenomenal. they are great people and i wouldn't have met the friends or lived as good of a life here in emporia if it wasn't for them. well i better get off of here, garret is going to be picking me up at 5:10 am so he can drag me along to his spinning class in the morning. this is my first go at it, so i'll let you know tomorrow how everything turns out. hope everyone has a fantastic day.
-bobby