Elicit Substance

Let me say, "Thank you!" to all who've supported me in 2011. Whether it was a supportive comment on this blog or their own, in a spin room, in a classroom, in an email or on FB or even just a kind thought or prayer tossed my way - you guys know who you are and I want to thank EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT.

So - First thing that's new is the site re-design. After years of avoiding WYSIWYG web designers in favor of coding HTML and CSS in notepad, and getting aggravated with the intricacies of dealing with this in Blogger, I finally found a site designer called Artisteer that is super-logical and I've been having some fun with it.

The header image is a throw-back for me as it's a picture I took of a tree that was in front of my apartment building a few years back. It was taken at sunrise after an ice storm had coated the porch door. Somewhere along the way, the new management company cut down the big pines around the entries at which time, my treehouse view of Robins' nests (and brutal pine tree allergies) disappeared. The pic is now a reminder to me of how I need to adapt and move forward, keeping the memories that are gems and noting that some things do change for the better.

Early in December, a trip to get a cavity taken care of turned into a root canal. That was no fun. In the weeks that followed, I noticed one tooth with a huge filling. So much so that I thought that there must be more filling than tooth left. I was right as 8 days after my crown was in place, that tooth broke. I have an appointment scheduled for Wednesday to start taking care of that.

The other thing that finally broke was Piece O'Crap car. Yes, the poor thing sounds like it's choking on its own oil filter and while it will start once in a great moon, it stops if you take your foot off the pedal and try to let it idle. Big Money repair job means stick a fork in it because it's done and I have been scrambling for rides to work and shopping for my next set of non-cycling wheels.

While time-consuming, all in all, it's just the regular hoops Life is so happy to throw at you. I registered for the Hotter 'n Hell 100 at 1:00AM Eastern Time... 3.5 hours before I usually get up for work. Yeah, my stomach was queasy by then and I woke up this morning with flu-like symptoms without the benefit of alcohol. Oh, well. Whatever else may happen, at least I have a goal.

It's time to clean up the messes that dragged in from 2011 and start creating a wonderful new year. May our journey in 2012 be one of progress and delight... oh, and WARMTH... really.

Let's get this party started.