Day 9 of Unemployement

After a day filled with no direction and discovering that my first student loan payment was due, I finally had a positive turn of events tonight. I've set the date. Saturday, June 14 the trek begins. I've been training for two weeks now and I think I can ride to town and back on my bike. So I plan on getting up early on Saturday to test this theory out. It isn't that far to town, about 8 miles, but I haven't ever ridden that trail before so it may be more difficult than these monster hills I have been battling lately. Today I did 15 miles and I feel great! Exhausted, but great. The first 6 miles are always a killer, but I have finally figured out why. I'm almost positive I could do about 20 miles, weather permitting, but getting started my mind is usually totally unfocused. It's always spinning with thoughts of "I wonder if I will make it past six today" or "Am I doing to much? Should I work my way up slowly?" When the start of mile six comes my mind is relaxed and I'm sailing along. Today I took Gavin DeGraw along with me. Usually it is Jimmy LaFave, who for some reason is really good to ride your bike in the country along with. Gavin and I recently had a reunion and I figured we had some more catching up to do. What I love about Gavin is that he writes his music. He isn't pushing to get a record out a year, but spends time writing and tweaking until it is just right. His lyrics are great too. On his new album there is a song called "Medicate the Kids." What a true song for today! It's about how parents tell there kids to say no to drugs, but at the first sign of disobedience and rebellion they take there kids to the doctor and get them on Prozac or something of the sort. I'm not saying that all meds are bad, but when 50% of kids are put on them now then there is something wrong. Let the kid be! They are going to screw up and it is your jobs as parents to teach them and help them learn from the mistakes (parents, you can't prevent everything!) instead of totally changing their persona with prescription drugs. Discipline shouldn't be left up to drugs to be enforced. It's just going to screw them up in the long run and they will never know who they truly are. They'll grow up and grow out of it. The best prescription for a rambunctious kid is give them a huge backyard (I say at least 10 acres) and let them run wild. I will leave you with my favorite line of the song (mainly pirate influenced).

"If you don't walk the line you can walk the plank."