Sunday, Bloody Sunday

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Well yesterday was a bloody day at the Tour de France.  I’m a cyclist.  Not a very good one, but one just the same.  I caught the bug in 1994 when I was ready to get in shape and it is pretty much the only outdoor cardio I can do because of my knee and ankle.  So, I started riding and I love it. My obsession started innocently enough with spinning classes.  Then I got a bike and would ride in forest park.  Now there are bike trails in lots of place and thanks to Lance Armstrong, biking has become a respectable sport and I can ride on the road without too much danger of being run over by one of those huge trucks with the balls hanging off the trailer hitch.

Getting his is always on a cyclists mind.  It is a very real danger.  I work hard to make sure I share the road and only use the space I need.  When there is a shoulder to ride on that is safe (clear of debris), I ride there.  When there isn’t a safe shoulder, I hug the line.

But as a rider in the Tour de France, you pretty much put getting hit by a car at the bottom of things that are going to go wrong.  These drivers are professionals and they know that the right of way goes to the guys on the bike.  The guys they are filming. The guys whose quest and work is what gives them a paycheck.  As, I sat and watched Sunday morning’s stage, I was floored and sick, as a TV car took out one of the guys in a 5 man break away, causing another to go up and over his handlebars at an unbelievable speed.  The riders both got up and ended up finishing the stage (which is a testament to their physical conditioning and their ability to endure unimaginable pain.

But what kept running through my head is that that car could have killed that rider.  Could. Have. Killed. Him.  These are real people riding bikes.  Fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, uncles, brothers, etc.  So please remember this when you approach a cyclist.  We aren’t out there to get in your way or make your drive more difficult.  We are just like you, on our way somewhere and we only want to get there and get home safe to our family.  Take a moment, slow down and move a little to the left.

Attack Of The Killer Zucchini

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

Let me just start by saying that–I totally grew this. In my garden.

I can’t tell you how surprised I as to see this ginormous zucchini ascending from it’s plant when I went to check on my garden yesterday. I mean–Holy Shit–this thing is huge.  It’s about the size of an eggplant.  I have pulled 6 other zucchini from my garden and they have all been average size–but this one?  It’s a freak of nature.

I am totally stoked with how some of my garden is doing.  I am an over planter and cram as much stuff in my garden as I can–I need more garden space.  I love a summer veggie garden.  I tried carrots this year and sadly they aren’t doing that great–but my peppers and tomatoes are doing amazingly well.  I’ll soon have lots and lots of ripe tomatoes.

Will be making zucchini bread with some of the smaller ones and am currently surfing the net for recipes to utilize the King Kong of Zucchini that I have managed to completely on accident grow.

The Tooth Fairy Is Like Nocturnal

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

My children are going to kill me.  If I turn up dead please blame them.

I have not spent much adult time around little kids and I have to say–they are pretty smart little things.  I’m pretty sure Noah is going to have the whole world figured out before his 7th birthday.  How did my kids get so smart?  I try to infuse their life plenty with mindless TV, but alas their intellectual potential just keeps growing.  Maybe I should reconsider this whole private school thing–public school might just dumb them down.  All kidding (maybe) aside.  My kids are pretty bright.  I’m not going to say they are brilliant or gifted (I’ll let their grandparents do that bragging), but they are bright kids.

Of course, I’d love to take the credit for it, but I don’t know that I can.  I won’t be so presumptuous to take credit for their intelligence–not until I know that they will only use it for good deeds–then I am all over it.  If they use it for evil–total and absolute denial.

Yesterday we were in the car and Noah said: “Do you know the tooth fairy doesn’t sleep at night.”

“How do you know?”

“She comes when kids are asleep.”

“Do you think she gets tired?”

He waits and thinks–his thinking face if very cute

“She must sleep during the day.”

“I bet she does.”

“Mom…the tooth fairly is like nocturnal.”

“Yeah.  I guess she is.”

“Like bats and owls….and reindeer.”

“Reindeer?”–I’m slightly confused by this one

“Yeah mom–they fly at night with Santa.  They don’t fly during the day–they must sleep then.”

At this point, I’m not sure what to say.

“I think reindeer aren’t nocturnal, honey.  It’s just that one special night.”

“Like they get to stay up late?”

“Yep.”

More thinking…

“Mom?”

“Yeah.” I say with trepidation–who knows what he might be asking about now–reincarnation? gravity?

“Do you think Santa shaves his beard the day after Christmas?”

 

 

Since When Did Carnivals Become So High Priced?

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I couldn’t believe what we spent at our little neighborhood carnival yesterday.  I could have taken bought two tickets to Disneyland for what I spent yesterday on rides and games and snacks.  OMG.  It was insanely pricey–but the kids had so much fun and I had a blast watching them have so much fun–ride tickets were $1 each and most rides were 3-5 tickets (per kid).  It added up fast as we went around 4:30 and there were no lines for any rides–next time we’ll go when at least waiting in line will take up some time.

Zoë won a prize at the first game we played and it just went uphill from there.  They rode rides and it was childhood at it’s best.  I feel bad that Bill was at home with a mild case of food poisoning and couldn’t join us.  We lasted through the fireworks and I think I had as much fun as the kids.  There isn’t much better than watching your children have unadulterated fun.

 

Because It Had To Be Her

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I always joke that Noah didn’t prepare us to be parents. He was pretty easy-never put things in his mouth, etc. He left us completely unprepared for the whirlwind that is our Zoë.

She was in timeout the other day and came out talking about how she had something big in her nose. So, I look up her nose to find a hair bead.

I had to keep myself from laughing–because it was not at all surprising.

So, I googled what to do. I knew I didn’t want to take her to the doc or to urgent care. Google taught me that I could hold down the nostril that wasn’t obstructed and then blow into her mouth like CPR and it’ll pop out. But that only works if whatever is up their nose doesn’t have a hole in it. Her bead, of course, had a hole. I laid her down and extracted it with the tweezers.

Hopefully I won’t have to do that again.