2:45 PM: Working working working working. I could sit here around the clock and never even come close to catching up.

PHOTO FLIPPER:

It's been a while since I've featured the Photo Flipper! Here we have my pal Amy and me, at her backyard post wedding pre London BBQ. She and her (now ex) husband got married in the Cayman Islands and almost immediately got shipped off to London for 2 years as a result of an employment opportunity for her. She was in London while I was the black hole, saving money with my own ex husband, or I would have gone to visit once or twice! (Or thrice!)

As much as I am sorry I missed that opportunity, I am sort of glad I got to see "Europe" for the first time with Chris.

I sincerely like my hair better lighter. I'm notsomuch a fan of the dark hair and light highlights. Looks Blah.

8:58 AM: Sooooo... as most of you already know... this is a very busy and nerve wracking time for the Whizzzzzzz/Dump duo. We have 2 homes to sell, a home to buy, and a real estate market that ran rampantly backwards over the course of the past 6 years. My townhouse... the cute cute Palace... the place where I have lived (and now WE live) and have hosted so many of you... has careened backwards in value to the tune of almost 70K-100K, depending upon who we talk to. It's... disheartening. It's sad. It's crappy. It's life.

My office is moving (or has moved, I should say... I remain here in the old office until we get our own move squared away) 1.5 hours from my home. A good 49ish miles in stop and go traffic. A really time consuming, not to mention soul consuming commute.

Fortunately, I qualify for relocation benefits... due to the fact that I was extended a job offer with what the IRS considers to be an "unacceptable commute", and I accepted it. These relocation benefits are the only ((ONLY)) reason we are able to move in this economy. So, for that I (we) are extremely grateful. These benefits include realtor fees, closing costs, moving expenses (pack/move/van line, etc etc) appraisal fees, literally everything. Additionally, these benefits include a "loss on sale" provision, which will help make up the gaping difference between what I paid for the Palace in 2006 vs. what I can sell the Palace for in 2012. Loss on sale will not take care of the entire difference, but it will help to significanly minimize our losses. Certainly we still stand to lose 5 figures. But without loss on sale we could easily have lost 6.

Also fortunately, my ex husband was a cheapskate, so I saved a crap ton of money when we were together. We never merged our money, so when I left, I took my money and put a hefty downpayment on the Palace. So for that reason, we're not upside down in our mortgage, and this deal is even possible. There are several people in the office that are simply so far upside down in their mortgages that even with the "loss on sale" they will still owe 20/30/40K at closing, JUST TO SELL THEIR HOUSES. Never mind a downpayment on something else. Some owe even more. It's a nearly impossible situation for them. And, of course, those poor souls live by me, so they have the soul sucking car crushing commute to look forward to, if they decide not to quit.

All in all, while it's a stressful and sort of sad time, looking at what has happened to the real estate market... I remain grateful that things worked out as they have... and I've even got the opportunity to sell the Palace (even at a loss) and actually wind up with money to put down on something else. I am grateful that I have a job that is willing to go the extra mile for me, as much as the job stresses me out and makes me want to scoop my own eyeballs with a spoon, clearly they at least SORT OF value me as an employee. This relocation is costing them big time bucks for each of us.

Chris said it best, and I have to agree... "Our WORST CASE scenario is better than many people's BEST CASE scenario" and I believe that, and go back to it whenever I'm feeling frustrated or sorry for myself. Things will work out. They always do. One way or another. And we'll deal with it.

11:16 AM: Quite the eventful day out there on the roads... started out by missing our connection... we were supposed to roll out @ 6:15 and meet Katie and Laura and Ken @ or about the corner of OakRidge and Crystal Springs. We arrived there, rode their route backwards, and waited around, and never found them. After over 15 minutes of waiting, we decided we'd somehow missed the connection and we just rode by ourselves. 

Chris and I had a pretty strong ride today. I felt good on Spartacus. We chatted along... and were doing fine... when suddenly Chris says... "You be Wiggo! I'll be Froome!" and I thought that was hilarious! I was like "Are you going to throw down a huge acceleration and leave me, your team leader, in the dust? And then I'll be forced to respond that I could have gone with you, but I was following my own tempo?". Hahaha. (Tour Geek Humor!) We rolled onward, assigning each of our cats last names of guys in the pro peloton... we came up with Quentin Zubeldia, Molly Greipel, and Orbit Zabriskie (or OZ for short) we got a huge kick out of that. I'm thinking it's a good thing we married each other, because there's a limited number of people out there that could derive enjoyment out of giving cyclist names to cats. 

Regardless, things were going well, until we turned onto Rose Farm Road. This is a great stretch of road, and it's slightly downhill, so it's easy to go fast and have a great fun on Rosefarm. It's also got a gravel shoulder, and a brush-like wooded, fieldy type thing over off to the right. 

We came up over a slight hill, and saw someone standing in the middle of the road, flagging down cars. We saw a cyclist over on the side of the road. As we rode toward the scene I immediately knew that the person down was Laura M, the dude with her was her husband, and the woman and man flagging down traffic were two good samaritans that stopped to help. 

Laura was pretty messed up; she was talking like she'd been drinking. Her face was starting to swell (mostly her eyes) and she was complaining of pain in her leg. She had a pretty nasty gash on her chin, and the skin on her thumb was peeled backwards. It was bad. The good samaritans had already called for an ambulance. (they were both employees of our local Farm & Fleet, FYI). 

As we were standing there, waiting for the ambulance to show up, a field mouse sprang out of the field and jumped onto (the already freaked out) Laura's bike jersey. She flailed about, shrieking and screaming, trying to get it off of her. It was the most unusual and bizarre occurrence that could have taken place at that particular moment. 

So, Laura was carted off to the hospital. They took her husband with her as well. The bikes were taken to the Farm & Fleet garden center, by the two F & F employees, where we claimed them after our ride. 

For the record, Laura is still in the hospital, and they're likely going to keep her overnight for observation. She didn't remember seeing Chris or me at the accident site, she had no recollection of the mouse incident, and she has absolutely no idea how she crashed. Her bike looks pretty much unscathed. It's like she crashed and landed right on her own face. Ow. 

Please be careful out there, people. Make sure your helmets fit your heads. Make sure the front of your helmet comes to your forehead and doesn't slide back, past your hairline. And, if you happen to run off the road... keep rolling, stop in the ditch or in the gravel or in a field (with mice) or where-ever. NEVER ever try to correct that move --  I've yet to see anyone win that battle, myself included. 

Rubber side DOWN! 

For those of you not in the know...

This right here is Pierre Rolland. He rides for EuropeCar. He's French. Clicky clicky for the story on how he crashed on a descent the other day, got right back up, and soldiered on to win one of the most difficult Mountain Stages in the Tour this year. I must be at least as tough as him, right? If not as tough, at least I'm almost as tough, but better looking. Right?  No? OK. Well whatever.

I think his seat's too high anyway.