Busy as a bee

Hey, long time no see, how are you?

It's been a long time since I updated my blog and not many posts in the last two years, mainly due to other events taking greater priority over my time.

So, what's been happening since then?  A mixture of highs and lows: I asked Cassie to marry me, found out that her mother had cancer, brought the wedding forward by a year and organised it in a matter of a few months, a horrid time at Alpe d'Huez for a Marmotte for which I was unable to ride thanks to some meddling ex-friends, pulling out of last year's Jalabert sportive in Mazamet due to a very dodgy and unsafe course, complications with Cassie's mother's treatment that required emergency surgery, having to "get legal" with Cassie's HR manager to prevent them from unlawfully dismissing her, clearing out two rooms to turn one into our home gym and the other for letting out to lodgers for extra income, looking for potential full-time office work to make ends meet, picking up a heap of extra classes (see sidebar for details) that mean I won't need to set foot back in an office after all, and Cassie's shoulder operation a few months ago and subsequent ongoing recovery.

I think that's all... doesn't sound like much when it's written down but it's all stuff that sidetracked me from doing much of anything else, I'm no good at multitasking!  Add to that a distinct lack of goals, so that my training fell by the wayside until recently along with my motivation.

So what's changed?  Well, our marriage is solid as a rock and nicely bedded down, the extra classes and lodger have given me back my financial safety net, Cassie's HR person was cornered into backing down so that her job is also safe, her recovery is coming along leaps and bounds, and her mother is one operation away from completing her recovery.  All this means that my head, for the first time in ages, is clear once again - crap has been sorted and filed, emails mostly answered, new rides mixed, events entered, a sense of purpose and harmony restored.

Much like cycling, you just have to keep going until it gets better; and then you keep going some more.  Don't let life get you down - it can drain you, as it did me, but it can only beat you if you quit.  As Johnny G used to say, "keep moving FORWARD!!"