Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Tiny moments that bring laughter.....

So, I was JRA (just riding along) the bike path yesterday, and came upon a family. The parents were walking arm-in-arm, and the roughly 13-year-old was tooling along at walking speed on his BMX bike, helmet straps flying in the breeze. I approached them from behind, saying, "On your left." The boy looks directly at me, in the eyes, and says, "Pop a Wheelie!!" I laughed out loud, and actually considered trying it. But, since I have never done one, I thought twice...but it sure made me laugh. And, you know the cool thing about young people, even if they are smarting off, is that they do expect more of adults than they are displaying in any moment. Just reflect on any button you have ever had pushed by a young one. Have a great day.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

See what needs doing, and have fun doing it!

Today, here in Santa Rosa, we had a work party to build road closure barricades for our weekly practice races. What fun! Lars, foreman in charge, was flexible, fun, easy to be around, and did a GREAT job directing all of us. His wife Danielle directed the paint party once the boards were all prepped. She also offered us beverages. Thank you Danielle! I also got to meet Eternity, (is that a great name, or what?) a wonderful 1 or 2? year old who said, what sounded like, "De, te, dee" when I asked her name. Danielle helped me out with her language. Then when Eternity was leaving, she said, "Thanks for the juice." to Lars. It actually sounded like, "anks foo ooose." Lars said, "What did she say?" and she said it again...very clearly in her own mind. Her father heard it the first time, and knew what she said. He gave Lars a hard time for not understanding 2-year old girl language. After all, Lars has a 2 year old BOY! How would he know that language?? And, you know what's great about Lars? If there were a class in that language, he'd probably take it.

When I got back home, to Great Graton, I noticed Erica (2nd grade) and Clint (3rd grade), buzzing around the streets on their little bikes....except, they were really pumping their legs around, bouncing up and down. Neither one of them had more than 10 pounds of pressure in their 35 psi tires. I called Erika over first, as I pulled my floor pump out of the back of my car. She was so excited. I told her she was gonna go so much faster with more air in her tires. Pretty soon, her brother picked up on what I was doing, and came to stand in line at the pump. Two satisfied, excited customers! On the way out of my driveway, Erica says, "It's a good thing you had a pump!"