ULCER ride August 2007

To start off my blog, I am posting a short description of our experience at the ULCER ride in Provo, Utah, August 2007.  Julie and I rode our Rans Screamer recumbent tandem.  Hope someone enjoys it.

What a treat it was to visit with Thom and Elise last weekend.  The 2000 mile trip in the car was brutal and the 111 mile bike ride was even worse.  All of this travel in three and a half days.  The heat rose from 75 degrees to 98 and then to 105 during the bike ride.  This is my idea of fun!!  Thom ran into a barbed wire fence about forty miles into the ride and thoroughly mangled his leg and arm on a barbed wire fence, but he kept on riding and finished in about 5 hours.  Julie and I finished in about 7 hours on our tandem.  What a guy!!!

Tom, Elise, and Julie went to the walk-in clinic and spent about four hours waiting and stitching.  While they were gone Melissa and I were babysitting Gini, Thomas, and William.  William was fussy and did not want to be held by me, but he did like Melissa.  He only liked Melissa while she was standing.  As soon as she sat down he started to fuss.

When we first arrived Gini and Thom wanted their pictures taken with my new digital camera, over and over again.  Gini made several odd shapes with her fingers and hands and wanted a new picture for each contortion.  Gini and Thomas wanted pictures with their new dinosaur stuffed toys that Grandma bought for them.

Back to the babysitting.  We had decided on pizza for dinner and I suggested that I could pick up the pizza at the Brickyard.  Melissa quickly decided that the only reason I volunteered to get the pizza was to get out of babysitting and countered by suggesting that I take Gini with me.  Gini was in the same room, heard the idea, and promptly got excited.  She started talking about her car booster seat and how we could move it to our car.  She went on and on until I suggested, that since Elise had given me here van keys, that we could take the van.  Gini looked at me and said brightly, “Good idea, Grandpa!!”  What a sweetheart.

Gini talked almost the whole time we were in the car and stores.  After ordering the pizza we drove across town and bought some diet pop at Albertsons.  She insisted on carrying the two liter bottle which almost dragged on the ground with her shoulder through the plastic bag handle.

The first time I got out of the van, I closed my door and opened the side sliding door to get Gini out and found that she wasn’t in her booster seat.  I looked around inside the van and found her standing by the front seat.  She looked at me and said, “I wanted to get out your door, Grandpa!”

In the Brickyard pizza place I had Gini by the hand and let go to pay the bill, looked around and found her on top of the table in the other room.  She was laughing, I wasn’t.

We drove by the bike store in town on the way to Albertsons and Gini commented that we needed to stop and buy a bicycle for Thomas.  Thomas does not have a bike and shares Gini’s Trek tricycle. Good thing the store was closed.  It sure was nice of her to think of her brother.

After getting home and feeding the children, we had the ordeal of bedtime with the Metge children.  William was a piece of cake, he was just hungry because he was breast feeding and mom wasn’t there.  Gini and Thomas played outside for a while until we figured out what they were doing.  They had taken the sidewalk chalk just out the door and colored on the concrete walkway.  It was great until we heard a lot of banging and noticed that they had taken a hammer outside and were smashing the chalk into the concrete rather than coloring.  We took the hammer away and had some more peace for a few minutes until we caught Thomas sneaking the hammer outside again.  That’s when the tantrums started.  Gini settled down pretty quickly and sat in my lap for a story, “Curious George goes camping”.  Thomas didn’t want to settle down so I had Melissa put him on my lap with Gini while I read the story.  Thomas was mad, rigid, and blowing raspberries constantly.  He did finally settle down by the end of the story.  He even pointed to Curious George during the last page of the book.

Then the fun really started.  Bathroom, brushing teeth, pajamas, and bed.  Both insisted on wearing heavy full toed sleepers in the warm night.  Thomas had to go to the bathroom after he we had inserted him into the pajamas.  After removing the pajamas, he wanted a different color of heavy pajamas.  When we refused, he threw a fit and wouldn’t get dressed at all.  They both went to bed screaming.  The screaming lasted about an hour until Thom and Elise came home.  What a relief!

Another event that I forgot to mention.  We tried to open the window to get more air in the kids bedroom, but Gini wouldn’t accept that.  She wanted the window and blinds closed.  This is August in Utah!!