Good Friday

O Sacred Head now wounded
With grief and shame weighed down.
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns Thine only crown.
How art Thou pale with anguish
With sore abuse and scorn.
How dost that visage languish
Which once was bright as morn.

What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee dearest friend
For this Thy dying sorrow
Thy pity without end?
Oh make me Thine forever
And should I fainting be
Lord, let me never, never
Outlive my love to Thee.

"O Sacred Head", Amy Grant

Yumlicious!

Westbound

Julie took me to Ike’s restaurant last night for my birthday. Very good food and I ate way too much. We each got the NY Strip which was very good, and then split a chocolate cake with extra ice cream for dessert. EXCELLENT chocolate cake. Yumlicious!

Most likely, by the time you read this post, we’ll know if we actually got any of the snow they’re predicting. Last I saw we’re now under a winter storm warning. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Looks like the Bombay Bistro isn’t open.

Julie got me some meat rubs for the grill and a barbecue brush that has a reservoir in the handle that pumps sauce through the brush when you need it. Pretty cool! Now to get some meat and start grilling again!

I LOVE hearing people hack up a lung on the bus. Ain’t nuthin’ sweeter.

I sometimes think it would be cool to work on a construction site. I’d want to be on terra firma, so no iron work on a skyscraper, but something like a dump truck driver would be cool.

Man, what an ugly green car.

In all seriousness, probably one of the best hours to listen to radio is Fridays from noon until 1PM CST. Dennis Prager, one of my favorite radio hosts, devotes an entire hour to happiness. Rather fittingly it’s called the Happiness Hour and I highly recommend that you listen to it if you can. Dennis happens to think, and he makes a valid point, that the most important thing you can do is be happy, and it’s really intriguing to listen to the topic that week and understand how it impacts your happiness. He’s on AM1280 here in the Twin Cities and you can listen to him on line as well. It’s not at all political, it’s just about how to be a happier person.

OK, now back to the frivolity…

I would really hate to live along a highway. They put those walls up but how much do they really keep the sound down? I wonder.

Lyric of the day: “Call the police / There’s a madman around” – “West End Girls”, Pet Shop Boys

Bonus lyric: “You think you’re mad, too unstable, kicking in chairs and knocking down tables.”

Weirdly White and Nerdy

Eastbound

We’re having this American Idol challenge at work where we have to pick the bottom three vote-getters each week along with who we think will be voted off. Since Tuesday nights are usually spin I’m not able to watch the shows, so I’ve retained the counsel of my friend J-Flo to help me with my picks. Thanks, J-Flo!

They say it’s your birthday. It’s my birthday, too, yeah!

Julie was saying she heard possibly 4-8” of snow on Friday. Or this weekend. Or sometime in the next few days – I don’t remember. What’s up with that? Where was this back in January when it SHOULD have been snowing? Although, I’m not so sure why I’m getting upset about it, the weather folks are wrong 90% of the time anyway.

Calvin and Hobbes is such a great cartoon. That and Far Side. Funny stuff right there, let me tell ya’!

“Pizza… burgers… San Diego… Detroit Tigers… the Buckeyes… peanut butter and jelly…” “Uhhhh… THINGS PAT LIKES!!!” “Correct!”

If you haven’t seen the YouTube video of Weird Al’s song “White and Nerdy” you HAVE to watch it. Hilarious! Click here to see it.

Lyric of the day: “Sweeter than cotton candy / Stronger than papa’s old brandy / Always that needed smile / Once in a while she would break down and cry” – “Sadie”, Spinners (Editor’s note: “Sadie” is a great song. If you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing it you should definitely look it up.)

Bonus lyric (also from “Sadie”): “If there’s a heaven up above / I know she’s teaching angels how to love”

Double the Trees

Eastbound

…and that is how I became known as George.

I was going to write an entire blog post backwards but I couldn’t reach the keyboard.

If some biological freak of nature occurred and all languages were wiped clean from the earth how would we create a new language? You know, like in Men In Black where you look at their little pen deal and it makes you forget things, what if something like that happened and we had no memories of verbal communication and couldn’t read or write? Would the “new” language we create be at all similar to what we had? I think this topic is deserving if its own post. The questions and possibilities are endless. Endless I tell you!

I like Fig Newtons. Just the plain old Fig Newtons, not all the different flavors and what not.

And what not. An interesting way to end a sentence or thought, and what does it mean? I like how it sounds and what not. It just seems to tie up a sentence well, and yet, I’m not really sure what I’m saying… and what not.

Speaking of names, Delano is one you don’t hear much anymore.

Just call me Angel of the Morning.

When I was a kid we lived a few houses down from this really great family. The mother and father of that family were like a second set of parents to me – we were quite close. I remember going down to their house and the father, whom I called Daddy M, would come outside in the morning with some burnt toast that he was eating for breakfast. He would try to get me to eat it by telling me that eating burnt toast puts hair on your chest. At which point I would come to a couple of conclusions: 1) he must eat a lot of burnt toast, and 2) why would I WANT a hairy chest?

That maid from “The Jeffersons” was a hoot!

Wesbound

The bus driver will announce the stop he’s coming up to in case you want to get off the bus. When we’re downtown he announces every cross street – 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, etc. If I was the bus driver I think I’d skip a street every once in a while just to panic people. “4^th…. 5^th… 7^th… just kidding! 6^th…”

So, was the first Doubletree hotel opened next to a hotel that only had ONE tree? “You get DOUBLE the trees at OUR hotel!”

Can I be Frank with you? I need someone to Jimmy the lock because I lost my key. I better be careful or they’ll call Adam 12 and then the landlord will Sue me for damages. I suppose I could just call my landlord and maybe he’d Grant me temporary access. I must have accidentally threw my keys away when I acted on the decision to Chuck my empty water bottle into the river. It did Bob for a while before it sank. I imagine if I DID find my keys they’ll be Rusty now. Oh well. I guess I’ll just go get a cup of Joe.

And before he leaves downtown he usually says “This is 696 express to Chaska blah blah blah.” I think I would throw something in there like “Albuquerque” or “Memphis”.

Lyric of the day: “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” – “Mmm Mmm Mmm”, Crash Test Dummies

The Byerly's Euphoria

Eastbound

We have a different bus driver on this snowy St. Patrick’s Day. A woman who got on the bus behind me asked the driver why she didn’t stop at the last pick-up point. Ooops.

May all your lights be green.

So…. Snow. Normally I like snow, but in the middle of March not so much. It’s time for spring, by golly. We’re itching to get the bikes out and be done with spinning in a small, hot spin room. Hopefully by the end of the month we’ll be able to do that.

Of course, some people ride their bikes year-round. Eric, who was our coach for our century ride in 2006, puts a few thousand miles a year on his bike and rides it everywhere. He’s one of those guys that is built to ride a bike. That’s not me. I’m more built to ride in a car. Or the bus.

Euphoria: A simple change to which syllable you emphasize and it’s what Danny DeVito would ask the voters regarding his wife Rhea Pearlman when it came time to vote for the Emmy Awards. “You for Rhea?”

“You can’t eat your pudding if you don’t eat your meat! How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?”

Byerly’s: My friend Lee was in the market for a new home so we went through an open house. It was a bright, sunny day and when we went inside to look around Lee set his sunglasses on the kitchen counter. After taking a tour of the place we were getting ready to leave and the realtor, seeing the sunglasses on the counter, asked whose they were. I replied, “They’re buyer Lee’s”.

What else would a mountain be capped with if not snow?

Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage. A horse and carriage? Is that why, when you get married, they say you got hitched? And, if marriage is like a horse and carriage, who is the horse and who is the carriage? I think Julie would quickly say which part of the horse I am. Lovingly, of course.

Lyric of the day: “You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds! Stand still laddy!” – “Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)”, Pink Floyd

For Cryin' Out Louden

Westbound

I love Fridays. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that in prior posts but it’s worth repeating again. I love Fridays! And this morning on the way to Target to get on the bus “Friday I’m In Love” by the Cure came on the radio. Perhaps one day I’ll compile a list of Friday songs or songs about the days of the week. Wouldn’t that be terribly interesting?

Any of you smoke cigars?

There is a lady who rides the bus every afternoon, only the westbound ride, and she must have some terrible back issues. She can never sit for the entire ride and will usually stand hugging the seat in front of her. She brings her own pillow to sit on and never really seems to be comfortable. It must be terrible. I’ve had back issues but not like she must be going through. And she wears two pairs of pants – not sure what that’s about.

I usually sit on the left side of the bus on the way home, that way I’m not getting hot sitting in the sun. This is a repeat topic from a previous post so I’ll stop right there.

A seal walks into a club…

Champagne… not a huge fan…

I wonder if people driving in their cars can see me in the bus. Or is the glass dark enough and there’s enough of a reflection that they can’t see me? I can see them.

So, a high-end call girl sets you back as much as $5,000 an hour, huh? Boy, I remember in the OLD days…

Last night on Letterman’s Top 10 they had the top 10 rejected names for Dr. Seuss books. My favorite was “Obama’s in Pajamas”.

I heard SuperValu was changing their name to SuperDuperValu.

Lyric of the day: “Take a whiff on me, that ain’t no rose” – “Dead Skunk”, Loudon Wainwright

We Put the Fun in Fungus

OK, I had to quickly do this post. I have a site meter on the blog that tracks how many people visit the blog, how long they actually stick around (not long usually, not that I blame them), how they came to the site, etc. Well, I looked at that info tonight and I just had to share this with you.

I can look at a report that shows me if they found my blog via a search on the Internet, and usually its from people doing a search for something to do with toes or numbness (since the blog name is Crash 'n' Numb Toes) or Team In Training. But today two people found the blog by searching on the following words:

1) substance stinks in between toes

OK, I guess this is an understandable search. Everyone's feet stink, and maybe someone has some additional fungus issues they're dealing with. My guess is they didn't find any answers on the blog. But the one below is what REALLY got my attention...

2) sucked my nephews toes 11 years old

What kind of sick freak is this?! All I can say is "wow". I just had to share this with you.

OK, now you can read the latest post below.

And It Was a Coach Wallet

Eastbound

I haven’t had much time to blog the last few days. I’ve been busy with TNT stuff. I apologize to that one person who reads this smattering of nothingness.

I’ve been enjoying the warmer weather but it does have its unwanted side effects. For one, our backyard is turning into one large puddle which will in turn become a muddy mess for the dogs to run through. A bad part about it for Molson is that she may quickly run out of ice to eat. She’s probably going to get the shakes and start with the night sweats until she gets it out of her system. It won’t be pretty. On the plus side, no more frozen poop-sicles to eat.

I had lunch with a friend who shall remain nameless in order to protect her from unwanted ridicule. We meet up in the skyway and she informs me that she doesn’t have her wallet and thinks she left it on the trunk of her car when she went through the car wash the night before. What?! Not only was it not so smart to run your wallet through the car wash but it was equally not that smart of her to tell me – after all, it might wind up in someone’s blog where at least 2 people a day will read about it. For her sake at least I’m a nice guy and didn’t tell you it was Jamie.

I really hate it when the alarm goes off in the morning (or, turns on, or… whatever) and the song that is playing is one that you dislike and one that will be stuck in your head the whole day. I HATE that. It can really start the day off on the wrong foot.

Went to spin on Tuesday night where Coach Misty put us through a tough workout. My legs are killing me. Then Wednesday night I go swim with the tri teams and that doesn’t help the situation any. I guess I’m supposed to be drinking water or something in order to help my leg muscles to heal. Maybe I’ll try that.

Editor’s Note: The wallet was found in her car. I repeat, the wallet was found in her car. Please, go about your business - nothing to see here.

I’m trying to determine if the buple is a good couple. They could go either way I think. At times they seem like they’d be a fun couple to hang out with and other times they come across a little standoffish. I guess it’s hard to tell at 6:45 in the morning what someone is truly like. I probably shouldn’t let the fact that she brings on a different doll everyday and stabs it repeatedly with a knife sway my opinion. I’m sure they’re fun to hang out with.

Lyric of the day: “Boy, let me tell you what.” – “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, Charlie Daniels Band

Icicle Works

Westbound

It was a good weekend. On Saturday morning we had our Breakfast of Champions for the current TNT participants where we paid tribute to our honorees. The coaches and mentors made pancakes and sausage for everyone and we had a couple of speakers come in and talk about the progress that’s being made with the money we’re raising. It was a great event and I got to help make the pancakes. Well, I just poured the batter on the griddle, life ain’t nuthin’ but a funny, funny riddle.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

It’s nice to see that we’ll be warming up over the next couple of days. We had a couple of huge icicles hanging off the back of the house that I had to knock down yesterday. If I hadn’t I’m sure they would have fallen on their own and possibly broken our patio door window. They were HUGE I tell you, HUGE! Of course, I had to do it when Julie wasn’t home so that she wouldn’t yell at me for climbing up on the ladder. She wasn’t too pleased with me.

According to the billboard Kemps Plus is smart milk for smart kids. Good thing that wasn’t around when I was a kid – I would hate for my mom to have to try and explain to me why we’d never buy it. We’d be getting the Kemps Unique milk.

A majority of the people, if they are by themselves, will sit in the seat by the window. I tend to go back and forth, mostly depending on if I’m cold or not. If I’m cold I’ll sit by the window. “But Pat,” you say, “Isn’t it colder next to the window?” No, it’s not. The heat comes out by the window. And the sun is by the window. Both will make Pat hot. I think I should do an entire blog post in 3^rd person. Pat thinks that will be neat.

Red Rover, Red Rover send Georgie on over!

I wonder what it was like to listen to Howard Cosell do the Monday Night Football games. I never got the opportunity. I wonder if he was still alive if he’d have his own video game like John Madden does. Let’s ponder that for a moment….

There are some serious issues I should bring up, but I think I’ll need to do that in a weekly “serious” post. If I mix it in with this random nothingness it will get lost and overlooked.

Bands that also go by initials, or sometimes do. How many do you know? CCR, CSN, CSN&Y, DMB, NIN, ELO, STP, AWB, BTO, BOC, BST, EW&F, GNR, ICP, LRB, OMD, RHCP.

Lyric of the day: “Check out guitar George, he knows all the chords, but he’s strictly rhythm he doesn’t want to make it cry or sing” – “Sultans of Swing”, Dire Straits

I'm Done With Sergio

Eastbound

No Police song this morning when the alarm went off.

I like Fridays, and I don’t mean the restaurant. Well, I DO like Friday’s the restaurant but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I mean Fridays as in the day of the week, the day after Thursday, the day before the best day of the week – Saturday.

How weird would it be if the weekend wasn’t Saturday and Sunday but Tuesday and Wednesday or Wednesday and Thursday? Would your wall calendar still have Sunday in the first box and Saturday in the last one? Would the weekend then not be the weekend because your days off would be in the middle of the “week”? Or would the week on your wall calendar have Wednesday in the first box and Tuesday in the last box? Interesting.

Hot Pockets!

So, I was in a meeting with this woman at work yesterday and she was telling me about the excitement she had the day before. Apparently she was trying to set up a conference call for a meeting and the room was a video conference room so it had this fancy touch screen setup for dialing the phone and what not. She started to dial the phone and hit 9 for an outside line and then 1 to start the phone number but she couldn’t remember the rest of it. While looking in her notes for the phone number she kept her finger perched over the screen and was apparently hovering around the 1 and didn’t immediately realize she had pressed it a second time. When she went to type in the rest of the number she saw that she had pressed 911 but figured “After I got the outside line I just hit 11 so it didn’t call anybody.” Wrong. It went to the security desk and when they tried to call her back the phone was busy because she had started to dial the number for the conference call. Two minutes later there is a loud knock on the door and in come two security guards with a first aid kit and a defibrillator. Needless to say she was embarrassed. Too funny.

Westbound

A lady on the bus has now moved to her third different seat. I’m not sure what the issue was with the first two but perhaps she has found her home for the next 20 minutes. She’s blonde – maybe she things she’s Goldilocks and the first seat was too hard and the second seat was too soft, but the third seat is JUUUUUST RIIIIGHT.

I’m not on my usual bus this afternoon. Cyndi, our driver, has just informed us that we’re about 3 minutes behind schedule but that she’ll make it up on the highway. Ten seconds later she came back on and said “Don’t worry. I’m not going to speed.”

So, this weekend we move the clocks ahead one hour. I’ll like having that extra hour of daylight at night but I’m not going to like it being dark still when I get to work in the morning. It’s going to feel like December all over again. Plus, I don’t like losing that hour of sleep.

We got us some traffic.

John loves to play on his cello,
Songs that will make him mellow,
But it’s eating his lime green Jell-o,
That makes John a happy fellow.

Lyric of the day: “Have you seen my wig around?” – “Jane Says”, Jane’s Addiction

Officer, It's Like Deja Vu

Westbound

For the second morning in a row the alarm went off and a Police song was playing. Same exact time, same channel, different song. What are the odds?

The woman behind me on the bus has on headphones but I can still hear the music she’s listening to. Right now it’s the remake of the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” – a remake which truly annoys me. The original is OK, but the remake stinks. Same with the Counting Crows version of “Big Yellow Taxi” – terrible.

I’ve decided to fundraise again this year for the Society. Once I have my web site set up I’ll be posting it here. Well, not right HERE, but somewhere on the blog page, so keep your eyes open. If you would be so generous and help me raise money to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and their cancer research and patient aid programs I would be most grateful.

Speaking of fundraisers, we have two AWESOME fundraisers going on, and I’ll tell you about them now.

The first fundraiser is through the Minnesota Twins. For the Twins game on Saturday, May 3^rd against the Detroit Tigers I will be selling upper level reserved seats (behind home plate) for only $20 each. For every ticket I sell $8 goes to the Society. As if helping a great cause wasn’t enough to make you say “Hey Pat! I’ll buy some tickets!” you will ALSO be able to take part in a parade walking around the stadium – on the field! – while the players are warming up! How sweet is that?! It’s only available to people who buy tickets through the Society (and me!) so please let me know if you’d like to buy some tickets. The Twins have given us 500 tickets and they will probably go fast – I’m not the only one selling them – so let me know as soon as you can if you’re interested. I already have the tickets to give to you. Oh, and there will be a Society representative (probably a survivor or someone going through treatment now) that will be throwing out the first pitch! Way cool!

The second fundraiser we have going on is another dinner and silent auction at Gasthof. If you’ve been there before you know how great the food is and how much fun it is. If you haven’t been there then this is the perfect opportunity for you to try it out. The event will be held on Sunday, April 13^th and tickets are $25 each. When you come you’ll get an all-you-can-eat German dinner buffet, a glass of wine or beer, be able to listen to the strolling accordion players, and take part in the auction where you can bid on some great items! Last fall we had over 400 people attend and we made almost $8,000 on the silent auction alone! So come on out and enjoy a great Sunday afternoon at Gasthof!

Is it just me or did the week go by fast? Dunno, it seems like it did to me. I hope it was a good one for you.

Lyric of the day: “I woke last night to the sound of thunder, how far off I sat and wondered.” – “Night Moves”, Bob Seger

Her Pale White Dome

3/4/08

Tuesday morning things were very strange – almost Twilight Zone-ish. I at first thought it was very odd that I was the only one boarding, but I found it even MORE interesting that I was the only one on board.

I asked the driver if I was getting on the right one and she assured me I was indeed. I sat down and we were on our way. The driver wasn’t one that we usually have, and one of the most bizarre coincidences was that her name was Julie.

I looked behind me to make sure the buple (bus couple) wasn’t lying in the back seat and sure enough it was empty. I reclined the seat and relaxed, and before I knew it we were downtown. It was the best commute I had so far, so before I got out I gave her a kiss and was on my way.

3/5/08

This morning things are somewhat back to normal. The bus is a little more full than normal, although still no more than half full. The roads aren’t the best considering the snow but we still seem to be doing pretty good on speed. No egg-wheeled bus today.

One interesting thing that I’ve noticed is that few blondes ride the bus. I’m surveying the crowd and there isn’t a single one on board. The buple is here in their usual spot and we have another new couple. The woman from the new couple (we’ll call them the nuple) appears to be taking her first bus trip, or at least her first one on this route.

The gentleman with her is pointing things out along the way. He has a large nose, receding hairline and long sideburns. She has gray, somewhat thin hair, which appears almost like a wispy gray cloud encircling her pale white dome. Her hair is thin enough to see completely through to the scalp yet looks to have enough substance to adequately hold a No. 2 pencil.

Gary D. is our driver this morning as he is most mornings and is doing an admirable job in these conditions. We’re definitely running behind schedule (or a former co-worker pronounces it “shed-jewel”) but we’re doing better than I thought we would.

Lyric of the day: "Seems I'm not alone at being alone" - "Message in a Bottle", The Police

Tommy Crasher's Airplane

Eastbound

Since I’ve been sick the last few days I spent most of the weekend inside and in bed. We saw a couple of movies that were on TV (Tommy Boy, Airplane, some other movie with Chris Farley where his brother is running for political office or something like that (we never saw the end of that one), Wedding Crashers, etc.) and pretty much went through about a case of tissues.

Tommy Boy is a classic. There must have been some law passed that makes sure Tommy Boy is played a few times a week. I swear it’s always on, but it’s such a great movie that you don’t mind it. Chris Farley is hilarious.

Airplane was a movie that I have always liked and Julie doesn’t much care for. Perhaps that’s the kind of movie that women typically don’t like and men do. Kinda like the rock band Rush – I think I might have met one woman in my life who likes them. But, I digress. Or do I?

Wedding Crashers is also a great movie. Vince Vaughn cracks me up and what’s-her-face that plays his crazy girlfriend is a riot as well. Excellent movie.

Did any of you watch OBGYN? You know - Oprah’s Big Give yesterday night? I thought it was OK. I guess I understand the premise of the show – helping those in need – but I’m not sure they really figure out what would best serve the people they’re trying to help. Money isn’t always the answer. As the saying goes – Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach him how to fish and he eats forever. Or, for as long as he has bait.

I think I’m on the egg-wheeled bus again. Oh, and the couple is back. Who is the couple? See my previous post. They’ve been riding this same bus with me quite a bit lately, always in the last row. Today there is a lot of talking going on, although I can’t make out (no pun intended) what they’re saying. It’s a quiet bus with much sleeping. The windows slowly frost up as we make our way towards downtown. Don’t lick the windows – trust me.

For J-Flo – the lyric of the day: “Act your age, not your shoe size.” – “Kiss”, Prince