Accolades, race bikes and the Circle of Life

Ok, so yesterday, I got a bunch of new followers and commentors and it was all thanks to a little profile of yours truly over at The Screaming Me-Me and we love Me-Me for that because who likes accolades?  That would be ME.  And of course I hadn't posted anything in a couple of days so everyone who did as she directed got to read a several-days-old post and now I feel like I need to actually PRODUCE witty missives for my new fans followers to marvel over.  Oh, the pressure!  And it's funny, I will be doing my morning walk and will actually compose a blog post in my head as I'm ambling along that I just KNOW will knock everyone's socks off and as soon as I get home and sit down in front of my keyboard, POOF! My train of thought leaves the station without me and I'm all Uhhhh, wha?  Hate it when that happens.

On a completely unrelated note, I was at the park on Sunday, taking Lucy for her daily jaunt and we came across a little bird in the grass.  It was just sitting there very quietly and didn't even flinch when Lucy sniffed it.  It just blinked and looked at us like he was saying Oh hello there.  Well, animal lover me was all concerned because I didn't know if it had fallen out of its nest or was injured or what and there was a Blue Heron in the vicinity looking for its next meal and I knew if Mr. Heron saw little bird, that'd be it.  So Lucy and I continue on our walk and I keep looking back to where the bird was and kept my eye on the Heron, ready to run while waving my arms like a whackjob if the Heron got too close to the bird.

We start to head back to the car when I see the Heron making his way quickly to where Little Bird was sitting and I start to head him off at the pass when Little Bird suddenly takes flight and I'm all Yay!  He's Saved!  And what does the damn bird do?  Comes in for a landing a foot away from the Heron and before I can even react, the Heron promptly gobbles it up and I'm all Dude, What the Hell?  Then, the Heron darts down and comes up with a wiggling rodent of some sort (the gophers are out in full force these days) and while he's settling down to enjoy his entree, two red-tail hawks that were in the tree above my head the entire time decided that Mr. Heron has usurped their meal and they swoop screaming down on the Heron with talons outstretched and I'm pretty sure I'm about to see something out of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom when the Heron screeches something along the lines of "See ya suckers!" and makes his escape with most of his feathers and meal intact and I'm all Damn!


So Saturday night, TheManTheMyth brings home Thing 1's rebuilt race bike and we get it unloaded from the truck and wheel it into the garage and I swear I could hear an angelic chorus as we all stood and marveled at its beauty.  Sunday morning was all bright and sunny so I told Thing 1 to bring the bike out to the driveway so I can take some pictures of it and he leaps out of bed and scurries toward the shower, saying over his shoulder that he doesn't want to dress in full race gear for his photo shoot and I'm all Dude, I'm taking pictures of the bike, not you and by golly I think he was a little disappointed which is unusual because this is a kid who hides whenever I have my camera in hand but I think he's all proud of his sponsorships and that's nice and all but this is about the bike dammit!


So behold the KTM 200XC in all its glory!

Purty, ain't it?  But after all that, when Thing 1 makes his debut for Blais Racing Services this weekend at the 1st Round of the National Hare & Hound Series, he won't even be riding this bike.  He'll be on his new (for us) Blais Racing Services KTM 250.  The 200 will be his "display" bike in the pits for all to ooh and ahh over.  Life is SO tough for Thing 1, I tell ya.