Reinforcements...a.k.a....Aunt Debbie!

Round two of the Cavalry arrived last week in the form of Aunt Debbie, Terri's sister. We can't thank you enough! Feel free to "move" back anytime. We could use another night of you and Jackson spending the night together. Wow, great sleep! Terri and Debbie were able to get out on the town and do a little bonding with Jackson in the form of shopping and eating. Better get him trained now because later in life, much later, he will meet a girl and she will drag him all over Cola shopping. Get used to it my little man.

The family had a very busy weekend. Friday night Terri, Debbie, Tanner, and Charlee went to see Kenny Chesney in concert. Jackson and I dropped them off and headed back home for a little guy time. I fed him, changed his diaper, got him dressed for bed, turned on the Speed Channel to catch up on a little Nascar, he got comfy laying on my chest and next thing I know the phone is ringing and the race is almost over and it is time to go pick up the family from the concert. Well at least we got in a good three hour nap together! They had a great time at the concert, Sugerland opened for Kenny, great show.

Saturday morning we packed up the motor home and headed for the coast. Folley Beach to be exact. A great area just outside of Charleston. Beautiful beach, beautiful day, great fresh seafood that night. Check out the next post, I will go into detail about Tanner's off road hiking adventure. Holy cow, poor boy. Headed back home late Saturday evening to complete a great day trip. Check out the latest pictures. The first photo is the pre-Kenny concert, next is of Terri and Jackson enjoying some evening time on the back deck, and some of our trip to the beach.

Need to run, and get some sleep. Debbie, thank you again. We really appreciate you coming down and helping out with Jackson, the diapers, the feedings, the house, the laundry, the dishes, the vacuum, the projects, well you all get the idea. We already miss you, come back soon!

Thanks for reading, y'all tune in again soon.

Catching up...first round of the Cavalry arrived

Hey everyone,

Too much time has passed since last post. Been very busy with family and work. But I wanted to catch up and say a huge thanks to Jeff, Melanie, Brenden, Meghan, and my new buddy Carson. You big lug you! The Klenke Clan paid a visit to the Inmon family a few weeks ago and big fun was had by all. Parents too! We did dinner and drinks, bike rides, zoo visit, Edventure kids museum, grilling out, savored the "juices of love" (Rent-A-Rita), watched sports, played games, Brenden and Tanner played a lot of video games, hung out on the back deck, sampled some of Cola's great food, (the Mellow Mushroom has great pizza), rode bikes again....You get the idea. We truly had a great time and look forward to them coming back to town. Meghan, we wanted to thank you again for our great shells you collected for us from the beach. They look great as a center piece on our dinner table. Jeff and Melanie, thank you for all you did for us. You were both a great help with everything around the house and Jeff...Thanks for the guy time. Come on back for a cold beer and Sports Center anytime.

Check out a few of the pics we were able to take during their visit.

Thanks for reading, Y'all tune in again soon.

The Charlie Brown

I am sitting here early Sunday morning contemplating what to write listening to the torrential downpour, savoring my Seattle's Best coffee (not Starbucks) and keeping my eye on the Weather Channel. We are under both a tornado warning, and watch for the next hour or so. I thought we left that crap when we moved from "Tornado Alley" in Missouri? At least we have not had snow, hail, and sub thirty degree temps like you in MO.

Friday night after work I geared up and headed to the shop for the Friday night beer ride. I was really excited to meet some new cyclists and check out the riding conditions on the post at Fort Jackson, not to mention enjoying a cold beer afterwards down at Five Points. But much to my dismay...I was the only one to show up! I could not believe it, the conditions were perfect for a ride, sunny and 75, no wind, and finishing with a cold beer...I arrived five minutes early and waited for almost 30 minutes, that sucked! Hope things turn out differently next week.

Now to expand on the title of this post. Charlie Brown is my friend and neighbor who lives across the street from us. Charlie is a military man, Colonel, I believe, husband, and father of one third grader Lexie. Charlie is an avid triathlete, and adventure racer, and will beat your ass in any trivia game you can think of! Charlie and I decided we would take an early Saturday morning ride, probably an hour or so I thought. If you have read my previous post my big ride for the season was a whopping 14.79 miles at a blazing average speed of about the same.

The conditions again were perfect for riding. Sunny and a cool 51 degrees at ride start with relatively no wind. We began out of our neighborhood and headed into the Carolina countryside. There is something very calming about riding through forests of tall pines with the occasional blooming Dogwood or Red bud growing beneath. But the calmness was soon shattered by the all too familiar sound of dogs in hot pursuit. Thank God we did not have a Dunsmuir incident. Charlie was pretty impressed by my dog defender tactic. Simply opening my big mouth and yelling as loud and as mean as possible, NO! That gets their attention, kind of messes with their heads, they usually slow down, stop, or tilt their heads to the side thinking what the hell!
After what must have been about three or four of the damn chasers we met the big one. Big Damn Blackie. He is a black lab with a head as big as a basketball. I was pulling us along (the only time I pulled) down a straight road with a slight decline at about 25 miles per hour. (I did say slight decline). When suddenly I spy Big Blackie coming at us from the front off of my left shifter. Usually they come at you from behind nipping at your ankles. Not Big Blackie, he had other things on his mind. I thought to myself in a brief fleeting second, oh shit this is going to be ugly. Charlie is in my draft down on his aero bars and we are both going to hit the deck. I yelled as loudly as I could NO and I'll be dammed Blackie put on the emergency brakes dropped his ass to the ground and literally slid to a stop within a foot of my left Nike. Now that will get your heart rate up, not that I needed my heart rate any higher, but wow!

Despite the dogs, we had a great ride. Charlie is strong, says that was only his third ride of the season. Well I should mention that he runs on an almost daily basis and throw in a couple of swims each week, well you get the picture. He pulled my lame butt the entire time except for our Blackie incident. I will get stronger and return the favor mark my words.

When we pulled back into the neighborhood an hour and 53 minutes later we had logged in 30.19 miles. Now I don't have any cool bar graphs like Skippy or Scotty D, nor a power meter. But here are the approximate results from my new Sigma computer. I am too comfy to go out to the garage and look at the actual. 30.19 miles, ride time 1:53, average speed 17.7 mph, average cadence 87. My Nike heart rate monitor is broken, so I will just say really high!

Looking forward to more great rides in the Carolina countryside. Just remembered, I am going to try and get down to a stage of the Tour of Georgia this week. If so, hope to get some great pictures and interesting commentary.

Thanks for reading, y'all tune in again soon.

Thursday afternoon

Well I have spent the greater part of the week working from the home office so that I can help Terri and the baby, and let me tell you, I could get used to this. Jackson is doing much better now and has actually gained about 6 ounces from where we were last Friday. Very good News!

The weather today was absolutely beautiful in Cola; temps in the low 70's but the winds were gusting at about 20 miles per hour. Late in the morning Terri came up to the office and told me she was heading out for a bike ride. That meant that Jackson and I were in for a little guy time, too bad he was sleepy, or it could have been MSNBC that put him to sleep. After Terri got back in it was my turn for a lunch spin. I headed out of the neighborhood on some sketchy roads, but soon found some great blacktop with a nice shoulder just wide enough for a cyclist. I followed the white ribbon for what felt like a hundred miles, but unfortunately, managed only 15. I used to ride pretty well (the guys in the club may think differently) could hold my line, take long pulls on the front, but I found myself today felling a bit out of sorts. I actually found myself thinking...for the love of Pete, hold your line man! Looks like I need some more time in the saddle!



Thanks go out to my cousin Kellie Jo and her family for Jackson's alphabet blanket, and my sister, Stacey, for the Chief's onesie.

Thanks for reading, y'all tune in again soon!

Is is almost hump day???

Where does the time go? When you live your life in three hour blocks of time the day becomes a blur. Not much to report that is very exciting here in Cola right now. I took Tan and Charlee Ann to meet with their Dad for Spring Break on Sunday after our Easter day, and will pick them up this weekend. Mom and Dad Inmon are tired but doing well. Jackson has had a tough past week. We/he had to endure more than enough doctors appointments in that time frame. The worst occurred Friday when I was at work. Terri took him and the kids to a specialist to check on his eyes because he looked like Rocky after getting his ass handed to him by the big Russian. Turns out he had both tear ducts completely blocked. Not fun...doc had to take a probe and insert it into the tear ducts and run it all the way down his nasal cavity. Needless to say very painful, for him and Mom. But all looks better now. He and Mom are very tough.

Have some new pictures to post of the little man. We broke out the new tub from Granny Jan today, works really well. Too bad I am so tall, Terri appears to give a good sponge bath. I also came up with the concept of using the hair dryer during diaper changing. So far so good. By the way, I thought I had seen just about everything after living in the fraternity house, but I can now say that I have been spit up on, and peed on. Lets hope I am quick enough to dodge the big duke if it comes flying my way during a diaper change. Can you tell who is crazy about her little brother? If I had a nickel for every time she has kissed him, well I would have a hell of a lotta nickels! Hope you enjoy. Gotta run and try to get some sleep before we are up again in two hours...

Thanks for reading, y'all tune in again soon.

US Cycling Road Race...Nationally Televised!

Hey guys,
Found this...U.S Open Cycling Championship will be Nationally televised today on NBC. Same day coverage will begin at 2:30 p.m. est-5:00 est. Sounds like they have issues early this morning however, appears wet, and snowy conditions may postpone the start. But hopefully they can get the race in and still be televised today. Pretty cool that cycling is getting some recognition on a national basis.

Had a ride planned this morning with my neighbor, however 36 degree temperatures have postponed the ride. Discovered a cool group ride yesterday, I should fit right in. Here are the details:

Fridays are the home of the Beer Ride, which meets both in front of Cycle Center on Harden Street and at Outspokin a little after 6 p.m. The groups join together in Fort Jackson for less than 20 miles at a fairly relaxed pace social ride to end the workweek. Again, this is a no-drop ride, and the group stops to wait for slower riders. Perhaps Columbia's best-known ride, you can find everyone from racers to weekend warriors and families with children in trailers. The ride terminates in Five Points at Bar Non(e) - hence the name - and has been known to feature beer during as well as after the ride.

We are off this morning for our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt and an appearance by the Easter Bunny!

Have a great Easter Weekend.

Thanks for reading, y'all tune in again soon!

Baby pictures

Alright it is late in Cola, about 11:00, hopefully Jackson will not wake up in about 10 minutes. I thought I better post some pictures of Jackson for everyone to see, especially for Mom, Granny Hazel, and Aunt Glenna. It was great speaking with you today Glenna, hope you and Hazel found the blog and can download some pictures.

Hope all is well!

Thanks for reading, y'all tune in again soon.

Pettus Post

Alright Greg, and any expectant Dad's out there. Here is the uncensored, non-medical, recap of child birth from an uncensored, non-medical Dad! First of all know where the hell you are going. Should not be a problem for you in Swingtown, only two hospitals. But take a tour of the birthing facility to know where you park, what elevator to take, where to get coffee, etcetera. Also, have a full tank of gas. You would be surprised at the fuel mileage and smooth ride the Sequoia gets running at 90 on the freeway. Second, be prepared for the big day, yeah, sounds easy enough but remember that labor does not keep banker's hours. Our day began at 4:00 a.m. (eastern time). The cool thing about the onset of our labor would be the way my wife handled it, she simply said "Honey, I am having contractions, better keep the time of how far apart they are." Then coolly went to shower up for the big day, but turning in pause to let me know that she would try to wait at least until 6:00 a.m. to leave for the hospital because she did not want to wake the kids and our neighbor's who were going to watch over them quite that early!
Once inside the birthing room and your wife is dressed in her best you can probably expect to hang out for a while. The medical staff will resemble a hive of worker bee's around your wife. Take your phone, digi cam, and laptop to record the day's happenings if you can. This will be an experience you will want to capture on film. (Some of it that is.)
Two of the big shockers of childbirth were that my "picture" of the birth was of me standing behind my wife above the head of the delivery bed coaching her along, rubbing her shoulders, stroking her hair, easy stuff! Not even close! They had me standing beside her...the center of my body was in line with her hips. Then I was told to hold her leg under her knee and pull it back to about the center of my chest. If you are not getting the visual...when you look down from this position you are looking directly at the vagina, birth canal, hooey, the "Y", whatever you want to refer to this part of her body. Yes, it would be like having seats on the 50 yard line to the Super Bowl with an above field camera view all your own! Second, nobody informed me that once the little guy comes into this world he would be purple. I will spare you all the bloody details, but keep in mind, they are exactly that. Bloody, gooey, details!
Now if at any time you are feeling a bit lightheaded, the nice nurse will give you a cold compress to place behind you neck and a comfy chair to set in so that you don't pass out in her lap during the delivery. Thankfully, I did not pass out. Now one final thought, I don't know if it is common practice, but our delivery went, according to the Doc, perfectly text book. And when this happens with the good Doc Salley, he will talk calmly to your wife and tell her to ease up on the final push then say "okay, you finish up the delivery". Keep in mind that our little Jackson is only about head and shoulders out of the birth canal. Terri said....what! His reply was to go ahead, finish up the delivery, reach down here and pull him out! And I will be damned, she did, put her hands under his arms and pulled him right out and laid him on her chest. Now my eyes were the size of Zipp 404's I am sure, but what an incredible, crazy, beautiful, sight. Oh yeah, then Jackson pooped and peed on the Doc.
Now Jackson is almost two weeks old. It is amazing how fast time passes by, take time with your newborn, take pictures, video, write silly stories that he can read later in life. Truly enjoy what God has given you. Shane and Scott can attest, nothing is more incredible!
And besides...you can always sleep later!

Thanks for reading, y'all tune in again soon.