|
My week was busy with non-picture taking boring activities.
Biggest news is realllly boring. Sorry.
I guess I am re-financing my house. Bill Evans put me in touch with Dawn, and she has been mightily trying to get me better financing on the house. No small feat given my unique financial challenges from the CIA website and my earnings vs expense ratio. She finally found something, so now I'm busily getting all the paper work for that. Anyone who has refinanced know, it's just like buying a house all over again.
To get into my current house, I got an ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) which means I got a tremendously low interest rate, but would have to suffer through any leaps in interest rates. Everyone keeps whispering to me "You might oughta get out of the ARM by June" as rates could go up. 'Could; being the keyword....everyone seems to have an opinion on interest rates. The loan has some other issues, so I need to hop out of it anyway. May as well do it now.
Going to a traditional loan jumps my mortgage up about $350 bucks a month, which means I GOTTA have a roommate. So if Lucas decides to leave, another one is gonna have to take his place.
Really like having Lucas here too. Very quiet guy, very clean. I hope he stays for a bit.
The other strange but non photo-worthy bit of info was me being contacted by the producers of City Confidential. This show plays on the A&E cable channel. I actually watch the show each week. The producers are doing another show for Oprah's channel "Oxygen". I guess they are doing a story on Tracey Tarlton (Entry 240), my friend who ended up shooting (and eventually) killing Stephen Beard, but was kind of masterminded/tricked by his wife Celeste Beard in to doing it.
There have already been a couple TV shows on this strange set of circumstances, and I have seen some interviews with Tracey. I sure do miss talking with her. She could use some friends around her. Maybe cuz I know her, my sympathy level might be out of proportion, but she seems stable and honest and owes up to all this nonsense, while Celeste just seems like a crazy woman.
Anyway, they emailed me asking me if I wanted to do an interview. I've been asked a couple times by book authors for interviews, but never replied back. I hadn't spoke with Tracey for at least a year before all this happened, so I feel kinda of out of the loop on her life.
But I dunno, I am tempted to do this interview. The interviews I had already seen were by people who she worked with. No friends. And Tracey has a lot of friends. Maybe we all just decided to be quiet about all this. Or maybe we all suspected whatever we would say would become sound byte fodder that could be turned against her.
That's my main worry. I would get up on camera and I would say something perfectly innocent about her, and underneath would be captioned "Bryan Ockert - Pornagrapher". Defeating everything I might say. Or twisting it with a trick of editing.
The movie Monster (biopic on Aileen Carol Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was executed for killing seven men in the state of Florida during the 1980s) was pretty popular this year. It won Charlize Theron a Best Actress Oscar. So Lesbian killer stuff might be “the thing” to be doing.
Anyway, I may or may not do the interview. Gonna talk with the producers this week. They seem pretty nice. Our schedules might not mesh, or who knows what- I might be a boring interview. Will keep ya in the loop if anything happens on that front.
For the most part though, this week/end was mostly about bike riding.
And right now, my body is WHOOPED. I am so so sooooooooooo tired right now. It's Sunday evening, about 7pm, and I am slumped over in my chair all achy tired.
I road about 120 miles over the last three days.
Despite some really crappy weather, which meant no riding for most of the week, I road Friday/Saturday/Sunday. On Friday I did my favorite 33 mile loop. Then on Saturday I did a long loop that is about 46 miles.
On Sunday I did the Dripping Springs to Johnson City ride organized by the HCRA. After the previous two days riding, I was not real “fresh” for the ride. But I figured it was good practice for riding two days in a row.
Bill and I drove out to Dripping Springs and met up with team mate Andrew. Andrew is from Bryan/College Station. He has been training hard, and seems excited about doing the ride.He was ready to kick some Texas Hill Country ass. (And he did!)
Bill has also been getting in some practice time and took on today's challenge with flying colors. Definitely not at an uber fast pace, but steady and consistent. This is a hard ride, and everyone completed the course.
I road pretty quick, had one flat tire, and didn't drink enough (as usual).
In Johnson City there is a pit stop at the Exxon, and my group was the first to pull in. We also pulled out first, and were going along at a good clip. We stopped to help one rider get a chain back on, and then five minutes later I got a flat. I stopped alone and quickly changed the flat
Rats! My first one of the season! Despite the mandatory rest, I felt REALLY good the last 10 miles.
I still made up good time, and probably pushed myself harder to try and catch my posse. I got in a few minutes after they got in.
I joined Andrew on the tailgate of my truck while we waited for Bill to get in. Got a chance to chat with him and the ride leader Jason.
Bill came in about 15 minutes later, and about a dozen of the group headed over to The Salt Lick for BBQ. I haven't been there in a long time. It's like this uber straight Texas thing that I don't “Get”. Andrew, Jason, Bill and I made up a table of four, and we happily were able to just walk past the ginormous lines to get our grub right away with riders who were already seated and eating.
BBQ was really good and really hit the spot.
I came home, took a hot bath (Jason gave me this idea) and crawled into to bed to try and sleep. My body was throbbing too much, so I got up and did laundry and cleaned up the house.
Well, that's about it for this week!
Comment on this Entry
Hill Country Ride Site
Where are you guys and gals? I need you!
The team needs you!
Peeair NEEDS YOU!
Make a wee little donation!
| 
