Schools out, Christmas Break

Yep, it's that time of the year, Christmas Break. The kids are out of school for a few weeks so it's time for some quality time with the boys. Break comes at a good time as the shop is slow and this year I'm injured so I've got nothing but time on my hands. It's probably a good thing that I've got the boys to keep me busy, a injured bike racer gets pretty grumpy with out time on the bike. There is some pretty good videos out there this week from last Sundays World Cup Cross race. The one of the Woman's race is really good with a little more artsy angle to it. The men's race is good and I'd love to watch the whole race over again. Maybe I will, just to figure out how Sven Nys managed to win after 2 flats!

That's my kind of course!

Here's the video of the women's race.

http://vimeo.com/34015292

Just in case you missed this on Facebook or Twitter, this is a x-ray of my knees. I've been complaining about my knee forever so I figured I'd let people see what's going on. The left knee is what a relatively healthy 50yr old knee looks like. The right knee shows the scars of 5 arthroscopic surgeries to remove damaged cartilage and bone, and 1 Andrews Procedure (major Surgery) to tighten it back up. So now, 25+ years later I have what you see above, bones grinding away with no cartilage and a few strands of ligaments holding it all together. The pin you see is actually from the last surgery where they used a chunk of my IT band to tie it all together. Bottom line is that I'll be getting a new knee sometime in the near future. It just depends on when I want to slow down enough to do it. I'm thinking 2 yrs but it all depends on how things feel. When I asked the doctors how long my knee would last like this they just said that I would know when it's time to get it fixed. I guess that means whenever I can't deal with it anymore. On the positive side they also told me that they have never seen someone wear down the bones so bad that they could not replace the knee. Then again, they also said that they have never had a patient make it this far with the severe arthritis that I have.  So that's my story. It is what it is and I'm going bike racing!

So now I'm off to make cookies with the boys. I can't wait for tomorrow when they have a Euro cross race at night. Yea!!!! I love night races!