Family

Cross season started this past weekend with a flat tire on the second lap. I was in a lead group of five riders. We had pulled away from the pack. My legs felt good and I was just starting to settle into a rhythm when the rider in front of me went down and I ran my front tire into his crank (front chain ring). The tire exploded and was completely flat before I could apologize for stepping on his hand as I tried to untangle my bike. He was not hurt and able to continue, unfortunately my race was over. It was a long windy drive for 10 minutes of racing. Thanks to everyone for their support at the race.

When it comes to family support I feel pretty lucky.

I enjoy truck loads of support from family members that have made enormous sacrifices to allow our family to function as it currently does. The following is a list of sacrifices’ that I DID NOT MAKE to allow this family to work:

- I did not leave a place I had known and loved for 5 decades
- I did not leave my mortgage free housing situation to take on a new mortgage in my 50’s
- I did not leave my close knit French family far a bunch of non-separatist socialists
- I did not move into a house that’s over prices and stretches my finances to their limit
- I did not come out of retirement to pay my new mortgage
- I did not leave all of my well established social networks and start fresh
- I did not leave a good job with a small company I had proven myself with to take on a new job with a huge company that threatens to lay me off monthly
- I did not leave an economy where $60,000/year is enough to raise a family for a place where $60,000/year won’t cover groceries.
- I did not face social ridicule for my decision to move
- I did not give up retirement for a longer work life

I did not make any of these sacrifices but I do appreciate them. Every day I feel lucky to be benefitting from the support of my family and every day I think of the choices that were made so my children can have the support they unknowingly will never fully appreciate.

Extra Pepper Please

Honestly the thing I love about racing my bike is the humility it affords me. There is a reason that cycling, even at the professional level, isn’t overrun with arrogance. From the outside it may appear that cycling like all pro sports is full of egotistical adrenaline junkies but honestly my experience has been the exact opposite.

Last night was my first cyclocross race of the season. Cyclocross (youtube video) is the punk rock cousin of road cycling and combines both mountain bike skills and road tactics. The big difference with a cross race is that it only last an hour. Even at the top levels the longest races are only 60 min. This means that to win you need to ride “flat out” for the entire race.

Last night’s race started out reasonably well and I found myself holding third place through the second lap. I was in a group of five that had broken away from the main field. I took a small wrong turn and ended up at the back of the group but at least I was still in the lead pack.

I was starting to settle in and felt my legs coming around when Pepper Harlton a junior female racer put the hammer down and handed all four of us in the lead group a huge helping of humility. Pepper rode away from us all with what seemed like very little effort. The thing about cycling is there is always someone faster and last night it happened to be a 17 year old girl.

"SPEND MORE STUPID"

I’m not an economist nor do I follow economic trends closely. I would say I have an average understanding of the North American economic system. However, listening to National Radio the other day I found myself baffled by the current economic message.




Spend, Spend, Spend!!!

Spend more is the message we are getting. The best way out of this recession is for consumer confidence to return and for us collectively to spend more…..

“We’ll Spend Our Way Out of Recession” Business News

I’m reminded of a scene from the Simpsons when Homer and Chief Wiggum literally dig a hole in the ground to deep to climb out. Homer’s solution is “were going to have to dig our way out” and as they start franticly digging Wiggum says “no, no, dig up stupid”.

I mean are we really going to swallow this. Does anyone else see a fundamental issue with spending our way out of a recession? Now before you point out the obvious I want to be clear that I understand the basics. I understand that spending more means businesses will have less suffering to pass on to their employees. I understand that the rate at which money moves around the economic “buy – sell” system is directly related to the economy’s health. But are we not missing the point when we say spend more and everything will go back to normal.

Do we really want it to go back to normal?

In North America every dollar I earn is hunted by a relentless army of “must have” products. My life is full of junk I don’t need. I spend my time organizing it, finding it and moving up the property ladder to accommodate it all. Seriously I am surrounded by junk I don’t need and the logistics of managing this empire consumes most of my time.

Why not use the current economic downturn to take a look at how you spend your time and money and evaluate what is really contributing to your life positively.
As I listened to the national radio call in show I heard person after person call in with their stories of hardship.

“I’m a teacher but since my husband lost his job we are having real trouble keeping up, we have burnt through our savings and I just don’t know what we’re going to do”??

Where is this woman living that she can’t survive on a teacher’s salary? I felt like reaching through the radio and shaking this woman.

Here’s a solution for you lady, how about spending less!!!!!!!!!!!!

One income for a family used to be enough. Certainly the income of a teacher was enough to raise a family on.

According to stats Canada the average teacher’s salary in 1981 in Ontario was $28,983and it costs $320 a month to feed a family of four (two parents and 2 kids) that means that over a year the cost of food represented 13.2% of a teacher’s income. In 2008 the average teacher’s salary in Ontario was $58,467 and it costs $600/month to feed a family of four which represents 12.3% of a teacher’s annual salary.

When I hear that a family can’t survive on one parent’s income in today’s world I really have to wonder if that is true or if society’s definition of “survive” has simply changed.