Promoting - Pre 2013 Zwiedzanie Bethel

The start of the last week of the 2013 Series

My mornings start with a cup of coffee. Okay, actually, they start when Junior wakes up and babbles and stuff. I try to sneak downstairs to fix him a bottle or a pouch and maybe some cereal before I head back up to change him. He's usually pretty hungry so he's unusually fussy (meaning he actually acts frustrated) so right after I change him I bring him downstairs to "begin his day".

While Junior walks around his domain (the living room, kitchen, hallway) I try to sneak in some breakfast. It usually works. I follow him around so that means eating a sandwich or leftovers while walking around behind him.

Junior doing laps in a cheerful mood.

This week was a bit busier than normal. There's a lot of stuff that happens only on the last week. In "list form" it's two things - the final overall and the raffle - but in reality it's a logistical nightmare. The issue is that most of the podium riders disappear after their race so I have to do the pictures as soon as the races end. This means getting results, calculating the overall, and awarding prizes... all before the next race starts.

On top of that Junior had a few things happening. He had this all-over rash/bumps/whatever... He'd just gotten his measles shot a few weeks ago, he ate some new food last Sunday, but we think he didn't have "bugs" (he slept in his own Pack N Play, he wore his own clothes, etc).

He was also projectile vomiting for about 24 hours, sporadically one day, once at 2 AM that night, then a few times the next day. That second day, on about the 5th expulsion of the second or third episode (and therefore I figured there couldn't be much left), I held a towel in front of his mouth. The "projectile" geyser hit the towel, ricocheted up into the air, and landed on his face and hair... he was not happy.

This meant him staying at home on the one afternoon I thought I could work on stuff.

What happened is that I had started working on "deluxe" things, essentially favors to individual riders who asked for this or that. I do these things before and during the Series. It's not a major big deal, it helps make the race more enjoyable for the racers, and, frankly, it's stressful if I think someone isn't happy about the races.

While working on those deluxe things I realized that, oh, wait, I don't have the spreadsheet done for this week. I have no change for the drawer. I'm short for prizes for Sunday since I pay out for overall. I have to leave early Saturday to pick up the trophies.

On top of that the camera guy wouldn't be there so I stressed a bit about that (he wrote up extensive notes on what to do and another guy covered for him - I covered the M45+ finish).

I had to stop with the favors and do the "bulk work" if you will, the work that allows the race to actually run. These include getting the cash drawer ready (means going to the bank as well), getting the spreadsheet ready, sending out  for printing and picking up the release forms, organizing the numbers and releases, making sure the radios are charged, stuff like that.

I have to get my stuff ready too, my bikes and gear and overnight stuff. Before each Bethel I stay at my dad's place the night before - he lives about 30 minutes from the course, I live about 90 minutes.

During this time I was doing repeated loads of laundry after Junior made his various works of art. Luckily he didn't hit anything used for Bethel, all sitting in various piles in the living room. I did have to clean a large swath of carpet, a bunch of toys, give him a few baths (and take some showers for me), and do multiple changes of clothing for both him and me.

If that wasn't enough one of our cats was freaking out so we had to put him in kitty jail (a bathroom). This entailed emptying out the bathroom of anything removeable, installing a litter box, water station, and food. We took him to the vet to get him checked out, but all this meant moving rugs, cleaning stuff, yada yada yada. He even had an episode in the middle of the night - he peed on the bed through the down comforter - that meant stripping the bed of everything and putting it in the wash at 2 AM and me taking yet another shower. We also moved two rugs out of the way after he peed on those.

So on Friday, instead of being almost done with preparations for a regular Sunday, I was just getting started preparing for a super-sized Sunday.

I was so exhausted Friday evening that I thought of skipping the pre-reg stuff (organizing releases, doing the spreadsheets, etc) and just going to bed. As I stressed I rallied and got it done. I even fleshed out the stuff I wanted to cover in the clinic, a kind of deluxe "send them on their way" bunch of stuff.

That left Saturday morning to load up the car and get down to Crown Trophies in Brookfield before they close. Luckily the Missus is done with tax season so she'll hang out with Junior while I do Bethel stuff.

Eventually I got it all done.

Sunday should be fun.