tosabarbell

Our move is officially in the books, thank gods. It actually went very smooth, no travel hitches and I’m thankful for that. We also made it through a fairly stressful event and arrived still liking each other so that’s a plus.

It’s been a few days of unloading (and reloading into storage), returning trucks and trailers, unpacking boxes and reality is setting in. Reality that tosabarbell is currently a holding tank for the remainder of the siding that is going up this week (which is why our new B&R bar is in the living room.) That I’m going to have to find some imaginary space for the rest of the boxes to be unloaded and reality that there’s a lot of work to do to make this feel like home.

There’s also the reality that we have an entirely new support system in Bigg’s family; that his brother and Carpenter extraordinaire would walk through fire to make things nice around here for us; our new community (with high’s in the low 50’s by the way) is adorable and feels like home due to it’s similarity to Minneapolis and that being together each day is much better than e-mailing from 1000 miles away.

So it goes, when reality isn’t quite what you envisioned, you adjust and refocus. The good news is that I know where the good grocery store is, where to get excellent Bourbon, how to get to The Brickyard so I can train during this adjustment and that I have Bigg right here to help with it all.

Deadwood quote of the day:

Jane: Why is everybody fucking whispering?!

Moving week, therefore packing week. Be there shortly. Until then, The London Souls.

On Friday, Bobby asked me, “What are we going to do today Jules?” I said, “Let’s run ‘er up.” I also told him we weren’t pushing the prowler that day which made him especially happy. Anyways.

Last fall, Bobby (at age 47) squatted a PR of 375 at a meet in Ft. Worth. We then switched gears and got him ready for the Texas State Weightlifting meet where he also kicked ass. After that, life hit. He had a few medical issues along with plain ‘ol adult life taking over and training backed off a bit. He kept training, but at lower weights and he hit the prowler a couple times a week. We wanted to just let him recover from pushing so hard for the last nine months.

So yesterday was the first time we worked up to a heavy single since his meet. 280# looked a little tough but he really wanted 300 so we kept going. 290 looked better and he popped out of the hole on 300 so easily that we decided to go up one more time. You’ll hear my reaction to an easy 310 at the end. We stopped there. Why? A) because getting greedy in a dumb way tends to bite you in the ass and 2. Bobby has a full weekend of activities and drive time and needs to be worth a shit this weekend. Remember, 47 year olds recover a little differently than a 27 year old.

Anyways, working with Bobby this last year has been something to look forward to each Mon/Wed/Fri. He’s not only a client but a good friend and I’ll miss him. It’ll be pineapples without him.

I’ve always wanted to be able to sing…well, sing where other people would actually want to hear. In large part because I grew up with the strong voices of Tina Turner, Linda Ronstadt, and of course the Queen of them all Donna Summer. Not only could she tell a story with her music, but the strength behind her singing was always impressive. She made me want to grow up to be a gorgeous black woman who could sing like no other.

So obviously that didn’t happen. When I heard yesterday that she had died, I felt a little twinge of nostalgia. She kicked ass to the end and stayed true to her music and her persona. So here’s our little nod to the Queen. Thanks for the music.