Short bursts.

There has been lots happening lately. Not really anything that would make a whole post on its own so here are some short bursts. They are most certainly listed in order of event, not of importance. All of them have affected me in some way.
Last weekend I did the Boonah Marathon. It was shortened to 75km instead of 85km and in the end I did a time somewhere around the 4 hour 15 minutes mark. I say "around" because my Garmin showed 4:04:53 as my time and the officila time showed it as a 5:18:00. Yep, A whole hour extra. Not sure what happened and still waiting on the reply from the race organisers. I had a good race though felt strong until I had to throw up. I felt better after that but couldn't eat or drink for the last 15km. Alison and Jack came out as support crew and it made me smile to see Jack changing my water bottles out for me and yelling "Hurry up Dad, here come some more riders! Now you are 37th, ohoh 38th! Quick!" Tops. Thanks to both of them being there.
My best mates mum passed away during the week. She had been battling a few serious health issues and had reached a pretty good age. I won't quote that age as I can't remember exactly what it was. Joyce was a darling and she always made me and my family welcome when we visited. She raised good kids and I am proud to say one of them is my mate. Joyce's funeral is tomorrow and Alison and I will be there to see her off. RIP Joyce.
The memorial for Pete (Big Turtle) McMillan was yesterday at his family home. There was an awesome turn out with people from the car club, his work and the mountain bike community all showing up and trying in vain to find bad things to say about him. It was a really fun afternoon of story telling, chatting and of course eating as befits Pete's great loves. The ride that followed was at a very relaxed pace in the rain with heaps of smiles and joking. Jen, Petes wife was on the ride and stoic as always. I could not be so graceful under the circumstances. We'll miss you Pete.
My cat of 17 years has to be put down. He has kidney failure and is rapidly deteriorating. I took him to the vet on Saturday for another matter and he suggested that I put him down before the pain gets really bad as that is the usual course of this disease. I took him home for the weekend so the boys can say goodbye. So tonight I took him back to the vet and ended his suffering. He was quiet and very relaxed through the whole thing, unlike me.
So there it is. Life is nuts sometimes.