Team Hoyt

Be sure to watch video at the end. If you need something to help you put life in perspective, this will surely do it. You will want to watch the video with your speakers on. ........hold on, but grab a tissue first!

Strongest Dad in the World

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S.on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. ``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was! nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at TuftsUniversity and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's no! thing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon .

``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, and then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held! by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.'' And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was

95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston , and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland , Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every >weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once.''

Here's the video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ

100 Club

What a weekend. Had stock take on Saturday morning, which is always a pain in the ass, but the guys have got it pretty waxed now so it went quickly. Then went off to Hermanus all alone. C is studying and thought she would get much done if she came up with me, so I went alone. Had a sponsered regatta which was really cool. Thanks to Southern Charter for the sponsership.
Sailing my laser on Saturday was interesting. Light flukey conditions ranging from 2knots through to 15kn. Was lying 4th after the triangle when I decided to go inshore cos it looked like there was more breeze. Paid off brilliantly as I took 2 positions and almost caught the leader. Finishing 2nd. The second race was in slightly steadier conditions and having had a bad start I could catch the front 3. Sunday was a different story. 20-25kn of South Easter. Hectic sailing. As it got stronger, the fleet weekend and I moved through them steadily, eventually pipping the chap that had led from the start, on the line! What a win for a member of the 100 club!

Second race of the day was more hectic as wind had picked up to a blustery 30kn. I was so much faster than the rest of the fleet that I was almost an entire leg ahead, when calamity struck. I capsized on the wing mark and in the process broke my tiller extension. I tried making repairs and was still quite far in the lead on rounding the bottom mark. Unfortunately it is completely impossible to sail without a tiller extension in those conditions, so I had to retire... DAMN. Anyway, I ended up coming 2nd overall in the competitions cos there were quite a few DNC's. Won a new main sheet for my troubles, and got the requisite scrapes, bruises and battle scars to prove I had had a hard battle!
Quiet a few boats came up from Zeekoevlei for the regatta, there were 5 420's and 3 29'ers. Awesome to have boughts with trapeze and spinakers out at HYC.

Saturday night we had a sponsered bobotie dinner which was great. Cos C wasn;t there, I ended up sitting up talking sh!t to mates till about 2 am. Had 7 beers and a bottle of red, which kept on attempting to fight back while I was sailing. Nothing like a mock charge while hanging out on a laser in 30kn of breeze!

C and Spud are well. Keeps on growing. C said she could feel him moving on Saturday while she tried to sleep. So cute man. This is going to be one hellofa experience! Can't wait.

Digging for what?

Since having to stop myself from coronary failure due to seeing red in the traffic a few years ago, I have started enjoying my slow trips in to the office. Instead of fighting to get a few cars ahead of the big Jeep that was in front of me when I turned into the traffic, I chill out and cruise. I have changed my route to one that takes me through the back roads of Constantia, past the huge houses and through the green of the forest. I go through the pine forest on the slopes of the Constantiaberg, and down past Kirstenbosch, through the beautiful greenery of Hidding Estate, and finally join the traffic at the lights at Newlands Ave. Stunning drive. And now with Gareth having replaced Mark on 5fm along with Deon's humourous surf report on KFM at 7:20, I am generally happy as I cruise to work in around 30mins.
I feel hellofa sorry for those ppl in Jozi with their newly implemented experimental lift club lanes where only cars with 3 or more ppl can drive in the right hand lane. Kinda like our bus lanes in Kaapstad, or the HOV lanes on the I95 outside Miami. The HOV (hi occupancy vehicle) lanes are amazing, complete with fly-overs bypassing heavily congested areas. The big thing about making these lanes work is PLANNING... have we planned in SA?

Anyway, as I swept into Cape Town on Eastern Boulevarde and came to a halt at the lights, I noticed a hot Betty in a black sporty looking Corsa (possible?), she had a neatly cut stylish bob haircut, big stylish sunnies, pouty lips, and a button nose....complete with finger firmly up it! rofl. I love seeing that kinda thing. Hot chick with finger up nose in the traffic. I wanted to honk my horn, but was laughing to much and nearly drove into the big Jeep in front of me... Classic traffic action.

17w1d says the countdown. C is feeling much better this morning after a good night's sleep thanks to me holding in my pee and not getting up when I woke with a full bladder at 4am...

Mof-stok frustrations

Played one of the most frustrating hockey matches ever last night.

First of all it was at 8:30pm. Who wants to run around an astro turf at 8:30 at night? Maybe I'm getting old, but normally I like to be relaxing with glass of wine ust after dinner at 8:30pm on a Wednesday night.
Second of all, C was pissed at me before I even left cos she new I would wake her up when I got home, which means she would be tired today and not able to function well. She was up when I got home, but I still needed to shower and have dinner and cool down before going to bed. She kindly left the light on, but that kept her awake so by the time I eventually got to bed quite late, she was EXTREMELY pissed off. ALL my fault obviously.
Thirdly, the team I play for in Summer League are a bunch of retards and spaz's. And that results in me playing just like them... I even had a freshy right in front of the goals... SPAZ...
Fourthly, I didn't stay for a pot so that I could get home while C was awake and therefore not wake her up... so much for that plan. Have you any idea what it's like to have a tired pregnant woman attack you for not actually having done anything other than quietly get into bed...
Fifthly (such a word??), she was even MORE pissed off and tired when I woke her up with her morning Rooibos tea, and her day just got worse...

All cos of a late hockey match. Now I have been banned to the spareroom when I play sport late... Might just have to move there permanently...

So C's day was sh!t. She was tired and headachey. Poor thing had to leave work early. Was able to make the last sale at some boutique store, but couldn't handle work.

I am not going to even attempt to understand the emotional rollercoaster she is going through. Suffice it to say, I am now permanently in sh!t and will just have to deal with it and support her. By the sounds of things, it only gets worse.

But damn its worth it. Just seeing that little bump melts my heart....

It ain't lookin that peachy

It isn't, it really isn't. This place of work of mine is rotten to the core. Ppl are not happy and that makes for interesting times. It means that it is impossible for me to shit on anyone without them going off the wall and walking out. It means that when I apply pressure, ppl start to crack. It means that when you ask nicely for someone to do something more, you get the FUCK OFF look and they very reluctantly put your request to the bottom of the pile.
Just cos I am the manager, doesn't mean its my friggen fault for the rain returning and summer being over before it began. Idiots.
Actually, summer is only really here when the wind starts blowing through one ear and out the other, fuggen with your mind on the way through. It really can drive you insane. I used to love it, being a sailor boy and all, but now it just irritates me cos my umbrella may fall over in my garden when I am trying to braai...
Finally got a hold of D, mate for years who I haven;t been in contact with for a few months. His response to finding out C's prgnant "Bloody hell.... are we getting that old already"! Bastard. No we are not that old, but the time has come.
It is actually interesting how much older people are now when they have kids compared to our folks. And the ppl overseas are leaving it even longer. It must be weird for a Saffa in the UK who is 30 and has no kids, cos all the 16yrs olds over there are pushing prams, and thats not cos they have babysitting jobs....

C is tired today, so has taken the day off work. Pulling a sicky... Naughty girl. She doesn't want her boss thinking she is taking time off cos of Spud, but then she actually takes time off cos of him... looking for trouble I tell ya.
Check out the count down to D-Day at the top of the blog. Pretty cool stuff. 162 days to go...

Happy Birthday to me

Sunday was my Birthday. And what a lovely day for it. Had a great weekend of relaxing with mates and family.
Had a bunch of mates and their kids around on Saturday for a dinner. Cooked up a storm. C put together an incredible Mezze platter, then I cooked a Leg of Lamb and a fillet on the weber. Fan-friggin-tastic! C also baked the most ridiculously decadent chocolate cake.
Had some amazing wines as well. And then played darts with my next door neighbour until light effected play and the game had to be cancelled with me 1-0 up and struggling to hit double 2. (I blame the light, but it could well have been the wobbly throwing arm).

Sunday was great. Got an awesome pair of sunnies from C, got a boulle set from the folks and an ice crusher from my aunt... Went to the Durbanville wine route for some wine tasting and ended up at Meerendal for a gorgeous long lunch.

Got onto the topic of names for Spud. As I keep saying, I don't to tell people the names I am considering cos alot of folks seem to be quite opinionated in this regard. I have been telling ppl that in order to give him a step up in life I am going to cal himn Sipho Bonganiberry. Maybe then he will get a job...
So, the conversation degenerated from suggestions such as Matt and William, to stomach-achingly funny suggestions like fruit such as Lemon or Orange (Orange you glad it wasn't Willy) to nautical terms such as Cleet!!! I laughed until I cried. Imagine calling your son Cleet or maybe the dutch version Kleet.

This week has brought on some all new challenges. Massive project at work and a drive to make myself famous in the business... Never assured of success, even if I am successful... Not much in the way of recognition going round, but rather lots of finger pointing at failure. Fun place to be right now.... not.

JFDI said to me last night, there is no point in grafting your ass off just to pay for disposable nappies, you have to enjoy yourself... Well, I am not sure what Spud would have to say about that...

It's a.....

BOY!
Wow, what a morning. C was really nervous last night which rubbed off on me (altho I slept like a log). She was concerned about how she would react when we found out. She was worried she would sound dissappointed either way when DocZ told us.
So we went for the scan this morning and after much prodding and pushing, Spud moved into a decent angle et voila. There is was. I was so proud of this long piece of manhood....until DocZ said, "Nope, thats the umbilical cord..." The little protrusion behind it was the manhood...
We are having a baby boy! How friggin exciting.
This whole pregnancy has just felt like such a blessing, and it is getting more and more amazing.

The only problem with telling ppl that its a boy is that the very next question is Because there are so many opinionated ppl in the world, we have decided to keep that a secret. So he will remain Spud for now.

Called Mom & Dad and Sis and they were really excited. Dad had a patient so couldn't chat, but called me back. He is so amazing, and so excited to be having a grandson. Somehow, he just sems to know the right things to say. C just keeps calling him cute.

Damn I'm excited...

16 weeks and growing

Spud should be about 15cm now. C is definately got a tummy which is really cute. Every night before going to sleep, I get to rub in Bio-Oil in an attempt to ward off stretch marks. It is such an amazing thing cos I get to bond with baby and spend time with C just focussing on the little thing.
We find out on Friday whether its a boy or girl and are SO excited. C's mom is also excited about this as all her friend's daughter's found out... She has to constantly compare her daughter to her friends... I suppose it's natural, but it does get irritating.
She reckons that the only worthwhile careers are Medicine or Physiotherapy.... Apparently my job is too confusing for her to understand, so she doesn't come across as being particularly impressed. And C, well she obviously doesn't do much all day... what a joke.

Anyway, Happy days.

Funny stuff

Mushy Peas on Toast , what a blog. Definately one of the best around. The comments today are just hilarious. Talk of smelly poens, nik-naks and Creols. and the funniest take on Nik nak paddy wack I have ever read. Pure class Rev.

Anyway, C says her tummy has grown substantially overnight, and judging by the size of the bump, I reckon Spud had a growth spurt! This pregnancy thing is just wicked.

5fm are playing the best music in the world today. They are Screwing the Playlist for their birthday. Woke up to Alex Cooper, been head banging to Bohemian Rhapsody and Guns 'n Roses. So amazing. Until Michael Buble came on and pissed on my battery. But I got over it when they played U2. I love this sh!t.

I can't believe that I haven't had a drink this entire week. Crazy stuf. I think I'll go out for a boozey lunch and see if my sympathy pregnancy can handle it. Got to do a test run for the rugby tomorrow, cos you can't watch rugby and not drink beer!

15 weeks

Spud is now 15 weeks old! Wifeberry's morning sickness has definately slowed down, but the uncertainty that everything is alright remains. I think that is pretty natural. Also natural to want to run to the gynie and get checked out every 5 mins, or after every funny feeling. I keep telling her that things are going to feel funny, you're pregnant, have never been through this before, and your body is going through massive change.
Unfortunately when you are dealing with a highly hormonal woman, it is not often that logic really enters the equation.
Spud is now 15-19cm long, which is getting big, so there is definately reason for Wifeberry to be showing a bit now. Just got to convince her she doesn't look fat, and I'll be fine.

Have just read that the morning sickness is now going to be replaced with Heartburn... Not looking forward to hearing about that... Got the Gaviscon at the ready, will pour down Wifeberry's throat as soon as there is a grumbling...

The first part of pregnancy seems kinda like a hangover! Feeling sick, mock charging, sometimes real charging, grumpy, headaches, tired, weepy (from PJD's), moody, depressed (PJD's). Works well for us as I when I have a hangover she normally feels the same, so we can suffer together... Then the hangovr goes away and poor mum-to-be.

Anyway, we are loving this whole preggie thing. Can't wait to find out if its a Boy or Girl. C's dad emailed to ask whether he should get Football gear yet (meaning American football), or stick with soccer. Rugby dammit, I say rugby... until he's old enough for Hockey, unless of course he can play like Luke Watson... Then again, it could well be ballet (but only if its a girl!).

happy 15 weeks Spud!

Sympathy Morning Sickness

I reckon thats what I've got. Been feeling awful, nausea's and on the verge of shooting a tiger for 2 days now. I reckon it is in sympathy fo wifeberry, altho she is starting to feel much better for longer periods. Doc says it's gastritis, which is an inflammation of the stomach lining brought on by either a bug, stress or alcohol abuse. I reckon it's from running on Saturday with a hangover...
It is amazing how useless one can feel when virtually incapacitated by something as silly as feeling a bit sick. I tried to stick it out at work yesterday, but was on the verge of chucking, and got extremely grumpy so it was difficult to actually get anything done. Anyway, at least it is nothing serious.
Spud is now 14 weeks 5 days old. It should be about 10-12cm long now, which is actually quite big. It's no wonder wifeberry's stomach has started to swell. Problem with preggie women at this stage is that some just look fat. If you know C then you'd know she has always had a completely flat tum, so she looks preg, but if you don't know her then... oh dear... she looks like she's getting a bit fat! Anyway, I think she looks gorgeous.
The debate about whether or not to find out the sex of Spud continues. Everyone has their own opinion, and alot of ppl seem to think that they are right and should force their opinion on us. Well, screw everyone!! We will do as we please. And that means we will be finding out at the next scan, which is 10 days away. I am not sure if C will be able to wait that long... She might end up phoning the lovely lady who did our foetal assessment and asking her.
So far, the only real craving has been for pickled onions. This is due to the effect of the vinegar on the nausea. I tried it out myself, but apparently it just makes things worse as it messes further with the inflammed bits.

Anyway, back to work...

Finally back to Blogging

2 whole weeks of work is absolutely amazing, but the repurcussions are crazee. It has taken me a full week to get kinda caught up. I am just lucky we aren't that busy right now.

Brenton on Sea was unbelievable. So relaxed, and lots of fun. Just wifeberry, spud and me. Spud definately took its tole on wifeberry, she was exhausted. Each day would be eating, sleeping, touring, eating, sleeping, eating and then off to bed...
I did some fishing off the rocks, but only succeeded in catching 3 Dassies (black tails) and a sunburn on my hand. Really cool tho, now want to try my hand at fly-fishing.

On the last w/e of hols, we went to a wedding at Simon's Restaurant which is really beautiful, but the restaurant is fukkin awful. The service is completely shite, the food is crap and hardly what you'd expect. Just disgusting really. I am glad I wasn't footing the bill. The only thing Simon's is good for is Fish 'n Chips for R50 and a pint of lager on a Sunday afternoon. So much potential, but due to complete incompetence on behalf of management and staff, it is crap!

Spud is now 13 weeks and 5 days. We have past the scary milestones and wifeberry is out of the first trimester and into the second. Now if the damn nausea would go away, things would be so much better. Had the feotal assessment scan, which was abolutely fine. Quite an amazing thing to see and hear. Little bugger is hellofa active and pretty big, which is to be expected. I reckon if its a girl, its a ramp model, and if its a boy then a loose forward!

Anyway, will get back to posting regularly, and will step up the humour!