The hot summer months are not only a good time for vacations, bbq's and block parties, it is also time for people to gather together to raise awareness and funds in support of a good cause.  On the heals of the Life Rolls On "Night by the ocean" and "Celebrity golf tournament" comes another great event supporting the fight against paralysis.  Just over one year ago my young friend Ricky James was paralyzed racing amateur motocross.  His motivated family immediately began work on a fundraising event to help raise money and awareness for Ricky and other like him.  Through their tireless persistence to improve their son's quality of life an alliance was formed between the James family and a progressive Foundation called Next-Steps.  The Next- Steps Foundation was founded by recovered quadriplegic Patrick Rummerfield.  Pat suffered a spinal cord injury over 20 years ago and today is touted as the world's first fully recovered quadriplegic.  Together, the Next- Steps Foundation and James family will host a golf tournament/fundraiser on September 21st at the Trilogy Golf Club in Corona California.  For more information visit http://www.rickyjamesgolf.com/ 

Together Each Achieves More...

Life Rolls On... Last week was relatively uneventful for me, hence an uninspired mind from which to write from.  Training has been sub par lately, only working with Taylor 3 days a week purposely to rebuild my body's strength base while providing ample recovery time for my immune system.  Though now I feel it's time to (as Emril the chef would say) "Bam!" Kick it up a notch, back to 5 days including cycling.  My body is at a platoe right now, not making any forward progress, a part of this process I recognize and know well.  Yes, I have been traveling and enjoying myself as of late, however my body is telling me quite clearly it's time to over stimulate to improve my flexibility, function and power.  I believe in timing, timing for my words and my actions, and the timing of this past weekend Life Rolls On "Night by the ocean" event couldn't have come at a better time for me... Inspirational!  I mostly remain inspired by my family, friends and life it's self, motivating me through hard times, although after attending the LRO charity event and speaking to, shaking hands with and sharing time with the many amazing spinal cord injured individuals and their families, renewed and pumped my spirit with incredible motivation.  The immense amounts of healing, positive, motivating energy shared by individuals like Brianna Walker, Ricky James, Kristina Ripatti and Jesse Billauer is uplifting to say the least.  I approach my goals with their faces and stories in mind, directing my intentions fulfilling my actions.

I'm back!  Home from another adventure, I am happily ready to get back to my schedule.  The last two weeks have been wonderful yet tiring, sharing moments of joy and sadness with family and friends.  As I wrote before, my old friend David passed away.  His service was held in our home town, Carmel.  Hundreds of familiar faces joined together at Carmel beach in remembrance of Dave.  Most of them paddled out into the surf forming a huge hand linked circle from which all shared stories of our beloved friend.  I remained land locked with Stephanie and Toot's watching from shore, happy to be warm and dry.  Our trip to Carmel was Steph's first time to the Bay area, so I played tour guide and showed her around.  We covered quite allot of ground, spending one day down the coast in Big Sur, picnicking at Phiffer park and dipping our hot feet in the cold Big Sur river.  We cruised Cannery Row and spent an afternoon at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a place of many grade school field trip memories.  We bounced from house to house visiting friends over BBQ's and drinks, laughing and sharing stories of our youth gone wild.  Our time in Carmel was awesome!  I look forward to returning soon.  Carmel however, was not the end of our trip.  We continued north to Sacramento where we celebrated Independence Day with my dad and sister.  Most of the time we were on the lake jet skiing, and would return to Dad's house and a smoking grill where Dad was always cooking up some delish home style grub.  Overall our trip was amazing, Steph mentioned to me about how loving all of my friends and their families are.  I pondered her comment for awhile and thought,  Wow! ...I LOVE LIFE!