Not even a bowl of iceberg with some ranch?

Today marks the end of the "salad days".

As I mentioned two and a half weeks ago I will be losing my eight times a day gravy run indefinitely starting Monday. I will be counting them down as the hours go by, and at 4:30 today I will make my final trip to the 21st floor of 201 South College Street. I can't even remember how long it's been since I started going over there, but it's been years and years. It' become my life very ordinary.

I woulda thought I'd be more bummed about losing such a large portion of my income, but for some odd reason I'm not. Things are going so smoothly with my mom moving down here, and everything else in life seems peachy, so I guess that's why the money thing isn't getting me down. It doesn't hurt that I'm comforted by the fact that I still have a job in these times, and I'm also not the sole bread winner in the house. The Pie R.N. is securely employed and a top performer in her position, and we've already had our share of struggles in the early days (yes, just like my hero up top I spent some time on the couch in a trailer with my desert flower watching TV and drinking beer for entertainment).

Everything else in my life seems great. My kids are fine, my health is probably better than ever (I think my anemia is behind me and my wrists/hands/thumbs feel 97% better than they did last year at this time), and as of last night it looks like I got MOOTS officially on my side in 2010. I'll be stoked to have them back on board as they really helped me make great bike race in 2009. I really love my bike, and I like the idea of racing the same bike for quite possibly two years in a row. On the bright side of income reduction and material gains, this loss of income will keep me from buying a new bike (squishy or road) in the near future, and that will keep me from having to decide what bike to buy and save me from the buyers remorse I'm sure I would suffer from a few months down the road.

I'm really gonna have to get serious about looking into a designer for the 2010 Bad Idea Racing jerseys. I felt bad about not pulling it off this year (especially after I kinda said I would), and it was really cool how it all worked out in 2008. Here's where I could use some feedback. Some of my sponsors would like to be on the jersey, enough so that they would pay me to have their logos on there somewhere. This brings up many questions:

Would you want the jersey even if it had quite a few logos on it?

All right, I had some other questions, but they were more or less moral issues I'll have to deal with down the road if I choose to pursue this approach. I hate asking folks for more, more, more when they have already given more than I feel I deserve. As a matter of fact this jersey thing brings up more issues than I care to think about... leaning on friends for design work, country of manufacture, leaving some sponsors off the jersey based on some criteria I invent, pricing... you name it. I attach a lot of myself to the issue when it gonna be me asking you to buy something with my name all over it (hmmm... there's a nice design option).

Maybe one more question: These questions are real questions I would like answered. Not like when I ask "Does this MOOTSpost make my butt look big?"

Should I open this up as a design contest?

Post a comment or shoot me an email at teamdicky at hotmail dot com with some honest feedback. Sales of this jersey would help support me (and no one else) as I make great bike race in 2010, so I'm really hoping I don't fail yinz this go around. If you got "connections" I'd love to hear from you. I'm thinking I can do a little something something for anybody that helps me get this project rolling, you know... like wash your car, babysit your kids, give you some old 26" tubes, be your wingman at the bar... you name it.

Get excited. I need feedback now!!

PS: I did not see Race Across the Sky last night, and I still slept like a baby.