I love Etta James, except at 5:00 AM

I'm finding myself naturally waking up earlier, sometimes due to the birds chirping as the sun rises, but mosty due to my darling CAT (Etta James) pawing on my face to remind me that her food dish is empty. Whatever the method, it's a sure sign that DAYLIGHT SAVINGS is coming soon! I get excited about this because it means I'll be able to get more cycling miles in after work and I can toss my indoor cyclop-trainer back into the closet. YIPEE! I am so glad I live in Northern California - cycling HEAVEN!

So I kicked off the beautiful Spring weekend by hopping on my bike and riding up Mt. Diablo - TWICE. Yup, twice in one day. What was I thinking? Well, one of our TNT coaches who had completed the Death Ride last year said that I should have a goal of riding up/down Mt. Diablo 3 times in one day to prepare me for my event in July. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to assault Mt. D 1-1/2 times. Yesterday, my Mt D 2X route consisted of almost 5 hours of solid riding (only one short break to eat) in 51 miles and 7,000 feet of climbing (according to the hand-held GPS). I might have gone a little faster except that I was so captivated by the contrast of the California poppies blooming against the bright green landscape. Absolutely gorgeous!

So after all of that exercise, and swaggering through the rest of the day, I went to bed a little earlier and was determined to SLEEP IN. I closed my bedroom door and plopped into bed ZZZzzzzzz.......

Apparently, my cat knows how to open doors, because at 5:00 AM SHARP, she was licking my closed eye lids, trying to get me to open them. Then comes the velvety soft paw tapping on my cheek, and repeating this until I roll over and pull the pillow over my face. The cat does not give up and starts walking on my body pushing the weight of her tiny paws into me as if she is churning butter. So I give in to the relentless Etta James, thinking of all of the elaborate ways to baracade the door next time.