An Update and a Story

An Update and a Story

Hello In Over My Head fans! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Mo certainly did. He received an all expenses paid trip to a resort that had big rooms and swimming pool…otherwise known as the training facility of the Leonard family. He’s been swimming away and given the nice winter weather (at least up until yesterday) he’s been able to get some jog miles in as well. Given the fact he's stayed rather active, it shouldn’t take too long to get him back to the races. The plan is to start maybe start training as early as next week. In a perfect world, he’d be ready to go in about 3 weeks. However, given the fact it is winter, it could take twice as long. We will just play it by ear and get him back healthy. We are extremely excited for a (cross your fingers) full healthy year with Mo.

Since there isn’t too much to talk about on the current racing front, I thought I’d go back and share a story from this summer. This story is 100% true and speaks of one of the strange coincidences that have often surrounded our story with In Over My Head. Enjoy!

The Spider

Do you remember the book Charlotte’s Web? It was one of those first novels kids tend to read in their grade school years about a pig and a spider. The pig started as a playfull little squirt, who grew into something more useful to the farmer: bacon. Based on the friendship they had built over the years, Charlotte, a spider living in the corner of the pigs barn, began weaving messages into her web to try and save the life of the pig. “Some Pig” was one that I remember. The pig’s life was spared due to his new celebrity, but in excellent children’s book irony, it was Charlotte who ended up passing away from old age (per a quick Google search, the average lifespan of a spider is 1 to 2 years).

Well, apparently Mo has is own little ‘Charlotte’ and she lives in my garage. Let me be very clear about something: I don’t like spiders. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I have a fear of spiders, but if someone gave me $50 to watch the 1990s movie ‘Arachnophobia’, I’d tell them to keep their money. Let me take you back to July of this year: Mo’s comeback timetable was continuing to get extended and we didn’t know when, if ever, he would finally make it back. I came out of the house into the garage and in the window, right next to my driver’s side door, was a new spider web…with a rather large spider living there. My normal inclination when I see a spider is simple: kill. However, I was in a state of mind that day that led me to make the following assessment: I’m going to let this spider live because maybe that will create enough good animal kingdom karma to let Mo make it back to the track.

It wasn’t until later that I made connection between my new garage spider friend (who is there to freak me out every single morning when I get in my car to go to work...I named her Spidey) and the Charlotte’s Web reference. As July became August and then September, I half expected to walk out one day and see ‘Go Mo’ weaved into the web. It never happened. But on the Sunday before Mo was going to go in for his ‘make it or break it’ qualifier on September 21st, something weird did happen.

Laura and I had just returned from the mall with a brand new ellepitcal machine in the back of the Trailblazer. After backing into the garage half way and dragging the box out of the back, Laura looked up at the window and said, ‘wow…look at that spider, it’s huge!’ It made me realize that Laura had probably never seen the spider before because it is blocked by the Trailblazer and on the off times that she drove it, the spider was likely tucked up in the corner of the wall and the ceiling (she’s up there about half the time). I then told Laura the story of the spider and how I decided not to knock down the web as a peace offering to Mother Nature in hopes it would somehow help Mo’s chances to make it back from injury. She laughed (probably thought I was nuts) and I hopped back into the truck to pull it out of the garage so I could work on the new exercise equipment.

I was in the truck for a total of about 20 seconds and never touched the radio. Whatever channel it was on before I got in was just random chance. However, the song that played gave me goosebumps and put a big smile on my face. I sat in the drivers seat for an extra couple seconds to listen as Laura looked at me wondering what I was doing. When I got out she asked why I sat there so long.

“Good song was on” I said.
“What song?”
“Over My Head by the Frey” (Mo's unofficial theme song)
“Woa...that’s weird…”

Coincidence? Maybe. Some people might say probably. Others would say of course it is a coincidence, do you think that Mother Nature somehow contacted XM radio's 'The Blend' channel and had them play Over My Head during that 20 seconds I got in the car just after I told my wife about the spider story?

I'd say that's exactly what happened! OK, maybe not, but I thought it was just a pretty interesting story that I'd share with everyone. Hopefully it at least made you go hmmmmmmm....

That's all for now. More updates (and maybe more stories) to come.

Let's Go Mo!