Yes, it's officially FALL. And then it isn't. Our weather here is very wishy-washy. One moment it's cold and very much like fall, then last week it was HOT (and we don't get HOT very often). We've had some high winds, but nothing like the Santa Anna's that blow down south, creating havoc with any spark causing an out of control fire. Thankfully that's very rare up where I'm at....further north they have the same problem....funny how the little bubble of not-crazy weather is over my area. I know the utilities have been shutting off a lot of peoples power in order to NOT cause more fires from their aging and faulty equipment (and even that hasn't stopped them from sparking off fires). And now everybody who is losing power wants to sue them for their inconvenience...they (the utility companies) just can't win...they got crushed into bankruptcy the last few years from the devastating fires their equipment caused because they DIDN'T shut down the power, and now that they are everybody is upset at that too. They can't afford to replace all the ancient equipment as it would cost BILLIONS...what are they to do? I haven't the foggiest idea...talk about between a rock and a hard place!
Anyway....lots going on...College football..WOW! Michigan beat-down Notre Dame yesterday (HOORAY!!) but lost a heart breaker to still unbeaten Penn State last Saturday (who has now moved up to 5th with Oklahoma's loss yesterday). Stupid Ohio State (sorry Rae!) is still up in the top 3..RATS! Ol' Blue NEEDS to finally break that curse this year...their game is coming up in a few weeks. But boy does OSU still look good, darn them!
What else...oh, gymnastics! And all that needs to be said about that is "Simone Biles". Greatest gymnast EVER? It would be easy to make a case for that...she is undoubtedly amazing! How many moves new to Gymnastics does she now have named after her? The saying "Dynamite comes in small packages" doesn't even do justice to her...she is more like plastic explosive...WAY more devastating than dynamite! And she looks to not even be slowing down a little...she is better than EVER!
Halloween is almost upon us....I am heading up (work travel) to Travis Air Force Base tomorrow for the week...head back either Weds or Thurs, depending on how things go (I'm hoping for Thursday...just need to be home in time for Trick or Treats...I have a ton of candy ready to give out!)
Did a HUGE road bike ride yesterday (my biggest ever in fact)....my first ever "Death Ride" (a century with well over 10,000' of climbing)....it was the "unofficial" Deer Creek Death Ride (starts in Thousand Oaks off of the 101 and is all over the place in the Santa Monica mtns). I'm finally back at the razors edge of being at my best ever fitness (took me a few months to get 'back' after le Tour)...I'm really pleased with how I rode...felt pretty great considering! So I'm taking my bike with me on the road trip tomorrow and plan to stop and ride Mt Diablo tomorrow on the way up, and again when I"m coming home...got to ride it many years back when the Tour of CA rolled thru and had a mt top finish (I was up working in Sunnyvale that year). Didn't even get to climb the whole thing as they had the last mile or more roped off for only the racers...had to walk up to the finish). Also it was HOT HOT HOT that year (that's the year they did the Palm Springs tram finish and it was so hot the pavement was melting at the finish area and a lot of riders were near heat-stroke).
Was just down in Yuma last weekend with my brothers, working on our Moms house...getting it ready to sell. We painted the entire outside, and pretty much cleared the inside of her presence (THAT was hard...hated doing it). Nearly all her 'stuff' is now gone...given to the local mission she supported. THAT was hard too...I really wanted to put all her 'stuff' (ceramics and all her nic-nacs she collected these last 30 years or so) out on the curb of her house with a "Mary Halvorson/Chapeks stuff, please feel free to take some of her things to remember her by" sign.... (she lived in a large retirement RV park where there are very few RV's anymore...almost all have "park models" installed on their lots...moms park model is VERY NICE) so that all her friends and acquaintances could have that...but my brothers wanted to give it all to the mission...so there it all went, and it was pretty nice stuff...all going to complete strangers (whatever survives the gauntlet of making it to a shelf in their store and isn't broken). I was pretty crushed by that...none of her friends will have ANY of her stuff...people who knew her. But I was over-ruled...I kept what I could but sadly almost all went to the mission. I'm still hurt on that...nobody will be going "oh, that's cute, where did you get it? Oh...that was Mary's, you remember her?" She had a giant footprint in the park for a lot of years....church, choir, plays, crafts, fundraisers, dances...she touched a lot of lives.
I still feel bad...like we stabbed her in the heart tossing ALL her stuff basically in the trash to get a few $$ for the mission...heck, I would have given the mission money to NOT give them her stuff. Sheesh...there I go again. Got to let it go...can't fix it, it's a done deal. Damn. Anyway...had to vent on that...I'm better now...(not really).
OK...back to more pleasant things...our weather here has been mostly pretty great...but typical Central Coast (all over the map, but generally pretty decent, which describes it almost year round). Which is a good thing as it fueled my cycling comeback (4 rides a week) and was critical to my success...as I am VERY MUCH a "fair weather" cyclist. I've been riding very strong on my Saturday morning Group Rides, and I've been adding distance to further my comeback...my every other Friday off has typically been a very hard ride and been doing great on those too. Yep...I'm BACK! Soon enough will be the STOOPID TIME CHANGE, which is where the decline of my hard-earned late-season form starts to decline (again). The Holidays almost seem to crush my riding.
And so...I should be going...today is 'chores' day, as are most of my Sundays. And packing and getting ready to roll out early in the morning heading north to Travis.
Later Gators...have a great week!
Cheers!
So...its Tuesday morning and I'm up in Fairfield (Travis AFB), all dressed up with no place to go. Well, actually I do have a place to go. See, we are up here for Aircraft testing (one of our C5 aircraft that hauls our container)...but we have no aircraft. Its stuck in Hawaii, broken down. We don't know the extent of broken, but our people have decided we should stay in case it were to be able to fly home today or tomorrow. So I'm on the clock today, and will be getting paid to ride my bike (woo-HOO!) I TRIED to ride up Mt Diablo yesterday on my drive up, but lo and behold, Mt Diablo is CLOSED due to extreme fire danger. I hadn't counted on that and didn't have a viable backup plan. Today I'm ready and will drive back down to San Jose and ride Mt Hamilton up to the Lick Observatory...its a really nice ride, and when I passed thru yesterday, no smoke in the air that I could detect. Anyway, just an aside, we have one of our Vandenberg AFB Air Force guys with us (Liason) and he mentioned that aircraft hardly ever break down in say Anchorage, but break down in Hawaii and Guam quite often (the air crew gets to hang out when their airplane is broken while a team flys out to fix it...win win for all). We of course have no idea if this is whats going on, only that we have about 9 people and a truck full of equipment specially driven up for this work all sitting here waiting for our airplane (its a specific airplane modified to fit the container). So...bike ride it is...darn....getting paid to ride my bike...life sure if full of surprises!
ReplyDeleteWait, you are getting PAID to ride your bike? You're a professional cyclist! :) And I knew you'd be back in tip-top shape in no time! In fact, even better!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you reminded us that where you & Jeannie live rarely get those fires. I worry about you whenever I hear of any crisis out there in CA. Are you 'sheltered' from the earthquakes & mudslides too? Goodness, so MANY FIRES at the same time this year! And into fancy-shmancy Brentwood! Isn't that unusual for the fires to get that close to the 'Richie Rich' areas of LA? I don't really mean to make light of their misfortune as I'd be freaking out & cursing the day I'd decided to move there. Of course, if you're rich enough to live in Brentwood, I'm guessing you don't have to WORRY as we regular folk about what insurance will & won't try to cheat you out of & NOT PAY.
Anyhoo, I've sort of lost track - have there been a lot of homes destroyed this time or are they able to save most?
About the power shutdowns - yeah, they are a bitch, but at least THESE folks aren't snowed in/unable to get out of their frozen houses so it COULD be worse! And I guess if CA wants POWER, somebody will have to pony up to modernize that equipment. Plus, I would imagine house insurance will escalate rapidly if it's not or soon, they may not be able to get fire insurance at all. You just know this ancient equipment problem has existed for DECADES & was just kicked down the road. NOW the road has run out! Which is true for roads, bridges, water works, power grids all over the country! I dunno, maybe if we TAX THE BILLIONAIRES at least 70%, we can start fixing this stuff!
I'm sorry about your Mom's stuff & that your brothers "outvoted" you. I too think her friends would have liked mementoes. You tried, Matt!
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched hardly any CF this season, have at least temporarily lost my passion for it. I know this apathy is caused by the 24/7/365 freakin days a year that ESPN & other major sports sites/channels talk INCESSANTLY about the NFL & my disgust with the pro game has now affected my interest in the college version. Sigh. I MAY watch at least some of the OSU-PS game! And of course, the Buckeyes against "your" team. :)
And yes, Simone Biles is THE greatest female gymnast in history! It's not just that she does so many sills that few if anybody else can do, but she does almost EVERYthing better! She's tiny but powerful! It's really amazing that even with all the horrific sexual abuse going on in & around that sport for the past decades, that this current generation of American female gymnasts are the best ever. Whether that will continue is another question. Sponsors dropped out & the sport is probably in need a money.
Speaking of money, did you see today that the Tour of California is CANCELLED for "at least" next year? What are the chances it will EVER come back? Another US bike race bites the dust. The ONLY top race in this country. But, hey, I guess cycling can just continue whoring itself out to whatever shit country will pay them, like all the other so-called 'Olympic sports'. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, etc. Olympic "ideals" indeed.
Holy crap...no Tour of CA??? I had NOT heard! (livin the pro cyclist life in a hotel all week). Sadly I have to announce my retirement from professional cycling....my 2 day career was AWESOME and I will always cherish it! Most likely something like this will never happen again. (Tomorrow I drive home...turns out our plane is STILL broken down in Hawaii for at least 10 more days). We stayed the last 2 days hoping they would get it fixed and we could do our testing...the last plan was to fly it home last night or tonight, but thats not going to happen so they pulled the plug on my pro career....rats!) Anyway, the last 2 days were the best 2 days in the office EVER!!!!
ReplyDeleteI've never been a fan of baseball but I did keep up & follow the shocking journey of the Washington Nationals into & through the post-season, culminating in WINNING THE WORLD SERIES LAST NIGHT!
ReplyDelete"We are the Champions
WEEEeeee are the CHAAAAAMMMMMpions!
Noooo time for looooosers
'Cause WEEEE are the CHAMMMMPIONS of the WOOOORLD!"
:) :) :) :)
And hey....belated Happy Halloween! We had a pretty good night here...158 kids...14 shy of last years record but still a busy night...the babies were great in their Halloween dresses (after it got dark Sophie started growling at them as they ran up to the doorstep, so she ended up spending the rest of the evening in her crate). Abbey as usual waited by the door all throughout the trick-or-treats, hoping everybody would make a big deal of her and pet her....some did, lots did not (most of the kids coming to the door are Hispanic, parents driving them in from other neighborhoods...and apparently Hispanics in general aren't dog people so most of the kids are afraid even of little Abbey with her tail going a million miles an hour). I'm off today and going to go for a bike ride...just hoping the winds don't come (and it warms up...pretty chilly right now...typical fall morning I guess). Happy Friday!
ReplyDeleteSorry about your Turtles Susie...boy, if ol' Blue had pulled out that Penn State game...ahh...spilt' milk and all...shouldn't have lost to the Wisconsin either...they'd be right up in the hunt. Would'a, Could'a, Should'a...you know how it goes. And hey...at least we have the AWESOME TIME CHANGE to enjoy! Ya'll know how much I LOVE the time-change!! Happy Monday!!
ReplyDeleteDagnabbit! I wrote a lengthy comment & it VANISHED! Crap, I don't have time right now to rewrite, hopefully later. :(
ReplyDelete"Dagnabbit!" That cracks me up...don't hear that word too often...it SHOULD be in Websters dictionary...(it's not, just checked)...but LOL is...go figure. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDelete