Inane Asylum

The good, the bad (and the ugly?)

2012-02-16T12:17:00.002-08:00

No, the topic of today's post ISN'T a Clint Eastwood movie (though it COULD be!). In this post I'll discuss my thoughts on the differences I see that make a lot of sense, and those that don't. There's one constant I've found from all my travels, and it's that NOBODY has everything figured out. The problem is that NOBODY ( I mean countries) seems to look around and see what works and what doesn't, and then adopt those that are good.

I'll start with the cars. Over her, they have in general tiny little cars that get phenomenal mileage, and also have some get-up and go (overall...some are real dogs).

Take a look at this little beauty. It's parked on my street. It's a FORD! Looks something like a cross between a VW Bug and a Porsche Carrera, or maybe the Audi TT. VERY COOL little car! (and it's a stick shift, as are almost ALL cars here). I bet it's a blast to drive! I see all kinds of car models in other countries that we don't have available in the US.

Though I MUCH prefer this little number. It's an Audi R8 (never heard of it before). The engine is under the back window, much like a Ferrari. I would have taken MANY more pictures, but I didn't want to seem TOO envious. I bet this costs a LOT (tho I bet this baby doesn't get very good mileage...but if you can afford to buy it, AND insure it, the gas is a drop in the bucket).

There are many reasons for all the small cars here. For one, they have tiny narrow roads that were laid down ages ago by the Romans... horses and wagons/chariots. Rock walls (hedgerows) were built on the sides, and now you have private land on the other side of those walls. To MOVE the walls and make wider roads would be a national disaster. Also, gas is crazy expensive here (around $8 per gallon tho they sell it by the litre...and yes, that's how liter is spelled here). Along with all the tiny cars, they have pretty much wide open roads. And by that, I DO NOT mean space and such. NO...it means there is a MINIMUM of required stops. VERY few stoplights, and almost NO stopsigns. Roundabouts are everywhere, and they are OH SO MUCH BETTER than stoplights or stopsigns in almost all conditions. Almost all places that WOULD have a stopsign in the states has no sign at all, meaning it's simply a yield. You come upto it and take a look (still moving if you can see oncoming traffic), and if it's clear you GO! At the roundabouts, you come in with some speed looking to your right, and if it's clear (or if there's a spot big enough to get into w/out causing the oncoming driver to slam on their brakes), you GO! There are obstacles EVERYWHERE you go on the road. Two lanes temporarily into one, cars parking seemingly everywhere, causing cars on that side to veer WAY over into the oncoming lane, busses or cars stopping anywhere to load/unload... stuff like that. Quite honestly, the drivers over here are LEAPS and BOUNDS better than in the US. They HAVE to be! There is very little cruising around not paying attention here, I can assure you! I heard they totally frown on driving with a drink in your car (coffee, soda,etc). The lady I work for here was astounded when I told her my little Nissan has a cup holder...she says most of the cars do not, and that's on purpose. I can't FATHOM driving around back home w/out my coffee or a soda, or a water.

Currency. I've found in my travels that we in the US are addicted to certain things, like the 1$ bill. However that luxury of the 1$ bill costs a TON of money every year! The lifespan of a 1$ bill is mere months. Most other countries have a coin in it's place. We USED to have a 1$ coin in the US, long ago...the Silver dollar. And it LOOKED and FELT like it was actually worth something. In recent years they have tried to replace it with the Susan B Anthony. LOSER! A 1$ coin that is almost the exact size as our Quarter? WON'T WORK, EVER! We pretty much unanimously HATE IT! Here in the UK they have the quid...the pound. A small coin but it's FAT. In a pile of change you can easily spot the pounds. And they have a 2 pound coin also...which LOOK and FEELS like it's easily worth 2 pounds! Japan has the 100 Yen coin (roughly a dollar), and it's the main coin. They also have a 500 yen coin. They have gotten rid of the 1 and 5 dollar bill! But we in the states are spoiled, and when we discuss this it's pretty unanimous that we'd hate to walk around with all that change. I don't think we will ever give up the $1 bill. But we are entitled, you see, WE are the US of A, and we get what we want, not what we need (that's certainly how other countries see us).

Beer. Oh yes....you KNEW I'd come around to beer sooner or later. THEY (and by THEY, I mean pretty much ALL of Europe) have beer done right. In the US, well...we're working on it. Japan, not so much. I won't go on and on (but OH YES you know I could if I wanted to) ...but suffice to say that IF I were a beer, I'd want to be one over HERE!

Walking around. Oh yes. They walk EVERYWHERE here. A large part of that is due to the very fact that they CAN walk around most everywhere. Things are CLOSE. In the US we are so spread out that unless you are very lucky (or in a BIG city such as NYC), you pretty much walk nowhere, except to and from your car. The grocery store is MILES away, as are most all the other stores you need. Here it's ALL w/in walking distance of the VAST majority of the people in town. At night, they walk to the pubs. And they walk home. Not a whole lot of DUI going on over here...(they take that VERY seriously btw, and they should! These roads are DANGEROUS even when stone cold sober!)

Instant hot water heaters vice the hot water tank. In Japan they had these LONG ago. They also have them here. They are WAY more efficient than a hot water heater. It heats only the water you need heated. And while I'm on the topic of hot water, in the bathroom (I think I mentioned this before but bears mentioning again): the hot water/steam radiator sitting right under the towel bar, so my shower towel is TOASTY WARM every time I pull it off the rack. THAT is an honest to goodness wonderful thing! And I'm sure the towel bar isn't there by accident. And oh, being as I just finished doing my dishes for the last few days, I MUST mention this. I think I said something about how HOT the HOT water is. Well, I'm not kidding. Out of the kitchen faucet the COLD water comes out with the pressure of a geyser. A VERY COLD geyser. Rinsing my coffee pot out I have to be careful NOT to pull the lever too high, or the blast of water will blow right out of the pot all over the place. However, when you move the lever over to the HOT side, the copious flow becomes a mere trickle. And it takes a bit, but very soon I'm convinced I have hot water coming right from the molten core of the earth. Water so freaking hot that there are steam geysers all over the world with heat-envy of my faucet.

OK..enough on the 'good/bad/ugly for now. I need to include a few pics from last Sunday. I went to White Scar Cave (about a 45 minute drive). It's the largest cave system in Britain, and is inside the Yorkshire Dales National Park. I've been to a few caverns back in the US (among them Carlsbad), and this can't compare to that. But it was still pretty fun, and like all caverns, you just can't believe it's right there below the surface of what is rather unassuming terrain.

It was discovered in 1923 by a guy looking for a way in where a stream comes out of the hill (assuming there was a cave system made from the stream). He finally found a small opening and the guy crawled in, wearing shorts, a shirt, and a hat with a few candles stuck on the brim for light. He crawled in almost a quarter mile that first day, until he got to a lake. He came back the next day and made it back to the lake, then swam across the lake (about 100 yards or so and around 6- 10' deep), where he came to a huge boulder blocking any further progress.

And when I say he crawled in, I mean he was lying on his belly literally crawling the entire way. Can you can imagine doing this in a cave you don't know, with only candles for light? And the swimming part? The water was ice cold. This guy was a MADMAN!

This is the top..doesn't look like much I have to admit. The opening is left of the top of the stairs.

In 1927 the miners came in and followed the original crawling route but opening it up to a stand-up height. A large part of the route is right over the original stream, and we are walking on grating looking at the flowing water.

Here is a 'low' section, and you can see the grating we are walking on. To the right you can see part of the original crack where the guy crawled.

This is the waterfall, and it's where the route starts going up and away from the stream.

In 1991 the miners came back and made a new route up to the main cavern (that was discovered by people who swam to the boulder, then using ropes and such climbed up on top, then slowly dug a hole in the rubble on top of the boulder into the main chamber.

This is a no-flash view of the 'straws' hanging from the ceiling of the main chamber. They are called 'straws' as they are actually hollow..and the dripping water goes down the middle. On average they grow an average of 1 cm every 200 years. They don't allow flash photography as they claim it hurts the stalactites (straws). Actually, they don't allow any photography at all once you go into the main chamber (because dumb people THINK they have their flash turned off but don't, and thus have ruined it for everybody). Well...almost everybody! Yes, I'm a bad boy. A bootleg photo of the main chamber. It'll make me RICH beyond my wildest dreams! National Geographic will be calling any second now!

Sorry, but you'll have to amuse yourself while I wait by the phone.

Rats. No call. Guess I'll have to keep my day job.

OK. Another week has come and nearly gone. I've been here OVER 3 weeks now! How is that possible? Haven't done much as the weather has been rather nasty. HOWEVER, I'll be going to Edinburgh next weekend (24th thru 26th). Never been there before, so I'm eagerly anticipating that trip! Not sure what to do this weekend, but I'm thinking of heading over to York for a day. I've been there before but it's just a cool place to visit. Besides, the Railroad museum is there, and they have the Hogwarts Express train (from the Harry Potter movies). Who doesn't want to see THAT??

Happy Friday, and have a GREAT weekend!

Right or Wrong?

2012-02-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

Today's post is dedicated to the fun of driving around on the WRONG side of the road!

There are many things that come to mind when I get into my little car. The very FIRST thing I notice is that I'm sitting in the passenger seat for some strange reason. I've only done that a few times, and it's quite embarrassing I must admit. So the rest of this post is assuming I've now gotten in the OTHER side of the car, where the steering wheel is. Also, I STILL find myself reaching to the right to unfasten my seat-belt every time I park...but of course it's not there. It's over on the left, by the emergency brake. Looking up and to the left for my rear-view mirror also still befuddles me. The view is somehow odd and foreign...in all honesty the overall view is probably identical....can't really explain it, but even though I'm now fairly versed in being on the other side of the road, in my mind something is still wrong when I look back thru the mirror. However, I've noticed as of this morning that I'm not freaked out even a tiny bit anymore about which side of the road I'm driving on. I can actually let go of the wheel momentarily to hit a button on the Nav system (which CONSTANTLY gets "Traffic Updates" which require you to hit a spot on the screen to put the volume back to 'normal' rather than LOUD). It seems no road (that I've been on yet) is straight for more than a few hundred yards. And even if straight, there's holes and such, along with a curb (or a rock wall) a mere foot or two from the left side of the car. And even tho I've now adapted to which side of the road I'm on, it still feels very odd making a left turn but me sitting on the right side...as I have no idea where my left wheels are (and I constantly hit curbs..thankfully I'm not the only one, there are tire marks all over all the curbs).

Also of note (I thought of this when out walking around just a little bit ago)...seems every street I come to cross, I'm looking the wrong way for the dangerous zippy-cars. It's just hardwired into my brain I guess...come to a street, look left. But here, looking left is for the cars on the OTHER side of the street...it's the right that will kill you. Looking to the left as you aren't even thinking about it and stepping out...DANGER Will Robinson, DANGER! I've had a few rather close calls (probably scaring the drivers too I'd imagine). The cars coming from your RIGHT are just feet to inches away, and sometimes moving quite quickly....and they are surely NOT expecting me to step out.

OH..what I said back there.....I meant looking to the left will get you killed you everywhere EXCEPT HERE! This is the road coming into the bus station, and I guess they labeled it because it's NOT normal to have to look left.

OK...so what's wrong with this picture? Look close.

Another thing I've noticed as I wander around town: I'm the ONLY person wearing a coat of any real color. Not sure what's up with that....is this some strange town where color is forbidden? Seems that EVERYBODY (but me) is wearing drab colors...blacks, grays, a VERY FEW blues, and some browns. I stick out like a sore thumb every time I go out in my YELLOW coat...if there was ever a hit man looking for me in his sniper scope, I'd instantly be toast. And it's not like my coat is anything crazy either...it's just your basic off-yellow Columbia shell w/ a zip in liner for temperature adjust-ability...(it's my snowboard jacket). The OTHER jacket that I brought to wear when it's a tiny bit warmer is my cycling wind/rain shell (that I got just for this trip): it's BRIGHT red. I wear that over my green Edie Bauer hoodie and I'm good down into the 40's, high 30's...and let me tell you...the red stands out even MORE brilliantly than the yellow. Who knew I dress like a stoplight? As I walk around I notice people looking now and then...and I feel like I'm an outlaw or something.

And having nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of this post, I've been watching Rugby now. There is the Six Nations thing going on, and every weekend there are a few games. Last Saturday night at the pub I watched England vs Scotland, and on Sunday I watched Ireland vs Wales. I've got a so-so concept now on the rules and objectives, tho some things are still a bit iffy. Seems the sport isn't immune to the "bad call" either. The Ireland/Wales game was changed at the very end on a bad referee call (well, the announcers thought so, and in my GINORMOUS Rugby experience I had to agree). And Irish tackle'r somewhat lifted his opponent off the ground, but only by one leg, and the dude he was tackling had his arms on the ground...yet the ref called it a 'dangerous tackle' and gave Wales a free kick. He nailed it, and being a penalty kick they got 3 points for it (typically the kick is only worth 2). About 10 minutes before this one of the Wales guys picked up one if the Irish guys and slammed him on his HEAD much like in the crazy cage matches that are the rage lately. He got a 10 minute penalty and was sent to the "Sin Bin" (penalty box like in Hockey...and his team is now down to 14 players vice the usual 15) Anyway...THAT was a dangerous tackle! He could have KILLED the guy, and was only given a 10 minute rest for his transgression (the announcers couldn't believe he wasn't ejected from the game). Anyway, it was a 1 point lead for Ireland until the Wales penalty kick, and about 30 seconds after that the game was over. BOOO! HISSSSS! BAD CALL REF!!! Rugby is a MANS GAME! That wasn't a dangerous tackle...oooh...did he get his hair ruffled (like some of the NFL QB's)??? Of course, the prob w/ any penatly is that it;'s the Ref's decision, based on his view. Part of the game. One of the guys I'm working with here is a local (he's from Bath) and he was explaining the Rugby stuff to methe other day. Things such as the player positions (they're actually numbered 1 thru 15), why the diff in their sizes, where/how they line up in the scrum, what a ruckus is, line-outs, and all the other stuff I didn't understand). I need to write down any questions from this weekends games so I can elevate my Rugby-Q! I'm actually really liking the game! And the Six Nations guys are pretty much the best on the planet I gather.

OK...what else. Oh...this morning driving in. Cold. Rained just above freezing last night. Then froze. Black ice EVERYWHERE! I took it very cautions going on....thought I had it licked....turned off the main road as I'm close to work....blue flashing "Police" sighs at the turnoff...(meaning take it slow on the side road). It was VERY icy. Up over a tiny hill, still going slow...about 30 maybe. Slight downhill to the left turn, another flashing blue sign this time says "Icy". Slowing, slowing, gently tapped the brakes, and suddenly I'm sliding. I shot straight across the intersection and slid another 50 feet or so....thankfully there were no other cars coming from any direction as I had NO control. NOW I understand why the rock walls on all the sides of this intersection are all battered and broken. It's quite the dangerous intersection. And I was even warned about it. I learned to drive in Montana...no snow tires (ever)...however, snow and black ice are two totally different animals. Snow is no problem..and front wheel drive cars are equivalent to a tank. Black ice is bad ju-ju. Only studded snow tires would help on that..and I don't think they use them here. Many years ago when I was up in Norway in the winter, the rentals come standard w/ 4 studded tires. Suddenly the front wheel drive car is a TRUE tank on the road! It was even hard to make a emergency brake-180 like I learned to do back in Montana! Those studs really grab the road, however they really tear it up when there's no snow. And I take it they don't get THAT much snow here.

Anyway....it was a long week....my neck is very sore from the work I've been doing (fiber optic fusion splicing...many hundreds of them, with many many hundreds left to go...pretty much it's all 'bench work', so I'm looking down the entire time). And it was also a frustrating week. To update you on my bike situation: it's being held for ransom by the UK government. Or more specifically, Her Royal Majesty's something or other (starts with a C). I think I mentioned I got a letter last Saturday from the mail service here, saying that I owe a total of 424 pounds for my bike to be delivered (I already paid the postage). Most of that is VAT (Value Added Tax), and the rest is Customs Duty. I had called the number provided, and the lady there quickly referred me to the HRMC website. From there I FINALLY found a place where I could send in an email query, which I did. I explained my situation: that I'm here on US Gov orders (for the Dept of the Air Force), and explained that I'm only here for 3 months, and that the package contains MY bike, which is over 3 years old and has many thousands of miles on it. I shipped it only because the airlines constantly damage my belongings, and never dreamed it would become a huge tax burden for me. Well, on Thursday I got a reply (took less than a week amazingly enough!) and the person expressed sympathy for the misunderstanding (taxing my personal property) but said that I should go ahead and pay the fee and try to get it back later (admitting that I might never recover my money). If it were a reasonable amount, I'd consider. But the 424 pounds comes out to around $640, which is quite a bit. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

So...in the email reply the HRMC rep said that it wasn't THEM that is responsible for the levy...it was the UK Border Customs Agency who is the devil. SO, I found the online form I needed (to mail in my request for review of the levy), and FINALLY found someone to print it for me (I have no print capability here). Got off work at 11am again (Friday...hooray!), spend a hour talking to various people on base (making sure it's ok for me to mail in a copy of my orders with the form). Seems I'm good to go, only it seems I'm on my own. I was hoping somebody at work would step up as my champion and have some sort of secret weapon (such as a friend in high places)...but alas no. So I filled out my form, explaining that the bike is my personal property, and I'm only here temporarily on Gov Orders, and that I leave (hopefully with all my property) on 20 April. Included a copy of my orders, then found a post office, and viola....48 pence later it's in the mail. No idea how long this will take, but after 21 days the postal agency says (in the original letter) that they will return it to the "Sender" (ie: ME!) if the fee is not paid. So we will see what happens.

The maddening part of all of this? One of the guys I traveled with is here on his FOURTH trip. He knows about the APO. For those who have never been in the military, APO stands for "Armed forces Post Office". As in: a US POST OFFICE right on base! Had he MENTIONED they had an APO (he has used it each time he's been here to mail home all his extra stuff), I could have averted this entire mess AND had my bike waiting for me when I arrived. But no. And HE was the one who gave me the address of the apartments, as he mails HIS stuff right to the apartments each time he comes. I guess HE has never been slammed w/ a customs bill before. And the APO would probably be at least half the postage. But hey...that's sour milk talking. I'm just upset cuz my beloved Ritchey Breakaway is sitting in jail, a mere 30 miles or so away (in York). And quite honestly I don't know how this will turn out. I don't believe taxing me on my pre-owned personal possession seems wrong...but that doesn't mean it will be changed. In which case I'll have them go ahead and return it, and depending on what MONTH it is when it gets back to Calif, I MIGHT have Jeannie re-mail it to the APO. Maybe by then the weather will be worth riding in. I'd be WAY more upset if it were great riding weather right now. As it is, I've got time. And I'm quite stubborn. There are mules out there going "don't mess w/ THAT guy...HE'S STUBBORN!"

And so. Another week has passed. For the first time in a LONG time, I'm smack in the middle of an actual winter. But my flat is warm, and my car is good. I just miss Jeannie and the babies. And my bike (s). But I'm such a whiney-baby.

Oh..speaking of toasty warm, I HAVE to tell this story! Last weekend in my wandering I found a kitchen stuff store. Woo-HOO! I bought me an oven thermomenter! I am THE KING! And BONUS: It has both Centigrade AND Fahrenheit scales on it! So NOW I can cook pizzas and chicken pot pies, and french fries, and tater tots, and my Gortons Fish Filets at the CORRECT TEMPERATURE! What a THOUGHT! So...Sun night I tried it out w/ a Marie Calendar Chicken Pot Pie. MMMMMM! Had the oven warming up, watching the dial. Gets up to about 300F and I can't get it any hotter. A few minutes later I put in my pie....still sitting at 300F (which is 150C). I keep inching the oven dial up, not getting any hotter. Figure it's my tiny oven, maybe it won't go any hotter than 300. I was wrong. Seems I bought a faulty unit. After an hour I check my pie. The crust is BLACK, CRISPY, CHARCOAL. Rats. Stupid thermometer. Peel off the top and the rest is edible. Later after the oven cools off, my stupid thermometer STILL says 300! So I took it back today and got a new one (still had my receipt). I only THOUGHT I was the king...but I wasn't. Until NOW I mean! Yes...I can NOW cook my frozen dinners at the RIGHT TEMP! I am SUCH a stallion! There's just NO STOPPING ME! (unless you charge me VAT I mean).

OK. Off to the weekend. Here's hoping you can cook your fries n stuff at JUST the right temp!

Cheers!

What's the difference?

2012-02-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to me explaining how utterly different so many things are over here as compared to back home. I thought I'd best do this while I'm still a newbie here...before too long things will seem totally normal and I won't be thinking about it any more.

I'll start just by taking you on a virtual tour of my flat. First thing I noticed when I walked in last week: the light switches. At home, we have switches right by every door. Easy peasy...convenient. Not here. ONE switch in most rooms. In the living room there is a switch by the front door, and another going out into the little middle room (not sure what I'm supposed to call it...like a foyer in the middle of the flat or something). But that's the ONLY room. The light switch to the bathroom is a pull-handle. The kitchen: one switch near where you come in from the foyer-thing. However, being as I park outside the back door (which is out the kitchen into the alley), in the morning when I leave I have to open the door, which swings WIDE OPEN btw, like the house isn't level or something (which is actually needed cuz my small refrigerator would be totally blocking my exit if it weren't wide open)...and then I have to go back across the kitchen to hit the light switch and work my way around the refrigerator in complete darkness...oh...and the door opens the wrong way, so I can smack it good with my face/head/knees...as it opens INTO the kitchen instead of towards the wall. Also, being so cold (right at freezing every night), if I start the car up to warm it up before I jump in and drive, when the door swings wide open, the exhaust pipe of the car is about 18" away from the wide open doorway now...and the exhaust is just blowing right inside.

Bathroom: the shower is the tub. Free-standing thing. No curtain, privacy whatsoever. It does have a little half-glass piece-swing-away thing that separates where you stand under the water from the toilet. When I first saw it I thought "no way on earth that small glass piece is keeping the shower water in the tub and not all over the floor". I was quite wrong. You see, for that to happen, there'd have to be water spewing out of the shower head with some sort of pressure...my shower is a very gentle affair, and I swear I can spit harder than the water coming out. It's also an "instant heater" unit, vice a hot water heater. So I hit a button and the water starts to gently fall out of my shower head. However, it IS the perfect temperature, day after day with no adjustment needed (there is a knob that you rotate...more blue colder, more red warmer). So that one's a toss-up.

More bathroom. OK. The sink. It's a sink. Nothing else. No cabinet, anything. Nowhere to put stuff except around the faucet handles (and I mean TWO faucet handles). I'm not sure what century the hot/cold water coming out of the same spout was invented, but that hasn't gotten here yet apparently. I have either REALLY FREAKING COLD, or REALLY FREAKING HOT water, each coming out of their own spout....separated by about 10 inches of air. Wash your hands in that. And I'm not kidding either about how HOT and COLD they are. Amazing they can be that far apart in temp. The good part is the icy cold water feels somewhat good on your scalded hands. Next: the back of the toilet. Back home: flat (so I can put stuff on it, such as a spare roll of TP and some air freshener, you know...stuff like that). Here, it's rounded....like they are afraid you might try to actually put stuff on it. Must be some kind of forbidden zone. Thank goodness I have like 5 things to store. They are all herded together in the tiny real-estate available on the sink.

Next up: power outlets. OK....sure, these ARE 230 volts AC...but do they need to be so BIG?? Great googly moogly! I plug any of my 110v plugs into one of the adapter plugs, and it looks like a VW sticking out of a dump truck or something (in size comparison). That is one HUGE plug! And while we are talking about plugs, how about a few more please? On my kitchen counter, I have ONE plug plate with 2 outlets...however ONE of them is taken up FULL TIME becasue the TINY FREAKING GAS STOVE needs an acutal wall plug! Thus, I have ONE plug left to share between the microwave, coffee pot and toaster (and anything ELSE I might use). Gotta have more plugs folks! Same for the walls...not EVEN one outlet per wall..some have NONE! Like the outlets (and light switches) were made of gold or something. Oh, and speaking of the TINY FREAKING GAS STOVE, I cooked some tater tots last week. There is a conversion chart I need to use. There's NO temperature's on the oven. Just a tiny character of a big-flame, three dash marks, and a character of a small-flame. THAT's IT! I'm supposed to figure out what temp to cook a pizza, or a chicken pot pie with THAT? PLEASE!!!!! I'll be lucky if my pot pie and pizza's aren't burned to a crisp (no timer either).

Heating. Wall mounted hot water radiators. There is a wall mounted thermostat (in Centigrade) in my little middle-room thing, but I can't even figure out what that is controlling, being as there's no furnace. EACH radiator has it's OWN temperature control knob...and those are adjusted to either I, II, III or IV (or off, though it doesn't say that...I just figured that part out if you turn it slightly below the I setting). Maybe the thermostat controls the temp of the hot water, and the individual controls set how much each room gets?? That's my best guess.

Fireplace. Not even a real fireplace. Not even a real gas fireplace. Just a little contraption with some fake logs on it, and you have a few choices when you turn on the main switch: Light only (which lights below the fake logs, giving a nice fake impression of actual fake logs lying on a fake fireplace), and heat. Or should I say heat, HEat, or HEAT...depending on how many of the switches you turn ON. It does actually give out a nice little blow of heat (electric)....being as it's 230V, electric heaters are MUCH more effective than back in the US. Being as I setup my laptop on a little table right next to the fake fireplace, it's actually a nice little space heater...tho the fan is a bit noisy. But still, FAR better than nothing. This way I can leave the house slightly chilly, and turn on the 'fireplace' for a bit when I get home to toasty-things up some.

The TV. Or more accuratly, the guide...when you hit guide, whatever you were watching goes away. Back home it stays on in the corner of the screen, audio still there. Not here...as you search (in vain usually) for ANYTHING to watch, you have total silence. And then when yo DO select a channel, you have to push yet ANOTHER button...like an "are you sure" button. VERY annoying. I already PICKED that channel! Geez...the troubles I go thru...hitting the same button TWICE to watch a show! Will these trials and tribulations NEVER END?? (ahem...am I spoiled or WHAT!)

Storage space. I guess some of the flats have actual closets or such. Not this one. My Samsonite suitcase is sitting against the wall in my little middle-room, cuz I have nowhere else to put it. when my bike gets here, it will be joined by the hard-shell S&S case. The bike itself will most likely hang out in the kitchen. For one, that's about the only place with a piece of wall long enough to put it (that isn't already occupied by something else), and two: it will be going in/out of the back door anyway. And three...the kitchen has lovely linoleum floor, impervious to any wetness and such...whereas the rest of the flat is carpeted (except for the bathroom).

The refrigerator. It's pretty freaking tiny. If Jeannie were here, we'd be way-packed in there...thankfully with just me (and my BACHELOR foods), it's not too shabby. However, there's NO SHELF tall enough to put bottles of beer. HERE! In the BEER CAPITAL of the world!! What's up with THAT????????? I have a small drawer that can hold THREE pints, lying down. The rest have to sit on TOP of the refrigerator, as I have NO OTHER PLACE to put them. Speaking of no other place, NO PANTRY! I have my dry-good foods up in one of the dish cupboards, and re-arranged the other one to hold all the stuff I needed to move so I could have SOME space for my canned/dry goods.

Beer. Oh, did I mention that before? Hmmm...I MIGHT have.....tonights selection of the nectar of the Gods is a bottle of Bellhaven Wee Heavy. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

On the label it says "Brewed by Scotlands oldest surviving regional brewers. Bellhaven Wee Heavy has a rich deep flavour (yes, flavor is spelled with the "u") that derives from the greater proportion of malted barley to hops which characterised Scottish Ales of the 19th century. A beer to be sipped and fully respected. (note: it's 6.5% alcohol). On the whole, VERY NICE! I'll be buying more of these I can assure you! It has a slight sweet hint to the malty taste. Nice color too...a good copper ale if there ever was one. OK...that was my beer review for today. Get some! (note: Bellhaven brewery doesn't even know I exist and there is nothing in this for me, except for the right to buy MORE beer!)

Well gee...that about covers everything INSIDE...I'll do a post on the driving later....as it will easily be it's own post. Hope everybody is having a nice week....we are supposed to get winter now...a storm is predicted with temps at -7C (that's about 19F). There could very well be snow...there's snow still on the ground less than 30 miles away up at Grassington...(where I will be riding my bike thru when I ride around in the Yorkshire Dales....WHEN it warms up just a tad I mean). I hope this post didnt' come over as me being a whiney-baby American...(not saying I'm NOT, just that I didn't mean for it to SOUND that way)...it's just amazing the simple things we take for granted on a daily basis that are so different.

OK...time to finish my TASTY BEER and get some shut-eye. I only work a half day tomorrow (Friday) as I worked 9 hour days Mon thru Thurs...no real plans for this weekend...might go driving around some...that's always fun!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Cheers!

First impressions

2012-01-28T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hello from Harrogate, West Yorkshire UK.

I've been here since Tuesday, and FINALLY got a good nights sleep last night. I had been waking up somewhere between midnight and 3pm every night prior, unable to go back to sleep even though I was exhausted. I don't recall having this problem when I was last here 5 years ago.

It's pretty chilly so far...below freezing at night and raining during the days (meaning there's ice on the cars and roads in the mornings). This is the street I'll be living on during my stay: St. Mary's Ave:

It may look fairly wide in this photo, but let me assure you: the driving lane is so narrow that you are terrified of tearing off either your or one of the other cars mirrors as you eek your way by. The mirrors in my little rental fold back against the windows with a touch of a button...which is a necessary option. And here is my little section of this complex:

That's my flat on the bottom left, and that's my front door. I also have a back door from my kitchen that looks out out at my car, which is sitting about 2' from my door (I park in what we could call an 'alley'). Having the lower "Garden Unit" means I DON'T have to park out on the main street, fighting for a space every time you return. I have my own designated spot...which is SWEET! Also being on the bottom floor means I don't have to navigate stairs when I bring my bike in/out of my flat. And speaking of my bike, I'm still waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I'm hopeful every day when I get home, thus far I've been crushed every day. I don't know if they have delivery service on Saturdays like back home...it's almost 1pm and so far nothing.

OK...back now..had a racquetball break (drove out to the base to play, then I stopped by the base exchange and bought myself a dang COFFEE POT!) These flats come fully furnished and are equipped w/ French Press'es. Lots of people love them, but I'm not one of those people. I'm an auto-drip kind'a guy. I want to push a button and have my coffee ready in 5 minutes or so, and what I'm not drinking at that particular moment sits HOT and READY on the burner. Then I toss the little filter and the mess is gone, presto. My only dilemma was whether to buy a 110v unit or a 230v unit? The base exchange sells both. HOWEVER, I was worried that the US version might not work so well after I down-convert it to 110v (some things don't work well, others work fine). One thing that DOESN'T work well is my water-pik, which I packed in my hard-shell Samsonite suitcase wrapped in a pair of jeans. Seems the 50hz thing really messes up devices like that. However most computers, etc work just fine w/ 50hz after you drop the voltage. The US model coffee makers are a bit cheaper, but I must admit...the 230v devices work FAST! Things like the water-pot. Turn that baby on and it boils a pot of water VERY fast due to the 230v. It seems the coffee maker is the same. The EU version really puts out the hot water fast in my 'test pot'. I'll get my 25$ out of it during my trip, I guarantee it.

Oh, and before I go much farther, I MUST include a picture of my FIRST meal here.

Yes, you guessed it. Fish & chips. From the best F&C place in town: Graverly's. It's a GIGANTIC piece of cod. And the peas? Well...I bucked the local trend and had them 'garden style' (whole). It seems the standard way is to have them 'mooshed'. And I can assure you, it was DELICIOUS! (I'm not sure the fork shows the scale here..that's a HUGE platter, just fyi...that piece of tasty fish is prob close to a foot long). And not tarter sauce for me...no sirree bob! It's traditional Malt Vinegar all the way (on the chips too)!

After dinner we walked up the hill to the Tap & Spiel pub. It's my favorite! They serve Theakstons "Old Peculiar" beer. It's a VERY OLD English style black cask ale. It's my favorite beer in the world. Being a cask ale, they don't use CO2 and it doesn't just pour out of the tap when the crack it like 'typical' beers. They use a 'hand engine' which is layman terms is a hand pump. Each long pull back on the normal looking tap handle brings about a third of a pint. Cask ales have a very short lifespan once the cask is tapped due to their lack of artificial CO2. You only want cask ales from a pub w/ a good customer base of said ale so that it stays fresh and they don't sell it when it's gone bad. One other thing about Theakstons beers: there is a 'range' of delivery, and Harrogate is right at the edge. Only 2 places in the entire area serve OP...it's very exclusive.

Here's Bob and I at the Tap & Spiel, with my FIRST pint of OP this trip. Ahhhhh! (Bob is an Engineer that I work with back home, and he has been here since early November. He left on Thursday to go back home...this picture was taken Tuesday evening). Bob is wearing his stylin' Theakstons stocking cap which he got at the brewery up in Masham (about 30 miles away). Theakstons is an OLD family brewery, and have been in business over 200 years. They still have "wet coopers" in this country. A "wet cooper" is a person who builds wooden barrels (casks). There is a LONG apprenticeship to become a certified wet cooper. It's YEARS. I believe there are only a couple of handfuls of wet coopers left in the country...something like under 20 in the entire UK. Theakstons has TWO of them. For a cask to be 'certified' it must hold almost EXACTLY what it's supposed to (like w/in a few pints for a large one, and much less for the smaller ones).

Bob ordered a "Pin" of OP back over the holidays for a Christmas party. A Pin is a smaller wooden cask that only holds 36 pints. The deposit on the Pin was something like 80 or 90$ US. He kept the Pin as a souvenir, and has already shipped it back to the states. The top of the cask is branded with it's unique serial number and also the large Theakstons brand. They can be used for probably a decade or more if properly cleaned and cared for. That's quite a nice little souvenir if I do say so myself (note: Bob was at one time a brew-master. Many years ago he and his son were part owners of a small brewery back in CA and he was the man. He knows his beers. When he walks into a brewery he can talk the talk, and very soon he's like part of the family. I've seen pictures of Bob BEHIND the counter at Theakstons like he works there. He's had private tours of their facilities, and gets tours of pubs wherever he goes. He's been in the 'beer cellar' here at the Tap & Spiel more than a few times).

OK..I kind'a got carried away there with beer....(I'm a beer fanatic in case you couldn't tell...quality, not quantity!) What else do I discuss? Well, this morning I went for a little 'walkabout' of town after the sun finally peeked out around 9:30am. It was QUITE cold still...there was black ice everywhere!

This view is looking down the hill into town. The building on the left (with the blue / white arrow pointing directly to it) houses Betty's Tea House on the bottom floor, just under those black canopies. It's QUITE famous as a place to sit sipping English teas and snacking on lovely pastries. It's also quite spendy. The monument on the right is in memory of their fallen soldiers from WWI and WWII.

In case you can't read the sign, this pub is the "Slug and Lettuce". We stopped by there for burgers and beer on Weds night. I took a picture of it just because I LOVE the name!

Here's a view up a typical side-street. It's VERY narrow. I think you can see the scale by how much lane is left around the guy. The vast majority of the cars are tiny by US standards...sub-compacts. My rental is a Nissan Notes. I had a Ford Focus until I turned it in on Friday for a car with an auxiliary input-port so I can listen to my ipod (the radio stations here are not quite up to my 'standards'). The Focus was a stick shift, which I have no problem with other than training my left hand to shift (getting 3rd instead of 1st, and 4th instead of 2nd is quite common early on). It was older though and quite beat up. The Nissan is almost new, though it's an Automatic. Having an Auto tranny does take your mind off of what year you are in and what gear you SHOULD be in, so you can concentrate on NOT hitting something. Back in the States you can get on any highway and shift up to 5th and just drive. Not here. Only the MAIN highways can you even think of that, and even there you still hit large roundabouts. The VAST majority of the roads here are always turning, and there are hazards EVERYWHERE. In a manual tranny you stay quite busy shifting up and down. So even though I much prefer a stick-shift, here I'll be fine w/ the auto.

This is the Victoria Shopping Center (their version of a mall). You can see the covered walkway over the street behind the dome. The town train station is on my immediate right just out of the picture.

And finally....yes, there is a bike store in town!

Of course I went in and chatted w/ the locals, getting the skinny on some good road rides in the area. How could I just walk by a bike shop? The answer: I can't. I'm drawn in like a moth to a flame. I was actually eying a nice Specialized seat, but it's kinda pricey due to the English Pound/US $ conversion (it's somewhere around $1.70 to the Pound right now). That conversion rate makes most pints of beer around 6 to 7$ EACH (notice how I cleverly steered the conversation back to beer? I'm sneaky like that).

I think this is all the pictures I have to share thus far. Trust me, there will be MANY MANY more in the coming months. As far as watching any cycling on the telly, well...I do show TWO Sky Sports channels...however they are BOTH encrypted (meaning I DO NOT get them). Overall, in my Yankee spoiled American whiny-cry-baby opinion, the TV channels that I have to choose from (on the digital TV here in the flat) are quite sad. Sorry. Just my 2 cents (or 3.4 pence). THANK GOD I hooked up my Slingbox before I left. It's tied into our Dish satellite DVR back home, and using the internet I can tie into it and thus control the DVR just like I'm sitting on my couch. It's going to be my lifeline to sanity for the next 3 months as I try to NOT spend all the money I make here.

Jacob (one of the guys I'm here working with) and I are heading over to Witherspoons for dinner tonight...it's a nice place and is one of the cheapest in town for a reasonable dinner and a beer (they have combo's). I can get a nice burger and a nice pint for around 5 pounds. If I think about it, I'll bring my camera and add a picture here from inside Witherspoons...it's an amazing place. Very UNLIKE any other pub I've ever been in.

With that, I'll sign off for the time being. I hope the weather for you is getting warmer just like the days are getting longer.

Cheers!

I'm OFF (to see the wizzard)

2012-01-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

The Wonderful Wizzard of UK.

And so... I'm packed. REALLY packed. 2 bags, each weighing VERY CLOSE to the allowed 50lbs. Just what to bring for a THREE MONTH tour? In a foreign country? With weather expected to be everywhere from frigid to nice? Work stuff (some tools, work clothes, etc). And bike stuff. LOTS and LOTS of bike stuff. And not-work stuff. Sweatshirts, T shirts, jeans. A heavy coat (actually I'm bringing my convertible Columbia shell)...it's water proof w/ a hood, and a zip-in liner for COLD,. zip-out for un-cold. I used it for snowboarding not that many years ago. Wool gloves/hat. Some wool socks. A pair of boots. I sure seem to have a lot of stuff. And 2 backpacks. One is the laptop and associated electronics stuff )gps, a couple of ipods, chargers, power supplies, a digital camera, magazines, etc etc), and the other has a docking station (a full size keyboard/mouse and a nifty little doo-dad that takes my laptop and puts it up at an angle so my screen is like that of a desktop), more electronics stuff, my neck pillow, and of course, my bike helmet.

And there's more...lots more. Stuff I'll only remember when I unpack and go OH, yeah...that. Glad I brought THAT. Sheesh...you'd think I was going away forever by the stuff I'm taking. But in my mind, 3 months IS forever. I've got the bike clothes to ride in almost any weather. Now I just need to GO OUT THERE in almost any weather. THAT will be the real trick. I'm SUCH a fair-weather-biker. Gonna have to do some serious 'adjusting' of my acceptable riding weather scale. Or maybe not. I'm hoping not, but prepared for the worst.

I'm so utterly frazzulated and worn out that the flying will be almost (ALMOST) relaxing. The last 2 weeks at work have been just eviscerating. I'm whipped, beat, tired. Worked a LOT of hours in the last 2 weeks, and done all I can. Now it's all in the other peoples hands. I've done my part, and it's time to turn over the reigns to the rest. When I get back in late April there'll STILL be more waiting....most likely I'll have a few weeks home (at best) and then be off to Colorado Springs for a few weeks. No rest for the weary and all that. Or job security. I choose to call it the latter.

And so...I'm away in just 12 hours, almost to the minute. 20 hours or so of airplanes and terminals, then a 3 hour cab ride to my flat (apartment). I'm sure I'll feel fresh like a spring chicken when I get there. THEN I need to get some groceries. Meaning I get to go out in my little rental car. The first drive is always the best. And by best I mean MOST terrifying. It's when I'm the tired'est (that's my new word....I'll aquatint you with how 'tired'est feels 2 days from now), and my knowledge of the local roads is at it's least. Oh, and the 20 hours of travel will ALL be coach. IF I were to get upgraded to economy plus, it's on my dime. But I got them back...I mailed my bike on THEIR budget. If I have to choose between coach for 14 hours (actual flying time between LAX and Manchester), I'll take the bike ship every time. However, during check-in tomorrow morning (around 5am my time), IF there is a decent price upgrade to economy plus on the Newark to Manchester leg, I'll prob take it. That leg alone is over 8 hours. But it will be at night...so that helps. Being as I sleep SO well on airplanes (I'm a light sleeper).

Oh well...no sense giving myself PRE-dread. I'll get my fill of real-time-dread tomorrow. Enough to last me 3 months I bet. But there is always this: I'm going off on another adventure. So crappy weather or not, I'm going to go LIVE in another country for a while. It'll be FUN! And WHEN I meet up with local riders and start getting out there w/ them, well, ,most people pay big bucks for that. I'm being PAID to do it.

And with that note, I'll sign off. My next update will be from the United Kingdom.

Cheers!

Frazzled

2012-01-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

OK. First things first. Happy New Year and all that jazz. I apologize for being MIA the last few weeks...seems things have just been OC (Out of Control). It's like I feel the need to clone myself, so one of us can kick back while the other one deals w/ life.

The holidays were actually pretty nice here...we had GREAT weather! In fact, I'd venture to say it's the nicest holiday weather we've had since we moved here in 2002.

However. I think I MIGHT have mentioned it here...maybe in the comments. I leave for England in LESS than 2 weeks. For THREE MONTHS! I fly on the 23rd of Jan, return on 20 April. All for work. I'll be living in a 'flat' (apartment) in Harrogate (West Yorkshire, UK...basically about the middle of the country). I"ll have my own rental car. I'm requesting a stick shift...nothing more fun than driving on the WRONG side of the road, shifting with the wrong hand, occasionally (for the first week or so) hitting the windshield wipers when you meant to turn on your turn signal (cuz they are on the wrong side of the steering wheel). OR, when you get in the car (sometimes in the passenger seat thinking you can drive from there), and put the car in reverse, then smack the bejesus out of your right elbow as you turn to your right swinging your arm up over what SHOULD be the passenger seat so you can look to backup, only to find quickly that it's the drivers window). But by the 2nd week driving on the other side of the road seems pretty natural, and after a month it's all you remember (and you will then be screwed up when you come home).

However...I am totally frazzled. I feel like I have so much to do here before I go. And SO little time to do it. My memory is not very good any more...I think of a dozen critical things every night before bed (as I lie there trying to go to sleep) and can't remember any of them in the morning. My desk 'area' at work looks like a breeding grounds for yellow stickies (of various sizes). My home 'office' is just a MESS! It truly is OC! I need to just sweep my entire work and home office areas into a giant box, and go thru it later. However all my memory (stickies) would be in there somewhere.

Tonight I stayed late after work and disassembled my Ritchey road bike for shipment...it's a special 'break-away' frame I bought specificly for an England trip 3 years ago (which was subsequently cancelled)...and it will FINALLY get to see a foreign country! But to say I'm "Less than jazzed" about the weather I expect in February and March in the UK is a huge understatement. I expect cold, wind, and wet. All the things I HATE in weather. And I'm bringing a road bike. To ride. In that weather. But knowing how much of a 'fair weather rider" I am, I have to admit that it might be a few weeks before I venture out on the bike unless they have uncharacteristically decent weather. I have some serious mental adjustment to do. But I WILL ride, mark my words. Sooner or later. I have a nice wool jersey, a decent rain/wind jacket, tights, gloves, ear warmers, toe warmers, full on neoprene booties, wind vests, arm and leg warmers. I just have to get all decked out and get out there. That, and find WHERE to get out there without getting myself killed. The roads are VERY narrow, and I need to find some locals to ride with.

SO. The upcoming trip is somehow overshadowing my entire existence right now. And it appears my work is frazzled too...as my boss and his minions are all anxious to so a zillion tings (more accurately, have ME do a zillion things) before I go. I ended up working 5 hours last Saturday, and this Saturday will most likely be somewhere between 8 and 12 hours. All just trying to catch up with those zillion things. And I FEEL like I'm losing the battle..that I'm being overwhelmed by the situation. I keep thinking of things I NEED to pack. The entire purpose of me taking this trip is to pocket some money...2 vacations last year (Alaska Cruise in June, and then the Hawaii vacation in Nov) left me feeling quite broke. I need to catch up. SO while I'm sitting over there in my little apartment trying NOT to spend lots of money, I will be right smack in the middle of some awesome tourism stuff. Just a hop, skip and a jump plane flight away from all of Europe. I was hoping Jeannie could come over at the end of my trip, but she realizes how much it will cost and we are both trying to save some $.

And hey...final thoughts...does anybody know if NBC Sports (the NEW VS channel) will be on regular satellite/cable service? I saw a commercial the other day for it on our Dish Network satellite. Just wondering. I don't expect much cycling coverage over there..but I will have internet. So that will have to suffice. Maybe with the new Team SKY (an English Team) there will be good coverage...I can hope!

OK. This was just a quick catch-up on why I haven't been posting lately....as you can see, no good reasons, just good excuses. And speaking of excuses, excuse me while I go be frazzled some more.

Looks like I picked a bad day to stop sniffing glue! (Airplane). Funny, but that's EXACTLY how I feel lately!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Well...Christmas is only THREE DAYS AWAY! And I am now officially on Holiday VACATION! (our entire shop closes down every year from just before Xmas to just after New Years...which is why I don't get all the other holidays throughout the year such as Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day, Cinco de Mayo, Flag Day, First day of Summer, Mothers & Fathers Days, Patriots Day, First day of Autumn, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Every full moon day, and finally Veterans Day like Jeannie does. OK, she doesn't actually get every full moon day off, but it seems like it.

Anyway, I digress. It's almost Christmas time! Can you BELIEVE IT?

Those that have known me for awhile will know that I go to great lengths every year to make my own Christmas card. I have been doing this since 1997. Digging thru my archive of cards (I have every one), it appears I missed 2 years: 2008 and 2009. I only recall missing one year, I will have to figure out if this is true. Anyway, it's fun to read back thru and see what I (we) were doing and such. My 'rhyme' (verse, ditty, ode) has been my hallmark since the beginning. Someday I might go thru and capture them all for a nostalgic mosey down memory lane (to capture them for the blog I have to "print screen", then paste into Photoshop and crop to size for all 4 of the 'pages' (they're all made in Microsoft Publisher using a quarter-fold, so there are actually 4 printed surfaces).

I guess I should just post the card and shut up. OK, here you go, my 2011 Christmas card, in 4 part harmony (pretend the first part is the cover, then part 2 is when you open it up under the cover, and so on to the back page).

And there you have it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of the loyal the In-mates AND (Out-mates) of the Asylum! I hope your Holidays are spectacular! Stay safe and warm, see you back NEXT YEAR!

Lights (and an important "Swans a-Swimming" update near the bottom)

2011-12-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

Holy Moley! Christmas is less than a WEEK away! How did this happen? Where did the year go?

I've been away on travel most of the last 3 months, and things around the house have taken a backseat to that. I know that all the neighbors (along with Pacific Gas & Electric, local airline pilots, AND the Space Station Astronauts) have been wondering if I was going to put my Christmas lights up this year.

Well, never fear. I FINALLY got them up this last weekend. THANKFULLY I do a drawing every year as I take them down, detailing things such as how many strands go where, what color they are, where the plugs are, any extension cords needed (by color and length), and what plugs into which auto-timer unit (I have 2 of them). Having this data from the last year saves me countless hours of re-inventing my layout each year. And also each year it seems I do slight improvements on last years design, thus requiring a complete re-draw every year. If I was REALLY smart I'd get a nice computer drawn layout of the house (along with the side bushes/fences on both sides AND the entire roof) in a few sheets of 11x17 paper. Then I could add in my lights as I go in the deconstruction phase.

Probably one of the most time consuming parts of the installation is unpacking all the strands, placing them in groups according to bulb color (all my strands are single-color bulbs in either clear, green, red, blue or yellow). THEN I carry a small tube of grease with me as I squeeze a small blob into my fingers, then wipe a thin layer on the prongs of the plug, then plug it into my power cord to verify ALL the lights come on. This little step has saved me tons of time from putting up a strand only to find a bulb is out causing typically a third of the strand to be dead. Finding the bad bulb on installed strands can be rough, as you have to pull the bulbs in the dead area one by one testing them (I have built a little testing device where I pull the bulb, touch it to my tester contacts and a LED either lights or not. If it lights the bulb is good and I plug it back in and move onto the next, repeating this until I find the bad bulb. This way I don't have to work with a powered strand, standing on a ladder, or in wet grass or up on the roof. It beats going down the strand with a good bulb as there can be more than one bad bulb, and this will find them all.

I also try to add a little something more or different every year (also why I need a re-draw). This year I FINALLY got the roof totally figured out, where I have lights in each edge./line. Also of much importance is balancing how many strands I have tied into each other and also into the timer units. I have it pretty well balanced and I think a MAX of 5 or 6 strands in a row. I know this is more than you are SUPPOSED to do, however greasing my contacts means they NEVER corrode when they get wet (which will cause arcing and sparking, and will increase resistance causing a commensurate increase in current draw to power the strands, thus increasing the risk of blowing the tiny little fuses in the base of each plug). I almost never blow the little fuses.

Unlike my neighbor Louie. He cracks me up. EVERY single year. He LOVES to put up lights just like I do. But he goes with the "fling them up" method. Every single year he runs an extension cord to one corner of his house, and then proceeds with his flinging. As he goes, the next strand plugs into the last strand. And so on. And so on. He had well over 30 strands last year ALL plugged into ONE power cord. And he wonders why EVERY SINGLE YEAR he has to replace those little fuses. I've gone over and over how he needs to at the VERY LEAST split the house in half and run in BOTH directions from his one power cord! This method alone would cut the strands in a row by HALF! (note: I "loan" him all the strands for his roof every year...it's our little fun joke. And every year after he takes everything down he brings the box back and I store it in my attic with MY strands. And every year I take the box down and over to his house to borrow 'again'. These are the oldest strands I own: they are the multi-color bulbs per strand. Jeannie hates them for some reason, so I just loan them to my neighbor and HE puts them up. Good solution I think. He doesn't need to buy more lights, and I am still getting use out of them, sort of). Also of note: ALL the strands I buy are the cheap strands of 100 bulbs. I usually get them at Home Depot....and usually pay round $4 per strand I think (been a few years since I've bought any). I'd buy them after the holidays, but usually they are pretty cleaned out and getting the single-color strands is harder. Also of note: I haven't bought any strands for a few years now, and many of them are at least 5 years old, some much older.

I figure it's hard to justify the cost of buying new LED lights when I'd need about 50 strands. AND, all my friends and family who have bought them have been seeing a distressing number of bulb failures. I think they get ONE spare LED with each strand. They are SUPPOSED to last nearly forever, but I put mine outside and it's a pretty harsh environment. Thus I continue to use my old strands and yes, I pay a bit more for the power. But these are at least the newer model tiny bulbs, unlike the OLD kind we had a kid with each bulb being a REAL bulb sucking down a few watts per.

And so, without further adieu, I give you my (our) light display for 2011 (if you click on the picture you get a pretty high res version showing MUCH better detail):

Funny....just looking at the picture I've found ANOTHER improvement I need to make. This years NEW embellishment is the Christmas tree on the roof. I had one strand of green and one of red left over. It's kind of hard to see in the picture I think, but trust me: it's a tree. I mostly did it because I KNEW it would further show MY superiority of light-mastery and also crush Louie even MORE (which it DID) . But he puts up a good fight year after year and we have great fun (mostly the fun is me making fun how I should be standing by his house with a fire extinguisher and such). And btw, on the far left, the lights above my green bush is the right corner of his house,,,but being as some of them they are MY lights I figure they can go ahead an peek into my picture). Between the two of us we totally shame our entire subdivision. I'm always hopeful some new joyful holiday spirited person will jump into the fray. And as always, I await our challenger.

UPDATE! 12-20 6:45pm
I was totally remiss forgetting this next part (I'm SO VERY SORRY JEANNIE!) Last Saturday night we went to a Christmas party at one of her co-workers house. They throw a real nice party too. Every party they have there is a themed contest requiring some sort of food you bring. This year the theme was the 12 Days of Christmas, and the food item was to be a dessert. Jeannie had hemmed and hawed and searched hi and lo, and came up with a creme-puff swan as her entry (actually there was a whole bunch of them). She made the pastries from scratch while I was out putting up the lights. I had planned on helping her (as typically I'm the 'artsy-fartsy' one in the family while she is the logical numbers person (she's a CPA). Well....I came in from my light-fest and lo and behold, she had come up with THIS:

I was floored! It looked AWESOME!!! The puff-pastry part is cut in half, then the bottom half stays intact while the top half is cut in half to form the wings. You place them sticking up and fill w/ the goodly filling and whip creme, sprinkled w/ powdered sugar. I can tell you from EATING them that the pastry part was crunchy-sweet (ie: PERFECTLY DELICIOUS!) and the filling was just tasty tasty tasty! She's made some really amazing desserts, but I think this is her, uhm, excuse me, but yes....it's her "Swan Song!"

As I was looking at them, the filling was kind of starting to melt and go gooey, and settling into the puff some (our friend and weekend house-guest who is also named Matt made the comment that they were turning into "Ugly Ducklings"). So she quickly made room (by pulling out a bunch of frozen food) and put those that would fit in the freezer, and the rest into the refrigerator. When we got to the party they graciously made space in their freezer for the large tray of swimmers.

AND THEN IT WAS TIME! The host laid out the rules for his 2 pre-selected judges. They were scoring on artistic appearance, creativity, and taste, and there was an entire table full of entries (and at least 3 other "Swans a-Swimming' entries of totally different construction). And so, guess who won? OH YES SHE DID!! This picture is of the very last Swan A-Swimming'...it was the only one that survived the carnage of the food-fest, and I grabbed it and brought it home (as I realized that I did NOT get any pictures of them before we left!). And after getting the picture, I most graciously let our house guest Matt eat the final Swan (though it killed me to do it). But hey...I'm a giver...what can I say.

And so...that is the saga of the 2011 Swans a-Swimming. I hope she makes them again sometime just for us. I LOVE CREME PUFFS!

I'll post my Christmas card with my 2011 verse later this week. Stay warm everybody!

Kona, part II

2011-12-07T13:56:00.000-08:00

On Friday (our LAST full day on the island) I had arranged a helicopter flight over the volcano. I've been to the Big Island many times and have not yet seen the lava! I think I only went once BEFORE Kilauea started erupting (around 1983 or 84, when I got to swim at the famous Black Sand Beach at Kalapana, (which was totally covered over in the early eruptions way back in 1986 I think). Anyway, EVERY time I've been to the Big Island since the eruptions started, for one reason or another I have never seen the flowing lava. Jeannie went there with her friend Barb when we lived on Oahu, and they hiked out over the hardened lava to where the fresh stuff was flowing into the ocean. She says they were so close that it hurt (keep in mind that lava is around 2200 degrees F...when you think of a HOT oven being around 400F, well...2200 is beyond our comprehension hot!)

But I digress. I checked in with the park website and lo and behold, my luck was still there. My BAD luck I mean. The lava has shifted it's flow pattern as lava does, and it's not flowing into the ocean right now. It's pretty much all underground except for some flow areas that are weeping out of the lava tubes and creeping down the hill....but no red-hot rivers of lava to be found. RATS!!!! If I wanted to see anything other than miles (and miles, and miles) of hardened lava, I needed to do it from the air. I considered an airplane tour and a helicopter tour. Finally I settled on a helo tour, however it required me to get over to Hilo by 12:15 for a 1pm 50 minute flight. No one else in our group was really interested in doing the helo flight (or spending the $ to do it, though in all honesty it was quite reasonable). But nobody had any problem with us all driving up and over Saddle Road (between Mauna Loa and Mauna Keau volcanos) and down into Hilo. The drive was around 95 miles, and in years past Saddle Road was SO horrible that you weren't allowed to take rental cars on it. However in recent years they have resurfaced most of the bad areas, and totally re-routed the other bad spots. So now the drive took about 2 and a half hours, and was quite scenic too!

The tour company was called "Blue Hawaiian Helicopters" and they are the only company who flies helo's on ALL the islands. I got a real good price booking online too! (plus you get a free T shirt AND a complimentary "Visions of Hawaii" dvd, which is shot in full HD with footage from their tours on all the islands....of a BEST OF HAWAII dvd). I was pretty excited about the trip as I've never been on a helicopter before, AND I will FINALLY see some lava!!!!

This is my helicopter! (well, not actually mine...but I did borrow it for almost an hour). I was in the right rear seat, and there were 4 other passengers. Each person gets a set of Bose noise canceling headphones tied into the intercom system. Our pilot (Zack) really narrates the tour very well, and fills in the non-scenic flight time with history and such about the island. Soon after takeoff we were already over the east rift zone which is where the current eruption (for the last 25 years) is coming from. It's all part of Kilauea volcano, which is actually part of Mauna Loa I believe. Every volcano has many 'vents' (places lava COULD come out) and the eruption that has been going for many many years now is from the Pu'u O vent (pronounced Pooo-oooo-OH).

The Pu'u O vent.

It's a decent size volcano cone, and the HOT spot of the moment is obvious. Thru the escaping steam and gas (a lot of sulpher dioxide which I'm told when mixed with seawater creates an airborne sulfuric acid, and is VERY BAD for those in it's path who need to breath). If you blow up this picture (click on it) you can see a bunch of the scientific equipment on the lip just about in the middle of the picture.

Closeup of the vent as we fly right over the top

If you click on this picture and blow it up more, you can see a red spot thru the steam in the lower left area...this is the boiling lava caldera of the Pu'u O vent (at this exact moment...Zack says things change here fast...he flies over it many times a day and it can change from trip to trip). There were moments in the flight when suddenly the gas/steam would blow away and all of a sudden you see clear as day the huge pool of red molten lava. But before I could snap a picture (which was only do'able when MY side of the helo was facing the vent), it would shift back and cover it up again. I snapped this shot just as it was being 're-covered' from a clear view. Suffice to say, it was AWESOME (you'll just have to trust me). And it's at moments like that (when I'm staring down into a red-hot pool of molten lava) that I ponder what noise I would make if the helicopter broke.

Anyway....after many swoops over the vent for both sides of the helo, Zack then took us over the 'skylights', which are holes in the top of a lava tube...windows if you will. The lava tubes are how the lava travels underground, and the island is FULL of them. I've walked inside a BIG one a few years back, it's quite famous. It's called the "Thurston Lava Tube". If you are ever on the BI, I"d recommend it as part of your Volcano's Natnional Park tour. Just bring a flashlight...funny how dark it can be inside a BLACK tunnel.

A skylight. You can clearly see the gas escaping. It's like looking into a portal of Hell (my guess as to what that would look like). But it's VERY COOL (oops...I mean HOT! VERY VERY VERY HOT!)

After many passes over two different skylights in the area, he then took us to the ONLY house remaining of all the hundreds of homes that USED to be in the big subdivision called Royal Gardens (which was totally wiped out during the same flows that covered the black sand beach). The man still lives there in his house, and he's quite famous. The locals call him "Lava Jack". As the HUGE lava flow was heading down the mountain many years back burning home after home into vapors and covering the beautiful jungle with lava, it suddenly parted and went around a small blob of land like some kind of miracle. None of the homes in the entire area were insured (as you can't get insurance if you're in a high-risk lava zone, which is ALL of the southern Big Island) so it was a total loss for everybody concerned. It's hard to comprehend losing EVERYTHING you own AND all your money.

The blob of untouched land. Lava Jack's house is the small orange roof in the upper third of the blob. All the other homes in the entire subdivision were burned. You can see the light gray is the older lava, and there have been numerous recent flows all around it including right at the very top of the blob (all the dark black parts). Zack says Jack's in danger every minute of every day, as the black stuff is all very recent and still slowly moving.

A different view of the untouched land looking straight uphill. Here you can really see the magical parting of the lava, where it separated and then re-joined at the bottom. Apparently Lava Jack moved to this plot of land when he was 22 years old (a LONG time ago) because he wanted to 'get away from everybody'. Then the roads opened up and houses started sprouting up all over the place, and before he knew it he had hundreds of neighbors. But not now...he is truly 'away from everybody' (be careful what you wish for!) and if his house remains untouched, he will be away from everybody (except the helo's and tourist's oogling his property) for the rest of his life! He had a trail over the lava to the nearest town up until a few months ago when one of the recent flows covered it. Zack said sometimes you would see him on his dirt-bike cruising to/from his property. You see, Jack is world famous. He us is one of the VERY few people with a permit to hike around in the area. The state allows it because he must be able to get to/from his home. For anybody else to go hiking around in this area of active lava flows is an $18,000 fine and up to a year in prison. IF you live. I'm betting he's no dummy and has learned a LOT of where he can and can't hike. He could very easily break-thru and fall into a lava tube. Even if it wasn't active, he could be hurt and there would be nobody to rescue him. Now that his 'short' trail has been covered, he has a 7 mile hike to get supplies (and a 7 mile hike BACK). There's no water or electricity at his house, and likely won't be for the rest of his life. He opens up his house as a B&B every now and then, and people can fly in via helicopter. Zack says he takes them out on walking tours of the area (I guess he can get away with that with his permit). GO jack!! You are my hero!

After we leave Jacks area we fly down to the coast (not very far) where the lava USED to flow into the ocean. As we start flying back towards Hilo along the coast, we pass a portion of the Royal Gardens subdivision where people have finally been allowed to rebuild. However you are rebuilding on TOP of the lava flow, and will still have NO insurance, and there also will never (in their lifetimes) be power or water. The hardy residents have bulldozed simple roads on top of the lava and someone must have come out and surveyed out the land plots and away they built. Zack said that when your home is taken by the volcano, YOU are still liable to pay the property taxes on YOUR property, even though it's buried under lava. And you now have two choices: pay the property tax on your land (that in some cases will not be habitable in your lifetime) or NOT pay, and then your plot of land is turned back over to the state. These people apparently kept paying their taxes and even though it took about 20 years or so, were FINALLY were allowed to rebuild.

Can you imagine living on top of the lava with no power, water, or sewers for the REST of your life? These are some tough cookies! (also know that this area is a good drive away from any decent town with shopping available).

After that we headed up the coast and finally back over Hilo, and the last views we saw were some nice waterfalls and pools on a river that runs right thru Hilo. It was pretty but I didn't get any great shots post-worthy. I took a LOT of pics during the tour, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. And after, it turns out they do an HD recording of the ENTIRE FLIGHT. There are 3 cameras underneath the helo, and one inside looking back at us passengers! It includes all the pilots narrations and any questions we asked (we each had a microphone/switch in our lap, and anytime we wanted to talk we waited for a quiet moment and pushed the switch and talked....the entire complement is on the intercom). And for the paltry sum of $24 I bought a copy of the tour! Of course we watched it back at the timeshare and I didn't really even need to narrate much as Zack was doing that the entire time. The only downside was the audio portion of the intercom was rather crackly over-driven...but other than that they all got to go on the tour with me. The only downside was that of the 4 cameras, the pilot has to switch which camera is actually recording. Usually he did a good job and as he was talking about something he'd switch the system to that camera (and occasionally to the view of us as we were asking questions). But as we flew along this entire section of the rebuilt houses he forgot to switch the view, so the camera was looking straight ahead as the flew along the coast.

After the tour. I took this shot...and if you blow it up, you can see Zack waving to me from the pilots seat (same side as a car). Also of note (and I didn't know this until later), if you look WAY BACK to the left and behind the chopper, Jeannie, John and Donna were parked waiting for me to arrive. Jeannie is standing out waving at me to the passenger side of the silver car, and Donna took a picture of me taking THIS picture while Jeannie waved. I had NO IDEA they were there, and we all laughed when I zoomed in on MY picture back at the timeshare and could see them!

After the tour we had lunch at a local cafe, and then proceeded back up Saddle Road. Hilo was totally buried in clouds as is typical of the east side of the island, but as we climb up into the saddle area (between the 2 GINORMOUS volcanoes) we drive right into the sun. Both Mauna Loa and Mauna Keau are shield volcanoes, meaning their cones are a very mild climb angle and they are spread out over an incredible amount of land. Mauna Loa is technically the highest mountain on the planet, higher than Mt Everest. The seafloor around the Big Island is at 18,000 feet. The hot-spot in the earth's crust that created the islands spewed lava from the bottom and created island after island, starting with Kauai (the farthest north island) and ending with the Big Island. The summit of both Mauna Loa and Mauna Keau are both over 13,000 feet...I think ML is around 13,700 and MK is just about 25 or so feet shorter. Add that to the 18,000 feet that they rise off the seafloor and they are both over 31,000 feet tall.

This is Mauna Loa rising up above Saddle road. Behind us is Mauna Keau. You can see how slight the climb angle is of this MASSIVE mountain of lava. And you get a small sense of how HUGE this island is, that these two gigantic volcano's pretty much made up most of the island. The climb is so gentle as you descend thru the clouds that you have no idea how much mountain is above you (as you almost NEVER see the summits from below the perpetual cloud layer). We are probably at about 8000 feet where this photo was taken.

And this is Mauna Keau.

Notice that it is shaped very differently from it's big sister though. MK is world-famous for the observatories on it's summit. Our last trip to the island my brother in law John and I took a stargazing tour where they picked us up in Kona and drove us to the tippy-top for sunset. We got to stand on an overlook and wave our arms, casting the largest shadows we will most likely ever cast. You could clearly see your HUGE arm waving on top of the clouds miles and miles away, stretching into forever. As the sun set it got cold quite quickly, and we all jumped into the van and he drove us down to about 9000 feet (just above the clouds) where he setup an amazing 9" reflecting telescope, and then proceeded to amaze us with the stellar sights (and hot chocolate and snacks too). If you are ever in the Big Island I'd highly recommend this tour...it was fabulous! After the tour he drops everybody off at their respective pick-up-points (ours was in Kona, just a short drive from the timeshare). If you click on this picture, you might be able to see a tiny bit of the road as it crosses just to the right of the middle of the pic..in a small depression with the highest spot to it's left. You can't quite see the multiple observatories from this angle, but there are times as you drive the Saddle Road you can see sunlight glinting off the shiny HUGE domes. Mauna Keau is reputed to be one of the best stargazing spots in the world, as it's above something like 95% of the moisture and such that is in the air, and also as the Big Island has very strict 'light' rules (as in: no upward emanating light is allowed...all streetlights must have hoods on them, stuff like that). So there is almost NO light pollution up there.

I don't have any further pictures worthy of posting from this trip. We were flying out the next morning (Saturday) and this was pretty much the final hurrah. As always I'll surely miss Kona and the Big Island. This trip was quite relaxing as we didn't spend TOO much time behind the windshield, or running ourselves ragged doing thing after thing. Mostly we just enjoyed being in Hawaii again, wearing shorts, T-shirts and flip flops all the time. And eating some tasty foods and lots of tasty beers. All in all, not a bad vacation. John was a real trooper with his newly broken arm, and we were very glad he was able to come after all. I know he was quite sad that it's actually QUITE hard to do dollar-bill origami with only one hand (one of our past-times we enjoy when sitting around drinking beer, eating poke and other snacks and just chilling at the timeshare on the lani). I however managed to mostly decode the very difficult to understand instructions and made a PAIR of flip-flops (using 1 dollar bills). John bought the book of instructions years ago on our first trip here, and he brings it each time. I also made some kind of a 'fat star' thing. Years back I made a Hawaiian shirt, a gecko and a turtle. Jeannie keeps them all in her secretary on display, reminding us of the fun times we had together.

OK...this got long (imagine THAT!)...hope everybody has their Christmas shopping done and can sit back and ENJOY the holiday season!

Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian) to you all!

Kona

2011-11-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

What a week week it was! (note: as I type we are safely at home, and I just don't seem to have enough hours in the day lately to catch up with things. I FINALLY went thru all the pictures and have selected ones for posting...this will likely go into a 2nd post as there's just too many pics for just one).

Anyway, on with today's topic: KONA!

We flew from Honolulu (on Oahu) to Kona (the Big Island, which is sometimes also called Kona, which makes things very confusing) on Saturday after only 3 days on Oahu. The Big Island is my favorite of the Hawaiian islands I've visited, mostly because it's BIG (hence the name "the Big Island"). I haven't yet visited Molokai or Lani, but have been on the rest. They are all nice, yet each island is TOTALLY different from the others. But the Big Island is just that. It's BIG. That means the people who are there are SPREAD OUT! And there aren't nearly the amount of people on the Big Island to start with as there are on Oahu. There are only 2 main cities: Kona and Hilo. Kona is on the west (ie dry) side, while Hilo is on the east (ie WET) side. Hilo gets 400" of rain a year, while Kona gets 10. Which side would you want to live on? I've been to both cities (many years ago I flew to Hilo for volleyball tournaments and stayed a few days), and most everybody prefers Kona, which means it's that much more expensive. Hilo is MUCH greener though as you can imagine.

We stayed at the Kona Coast Resort, which is a timeshare. John and Donna own a share and have stayed there many times over their 20 or so years of ownership. This is the 2nd time we have joined them...the last being 4 years ago I think. We had a really nice view of a country-club golf course from our 2nd story balcony (which is called a lani in Hawaii). Below is a picture of a very cute mongoose running around in the grass. They have mongeese ( mongoo'ses?) all over the islands, and they are EVERYWHERE! They are not natural to the islands but were brought there on purpose. The story of how this came to be is this:

Long ago they (the State of Hawaii) were trying to find a way to help keep the rat population in check...due to the sugarcane fields there were just oodles and oodles of rats. Some scientist put a rat and a mongoose in a cage together and they fought to the death, with the mongoose winning (as they are VERY fast...and kill snakes in the wild...too bad there have never been any snakes in the Hawaiian isles). SO...they figured GREAT! Lets bring in a bunch of mongeese and let them go...which they did. And BAM! Nothing happened. Rats come out at night, mongeese come out in the day. The two never meet, thus never fight to the death. So now they have a mongoose AND rat problem. They ARE very cute though...much like a squirrel, only their tail is way different and is always straight out behind them...very streamlined. And their ears are kind of like a teddy-bear or soemthing. Almost like a land-otter...if there was such a thing. And they are VERY skittish around people, and will quickly dart into the bushes at the first sign of movement.

The ever-so-slinky mongoose

It was on either the first or 2nd full day there that we visited the seahorse farm. Yes, an actual aquatic farm where they raise seahorses. You see, they are VERY rare in the wild, and as every saltwater aquarium lover wants some, they pay good money for them. However, the ones that are caught in the wild don't live long in captivity. They are carnivores, eating small shrimp and such, (or plankton as babies). This 'farm' has been open for over 14 years now. WAY back in the beginning they kept trying to get the adult seahorses to eat frozen brine shrimp (thawed and poured into the water), which is a staple food for saltwater aquarium fish. They tried and tried but they would only eat live shrimp that were actually swimming around. Finally one day they had one that ate the frozen ones. As over time, the others in that tank learned to eat them by watching. And they found they could take any of those 'trained' seahorses and put them in other tanks where they train a whole new batch to eat the frozen shrimp. Seahorses mate for life amazingly enough, and they found that the babies from frozen shrimp-eaters automatically would eat the frozen shrimp when they were old enough.

Well, it wasn't long before they had a real thing going: seahorses that would live in captivity! And they live a long time...they have some that are 14 years old (from near the very beginning) and still going. So the scientists have no idea how long they can actually live. And due to their success in domesticating them, they have now taken a huge load off the reefs of the ocean, as you can mail order a pair right from this farm, and they will live! As word of mouth goes out, there are fewer and fewer being harvested from the wild as everybody knows they won't live long.

An adult seahorse from a mated pair lounging around in it's tank (the other one is at the bottom). As we approach the tanks, they come up to the top hoping you are going to feed them (which we did).

Due to the amazing success in their breeding/domestication program they are now branching out to other tropical saltwater fish, hoping to accomplish the same feat (lessen the amount taken from the wild). The stars of the farm though were the Sea Dragons! They are native to Australian waters, and are EXTREMELY rare! The Aussies know they have a good thing going, so keep any exports to a bare minimum and TIGHTLY controlled. This farm waited years for a permit and finally were able to import a few young ones, which are now full grown. They are quite large now, probably around a foot or so long. They look a lot like a blob of leafy seaweed, only their head and snout is very similar to a seahorse (they are related). Their 2 pairs (2 males and 2 females) are nearing breeding age and they are REALLY hoping they like each other and mate. Every aquarium in the world would LOVE to have Sea Dragons...so IF they can get them breeding they will really have something on their hands. Being as it's nearly impossible to get them, the marine biologist giving our tour said the adults would probably sell for around $10,000 EACH...IF you were able to buy them (which you can't). Here is a picture taken from the web (as we weren't allowed to take pictures of them at the farm, we could only briefly peek in on the 2 pairs swimming around...thank you wickipedia):

An adult Sea Dragon (they are even bigger than this picture, and just amazing to look at in person!)

After the seahorse farm we pretty much bummed around and just took it easy for a few days. Relax, eat, drink tasty beers and such. That was the primary agenda, and we are very good at it! We didn't plan too much, partly as we just wanted to relax, and partly because John has a broken arm and was somewhat limited as to his activities (no horseback riding, etc). However we all went out on a deep-sea-fishing charter on Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving). This was our big 'whoop-de-do' for this trip). Even though John had no chance to even try to reel in a fish, both he and Donna went out with Jeannie and I for a half-day charter. We were the 2nd trip of the day for our particular boat: the "Bite Me 3". The Bite Me is a charter company and I think they have either 5 or 6 boats (the boats cost around $300,000 each btw, so it's no small thing to have a large fishing boat). Ours was a 40' boat equipped with six LARGE saltwater fishing rigs.

The Bite Me 3 coming to pick us up for our afternoon on the water

The morning charter was late leaving as the guys who went out were LATE! I think that jinxed them, as they got SKUNKED! Not a single hit on a lure or fish caught. They didn't look too happy as they departed the boat (which was late returning for us). The driver of the boat was Capt. Andy, a very nice guy. And the crew was Hector. He's a native Hawaiian from Kauai, and was a very nice guy also. As we boarded he told us about the prior customers, and we ASSURED him we brought our luck with us! As we pulled out, Jeannie wanted a picture with him, and after he said "now THAT will bring good luck!"

Hector and Jeannie as we head out from the marina

Hector immediately set to work rigging up the fishing poles and getting lures in the water. It was our first deep-sea charter and I had no idea how the outrigger thingeees worked (the large poles that hang out to the side of the boat after we leave port with lots of lines and such attached to them). They are used to spread out the 5 lures we have in the water so they aren't on top of each other. I'd estimate that our 5 rigs were roughly spread out about 25 yards or so, and a few hundred yards behind the boat as we trolled our way out to deep water.

Hector checks on things as we are trolling out, constantly making adjustments to the lures so that they are 'just right' for catching fish

Well, Hector and Capt. Andy know their business, and we DID bring the luck! They had seen a school of dolphins after we had been out around an hour or so and Capt. Andy immedietly made a line for them, and we proceeded to do large circles around the school as they swam. Two other boats saw the same thing and we had company as they all wanted to be in that area all of a sudden. But WE got the hit. It was pre-arranged who is the FIRST person to get "in the chair"...and that person was Jeannie (RATS!!!). It was her idea to go out after all, and I surely couldn't' begrudge her that. Capt Andy was watching and said he saw the 'hit'....he thought it was a marlin as he saw a spear briefly. Well, the drag started peeling off one of the reels and Jeannie quickly made her way to the chair. Hector helped her get all set and strapped into the fighting rig, and he brought the rod into the fighting chair holding jig quickly. Once Jeannie was ALL set to fight, he set the drag and BAM, the fight was on! Capt Andy had stopped the boat and the fish wasn't taking much line, he was just sitting there a few hundred yards out (the HUGE reel has around 900 yards of 187lb test monofillament fish line spooled on it).

As Jeannie began her fight, Hector was quickly bringing in all the other lures so there wouldn't be any tangles which would endanger catching the fish. Once he had everything clear we all 'helped' Jeannie as she fought and fought. One of the things about reeling in hundreds of yards of line is that the reel doesn't spool it left/right by itsself...the fisherman has to do that. So not only does she get to TRY to reel in an as yet unknown size fish, she needs to move the line back and forth across the spool as she does so. Well, it was very quickly realized this was a big fish. Jeannie was doing her best, but the rod would bend down and then it would take back all reeling she had done and more. Over and over. The rod is short and stout, and has pulleys where the line touches, yet this broomstick size rod would bend over pretty good now and then as the unknown fish would fight his way deeper and back away from the boat.

Oh, did I mention that it got HOT out there? Once the boat stopped moving forward, the warm Hawaiian sun started to take it's toll on Jeannie. She was dripping sweat and reeling with all her might. Nobody did a time check, but I am betting she fought for around 45 minutes or so (purely a guess...it was a LONG time) when we finally got a look at our beast. It was still underwater but was flashing blue and silver, and looked HUGE! Once Jeannie had reeled the fish to the boat, Hector was able to grab the leader of the lure, and the fight is over. Capt Andy had us step back and as Hector pulled the fish close to the surface, he was able to slam a huge gaff thru it's head. There was no escape now. I think we (us passengers) felt a little bad at this point, but for the capt and crew this was money and they weren't going to let it get away.

The gaffed fish being readied to bring aboard. The fight is sadly over for this beautiful monster of the ocean.

And here is our catch....a Blue Marlin (only not very pretty now that it's dead, they quickly turn gray)

Hector and Capt Andy winch the fish to the pier for weighing

And here is the happy (yet sad) group of fisherpeople with their catch. It weighed in at 203lbs, and was the first marlin caught by the Bite Me 3 boat in 5 days!

After the weigh-in, the fish market folk come out with a large rolling cart and take the fish away to be processed. We are allowed to keep up to 40lbs of our catch, the rest goes in equal thirds to the fish-market, the Capt. and the crew. Considering that Blue Marlin sells for $11.99 a lb in the fish market, I'd say they all had a pretty good day. Especially as we only took 10lbs (what are we to do with 40?) Also, consider that this was our fist deep-sea fishing excursion! Now what am I to do? If I ever go out again I'll have BIG expectations! But quite honestly, I don't think I need to do this again. Not that I wouldn't mind having a shot at fighting my own marlin, but I don't need another one killed for my own vanity. This catch was for all of us, and was remarkable to watch unfold. I was wildly happy for Jeannie at this awesome catch, yet totally green with envy. And yes, I'll have to work on that envy thing. But I'm only human, and doing the best that I can.

Dinner of Marlin steaks and John's famous FRIED potatoes, and Jeannie's salad. MMMMMMMMMMM!

So...turns out 10lbs of beautiful marlin filets is quite a large batch. We had fish that night (Weds...as seen in the picture above), and also for Thanksgiving dinner in lieu of the traditional turkey and such.

Thanksgiving dinner in Kona. Marlin steaks, baked potatoes, rice, salad, and fresh sliced papaya.

By Friday we were getting a bit tired of marlin (and we had a LOT left in the fridge)...so John had struck up a conversation outside with some new people and turns out they like fish too...so BAM! They were the lucky recipients of about 6 lbs of fresh caught marlin!

Well, this will have to do for now. I will work on Kona Part II over the next few days. Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Aloha!

Aloha from Oahu

2011-11-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

(note: turns out that the timeshare over here on the Big Island DOES INDEED have interent...woo-HOO! And thus, I am able to connect with the world. So, without further adieu, I give you the last 3 days on Oahu!)

Aloha (hello)!

We arrived safe and sound in Oahu Wednesday afternoon. With no checked luggage, we quickly picked up the rental car and made a beeline for for Waikiki Beach and the hotel. Getting off the airline in Honolulu is always a joy. You step out of the gate area into open air...and it's almost always 80 or so degrees out. Suddenly wearing long pants is not the ticket. Our rental car this time around was a Lincoln Towncar...or as I called it, "The Love Boat". First time I've driven a Towncar. It was huge, but it drove nice.

We got downtown and the room was PHENOMENAL! We were staying at the Hilton for the first night, as Jeannie had points to use or loose (FREE ROOM!). We ended up on the 27th floor in the Rainbow Tower...the closest toward the ocean. We even had 2 balconies...one directly ocean view and the other looking north towards the airport and the West Shore. It was probably the most amazing view I've had from a Waikiki hotel. Here is what we saw:

Keep in mind this is a 3 picture panorama that I made shooting from the oean-view balcony. Turns out doing a pan of that much area gives the ocean a rounded look at the horizon, and the closer stuff doesn't connect together in straight lines (such as the seawall jetty at the far right of the first pic and far left of the 2nd). And the wave direction also doesn't work...but all in all it shows what we saw. We headed out soon after a basic unpacking and had our favorite Mai Tai's at the Hale Koa hotel's Barefoot Bar (the BEST Mai Tai's on the island IMO) before an early dinner.

The FIRST Mai Tai of the trip

Thursday we drove up to the Pearl Harbor area (where we lived) and did a local hike we both love: the Aiea Loop. It's about 4 miles through various forms of jungle high above Aiea/Pearl City. The terrain goes from lush green thick and mucky to wide open and sunny tropical jungle. On the far side of the loop there used to be a gigantic tree with airplane parts stuck in it. Back in 1944 a B24 Liberator had taken off and the pilot failed to make a turn in the darkness and the plane crashed into the jungle on the ridge. All 10 crew were killed, and there is now a nice plaque at the start of the loop honoring the men. The tree has fallen down (unless I missed it the last 2 times we hiked it) but the area it used to stand was rather dense jungle on a VERY VERY steep portion of the ridge. I have many pictures (and here are a few) of our hike, but none do justice to the beauty and ruggedness of the Hawaiian jungle.

Here's Jeannie taking a break in a sunny section as we head down towards the creek at the bottom.

The H3 freeway heading up the Halawa valley towards the tunnel and over to Kailua/Kaneohe on the eastern shore. (note: Halawa is pronounced "Halava"...in Hawaiian the w is pronounced with a v sound)

The H3 freeway took over 20 years to build, as seemingly every shovel of dirt was into burial sites of ancient Hawaiians. They ended up finally building nearly the entire freeway suspended above the jungle on giant concrete stanchions, and when it was finally completed it was the most costly few miles of freeway in the US...something like 20 million $ per mile.

You can see Jeannie up ahead as the trail turns to the left. When the trail went downhill she was like a deer running ahead of me. Any time I'd stop to take a picture she'd easily get 50 or more yards ahead.

Thursday afternoon we moved into the Hale Koa hotel which would be our home for the next 2 nights. This is the military hotel just next to the Hilton in Waikiki Beach on a gigantic piece of Army property. We stay there every time we go to Hawaii (as I'm retired Navy) and all I can say is Biba's restaurant downstairs has possibly the best Mahi Mahi on the island! (and their Mai Tai's ARE the best!)

This is Friday morning. Jeannie's first cup of joe is on the nightstand (you're WELCOME Matt!) and the sliding door is open looking out at the beach and letting in the already warm Hawaiian air into our FRIGID room (Jeannie likes to turn the thermostat down to about 60 for sleeping). She is reluctant to finally climb out of bed for some reason.

Jeannie's twin brother John (my Navy buddy) and his wife Donna finally arrive in Honolulu Friday afternoon. He's sporting his new cast covering the surgery where they put a rod and screws into his radius (the big bone in the lower arm). They were SUPPOSED to fly on Wednesday like Jeannie and I did. However Monday he fell out of his hayloft about 12 feet onto a bare concrete floor. Considering everything, he was VERY lucky to get away with just a broken arm. When he returns from the trip he says he'll tell everybody he was attacked by a tiger shark.

Friday dinner (and BEER!) at the Yardhouse on Lewers Street. They claim to have the largest selection of draft beer in the world. All I know is the half-yard of tasty beer is just what the Dr. ordered, and not just for John! For any beer connoisseurs out there, give me a shout and I can direct you to them if you are ever in Waikiki. Their beers are from all over the world and are an amazing selection. It would take a VERY LONG vacation to sample them all!

After dinner Jeannie and I made it back to our room JUST in time for the Hilton's Friday fireworks display. We had a spectacular view, and I was able to snag a few decent shots. It sounded like a battlefield as the reports echoed off the hotels and wasn't very far at all from us. Quite a nice ending to our last night on Oahu.

In both photos you can sort of see the Hilton hotels at the far right. In the 2nd shot you can clearly see the building that towers above the closer bldg (which is darker). That farther bldg is the Rainbow tower where our first nights room was only 4 floors from the top.

Our Saturday morning stroll along the beach. This is the world-famous Diamond Head crater of course. I only have about 3000 photo's of this landmark. But still you HAVE to take more pictures of it. Leaving Hawaii without any DH pics is a violation of State Law. It was a rather blustery morning, but still shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops. A so-so day in Hawaii is still a banner day most anywhere else. Especially in November!

Here we are at the beach in Waikiki. And yes, that is the amazing Diamond Head just behind us...you know....just like in the last picture, only you can't see it.

And finally, Jeannie and I bid you Aloha (goodbye) from Oahu.

Next stop: Kona and the Big Island.

Tunitas Creek Road & Priests Rock Trail, & Veterans Day!

2011-11-10T17:28:00.000-08:00

TUNITAS CREEK ROAD

On Tuesday I did a road ride and FINALLY went down and back up Tunitas Creek Rd. It's the road I climbed about a month and a half ago, thinking it was possibly the most awesome piece of road-riding pavement ever. The weather forecast was 64 in San Jose. Got up at 11am after a whopping 4 hours sleep and was riding by noon. Turns out I needed another forecast. The one for INSIDE the redwood canopy. As I climbed up out of Woodside on Kings Mt road towards Skyline Rd, the temp dropped to about 51 degrees. On the way up there were 2 does just grazing away on one of the switchback turns...I stopped and we watched each other for a bit, and I even managed to get a picture of them. They sure didn't seem to be very afraid. Deer are such pretty animals, and to watch them run (especially UP a seemingly impossible climb) is just awe inspiring.

Doe, Rei (and Me)

I was riding in a short sleeve jersey, arm warmers, knee warmers, and my wind vest. No toe warmers, ear warmers, or a jacket. After crossing Skyline Rd I started descending on Tunitas Creek. THAT is where things changed. 51 is pretty chilly, even when climbing...but it's do-able because you're working hard. But once you start to descend, 51 is way past chilly. And it had now dropped to 49. I was SO cold...I started stopping every mile or so in any sunbeam that managed to slip thru the enormous redwoods, and I'd stand there shivering and shaking for a few minutes until I talked myself back on the bike to continue down. I knew it would be better climbing...I just had to endure the descent.

I finally made it thru the redwoods and lollygagged the final 3 miles to the coast in the sun, where the temps climbed back to around 60. After that I turned around and climbed back up.

Thought this bike-hut was pretty cool....it's about a mile or so up from the ocean and before the redwoods. The little sign on the door says it's "always open". Must be an honor system or something...I didn't stop as I was anxious to just get climbing again and warm up. Stopping would only delay the inevitable cold. I'll stop someday though...would be fun to stop on a nice day with a crowd there to yak with.

And the redwoods begin. Funny how it looks SO warm and toasty out. You can see how dark it gets just inside those trees. And these are the small ones!

This was taken without a flash. It shows pretty accurately how dark it is inside the canopy. And you can see a bit of the bank on the left and how steep it is. This road was cut into the side of the mountain long ago.

Nearing the top of the ridge (still 3 miles to Skyline Rd, at the very top, then the 4 mile descent into Woodside). The trees are much younger up here and the sun is coming thru. Again you can see how steep the bank is that they cut away to make this road.

It was a pretty awesome ride, but when you're freezing it's not as fun as it could be. All I could think of was getting back to my car and getting the heat on. But I did stop about a zillion times to take pics...it was just SO dark in there...the redwoods do a great job of almost completely obliterating the sun. It felt like it was going on night most of the ride, with only moments of sunlight peeking thru. I actually have a lot of pics from inside...but the auto-focus and all doesn't do a good job if you jiggle it ever so slightly w/ not enough light. It wanted to use the flash but I had to turn it off or the pics would be almost black.

There's a car down in the middle of this picture. I'm betting that was an E-ticket ride! They didn't even bother to try to get the car out!

Finally I crossed back over Skyline and made a quick descent (cold as I was) to the car. It was warm again down in the village of Woodside...and the car was toasty warm! It never felt so good climbing into a HOT car!

PRIEST ROCK Trail

Today (Thursday) I did a totally new Mt bike ride: Priest Rock Trail to Kennedy Trail out of Los Gatos. I found this trail looking online for new sections of the Bay Area Ridge Trail (BART) network. I've ridden portions of it farther north up off of Skyline Rd, and found this southern section and it looked worth a shot. It hasn't rained since last Thurs/Fri, so I hoped the trails would finally be dry. I was right...but there were semi-gooey sections and even yesterday they might have been muddy still. Looking at the BART map online it appeared the trail would climb pretty much from the start. Little did I know how true that would be.

Looking back down at Lexington Reservoir. I've only been climbing a few minutes and already gained this much altitude. It's really beautiful up here.

The other sections of the BART trails I've ridden are quite fun. This part was a little slice of mt bike hell (on the way up I mean...coming down was quite fun actually). I only made it up 6 miles before turning around, totally wasted. This trail was the quintessential ridge ride. Ridges go up and down, and up, and down...you get the picture. Initially I had to just climb climb climb to get up on the ridge proper. For about an hour. After that the trial continues to yo-yo with ever increasing high-points as you get further back. Throughout this ride I kept talking to myself about how interesting the name of this trail was: Priest Rock. I don't know about the Rock part, but I sure could have used a Priest! Over and over again (not kidding here) as I'd somehow barely crawl over yet another 15-20+% grade section, I'd get a look at the NEXT ridiculous grade awaiting me (and sometimes the next 2 or 3)...and the words out of my mouth were "oh God"...or "Jeeeesus!"...and more than once I actually I gasped "Holy Mother of GOD!"

Oh God!

Jeeesus!

Holy Mother of GOD!

It's either down or up, not much in-between!

I kid you not that I must have uttered those phrases dozens of times in the 6 mile outbound portion. It was so hard it was funny. In a 'I can't breath or use my legs anymore' way of funny. I can't recall when I last did a lowly 12 mile ride and felt SO utterly wasted. I will HAVE to go back! There are many more trails in that area, and it turns out I took the 'hard' way up. On the way back I ran into a trail steward who was out for a jog, and she chuckled at my 'choice' of trails to do an out and back on. NEXT time I'll go up a different route. But this trail is part of the BART network, and thus had to be done. I'm sure glad it's over though, as I won't be in any hurry to repeat this particular climb!

VETERANS DAY

And that pretty much wraps up this week. Tomorrow (Friday) is Veterans Day...the annual day where Jeannie (the NON veteran) gets the day off with pay to sleep in and suck down coffee all morning at her leisure, while I (the VETERAN) get the honor of getting up and going to work. Actually, being as the holiday fell on a Friday this year (and Jeannie gets every Friday off as she works Mon thru Thurs, 10 hour days), she had TODAY off for the holiday! Technically, as far as I am concerned, this year she got TWO days off compared to my NONE! But hey...she is a Federal employee and that's just the perks of the job. My company has given up all of the 'lesser' holidays (don't mean that in a bad way) and I get them back during the week between Christmas and New Years. I just have to keep reminding myself of that. But it doesn't make it any better as I head off to work while Jeannie snoozes every year.

Anyway, Veterans Day is always a nice time to remember those who have sacrificed SO MUCH for our country. The world would surely be a much different place without their sacrifice over the centuries. Even now we have a vast number of our finest young men and women scattered across the globe, MANY in harms way, defending the rights we take for granted every day. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers that they will come home to their friends and families soon, safe and sound.

To ALL the veterans (AND their families!), THANK YOU!

And God Bless America!!!

Fall Back

2011-11-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

Well...it's that time of year again. The dreaded time change.

The fall change signifies a few things, one of them being that all of a sudden it gets dark early. Also it means that it's going to get colder soon (if it hasn't already). It also means we are deep into football season. Pardon me while I briefly diverge into the realm of the pigskin. Michigan lost yesterday to Iowa...rats. They had SUCH a great season going. Today being Sunday, that means Pro football. I just woke up a bit ago (working nights here in Sunnyvale), and I'm watching the Raider/Bronco game right now...it's turning into a pretty good game. Tebow is playing his heart out for the Bronco's, but the Raiders are putting him in the grass almost every play. And the Raiders new quarterback Carson Palmer (who they JUST picked up from Cincinnati about two weeks ago) is doing ok too. Raiders/Broncos is always a HUGE grudge match...this one is being played right here in Oakland giving them the edge (Raider stadium is called "the Black Hole"....which is not a very friendly place for visiting teams).

OK....enough football..sorry about that little detour. Back to the original line of discussion. Fall. And cold.

Well, lets see...what else does the time change signify? How about the impending HOLIDAY'S? There is certainly that! Lets see...we are down to what, about 48 or so shopping days until Christmas? Gads, don't you HATE that? The GOOD thing about the impending Holidays (for us anyway) is that we are going to HAWAII over Thanksgiving! Woo-HOO! It's so close now I can almost TASTE it! I have SEVEN more work-shifts up here in Sunnyvale...head back home a week from Monday. Work my 'day' job on Tuesday, and Wednesday the 16th we fly to Oahu! We will spend a few days there staying down in Waikikii, then we fly over to the Big Island and will be staying in Kona with Jeannie's brother John and his wife Donna. They have a timeshare there and we did this same vacation about 8 years ago. I know Jeannie and I are REALLY looking forward to this. WARM! SUNNY! Both qualities we are typically lacking in our hometown. Well, we do get sunny...just not WARM all that often.

Speaking of WARM, it's certainly the Anit-WARM right now. A huge storm system moved over the area last Thursday....and it's been crappy ever since! I've only gotten out for ONE bike ride since I drove up last Monday. That was on Wednesday, and it was pretty decent. Trails were nice and dry, and the weather was mid 70's. Just about perfect. But we've been getting just enough rain seemingly every day to make the trails all gooky, and the roads (at least the roads I WANT to ride...deep in the redwood canopy) quite wet most of the day. And the temperature's been holding in the 50's most every day. Oh sure, I can already hear you all moaning...50's isn't cold! YES IT IS! It''s FREEZING! I even have the heat on in my hotel room!

And so, with no riding going on, my life on the road is pretty much work and sleep. I HOPE to break out of this horrid cycle tomorrow...but haven't yet seen the forecast (I'll catch that tonight at work during our 'lunch' break at 2am).

And so. Another dreaded time shift is in the books. That also means that I'll have to charge up my headlight when I get back home. Oh, and let's not forget Veterans day coming up fast. Evey year, Jeannie (a Gov employee) gets that hallowed holiday off. While I (the Veteran) get to work it. sure, I could take a vacation day, but quite honestly, I shouldn't HAVE to. It's a nice little annual jab in the gut. Not quite sure why it isn't a federal law that ALL Veteran's get the day off, and all NON Veterans get to work. Now THAT would be a Veteran's day holiday to remember...a true THANK YOU for your service! But alas, that's not the case. And this year I'll be on the road anyway, so can only give Jeannie a hard time over the phone. It will be observed on this coming Friday this year, so she will get Thursday off.

The only good news I can typically think of at this time of year is that we are FAST approaching the Winter Equinox. And soon the days will be getting longer instead of shorter. And there you go.... another year has past. Just like that.

Don't let the darkness get you down. Easy to say, hard to do. Here's hoping you Fall-Back into good times!

(Note: The following tidbit doesn't fit into this post, but I wanted to slip it in anyway).

I was on Moffett Field the the other day, and this plane had just landed. It's a Russian heavy lift cargo-plane similar to our own C5. The official name is an Antonov AN-124. Being as it's here in the area I'd assume it's here to pick up a spacecraft. It won't be one of ours (Lockheed Martin Space Systems spacecraft I mean)...but there are many other satellite manufacturers here in the Silicon Valley. I'll keep my ear to the ground to hear if any new spacecraft pop up at a launch site. If you are interested in the dirty details of this awesome plane (it's actually BIGGER than our own C5), here's the Wikipedia link: Antonov An-124

Happiness

2011-11-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

Today's topic is about happiness.. I believe that happiness comes in many forms. There's the momentary happiness when get when you achieve some task or goal you've set for yourself. It could be a small victory or a large one, and the happiness felt is proportional to the size of the victory. Setting a new Personal Best on a big climb is good, but rather short lived. Being FIRST up the same climb in a tough group ride is even better. Or how about setting a new PB on an entire ride? Or killing said tough group on the same overall ride?

All of these things bring joy and pride in your accomplishment....happiness. As it should. Having goals gives us a measuring stick to gauge how we are doing. Comparisons to ourselves and to others.

But what about happiness in LIFE? Simply being HAPPY?

Yesterday (Monday) was my travel day for driving back up to Sunnyvale for the next 2 weeks. Meaning I didn't have to get up EARLY as is the usual for a workday. I did however voluntarily get up at 4:30am and bring Jeannie her first ginormous cup of coffee of the morning, calling out "COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE" as is our ritual. She then burrows further under the covers, hoping I'll show mercy and let her sleep for an extra 5 (or 10) minutes. She often begs. I rarely cave. After I pryed her out of bed with a crowbar, I was then able to go BACK to bed. This is a very rare day (when Jeannie gets up before me). So....apparently I fell back to sleep, in a state of total bliss. I was surrounded by our babies. They just LOVE to snuggle up on me. Jeannie took this shot before leaving for work.

Happiness is snuggling babies!

I think this is what it's all about. Finding happiness in your life. It's very simple thing to find. A hug or kiss from a loved one. A sunny day as you stroll outside, reveling in the feel of sunshine. The feeling of the wind on your face as you cruise along on 2 wheels, master of all your survey. There is an infinite number of things that bring happiness.

Here's wishing you find happiness in your life.

Tour of Vandenberg (South Base)

2011-10-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday was our annual (or so) Tour of Vandenberg. My brother Greg and his friends Paul, Scott and Greg (the mighty Pez) drove up for some fun on our deserted roads on the base. Also attending was Xenia....I've ridden with her a few times. She is a powerhouse on a bike. Last weekend she did another double century...it only took her a little over 14 hours. 14 hours on a bike. I can't fathom that. It would most likely kill me. She does them all the time, and this was one of her fastest (good weather conditions she said).

So...we all meet at the base main gate visitors center, so I can sign everybody in. We get our bikes ready and by around 9am we are off. And once again, we had AMAZING weather! Greg and the guys think I'm lying about all the wind and crappy weather we typically have up here....as it seems every time they show up it's nice. Yesterday was no different. As we rode down the main blvd from the gate, all the flags were hanging straight down. NO WIND whatsoever. THAT is quite rare, even in the morning. Add to that fact that all last week I hadn't seen the sun before noon (usually later) due to the evil marine layer (and said layer re-forming over us by quitting-time, making any after work rides wet, cold and miserable)...all I can say is that it was a day to remember! They think I'm kidding when I tell them I can count the days on one hand we have like that in a year....but it's true.

We set off headed for the far reaches of Southbase, and we were planning on assaulting the evil Tranquillion Peak on our way to the far end of the base. The ride started off with a bang as my brother and his friends seemed to have heard a starters gun fire somewhere off in the distance (I did NOT hear it btw!)....and the race was on. THEY apparently have been hammering the big miles all year and are in quite stellar shape. I seemingly am the Anit-shape riding guy just now. My rides this year have been much less distance. I've only done one century this year.....that was the LiveSTRONG back in July. Other than that the longest ride I've done is my Saturday Tepesquet canyon (61 miles)...but it's been a few months since I've even done that. All the rides I did up in Sunnyvale were much shorter, and I also was riding alone so wasn't necessarily out for any speed records. My recent style of riding doesn't lend well to riding with my them. My only consolation was that the always mighty Pez (also named Greg) had broken his collar bone into THREE pieces in a Mt biking accident earlier in the year, and he has recently come off of a FOUR MONTH recovery (he had copies of his X-rays showing the before and after...looked VERY painful to me!) So his fitness is what he calls 'pathetic' (we'll discuss what HE calls pathetic and what I call pathetic later).

Here we are riding along the coast (about a hundred yards to the right is the Pacific Ocean). To the left is the old Titan IV Space Launch Complex (I worked there for 3 years). The tower at the far left of the picture is currently being deconstructed to make way for a new class of rocket. Also, you can see by this picture MY location in our little peleton of 6...yes....I am the Lanterne Rouge (dead last place). I was the LR for the VAST majority of the day sadly. Up front is my brother Greg (in purple), Paul to his immediate left with Xenia mostly blocking him from sight, Scott in Green to Greg's right, and the mighty Pez in red just in front of me.

Anyhow, it's a flat out BEAUTIFUL day on Vandenberg....sunny, and it's already warm enough that most of us have shed any arm-warmers and such within the first half hour of the ride. Life is good when it's sunny AND not-cold. Also of note is that we pretty much own the roads all over the base on any weekend ride. We can ride 3 or 4 across in a small mob scene whenever we feel like it, and throughout the entire day's ride we will see very few cars. SpaceX corporation has taken over my old SLC-4 (seen above) and is slowly making it ready for the Falcon 9 rocket, which hopefully will start launching in a few years. Always exciting to have a new player in town! The road shown above rolls and winds along the coast for about 10 miles.

Here we've begun the climb up towards Tran Peak. That's Scott just ahead of me looping back to see why I stopped...if you click on the picture and get the full size view, you can barely see Xenia all the way up on the turn barely visible in the picture.

The road to Tran Peak continues it's long and brutal climb towards the sky. The grade on the 'lower' reaches where I'm currently at is just a lowly 10%. It gets worse as you can see.

Here you see us nearing the 'volcano cone' of Tran Peak itself. The road weaves back and forth on the front and then winds around the cone from left to right on the backside, finally coming up to the very tippy-top just at the trees you can see at the top of the picture. Only about a mile to go from here, but the road up and around the cone holds pretty steady at a 13% grade, with the VERY final 50 yards or so around 18% (just in case you've been slacking thus far).

The view from the top. Here you are looking north over the top of SLC-3 (the Atlas V complex). All of the land you see in this picture is part of Vandenberg AFB. You can see the marine layer is lying right at the beach just covering just the ocean from view. To the VERY far north in the picture (barely visible if you click on it and get the full size shot) is Pt Sal coming down to the ocean in the mist just right of dead center. Near that spot is where our 'normal' Tour of Vandenberg would go to. But not today thankfully...we are doing an abbreviated version due to time constraints.

Here's a group shot (THANKS Scott!) of our little band of brothers (and Sist'a) at the summit of Tran Peak, or as I now lovingly call it, "the climb if death and humiliation".

L to R: My brother Greg (or a cyborg, not totally sure...but at this point but I'm leaning towards NOT human), me, Greg (the Pez), Xenia, Paul and Scott.

This is the view from the ridgeline looking back up (as we are descending). That's my brother Greg coming up fast behind me (the only time all day I can say I was ahead of him!) You can see the lovely 13% grade road winding up towards the backside of the peak. It's the high point of all of Vandenberg, topping out right at about 2000' up from the coast road.

This is the view from the ridgeline looking down at the road we came up. It doesn't look like much in this picture, but the road just below on the right (going down to that tight left hand turn) is a solid 15% grade. It's a three mile descent to the coast road from here.

And finally, this is my polar profile of the days ride. Just under 50 miles and 4300' of climbing. That's Tran Peak in the middle, towering over all the other climbs of the day. The blue strip at the bottom represents sea-level. We weren't actually QUITE that close to the ocean though, I think my polar was off by about 30 feet or so.

OH...I wanted going to discuss the Pez's sad state of fitness. Well, let me tell you what HIS pathetic is. He rides a standard crankset (53/39) with I think a 25 gear as his bailout on his cassette. For the first time in MY knowledge, he USED his granny ring/bailout gear! Of course, I'm riding a compact crankset (50/34 gearing) with a 28 tooth bailout gear on the back. And for only the 2nd time since I've been climbing this beast, I had to ride a paper-route in the steep parts (a paper-route is where you go side to side in the road, being unable to push straight up). The only other time I did the paper-route thing was the very first time I rode it many years ago, and back then I had the same gearing as the Pez had yesterday. So...even in his sad state of fitness he pushed his standard crank/25-tooth cassette geared geared bike up the climb probably not very far behind my brother Greg and Paul (who raced to the top and finished side by side I hear). Scott, Xenia and I suffered mightily behind them, with me being DEAD last. I suffer HUGELY every time I ride this, but yesterday was a new level of hell on a hill for me. But I made it. Just barely. At the top I laid down on the road in the cool shade (still clipped into my pedal on one side). I was about as dead as I can ever recall being on a bike. And I still had to get home.

After the descent from Tran Peak we continued south for a few miles to Space Launch Complex Six (SLC-6) as everybody needed water. We ended up going inside a building I routinely work in and filled up our bottles from a water-cooler, saving the day. After that our choice was to continue another few miles to the south to Boathouse (the furthest we can go on Southbase), or to head back. We (mostly ME I think) voted to head back. You see, we had a lunch-date with the Jalama Beach Cafe in Lompoc. JBC serves a WICKED GOOD burger, and also has some WICKED GOOD beer on tap. AND it's on the way home for Greg and the gang. So for the entire return ride I was energized thinking about that burger and beer. Also, just knowing we are heading home really helps. Also of note is that we had ZERO flats or mechanicals during the entire day for our group of six. That is a new record for us (I mean Greg)!

We finally finished our Tour of Southbase around 2:30pm back at the main gate. What a joy to pack the bike into the car and drive to the Jalama Beach Cafe! I was so hungry I think I could eat roadkill! But thankfully I didn't have to. The Jalama burger was as good as I remember, and the Dogfishhead 90 minute IPA beerwas about as good as beer can be!

And so ended another successful Tour of Vandenberg.

Today (Sunday) is work around the house day, and tomorrow (Monday) I fly to Colorado Springs for the week (work related). I fly home on Friday, and then drive BACK up to Sunnyvale the following Monday for 2 more weeks. No rest for the weary.

Have a GREAT week, and a very happy Halloween!

Blowout!

2011-10-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

Not too awfully much going on just now to write about. However, last Thursday I had a MASSIVE rear tire blowout on my after-work group road ride. No idea what caused it, but I actually suspect a bad tire. It had just under 500 miles on it, and was rated to 160psi...of which I only had it filled to about 105psi which is my usual. Here are some pics after the fact:

That's a nickel for size comparison, and then my finger poking thru in the photo below. Both show the HOLE in the tube.

The blowout was like a gunshot. Gary and Eric were in the process of dropping me, and were about 20 yards or more ahead and they BOTH instantly turned wondering what they heard. I didn't run over anything as far as I know, it just WENT. We all stood there a few moments looking at the damage, and wondering now how I was going to get back as we were still 11 miles from our start (and on a nearly deserted road, and nobody had a phone with them). I always carry a few chunks of old tire tread, cut into rectangles for just this purpose. I replaced the tube with my spare, and then slipped in my 2 pieces of tread between the hole and the tube, finished seating the bead of the tire and then pumped it up to about 40psi. That's not very much for a road tire, but the rubber held the tube inside the gaping hole and I was able to ride (albiet slowly...it felt like I was pedaling in sand). And I did made it back without blowing my spare tube! It's the strangest (and largest) blowout any of our group had ever seen. The first picture was actually taken after the ride, you can clearly see the cords are gone and the tire pieces I slipped in showing in the hole. I was amazed but VERY HAPPY that it held!

That was about all the excitement I've had in my life lately. In other news, someone we all USED to root for (and believe in) is actually going on trial in France THIS WEEK for computer hacking. But he won't be there, and there's pretty much nothing they (the French) can do to him unless he were foolish enough to set food on French soil. Here's the article link if you are interested:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/landis-on-trial-for-hacking-charges

Rant has discussed this on occasion and I'm sure it will come up again now that the actual trial is happening. Just what the endgame is here for whoever is actually pushing this trial is anybody's guess. It's not like anybody can get any money from the man. I have no idea what he's doing to survive the last year or so. Also being as they came up, I have to admit I'm wondering where the Lance witch-hunt has gone. They held the Grand Jury and had testimony from pretty much anybody who ever knew Lance. So what's the deal? Do they have ANYTHING substantial at all, or is the utter silence indicative of nothing more than 'he said, she said'? I'm afraid the old saying "no news is good news" doesn't' apply here. The man running the investigation is the one who went after Barry Bonds, and doesn't appear to be the kind of guy who backs down from what he believes is the truth. Based on that alone I fear we will be hearing more on this in the near future....that he has NOT given up. But truth be told, I've rather enjoyed the last half-year or so of almost NO cycling related doping scandals.

And so. I fly to Colorado Springs on Monday for a week, come back and then drive BACK up to Sunnyvale for 2 more weeks, come home from that just in time to fly to Hawaii for our Thanksgiving vacation. I'm just a busy guy I tell you! No rest for the weary I tell you.

Have a great week, get out there and enjoy the fall!

It's a heat wave!

2011-10-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been home since last Friday (and to be sure, it's GOOD TO BE HOME!). The usual weather down here...chilly, windy, foggy. But TODAY, the winds shifted. We have offshore winds. Offshore meaning coming off the Mojave desert. Even early this morning it was fairly warm out. By this afternoon it was in the 90's here in Santa Maria. You can count the days on one had (seriously) in a year that we hit high 80's and above. Quite rare...but windy. Just hot windy. All around I think most everybody enjoyed it, except maybe our babies. I took them to the park and they were really lollygagging around at the end, and Sydney was WAY behind on the way home...her tongue hanging out about as far as I've ever seen it. And since we've got home they are all lying about in their special places, panting it up. I'd say I feel their pain, but I like it. I MISS being warm, or hot even. I really enjoyed the weather up in Sunnyvale for most of my recent trip. I didn't wear a jacket ONCE the entire time...going to work at 10:30pm or even getting off at 6am. It was T-shirt nice.

I haven't ridden since I got home tho...in fact, since my wet mountain bike ride a week ago Tues up in Sunnyvale. Seems I hurt myself after all on my 'near miss' crash. The one that didn't quite happen. I had a good adrenaline rush after nearly going over the edge of the trail nearing the end of the ride...and when I got up after an evening nap for work that evening I knew something was wrong. My neck was SORE! Neck, upper back..something was tweaked or out of whack. I ended up pumping motrin 800's the entire rest of that week...and it still hurt to even turn my head to look in the side mirrors as I drove. We had a pretty nice weekend here in Santa Maria and I skipped all of it and mostly sat on the couch with a heating pad on my shoulders and neck. It's much better now but still a little sore. I HOPE to ride tomorrow (Thurs) as it's supposed to be another banner day (the projected high is 88 and only 8 mph of wind, which would also be quite rare). Can't pass that kind of day up...so pain or no I'll get out there and see how it goes. We're supposed to be down in the 70's by the weekend, which is STILL above our normal and will be an amazing weekend if it happens. I sure hope so, as I'd like to get out on the Mt bike this weekend and try out my new tires. You see, I treated myself at the end of my month long trip and got new rubber for the mt bike.

New tires on the bike is like new tennis shoes as a kid. You run faster and jump higher. It's the same on the bike. New stuff makes it BETTER. And BETTER is really something, as it's ALWAYS good!

And so...it's October. Halloween is coming quick. Leaves are turning. Fall is here, and soon enough we will once again do the dreaded time-shift. I HATE that time shift. That always signified that winter is at hand. It gets dark early. Yuk. What a waste. Go to work in the dark, and barely have time for an hour ride before dark after. That just STINKS! And it's coming fast. But it's not here yet. So I will do my very best to enjoy the daylight and warm days we have coming our way.

I hope you do the same. Get out there and enjoy. Life is GOOD!

GAME ON!

The fat lady sings in Sunnyvale

2011-10-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well. I've now been up here in Sunnyvale for a month now. Living in a hotel. But the light at the end of the tunnel is shining bright and strong. I have ONE MORE shift at work. Wednesday night (which counts as my Thursday shift). Woo-HOOOOO!

Not that I haven't had a good time up here....I do my best not to be the kind of person who sits around doing nothing and complaining. That's why I bring my bikes. And I've done pretty good this trip. I think I managed to ride every other day the entire month. That's a really good average. For some it might be too much, for others too little.

I have found that for me, cycling is my 'life-medication'. And like any medication, there is a 'correct' amount. Too little time in the saddle and I get cycling anemia. It makes we weak and lethargic, and if the condition continues without prompt medication it causes personality disorders and will severely affect my mental outlook. Jeannie can tell if I "took my meds" recently, just by how I act. And in being a wonderful wife AND a nurse (as all wives are) she can instantly diagnose my anemic cycling condition and prescribe the cure by simply saying: "why don't you go for a ride?"

It's really that simple. And as a good husband, I'm pretty much obliged to follow her direction, because that's how good marriages work: the husband does that the wife says. Yes, I freely admit it. Any guy who says otherwise is not being totally honest. Or is married to an alien of some sort. I'm quite certain that all women from Planet Earth are born to be in charge. It's just how things work.

But I digress at the original intent of today's post: my LAST ride of this trip. I hadn't intended for it to be the last ride, it just looks like that will be how it ends up. You see, it started raining last night. Lots of rain I think. I came out of work this morning into a pitch-black parking lot trying to find my car, and walked thru some pretty deep puddles. And there is more forecast for today.

My ride yesterday was hopefully going to be where I finally meet up with Jill Homer (yes, it would be she of the Jill Outside blog) and we would get to go for a ride together. I've been following her blog for many years now. Since before she entered her first Iditasport Trail Invitational (the race up in Alaska, in February, covering 350 miles of the same Iditarod sled-dog trail that goes from Nome to Anchorage. Since then one of her many cycling accolades is she lined up at the start for the Tour Divide race 2 years ago, which is a 2700 mile race along the continental divide from Canada to Mexico. She not only finished (which is an absolutely astounding achievement) but she set a new women's record! And she has 2 published books, one about the ITI race and the 2nd about the TD race. I have both (autographed of course...via the mail). And now I was finally going to meet this Energizer Bunny on a bike in person!

Sadly, it didn't happen. She has picked up a nasty little bug that is going around....a head-cold that is preceded by a sore throat. I had it last Saturday, and many folk at work have been getting it and it seems to be passing around fast in this area. The morning of the ride I checked my email and she said she wasn't feeling very well, and I knew it was grim. But I slept a few hours and got up and ready to ride, and received the dreaded truth: she was out. Feeling horrible. AND she is supposed to leave today (Weds) for a Rim to Rim adventure of the Grand Canyon with her dad.

The ride we had intended to do was the Tunitas Creek road ride that I raved about 2 weeks or so ago. She had never done it and I was quite excited to go back. Well. After the light rains on Monday, I figured the roads would still be wet coming down thru the redwoods. Hmmmmm....lets see. Wet roads, the first rain in many months (meaning all the oil droplets and exhaust goo and such from the cars and motorcycles haven't yet been washed away), and skinny highly inflated bike tires trying to descend on the newly rain-slicked-roads. Not a good plan. So I called the audible and decided to re-ride the Saratoga Gap trail loop I had done 3 weeks ago, only this time I'd deviate and take two alternate trail portions during said loop. The trails were pretty wet but not muddy (as in: I'd leave tire prints here and there but nowhere was I sinking in leaving ruts...I won't ride if it's like that).

The Saratoga Gap trail on a wet, cloudy day. BEAUTIFUL, just BEAUTIFUL!

Being wet, lots of debris is flung up by my tires and clings to my legs. By the end of the ride I had little twigs, pieces of leaves, and mud-splats all over my legs (and also my backside I found when I took my camelback off after the ride). But despite all this, it turned out to be probably the most awesome of all my great rides this trip! Riding inside the forest just after a rain, well...there just isn't any fresher air than that. It was like one giant ever-changing concoction of herbal tea aromas. Each breath seemed to bring a different earthy scent. Every type of tree, shrub and plant I'd pass having different smells... the mixture was intoxicating. The trails were surprisingly firm overall. But the going was slower than in dry weather, as there are roots and rocks all over the place. And even though the trail overall was quite solid, the wet roots and rocks were something to be ridden over like eggshells.

The trails are just so beautiful at any time deep in the forest canopy, but in the subdued light of a cloudy day, the moss on the trees, the leaves on the ground...everything takes on a new life.

I almost went over my handlebars on the return leg while going over and around a tree-stump / root system in the middle of the trail. Had it been dry I would have easily just gone over, but it's at a funny angle and the best line is to take the side nearest the drop off. However, being at an angle, when it's wet your tires slide when they hit it (towards the aforementioned drop off). I gently lofted my front tire as I approached, but my balance was slightly off and it lightly tapped the root on the way over and slid, pitching me and my bike towards the steep embankment. As the front wheel went off the edge I was already unclipping and jumping clear. Had I been even a tiny bit slower I would have gone over with the bike. As it was I managed to jump off onto the trail and was able to grab the back wheel as the bike was going down, saving me from an ugly hike down a steep WET embankment to retrieve my bike. Turns out you get a pretty-good adrenaline rush from a 'near miss'.

Overall I was strangely weak on the climbs, and I'm glad Jill wasn't there to see it (something about showing weakness to a girl...especially one who can ride her bike 2700 miles over the course of 20 days or so). The final climb up Charcoal Rd I was barely crawling in my granny gear, and couldn't think of any good reason for the sad state of my climbing this day. My near crash was not long after this climb, and I think part of the reason I almost lost it was that I was just tired and being lazy on that one particular move. That's how most crashes happen...you let your guard down for just a few milliseconds at just the wrong time. I think that's how car crashes and probably most other accidents happen too. At least that's my professional opinion.

Overall it was just an absolutely awesome day. I OWNED the trails! Not a tire track to be found! There were however TONS of deer tracks. Pretty much anywhere there was a soft spot not covered by leaves (which are almost everywhere as fall has certainly hit) there were fresh deer tracks.

There was also this little guy, just sitting on a sandy part of the trail, minding his own business. I'm not even totally sure what he is...it's not a gecko, nor a salamander...maybe a newt?

Anyway, this is to be my last post from THIS particular Sunnyvale trip. HOORAY! It's been a lot of fun riding, and the work has been pretty decent too....but it's TIME TO GO HOME! I've been away too long now. I like my trips up here, but as always: there's no place like home. Home is where Jeannie and the babies are. Wherever that happens to be.

Mamma, I'm coming HOME! Have a great weekend everybody, I sure will!

Mountain bike bliss

2011-10-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Every time I travel north to Sunnyvale to work, I am AMAZED at how much LAND has been set-aside (purchased actually) for the people. Beautiful land. Here in the Silicon Valley, south Bay area. MILLIONS of people live and work here. Traffic during any commute time is choked to a standstill. Yet I am still discovering new and awesome places to ride, both road and trail...and there are SO FEW people out there, it just blows my mind!

Last week I did an entirely new ride starting with the Saratoga Gap trail. It's all part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail system, which is a huge network of trails that runs all the way up to San Francisco and then around and down the East bay, over 330 total miles I believe. The sections I rode here covered just a bit over 10 miles (and then I returned the same way I had come). I had thought this ride would be an easy day, considering that I drove to the top of Skyline Ridge where I picked up the trail. I was wrong, and for two primary reasons.

Number one: it was HOT. I'm not real good at hot. I can endure it, but as I pedaled my way along the singletrack, the shaded areas under the forest canopy were quite warm (in the mid 80's typically) and in some areas felt like a giant stagnant sauna. But it was still very nice.

The Saratoga Gap trail

But there are areas of the trail that leave the comforting embrace of the forest, and in those areas the sun beat down from on high, and it felt like I might burst into flames at any moment. I kept thinking of the Vin Diesel movie where he and his compatriots are on some prison planet (Inferno I think they called it) where the sunrise brings temps that are literally scorching and burn a person into ash in mere moments.

The Long Ridge trail (or as I like to call it, the Surface of the SUN trail)

At my turnaround point I had endured temps up to 106, but I miraculously did NOT burst into flame. I was however low on water.

When I started the ride, I had no agenda whatsoever as to how far I planned to ride. I was going to ride however far I felt like and then turn around. For some reason I like nice round numbers, and as I was riding along, each section you begin has signs posting the distance to the next section. My basic math skills showed that I would be reaching Alpine Pond just a bit past 10 miles, and that sounded pretty good to me.

Black Mountain above Stevens Creek (I climbed this last week)

I somehow made it past the hottest part of the ride, and somehow made it to Alpine Pond... and just after that the parking lot for the Russian Ridge Open Space preserve which was my turnaround point.

As I climbed and descended my way back the way I had come, realizing I was low on water, I had to laugh at my idea of an 'easy day'. It turns out riding a ridge trail means that you may not have any enormous climbs, buy you are however either going up or down the entire way. THIS is reason number two of my 'not an easy ride day' (thought I forgot to tell you #2, didn't you?)

The Sunny Jim Trail

There are just very few flat areas on a ridge. I forgot this point and paid for it. In the 20.5 total miles of my day, I ended up with over 3200' of climbing. That's a lot considering I never had any climbs much over 100'. There are very few places where you get any rest shy of stopping to take pictures (hint hint).

Horseshoe Lake panorama

Even with all my pictures, I was EXHAUSTED when I finally finished and can't remember being OH-SO-HAPPY to make that last bend in the trail and see the car! Here's my polar file for the day...notice the conspicuous absence of ANY large climbs. It was a crushing (yet SUPER FUN) ride!

My Polar profile for the day

My ride on Friday was back to my old favorite Purisima Creek Open Space preserve. This is more like my 'usual' type of ride, where there are enormous climbs followed by enormous (and scintillating) downhills. Downhills are the reason we climb. The climb itself is payment, and the descent is the payback. This day I felt spunky and was going for the hat-trick. I consider it the hat-trick when I do all three climbs. I park in the village of Woodside and do the 4.2 mile road-ride climb up Kings Mt Rd (an awesome road ride btw), then turn right on Skyline Rd and .2 miles later I descend on Purisima Creek Trail. 4.5 miles down I hit the Purisima Higgins parking area, and there the climbing begins anew. I go left up the Whittemore Gulch trail which is all singletrack. The bottom mile of that climb consists of three leg-crushing pitches, one after another. After that the climb settles into a nice consistent grade that goes in and out of the canopy.

This is the Stick I used to break into my car 2 weeks ago after I locked myself out (twice) while parked at the bottom of Kings Mt Rd (the gateway to Purisima Creek Redwoods open space preserve).

I saved it in case I need it again. However, I tossed it in the middle of a BUNCH of poison oak. I didn't want it to be too easy.

Purisima Creek, near the bottom of the first descent.

The climb up Whittemore Gulch, about 2/3rds to the top.

The climb continues

Back under the canopy

The gentle giants of Purisima Creek Redwoods open space preserve

You can see why I love this ride...it has everything. And I never seem to get any pictures of the descents for some reason (GRIN!) By the time I get to the bottom of Harkins Ridge it would take surgical procedures to remove my smile. The day ended with over 5000' of climbing over 29 miles. Not a bad days work...I mean fun!

My Polar profile for the hat-trick ride of Purisima Creek (all 3 climbs)

I was PLANNING on doing another ride from my bucket list today (Saturday) being as I have the entire weekend off (as I was leaving work on Thursday morning I was told they didn't need my services over the weekend...meaning I now have Friday/Saturday/Sunday off...reporting back to work Sunday at 10:30pm). HOWEVER, I barely slept last night, something about my body wondering just WHEN normal sleepy-time is gonna be. And I had that nagging scratchy sore-throat all day yesterday...and I was in typical denial that a cold is trying to eek it's way into my system (the, uhm, excuse the pun...COLD hard facts are the cold is already IN your system when you get that sore throat I'm afraid).

I woke up and went to breakfast already feeling BAD. The cold was in. At this point it was minor...just a head-cold...but there was no doubt. My joints ached, I was blowing mounds of goo....yep. A STUPID head-cold. DAMN!! I'm not going to waste an ENTIRE DAY when I don't have to work! And so... I loaded up my road bike and gear anyway and drove to my starting point, full speed ahead, damn the torpedo's and all that. As I pulled into the parking lot atop Skyline Rd (to start a probable 60 or 70 mile day including my target: Bonny Doon Rd outside of Santa Cruz) I realized that I was kidding myself. I felt like crap. My neck hurt. And I hadn't even put a leg over the bike. Full introspection told me that no good can come of this...so I begrudgingly turned around and went back to the hotel. Live to fight another day.

I HOPE to try again for this ride tomorrow, but time will tell how vicious this particular cold is. It was on the Bonny Doon climb that Levi launched his ultimately wining attack in the Tour of California in years past. I want to ride this climb. I WILL ride this climb! Mark my words.

Cav reachs for the SKY! (and I did too!)

2011-09-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well. is it any surprise that Cav is the new world champion? I have to say it's well earned...he's on track in just another few years to have the most stage wins in the TDF EVER! Most guys win one or two stages in their lifetime and that makes their career. Cav only wins 3 or 4 (in ONE tour) and everybody thinks he having an off year. I didn't get to watch the worlds tho, as no VS here in the hotel. So I had to read about it at VN (and in the comments on my last post..thanks for the update Rae!) Strange to see Cav in a SKY jersey tho. It's going to be a very odd year coming up...so many drastic changes have been made. Levi with QUICKSTEP??? That just sounds freaky-odd. Are they going to fully support him in the Tour of California? It will be interesting, that's for sure.

So..NOW the party's officially over. But take comfort that they will be having training camps before you can shake a stick, and the Tour Down Under is just around the corner.

As to my own rides, last Thursday I did a totally new ride that was recommended to me by a girl I met on a ride the week before. She called this "THE RIDERS RIDE". It was a canyon called Tunitas Creek, and it goes east off of Hwy 1 up and over Skyline Road. I passed it on that ride whens he told me about it, and I ALMOST deviated from my plan to ride it that day...but in the end I stuck to my plan and finished the loop I had planned (had never done that either). So I parked in Woodside (I park there a lot...both rd and mt bike rides are doable from that spot) and rode up and over Skyline Rd, down La Honda rd, and turned north on Hwy 1 on the coast. 4 miles later there was the turnoff for Tunitas Creek Rd.

Immediately upon turning onto the target road, it was apparent that this was no 'usual' road. It was narrow...barely wide enough for 2 small cars to pass. There were NO lines of any sort painted on this road. And finally, the pavement was in great shape. That is an unusual combination. The first few miles were open terrain with farms and such on either side, widely spaced. And then I came to the redwoods.

It was like a light-switch was turned...a DOOR into the forest. There was a line of enormous redwoods marking the start of the good stuff...and I didn't have my camera! (I forgot it in my mt bike gear). The road went from sunny to dark and damp far beneath the redwood canopy. The creek was babbling along far below the road, as it was cut into the side of the valley following the contours of the creek. I had to stop and take off my sunglasses and iPod (I typically ride with earphones and only actually listen to them on the climbs). It was immediately apparent that listening to music on this climb would be tantamount to sacrilegious. The sunglasses were totally useless as it was quite dark until your eyes got used to the meager light making it's way thru the trees. And it tuns out you don't want anything blocking your vision here. It was by far, BY FAR, the single most amazing piece of road I've ever ridden. If you were to custom design a piece of road for a bike, this is what you would strive for.

The climb was quite gentle at first, probably around 3 or 4% grade for about a third of the climb. But gentle grade or not, there was no 'racing' up this climb. I was spinning easy, just trying to take it all in. Looking down to the creek below, deep in the shadows you could see mighty fallen redwoods from centuries past, buried beneath eons of dirt and debris from what must have been tidal flooding going down the mountain. Pools and waterfalls (if there were more water) would be quite abundant. It was rugged and beautiful to watch. And looking uphill, just steep rugged terrain suitable only for animals. I'd imagine the deer and other forest animals do quite well in here. Even with a road going right thru it, I'd say it's still nearly wilderness. If you were to go hiking, you wouldn't get too far from the road in the steep hillside. Just cutting this road must have been an enormous undertaking.

And then the road got steep. It suddenly jumped to around 9 to 11% grade. Switchbacks were STEEP. All of a sudden I was working pretty hard just to keep moving. And all the while, the earthy aromas were almost overwhelming. And the quiet. I must have stopped 7 or 8 times just to look and listen. I think I saw maybe 3 cars the entire climb. And 2 motorcycles...but they were parked on a turn and were gawking at the awesomeness of the road just as I was. The words "magnificent, grandeur, splendor, magical" all come to mind and would not be overstating the beauty of this road. I can't WAIT to go back and ride it again...this time I'll go down and up, rather than a loop. I want to see this road from both directions, and may even do it a 2nd time if I have enough water. It's that good. I'd say it is a road that should be on the bucket list of EVERY road rider. The girl who told me about it said the Tour of California went up it one year....I didn't know that (and can't imagine the peleton going up this...I have to think they must have 'backed it down' a notch or 2 for the climb...it's not every day they ride a road like THIS!)

And after about a mile or 2 (or seemingly 7) of this STEEP climbing, it suddenly eases back to like it was at the start. You are fooled into thinking you are at the top...and fooled, and fooled so me more. It just cruises at about 3% grade for another 2 miles or so....all still quite beautiful, and it's just like the climb won't ever end (which is good, because you don't WANT it to end). And sadly, it does indeed end. You are back at Skyline Rd. At an intersection I've passed DOZENS of times...MANY DOZENS of times. And I NEVER had an inkling at what lies just across the highway....I've always turned right and gone down to Purisima Creek Redwoods. Amazing that it only took 7 or 8 years for me to find this ride! I guess that means that I need to turn a new direction in life now and then and see what's there. It might be totally amazing!

Anyway...I am still reeling in the awesomeness of this road. However I am riding Mt Hamilton tomorrow (Monday)...as it's ALSO on my bucket list. It's a big climb I hear...over 4000' I've been told...we'll see how it ranks with Figueroa Mt down in my neck of the woods.

On Saturday I did a Mt bike ride at Stevens Creek...I did this same ride as one of my very first mt bike rides up here many years back. It was a great ride, and at the summit of Black Mt, there was a coyote just hanging out. As I approached, he didn't' even acknowledge my presence...he was focused on catching a mouse or something. I stopped barely 5' from him, and he snagged whatever it was he was after and gobbled it down, then moseyed on by me on the double-track...passing about 2' from me. I took a picture as he was standing there, and then after he had passed me (when he was directly beside me I couldn't take the picture as he was too big in my viewfinder! Here are those shots:

He just finished eathing whatever it was he caught by the time I realized he wasn't going to run and I got my camera out.

And here he just loped away down the road like I didn't even exist.He wasn't even the slghtest bit afraid of me. It was rather cool actually.

I've seen some other animals on my rides too..lots of deer. And tbey haven't been very afraid either. On my way back from the Tunitas Creek ride on Thursday, I was descending Kings Mt Rd back into Woodside to finish the ride, and there was a road biker going up but he wasn't looking up the road, or at me...he was looking back at the switchback he had just come out of. I slowed for the turn and there on the inside of the turn was a huge buck, standing right at the edge of the road. If he hadn't moved (and it appeared that way), then the upcoming rider must have passed about a foot or 2 from him. He was at least a 3 point (3 spines on each side of his horns)..he was pretty big, and appeared quite calm.... just standing there as I passed. I was worried he might leap in front of me, but he didn't even blink as far as I could tell. It would be very easy NOT to see him, as deer blend so very well in the dark and shadowed woods.

On a mt bike ride last week I was also deep in the canopy, and had just got to the bottom of a hill and there was an intersecting trail. I stopped and dug out my map, and had to move about 10 feet up the trail into a tiny sliver of sunlight streaming down thru the trees to actually read the map. I figured out where I was and was just getting ready to ride when I heard a twig snap. I looked around and a doe crossed from my right to left about 15 feet in front of me. I followed her and she stopped...and where she stood (which was also about 15 feet from me) was 3 other deer....2 does and a small buck. They had been there the entire time I was looking at my map, just watching me. If the one hadn't crossed my path I would have had no idea they were there. They are so amazing and beautiful!

OK...enough for tonight. It was a good weekend in MY football cheering section...both Michigan AND the Raiders won...and that seems to be a very rare combination I've discovered. I'm having a pretty good year! But it's off to bed for me...need to catch another hour of sleep before heading in tonight...ride days are always lighter on sleep than non ride days. Have a GREAT week!

Update 9/27/11My Mt Hamilton ride

On Thursday I finally knocked a ride off my bucket list: Mt Hamilton.

Turns out, looking at google maps to figure out where to drive/park doesn't really give you 'the rest of the story'. I did just that and parked at what looked like the edge of the city, heading out towards Mt Hamilton Rd...I was going to ride "Quimby Rd" up to Mt Hamilton Rd. Turns out it I parked at the base of a 11-12+ percent AVERAGE grade for the 3 mile climb, (then it dropped 500' and I was finally on Mt Hamilton Rd)....after that it was all easy! (come of the switchbacks on Quimby showed 16 to 18% grade..it was all I could do to keep moving uphill). Who knew my Mt Hamilton ride would START with a climb up Alp d'Huez!

The grade on the 7 miles of Mt Hamilton averaged a paltry 4 to 6 %...quite easy actually, even tho there were many switchbacks. My entire ride ended up at only 30 miles, but I got all of that that 5100' of climbing in that short distance. The weather was perfect, and I think I saw MAYBE 3 cars the entire ride. It was a good day. No, a GREAT day. Here are some pics:

The target: Lick Observatory atop Mt Hamilton

Looking back down

Lick Observatory at the summit, I'm almost there!

Polar altitude profile for the ride, notice how STEEP the opening climb was (that was Quimby Rd)

My shadow enjoying the view from the top

Signs

2011-09-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

Have you ever received a 'sign' and didn't heed it, only to learn later that it was indeed a sign and you were foolish to ignore it? I believe in things like that...that we do sometimes get signs. And we just have to be open enough to see them. And then to understand them...that's the real trick. It can be very hard to decipher exactly what you are being told.

On Tuesday I got off work at 6am per normal (I am back on the graveyard shift, and it's going GREAT!) Had breakfast, then a few hours sleep, and got up around 10:30 and started loading up. A quick snack as I'm driving out to the trail head. Which in this case was just outside the village of Woodside CA on Kings Mt Rd at the base of the climb. It's a paved road, and on days when I'm feeling rather energetic, I will park at the bottom and do the road ride up, then do my mt bike ride on the other side which usually entails 2 full climbs back to the top (around 1600' per climb).

I was parked and ready to ride around 11:30am. SWEET! Only it was getting hot already. The forecast was warmer than it has been, but I never know how to figure out how warm it will be in the various places I frequent on my bikes. It's already in the 80's where I'm parked. It could be hotter or cooler on the other side of the mountain...that all depends on the day. So. Initially I put my keys in my pocket as I'm starting to get ready...only I quckly realize that I lost my sunglasses 2 weeks ago from the very same pocket...so I stow them inside the zipper pouch in my camelback, which is sitting in the back of the SUV (I have a rental Hyundai Santa Fe on this trip). I finish gearing up, hit the 'lock' button on the passenger door and close it. Go to the back and helmet up, sunglasses, MP3 player (for the long climbs)...gloves ...yep, ready to ride. Close the trunk. And INSTANTLY realize my camelback is still sitting just inside the trunk. With the keys. And my cell phone. And my wallet. I am SO SCREWED!

The things that go thru your mind at moments like these....I was SO ticked at myself! HOW could I have been SO STUPID! I am SUCH AN IDIOT! And there I stand, on the side of the road, having a discussion with myself about just how many levels of stupidity it takes to do that, and just how I'm to get out of this dilemma I have so easily immersed myself in. I have a bike. My helmet. There is a town just a few miles away. But I have no wallet. My AAA card is there, mocking me thru the steel of the car. The keys are also laughing. Apparently inanimate objects have a very warped sense of humor. This is not funny in the LEAST I assure you.

I stomp around behind the truck cursing my bad luck, trying to come up with a plan. I left my windows cracked about an inch as it's in the sun and getting hotter by the minute. Maybe I can use that. Modern cars a bit harder to break into then the older ones where a coat hanger slipped down over the lock and pop it up....no alarm...and bam, you are in. But breaking in is the only option I can come up with. So...I wander around and find a stick about the right size. The lock/lock button is facing up thankfully, so if I can get the stick pointing down I should be able to push it and unlock the doors. HA! What a simple plan! I am THE MAN! So..with said stick, I stand on the side of the road jiggling it around trying to get it in JUST the right position, and push down. It keeps sliding off...it's very hard to keep on the flat rocker button (the front is lock, the back is unlock). I try and try, all the while cars are driving by and I figure if someone calls the police, well, that would solve my problem too...as I can prove it's my vehicle once I get inside. I've heard they carry slim-jims and can pop the locks of most cars.

Turns out, the unlock button is disabled once the car is locked and the doors are closed. I guess that makes sense...as it turns out I'd been pushing the button down repeatedly. If I move the stick to the front of the rocker switch I can her the locks bump each time, but alas they are already locked. I just can't get them UNLOCKED! RATS. I am NOT the man! So much for that plan...maybe the police will show up soon. But I am not one to give up easily.....as I stare thru the window, there on the far side of the car on the drivers door is the unlock switch for only that door...the manual lock switch. IF I can get a long enough stick that is skinny enough to get thru the cracked window, AND if I can get it all the way across and in JUST the right spot, I MIGHT be able to flip it backwards and pop the lock. It's worth a try. So I scour the area for a new stick. And scour some more. And then more...I'm a block away from the car (with my bike standing beside my locked car) when I find a dead tree in the middle of a bunch of poison oak and thistles and such. I wade in as I NEED that stick. I break off one that looks about right, and wade out with my treasure. My legs are chewed up a bit, and I also chewed up my hands some getting said branch free from the tree...turns out it wasn't quite dead yet and put up quite a fight.

So...back at my car, I take a moment to peer at my now quite uncomfortable socks...seems I've picked up about a thousand "Klingons" in the bramble (Kling-ons are what I call the stickers and such that get stuck in your socks and have to be picked out one by one before going in the laundry). No time for Klingons now...I have to break into my car. And so...yes, the stick is too fat at the one end. But it's the only stick in town. I pull down on the window and maybe eek out another quarter inch of space...it will have to do. I jam the stick thru....my rough measurement was good...it goes thru to the door and sticks out the window just a few inches...however it's REALLY wedged in the window as it's too big. It also has a curve to it, and is QUITE the job to maneuver the other end about 5 feet away into a tiny slot where I have a chance to jimmy the lock. And still cars are driving by. Maybe it's obvious...my bike is lying there, and I'm dressed in cycling gear...and I have a giant stick inside my car as I invent new cuss words and try to get that blasted end in that tiny little spot.

But finally...I am THE MAN once again! I got it in just the right spot, and with a quick move I popped the lever and the door is unlocked! VICTORY! HOORAY! HALLELUIAH! I pull the stick out and open the drivers door. The alarm goes off. I don't care. I press the unlock button and the locks all unlock. YES!! I close the drivers door (as it's sticking out into the road) and immediatly hear the unmistakable sound of the locks locking AGAIN! The alarm is STILL going off (tattletale!)...and yes, the trunk is locked as are all the doors. DAMN DAMN DAMN! OK..I can do this. Under a bit more pressure this time as the alarm is still blaring. Jam the stick in, flail it around, and BAM I pop the lock once more...all in about 60 seconds this time (hey..I'm getting GOOD at this!) Open the door, this time I climb THRU the vehicle to get to my camelback in the very back....get my keys out...hit the remote and all is right with the world once again! The alarm stops, and the car recognizes it's master and is content.

WHEW! I'm BEAT! It's now been over a half hour, I'm sweating and mentally whipped! What to do. What to do. Obviously I've been given a sign. But what exactly does it mean? I ponder loading up the bike and going home, fearing the sign is that I shouldn't be riding today. So I choose to ignore the sign. I once AGAIN load up my gear, this time ensure my camelback is ON my back. Lock the doors. And begin my ride. I'm not even a half mile up the road looking at the climb before me, and I think to myself:

"I can't do this...it's too hot. I don't have enough water for 3 climbs. I'm whipped. I need to drive to the top."

And so I turn around and go back to the car. Load up my bike and gear. And drive up the 4 hard miles, turn right, another quarter mile and I'm at the REAL trailhead. parked in the shadows of redwoods. Under the massive canopy. It's cooler than I was below. Shaded. It feels right. So I again unpack my gear, get the bike out, lock the doors, and I'm off.

Turns out I deciphered the sign correctly. I was simply being told that I wasn't going to make the 3 climbs. It was HOT HOT HOT on the backside of that mountain...on my first climb it registered 99 in the sunny sections. I went back down and did it again (as I usually do) and it was 101 this time. I slowly ground my way up the awesome singletrack, tunes from my MP3 helping dampen out the pain of long climbs. When I got back to the car and unloaded my gear, I had just a few ounces of water left. Yes, I made the right call. I salvaged the ride. Honed my carjacking skills. Suffered in the heat and conquered the mountain TWICE.

However, I have to admit my trepidation throughout the ride, wondering if I ignored the sign I was SO PLAINLY given, and was going to suffer some terrible fate because of it. A bad crash. A tree falling on me. A meteor strike. The door from an airplane falling from the sky. Goblins jumping out from the forest, peeling away my skin from my bones for a meal. Ok, maybe not goblins. But any number of other equally horrendous situations. But no. I ended up having a great ride and a great day. And a story. Survival against all odds. Ahhhhh yes.

I am SO the MAN!

Pigskin fever!

2011-09-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

Well, cycling season is all over but for the crying...and I know most of you aren't big fans here, but it's FOOTBALL TIME!

So far this season my teams are doing great! In college ball Michigan is off to a big THREE and 0 start, after knocking off Notre Dame last weekend (HUGE GAME!) and E. Michigan yesterday. I caught the 4th quarter of the ND game here in my hotel room here in Sunnyvale after work...it was a roller coaster ride of scoring, and I think any adjoining rooms were wondering if I had a party going on here!) I was working again yesterday so only got to see highlights of the E. Mich game. And their evil nemesis Ohio State LOST yesterday to the Miami Hurricanes (Sorry Barbara)...which also had me cheering wildly! Navy ALMOST knocked off a very high ranked team....they were SO CLOSE to knocking off tenth ranked South Carolina...that would have been UNBELIEVABLE...but alas, they came up OH so short. Still an awesome performance for the Midshipmen of Annapolis!

And Susie (haven't heard from you in a while...hope all is well over/up there), so very sorry about your Terps yesterday...they came up just short of the ranked West VA Mountaineers...

And the Raiders...they knocked off Denver IN Denver last Sunday...that was HUGE! We are actually looking pretty good this year for a change! I have high hopes this year....But as always it's going to be a LONG road.

OK..enough football. I'm still sitting in a hotel up here in Sunnyvale...started off 2 weeks ago on the Graveyard shift, worked that for 3 nights then was moved to the day shift. That didn't work out so good for me...too many managers and such wandering around during the day slowing down or stopping progress...(funny how that works...there must be some kind of formula for the number of mangers on hand proportionally slowing progress).

And for some reason I seemed to have some kind of issue with the highbay manager....she seems to HATE me.... and my life on days has been living hell all week.....she is in charge of deciding who works what jobs. I keep getting assigned to what I have lovingly named the "Furniture Moving Crew", which is stuff that needs to be done (I guess) but is a far cry from building spacecraft. I would be ok with it if she treated me like a person...howver my 'orders' are to report back to her when I complete a job and need re-tasking, however.... she seems highly annoyed when I do that, and seems to find even crappier jobs for me to keep me out of her hair. Yet if I DON'T report back and go find actual work on a spacecraft on my own (thus keeping out of her hair), she eventually finds me and barks at me like I'm a kindy-garter kid (This isn't just me in this situation, but also Greg... the other guy I came up here with). On Friday we had both pretty much had it with this lhorrible situation...I was biting my lip pretty hard not to snap, but Greg did...he fired off a lovely email to our boss saying he'll work thru the weekend but on Monday he's packing his car and going home. I gather he (our boss) knew we were in tough straits here after his email, and was transferring Greg back to the graveyard shift starting tonight (Greg got first dibs on it as he was originally assigned the graves before I was)....but he says he's had enough and is still going home, so the boss said I can have his shift...so...I'm AWAY from the Dragon lady and the day-shift! Which is bittersweet...cuz the weekend shifts are awesome! (she doesn't work weekends, and we get assigned to the "A" teams...yesterday was a blast working on flight hardware again!)

No work for me today (sunday)...my first day off since I got up here 2 weeks ago... so am going for a long'ish road ride thru Half Moon Bay today. Never been on any of this ride before...so hopefully the roads are decent and the traffic isn't too bad. I figure there's about a 20 to 30 mile stretch of Hwy 1 along the coast, and a good bit of climbing on Skyline drive. I'm kind of winging it, have no idea how far it will actually be...but I need to be back soon enough to TRY to get a few hours shuteye before going in at 11pm tonight for my first Graves shift. I am assuming the ride will be around 60 to 70 miles...but that's totally a guess.

And on the home front, PG had her surgery on Friday...lumps removed, and dental work (who knew doggie-dental was such a big thing?) She had 2 lumps removed..one was a pretty good sized lipoma thing ...about the size of half an orange...the other was much smaller but he cell-sucking test said that was possibly a pre-cancer blob and should be removed. So, she is home and doing well Jeannie says. I sure miss the family...been gone 2 weeks, only 2 more to go. A month is a LONG trip tho...

OK...time for breakfast and then get out there on the bike!

GAME ON!

Remember

2011-09-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

Unless you've been living under a rock recently, you're quite well informed that today is (was) the 10th anniversary of the towers coming down. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years already. I arrived at work this morning JUST in time for the live "moment of silence" at Ground Zero at 8:46am NY time. I stood there alone in our break room with my head down, pondering the unfathomable events of a decade ago.

I was only 3 when Kennedy was assassinated, so I don't have any recollection of that event. However, I think 9/11 is and always will be a moment like that, where everybody will remember where they were and what they were doing when it happened.

Jeannie and I were in Hawaii, having JUST moved there. I had been in NYC just 2 weeks prior, as Sarah (Jeannie's little sister) who lives in Manhattan had been accepted to the Masters program at Yale, and John (Jeannie's twin brother) and I drove up the coast from Virginia and helped move her from the Manhattan apartment to New Haven Ct. for the fall semester.

Jeannie and I had visited her sister in the city just a year prior. We stayed there in Manhattan for nearly a week in a friends apartment, living the NYC life. That meant no car, as ours was parked in a garage the entire week and we took trains everywhere. Also we ate every meal out...breakfast was bagels and coffee in the shop just downstairs. Lunch was somewhere in the city as we were out and about playing tourist every single day. We caught Les Miserabes on Broadway. During out stay I took Jeannie and Sarah to the most amazing restaurant I've ever been to: Windows on the World in the WTC. I can't remember exactly what floor it was on, but it was VERY near the top...something like the 112th. The square bldg had a rotating outer circle that went from edge to edge in the building. All the tables were arranged on that outer circle. So during the course of dinner you slowly circled around the building getting a most AMAZING view of the city at night...there was the Chrysler bldg, the Empire State bldg, and the Statue of Liberty among other sites. I recall as we first stepped up into the main foyer from the subway below thinking how HUGE the room was. Huge beyond anything I'd ever seen or imagined. There was no support beams on the inside, as the outer skin of the bldg WAS the support. I also remember stepping outside looking up, and being completely overwhelmed that humans could build something SO immense. It just seemed impossible that a building could be SO BIG! The scale was unbelievable!

Anyway, I digress. On that horrible morning 10 years ago, we were living in a flea-bag rental furnished appt (more of a room than an appt actually) in Hawaii (on the island of Oahu) as we had just moved to the Islands. Jeannie woke me up saying I HAD to see this. So I crawled out of bed and there on TV was video of the north tower burning. At that time the media had no idea it was a jetliner, and I think everybody assumed it was some dumb private plane that got too close and hit the tower. At that very moment I don't think ANYBODY had any concept of a terror attack. As we watched, suddenly there was a blur and ka-BLOOIE! The south tower was hit! The news slowed down the video and it plainly showed the jet airliner crashing into it, with the huge explosion blowing right thru the bldg and out the other side. I think it was at THAT very moment I realized that the world had just been changed irrecoverably.

Like everybody else with the TV on, we sat riveted watching it burn, having NO inkling that they would collapse. It just never occurred to me. Our video in Hawaii was tape delayed (as we were watching it around 9am local time, which was around 5 hours later in NY) and all the events had already been played out, but we were seeing it as if it were live. However, the media had removed the video about the jumpers. I didn't know about them until later, unlike those that had watched it live in the mainland. Having been on the very high floors and pressing my nose against a window looking down, I can tell you that the thought of launching myself out a window would be beyond anything I could comprehend. So to attempt to imagine the horrid situation faced by those trapped on the high floors, where jumping was your BEST option....well, that still makes me want to cry.

And then suddenly, the south tower fell. I vividly recall seeing it crash down seemingly in slow-motion. I remember thinking "OH MY GOD! IT'S FALLING!" It was like a waterfall or something, as the awesome destructive power of a gazillion bajillion tons of material started pile-driving it's way down. The dust plume billowing out like it was from a volcanic eruption. The video from on the streets as said dust plume blew like a storm thru the streets. People emerging from the dust. I was in shock watching it from 4 thousand miles away, so how on earth did THEY feel? I think denial was common...thinking no, it didn't really happen. It can't have happened. And then over the course of the day the REST of the story emerged. The Pentagon strike. And the failed attempt with United flt 93 that the passengers bravely thwarted in Pennsylvania.

Once again I'm all choked up thinking of all the heroic stories that emerged. The NYFD and NYPD running INTO the scene, the people helping each other escape, sometimes at GREAT peril. And the people on the United flight that didn't make it's target. The friends and families of the dead.

Well, I don't need to go on. You ALL know the story, as I'm sure it's seared into your memory just like mine. I'm also pretty sure you will remember just how helpless you felt watching it all unfold in the coming days and weeks.That was a defining moment, forever changing our lives. And watching it all unfold once again today, bringing it all back.

As long as I live, the events of that day will haunt my memories.

NEVER FORGET!

Half a century, Plus one

2011-09-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

Today (at this very moment as I type, on the evening of Sept 8th 2011) I am officially still Fifty years old.

Half a century.

I head into work in about half an hour for my final 'graveyard' shift (11pm to 6am). I am being shifted to 'days' starting with Saturday morning (I will be working 7 days a week for the duration of my stay here in Sunnyvale). I drive in tonight as a 50 year old, and I will return tomorrow morning as a 51 year old. I have ALL of tomorrow (Friday, my official birthday) off. I plan on doing my FAVORITE mountain bike ride in celebration of making it this far: Purisima Creek Redwoods open space preserve. The basic plan is I get off work and come back to the hotel, have a quick breakfast, grab a few hours of sleep, then get up and get moving. I will need to stay up tomorrow afternoon/evening so I can HOPEFULLY get a good nights sleep for my shifting back to the world of the day-walkers...now that I am almost adjusted to working nights.

Anyway, I have thought about this long and hard about this, and here are some gems of wisdom that I have learned in my 50 years that I feel are some kind of universal truths, and I'd like to share them with yo.

- Almost nothing is as easy as it looks.

- It can ALWAYS be worse.

- The more people you assign to help solve a problem slows down the process to a degree multiplied by the number of people assigned (I have no actual proof whatsoever on this one, it just seems to play out that way).

- You never feel your age.

Let me elaborate on that last one: I have found that when I am feeling younger than my years, soon after that I will have done something stupid and will quickly feel much older. And going along with that one, there is this next one:

- There is an infinite number of stupid things you can do.

And finally, my favorite, which I have never yet seen dis-proven:

- It's far easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
(I don't know who said this first, I've heard it credited to Navy Admiral Grace Hopper, but whoever said it first had an amazing grasp on bureaucracy).

OK, there you have it...my tidbits of truths I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that I'm that old, let-alone that in a few hours that will be no longer true and I will be one year OLDER than that.

And now, I will stop typing, finish my coffee and get to work. When I continue I will be OFFICIALLY another year older.

POOF!

And I'm back...yes, it's me...the OLD guy. It's actually almost exactly 24 hours later from the earlier typing. I had a pretty great day today overall...had an awesome breakfast (the best Belgian Waffle I've ever had)..got a few hours of sleep, then did my ride. The weather was PERFECT...low 80's at the top (where I parked) and down to 62 deg 1800 feet down at the bottom. I did the fun singletrack climb twice, and the awesome middle-track downhill just once. The only downer was when I got to the top the 2nd time I reached into my pocket to put my special photocramatic riding sunglasses back on. And they were gone. Fell out somewhere on that 4 mile climb, and I didn't have enough water to go down and look for them (as I would still HAVE to climb back up to to go home). Best I can do is go back tomorrow (darn it!) and take that same trail down, and maybe by some lucky measure of fate they will be lying there unbroken. Not sure how my odds are on that, being as tomorrow is Saturday, and I can't get there until the afternoon...I'd say slim. That trail will likely have have a lot of hikers and bikers on it before I get there. But I have to try.

The ONLY thing that I can think of missing from my great day was being with Jeannie and the babies.

And so. Another birthday comes to an end. Had a pint of a very tasty cask-ale and an order of Hot wings at a local microbrew after my ride...that was my big birthday dinner. Can't complain....it was pretty tasty.
And with that, I will sign off. Hope everybody has a great weekend! Feel free to toss YOUR hard-earned words of wisdom in the comments...maybe we can compile a book...or a pamphlet, or most likely a small brochure.

GAME ON!

Farewell to summer, and another US pro cycling team (sort of).

2011-09-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well, another summer has come and gone. Labor Day weekend is in the books. Rats. I feel that once again it has flat passed me by. Oh sure, I got out on the bikes here and there...and I did the LIVESTRONG Davis back in July...but other than that I feel like I have nothing to look back on and say I DID. It's not like there's anything special that I didn't do that I had planned....nothing like that. Just the general feeling that I'm another year older. And time is picking up speed. I've been warned that it happens by pretty much everybody older than I am...it's just now that I can feel it happening.

It doesn't help any that we were in Costco yesterday morning picking up a few things and the Christmas stuff is out in force ALREADY! Somehow that just seems to drive the final nail into the coffin of summer. Is it just me, or is it a fact that the decorations and stuff being put out earlier and earlier each year?

As to what I did this weekend, well..I didn't go for ANY bike rides! And I wanted to let me tell you...I just didn't. It was my choice...Jeannie wouldn't have said anything if I had ridden all three days. But I'm driving north TOMORROW to Sunnyvale, and I will be up there a MONTH! It's been quite a while since I was on any business travel. Years back I seemed to go for a few weeks 3 or 4 times a year. It was totally common, and I had my 'Sunnyvale' travel kit all bagged up and ready to load into the rental car. I'd take a full 'mini kitchen' as I was staying in a low budget room (on purpose...see, I got to keep the difference in the Per Diem rate of what was allowed and the actual cost of my room...but like all good things, that has come to an end). We are on 'reciepts' now...so no more slumming for me. I have a 2 bedroom suite with a full kitchen. All the guys who have been going up there recently are staying there and they say it's great. Full kitchen will be nice...no more cooking chili dogs on my 2 burner stove on the coffee table. Or my little toaster oven making mini pizzas. Or any of the other culinary delights I'd whip up in my hotel room. The room with a mini refrigerator, and a mini microwave. No sirree..this time I'm living it up in the ritz!

I had to dig my Sunnyvale travel kit out of the attic (it's been THAT long since I was up there!) and go thru it. No need for the toaster, toaster-oven, mini stove, pots & pans and dishes. That will free up some room in my rental car, whatever it will be (hopefully a mini wagon or something...as I AM bringing up both my mt and road bikes, along with all the gear for both). I will be working the graveyard shift, and at this point I can't say if that's good or bad. I typically have worked the day shift in the past, where we get out of work at 2:30pm. I'd have my bike already in the car, zoom back to the hotel (just a few minutes if I catch all the lights green)....jump into my riding gear, grab my water, and hit the road. I could usually catch about 15 minutes of the car pool lanes (they turn from 'all' to 'HOV' at 3pm) which would get me a good chunk of the way to wherever I was going. This time I will get off work at 6am, eat breakfast at the hotel (this one has free breakfast, which is a GOOD thing!) and sleep some, getting up around 2pm on ride days. Grab some lunch, and hit the road just as if I was working days. I'm in no particular hurry to get home, pretty much before dark is about my only constraint as I won't have lights. Shower up, grab some dinner, then read, surf the net, or watch the tube until I head into work around 10:30pm for my shift start at 11. Such will be my life for the next MONTH. Oh yeah, I will be working EVERY SINGLE DAY while I'm up there. Good for the pocketbook I guess...which is why I go on trips like this. Baby needs new shoes.

Actually, PG needs surgery. Sheesh. Got some blobs to be removed. There goes another GRAND. At least we're not putting them thru college, but sometimes it feels like it! She will be going in while I'm up there, but this one should be rather easier on the recovery...as it's going to be just 2 incisions with masses removed from just under the skin. No bone surgery and such for a change..whew! She might even have the stitches out by the time I get back. Her surgery is scheduled for the 16th I think.

OK...enough on all that....and on to CYCLING.

This Leopard Trek thing has my knickers in a twist. I HATE the idea! Not that either team bothered to consult me on this merger. I feel it's a travesty that LT will be letting go so many of their riders (who jumped ship from Saxo to come WITH Andy & Frank to this awesome new team). Nice. So THAT's how you treat loyalty. "Uhhm, err...well, sorry guys. We didn't win, and we can't find a title sponsor. So we're merging w/ the Shack. Bringing almost their entire team over, along with their director. Good luck finding a new job at this point in the season. Later gaters. Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Quite honestly, it leaves a VERY sour taste in my mouth just THINKING about it.I just see it as a HORRIBLE thing. Levi jumping ship (most likely, as we STILL don't know for sure)...Horner does what? Back to being a full time domestique? That would be pretty sad, being as he doesn't have a lot of years left in his legs at the Pro level I'm afraid. If this is the state of cycling (and not just in the US apparently, if LT couldn't find a title sponsor either)...well, I think the whole sport at the Pro level is in trouble. There's lots of blame to be flung about....however it all comes down to the doping saga's most likely. Which is so very sad. I'm not sticking up for the dopers here, but it's just an extremely sad thing that Cycling is under the Olympic umbrella. I think that is what is killing them....being under WADA.

Look at US Football (or for that matter, the REST of the worlds football...ie: soccer). You don't see them crucifying their talent. At worst a couple of games suspension is typically the norm. Nor do you see multi-year suspensions in basketball, baseball, or Hockey. All quite successful sports that have HUGE sponsor dollars. Are they any cleaner than cycling? Not by a LONG-SHOT would be my guess. They just continue to look the other way like cycling USED to do. I think that most people don't really want to know. We just want a good show, becasue at the end of the day, that's all sports really is to most spectators. The races keep getting harder and harder (look at the Grand Tours) yet somehow they expect the riders to continue to give superhuman performances day after day, but NO CHEATING. They (the race owners, television, and sponsors) all want their cake and eat it too. And IF a cyclist is caught enhancing his abilities, well, he is hung out to dry. Skinned alive. A sacrificial lamb. Dropped by his team, an outcast.

I certainly don't know where this all ends....the US has lost Team HTC and now sort of lost Radio Shack. Team BMC is based here on paper...but I have to ask you, has anybody seen any BMC products for sale in this country? I don't see ANY BMC bikes on the road...though I imagine there are a few. But I've NEVER seen any in a shop. I know they are a big brand over in Europe though. We can CALL it an American team, but that would be somewhat misleading I'm afraid. And it's very sad, as we have a lot of up and coming US riders right now. I'm afraid with the way things are going in the Pro Peleton, they will all be headed to European teams in just a few years, if there are any left. Like it was before Lemond. Sure, we will still have zillions of recreational riders in this country, but the mighty sponsor-dollars will have been put with more lucrative sponsorships like NASCAR, the NFL/NBA/Baseball and the like.

I'm afraid the only way to save cycling is to either lose all the big money, or lose their Olympic attachment. If it wasn't an Olympic sport they would be out from under WADA, and they could make their own wink-wink testing program and then claim they are clean like the big US sports do. Would that be right? Not really, but it works. Tune into a Monday Night Football game sometime and just LOOK at the SPECTACLE! The TV ads bought with HUGE dollars! Are those guys on the field dope-free? Does anybody really care? But what about when someone IS caught dirty? Bad boy...you will serve a 2 week suspension. Lose 2 weeks of pay. Then right back into the fold, do your job. Win at all cost. And behind the public scolding, they are shaking his hand when he's back.

In cycling, if the current trend of loss of sponsors continues, no one will be able to AFFORD to dope. That would also solve the problem. TV revenue would plummet. Races would still go on, however rider salaries the world over would be commensurate with low level pro sports here in the US: pretty much poverty level but doing what you love. Fame would still be there, especially in Europe as I don't see that changing no matter what happens to sponsor dollars. The die hard fans will still know who their hero's are.

So. We shall see what happens in the following weeks and months. Where all the displaced riders will finally end up. I'm afraid at the moment that I'm having a very hard time getting psyched up for next season. But when it comes around, I'm afraid I will be rooting for Garmin more than ever. Sure, I'll still be cheering on George, and Chris, and Levi, and a plethora of others. But for a team? A true US based team? Not much left to choose from all of a sudden.

And on a closing note, I know that Rae already mentioned this....but Cathy, I sure have my fingers crossed that you will retain your job with the team. I know you've been awfully quiet lately, (busy is probably a huge part of that)...but still it scares me. I wish you luck. Maybe it IS time to get into writing about dog-sledding and such. That sport seems to be growing, and there's nobody testing the dogs (yet).

Irene was nastier than I thought. And also "Team Leopard-Shack"?

2011-08-31T18:34:00.000-07:00

Well...Irene didn't appear to be that nasty of a hurricane, but the flooding associated with it was a real shocker to much of the northeast. My friends and family in Virginia emerged unscathed, and my sister in law up in NY/Manhattan says it was pretty much a non-event overall for her. But tell that to the people in Vermont, or Connecticut, or any of the myriad of people in the New England area who lost houses, or roads. Or the people on Hatteras Island in NC who AGAIN lost the roads to their island. I admit I was shocked in the days after by the extent of the flooding. The video of the raging floodwater's in Vermont are just unbelievable! I don't even know how many of the scenic covered bridges the area is famous for are now gone. But it still could have OH so much worse had it been a greater wind category storm. And the season has just begun. Batten down the hatches over there. Susie, I hope things are good...haven't heard from you since last week. I hear there are still MILLIONS of people back east with no power...hopefully you aren't one of them, and your house is unscathed.

And now...on to the cycling rumors. Rae already saw it (thanks for your comment on the last post)...and it prompted me to quickly whip over to VN...and sure enough, it's a full fledged rumor that RS and LT will combine next year. I have to say that is a VERY BAD idea. I LIKE RS being a full blown American team! I have nothing whatsoever against LT...in fact, I think it's an awesome team and is chock full of amazing riders! They have NO NEED to merge with another team (IMO). Gosh...is RS looking to get out of cycling? Is this another team going down the drain (albeit slower than HTC)? If this rumor is true, American cycling is getting crushed. Sponsors must really be moving elsewhere with their advertising dollars. That HTC is breaking up just breaks my heart...but for RS to follow by having to join with another team would be crushing. At least it appears BMC is not only hanging in there, but spending money like it grows on trees! Both Thor AND Gilbert? On a team dedicated to WINNING the TDF next year?

I just don't know what to think of this news, though admittedly it's not news yet...only speculation. Tomorrow we should be hearing where ALL the HTC guys are going next year...and I guess Sept 1st is open-door on who goes to where for all the teams. Should be an interesting day....though quite honestly I think that day when everybody can announce their future plans should wait until AFTER the Vuelta.

OK....not a lot going on here at the home front...other than I got word yesterday that I will most likely be heading up to Sunnyvale for a few weeks, leaving on Tuesday (day after Labor Day). Haven't been up there for work in quite a while now....sure can use the overtime though...as we also have news that PG (one of the furry-kids) needs surgery AGAIN. This time for lumps....we had them checked (they suck some cells out of them and see what they are)...one appears to be a lipoma (a fat blob)....but it's about the size of half an orange just under her belly skin hanging there. The other one is smaller and under her front leg armpit...and it is a pre-cancer thing which they highly recommend we get removed. Somehow she knew I had a trip coming up...seems if there's an extra dollar to be found, either the babies or one of our cars suck it right up...and that's IF we have anything left after the Fed/State governments get thru with us. Sheesh...

OK. That's it from the Central Coast. Oh wait...I forgot...had this from last week but the race in Colo pre-empted me from posting it...thought it was rather humorous (I see I wasn't the ONLY one who thought the media was making a pretty big deal out of the VA Earthquake):

OK, OK...I know that there was actual damage sustained all over the east coast....but I STILL thought this was quite funny!

And finally, there is this....a joke I got on the internet from a friend and made me laugh out loud :

Vatican Humor

After getting all of Pope Benedict's luggage loaded into the limo (and he doesn't travel light), the driver notices the Pope is still standing on the curb.
'Excuse me, Your Holiness,' says the driver, 'Would you please take your seat so we can leave?'
'Well, to tell you the truth, ' says the Pope, ' they never let me drive at the Vatican when I was a cardinal, and I'd really like to drive today. '
'I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! What if something should happen?' protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning.
'Who's going to tell?' says the Pope with a smile.
Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel. The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 205 kph. (Remember, the Pope is German)
'Please slow down, Your Holiness!' pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens.

'Oh, dear God, I'm going to lose my license -- and my job!' moans the driver.
The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio.
'I need to talk to the Chief,' he says to the dispatcher.
The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going 205 kph.

'So bust him,' says the Chief.

'I don't think we want to do that, he's really important,' said the cop.
The Chief exclaimed, 'All the more reason!'

'No, I mean really important,' said the cop with a bit of persistence.

The Chief then asked, 'Who do you have there, the mayor?'
Cop: 'Bigger.'

Chief: 'A senator?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'
Chief: 'The Prime Minister?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

'Well,' said the Chief, 'who is it?'
Cop: 'I think it's God!'
The Chief is even more puzzled and curious, 'What makes you think it's God?'

Cop: 'His chauffeur is the Pope!'

And with that, I say Game ON!

The end is near!

2011-08-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

Lets hope the title of today's post ONLY applies to the Tour of Colorado, and not for the East coast! Susie and Barbara (and anybody else in Irene's path), I sure hope you are boarded up and hunkered down (or evac'd if that is prudent)...watching the news right now and it's going right over Norfolk/Va Beach....I still have friends there but haven't heard from then (I'm assuming they have no power). Looks pretty bad and it's going to get worse over the next few hours. Much will depend on the speed of the sustained winds, and the shift from 'clean' to 'dirty' side as the storm goes by, and then the storm surge...a LOT of the east coast is just a few feet above sea level. I know in my years in Norfolk/Va Beach I was always amazed (being from Wyoming/Montana) about the complete LACK of any altitude. The highest spot in the entire Tidewater area is the landfill turned into a park a few decades back (Mt Trashmore is what it's called...seriously. It's pretty funny actually...it probably has a vertical gain above sea-level of maybe 50- 75 feet!) I know the Navy has sent everything that can move out to sea from Norfolk Naval Station...the ships are far safer at sea where they can weather the outskirts of the storm. And I would assume the Naval Air Stations at Norfolk and Oceana (it's out in the Damneck/Va Beach area) have sent everything that can fly elsewhere. I've spent a bunch of years in that area and it's going to get hammered today...will be sad to see the devastation in the light of day tomorrow.

OK...for today's post I thought I'd put up the pics Janann has emailed me...so, without further adieu and for your viewing enjoyment from our Reporter in the field...

Cadel at the Prologue

"Uhm, ahem...excuse me miss...can I get thru here?"

Yeah, right BUDDY! GOOD LUCK! Can't you see I'm waiting to get a picture of Christian here?

(this brings a smile to my face every time I think of it! GREAT Pic!!!!)

CVV at the Prologue

Frank on the podium Stage 1 (with some unknown guy to his right)

Frankie at the prolouge (Simmer down Susie!)

George after winning Stage 2 (you are THE MAN!)

Jens at Stage 2 (you are ALSO the MAN!)

The Jerseys from Stage 1

Some unknown rider gets interviewed after winning Stage 1 (and YOU are ALSO da' MAN!)

Ooh...nice. That Unknown guy gets the points jersey after Stage 1.

I guess there really is a payoff for killing yourself all day on a bike!

Go LEVI!

OK...that's all the pics I got, thanks Janann for sending them! I'm very excited for you to have been THERE for this entire race! And looking at the podium shots, holy-mackerel! You somehow got DEAD CENTER! All the races I go to, I can't get anywhere NEAR the poduim! You ladies can pull this stuff off...good for you! Now if only the 'podium kisses' shot was YOU up there giving Levi a kiss.... (any chance you can pull that off?) I'm sure hubby would understand...I know if Jeannie had a chance to give, oh, lets say Brad Pitt a kiss, I'd have to give her a pass on that.

OK..that's all I have for now. I'm sending my best positive thoughts to you over on the east coast....in fact, I think I'll take a little nappy and focus my thought-power in your direction (I a bit tired....just got back from a ride a bit ago...did a measly 50 mile road ride...would have done more but by 11am it was already 96 deg at the top of the canyon....had I gone down the other side it would have been over 100 for sure...so I cut off 10 miles and called it a day).

Later gaters....GAME ON!

WOW! What a RACE!

2011-08-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

Gosh...I'm just DYING that I'm not up in Colorado for this race! It just can't get much more exciting! Levi winning stage 1 in spectacular style, George winning the Queen stage yesterday over those crazy passes, and then.......

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!!! Talking about the ITT below...WARNING! WARNING! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!

Well....I just looked at the TT results from today...and all I can say is OH MY GOSH! I could have hoped for that result, but I don't think I could have realistically expected it! The 10 mile TT had 1500' of climbing....which is a LOT for a TT!

And Levi DID IT! Took back the leaders jersey that he lost on the downhill in the rain and cold yesterday!! And in doing so, he beat the next best guy (who just happened to be CVV!) by only a HALF SECOND!! So now CVV is 2nd overall, with TJ Van Garderen is 3rd, Tommy D sitting in 4th (and he finished 4th today too!) and then BIG GEORGE in 5th overall!! GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY this is a dream race! ANY one of those 5 guys pulls off the win I'll be estatic!

I was so pshyched up after Geroges win yesterday, that I thought it couldn't get any better! That win brings me back to that Tour queen stage he won...his first (and last) Tour win ever! It's so great to see he's got this kind of riding left in him! I was thrilled once again for him...what an amazing man he is and WHAT A CAREER he has had! It just keeps getting better!

Whew....it's pretty much overshadowing that OTHER race in Spain too...amazing that a Grand tour is taking a backseat to a much smaller stage race in the US!

Gosh...I'm just SO sad to be HERE and not there.....the guys I work with (who are up in Denver RIGHT NOW) aren't even cycling fans! THAT is a travesty!!! I'm sure they have no interest in this race...even though it will be IN Denver this weekend (at least I think...can't remember the stages offhand...isn't the last stage Golden to Denver or something like that, or is the Denver part on Saturday? Sheesh, it's sad to have almost no memory anymore. What was I talking about?)

OK.....keeping this short tonight, mostly cuz I JUST got back from my Thurs eve ride, and I'm STARVING! Gotta go eat some din-din, then get to bed....only ONE MORE DAY (work I mean)...then the weekend. COME ON SATURDAY!!

Oh, and Janann, thanks for your updates! We LOVE to hear this stuff...what you're doing, where you were, who you schmoozed, etc etc......GREAT STUFF, KEEP IT COMING! You're our newest roving reporter!

GAME ON!

And they're OFF!

2011-08-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

The 2012 Vuelta is underway.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!! Go no further if you are going to watch the opening stage!

OK....well....seems the gremlins from the tour have slipped into the baggage and stayed with Radio Shack. What an opening...they come down of the ramp and Jani slips his chain! What's the team to do but wait? Klodi is still there, but they have no idea how his back will be...and if they are forced to put all their eggs in that basket this early, well...that would be a huge gamble. Great googly moogly! But hey.... it could have been much worse, as they regrouped and only end up losing 28 seconds. Other teams gremlins were far nastier...such as Team Sky's. Two of their guys collided with each other in the first k, leaving the team group with only 4 guys (they need 5 to stop the clock). 2 of the dropped squad eventually rejoined, but Wigg'O was so strong he kept riding the guys off his wheel....not exactly riding the 'US Postal' model of how a TTT should go.

And look at poor Geox/TMC....both Menchov and Sastre now 43 seconds off the front after their team finished 2nd to LAST!

But HEY!!! Look at Leopard-Trek! Winning the opening stage...(and it won't be Fabian in red tomorrow...that is reserved for a guy I've never heard of ...well, actually I have heard of him, but he's not exactly the type of rider that's typically getting heaped with glory if you know what I mean). That's kind of cool actually...one of the unknown's in red! Jakob Fulsang....he said there was no plan as to who should be in front at the finish, just do the best TTT they can. And he was in front with only 200m to go and was giving it his all, fully expecting to get passed....but no one did. And when the dust settled, they had won the day....BAM! He gets the red jersey. I LOVE IT!

Tho his reign in red will probably be short lived, being as they have time bonuses in this race...things will change very quickly I'm afraid. But every day will be pretty exciting as all the GC guys have to really pay attention to that little fact.

Well....it should be quite a race, and I'm sad that I won't get to watch any (well, maybe tidbits here and there on the weekends....IF I get up early enough to catch some online).

And so....the final Grand Tour of the year is off and running. And August will be over before we know it....and it will be fall. And I'll be another year older (early Sept)...rats.

Oh well...can't stop the passing of time. Gotta go with the flow and enjoy each day as it comes. Think it's time to go outside.

GAME ON!

The end is near

2011-08-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well....summer has almost run it's course. Le Tour is long over, and the Vuelta starts on Saturday. Huge congrats to Levi for winning his 2nd Tour of Utah...must feel pretty good considering the horrific Tour he and the rest of the team had. I know summer is coming fast to a close, as it's dark again when I'm driving into work. Though to say summer is gone here doesn't really mean much, except that we might FINALLY get some decent weather. Our little pocket of weather here makes it feel like we live in the southern hemisphere...when it's warm everywhere else in the US we are chilly. The last few days have been sunny...which is a change. In the summer the winds shift and we get covered by the marine layer for up to half the day, sometimes the entire day. Once the summer weather moves on the winds shift back and the layer is pushed offshore and we start getting nice sunny days. Very strange area we live in. But we don't get snow...so there is that.

OK...so....who do you like for the Vuelta? I won't be watching it...I have cancelled my Dish package upgrade so no longer have VS. So this will be one of those races I just read about every day. Just like EVERY other race this year EXCEPT for the Tour. I don't even know who's starting, except that Thor isn't. Not sure if that is some kind of retaliation for his moving on next season to a new team....of course JV says it isn't...and we can only take his word for that. But Thor really wanted to do it...as does everybody else interested in a shot at the worlds as it's the prime tune-up for that. So he'll have to do a bunch of smaller races...which won't quite be the same. But I think he might have a real shot at the worlds...as the course seems to be suited for a strong sprinter/climber type...he fits that bill like very few others. Of course Gilbert will be there and if his season is any indication, he will be the favorite.

And the inaugural Tour of Colorado will take place during the Vuelta...which will be another BIG race for the US riders. For those of you going, I'm extremely jealous! It would be great fun to attend a few stages...I fondly remember the first Tour of Cali...(the one Floyd won?) The peleton rode right thru my area AND town...the finish that day was down in Santa Barbara. I saw them as they rode down hwy 1 in Guadalupe, then again on Clark Ave right here in Santa Maria/Orcutt as they were heading towards Foxen Canyon...and then we saw them yet again as they came down off of San Marcos Pass and into Santa Barbara. Rare to find a stage where you can catch the riders THREE times! Ahhhh....fond memories.

So...enjoy your vacations and take lots of pics! And JD, good luck on the autograph hunting! I sent you about 60 megs worth of pictures from this years ToC (only took like 4 days and MANY MANY MANY email attempts...who knew there was some kind of a size limit on emails!)...hopefully some of those will get you a good print and you can get them signed. You ladies can pull that sort of thing off where guys can't. Knock em'
dead!

OK..well....the doping front has been VERY QUIET this season...which is a good thing I'd think.....the ol' "no news is good news" seems to apply. Contador's CAS hearing over his LAST YEARS Tour Clen positive has now been moved up to the year 2037 I think (well, ok, it's this November, but at the rate they're going, they might as well move it to 2037). I'll be anxious to see what comes out of it. WILL they (the UCI) finally establish some kind of threshold? We can only hope so...but no matter how it goes, we will probably never know if he truly cheated or has been sucked into the black-hole of a crappy system. There are arguments both ways...but my rose-colored glasses say just give him a pass on this one. But that's just me...I know there are others out there (SUSIE!) who want heads (or more specifically, one head) to roll.I can't fault you for that I guess....once bitten, twice shy? I guess I just keep on sticking my hand into the big-dog's mouth. Some of us are really slow learners.

Alright-y then....that's about all I can think of at the moment. Oh....I have to give a huge congrats to Fatty btw for his sub-9 hour finish in Leadville last Saturday. That is a monumental achievement for a 'recreational' rider. And his wife Lisa (the Hammer) finished in around 9:30...which is ALSO monumental...on my best day she's still have crushed me (I rode with her in Davis and she DID crush me). I personally doubt that I could even do a 10 hour ride at that event.., and that's IF I could somehow endure the pain of riding my bike that long without becoming permanently crippled. I don't think any amount of motrin would help my neck after about 7 to 8 hours of riding. Ahhh....isn't it WONDERFUL getting old??

Well, that's all I've got...I'm OUTTA HERE (to bed I mean)...game ON!

The Tour of Utah, the crapstorm we are heading for, and Q-rings.

2011-08-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

Well...the Tour of Utah is underway! Of course, with NO VS to watch whatever they are planning on showing, I'm having a REALLY hard time getting stoked for it. Which is sad, because I hear it's a GREAT race! REading about todays stage, it sounds like Radio Shack came to WIN! Levi AND Jani in the top 5 GC...with a cushy lead over the rest of the wanna-be contenders. Sounds like after the disastrous Tour for the Shack they are out to regain some mojo. I wish them luck...they surely have earned some breaks I'd think!

Of course, just READING about the race plain SUCKS. But that's my lot in life this year...(and maybe next the way things are going just now in the world!) Not to bring politics in here, but JIMMINY CHRISTMAS! Our Fed Gov is crushing us...and I won't point fingers, cuz it's ALL of them! Their stupid little debt-ceiling rasiey-thing didn't fix a damn thing...they simply ONCE AGAIN deferred all the really hard decisions (ie: ones that would actually start to FIX THINGS) to the future. And we NEED some damn things FIXED! I saw a neat quote from Warren Buffet, and it went something like this: "You want to get ride of deficits for good? Easy...we just need a law that says if the deficit goes over 3% of the GNP, the ENTIRE sitting congress is ineligible for re-election. Problem solved, you'd NEVER have a deficit again!" Boy, that's for sure...if there's ONE thing they all are REALLY good at, it's job preservation.

I'm so disgusted with the entire lot of them right now, I can't help but daydream about one of Tom Clancy's novels a while back....the one where a jetliner (empty, not hijacked mind you) purposely crashes into a joint session of congress. That's quite extreme obviously, but the reality is that things seem irrevocably broken. And our elected government seems totally incapable of fixing it. And WE all are going to pay for that. In the last few days I've watched my 401k shrink drastically, and there's just no good place to move it (the very few funds we do have are all crap...who PICKS these for us anyway? Is it a joke? Sure seems like it!)

OK...just had to get that out...I need a BIKE RIDE!! I didn't' ride Tues after work like normal cuz we got BUSY and I was running late. I HOPE To ride tomorrow (Thurs)...that will make me feel better. I noticed along ago that my bikes seem to be some kind of a lightening rod for negative energy...where it is somehow channeled into the earth and away from me, and afterwards I feel refreshed.

On a positive note, I got my birthday present from Jeannie in the mail tonight (it's a bit early, but timing was EVERYTHING!)...I got a set of Q-Rings for my mountain bike. What are Q-rings you ask? Well...let me explain. Ever hear of "Biopace" chainrings back in the 80's? These are like those, only different (better). The Biopace was an attempt to fix the 'dead spot' in pedaling. The pedals go around in circles, but human physiology means we can't actually pedal a circle (go ahead, sitting in your chair right now, try to rapidly pedal circles in the air with either foot....we just can't do it...turns out more like a square, or a strange triangle). That is the problem in a nutshell. So...you are pedaling. The power stroke part of your 'circle' starts somewhere around when your top pedal gets to the 2-o'clock position....(slightly over the top heading down). The power part lasts as long as you are pushing mostly down...but very soon the pedal nears the bottom and starts to come backwards....the power part is now over...this is the 'dead spot'. Now your knees have to bear the brunt as your leg muscles try to power your top pedal forward (not up or down) and the bottom pedal almost directly backwards, and those muscles and such are quite weak compared with the one that pushes down. Don't believe it? While sitting in your chair, push down with either foot....you can probably lift your entire body weight with either leg. Now move close to a wall or something (still sitting in your chair)...and with your knee bent at a 45 deg angle (thigh relativly parallel with the floor) put your toe against the wall and push forward with your foot...there is a GINORMOUS imbalance of power between these 2 positions. THIS is where cycling knee pain typically comes from...as you can actually damage the soft tissues of your knee doing this over and over.

So...the fine folks at Rotor (a Spanish company) studied and studied, and realized that an elliptical shaped chainring (as was Biopace) with adjustment holes in the correct places (NOT Biopace) and having the group of holes in the RIGHT place (also not Biopace) allows for the chainring to actually be BIGGER just when your pedal is in the 'power' position' for both legs, and then to be smaller when the dead spot shows up for both legs. So you push a bigger gear momentarily just when you are best equipped to do so, and a smaller gear when you are at the weakest point. Biopace was the right idea but they didn't study the mechanics enough and had the bigger/smaller portions of the gears in the wrong place...and was not adjustable...thus they were total failures (they caused a lot of knee problems, which was one of the things they were trying to fix).

So....one of the guys I ride with got a set for his mt bike a few weeks back, and he magically started climbing with guys who routinely spank him on the climbs (he's a BIG guy...weighs around 240 I'd say)...and his knees don't hurt anymore. He thinks they are some sort of miracle, and wonders why every bike isn't equipped with them (I have to admit my skepticism here......as I wonder the same exact thing...they've been out there for years apparently, yet I'd never heard of them before!) However, I looked around online, and then finally ebay (cuz a NEW set of these rings costs $265..which is outlandish!) I found a new in box set for my older XTR M960 crankset (they are now making XTR 970)....and I got a GREAT deal on them (well, Jeannie got a great deal on them I mean!) And the bonus is that Rotor doesn't make these older XTR Q-rings anymore...they only make the ones that fit the newer 970 stuff....so I was VERY lucky to find these as you can't buy them from any store.

AND......they came in the mail TONIGHT!! Almost makes what's happening in Washington better...(almost). THANK YOU JEANNIE!! Happy birthday to MATT!! (a bit early)

I will mount them up tomorrow, and hopefully get out for my first acclimatization ride either tomorrow night or maybe Saturday. They actually want you to do some easy rides so you get used to the different pedal feel...as your pedal stroke goes harder/easier with each circle you turn...however as that coincides with the actual strength of what you can do, they say it becomes totally natural very quickly. They recommend you ride a few hundred miles with the Q-rings in the #2 timing position (the middle one of 3) and after that you can move to the #1 or #3 to try out the slightly different feel and see what works best for you...as everybody pedals differently. I'm quite jazzed to try these out....I was SO very lucky...if my birthday wasn't coming up very soon, I wouldn't' have gotten them (cuz I'm BROKE!)

Moving on.....how about the madness over in the UK??? It JUST SO HAPPENS that 5 of the guys I work with just flew into the UK...they left here on Monday morning and arrived in Manchester (via London) yesterday morning...right smack in the middle of all this unrest. I really was sad I didn't get to go on this trip (It's a 3 month stint)..I"m hoping for the 2nd or 3rd group..(we have work there for the next year or so). IF the schedule holds, this group will be there Aug/Sept/Oct, so the 2nd wave will be Nov/Dec/Jan (which I can't make, as we have Thanksgiving travel plans already paid for)....so HOPEFULLY I can make the Feb/Mar/Apr group. I have my travel road bike all ready to go...tho I'm betting it will be a tad chilly over there in Feb/Mar...but oh well...I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

OK..that's quite enough of an Inane smorgasbord for one post. In fact, it might almost be a new record for Inaneness....I'll have to work on some kind of rating-scale. Gotta run!

GAME ON!

It's the last road for Highroad

2011-08-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

I saw on the local news this morning that Bob Stapleton announced to his team on Sunday they are free to look for work because he has failed to find a new sponsor. Then I saw at least 2 articles on Velo News today about it, I guess the story just broke today. How utterly sad that the winning-est team in cycling can't get a sponsor. It's big news here as they are based just 30 miles up the road in San Luis Obisbo (I do most of my Mt biking up in the SLO area). I've been into Arts Cycling (they are the closest Cannondale dealer around) a few times, and they are the official 'Highroad' shop if you order team gear online. There's always lots of excitement in the shop due to their involvement with such an awesome team.

Obviously Cav and 3 or 4 of the leadout guys will no doubt find an awesome new home... hopefully they can stay together as they've been the premier 'sprinters' team for a few years now. Of course it will have to be a good fit...so Cav can't really go to a team that has a GC stake in the Tour..cuz the entire team will be dedicated to that (such as BMC and Leopard Trek). Garmin has a split personality with no 'top' GC contender, so they can afford to split the team and have a few guys take care of Tyler. I don't see him going to a team that already has a good sprinter...and Griepel is looking for a team too...one thing you can say here is the trading/moving season will be VERY interesting! I have no idea how large the entire Highroad team is, but don't they sponsor a womens team too? I haven't heard but I'd assume that will be lost also. When you take into account ALL the people who work for a team, letalone all the unknown riders who are either new to the pro's or just the domestiques who do the work day in and day out for little to no glory, that's a lot of people looking for work in a field that is pretty small.

It's just so very depressing that we (the US) are losing one of our teams. It's been just incredible having all these teams the last few years...and I have to believe that the demise of one that is SUCH a powerhouse spells bad news down the road for all the others. I'd be VERY afraid when their current contracts are up.

And so....what's next for Stapleton? What does he do now?? He's a native of SLO...but I have no idea if he actually lives there when he's not managing a top pro cycling team. But he's obviously got the smarts and the contacts....maybe he can pull something together and start Highroad up again sometime in the future. But with the state of our economy I wouldn't hold my breath. We have lots of problems in the world and pro cycling might very well be a luxury if things continue to decline. Seems everybody is cutting back still, I wouldn't be surprised if we slip right into ANOTHER recession the way things are going. I'll keep riding MY bikes, tho I have to admit that I'm feeling the crunch too...just buying parts is getting hard....things are so expensive (the good parts I mean, not the chinsey stuff)....and my dollars just aren't going very far anymore. I'm maxed out on my retirement savings, but that doesn't leave much left after paying my share of the bills. Life is tough right now...our belts are tightened...and I can only hope we (I mean the entire WORLD) will pull out of this slump in the near future.

But for now...all we can do is hang in there. Cycling will go on, and next years season will be exciting if for no other reason than the huge shakeup that has occured....new teams will be stepping up with serious players and it will be SO very exciting! In the meantime, I can only wish good luck to all of Team Highroad...they've been an inspiration for many years now.

Thanks for the memories. It's been a great ride!

Oh...and speaking of the last road, .I found the link to the video of the launch pad deconstruction I talked about yesterday...the one where they cut-away the hammerhead and it crashes to the ground....it's a VERY short video...and it has audio..I can only imagine how it must have sounded anywhere nearby. It makes me sad to watch cuz I've spent a LOT of time up in that tower in the last 3 years of it's useful life (we shut it down after the LAST Titan IV launch in 2005)...it really served the country well for a lot of years and was home to many many BILLIONS of dollars of our finest spacecraft before they were sent into orbit. I drove by today and the pad-deck is just a pile of steel rubble...they've got some work to do just to clear that pile before they can continue. Anyway, here is the link if you are interested:

Vandenberg AFB SLC-4 hammerhead comes down

I guess the party's really over....

2011-07-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well, go ahead and turn off the lights. Wow....I went from the total AWESOMENESS / MADNESS of le Tour to this complete cycling void in seemingly .2 seconds flat. I always realize during the race that the end is coming, and it's always a depressing thought...however it just seems even more-so this year for some reason. For me maybe it's because the Tour was the only race I saw all year (on TV I mean...I WAS able to go to a few ToC stages in person which was totally cool, but it's not the same). In previous years I'd watched the entire season starting in Jan with the Tour Down Under, and by the time the TDF ended I was ok, as I'd had my fill. Only this year I just got started and now it's over. Sure, there are more races...and I hear Universal will be showing the Vuelta...but it just seems that everything after July is just so anticlimactic.

I wonder how the riders react...certainly they of all people realize how NOT over the season is after the tour....but I wonder how it feels for those pro's who weren't included in the Tour squads? Do they watch it on TV like the rest of us? Sure there are some other races going on (not that the rest of the world is aware)...and after the Tour there are all the races that try their best to get the tour winners to show up. Why, we even have Cadel and his BMC squad showing up here in the US for the brand-new Tour of Colorado! And quite possibly both the Schlecks too...THAT will be pretty impressive and a great way to kick off a new race!

On a personal note, I did my 'usual' weekend road-ride yesterday moaning, and once again have to face up to my annual post-tour slump (due to NOT logging enough miles during July). It happens every year, and was readily apparent once-again yesterday. My LIVESTRONG event was on the 10th this year, and after that it was ALL TDF ALL the time (or so it seemed). I felt pretty good going out, but was fast running out of gas on the way home at the 2nd climb, and by the top of that I was minutes down from my time of just a few weeks ago, and by the time I got home I was almost 10 minutes slow. Strange how I just seem to yo-yo along all year in my riding-fitness. I just find it hard to stay motivated to put in the hours sometimes, and the worst is when I have no goal to push for. And that's where I stand now...no big rides coming up to worry about. I'd love to ride Levi's Grand Fondo up in Santa Rosa in October, but it would kill me as it's just too hard of a ride. The 107 miles with a lowly 4000' of climbing left my neck sore for a week after...and the Grand Fondo would be SUBSTANTIALLY more than that.

And so...I enter the last third of another ever-so-short summer with nothing pressing on the horizon. And I just don't know what to do about it. I guess I could scour the cycling sites and look for something fairly close that I could ride in a reasonable time (around 5 to 6 hours riding time is about all my neck can bear)...but I can do that right from my door anytime I want. That in a nutshell is the crux of my problem. How to motivate myself to ride even when I don't need to. I'm a fair-weather cyclist. I LOVE to ride...when it's decent weather I mean. When it's foggy and chilly (or WINDY), I look outside and suddenly feel lazy. I'd rather sit back and suck down coffee and chill in front of the TV rather than go out into the crappy weather. I guess I'm just quite spoiled. I don't have 'real' winter...so my definition of lousy weather is somewhat lame compared to most.

Oh well...guess I'll kick back and have a beer and think about this dilemma of mine. And watch some TV. Seems like a reasonable thing to do.

Final thoughts, 2011 TDF

2011-07-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

WOW. It's over. FINALLY! That is SO very bittersweet. On the one hand, it feels like it's been going on for months now (so long that I FORGOT yesterday that Cadel HAD won a stage...four I think?) Or maybe it wasn't how long ago it was rather than my complete lack of short-term memory.

What was I talking about?

OH yea...final thoughts.

1. NO VIDEO WHATSOEVER of Fabian's TT ride? EXCUSE ME??? FABIAN??? The guy who was a REAL threat to WIN it? INEXCUSABLE!

2. PIP. They can do it when they are talking to the team-car...why not for the REST of the race? If this comes from the French TV, well, then they need to wake-up to the 1990's and realize that they CAN show both the breakaway AND the peleton, or even 3 screens when there's multiple chase groups. I don't care WHAT the reason (EXCUSE) is...FIX IT! Great googly-moogly!

3. Did anybody else hear Liam say something about Bobke retiring NEXT YEAR during the morning talk before the TT? It was the live edition, and I think they had P&P there...and Liam said something...but then this morning during the VS Yellow Jersey awarding to Phil he said something about winning it NEXT year...just wondering if I was hearing things.

4. Liam McHugh. I like him. MUCH MORE THAN HUMMER. No real reason, it's just what it is. He WASN'T annoying from the very first which for some reason I thought Hummer was.

5. NO Bobke prime-time full-blown announcing. THAT SUCKS! I typically only watch a few of the prime time shows, but when I do it's always one of the highlights hearing Bobke's narration. I guess it's NBC's way of cutting down the payroll (I'm assuming they pay him less as his duties are less...though I have no idea if this is true). Still it's sad...Bobke is the John Madden of cycling announcing. The BEEN THERE DONE THAT trench-warfare worker-bee guy. And he's just fabulous in front of the camera.

6. The Tragedy in Norway?? They were talking about it during the TT yesterday morning, and Thor was wearing a black armband and again today. And I STILL don't know what they are talking about, other than it sounds horrible. I guess among other things in July my complete lack of news from the outside world is quite apparent. My ride time goes WAY down, and I get less sleep. Just part of July. I'll have to sneak to CNN tomorrow at work...(after my post It's BEDTIME cuz I've been REAL busy this weekend and I'm beat!)

7. Johnny Hoogerland. I LIKE THIS KID. They should have a special award for HEART...similar to the overall 'most aggressive rider' thing...for the guy who shows the most heart. He won it HUGE this year and will forever be on my radar. I'll never get that video of him flinging into that barb-wire-fence out of my mind...I truly thought he would have been killed. And to just finish THAT stage was miraculous...but to finish the TOUR? He's earned a special place in my cycling heart. That is ONE TOUGH MAN! And he's in the right place...cuz cycling is a tough-man sport. He will do well.

8. TOMMY D! Gosh, he took over the reigns from CVV by default and did GREAT! And it was his FIRST TDF! He also has a great future and I look forward to seeing him on the final podium one day. And I guess along with him I must mention his entire team. Until this year they had been skunked from ANY stage wins. They knocked that monkey off their back with a gigantic baseball bat! FOUR WINS! AND Tommy D in 9th OVERALL in Paris! That is a HUGE race by ANY standards!

9. Radio Shack. Sheesh...it's like they went crazy in a house of mirrors and black cats just before the tour, breaking all the mirrors as the cats ran amok in front of them. One team just can't have much more bad luck than that in one race. I'd say after the Lance years, they are now EVEN on luck. Next year they can start afresh. I only hope and pray Horner will be there to try again.

10. The Schlecks. I thought they were just wonderful for the race. Neither was quite what I was expecting I hate to say, and can't really say why...I was expecting more of the energizer bunny Andy like we say last year. And Frank...he didn't really work as much as Andy so I TOTALLY thought HE would put Cadel under the gun in the final Mt stage...but it just seemed like neither one was up to it. Still they did GREAT and it was a joy seeing them on the podium together...and both very gracious.

And finally...Cadel. The cattle. The Bulldog. Oi Oi Oi! I was smiling HUGE for some reason watching him get the FINAL yellow tonight. He was SO happy. What a HUGE moment...I loved the part they showed just after the race finish when the team gathered and was a big group-hug. Good for them. And WAY TO GO George, for once again using your phenomenal experience and talent and taking care of yet ANOTHER GUY all the way to Paris You are DA MAN! Cadel really stepped up when he had to...I think back to the 1st day in the Alps when Andy attacked alone, Cadel letting him go. I STILL Think that was a mistake (hindsight has proven me wrong)...but IF Andy had been stronger and held onto that 4 minutes, It would have been ANDY on that top step tonight. Maybe Cadel had a good fortune teller or something and he KNEW it was safe to let the ONE MAN he was worried about (who had 2 teammates and a breakaway up the road) go away. Me must have nerves of platinum. But when push came to shove the new Cadel showed up yet again and did the job, pulling back 2 of those minutes, SAVING his race. THAT stage was when the tour was won. And he won it all by himself. Just like Andy was trying to do. THAT is an EPIC battle....man against man, the teams long gone. And Cadel was the strong man this year. Congrats Cadel!

OK...that's all I can think of at the moment....but I'd be remiss if I don't give a welcome shout-out to T!! Long time no hear! Glad to have you back....so very sorry you and others are having problems with commenting...I have no idea what's up. I know I can't comment for work (big brother has it locked out) but from any other computer I log into google and it's easy-peasy. So I don't get it.

Well..I need to call DISH Network tomorrow and cancel my upgraded channel package...which is the final step in this years Tour. It's been an amazing ride....and I hope I got a years worth of P&P& Bobke! Cuz I'll need it...prob won't have VS again until next July (just too expensive). And so...thanks everybody for hanging out every day....it's been GREAT fun once again...kind of brings back memories to HE Who Shall Not Be Named's place YEARS AGO when we all first kind of got together...gosh that was a LONG time ago! I wonder how he's doing? (not that I care really...cuz I STILL won't go back). And that's pretty much a wrapup for this years race. Please feel free to comment on your fav moments and thoughts...I figure in the coming days' I'll remember MORE stuff that I want to talk about.

And with that said, it's a wrap. It's sleepy time.

GAME over.

FIFTY SEVEN SECONDS!

2011-07-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

WHAT A STAGE! I'm plain exhausted from the sheer joy of watching this phenomenal drama play out day after day. I loved it that Contador attacked after his bad day yesterday, and Andy had the guts to go with him! Once again, the old 'play it safe' Cadel watched them go. He sure is a gambler that he would catch them again (which he did, but I still say it was a HUGE gamble!) All I can say to that is HAD he gone with Andy YESTERDAY, he'd be so far in the lead that he'd be untouchable, instead of 57 seconds BEHIND Andy, who now gets to start the biggest TT of his life IN YELLOW

So...can Andy do it? We shall see just what kind of wings the Mellow Johnny can provide, as I'm afraid he'll need them over the long TT course. Pretty obviously, other than a meteor or some such phenomenon, Frank won't hold his 2nd place over Cadel (DANG IT!)...but for the moment the brothers are one/two and I'm SO jazzed! I was quite pleased to watch Andy and Alberto work together on the escape today...maybe it was some 'payback' for last year? No matter...it was good to see pistol boy humbled and having to really struggle to gain time back...and I like it that he was given the 'most aggressive rider' red jersey number for the TT tomorrow. We did see shades of the old Alberto of last year as he danced his way up the start of the Alp, but whether it was his knee (didn't look very sore to ME) or just the overall fatigue from having crushed everybody in an excruciating Giro I can't say...but he faded quickly from that and was then riding just like the rest...fighting every foot of the way.

And so....it's almost over, but these last few days have been just amazing, and tomorrows TT will be just as (if not MORE so) important and exciting as last years! For the second year in a row, the overall winner will truly be decided the day before Paris. It just doesn't get much better than that. And once again today Voeckler fought hard, but it was bound to catch up with him sooner or later. Today he re-learned that he's still not quite on the level of the true Mt goats. But I can't take away any of his amazing struggle over the last 9 days...it was good for his country... and that a teammate and fellow countryman WON the stage today AND put on the white jersey, well....good for France and his team! They (the French) haven't had much to celebrate about in recent tours otherwise. It appears they have some real up and comers that will surely be in with the top riders very soon.

And so...I REALLY need to get out on a ride tomorrow morning, AND I need to do a BUNCH of stuff at home (Jeannie comes home NEXT Friday from her work-trip...been gone for 2 weeks now). I figure to get up EARLY and watch the TT for a bit, then hit the road (weather permitting...ie: NOT totally covered by cold fog). Hope to knock out about 3 to 4 hours of hard riding, get back and eat lunch and watch the finish and THEN get busy with my chores. Sunday is Paris AND more chores. But obviously the Tour comes FIRST. Everything else is secondary.

Whew....it's been another late night for me (being as I JUST finished today's stage a bit ago), though no work tomorrow thankfully....but still that 5:30am wakeup on a weekend day to watch a bunch of guys in lycra is killing me. NEXT weekend I hope to actually sleep in. Time will tell.

OK...it's bedtime for bonzo!

GAME ON!!!

WHO can win this thing?

2011-07-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

Oh my GOSH what a race this is turning out to be! Going into the most brutal stage of this years race, there are literally EIGHT guys who could conceivably have a shot...tho I agree spot on with Susie if I had to pick a few that I felt had a less than stellar shot. But even so, FIVE GUYS? And keep in mind the 'reducing' of the contenders we are discussing does NOT include who is LUCKY and who is not. Granted you often times create your own luck in cycling, but not always. Luck can be very fickle...to take a quote from Shawshank, "bad luck was just floating around, and I guess it had to land somewhere".

All I know is that IF I had two days of vacation, I'd take them tomorrow and Friday! It will be total agony at work NOT peeking at ANY cycling site so I can come watch the broadcast as if it's live. And Rae...I am TOTALLY ticked that they have decided at the very beginning of the prime time broadcast to basically TELL you what to expect in the stage you are about to see! WHAT THE HAY? KNOCK IT OFF!! I work HARD during the tour to NOT find out each days results...and then the very show I count on is doing it? Who's decision is this? Something to do with NBC?? They shook up things pretty much everywhere else...why not give away the stage at the very beginning.

Today's stage, I was thinking Andy looked much better than yesterday. However, tomorrow's stage is forecast for cold and wet...which seems to be his kyrptonite. Cadel looked calm and cool though...and I'm totally impressed...but can't help myself from wondering when the 'old' Cadel will show up...I HOPE he stays away and lets this calm and cool (and ATTACKING) Cadel keep riding! I like this guy!

Frank...he is the big threat of the Schlecks right now, but honestly I can't say that with a straight face. Unless the world goes upside down, he would need a BIG chunk of time to beat Cadel in the final TT. Andy is better but not THAT much better. Having Cadel in FRONT of him right now is BAD BAD BAD. Not where he should be. But tomorrow this will all change for sure. There WILL be attacks, and these 2 HC climbs WILL most assuredly open up dramatic gaps in the top 10.

And I know everybody is knocking Voeckler out of it, but he's been nothing short of a HUGE surprise to this point...and even though I'd tend to agree, you NEVER know! He IS the man in yellow...and it has been shown over and over throughout the years that it does indeed give the wearer the strength of 2 men. I expect him to fight like he's never fought before. He is not a fav, but I can't take away anything he's done so far...he's a real fighter and that's what I like to see. I would love to see Tommy D come up with a BIG ride tomorrow and move up a few places...THAT would be pretty cool! So I'll be rooting for him too....dang, it appears I'm rooting for pretty much everybody.....I just want a great race, with BIG things...I don't care WHO does the big thing. I want someone to step up and say THIS RACE IS MINE! But in all the unpredictability, I'd not even be surprised if it was Thor! (and HEY! Can't take away ANYTHING from Edvald Bo-whats-his-name! Gosh, I REALLY need to learn to spell that kids name, as he will surely be a star of the future. Heck..he's a star NOW at 24 years old in his FIRST tour! Way to go!!!) OH, and finally...Cathy, I think I would be jumping out of my chair if LEVI attacks and somehow wins the stage! Surely he has no pressure...I'd LOVE to see him do something to show what he's got. They'd probably let him go as he's so far down...I'd think he's got nothing to lose. GO LEVI!

OK..I'm beat (as always happens in July...funny how mere spectating can take SO much out of you...they say the tour is all about recovery...well..I'm BARELY hanging in there! I can't fathom how THEY do it!) This race just can't get much more exciting! As Paul said tonight at the end of the broadcast..."can't we just turn the clock forward? I want the stage NOW!"

The course is laid, set Ludicrous speed! (Spaceballs)

GAME ON!

What have I missed??

2011-07-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Good gosh it seems that I've been gone almost entirely the last 8 days....I did manage to put over 1500 miles on my car in those days. Sheesh....I should have a TV in my car...or at least somehow get VS audio coverage...THAT would have been cool. But sadly no. Drove home from Pahrump last night....left about 9pm, dropped Greg off at his place about 1:30 and I was home by quarter to 4am....boy were the babies glad to see me! I got a few hours of sleep and then up to watch the final 17k of todays stage. Won't spoil it here this early in the day...but a good finish and I didn't see any crashes in that pretty crazy technical final k's....whew!

So...I have 7 full stages to somehow catchup on recorded on the DVR...(8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 15th & 16th). Me-thinks it's impossible. I will have to FF at like 300 speed and somehow catch the code-words, then FF again to the final k's of each day...it's the ONLY possible way. Much like RIDING the tour, it turns out that just watching it is very difficult. Once it gains time on you, it's extremely hard to get it back. Who knew being a spectator was so difficult?

Just cruised thru the comments on the last post... so VERY glad ya'll keep up the chat'n when I'm away...it's like I almost DON'T need to watch those stages...plain crazy stuff. I can't friggin BELIEVE Voeckler is STILL IN YELLOW!! Great googly-moogly! I wouldn't have bet a plugged-nickel he could do that thru the Pyrnees! And Thor winning a stage like that? I guess it's why we watch the Tour...for the surprises. If it was totally predictable it wouldn't be much fun. Well, nobody can say this year isn't unpredictable! I totally expected the overall list to have just 1 or 2 guys within shooting distance of the final Yellow and everybody else to have cracked...but to have FRANK appearing to be the top-placed contender? (IF, and I mean IF they can peel the mellow-johnny off V?) It's like Andy is sandbagging....and so is AC...

Also pretty jazzed that Cadel is THAT CLOSE! I"m really rooting for him to podium... If this is Franks best chance EVER to finally notch a yellow in Paris (which would truly be one of the 7 signs of the apocalypse if he somehow can hold onto his positoin during the final ITT), well...the same goes for Cadel. He has NEVER been this healthy and w/in this distance to the final top podium spot, and likely won't ever get another shot like this. But hey....if there's ONE thing this years Tour is showing us is that pretty much ANYTHING can happen. I don't discount anything.

And poor Shack...what the hay? Good golly the Devil is most assuredly collecting his due from Johan for that amazing streak of luck w/ Lance....and that thing about the breathalyzer?? Just when you think you've heard it all....

Well hey kid'z....I haven't even unpacked the car...just drove it into the garage, flung some stuff onto the table and crawled into bed....I would REALLY like to sneak in a ride today, but honestly I'm not sure that's a good idea...it feels like I'm actually shaking I'm so tired...guess when you get OLD you can't do much on 4 hours sleep. I'd make a lousy Dr I can tell you....hear those folk stay up (and somehow TREAT people?) for 24 hours OR MORE...still not sure how that became the standard...would you want your airline pilot to have been up for 24 hours when he's getting ready to land the plane?

And so....lets see....what's on my list for today....I have laundry to do, groceries to buy, lawn to mow, babies baths to do (all 3), unpack the car, unpack my stuff, and do some basic housekeeping (Jeannie is up in Seattle teaching all of last week and for 2 more...so I'm on a solo mission right now). Being a single-dad is tough stuff! Oh...and I need to stand around in various places of the house to figure out WHICH ONE of the stupid smoke-detectors is chirping! It seems amazing that you hear it and can then stand under it forever and it won't chirp, but you move to another one and the chirping is coming from where you just were. What, did they put motion sensors in them to NOT chirp when it sees you? Driving me CRAZY! I might just get a pile of batteries and do them all...

And JD...give you little sweetie hugs from all of us...she is just so darn cute! I can SOOOO relate...(I DO NOT want to turn FIFTY-FREAKING-ONE is just a little over a month...how on earth is that possible?) Oh well...I GUESS it's just a number....(a REALLY BIG ONE). And yet life goes on.

OK..breakfast time then maybe roll the dice to see what gets done first. Later gaters....

Game OOONNNNNN!

Things are looking UP!

2011-07-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, tomorrow the boyz go UP into the Mts! And I'm going to MISS IT! I drive over to Pahrump NV (picking up Greg down in LA on the way) as we head over to spend the weekend with our Dad who turns 80 on Friday. Our other brother Dave flew into Vegas (renting a car and driving over to Pahrump) today...so he will already be there when we get in tomorrow.

It will be a grand time, and we so RARELY all get together...can't pass up the opportunity. There's just so many of those available.

Apparently the link I posted in the comments to my LIVESTRONG Davis pics didn't work (thanks Susie!). So, here is a different one...stupid Shutterfly...I emailed myself the link and then opened it up, seemed fine...maybe it still knows it's "me" ....anyway, here is another try...

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=308be20503042e23&sid=0AYsWzdo0cN2ToQ

We'll see how that goes. Also Fatty has now posted parts 1 and 2 of his Davis writeup, and he was very kind as always...(though I'm still recovering from my being "stabbed to death" at the Hall of Fame on Friday evening with plastic forks (part 1). Fatty is SO funny! Here are the links if you just want a quick jump there:

Part 1:
http://www.fatcyclist.com/2011/07/11/team-fatty-owns-davis-livestrong-challenge-report/
Part 2:
http://www.fatcyclist.com/2011/07/13/team-fatty-owns-davis-livestrong-challenge-report-part-ii/

Also know that Fatty seems to somehow recall that I was almost always on the front pulling...I don't quite remember it that way, though I DID take a few longer pulls than most I guess. I think it's because of how Greg and I ride (together). Every ride is a race. Period. He (Greg) can say all he wants that it's just a 'fun' ride, but make no mistake..it's still a race. EVERY TIME.

Think of Dolph Lundgreen (sp?) in Rocky IV I think...it was it when he fought either Apollo or Rocky ...and at the very beginning of the fight when they bump gloves and he mumbles (use your best Russian Dolph Lundgreen accent in your mind here) "I will crush you" (or was it "I MUST crush you"? Either way, it's what Greg is thinking). THAT is how Greg rides. He will crush you, or die trying. He's been crushing me for the last 2 straight years. But back in late 09...now THAT was my year! I WAS Da' MAN! We did Livestrong San Jose and I was pretty good. And I kept on getting stronger. We did a ride down in his neck of the woods (to Balcom Cyn and back thru Moorpark) and I made him cry Uncle on the pull home, and then a guy swooped past us while we were doing a quick bike repair...I poured on the gas and passed him, leaving both him and Greg in my wake...and finally finished up at his house well ahead. We went on to Austin that year and I was poised to squish him like an inconsequential insect. Only he CONVENIENTLY (yeah, right!) forgot his helmet at the hotel back in Austin (a mere 1.5 hours away thru traffic). So...he finally finds a helmet to borrow, only he's missed our front of the line start. So I don't see him again until the SAG stop where the 70 and 100 mile routes join together...(he rode the shorter loop with Angie, aka Rocket Girl). Lucky for him he wasn't with me...I was riding my very best and did a sub-5 hour century (my first ever, though truth be told it was only 92 miles). Sadly, it's been all downhill since then for me, but I think that year I lit a fire under him and I haven't beaten him since. I think he's doping personally..,..it's the only answer that makes sense. Surely he can't REALLY be stronger than me, can he?

Anyway....I"ll be offline the next few days, don't get back home till Sunday evening...and I most likely won't have seen ANY of the Tour during this next 3 days.

Also I get my stitches out of my eye tomorrow just before I head out to pick up Greg...and it's doing great. In fact, it's a total non-issue I believe. Of course the Dr. will give me the clean bill of health I assume, but will be good to hear from him that all is A-OK. It is a bit odd looking in a magnified mirror (Jeannie has a 10x makeup mirror mounted on the wall)...that eyelid only has about 6 eyelashes...being as the high density of them was in the middle, which is all missing now. But I don't think it will even be noticeable except by me. I'm ok with that..it could have been SO MUCH worse. Thankfully it was the lower one, not the upper ...THAT would have been a LOT less fun. Just this past weekend over in Davis I was surrounded by fighters and survivors, and I felt very humbled and lucky. And proud to help where I can.

OK..gotta run. Have a GRAND weekend, and here's hoping ALL the boy'z keep the rubber side DOWN!

GAME ON!

What in the WILD WILD World of Sports is going on?

2011-07-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

Got home from Davis today, and maybe in the next day or so I'll post some pics and the writeup from the 107 mile ride yesterday...suffie to say it was just an AWESOME DAY!

Here at home after various other chores I FINALLY sat down to watch yesterday's stage (9). UN - FREAKING BELIEVABLE! I thought I'd seen everything, but that French TV car that took out the breakaway....there just aren't words! And it was so VIOLENT! Poor Johnny Hoogerland was flat-out catapulted off the road and the barbed-wire-fence stopped him instantly! And THEN he somehow gets on his bike (after being quickly patched up by the race Dr) and is again riding his bike! He must be SHREDDED! The driver of the car should be prosecuted! It was more than an accident...it was outright negligence on his part! Certainly poor driving. IF Hoogerland can actually start tomorrow will be a miracle. And same with Fletcha...he really hit the pave HARD! Watching the crash it's amazing he didn't shatter his collarbone the way he hit the road.

And then the big crash on the turn where Vino launched off the road into the trees! OMG! There was concrete barriers holding up what looked like steel pipes as the guardrails....if he hit those at speed the he too was catapulted off his bike...seeing his teammates helping him up the embankment was just painful to watch. And Z-man sitting there hurt...I've never seen anything like this! And Klodi involved also...is he out? I haven't heard...if so it would appear that Johan's deal with the Devil (that so amazingly kept Lance unhurt in SEVEN consecutive Tours) is calling in his markers...and his team is being decimated leader by leader. And then after that crash with the entire peleton sitting up letting all those caught behind the crash (most of the peleton) catch up gave Voeckler and the breakaway extra minutes that were never recovered. Somehow this entire stage just doesn't seem fair.

And then the crash early on of Alberto...they showed the video a few times zoomed in on where he was, and I can say it appears he might have actually been shoved! Aerial footage would be key, but you could clearly see SOMETHING happened just before he veered into the crowd/barriers...and karapets in the red jersey) body suddenly moved the other way like he did suddenly push Alberto...that's what it looked like to me...is there some bad blood going on there or something? I'd think something like that would get you thrown out of the race if it were verified...(he'd be put in the penalty box in hockey, and/or ejected). And then there was something Phil said (I had to rewind a few times and write it down) that struck me as quite funny (in a ARE YOU KIDDING ME? way). He said this after Alberto's crash as he was fighting to regain the peleton: "They may know Contador has fallen, but they won't be doing any attacks to keep him away because it was bad luck". EXCUSE ME PHIL? Are you the same guy who said Contador was totally right to attack Andy last year when his chain jumped off and jammed? Alberto isn't even in Yellow....I'd say the entire peleton would be TOTALLY within their rights to attack like MAD seeing him go down! ESPECIALLY after last year! I think Fabian should have whipped the entire peleton into a wild TT and just crushed him. And IF Karapets DID have something intentional to do with the crash, then he is out. Just my 2 cents worth...I'm SO out of touch...somehow need to go over the previous stages...just don't know when I'll get time for that...and I"ll be out of town again this weekend (Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun)...so will lose FOUR MORE stages. Gosh...I need a vacation!

Gotta hit it...4:20am is coming FAST, and I'm whipped from an exhausting but incredible weekend.

GAME ON!

LIVESTRONG Davis

2011-07-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well....we are having a BLAST up here in Davis!

Last night was our Team Fatty private evening at the US Bicycle Hall of Fame. We literally owned the place from 6 to 10pm....we had food, drinks, and about 30 to 40 of our team and family there. About 8:30 or so we got the private TOUR from Joe....and it was quite fascinating! They have displays of bikes going all the way back to 'walkers'..which was a hand-fabricated pile of iron with iron wheels, and no pedals yet...as they hadn't been invented...you just pushed it as you straddled the iron 'top bar'. It must have weighed 150 lbs, maybe more? And it just went on and on...they specialize in covering US cycling all the way back to it's beginning. Who knew that the US ruled world cycling back in the early 1900's? And they had a display of a "Six Day Race" kit...apparently there were races inside on a wooden track that actually went for 6 days STRAIGHT! In those 6 days the racers would cover approx 3000 miles (it was a team event, but only TWO of you!) And they were done in smoky arena's (everybody smoked) on the dangerous wooden track surface which claimed the lives of MANY of the early racers. They also had crazy races back then where a guy on a early beast of a motorcycle would ride around the track and you (on the bike) would race inches behind him...each bike racer had his own motorcycle pacing him...they typically ran around 50 mph! And the crashes were horrendous and often fatal. Just amazing stuff...then displays on the road team 7-11, and all the early pioneers WAY before Lemond in US cycling.

The Hall of fame belonged to US for the night!

Today we spent mostly over at the LIVESTRONG Village/Expo....the hotel is right here on the UC Davis campus (the campus is HUGE)...and they have loaner bikes (cruiser style) that we can borrow and ride around on....so we took those over to the expo which was only about 10 blocks away...riding a cruiser carrying a coffee is an art I tell you! We all practiced this morning...quite fun! Among other things, there was a face-painting lady (for the kids). Angie and I had the Fatty Logo painted on our faces ....GREG is such a chicken....he wouldn't go for it.

A bit later while we were schmoozing around the LIVESTRONG Village / expo area, they made an announcement that the first 25 people would get a free autographed copy of Chris Carmichaels new book...well, he was sitting at a table about 25 feet from us...so Greg was FIRST in line...and I was like 5th (I was getting a free T-shirt from the Nissan booth and had to wait). So I got to chat with him briefly and shake his hand, and have a nice autographed book...woo-HOO! THAT is a SWAG score!!!!! Drank about 3 of the ice cold FRS energy drinks...had a nice sour-kraut hot dog and lemonade for lunch...and a few waters...it prob got up to about 95 today...tomorrow is supposed to be a bit cooler for our ride thankfully!

Here is Fatty n Lisa, Greg, Angie, myself, and Carlos and Christine

Carlos and Christine are from New Jersey (you see Carlos in Fatty's comments as NYCarlos).
Later this afternoon Greg, Angie and I went for a short "shakedown" ride to make sure our bikes are in good working order, as we will be on the start line tomorrow morning at 6:55am for Team pics and the start at 7:30.

Here we are in the sunflowers, just like in le Tour!

And tonight is the Awards banquet....we are showing up early (6pm) cuz Team Fatty are all Rock-Stars here....and we get to go in early for them to take pics n stuff with us....should be quite the fun evening! If I get a chance I"ll post a pic or 2 later tonight...but we will see. It should be a GRAND time, and I am assuming Lance will be there and we will get pics with him after the dinner up on stage (or whatever they have as a stage).

Watched some of the prime-time stage 7 at the Hall of Fame last night, got to see the part where Horner was on the stretcher, and kept asking "but did I finish?"...gosh I am DEVASTATED!! He was (IS) my main man! I am CRUSHED!! But I hope and pray he will be fine..thanks for the updates Cathy! So...Klodi is it by default. Gosh...what a crazy week. And Horner is out BEFORE he even gets to test himself against the mountain goats...DAMN!!!

OK kids...gotta run...happy Hour, then dinner!

Stage 7 and more

2011-07-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching stage 6...rain rain go away. I HATE riding in wet conditions...amazingly YESTERDAY was all the crashes when the roads were bone dry...and today there was very little. So very sad for Levi...don't even know what happened...Phil (or Paul...can't remember which) said they thought he was on the white line and tires slipped...looks like he slid along the guardrail briefly before kissing the pave...but he appeared to be ok, just a very unfortunate time loss which he will have an almost impossible time getting back. At least Klodi and Chris are staying out of trouble (NO JINX PLEASE!!)

Tomorrow morning (Friday) I drive up to Davis...for the long LIVESTRONG weekend...it should be a BLAST! Angie, Greg and I all have tickets to the ball on Saturday night (the Awards banquet)...Team Fatty swept the awards and we will have 41 of us there I think...Lance should be there too so we will hopefully get some time up on the stage after the festivities with him (like we did in Austin 2 years ago). Tomorrow evening is our private tour/dinner at the bicycle hall of fame...which should be very cool. Angie has been busy, as she arranged this for the team...way to go SISTA! And Sunday is the ride. They brought back the 'front of the line' start for us this year...so we get to play chase with the police escorts as we zip thru Davis...not sure how long it will be, but it was around 9 miles back in San Jose until they dropped off and left us to 'rules of the road'. It' ws great fun to ride RIGHT behind a police escort...however it's also QUITE brutal...as they speed up and slow down at EVERY single intersection as the motorcycles zoom by and block both sides so we can zip thru...so we go from about 22mph down to about 17mph and then back to 22mph...do this a few hundered times and see how your legs feel...(the accelertaoin back to 22mph is FAST). Last time I did this by the time we got done with the 'fun' part I was whipped and worried cuz I still had 91 miles to go.

But no worries, however it works out it will be a grand weekend. Of course I think we'll almost totally miss this little bike race...the DVR will be recording them but the only possible way to get thru them is to FF at about 300x speed unless you see something exciting...once you get behind in your stage viewing it's hard to catch up...kind of like Levi falling off near the end.

I will have my laptop with me so hope to maybe post some pics here and there...but don't stop talking...it's great fun to have everybody back yakkin' it up!

GAME ON!

Tour Talk Continues

2011-07-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, the Team TT was as exciting as I expected! And what a way for Garmin to FINALLY win their first stage...a true Team award! Good for them...and then getting Thor in yellow is just icing on the cake. I bet they were pretty happy at the dinner table!

How about Eisel crashing out about 8 seconds into the race? I haven't yet heard if he made the cut or not...how utterly horrible that would be for him and HTC if he is out...I'll keep my fingers crossed he was able to make it...tho it would take the TT of his life to do it. I have to give Alberto credit..he whipped his Spanish boyz into a frenzy and even going first they did pretty great! He will surely not go down without a fight. RS did really good also, which was nice to see.

I am extremely disappointed about Bobke's new role though...he's there in the morning and then a few zany commercials, and that appears to be it. But I DID see TWO new Road ID commercials today and they were dang funny! That's three zany Bobke ads in 2 stages! I wonder how many they made?

I'm starting to recall that July, along with being the awesome TOUR month, is also when I'm beat cuz I'm up early even on the weekends. Though I get the final 2 weeks to watch the episodes at my leisure as Jeannie is going up to Seattle to teach for 3 weeks...I myself head up to LiveSTRONG Davis next weekend, and on Monday I drive home and that's when she fly's north. Not the best handoff, but at least we don't have to pay doggie-sitters. The babies hate it when we go away....I just can't BELIEVE that LS Davis is already here...gosh...seems like I had MONTHS, and all of a sudden I drive up on Friday! Never been there before (Davis), but it will be a grand time I'm sure! Angie (aka Rocket Girl) has arranged a private tour of the Bicycle Hall of Fame on Friday evening for Team Fatty, along with a dinner. THAT will be pretty awesome! Then Saturday is hang out at LiveSTRONG village and such I assume, and maybe if we're lucky we can scrounge tickets to the awards dinner/banquet on Sat night....I haven't missed one yet, but I'm at Fatty's mercy as I didn't earn enough for my own tickets. It's been a tough year for fundraising as we have been SO busy at work...but so it goes. I do what I can.

OK...enough on that...I can't think of anything else off the top of my head...but figured we needed a new playground to yak on...it fills up pretty QUICK in July!

OH...just checked my Fantasy team...I'm down in 8647th place with a whopping 497 points. But that's only my points for today...I didn't make my team up until last night, and it wouldn't let me add any of my riders for Stage one (which was already over)...so I guess I lost out completely. I thought they wouldn't count the first stage cuz the teams hadn't all been made and finalized yet...guess I would need to read the rules. Oh well....I'm sure overall my team will get slaughtered. Though I expect to do fairly well in the overall...but who knows...that's the beauty of it...the Tour is a blank slate!

OK...I need some sleep...5:30 is coming up FAST! (I give the broadcast a half-hour so I can ff thru the commercials)...around 7am I need to head out on my 4th of July road ride...going out EARLY cuz it's been HOT inland all of a sudden...summer truly is here. It's about time too!

GAME ON!

le Tour le Talk

2011-06-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yessirree Bob...it's THAT time of year AGAIN! What time would that be you might ask?

TOUR TIME!

Oh YEAH! The time of year that I drive Jeannie CRAZY as she must somehow endure listening to Phil and Paul EVERY SINGLE DAY! Oh, the AGONY you are thinking to yourselves. Nay nay bunny rabbit I say. I have been in P&P withdrawal all year long! Just this week I FINALLY got a quick fix....the Pre-Tour show. And speaking of that show, just who is the primary voice/announcer this year? It surely didn't sound like Hummer...has he been replaced? WHO will be on the prime-time slot with Bobke?

OK, OK....I know some of you out there are less than enthused by some of the uhm, er....contestants this year, but I personally think it might very well be one of the most exciting tours in ages (of course, I say that EVERY year).

First off, we must acknowledge the reigning champion: Alberto Contador. Pretty much the most dominating and powerful climber on the planet. He just proved that AGAIN in the most ridiculous (as in STUPID HARD) Giro's ever. And he flat out CRUSHED all comers. He was so far ahead that they would have been within their rights to give him first AND second place on the final podium.

Sure, sure, there is some dilemma right now as to whether or not he should even be allowed to race. I can make arguments for both sides on that one quite honestly. IF he was a resident of pretty much any other country than Spain he would most likely be sitting out for the next 2 years. But he IS a resident of Spain, and his national federation has cleared him to race like it or not. He is doing nothing wrong at this point.

However, I offer this: he is 'accused' of doping with Clenbuterol...which showed up suddenly on the rest day in his sample. Successive samples showed it metabolizing out of his system in the expected amounts, proving that he indeed got it on that day. HOW he got it is the issue. By the draconian letter of the UCI law, ANY amount whatsoever is a failed test and you are guilty no matter what. But in recent years athletes have been challenging that ridicilous rule and are beating it. Also the UCI's own rules have many loopholes and contradicting rules in them, allowing for such. It all depends on which rule is being enforced when they either hammer you or let you off. The big question is DID HE CHEAT? The amount detected was SO VERY SMALL that everybody agrees would have done him no good whatsoever. The only forseeable way that that tiny amount got into his system for any benefit would appear to be if he transfused his own blood taken when he had been using larger amounts. IF this is the case then he obviously cheated and should be taking a 2 year break. HOWEVER, if he did not cheat, then the miniscule amount could very well have come from food, as other athletes across the globe are proving is possible. And if he got it in food, then he gets a pass. You CAN NOT hold athletes accountable for eating food. So he either transfused or got contaminated food. IF it can't be proven that he transfused, then he MUST be given a free pass on this one. That is my two cents on it. And yes, there are many many athletes in the past that have NOT been given the benefit of the doubt, but maybe it's time we set a precedent here that others in similar situations will be able to cite. Innocent until proven guilty. It's time WADA and the UCI play by that rule, which they have not in the past. Enough on that...he is racing, and for the moment it's totally fair. Move on.

The Protagonist: Andy Schleck. If they both show up in exactly the same shape as last year, then I would give the nod to Andy. HAD Frank not been injured and dropped out after his crash in the cobbles last year, then chain-drop or not I think Andy would have won. Alberto might be climbing on par with Andy, and TT'ing a bit better, (ok, quite a bit better) but having Frank to tag-team Alberto would have made a world of difference. Even without Frank, they were quite honestly dead even, the only difference being the infamous chain-drop. And we will never know how much time Andy might have gotten over Alberto if his chain hadn't dropped, because he had just dropped him and was going to sprint over the summit. I'm convinced that in some parallel universe there is an Andy who won that tour. Alberto was VERY LUCKY last year.

However, what remains to be seen is what condition Andy is actually in. Has he been sandbagging these last few months? I think so. But it's hard to tell for sure. I would have thought he would have come out and shown his TRUE form in recent races, just to let the world know he's ready to win. But maybe this is his way to leave all the pressure to Alberto. I think he is holding his cards VERY close to his chest and won't show them until he needs to. I hope this is the case anyway. Frank will be there, and Fabian, and Jens...so they have the firepower available. I look forward to seeing Fabian and Jens on the front setting a ludicrous tempo, fracturing the already devastated peleton and shaking out all but the very few contenders. FOUR mountaintop finishes this year....FOUR! Holy schmoley that will be AWESOME! On each and every one of those, every wanna-be contender had best be on his "A" game and holding station at the very front. Any moves by any of them must be matched...and very quickly it will come down to just those special few as all the domestiques will have been dropped off, only hoping the can survive inside the time-cutoff.

IF Andy is indeed hiding his true form, then I would suspect they will be on the top two spots of the podium. As much as I would like some of the other contenders to be able to hang, I don't think they can. A lot will depend on how much Alberto's dominance in Italy took out of him...will he be rested enough? He raced the Giro because he was expecting the CAS to announce their decision prior to the Tour, and he was hedging his bet that he might not race the Tour this year. By the postponement of their decision (however LAME they are to do that)...how freaking much time do they NEED after all?) I believe they surprised him. But now he has a chance to make history by winning the Giro and the Tour in the same year, which hasn't been done in a while. And I also add this on Alberto: IF he is racing clean this year, then I have to ask "why would he cheat last year"? IF he is indeed this good, then it would appear everybody else is playing catchup to that one in a million athletes who just are that good. He obviously has had the bejeebers tested out of him this year, and after his Giro performance, well, if THAT was fair and square, then GO Alberto!

OK...who else? Obviously I"m biased towards Chris Horner. I think if he were given total team commitments he is quite capable of making top 5. But he won't have that, at least not right away...Radio Shack is going in with FOUR co-captains. That is a lot. A lot of pressure too, knowing that how you do every single day will determine if you get your shot or not. Horner has shown grace under pressure though and he seems to thrive on it. I expect a great showing from him. Father time is calling him, but like Jens, he seems capable of beating time. I really look forward to him uncorking an amazing tour. Top ten for sure. Top five? I sure hope so (he is one of my top 3 fav riders, so I'm QUITE biased I admit).

Levi. In the Tour of California, Chris was better. But Levi just showed some of HIS cards in the Tour de Suissie...that come from behind TT he did on the final day was pure magic. The stuff of legends. Side by side with Chris, Levi will beat him in the TT's...but this year there is only ONE individual TT, which will favor both Andy and Chris over Alberto and Levi. So for Levi it all comes down to just how good are his climbing legs? I like Levi a LOT, but he has never shown he is capable of keeping up with Alberto and Andy. But he will have his chance. I would expect Radio Shack to really hammer away at the front on the big climbing days. With their 4 'contenders', they should really be able to play a lot of cards.

CVV. Two years ago he showed real glimpses of greatness, but has had some pretty bad luck since. IF he can stay healthy I'd love to see just what he can do up front with the big guns.

Tejay Van Garderen...I'd say he is the young dark horse here. He might be where Alberto was a few years back, when he was still somewhat of a 'nobody' yet all of a sudden there he was holding a VERY high GC placing. But he lacks the big Grand Tour experience, and I think that is vital here. The TDF is so much more than just a bike race. It is the grandest show of the sport on the planet. The pressure is immeasurable. It will be interesing to see how he does. I'd say he will certainly be top ten overall.

Cadel Evans. He is always a mystery to me. He has had moments of greatness, but somehow seems to be his own worst enemy. He has been plagued by injury in recent years and I'm not sure just when exactly he has been at 100% for a tour. I think he is surely a top contender if healthy, but he might be getting nipped by father time. I look forward to him showing me he is as tough as I think he can be.

Ivan Basso. He also seems to just underwhelm me more often than not. I know he is a fabulous climber, and has won the Giro a few times so knows what it takes to win a Grand Tour. But every time I get to rooting for him he just seems to fall away into nowhere. I would like to see him have a great Tour and be in the top ten.

Tom Danielson. He has waited LONG for his chance to go to le Tour. But he has a few teammates that will be taking the limelight from him, so his really has his work cut out for him.

Ryder Hesjedal. I have liked him for a long time. He used to be a world-class mt biker and I knew his name there (so did Cadel Evans by the way). I like to see Mt bikers coming over to the road. I think they develop bike handling skills that are superior to pure road riders, and it seems easier to go from dirt to road than from road to dirt. Totally different skill set. Ryder has shown he has potential for greatness....so I look for him to step up and be top ten also.

Sammy Sanchez. He is always a tough smart rider and I would expect he will be hunting for a top ten finish. Can he step up his game and make top five? That is the big question. I will be watching him for sure.

Phillipe Gilbert, Robert Gesink, Andreas Kloden, Bradley Wiggens, Sylvian Chavanel...all names we will be seeing I suspect. I think any one of them are capable of stepping up and delivering a top ten performance.

Oh..and GEORGE! Gosh, I almost forgot BIG GEORGE! My FAV! He is SO the MAN! Of course, like Horner, he is getting up there in age. And I'd be kidding if at this point in time I thought he could do real well overall (as in top 5).....a few years back (after Lance retired) I was really rooting for him to do just that. But he just seems to be the kind of guy who is there to help others. He's GREAT at it, and I long for him to win one more Tour stage. I still smile HUGE when I think of that shot of him crossing the line on the queen stage, and putting his arms up and then almost crying..as he had never before seen the clock at 0:00:00 before, realizing the magnitude of what he did that day. It is one of my top tour moments. Could he go top ten? I think he might very well have it in him. I'd LOVE to see it. Come on GEORGE!!!

So there, I've picked about 60 guys who I think can go top ten. OK, not quite 60, but a lot. I am pleased that they have a Team Time Trial this year....it's always a favorite day of mine. For some reason I just LOVE to watch the teams as they blaze along, and the teams that finish together are the most impressive. It brings me back to the BLUE TRAIN days...when SIR LANCE ruled the peleton with an iron fist, and his Tour TT squad was just the most impressive thing you'll ever see in a Team TT. And then I'm sure everybody remembers the year that Dave Zabriskie crashed out wearing yellow, and was left to his own...that one always makes me wince. I loved seeing DZ in yellow...much like when I see Fabian in Yellow, yet still out FRONT setting tempo for Andy, knowing the Yellow is soon to be gone. He's just such a classy rider. Oh, and speaking of the Z man, boy is Garmin loaded this year or WHAT! They surely need to win a few stages this time around...they are due and they have the firepower. I'd love to see Tyler nip Cav in a bunch sprint. I think this year we will see that. In fact, yes, I am indeed predicting that. Tyler wins his first TDF stage, beating out Cav. Yes, I see it in my crystal ball.

And so...my overall GC predictions. I just don't see anybody stopping Andy and Alberto, except for fate. If either of them has bad luck it could all come crashing down quickly. If they ride smart and have good luck, I see them one/two on the final podium. I just hope this year it's Andy in yellow in Paris. Who will be number three though? THAT is the 64 $ question. And like it or not, I'm afraid the race for 3rd will be just as interesting (or more so?) than the race for 1st. There are a LOT of guys who can take that third spot. And I honestly can't seem to come up with anybody who I see having better chances than many of the other guys. Levi? Chris? Ivan? Tejay? CVV? Cadel? Ryder? Bradley? Sylvian? I think all the guys I talked about could very well unleash a top tour and take that third spot. But just who steps up is the question. And it's not entirely inconceivable that Andy and Alberto will not be quite so dominating as I think...and if that is the case then the top 5 could really be a gunfight to the bitter end. I would very much prefer that sort of Tour. I harbor no ill will towards Alberto, and just want to see another amazing Tour. A GRAND Tour.

Game ON!

It is done.

2011-06-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I survived my eye surgery this morning (removal of a Basal Cell Carcinoma that grew on my lower left eyelid). Turns out, the surgery (my part of it anyway) was a piece of cake. But I'm thinking that the recovery won't be quite so much fun...at least day 1 hasn't very fun so far. It hurts, and I'm thankful that I had some Tylenol 3's left over from when I was seeing a Dr. over the border in Mexico for my neck a few years back. I just popped one of those a bit ago and hopefully it will tone down the pain. I'm home from work all today, and I'm supposed to just lie around (you can see how good at that I am, as I'm here on the computer already). Unless there is some reason not to, I'm cleared to go into work tomorrow. I do need to see my Dr. at 9:10 am tomorrow (Tues) morning so he can remove the 'special' stitch...he put in a wild 'loop' stitch that is supposed to hold up my lower eyelid (it's a loop that goes thru a small part of my lower eyelid and then goes up above my eyebrow where it's taped down....not very comfortable at ALL I must say...every time I blink it hurts, and it itches too).

As to the procedure itsself: I reported to the surgery center at about 6:30 this morning...Jeanie dropped me off and went into work (there was no reason for her to stay except to make me MORE nervous, and they will call here when I go into recovery afterwards to come and get me), and they were already quite busy. But they were VERY organized, and before I knew it I was lying in a bed with an EKG and IV hooked up and being wheeled into the operating room. My Dr. had already been by my bed checking on things, and made a joke about not sure which eye he was supposed to be working on....I told him I thought I was there for a foot operation and he chuckled.

Once in the operating room it was down to business...the anesthesiologist (spell THAT twice real fast!) had already also checked in with me at my bed as they were prepping me (he was making sure I was hooked up and ready to go). The operating room was pretty busy...and LOTS of lights (I think I was looking into the surface of the sun or a UFO trying to land). I don't really know when they pumped in 'the good stuff', but quick as a bunny the Dr. is doing his stuff. Thankfully I DIDN'T hear the snipping as he lopped off the tumor part, but there was absolutely no pain at all and I was awake the entire time, chatting here and there (trying not to move so he wouldn't put a stitch into my eyeball or something). It went quite fast for my part and next thing I know I'm in the recovery room. I asked the nurse if she could just pour a cup of coffee into my IV before she removed it (as I haven't had so-much as a glass of water since dinner last night). My tapeworm was getting rather angry and I was quite thirsty too.

On the way home Jeannie swung thru a Carls Jr. drive-thru and I ordered breakfast. She dropped me off at home and made sure I was comfy and then headed back to work (she is in the middle of a crisis period and has SO much to do). I ate that and fell asleep for a while with two of the babies curled up with me on the couch...then I was wide awake with my eye really hurting...so I got up and gently peeled away the eye-patch they put on (it was REALLY hurting eye every time I blinked under the patch)....I was careful to leave the loop-stitch thing alone but the patch had to go. My vision is quite blurry in that eye right now, and I'm dabbing up little blobs of bloody discharge now and then, but the papers they sent me home with say that's normal. I also have special ointment that I'm to put on it every now and then...just did my first blob a bit ago (when I removed the eye patch).

Here is the BEFORE picture that I took just this morning before I left.

You really can't see much in this picture, as the biopsy removed almost all of the 'blob'. However the Dr. says "it has to go" or it will come back and the area to be removed will just get larger. Rats.

Here's the same shot with my photoshop enhancements showing what he will do in surgery.

And this is the AFTER shot.... just after I removed the patch.

We'll see how it looks tomorrow. I'm just glad it's over is all I can say. And I'm thankfull it wasn't a scary 'kill me' kind of cancer. So as always, I have a LOT to be thankful for.

OK...on with my busy day...not sure just how much lying around I will be able to do...as I said, just don't seem to be very good at that. They sent me home with a large set of sunglasses that will fit over an eye-patch, I might just put a patch of some sort back on and take the doggies over to the park...we shall see...it's unusually sunny out today. Where is the marine layer when you need it?

Oh, I also updated my Dish Network package YESTERDAY morning...so I now have VS!!! Woo-HOO! I already recorded their Pre-tour special (and watched it already, right after I took off the stupid eye-patch). NOW I'm getting jazzed for this years race! It's gonna be a GREAT ONE!

That's all I have for now...GAME ON!

UPDATE Tues 6-27

Here's what it looks like tonight...approx. 36 hours after surgery. The Dr. removed that pesky loop stitch (the purpose was to keep the stretched eyelid from flipping in he said...all I know is that it was remarkably uncomfortable and I'm SO glad it's out!) The color is hard to see but it looks like I have a nice black eye. Everybody at work keeps asking if I crashed my bike.

And on VS tonight (right now I mean) they are showing the movie American Flyers! Woo-HOO! No other cycling movie gets me jazzed to ride like that one. Gotta run...they are in the 2nd of the 3 stages and Marcus is just having his 'problem' as I type...later gaters!

The final Alaska post: Juneau and Ketchikan and Vancouver

2011-06-25T22:38:00.000-07:00

First things first before I jump into talking about Alaska.

WOW for Levi and the Tour de Suissie!. He must have really had the TT of his life, which should be a really great thing for him going into the TDF. Confidence is a huge thing...and you can't buy it. I'm pretty excited about this years TDF, as it really should be a total gunfight for the podium in Paris. I'm hoping both Levi and Chris Horner have the races of their lives! And George too! I don't know what to make of Andy...IS he sandbagging lately? I think so. I think he will come out with guns-a-blazing in France. As will Contador.

OK, back to the great white north. I noticed that I missed a 'ship day' early on, so my numbering of the days is off by one (we left Whittier and it took 2 days to get to Glacier Bay, not 1). So...That would actually make Skagway day 4. OOPS.

Whereas Skagway was a nice long in-port day, Juneau and Ketchikan weren't. We didn't get off the ship until around 9am, and had to be back aboard by 3:30pm for both. In Juneau we took a city tour on a bus, and quite honestly I could have done without our 'tour operator'. I won't go into detail but suffice to say that her sense of what was appropriate to talk about was rather on the trailer-trash side of things. Our tour ended up at Mendenhall Glacier, where we hiked out to the vista point near an awesome water-fall crashing into the bay. I've seen this glacier before, albeit by air. LONG ago when I was a young Navy lad I flew in/out of Juneau on my way to Anchorage a time or two, and recall seeing it out the window and was quite impressed...it was the first 'tidewater' glacier I had ever seen (tidewater glaciers are ones that end up in the ocean).

The gang at the base of the waterfall, Mendenhall Glacier in the left background

Our little hiking trip out to the vista point took a tiny bit longer than usual and darn it if we didn't miss OUR bus home, and had to catch the next one (our tour company has busses every half hour, if you miss one you just catch the next one thankfully). Juneau is a beautiful city, and there are bald eagles flying/sitting around all over the place. After the tour we took the tram up Mt. Roberts, high above the ship docks. Had we more time I would have loved to hike the summit (about 3 miles, 3500' of climbing). But time was something we didn't have so back to the ship we went.

Our ship the Coral Princess as seen from theTram

The ship pulled out of Juneau on schedule and by the next morning we were pulling into Ketchikan just after breakfast. By this time we were all feeling pretty beat quite honestly, and we did go ashore to wander around the shops and such, but not much else was planned. Jim and I were thinking about going ziplining, but they wanted almost $200 each, and that was a bit pricey we both thought. So we both ended up buying ourselves new Tilley hats instead, quite the bargain actually! This will replace my old backpacking / outdoors hat. It's a really nice hat, and even though I don't consider myself a 'hat guy', I really like this one!

Jim and I sporting our new Tilley's, AND our tasty Alaskan Beer Samplers!

Those Tilley Girls! Jackie and Jeannie tryng on our new hats.

We had lunch at a nice pub style place, and they had the "Alaskan" beer sample platter which Jim and I both had to try. The other family had planned a float-plane trip for this city, and they had taken off early to make it on time. We met back up after our lunch and their plane ride, and we went back to another pub for their lunch and those of us who just ate had beer instead. Always room for more tasty beer. After that we wandered our way back to the ship, and our shore excursions were now over. Tomorrow (Saturday) we arrive in Vancouver and disembark, cruise over. The only real shame of this entire cruise was that half of the time the ship was steaming along, it was thru some awesomely scenic areas and unless you can just sit outside the entire cruise, you miss SO MUCH. But by the 6th day you are immune to the beautiful scenery and just want to rest. That night you had to be packed up, and before we leave for our dinner we had to put our 'checked' luggage out in the passageway with our name-tags on them. It is all gathered up and staged for loading ashore first thing upon arrival.

We arrived in Vancouver the next morning and after breakfast, and went back to the room one final time. We packed up our carry-on luggage and gathered in our designated disembarkation assembly points. We were the 2nd to last group to go ashore, our time was 9:20am. We were in no real hurry so let most of the other passengers go before us. It was a good plan and I had a wonderful breakfast one more time. I'm going to miss this dining I can tell you with absolute certainty. It was like we were royalty for a week. Overall I don't think I've ever had better food, and this was every meal, every day. Our waiting staff was just out of this world, and I would consider looking up our head-waiter someday if we were to ever go on another cruise to find out which ship he's on. Sebastian was his name, and he made dinner a truly special meal every night.

In Vancouver we had rooms in the downtown Sheraton (which was AWESOME!) Turns out Vancouver is a really nice city. Just a few days before we arrived (Weds to be exact) the Vancouver Cannucks lost the Stanley Cup Finals to Boston, and some of the disgruntled fans rioted. They did millions in damage to the city, and the Canadians in general were mortified. People were volunteering to help rebuild..paint, put up plywood, whatever they could do to help. The riot area was not very far from us...probably around 10 or 12 blocks. We had a really nice dinner that night, and EVERYBODY was so very friendly. The next day was our last of the trip, and Jeannie and I had tickets to the Broadway show WICKED...the story of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Jeannie showing off her own super-pointy WICKED shoes

Here we are at the show (I got yelled at for having the picture taken..apparently that's taboo!)

The show was PHENOMENAL, and we were seated in row 2, almost in the middle! I must now buy the book, as the story was just great! I'd recommend it to all...if you want to find out all the pre-story to the Wizard of Oz (such as: just WHO WAS the Wicked Witch, how did she become WICKED, who was Glenda the Good and how she became that, who was the Cowardly Lion/Tin Man/Scarecrow were and how they came to be there, how the flying monkeys came to be able to fly, stuff like that). The casting was what you would expect from a Broadway play...the girl playing the Wicked Witch was just out of this world, as was Glenda. All in all, a great way to end our trip.

But alas, the play was over and it was time for a final dinner and bed. We flew home the next morning and drove home from LAX, and that was that. But the babies were SO very excited! As Dorothy said, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home".

And finally, there's the rest of the story. Here is the headline:

Matt has a genuine superpower.

Yes, it's true. I have suspected it for years, and many others have had glimmers of it here and there, but it has NEVER before been tested like on this cruise. You see, I weighed myself before we left. 154lbs. And then, I went CRAZY on the ship for SEVEN DAYS. Crazy in that I ate EVERYTHING. I was obsessed...I'd order BOTH breakfast entrees, and other stuff too. Full lunch a few hours later. Afternoon meal ( of pizza and beer some something similar) around 3pm due to our dinner being the 'late' seating @ 7:45pm, happy hour every day around 5 or 6pm with wine and snacks, and finally dinner in the formal dining room. After the very first night I got over the weirdness about ordering BOTH dinner entrees, dual appetizers, soup, and at least 3 desserts. I think I should have been wearing a big cape when I sauntered into the dining room, and people should have applauded the performance they were about to see. And after all the carnage, I weighed myself Tuesday morning before I went back to work, and NOT A POUND was gained. In fact, I actually dropped a tiny bit (153.7lbs to be exact). And this included NOT A SINGLE foray into the gym for working out (I did wander in once to look at the equipment, and also to check out the spin class room, but it was DURING breakfast, and that just wouldn't do). The only thing I did that you could consider any kind of exercise was I walked all over the ship, and I never took the elevator.

I guess all that walking was enough for someone with a bona-fide superpower, because it worked! I should be studied, and interviewed on Oprah AND Larry King at the very least. Maybe a guest spot on Letterman or Conan, something like that. But alas, it is my fate to live with this most amazing of all superpowers in relative obscurity. Kind of like Aqua Man (he had a great superpower but was pretty much ostracized by his super-hero peers and the public in general). I mean, come ON! He could swim underwater WITHOUT scuba tanks.... FOREVER! AND..... he could talk to all the marine creatures with his sonar-like communication powers! THOSE are some serious superpowers I'd trade even my own for! Though flying thru the eair would be cool too. But in the grand scheme of things, maybe it's not quite as amazing as eating whatever you want whenever you want with no weight gain. Superman, eat your heart out. And Batman, what does HE have? Gadgets. That's it. Underneath it all, I bet he works out like a madman in the gym to fit in that outfit every day. Not a very good superpower at all if you ask me.

And so...our vacation is over and we are back to the grind of daily life. The TDF is coming up SO VERY FAST! I will pick up the VS channel around the beginning of the month, and will relish the days listening to P&P (while Jeanie will HATE those days). But she is scheduled to fly on a work trip and will only have to put up with the first week or so of the race. Also my LIVESTRONG DAVIS is fast approaching! Fatty has finally jumped firmly on-board and is promoting it...and our team is winning by a landslide over all the other teams. I've had a so-so year of fundraising as we've been SO very busy at work...but that's ok. It's very tiring to say the least, but I have gotten into the habit of going in 45minutes early every day and putting out muffins and bagels at 2 of our buildings. I've make over $1000 doing this, and that's not too shabby! As to what will happen to LIVESTRONG when the "Get LANCE" show finally has some kind of ending I can't say, but it would be a travesty if this is greatly affected. Fatty has also embraced the World Bicycle Relief fund, and has made another 'Team Fatty'. This one you sign up (for FREE) and then simply enter any kind of workout you do...all of it gets you "Kudos", and so many kudos gets some kid in Zambia a free bike. This one is sponsored by SRAM, and I have to admit I'm impressed. Today I entered ALL my bike rides for this year, all the way back to January. So far I have over 3200 Kudos, which equates to almost half a bike (they can bike a bike for $150 ea). Team Fatty is really zinging along in this charity, and it's another great way Fatty has found to make a difference.

OK...enough on this. Time to start ramping up for the TDF...I'm fast getting TOUR FEVER! I think it will strike hard later in the week. Oh, and Monday is my eye surgery (where the Dr. will cut out my little tumor on my eyelid). I'm sure it will go fine as he is THE MAN. I must take a 'before' picture, as I really like my eyelid as it is...and no matter how I try, I'm still a little freaked that he's gonna chop out about a quarter of it. But in the grand scheme of things, this is NOTHING. By late next week I'll be riding the bikes like nothing ever happened.

Happy Sunday! Get out there and do something FUN! I sure will! (Today was road bike day, tomorrow is Mt bike day). Woo-HOO!

Day 3, Skagway

2011-06-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

I actually wrote almost all of this post on the ship, but was unsuccessful in posting it. The internet link was VERY slow, and crashed twice as I was trying (AND using up my precious minutes that I had to purchase ahead of time)…so I gave up. However, here in Vancouver I have a nice link in the hotel. AND, it’s early Sunday morning, AND I’m wide awake. I’ve already been on a walk downtown scouting a lunch place. Today (Sunday) Jeannie and I see the early showing of “Wicked”…which we are both eagerly anticipating. As we wandered around downtown Vancouver yesterday afternoon and evening we found out that on Wednesday evening (after the loss to Boston in the Stanley Cup Finals) there were many distraught fans here in Vancouver who rioted. Stores were looted, cars burned, and it was a horrid situation. The local news is showing many of the ‘heros’ who stood up to the rioters, some getting beaten within an inch of their lives. I beleive the majority of the Canadians and Vancouverians (??) are embarrassed beyond measure by this….and they are quick to point out the honest folk trying to protect the stores and people before the police could respond. Overall my opinion of everybody we meet is just super friendly and quick to point us in the right direction. I LOVE the Canadians…they are just SOOOO friendly! (I could live here…seriously! Thou I’d be alone...Jeannie is more of a ‘tropical’ person).

But without further adieu, here is my post from day 3 of the cruise (the rest of the days swill follow as I collect and jot down my thoughts).

Day 3, Skagway (or as my brother Greg calls it: Skagtown...he did one summer working up here in his college days).

Holy cats, time has blown by in a whirlwind! I haven’t hardly had a chance to catch my breath, let alone go thru all my pictures AND attempt to post. But today (Friday) is a ship-day, and our LAST day on the ship. We pull into Vancouver BC tomorrow, sleep late, get up and disembark. That will be our morning. We won’t even be able to eat anything (boo-hoo!). No coffee either…THAT will be the most traumatic event of our morning.

Looking back I was most intrigued by Skagway of all our ports of call. We just don’t get enough history lessons in school, but I guess there is just too much to go into any detail on it all. I would assume Alaska students get an excellent education on their past (if you have any questions on the Montana gold rush, give me a shout). In particular, the gold rush into the Yukon caught my fancy. In short, once gold was discovered there around 1896, all hell broke loose and it seems everybody who was anybody came zooming up to get rich. You paid 10 times what it was worth to get from Seattle to Skagway (one of two boom-towns that was the gateway to the Yukon Territory). Once you were there, it had been determined that the Yukon was such a harsh environment that there was no way to survive in the interior without supplies, thus you were required to bring a years worth of provisions WITH you. There were two trails: the Chilikoot that went up and around to the west that left from the town of Dyea, and the White Pass Trail that went directly out of Skagway. Both these towns were vying for the title of “best trail” to get you into the Yukon. However, a quote from one miner who had done both trails was quoted as saying “which ever way you go, you’ll wish you had gone the other”.

The crux of the situation was that TON of supplies you were required to have with you for entry into the Yukon by the Canadian Mounties. If you were on foot, you had to move this ton of supplies all by yourself. You’d pack up about 50 lbs and grind 5 miles up the trail (along with a NON-STOP parade of other hikers), put down your load and go back for the next load. It was said that to get all your goods the 600 MILES to Dawson, you had hiked well over 2500 miles (the majority of those miles were actually by boat), AFTER you had packed your gear up over the pass of whichever trail you chose and finally made it to Lake Lindeman (where the 2 trails joined) you built yourself a boat from the remaining trees. IF you had the money you bought horses for the White Pass trail, or hired porters for the Chilikoot trail. But the horses that were available in Skagway weren’t good pack-horses. No, they were horses that bright (unscrupulous) entrepreneurs had rescued FROM the glue-factories knowing that prospective miners would buy them if they were still breathing. So if you needed 2 horses, you bought 6. The average prospector had no knowledge of horses…how to pack them, how to care for them, etc. So the entire ton of goods was loaded onto the first 2 horses and they whipped and prodded and beat them until they had walked as far as they could and fell over dead. THEN the prospector would quickly shift the load to the next horse right there on the trail and continue, leaving the dead / dying horse where it fell, where it would eventually be “ground into porridge" by the nonstop onslaught of desperate men trying to get into the Yukon.

Looking at the White Pass Trail (the railroad now follows the original route).

Front view of prospector and his required survival goods

Here's 2/3rds of the list of required provisions

The rest of the story

The trail was horrific and it is told that some horses actually committed suicide by jumping off the trail fully loaded to their death far below. The trail was a mere 2 feet wide in many places with sheer rock wall on one side and sheer drop-off to the river far below on the other. It was also said that very few horses made it alive over this trail. Over 3000 horses perished on this section in 1898 alone in what was called “the trail of the dead horses”. There are black and white pictures of some of this, and it is too horrifying to comprehend.

Over on the Chilikoot trail things weren’t much better. That trail was made for sleds, and most were human powered, unless you were one of the lucky few with sled-dogs. In the winter both trails were at their best for actually having a chance to survive, as the snow covered the sharp rocks and allowed steps to be cut into the snow. There is a postcard / picture of the Chilikoot trail in winter showing the line of men climbing up the pass. There is literally no room for more in this trail. If you faltered or slowed you were pushed out of the line to your fate. Over on the White Pass trail if you slowed or stopped (you could occasionally step out of line and lean against the rock wall to rest) you might have to wait up to half a day to get a spot back in line.

I just can’t fathom what desperation in your life would make you take up this kind of endeavor. I will have to buy some books on the gold rush into the Yukon and further read up on this. It was so fascinating!

We did a guided auto tour (in a nice touring van) up over White Pass and into Canada. This road was only completed in 1978, before that the railroad, ship or plane was the only way in and out of Skagway.

One of 2 suspension bridges on the road to White Horse. My brother Greg recalls learning to rappel from this bridge during his summer in Skagtown.

Our guide was Tim, and he was a pleasure to listen to. He is a retired teacher, and his kids all worked as summer help in Skagway to earn money for college. He has been coming up to work summers for many years, and his knowledge and delivery were just phenomenal. I wish I could have done an audio recording of his tour (funny how the hindsight thing works).

On the Canadian side of White Pass, looking into the Yukon Territory

Looking back into Alaska towards Skagway. Note: the trees you see (about 2 or maybe 3 feet high) are OLD GROWTH. They could be as much as 75-100 years old. The winter on the pass is SO HARSH that they grow a few centimeters each year. Some of them actually grow sideways as they have SO MUCH snow on them that the few months a year they are uncovered can't overcome the weight of snow they've borne over 6 to 8 months of winter.

The continental divide atop White Pass. Water that goes to the left (bottom of the picture) goes into the Pacific. Water that goes to the right ends up in the Bearing Sea.

Yours truly at the entrance back into Alaska.

After the tour we met up with the girls and kids (who had NO interest in leaving the ship early) for shopping and lunch at the Red Onion bar and Salon. It is an icon in Skagway, however the food is horrible and quite expensive. AND our waitress (they were all dressed up in costume as ‘ladies of the night’, which is what the upper floor of the place was up into the 1950’s) failed to ‘mention’ that the tip was included into the price (18% mind you), thus we tipped her AGAIN (she ended up with about a 38% tip) and she is probably still chuckling. And so we, much like the prospectors of old, were also ripped off in Skagway. I guess it goes with the territory...welcome to Alaska (that's probably not fair to the rest of the state, sorry rest of the state!)

After lunch us guy'z hiked up to lower Dewey lake for something a little different. It was a rather serious uphill with many rocky/rooty switchbacks. There was a twin-steel water line going straight down the mountain that we crossed or follwed most of the way up. Greg told me that it provides power for a turbine at the bottom of the hill, and part of his job was for him (or one of the other 2 guys he worked with that summer) to hike that hill inspecting the line all the way to the upper lake EVERY DAY.

Looking across Lower Dewey Lake (from the far side) high above Skagway.

After we got back on ship it was happy hour time (again). We ALL brought bottles of wine onboard, and the girls would go down to the pitch and dive (buffet) and load up plates with sushi, cheeses, etc...and bring them back to Jackie & Jim's room for our little daily toast of life. Their room was designated 'party central'. I know Jeannie and Jackie watched the view of Glacier Bay from safety of this room, not daring to venture out into the cold, harsh environment of Alaska.

Bob, Terry, Jim, Jackie and Jeannie living the good life of Happy Hour(s). Both Bob/Terry and Jim/Jackie's rooms had balcony's. THAT is the good life on a cruise ship. Jeannie and I were in a stowage closet or something like it...ie: an 'interior' room. But I have to say this: it got DARK in that tiny room when you turned off the lights. Except for that orange laser-beam from coming from the TV standby light...I ended up putting a triple-folded napkin over it and taping it into place...it was like a spaceship landing beacon in the dark.

Ahhhh...DINNERTIME!

Our little band of happy vacationers in the formal dining room. Starting at the front center and going around the table clockwise we have: Hannah, Rebecca (Becca), Bob, Terry, Jeannie, Matt (he of the incredible stomach), Jackie, Jim, Matthew, and Rachel.

Dessert!

This picture shows the vacuum effect as desserts were SUCKED towards my intake orifice. Keep your hands and feet clear kids! Yes, there are SIX desserts in this photo awaiting their doom at the teeth of my MOST impressive tapeworm. I believe my picture is up down in the kitchen as a true modern-day super-hero. I have no doubt that I ate WAY MORE than the cost of my ticket in food! Every single breakfast I typically had BOTH entrees, along with a few other items. Lunch: more of the same. Dinner: I had 2 entrees most nights, along with at least 2 appetizers and one soup. Yes, my superpower is REAL my friends! I am truly a force of nature, a freak if you will. And yes, I have to admit, after the entire 7 days, at least one of my pairs of pants appears to have shrunk just a tiny bit. Stupid washing machine/dryer...I HATE IT when that happens!

And so ends another ship-day. The other days posts will likely be shorter with less photos as the trip (not to mention the phenomenal amount of AWESOME food) took their toll. I can tell you that my tapeworm put up the white 'surrender' flag after this meal, realizing that he has met his match.... that I called his bluff (that he can eat anything). Yes, even ginormous taperworms have their limit, and I found mine. I've never before heard him cry UNCLE.

I WIN!