Well...it's been a rather strange year of weather for us here on the CA Central Coast so far this year. Colder and windier than I can remember (been here 19 years now). This last week we've had howling 30+ mph winds, but this is when we get them every year...spring. But All of Feb and March up to now have had that kind of winds nearly every day. Feb is usually a month when I really start getting big bike rides in....not this year.
Anyway, at least we got the time change in the right direction....that helps some. But hey....that's life...suck it up buttercup (me). It IS racing season....not that I've had a chance to watch any...but at least it's going on. Tho I did see that there is real risk as France is having Covid resurgence problems right now and upcoming races are in jeopardy. And we are still below average temps nearly every day...usually we would be around 60 this time of year....we've had a LOT of days in the low 50's this last 2 months. And mornings are hovering near freezing (that is normal for a month or so every year...usually in Feb).
But hey....it is officially spring now...and we have March Madness once again! Just like cycling, I haven't seen any games...but I do peek at the brackets and LOVE the underdogs knocking off big schools....how about Oral Roberts?? A #15 seed taking out a #2 and a #5, earning a trip to the Sweet 16! (Sorry Rae...OSU was that #2). I think it's cool that they are even having the tourney....and so far only 1 team has dropped out due to Covid (VCU).
And...hopefully the Tour goes off as scheduled this year....and after that, SUMMER OLYMPICS!
I'm off to Sunnyvale on Sunday for a week...testing a new system in a thermal chamber (we cook it at 120F for 8 hours, make sure everything still works all thru the test). I should be home by Friday. And oddly enough, it looks like Spring will finally hit here NEXT WEEK (the week I'm gone). Jeez...mother nature is just slapping me in the face once again! It's forecast to be 70's and maybe even low 80's next week here. Well, I'm bringing my road bike up to Sunnyvale and will get in a ride tomorrow (Sunday) after I arrive (dump my stuff at the hotel and go out into the redwoods for a few hours)...then I don't know if I will have any opportunity to ride again until Friday (check-out day). If that is the case I will go out early and sneak in a few hours of riding before checking out of the hotel and driving home. There's just no more awesome riding to be done than in redwoods...they are truly magical creations!
OK...it's now Saturday morning and I have a ton of stuff to do today before I drive north tomorrow. Have a great day/week/month, enjoy whatever racing you can get (TV/online) and stay safe out there!
Last night I got to watch the Gonzaga vs UCLA basketball game...WOW! It was quite the game...I'd even call it epic! Neither team could get much of an advantage, and the lead changed hands a LOT! And in the end it came down to overtime, and as that was about to expire UCLA tied the game. With just seconds left on the clock the Zags brought the ball in, and as their guy was just past half-court he threw up a shot as the backboard turned red (time expired) and sunk it! UCLA was devastated, they thought for sure they were going to a 2nd overtime...and of course the Zags were overjoyed!
ReplyDeleteSo tonight Gonzaga plays Baylor for the title...two #1 seeds, should be quite a game!
Anyway, just checking in...got back from Sunnyvale Friday afternoon. Even a 1 week trip now feels much longer than it used to...as always it's good to be home! Later gators!
Tough game to watch last night if you were rooting for Gonzaga...Baylor was just incredible, and the Zags just looked like they were tired. Baylor was simply firing on all cylinders, raining down 3 pointers at will, and just had complete control of the court for the entire game. I don't think Gonzaga even touched a rebound for the first period, it was like Baylor had 12 guys on the court...green jerseys EVERYWHERE! The Zags were so dominated that they were forced to take crappy 3 point shots (when they could hold the ball long enough to actually take a shot, they had a LOT of takeaways), of which they only hit about 10% (they were 0 for 6 at one point). It was truly a remarkable game for Baylor, and with that they earned their first National Championship ever...good for them, it was well deserved.
ReplyDeleteOK...that's all the BB I will watch...still love the college sports as they aren't yet prima-donnas making obscene $$ to play a game...most of the kids will go on to get a real job so they are still playing for love of the game, and when they graduate that will be it. Now to see what happens to cycling...what with the resurgence of Corona in France and the new variants making things look bleak again (right when we were gaining the upper hand too). We are still having our howling spring winds much to my dismay...it was an easy 30mph last night after work, and I'm just not gonna ride in that.
OK...back to work...have a nice day!
Hi, all! just stopped by to check in - no news on my end except to say that the day after my 2nd Pfizer vax was horrible for about 24 hours - like having a migraine and the flu at once! but the next morning only a headache, that was gone by afternoon. So glad to be vaccinated! I hope that Jeannie has been able to get hers, and you too SusieB! There is a plentiful supply here, in fact, now they are offering it in multiple places on a walk in basis. Seems that a lot of people only wanted the J&J vaccine and now are skipping vaccination entirely (on top of those who weren't going to get it anyway).
ReplyDeleteI watched The Amstel Gold race last Sunday - a very good race (at the last hour+) - but will catch up with La Fleche and LBL later on the SportsGold app. Romandie is next, then the Giro already, can you believe it? I have to admit though, after almost 20 years of watching every race that I could manage to see, this year I just haven't regained my enthusiasm; seems a pity since there are definitely some good rivalries and hot new (and old - have you seen Cav's wins last week?) talent on the world tour. My opportunties to watch have certainly decreased in the past 2 years, it is hard to even find good (safe) pirate streams now although I did find one for De Ronde. Must have had a lot of views toward the end since it started buffering a lot but not intolerable.
Matt, I hope your spring weather has calmed down. We had a very cold blast the first week of April (temps down in the low 20s overnight, which took out all of my apricot blossoms. It is really silly of me to try to grow apricots here anyway) and again this past week hard freezes overnight with 3 inches of very heavy wet snow! That should be the last blast of winter for us (fingers crossed).
Any more road trips for work in the near future?
Oh, and do you know what Fat Cyclist is up to now? I think that I miss Leroy's dog just about as much as I do Fatty's blog...
And, SusieB, I hope that you are holding up well - are you back to working in your office or still mostly from home? I'm still kind of in binge-on-old-TV mode; after I caught up with NCIS I tried to watch NCIS LA but none of the early seasons were available to watch on my streams. So, I started on Bull, but kind of meh. Switched to The Good Wife and was hooked on that to the end! Didn't continue with The Good Fight, just wanted a little break from the characters...instead I am now watching what has to be the absolutely most unrealistic medical drama in the history of medical drama - New Amsterdam - but I am still enjoying the stories. I had remembered the star from The Blacklist (which I stopped watching the season after they killed him off!) Have you enjoyed any of those shows? Hope you touch base here soon!
Hey Rae, nice to hear from you. Sorry you felt bad after your 2nd dose, but very happy that it was short-lived and you are now good to go! Jeannie did get hers...she had her 2nd dose (Pfizer also) last week, so 1 more week and she is also good to go...hooray! Susie, sure hope you have good news on the Vaccine front!
ReplyDeleteA week and a half ago we went into 12 hour shifts (round the clock, 2 shifts)...I was on days 6am to 6:30pm...we started on a Monday and ended on Sunday...it was to fuel the spacecraft we had awaiting launch on a Delta IV heavy rocket. Well, that launch went off without a hitch yesterday at 1:47pm...HOORAY!! I will work on a post with some pictures...it's a pretty big deal for us, and the country (it was a VERY EXPENSIVE spacecraft).
Anyway, during times when we weren't allowed in the tower I was able to watch some of the races on my NBCSN Gold site (watched a few from Paris-Nice including the last, and then a few more stages of other races). Anyway...the fuels we load are super-bad for living creatures, so after everything is hooked up most of us are kicked out, and only our people in pretty much full on space-suits are allowed to be up there). The fuels are "Hypergolic", which most spacecraft use as they basically explode when you put a drop of one half with a drop of the other half...put those 2 drops together inside a nozzle and you have a rocket engine that doesn't need a spark to light off (good for in-space where you need to restart engines over and over without any spark or flame or anything else).
As far as we know everything went well with the launch (after it sheds the fairing they cut off further progress updates, as it's a classified launch).
OK...gotta get to bed...will work on the launch post and get it up in the next few days.
Oh...we FINALLY have a spring-like day TODAY! We've had pretty continuous HOWLING winds for the past 3 months...20 to 30mph seemingly all the time with just a few days exceptions. And temps in the 50's (which is cold w/ that wind). Today was near 70 with NORMAL winds, felt like summer! I've been riding all I can, trying to get back to my razors edge of fitness (not there yet, but getting closer). I've missed out on a ton of my typical winter/spring LONG mountain bike rides due to the miserable weather (I'm such a fair-weather rider). So I have a bunch of the big ones on my schedule, and need to get them in QUICK before it suddenly gets HOT. Ok...NOW I will go. Later gators...have a great Friday and weekend!
Oh, and Rae, Leroy is a frequent (daily) commenter at Bike Snob's site...he has the 1st comment on this new post (he's always quite humorous about his dog):
ReplyDeletehttps://bikesnobnyc.com/2021/04/28/flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants/