Wow...it's been a month since my last post...my new years resolution lasted about 2 months. Oh well.
ANYWAY...it's THAT time again! Cycling over in Europe is ON! Two big races were run this weekend, and the real Classics are on the way SOON! Nice to see Cav strike gold so early....and he basically did it on his own (AFTER the team worked for him all day I mean)....the sprint trains were all wiped out and it was every man for himself at the end, and he out-kicked the rest.
Sadly I won't be seeing any of the action...in the interest of saving $ our DTV satellite service is down to the basics just now....Obviously I'll up the package as the Grand Tours are near...Though I need to know if (who) will be broadcasting the Giro before I decide to do that in May or not.
Crazy weather seemingly everywhere right now...back east and up north is getting WINTER MADNESS this year...yet Alaska is not. Jill Homer and her boyfriend Beat fly up tomorrow I think...Beat is again doing the Iditarod (Anchorage to Nome) on FOOT! He's done it 2 years in a row...takes him just under a month if I recall...can you imagine doing that for FUN? Anyway, they had to move the start line up to Fairbanks as there's NO SNOW anywhere near Anchorage! Jill posted some pics last week supplied by local snowmobile clubs and such of the barren
A landscape around Anchorage...sheer madness that Boston is having FAR more winter than most of Alaska. Most will call that Global Warming, I'd tend to call it shifting weather patterns. It's certainly been a winter of record for a lot of the US, and I have no idea what Canada is getting (as nobody down here reports on that). But it seems most of these huge storms come down from Canada, so I'd think they must be getting a good one too?
As to the Sophie (aka: the Kracken), she grows like a WEED! I just weighed her today, she's 38.4lbs! (she was only 23 when we brought her home before Christmas). We both swear that some days you come home and you'd swear she's bigger than she was that morning. She just turned 6 months old yesterday...so we can't help but wonder just how big she will actually top out at...the vet said likely between 55 and 60lbs...which is a pretty-good size for a female bulldog.Time will tell...very soon she won't be able to fit under the bed anymore, which will be a real loss of comedy in the afternoons. She and PG like to play what I call "Jack in the box"...where PG chases Sophie barking and such, trying to boss her around, and Sophie crawls under the bed which infuriates PG (as she can't do that). Then as PG is patrolling the edge of the bed barking, Sophie suddenly shoots out like a J-in-the-b snapping and making some insane gurggly barky noise. PG charges over to where she shot out at, but she's already crawled back under, and moves around under there and pops out at a totally new place 10 seconds or so later...it goes on and on. I tried to video some of it, but they seem to have toned it down when I turned on the camera for some reason. I'll keep trying though, as it can't last much longer...Sophie barely fits as it is.
And so...enough on that. Next weekend is the annual "spring-forward" time change (HOORAY!). I always really look for ward to that...more light in the afternoons is always a good thing! I've been doing more mountain biking this year than in previous years...partly due to a close call on the road bike (my first road ride this year in fact)...and also because a friend is mt biking more too and it's always more fun to ride with people than solo. This weekend Mother Nature was laughing at us (again) and planned an entire weekend of storms for us (with windy, er, I mean WINDY weather all last week). I slipped in a solo mt bike ride on Saturday, thinking I was going to slip one past Mother Nature...she got me GOOD. The drizzly rain hit as I neared the summit of a LONG dirt climb (almost 2 straight hours of climbing) and it got COLD right quick too...so I turned around and headed for the car. Haven't been so cold in a long time..and as I neared the bottom the dirt road became a skating rink of icky slimy mud on top...I only went down once but got pretty gooky doing it...and then I had to put my muddy bike and body into my car...what a mess. My ride was cut short by over half of what I hoped to do, and I had a big mess to deal with. Rats.
Today I surprisingly slipped in an early road ride thinking I could again beat Mother Nature (it was sunny and clear by 8:30am). I did..sort of...she didn't rain on me, but she did bring back the COLD...I froze the last 15 miles or so (the rains hit HARD an hour or 2 after I got home). And while I was on today's ride, I had ANOTHER close call on the road. A gold mini van apparently not paying attention at ALL...I was just past the bottom of Vandenberg Grade and climbing slightly...riding in the middle of a nice wide shoulder (the roads were damp pretty much all day, and I'd already had one flat due to stuff sticking to the tires and then working it's way into the tube eventually). This minivan swooshed RIGHT by me (at likely around 65mph), driving at least 2 or 3 feet on MY side of the white line...missing be my WAY too little I can tell you. Scared the daylights out of me...again. I quickly remembered why I've been Mt biking more this year. Just about 2 or 3 minutes later I got passed on the climb by a "FAST" guy on my left...he swooped by me, and as he rode just on the right of the line (and stayed there the entire climb) I was thinking that had he been there when the mini van came by he would likely be dead. I just can't figure what people are thinking/doing in their cars...but it sure isn't paying attention to their DRIVING! Back in Jan if the truck guy hadn't had his drivers window down, I'm quite sure he would have driven right over the top of me (as he ran a stop sign). And then last fall the lady in a gold Lincoln Town-car did almost the same exact thing, only there were TWO of us, and if HER window had been up she wouldn't have heard us screaming and I most likely wouldn't be here typing.
OK...enough bitching about cars for now...I just don't want to die...or be seriously (or even not so seriously) injured by a car as I ride...I'd like to think I have that right...but I don't. It's pure luck. And I don't even have to do ANYTHING wrong...just be in the wrong place in the wrong time.But I guess that's what most accidents are. Bad luck. All we can really hope for is that it doesn't happen to us. I guess I'll mostly stick to Mt biking for a while...if I crash there I know where the fault lies...and I can live with that.
Have a great week, enjoy the time change AND the Classics!
Cheers!
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Cheaters sometimes prosper. And on a totally different tangent, Jeannie gets a NEW CAR!
Well...New England won the big game. Or to put it more accurately, Seattle GAVE it to them with that INSANE pass play at the 1/2 yard line with 20 seconds left (and one of the best running backs in the game on their team). I can't freaking believe it.I'm mortified, dismayed, disgusted, baffled, and even a bit miffed if you will.
Yep. The cheaters won. And even though everybody is downplaying deflategate, it IS a big deal. I used to play a lot of football in my younger days, and back in VA in the fall when it's cold out, that football is ROCK HARD trying to catch it (and it hurts too). Just a pound or so less air makes a HUGE difference in cold weather. And as for the game against the Ravens, 11 out of 12 of them low? SOMEBODY on that organization did that on purpose. And I don't for a moment believe that Brady didn't' know about it. And of COURSE he denied it when asked directly. Like he would have said "of course I told him (or whoever) to let some air out". It's like Lance denying his doping. Of COURSE they deny it. They HAVE to. Had Brady said yes, then I think they would have forfeited that game (which I believe the NFL should have done anyway after discovering the lower pressures at half-time).
It can be argued seven ways to Sunday that it didn't matter, that they (NE) won the game by a large margin, etc etc. Doesn't matter. They CHEATED and got caught. And now they're Superbowl Champions. Again. And eventually some lackey will be saddled with the crime, it will be worded to sound like an accident or misunderstanding, and the NFL will hope it dies there (much like the UCI had their head in the sand on doping, hoping it would just go away).
Dang you Seattle...don't know who called that stupid play on the goal line, whether it was Carrol or the Offensive Coordinator...but I can't for the life of me fathom why you don't go with Lynch...they had time for at least 2 tries, likely 3 (I think they still had 2 time outs, or was it just 1?)...and it's not like he can't get 1 to 3 yards 19 out of 20 times. Only needed 1/2 for crying out loud...that game was in the bag, and the Cheaters would have lost. The universe is now tilted on it's axis and needs some magic to right its-self. I'm just so disgusted. Which is sad, as all in all it was a pretty good game, and it came down to the final 30 seconds to decide...which is about all you can ask for in a football game.
OK...I've ranted on that. It's just a game and it's history. On to part II of this post: Jeannies NEW CAR!
Here's the background. Last August or so she finally decided to turn her beloved 91 Dodge Stealth over to the state (into a dismantling shop to be precise) for $1000 due to it's inability to pass CA smog testing without getting a new engine. I thought she should just go for the rebuilt engine (it would have cost about $5 grand total for the removal, stripping of necessary parts to transfer over, and the new engine being put in with the shifting of parts). She then has her car for the next 8 years while we are here in CA until I retire. Then we will likely move to Richmond VA (to be closer to her twin brother) and she will then NEED a car. Here she walks to work most days, and only occasionally needs a car (and we have a friends old Nissan Senta sitting in our garage or out on the street as it's an extra car for but she doesn't want to sell it...and she doesn't mind us driving it). Jeannie had saved all the money to buy her new or used car (she had been looking at Audi A4's among other cars, but you can't get them with the diesel here in the states yet).
And so...over the last 2 months or so she has stepped up her online search for cars. She had stopped looking at Audi's, and was looking at VW Jetta sedans (the TDI diesel) used....2 years old or so. She had enough money to buy new, and that even with the Passat (which I steered her towards). I figure at this point in our life, and the fact that we keep cars a LONG time, that whatever she buys will be in our lives for a good portion of what's remaining...so make it a GOOD one.
About 2 weeks ago she found of all things a Passat TDI SEL Premium (that's the FULLY loaded version) right here in Santa Maria. It was a 2014 model, but had only been off the lot for 4 months, and had just a hair over 4000 miles on it. We went down and checked it out...immaculate! And it even had extras...the bad weather custom VW floormats (a $250 value), the special made trunk mat, the 18" super alloy wheels...I mean this baby was fantastic! I don't think I've been in a nicer car. It drove like a dream! A true luxury car, w/ a 6 speed automatic. The engine is only .1 liter bigger than my little 03 Jetta wagon, but they've made a LOT of progress in those 11 years. This thing drives like a sports car! Yet it's SO quiet inside...you'd NEVER suspect it's a diesel (until you get 800 miles on a tank at the rated 42mpg highway).
So after our test drive we chatted w/ the salesman and he did what he could, but they wouldn't come down to what Jeannie was willing to pay. So we walked away. Sometime on the next day I emailed her, as I had been thinking about it. Basicly they were selling it at about 6 to $7000 off of new. And as to why it was sitting used (for 4 months) in a Dodge dealership, here's the story: the man who bought it (had money) needed a nice car that gets good mileage to haul his aging mother back and forth to Arizona. So he bought the car, and less than 4 months later she dies. He no longer needs the car so trades it in on a nice new hugemongous Dodge diesel truck. So there this amazing and almost totally new car sits, selling for much less than it had 4 months earlier. I emailed Jeanine to call him and just make the deal, that she can take any extra over what she was willing to pay out of my mt bike fund (I'm saving to buy a niner mt bike, hopefully this year sometime). I thought it was a great deal on an AMAZING car, and we weren't likely to find another deal like it (very few cars that we find used to buy are anywhere near us).
Well...last Friday she emails me a link to another Passat...same loaded model, and it's down south somewhere (likely 3 to 4 hour drive each way). I asked her about the one here, and she told me it was sold. So about the one she l inked me to...it was selling for about the same price, only it's got over 12,000 miles on it. I tel her why bother...she didn't think the one HERE was a good deal, why pay the same amount for a car hours away with more miles? Then on Sat morning as I'm driving south to go Mt biking I was thinking about it. I was TOTALLY sure we (she) was going to have that car...the one we drove. I could SEE it...(I've had those little 'visions' off and on in my life, where I seem to know things that later come true...happened more than a few times). So when she told me it was sold I was upset and dismayed at my 'gift'...as it totally missed the mark. (way back when we were driving PG down to Ventura with her HULK leg I had "seen" her in my mind running around just fine w/ 3 legs...and after the surgery where they saved the leg I once agian figured I blew it...and then 4 months later we had to take the leg as the cancer came back...and here she is over a year later, totally fine, alpha in the pack, living large and in charge).
So....I was fuming some that she let THAT car go, and was thinking of telling her to stop sending me links as she doesn't even listen to what I say anyway, and she will do whatever she wants...so why ask me in the first place? As I open the garage door after my bike ride, lo and behold there sits a black Passat TDI SEL in the garage! I couldn't for the life of me figure it out....did she go down to the local VW place and drive one home for me to test drive? (I did that to her a few years back w/ a beautiful used Jetta TDI sedan...red, fully loaded...just beautiful...and she wasn't in the least interested so I drove it back). Then I see her peeking out the door at me, all smiles. I still don't get it...why is this car in our garage and where did it come from?
And she spills the story....yes, on Friday when she told me the car we drove was sold, it was....to HER! She called them back on Friday (she has Friday's off) and talked them down another few hundred and made the deal. She then went down on Saturday to pay them, and drove it home for me to be surprised with. And surprised I was! And overjoyed! You see, I'll most likely drive it more than she will...at least this next 8 years. I'd say it's the nicest car I've ever drove....just wonderful! And now here it is, in OUR garage...Woo-HOOO! We are living LARGE I tell you! A bulldog puppy, and now this amazing car!
Life is good...that I can attest to. I still peek in the garage every now and then just to peer at this beast...(she says it's a girl...go figure...I'm surrounded by girls, always have been.....outvoted at EVERY turn by a longshot). But that's ok...she got me GOOD on this one! And my talent is still working well....I KNEW we would get that car...I had seen it.
OK...Sunday night...about time to clean up the "cottonfield" and then get ready for bed. (the cottonfield is where the babies are riping stuffing out of their playbox full of stuffed animals...little conttonball tufts of white poly stuff EVREYWHERE in the house).
And I'll leave you with one final shot of Sophie before I leave.
This was the Superbowl Budweiser ad where the puppy was lost and finding it's way home, trapped by wolves, and the Clydesdales come to the rescue. ANYTIME there is a dog on TV she simply goes CRAZY! She's up there barking at the puppy on the TV! (if you've ever seen the movie Riddick, and the strange giant hyena/dog thing he that befriends, Sophie goes ABSOLUTELY NUTS when that's on!)
She's doing real well...mostly just the Angel Sophie...and only sometimes "the Kracken". I bought a spray bottle of "bitter apple" which we will spray on Sydney...Sophie has chewed the tip of her tail pretty good (not much hair left there) and loves to chew on her neck and ears too when we aren't looking...so I've sprayed the stuff on Syd's tail/neck and ears...and we'll see if we can break her of that. Until then we can't leave her out during the work-day when we're gone...she torments poor Syd who can't defend herself, and she doesn't deserve that. So if this works we can leave her out now...she's pretty good about using the doggie doors to do her thing outside (every now and then she does her biz in the garage, but I won't go too nuts over that...it'sj ust something we'll work on...as long as it' s NOT in the house!)..., and she hasn't been destroying stuff other than her toys...so we are lucky there. So if she will just leave Syd alone then we are home free with the newest member of the pack.
And that's it for another week. Have a great one and stay warm!
Cheers!
Yep. The cheaters won. And even though everybody is downplaying deflategate, it IS a big deal. I used to play a lot of football in my younger days, and back in VA in the fall when it's cold out, that football is ROCK HARD trying to catch it (and it hurts too). Just a pound or so less air makes a HUGE difference in cold weather. And as for the game against the Ravens, 11 out of 12 of them low? SOMEBODY on that organization did that on purpose. And I don't for a moment believe that Brady didn't' know about it. And of COURSE he denied it when asked directly. Like he would have said "of course I told him (or whoever) to let some air out". It's like Lance denying his doping. Of COURSE they deny it. They HAVE to. Had Brady said yes, then I think they would have forfeited that game (which I believe the NFL should have done anyway after discovering the lower pressures at half-time).
It can be argued seven ways to Sunday that it didn't matter, that they (NE) won the game by a large margin, etc etc. Doesn't matter. They CHEATED and got caught. And now they're Superbowl Champions. Again. And eventually some lackey will be saddled with the crime, it will be worded to sound like an accident or misunderstanding, and the NFL will hope it dies there (much like the UCI had their head in the sand on doping, hoping it would just go away).
Dang you Seattle...don't know who called that stupid play on the goal line, whether it was Carrol or the Offensive Coordinator...but I can't for the life of me fathom why you don't go with Lynch...they had time for at least 2 tries, likely 3 (I think they still had 2 time outs, or was it just 1?)...and it's not like he can't get 1 to 3 yards 19 out of 20 times. Only needed 1/2 for crying out loud...that game was in the bag, and the Cheaters would have lost. The universe is now tilted on it's axis and needs some magic to right its-self. I'm just so disgusted. Which is sad, as all in all it was a pretty good game, and it came down to the final 30 seconds to decide...which is about all you can ask for in a football game.
OK...I've ranted on that. It's just a game and it's history. On to part II of this post: Jeannies NEW CAR!
Here's the background. Last August or so she finally decided to turn her beloved 91 Dodge Stealth over to the state (into a dismantling shop to be precise) for $1000 due to it's inability to pass CA smog testing without getting a new engine. I thought she should just go for the rebuilt engine (it would have cost about $5 grand total for the removal, stripping of necessary parts to transfer over, and the new engine being put in with the shifting of parts). She then has her car for the next 8 years while we are here in CA until I retire. Then we will likely move to Richmond VA (to be closer to her twin brother) and she will then NEED a car. Here she walks to work most days, and only occasionally needs a car (and we have a friends old Nissan Senta sitting in our garage or out on the street as it's an extra car for but she doesn't want to sell it...and she doesn't mind us driving it). Jeannie had saved all the money to buy her new or used car (she had been looking at Audi A4's among other cars, but you can't get them with the diesel here in the states yet).
And so...over the last 2 months or so she has stepped up her online search for cars. She had stopped looking at Audi's, and was looking at VW Jetta sedans (the TDI diesel) used....2 years old or so. She had enough money to buy new, and that even with the Passat (which I steered her towards). I figure at this point in our life, and the fact that we keep cars a LONG time, that whatever she buys will be in our lives for a good portion of what's remaining...so make it a GOOD one.
About 2 weeks ago she found of all things a Passat TDI SEL Premium (that's the FULLY loaded version) right here in Santa Maria. It was a 2014 model, but had only been off the lot for 4 months, and had just a hair over 4000 miles on it. We went down and checked it out...immaculate! And it even had extras...the bad weather custom VW floormats (a $250 value), the special made trunk mat, the 18" super alloy wheels...I mean this baby was fantastic! I don't think I've been in a nicer car. It drove like a dream! A true luxury car, w/ a 6 speed automatic. The engine is only .1 liter bigger than my little 03 Jetta wagon, but they've made a LOT of progress in those 11 years. This thing drives like a sports car! Yet it's SO quiet inside...you'd NEVER suspect it's a diesel (until you get 800 miles on a tank at the rated 42mpg highway).
So after our test drive we chatted w/ the salesman and he did what he could, but they wouldn't come down to what Jeannie was willing to pay. So we walked away. Sometime on the next day I emailed her, as I had been thinking about it. Basicly they were selling it at about 6 to $7000 off of new. And as to why it was sitting used (for 4 months) in a Dodge dealership, here's the story: the man who bought it (had money) needed a nice car that gets good mileage to haul his aging mother back and forth to Arizona. So he bought the car, and less than 4 months later she dies. He no longer needs the car so trades it in on a nice new hugemongous Dodge diesel truck. So there this amazing and almost totally new car sits, selling for much less than it had 4 months earlier. I emailed Jeanine to call him and just make the deal, that she can take any extra over what she was willing to pay out of my mt bike fund (I'm saving to buy a niner mt bike, hopefully this year sometime). I thought it was a great deal on an AMAZING car, and we weren't likely to find another deal like it (very few cars that we find used to buy are anywhere near us).
Well...last Friday she emails me a link to another Passat...same loaded model, and it's down south somewhere (likely 3 to 4 hour drive each way). I asked her about the one here, and she told me it was sold. So about the one she l inked me to...it was selling for about the same price, only it's got over 12,000 miles on it. I tel her why bother...she didn't think the one HERE was a good deal, why pay the same amount for a car hours away with more miles? Then on Sat morning as I'm driving south to go Mt biking I was thinking about it. I was TOTALLY sure we (she) was going to have that car...the one we drove. I could SEE it...(I've had those little 'visions' off and on in my life, where I seem to know things that later come true...happened more than a few times). So when she told me it was sold I was upset and dismayed at my 'gift'...as it totally missed the mark. (way back when we were driving PG down to Ventura with her HULK leg I had "seen" her in my mind running around just fine w/ 3 legs...and after the surgery where they saved the leg I once agian figured I blew it...and then 4 months later we had to take the leg as the cancer came back...and here she is over a year later, totally fine, alpha in the pack, living large and in charge).
So....I was fuming some that she let THAT car go, and was thinking of telling her to stop sending me links as she doesn't even listen to what I say anyway, and she will do whatever she wants...so why ask me in the first place? As I open the garage door after my bike ride, lo and behold there sits a black Passat TDI SEL in the garage! I couldn't for the life of me figure it out....did she go down to the local VW place and drive one home for me to test drive? (I did that to her a few years back w/ a beautiful used Jetta TDI sedan...red, fully loaded...just beautiful...and she wasn't in the least interested so I drove it back). Then I see her peeking out the door at me, all smiles. I still don't get it...why is this car in our garage and where did it come from?
And she spills the story....yes, on Friday when she told me the car we drove was sold, it was....to HER! She called them back on Friday (she has Friday's off) and talked them down another few hundred and made the deal. She then went down on Saturday to pay them, and drove it home for me to be surprised with. And surprised I was! And overjoyed! You see, I'll most likely drive it more than she will...at least this next 8 years. I'd say it's the nicest car I've ever drove....just wonderful! And now here it is, in OUR garage...Woo-HOOO! We are living LARGE I tell you! A bulldog puppy, and now this amazing car!
Here's Jeannies new car sitting in OUR garage! And thankfully it FITS! (I was a bit worried about that).
Life is good...that I can attest to. I still peek in the garage every now and then just to peer at this beast...(she says it's a girl...go figure...I'm surrounded by girls, always have been.....outvoted at EVERY turn by a longshot). But that's ok...she got me GOOD on this one! And my talent is still working well....I KNEW we would get that car...I had seen it.
OK...Sunday night...about time to clean up the "cottonfield" and then get ready for bed. (the cottonfield is where the babies are riping stuffing out of their playbox full of stuffed animals...little conttonball tufts of white poly stuff EVREYWHERE in the house).
And I'll leave you with one final shot of Sophie before I leave.
She's doing real well...mostly just the Angel Sophie...and only sometimes "the Kracken". I bought a spray bottle of "bitter apple" which we will spray on Sydney...Sophie has chewed the tip of her tail pretty good (not much hair left there) and loves to chew on her neck and ears too when we aren't looking...so I've sprayed the stuff on Syd's tail/neck and ears...and we'll see if we can break her of that. Until then we can't leave her out during the work-day when we're gone...she torments poor Syd who can't defend herself, and she doesn't deserve that. So if this works we can leave her out now...she's pretty good about using the doggie doors to do her thing outside (every now and then she does her biz in the garage, but I won't go too nuts over that...it'sj ust something we'll work on...as long as it' s NOT in the house!)..., and she hasn't been destroying stuff other than her toys...so we are lucky there. So if she will just leave Syd alone then we are home free with the newest member of the pack.
And that's it for another week. Have a great one and stay warm!
Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)