Happy Veterans Day!

Yes, today is that annual day where I (the Veteran) get to get up early and go to work, and Jeannie (the NON Veteran) gets to stay home with pay. Ahhhh....Veterans Day! I'd say I'm used to it, but I'm not...I'm telling you, if I were President, I'd use my Executive Orders power and decree that ALL Veterans will get this day off WITH PAY, and all NON Veterans would go to work. It would be a Federal Holiday ONLY for the Veterans. That way they would stand a chance to go get some of those free IHOP pancakes and all the other goods and goodies that so many businesses give free to Veterans on this special day.

Boy would I piss off a lot of people with that one I bet!

Anyhoo...I've been riding a LOT this past 3 months, and (nobody apparently wants to hear this) my weight is lowest it's been since I got out of the Navy back in 94. I'm thinking my Dress Blues will fit pretty good, going to dig them out this afternoon for a picture with ribbons and dixie-cup (hat). Yep...I'll be fully in uniform for the first time since I retired (last year I tried on the Blues but didn't have my ribbons or hat...it was more of a "will they still fit?" thing). This year I KNOW they will fit.

And so...College football. Yesterday was a pretty big day. LSU won their annual matchup with Alabama, opening the door to Ohio State. But it was a very tough game, so Bama shouldn't fall too far (most of Bama's problems were their MISTAKES! You can't do that against a serious opponent, and it's not the norm for a Sabian team to have that many unforced errors). Penn State also lost so they are out of that elite undefeated company, leaving just LSU, Clemson and OSU undefeated. I'd still put Bama as #4 if I were the in the rankings department...maybe we will get a repeat of that game many years ago when LSU beat Bama in the season and they were still the #1 and #2 teams and went to the National Championship game, where Bama killed them for the title. I'm just NOT a Tigers fan, so that would be fine by me (but they looked pretty darn good against Bama!)...or maybe Clemson will earn a bid to the title game. I'm just HOPING that FINALLY Michigan gets their demons exorcised and can knock OSU out of the undefeated category (it's happened before). Their game on November 30th COULD be a doosey, I sure hope so! And it is at home....maybe the Ann Arbor home-field advantage will give Harbaugh and company the boost it needs to finally win this game (against a seriously tough team!

OK..enough on CFB. How about this awesome time change? Isn't it wonderful to get off work having it almost dark already? Oh yeah...gotta love that! I know we here in California voted to stop changing the time a year or 2 ago but haven't enacted it yet, so I looked it up. We voted to STAY on Daylight Savings Time (which would be fine by me) but that isn't allowed by Federal Law. A state CAN stay on Standard time, but to stay on DST would require a change to the DST law made way back when. I can only ask, WHY when the made the DST law would it be ok to stay on Standard time (like Arizona and a few other states) but not DST? What is the difference?? I hope they get this law change going and passed (assuming Congress can actually agree on ANYTHING) soon...this stoopid time change has got to go!

And say, how about the weather?? Watching the news every morning, sheesh! My cousins up in North Dakota have already been HAMMERED! And back east, BRRRR! Gee, I can hardly wait to move to Richmond! (NOT!!!!) I'm really quite partial to our Central Coast weather...you know, where we have maybe TWO seasons?? Yesterdays bike ride was in just PERFECT weather...I think we got up to maybe 76 in the afternoon...it was in the 60s by the 9am start...that is pretty great weather if you ask me (oh, and the winds have REALLY been absent this last few weeks which is AWESOME!) I don't get why there aren't 10 million people living up here...our weather overall is amazing!! Oops...ssshhh...don't pass that on, I think that's supposed to be a secret!

So....it's been a busy day, but here is my "Dress Blues" photo for this years Veterans Day:

They fit pretty well actually...though getting into the pullover top is ALWAYS a contest...I think the original designers were using some sort of a straight-jacket as their inspiration and ended up with this...you can seriously be trapped inside that thing!

Help, I'm falling!

Yes, it's officially FALL. And then it isn't. Our weather here is very wishy-washy. One moment it's cold and very much like fall, then last week it was HOT (and we don't get HOT very often). We've had some high winds, but nothing like the  Santa Anna's that blow down south, creating havoc with any spark causing an out of control fire. Thankfully that's very rare up where I'm at....further north they have the same problem....funny how the little bubble of not-crazy weather is over my area. I know the utilities have been shutting off a lot of peoples power in order to NOT cause more fires from their aging and faulty equipment (and even that hasn't stopped them from sparking off fires). And now everybody who is losing power wants to sue them for their inconvenience...they (the utility companies) just can't win...they got crushed into bankruptcy the last few years from the devastating fires their equipment caused because they DIDN'T shut down the power, and now that they are everybody is upset at that too. They can't afford to replace all the ancient equipment as it would cost BILLIONS...what are they to do? I haven't the foggiest idea...talk about between a rock and a hard place!

Anyway....lots going on...College football..WOW! Michigan beat-down Notre Dame yesterday (HOORAY!!) but lost a heart breaker to still unbeaten Penn State last Saturday (who has now moved up to 5th with Oklahoma's loss yesterday). Stupid Ohio State (sorry Rae!) is still up in the top 3..RATS! Ol' Blue NEEDS to finally break that curse this year...their game is coming up in a few weeks. But boy does OSU still look good, darn them!

What else...oh, gymnastics! And all that needs to be said about that is "Simone Biles". Greatest gymnast EVER? It would be easy to make a case for that...she is undoubtedly amazing! How many moves new to Gymnastics does she now have named after her? The saying "Dynamite comes in small packages" doesn't even do justice to her...she is more like plastic explosive...WAY more devastating than dynamite! And she looks to not even be slowing down a little...she is better than EVER!

Halloween is almost upon us....I am heading up (work travel) to Travis Air Force Base tomorrow for the week...head back either Weds or Thurs, depending on how things go (I'm hoping for Thursday...just need to be home in time for Trick or Treats...I have a ton of candy ready to give out!)

Did a HUGE road bike ride yesterday (my biggest ever in fact)....my first ever "Death Ride" (a century with well over 10,000' of climbing)....it was the "unofficial" Deer Creek Death Ride (starts in Thousand Oaks off of the 101 and is all over the place in the Santa Monica mtns). I'm finally back at the razors edge of being at my best ever fitness (took me a few months to get 'back' after le Tour)...I'm really pleased with how I rode...felt pretty great considering! So I'm taking my bike with me on the road trip tomorrow and plan to stop and ride Mt Diablo tomorrow on the way up, and again when I"m coming home...got to ride it many years back when the Tour of CA rolled thru and had a mt top finish (I was up working in Sunnyvale that year). Didn't even get to climb the whole thing as they had the last mile or more roped off for only the racers...had to walk up to the finish). Also it was HOT HOT HOT that year (that's the year they did the Palm Springs tram finish and it was so hot the pavement was melting at the finish area and a lot of riders were near heat-stroke).

Was just down in Yuma last weekend with my brothers, working on our Moms house...getting it ready to sell. We painted the entire outside, and pretty much cleared the inside of her presence (THAT was hard...hated doing it). Nearly all her 'stuff' is now gone...given to the local mission she supported. THAT was hard too...I really wanted to put all her 'stuff' (ceramics and all her nic-nacs she collected these last 30 years or so) out on the curb of her house with a "Mary Halvorson/Chapeks stuff, please feel free to take some of her things to remember her by" sign.... (she lived in a large retirement  RV park where there are very few RV's anymore...almost all have "park models" installed on their lots...moms park model is VERY NICE) so that all her friends and acquaintances could have that...but my brothers wanted to give it all to the mission...so there it all went, and it was pretty nice stuff...all going to complete strangers (whatever survives the gauntlet of making it to a shelf in their store and isn't broken). I was pretty crushed by that...none of her friends will have ANY of her stuff...people who knew her. But I was over-ruled...I kept what I could but sadly almost all went to the mission. I'm still hurt on that...nobody will be going "oh, that's cute, where did you get it? Oh...that was Mary's, you remember her?" She had a giant footprint in the park for a lot of years....church, choir, plays, crafts, fundraisers, dances...she touched a lot of lives.

I still feel bad...like we stabbed her in the heart tossing ALL her stuff basically in the trash to get a few $$ for the mission...heck, I would have given the mission money to NOT give them her stuff. Sheesh...there I go again. Got to let it go...can't fix it, it's a done deal. Damn. Anyway...had to vent on that...I'm better now...(not really).

OK...back to more pleasant things...our weather here has been mostly pretty great...but typical Central Coast (all over the map, but generally pretty decent, which describes it almost year round). Which is a good thing as it fueled my cycling comeback (4 rides a week) and was critical to my success...as I am VERY MUCH a "fair weather" cyclist. I've been riding very strong on my Saturday morning Group Rides, and I've been adding distance to further my comeback...my every other Friday off has typically been a very hard ride and been doing great on those too. Yep...I'm BACK! Soon enough will be the STOOPID TIME CHANGE, which is where the decline of my hard-earned late-season form starts to decline (again). The Holidays almost seem to crush my riding.

And so...I should be going...today is 'chores'  day, as are most of my Sundays. And packing and getting ready to roll out early in the morning heading north to Travis.

Later Gators...have a great week!

Cheers!