lucky

that my wife reads this...

and realizes that there's a whole host of shit i talk about or have opinions about or just want to talk though that she doesn't really care about...

years ago we'd hang out with friends - and if they rode (one in particular) we'd spend hours literally talking about bike stuff. Heck face to face meeting with solo and 45 minutes passes in a blink and we've just been talking about bikes - and I seriously think neither one of us was lacking for something to talk about. My wife likes riding her bike(s). Appreciates lots of it. She just doesn't care about gear ratios, frame materials, technique, stuff like that. She's an athlete. A real one. Able to push so far into the pain threshold for results it is incredible. She kicked ass in crew. Captain of all the teams she was on. She new how to turn the brain off and just go. I think too much.

Last night after the talk about % grade, gear ratios blah blah blah she said "you are SUCH a dork"

guilty.

bike dork with an outlet... and outlet that doesn't depend on boring random people in person for long durations... when something comes to me I can get it out of my head and focus on task at hand...

I find it rather complementary that people (solo and Colin) find it easy to parody my style. That means #1 I've got an identity here that even being punked by G-Ride can't take away #2 someone's actually reading this shit I'm writing and it is sticking. Maybe not the message or the meaning (sticking) but even that stuff is getting through. I believe that, even if you don't like those (opinions) on the edges - the extreme folks, listening to them helps you become more self aware. Helps you to make more informed opinions. If you know more about what other people think and why it is easier to live in peace with them. Anyway - not sure where I was going with this. I am often never sure where something is headed when I start it.

I spent the whole ride home last night racking my brain, what was it. The pick in the sound box. WTF was the story I had bottled up. I have no idea. The plan to write the story overwhelmed my memory more than the story itself. Still nagging at me.

Speaking of memory. I tried to recall racing in college. There were two races I remember almost completely, both, in fact UCONN races. One was their crit, and one was the 'Tokeneke' road race. I remember more about the subway we had lunch at than the stage race up in Amherst. The only part I remember is the road race, heading down somewhere and doing a looping uphill right hand turn and the Army guys in their black and yellow bumble bee kits. I remembered the Army road race. Cold. Wet. Wicked down hill with a left hander back up. Probably was in a park. I think I remember the parking situation. But What I remember most is the downhill and then uphill. I know I did more than those races though. At least I think I did. I never did particularly well in the races, in any road races. And it seems from all intents and purposes I'm working at keeping that streak going strong. Just odd. Looking back and not being able to remember stuff. Part of getting old? Or more a sign of what my brain filed away. With visual cues, results sheets, what nots I probably could work on uncovering the memories locked away. (I'm trying not to get all stuart smiley here).

I'm still waiting to get my second issue of CX mag in the mail.

I suppose i should go back to blabbering on about cooking and food and what not. Instead of the racing and all that. Kinda funny that the history of my pasta sauce making is pretty easily recalled, but the racing is not. Cyclocross? Well that is a different story. I can remember pretty well at least snippets of every cross race I did back in Michigan.

The season starts when?

"People who don't do it, don't quite understand it.
People who do, know, intrinsically, as soon as you try it you are hooked on it.
Once you race cross, it is hard not to."
-Pure Sweet Hell

How long till we get to race in cross conditions? Will we even get them here in NE this coming year?

I should clean the cross bike. I finally abducted the Rolf Vector Pros off the Croll, pulled the Racing Ralphs (showing more wear on the knobs than I expected after a season) off and put on my Conti fat boy tires (28c 4 seasons). 247 grams of goodness in each tire. Stuck the pit wheels on the Croll in hopes that I'll keep hitting my course with the knobbies. I keep seeing the Carbon Mantra hanging behind the wheel-less Quantum Pro. Taunting me with "are you gonna race KOB on me or the Adroit?" Just what GeWilli needs: slightly ambiguous choices.

full on change of pace...

by now I'm sure the whole cycling web log following world has stumbled upon Liz Hatch and her web log. Now some of you might be regular PEZ distraction fans and saw that gal wearing the vanderkitten shirt? Well. She's got a refreshing take on this sport, from the point of view of a 'beginner', and the passion of youth. Just don't be a basher, Eh?!

And ain't Andy's bike just fahking COOL?

i just noticed erikV of the Voldoil company has a 'Cross countdown. Ah man.

And Maynard is making even me feel old. At least with the last line of his into:

It occurs to me that this piece may be older than you are, dear reader. It's so old that my big chain ring was a 52! Oh, well... I hope you like it despite all that.

Before that he was talking about floppy disk and WordStar.

Craziness. And yes. Very funny to think that the paramount I was riding up and down the hills might have been older than a few of the kids who showed up for the ride. Yikes.

I put off starting Omnivore last night in favor of just reading a story from Half Wheel Hell. It was about getting a flat, not having anything, in the cold on a group ride. A good story, as all of his are. His reasons for pursuing the blog are equally as good as his writing. I for one, am glad he is one of the ones raising the quality of this whole blogosphere.

It is too bad in many ways, and probably good is more, that another literary idol of mine has passed on. I want to imagine that Edward Abbey would have made a great web logger. Despite his solitary seemingly technology limited life, I think he would have grabbed hold of the medium with vigor and force. Although, it is most likely, if he had made it to now, that he wouldn't have gotten into the digital age of this self publishing stuff. This would have been roughly his 81st year on the planet. And I don't think he would like much of what is out there right now.

Maybe I secretly am trying to embody what they say about him:

Meet Edward Paul Abbey, twentieth-century polemicist and desert anarchist, a character of elaborate contradictions and eccentricities whose words either infuriated or delighted his readers.

You are what you eat/read?

could be true...

eat...

food...

I'm really hungry - I'm always freaking HUNGRY... so frustrating... even 1/2 pound of fig newtons later (yeah - packaged, processed, prepared and preserved even wow - pure violation of the 4 Ps AND it has HFCS in it). Ah well. I can always fall back on the popular cyclist-ism "fuel is fuel" well... there ya go one of the "elaborate contradictions"...

on that...

i will end

heddwch
G