Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

with a shovel and a party.

there was an issue with a gray water discharge line from the house. Bubbling up in the middle of the back "yard." Been like that for about a year. I got the shovel out and fixed it this morning. 3 hours of digging and running a big snake and patching a junction with cement and re-filling. By noon it was time for a beer. Job done, two big holes filled in. Cracked the beer and then realized, hmm, I didn't have breakfast. Hadn't had much more than three cups of fresh lemon and fresh ginger in some hot water. nice way to get a good buzz on. no wonder my bro's crack a beer first thing in the am when they are on vacation.

big party showing up here tonight. haven't been here for NYD in a loooooong time.

Planning on watching the Hockey game on TV tomorrow. The big ice one. Outside one. We went to the first outdoor hockey game. Set a record at Spartan stadium. Then they did the one in canada somewhere in the middle in the winter. So cold that Théodore wore a Tuque over his goalie helmet/mask. Then there was the game in buffalo. This year they've got the one over at Wrigley field. Red Wings against the Blackhawks. Longest rivalry in hockey. Something like 700th meeting? Going to be fun.

Feeling a bit sore from all the wood chopping lately. At least there isn't any more to chop. I can rest and have a brew now.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! (Happy New Year!)

heddwch
G

It ain't a sledge and a tire

but it might as well have been.

Splitting wood. Lots of it. I did a whole tree's worth of some heavily knotted fir. Oh man what a pain to split. And then I did the 5 biggest rounds from the base of a really old Hemlock that fell.

Lots of splitting wood. My little bro was using a 6-8 pound maul on a wood shaft to split the wood when he was here just as the snow was falling. But it cracked and he stopped. I started with it and the second swing... crack. Damn. There is a big giant red wedge metal maul here. Supposed to be a light weight fiberglass handle maul somewhere. Well we couldn't find it so I was stuck figuring out how to use this freaking wedge.

I'm guessing I split about 1/2 a cord of wood today. With that 12 pound maul. And the wicked knotty wood it doesn't just burst apart like clean fir. No this was wack wack wack wack wack crack split. It got to the point that my hand holding the base needed to switch and I had to split the wood lefty. And well i was able to.

No using some tire and a sledge hammer here. Chop, stack, chop chop chop stack. Then there were the hemlocks that got all split up. When the diameter of the rounds are over 2', well that winds up being a decent amount of chopped wood to move up.

Felt good. A tiny bit sore but being outside just chopping away was fun. Swinging that big old Maul around. And yes, damn i got some good head speed on it. Took a good bit of practice to get used to the retarded wedge shape, but once i got the hang of it, the easy to split rounds went flying 10' in either direction. I kid you not. literally 10' feet. Total pain in the ass to go retrieve them to split them in 1/4s.

Hmm now that I think about it, i've got two rows, about 10' long, stacked 4-6' high. How ever much wood that is, well that's what I split. Might be over a cord.

Certainly is keeping the house warm at anyrate. This cough is waking me up on the 3 hour sleep cycle so I've been able to keep the wood stove stoked and we've avoided firing up the oil burning forced air furnace in the house. Down side, sleeping for only 6 hours in 3 hour stretches isn't quite enough.

Bring on the beer.

heddwch
G

Dicks and Ivars

Yeah... between eating at the Tides before seeing that movie (a place I worked and formatively shaped my pizza eating long before i was old enough to go in there) we have managed to hit all three of the key eateries that i can point to prominently.

Dicks Drive Inn has been a Seattle institution for 55 years or so. I used to hit the one up on Broadway for lunch when working at the Pine Street Pro shop. I took my wife there (before we were married) and she got hooked. We haven't made it there in a while. Got lunch yesterday. Not too bad. Not great. But it was cheap, fast and really not bad. The fries were awesome and the burgers not quite what I remembered but were still pretty damn tasty. I generally go for a couple deluxe, fries and a choc shake. Good stuff. No special orders. There are 4 burgers to choose from, three shake flavors, and one size of fries. Simple. And emotionally satisfying.

Today we hit Ivar's by the ferries. The walk up bar one. I got a tanker of chowder, my wife got the halibut and fries and the girls split some baby prawns and fries. The wind was blowing crazy strong right into the docks. We watched ships come in, ferries come and go and the fire boats riding the big swells rolling in through Elliot bay off of the Sound. It was great. The chowder wasn't anywhere near the level that the Tides had. But it was good. The Halibut wasn't anywhere close to the Tides but it was good. W/O the gourmet frame of reference from the Tides Tavern it would have been fantastic.

Ivar's is a Seattle institution, like Dicks.

I've got very vivid memories of my dad taking me there 30+ years ago. Same place. We'd walk up and get some chowder and it was always amazing to me. The big city, with my dad, eating chowder watching the BIG ferries. At that time the Southworth route was a small ferry only run. The big boats were for the Bremerton and San Juan runs. And to see the big ones up close was always amazing. Lots of good memories. Right up there with getting one of those stadium malts at the Kingdome watching the mariners get their asses kicked by the royals with my dad. Eating those malts with a wooden "spoon".

It was great. The snow's almost gone. And people drive so FREAKING SLOW here. That and they don't expect people to cut them off. Heck I drove "normally" and got loads of honks. Dude there was plenty of room for me to sneak in there - relax. Shit. But I've had way more share of HOLY SHIT is that cop pulling out to get me? Nope, Phew. Not that I was going THAT fast, hell I was going slow as far as I was concerned but everyone was going slower. Crazy drivers out here. Accidents everywhere. Man we even saw one little car clobber their front end into the back of a 2500 P/U issa crazy bunch of idiotic drivers out here. But then maybe I'm too accustom to the east coast style.

I like the east coast style of driving. Oh and the AAA maps say it takes ~3 hours to drive from Portland to Bend. That's not counting the snow in the passes slowing everyone down. Sheesh if they require traction devices (chains) to get over those passes then half the field wont make it to their race next year. *shrug* we'll see won't we.

We're back on Hawaii time again. Just like last year. Going to bed no earlier than midnight and getting up no earlier than 10am. It is really going to be hard to switch back to east coast school time on the 5th. I will say it has been nice hitting the reset button. Vacation has been long enough to feel like something. It is good. Going to be tough heading back home. But work is going to start right up into a tornado so i have that to look forward to.

Time to crack open another Fat Tire Ale. Going to skip the black and tan and save the porter for just a straight up porter. I had the Mirror Pond Pale ale last night. It was good.

My wife offered me a sip of her Coke and I declined, no caffeine. She questioned "No Tea? No Coke? no caffeine at all? ... Just Beer, Huh!"

Yup.

Just beer!

And well what goes well with beer? Jokes.

Here's a good one. An old one, but a good one!

Jane initially met Tarzan in the jungle, she was attracted to him, and during her questions about his life , she asked him how he had sex ?
"Tarzan not know sex" he replied. Jane explained to him what sex was.
Tarzan said "Oh,....Tarzan use knot hole in trunk of tree."
Horrified Jane said, " Tarzan you have it all wrong, but I will show you how to do it properly."
She took off her clothing and laid down on the ground. "Here" she said, pointing to her privates, "you must put it in here."
Tarzan removed his loin cloth, showing Jane his considerable manhood, stepped closer to her and kicked her in the crotch !
Jane rolled around in agony for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually she managed to gasp for air and screamed "
What did you do that for ?"
Tarzan replied, " Just checking for squirrel..."

It's bad but man it is funny.

Heddwch
G

vacation

vacation is a good one when you lose all track of what day it is. is it really sunday today? have i really been here as long as I have?

the snow is about 95% gone. Only the deepest snow in the fields is holding on with some lingering tenacity. The roads are not two tracks with sand piles. The trees are green again and this morning I caught even a tiny hint of blue sky. Proof that it may not rain here all winter long. Although I would guess it is supposed to start raining again.

heddwch
g

a curious case

strange things happen when you go to a movie unprepared for how it will affect you.

this movie, this curious case of benjamin button, this movie was just one of those.

I was moved. It was well done. To say it was intense would be an understatement. At least for me and my experience. It wasn't a great film by any means. Too much like Forest Gump trying to get all those historical references intertwined in the film. Being in improbably locations and all that. Just not really all that amazing. The "growth" of Benjamin wasn't really all that "oh wow" but the emotions were played well. The cold icy feeling of the film enhanced the drama and the powerful emotions it stirred in me.

Despite the potentially flawed delivery of a film (LA Times did NOT like it) it moved me about as much as when I saw parsifal at Seattle Opera's new house. sad to compare a cinematic experience with an opera. but they are the two experiences that touch my biggest fear. the death or loss of a close loved one. I'm not afraid of dying. Not of death. It is a part of what being alive is all about. A student recently suggested being dead will be fantastic. No more worries. No more cares. The weight of life is lifted and you are free in death. No it isn't death that scares me. It is the loss. The emptiness at what is left behind when death happens. That scares me. And more than anything is the fear that I know it will happen, sometime. And every year that sometime draws closer and closer. No matter how well my parents or my wife take care of themselves they will eventually, as we all do, die. And that scares me. To my core. My father lost his father when I was but 1 or 2 years old. I have friends who've lost parents. Loved ones. I've lost grandparents but was saved from significant pain in a two fold way. One despite proximity and attempt, I never really grew close. I loved them, respected them and felt grateful to have them as grandparents but they never reached out to me they way my parents did. I know there are people who's parents never reached out to them. That's a sadness not to be addressed here and now. Two physical distance. We were never geographically close and that presented a temporal and spatial barrier that I was never able to overcome emotionally.

It doesn't help that these experiences, Parsifal and this movie, happen here when i am at the place I grew up mostly. With my mother. And despite my father's departure from here to the DC area when I was 8 or 9, I still have great and many memories of time spent here with him. I feel most connected to them here. And when presented with artistic explorations of love and loss it hits hard. I hurts. It scares me.

These are all words I can't come close to forming. I'd love to talk about this all. To verbalize it. But the words just rattle around in my head. They don't come out. That's been me all my life. I can come up every word and description for each emotion and where it came from and explain how I'm feeling and help people understand. But I can't form the words verbally and get them out. It frustrated my mother, my wife, old girlfriends. Any time I needed to verbalize emotions I was stricken dumb while words tossed around in my head. it was like that driving home from the movie. Words constantly streaming effortlessly in a monologue (like now) in my head. A voice over to what I'm seeing and focusing on. The rainy drive home was filled with words trying to talk through how the movie made me feel. Life is life.

We're given one hand to play. Often we can draw new cards. Toss the old ones and start fresh. But we're never really starting fresh. We always carry the old hands and how they were played with us. The game might change. Might be a different table but we are shaped by what is in our past. Heck when the old guy in Kung Fu Panda went up with the peach tree petals I got choked up. His words, Today is a gift that is why it is called the Present, ring true and so often get overlooked and forgotten.

Every day we have with out loved ones is a gift. I'm incredibly fortunate to have so many people that I love dearly. I am grateful for that gift. Grateful for a chance to get these words out of my head somewhere. I used to write in a black book. Journals. I guess this is just an extension of that habit, that way of getting these words out of my head. Often here I talk about pretty meaningless stuff. And every once in a while when something pops in my head I hope that maybe by writing it, maybe i can express it somehow to those who matter most.

I wonder how I will look back on this curious collection of words. Good film or not, the audience got up silently and left in a somber mood. Many people were visibly not moved by the film, seeing only the gimmickry of the reverse aging, being somewhat unimpressed by the setting of the reading of the journal. Certainly those issues crossed my mind. But they didn't detract from the power of the emotions the film stirred in me.

Heddwch
G

The JP saga

Wow. just wow...

it is melting

Finally. Or mostly. The rain yesterday and last night did a good job at removing a good big of the snow out there. Our little dead end road benefited to the point the vanagon could get up w/o chains early this morning. All clear. Itching to get on the bike though, sort of, but then not really. I read all the reports at CXMagazine.com and then wish I was still in full race mode. Wishing for courses like Zolder here in New England, at least I do after hearing what Geoff Proctor told Molly:

“We never see climbs like this back home,” Geoff Proctor said to me at the training last night. “They are so dramatic here. Borderline safe. We can’t use hills like this because 90% of the race entrants could not even complete a lap of the course.”

Sounds like fun to me. Rachel Lloyd's got one of the better course descriptions in her race report from Zolder:

The race course started on the track into a headwind up a false flat for about 250 meters, the made a sweeping left onto the dirt and immediately bent to a right hand U-turn, crossed the track, turned left passing the pits for the first time made a few more turns then headed up and down a sandy dune a few times before diving into the woods. Then the course went down a quick rooty descent and bent a few times before climbing quickly up a grassy hill past a small chapel to again quickly descend down the hill and out of the woods. Crossing the other side of the track and heading back by the pits to do a series of steep up and downs along the hillside on the west side of the track. There was one very descent and one very steep run up, then the course traversed the hillside turned 180° to the right in a loose sandy turn, went over an overpass and back onto the track. I could tell the the race would be fast and the laps short.

Doesn't it sound awesome?!

No sense pining for unobtanium courses. I was wondering where Page's name was in the list there at Zolder. This explains why I couldn't find it. Damn, his luck has not been good this year.

It has been an interesting week or so with my sister and her boyfriend here. She got made at me for "treating her like a kid" at one point. Hey I can't help it. She's 11 years younger than me but still is more difficult than my 8 year old daughter to deal with for everyone. She's great most of the time but I guess we all have out moments. While it is always sad to have family depart, we'll see her again soon (she's playing with the RI Philharmonic on the 24th - not soloing though). A sad part of the weather is how challenging it has made it for my brother who lives out here to get to the house as has been the tradition. He's never missed a Christmas eve or Christmas day here at the house. Until this year. And our daughters had a big production of the nutcracker they wanted to put on using their dolls. All the time at his house during the concerts was spent by these two planning each scene, discussing and debating which doll plays what part and what props they have that they can use, what props they need. Writing it all down. Two little artistic directors. But the production was supposed to happen on Christmas day, weather delay...

I've managed to pick up a nice back of lung cookies and sinus junk. I spent a bit of the morning coughing up yellow stuff and then I'm fine all day. I don't feel sick so that's I guess a good sign. A long walk in the rain up the road yesterday felt good. Not a run but a well spirited walk got the blood flowing and the cold air in the lungs and nose felt awesome. With a couple days of rain playing outside in the snow just isn't much fun. I'm going to try and put together a little slide show of the images I've captured in the snow here on our travels. Although some of the worst driving conditions were not captured because it was at night. The drive from the U-district up to MLT was tough but nothing compared to the drive down from Mt Vernon to MLT Sunday night. That was tough, very sketchy and even a few times somewhat nerve wracking.

The saving grace to this week has been the fact that I've been able to create dinner. It centers me and fires up a nice routine/habit in the brain. The smells and thought process, the mechanical motions of chopping mixing stirring, selecting amounts of flavors and timing of their addition. The construction of the meal, really has become my artistic release in a way. My creative outlet. Sounds funny maybe but that is what I do and I think I've genuinely created some pretty amazing meals even by my standards. The Enchiladas for Christmas dinner were really pretty spectacular, and I'm pretty bored with my Mexican cooking despite how good it tastes. These were very good. Flavors were pretty damn bang on incredible. I've been making batches of salsa, and a giant batch isn't lasting much more than a day and a half.

Last night was a pasta. Tomato base with ground lamb and red peppers added early for flavor. It was really pretty damn good. Tasted quite amazing, even to those who don't normally like lamb. It sadly was American lamb instead of the NZ kind. Good in that it didn't travel half way around the globe, but bad in that American lamb is always older than anywhere else in the world when they are butchered. (kind of a harsh word to some people I guess. I tend to think of it pretty void of emotions, just a process). But then growing up raising and eating them certainly affects my perception and judgment. I served the sauce over some Campanella with a side or Romanesque Cauliflower, Broccoli, Zucchini, and Collards. The veggies were melded together over medium heat in a pan. They were added just after 3 cloves of garlic had started to turn golden brown and nutty in some extra virgin olive oil. After a few minutes with the lid on to bring the cauliflower and broccoli to temperature I added a bit of balsamic vinegar, wine, dried basil and let it soften a bit further. About 3 minutes before serving I added the zuch and the collards (chopped into ~2cm squares) and then 1 minute or so before plating in a nice ceramic serving bowl I added a splash of Shoyu sauce. They were really quite fantastic and a great compliment to the tomato and lamb sauce on the pasta. It actually paired nicely with a 2°Below from the New Belgium Brewery.

Okay.

time to play with pictures or the girls or something vacationish.
heddwch
G

KZOK

Yeah... kzok...

what the hell is kzok? Well some who've never headed west of the missi may not recognize it as call letters of a station out this way.

KZOK had some stickers in the 9s that were predominantly black and yellow and for some reason i cut a big stack of them up into small triangles and covered my Raleigh Chill in them. The chill was a boring while. These gave it "character" or so I thought.

Well here I am chilling to some solid kick ass tunes. Sh!t you can't hear out in yuppie land. I mean new eng-land. Well can't find any stations like KZOK broadcasting in the ocean state. I'm a Man is on now.

Just solid kick ass songs. Sure. It is all classic rock. Real classic stuff. Rock.

Just good tunes. Man I'm getting more redneck every day I'm out here. 4x4 Diesel Scouts are looking wicked enticing now. Maybe it is being trapped at the end of a dead end road that hasn't been plowed even though every other road in the county seems to have been plowed. They plowed down here once. Over the weekend. And haven't been back since. I've got the little one here begging to get back on PBS kids NOW. Well looks like maybe the internet free home days are numbered lower than I had planned.

BTW don't tell the guy selling that scout that he doesn't have to convert anything to run it on BioD. Waste veggie oil, yes conversion needed, but not biod.

Well. Time to go back to playing PBS kids. And consuming a nice beverage. How about Lloyd's killer finish at the WC? Sure Compton finsihed a bit higher but Lloyd did great! Simms, not so bad either.

i've got a little monkey climbing all over me right now...

heddwch
g

it ain't welsh but it is close

I only take a drink on two occasions - when I'm thirsty and when I'm not.
Brendan Behan

Nadolig Llawen

It is snowing again here.  We got a few inches last night and it is still snowing.  No chance of it NOT being a white christmas.  It might warm up a bit more today but the rain we are supposed to get should turn back into snow tonight and the 12-18 inches of snow we have here isn't going to be affected by a few light rain showers.  Sure it is only 12-18 inches of snow.  But that's more than the average yearly total (or close to it it seems).  It is pretty impressive.  Have to put chains on the car to get up our road.  Once off of our dead end the roads get pretty clear.  So we should still finally be able to get out and do some christmas shopping.  

I am excited about the possibility of going to Nats.  Maybe only to race the B race, but who'm I kidding,  I'm going to line up in the age group if I go all the way out there, esp if that ErikV fella lines up.  And hey with the Deschutes brewery in the same town...  oh how great the post season party will be...  Maybe we can pre-order a few bottles of The Abyss as celebratory beverages. 

Congrats to the Women's team chosen for worlds.  Talk about talent and depth.  Compton, Gould, Lloyd, Van gilder, Butler.  That's some solid horsepower.  I dare say by the latest results, they could be the strongest national team there if Compton can avoid the bad luck that struck her last year.

Of course you can't ignore the local NE talent selected in the Junior and U23 pools either.  I have a feeling it will be a great worlds to watch this year, not that it isn't always great to watch.

Yall be good.  

Nadolig Llawen (Merry Christmas).

heddwch

G

It is in Bend...

Oh man.  Bend!  CX Nats! Coooooool....  or should we say cold and snowy...

Book me a permanet bar stool at the Deschutes Brewery if I make it out there!

Ya know...

When a person writes, you get a very different view of the individual.

There is a lot to be learned from this entry.   Well worth the time (and beer) consumed while reading it.

the link to here is a killer "hmmm" nice find there myerspace

yes,

i'm trying to catch up on being out of "the loop" for a few days... i even came across a nice haiku

oh and battenkill is coming up... maybe someone should talk me out of attempting that insane race...

if it is wet and cold i'd be fine...  like it was last couple years...  oh boy - yikes...  sure it could be partly due to me thinking i can 'race' with the group i registered with...  

i really wanted to spend the time working on the reflections of the sheer enormity of the weekend and what we all here overcame to pull it all off and how really flat out amazing it was that we actually did it.  all the crazy stories and adventures that sort of even made the getting stuck and almost getting the car creamed last week pretty tame.  The staying up till 3-4 in the morning and getting up only  a few hours later...  Switching from bike racing to musician/driver/roadie is a wicked drastic change, but man.  It is awesome hanging out with family.  There really isn't anything to compare to the experience my family has together.  30 years this show has been going on.  Every year we manage to pull it off.  This year the odds were about as long as any.  The weather hit perfectly to get the show started, getting to where we were going was tough but everyone still came to the show.  Thirty years our family has been doing this.  I've missed one, my little brothers who are twins each have missed one in recent years...  my little sister wasn't born when they started so she missed a bunch, but not one since.  

The experience is stressfull, challenging.  Dealing with all the diversity of people involved in the production is an insane challenge at times.  We missed my brother who didn't make it this year.  Alot.  It wasn't the same  hanging at my brother's house up here together with him gone.  the traddition is to sit down and drink port, play dominos and laugh our asses off for 3-4 hours.  This year it was mellow and different, and not the same...  we missed our 4th partner in crime.  We still had fun but it was tough.  Tougher I imagine on his end.  Well actually I know it was harder for him.   But then if he had tried to fly in for the weekend #1 he might not have made it in and #2 he might not have made it home.  As it was it turned into a 28 hour ordeal to get his twin home to the east coast.  

I didn't expect that tangent to come out of that...  Granted writing at midnight here when the house is asleep is certainly condusive to banging on the keys...  I wonder if the bike path is as messy as the roads out here...  

heddwch
G

The Gonzo take on CX brawling

I don’t get out much, but the last cyclocross I attended had something of a Montessori flavor to it. Everybody was a winner, or at least was cheered and applauded as such.

montessori flavor... bwahahahah

O'Grady saves the best for last and this being the best place to find the spoiler to a great and well constructed bit of prose you know you'll find it next.  

And if the wife of the guy you heckle can take you, you’d best keep your piehole shut.

Hysterical.  Love it.

Snow and more snow and lots of luck

Too much to begin at any one spot.

Pretty impressive amount of snow here.  Left the house on Friday for the concerts, got back today.  Not one concert was cancelled.  Full house at each show. 

Snow.   Lots of snow.  White knuckle driving.  And I can now get chains on or off the cars in less than 60 seconds a wheel.

And yes.  You need chains for much of the roads STILL.  The highways and major high traffic roads are pretty clear, some bare to the pavement, but the side streets and the dead end road of ours still has a good solid inch or two of hard packed solid snow and ice.

Time for one beer and then time to sleep...  plenty of the former not much of the latter in the past few days with the whole family packed into my little bro's house the whole time.

heddwch

G

Oh,  LOADS of killer photos to upload (of the snow, not the concerts)

Snow in the PacNW

I don't know if I've ever seen snow this impassable around here.  Even with chains on the car you can't stop in places.  Long story about an adventure to get some beer and what not yesterday.  Wound up being flagged down.  Took 40 feet to stop the car (with chains on and those good year triple tread tires - total crap tires btw).  Around the corner were a pile of cars all smashed into each other.  We stopped.  And then 3 more big 4x4s came down. We flagged them down (road was really blocked) and they all barely stopped.  Took me and my little bro about a 1/2 hour to get them all unstuck and then we managed to turn around and head back.

It will be very much an exciting adventure to get the family and the instruments to the concert tonight.  Hopefully they will get some sand or at least a plow out there.  

We got 8-10 inches of snow in the field.  Cold snow for around here.  Not the wet stuff we normally see.  And it is very packable.  That's the problem.  One or two cars turns that snow into white ice basically.  And you're pretty screwed if you have to try and stop in some places.  

Maybe some super narrow studded Hakka 1s would work, or maybe the Hakka Q.  I wish we still had that old diesel rabbit of mine with the link chains on the front and the cable chains for the rear.  That light weight car with wicked traction and that diesel torque is what is needed.

This ain't the east coast.  The need to start salting IMHO.  Or something.  But then they don't have plow trucks that can deal with the hills and the turns around here.  But then if ya haven't been in and around rural Kitsap County it is hard to describe what the roads are like.  I'm hoping we have a nice well sanded, possibly plowed road down to Highway 16.  There are some advantages to living out in the boonies on a dead end road in a lightly populated area.   Heck footage of city busses with chains on all the drive wheels were sliding sideways and getting stuck in this stuff.  

pretty insane.   i wonder what it looks like out in PVD today.  Socked in too?  At least it isn't snowing now.  but there is another winter storm watch.  I'm tempted to air up my little bro's headshock C_dale CX bike (too small for me) and slap some platform pedals on there and go play in the snow.  It's pretty damn cold here too.  in the teens right now.  That's just insane for around here.   6-10 inches of packed cold snow, no salt trucks, fewer plows, some sanding trucks... not a good combination hey at least it isn't melting during the day and the re-freezing into more solid ice, not that that would make it any less slick...

All fun stuff.  Maybe we'll see coach curly at the concert tomorrow in seattle.

heddwch

G

I think i'll be there

Yall better be there

wicked good fun eh?

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=7447

Woooo HOOOOOOO

Here's the deal. My little brother made sure there was a six pack of Black Butte Porter when I got here in WA. Well he had one, i had 4 went for the 5th and poured it, took a big sip and was like "WOA WRONG" wrong... turned out someone swapped an Inversion IPA in the 6er. What a shock. Seriously. SHOCK!!! (he drank the 5th Porter, the bastard)

Going from a smooth mellow awesome super tasty porter to an IPA was not cool. Esp when I expected a porter. Well a Pyramid Snow Cap made it all right.

So well. 1:44 am and all is well. Second wind and beer is good. Snowed on the way here. Home safely. Love it.

Awesome to be home in the land of kick ass beer. Tall trees and all the the most redneck of rednecks. Yeah.

Mmmmm beer.

heddwch
G

pictures later or maybe with my sister's help... now... yes... beer... enjoy

Vacation time

Cross is over.

Beer drinking season has begun. Fortunately I will be in a land of wonderfully familiar beers. No temptations to buy any strange Belgian stuff. My only food/drink request to have at the house when i get there... a six of Black Butte Porter. Going to vacation from most things. Random updates here and there... we'll see how inspired I get, or how much beer i have in me in combination with internet access...

beer.

Mmmm.

So can't wait.

Yall be good.

Take a break.

All that stuff.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year...

Heddwch
GeWilli

the awesome

Gotta do it. BSNYC... bingo man that's funny.

The BSNYC/RTMS Rock Racing Virtual Nostalgia Kit:

Step 1: Launch this video, pause, and lower the volume all the way.

Step 2: In a new window, launch this video. Make sure the volume is high, play video, and then minimize the window.

Step 3: Return to the video in Step 1. Press play, watch with the new soundtrack, and commence uncontrollable sobbing.

Tossing in the stillsuit reference double awesomeness...

No place

That whole fighting mess post race with the a$$hole fans is really disturbing.

I'm all for the heckling of your friends. Calling them freaks and sandbaggers or telling them to shift into the big ring or saying they suck... There is a line that shouldn't be crossed. If you can't say it to their face when they aren't pre-occupied (being interviewed, racing... what not) then you really shouldn't say it, No?

I've heard about this from a few different source. G-Ride, JD, JP and RBRcx. All have different viewpoints. G-ride being agitated for good reason, and probably very lucky (for him) that he was tapping a kidney when it happened. JD because he's seeing more disheartening stuff happen to the sport. I'm still incredulous about the incident he described earlier this year. I can't believe that. I can understand internal holding up on a somewhat accidental basis between competitors, but not a spectator holding people back.

Heckling while a PRO is getting interviewed is pretty shitty. Take a page from the euro fans. You don't like the guy? Give em the silent treatment. Works no?

There are lines all over the place. Having fun at a race is important. But if your idea of having fun is getting in fights and breaking Richard Sachs's bikes, that's NOT cool. No? Don't cross the line.

I don't see this as the death knell of the sport though. But it is a warning sign. If people don't get their shit together and speak out saying this kind of crap isn't to be tolerated, and enforce it with peer pressure, not physical violence then it can and probably will take over.

Most of us really like the cross "vibe" because from one person to the next we'll help eachother as much as we can. Even help out those who we are racing against. Loaning wheels, tires, chains, tools, rides, beds, what not. Advice, beer, food, tubes. Sure there are assholes who race. Some guys turn into assholes on the course and are nice off.

Totally randomness now I guess.

The photos are pretty crazy. Two guys ganging up on a 300# Cop there to support his sister and brother in law and then the cop's sister gets in on it too. Insane.

This shot is just showing flat out malice and evil. Overalls jackass trying to shove a cop into a pile of Richard Sachs bikes. Cop is doing a great job of not stepping on or landing on the bikes (in the next shot), but drunk violent overall boy lands flat on top of them. Attacking and pushing from the back, just not cool. You want to go at someone? Go at em face to face, or don't do it. Got something to say to someone? Say it to their face when they have a chance to say it back. I've been in a fair number of fights and way more altercations that could have been fights but were talked down by cool head and facing someone. Rarely can a fight not be avoided with a bit of discussion.

Kind of my dichotomous self. On one hand my reflexes and temper often over ride the desire for peaceful conflict resolution. I'm very quick to respond... and often it is instinctual and reactionary. If i was there and saw these two drunk jackasses yelling at any bike racer while they were being interviewed i would most certainly feel compelled to ask them to show some respect. Probably would have tried to get someone with some authority to do something about it, only because you have to at least try to do things the right way (only in my head maybe). If i walked over and saw this and them going after Cori, well. My reaction would have been what G-ride went off on. First off two guys picking on one is pretty cowardly, and yeah I still think there isn't anything worse for a man to do than hit a woman. Call it chauvanistic or whatever, it is still wrong. Ain't making it right for a guy to beat up another guy but that's often okay to leave between two individuals. Going up two on one ain't right. Pretty common sense rules of thumb... no?

I wasn't there. I can't judge or pretend to know how I would react if I was.

This kind of crap can't be tolerated. Make a point to remember this next year and prevent it from happening down the road, help keep our sport on a good path. It will change no doubt. Be we have some control over the path. We all have to carry that responsibility.

heddwch
G

411 on passion in this sport

Go read it:
http://cycle-smart.com/blog/2008/12/15/an-open-letter-to-my-new-and-returning-teammates/


Seriously.

I ain't got nothing to say that can compare to the eloquence that Adam uses to capture the romantic life of a bike racer.

Something to cogitate on when you are sitting your ass on the trainer all winter for 3+ hours at a time prep'n for the start of road season.

heddwch
G

Beer Time

No Shots from the camera, but I did happen to find some Newport Storm '08s and a rack of Westmalle, and every other sweet ass trappist ale in the US. Oh and plenty of 120 Minute Dogfish Head IPA.

I grabbed two bottles of the '08 storm, and one more for my wife and I to enjoy before we hit the craziness of winter travel.

That Donker is supposed to be pretty sweet, but we've got a few nice cheeses left over from the weekend of "entertaining" so we shouldn't have much problem finding something appropriate to accompany it.

MMM

beeer

no, they aren't 40s, only 25.4 ounces, but the storm is 12% and the Donker is 11% and it is beer. Mmm.

They had about 6 or 7 different Ommegang(sp) beers there too. And supposedly still some of the Newport Storm '07 and '06s. Hmmm. I didn't ask how much they wanted for the '06 or '07.

Here... gonna get to the shot of the beer.

Pretty dangerous that this store is less than 50 feet from my office.
(crappy web cam shot...)

mmm beer...

time for the off season to start... but man it would be nice to have a killer winter cyclocross series to come back to in January, say maybe in Wrentham somewhere? *grin*

heddwch
G

edit...

i don't know crap about which belgian beer is the one to get, which is better or if the Kasteel is any good... it has a good rating (91 iirc) and wasn't $20/bottle. i read a few reviews on the store and from what i can tell the beer snobs say it has a good selection but not a mind blowing one. Well for me, from what I'm used to, ie State run distribution (ie Michigan) and bigger closer (to the house) packies (mcgreens) this place makes those other places appear to carry bud, bud light and MGD. Granted Goodrich's there in East Lansing had a pretty good selection of "micro" brews (i guess they are called craft brews now) but most of them (like Red Hook) were distributed by Bud. *shrug* still a damn cool store...

Skinny White Dude's Day Job

Check it out.

yes i saw it at Liz's web log and had to listen...  and immediately recognized skinny as the lead singer...  

we survived

The weekend.

Almost intact. The in-laws made it and are headed out back home now. Not too much stress, some craziness and issues. But it wasn't too bad. Getting everyone around and where they needed to be and all that was a challenge. But we got to the Ballet. My oldest had a blast and did well in her role (pretty minor but she's part of the younger cast). And I enjoyed it. Some of the dancing wasn't perfect, but there was great emotion and some was pretty incredible. I never really like canned music for Ballet, but it wasn't all that bad if you didn't mind hearing the violin's sound coming out of the right side (ie the cello side of the orchestra pit). All in all though it was quite the spectacle.

We all headed home and I made a big batch of Pizzas, and a little bit of wine. Sunday was a big brunch. I made some cinnamon rolls from scratch and they were almost edible. Well almost in that I slightly overcooked them being distracted getting everything else ready and the ones that weren't touched after brunch were a bit dark on the bottom but even those were devoured as a desert after dinner. Big brunch, special baked french toast. Our family was introduced to it one spring tour when we stayed in Stone City Iowa at a B&B/Inn/Concert place. It was there that some of Grant Wood's work made a big impression on me. Well the baked french toast I think made even more of one. Simple, easy to feed a crowd, and wicked tasty. add some killer bacon and irish bangers, some fried apples and mimosas and it was a great celebration. And I managed to start drinking in the morning and didn't really stop much until before we headed out to dinner at Red Stripe (Normande Moulles kick ass, mmm bacon, calvados, mushrooms, cream... mmmm). Twas a good day. K went to watch the Nutcracker so she could see the whole show instead of just being in it at 1pm (after which we all met up at Red Stripe - the cheese plate was incredible, the blue cheese from where ever it was, was sooooooooooo amazing) and after dinner she headed back for her final show at 6. Well I guess sometime after getting off stage between it being super hot on stage or something, added with the weekend of stress, dancing, family, and whatnot she got a bit sick after getting out of her costume. Everyone was blaming the moulles but i was fine, I think it was something else. Who knows. She was fine this morning. But her grand parents had to deal with a not feeling great kid all the way home from PPAC. Ah well.

No bike racing for me. My only contact with the results were SMS updates from Skinny and G-ride. 6th, not so bad for that skinny dude. Both days. 5th would have plopped him on the fancy podium but hey, 6th in the 35-39 race is pretty spectacular. Very cool. 6th in the single speed riding his tiny gear. I guess the winners rode a 42x18 and skinny was riding a 39x21 (G-ride tootled over in a 42x24). That's pretty cool.

Treefarm and Compton won as expected as I found out this morning. Lloyd and Page both wound up 3rd. Ah well. That's not so bad. Well done LVG for getting 4th. Someone somewhere mentioned that the tall guys don't do as well in the wind. Well I dunno. We sure as hell can't get as much of a draft as the little skinny f*ckers but i've read somewhere that power to surface area almost always favors the taller folks, something about the surface area difference not being as big of a factor as weight and power and what not. Small skinny guys do great on hills cause of the power to weight ratio, but into the wind it drop the weight factor and suddenly two guys evenly matched at 5w/kg are not so evenly matched. Immaterial mental crap. Ya still gotta be f'ck'n fast to win and do well at Nationals ya know. Who gets picked for the worlds team will be interesting. It'd be great to see those selected all go and kick ass this year. That and I think Skinny needs to head to Moll one of these times (this year?) and give it a shot going against the world's best, no?

There was a moment or two at the ballet (intermission) when I wondered aloud how "they" did. My wife got mad thinking I was wishing I was up at the ice weasels/solobreak's excuse to run around in his underwear race, i explained no, that I was thinking about the race in KC... All was fine... More or less.

Time to start getting everything ready for the trip out west. Travel time looks to be nice and wintery when we get there. My brother's drove back to M.L.T. (north of SEA) after the PDX show saturday night. With the weather they didn't get home until about 6am. Normally it is a ~3 hour drive due north on I-5... Took em a bit longer than that. Yikes. The weather is looking pretty sketchy for the concerts next weekend. I hope it doesn't keep any day of ticket purchasers away.

Anyway - updates may be few and far between. Other than to report on the state of the beer isles in the supermarkets in WA state. I've got a nice shot of the Newport '08 beer, in a glass.

It was good. Father in law went for a quick beer run friday or saturday night (sat? IIRC) and i suggested he get one of those. But. Sadly the guys working there couldn't find any more bottles. WTF? They sold out already? There was a bunch of it there on Thursday or Wed night, where ever it was that I went to get it (maybe Tuesday). I guess a few people tried it and came back and bought it all up. It WAS good stuff.

Might check the froofy beer store over here, the one that doesn't sell ganset but has every bottle/brand of Belgian beer imported to the US. Maybe they have a bottle of it. Or i'll just have to settle for some Ommegang or Allagash or... who knows.

heddwch
g

Slide Show From this Morning

the live CX Mag feed

is killing my productivity today...

well that's actually not true - getting everything done...

but it is damn good stuff - better than the Tour

and thanks to ryan kelly i'm listening to the Iced Earth Radio station on Last.fm

Hey CX Mag

Do yall need some big freak to test a Rainer Bike on New England Courses? (just kidding)

Never mind, the Raleigh isn't gonna be big enough... I can stop thinking it would be cool to ride... silly tiny bikes, back to drooling over the Purple People Eater that MIF has

Man that'd be cool. I noticed Andrew's bike pictured over there was one of them Rainers. call it what ya want - i still think it is cool...

anyway - i'm watching the live updates here. Yeah, working and watching updates. How about that. And it got me thinking. How much fun would it be to go out there and do a radio broadcast. not the cool text thing but an internet feed. kinda like Sean Kelly's show during the tour on Eurosport. Ya know. Let richard and whoever run their mouths on the mike locally, not competing with that. Do a web radio broadcast. Shouldn't be hard to finagle the connection, get it set up. Do play by play, roving interviews, planned interviews. ya know a full behind the scenes show. That'd be fun. Who's ever known me to be quiet at a bike race anyway? Plus you'd never know what would come out of my mouth... that's gotta be a ratings boost right there. Who knows who's toes i'll step on, or how far i can shove my foot in my mouth.

Well hey, the conditions out there look like a ton of fun. Sounds like Mercer cup was a good warm up for what it is like out there today.

Ah Cross. Nothing like getting plowed while cleaning up the house before the in laws showed up last night. Joking about the getting plowed bit. We didn't have The Abyss to buy at McGreens but there was something I picked up for the hell of it:
"One Airport, One Area Code, One Beer!" Love that phrase. That's right here in the Ocean State we only have one of each. Sure that one beer bit can be argued, but until Gannet get's their Sh!t together and sets up a brewery fed from the clear crisp wonderfully tasty water out of the Scituate, well we can't argue much can we. So i didn't get the '07 but they had there the latest releast, the '08. Yup. How long has it been there? Short enough not to be on the web page.

Didn't crack it open yet. I *think* the description from '07 to '08 wasn't much different.

And just for that CCC guy...

For 2007 the brewers have selected a blend of 7 malts and 7 hops to create our unique annual limited release. When you decide to open this you will notice a pitch black ale that pours with a small brown head. The aroma is full of citrusy and floral notes not only from the hops added during the boil, but also the hops added after fermentation during the dry hopping stage. Finally, one taste of this year’s beer and you will understand why it is so dark. Roasted, chocolatey and malty flavors are abundant from the various dark malts that make up so much of the recipe. It is extremely limited, extremely flavorful, and extremely original, because as we like to say around here: “It’s All About Extremes!”

Thats the '07 description, and I'm pretty sure the '08 used a blend of 8 malts and 8 hops.

Can't wait to crack it open. Need to do so soon incase it is yummy stuff so I can go buy the rest of the stock they have (or at least a few bottles for presents/gifts).

Hmmm... Beer...

heddwch
G

I don't care HOW many times I see this

It still cracks me up... often after reading the first line...

A 6 year old and a 4 year old are upstairs in their bedroom. 'You know what?' says the 6 year old. 'I think it's about time we started cussing. The 4 year old nods his head in approval. The 6 year old continues, 'When we go downstairs for breakfast, I'm gonna say something with hell and you say something with ass..' The 4 year old agrees with enthusiasm.



When the mother walks into the kitchen and asks the 6 year old what he wants for breakfast, he replies, 'Aw, hell, Mom, I guess I'll have some Cheerios.'


WHACK! He flies out of his chair, tumbles across the kitchen floor, gets up, and runs upstairs crying his eyes out, with his mother in hot pursuit, slapping his rear with every step. His mom
locks him in his room and shouts, 'You can stay there until I let you out!'


She then comes back downstairs, looks at the 4 year old and asks with a stern voice, 'And what do YOU want for breakfast, young man?' I don't know, he blubbers, 'but you can bet your fat ass it won't be Cheerios!'

gotta add this one in there

Two guys are out drinking... and it's late, time to head home.

First guy: Man, I'm going to get in trouble - no matter how quietly I park the car, get undressed, and climb in bed, my wife wakes up and starts screaming at me.

Second guy: Dude, I screech into the driveway, stomp up the stairs, throw my clothes off and jump on the bed, shouting, "WHO'S HORNY?!" She never makes a sound.

and on i've never heard before but i'm in tears from reading it

Christmas Story for people having a bad day:


When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.
The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Geography

It helps to understand what I encountered this morning.

Narragansett bay is situated basically north and south. Opening up to the "Ocean" down there by Newport/Jamestown/Whatnot.

We had crazy rain last night. If it was snow we'd be under feet of it. There were people reporting 4" of rain overnight.

To add to the rain the winds were ripping at ~30 mph sustained with gusts upwards of 50-60 at times this morning around 7:30. All from the south.

And yes, wind does act on large bodies of water. Small ones too. So bottom line, between the massive amount of rain water pouring into the Bay, and the wind blowing everything UP the bay, plus a high tide somewhere between 7 and 8am. The bay was wicked high and flooding from riverside into Providence and up the rivers. It was CRAZY.

I didn't have the fancy old digi cam that does the movies so I was stick with the really old old slow one (think 8 years old but damn does it still work, Olympus stuff is quality, that or we've just managed to take good care of it). I got about 35 shots or so.

Some okay. Some blah. But most give you a solid feeling of the water level.

One or two now. maybe more later when I have a chance.
We'll go with the lighthouse as a comparison (no Zoo I don't think any of the RI lighthouses are "manned" some are in private hands and this one may be a summer or part time residence)...

and

Heck I even put my folding Japanese pruning saw in the bag 'just in case' on the way out. It is a nice saw, wicked sharp and efficient.

Well... That was a freaking blast. So amped and pumped up after that ride in.

Man is it awesome here!!!
heddwch
G

when the light bulb goes off...

Ya know it.

Teammate sent out a call for a party/viewing of Sunday in Hell saying:

Feel free to bring what you think is the finest beer of all time. Anything less than 6% alcohol by volume will be used to wash down my porch.

And of course the first thing I thought of was, well there are plenty of good beers with an abv lower than 6%. Not MUCH lower but lower. IE my beloved Black Butte Porter tipping the scales at a lightweight 5.2%.

Second thing was Adam's post about the 120 minute IPA. Then I went over to look at the Dogfish web page and noticed the freaking coolest thing in the world. Randall the Enamel Animal. Went back over to the comments at Adam's page and saw that Lane suggested a Deschutes brew. Mmmmm Deschutes Brewery. Black Butte Porter mmmm, I can't wait to hit the QVC/Thriftway/Whatever supermarket on the way to the house from the airport to buy a six pack. Now.

What about this made the lightbulb go off?

Where is the Deschutes Brewery.





I'll wait for you to click...
(or me to remember the dramatic pause)


waiting...



Now what is the connection with the brewery location that would make me get all excited?

The long legged rumor that...

CX National might be in Bend next year...

Cyclocross and the home of one of my enduring absolute all time favorite beer's brewery?

THAT is very cool. We'll see what is announced. Can't wait.

Mmmmm beer.

The Dissident does sound delightful. And the Black Butte XX enticing. But the Abyss.

Oh now THAT... That I could really enjoy. Great movie too. But the beer. Just look at the picture of the glass....

Mmmm

Beer

Following CX Nats?

Read this. MUST read.

I'm still going with my dark horse picks of Lloyd and Page for the win, but I will also add my pick for odds on predictable favorite of Trebon and Compton.

From the looks of the course in the vid, it seems like a tailor made Treefarm race. Compton, well what can you say, it doesn't matter what course she's on, she should be considered a favorite unless she is unable to finish due to motor or mechanical issues.

But I've also got to add in a power house upset to the mix on the women's side. Laura Van Gilder. Sure, her head to head against Georgia haven't been super. BUT I think she's going to be a big factor. Her learning curve is in a super steep mode with the first full season campaign she's mounted as a C3-Sollay rider. She has an equipment advantage with the Eschappe Equipment partnership, she's proven her self on a slippery twisty course with lots of running. Sure she was almost 4 minutes back in Koksijde, but that's a sand pit of sand pits and you can't discount the travel factor (not knowing you were going to go race in Belgium until the week before).

I don't know if she will win, but if something happens to Compton I would give the nod to Lloyd and LVG as the two to be in the hunt for a stars and stripes jersey. Not meaning any disrespect to Georgia, she is fierce and on paper arguably the strongest next to Katie, but hey, you can't hand out first place medals to everyone. But I can say I wish everyone has their best race of the year and the winner is in fact the strongest and fastest american cyclocrosser. May the winners take on the Worlds and Kick ass this year!

Or something like that...

heddwch
G

cross stuff

(yeah maybe feeling better. Kinda like taking a heavy coat off when walking into a warm cabin relief.)

Velonews with good cross info? Surprised? I was. Nice Job Matt.

But then as a counter. CX Magazine (THE source for cyclocross news review and rumors) posted a comment about the animal being the perfect all around tubular choice.

And Code Monkey, I mean Cross Results Boy Colin's number crunching point spewing data stream tells me exactly what I felt. Best race of the year is in green. Race I'm most disappointed about? It is red. How about that for numbers mirroring emotions.
There ya have it.

Spooky.

Down time

Yes at the anon poster commented yesterday. Sadly cross season is over, for me. I wish it were not. I wish I could come back from Seattle and have a handful more races to attend in January. I would love to race up to Worlds here in New Belgium.

Check the church of the big ring for some inspiration for those of you headed to Natz. Or even Ice Weasels and Nats Schmatz.

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat”
- Theodore Roosevelt

as you go into the national cx battle
in the state they raise cattle
be sure to give it your all
and try to pick the right line so you don’t fall
finsh strong and don’t ever let up
listen to the cheering crowd - cowbells and hup hup hup
ride smooth and fast - it’s only an hour
let the spirit of the big ring provide the power
to pass one or two more racers in your class
and the finish the race - knowing you busted your ass
-MK
Pee first, apply embrocation second. Trust me on this. - Blaze

Wise words.

I tried to get an extra ounce of sleep this morning. Seemed to work, but I'm solidly in a funk. No matter how prepared I was for the end of the year bash at NBX, and what a bash it was. How much fun was it!? No matter my preparation I think I'm solidly feeling the mental let down of the end of the season. And I'm tired. Two days on the bike commuting in left me last night still sore, despite the walking the bike pace yesterday. Maybe less sore than if i'd just parked the two wheels and jumped in 4. But coupled with feeling tired, and overwhelmed with what will start tomorrow and won't even end when we get on the plane for the PacNW next week, the end of cross has me feeling pretty melancholic. I should be enthused by knowing just what I have to do to be closer to the level I am right not at the beginning of next season. But I'm actually feeling more overwhelmed. Sort of angry at myself because I didn't follow through with the running this year, October was a rough and busy month and that more or less shot the whole running deal out the window. Daylight savings time plus all sort of other stuff didn't help. And I suppose I would be more okay with it if I knew I chose to let it slide more than anything. I was my fault for not sticking with it. I was happy to be able to stick with the trainer sessions this fall though. They helped me get my power back to where it should be. They helped with the jumps and speed. But I need more of everything esp focus and dedication to move up the ladder for next season.

Too early to look back and think about next year? Yes, probably. In some ways I was better prepared for some aspects this season. So those are positives I should be focusing on. I had a great year. I felt like I was really racing and not just doing a CX time trial for a change. That was very cool. So the positives are there. But at the moment with all the stuff that needs attention. I'm just having a hard time pulling it together. Free coal to go get to fuel our dual fuel stove to help cut down our gas bill each month, but I don't have time to go get it. Both cars need attention, the Volvo's serpentine and nightmarish washerfluid system isn't working (hiding the damn resevoir in the front quarter panel may seem convenient from a design standpoint but it sucks to follow hoses and trouble shoot. Winter tires to get on that car. VW has a vacuum leak or the brakes are hosed and maybe the vacuum leak is part of the whole turbo problem (would make sense on some level). Need to spend time trouble shooting that. But there isn't any time. All January projects. Sure these are all pretty minor things. Easy to over look. Move on from. But like the straw that broke the camels back... it all adds up. I know logically how to deal with it. Start with one and move on to the next and just freaking HTFU and get it done. Why the hell even write about it and lay it all out there. Dunno. Maybe in the small hope that it will get me off my ass and energized and focused. I'm tired but have no craving or desire for coffee. Which is odd, but not really I guess, being this far removed from the addiction.

So a big does of introspection in an attempt to pull out of a post season funk. Stupid cyclocross, such a tormentor...

heddwch
G

Options for Sunday

You can go race at Natz Schmatz. It is a cross race, Donnie had plenty of killer awesome Opa Opa brewery beer, it is only $20 and it is way hell of a lot closer than KC. Sure maybe you raced the day before at Ice Weasels. Certainly you can't get enough cross. No?

Well of course there is KC. But that's pretty well covered.

Now say your cross bike is all funky and dirty and you don't feel like washing it or touching it till september or october...

You can head down to Lincoln Woods, RI for a fun MTB ride.

Winter Warmer Fun Ride 12/14 

Hi all,
This coming Sunday we're holding a ride at Lincoln Woods. This is a fundraiser for the RI Foodbank. There is no cost to ride but please bring some canned goods and some cash to donate. We will also hold a raffle, tickets will be $1 as per usual. Big thanks to EFTA for helping out with the insurance! Info below:
RI NEMBA Winter Warmer Fun Ride at Lincoln Woods
Sunday 12/14 at Lincoln Woods State Park in Lincoln, RI.
What to bring: Your bike, a helmet and some canned goods for the RI Food Bank.
Why: This is a good time to avoid Big River & Arcadia because of shot gun season (6th -14th on public lands)
Cost: Nothing, just bring some canned food. There will be a raffle to raise some cash for the RI Food Bank.
Registration: 9-11:00 AM. 
1 arrowed loop: 10 miles with plenty of rocks and climbs to keep it interesting.
Please note: Arrows come down at 2:00!
Post ride Chili and goodies!
Raffle items will be supplied by our great sponsors (Providence Bicycle, Narragansett Bikes, Ski Market and Victory Cycles). Please support the local shops that keep RI riding!!
Directions:
Twin River Road Exit off of Rte 146 North or South. Head due East straight into the park, take a right at the kiosk/stop sign and travel approximately .2 miles. We will be set up near the double parking lots on the left. This is the same general area where we meet for the Friday rides. 

So yeah. You can head there. Will be fun. Instead of bringing $20 to race and drink beer you can bring a can of food and a wad of cash and do the raffle thing and Mt bike.


Tough call. Both events are about 25-30 miles apart. And all ya northerners want to come back down to balmy southern New England right?

I don't think I'll be at anything this weekend, but ya never know if I will be able to slip away with a bike stashed in the car.

more well written

off the beaten path writing...

lee and I seemed to have found it at the same time.

damn good read...

damn good.

Check it here

No wind... nice

Still only about 23°F out there but the lack of wind was a pleasure. Still and calm.

Quiet and slow ride in.

Saw the Hula Girl make a mad dash from car to house on the way in, a wave that said "hi, don't stop i'm too cold to chat, bye."

Curious about single speed cyclocross? Like good writing and humorous anecdotes? Give Thommy P's post a read.

Seems almost to be written with the same wit but in a different vein, Time's 50 worst cars.

It is my Dad's birthday today. I think my not liking my birthday must be genetically inherited from him.

Murat found one of the pre-ride shots of me in the suit. Adam Bickford snagged it. he was out there with a full rig and remote flash. Wicked Pro. Nice shots too. He's got some killer ones if you look through the whole set.

Maybe I wouldn't have finished any higher up on saturday than I did. But all the various factors not the least of which being the start, leads me to believe, delusional or not, that I could have done better. My HR never elevated until Solobreak took off around me and I jumped on his jump and found the speed. I was mellow, not even breathing hard through the first sand. Relaxed and just chilling. As most everyone else was blasting off into space. Sunday was maybe the first race when the winners went over 45 minutes. It was a shock coming into the finishing stretch hearing the MC call the next race to staging. Mostly because I never saw a lap card until they were ringing the bell with one to go. I know it maybe isn't fair to others around me on the results sheet to wish I had done better. Bad form for me to say I left something out there. But hey. It happens. The days I left it all out there are the days I'm still getting my ass kicked by a whole hell of a lot of people. Ah well. Whatever. I mean no malice and no slight to anyone I am competing against when I look introspectively at my performance relative to my internal gauge and in comparison to those who I've been racing all season. But hey, at least I have good friends who tell me I'm sounding like a disrespectful idiot. I appreciate the reality check. Both Joe Friel and Marvin Z have talked about temperament, and how important it is to keep the emotions in check, not to get bogged down in feelings. You finish and the race is over. Time to move on. Something I need to work on. There are lots of those type of people in the field. And they typify the winners and the fastest guys for a reason. I get hot headed and rash at times. Even racing. But the races I seem to do better in are when I'm level headed and relaxed mentally. Not worrying about placing, just racing.

Lesson for me. Stop worrying about placing, and how i screwed up a start. And just work on getting faster. Figure out how to be faster next year. Maybe I can turn it up a notch or two. Start the season stronger, fitter, faster and build from there. But this has been a great learning year. And I'm still getting a score card back covered in red ink.

And for a complete and total change of subject...

I wish I had the style points that this guy does:


eating some lunch and perusing some photos linked over from crossresults.com i'm amazed at the snow. All I remember from the race is the racing line and I don't remember seeing any snow outside the intestinal track. Crazy. Was there really that much snow as it appears in the images? I guess i was kind of focused on not much more than the racing line and the competitors.

Oh here's a great one. Insane Wayne appears to be ready to either superman it and fly away or nose dive into the sand. That's motor mouth sitting there wondering where did this crazy pony tail guy come from.

The quality focused NBX race reports are starting to roll out. Myette, Results Boy, even the Bull in a China shop popped up an update. Yes Murat and solo and a host of others had em up pretty quick. and Vicki T had em up by Monday am.

well that's about the end of the dribble for now... at least it is busy this morning - giving me not much more than a few minutes at lunch to finish what I started.

heddwch
G

edited to fix the link to Vicki.... Doh!

it hasn't

warmed up one bit today...

still in the teens...

well at least it looks like I might have a tail wind on the way home. That will be a nice change.

more weekend musings

Saturday wasn't a total bust.  Points wise it wasn't great, I felt it was way below where I should have been based on how I had been racing, and what my legs were feeling like after a few laps.  I just keep kicking myself for sucking on the start on Saturday and then getting caught behind everyone on the sand run up.  We literally were walking very slowly in the back of the field as riders took off in ones and twos at the top.  or falling over or muffing the remount in traffic or what not.  It sort of sucked but I didn't have my head screwed on right at that point.  But then I started killing it.  And I started racing.  My heart rate started staying elevated and I started attacking the pavement in the little cogs in the back on the 46.  Freaking flying past people up there.  Monster watts being unleashed on the pavement.  it was awesome.  Just still kind of sucky that I had no heart in the start.  Lulled by starting in smaller fields like Plymouth and chilling in line with out the threat of a bottle neck like that.  

Personally I think the start down at the bottom leading into two 180 degree turns on sandy/wet pavement is not the best way to start a race.  It is better than starting everyone at the top of the hill and hitting the bottom turn in a pack of 60-70 at full speed though.  I would have much preferred an uphill start. Or better yet, start the race up hill and call it a "prologue" length.  Re-stringing the course tape after everyone passes.  The race could keep going in the same direction with the same flow but it would eliminate the biggest bottle neck that early.  Letting those with legs stretch it out a bit.  Even the playing field or leveling it a bit at least.  

I had a few beverages here and there.  Talked with some many great people, listing everyone would get a bit crazy.  I'll single out a few of the damn nicest people there.  Ken Scott and his teammate Danny C.  Damn those guys are great people.  Karin's smile and genuine joy at racing around is infectious.  Can't help but have a bit of her smile rub off on ya.  Everyone else is great to see as always.  Sort of sad to have it be the big bash farewell weekend.  But hey, at least it was a damn good one.

People I didn't see much of?  Skinny or G-Ride.  Those guys were like phucking phantoms except during the race.  They showed up, got their numbers, hid somewhere, raced, and disappeared.  Must be that Ambiguously Gay Duo gig they have going on.  That or they really wanted to get back to Skinny's house to jump back in his altitude tent as soon as possible.

We had a guest with us friday night and saturday night.  And I left to head home and get cleaned up and put my feet up for a few minutes before heading out to a big ol' party.  I left before our guest finished racing.  This person was up there solidly in a commanding 2nd place when I left though.  And asked how it wound up when our guest arrived at the house, "I won."  Big beaming grin with the announcement.  Yeah, Laura Van Gilder stayed with us.  She's one of the most genuine nicest people I've run across.  And you can read a great interview with her over in Issue #4 of CXMagazine.  I let her peruse my copies while she hung out at the house.  I don't know how many issues she read through, but I'm guessing that with the content she was probably able to get through #4, if that.  It is some good reading, no great reading.  Sure the first issue was a bit shaky.  But heck.  It was like a real beginner.  Full of energy and enthusiasm and a willingness to listen.  And I say it is a solid Cat 1/2 mag right now.

Back to the weekend.  Oh if anyone has a shot of the guy in the orange suit pre-riding drop me a copy, eh?  

So saturday being a wash regarding the results, Sunday was going to be the day for redemption.   I was going to get there with enough time to get my number, pin it on, warm up, pre-ride, and hit the start line hot and ready to go.  Instead of walking down to the registration like i did saturday, I rode the bike down.  I rode the pit bike in fact.  With the wellies and orange suit.  Riding down to the building the snowflakes were stinging my eyes.  I should have gotten my glasses.  Damnit.  Well I picked up the number.  Stuffed it in my left pocket.  122.  Yesterday was 121.  This will be fine.  I stick it in the pocket the number is supposed to be pinned on, hence the left one.  And well.  The cat 4 race was just ending so I jumped on the course from the start line after draining the morning's fluid build up.  Rode past the start line official and he said "Helmet please."  WTF?  I have a helmet on... smack my head and find only my Guinness cap.  DOH.  It is snowing, the course is slick and packed and people have been crashing everywhere and I'm riding around without a helmet on.  Dumbass.  Ah well I keep going, taking it slow just checking out the line.  I ride past Diane, prepared to do the same smacking the head.  But she doesn't say anything.  I make it around up over the new barriers and just past where the barriers were the first day I head a shout from the officials at the start line "Helmet Please."  And well I figured I should really just put the helmet on.  So I make a bee line back to the car.  I saw a few of the new sections.  

Get back.  Plenty of time.  Sort of.  I've got an hour and 15 before the start.  Should be perfect.  Pin number, warm up.  But I haven't gotten the Giant put together yet.  It is still collecting snow on the roof rack.  Oops.  And I haven't seen the new section of the course.  Well, a quick swapping of the Guinness hat for the thinner Ibex one and on goes the helmet and glasses.  And down comes the Giant and I head out to hit the section of the course after the pavement crossing.  Interesting, re-ride a few of the corners with different lines.  Hit the sand.  Marro says best to carry bike all the way instead of trying to ride as far as you can, keeps it from getting dirty.

The 3/4 race starts and I head back to the car to finish the prep.

The Croll is still here at the car and the pits are way far away (and about 10 taped lines to cross to get to) and I haven't even started pinning the number on or getting dressed.  Warm up?  well maybe I'll still have time.   It is only 9:35.... plenty of time to get the trainer out, change the rear wheel on the Giant and warm up.  Hmm everyone else is already on their trainer.  

crank the tunes, get to pinning number on.

what to wear...  

same as yesterday...

long sleeve skinsuit, short sleeve baselayer, blaze defeet socks, verge cycling cap under helmet, but instead of the "stylish" glasses aimed at mocking the pro's wearing DG's and what nots I stuck with the clear lens oakleys, capping it all off with my axo full finger summer weight mt bike gloves.  

Bare legs.  Yes.

But.  Not completely bare.  I've alluded to my "secret" embrocation in the past.  Last year I used it quite a bit as the temps were cooler for a few more races than this year.  This weekend was the first uncapping of the secret juice.  Juice is the wrong word for it.  It spreads more like, glue in a way.  What is it?  Plain jane, zero additive Lanolin.  The breastfeeding stuff.  It is like gore-tex for the skin.  Kind of tough to put on unless you get the lanolin nice and warm first.  But the stuff works wonders.    Got it worked in the exposed legs and then worked the rest into my hands (makes them softer but no less tough).  

By the time I get changed, kitted up, shoes on, big orange suit back on as the "warm up suit" it is getting late.  Too late.  No changing the rear wheel and pulling out the trainer.  So, well I just get back in the car for a few minutes.  Listen to a few more tunes, Cake The Distance a few times.  Bunch of Metallica, Thigh High Nylons from Mustard Plug and a Midnight oil track or two encompassed the playlist of the morning.  (Death Magnetic was blasting through the car speakers at 11 all the way down).

So, with about 15-20 minutes to go I shoulder the Croll and ride the Giant down.  Waterbottle in my back pocket of the orange suit chilling my cheek down even before i start racing.  Murat says something about not being brave enough to try riding while shouldering a second bike, but my past experience crashing while riding one and steering the other lean me towards being far happier carrying said bike. 

Get the bike in the pits.  Head down for one more bout of bladder relief, hang out in the warm up shack for a second and down to the line.  

As Alan starts lining up the point getters I take the suit off.  I'm not the only one with bare legs, but I only saw two others.  Dan the Speedvagen guy and someone else.  

This time i'm amped at the start.  Phucking hell I'm going to have a better start than yesterday.  And Instead of taking the outside, I want the inside line.  I actually find myself on G-rides shoulder.  I'm in the far left of the grid. Opposite of yesterday.  And not quite as far back this time.  We take off.  

Luck would have it that only a skinny 4-5 rider wide path is cleared in the snow and instead of mushrooming out to 10-12 wide at the corner the field stays a bit more compact.  I hit the inside, foot out for two reasons, one I hate cornering on sandy wet pavement with knobbies, and two to keep any little yahoos like G-ride or Carl Ring from cutting on my inside.  Yeah.  Deliberate blockage.  Hey it is racing, when you have a wingspan like mine, ya gotta use it for what you can.  Hit the sand.   And I don't get bottled up in the back but, I'd forgotten to lube up my cleats on the shoes.  And well the snowy sand mixture was costing me a few seconds after the remount. But they never failed to release.  And off the race went.  Earlier in the morning Garabed said he was going to tread the twisty course like a drag race.   After each corner it was going to be a drag race.   I thought that sounded like a brilliant idea.  After settling in with a lap or so passing a few people, getting passed by one or two (I still was well outside the top 50% into the sand, despite my efforts at the start but I was a long cry from being DFL) it was time to start motoring.  And time to start drag racing.  I was not as fast as most through the turns.  Sadly i still sort of suck in that area.  BUT, I was more than making up for that sprinting out of the turns.  With the thought that my torque might actually put people beyond themselves to try and hang with my jumps I worked them.  Jumping out of each turn.  Timmie would get a solid 5-10 seconds on my after the intestinal tract only to have me erase most of it by the time we hit the top towards the Pits.  But eventually he'd gap me through enough of the twisty stuff that he became out of reach.  I started to pick up time on him in the sand as well towards the end.  But not enough.  Chris Smith came through and freaking ran away from me on the sand.  That guy's got legs as I mentioned.   He came through me and Timmie and kind of hung out there in front of both of us.  He's my #1 Nemisis this year.  Usually out in front of me but Plymouth south?  Just a 10 seconds in front of me.    He's bested my 8 times with an average margin of 4.8, but this weekend... I came close.   Closer on Sunday which was a course that suited his strengths far more than mine.  Saturday.  Well I need to move on from that disappointment.

It worked trying to keep Timmie in contact.  We sort of wound up in no man's land.  Chris, Timmie, Me...  Joe's garage Doug went with me up to Chabot and Ring but and we drop those two and Doug kept going, not helping me overcome the notion that smaller riders can take the turns faster than big tall freaks like me.  Paul was just up there.  I would catch glimpses of him and I just wanted to catch him, make it a two for two day.  But no, he was riding well, and I think running better than I was.

I was running really slowly through the sand esp on that hill.  Couldn't get the feet up.  Then I started striding out in the sand and making headway.  Getting off early and hitting the sand running with speed instead of riding in until I couldn't ride any more.  It wasn't any harder effort wise and it was faster.  I wish I'd figured that out on the first lap.   Another thing I seemed to figure out was I could sprint through the parking lot hit the brakes hard corner at the edge of my comfort speed and then sprint out.  It helped me reel back Timmie a few seconds through there doing that.  Now if i could just corner like O'Mara through there, well then.  Shit I might have been able to hang with Timmie or at least get back on his wheel.   So I was hitting the brakes hard.  And often.  Huge amounts of sprinting and then hitting the brakes to set up the turn, jumping out of the corner, hitting the brakes then the turn.  first time I've had to use the on the bike brake adj this year when racing.  Pads got chewed down a lot yesterday.  

But I stayed upright.  Maybe I could have tried going like Carl Ring and hitting each corner faster and faster until I crashed, but I focused on my speed inbetween the corners.  Even still running the tires at 30 pounds was brilliant.  That racing ralph tread is so predictable.  When it starts to slide you have tons of control and can front wheel slide a bit until you have recovered.  So nice.  Heck it got to the point that I was actually flying down the hill and into the turn without fear and WITH speed.  

The wet spray from the wheels had my backside pretty wet, and when the race was over, the only cold part of me was my ass.  seriously.  Hands and feet and head and ears, face and legs.  All were fine.  Just my wet clammy cold ass.  One the way in riding this morning i was brainstorming what could be used to either waterproof the skinsuit or the skin so it wouldn't happen again.  I'd say why lanolin wouldn't work for me but then it would be TMI.

Sunday was a blast.  Maybe if I had warmed up I could have improved a bit but I'm stoked with where I finished on a course that i've really not liked and haven't done well at (06 and 07).  Okay well 06 i was 9th in the 3/4 masters race.  But that field back then wasn't anywhere near the quality it is this year.  And last year I was pretty damn close to DFL (49/51).  So a bit of improvement was welcome.  Esp since it really is a course that suits chabot way more than me.  Muahaha.  Too bad I couldn't dust him on a course that suited me better.  Ah well.  There's always next year and more fun to be had.

Post race it was just awesome.  Fun times indeed.  Garabed and I were jarring back and forth and the uber polite Canuk Marc B asked us to knock it off.  Then Vicki came riding back to their van and well, heck I haven't actually met her yet, and i wanted to say hi and wish her luck.  Everything else was a blurr.  A couple beers, hanging with the gang, heckling the 2/3 race.  Yelling at Cole to show those kids how to ride, commenting to the Freak that his gapping leg warmers showed off some sexy thigh skin, and then I chased him saying I was going to take his money (He had a dollar bill sticking out of his shorts).  Yelling at Brad and Gary, Colin and anyone else I recognized.  Then Thommy P showed up.  It was all good.  Chatting with the Brendan and crew, always great to see Dan Action.  He IS the man.   Looked like i almost made him crash in warm ups when I called him scarf boy ( he had his signature scarf around his neck and mouth).  

And Laura won her race, and the day was all good.  I headed back home, cracked a beer in the shower and proceeded to fade in and out of sleep until I made up some nice winter soup and couscous for dinner, after which I faded in and out of sleep trying to watch more football.  But holy crap was I cooked.  So dead.  

So tired.

What a weekend.  

Best weekend racing of the whole year.  No question.  You can't always get the results you want but man when it is fun, and there are great people to hang out with.  that is a party.  What a party it was.  If you missed it, you really missed it.  Maybe it was day two with the extra shouts i was getting.  Seemed to be more people on sunday or people were louder.  Or who knows.  All in all.

It was so killer.  Enough to make even me have a bit of "man it would be fun to go to nats" thought creep into my head.  But also enough to make me think next weekend will be even funner (to mis-use a word that is being mis-used far too often now).  Missing both Nats and Ice Weasels will be tough.  

But after this weekend.  Emotionally I can make due.  15 races this fall.  About 4 races shy of what i had planned on but still a mighty full calendar of seeing some great people and racing against the best in the country.

Now if I can just keep from looking like this after a few months, it will be all that much better!  (yes deep belly breathing is effective, even if it makes you look fat.  no wonder Molly's so damn fast, look at that Ullrich fatness going on).