Relief

I've made an effort to keep the politics off of here, to limit it a bit.

But I will make no bones about it when I say, I am hugely relieved regarding the outcome of the election for the POTUS.  Big Bird gets to live, my daughters don't have to freak out about some mysogynist turning off PBS.  Yeah I called the republican party nominee a name. That's what I do best. Label and call people names.

There are a few people in my Twitter/FB feeds that are pretty disappointed and think the world is going to end and the country is going in the wrong direction.  Well I hope they are able to help move the country forward, work with who got elected and make this shit happen.  Please, obstructionist politics don't work. Government needs compromise to happen.  It also needs taxes.  And no you can't say it is the State's responsibility, that is a shell game.

But I don't know what I'm talking about.  I'm a white dude, barely solvent, father of two wonderful girls, I'm worried about their future, and well, I was very worried about what might have happened if things wound up differently.

My isolation from the popular media has also distanced me from the extent of the actual damage caused by Sandy too.  I've heard bits and pieces here and there.  Caught some news now and then but not much.  I watched the Weather Channel short bit on the web page about Athena (named winter storm).  It then rolled over to a few stories about New York, and Red Hook.  Word from Nick the Dick is some people in NJ won't be allowed back for months.  Hannah K's story is the most direct, and impacted me the most I suppose.  And I know she's not unique or the only one.

This morning the winds have already started blasting us.  As much as I wanted to ride in w/o anything on my back to see if I can tweak it back into order, dragging a trailer into 20mph winds and who knows what on the way home was not something I was ready for.  Not potentially going into a triple weekend.  Had a great ride though. At one spot the wind had shifted and I was riding leaning into the wind.  Our new road is opened, greatly improving the modified commute until the new George Redman Linear Park is completed.

Took a bit to realize my expectations for Saturday were way out of wack.  I should have known to really expect to ride poorly, esp not racing at all since Mansfield Hollow, and having more or less the whole week off the bike leading up to it.  It makes sense now.  And Sunday yes, as expected improved.  It went beyond just switching bikes.  Even the lack of sleep wasn't a hinderance.  Dan Coady has a similar ride, better than me on day two though but his comment after the race was sort of a "ohhhhh right" moment.

I have some tweaking to do with the bikes before this weekend.  Some choices to make.  Maybe I continue to alternate? Maybe I switch everything over to the White Blue? I'm super tempted to get a second White Blue and try and sell the Carbon Fiber one to pay for it but I'm thinking maybe about holding out for disc brakes.  I know it means new wheels but at this point with 303 firecrest rims and the wide, non-parallel braking track I essentially can't interchange wheels anyway, not w/o re-doing the brakes.  Yes - disc compatible frame would mean a bit of new hardware needs but hey, I'm running brakes from the 90s on both bikes.  It is probably time to upgrade, no?

Just a crazy dude musing and pondering.

Maybe more later... we'll see if this releases enough words from the brain for the day.

heddwch
G