been a while

 Sorry about that, busy? Yeah. Pretty hectic.

Today was planned to be a Freetown 50 recon. Hasn't happened, and won't today. Embracing the day off, the day of recovery, of not pedaling. 

Focusing on that part of faking being a competitive athlete that I routinely fail at. Rest and Recovery.

Before Ida came through and delivered more of a storm than Henri ever did for us, I went around with the big heavy ladder and cleaned out the new gutters. Easy, but still had to move the heavy ladder around. At full extension it is a bit awkward for one person. Woke up that night with pain in the middle left of my back. The usual place. Knees are getting better but not better. Debating the whole doc visit but also know why and just how long these things take to heal. The lack of a sub-patellar bursa on my right knee is definitively not helping anything.

Last night there was forecast scattered showers until noon. Later over in Assonet/Freetown. Guess what, nothing. Any rain that fell was light and mostly to the south. But plans were never finalized and no one wanted to make the trip mid-day.

So I tried to sleep in as much as my back would let me after it not letting me sleep well through the night. Made some coffee, read, ate, caught up on a few things, explored something new, and really very much relaxing.

Crazy end of the week, Friday was a whirlwind of the department retreat where we started fully online - moved to a hybrid then to a full Face to Face BBQ/dinner/social gathering outside under an open sided tent.

Wound up sitting with those most directly related to Evan B-B's work and heard about a quiet memorial they had for him and how hard it was for everyone. I relayed my support and grief and we chatted a bit more and filled in a few that were hiding off working alone during that couple week span. I probably would not have been comfortable there but we're pushing 98% vax as a workplace and I have a feeling the department is 100%. Not that it is an excuse to be lax or unmasked inside. Shopping has been crazy, so many unmasked folks, really bothersome. Underscores how risk accepting people are. Seriously no matter where you are in the country or the world, outside of the close bubble of your home/apartment, you really do need to still be masked up indoors. Outside is a different matter, and one that carries a bit more variable risk. Delta variant is infectious enough that outside transmission is much more possible than the OG strain.

Outside... it was with great sadness that Outside prompted me to merge my BikeReg account into the Outside account I created for Beta. And yeah that was during the 50% sale, two days before it went to 75% sale... and just last week USAC emailed a 'benefit' to subscribe fore free to Beta or Velonews, sweet I can get VN content now too... 

Nope. Doesn't appear that way. you can do one, or you can do the whole thing, you can't do two. 

And just now, before opening this up in the browser I read a few articles in Outside that I had bookmarked to come back to. One was about place identity. A few issues with that article on a nit-pic side of things, often one gets used to using a most common location of origination because of the fatigue of trying to explain where you really are from. Saying 'Seattle' is a lot easier than Olalla. One gives you a good reference for the geographic location, the other takes a fair bit of explanation and still never really, unless you're from Gig Harbor or Port Orchard (do you even know those two places?) it is impossible. So saying Detroit when your from Royal Oak or Sterling Heights, or Boston when you life in Sommerville or Dorchester, or DC when you really mean Accokeek. 

I wonder how Saguache fits in the Colorado hierarchy. Guess it doesn't really matter anymore. It was a brief moment of time when we had a connection there. But I'm guessing it doesn't have the same aura that Silverton does. There's really nothing in the town except a bunch of old artists, nothing really do to. And that's kind of why my Dad picked it. Away from fucking everything. Literally. But it is a low lying town, only 7700 feet elevation or so. Low enough that I never had any acclimation trouble, but then I wasn't ever doing much more strenuous than logging beetle kill pine, and was drinking a fuckton of beer.

Another Outside article that I had put in the read at some point folder was this one about grieving for a dog. And as expected it was supremely challenging to get through as I expected it to be. Millie and Charlie are getting old. They are acting old, slower to get up, to move around, more grey hairs. But they are also so sweet and just so content to hang out. They aren't trail dogs and as much as I'd love a trail dog I don't know if it is time yet for that, def not time to think about anything more than just loving these two as much as possible as long as possible.

Saturday was bike shop day, but not having gotten the text message with a pile of boxes waiting for me, I brought both the Stache and the Top Fuel with me. Hoping maybe that the warranty Line Pro 40 would be there (It wasn't) and that I could put both together, but if not then at least swap seat posts and put the cheap line 30 wheels over back on the Top Fuel. Straight forward pretty much. Dropper housing was just long enough to work with the shorter post, and with no wheels on the Stache I held off setting the seat height there. Can't ride it, might as well wait. Put the new to me Concor on the Stache, the same generation one that broke with the shitty seamed tubing railed saddles is going on the FS bike, feels safer that way. 

After that I put a few bikes together, sat around and didn't do much and then headed up to BR afterwork to ride with Hux. His second ride on his new Fuel EX. A way nicer build for less money than mine but also, only an XL and he waited about 6 months to get it. Did a smooth easy route, some tech, not too much. Bike was good, cadence was about 2x that on the singlespeed. Shifting absolutely blows because I have a worn out NX der. Really need to just get a GX der and cassette, would also save a lot of weight but $$. And availability? Not sure if I can even get either of them. And while I absolutely love riding it, I wonder if it is just too good of a bike. Imposter bike syndrome. But the traction and smoothness are soo lux, it is really really fun to ride. And if the shifting worked reliably it would be even more fun.

The ride was awesome, funny to think only two years ago was my first ride on a 'modern' MTB and that was the Stache, and a few weeks later I did the Freetown 50 on it. Came in pretty much dead last but won the Clydesdale division, so won? And now I have a bazzillion dollar full suspension bike built in the middle of a pandemic with zero supply and no choices, and part of me says "just sell it and buy something cheaper" before then though I need to get the Fox fork serviced. Bushings are bad, it is brand new. Right now my plan is to wait till the Stache is back and ridable with the mid-fat tires before sending that out. Ride this till then. At least maybe when I'm not racing CX.

And yeah CX is coming up this weekend. Yikes.

Somehow have to get ready for that. Although, we'll see. Smackdown hasn't been too bad. But I'm racing against some of the fastest people in New England on Saturday and I'm thinking about trying a stupid easy gear for the singlespeed race at Quad cross. Yeah, I know, I'm the 46-17 guy. Or was the 38-16 guy last year, thinking now 44-22. CRAZY!? I KNOW. But...  I always get bogged down with the tall gear at Quad, on the little punchy hills and the long pedaly section is uphill and well, spin motherfucker. 

Also out of drink mix again. Kind of fed up with whats out there and what works for me and how expensive everything is. No wonder I went on the whole make my own trip for so long. But honestly the Gatorade stuff has worked as well or better than most, sure it isn't skratch, it isn't the mostly organic cliff stuff, but I'm not a hydration product ambassador, just a Topeak one. Oh and another one that I just signed up for, agreements and NDAs and everything, will share more later on that. And well at just over $20 from Amazon for a big tub, it is way way cheaper than the Osmo I was using, or the rest. Sure it is just sugar water and yeah I was the plain water and coffee guy for a long time. Things change, bodies change, we've been through this tho right?

Time for a little more coffee, an errand or two and then maybe stack some wood and cut up the rest of the bike-trailer stuff before getting more of it. Maybe need to ride the CX bike this week to get ready, throw in some efforts? maybe. probably not. busy week starting tomorrow.

happy labor day and all that loaded bullshit that comes along with it in this current society where one party has convinced the very people with the most to gain from a union to be abhorrently opposed to their own self interests.

heddwch and amor fati motherfuckers
G