Indian Summer
We're getting a teensy bit of indian summer for just a few days. Yesterday was 60, today 66, tomorrow 51. And then we see the end of it. My poor sweetie and his co-workers. They've been without heat in their building for close to a month now. Despite the warm temperatures outside, their building doesn't really heat up during the day. I went by last night and the temperatures were...invigorating. When he got home last night we heated a sweatshirt up in the dryer so he could finally warm up.
Everyone cross your fingers that they can get things working again, and soon, before the rash of pneumonia strikes.
Labels: Seasons
Fall
Apparently I didn't get my crack fix before Sunday Morning's race, because all of my pictures are slightly blurry. Both the ones taken with the camera and the ones taken with the cell phone because my camera battery died. But the brilliant tree and cyclocross racers has evolved into my whole view of fall. After 4 years of attending cyclocross races every weekend from October to December, the fall season and the racing season are inextricably entwined in my mind. And that is not a bad thing.
Labels: Seasons
Happy Halloween!
I have to admit, Halloween is not my favorite holiday. There are few words that turn off the creative center of my brain faster than "What are you going to be for Halloween?" Add to that I don't have kids, but am at the age where my friends do. So there aren't really many adult Halloween parties happening to get my attention either. Halloween just doesn't do a thing for me. It's sort of like Valentine's Day was when I was single. Something you kind of ignore and it just goes away.
But the heck with me - have a great Halloween, and save me some candy!
Labels: Seasons
A good win and a bad one
WOOHOOO!
Cardinals win the World Series! Sorry I'm late, travel and all.
BOOO
St Louis is the Nation's most dangerous city. It's not totally a surprise, there have always been issues. There's a long history of racial issues, poverty in St Louis city, gangs.... Makes it sound like a real garden spot, no? But get out of the actual city, and it's actually a really nice place. I'll spare the chamber of commerce spiel for now. I'm just hoping that this motivates them to address some of these issues.
Weekend Thoughts
Cool things from the weekend
- Seeing 3 bald eagles at the race course on Saturday night. Dan was telling us how to tell that they were young still – they still had white on their bellies and didn’t have a fully white head. They don’t mature and mate until around age 5. Wade asked where adolescent males hung out if they didn’t mate until they were 5. Which lead to our speculation that they lived in crappy, ill-constructed nests and dropped in on nesting pairs around dinner time. I don’t know if Dan thought we were as funny as we did.
- An exciting B-men’s race. The B-men’s field this year seems to have really good parity. The good guys aren’t winning by multiple minutes, and on any given day, any rider could have a spectacular race and win. Chris had a good race today, and was all excited to finish ahead of Fatmarc. Fatmarc has had a great season, so that’s actually a more positive goal than it might otherwise sound. They’ve started calling him fast-Marc.
- Watching Fred and Austin play. They’re so goofy, they can’t seem to figure out precisely how to actually play, but they seem to have the intent.
- Watching Dede Winfield kill the women’s elite race, and then walk back to the car with her husband and her little girl.
- Seeing a farm with our last name on it. Ours is not a super common last name, so it was sort of startling to see it on a big sign in the middle of NJ.
- Watching Adam Myerson get 4th in the men’s elite. He has the coaching company that Chris’s coach used to be with, so I always cheer for him.
- Watching the whole race go well. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears goes into these things, so it’s always gratifying to see it go well. Kudos to the entire Beacon team, especially Wade!
- Best headers in the volleyball court of the weekend: Tie between Spanky and Rolf. I think Rolf wins because he actually had to withdraw from the race because of mechanical probs. I wish we had a great prize to compensate for the suckiness of that actually happening!
- I have now converted my husband to a Bloodhound Gang fan. I think Three Point One Four started the job and Yummy Down on This sealed the deal. So to speak. Don’t bother looking up the lyrics at work, I guarantee they’re too foul to make it through the firewall.
- We know what a Shoebie is!
- The caterers this weekend arrived in a car with a bumper sticker that read “Go back to Philadelphia”. Too funny.
- Bad weekend for batteries. The camera battery died about one picture into the elite men’s race. The phone battery threatened to die while I was calling in the results of the men’s elite race. It lasted just long enough for me to tell Chris that Adam Myerson won the two up against Roger Aspholm.
Labels: CX, Travel
Slogging through mud
What a week. This past week has felt like slogging through mud. In part, it's just the post vacation let down. Granted I was officially working, but getting to see people I used to work with and catch up on their babies and their lives is hardly in the same category as telling people that their projects are going to be late. Coming back I hit the start of "oh crap" season. This is when all of the managers realize that those projects that need to be completed this year haven't even been started. So work is ramping up. At home there are a million little things which need to be done, not the least of which is get plastic on the windows to help insulate the house, get food in the house so we won't frickin' starve, catch up on laundry, make the drugstore run for toothpaste, shampoo, and doggy treats, etc. And then Chris has run into a situation that weighs heavily on our minds and may mean that we don't get to see our families for the holidays. If anyone needs me, I'll be curled up under the covers, sawing logs.
On the plus side, tomorrow we're off to Wade's house in South Joizy for Sunday's Beacon race. We're super psyched. Wade is a great guy who has put us up for 3 years running. Chris loves mountain biking with him, and we all enjoy hanging out. Our only regret is we only get to see him and his dog D'Huez during cross season. The rest of the year we're on bike shop schedules - too busy to travel from about March until August. But the fun is only beginning right now, and we can sleep when we're dead.
Now for something completely un-bike related
The Anchoress has an
amazing post about being a survivor of child abuse, and then moving beyond it. She doesn't dwell on "poor me" but more on "poor him". It's something I can't even imagine. My parents have always been the touchstone and rock from which I have grown and become me. Yet without that solid support, she has moved on, married, and had children. She has not let anger drive her and not let her experience make her bitter.
Sigmund, Carl & Alfred
expound further on the role of religion in healing from abuse, specifically in The Anchoress's healing.
Labels: Other Blogs
Oh the horror
Fred would never consider doing
this. Unless, of course, you're too close to the car while he's in it. Or you're a cat. Or a dog. Or wearing a ballcap. Or a bus. Or a train. Or a Semi. Or...
Hmmmm
Labels: Dogs
Together at Last
When Chris and I first met, I was trying my hand at road racing. And I sucked. Not “I can never get better than 4th place” sucked, more like “Gosh I hope they don’t dismantle the finish line before I get there again” sucked. But I was riding for a team whom I really liked. Laid back, casual, fun people.
At the time, Chris was riding for one of the top local teams. There were a handful of women on the team, and the local mutterings of the local gossips was that the way for a woman to get on the team was to date one of the guys on the team. Which was a little harsh, because the women who rode for the team really were top local riders in their own right. The team director is a good guy who would do anything for his riders, and that included letting them race with their girlfriends. But there’s no doubting the quality of the women that had joined up. After we dated for a bit, Chris asked if I wanted to join his team. But given how bad a racer I am, I couldn’t justify to myself switching, and just adding more gossip to the local racing community and taking even more credit from these talented women. Also, I’ve never been one for “sleep your way to the top” in any other facet of my life. I wasn’t about to start having that type of talk applied to me. And because Chris was riding for a top team with friends that he liked, he wasn’t going to switch either.
After a year and half of having my back end handed to me on weekends and every Tuesday night, I surrendered. I did one sprint triathlon the next summer, and then hung up the bike for awhile. Now I spend race days cheering for my husband with a twinkie in one hand. But my team still keeps me on the rolls, basically because they are super wonderful people.
Chris’s interest in traveling for road races has waned, at the same time the pressure to travel more on his team increased. Bike shop jobs aren't easy on weekend travel in the summer. There was pressure to buy a new team bike when he had existing bikes that he already liked, and we were trying to save $$. So Chris and team amicably parted ways and last summer he raced as an independent.
This year, there’s been a little re-org, and the team I’ve been affiliated with all of these years now has a racing team and a club. Which makes me happy because I’m definitely game to be a club rider. Hopefully there will be some cool rides that I can catch on to, and it will encourage me to get back onto my shiny new bike. And Chris is now racing for the team, while I ride for the club. We are going to be so cute in our matching kit. Or major league dweebs. But it'll be fun!
MAC-alanche
Too funny. Chris sent my little post on Cross for Spouses to the Mid-Atlantic Cross list, and suddenly my hit counter split in half from the weight of all of those visitors. Had I but known, I might have cleaned up around the place first. Dusted the links, swept the dust bunnies out from under the charities, washed the title picture, etc.
It did give me pause in not going forward with my fascinating post on how much it sucks that we've had two days of flurries and it isn't even Halloween. Or precisely how freakin' many burrs the dog accumulated yesterday when he chased a deer. No, seriously, you should see this beasty (and you would if I had a %&(*@% camera.)
But given that's all a fascination level of about -2, and now I'm feeling all bashful, I think I'll just quietly put on my headphones and enjoy this
cyclocross video from Mike O'Hara of the elite Women's race at Granogue. And admire superluminary Peter's videos from a couple of weeks ago at
Crosstalk.
UPDATE: Woohoo, Peter's updated the site with some HD vid from Granogue and an interview with the guy making Transitions 2: Adam Myerson's Pissed Off. (Ok, I kid about the subtitle).
Labels: CX
Another random Granogue thought
The best part of being in the pit at Granogue for the elite men's race? Standing next to Ryan Trebon's bike. Tree Farm is 6'6" tall. I'm pretty tall for a woman, and the seat on that thing came up to my sternum. Maybe 40" from ground to the top of the saddle?
The worst? Not getting to be on the hill where there were reportedly 200 screaming fans. You could hear them all over the course. I think they burnt themselves out though. The next day at the Wissahickon race, was very, very quiet. And that's with a women's race that included a sprint finsh between Katie Compton & Lynne Bessette!
Labels: CX
Coming soon, to a bookstore near you....
Across from us at the races this weekend (two days in a row, no less) was a couple where the wife was trying to warm up on her trainer while the husband was trying to hold a conversation. Her “I can’t warm up while you’re talking to me” kept getting progressively louder. Poor guy, she was in the B-women’s race, he was probably new to the whole concept of the races. For him, I dedicate my new (world’s shortest) book:
The Beginner’s Guide to being a Cyclocross Spouse
Your spouse (or significant other) has decided to take on cyclocross? Good for them! And you’ve decided to be supportive and go to the races? Even better! Here’s some important things you should know:
- Before the race, they’re amped up. Depending on the person that may manifest itself in jitters, rapid-fire speech, snappishness, story telling, nervous laughter, obsessiveness with some minor component of cycling gear, an urgent need to be alone, and/or constant trips to the porta-potty. This is not a good time to ask, “What the hell is wrong with you?” The proper question here is “Do you need anything?”
- If your spouse does not need anything, for the love of God, leave. Anything said during this time frame is not serious. Including requests for divorce or insistence that beatings will occur.
- Make friends – all of the other spouses who aren’t racing have been there, done that, and form a really nice support group. Besides, these are the coolest people you’ll meet in any of the cycling disciplines, you wouldn’t want to miss out on that!
- Things you need to bring:
Hot drinks on cold days, cold drinks on other days.
Camera – there hasn’t been a person yet who’s complained that too many pictures are taken of them racing
Activity to keep you out their hair while they’re busy spazzing out. I have the dog, others have children, and of course there’s always the spousal favorite: books. If you’re more of a hands-on kind of person, learn what to do in a pit, become a bike mechanic, or volunteer with the race. There’s always a need to fix course tape.
A chair. You’ll be running around the course during the 30-55 minutes of the race anyway, you might as well have a place to flop at other times. - One of you is not going to be happy with the weather. Racing in crappy weather means they have an even better story to tell. It means you lose fingers.
And if you need anything, flag me down. I’ll be the one dressed poorly but warmly, keeping a dog in check, and cheering for everyone whose name I can figure out. Oh wait…that’s everyone at the race. That's ok, you can get help from pretty much anyone, it's a fun group.
Labels: CX
Wow...
While I was out traipsing about the US, I won a DVD/VCR in the United Way drawing at work. Sweet! I'm not opening the box until I figure out what we're going to do with it, but it's still pretty freakin' sweet!
Who's training Who?
It’s a funny thing with dogs. Especially smart ones. They really learn to work you over for treats. You think you’re training them, and suddenly you find yourself trained. Fred has learned to make faces at me in the back seat.
Oh sure, it started so innocently, with my giving him a treat when he laid down properly in the back seat. But then he was doing it so much, that I wouldn’t fork over the treat every time. So he would shift positions, and sometimes that would make me laugh and I’d cough up the treat anyway.
So he’s learned that if he shifts positions and facial expressions, he’ll hit on one that will cause him to strike the mother lode of treats. If I’m being particularly obstinate, then he’ll finally resort to the oldest of dog tricks – lean forward, apply doggy laser-beams to the side of the head.
In other words, I’ve managed to raise a total ham.
Oh - and why are all of these pictures cell phone pictures? Because I'm an idiot and managed to lose our pride and joy on the trip.
Labels: Dogs
Thoughts from the week
It’s been a really long week, so I’m just randomly writing things down. In no specific order…
CyclocrossWorld.com team was parked behind us at the Wissahickon race. That means that Lynne Bessette, an international class racer in both road and cyclocross, and Tim Johnson, who’s a cyclocross king were floating around their tent. I had Fred tied out while I puttered around the car. Lynne came over and petted him for a few minutes, which Fred took with his usual sangfroid. My husband would have given his ears for that opportunity. When I came over a little bit later, Fred greeted me with a full body wag. My dog is the only being in the world who thinks I’m cooler than Lynne Bessette
It’s been awesome seeing everyone. Our only regret is we didn’t get to spend much time with anyone.
Chris had just tagged on with the top 5 group at the Granogue race when his chain came off the cog. Just like that he lost 10 places and he spent the rest of the race trying to make it up. Such is cyclocross.
The women’s races this weekend were AMAZING. Katie Compton – US Cyclocross Champion, Lynne Bessette – Canadian National Champ, and Georgia Goulde – US NORBA champion. Granogue was a lot less tight than I expected with Katie Compton running away with first place. Good for her! She previously couldn’t race UCI because she was part of a tandem in the Paralympics. So it was fabulous to see her do well in front of her hometown crowd. There was a lot of celebrating in Delaware last night, I’m sure! I’m pretty excited to see someone challenging Lynne Bessette. I like her a lot, but racing is better when there are multiple people at the same level.
Adam “Spanky” won at Granogue yesterday – which was awesome. He pulled 3rd today at Wiss. It’s absolutely fabulous to see a stalwart in the Bs doing well. He and Chris have raced together for years. The best part today - he won the really small cross bike. Spanky's over 6'. I hope he has a great season. Although I’d still like to see Chris beat him now and again.
I had a chance to pit for Sean Harshman, a guy we met in Cincinnati last weekend. He was really cool, and I met his girlfriend today. She seemed really nice too. I love cyclocross for that – you meet the most amazing people.
Fred is really tired – he’s been around dogs (including Baker!) all week, covered 2500 miles of travel, and probably missed 16 hours of naps a day. Like the rest of us, he’s going to be thuh-rilled to be home with access to normal eating and sleeping patterns and his own bed.
Labels: CX
Jogger's Guide to Asheville
Dogs LOVE! Cats. Even better when a park has a feral cat colony. Harbin Park, Cincinnati
We have spent the last two days at work zipping through everything my company does in Asheville. And that's a lot. It's also funny because I've worked for the same company for 17 years, and I worked in the plant here 11 years ago. I actually know a lot of people as we walk through the plant. It's been fun, I feel like Norm walking into cheers
Fredly finally had a rest day today, and he's been super happy this evening. This despite the fact that we went out to eat. Downtown Asheville has a lot of cool restaurants, bars, and shops. It also has a lot of classic hippies. As in patchouli is really not a replacement for a bath. One of my co-workers said "We've all made our fashion statements when we were young. But when does hygiene become optional?" Regardless, we had tasty Thai tonight, and Mellow Mushroom Pizza last night. Interesting place, but made even better due to the good company we were in.
We got to see Erin and Baker yesterday - woohoo! Double woohooo for Fred getting to play yesterday.
Spoiled is such an ugly word. Fred prefers to call it
getting his just rewards.
Any way, tomorrow we're off on the final swing of the trip -first to Richmond to see our buddies JH & Susan, and then to DE to hang with fatmarc and then finally to Philly to hang with Brian, Kristen and the girls. Oh and some bike races.
I have to say, getting to do a business trip with my husband and my dog makes this the best business trip I've ever been on. I wish I could do this every time!
Labels: Travel
Thoughts
- Ok, people, let's talk Pits, ok? The idea of a pit is two external lanes where a rider can come in, make a change, and leave via the exit. Think of it as two one way streets. Bikes, wheels, pit sticks, should be in between the two lanes. Leaving the bike in the lane, making repairs in the lanes, feeding in the lanes, taking pictures in the lanes and cheering in the lanes? Bad form. Just call me the pit nazi because I'm envisioning serious collisions otherwise.
- Morgan and Fred finally got the idea of playing...about 30 minutes prior to our departure. Other than that, Fred was cranky with Morgan the whole weekend.
- I love the drive on I-40 from Tennessee into North Carolina. It's completely insane, twisty, and tight. I love the way the mountains just seem to rise up in front of you. Poor Chris, I did an inadequate job of describing that drive. It's so much fun, but I've done it a few times. It is a bit nerve wracking dodging semis at 70 mph and hanging those tight turns. I've missed living in this area.
- Happy blogiversary to me! One year....
Labels: CX
Races
So it's Sunday evening, and we've now gotten through two races. By "we" I mean Chris did all of the hard work and Fred and I stood around and cheered and barked. Saturday he raced the "A" race because the "B" race was at 10 in the morning. Sleeping in seemed much more appropriate for a Saturday. Talk about doing a lot of work so you can be lazy! It was a tough race, and even though he said his goal was to not be lapped by the 40 min mark, he was still disappointed to be pulled with 1 to go (about the 50-55 min mark). But today was another day, and his race went really well. He started middle of the pack, and finished extremely well. The only downside of the day was a twisted ankle in practice. A little ibuprofen, a little ice, and all will be made new.
Fred is ti-red. We took the UCI official (Randy Schaeffer, who we really, really like!) to the airport, and I rode in the back with Fred. He slept with his head in my lap almost the whole way. Awwwww factor of 10!
And tomorrow we're off to Asheville!
Labels: CX
Fall Leaves Footprints
Labels: Seasons, Travel
Yahoo vies for the worst headline ever
I'm sorry,
what is the FBI doing?
Puppy!
We're in Cincinnati staying with Mitch & Kate. Both very sweet, and the owners of Morgan. This is the first time I've realized that Fred is getting old. He's 4 now, and far
far to dignified to put up with whippet puppy nonsense. I guess I never realized what a mature, dignified dog he's turned into. Poor Morgan is afraid of getting too close to him now. Fred sits in his lion like pose expecting the adulation of all around him and Morgan runs around like Daffy Duck - WOOHOO! Whoopee! Let's Play!!
Poor both doggies. But Morgan is at the bike shop now with a very handsome 5 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback guy. So I'm sure she's doing ok.
Off to the races!
Labels: Dogs
Transitions
There's a DVD out called "
Transitions". It's basically about the 2004 cyclocross season, focused mostly in the Northeast and using Adam Myerson as the pivot point of the story. My favorites in the movie are Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks. In addition to being crazy talented, they just make me giggle. They're just goofy 20-something guys, a group that I seem to have a soft-spot for. And Adam was having a bummer year of illness and results he wasn't happy with, so I walked away from watching it wanting to make the poor guy whatever the vegan version of chicken noodle soup is. Oh yeah, and the cross footage
rocks.
So for a really long time, I was startled at how many guys I knew
hated the video. Then I realized...ooooohhhh, they're used to being the complainers not the listeners. Everyone of them complained that Adam was bitching too much. Really? That's funny because after 5 years of hanging out at cross races, I have to say that there are very few cyclocrossers that I haven't heard wailing away about how their season is going, the bad luck, the %&*# who cut them off, how they're going to retire (bike racers are required to retire at least once a season), health issues, the joy of juggling real life with racing, etc.
A favorite, extreme (real life) example of racing angst was Pit Boy at the 2001 cyclo-cross nationals in Baltimore. It had been a crappy nationals for Chris, we'd been dating a month, I didn't know about things like trying to find the second pit with his pit bike, and he had gotten some bad starts, got a flat near the pit I wasn't in, etc. When I saw him walking across the field with the flat tire, I knew that it was going to be a long ride home. While we were standing close to the pit, dejectedly gathering up all of our stuff, we heard a commotion in the pit. There was a young guy and an older man. The man was holding the younger guy's bike, and not letting him re-enter the race. The younger guy (early 20s?) was having (literally) a screaming fit. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" He was trying to jerk the bike away, and finally the older guy walked away from pit, with the bike in hand, and Pit Boy threw himself on the ground, pounding it with his fists. The crowd stood their with their mouths hanging open. Talk about catharsis! I have no idea who the guy was, and I wonder if he looks back on his outburst and cringes. I hope so. But Pit Boy, we love you man. You're still good for a laugh 5 years later. And you certainly took some pressure off of a tense situation.
Labels: Movies
Great Blog Line
I live in a state that would go Democratic if it was Jesus Christ (R) against Josef Stalin (D).
-Megan McArdle
"Asymmetrical Information"Labels: Other Blogs
Who turned off the Fall switch?
Good grief this has been the year of abrupt seasonal transitions. Summer just stopped dead sometime in early September, and Buffalo is in the process of getting around 30" of snow right now. Even we in the much further south western PA region woke up to temps of 31. It's crazy. I don't think I can take 6 months of hard core winter. I
hate winter. NOOOOooo
ooooooo. Sigh.
I enabled word verification on comments. I was sick of the visits from Nitel to leave spam droppings in my comments. Oh well.
Started packing for the trip last night. Yeeks. We're going to look like the Clampetts. If you see a car with 2 cross bikes, a mountain bike, a back seat half full of wheels, with the trunk 3/4 closed, and a dog hanging out the window, that's us.
Sounds like the Cincy races are going to be hopping this weekend. Sweet!
I don't think Fred's ready for winter yet. He's gotten to the point where he won't be kicked out of bed any more. Oh, sure, he leaves when we ask him too, and flounces down at the top of the stairs in a huff. But I always wake up to find the Fred fantastic in bed with us anyway. It's too cold by himself on the floor!
Talk about circle of life stuff. One friend of mine is losing a close friend that she's known since they were in grade school. They disconnect life support today. Thirty years of friendship is mind boggling to me, especially because I really didn't keep in touch with anyone from grade school or high school. Having met the man in question, well...it is hard. He was a bubbly, fun, outgoing person. (I realize that was somewhat redundant). I've only met him once, but my impression was very much of a warm loving person with an awesome, snarky sense of humor. So my heart breaks for my friend in her loss, and rages against the fact that I just can't help her.
But to continue around the circle, we found out that the friends who introduced Chris and I are expecting their second baby. I'm very excited for them! I know that especially the wife
really wanted another child. So it's just awesome news.
Labels: Seasons
Soon to be a Saga
We’re gearing up for a big trip. It started with Chris having his weekend races, and then I ended up with a business trip to Asheville. It has now turned into a “Round the World” excursion. The trip takes us to Cincinnati starting tomorrow afternoon. Then on Monday morning we leave Cincy and go to Asheville. Thursday we leave Asheville and go as far North as Richmond. Friday we go from Richmond to Delaware. Saturday is Delaware to Philly. Sunday is Philly to home. Monday we go back to work.
The plus side – we’re getting to see a lot of friends! We’re hanging with Mitch in Cincinnati, Erin and Nikki in Asheville, Susan, JH, the boys and the dogs in Richmond, fatmarc in Delaware, Brian, Kristen, the girls, and the dogs in Philly. My work is paying for our only hotel nights, some mileage and my meals for Mon-Thurs.
The minus side…oi. 24 hours of driving (at least) for the week. Non stop activity for a basically quiet person. Keeping the mutt entertained. 2 ½ days of meetings.
Hmm, put both on the scale and…it’s going to be a good trip.
My Dad used to do scheduling/planning/project management for military aircraft at McDonnell Douglas. So when he went on vacation, it spilled over. We’d get itineraries that would have things like “11:34 Pull into rest stop at Cape Girardeau MO”. I just looked at the stack of maps sitting on my desk that I printed out from Mappoint, realized I’m planning on stopping at AAA on the way home, and on my to-do list are things like “Finalize Tuesday dinner with Nikki, Erin, and co-workers” and “Get co-workers cell phones” and I realized that the apple does not fall far from the tree.
Labels: Travel
Dumbest Political statement of the day
From Republican Christopher Shay"Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody," he added
Look, I'm open to the idea that Hastert doesn't deserve to have to step down. From what little I can glean from the back and forth of the case, Hastert at best might have had an inkling that Foley was a creepy guy. But really, who believes their co-worker is soliciting 16 year olds?
The thing is, you have to be a lot more hard core into politics than I imagine most people are to still have any feelings about
Mary Jo Kopechne, Ted Kennedy, and Chappaquiddick. And obviously the people of Massachusetts didn't care at the time either because Ted Kennedy's career has gone on for almost 40 years since. So comparing a current, emotional, hot button issue like Foley's to a 40 year old scandal is ridiculously stupid. And with CNN posting on their front page as
Republican on Foley Scandal: At Least No One DiedWell that's an awesome way for the entire Republican party to appear to be shrugging off the whole situation and looking extremely hard hearted. Wow, his fellow party members are going to pissed.
Back to politics school with you!
Putting your money where your mouth is
Talk about giving until it hurts! The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association has
turned down the donation of 100 gallons of heating fuel per household by Victor Hugu Chavez and Citgo. Given Chavez's remarks about the United States and President Bush, they felt it would be unpatriotic to accept. Given that means $500/family for some very poor people, that's an amazing example of not selling out principles.
If you want to donate to help defray the cost of heating for these folks this winter, information can be found
here.
What Liberals Believe
I found a link to an article called
"What Liberals Believe". And I started to read only to get derailed at the very first tenet:
1. Liberals believe individuals should doubt their own truths and consider fairly and open-mindedly the truths of others.
Ok, look. There is no such thing as "My truth" and "Your truth". I cannot fairly and open-mindedly accept that drivel. There is "My opinion" and "Your opinion". There is THE Truth. And sometimes we don't know THE truth, so we substitute opinion. But to say that we each have separate truths is a load of crap.
Too bad, I was interested in seeing what this guy had to say, but I can't take anyone seriously who can't make the distinction between truth and opinion.
Weather Underground
We watched the documentary about the
Weather Underground Organization, a terrorist group of the 70s. They're goal was first to bring about the end of the Vietnam war, and secondly to act in support of the oppressed peoples of the world and to overthrow the US Government to install communism.
And after watching the movie, I sorta felt like....so what. They did a pretty thorough job of covering WHY these people bombed, but not so much of the results of their activities. They talked about "Days of Rage" when they rioted in the streets, but apparently by the WUO's standards, the Days of Rage were a terrible flop. They were expecting thousands of kids to show up in Chicago to riot. Instead they got a couple hundred. But were they successful in sowing dissent and fear? Or did the average person on the street see this stuff happening someplace else, and carry on with their activities?
Ultimately, as a teaching tool, I think it was a bit of a flop. If you already knew about WUO and their activities, maybe it provided insights. If, like me, you'd only sort of heard of them, this probably won't fill in many blanks.
I did find it amusing, though, that none of them served more than a few years because of their work in the WUO. And now most of them are working as....teachers at colleges and universities. Think about THAT when you sign your kid up for school!
Labels: Movies
Learning
A few years ago, our friend Erin broke the big news to us that psychologists had discovered that dogs could learn from each other. To which Chris and I responded..."DUH!"
Thankfully Erin has a great sense of humor.
No, really, anyone who doesn't think dogs learn from each other has never had a dog. Our first experience with it was we were baby sitting Fred's first doggy friend, Emma. Actually she treated him more like a big sister would treat a super annoying little brother. The weekend we were watching Emma, she had an ear infection. So she walked around the house all weekend shaking her head. The day after Emma returned home, Fred started shaking his head. All day long. Curses, he must have caught some bug from Emma. Then we realized that he was just doing what Emma had been doing all weekend, and after a few days he stopped.
And we had the scoop on dogs learning from each other.
All is lost when this song doesn't make me laugh...
Ha-ha! well now we call this the act of mating
But there are several other very important differences
Between human beings and animals that you should know about
I'd appreciate your input
Sweat baby sweat baby sex is a texas drought
Me and you do the kind of stuff that only prince would sing about
So put your hands down my pants and Ill bet youll feel nuts
Yes Im siskel, yes Im ebert and youre getting two thumbs up
Youve had enough of two-hand touch you want it rough youre out of bounds
I want you smothered want you covered like my waffle house hashbrowns
Come quicker than fedex never reach an apex like coca-cola stock you are
Inclined
To make me rise an hour early just like daylight savings time
Do it now
You and me baby aint nothin but mammals
So lets do it like they do on the discovery channel
Do it again now
You and me baby aint nothin but mammals
So lets do it like they do on the discovery channel
Gettin horny now
Love the kind you clean up with a mop and bucket
Like the lost catacombs of egypt only God knows where we stuck it
Hieroglyphics? let me be specific
I wanna be down in your south seas
But I got this notion that the motion of your ocean means small craft advisory
So if I capsize on your thighs high tide, b5 you sunk my battleshipP
lease turn me on Im mister coffee with an automatic drip
So show me yours I'll show you mine tool time youll lovett just like lyle
And then well do it doggy style so we can both watch x-files
Do it now
You and me baby aint nothin but mammals
So lets do it like they do on the discovery channel
Do it again nowYou and me baby aint nothin but mammals
So lets do it like they do on the discovery channel
Gettin horny now
You and me baby aint nothin but mammals
So lets do it like they do on the discovery channel
Do it again nowYou and me baby aint nothin but mammals
So lets do it like they do on the discovery channel
Do it nowYou and me baby aint nothin but mammals
So lets do it like they do on the discovery channel
Do it again now
You and me baby aint nothin but mammals
So lets do it like they do on the discovery channel
Gettin horny now
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birdie
2 ewes
Happy Birdie
2 ewes
Happy Birdie
Fat MaaaaarrrccccHappy Birdie
2 ewes
(Sorry it's late!)
Quick note to the Port Authority of Allegheny County
You want to know why ridership is down? I know that everyone has a story, and it’s my blog, so here’s mine. My Dad and I took the train to the bike trail to ride bikes. We’re talking about a 65 year old man and a suburban housewife stepping on the train at white-breadsville station. And we were hassled by the conductor to an embarrassing degree.
This isn’t the first time a conductor has given me or my husband problems about having a bike on the train – something that PAT says is OK on their website. But it’s going to be as close to the last time as I can make it. I won’t say never. But I will say that I’m no longer looking for ways to make mass transit work as an option. It’s a darn shame; I would much prefer the better environmental impact and the not having to drive the car. But I’m sick of being treated like a vandal when I step on the train, and I surely don’t want to pay for the experience
Cross Talk
One of the guys from DC, Peter, is a
media guru, and put together
a nice site with videos from the cross races. He did a great job, shows off some of the harder areas of cyclocross and some interviews with the guys involved. Just a little tip for those watching
- This is what I'm talking about when I blather on about our weekends
- Chris is in both, I'm in the background of the last one, but you'd have to go frame by frame to find me. (or know where I was standing with relation to Peter). Think of it as a "Wilson" moment.
- The barking dog in the background of the Ed Sander video isn't Fred, it's Austin, Fred's best cyclocross play buddy
- Peter, unknowingly, managed to interview two of the heart-throbs of the MAC - Ryan Leech who won the Charm City race, and Wes Schempf in the Ed Sander video. Both taken, ladies... Wes gave a great interview, but Ryan seemed a little tentative in his.
- Loved Andy's story in the last one of winning his race on a borrowed bike.
Greatest Headline ever
Marijuana may stave off Alzheimer'sClassic - you'll spend your younger years unable to remember the directions to your house, but then when you get into your 70s, suddenly you're the designated driver!
Not in the Habitat
This past summer, I was reading about how
Habitats for Humanity was still building houses along the gulf coast to help recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I really like Habitats for Humanity, I think their model of helping people out makes more sense than most. Rather than just a handout, they require the people they're assisting to really work for what they're getting. Good, they'll appreciate it!
Anyway, I emailed them to get details. The details were, they wanted a one week commitment. All travel expenses were on you (not a big deal with frequent flyer miles). Housing was a dorm room for $40/night. Er.... If it's a dorm room, try $10 a night. I can rough it, but I'm not paying hotel prices. If you could not commit to a whole week, they wouldn't guarantee you a place to stay. And that's the point I just stopped corresponding. Having just taken 2 weeks for the honeymoon, I knew there was no way that I could commit to a whole week.
This is where I get frustrated with a lot of charities. The reality is even without kids, I cannot make large commitments of my time. I know it can be difficult to deal with people working smaller blocks of time. I guess the question is, do you have enough volunteers with your current model? Because if the answer is no, my suggestion would be to make it easy for people to volunteer. I'm not giving you 20 hours a month. I
work during the day, I'm not going to be there from 9AM to 5PM. In a situation like Habitats, how about offering some "extended weekend" options for those who don't have the vacation for a whole week?
Give me that scepter, I'm taking over the world and straightening it out. Fer cryin' out loud...
Labels: Charities
Hating a Child Killer
Over on National Review's the Corner (yes, I realize that just stopped some of you in your tracks. Take a deep breath, and move on), John Podhoretz
posts the followingRod Dreher has written a profoundly moving post about a grandfather of one of the murdered girls at the Amish schoolhouse "instructing the young not to hate" the monster who shot up that school and tied up those girls with wire. Rod writes: "Could you do that? Could you stand over the body of a dead child and tell the young not to hate her killer? I could not. Please God, make me into the sort of man who could."
I am a modestly observant Jew, not a Christian, but I can certainly see the beauty and the moral seriousness that would follow from attempting to hew as closely as possible to Christ's example of unconditional love and forgiveness. All the same, this story disturbs me deeply — because there can be no question that anger can be as righteous as forgiveness. I'm not sure I would want to be someone who succeeded in rising above hatred of those who murder children. Does this mean that those who harbor hatred of child killers have somehow achieved a higher level of Godliness than those who succeed in banishing such hatred from their hearts? That seems to be a necessary corollary of the idea that it is heroic to "instruct the young not to hate," and that seems very wrong to me
Where I disagree with Mr Podhoretz is that I think he's confusing Anger with Hate. Anger is defined as "a strong feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism" on the Meriam-Webster site. Hate "implies an emotional aversion often coupled with enmity or malice ". But further than that, Anger can be cleansing and productive (assuming it doesn't slip into rage, in which case it's senseless and chaotic) . That antagonism towards what happened in Lancaster is appropriate and absolutely necessary. That general feeling that THIS.SHOULD.NOT.HAPPEN is what keeps it from happening (as much). It's what motivates people to try to take steps to make sure it doesn't happen.
Hate on the other hand, is the emotion that eats at the person directing it. It has an ability to slop over on those who may be innocent, but are near enough to the subject to be a target. I can understand why the grandfather would not want his children to hate the murderer. For them to carry hate, anger, and mistrust in their hearts for the rest of their lives doesn't do anything to the murderer. He's dead. Hatred is an acid that eats at the soul, and I'm sure the grandfather mentioned would not want his children feeling that burn forever and becoming secondary (tertiary?) victims of that horrible crime. Nor would you want the hatred for the murderer to affect the wife and children he left behind. They too suffered through no fault of their own.
I understand that Mr Podhoretz doesn't want a generation of sheep blissfully saying "That's ok that the wolf ate Ralph." I just think he's picked the wrong emotion to describe what's needed. Nor can I say that I would not bear hatred if someone killed my child or a friend's child. I'm with Rod. Please God, make the kind of person who could stand over a child's body and still not hate.
I have become comfortably numb
I've sorta been in a blue haze the last couple of days. Partly a combo of being tired, having a LOT of cleaning to accomplish before my parents get here in a couple of days, and just finding the news really, REALLY depressing. You'd think by my age I would have seen it all and just not cared any more, but shooting Amish just seems to be a bit more than I can handle. Oh yeah, and the firewall at work now blocks access to Youtube. So it's not like I can find any dumb videos at work to make me laugh any more.
Blah.
On the plus side, a group of us at work are starting to exercise every afternoon at 4. Which is awesome. I've not seemed to be able to move my butt out of the chair the last few weeks, but heckling will get me going. If the whole group is going to get buff, I sure as hell don't want to be the only schlub. And they've decided that instead of bringing in cake, (every freakin' week) they're going to start bringing in fruit. Suh-weet! Bring on the company softball games! Better yet, make it football, we're going to be lean, mean football machines! Maybe not. Anyway, Tues-Wed-Thurs are workout days with the group. And then throw in the cyclocross weekends, and I have high hopes for whipping in shape before I turn into a slug this winter...
The Triumph of Hope over Reason
Chris had forwarded to me an article in
Glamour by Kristen Armstrong, who used to be Lance’s wife. And I’ve spent a little while emailing with a friend of mine a bit about it. Chris also sent me
an article that was sort of a rebuttal. I read both articles and found plenty to agree with in each.
I think where I balked is that fear of “losing yourself” in a marriage. Not that it isn’t a legitimate fear. But so far in my very new marriage, I feel like I’m a lot better person in concert with my husband. It helps that I’m only a “pleaser” (as the second writer calls it) until I’m tired, I’m sick, or I just plain don’t want to any more. Putting my foot down isn’t a real issue for me. But because I want Chris to be happy, and healthy in the long term, I’ve definitely cleaned up my act. (We haven’t nacho chips and rotel dip for dinner in a really, really long time).
I found the part about Oprah saying that fear of losing herself keeps her from marriage to be…sad. If the real issue is just that she doesn’t want to get married, that’s perfectly ok. But that’s not what she said. And this comes from a woman who probably declares that we have to lose our fears and take risks to achieve the best in life. My question is, when she’s 75 years old and her very well paid minders are making sure she doesn’t fall and hurt herself, will she regret it? The risk goes both ways. Not only is there risk in doing something, there’s risk in not doing something. You may not lose capital in a savings account like you could in a mutual fund, but it could just easily disappear via inflation. You may not have to worry about losing yourself in a marriage, or surviving a cheating spouse, or divorce by staying single, but on the flip side, you don’t get the benefits of marriage either. You lose the support, the love, and the companionship of marriage. I know that if I had lost my job 6 years ago, I would have been completely screwed. But if I lost my job now, Chris is bringing in money, we have savings, and we would get by. It may be on ramen noodles in a house where the heat is set on 45, but we’d get by. When I need help of any sort, I know I can ask him, and when I want tell him something that made me laugh or made me angry, he’s there. Even if our marriage were to go down in flames (no, we’re still honeymooning, don’t even think it!), it would be worth it for the time that we are together.
I think it helps us a LOT that I’ve seen really good marriages in action. My parents just celebrated 40 years together. Recently a friend was telling me how cute it is that they still hold hands when they walk through the mall. I’ve seen them go through rough times. But I also know that now they’re happy together. Not one of my parents’ siblings is divorced, even after some really crummy things happened to them. So I know that marriage can be good and can last. Finding bad examples is easy – they’re usually louder and more dramatic than the good marriage that quietly marches on through the years. I feel really blessed to have seen the good. And so far, taking the risk is paying off.
War and Peace
It’ll be 12 quality hours of driving, racing, watching races, drinking Gatorade, snapping pix, pitting, and playing with the dog by the time we declare this Sunday complete. In other words, I could lose 10lbs by the end of cyclocross season if I just did this every day.
The day started at 6AM with me fighting off a screamin’ headache and listening to it rain. Do I want to go? I mean really how important is it if I go? Am I starting to get nauseous because of the headache or the flu? Wah. A few ibuprofen and breakfast later, and we were on the road to Buckeyestown Md. The venue was Lilypons, and Chris’s first outing was the B-race. He had a ball, moving from the back of the field. I loved watching his progression from back at the back, to finally claim a good spot in the B-race. And then he finished on the lead lap of the A-race, which is pretty impressive. That made 3 races in 25 hours.
As for me, I played with Fredly in the big grassy fields at Lilypons. The grass was his favorite height, so there was lots of running around being silly. Then I chilled in the pit with Chris’s bike during the B race and talked to Marilyn during the A-race. The most important things at a bike race for me? The pit. That’s where I spend my day. Or places I can run the dog. A+ on the latter, C- on the former. The pit was small, confusing, and for some reason people not only did not allow for room with wheels & bikes to move around, but their supporters were insistent on standing square in the middle of it. The poor official who had responsibility for it was losing his mind. But I know in the overall scheme of things, what interests me is the least important part of a bike race. It’s not something that would or should ruin anyone’s day. It’s just my interface with the course as a non-racer/support crew.
It was once again fantastic to see everyone who was at the race. Sean and Marilyn showed up with a basketball under her shirt (no, kidding, really, she’s pregnant). Fatmarc put in a killer race and pulled 2nd. in the B’s. Wes started great in the A-race, and then had a mechanical that seemed to throw him completely off. He got 4th behind an amazing sprint. I met Amy Breyla, and Marilyn’s twin Mary, and Pete who put on the cyclocross clinic that Chris helped teach with JBV Coaching. My only problem is I flake out at the races. I swear there’s so much going on that in the middle of a sentence I wander off. “So I was telling my boss…is that a butterfly?” and then I walk away. Between having to keep an eye out for oncoming dogs, making sure Fredly is doing ok on food/water, watching the races….well my brain just overloads.
Anyway...the weather? Gorgeous. And the headache? Gone.
Labels: CX, Travel
