'Cross Update

I said I'd let you know how the next few 'cross races went and if I had been bitten by the bug yet... My second race was a total disaster. We showed up 15 minutes before my start time and I barely had enough time to get dressed, let alone warm up. Not a good idea... I ended up 13th out of 14. Not an encouraging result. Worse is that I truly hated it. I was shouting curses through one part of the course (apparently that didn't go over too well because I'm still hearing about it - you know there are little kids out there) but I did finish and can say I'm 13th in the state of Washington in the Cat 4 group. Like I said, not a great result.

This last race was a whole other story. The course was a bike handlers dream and those with out the skills really struggled. I, however, actually managed to have a good time. Cutting girls off in the bermed turns and choosing the inside lines instead of the outside lines to make quick work of the twisty course was a lot of fun. I didn't feel like I was going to die the whole time and since I skipped breakfast, I didn't feel like throwing up for the first 2 laps. All in all, a pretty good race. Not to mention I came in 5th place out of almost 30 girls. A better result... Of course it's 5th place in the Cat 4's. Certainly nothing to write home about.

There are only 2 more races we have planned to attend, so the season will be over before I have the chance to completely fall head over heels for 'cross. From here we get to start thinking about the mountain bike season. Fun.

SSCXWC

A crazy day at the raceway... Portland shows again how to put on a 'cross race. A good time was had by all. I'm sure the free flowing PBR sponsored by The Bike Gallery helped. No tally yet on how many kegs were emptied, but the beer delivery guy was busy all day. The Foam Pit, courtesy of the Yakima Gang, was way too much fun; probably more for the spectators than the riders...

Rough(beer)garden battles the killer windmill and wins... this lap...

Speed Suit. Speed Dog

I'm a Little Cross

I have a bad habit of trying new things. When I turned 30, I decided I'd try racing mountain bikes. It was great and I have spent almost every summer since then racing my mt. bike.

Sunday was my first ever cyclocross race. 30 minutes of sprinting in the mud. It rained and it was cold and we were all a mess. Doc asked me if I had a great time. I think my response was something like, "It was miserable." Then he asked me again... I changed my response this time to, "Yeah! It was the best thing ever." It wasn't. Not by a long shot.

I have to wonder about people who LOVE 'cross. Here are the things I've come up with so far that is wrong with this silly discipline:

1. If I wanted to go to the park, I'd leave my bike in the car.
2. Freezing to death is not my first choice in ways to expire.
3. Getting off the bike and running is silly.
4. 30 minute race? Why bother?
5. Slogging through 4 inches of mud for 1/4 mile is no way to spend a nice Sunday.
6. Spraying the mud off your legs and backside with a cold hose after the race is truly awful.

I'm sure there's more... Perhaps I will list them next time.

OK! Yes, there will be a next time. I never said I was done racing 'cross. I just said it was silly.

Blue

I do a lot of driving and with this being election season, I've had the opportunity to look at a lot of campaign signs. Yard signs, billboards, bus signs, etc. If it has a flat side, chances are it has a campaign slogan or name on it. It suddenly occurred to me that, for the most part the, Republican's are using the blue usually reserved for the Democrats. Honestly folks, there's not a whole lot of red going on out there, which seems a little off. Even the McCain/Palin signs are blue and are terribly hard to read to boot. Who ever hired their marketing firm should be fired.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say the Republicans actually have no interest in winning this election. Aren't they proud of their red(neck)ness? I suppose the argument could be made for wanting to distance themselves from the current administration, but I can think of a lot of other ways, like not sucking, to do that.

Democrats, get the blue back.

It's All Clear Now

This morning we have had at least 2 birds fly into the front window of the house. The first one hit really hard and it was a mildly surprising while in the process of waking up.

What the heck?? I haven't even used any window cleaner on that window. These birds are driving the dog nuts with all the thunking on the window.

I Need a Bailout

I figure I need to chime in on the economic crisis thing... I think maybe we should be outraged. We should probably be outraged about a lot of things but this seems like something we should be really up in arms about. Let's recap... Ok, so someone gets this bright idea. Let's give everybody mortgages they can't afford and while we're at it, let's get them neck deep in credit card debt with outrageous APR's and lines of equity based on the worth of their property that they have no business having in the first place. Let's tell them it's all good and they don't really need to worry about that balloon payment or the highly inflated interest rates that will kick in in 3 or 5 years. We'll make a lot of money... in fact we'll be rolling in it. Not just rolling but bathing in it. We'll have so much money, we'll use it to wipe our butts because we just have that much.

I don't know who these people are and I don't where they are right now, but I think they are laughing a big hearty laugh. Ohh, one little problem... now the banks don't have enough liquid assets to cover all the foreclosed property. They never wanted that property, they wanted the interest off it. But since the whole country is in deep debt from trying to stay afloat while being pushed under by APR's, medical bills, credit card payments and geeze, I don't know, maybe food bills, people simply aren't paying all that interest. When push comes to shove, food trumps the credit card bill every time.

So the government has to do something to keep the whole shit-wad going. Yeah, $700 billion ought to do it. What? We don't have $700 billion? Well, then just print some more money. There. Fixed.

Riiiiiggghtttt.

I'm all for helping out "Slow Joe" next door. He got suckered into his mortgage by the schmuck down at the bank. He did not do his homework and he was not being smart when he sign those papers, but does that make it right for the bank to get him in so deep? If that $700 billion were going to pay off all those crappy loans so the general public could keep their houses, I'd say fine. Do it. Print more money. In fact, print all you need to make it work.

However, I am highly opposed to corporate well fare. Bailing these guy's out every time one of their evil schemes goes awry is getting old. It's always under the banner of "It's what's best for the American Public". Boooring... Can't they just say, "Well guy's, they screwed us again. We have to help them out because they pay our salary in kickbacks through the lobbyists and we owe them big because they are going to hire us to go on a speaking tour for ungodly amounts of money when we retire from office and don't forget, we need to help them because we are going to find some loop hole in the law to take a lot of money from them for passing laws that screw with the environment and undermine the lowest paid workers so they can save a few bucks here and there." It's going to be rad.

Can't we just get them a bucket and let them do the bailing?

Amazon, Leave Me Alone. Please.

I'd like to rant a little about company's who send email you don't want... I got one this morning for amazonfresh.com. You know, delivery grocery service. So I click the unsubscribe link and it takes me to a new web page where I have to click another link and then hit the "confirm changes" button. As if it were the end of the world if I accidently unsigned up for their stupid emails, which by the way, I never signed up for in the first place. But get this, the last message in the process is that they will send me an email confirming that I have unsubscribed to their offer of sending special promotions to me by email... un-freaking-believable. I think I just told them I don't want anymore emails. I currently have something like 1650 messages in my in-box. If they had a special offer to send some one over to file and organize all my emails, I might take them up on that!

How It's Made

Watching TV the night before last, I caught an episode of "How It's Made". You know, that goofy Canadian show on the Discovery Channel with really cheesy background music and the commentator who sounds like he's on Valium? They take 3 or 4 things and show the process of manufacturing those items.

Needless to say, I forgot all about the Olympic coverage when I heard, "In this show, we will see how robotic arms, tattoos, feminine pads and concrete pipes are made."

Enough said.

Eat the Fruit!

This last weekend was the Cascade Cream Puff. What is it, you ask? 100 mile mountain bike race on some really fantastic trails in central Oregon. We went. I rode 85 of those 100 miles before I decided to save my knees. I don't really think I've ever been that far on a mountain bike in one day before. I was in the saddle for 12 1/2 hours and felt really great for about 9 of those hours. Yeah, I suffered, but not too bad and I'm actually considering doing it again. The watermelon at the aid stations saved me from myself. At some points of the day, it was all I could think about and what eventually got me to the next check point. Not too much to write about just yet. I'm still processing the whole day and waiting for my legs to stop hurting. They are a little sore to say the least.

Race Update

3rd out of 19... not too shabby.

Oh Happy Day

There was warm sunshine in Leavenworth this weekend. After several cold, really wet and totally miserable days here in Kirkland, the blue skies were a welcome change. Why were we in Leavenworth, you ask? For my first mountain bike race in more than 2 years. This weekend was the Bavarian Bikes and Brews Festival and it's one of my favorite places to race mountain bikes. In an effort to get prepared for the Cascade Cream Puff, NB signed me up for this race on the east side of the mountains. Thanks NB! It was to be C & NB's first mt. bike race ever and they peppered me with questions for most of the 2 hour drive out there. C wasn't feeling good and there was some question as to whether she would start. NB, however, had every intention of kicking some butt and I was just hoping to get the first race under my belt and not be the last one off the course.

We got there the evening before and had just enough time to set our camp up in an organic strawberry patch and head out to pre ride the course. I had forgotten how much fun Freund Canyon is! 4 miles up on some fire road and single track. Just when you think you can't take anymore, you reach the top and start the descent. What a descent it is! 4 miles of bomber, no brakes required, balls out adrenaline pumping fun. It's so fun in fact that when you get to the bottom, you get total amnesia and suddenly become willing to drag yourself back up the 4 mile climb just so you can come down one more time.

Strangely, I wasn't at all nervous for this race. In the past, I got so nervous before each race that it was hard to eat breakfast without throwing up. It only hit me moments before we headed to the start. I told NB I didn't really want to race today and he called me a 'total wuss' and firmly stated I was going to the start with him. And so it was...

Apparently NB missed his start by about 40 seconds as he was far back in the mob waiting for instructions on the coming to the start line. He had to push his way through the mass and chase to catch the group. I guess he caught the lead group as the fire road turned to single track.

The girls went off a few minutes later and it was a different start than I remember in previous years. The starts used to be so fast and I would go into oxygen deprivation just trying to stay upright on the bike for the first quarter mile. I'd watch everyone ride past me and I'd have to concentrate on finding a pace I could manage. Eventually most of the group would slow down and I'd start passing girls on the down hill and technical sections, picking them them off one by one. The longer races were better because I had more time to move up into the lead pack. This race was different. They sent us out and no one rushed to the front. In fact, I was sitting second position for a lot of the climb. Weird. A couple of girls did come through which is fine because I knew if I kept them close, I'd have no problem catching them going down. Which is kind of how it worked itself out.

Finally at the top, I prepared for the descent. It was hard to get relaxed enough to let the trail flow. After flying sideways into a swooping washboard right hand turn and hearing a group of spectators yelling "yaaaayyyyy! Did you see that????" and then remind me to relax and have fun, I wondered what the heck I'd been thinking these last 2 years. Racing is fun...

I knew I still had another lap to complete and I settled into rhythm of the trail. Even the down section was eventful with trying to get past other slow-poke racers, running over a lizard which I thought was a flat tire, seeing a guy who'd crashed and looked to be in really bad shape, and passing NB who'd flatted at the top of the hill and had not packed a spare tube into his pocket (apparently this bit of info was assumed on my part. I mean who mt bikes without tools and a spare tube?) Anyway, I got near the bottom of the first lap and suddenly was stuck behind this girl who would not let me through. She was on her brakes the whole time and all I could think was "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" She finally did just as we ripped out of the trees and back onto the fire road to start the second lap. I was relieved to see a few more of the girls right in front of me.

We headed back up the hill trading places and I put the bike in an easy spinning gear trying to save enough energy so as to not completely blow up before getting to the top. After all, this was a training race. The second lap was hard and I tried taking my mind off my legs by listing animals you would find in Alaska... bears, caribou, geese, eagles... that worked for a little while and got me to the top. The guy at the water station yelled "It's all down from here! GO!"

And I went. This time much more relaxed and way faster than the previous lap. But the slow girl was in front of me again... sigh... I asked her to move aside when it was safe so I could come through. She decided she wanted to talk about it and asked, "When do you want to come by?" "Now!" was all I could come up with. She still wouldn't slow up to let me through and I finally blasted past her when the trail opened up a little. The medics were taking the injured dude down on a backboard. He was strapped down with an oxygen mask on and completely bundled up in a blanket and neck brace. It didn't look good. I hope he is alright. I was then stuck behind a guy who was going pretty good and I kept thinking I should try to get past him but he was going really fast in the straight sections and only slowing a little in the turns. I decided I probably wasn't going to catch anyone else before the bottom so I just hung out behind him. We came off the trail and sprinted for the finish, although it wasn't quite wide enough for me to get past him.

That was it... the dude I had come down with stopped long enough to congratulate me on a fine sprint to the finish. As I was waiting for C & NB to come meet me, the slow girl came through the finish. I apologized for being so aggressive with her out there and all she could say was, "Wow! You are really fast going down. I mean, really fast."

We left before they posted the results, but it doesn't matter much. I had a great time and I'm relieved to know the first race is over. Now onto bigger and better things...

Bring on the Famdamily

This weekend is the much awaited uBRDO grand opening party. Everyone is in town for the event and it's going to be interesting to say the least. After 9 years the 2 Dad's are going to be in the same place at the same time. These 2 are about as different as cats and dogs... I'm sure everyone will behave themselves, but I wouldn't at all be surprised if one of the Mom's sparks some conflict 'cause she thinks it will be funny to watch them fight. What will it be? Politics? Religion? Environment? Immigration? Not being biased or anything, my Dad just happens to know mostly everything about everything. There's really no use in trying to argue with him because his competency in all these subjects is mind boggling to say the least. Case in point: He can trace the current debt crisis in this country back to the middle ages, making points as to who changed what along the way and what conditions triggered particular schools of thought, why they stuck, and how it all got modernized. See? Mind boggling.

Both these guy's are wonderful people, if not a little whacked in their own special way. It will be fun for them to commiserate about mustaches gone by and... well, that's probably all they have in common besides their kids.

Puna Vika! a.k.a. Miss Barks-a-lot

Our new puppy! She is a 9 month old rescue and she is so sweet, smart, and strong! We learned yesterday she barks a lot and really loud. The rescue people failed to mention that fact when they were deciding if we'd be a good match for her. She loves ice cubes and is now starting to calm down since we got her a few toys to play with. She requires a firm hand but is great on a leash if no one else is around. As soon as there are people or other dogs, she goes crazy. It's going to take some time to get her trained to handle all the goings-on in the shop but we have no doubt she will be a wonderful shop dog.

Vika is showing some good search & rescue traits as well. She likes to sniff everything, is very attentive, and learns fast. Last night we were tossing some toys around the yard and at first she liked playing the keep away game until she figured out I wouldn't come and get the toy from her. It then became much more fun to actually bring the toy to me. See? Fast learner.

What To DO?

These people are moving into a new house. Don’t worry, you don’t know them. They are excited as they now get to get a dog, not have to deal with the daily disappointments of apartment life and get to enjoy a great yard. It’s an old house presumably with problems that commonly plague old houses like plumbing issues, mildew, and appliances that have seen better days. Even so, they are gung-ho to give it a go.

The first week they move in a foreclosure notice shows up on the front door. The landlord is contacted and a meeting is set up to discuss the situation. It turns out she is a victim of fraud and all the equity in her property had been pilfered out right under her nose by an ex-boyfriend with the help of his local Posse. The bank is aware of the situation but the lending side of the bank is having a hard time communicating with the fraud branch. Apparently it is being sorted out. Not to worry… Lawyers are involved.

Only, the story goes on… The ex-boyfriend is currently in jail for violating a restraining order and is due to get out anytime now. The landlady will be disappearing for a while during this time due to the fact that this nut-job has made several attempts on her life, raped her best friend, and apparently was involved in giving another one of her friends brain cancer (he survived but just barely) after threatening his life. The nut-job apparently works for the Gov’t in the capacity of undercover agent able to pull off plenty of unsavory deeds with no repercussions for his actions. He’s above the law, or below it as the case may be. The local cops are involved and looking out for her and everyone in town supposedly knows what’s going on.

The question is: Do these new tenants stick it out to see how things go down? Deal with the funky old house that has great light, is super quiet, and will put up with a new puppy? Or do they get out of Dodge ASAP? Is the possibility of living inside a freaky psycho thriller movie worth all that quiet?