I think I need to write more. I had a paper due in one of my grad classes and the act of just getting it going was tough. That’s usually not the case when I spend just a little bit of time each day filling in the 4 relatives of mine who read this thing on what’s going on inside my brain. If you’re reading this, you realize this place is mostly used for commentary and filled with grammatical and spelling errors, but if nothing else, it helps to keep that side, whichever side it actually is, of my brain working when it’s actually needed for class.
There’s another cycling blog I frequent, http://www.theservicecourse.com/ where the guy (who happens to live just blocks from me in Alexandria but we don’t know each other, but maybe we should) ends each of his posts with a section called the “Broomwagon.” For those of you not in the know, the broomwagon is the car that follows a bike race and when riders abandon, they are swept up in the broomwagon. Or, rather, they get into the thing and generally slump down and try to stay out of direct sight of the fans who are going to try and figure out who dropped out. At the 2009 Tour of California I saw Freddy Rogriguez in the broomwagon on the last stage but he clearly didn’t care about being seen as he was waving cheerfully, probably happy to not have to climb Cole Grade outside of San Diego. But, I digress. I bring up this idea of the broomwagon simply to give myself an outlet to write about things I’m thinking about if they wouldn’t make an entire post on their own. And, with that in mind, here we go:
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I watched the State of Union last night and wasn’t entirely sure what to think. I’ve always been a big believer in the saying “Actions speak louder than words” so when politicians cut into network programming to speak, I generally take whatever they say with a grain of salt. One commentator summed up the speech by comparing it to cotton candy, it sweet but doesn’t fill you up. I think that’s probably about right, but, to be fair, what’s he supposed to say? People who listen to these speeches and then get all fired up from the promises of the president are probably the same people who get really disappointed when all of the change that Obama ran on hasn’t quite made its way into reality yet.
To me, the most telling piece of that speech had nothing to do with what Obama had to say. It was the democrats and republicans sitting with each other as opposed to across the isle. Hopefully, this is the first step to a government where cooperation and compromise start to enact change. For as long as I can remember it’s always appeared to me that the reason our government doesn’t get much accomplished is because the biggest issue isn’t the issues at all. It’s the power struggle between the democrats and republicans who instead of compromising, filibuster and sabotage any bill from the other party. Maybe America is finally sick of this behavior and government is taking note. Maybe we’ve finally elected some officials who are tired of not actually accomplishing anything in this old style. Whatever the case is, I’m encouraged for the first time in a long time, but, we’ll see what happens…
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This commuting by bike thing has been working out. Today the weather was a beautiful 36 degrees, wind chill somewhere in the high 20s with a mix of drizzle and sleet. At first it was just drizzly, which is no big deal but then about ¼ of the way to work it turned into sleet which, without sugar coating it, sucks. However, somewhere along the way I started smiling and really enjoying the ride in. My fingers were freezing off and my face but the exfoliation of the sleet on my face has got to be great for my complexion. But, the reason I started smiling is because I remember the last time I was on the Fondriest and found myself riding through upper 30 degree weather in sleet (well, that time it was actually big pieces of hail).
It was on my bike trip and I was leaving Show Low, Arizona and crossing into New Mexico heading to a tiny little town called Quemada. It had rained the entire previous day and through the night but when I woke up that morning I could see that the storm had moved off to the east in the direction I was going. The roads were damp but for the first 4 hours of that day I had completely clear skies and temps around 70. At this point my trip I was really starting to struggle with being lonely and just wanting it to be over so this clear day was turning out to be pretty great.
As I followed the storm up ahead I could sort of tell that I was catching it but I was hoping that maybe I wouldn’t. About 20 miles from Quemada it suddenly got really dark and really cold and I knew my luck had run out. This stretch of country is high desert at about 6,000’ of elevation and there were no trees or anything taller than me on a steel bicycle in sight. So, when the first bolt of lighting hit the ground I started to get a little nervous. It of course started to rain but with no place to take shelter I kept on pedaling because I figured I didn’t have any better option. As more lighting struck in places that seemed a bit too close for comfort and the thunder boomed loud enough to actually vibrate me and the bike, I peddled faster. The sudden drop in temperature wasn’t helping matters and I was starting to shiver and lose feeling in my hands. When the rain turned to hail I started to curse and even I was a little surprised I had kept in until that point. The occasional car would drive by and optimistically I would stick out my thumb. Not that any of these cars or trucks were obligated to pick up some weirdo riding through a hail storm on a bike pulling a trailer, but I would curse at their taillights all the same.
After what seemed like forever but was probably 15 minutes of surviving the hailstorm a white extended cab pickup truck pulling a trailer pulled over in front of me. As I approached the driver was already out of his truck to stop me, took my bike and trailer and put them in his trailer and told me to get in. When I got into the truck his wife handed me a quilt and I saw on their digital thermometer in the rear view mirror that it was 34 degrees. It took a while before I stopped shivering enough to actually tell them where I was going and why. They were nice enough to drive me the remaining 10 or so miles into Quemada and drop me off at a service station where I could get some coffee and call the family I was staying with. I have no idea who those people were but I wish I did so I could send them a Christmas card/thank you note every single year.
I’m sure if they hadn’t stopped I would have made it into Quemada just like I made it to work this morning but it wouldn’t have been pleasant and that’s why I was probably the only cyclist commuting to work this morning with a smile on my face. This beautiful January morning reminded me of another ride and the kindness of strangers.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
BCS Championship Game Recap in 10 pts or less.
This should be quick.
Last night I watched what must have been the worst national title game I've seen. And, by the reaction to sports fans that I follow on twitter and facebook, I'm not alone in this observation.
Here's what I took away from it:
1) Dear SEC everyone, stop talking about how f'in great you are. If you were so good you would have destroyed the Oregon team from the weak Pac-10. Instead, what we saw, were two teams that were probably just about evenly matched play a pretty crappy football game. They both had a seemingly infinite amount of time to prepare for each other and were able to pretty much contain the other's offense.
2) Chip Kelly is insane with play calling, both good and bad. He goes from looking like a genius with huge balls on his 2 pt conversion and fake punt that both work, to, in my opinion, three to four terrible play calls in a row on the goal line.
3) Great athletes don't make great [name sport or position] players. Cam Newton is an incredible athlete but he's just an ok quarterback and that seemed obvious.
4) What was up with the field? It's the biggest game of the year and you have some turf down that guys are slipping and sliding all over? Good job Fiesta bowl.
5) It's easy to say retroactively that someone should have taken the points instead of getting stuffed on 4th and goal, but when you lose the game by 3, you gotta sort of wonder what Chip Kelly was thinking? I know you run a razzle dazzle offense with like 80,000 option reads and all, but you're really going to just leave points on the field because you think you can score 50 in the second half?
6) Farley, the DT for Auburn should have been the MVP.
7) Oregon's socks were ridiculous. Their helmets were worse. I sort of love that they have absolutely no desire to conform to any of the norms about a uniform. It's obviously that Nike is a big fan of that fact as well.
8) TCU would have beat either of those teams.
9) So would Wisconsin.
Last night I watched what must have been the worst national title game I've seen. And, by the reaction to sports fans that I follow on twitter and facebook, I'm not alone in this observation.
Here's what I took away from it:
1) Dear SEC everyone, stop talking about how f'in great you are. If you were so good you would have destroyed the Oregon team from the weak Pac-10. Instead, what we saw, were two teams that were probably just about evenly matched play a pretty crappy football game. They both had a seemingly infinite amount of time to prepare for each other and were able to pretty much contain the other's offense.
2) Chip Kelly is insane with play calling, both good and bad. He goes from looking like a genius with huge balls on his 2 pt conversion and fake punt that both work, to, in my opinion, three to four terrible play calls in a row on the goal line.
3) Great athletes don't make great [name sport or position] players. Cam Newton is an incredible athlete but he's just an ok quarterback and that seemed obvious.
4) What was up with the field? It's the biggest game of the year and you have some turf down that guys are slipping and sliding all over? Good job Fiesta bowl.
5) It's easy to say retroactively that someone should have taken the points instead of getting stuffed on 4th and goal, but when you lose the game by 3, you gotta sort of wonder what Chip Kelly was thinking? I know you run a razzle dazzle offense with like 80,000 option reads and all, but you're really going to just leave points on the field because you think you can score 50 in the second half?
6) Farley, the DT for Auburn should have been the MVP.
7) Oregon's socks were ridiculous. Their helmets were worse. I sort of love that they have absolutely no desire to conform to any of the norms about a uniform. It's obviously that Nike is a big fan of that fact as well.
8) TCU would have beat either of those teams.
9) So would Wisconsin.
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