Just Another Fad

The past couple of weeks I've noticed a shift in the Blog-o-Sphere, people are beginning to abandon this pseudo-anonymous world of self delineation in the online universe. I don't read alot of blogs, I have a handful of interesting ones maintained by people who I find interesting and with whom I share similar interests. But I've noticed lately that out of that handful, maybe 5 or 6 regulars, one has abandoned blogging all together and taken down their site and another has simply stopped posting. The remainder don't seem to update as often and have either 1) lost lost interest, 2) finally realized they have less time to post, 3) there is actually nothing blog worthy going on in their lives, or 4) a combination of all three.

Personally, I fall into #3. As I sit here, I realize that a week has passed since I last posted and there was nothing all that interesting to post. Sure, there were things that happened this week that were relevant and will have a long term impact on my life, but it's not something I would share here. Some things are just too personal. I don't know who, if anyone even reads this blog and really I don't even care. I post what I want when I feel like it and that's that. Blogging is a love it or leave it deal in my opinion, this place is for me, not you and I'll do with it as I like.

Time to go ride.

To New Beginnings

Last night was the first annual ABRT/Latitude team party. We held at Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar in SE D.C., it's owned by Eli Hengst of the Rockville Harley team so if you're ever in DC near Capital Hill, stop in the food is great.

Even though this club is 20 years old, I say first annual because after all of those years of continued sponsorship from Snow Valley Water, our relationship ended at the end of '06 leaving us to find a new title sponsor. On the up side it has provided a new beginning for the club, really it as been more of a revitalization. Arch also saw it as an opportunity to step down as president after 14 years of service. It was nice to see everyone come out, I think this year will be special. The Rite Aid guys also joined us which was pretty cool, got to hangout and meet them. The Rite Aid pro team was born out of the Team Snow Valley elite program and this year I think they have the firepower to make some real noise on the NCR circuit.

Gina and I got the opportunity to host a couple of the guys for the night as everyone of the team stayed in town to do a ride with us at Davidsonville. We had Ian Ayers who came over from Colavita, Bill Elliston who rode for TargetTraining and Clayton Barrows who rode for an Italian/British continental team in Europe. All really cool guys, Ian's got alot of energy, oh what it would be like to be 24 again.

Although a much better weather day than yesterday, it was still a chilly morning, in the 20's. We got up early and hung out for a while chatting over coffee before they headed off to a team breakfast. I passed up the option of diner food and prepared my usual pre-ride stack of chocolate chip pancakes, I call them calorie cakes, especially after drenching them in Kings syrup.

Everyone trying to figure out what to wear, would it actually warmup any today?













Got a little captain in you?

BB checking to see if we were going to get snowed on. It started 5 minutes after finishing the ride.










Letting the fast guys do all the work.

Hey, you guys wanna be my lead outs?

Where's Your Biker Gang?

I'm not saying I know anything about this, but...

this jackass ran a stop sign making a left turn almost hitting a couple of riders already through the intersection then slammed on his brakes in an attempt to have the rest of the group slam into the back of his piece of shit Scion. Whether a punch was thrown, I didn't see nuthin'

http://www.somd.com/news/headlines/2007/5212.shtml

Kinda funny how the AA police couldn't find a group of 50 cyclists riding 20mph.

4 Degrees

Right now that's the difference between being freezing and 40 degrees outside, the latter being more mentally motivating to go out and ride in. As I sit here dressed for the first time since probably last March in leg warmers and a heavy winter jacket staring out the window at the last few remaining leaves shaking on the tree limbs in the steady breeze, I glance down at a fresh pound of coffee beans just ripe for brewing and imagine just kicking back with another hot cup of coffee and enjoying a "slow" day.

This is where that motivation comes into play. I have yet to sit down and make my plan for the season and set my goals as alot of people are doing this time of year. I told myself at the end of 'cross that I would just ride for a month or so and just enjoy the bike, free of structured workouts and training goals. What I've found in that time is that I crave that structure and I miss it because my riding has purpose and I can expect results, but I have to step back and remember there is plenty of time for that and to just enjoy riding for the sake of riding. I think we forget that sometimes and that's when we burn out.

Death of a Salesman

No this post isn't about Willy Loman and it's taken like 2 days to finish as I'm so spent and am stuck between time zones.

I returned from our sales conference in San Diego and I feel like hell. I slept like a rock Thursday night and then proceeded to sleep most of Friday afternoon. This is the second one of these little shindigs I've attended since entering the sales profession. The first was with my former company 2 years ago, they held it in Baltimore, you can imagine the excitement? This year was definitely different. In most part because of the culture this company has. It's amazing the difference there is between working for a fortune 50 company with 120,000 employees and one that is privately held with less than a 1,000.

An important fact about sales people, they drink, ALOT. I guess it just comes with the territory. How else are you expected to get a customer to cough up their money to you? And seeing as they play golf, who wouldn't hit the bottle after chasing a little ball around for hours, that you hit? Being that my employer is based in St. Louis, well you get the picture. These guys like to party, can you say Bloody Marys at 8:30am during the keynote speaker?

I managed to muster up one good night of over indulgence. Imagine 100 sales people descending upon a single bar with an open tab. Maker's Mark and Ginger Ale or 7&7 was the poison of choice. I find it easier to pace myself with the hard stuff and the hangover isn't as bad, no worrying about the cleanliness of a bar's tap lines.

Fortunately Wednesday was a rest day of sorts. Some people went off to a golf outing while the rest of us were free to roam San Diego as we pleased. A group of us chose to hit the zoo. After the best meal of chicken enchiladas at a restaurant in the museum at Balboa Park we made our way into the zoo which I've been told is one of the best in the country. The zoo is nice, but confusing as hell. I don't know how many times we went through the monkey exhibit. Unfortunately most of the animals must not have been happy with the weather and refused to go outside, that or they're Union.











On Thursday Gina found a pair of Boxers running around our neighborhood, she ended up taking them to animal control which is right up the street. When we got up Friday she called to see if anyone had called about them. Since no one had called, we decided to go over and visit them. They were more than happy to have someone to play with. Fortunately while we were in the room playing with them, the owner walked in and saw us. He just moved to the area and when he let them out they took off on him. Too bad, I think Boulder would have loved a new brother and sister.
Last night Gina, Chip and I had dinner and went to see Children of Men. An ok flick, I knew what to expect but I was looking for a bit more closure on the ending. British trying to be melodramatic. The best part of the movie was the camera work.

I managed to drag my ass out of bed this morning and head down to Davidsonville. I was hoping the weather would dampen everyone's mood to push the pace, no luck. The group was shattered after the first 45 minutes. My week of sloth and gluttony was definitely dragging me down although I managed to hang on. Right now I have the biggest dehydration headache, need water.

Coincidence?

I truly believe that sometimes things happen for a reason and that events in our life are governed by something outside of our control. Some call it fate, others their faith. I'm not going into the details of personal beliefs here.

Now to my point. My last post I went on about the eventual demise of our civilization at our own hands for the sake of profit. When I posted that I had a bunch of unread emails sitting in my inbox. Several of them from my friend Arch. Arch is a wise man but he usually sends me jokes and the like so I didn't open his email until tonight, and for what reason I don't know (maybe that I'm bored out of my mind sitting in a hotel room), but I almost shit myself when I went to the link he had forwarded in the email.

I'm not promoting this or have even bought into it myself as I haven't yet read the entire site. All I'm saying is, is this just a coincidence?

http://www.terrapass.com/about/index.html

Something to Gnaw On

Is global warming real you ask? Just step outside jackass and tell me the last time it was 75 degrees in Baltimore on January 6th. While we're all outside enjoying this freakish weather, think about this...

A 41 mile long piece of the polar ice cap just broke away. The entire coast line of Rhode Island is only 40 miles. Fuck warring over oil, along with all of the pollution contaminating our fresh water supplies, as stupid as the movie Water World was (remember that gem? Kevin Costner the flipper action-hero), that shit is about to become reality. It's already started, states like Colorado stemming the flow of water to the desert, Oh No! The Belagio can't have the most awesome water display in Vegas. And Canada wanting to stem the flow of fresh water into the U.S. while the poor Japanese want to send barges to the arctic to bring back chunks of ice for fresh water.

The thing I hate the most is feeling so helpless to do anything about it. Yes, there are grassroots efforts to save the environment, I contribute every year to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, but they're kept in check by the big money only be allowed to make a good showing while not stifling the economy. The amazing thing is, the Bush administration and the brain donors put in charge at the EPA (former CEO of a big Chemical polluter, I mean company) have found a way for businesses to make money off of polluting by selling, uhm "trading" their carbon emissions units to companies who need to pollute more than their allocated lot of C02. Brilliant!

I'd better stop because I'm going start rambling, but you get the point.

Anyway, one last thing to contemplate before jumping on your bike for a long ride, Maryland has 10 times the carcinogenic toxins found in the air than is deemed safe by the EPA, and we know they're not setting the bar very high to begin with. And don't think you're safe because you live out in Garrett county or some other remote neck of the woods because that's for all 23 counties in the state.

Check It Out

Just released today, about 2 weeks early was the second single, Kingdom of Doom from The Good, The Bad and The Queen. Straight from the UK with an incredible line up, the full album should be the best thing to come from across the pond since The Clash's London Calling.

Helps that the Clash's former bass player Paul Simonon is in the band.

A Dog's Life

Dreaming about rabbits and squirrels...That warm patch of sun to warm your head with...