The irony of Christmas

Yesterday I got an e-mail from a relative which linked to a video produced by the group Focus on the Family protesting the exclusion of the name Christmas from the holiday catalogs of various retailers. In my mind, removing the name of Christmas from a holiday catalog works to separate the Christian holiday celebration the birth of Jesus from the modern, secular holiday of putting up lights and buying each other presents. It seems really strange to me that a Christian group would protest the dis-association of the celebration of the birth of Jesus with a commercial holiday, given that Jesus himself opposed commerce in the house of God. What is even more odd is that those traditions are pagan to begin with. So, you have Christians opposing the separation of pagan traditions from a Christian holy day and the commercialization of the celebration of the birth of the Messiah. Personally, I think it only cheapens the divine celebration to associate it with buying a bunch of crap we don't need to give to people who don't need it, especially given all of the poverty in the world.

But, what the hell do I know? I'm just a liberal, secularist anyway.

Bang up job guys!

I hate air travel, but then so does most of America. To be fair, it's not generally the travel that I hate, it's the getting through security. Why? First off, I hate taking off my damn shoes. Never once in the history of air travel has a shoe bomb taken down an airplane. In fact, as far as we know it's only been tried once and that failed miserably. Now, I'm not against airport security, but having been to Israel I can say that the TSA and the civilians who make their regulations have their heads up their collective arses. Security in Tel Aviv: An exhaustive interview with what I am assuming is a trained military psychologist, all of my bag then went into the big x-ray and chemical detection machine, followed by everything getting the hand swab chemical detection, including taking out and powering up the laptop, blackberry, MP3 player and camera. And that's just to go to the ticket counter (no online check-in in Tel Aviv). Then it's another x-ray and metal detector, as in the US. When I got to Newark for my connection to Minneapolis the security was: take out laptop, take of shoes. Note that I was wearing Tevas. The whole shoes-off-liquids-in-a-baggie routine is so frustrating and humiliating, and it doesn't even work! What a hassle and for what? We have the most frustrating and reactive security policies in the world it's no wonder they don't work. The funny thing is, I didn't mind the higher security in Israel because I got the sense that they knew what they were doing, whereas I have no such confidence in the TSA. In fact, I wish our system were more like that in Israel. I don't think that we need to go to quite such extremes, but a few changes could make the experience so much better for everyone. And we could keep our damn shoes on.

Publicity

OK, so it's not like I'm actually named or even partially described in this article, but I'm "in" it. The writer and his accomplice participated in one of our weekly coffee rides. Which is cool. Frankly, I appreciate anyone who wants to come with and experience a little camaraderie on the bike, especially when they seem genuinely interested and can actually hold a conversation.

One complaint about the article - it sounds like a bunch of random anecdotes all strung together and doesn't really have a thesis statement and supporting arguments. My high school English teacher would probably have given it a "C" or so. At least his riding wasn't as all over the place as his writing.

In any case, the writer chatted with us for a bit after the ride and I/we gave him some info he didn't really use in the article. In fact, he didn't really mention racing, except to take a couple of shots at racers ("those high-tech bikes make you look like a NASA dork"). Frankly, I'd rather be a NASA dork than a lot of other professions.

A nasty little surprise

August 31 was the last hill ride of the year. After the Snelling hill I couldn't shift into the big chain ring. I kept adjusting the barrel stop to get it to work. It wouldn't, so I did the rest of the ride in the small ring. No biggie. I still crushed Ramsey like it was nothing. Rolling back on Summit the crank started making clicking noise, no big deal. Rolling back over the Lake St. bridge I noticed that the left pedal seemed loose. I looked down and the crank arm was at a strange angle. I wiggled my foot and the crank arm was moving. I clipped out an pulled the crank arm off. The crank arm. Pulled off. That's not supposed to happen. So I 1-pedaled it back over the bridge and called CycloFiance to pick my ass up. Took the bike to Freewheel - bottom bracket bearings got stripped out. Result of getting bumped at State RR. So, I had to get a new BB. That was fun. So, State cost me $75 for the new BB plus the entry fee, just to finish 26th. Not happy about that, but no one ever said it was a cheap sport.

A missed opportunity

Saturday, 25 August, was the MN state road race championship. While not a course that I would be projected to do particularly well on (I'm more into the long, hard climbs, not the little rollers), I was nonetheless hoping to build upon my 10th place finish at Square Lake and finish top-10 again. As I expected, the course was not particularly selective. There were a couple of hills that were tough, but mostly those were "sprint hills", i.e. the kind of hill that you can sprint up since it's not that steep or long, and when you get to the top you generally have good recovery. The first 2 laps were pretty quiet. I spent a lot of time at the front (not always on the front, but sometimes) generally out of trouble and out of the mild wind. I did chase down an attempted break, so that was fun. Birchwood had 8 guys in the field. We were by far the largest group, but bad planning, communication (pre- and during the race) and our inability to get everyone to the front prevented us from controlling the race. As it turned out, after the 2nd lap 1/2 of our guys dropped out so we only had 4 and one of those had dropped a chain and was cramping, so he wasn't any help. Still, going into the feed zone, which presented the only significant hill on the course, we had 3 in the group of 25 or so out of 41 who were still together. We did, apparently, drop some guys off of the back of the field, but going from 41 to 25 isn't much of a selection. All was well for me going up the hill, in fact I was somewhat soft-pedaling it, when I felt a thud on me left. I managed to stay upright, but it felt like I dropped an anchor. Apparently the guy on my left had started to go over, hit my rear brake with his hand and knocked the pad out of position. That caused me to feel like, well, my brake was being clamped on. So I had to get off of the bike, check to make sure everything was OK, fix the brake, and then get back on to chase. I lost about 30-40 seconds. Up the hill in the feed zone, at the bottom of which was a hard left turn, so I wouldn't even have the downhill to gain any ground back. Needless to say I chased, chased and chased until I was about 15 seconds back, but I was starting to lose it and eventually cracked after about 5 miles of chasing. I thought that I was going to be riding the last 10 miles home by myself, but I managed to catch up to 2 other guys who got dropped and rode with them, actually "sprinting" around them at the end to roll into 26th. What a crappy finish, when I should have been much farther up there.

The guy who hit me? He actually didn't go over, but managed to put a foot down and stay upright. He stayed with the pack until the finish and rolled in for 6th. After the race he found me and came up to me with his finger all bloody and asked if he could have his finger back. Ha ha. Can I have my fucking race back? If I had dropped because I was weak, OK, so be it, I can deal with that. But losing out because of a mechanical caused by someone else just doesn't sit well with me. In any case, I stayed upright and wasn't hurt at all in the race, so there's that.

Road racing season is now done in the Northland, so it's time to relax and recover for a bit until I convince myself to do cross.

Oh wait - what about the bike? Is it OK from the crash? More on that to come...

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Wonder how much your family is eating now Spree?

It's so much more fun at the front of the race

Saturday 8/11/07 - Birchwood RR, Square Lake

The 4/5 men's race started promising for the Blue train. We started with 8 in blue out of 36. Kurt and Brian Hasty had the jets on for the "neutral" start. I heard later we were rolling 24-25 mph to the start (easy there Trigger!). I couldn't tell since my computer wasn't working. Once we started the Big Diesel set a hard tempo that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the race. This race was definitely faster than some of the others this year. At Ken Woods and Durand we bunched up and no one could pass. On Sat the field was a lot more strung out and one could make a move. I was a lot smarter and aggressive this time around and managed to get to, but not on, the front early and managed to hold my position. From what I could tell the blue were all pretty close to the front and we were working well at holding our positions well and not spend too much time out in the wind, although not so much with the team work. We'll have to work on that. The first time up the Nason hill really split us up, with 13 guys making it into the group, including 3 boys in blue; Guy, Todd Sample and myself. Our little group of 13 was working pretty well together, although we weren't really rotating much, which was fine with me. I pretty much just sat in the entire time until Guy went out (keep reading). Sometime into the 2nd lap a GW rider went off of the front and his teammate did a great job of blocking for him. After the 2nd trip up Nason there was an attack and Guy managed to get away and bridge up to the GW rider, who was about 30 seconds ahead of us. At that point Todd and I joined the GW rider to block the pack where we could and pull back any attacks, although I don't want to overstate our contribution. We stayed like that until the 3rd trip up Nason when our group finally shattered and it was every man for himself. The head wind on the downhill section was fun, especially when we got to the turn and had to climb into the finish with a killer cross wind. I was thinking more of survival and finishing top 10 than finishing in the money. From what I've heard Guy managed to out-sprint the GW rider for the "W". I was cooked but still tried to catch the rider in front of me. It didn't work but I still got 10th.
In my opinion, it was a great, fast course with a lot of action and roads wide enough that one could do something. I also got a great handling test when on the 2nd time down into Marine on St. Croix (which was a quite fast descent) I managed to lock up the rear wheel and started fish tailing about 1/2 way down the hill. I thought I was going to hit the deck when I figured that all I needed to do was release the brake, straighten out, and then try to slow down for the hard right. It worked, Gott sei Dank, and I kept the rubber on the pavement. It was also fun to have neutral water support, although I've never gotten a bottle that way before and wasn't very good at it. I was smart enough to try to get a bottle early in the water zone and by the 3rd person I managed to get a good grip on one.
Anyway, 10th in that race was a pretty good day. My previous results haven't been that great (DNF, 20th, 28th in Durand, Ken Woods and Gluek, respectively), so it's nice to put in a top 10 in a 4/5 race and show that yes, I can actually ride with the 4s and do well. Now it's tune up for the state championships and then some time off for some recovery.

Oh yeah, and apparently I'm supposed to get married or something? Hmmm...

I just threw up in my mouth.

Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass what kind of a phone Karl Rove uses. The fact that he's in Minneapolis makes me sick enough (I'm looking forward to the convention!). No, it's the fact that he's got a Twins hat on his evil, evil head. Make it stop!

By the way, the Twins lost 4-0 to KC last night. Coincidence? Methinks not

Iowa - It's Not Just Fly-over Country!

So we're getting married in Cedar Rapids. I'm not opposed to this. I didn't think that we could have a fun, cool wedding outside of Minneapolis, especially in Iowa, but I think that we will. Cocktail party is going to be the style. No, it's not as cool as a mountain wedding in Colorado, but far easier on everyone. Since the theory behind the destination wedding was to reduce stress, and it was becoming a lot more stressful to have the destination wedding, we nixed the idea and you know what? I'm excited about it. The ceremony and reception will be in the art museum. Yes, they actually do have good art there. Really!

Honeymoon plans are also evolving. So far in our planning, we've been planning on Mexico, Spain/Portugal, New Zealand, Germany and the Oregon coast. Now, we're probably going to do No Cal, which should be cool. We'll have to see if we can get the vacation time, though.

Anyway, that's the wedding situation. Boring post, I know. I'll make the next one more fun.

A Tale of Two Races

Today was the Campus Crit on the U of MN campus, my first race as a cat 4 racer. I felt that I needed to post a result that would reflect my upgraded status. Finishing would not be enough. Oh no, I was hungry for more. Knowing the course was technical, not really my strongest point, I figured that I needed to be at the front and that the race wouldn't get all bunched up. I was right about that. The race could be easily divided into 2 phases, competing and surviving.

For the first 5-6 laps I managed to stay within the first 5-6 wheels, out of 30, even taking a pull on the front for about 1/2 of a lap. I should have pulled for longer. After I rotated off of the front coming out of the 180 on the front stretch I rolled into about 5th wheel, not a bad position as I could take the turns with good speed, but still be in position to attack. Well, as it happened, coming out of that 180 the guy 2 wheels in front of me, an unattached rider near as I can tell - he was wearing a Castelli jersey - lost his back wheel and went down hard, taking down the Hollywood rider in front of me. I hit the brakes and went for the only place I could, the curb, hoping to be able to jump it. I managed to get on the curb, but then I had to get back off of it. No mean feat since the curb was taped. I got past the tape and hopped back onto the course, hoping to sprint back up to the quickly disappearing pack. Most of the guys who were immediately behind me got caught up by the crash, but the last 1/4 or so of the pack could pick a line and sprinted around us, including super-strong Eli. Big Dog Chris, Jim Grell and Kurt lost the pack and couldn't stay on and pulled out at various points.

I was in full TT mode trying like hell to catch on, but after 5-6 laps by myself I was starting to get cooked. I was caught by 3 chasers, including the 2 guys who crashed and we worked for about 5 more laps, but just kept losing ground and with 6 laps to go were pulled, the pack only about 8 seconds behind us. D'OH! Although I was working hard to get back on, it was inevitable that I'd get caught and pulled. I had to bridge back a 200 or so ft. gap by myself, into a hard-charging pack. To say the field accelerated after the crash is an understatement; they smelled blood and pounced. I would have done the same, so I can't fault them for that. At least the race had a good finish. Coming out of the 180 on the final lap Eli was on the front and charging hard. He got a good gap and managed to out-sprint a hard-charge from a Flanders (I think) rider. Great work Eli, too bad none of us were there to help you out. Next time bro.

I've never been pulled from a race before, although to be fair the only crits I've done have been some Opus crits and the Hopkins crit. I'm somewhat upset about it, not because I didn't finish, but rather because I wasted a good opportunity for a good result. I felt really strong and was handling the corners well. I got to the front early and was doing a good job of holding position. The field was strung out and which is good for attacking. Normally the cat 5 races have a tendency to get bunched up and you get boxed in and can't move up unless you're willing to take a lot of risks. Of course, I am happy that I managed to avoid another crash. That's 3 for the season where the 2 guys in front of me have gone down and I've managed to keep out of it.

The War on Groundhog Day

How come you never hear anyone say Happy Groundhog Day anymore? I heard that Target and Wal-mart in an effort to foist "diversity" on us are telling all of their cashiers not to wish anyone a "Happy Groundhog Day" on Feb. 2. First, the War on Christmas, then the Wars on Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, not to mention the Wars on Ramadan and Yom Kippur. When was the last time someone wished you a Happy Yom Kippur*? My point exactly. And it's spreading. Today, at Dunn Brother's no one wished me a Happy Groundhog Day. Instead I get some bland "have a nice day". There were no special Groundhog Day-themed flavored lattes. No Groundhogs decorating the store. Nothing. It's like they don't even know it's Groundhog day. Where will these liberal secularists stop? Well, I for one will not stand for this ignominy. I am starting a boycott of all businesses that refuse to acknowledge Groundhog Day, a holiday that reflects everything that America is based on. I hope that all good Americans who are decent and love all that is pure in the genus Marmota will join me in my noble pursuit.




*I know that Yom Kippur is not a "happy" holiday. That's what makes the satire funny. Not like anyone is reading this, you know...

Take the easy road

We're thinking about Vegas for the wedding now. Bellagio or the Wynn. Head out with a crew of around 20, including parents and closest friends. I like this plan. Planning a wedding = not our style. Partying in Vegas = our style. For the family we would have receptions in Gopher and Hawkeye States for my and her family, respectively. Much more sane of an idea. Haven't spoken with parents yet, but considering that they have to pay for it, I can't imagine they'll say no.

State of the Union

No, this is not about the turdburger the President laid on the country last night. OK, except for 2 things: First, I would hope the President could be a little more creative than to just re-hash every speech he's given in the past 3 years. Secondly, the freshman Representative from the 5th district of MN, our very own Michelle Bachmann, is crazy for Jesus - and apparently Jesus can be found inside W's mouth, because that's where MB was headed. Nice. Everyone needs some lovin'.

No, that's not what I'm going to post about today. Today, I'm going to give you all (and by all I mean myself - the future Mrs. Scooter doesn't even know about this) a quick re-cap of the wedding situation.
Guest list = unknown
Venue = unknown
Date = unknown
Food/caterer = unknown
Attendants = unknown (OK, I know who they would be, I'm not going to pay some transients to be my groomsmen, although it would certainly be more convenient. No, we don't know how many we are going to have)

What do we know about the wedding? It's going to be in the fall. Unless it's not. Because we don't have a venue reserved yet. We know that we're going to do hosted beer/wine (and good stuff at that - no Natty Ice). We think we know who we're going to get for a photographer, but still unknown. We know that she's not going to by some super expensive Vera Wang dress, and I'm just going to wear a suit. So that's progress. We think we're going to do an informal buffet for dinner, but we haven't talked to a caterer. We know we're getting married up here in the Northland, although we did kick around Colorado and Arizona as possible destinations, but then we decided to nix those because there were too many people to involve. And we got the impression that it wouldn't really save us much in planning or money either. Oh well. Would have been fun.

So that's it. Not too much. This weekend we'll probably hash out some more details. Since we got engaged only on Dec. 20, 06 it's only been a little over a month. I'm sure no one ever has anything concrete in only a month of planning...

2007 World Series Champions!

Woohoo! Ramon Ortiz! From Twinsbaseball.com "The Twins added Ramon Ortiz as a starting rotation option Monday with a one-year deal. Ortiz, who went 11-16 with a 5.57 ERA for Washington last season, joins a potential rotation of Johan Santana, Boof Bonser, Carlos Silva and Sidney Ponson." I am sure that every other team in the AL, save for KC and Tampa Bay, are just shaking in their boots when presented with that rotation. Are the Twins so bored in the AL Central that they are actively trying to make it more difficult for themselves? Or do they think that Morneau and Mauer, both of whom kick serious ass, BTW, are good enough by themselves to counter the 6-run deficit that Ortiz is going to spot them? Oh, yeah, and $3.1 mill for one season. Since a baseball season is 162 games long, and a starting pitcher who doesn't miss a scheduled start or get yanked from the rotation will generally pitch 32-33 starts a season (1/5 of the team's games), that works out to around $96875/start. If he wins like he did last season, at a blistering 11/33 clip, that translates to around $280,000/win, and $193,750/loss. So, I guess that makes him a bargain, right, if a win is worth 45% more than a loss?
Of course, if Ortiz does turn out to put up decent numbers (I didn't much of Silva before, well, ever) I'll happily recant and admit I was wrong. In fact, here's a bet: If Ortiz wins more than 15 games and has an ERA under 4.00, I'll, do something really humiliating.
Since no one is reading that, I'm pretty sure I'll never have to pay up.

All the cool kids are doing it

Remember when you were a kid and your parents used to ask you (inane) rhetorical questions like "If everyone else were jumping off of a cliff, would you too"? Ugh. I hated that. As my (and presumably your) parents assumed is that the jump off of said cliff was in no way controlled, or how high the cliff was, or what you were landing on etc. Anyway, so what are all the cool kids doing now? Apparently blogging and getting married. So, now I am too. Cliff metaphor? Way too apt.

OK, let me say that my fiance is a wonderful woman whom I love very much. And guess what? I've jumped off of cliffs before (always into a lake or river), because everyone else was doing it, and I lived. In fact, I enjoyed the fall. Landing, not so much.

So what's my point? I'm getting married. Date: unknown. Venue: unknown. # of guests: unknown (hopefully not more than 150...). Food/beverage: unknown. I stepped off of the cliff about a month ago, not knowing how far I would go into the abyss, and only hoping that the landing (i.e. the wedding) doesn't hurt too much. If there is one thing that I remember from cliff jumping, it's that as long as you do it right, it doesn't hurt. Do a belly flop from 50 ft up? Doesn't feel good. I'm hoping the wedding is a graceful swan dive. You're invited to come along for the fall and, if I don't get too lazy and quit on this blog thingy, the landing. Oh yeah, and there'll be plenty of other diversions along way. Because I have a short attention span and this is still shiny. OK, not literally, but you know what I mean.