leaves and papers

So I was sweeping the leaves from the breezeway in front of our bloc of apartments.  4 apartments in a row – 2077, 2079, 2081 and 2083.  2077 is closest to the street (Crazy Dorothy) and I’m in 2079.  Anyway, there’s a big tree right between 2077 and 2079 and it’s constantly dropping leaves.  I felt like sweeping them off the way – why not – water the flowers then sweep the leaves.  So I was sweeping the leaves and came to dorothy’s place.  I swept the breezeway, but didn’t sweep her stoop – thought she might have an aneurism and go demento on me.  So that was like a 5 minute deal, but just then my other neighbor Nicole (2081) came up the breezeway and we talked for a couple minutes about our landlord’s decision (just on Monday) to install a centralized mailbox unit with locks on each apt’s mailbox.  (we’ve all got little mailboxes next to each of our doors, but they don’t have locks, so apparently they’re not secure enough…)  anyway – talk, talk, talk, and that’s that.  Go inside and not a second after I get in do I hear “click, squeeeeak, sweep, rustle, sweep, rustle, sweep, rustle, slam!  Click!”  i come back out to put some soil/mulch around a little hibiscus plant, and what do I see?  Yeah, Dorothy pretty much hates me, so she swept the leaves that I had swept onto the dirt back onto the breezeway in front of her apt.  that’s awesome.  she didn’t sweep any in front of my apt, so that’s cool, except that the way the ocean breeze blows, the leaves in front of her door will simply end up in front of my door.  Yeah, awesome.  and you know she was counting the seconds from the time I swept near her apt to the time she could get out there and ‘set it straight’.

But then again, maybe it was just the zen in her coming out…  you see, in the monasteries they have to clean, clean, clean, right?  Always keep it tidy.  Submit to the manual task, etc.  focus on the present, find the joy in the task at hand, etc.  so I was reading that after they spend hours – maybe all day – sweeping the pathways around the monastery, they then sprinkle a little dirt and drop a couple leaves here and there…  The point of that is to illustrate that nothing is perfect, everything is transient, etc.  maybe Dorothy just wanted to demonstrate that?  Yeah, NO.

 

p.s.  while writing this, a new paperboy (actually middle-aged lady) came by asking if I wanted to subscribe to the paper, it was such a great deal, yada, yada.  She, of course, knocked on dorothy’s door first – for a minute – no answer.  Knocks on mine and I kindly say no, I read the news online, but thanks for asking.  She trails off with how she understands, but man is it a great deal…  doesn’t go to my other 2 neighbors, cause no lights on.  Walking back to the street and I guess Dorothy poked her head out to spy, cause I hear the paperlady ask – hey, are you interested in the paper?  Snarl!  Maybe just the weekend then – Saturday and Sunday?  SNARL! SNARL!  Heh, heh, oh okay, have a nice evening…

 

yep, gotta love that Dorothy.

 

p.p.s.  haven’t done anything with the mini yet – just been wishing it would go away, but of course it won’t I know.  been taking the bus to work, which is no problem – just a 20 minute ride down the street.  Guess I’ll call up the mini dealer in Escondido tomorrow to see what can be done…

mini catastrophe

So my car last night decided it was time to take a break.

Or maybe just break.

I had just picked up sean at his place in northpark to get down to the bad religion concert downtown and was not more than 2 and a half blocks down the street when the transmission completely seized up, leaving about 3 car lengths (maybe 4 car lengths in mini distance) of rubber on the road.  No anti lock brakes, cause the brakes weren’t stopping the car – it was totally the tranny refusing to turn.  Yeah, no good to say the least.  Couldn’t even roll the car in neutral – the front wheel drive was just locked – so I called triple A right away and got a tow… 2 and a half blocks back to my friend’s house to his driveway.  Didn’t have time to tow it back to OB or we’d miss the show!  Anyway, now I’ve got to get this thing fixed, and I’m pretty sure it’s not just the clutch, so $$$ here we come.  Not sure whether to take it to a mini dealer or try to find a reputable shop.  Pretty lucky though, cause we totally could have gotten rear-ended when the car screeched to a halt.  Doubly lucky that it didn’t happen on the highway that I was traveling on at 70 miles/hour just before I got to sean’s…

 

Look close and you can see the skid marks.

the aggrolites - reggae with a little bit of punk

shows and blogs

So I went to see ‘the aggrolites’ last night with my buddy sean.  Pretty sweet show – it was a small venue and we were about 20-30 feet from the stage.  The volume was a bit excessive… and that’s not just me getting old.  The show was at canes over in mission beach, and it’s a fairly notoriously loud place – my audiologist friend recommended I take the little foam ear protectors, but of course I forgot.  I don’t think I lost *too* many decibels of hearing last night…

Also going to see ‘bad religion’ on Sunday night at the house of blues downtown – definitely need to remember the foamies for that one…

One last thing – my very own mom has jumped into the blogging landscape – she’s on my list as ‘the cleaning lady’ – nice!

secrets and personalities

So I got fingerprinted yesterday at work.  Good?  Bad?  Depends on how you look at it.  I’ve currently got “secret” clearance at work – pretty much everyone does.  We deal with somewhat sensitive national security information, etc.  anyway, I asked for clearance to “top secret” stuff at work.  Figured that if I ever decided to leave the government for another job, then it would be worth some extra $$$ to have TS clearance.  Plus, there’s stuff at work that I could help out in if I had ts clearance.  So anyway, now I’ve got to go through a whole background check over again (had a basic one for my secret clearance back in 2002).  Places I’ve lived, people I’ve known, jobs I’ve worked, where I’ve gone to school, etc, for the last 10 years.  Supposed to take 6-9 months to do the background check.  Blah.  They even ask you – several times – if you’ve ever tried to overthrow the government, been a member of a group that’s plotted to overthrow the government, or ever contributed to a group that’s tried to overthrow the government.  Wow.  With TS clearance also comes the extra joy of random drug testing, so I guess no more using the drugs that I never used in the first place…

So today we had an “offsite” for work.  We get off the base for the day and talk about the organization, do team building exercises, etc.  anyway, a major component of the day was a Meyers-briggs test.  I think the last time I took this was back as an undergrad at Tech, and I’m pretty sure back then my result was ISTJ.  That’s pretty much the standard result for engineers.  Introverts who process data and come to logical conclusions and make decisions.  Not sure how strong I was in the categories – that was a while ago.  anyway, with this go around I scored kind of down the middle, but slanted to INFP.  Kinda weird, but things do change, and wow, since the last time I took the test I was 18 and a freshman at tech – well, there’s been a couple changes.  Mainly the time in Europe, philly and various ups and downs of working for the govt…  anyway, maybe I’ll take the test again soon just to see if I can validate the results.

But a snippet from infp:

“INFPs are open-minded, idealistic, insightful, and flexible individuals who want their work to contribute to something that matters.  They enjoy working by themselves or in small groups where they can be creative.”

So I was trying to find an old college transcript – a group at work needs it so they can verify some of the economics classes I took as an undergrad (and management classes as a grad student) in order to certify me as an “acquisition professional”…  whoop dee doo, right?  Well, maybe it’ll be worth extra money to be certified if I decide to find a job somewhere else, so why not.  Anyway, searching for an old transcript – I know I kept at least 1 copy of my full education.

Of course, it’s always the very last place you look.  But I must have looked through all my papers from the last 7 or 8 years getting there.  Saw an photo montage of “Georgia tech crew 2001” – I was sitting 6 seat in the boat - kind of hunched over adjusting my shoes – and you could just see the mass of muscle in my shoulders and back jumping out over me.  Pretty weird thinking of how all that muscle evaporated when I started racing bikes so much.  And of course there’s all my old course notes from grad school when I was in france.  The classes at GTL were – whatever – but then I saw my old notes from the classes I took at supelec – the French engineering university – and I just shuddered thinking about those days.  Man, I really struggled in those classes.  luckily, most of the concepts in computer engineering were founded in America, but the courses were all taught in French and that  - well, that’s what I signed up for.  I had only had 2 quarters of French before I went to france – I didn’t have to start taking courses in French right away, but I was never really good enough to speak academically.  But I got by and passed and graduated.  Then I saw some of my old dispatch logs from when I was a messenger in philly, found my orders from the govt to go from philly to san diego to start work, etc.  saw some old resumes.  Then I came across the old paperwork I was drafting up to submit a patent application with my buddy josh vose.  Sadly, I never completed and filed the patent – just got too bogged down in searching for an engineering job (when I was still a messenger) and then just dropped the ball when I made the move out west.  That’s something I need to pick back up, and vose is trying to get my ear for a new idea, too.

Anyway, the coup de gras, as they say was when I finally found my transcript in a folder labeled “job opportunities”.  The first half of the folder had bio’s for the past 3 or 4 classes of astronauts – I was trying to find patterns in hiring.  Then there was the fax paperwork for me accepting my job at spawar out here in san diego.  However, immediately before the fax paperwork was a paper that I do remember scribbling down, just not exactly when.  It was me doing a pro/con analysis of bike courier vs engineer written back in early 2002:

 

Bike Courier

 

Pros                                                              

Get in good biking shape                 

Possibly great weather                     

“Extreme”                                              

Interesting people?                           

Feeling of “independence”            

No hard interview                              

No dress code                                      

 

Cons

Fairly low pay (shabby apt, little travel, little food)

No insurance

Dangerous job

Possibly miserable weather

Overtraining?

No good for Astronaut

No internet during day

Not using brain (remember Reid)*

Not prestigious for parents

 

Engineer

 

Pros                                                                      

High pay – Good apt + food + travel       

Mentally challenging                                     

Not outside (bad weather)                         

Physical recovery time                                  

Internet usage – email on downtime     

Prestige for parents                                       

Advance to Astronaut

 

Cons

Possible dress code

Not outside (good weather)

No physical workout

Not interesting people?

Hard interview

Commute?

 

*My buddy Chris Reid was musing at the time (or just before) about how he felt like he was just “spinning his wheels” collecting a paycheck at his job.

 

So there you have it.  But there was just a bit more, written upside down (just with the page flipped around) at some later date

 

Future thoughts

HQT

Acting?

Helicopter?

Pilot?

garden of the gods

So things wrapped up early yesterday at the conference and I was able to make it out to the garden of the gods – a pretty sweet city park out in Colorado springs  - before my flight.  Took some photos, but they didn’t come out so well – that camera phone is seriously dying on me.  Guess it’s time to get a new one – it’s about 2 and half years old or so…  anyway, the park was awesome, and the weather was awesome – it was mid 60’s and there were giant rock formations, etc.  such clean air.  didn’t have time to drive up to pike’s peak, but the road wasn’t open to the top anyway (closed about 3 miles from the top) so that’s no big deal.  Uneventful flight back to san and met up with filer for some sweet ribs from phil’s.  man, those ribs just want to get in your mouth, they fall off the bone so easily.

new glasses!

 

da springs

so I’m out in Colorado springs this week for work.  Blah.  It turned out to be horrible timing for a trip, as my buddy filer is in san diego this week for *his* work.  Yeah, he does fiber optic stuff and has a conference to attend downtown.  I got to hang out with him on Sunday for a bit, but then I had to fly out on Monday and won’t be back til thurs.  he flies out on Friday, so maybe we can get together again before he leaves town…  anyway, the meetings here in the springs are going ok, but there’s way more pressing work back in san diego still…  yeah, work.  Blah.  Anyway, here’s the view from my hotel – it’s pretty sweet.

brand new bike

So I got jason a mountain bike for Christmas – he’d been wanting one.  Anyway, I didn’t actually have it at Christmas yet, plus it woulda been a serious hassle ($$$) to haul it out to florida then haul it back to denver and all.  So anyway, I’ve been sitting on it for awhile, cause it came in a box - mostly assembled - but required to a little put together.  So I finally got it out to him and put it together.  Pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.  His place in saint Louis is a bit out in the suburbs, and there’s some wilderness-like areas around, so hopefully he can find some cool trails to ride on.  Word.

saint louis bbq

 

my crazy neighbor

So my next door neighbor, Dorothy, has gone crazy… again.

Yep, again.  The first time was on labor day of 2007 – so just a little over 5 months ago.  she called me a spy for the bush administration, said that I should return her son to her, yeah crazy.  Anyway, she actually got committed to a mental hospital for a week or 2.  She came back and was never the same again.  Now, on that labor day when she went crazy I was really rattled by it all.  I mean, Dorothy had generally been a nice old lady, but then she went weirdo.  I was actually kind of living in fear of her for a couple days until she got carted off to the looney bin – then i just felt sad for her.  When she got back from the asylum, or wherever she was taken, she basically kept to herself and was skittish.  I never tried talking to her again.  Oh, well.

So yesterday I got home from st Louis, and kate picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at home.  We’re sitting in her truck talking outside the apartments for a minute, then I get out and walk up the breezeway.  Dorothy’s place is the first along the breezeway (right by the street), then mine’s the second, then there’s 2 more.  Anyway, I pass dorothy’s and she opens her door (but keeps the metal grate outer door shut) and says, “Jeremy Mucha.  You should be ashamed of yourself.  Spying.  You’re better than that.”  Yep, that’s what she said.  I just looked her in the eye, smiled, and walked on by.  There she was, gone off the deep end again.  Awesome.  Later on in the day I heard the guys from the 4^th apartment coming home, and Dorothy told them, “yeah, you just keep on taking your drugs.  Keep on taking your steroids.”  Now that guy got really offended and was about to have words with Dorothy but of course she slammed her door shut and then the guy’s friend told him to leave it alone and just forget about it.  Double awesome.

So today I’m cleaning up my place and moving some things out to the garage, some out to the shed, etc.  now we’ve all got little private back patios at this complex.  Anyway, I was putting this poker chip case in my shed on the back patio, and the moment I open the shed, Dorothy knows I’m out there, so she climbs up on a chair in her bedroom which can look over the fence and into my back patio.  Ridiculous.  I put the chip case in the shed and close the door.  I looked her in the eye and said “Hi” then went back inside and shut my patio door.  Just as I was getting inside, she says “Bye” and that’s it.  Triple awesome.  Who’s spying on whom now?

So I honestly don’t know how this thing is going to play out.  I don’t think she would deliberately try to hurt anyone, but you never know.  I just wish she would be carted off to the asylum again.

So we made it to ord without even a scare of skidding down the runway
in a ball of flames. Apparently it warmed up just enough while we were
in flight for the ice to melt. Sweet! And now the flight to san is
even going to be ontime! Ridiculous!

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Hmmm not looking too good on the flights today. I route through
chicago to san. All but 1 of the chicago flights were cancelled but
I'm on the flight. Apparently ord is under ice but we're flying there
anyway? Hmmmm. We just had a freakish monsoon rain shower here on the
tarmac at stl, but now the sun is out shining brighter than ever!
Capt advises it'll be a "rough" flight with turbulence. Awesome. When
they actually warn you about it you know it's serious. We're in a crop
duster.

--
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Well, folks, we made up for last nights bbq deficiency. This stuff was
good. Just plain old tasty. Sauce or no sauce. Yum.

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So if you haven’t gotten the idea yet, I kinda like bbq.  Especially ribs.  Mmmmmm bbq ribs.  So now we’re in st. Louis and we’ve got to make up for last night’s sub-par bbq dining experience.  Super smokers bbq in st Louis.  Apparently they won the world championship of bbq in Memphis for a couple years in a row.  Oh, yeah, that’s appointed – time for dinner.

So we got my bro’s junk moved in before dark – sweet!  And up 3 flights of stairs, too…  yuck.  Just had to turn the brain off and start tramping up and down the stairs.  Probly be a little sore tomorrow – nice.

O'fallon, Ill

1326 - arrived at jason's new locale

He's signing the final papers then we'll start unloading...

Final stats:

880.6 miles traveled
65.1 mph ave
31.8 mpg ave

Jason's car has a little onboard computer, so that's where all the
numbers came from - trust me I didn't crunch em...

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1116 - waffle house stop

Waffles with no coffee? How could you?

Stats:
821.3 miles traveled
66.6 mph ave
31.8 mpg ave

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Red bull n donuts : not quite the same as coffee... :/

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0814 - hit the road part 2

Stats
469 miles traveled
65.8 mph ave
32.1 mpg ave

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Post ribs - all in all they were decent ribs. Not the magical kansas
city ribs I was hoping for, but they still hit the spot. Arthur
bryant's bbq was the place. Ribs were a bit dry. Not falling off the
bone or anything - actually almost had a jerky taste to them... But
then again we showed up at the place at closing time. Kinda like the
good old days at brittain dining hall. Even had to take the food to
go - couldn't eat at the resto. actually in hindsight I'm just glad
we didn't get carjacked - it was that kind of neighborhood...

Motel 6 for the night just east of kc.

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1944 - gas stop #2 - alma, kansas

New stats:
459 miles traveled
69.5 mph average
32.7 mpg average

Next stop ribs!

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Coffee again...

So a couple of hours ago we crossed in to kansas. Wouldn't you know
there was a huge sign:

Free coffee at welcome center!

I hung my head in sorrow

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Correction on time check. First stop was actually 1500 due to central
time zone.
Breaking news: plan is to stop in kansas city, mo for ribs at dinner!
Appointed!

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1400 - food/gas stop #1 - arby's

Stats so far:
236.2 miles traveled
34.6 mpg average
69.0 mph average

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Goodbye mountains (way off in the distance...)

1020 - hit the road. Depart denver

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Movin the bro

Yes, its spelled thou. Not though. Please don't smite me down.

So I flew in to denver yesterday to help my brother move out to st
louis. We went out to grab a bite to eat last night - I looked up on
the web a cool organic funky kind of punkish type place. We get there
and its totally decked out for valentines. punks at alentines but then
half the crowd is the uppity uppity dressed bit that must have heard
they've got good food at this place. I was willing to give the
'romantic valentines dinner' a go, but jason vetoed it on account of
the string music recording in the background. Alas, no good punk food
to be had...
So we ate at a different vege place instead and all was good.
Today we're getting a bit of a late start but driving for 10 or 12
hours toward st louis. Big fun! Unfortunately, its a caravan. Jason
drives the moving truck and I drive his car. Apparently his car won't
fit on a trailer very well. Oh well, just makes for a less exciting
drive as I was hoping to talk to the bro.

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oh coffee, why hast though forsaken me?

So I’m beginning to think this giving up coffee for lent thing was a big mistake.  I had a mini-freakout episode this morning – but it was only in my head. I was eating a pop tart for breakfast at the office and all I smelled was coffee – everywhere!  Coffee, coffee, coffee…  I had to take a break and get a mountain dew just to take my mind off it.  Wow, that sucked.

So the whole Lenten season is supposed to help Christians identify with Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert as well as the 3 temptations by the devil.  Pretty sure I’m there.  Should’ve given up cauliflower instead.

lent

So I decided I’m going to give up coffee for Lent.  I haven’t really observed Lent in years, but I figured it was a good time to get back in the swing.  And coffee – man, that’s kind of a biggee.  Sometimes I feel like I’ve got an iv bag of that stuff that I carry around.  I was briefly considering giving up caffeine in general, but I seriously think I’d have trouble getting just about anything done at work.  So just no coffee.  No tasty tasty coffee.  Guess I’ll have to drink more red bull instead.  Look out, world…

well I figure it’s time to get back to writing my thoughts down

 

it’s been a hell of a past 6 months

 

riding bikes – much less racing – is a total foreign concept

work is pretty much around the clock

mr. reid, whom I always thought of as my 2^nd father, passed away back in December

barely even snowboarding this season due to that work thing again

 

and then there’s girls.  wtf.

 

guess i just haven’t fell like writing, but I think I’m back

yeah, i’ll be back

jawqore

well, it's a year ago today that i broke my jaw while racing bikes up in wisconsin.  yeah, traumatic to say the least - i was in the hospital on morphine for several days, and my mom had to come up there to help me back to san diego (thanks again, mom).  jaw was wired shut for 6 weeks while it mended - that meant a strictly liquid diet for me.  i experimented a lot - i ground up pop tarts, burritos, bratwurst, you name it.  anyway, in memory of that i went and had the 'breakfast of champions' today.  that was pretty much the first oddball creation i came up with - it tasted great back then, and it still tasted great today.  i don't think i'll go back to grinding up burritos, though - they weren't that enticing...

 

 

breakfast of champions (1420 calories)

 

2 chocolate chip pop tarts

2 chocolate boost plus bottles

2 cups 2% milk

2 tablespoons powdered fiber

 

blended down to a pure liquid - no particulate allowed

the achilles

so i was out riding today and i think i finally figured out how i injured my left achilles tendon while i was cycling back in october.  i was climbing a short steep hill today in a pretty heavy gear - so the rpm's were really low - and the 'pulling up' action in my left foot was - shall we say - less than comfortable when i was ripping as hard as i could.  doesn't help that i hadn't ridden in a week and a half, and then that was only 1 night of track racing (high rpm racing) and that i hadn't ridden for an additional week and a half before that.  so yeah, low rpm, high stress pulling up movements in my left achilles.  not so good...  you can think of the pulling up movement being the opposite of a calf raise exercise - instead of your calf working to push the weight down, you've got the calf/tendon working to pull the weight up.  and so back in october, i had just come off a lot of high rpm track training and went in to lower rpm road training - especially climbing hills in really low rpms - and in retrospect, i totally know the moment that i strained that tendon, too.  wow, such hindsight...  but hey, now i know - and knowing's half the battle.

catcher in the dfw

so i'm just sitting in DFW killing time waiting to go home.  my flight outta jackson was on time - even early getting in to dallas, and it looks like my final flight home will be a-ok.  truly, a minor miracle.

 

anyway, i finished reading 'the catcher in the rye' a couple days ago on my flight out to vicksburg.  not totally sure whether i liked that book or not...  i mean, i never really struggled to get through it - but i wasn't really dying to turn the pages either.  and then you're getting toward the end and the tension keeps on building, but then the book takes a right turn and just dumps you.  huh.  but i guess i can appreciate the theme of confusion throughout the book.  a longing for more.  or maybe just a longing for something different.  but sometimes a longing for more, sometimes a longing for different, sometimes a distaste for everything that surrounds me and the constraints of american society and human nature.  that's the story of my life.  huh.  maybe i liked that book after all.  not so much in the actual words written down on the page, but more so in retrospect of the overarching themes covered.  wow - i totally wasn't expecting that.

 

 

seriously, what happened to the airline industry?

flying out to jackson, ms acouple days ago for the reid visit.  7:25am flight, and the taxi was late getting to my apt - really, not my fault this time - so i was just pushing that 30 minute check-in time barrier.  just made it and got on the flight - american routed through dallas.  but the taxi ride sucked - chatty driver who drove slow - there were other taxis passsing us on the way to the airport.  hellooooo?  trying to get to my flight here....

 

taxi driver:  you ever watch 'to catch a predator?'

me:  yeah, i've seen it before

td:  i love it when they get to the place and get on camera.  what were you gonna do with that girl?'  'nothin.'  they always be saying 'nothing'!  cracks me up every time.

me:  yeah

td:  and they're good with that camera too, man.  usually on tv you just see trained actors, but this is real - you can see right in their eyes...

me:  yep

...

td:  well, i don't know if you're religious or anything...  but it's all about that s-e-x.  i'm saying if there's a sure thing out there then you're just gonna go for it.

me:  hmm

td:  most of the time it's 50-50 you're gonna get it or you're not, but if you've got a sure thing - woooeeee!  i don't care how old she is!

me:  huh

 

yeah, i think he's gonna be on a future episode.  wow.

 

 

so i got into dallas to make my connection to jackson.  get through the labrynth of dfw and get to the gate to find the flight is delayed by 10 minutes - no big deal.  then they announce that the flight is overloaded - with luggage?  they are going to have to bump 12 people from the flight in order to make the weight limit.  huh.  well, i'm not interested in the voucher - i just want to get back to see the reids.  a couple minutes later, they call several people up to the gate - including me - and tell us we've been bumped!  what!  pandemonium ensues.  it doesn't matter that we paid for our tickets - have assigned seats - etc - someone's gonna lose.  the flight wasn't even oversold - it was just too heavy...so there's like 7 of us haggling at the counter for a seat.  the agents are adamant that no one is getting on board.  i lose my cool and have to walk away to simmer down.  then i walk over to the next gate to talk to the supervisor.  standing in line, and then all of a sudden i see 3 of the guys that were waiting for seats walk on board the plane - WHAT?  i get back over to the gate and one of the agents says she's trying to find a seat for me and a seat for this lady.  and snap - i totally just missed out on the 3 seat free-for-all that just went down - wow.  well, the lady is starting to throw a fit, and then the gate agent finds her a seat and ushers her down the entry.  supposedly there's one last seat up for grabs but it's going to this other guy - not me.  huh?  whatever.  gate agent walks down the entry to the plane and comes back with a woman in tears!

 

pulled from plane woman:  but you don't understand - my daughter is in labor right now!  i've got to get on this flight!

me:  ...

agent:  [to the other guy]  ok sir, you're next in line

guy:  ok!

baby mama:  but you don't understand!

agent:  i'm so sorry...

guy:  what'll ya give me if i stay?

agent:  a voucher for $200 on american

baby mama:  i've got to get to jackson!

guy:  hmmm...  no, i'll get on the flight.

agent:  oh...  okay.

baby mama:  nooooooo!!!

agent:  i'm so sorry - we'll give you a voucher for $200.

baby mama:  there's no amount of money that can make up for what i'm missing.

agent:  ...

 

yeah, that was really something.  made me want to pay the guy myself to stay so that the mother could get back to see her daughter.  made me feel like dirt, even though there was nothing i could do.  but that was that.  the agent helped her out and got her a ticket on the next flight (3pm) out to jackson.  now it's my turn, and the agent is looking for a seat.  huh, nothing left on the 3 o'clock.  and nothing left on the remaining 2 later flights?  'oh, and it looks like we're going to have to bump another 12 people from the 3 o'clock...  are you serious?  oh, man...  but what about any other airlines?  delta?  full.  northwest?  full.  usair?  full.  yeah, nothing til tomorrow morning...  what?  no way - totally unsat.

 

so then i thought - well, i guess i could fly in to monroe, la...  that's not *too* much farther from vicksburg, but then i've got to rent a car, etc...  wow, waht a hassle...  'but we'll give you a $200 voucher..."  yeah, whatever, sign me up - let's go.

 

so i get the flight out to monroe - which was leaving in only 20 minutes - hit some serious turbulence on the flight over (thought we might crash for an instant) - then land around 4:30 central.  off the plane and there's 4 rental agencies to choose from - avis, budget, national, and hertz.

 

avis is out of cars.

budget doesn't do one-way rentals

national doesn't do one-way rentals

 

so that leaves hertz - luckily they do one-ways - but they don't have a location in vicksburg!  what?  yeah, the closest location is the jackson airport!  absolutely ridiculous!  but it's not like i've got any choices, so there you go.  i get the car, get on the road, and get to vicksburg by around 6:30.  not too bad in the end result (except that we had to make a jackson trip just to drop off the car), but the process of getting to mississippi totally sucked.

 

 

in summary:

taxi driver or pedaphile?  t.b.d.

airline industry?  whatever.

4th of jul

just purchased a ticket on American:

 

Jul 3

Arrive JAN at 2:30 PM on AA 3439

 

Jul 7

Depart JAN at 7:10 AM on AA 3560

 

Here we go V-burg

One of the reasons I love living in OB

SpongeBob on the balcony...

just hanging out in CLT for a 3 hour layover on my way to sarasota, fl.  last night's red-eye was pretty smooth - i shut my eyes before we lifted off in SD and didn't open them up again until i felt the brakes on the tarmac in charlotte.  still landed at like 3:30am pacific though, so i'm kind of beat.  no clever vegas thoughts on this layover - just simple coffee lovin and email checkin.

good 'ole philly

wow, i picked up some hell of a kind of cold back in philly.  finally just shaking loose of it now - been battling it for days - even had to stay home from work some to just try sleeping it off.  that and pound the nyquil...  yikes.  training went right out the window - so no good.  but then at the same time my buddies jonathan and jacob were both in town - but at separate times - for work.  absolutely ridiculous.  they're in town, i'm under the weather, but the weather was nice and we got some sweet fish tacos, knocked some volleyball around, etc anyway.  wow.  and now i fly out tomorrow night to florida for the 2nd weekend in a row of family reunions!  this time my mom's side for my grandfather's 90th birthday.  nice!  and pretty soon i've got to start planning a trip for the 3rd family reunion - with the reid side - the closest non-family family that i've got - more to come on that later...

so i'm flying back from philly on usair, and we just got done watching 'the astronaut farmer'.  totally brought a tear to my eye when he finally lifted off.  just such a beautiful moment...  following your dreams and never giving up is everything to me.

 

speaking about moments, this weekend was - well, i won't say perfect - all of our flights were delayed at one point or another - but we all made it and it was 'right on time.'  i've never spent any amount of time with any of my extended family on my dad's side - just never really knew them.  i guess maybe when my brother and i were still young and living in pennsylvania maybe we saw our cousins every now and then - but nothing that i remember - and we left pa for ms before i was 6.  then my parents got divorced a couple years later and maybe that sealed the split from that side of the family.  anyway, the only time i remember meeting any of the cousins/aunt/uncle was when my granny mucha passed away back during my freshman year at tech (spring break 1996 - i was 18 years old).  we met them at the funeral parlor and then had a light dinner afterwards.  now of course, we were a bit pre-occupied - it was a funeral after all - but i just remember feeling awkward the entire time - just kind of like - who are these people?  i've never met you before - i don't really feel any attachment to you - i don't even know what to say to you.  we left that funeral and never stayed connected.  nothing.

 

fast forward a couple years and i'm done with grad school.  i decide to move up to philly to pursue rowing and (eventually) find an engineering job - that was from august 2001 to july 2002 - 24/25 years old.  a whole year in philly and i never ever tried to contact anyone who lived there.  why?  i don't know - i guess it just wasn't the right time - i guess i just didn't have the guts - i guess i just wasn't ready yet.

 

fast forward a couple more years and now i'm 30 years old.  out of the blue, my cousin leslie emails my brother and i and invites us to philly for a grand 70th surprise party for her mother - my aunt anna.  there was a small piece of trepidation in the back reaches of my mind, but jason and i jumped on it - of course we would come.  i flew in early, jason came in a bit later, but dad almost missed the whole thing due to cancelled/delayed flights.  we went from the airport straight to leslie's brownstone and got there a little bit late, but luckily aunt anna was just a little bit later.  AKA 'appointed timing'.

 

but what about that elusive moment?  we walked in to leslie's place, and that was it.  no tension in the air.  no awkwardness.  genuine gladness that we were all there together and that maybe we could start anew.  and that was it.  aunt anna came in moments later, and was genuinely surprised.  we and the cousins talked and talked and talked.  dinner was catered and was - of course - excellent.  afterwards, our cousins bobby and elissa went out for drinks with jason and i and just kept on going.  leslie was ready to burst with a baby and tara had child duties, so they couldn't join us.  but i can honestly say that we just cut through the bs and just started acting like family again.  man, it was really beautiful.

 

so now - of course - the responsibility is to keep it going.  keep in contact.  etc.  that won't be a problem...  not any more.

so we ended up getting here to philly only a little over an hour and a half late.  no worries.  time to get a breakfast cheese steak.

so this is just totally officially awesome time now.  flight was supposed to go at 11:59 pm, but there was a 'slight' delay.  were going to board at 12:45 am now.  yeah, then they come on the intercom - actually, didn't even use the intercom, it was broken - announcing that there would be an hour and a half delay til the flight went off.  broken plane.  man, this is starting to get ugly...  you know, sleeping on the red-eye was going to be one thing, but just being restless in the airport is totally not so good.  and if this flight gets all up in our faces and decides to break our noses, then the next one out isn't til 8:30 am getting in to phil town at 4:30 pm.  totally unsat.  so now i'm just posting blogs, uploading some myspace photos, blah, lah, crappity crap.  maybe i'll try a nap.

layover in vegas baby on the way to motown philly.

terminal looks like this:

slot city. lame. too bad it doesn't look more like this:

outside coyote ugly at new york, new york hotel/casino
a couple weeks ago.

catching a red-eye to philly tonight.  yep.

so it's a surprise 70th birthday thingy for an aunt on my dad's side - aunt anna.  dad and bro are flying in tomorrow afternoon, and then we'll all form up like voltron for the dinner party.  should be pretty cool - i haven't seen these relatives since my grandmother on my dad's side passed away - 11 years ago - freshman year in college.  yeah...

 

the only bummer is that one of my best buddies - jonathan snow - is actually in san diego this weekend for work.  absolutely ridiculous!  i'm always flying out to dc for this or that, but the one time he actually comes out here, and i'm out of town.  it's all good though - he doesn't fly out til tuesday morning, so we'll have to tear it up a lil bit on sunday and monday.  yeh!

so i raced bikes this past sunday up at. ontario. just a standard flat, 4-corner, 90 minute crit in the hot summer sun. nothing special, except that it was pretty much the first crit i've done since i crashed really badly last year and broke my jaw. sure, i jumped right back on the track bike after i healed up last year, but i didn't do any road racing - it just wasn't in the plan for that time of the year. anyway, did the race and you know there was a crash, and you know it happened just about 4 bike lengths right in front of me, and you know i had to lock up my brakes and avoid people sprawled out on the pavement and bikes flying everywhere. just ridiculous - it was like a 7 or 8 guy pile-up. no one was seriously injured - just road rash - but man was i freaked out. when you're racing bikes, that fear section is just a part of the brain that you have to switch off because you can't ride scared - that just makes it worse.

so a teammate of mine actually had a helmet cam on during the race, and he got a tiny bit of the crash (before it became a pile-up) on video. most of the vid is somewhat boring - just look at the last 1 minute - that's where the crash occurs...

on the plus side of the race, my teammates dana and daggs got 9th and 11th and so we took home some cash - enough to pay for the gas for the car ride to the race - awesome...

so i just created a myspace page, and i can already tell that's gonna be a total time suck.  yeah, gotta turn it out, bling it out, etc...

http://www.myspace.com/hardqore

so i got a check for $16.24 in the mail from State Farm - my auto insurance company.  they mailed a refund due to a "change in length of driving experience."  so i guess i traded in my 20's for my 30's and 16 dollars and 24 cents.  awesome.

you know, there's pretty much never a dull moment around here.  i mean, if it's not one thing, it's another.

 

ok, so this past sunday - the 27th - some of my friends were having a pub crawl here in ocean beach.  the newly minted doctors - audiologists, to be exact.  anyway, pub crawl and everyone wears a goofy sign on his/her back, etc.  like 10 bars on the agenda with 45 minutes at each bar and a minimum of a drink at each bar - you know, a pub crawl.  anyway, everybody had a goofy sign on their back and it was ear related - mine said "can you hear me now, bitch?" and had a little clip-on ear on it.  ha-ha , funny, people loved it.

 

so we're about halfway through the crawl and we're at a bar called 'the sunshine company'.  a pretty cool bar with a rooftop patio.  anyway, we're hanging out up there having a good time and what not, and are almost getting ready to get off to the next bar.  only like 5 more minutes til leaving time.  i'm off to the side looking over the balcony onto the street and the sunset.  another nice san diego day - a bit cloudy, but still a nice one.  can't complain about the 70 degrees.

 

so i'm just looking at the sunset and around at the scene, etc.  a guy is sitting over at a table nearby and the waitress stops by him to pick up or deliver a drink.  i halfway hear him say to the waitress, "so, is his shirt basically calling all of us bitches?"  i glance his direction and he says, "hey, are you calling all of us bitches?"  the waitress looks kind of perplexed, and i just say, "uhhh, i don't know...  i guess so?"  i turn back to looking at the street, and i guess that's when he throws a pint glass at me - i turn back to look at him - and all i see is a fist right in my face.

 

yeah, the guy jumped over his table and totally clocked me right in the face, breaking my nose and putting a gash in it.

 

totally didn't see that one coming at all.

 

my friends immediately restrain the guy, and he just yells out, "HE CALLED ME A BITCH!!!"  the bar is in pure shock.  meanwhile, i'm like a geyser just spurting blood out of my nose.  ridiculous.  a friend gets me some napkins and i just walk off to the bathroom to survey the damage.  security eventually takes over from my friends and throws the guy out, but not before they get his info.  anyway, i'm in the bathroom just trying to clean up, and i can tell it's broken right away.  yes, it's sad to say, i'm experienced enough with broken bones that i have a pretty good idea whether or not something is broken now.  awesome.

 

anyway, get most of the bleeding to stop and leave the bar for the ER with a friend driving.  after a long wait, i finally get served, get some x-rays, and get 4 stitiches in my nose.  luckily no disfigured nose, so everything should heal just fine.  just on antibiotics and vicotin for the next couple days still.  the stitiches should be out on friday in time for vegas.  i've got a black right eye, and it was really swollen on monday and the early part of today, but it's steadily gone down since.  should be down to normal in the next day or 2.  the bummer was i couldn't race bikes on monday or today like i had planned.

 

anyway, after the hospital visit was over, we made it back in time for the very last stop on the pub crawl - a bar named pacific shores.  i had a shot of tequila just to put an exclamation mark on the whole monstrous evening.  yeah.

so i just finished booking a flight to philly for june

still need to work on a flight to venice, fl

 

june is going to be absolutely ridiculous

 

may 31 - june 1 : San Jose to visit my buddy Vose and help him get out of town as he makes his trek out to Boston to begin his surgery residency.

june 2-3-4 : Vegas for more of the 30th.

june 15-16-17 : Philly for a surprise 70th birthday party for Aunt Anna (Mucha side)

june 22-23-24 : Venice for a giant 90th birthday party for Grandpa Bennett (Brudevold side)

 

wowsa.

so i started back to track racing last tuesday night and went back for more punishment tonight. yikes - no leg speed at all. but, it's not like i've really trained any of that yet either - i'm taking a little bit of the hard way by putting in the road miles and then racing myself back in to shape at the same time - somewhat before doing any real structured interval training. the hardest part with that is struggling through the poor initial results before you can break through to real race fitness. i prolly won't be in real race shape until the middle of july, and that just feels *so* far away...

so i turned 30 a couple days ago. wow. i got some serious props from my p-mom, too. here's a link - not to the best props in the world - just a tribute.

james brown *is* the 8th wonder of the world.

 

 

so i was just in a really pissed off mood.  pretty annoying work day.  left late so i wasn't going to be able to get 3 hours in on the bike - only 2.  whatever.  anyway, start riding and i'm pretty much just stewing for a good half hour.  was listening to gnarls barkley and that ran out, so i decided to put on the jb.  jb starts playing, but it's not doing much.  please please please.  yeah, please don't.  it's a man's world.  yeah, and it sucks.

 

and then my teammate nick and his wife lisa drive right by me, hoot and holler that they're glad to see me on the bike and at that exact moment, get up - like a sex machine comes on and i've got to say, i totally got up.  followed immediately by i got you - i feel good.  and i felt good.  what can i say?  teammates and james brown - totally appointed.

 

 

i'm a sex machine...  hah!

just shaved my legs tonight for the first time in months.  that means i'm a bike racer again.

23 weeks until nationals on the track.  finished out the week with 105 miles on the bike.  that's a little less than what i was planning on, but that's cause the trip to dc just became a little more than i bargained for.  no worries, though - all is well.

 

trip to dc was to support a thursday brief on a project that i'm working on.  i wasn't giving the brief - just needed to be on hand to answer the hard questions if any were raised.  well, questions came fast and furious and the overall program manager just said "enough - we don't have time to talk about this right now - you need to come back and brief me separately."  unbelievable.  so i scheduled to brief the pm the next day - friday.  of course, the guy who was i was there to "support" was flying out on friday morning and wouldn't change his flight.  no problem - i just made up a new brief over night and gave it solo on friday.  it was scheduled to be a 20 minute q&a but turned into me standing up in front of a bloodthirsty room answering questions for an hour and 15 minutes.  that was awesome.  i came out ok though, and seemed to get all the major points across - managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as they say.  just kidding.

 

anyway, that was pretty much it.  hung out with the dc clan and flew back to sd early saturday morning.  just missed my big bro in the dallas airport by a couple hours.  i was flying dca-dfw-san.  jason was flying sat-dfw-fra.  oh well, next time.

so i'm enroute to DC for work.  GBS meeting on thursday out in reston, va.  it's always fairly annoying having to spend a day getting out there from the best coast and then a day getting back, all for a 20 minute briefing, but oh well.  no big deal - get to visit some of the phellas back east.

 

checked out san diego tuesday night track racing from the stands last night - i won't get around to racing until may - need to get some miles in my legs first.  anyway, some of the team was there and it was really great to see 'em.  we went out to eat burritos after the racing and talked about how the season was going so far, etc.  started talking racing tactics, training ideas, and all that nonsense.  man, it was great.  started getting super excited about *my* upcoming season and racing with the guys again.  good times...

fortune cookie of the day :

 

people find it difficult to resist your persuasive manner

so i'm counting down to track national championships in october - it's 24 weeks away - first week of october.  just got back on the bike this week and i'll close it out with 4.3 hours of training and 73 miles down.  next week should be around 140 miles - just need to ramp it all up somewhat slowly to avoid injury.  lookin good...

happy easter!

 

ok, that may be a couple days late, but that's right on schedule in my book...

 

anyway, wow.  i just finished up the snowboarding season this past friday with my slalom race at nationals.  the race didn't go super great, but it was still a good learning experience.  my first run down the course i was just slightly "over anxious" and i crsahed 3 - yes three - times.  that made for a pretty shoddy run 1, and i was pretty down in the dumps.  i just rode like a novice and didn't handle some of the turns very well at all.  anyway, run 2 comes up and i'm much more relaxed - i take the course just fine - no kind of record time, but a clean run and i beat the guy i'm racing next to.  you see, it was parallel slalom - 2 courses side by side (like just 10 - 15 feet side by side).  race the red course first, then switch to the blue course for the 2nd run - the competition that you're paired with does vice versa.  anyway, even though you're still ultimately racing against the clock, you also race against the person just to your side.  kind of like a rabbit to chase if they're leading, etc.  right, so i beat that guy on my 2nd run which was a really cool feeling - i don't think i've ever beaten anyone in slalom before...  of course my combined time of runs 1/2 still put me in last place due to all the crashing my first time around, but hey, no big deal - it was my first time at nationals (and doing the parallel format).  very cool.

 

45 days on the snow this season - went from absolutely zero to a fairly decent rider.  just bought my season pass for mammoth mountain next year - it'll be even better.  maybe i can finally become that boardercross star i've been dreaming of...

 

so snowboarding ended right with easter and in memory of the resurrection of Our Savior i've decided to resurrect my cycling career.  got back on the bike today for the first time in 8 weeks - wow.  and over the last 24 weeks - 6 months - i've only ridden about 686 miles.  yeah, 686 miles is what you should be riding over about 2 to 2 and a half weeks.  oops.  well, at least i'm well rested...  track nationals are in the beginning of october - 6 months away - plenty of time, right?  right...

ok, so a buddy of mine - let's just call him 'the dude' - sent me this email a couple days ago.  it pretty much sums up my entire situation, so i just had to republish it:

 

 

Subject: Something to Ponder

An interesting reflection: Slow Down Culture It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule. Globalize processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here
early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

 

now, i can't say that i'm always at work early - no, i do drive fairly quickly to get there at the appointed time.  so i can't necessarily say that part 1 applies.

 

but the 'slow food' part?  man, i've been eating slow for years.  i remember sitting at goldie's bbq entertaining (or maybe mildly amusing?) the reids' with just rambling and rambling stories - just springboarding back and forth.  sitting in britain dining hall for hours on end with the phellas just layin down the food and discovering e time monikers.  hanging with my buddy jaan in france eating tiny octopusses in our dejeuner.  teaching the greeks a thing or two with my big bro.  warming up on a cold day in norway with all the brudevolls.

 

yeah, mealtime is really one of my all time favorites.  always has - always will.

 

and part 3?  the work schedule?  well, that was definitely a byproduct of my time in europe.  it's hard to even explain it sometimes.  once i got the ability to pull back on work a little bit, it made all the difference.  sometimes you just need to do less in order to do more.

so i'm just waiting for my flight to reno.

 

leave at 4:50 - get in to reno at 7:30 - stay at the sands casino for the night.

 

then it's a full week of snowboarding at northstar@tahoe.  that'll be just such a sweet way to finish off the season.  entry in nationals included a 6-day lift ticket, so of course i'll use that to the max and then some...  slalom race is on friday, apr 6.  totally appointed.

 

more to come.

so today was another brilliant day on the slopes.  i actually wasn't going to come up here this weekend, but my buddy jonathan's brother, scott snow, is racing the junior olympics up here in mammoth, so i had to come up and support the hardqoreness.  he's racing well, finishing in the 20's out of 90 or so competitors, and he's only 13 in the 13-14 division.  he'll win next year.

 

but scott's putting all that high school peer pressure on me - "what, you've never done a 360 off a jump before?  it's easy - if you can spin a 180 standing still then you can totally do a 360 off a jump."  "uhhhhh, you've got to be crazy, scott.  i'm not exactly the best jumper..."  "oh, you can do it."

 

so yeah, now i've got to get the courage up to do a 360.  i make a halfway effort and pull a 180, but just sit down right away.  "oh, that's cool, jeremy - nobody makes a 360 on their first try."  "..."

 

360's.  not sure i'll keep on trying those - maybe i will - but i really think i better learn how to ride goofy foot first, and that's just not easy at all.  anyway, yeah, whatever.  scott also got me to step up to the big jumps - the ones where you start to catch some serious big air.  and i've got to say - that is absolutely terrifying flying when you're getting big air.  it's just something you have to get used to, and it'll definitely help out the boardercross racing, but wow - pushing the limits for sure.

so i'm supposed to write about 6 weird things about myself, but no way - just too tired.  midnite jut followed by full day of boarding followed by hot tubbin and lasagna.  yeah, sleepy time so i can do it all over again tomorrow - sans the midnite jut.  word.

dude, i just made record time, as in land speed jutqoreness thereof, up to mammoth.  rolled out of SD at 00:39, got in to MM at 06:07.  394 miles in 5 1/2 hours with a stop halfway.  pretty good, considering 2/3 of the trip is not on the interstate.  that, and it sure is nice to get through LA at 2 in the morning...

 

so here's a great quote from the brief i gave yesterday - the one that held me up from leaving SD.  we're discussing risk levels and how we would rate the project that i'm managing.

 

CAPT Pope : so this is a pretty low risk project, right?

cap'n hq : well, yes, but i can't be entirely sure we'll get the desired results until we actually test the system over-the-air.

CAPT : but we've got the OEM designing the enhancement, so we shouldn't have the typical integration issues

cap'n : that's absolutely true - they know the system better than anyone else

CAPT : so everything should work then?

cap'n : Yep, everything should work perfectly fine - it's just the unknowns that always trip you up...

 

that was my Yogi Berra moment for the day.  Everyone just dropped their jaws and shook their heads.  It was awesome.

so it's midnite, and i'm about to hit the rode for mammoth.  was supposed to leave thursday around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and take 6.5 to 7.5 hours to get up there.  work said otherwise - i was giving a brief to our main boss man (CAPT Pope) from 2 yesterday, and that meeting ran over til after 4.  the meeting went really well, and everyone like my brief, but no point in even trying to fight traffic, so midnite jut here we come.  just got a good nap in, so i'm rared to take it jutqore to the promised land!

Day 2 of the CA State Games:

 

GS

 

Giant Slalom is supposed to be a more spread out - and therefore faster - course than Slalom.  Well, the course was definitely longer than the SL course, but it really didn't seem any faster.  Plus the surface was just so so icy.  I mean, I guess that's just how the alpine courses are - icy.  But wow, who really likes ice?  Anyway, time for the 1st run down the course.  I start out at what I think is a quick speed, and start bombing down the course.  I'm really trying to initiate the turns early so that I just barely come around the gates.  Anyway, I'm about 1/3 of the way down the course, making a turn, and then I realize that I'm heading straight at the gate - not in a tight arc around it.

 

Oh, no...

 

No time to change my angle and I just slam right through the gate (it's only a triangular flag, so there's no damage or anything).  I slide on my butt past 2 more gates until I can finally stop.  Now, if you miss a gate in SL or GS you get DQ'ed.  Usually the races are the combined times of 2 runs, but at the Cal Games it was the best time from the 2 runs that was your final score.  So, normally I would have had to have hiked back up and gone around the gates to keep from being DQ'ed, but since it was best of 2 I could simply miss the gates, go down the rest of the course, and have that score thrown out.  Of course, that meant that I had to nail the 2nd run correctly.  Yeah, no pressure there, especially after I crashed from being just a little aggressive.

 

2nd run, and I do what I think is a conservative run, but the entire time, I'm still skidding on the ice after every turn, and that's just so no good.  I still took some turns where I almost nailed the gate stake, but I made it down ok.  I ended up winning my age category, as I was the only competitor, but it was certainly no record time.  Mine was around 53 seconds - plenty of other people were around 50 seconds - and the guys tricked out in actual alpine race gear were around 42 seconds.  Yeah, lots to work on, to be sure.

day 1 of the CA state games :

 

SL and BX today.

 

rode around all morning, just doing jumps and some easy cruising.  it came time to do the SL, but nobody was at the course, so I took another run down the mountain.  get back to the SL course, and all of a sudden i'm late.  need to take my first run.  i take it really conservatively - not entirely on purpose - i simply had no idea what the course was.  anyway, that was slow, so i took the lift back up for my second run.  best time out of the 2 runs was the score, so i really needed to take it a bit quicker this time.  came out of the start - took the first turn - and i could tell this was going to be a good run.  took the 2nd turn - feeling fast.  3rd turn - just kill it.  4th turn - and i start skidding on the ice.  skidding so much that i had to sit down to avoid missing the gate.  nuts - there goes that time...  get back up and get back to speed.  finishout the run as fast as i can and that's that.  3rd place of 3 racers.

 

got over to the BX course as quick as i could and found out that i was too late to take a practice run on the course.  oh, wow.  my heat gets called - i'm feeling pretty no good - i mean - going down the course on its own at a fast speed without seeing it is hard enough.  but add in other guys that know the course?  forget it.  whatever.  heat comes up - 3 guys + me.  pull the start - i'm slowest out of the gate - i crash in the first turn. wow, need to work on riding those berms...  get back up and finish the course.  not too bad - time for the 2nd run.  so here we go - 2nd run.  i start slow again, and see the other 3 stacking up in the 1st turn.  they make it through, but 2 of the guys clash in turn 3 and one goes down.  perfect, i'm thinking - now i can cruise by.  but then he crawls up in the turn just as i'm coming by - oh, snap!  i'm able to go high in the turn and get by him just as he's getting up.  ok, now if i can just keep him at my back, then i'll finally actually beat someone at BX!  and then he passes me in the next turn.  huh.  finish out the course and that's that.  no injuries, so that's a success.

 

tomorrow is GS - that should be fun

So my team manager called me the other day:

 

general : hey, you're not quitting bike racing are you?

cap'n : naw, naw...  i'm not quitting - just taking some time off, i guess

general : is your knee still bothering you?

cap'n : oh, not as much anymore - it's still a little swollen, but i've got full mobility.  it's healing

general : been riding much?

cap'n : not a whole lot - been mostly snowboarding, actually

general : well, that's prolly good.  it's nice to have a change and just do something completely different now and then.

cap'n : yeah, it's really nice to just take a break.  i'll prolly start racing toward the end of april or the beginning of may.

general : that's cool.  so i'm out of town in colorado next week, but then i'll be back.  wanna go for a ride when i get back?

cap'n : sure, sounds good.

so i got an email yesterday from USASA - the USA Snowboarding Association - that's the organization I race under.  Apparently I qualified for Nationals in the SL event.  yeah, qualified 18th out of 20 spots for the 23-29 age group.  now there were only 32 people competing in that category nationwide, but it's still pretty ridiculous.  yeah, so nationals are at Northstar at Tahoe from April 1-6.  SL for my group is on the 6th...

 

http://usasa.org/action.lasso

 

so i guess i'm going to nationals.  i mean, was it ever really a question?

 

now if only I can somehow weasel a spot in to the GS and BX too...

(ranked 59th out of 92 in BX - only 25 qualifying spots, though)

(never done a GS before - but I'll try that out this weekend...)

hmmm, so with all that's gone on - where to start?

how about a quick overview, then I'll fill in the blanks later...

 

feb 1 - getting ready for my first SBX...

feb 2 - getting ready for my first SBX...

feb 3 - got blown away by my first SBX.

feb 4 - was supposed to bike race, but was pretty banged up from the SBX.

 

feb 10 - recovering...

feb 11 - recovering...

 

feb 18 - time to get back to snowboarding

feb 19 - time to celebrate the presidents - and snowboard

 

feb 23 - snow

feb 24 - snow

feb 25 - my very first Slalom (SL) race.  DFL..

 

mar 1 - flew out to DC to visit the JJJ... and snowboard

mar 2 - boarding in Snowshoe, West Virginia

mar 3 - my second SL race - a little bit better than the first

mar 4 - was supposed to be an SBX, but got cancelled.  :-(

 

mar 9 - snowboarding at Mammoth Mountain in central CA - pretty sweet

mar 10 - more boarding

mar 11 - second SBX race.  slightly better than the first - no injuries - but still crashed each time.

 

mar 16 - gonna be back at Mammoth again...

mar 17 - CA State Games (grass-roots pretend Olympic type thing) - SL and SBX

mar 18 - more CA Games - GS (Giant Slalom)

OK, so it's been a little bit, but you know what?  My computer broke about 2 weeks ago.  Just flat out broke.  Had to get a new one.  And so here we are.  Back to the Internet.  Hooray.

 

But the 2 weeks of non-blogging before that?  Well, that was just total business and laziness rolled into one.  I'll try to do better...

 

But not tonight - tonight I'm going to bed.