Long and Busy Day

I went out quite early this morning and rode about 23 miles, taking what is now my "regular" route down King's Road to Chinn Chapel to Copper Canyon to Hill Top Road. It was cool and quiet most of the way and I really couldn't focus on "training" per se. Worse yet, my hips were just killing me the whole time. I think it was from the long walk I took yesterday. Isn't it amazing how you can be on the bike for five hours and feel pretty good the next day, but a one-hour walk causes all sorts of damage? Anyway, my rides lately have become considerably more about therapy and less about training. It would be nice if I could find a couple of other riders to train with, but although there are many out there on the weekends, I don't usually see anybody on the weekday mornings. I guess a lot of people have to commute in to work, so early morning rides aren't feasible.

I wanted to get back early because I needed to take the Volvo in to get the front brakes repaired. It was obvious (from about a block away) that the pads and rotors were shot and needed replacement. We had planned on doing that the first week of the month, but Katrina intervened. I finally extracted The Wife from the computer and we headed to some outfit called "Just Brakes" that I had seen on the interstate nearby. Six hours and $625 later, I picked it up. As usual, new pads, new rotors, rebuilt front calipers, etc. We couldn't really afford do spend that kind of cash right now, of course, but you've just got to move the brake job up to the top of the priority list when they start squeaking all the time. Besides, the Volvo is practically my only possession right now.

I also had to drive out to the pet store (twice) to get a shipping crate for The Mom's dog, Cosmo. Cosmo is an American Eskimo dog, about medium sized, so we got the medium sized crate. Well, I could get him in there, but it was pretty tight and I couldn't see him being squeezed in there for the five or six hours it would take to get him to Orlando, so we ended up going back and getting the large one, which was around $100. I was rushing around the whole time because we were planning on leaving for Jackson, LA after getting my mom and her dog on the plane. However, around mid-afternoon we decided to wait until Saturday to make the trip ourselves because some of the local folks wanted to gather up some supplies and stuff for us to bring down to help out the other evacuees. One bit of good news was that the person who has been boarding The Sister's Doberman was very happy to keep him until around Thanksgiving, which was a big relief to The Sister and to us. Otherwise we would have had to pick him up and drive to Jackson, LA by way of Houston (where there was someone who could house him for the duration). That would have extended the drive another two and a half hours at least.

So Kenny B. sent me a TM saying that it looked like the water at my house reached about 6 feet. Now that was a bit of really bad news. He has apparently been riding around New Orleans on his bike with a pistol strapped to his hip. I hope it wasn't quite that high, (the main floor is about 6 Ft. off the ground) but there's nothing I can do about it anyway I guess. If it got anywhere near that high, it would have immersed five or six bikes, all my tools, the washer, dryer, hot water heater, circuit breaker box, a/c-heating unit, and about a truckload of junk. Loads of feelings of frustration and helplessness. The mayor is saying he wants everyone forced out of the city, but the police are still trying to rescue trapped people who want to leave, so they aren't too worried right now about the people who don't want to leave. I wouldn't mind except that at this point nobody has any confidence that their property, whatever is left of it, will be protected.

I got an absolutely awesome writeup from the director of Tulane's hospital about his experiences evacuating the hospital and staff - sleeping on the concrete, guarded by Tulane police, waiting for the huge army helicopters to come pick them up. It's a truly awesome and inspiring story and well worth a read!! Drop me a line and I'll forward you a copy.