Back on the Back

The streets were almost dry when I left home this morning to see how many people would be waiting at the Morning Call for the last Northshore training ride of 2006. Considering that it was New Year's Eve, and there was a Saints game, I wasn't expecting many. As I drove into the parking lot, I looked around for the usual cars, but didn't see any, so I parked, half-expecting I'd be the only one today. Then I glanced over to my right and saw Tim. He said that a bunch of the Herring guys would be in town for the ride today. That could mean only one thing -- it was going to be a couple of notches faster than usual, for sure. I think we had at least a dozen riders, maybe 15, at the start. Scott K went to the front right out of the gate and pulled steadily into the wind at 22-23 mph for the first five miles. I wondered if it was a good idea for me, on my first real ride in over a week, to be diving into the deep end this way. We lost a couple of guys within the first ten miles, as the pace stayed significantly faster than usual. I was being careful to keep my pulls short and sweet, and wasn't hesitating to let the blue guys into the paceline ahead of me. Jay and Jaro had also been sick over the holidays, and were keeping low profiles. Scott was hammering up all the climbs and by the time we were 25 miles in, the strain was starting to show. We waited at an intersection to regroup, but the rest of the group sent Jason up to tell us to go ahead, so it was down to six guys and me. After that, Kenny and I were keeping toward the back as much as possible! Tim flatted about halfway through the ride and I swear it took two inner tubes and three CO2 cartridges to get it fixed.

Anyway, we ended up with around 70 today with an average speed of something in excess of 22 mph. I was actually really happy to find that I felt pretty good toward the end, and even though I had obviously been doing as little work as possible, it was nice to know that I hadn't lost quite as much fitness as I had feared. It was nice to end 2006 with a good ride!

Rideless in the Rain

Well, another day without riding. Today was the first day I've really been up for a good ride, but of course it started raining before dawn and hasn't stopped since. Somehow, fate always seems to manage some sort of conspiracy like this during the winter, the net result of which is a long stretch of doing nothing and a few extra pounds around the middle. It'll be three weeks for sure before I feel right again, but if the weather cooperates I'll be on the northshore tomorrow morning for a long ride anyway. Not expecting it to be easy, at least for me!

Joey and Kelly D stopped by this afternoon for a visit before they have to head back up to NC. Too bad I never got to do any long rides with Joey this time, but between the illness, the weather, and an unexpected crisis, there was just no chance. Anyway, that and the copy of Road that I picked up at the local Barnes and Noble, were the highlights of my day. I might have to break down and get a subscription of Road this year.

Right about the time I was getting over the head cold that screwed up my Christmas holiday, we got word that the Mother in Law, who has moderately advanced AD, had been assaulted and sexually abused while in a locked Alzheimer's unit at the nursing home up in Baton Rouge. As a result, we spent most of two days up there helping deal with the whole thing, moving her to another facility, dealing with police, family, etc. Of course, the people form the home were trying to cover the whole thing up and she didn't get to the hospital until maybe 14 hours later after one of the staff called a family member about the huge black eye (among other injuries) she had. Unbelievable. It's enough to make you want to die suddenly and get it over with.

Lost Days

Although I seem to be finally emerging from the fog of the last few days, things are still a bit unstable. It certainly feels like I've just lost a few days altogether. The fever has subsided, but with a head that feels like it is full of jello, I'm not quite ready for prime time just yet. How convenient that I could schedule this little patch of illness for the holidays rather than use some of the sick leave time that I routinely leave on the table each year at work. The university is closed between Christmas and New Year's, so except for the occasional emails following up on ongoing issues, this would be a prime opportunity to enjoy some nice rides during daylight hours, catch up on work around the house, and generally kick back a bit and enjoy the season. The weather today is quite nice, so around noon I though I'd venture outside for a short walk and to see if I felt up to little ride. I guess not. The combination of this head cold and the drugs still has me feeling generally colder than the temperature justifies, and things are a little shaky yet, but at least I'm heading in the right direction. Perhaps tomorrow I'll be up for at least part of the morning levee ride.

Under the Influence

Well, I've spent the Christmas holiday under the influence of numerous OTC medications in an apparently futile attempt to hold off this cold. Although I was glad not to have awakened Christmas morning with a sore throat, I was pretty unhappy about the steadily rising fever. Looks like this will cost me a good week's worth of training, but I can at least take some comfort in the fact that the weather has been about as miserable as I. Today was six hours at my mother's house breathing cigarette smoke and feeling lousy with no sign of improvement and hardly any appetite. I did manage to force down a couple of slices of lemon merangue pie and a glass of wine, though.

Great Day ... to be sick

OK, so I'll be on the couch today hoping to avoid being really sick for the rest of the holidays. Sitting here surfing the web, imagine my surprise to find a photo from way out of the past on the RideTrash blog (you might want to shield the eyes of the kiddies first). The Mulholland Massacre ride in L.A. is using a photo from a time trial on River Road in Baton Rouge that was taken in 1984. I wonder where they got it from? I've had a copy of it on the NOBC site, in the history section, for years. Wierd. By the way, that's Adam Watts of Adam's Bicycle World (recently re-named simply Bicycle World) who was holding rider Eddie Padilla.

Yeech!

Rain all night, then the fog rolled back in with a cool front, so now it's dark and damp and nasty. In classic fashion, I think I'm getting a head cold, so I'm popping zinc lozenges, for lack of anything better, and hoping for the best. The Daughter called to say her flight tomorrow (which routed through -- you guessed it -- Denver) was cancelled, so The Wife somehow got her on the only remaining seat on any airline flying into New Orleans tomorrow. She won't tell me what it cost. The weather is supposed to clear up at some point, but I sure don't see any sign of that from where I'm sitting. Another day off the bike and I will be sick for sure. Don't know why, but that's just how it usually works out.

So it's 1 p.m. and I'm the only one left at the office, as usual. The whole place is basically a ghost town now, and I'm about ready to pack it in myself if I can convince the workaholic to do likewise.

Spoke too Soon

The quiet day I was expecting went up in flames early this morning. An article in "Inside Higher Ed" (you all read that, don't you?) listed lobbying expenses at a bunch of universities and reported ours at about double what it actually is. At least we were in good company! Our office and Public Relations were all over it, of course, along with a few other universities for whom they had made the same mistake. Since I'm the one who actually does the lobbying reports that nobody cares about except when this sort of thing happens, I was pretty busy. After a flurry of emails with the editor, I think we got it straightened out and have been removed from the listing in the article. At least it was a web article where that sort of thing can get fixed right away and not a print article where it will be there forever. Then someone sends me a photo from the local news website showing street flooding a few blocks from my house. Of course, they failed to mention that there's a bunch of major underground street work going on at that intersection right now, so probably the storm drains are either blocked or temporarily closed off. Either way, I hope the people over there who just finished repairing the hurricane flood damage didn't get wet again.

Christmas Colors

Lots of Christmas Colors on the ol' radar map this morning, and although it's worse elsewhere, this ain't no picnic either. The rain had already started when I arrived at the little neighborhood get-together yesterday after work, and it hasn't stopped for a moment since. There will be no bike riding for me today. Mostly, I'm expecting it to be a pretty boring day. Lots of people are already on vacation, the students are gone, and all that remains is a scattering of lame office Christmas parties.

Yesterday my office met for lunch at Herbsaint, which was pretty nice, although of course the conversation always comes back around to work and politics, which in my office are rather closely intertwined. After lunch, everyone except I took off, so it was a very quiet afternoon. Unless something unexpected flares up, today and tomorrow will be likewise, I'm sure. Just as well, I guess. I could use the sleep! After yesterday evening's little party, where I drank wine, took pictures of the kids (and adults) swinging at the pinata, and drank more wine, I went home and sacked out early. I got to work uncharacteristically early this morning. Since I couldn't ride, I drove in with The Wife and brought along the little Christmas gifts for the folks in the office. This year they all got Starbucks stuff. Those Starbucks folks are pretty sharp. I've got to hand it to them for never missing a good marketing opportunity. Pre-assembled christmas gift boxes with coffee, cookies, holiday theme mugs, etc., each with a convenient gift card and ribbon.

Finally!

A morning without fog. Not only that, it was well above 60F at the crack of dawn, so although lights were still needed for a while, thanks to the overcast sky, shorts were the order of the day.
Rain is in the cards later today, so I was glad to be able to get out for a warm and dry ride for a change.

We had a pretty decent sized group today, but really not as big as I would have expected given the conditions. I guess the holidays are already taking their toll. At some point in the ride, on the way out, the speed picked up. I looked up to see who was on the front. I don't know exactly where he came from, but it was Matt. Later, when he dropped back, I thought something about him looked odd. More odd than usual.

There was a nice tailwind all the way out, so speeds stayed high, but I knew we'd pay the price on the return trip. After the turnaround I got a better look and discovered blond hair poking out from under Matt's helmet. Hmmmm. Don't seem to remember Matt's hair as being that color. Apparently his mid-life crisis is starting to kick in and he has dyed his hair. Anyway, the ride back was fairly brisk, considering the headwind. My legs definitely felt better than yesterday.

Heading out to our office lunch soon and then the rest of the day will be up in the air. Naturally, it's getting ready to rain. Looks like the weather is going to be kind of iffy through Christmas. Here's a pic of Matt without his helmet. I hear all the guys down in the Quarter think it's very attractive.

7 for 7

Here it is already noon and I can barely see the lower parts of the nearby buildings. Yeah, this will be seven straight days of serious fog. The pads in my helmet haven't been dry in a week. When I got to the levee this morning for the long Tuesday ride, Luke was the only one there. He was already trying to talk me into turning around early before I even came to a stop. Eventually, though, we accumulated a decent-sized group of, maybe, ten or so.

It was good and foggy again, of course, but not terrible. Visibility was maybe a quarter mile on average, so the biggest issue was really the dampness. Most of the group turned around at the dip, but four or five of us went all the way out to the end. We had started out a few minutes late this morning and I knew there was a headwind waiting for us on the way back, but, hell, I needed some riding time. Two of the guys we were with live out by Ormond, but they turned around with us and rode back all the way to the dip, so that helped. After that, it was just Donald, Glen and I. I was mostly correct about the headwind, so our pace was limited to 21-22 mph most of the way back. Donald is still trying to get back in shape after some time off the bike with back issues, and my own legs weren't feeling too hot today. Eventually, my feet started getting cold from being wet, even though the temperature was probably in the low 60s. Anyway, it felt like kind of a long slog today, and I arrived back home a good 15 minutes later than usual. I don't remember ever having this many days in a row of riding in the fog like this. Of course, it's always a little worse along the river than it is elsewhere in the city.

It is getting kind of quiet here at the university, as is typical leading up to the holidays. Tomorrow our little office will be heading over to Herbsaint for our annual Christmas lunch, and although I'll be in the office through Friday, not much is likely to happen during that time. How's this sound?

"Here is where dark, rouxy gumbos find common ground with lemony gnocchi seared in olive oil, where small plates of house-made spaghetti come outfitted with fried poached eggs, where parmesan beignets stand in for croutons on carefully composed spinach salads, and steamy piles of dirty rice escort crisp confit duck legs."

Yummy, eh?? You might not find "rouxy" in your English dictionary.

Unbroken Chain

Well, the fog wasn't quite as bad this morning, but it was still heavy enough to keep the headlight on and get everything good and wet during the morning levee ride. It was only Joe and I at first, but after a while I heard John say "I'm here" as he latched onto Joe's wheel. This is the sixth straight day of heavy morning fog, and it's starting to get old. By the time I went to work, it seemed like the fog had just gotten worse instead of better. In fact, the tops of the taller buildings downtown were still in the fog until late afternoon. The Weather Channel isn't offering much hope either, having issued a Dense Fog Advisory earlier today:

"THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEW ORLEANS HAS ISSUED A DENSE FOG ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM CST TUESDAY. DENSE FOG IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ACROSS THE REGION AGAIN TONIGHT AND PERSIST INTO TUESDAY MORNING AS LIGHT WINDS AND ABUNDANT MOISTURE COMBINE TO PRODUCE IDEAL CONDITIONS FOR FOG DEVELOPMENT."

Great. More of the same. Anyway, John and I traded long, even pulls this morning at a steady 21 mph as the condensing fog dripped from the fronts of our helmets onto our noses. At least it wasn't cold, otherwise we might have thought we were in Seattle. My legs were still feeling kind of stiff from the weekend rides. At work, things are already getting into that odd schizophrenic state that the holidays always inspire. Some people and projects seem to suddenly go into hibernation for the duration, while other people shift into manic mode, compulsively trying to wrap up old projects before the end of the year. Just for the record, I fall distinctly into the former category.

The 2007 LAMBRA race calendar is still shifting around a bit. Frank Moak called this evening to say that he was swapping dates with one of the Baton Rouge time trials, and one of the road races near Meridian, MS is looking to move to a different date too. Every time one race moves, it causes a ripple effect all through the calendar. Even so, it's important that we get a reasonably solid calendar out there pretty soon, or there will just be more conflicts with events in neighboring states. Texas officially announced their Texas Cup calendar recently. As usual, the Tour de La conflicts with the Matrix Challenge, but luckily Texas has more than enough riders to go around. At any rate, I'm set to announce the LAMBRA calendar at the end of the week, ready or not. I know it's hard for some of the promoters to nail their dates down this early, but they'll be glad they did when their events sneak up on them as always seems to happen.

Laura sent in the club's team kit order, along with a big check, today, which is probably about the earliest we've ever gotten it done. Naturally someone called me tonight to see about ordering his stuff! I wonder when the stuff will arrive.

Another Day in the Fog?

I was sure that after five straight days of riding in the fog, we were finally done with it. Indeed, there was hardly any fog around when I drove out to the Morning Call this morning to see who would show up for the Northshore ride. Training rides at this time of year are always kind of sketchy, attendence-wise, and this one was not exception. Only Sam was there when I arrived, so we loaded up the Volvo and hit the Causeway. It was looking good. Clear skies and no significant fog at all. Until, that is, we hit the north end of the Causeway. Damn! The fog just got thicker and thicker the farther north we went and by the time we were at the parking lot where the ride was to start, I was wishing I hadn't left my tail light at home. As it turned out, we had only eight riders today, but it was a good group and everybody was pretty much on the same page. I thought it would be a good day to take the unpaved "Dusty Road" route to Enon, since that would keep us off of relatively busy Lee Road, so after a few miles to warm up we hit the red dirt and gravel for a couple of miles of slip-and-slide. Actually, the road was nice and dry and the gravel wasn't deep, so it was a pretty easy traverse today. We were over half-way through the ride before we finally started to get some glimpses of the sun overhead, and finally, with twenty miles or so left, the fog was gone and the temperatures well on the rise. Since the bikes were already dirty, we decided to make our return trip via Isabel Swamp Road, which also has a mile or two of dirt. This road was surprisingly hard-packed and some sections felt just like smooth asphalt! Although we only logged about 60 miles today, my legs were definitely feeling it by the time we got back.

Is This a December Giro?

The fog wasn't too bad when I left home, but the closer I got to the lakefront, the thicker the fog became. I had worn my vest because I knew I'd be wet by the time I got out there, and I guess that today the only choice was between warm wet and cold wet. Warm was better. The Giro groups was somewhat small, thanks to the thick fog, and the pace remained moderate all the way out to the turnaround. Only a few people in the group had tail lights, and it was definitely a bit on the dangerous side today. I was kind of surprised when so many riders decided to continue and do a long ride out to Fort Pike. Personally, I was more than happy to turn around and head back, as my wet feet were already starting to get cold and the prospect of a 90 mile ride in this soup didn't seem too appealing to me. There were just a few of us heading back together, but soon Todd got on the front and between VJ and he, we were soon rolling along at 25-28 mph, which lasted until we hit the service road. Then, along Hayne, I accidentally rolled off the front when the pace slowed down, trying to avoid getting cold. Finally on my way home, the fog eased up as I headed away from the lakefront. It was kind of a miserable ride for me today, after which we headed up to Baton Rouge to visit The Wife's mother. That was pretty depressing.

Saturday night was a little party at Robin's place. It's always nice to see all of your riding friends wearing civilian clothes. Some of them clean up surprisingly well. The jambalaya was tasty, the wine (and champagne) were great, and the company was entertaining. Nonetheless, I was good and kept it down to four or six glasses of wine since I was planning on doing the Northshore ride on Sunday. I took some photos, too. 'Tis the Season!

More of the Same

It was just more of the same thing today - fog, wet streets, and lingering morning darkness. I had little enthusiasm for getting on the bike this morning, but fear of fatness somehow got me out the door anyway. Two jerseys, arm-warmers, and shorts were barely sufficient despite the relatively warm 59 degree air temperature. I doubt the relative humidity has dropped below 80% for the last three days, and of course in the morning it's always right at the dew point, or vice-versa, which is to say the air is fully saturated.

There was a heavy mist that was just short of rain, and I could immediately feel it on my face and arms where the dampness just cut right through the arm-warmers. For the first few blocks I fought off the voice of reason that kept whispering "go back home you fool" in my ear. One has to be careful about listening to the voice of reason sometimes. As usual, once I was thoroughly dampened by the fog and the chill had begun to stabilize, it was all better. You can never trust your instincts for those first couple of miles, you know. Sometimes new riders entering one of their first races will ask me what they should do. I often tell them to stay calm, near the front, and out of the wind for the first half of the race. By then, it will be clear what they can do for the second half. Training rides are like that too sometimes.

So anyway, there were just two of us up there today, except for a brief visit by Howard. Pretty standard Friday spin. Things should be getting a bit better, weather-wise, over the weekend, and there is nothing really cold in the forecast for at least the next week, but I'm sure the usual holiday chores and errands will consume much of the available riding time. That's OK. It's only December, right?

The area clubs and race promoters have been doing a great job of working out their final event dates, and I'm just waiting for one more date before putting the 2007 calendar up on the website. Hopefully most of them will be able to stick with their dates, because moving a race around after it is initially scheduled is never a good thing.

Someone posted a link to a bunch of photos from the NCURA party that was part of the D.C. meeting I attended in November. This is the band that is composed entirely of research administrator types (except for the woman who is actually on the NCURA office staff in Washington). Yeah, I'm in there somewhere.

The Daughter finished up exams last night, and will be leaving soon to visit with her roomate's family in Wisconsin, finally finding her way back here a couple of days before Christmas. We keep saying we'll take a couple of days off and try to make some progress on the stalled kitchen project, but it doesn't seem to be happening. When I was younger I'd just put in a few all-nighters and the thing would be done. Nowadays I'd rather have a couple of glasses of wine, put my feet up, and pretend I don't care until I fall asleep halfway through Jay Leno's monologue.

Cloud Ridin'

The city was socked-in with fog again this morning, and as I sit here looking out the window on the 25th floor, all I can see in all directions is misty white nothingness. Down at street level, though, it's now more of a light mist than a fog and I guess it will be another hour before my pant legs dry out from the commute in to work.

Earlier this morning I was determined to ride, regardless of the fog, perhaps a bit motivated by a midnight call alerting me to the unexpected death of one of the Neurology faculty members. Life is short. It was just like riding in a cloud this morning. Water droplets accumulated quickly on the leading edges of everything, and my clear glasses didn't make it three miles before I had to pull them off and put them in my pocket. With both lights flashing I arrived at the levee to find only Joe, but after we got going we picked up first Jeff and then Keith. All the way out to River Ridge the combination of darkness and fog kept our speed down to 20 or so, and even so there were a few spikes in the heart rate monitors when we came around the curve at the pipes to find a Jefferson Parish police SUV cutting the curve and heading straight for us. In fact, the most dangerous things up there today were the police cars. Once we got out to Kenner the fog was much thinner and I was finally confortable turning off my light. Since we were so few of us, we turned around at the 'dip' today. It wouldn't have been a bad day to do the whole long ride, but we weren't going fast enough to get everyone back on schedule. The return trip was a couple of mph faster, thanks to the improved visibility, and we saw Eddie C on his unlit TT bike looking kind of concerned and obviously going more slowly than usual. Somewhere along the way we lost Joe, but I'm sure he eventually found his way home.

Coulda

The bedside alarm sounded in the dark and with one eye open I shut it off. When the backup wristwatch alarm started its beeping, I looked out the window. It was way too dark. Outside, the streets were wet and the fog was thick. Really thick. I briefly considered going out for a ride on the old Pennine with its wide tires and full fenders. After all, although it was wet and dark and foggy, the temperature was pretty warm. I could have ridden.

I didn't. My own morning inertia, combined with the need to transfer lights to the other bike, and the inherent danger, however minimal, of riding in a dark fog on city streets, was enough to tip the scales in favor of a day off. It doesn't take much on a Wednesday morning. Much of the fog had lifted by 8 a.m. when I arrived at the office, but even by 10:00, when the RiverCam photo was taken, it was still around, shrouding the tops of the taller buildings downtown.

Things are moving along with finalizing the '07 LAMBRA racing calendar, thanks to the work of the area clubs and promoters. I think we'll have a pretty decent season on the books, albeit with the usual slowdown after mid-July. I still need to do the revision of the bylaws that is needed following the annual meeting earlier this month, but that shouldn't be too difficult and it can definitely wait until the holidays if necessary.

So the news today is the official announcement that our Senior Vice President for Health Sciences is moving to Chicago where he will be president and CEO of the Loyola University Health System and Medical Center. The real surprise (there had been well-founded rumors for a while) is that he will be leaving at the end of January, leaving us with quite a problem. As you can imagine, it is still very hard to recruit quality people to New Orleans. That is, assuming the President doesn't eliminate the position entirely, which has become a bit of a trend at local universities lately. Just to remind us that all is not normal, yesterday we lost water pressure for a couple of hours, which was probably about the time that a major water main broke over on the West Bank in Algiers, which is the bend in the river that you can see in the photo above. They are saying that it may be until Thursday before they have that one fixed, and in the meantime the residents in that area are under a "boil order." Up in D.C., the Dems are going for a year-long Continuing Resolution for this Fiscal Year, rather than finish up the appropriations bills that Congress (they) left behind. This will cause some problems for the federal funding agencies and, of course, our research grant recipients, until the agencies know exactly how much funding they will actually have for the year that is already one-quarter past. Of course, the Dems are blaming the Republicans for everything, as usual. The next time the Republicans take control of Congress (which is likely to be quite a while at this point), they will blame the Democrats for all of the problems. Personally, I blame them both for not being able to work together like adults. At least down here in Louisiana we make stupid decisions quickly, forge ahead with them decisively, and move on.

Too Warm for Arm-Warmers

I was rather overdressed for this morning's affair on the levee. The skies looked overcast, at least as far as I could tell at 6 a.m., so I figured I'd go with two jerseys and arm-warmers since it might be foggy and/or raining. As it turned out, it was neither and with nine or ten riders in the group the pace was brisk but not brutal. Ronnie was lobbying for an early turnaround, but I think almost everybody ended up doing the whole ride except Luke who apparently flatted right when we started out and Courtley who got held up coming across the lake because they were "caravanning." The causeway police will do that when it gets really foggy, although she said that it didn't look foggy at all to her. Anyway, it was a pretty typical and uneventful 44 mile morning ride. Some slightly cooler air is on its way and I'm expecting to see some rain around here this afternoon when it arrives.

In the meantime, we're trying to wrap up the LAMBRA racing calendar, which means I will be harassing various promoters, with escalating frequency, until I have solid dates and event information from them. Wish me luck...

The best quote I've seen so far on Jefferson's re-election came from a political analyst at the University of New Orleans: “We've just re-elected the least-effective member of the House of Representatives.” All those people who didn't bother to vote this time need to be horse-whipped.

Back to "Normal"

(First, you might want to look at this article on doping in sports from the LA Times)

Much warmer this morning, but being a Monday there were only a few for the levee ride. Ronnie and Joe F. decided to do a long ride, so after the turnaround that left just Donald and me. Donald happily pulled all the way back. He just loves that for some reason, and I could find no cause to complain about it, myself, so I spun along behind him taking in the scenery and mulling over the two big events of the weekend. Anyway, it looks like the weather for the next week or so will be fairly normal - maybe even a bit warmer than normal.

The first was yesterday's Saints game. I'm not much of a football fan, and even less of a fan of disappointment, so I've never followed the Saints very well. Past teams always seemed to be playing football more because they had to than because they wanted to, and they had a particular knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at the last moment. Well, something's changed. These guys were in shape, well-trained, and playing for keeps and it was a beautiful sight to behold, once you got past the tatoos and greasy dreadlocks sticking out from under the helmets.

The other shocking thing I witnessed this weekend was the re-election of Representative Bill Jefferson in what Donald aptly described as "another OJ verdict." Indeed, there was no rational reason to re-elect the guy. His record on the Hill is dismal IMHO, and then there was that little matter of the as-yet unexplained $90,000 in his freezer that the FBI happened to stumble across in the course of a bribery investigation in which two of Jefferson's buddies have already plead guilty. This was a case of that certain segment of the metro area (his district is quite gerrimandered) again pissing on the "system" as they did when they re-elected the Mayor, who, BTW, has been pretty hard to find since that election. Of course, it didn't help when the Jefferson Parish Sherrif (part of that parish is included in Jefferson's district) raised a big fuss because Jefferson's opponent in the runoff, who was pretty damned weak herself, when interviewed in the infamous Spike Lee "documentary," accused his police department of being, basically, racist when they stopped the refugees from crossing the Mississippi River bridge after the hurricane. That pretty much took away the suburban votes. I won't be too surprised when Congress slams the door on Louisiana next session. All I know for sure is that Jefferson sure doesn't represent my interests. Anyway, looks like more of the status quo unless the FBI finally has the nerve to come down on him.

Back on the home front, some good news about the Rouge-Roubaix road race. The promoter who had been doing it the last few years really didn't want to take it on again. Luckily, one of the guys on the Baton-Rouge based Delta Racing/ Raising Cane's Racing club stepped forward to continue this classic. Better be ready for the first weekend in March!

A December Weekend

Friday night was the Psychiarty & Neurology department's Christmas party, which they cleverly incorporate into a two-day conference. This year it was held at the Lowes hotel on Poydras St. The view from the 10th floor conference facility was really nice on this clear and cold December night. The good ol' Hibernia Bank cupola, lit up in its traditional holiday colors (they also do purple and green for Mardi Gras) was easy to find, although the photo really doesn't do it justice. Looking the other way down Poydras St., toward the river, you see the back of the casino and the entrance to the Riverwalk. Despite the cold, things were very lively down on street level. Back up on the 10th floor, though, we had a nice little party with lots of boiled shrimp and hotel wine. Well, maybe a little too much hotel wine.

Saturday morning was pretty chilly and so I happily waited an extra hour and met Courtney out on the lakefront at 8:00. After leaving the house, I immediately made a u-turn to slip my knee-warmers over my tights. No point freezing those beat-up old joints! We rode the usual Giro route, and when we were on Chef Highway we saw the regular Giro group on its way back. Maybe "group" is an overstatement, because there were only seven of them. Apparently a few were doing the "long" ride out to Slidell, but we never saw any of them. When the group went by, one of them made a U-turn and Courtney thought it might be Robin. We slowed down, and kept looking back, but the rider didn't seem to be catching us. Then he stopped. I figured there was a problem, so I turned around and rode back to him. As it turned out, his freehub, or at least the pawls in it, were shot and he could pedal all he wanted but he wasn't going anywhere. He was parked four miles or so down Chef Highway, and I ended up pushing him the whole distance so he wouldn't have to walk. That's kind of hard on the old back, by the way. I had to switch sides a few times. Luckily, the road is pretty much all flat, but when we had to go just barely uphill to go over a low levee, it was amazing how much harder it got. Apparently an extra 150 pounds makes a difference on the uphills. Who knew! Anyway, we had a pretty nice ride on Saturday, and didn't miss much by not doing the regular Giro.

When I woke up on Sunday I heard something I wasn't expecting. Rain. The forecast was for only a 20% chance of rain, so I checked the radar. It looked like it would be over soon, so I went ahead and headed out to the Morning Call meeting spot where I really didn't expect to see anybody. Wrong again. Sam, Scott and Paul were there ready to go, so we headed across the lake through another little rain shower, hoping for the best. By the time we arrived the rain was over for good, although it was still overcast. The group was small as it often is for the December rides when the weather is sketchy, but we ended up doing a really nice 65 miles of moderate riding with lots of stops. Although it was in the 40s when we started, it must have been 60F by the time we got back. Stopped for lunch at the Abita BrewPub after the ride with Paul, Scott and The Wife, where I had a big ol' hamburger and fries with my Turbodog. Couldn't resist.

Put up some of the Christmas decorations today. It's the time!

Undercover

"...beep...beep...beep... the outdoor temperature is 32 degrees fahrenheit." The old indoor-outdoor thermometer next to my nightstand is of the "talking" variety, and although I rarely use its voice feature it is set to sound an alert when the outdoor temperature exceeds 100F or dips below 33F. I don't think I've heard it in over a year. However, thus was I awakened this morning. Since it is a Friday in December and I've not skipped a day in a while, I pulled the covers over my head and contemplated my good fortune at having the use of the car today. The wife is staying at a hotel downtown while working a conference that started early this morning. One thing I've always thought would be a nice invention for guys who train in the morning is a programmable alarm clock that takes into consideration the outdoor temperature and weather conditions. For example, if it's below 32F, the usual 5:45 am alarm could be automatically delayed for an hour - or two. Approaching rain could trigger an alternate alarm message. Cold rain could turn the damned thing off altogether , email the office that I'm sick, and start a pot of coffee!

So this morning I was like a normal American. I made some coffee, fried an egg, hopped into the Volvo with the heat cranked up to "high" and the electric seat-warmer switched on, and merged into the rush-hour traffic. That traffic was particularly unusual this morning, as it turned out. The combination of interstate highway construction, some sort of water source, and freezing temperatures resulted in a couple of nice little ice slicks on the local I-10. Numerous surprised motorists did some unexpected automotive ice skating, resulting in a pile-up of cars and a complete shutdown of the interstate. Man, a couple of degrees below freezing and all hell breaks loose around here! As a result, the inner city thoroghfares were full of impatient and disoriented commuters clutching their cellphones in one hand, coffee in the other, and driving with their knees. Since I have to attend a little work-related party at a downtown hotel this evening with The Wife, and since I have been recruited to take a few photos for the organization's website, I finally broke down and stopped by the infamous downtown Wal-Mart to pick up a 1 gig SD card for the new camera. Maybe I'm behind the times a bit, but it still amazes me that I can casually pick up a gigabyte of high-speed RAM on a card half the size of a cheap potato chip for under $50. In fact, it's not uncommon for me to have something like 70 or 80 gigabytes of various forms of memory in my messenger bag at one time. I love it. I want more! OTOH, I'm sure the folks in Silicon Valley and wherever else sloppy programmers labor will do their best to make sure I need at least that much memory to, say, operate my kitchen toaster (or run Windows Vista).

It's looking like it will be another cold night tonight, and considering the fact that I'll be doing a little partying, I may skip the 7 am Giro and instead meet Courtney at the hopefully warmer hour of 8:00. That is, if my alarm goes off...

Bare Skin

I had to do a double-take on the outside temperature reading this morning when I awoke. Yep. It was in the mid-50s. Nice. I figured I could expose a few inches of bare skin under those conditions. In may case, that meant substituting knee-warmers for long tights and maybe four inches of unprotected skin, but anyway it felt good! Unfortunately, the sky was quite overcast and it stayed that way all morning. As it was, we were slipping in a ride just before another cold front came through. If fact, it's coming through right now and by tomorrow night it is supposed to be quite cold again. Anyway, we had a nice group up on the levee today despite a fairly brisk new wind. Luke was lobbying for an early turnaround, but he didn't get many takers and ultimately did the long ride with the rest of us. I must have been feeling pretty good this morning because Matt kept complaining about me surging when I'd come to the front. Really, it didn't seem like I was surging all that much. OK, maybe 1 mph., but we weren't going very fast anyway. It wasn't until the return trip when we picked up a few miles of tailwind that I finally had to briefly deploy the 53. It's hard to judge what gear people are in nowadays. Lots of them, even here where the biggest hills are about 200 meters long and measurable in inches, are riding 'compact' cranks. That means, basically, that they never use their small chainrings. I must be missing something there....

So yesterday afternoon I hopped on the commuter and rode back uptown to attend the dedication ceremony for the newly remodeled University Center. The actual dedication ceremony was in the pocket park next to the building, and naturally the focal point was a huge inflatable champagne bottle from which exploded blue and green streamers when the President gave the command via a cellphone interface (just like the car-bombers do!). My primary motivation was that I wanted to have a look at how far along they were with the project because I had just reserved a lot of the space for a late-January conference. The other reason was because I have a kind of connection with Tulane's UC. As a kid, we would often walk or ride our bikes over to Tulane's campus and run around the UC, sometimes talking our way into the WTUL radio studio down in the basement to watch the student DJ spin records (yeah, actual analog-style vinyl disks). As a swimmer, we often had big swimming meets there, too, and later in high school we often worked out at the Tulane pool where I would stare up at the record board on the wall and wonder how those guys could swim so fast. All through college and grad school I would occasionally put in a month or so of swimming at the pool as well, so it was kind of sad to see it (and the swimming team) go when they built the "new" student recreation center about twenty years ago. Even after all of the renovations and remodeling, there is this one big room with high ceilings and a water wall that occupies the old pool location, and for those of us who remember the pool, there is just enough there to remind us what it used to be like, and the room's environmentally friendly water wall, that functions also as part of the building's environmental control system, is a nice and appropriate touch. The photo here shows that room with the Lusher school's orchestra, which, BTW, sounded pretty damned good. So anyway, I was impressed with the new design. I remain impressed that this project, interrupted by Hurricane Katrina, was completed on time. The senior class that will be graduating this Spring had only one semester in the UC before it was closed for remodeling, so at least they will also have one semester in the new one.

A Cold Nose and Happy Knees

After a long night of intermittent sleep and a toothache (that I'm sure will end badly), I figured I had nothing to lose by hitting the road at 6 a.m. despite the chilly temperature. Ronnie and Jeff were up there too, so we did a good, steady ride, albiet not the usual Tuesday "long ride." It was just a few degrees above freezing at the start, so I had my knee-warmers on underneath my long tights, and that worked out really well. My knees were very happy the whole time. I probably should have gone with the Pearlizumi vest instead of just the little DeFeet Un-d-flector thing this morning, but once we got warmed up it wasn't bad at all. The thing I hate most about winter riding is the damned runny nose. To make matters worse, the wind-shell gloves that I had on over my regular DeFeet gloves offer no good nosewipage. Now, I ask you, who would make any kind of winter riding glove and leave out the nosewipage area? At least the temperatures should be a bit better tomorrow before we get slammed by another cold front on Thursday.

Meanwhile, back at the office, my feet have been cold all day today, and combined with my lack of sleep last night, all I can think about is a soft bed, a warm comforter, and a couple of Advil! It's only 5 pm right now and the sun is already setting. Winter sure can be depressing sometimes. Tulane is having a dedication ceremony for the newly renovated and expanded University Center. Excuse me, we now refer to it as the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life. Now that just rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? I'm sticking with "UC." Anyway, I just reserved about half of it for our NSF Day that is scheduled about a week after it officially opens in January. Bold move, eh? Trying to get one of our Senators and maybe the Director of the National Science Foundation to give some welcoming remarks - we'll see how that works out. It will probably disrupt the entire schedule, of course.

Just posted some photos from The Daughter's "Black and Gold" intrasquad meet.

More Cold and Windy

I almost whimped out this morning, but since I had a short ride on Sunday and prospect for the next couple of days don't look a whole lot better, I threw on an extra layer and headed out for the levee this morning to log a few miles. It was pretty cold and very windy, but the sun eventually came over the horizon and it wasn't really all that bad for the 25 miles or so that I was up there. During that time I saw exactly one other bike - the girl who commutes to work on the levee on a mountain bike with full panniers. She looked like she was having a hard time of it, and I presume she has a fairly long commute, judging by her clothes and all, so she definitely gets a gold star today. I kept it one cog lower than usual but tried to keep the effort level steady so I wouldn't get too cold. Thanks to Pearlizumi and DeFeet, I was pretty confortable. It was the first day for the full jacket on my commute to work, though!

So yesterday was the annual LAMBRA meeting. As usual, a few key people were AWOL, so I will need to track down the contact for Tour le Fleur and whoever scheduled the "Prologue Time Trial" before the initial '07 calendar is wrapped up. Also, a couple of events need to get final approval on new dates to which they moved. Here's the Reader's Digest version of my meeting notes. Apparently things don't always go so smoothly with other Local Association meetings. Even so, we were there from 1:00 until about 5:00.

• 2006 LCCS Championship Jerseys: Caroline and Gary Gray need to order more jerseys, and are doing that now. Hopefully they will be ready in time for some sort of awards event in January or February '07.
• Scoring of Category 5 for the LCCS points series is eliminated (Cat. 5s do not score points). Texas eliminated scoring for Cat. 5s a few years ago for similar reasons (difficulties due to 1-day licenses, desire to encourage upgrading to Cat. 4). Cat. 5 races are still required for all LCCS events, however.
• A masters 55+ LCCS category is added as an optional category. Same points and minimum field sizes as 45+. If the event has a separate class for 55+, then 55+ score LCCS points. May be combined with other masters age groups, like 45+.
• Riders have 7 days after updated LCCS points are announced to contact the rankings coordinator about errors in scoring.
• Category 3 minimum field for LCCS scoring lowered from 12 to 6 (now matches Cat. 1,2 minimum field).
• The track committee will put together a complete revision of the Track LCCS rules and regulations by January.
• Suggested new items to add to LAMBRA race kit: Finish line banner (vertical), basic signage (1k, 200M, arrows, etc.), Clock.
• LAMBRA will host a non-competitive (i.e. social) event early in the season, probably coordinated by the new club in Alexandria.
  
• Calendar:
  * Tour de La, 2-man TT, and Rocktoberfest dates are good.
  * First event Feb. 25, Raising Cane's 3-Man Time Trial, Baton Rouge.
  * As usual, no word on Rouge-Roubaix yet.
  * Nobody showed up for Tour le Fleur date, which conflicted with Giro d' Rankin date, so the Giro gets the date since they scheduled first.
  * Hope to be able to post the 2007 Calender before Christmas.
  
• 2007 Officers
  * President: Randy Legeai
  * Vice President: Gary Gray
  * Secretary/Treasurer: Shane Hernandez

Cold and Flat Season

Up early, I took my time getting dressed for a chilly Giro Ride this morning, stopping before going down to the basement to stick a powerbar in my pocket. I figured some of the guys would be doing the "long ride" today out to Slidell, and wanted to keep my options open. As usual, the first thing I did was check the tires on the bike. Damn! Rear tire was flat. Since I was early, I figured I had time to patch it, so fixed it up, pumped it up and promptly ripped the valve stem out of the tube. Damn again! OK, so now I wasn't early any more, but I had time to stick in a fresh tube and head off into the North wind for the Lakefront. I looked down and I was struggling to hold 15 mph. I was pretty sure I was going to skip the long ride. The prospect of battling that wind out on the unprotected stretch of Highway 90 through the marsh just didn't sound very appealing any more. When I got to the lakefront I stopped with my back to the wind and waited to get a shot of the group as it started out. Of course, there's never quite enough light that early in the morning, and as usual the photo didn't come out too well.

There was a surprisingly large group for the Giro Ride today. Considering the cold and wind, I would have expected more people to stay at home and wait until later. Nobody seemed too keen on hammering this time, at least until we got near the turnaround when the pace started to surge. A gap opened a few bikes ahead and Mark and I went around and caught. Naturally another gap opened as soon as we caught. I went around and started to close, but the pace was increasing the whole time and so eventually I just shut it down.

On the way back the group split into at least three groups, none of which were going all that hard. The group I was with was going pretty easy - easy enough for conversation anyway. At one point we picked it up enough to catch the group ahead of us, but otherwise it was a nice easy ride back. The only thing was - with the slower pace we were starting to get kind of chilly again. It definitely felt like a winter ride today.

Meanwhile, up in Iowa City, The Daughter actually competed Beam today in their "Black and Gold" meet. I guess that means the knee is doing well. She even got her pic on the website story.

To the Park

With uncanny accuracy, the line of severe thunderstorms that had been creeping its way toward us all day hit right about rush hour. I made the short drive home with the bike in the back of the car, wondering when the cold air would move in. By 10 p.m. the winds had shifted to the NW and the temperatures were beginning to drop, and by morning it was about thirty degrees colder. Sane people stayed in bed, comforted in the knowledge that it would be warmer tomorrow. Naturally, I went out for a ride - more out of curiosity than anything else. I knew it would be cold and windy, but the sky would surely be blue. The question was whether anyone else would show up.

I looked up ahead as I climbed the levee. The meeting spot was deserted. I looked back and saw a single lone rider struggling against the wind. Of course it was Joe Fuselier. "Let's go to the Park and do a few laps there today," I said. With the added protection of the trees and buildings, the park would be infinitely more pleasant than the unprotected and windswept levee bike path. Today's ride would be mainly just a character-building exercise - a little warmup for the more sustained cold weather to come. As expected, the bike path was practically deserted, as was Audubon Park, and although the trees helped buffer the North wind a bit, it remained a nontrivial aspect of the ride. We did a few easy laps, I took a couple of photos, and then I headed home through Tulane's campus. The Quad had not yet awakened and the only person on the sidewalk was one of the groundskeepers. He was driving a small tractor toward me, all bundled up in a dark green Tulane wind shell and knit cap, and with a big cup of coffee in one hand. He smiled as I went past. The old Quad is a beautiful place this time of the day. For the moment, you can see some Fall colors in the some of the trees, but you'd better not blink because it won't last long. The cold and windy weather at least gave us full run of the bike path and lots of time to look around and enjoy the scenery.

By the time I got home my feet and arms were already pretty chilled, but I had to rush in order to get a ride to work with The Wife. The commute to the office on the bike would have been kind of brutal this morning, and since I got home a bit early I figured I take the easy road today. That easy road included a stop at the local Starbucks, of course, for a Scone and a cup of dark roast with turbinado sugar. Mmmmm.

I guess there are some things about cold weather that I like.

Winter Coming

The ride this morning was warm and humid with a steady southeast breeze that kept the pace high on the way out. The other thing keeping the pace high was John T. who apparently placed 20th recently at an Ironman in Australia. Since the group was smallish today we turned around at the dip instead of going all the way to the end of the bike path, but considering the steady headwind all the way back, we still got in a good workout. Today was probably the last day of warm weather we'll see for a little while, because Winter is coming back this afternoon. We're expected to go from a high of 75F today down to a low of 39F tonight, accompanied by the usual WNW winds at 20-30 mph and a 60% chance of rain. Once it's all moved through, though, it should be nicer for the weekend.

Anyway, I know I shouldn't complain. I just checked the weather up in Iowa City where it's 17F right now. The recent USADA action with Genevieve Jeanson is pretty telling, I think. How do you go from a lifetime ban for EPO and a missed test to a retroactive 2-year suspension? Perhaps the lawyers and scientists have poked so may holes in the "infallible" urinary EPO test that some damage control was in order? The official statement was "Both parties acknowledge that they are not changing their respective positions by agreeing [...] but seek to end this matter without further process." Hmmm. An out-of-court settlement to save face? BTW, I think I found what I want for Christmas! (The cyclepassion.com calendar would be nice too.)

Interrupted Routine

Continuing warm weather and a relatively quiet to-do list had me all set for a fairly routine Wednesday when I rolled out to the levee to meet the group. Although we had to detour onto the grassy slope of the levee at one point where the police were blocking the road, presumably investigating a crime scene, the ride was pretty normal. There was this one tall guy wearing running shoes and gym shorts and riding an aluminum GT road bike, though. He turned out to be fairly stable, though, so no real problem there once I decided he wasn't going to do anything too scary.

Then, around noon, I finally got a big reimbursement check that had gotten bounced back a couple of times, so I took the car over to the bank and then to the Starbucks on Prytania to pick up some fresh coffee for the office. In honor of the impending season, I settled on their Christmas Blend. I'd had some last year and it was pretty good, and besides, the package is festive. It's supposed to get cold around here tomorrow night and so I'm expecting my craving for hot strong coffee to return with the front. In the meantime, it's looking like it will be cloudy and maybe a bit rainy this afternoon and tomorrow.

When I got back to my office, there was a big post-it note in the middle of my desk from Rebecca that just said, in big letters, "S.O.S!!" Her computer, it seemed, was quite screwed up. After some investigation, I found an odd file running, and when I killed the process, the strangeness, manifested by random flashes on the screen of an unidentifiable html file, (almost) stopped. Hmmm. Not good. So I ran McAfee on running programs and it found a Trojan, but I don't think the beast was killed. It's more like I stepped on a worker ant but didn't touch the Queen. After a while, it spontaneously re-booted, and a couple of times crashed to a blue screen, aka "the blue screen of death." So we called in the reinforcements, and the tech support guy pulled the hard drive so he could scan it on his computer. Don't know the outcome yet, though. Anyway, I love that kind of detective work, and it was a nice break from the more mundane phone calls that I still have to make because I happily put them on "hold" while I investigated the computer issue. The only problem is that I know just enough to be really dangerous, and I know it. Hopefully it's not a combination of problems, like a Trojan plus some bad memory (yeah, it was a stop error). Anyway, on the plus side I was able to pick the brain of the tech guy and find out the secret POP server address for the new Exchange server. Not sure if I'll use it, but it's nice to know, right?

There's a chance of rain tomorrow morning, but it's not higher than 30% so perhaps we won't get rained out.

Practically Summer

It's practically summer today in New Orleans, and the nice weather attracted a good-sized group this morning for the long Levee Ride. I guess we must have gotten up to fifteen riders once we finally got rolling. With the temperature around 70F and just a light breeze, only a few of us even bothered to pull on the arm-warmers. It sounds like we'll have another couple of days of warm temperatures, although the rain will be moving in ahead of the next cold front that is supposed to drop us down into the upper 30s by Friday. Today, the warm and humid air made for some nice fog along the river, and occasionally the river-cooled air would spill over the levee so that it felt like you were riding past a great big freezer with its door open. The pace got going pretty good, especially on the way out where there was a slight tailwind, and we still had a reasonable percentage of riders left when we hit the turnaround. Jeff and I led the group as we headed back, or so we thought. After a mile or two spinning at maybe 20 mph, we looked back to find the rest of the group maybe a minute back. We decided to just keep going, however, knowing they would eventually catch us, which finally happened a bit after the "dip." The ride back was moderated a bit by the wind, although for the most part we were cruising at 23-24 mph.

The LAMBRA annual meeting is scheduled for this Sunday and although I'm hoping it won't turn into a really long marathon, I'm expecting it will run a couple of hours at least. First, we have to get the initial La/Ms calendar worked out so that there aren't any big date conflicts. Then I'm sure there will be the usual discussion about the LCCS points series, which usually results in changing around some categories or age groups or points schedules. Points series are always problematic like that, since everyone has a different take on them. We'll have a few new clubs next season - at least three - so that should make things interesting. I'll be picking George H from the USAC up from the airport that morning, and it will be great to have him there to give us the latest on the goings-on in Colorado Springs and in the other nearby regional associations.

I guess it's getting to be time for me to renew my USAC licenses, my NOBC membership, order my team kit for '07, etc. Guess I'll wait until after pay-day, though! This can get kind of expensive. Anyway, I still need to get the online membership set up for '07. After wandering around the SportsBase Online website a bit, I think I'll probably stick with Active.com for another year for the memberships. The fee is a little higher, but the website is a lot more attractive, it's really easy for me to clone the prior year's membership setup, and the total number of online memberships isn't so great that we're talking about a big difference in total fees. For the Tour de La, however, it may be between SportsBase and Bikereg, because for that the difference in fees is a significant number of dollars.

In the Small Ring

It was cool and quiet at 4:30 a.m. and the dew dripping from the trees was the only sound I heard when I stepped outside this morning to put the roof rack on the car. The Daughter was due at MSY for 5:30 and I was due at the Morning Call for 7, and I was already feeling tired. When we arrived at the airport it was very busy already with travelers heading back home after the holiday, but otherwise there were no surprises and after as top at Starbucks I pulled into the parking lot at the Morning Call to find a number of people already there. The weather today promised to be nearly perfect, and it definitely delivered. By the time our 13-rider group got underway around 8 a.m. the temperature was around 60F, and winds were light, and the sky was clear. Half an hour later we were already peeling off layers and stuffing them into our bulging pockets. We picked up a few more riders along the way, and I guess at one point there were 16 or so before a few turned back at the end of Tung Rd. to make for a shorter ride. The rest of us continued on at a moderate base training pace, straining mostly successfully to resist the ever-present temptation to put the hammer down on the smooth stretches. Starting this week from Abita Springs, we basically took a long circuitous route to Folsom and back, eventually logging around 70 miles.

I was determined to make today a technique day, so I declared the big ring strictly off-limits for the duration, resulting in more than a few miles of spinning the 53x13 at 120+ RPM. The legs felt surprisingly good considering the previous night's mild excesses at the dinner table and the scant five hours of sleep, and I guess I pushed the pace a little bit on the way back. The weather was so nice I felt like I could ride for another hour or two.

A new Nikon Coolpix S6 has been added to the gadget collection, chosen specifically for its compact size and hopefully decent optics. I still need to pick up an SD card, figure out the rather complex menu and get the WiFi set up, but hopefully it will prove to be convenient enough that I'll actually have it with me for all those "I wish I had a camera" moments.

Winter Olympics

It was warmer this morning, and by 8 a.m. I knew it would be nearly perfect riding weather - temperature nearing 70F, light breeze, sunny skies. That sort of thing can have an effect on the group ride, you know. I was half-way out to the Lakefront when my phone rang. Naturally I was also halfway up the Wisner overpass at the time, but I figured I'd better try and answer it since nobody calls me at that time on a Saturday morning unless it's important. So I pulled over, put a foot down, and got the phone out of its ziplock bag just about when it rolled over to voicemail. It was Cat, a rider in town from TN who had emailed me a few days ago. She was calling from the Starbucks on Veterans Hwy. to make sure we were doing the northshore ride today. It was about 6:55. I told her the northshore ride was Sunday, but that if she was fast, she might be able to catch the Giro. I gave her directions to Elysian Fields Ave. and Lakeshore Drive, figuring she would have a chance of getting ahead of the group by a few miles to buy a little extra time. I didn't really think she'd make it, but when she called back we were still about a mile from there so it all worked out OK.

There was a pretty big group this morning, yet the pace stayed fairly civilized most of the way out. As things settled down along Chef Highway we briefly had a double paceline going that included the whole group - maybe 40-50 riders. I thought maybe there should be a Guiness Book of World Records record for "longest double paceline." It lasted a couple of rotations before somebody revved up the pace at the front and things started to disintegrate. Even so, it never quite got ballistic on the way out to Venetian Isles, thanks in some small part to the fact that a number of guys are currently focused on low-gear winter spinning. I was with 'em there for a while, but finally gave in and went to the big ring when the speeds got up to 26 or so. For some reason, the pace on the way back today was pretty fast with only a couple of very brief slowdowns. A number of riders got split off the back when the pace failed to slow down after the Goodyear Sign Sprint on Chef. Cat came off the back around that time, and Mark D. dropped back to make sure she didn't get lost. At one point as we were barrelling down Hayne Blvd., I looked over at Brandon, who had earlier given me a long leadout coming into the Goodyear Sign sprint, and said "man, they sure haven't been slowing down on the way back today." He shot right back with "Yeah, I think they're training for the Winter Olympics." Made me laugh. So anyway, after sprinting up the two bridges at the end of Hayne, I dropped off the back to look for Cat becasue I knew she had been dropped but I didn't yet know that Mark was staying with her. I was glad she had someone to ride with, because I didn't want to have to mount a search and rescue operation today. It was a good ride today, and people hung around the parking lot for a long time afterwards enjoying the warm sunshine.

I was halfway home when it finally dawned on me that it was my birthday. You should always have a nice ride like that on your birthday.

Thanksgiving Day Routine

The Thanksgiving Day weather could hardly have been better this year, and it was nice to be able to get out and enjoy it with a group ride on the levee. Although we started with only eight or nine, I think we must have picked up quite a few riders along the way. Even Kenny B. and Realdo were in the paceline by the time we got back. The relatively light winds made for a welcome change from the last few days, and the clear skies and bright sunshine warmed things up pretty fast. After riding, though, it was head-first into the usual Thanksgiving Day Routine as we loaded the car up with lemon meringue and pecan pies and headed over to mom's place on the river.

Although we were missing a few of the klan, it was still pretty busy with The Daugher and her roomate, The Brother and four of his family, and one of The Sisters and two of hers. We quickly went through a turkey, crawfish dressing, potato salad, and various pies, and by 3 p.m. we were mostly sitting around waiting until it was time to eat again. Finally, at around 6:00 or so, a few of us went out to see if we could find a coffee shop that was open. This was mainly just an excuse to get out of the house, of course, and I wasn't holding out a whole lot of hope. Still, I did have one card up my sleeve in case our search proved fruitless. First we checked out Rue on Carrollton, then Starbucks and PJs on Maple, then we made the trip down Magazine - PJ's, CC's, another CC's, Starbucks, Puccino's. All closed up. In fact, Magazine Street was a virtual ghost town tonight. So I finally had to head over to Zotz on Oak St. I figured that if anyplace would be open, it would be Zotz, and I was right. Granted, we were the only people in the place without numerous facial body piercings, but the coffee was good and the prices were low. I like this place, except for the smoke. As one website puts it,

"... In the front room the activity is usually a high energy mix of purple-haired, pierced bohemians; way in the back, rooms are quiet enough to allow for the sound of running water from a nearby Zen garden..."

One thing is for sure. This place is NOT a Starbucks. Anyway, my plans for tomorrow don't extend beyond an early morning training ride. I'll just play it by ear after that.

Chilled

We have finally had a couple of days of fairly sustained coolness, and so when I got home yesterday the house had pretty well chilled down. I cranked up the old gas heater in the fireplace, and that warmed things up pretty fast, but I knew it was time to descend into the scary basement and confront the beast, aka the furnace. Since I had, as usual, turned off the pilot light for the summer, I knew that there would probably be some corrosion on the two tiny pinholes in the aluminum gas jet that fires it. Sometimes it isn't too bad and there's enough gas coming through for the pilot light to keep the safety hot enough so that everything works. Well, to make a long story short, this wasn't one of those times. Sooooo, I strapped on my trusty Katrina headlamp (lighting in the basement is by means of a bare bulb hanging from the floor joist) and disassembled the pesky little thing. The only thing that is small enough to clean out the little holes in the jet is a single strand of brake cable, and it takes a bit of finesse, along with a magnifying glass, to do it, but finally I got the holes flossed out and everything reassembled with only one leftover screw! Everything fired up fine after that, so I turned the thermostat up to about 80F and let it run for a while just to burn off the summer's dust and make sure there were no obvious fire hazards.

The relative coziness of the house, however, wasn't much consolation when I stepped outside this morning where there was still a north wind that made the 41 degree air feel more like 30. There must have been a few who skipped this morning's ride as a result, because we ended up with only four or five, at which point Luke was quick to suggest we shorten the usual long ride and turn around at the first "dip." I think Ronnie would have liked to have gone farther, but the rest of us were satisfied enough with Luke's plan today. Because of the wind, it was a struggle to stay above 22 mph most of the morning.

Even colder than the morning training ride was my commute to work. There's a fairly long and unprotected stretch that goes straight north, which this morning was again directly into the wind. My cotton sweater and work clothes did little to stop the wind, and I was glad I had put on my vest over everything before I left. As I walked into the building I must have looked kind of whipped, because the security guard said something like "you must have had a hard bike ride today."

Indeed.

So now it's 3 p.m. and of the four people to whom I sent the draft of the paper that is due in Baton Rouge tomorrow afternoon, only one has come back to me with comments. Hopefully they won't all send me their stuff just before they leave early tomorrow for the holiday, leaving me to turn out the lights and lock the doors.

Sixty

Yesterday evening it finally got cold enough in the house for me to light the old gas heater in the living room. I'll probably have to light the pilot light on the furnace tonight, which, if things go as usual, will mean some minor disassemby and cleaning. Not surprisingly, this morning it was cold and windy, and I didn't have much trouble rationalizing that it would also be a good morning to sleep late, which I happily did. The work-related emails were already flying by 8 a.m., though, and with a deadline looming I'll be chained to the keyboard all day today, maybe with a little break for a plate of Red Beans and Rice. The rest of the week will likely be pretty hectic as well with The Daughter and her friend arriving from Iowa City on Wednesday, and The Brother and his klan also arriving from Orlando for Thanksgiving. By the time we get into December, it will start getting hard to get anything done around here.So I guess I should note, just for posterity, that the old Campi Ergobrain turned over to 60,000 miles during yesterday's ride. There was a brief celebration. I think I hit the 50,000 mark some time last January. This bike computer has basically become a science experiment for me. Will I outlive it, or vice-versa?

Spinnin' n' Grinnin'

Before I forget (and they remove it from the site), check out the letter and comment about VJ and how his Park pedal wrench saved him during Hurricane Katrina. Just to whet your appetite: "After four hours in a empty, dark attic and the realization of no way out and with water still rising I had to swim down and look for tools to break out of the attic. After a few seconds of floating furniture and bobbing appliances in the dark the only things I could find was my flashlight and park pedal wrench."

It was cool and crisp and clear this morning for the first NOBC Northshore winter training ride, but I guess it was the strong North wind that kept the group size down to only nine. That wind, unfortunately, was right in our faces for the first twenty miles or so as we worked our way up over the Watchtower hill and through scenic downtown Enon. It was strong enough to eliminate any attempt at a sprint as we rolled into Enon. Mike Lew was on hand with tales of his recent trip to South America and Interbike. What made me laugh? Mike's talking with some of the U.S. cycling cognoscenti, and a certain Michael F. mentions this guy he rode with down South that everybody called "Olmo Man." Mike chimes in and tells him who Olmo Man is (he raced here for a long time and Mike did a lot of riding with him), and Mr. F. leans over and, in classic style, whispers "It's a small world ... always park the car *behind* the hotel."

So anyway, we finally got some of the tailwind for which we had paid so dearly and had a really nice ride back. Except for one stretch coming back into Enon, the order of the day was strictly "spin and grin." We had a couple of new guys on the ride today, Sam (yellow jersey) and Tim (red). My own legs weren't feeling all that great today - still a little sore from yesterday's Giro, I guess.

Strangely Civilized

I knew the temperature would be a problem this morning - not because it would be too low, but because it was bound to change dramatically during the Giro Ride. I left the house wearing long tights that I new wouldn't be necessary an hour later, along with wind shell gloves, helmet liner, and shoe covers. Most of that ended up in my bulging pockets, of course, but it just wasn't worth freezing my butt off on the way out to the lakefront. I always wish that the Giro ride would move to 8 a.m. during the winter like other group training rides that are held in more civilized cities. Anyway, there were a few people who were planning on doing the "long" Giro ride out to Slidell and back, so I guess that helped keep the speeds down. Indeed, it was a strangely civilized Giro Ride today. By 8:30 the weather was really nice. Maybe it was just too nice to go hard.

So we had a good turnout last night for the club meeting. The sample jerseys and shorts look good and otherwise all I can say is that the men's Small size seems like a normal Small. The "fit kit" will stay at my place for a while so that people who couldn't make the meeting can stop by and check out the sizing and options. Hopefully we can get the design finalized and the order placed within the next few weeks. This process always takes a lot longer than you would think. The Daughter finally called last night after we had left numerous voice and text messages to say that the knee surgery had gone pretty well. As usual they didn't get started until much later than it was scheduled.

I spent all afternoon inhaling toxic paint dust and absorbing even more toxic paint remover solvents. The kitchen continues to inch forward. At this rate we should have it done some time next summer! It will be a week before my nose and lungs recover from today's insult. Then again, maybe the long ride on the Northshore tomorrow will clear things out faster. It'll be pretty chilly, but at least the sun will be shining and, being November and officially "base training" season, the pace should be relatively steady.

Frrrrrriday!

Two mornings in a row in the low 40s and it is starting to feel like winter may be coming! It was only Joe, Scott and me this morning, although we eventually picked up Elliott along the way. I was glad that Scott had to be in court by 9 a.m., because otherwise I would have been doing more sightseeing. Not that we were going very fast - around 21 mph most of the time - but on a cool, pretty morning sometimes the mind wanders, and Scott was at least keeping us honest. We even saw Rob K., who has been MIA for the last couple of weeks. I had heard that his back was giving him some trouble, and also that he had sought out some expert opinions on his position. Rob always seemed to have his bike set up with an extremely low and forward bar position. He had started out much earlier than we did and so we didn't catch him until just before I turned off to go home. As I was peeling off, I noticed that he had indeed changed his setup and was now sporting a short stem of maybe 9 cm, with a bit of a rise to it. That must be quite a change for him. I'll bet that moved his bars something like three inches.

Club meeting at my place this evening to try on samples for the '07 team kit that is about to be ordered. I stopped by the grocery on the way home last night and picked up some coke and a little selection of Abita (the Christmas Ale is out!), and since there was a $10 rebate on six bottles of the ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive Yellow tail wine, which lately has become our house wine, I picked up some of those as well. Which wine goes best with pepperoni pizza? Guess I'd better get home a little early so I can make at least part of the house presentable. We've got the first of the annual Winter Training Ride Series this Sunday. It promises to be great winter ride weather - clear and brisk - and if we can keep everyone in "base training" mode, it should be a lot of fun. Laura is bringing some of the old leftover clothes from the "green kit" that miraculously survived the flood. Her house had, conservatively, eight feet of water in it, and these clothes happened to still be in watertight bags, so they just floated around in the flooded house for a couple of weeks after the hurricane.

Meanwhile, back at the office, things are pretty quiet except for the White Paper I'm working on for a Monday deadline. It will keep me busy this weekend for sure, although I have already warned the group that sending me anything on Friday night will not result in a prompt reply! At any rate, this place is deserted today. We've got one person on vacation in Mexico, another on vacation here, and another who spends most of his time in meetings and just stops in now and then to say hello!

The Daughter is having her knee "scoped" again today. Damn. This is getting to be an annual event. This time, though, the team doctor is doing it as a preventative measure. He basically told her that he thought that if she didn't do it, she would not likely make it through the season without tearing the meniscus again. Since competition starts in January and it will take three to six weeks before she can train on it, and since Thanksgiving holidays are coming up, this was the best time to get it done. Anyway, hopefully it will all go smoothly. I think they may as well just put a permanent zipper in that knee at this point, though.