A Quick Fifty Grand

Yesterday afternoon I walked over to the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center that is set up in the New Orleans Public Library, a few blocks from work, to turn in my SBA Loan Application, since the deadline is tomorrow. I figure that if they'll OK a low-interest loan then we might be able to put in a proper a/c-heating system rather than grafting some replacement parts onto the existing one. Anyway, it was about as pleasant as a trip to the dentist. Not that the SBA folks weren't nice and all, it was just that there was a lot of waiting around. The person sitting next to me was a young woman with a bright orange mohawk, numerous scalp tatoos, and multiple facial piercings. She seemed pretty nice, but I have never figured out what people get out of those kinds of body modifications. I mean, did they look less attractive before they did that?

When The Wife arrived home from work she pulled out a set of four new beer glasses that she had picked up on sale, and since we still have a bunch of beer around, I obviously had to try one of them out. I opened an Abita Turbodog with my handy magnetic Orbea bottle opener, courtesy of one of last year's races, and she popped open an Abita Purple Haze. She looked at it, commented on how nice it looked in the glass, took a sip and asked me if I wanted it. Since it would be wasteful to pour perfectly good beer down the drain, I had to drink it, of course, even though its slightly fruity taste isn't really my cup of tea. About the time I finished those two beers, the sister-in-law and her friend showed up and we ended up spending three hours or so out on the porch where we emptied a nice bottle of Kendall Jackson Merlot and some other Merlot, and whatever was left in the bottle of Little Penguin in the 'fridge, while I tried in vain to avoid the constant cigarette smoke that seemed always to be blowing in my direction. I lost count after the sister-in-law snuffed out her seventh or eighth cigarette. Damn those things are evil.

So anyway, it was with a stuffy and slightly foggy head that I dragged myself out of bed this morning and made my way out to the levee for the Tuesday long ride. The weather is still quite warm, and I was a bit overdressed with two jerseys and arm-warmers. When I arrived, I found a pretty good-sized group there already, and by the time we really got rolling down around the country club I guess we had about fifteen riders. It was darker than usual because the skies were, and still are, overcast, but we somehow managed to avoid hitting any pedestrians. By the time we were half-way to Kenner the speed was staying up around 27 or so and the number of riders staying in the rotation up front was getting smaller and smaller. Todd and Eddie were pushing the pace a bit, while Rob, who would ordinarily be doing the same, was hiding out near the back. He was just getting back on the bike after a bout with the head cold that's been going around lately.

The group made a pretty quick turn-around today and we held 24-25 mph all the way back, although there were only four or five of us doing most of the work. I was pretty tired by the time we got back to the playground and so I rode the rest of the way home pretty easy. All-in-all, and nice quick training ride. I checked the odometer after the ride and noticed that it had rolled past the fifty thousand mile mark some time toward the end of Monday's ride.