Riding' Against the Wind

Much cooler this morning, but the temperature wasn't the issue. The wind was. A strong north wind promised nothing more than a few miles of tailwind in an otherwise all-crosswind 44 mile ride. When Luke rode up to meet us he immediately gave early notice that he was turning around at the dip, and I figured that Donald would have to turn around there, or earlier, as well. Bikies being like sheep, the odds were that most of the rest would follow suit rather than risk a long headwind ride with Rob and I who collectively move less air than Ronnie on his time trial bike. Indeed, once past the parish line it was just Rob and me once again. We were both of the same mindset today, looking for a good steady aerobic ride, and we rode the rest of the ride taking long pulls at maybe 75% effort, which turned out to be mostly 21-24 mph. As he often does, Rob spent a fair amount of time in weight-lifting mode, riding along into the wind in a 53x12 (or maybe 11?). While I very often find myself to be more comfortable about one cog higher than most riders, that sort of thing is just not my cup of tea! Then again, neighter is weight lifting.

Shortly after arriving back home and doing the dishes left over from last night (seafood gumbo dishes need to be washed pronto!), The Wife called to say she was stopping by the house to pick up the last of the women's health calendars to drop them off at the Audubon Zoo where there are having a huge health fair with free screenings, check-ups, and even dental work. Well, I couldn't resist getting a ride in to work rather than having to lug all my stuff up the Jeff Davis overpass into the wind today, so I hurried through and made the connection. Unfortunately, by the time we dropped all that stuff off, battled our way through the rather heavy traffic, bypassed blocked streets and a movie shoot going on in front of the Tidewater Building, I had lost about an hour. As usual, I should have just ridden my bike and been there in 15.

Here at the office, construction continues unabated. Various large workmen are in and out of the office all day, there's lots of loud noise, and there are three or four wireless tools plugged into the hallway outlets getting recharged. Of the nine elevators in the building, only two are operational. We have all become more patient since Katrina. Since New Orleans was never noted for being impatient in the first place, that's saying something. Out the window I can see the large U.S. flag atop the Entergy building (Entergy is trying to avoid bankruptcy in the wake of Katrina and the need to completely rebuild the city's entire power grid). The flag that was starting to rip last week is now split completely in two horizontally. As I write, someone on the roof over there has just lowered the flag, either to untangle it or replace it. That's good. Maybe it's just a holdover from my junior ROTC experiences in both grammar school and high school, but it just drives me nuts when people don't take care of the stars and stripes. Just to the left is the old Plaza Towers building, once the city's tallest, with its rooftop crammed full of antennas. Before the hurricane, they were all nice and vertical. Now they are all bent and leaning looking like the bristles of a very old hairbrush. Most of the view from my office window, usually a fairly spectacular panorama overlooking the CBD, French Quarter and Algiers Point, is still blocked by a large lattice of 2x2 aluminum that was removed from the roof above where it had been hiding the building's chiller until the hurricane destroyed it. I can only hope that one day, after they finish replacing the chiller, they replace it. My guess is that it's not high on the priority list, though.

Discussions over the $95M in Dept. of Education funding for higher education continues, and everything has been hammered out except for the $9.5 M that the Board of Regents wants to control for a scholarship program that all of the university presidents agree is not needed. It looks like I will end up on the committee that will have to work out how to actually handle the awarding of the funds to the various universities and colleges. You know, the unglamorous administrative part. The others will then move on to the three or four other ongoing and developing battles for federal funding.

Whoo Hooo! Entergy just raised a brand spanking new U.S. flag!