Piling Up

Man, this month is barely half over and so far it's been just one thing after another. We've got a position open in our department right now and I was reviewing some of the applications last night. Need someone who can fly Navy fighters? We've got one. Need someone who can speak Russian? Swahili? How about a JD or MBA? Should be interesting... Meanwhile, the things I've got on my to-do list at work are really beginning to pile up with no end in sight. That, of course, results in a major backup of the things on my non-work to-do list. Add to that the big check I just sent to Uncle Sam and the $500 deductible on the $4,500 repair bill that's coming for the car, and stage race entry fees that are reaching above $60 now, and things are getting a little tight.

So this morning the wind was still strong but now it has shifted around more out of the south, warming the temperatures and raising the humidity a bit. Actually, it was rather pleasant. The river is still just as high as ever, and yesterday the Corps decided to open up a couple more bays of the Spillway. You can see in the photo how much higher the water is than the road on the other side. I was on a tight schedule for the long levee ride this morning because I had to meet the Gas Meter installation guys for 8:15, which is about when I usually get home on the "long" days. With mostly tailwind on the way out to Ormond, the group was rolling along pretty fast today - fast enough that things started to come apart a couple of times and a few of the guys decided to stay out of the rotation. The big excitement, though, came maybe half-way out when a walker decided to make a U-turn just as the paceline was coming up to him. In fact, I had my hand on my bell and was about to ring it when it happened. Luckily, everyone was alert and collisions were avoided. It's a good thing, too. We've had so many crashes around here lately. First my little levee-surfing incident a couple of weeks ago, then a big crash on the Giro Ride on Sunday, and another crash on the Northshore training ride this week. Anyway, we had a long ride back into the headwind to get home this morning. The best part was when Max got on the front and just powered into it at a nice steady speed for about five miles straight. When he finally pulled off I think our pace dropped about two mph.

So when I rolled up to the house, there were two guys from the "underground" service waiting for me to install the new gas meter and connect it up to the house gas lines, which is complicated by the fact that the old meter was inside the basement but the new one is outside. Anyway, they got to work right away and had everything back up and running in about an hour, which made me about half an hour late getting to work, but under the circumstances I guess that's pretty good.

The Mississippi Gran Prix is this weekend up in Brookhaven. I got my pre-registration done this morning and as usual was irritated that the Active.com service fee was essentially the same as the late fee. I hate that. Then, as usual, the Active.com release form didn't populate properly. I forget what the issue is, but it's the same one that caused me to switch our events from Active to BikeReg a couple of years ago. So now I just have to figure out how to get myself to the race and where to stay! I'll have to make some calls this afternoon when I get a chance...