Here We Go

The minute I got up today I thought, "I'd better check the radar." It was so dark I figured it just had to be cloudy. It wasn't. It's just that at this time of year you actually notice the change in sunrise when you're getting up at 5:45 a.m. Anyway, I swear it actually felt cool this morning for the long levee ride. Rob K. was back after a couple of months of nagging back problems, and by the time we'd picked up Eddie, VJ, Tim and Woody I figured it would be a workout. On the way out to Ormond, however, it seemed that Tim and Woody were taking it relatively easy (probably planning their subsequent escape). We made the turnaround with pretty much everyone together. Along the way I discovered that the last year or two of sweat had really taken its toll on my little handlebar bell, though. I guess the spring must have broken, or perhaps it's just gotten gunked up with corrosion, but anyway it isn't ringing very well lately. I guess I'll have to invest in another, because I've really come to like having it for those levee rides.

Shortly after the turnaround, while people were still sitting up and regrouping, I noticed Tim zigging and zagging through the other riders and rolling off the front. Then, when he was joined by Woody and Eddie, I knew we were in for a chase. Suddenly the pace in the group went from something like 12 mph to 29 mph and we were not closing. A rotation formed at the front of five or six, and the chase was on. I was afraid it might have caught everyone else off guard, but after a few miles when we slowed down a bit I looked back and the rest of the group was right there. We were still chasing pretty hard although there was only a handful of us pulling, but once we got close to Jefferson Parish we could see that Eddie had dropped off. Not too long after that Woody did too and the chase settled down considerably. Toward the end of the ride Tim eased up and came back to the group, and as he came alongside me he looked over and said, "How come y'all stopped chasing?"

So it's the end of August, just a few days from the 3-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and now we have Hurricane Gustav getting ready to cross Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico with a projected course heading straight for New Orleans. Here we go again..... The folks at work are already getting anxious since this one looks like it'll easily get up to Category 3 in a couple of days, if not sooner, and more than one of the computer models has it heading straight for the mouth of the Mississippi. Yep, this is one to worry about.