Eggs and Ale

The humidity levels around here have been pretty impressive lately. While it's been fairly hot as well, you'd have to agree with the old adage, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." So I walked out into that humidity at 6:30 this morning and immediately my glasses fogged over. I had a bag over my shoulder for the ride out to meet the Saturday Giro Ride because we were getting together for breakfast afterwards and I wanted both a bike lock and a pair of shoes I could walk in. I made it to the parking lot a few minutes before seven and found a place to stash my bag just in time to roll out with the handful of riders who were actually starting from the actual starting place at the actual starting time. The rest were somewhere up the road already because, well, I don't really know. We finally caught up to them as they hovered around the Elysian Fields traffic circle waiting for us.

There was little wind today, which made it relatively easy to sit in, even as the speed on Hayne Blvd. crept up into the 28-30 mph range. My legs weren't feeling too hot today. I don't know why, because I didn't ride at all on Friday. VJ was riding today, a notable achievement considering his bone-shattering crash in the Tour de La criterium barely six weeks ago. Anyway, I still got in a pretty decent workout, and by the time we got back to the parking lot I was soaked with sweat and out of water, which was normal under the circumstances. What wasn't normal was the extra-cold a/c at the cafe' where we had our meeting. After a few minutes of sitting there in my wet clothes I really started to get a chill and pretty much shivered my way through my breakfast of eggs and hash-browns. I probably should have had coffee instead of the two cold Cokes, but I don't think the coffee would have helped my hydration deficit.

One thing I had on my calendar for today was to finally replace the stripped water bottle boss on my aluminum Orbea. After riding home and taking a shower, I headed down to the basement workshop, pulled out the seat post, clamped the bike upside-down in the workstand and, with an abundance of caution, drilled out the old fitting. Later in the afternoon I went over to The Bicycle Connection to meet Robin, since he had installed a few of those before and had the special tool. It took just a minute to install, but I hung around for a while while Robin drilled out a similar fitting from Courtney's Seven. I didn't want to miss it if he accidentally slipped and put a hole through the back of Courtney's seat tube! Then it was back home to put everything back together. Along the way I learned that Mike Olheiser had won the elite national time trial championship. The guy has had a very busy month. Within the past few weeks he's won the masters national time trial, taken second in the masters road race, won the elite nationals road race, and won the elite nationals time trial. Oh, and he rode the Cascade Classic in-between. I wonder if he's feeling tired yet.

Well, by the time I got the bike back in shape it was time to try out the bottle of Abita Abbey Ale that I'd found at Robert's grocery the other day. I hadn't heard about this one, but it looked like my kind of beer. They even donate some of the sales to St. Joseph's Abbey near Covington. I always remember "The Abbey" because we'd go past it on our way to a little spot on the Boguefalaya River where we used to swim and camp when I was a kid. Anyway, I really liked this ale, and not just because it comes in a 650 ml bottle. It has a lot of flavor and is heavy with malt. Some people will probably hate it. No problem, because I'm not going to fight them for the Bud Light.

Tomorrow we've got a nice northshore ride on tap. I guess it'll be pretty hot, but I'm looking forward to it anyway. After that, I guess I'll have to start thinking about getting a new television set. Ours pretty much bit the dust a couple of days ago amid the smell of burning electronics. Power supply, I guess. Sure has been a lot of stuff breaking lately.