November

I can't believe it's November already! I guess I shouldn't complain, though, because the weather around here since Saturday afternoon has been fantastic. It was a little lonely for my Monday morning ride, but today we had a pretty good turnout, even if most of them were a little late. On the plus side, it's not dark any more at 6:15. I can't begin to say how much less stressful that makes the first ten miles of these early morning rides.

For some reason the group was a little slow getting started this morning. I have a feeling it may have had something to do with the Saints game last night. Football fever is running rampant in New Orleans lately. Anyway, the group eventually got its act together this morning and started a nice little paceline. The consensus pace settled in at around 24 mph with most people successfully ignoring the occasional surge by that guy on the track bike.

The ride back, however, soon became quite irregular. There was a bit more of a headwind, and keeping the pace above 23 mph started to take its toll. By the time we were halfway back the paceline was in a continual cycle of disintegration and reconstruction with the speed fluctuating from 21 to 28 mph, and I was finding it difficult to stay smooth. At one point I took what I thought was a nice smooth pull at a reasonable speed, only to discover that I'd opened up a big gap. I eased up and got back into the group when it caught up, only to find that they were then going the same speed I'd been going earlier. Some mornings it's just not worth trying to figure out the pack mentality.

Later, on my way to work, I passed this knocked-over fire hydrant (above) on Lowerline St. It's been leaking water rather badly for the last few weeks and the neighbors have even put up a sign complaining about the complete lack of action on the part of the city. Now it seems they've even taken to decorating it for holidays like Halloween. It's bad enough that city water is pouring completely unchecked out of the ground here, but you would think that a FIRE hydrant might warrant some level of priority in an older neighborhood with old wiring, old gas heating systems and old wooden houses, especially with winter fast approaching. I know from past experience that it only takes about half a day, at best, to repair this kind of leak, even with four guys standing around leaning on shovels and two of them actually working, and maybe another half day to then repair any torn-up asphalt. Somehow the city always seems to stretch that out into a three or four month ordeal for the people who live around there. If you are wondering if the city is back to normal since the hurricane, you need look no farther. We sure could use a Mayor around here, but I can't imagine who in his right mind would be willing to take the job given all of the ass-kissing that would be required just to have half a chance of getting elected, and that's assuming you could get half the electorate to look beyond the color of your skin.