Summer Heat, Katrina Week

Lost horizon on the lakefront.

Late August is always tough around here. It goes without saying that it's hot and humid most of the time, and there always seem to be a bunch of big expenses to drain what little funds are in the bank account. Just to add to the annual convergence of problems, there is always, always, a problem with the bike. You see, by this time of the year I've dripped literally gallons of salty, nasty sweat from stem to seatpost and inorganic chemistry being what it is, things just stop working right.

One of the WPA-constructed bridges in City Park

At the moment, the only thing working well on the Bianchi is the front brake.  Both shifters and/or their cables are now sufficiently gunked up, corroded, or generally worn out that downshifts happen only reluctantly. I've sprayed lubricant in there a few times with only minimal effect, and I know I need to unwrap the bars, which are probably pretty corroded underneath the tape, clean everything up, replace all of the cables, and install a new chain. That all takes time and money, though, and I'm already trying to save for a new pair of blue jeans. Just yesterday I had to put a bunch of team clothing on a credit card to beat the ordering deadline just so I won't clash with my teammates on winter training rides.

Last Sunday was the LAMBRA Time Trial Championship that, fortunately for my increasingly fragile ego, I was officiating rather than riding.  We had a great turnout of 100 riders, and although the morning heat got to a few, there were some good performances, including another women's 40 km TT record, which now stands at 58:43. The best the men could do was a 53:29, well shy of last year's record of 52:17. The rider who set that record had the misfortune of flatting this year, however. Boyd managed to hit a stray water bottle somewhere out on the course and crashed heavily. He limped back and actually finished, then got someone to take him to the ER for x-rays and a CAT scan. Fortunately, there were no broken bones or concussion. Boyd crashed dramatically back in the early 70s up in Baton Rouge, back when guys raced without helmets sometimes. That time he hit his head and had an impact seizure, but the hospital basically sent him home that afternoon. Luckily his wife or girlfriend was a nurse and they went straight to Ochsner. A couple of hours later he was having brain surgery to stop the bleeding. Anyway, things went pretty well and we had lots of volunteers on hand, so it was definitely a success. Otherwise, I've just been doing the usual training ride routine that, up until last weekend, was made even more difficult by the increase in the number of time trial bikes on hand. Glad that's over!

Erica, where ya goin'?

So there's been a deluge of media coverage lately as we approach the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, which will be Saturday. The hurricane had hit early on a Monday morning.  I'd evacuated early on that Sunday morning. The last thing I wrote on my blog before leaving was, "I think this is going to be bad."  The media coverage has brought a lot of attention to Kenny, which I guess he's OK with. The fact of the matter is that some people who were actually here, and even some who had evacuated but lost everything, don't necessarily relish dredging up all of those memories. Anyway, there was a really good report on Kenny's experiences in the Washington Post. Definitely worth seeing. Tulane has a big exhibit set up at the LBC that I haven't had a chance to see yet, and who knows what the city is planning. I'll kind of be happy when it's all over with, but I still go back to the end of August and beginning of September of 2005 on this blog to re-read my posts there. This was the last day back in '05 when my blog didn't mention the hurricane. Instead, I was writing about the morning levee ride and the reports from Kenny and the Herring team who were at the Tour of Guyana. Kenny and Realdo didn't know it yet, but they wouldn't be flying back into New Orleans the next Monday. At the moment, there's Erica churning out in the Atlantic, and the forecasters seem particularly uncertain about where it will be next week.