Long Lake Loop, and another hurricane

Somewhere between Pontchatoula and LaPlace on Sunday

Oh crap, I'm late! I jumped out of bed early Sunday morning a full half hour later than I should have. Somehow in my half-asleep head I was thinking the start was at 7 am rather than 6 am. I had made a last-minute decision (possibly not my finest) to join a group in Mandeville for a circumnavigation of Lake Pontchartrain at 6:00 am. I was nearly 5:30 when I hit the road for the drive to the Mandeville trailhead with Google Maps predicting an arrival time of 5:57, so no coffee, tires not fully aired up, no electrolyte in the bottle, etc.

The prior days had all been pretty normal riding-wise, and I had even ridden the Saturday Giro the day before, and a rather fast Friendly Friday ride the day before that, so I was not exactly well prepared for a 150-mile day on the bike, and I knew it. Carly had been in town with a friend, and so I'd spent some time earlier in the week getting a couple of the team bikes in shape since they had both been somewhat cannibalized and needed chains, pedals, wheels, tape, front derailleur, etc.

On Friday we had a pretty big turnout, which has been the status quo lately for the 6 am Friendly Friday ride. Of course, a big turnout can mean only one thing, which is that the ride is going to get fast, which it did. On the other hand, a big group also means lots of hiding places for wheelsuckers like me, so it kind of balances out.

Saturday Giro turning onto Hayne

By Saturday I was still on the fence about doing the ride around the lake. It isn't a particularly scenic ride, and it's dead flat, and by dead flat I mean 147 miles with all of 562 feet of elevation. Since I was planning on doing Six Gap the following weekend, I did not want a ride that was going to turn into a race. I also wanted to see how I felt after the Giro before making a decision.

The Saturday Giro had a solid turnout, but a few of the usual instigators were missing, which I took to be a good sign. Of course the ride had its fast segments, but in general, on average, more or less, it wasn't super-fast, so I arrived back home none the worse for wear, and started to seriously consider doing the long loop around the lake. I got some intel from Charles on the route and expected participants and expected pace, and taking all of that into account figured it would be mainly Zone 2 pace. Granted, 7 hours of Zone 2, but Zone 2 nonetheless. So late on Saturday I sent an "I'm in" message to Charles and put the Garmin and tail light on the charger.

So Sunday morning I'm in fire drill mode to get to the start on time. I pumped a bit of air into the rear tire but not the front, grabbed my bag, Garmin, and light, and threw them into the rental Toyota (the Volvo was still in the shop for body work) and took off for the northshore. Most of the route is on the Causeway, and you just can't really speed there because there is a whole separate police force for that bridge, and they are always out monitoring the speed and writing tickets. As predicted, I arrived with five minutes to spare, pulled the bike out, stuffed some Hammergel and money in my pockets and, somewhat amazingly, was more or less ready to go when the 13-rider group rolled out. I was already missing my morning coffee, had nothing but water in my bottles, didn't have a headlight (it was still pitch dark), and generally felt a little ragged.

Fortunately, the pace was nice and moderate as we got to Highway 22 for the first leg to Pontchatoula, with everyone riding a double paceline at 21-22 mph with a nice little tailwind. Michael J and Steve and a couple others seemed to be doing much of the work on the front, with the rest taking shorter pulls as needed. The first store stop was in LaPlace, at about 50 miles. The morning had been so cool and the pace so moderate that I don't think many of us had gone through very much water. That would change, of course. I knew that once we got through LaPlace and started heading west we would have a headwind pretty much all the way to Fort Pike, and the temperature would be climbing toward the low 90s the whole time. After making the left turn at LaPlace we stayed on the river road through the Spillway before getting onto the levee bike path. Then, when we got to LaRose and had to drop back down onto River Road to go around the levee construction zone, I pinch-flatted my front wheel - the one I hadn't pumped up that morning. That was a quick inner tube change, but somehow I didn't get the tire fully inflated. It felt good enough, though, so we took off again. I would later get home and discover I'd ridden the rest of the ride with maybe 25 psi in that tire. Near New Orleans a few riders turned off, having planned on doing just the first part of the loop. Jenn, one of the Tulane riders, had said she was going to do the same, but ultimately decided to hang on for the full distance, which ultimately did not seem to be a problem for her at all.

My flat.

We dropped down into New Orleans at Oak Street and stopped at Canseco's for our second stop at 85 miles, then continued down Carrollton toward Fontainbleau. As we approached S. Claiborne I spotted Candy who had been watching our progress with Garmin LiveTrack and walked over to say hello. We then took Fontainebleau to Vendome to Norman Francis to Moss to Grand Route St. John to Gentilly Blvd. which put us on 90 all the way out to Fort Pike. Along the way we stopped again at the gas station at Industrial Parkway, which was around mile 102. By then it was getting pretty hot and people were getting pretty tired, so that was a good 15-minute stop. I'd been topping off my bottles with Gatorade since the first stop, and although I had a big Payday bar in my pocket in case of bonk, I never needed it, relying instead of the full flask of Hammergel I had, along with the occasional cold Coke.

The flat from hell

The long stretch on Highway 90 out to the Rigolets bridge was into a decent headwind, and by then the miles were starting to tell on the group. Every time the speed crept up above 21 or so, gaps would open up and we would ease up to regroup. Of course, when that starts to happen it's kind of like putting a band-aid on a snake bite, so the speed got a little erratic. Somewhere out there near Fort Pike we lost Mary Beth. Our last stop was at a gas station on Old Spanish Trail at I-10 where we stopped for quite a while. As we rolled out from there Steven punctured, which started a long flat tire repair episode that took us a good half hour to resolve. The puncture should have sealed itself (he rides tubeless) but didn't, so he first put in a plug. It was a good try, but it continued to leak despite trying all of the tricks of spinning the tire, holding a finger over the leak, etc. I think we went through two CO2 cartridges before deciding we were going to have to put a tube in it. Upon removing the tire we found that most of the sealant had dried up, which explained why it kept leaking. Around that time Mary Beth, who had been on her own since a bit before Fort Pike, caught up to us. Then, the tube didn't have a long enough stem, but luckily I had a valve-extender in my bag, so we finally got rolling again with 125 miles on the odometer, running into Kenny B (in his car) as we negotiated Slidell traffic. At this point I guess some of the northshore guys could smell the barn and started pushing the pace and accelerating out of turns that the rest of us didn't expect, and almost losing a few of us along the way. Eventually we got back onto the Tammany Trace where things settled down to something in the 22 mph range as we negotiated the yellow posts and unending stop signs. 

So we finally rolled back into the Mandeville Trailhead at around 147 miles with my Garmin battery almost dead (I think the LiveTrack and Varia tail light take a toll on battery life), at which point Joe Paul produced an ice chest full of much appreciated cold drinks. After cooling down a bit, I threw everything back into the car, arriving back home mid-afternoon. So it was a good ride for me in that I was able to avoid making any long hard efforts, as planned, and doing no damage that shouldn't require more than a couple of days of recovery.

So now we have Tropical Storm Helene that will soon be a Hurricane, definitely a major one, and quite possibly up into Category 4 territory, before it makes landfall on Thursday night somewhere in the Florida panhandle, if the models are right, which they often aren't. We are planning on driving  up to Dahlonega for Six Gap on Saturday, and hoping that the predicted timing holds and the storm is way up in Indiana by Saturday morning. Could be some rain for Six Gap, but hopefully not anything more. On Monday afternoon I got a call that the car was ready, so I went home early so I could pick it up and return the rental car and shell out about $1,200 between the deductible and the discounted rental. Next up is $3,500 in roof repairs.

Matt, Tuesday morning on the Lake Trail

This morning's Tuesday ride picked up a nice group along Marconi, all of which turned off at the end of Lakeshore Drive except Matt and me. I was still feeling Sunday's ride in my legs, but fortunately once it was just the two of us on the lake trail the pace wasn't super fast going out. We came back at just a conversational pace, which was great for me, actually. Hoping to make it out for the TUCA team ride this evening at 5:30.

A Little Hurricane Week and a Double Giro

By Tuesday it was clear we'd be dealing with a bit of a hurricane by Wednesday night, and indeed we were already getting rain, rain, and more rain starting on Tuesday morning. Everyone was working from home and making preparations for power outages. Around 11:00 I saw a little window on the weather radar and headed out to the levee bike path on the old full-fender Pennine with a rain jacket stuffed in my jersey pocket. Somehow I got back home reasonably dry despite some occasional light drizzle, so the 20 miles felt like a success. It wasn't raining much early Wednesday morning, but I knew that the floodgates on Lakeshore Drive were likely to be closed, so I headed back to the levee on the Orbea. There was a light rain for much of the ride, but not quite enough to soak through my shoes. I had already filled up a 5-gallon gas tank, just in case of an extended power outage.

Leakage - that'll be about $4 grand to fix.

Hurricane Francine came through west of the city, pretty much overnight. I guess it might have been barely Category 1, or just Tropical Storm level wind, but the rain was another story entirely. It rained hard for what seemed like forever, and by 10 pm or so there was water dripping from the ceiling in the back of the house where there's an old shed roof over what was once a back porch and is now part of the kitchen. I wasn't terribly surprised since that roof has long been a problem and has shown signs of leakage during wind-driven rains in the recent past. It wasn't a lot of water, but of course it wasn't good either. On the plus side, we never lost electricity despite some occasional flickering and the sounds of exploding transformers in the neighborhood. Much of Carrollton was without power for a few days after the hurricane, so we just got lucky this time. At one point the a/c shut off, though. Down in the basement there was a lot of water that had seeped through the chainwall on that side of the house, which isn't all that unusual when there is extended torrential rain. The problem turned out to be a moisture sensor that they had installed when the new a/c unit had been put in. It was on the concrete pad that was once where the original coal furnace was, and since it is a little bit below grade, it had a quarter inch of water, which triggered the moisture sensor. I just dried it off and put it on top of a piece of wood and everything started back up right away. So we got through the hurricane with a roof leak and of course some tree branches in the yard and street, but were otherwise fine. Things were still pretty messy on Thursday, and I knew the streets would be full of debris, so I didn't ride at all on Thursday, but did go out to Friendly Friday the next day. We altered the route a bit to avoid the standing water on Lakeshore Drive where two of the storm drains have been clogged up for at least a year, but got in a good enough ride.

So the weekend was a two Giro Ride weekend. Not surprisingly, the Saturday Giro had a big turnout and got pretty fast here and there. I know I was looking at 34 mph at one point on Chef Highway, although we did have a little tailwind. Naturally, I was staying safely tucked into the back of the group, but even there I had to make a few big efforts to close gaps and keep from being dropped. 

Sunday Giro heading over the Seabrook bridge

Sunday's Giro group was significantly smaller, but included four of the Tulane riders, most of whom are planning on doing Six Gap in a couple of weeks. This ride was a little easier than Saturday's, but still qualified as a fast one, I think. With a bit of tailwind on the way out, the group averaged 26 mph from the start of Hayne to Venetian Isles. Jess, who had ridden around 80 solo miles on the northshore the day before, dropped off the back when we turned onto Chef and there was a surge to close gaps, but I think that was part of her plan because, as I learned later, she ended up riding all the way past Slidell to meet up with her parents, and then do a swamp tour. I almost turned back at the end of the Giro to make sure she was OK, so I'm glad I didn't.

I ended up over at TUCA headquarters for much of the afternoon getting some of the team bikes back into working order. TUCA Alumna Carly had told me she would be in town with a friend and wanted to borrow a couple of small team bikes. One was Mignon's old Specialized, that was missing both its front derailleur and chain and front wheel. The other was the nice steel Jamis that was also missing parts and needed an inner tube and a shorter stem. Fortunately, I found the missing components and happened to have a spare chain. The Specialized is 9-speed, but should work OK with my 11 speed chain for a while. I ordered a three chains - 9, 10, and 11 - the next day since I will need a new 11 speed chain soon and two of the team bikes definitely need new chains. I also got the team cyclocross bike working since Jess is interested in giving that a try this fall. That bike was also missing its front derailleur, but I found one and got it working too. Evan got a couple more team bikes working for some of the new riders.

This morning, Tuesday, Brian B was in town from Florida, so I met up with him to ride out to NOMA at 6 am. There were only a few of us there at the start, but by the time we were on Lakeshore Drive there were at least a dozen. As usual, most people turned off before we got to the lake trail, so for the rest of the way out to the casino and back it was mostly just Charles, Brian, and me. After I got home I rushed over to TUCA HQ to meet Carley and her friend and get them set up on the bikes, the rushed back home to meet the roofer who figures that fixing the flat roof will be around $3,500, and told me that the main roof, that was installed after Katrina, is about at the end (so much for the "lifetime" warranty on that) and will need to be replaced soon. On the plus side, at least that's not leaking. Well except around the chimney which is slowly leaning away from the house, but that's a whole other story.

Southern Magnolia

Mellow Monday a week ago

The past week or so has been quite a mixed weather bag. August should have ended with a Saturday Giro Ride but was instead a slow mid-afternoon levee ride during a lull in the rain. The following day we lucked out and got in the full Giro.

The next day, Monday, the weather was pretty nice, and so we had a good Labor Day Giro. Knowing that the forecast for the rest of the week was calling for nothing but rain, I went ahead and extended my ride out to the end of the lake trail, and then back down to the river levee, which left me with around 91 miles for the day. The holiday Giro was fairly fast, but for the rest of it, I wasn't pushing myself, so it was longer than it was hard. My legs were still feeling Monday when I headed out to the NOMA for the 6 am Tuesday ride. It wasn't raining (yet), so that was good. We had a nice tailwind on the westbound stretch, which of course made the return trip harder than I would have liked, but, again, I was expecting the weather to mess up at least a couple of days that week. Somehow we did get through the WeMoRi, which seemed to have been pretty well splintered by the 10 mph east wind that was still hanging around, but a number of riders who had been shelled at one point or another managed to find their way back into the group for the last few miles.

My weather luck ran out on Thursday, and so I never did get a chance to ride at all, which was probably a good thing considering the prior three days. Sometimes when the weather gods decree a rest day, you should listen. The rain pretty much never stopped from then through Saturday. I did sneak out on Friday afternoon for a short ride on the levee. Although the rain never really stopped, it had been pretty light all day, so I dusted off the old rain bike with its full fenders and tire liners and thick touring tires, pulled on my rain jacket, and logged a few rather soggy miles. The temperature was warm enough that the wet feet and legs weren't a problem at all. Saturday morning was more of the same, though, and I just could not force myself to go out in it again. Fortunately I had already set up the track bike on the old wind trainer down in the basement, so I did eventually spend an hour and a half or so riding into a box fan and dripping sweat on the floor, despite never having elevated my heart rate much above baseline. Better than nothing, I guess. Besides, I was planning on riding the Southern Magnolia "century" ride near Biloxi on Sunday, and for that the forecast was looking much better.

The Southern Magnolia ride started at 7:00 am, and for some reason I woke up a bit before 4:00 am and was therefore in the car and on the road around 4:15, which would get me there rather early. As soon as I started the car I got a warning that one of the headlights was out, so I spent a lot of time with the high beams and fog lights on, which probably wasn't much of a problem for oncoming cars since the plastic headlight housing are so cloudy anyway. As it turned out, when I went to replace the bulb I discovered that the problem was actually the plastic connector, which was cracked and broken. It's working now, but I'm sure if it jiggles the right way it will lose its connection again. Just another car problem for the week. First there was the bad tire, then there was the accident, then it was time to schedule the 120k mile routine maintenance, and then the broken headlight connector, and now a hurricane gets thrown into the mix. 

Anyway, I had been expecting the 98 mile ride to be pretty fast, so I made sure I was near the front at the start. The weather was practically perfect, with a morning temperature below 70°, which felt chilly to those of us who haven't ridden in anything under 80° in months. I was a little worried about the north wind, but it never seemed to be much of an issue. That's typical for rides on quiet country roads that are lined by trees. Of course, the pace picked up right away with the first 20 miles being completed at an average speed of 25 mph, which was pretty much what I'd expected. Up at the front were a lot of the local Giro Ride people, along with some of the Mississippi riders who I recognized from Steve Martin rides. Mixed in was at least one rider on a TT bike, and a few others who I thought might be riding more on optimism than experience. Even so, thanks in no small part to the relatively flat course and mostly steady pace, there was still a pretty fast group well into the "out" part of the out-and-back course. At one point there was a big surge that I think must have split the group, so we arrived a the turn-around with what I'd guess to be maybe 20 riders. Shortly after the turnaround there was a rest stop. The whole group pulled over there except for a couple of riders and me. I still had tons of water on hand, along with the equivalent of four gels in my little plastic flask, so I just took the opportunity to spin easily for a few miles until the group caught back up to me. There were a couple of other riders ahead of me who had been with the group, but I don't know if either of them stayed with the group when they were caught. I was still feeling pretty good, since I'd been careful not to do very much work. I was expecting the ride back to get pretty fast because we'd have a tailwind. It mostly was. 

I should have taken a few photos, but didn't, so here's one someone else posted. Devin V posted some video on Youtube, though.

We were about 70 miles in when we came to a sharp left-hand turn, at which point Connor and "Powered by Donuts" (Michael Giem from Biloxi, I think) flew through the intersection at the front. The turn kind of spit up the group so the rest of us took a little while to get back together, by which time the duo had a pretty good gap and was showing no signs of slowing down. We did eventually get the rotation going again, and although we were holding them at about a minute for the next ten miles or so, some of our group were starting to feel the miles and we weren't really in chase mode. By then our group was down to 8 or 9 riders, and for the last 20 miles or so people like me were skipping pulls. I was actually feeling pretty good, and in retrospect was being way too conservative. Toward the end I finally realized that I wasn't going to die or anything, and by then our pace had eased up a bit in order to keep everyone together, so I started taking more and longer pulls. By then the lead duo was out of sight and out of mind, and our speed had dropped one or two mph, I guess. I finished up with a moving time of 4:07, which included that stretch where I was just spinning and waiting for the group to come back up to me after they had stopped at the rest stop. That made my time about five minutes longer, I think. The lead duo came in just under 4 hours. I definitely could have gone harder, I think, but anyway it felt like a really good workout. Somehow, I ended the week with 327 miles despite one skipped day, one day on the trainer, and one short day in the rain, thanks in no small part to that long Labor Day ride and the Southern Magnolia ride.

This morning on Lakeshore Drive

This morning we had a good turnout for the Mellow Monday ride, possibly because of the weather forecast for the rest of this week. That made it a little faster than my tired legs would have liked, but it really wasn't too fast for too long, despite the 15 mph wind along the lakefront that had me escheloned into the left lane where there was, fortunately, almost no car traffic.

So here comes Tropical Storm Francine. It was just named a TS today, and is fully expected to develop into a hurricane by Wednesday when it will probably make landfall Wednesday evening somewhere between east Texas and New Orleans. We are well with the uncertainty cone right now. The 10 am Intensity guidance is predicting Cat. 1 or 2 at the moment. I'd plan on a solid Category 2 for this one, with New Orleans on the bad northeast side. Naturally we are supposed to be bringing the car in for repairs Wednesday morning. It's also due for scheduled maintenance, which I've been putting off until the body work is done, so all that's kind of up in the air at the moment. I plan to get a rental car Wednesday morning when I drop off the car, but I guess all of that is a little bit uncertain at the moment. With the Gulf water currently at hot tub temperature, I won't be surprised if this thing develops quickly. When it rains, it pours. 

Back to the Summer Pattern

Tuesday morning. Getting darker. Sunrise season for the morning rides.

There were a few mornings lately with pre-dawn temperature and humidity that hinted at a change. They were just teases, of course, and by later in the week we were firmly entrenched in the usual summer pattern of warm mornings and scattered thunderstorms, or worse. After a month or so of unusually little rain and quiet weather out in the Atlantic, it's like someone just pushed the big red Tropical Storm button, and BAM, we're looking at two or three potential systems heading toward the Gulf. So, situation normal, AFU.

Meanwhile, this week it was back to the routine group rides for me. On Saturday we had a really big and strong group on hand for the Giro. There was a pretty good northeast wind blowing, which kind of helped keep things under control along Hayne, but of course as soon as we turned south on Paris Road the speed shot up, gaps opened, and a group got off the front despite my way-too-late 34 mph effort to bridge up to it. Fortunately, there were enough people on hand to allow for multiple groups, so once the chase fizzled we still had a nice paceline going. Of course, with the partial tailwind on the way back, the speeds got pretty fast, as expected. The Chef segment was mostly in the 29-32 mph range, and when we hit Hayne the front of the group could apparently smell the barn and the average speed along that stretch was well above 30 mph, topping out, for me, a bit over 37 on the way down the overpass. We came up to the Seabrook bridge at a solid 30 mph, at which point I slammed into a hole into the concrete that I never even saw, pinch-flatting my rear tire. I limped across the bridge on the flat so I could fix it where it wasn't so dangerous. Fortunately a couple of people stayed with me, because my CO2 inflator was mysteriously broken and unusable. 

Sunday Giro

Sunday, the weather was threatening rain, so of course the group a bit smaller and hence the speed a couple of mph slower. It was a good thing, because legs were still feeling Saturday. By the following day's Mellow Monday ride, my legs were still not feeling very recovered, but fortunately we had a good-sized group and a reasonable pace. Jess, one of the Tulane students, was on hand and happy to have been able to stay with the group the whole way. She has really upped her riding over the past month or so, and it shows.

On Tuesday we had a nice group to start with, but by the time we hit the Lake Trail we'd lost everyone except William J and me. There was a significant north (yes, north!) wind blowing in from the lake, and Will had a sore back from something he had done with his daughter, so we ended up turning back a little bit early. It was still a pretty good workout, as it always is when it's just one or two. Wednesday's WeMoRi seemed pretty fast, at least to me, with a 25 mph average and 32 mph half-hearted sprint. I swear, though, I was still feeling the prior Saturday in my legs!

Thursday's 6 am ride was a little different, although I didn't know why until much later. We had a relatively small group at the start, and so the lap along Lakeshore Drive was at a moderate, but steady, pace. It was just a touch under 80 degrees to start, for a change, but there was still a bit of east wind. As we turned into the parking lot that provides a shortcut to Hammond Highway via Lake Marina, I was on the front and going a little faster than usual. Then, when I went to hop over the sharp edge where it goes up the levee to run along the floodwall heading toward Hammond Highway, I mis-calculated and slammed my rear wheel onto the edge. Well, it took a little while, but by the time I got to the access road that goes up the levee at the start of the Lake Trail, the rear tire was flat ... again. I'd pinched it ... again. Fortunately I had re-stocked the saddle bag and put in a functional inflator, so all was good five mintues later. Just after we started back up, the two Wills came up to us from behind, so we jumped onto that train like it was the last one to Clarksville. Will was on the front, and apparently locked into some number from his wattmeter, so we just got towed all the way out and back at a steady effort level that equated to 25 mph out and 20 mph back. Then we followed him back uptown at a faster speed than usual. With all of the school and rush hour traffic already picking up, it felt like being in a Alleycat. I was probably home five minutes earlier than usual, although perhaps mildly traumatized. It was, however, a somewhat better workout than my usual Thursday.

I later learned that a number of riders, including Chris, Lisa, Will W, Will J, Brett, etc. had met up earlier with the goal of crushing the Friendly Friday Strava KOM. With that kind of horsepower on hand, and a common goal, they moved the mark by over 2 mph to a bit over 26 mph average speed. So that explained the low turnout, and why the two Wills were together when they came up on us after fixing my flat. I was kind of glad I hadn't known about it ahead of time, because that would have been a hard workout even at the back.

Friendly Friday

This morning's Friendly Friday ride had a good turnout and was pretty typical, which is to say that it got a little fast on Lakeshore Drive, but then didn't really slow down a whole lot for the out-and-back on Canal which is typically a little regrouping and recovery section. Still, it wasn't super fast or anything, so nice and Friendly.

There are some developments in the Tropics lately that could turn into a problem, or two, in about a week, but in the meantime the local weather gods have apparently been making up for the lack of rain for most of August. The long Labor Day weekend is here, so that may mean three Giro Rides for me. We have the Org Fair on Sunday, so I won't be able to do anything too long or far away that day, but perhaps Monday if the weather cooperates.

A Week Away

Rainier

It never fails. Plan a little vacation, and for sure things are going to start falling apart around you. In this case, it started with the air-conditioner. Our flight out to Olympia was scheduled for Thursday morning. On Sunday (it's always on a weekend, isn't it) the air-conditioner stopped working. Naturally, it was also the warmest weather we've had all summer. On Monday we amazingly got someone to come look at it right away, and by early afternoon it was back in action. Or so we thought. 24 hours later it shut down again. So now it's Tuesday evening and the quick fix this time (it was 15 years old) involved a blower assembly that, as we discovered on Wednesday afternoon, was not available for an estimated four weeks. 

By then the temperature in the house was around 90 degrees, so we had dragged the big 20 year-old emergency window unit up from the basement and stuck it into the living room window. Doesn't everyone in New Orleans have an emergency window unit? Of course they do. So the best option at that point was to just replace the whole thing, which could be done on Friday. We had someone coming over to dog-sit while we were out, so I paid (a lot) for the a/c in advance since we wouldn't be there ourselves. I packed the old Orbea into my trusty Airport Ninja bag, and we headed to the airport around 4:30 am on Thursday. Way down at the very end of the long line of airline counters is the tiny little Alaska Airlines counter where a very nice and relaxed agent helped us get checked in. By then I was actually looking forward to the long 4 hour and 40 minute flight to Olympia during which I read a book about AI.

Olympia was quite a bit colder than I had expected for August. We went from New Orleans heat advisories and city-sponsored "cooling centers" to mornings in the low 50s and highs in the 60s. Fortunately, I was on vacation at The Daughter's house, and could lounge around watching the Vuelta and drinking coffee until it warmed up into the low 60s. I admit, I was still a little chilly anyway, even with a short-sleeve base layer, but considering the fact that it was August, I refused to pull on the arm-warmers.

Olympia has some nice Rails to Trails bike routes, and since I was always riding alone in somewhat unfamiliar territory, I did a lot of riding on them. I did do one ride out to Summit Lake that was mostly on public roads, though. That turned out to be a pretty good training ride with a decent amount of climbing, most of which was short but steep little segments. The only way to get there involved a few miles on the shoulder of a major highway, which was a little stressful I guess, but the shoulder was quite wide and I never felt particularly uncomfortable. The loop around the lake itself was a real roller coaster. I think I just kept it in the small ring the whole time. The climbs were really short, but also really steep.

I was almost back when I got a text to meet the family for lunch, which worked out pretty well. I had been following my own route on my Garmin, but of course had to use my phone to navigate to the restaurant, which is difficult. I had to stop a couple of times to figure out exactly where I was. At any rate, I made it there without too much of a problem, so that was good.

We had planned on doing some longish hikes while we were there, but the weather was a little sketchy so we only did one. Of course it started raining while we were there, so it ended being a pretty short one. Sometimes it's like that. 

On Wednesday, the day before we had to fly back to New Orleans, I had been hoping to meet up with a local Tuesday evening group ride. It rained most of Wednesday, and I ended up not going out at all, which of course I later regretted because it had eventually stopped raining. Oh well, best laid plans and all.

Thursday morning was the longish drive up to Seattle. The Seattle airport is always packed, and this was no exception, but compared to some previous visits we got through TSA and everything relatively quickly. The flight home was uneventful, although I was disappointed that it was cloudy and/or hazy the whole way. I always prefer a window seat, but there wasn't much to see as we made our way back to MSY. 

On the plus side, the house was nice and cool when we got back. All-in-all it was a very nice, but very expensive, week.

Hot Start to August

Last week I wrote up a blog post and then somehow it was mysteriously deleted. Perhaps by me. I probably got interrupted at some point and hit the wrong key. Who knows? That Wednesday had been particularly eventful, and not in a good way. I had arrived home around 5:30 to find multiple police cars in front of the house, and soon learned that our neighbor who lived in one of the apartments across the street had died, apparently a few days prior, and was discovered after someone had called in for a wellness check. So we're sitting on the porch watching all of that and ten minutes later I  hear the sound of a car crash out on S. Claiborne. A moment later a car goes driving past Pine Street with front-end damage, dragging various parts of the car along with it. I ran around the corner and saw a car up against the bit oak tree at S. Claiborne and Lowerline, and start walking down there to see if they need help. There were already a few people there, and someone was sitting on the ground outside the driver's side of the car. As I got closer, I realized it was another neighbor, and she was injured. Her 18-year-old dog was also with her, and fortunately someone there offered to take the dog to the dog hospital (turned out to be OK). I ran back around to my house and alerted the police that there was an accident with injury, and tried to contact my neighbor's husband, who was apparently already on his way over there from the opposite direction. The police arrived right away, as did an ambulance. Down the street, about four blocks away, I could see another police car stopped in the left lane with its lights on. It was apparently behind the car that had hit my neighbor. Anyway, just in general not a good Wednesday evening on the block when five police cars, an Ambulance, a Fire Truck, the Crime Unit, and the Coroner are all involved. The neighbor had some significant broken bones and spend a few days at the hospital.

So I'll just leave that there and move on to last week, during which a relative of the next-door neighbor died suddenly and, then on Sunday, the A/C at my house stopped working. Riding-wise, the week was a pretty typical one, and the weekend was just a little bit atypical. All week we were in this heat dome of some sort, with clear skies and blazing August sun. Most mornings, the outdoor temperature at my house was reading around 82°F before dawn. 

Friendly Friday

On Wednesday I went out to meet the WeMoRi as usual, jumping onto the back of the group somewhere along Marconi. This is always a little difficult because I'm going from 18 mph to 27 mph, and it always takes a couple of miles to adjust. In the meantime I'm deeply in what we used to call "oxygen debt." The problem is always made worse by the relatively sharp turn from Toussaint onto Wisner. If you are anywhere near the back of the group, there's a major accordion effect there that typically requires a full-gas effort to close up the gaps. That morning there was one rider a couple of wheels ahead of me who let the gap open too much and tried to close it too late. A couple of riders went flying past me and made the bridge, but by the time I went around, still gasping for air, my brief 27 mph effort was clearly not going to suffice. It looked like we were all good and well dropped at that point until William J came past on the left and put in a long Hero Pull at 30 mph that dragged a few of us across the gap and back into the draft. It was a workout.

It was some time on Friday afternoon when MJ messaged me with a dire warning. "Peyton is riding Giro tomorrow" was all it said, and all it needed to say. Saturday morning there was a good group on hand as we rolled out for the Giro Ride. With Will and Peyton and a few others fast riders on hand, I knew it was going to be a hard ride. There was a northeast wind blowing, so I figured that, with so many riders in the group, it wouldn't be too hard to sit in the group. Everything was going along nicely down Hayne Blvd., but when we turned south onto Paris Road the front of the group hit the gas, and exactly what had happened on Wednesday happened again. One rider let a gap open, a couple of rider barely bridged across, and despite our 29 mph speed from Hayne to Chef, we were left to fend for ourselves. Once on Chef there was a very brief lull in the group up the road, but everyone in our group was apparently too gassed to take advantage of it. 

Saturday Giro

Meanwhile, I think Will and Peyton had gone off the front, so right away that group was in chase mode, which effectively killed any slim chance we might have had to regroup. So the rest of us got together in a nice paceline out to Venetian Isles as the front group receded into the distance. I figured we'd all get back together for the ride back. I was wrong. As we approached the turn-around spot, Will and Peyton were already on the way back - I guess they didn't stop to regroup. Everyone else was kind of scattered all over the place, so it took a while for the group to get back together. On the one hand, it made the ride back a little better, but I'd have preferred to have had the big motors on the front. Anyway, it was still a pretty fast ride back. Rumor  has it that the Seabrook bridge could reopen to single-lane traffic around the end of the month, so that will be nice if it actually happens.

So with the Saturday Giro in the books, I decided to make the drive over to Bay St. Louis (more or less) for a 65-mile ride with Steve and Charles and Apryl and a few others. It was a 7 am start, so I was on the road around 5:45. When I arrived at the parking lot on Vidalia Road I was quite surprised how cool it was. I was not surprised that my legs were clearly not recovered from the prior day's thrashing. Fortunately, this ride was going to be just paceline stuff, so although the little climbs were probably going to hurt a little, I knew I'd be fine. The first couple of hours felt amazingly cool, but by the time we were fifty miles in the weather was starting to remind us that it was, indeed, August. Even so, compared to the prior week's rides, this one was a welcome relief, and it was still cool enough that we sat around under the big oak tree in the parking lot for a while afterward. Back at home I unloaded the car and then when I walked into the house I thought it felt a little warm. I figured the wife must have been sitting on the porch with the front door open, but a little later I realized that the air-conditioner compressor wasn't running. These things always seem to happen on weekends, don't they? So I called my long-time A/C folks at Taylor and Tyler, who have apparently now merged with Surgi's and Bryan's, and to my great amazement they had someone at the house 45 minutes later. Naturally, I was dreading what the guy was going to find. As it turned out, the condenser unit's coils were completely clogged with dirt (thanks again to the Road Work people leaving us on a dirt road for a year), which had caused the unit to overheat. Fortunately the system detected that and shut itself down before any more damage was done. The coils got cleaned, a leaky valve got replaced, the unit was reset, and by mid-afternoon we were back in business, although my wallet was $400 lighter. Even so, it was a far, far better outcome than having to replace the compressor unit which would have cost thousands of dollars.

With our trip to Olympia coming up later this week, I took the old Orbea apart and stuffed it into my Airport Ninja bag, so at least that is ready to go. I think that bike is close to 20 years old now. I'd bought it from Gina about a year after Katrina. It's still functional, and this will be the second time I've flown with it. Compared to the Bianchi, I wouldn't be quite so devastated if the airline destroyed it, since it is my main backup bike.

Nationals Weak

Pretty happy and surprised to have made the podium in the criterium this year

Last week was Masters (and Juniors) Road Nationals week up in Augusta. A couple of weeks earlier I had gone ahead and registered for the road race and criterium, despite the nagging feeling that I was not really in race shape. Not that being in sub-optimal shape has ever stopped me before, of course. I admit that there was still some hesitation, but it was more because of the cost and the fact that I would probably be making the trip solo, again, like last year. The entry fee for the two races was $240 and three hotel nights came to $500, plus a couple of tanks of gas, so basically we're talking about something like $20 per race mile. The forecast a few days prior was calling for rain on Friday, the day of my road race, and possibly also on Sunday, the day of the criterium. On the other hand, when you are in the 70-74 age group and nationals is within driving distance, why the hell not? I mean, it might be your last chance, right?

Earlier in the week I had been intentionally limiting my efforts on the usual group rides, having taken the fact that I overslept on Tuesday and missed half of the ride to be a divine message of some sort. Thursday was going to be a nine-hour drive, so I was confident that my legs would at least be reasonably fresh. I left home on Thursday around 6 am or so, and had a nice uneventful drive up to Augusta.

With my road race scheduled for around 10 am, I had lots of time in the morning and arrived at Fort Eisenhower (previously Fort Gordon) a couple of hours early. I quickly found Tom and George and the rest of the Texas Geriatrix team, and also old-time racing friend Lonnie Kennedy. I'd been feeling some nagging chest congestion for a few days, which only served to amplify the dearth of confidence I already had, so I was really hoping that the race would go more or less like it had the prior year, which could best be described as "slow and defensive." Basically half of the riders were afraid of the 1 km climb at the end of each lap, and the other half were planning to attack on the 1 km climb at the end of each lap. This year I was firmly in the prior camp. The course is fairly hilly, with almost no flat sections, which can make it really hard if riders are aggressive on the climbs. Luckily for me, that wasn't the case. Kent Bostick and Tom Bain were both monitoring the front, and I think were sufficiently confident about their ability to handle the finish climb that they weren't too worried about how much of the packfill like me they brought along for the ride. George Heagerty took a long solo flyer at one point, but I don't think he got more than about 45 seconds before being gradually reeled back in. I was feeling my lungs every time there was a surge, and so unlike last year I was just hanging out near the back, knowing full well I wasn't going to be contesting the finish climb. Luckily for me there was no attack there on the first lap like there was last year. I moved up a little bit as we got to the final couple of kilometers, and was in a pretty good position for the finish if I'd been feeling good, which I wasn't. I mentally pulled the plug about halfway up the climb, which tops out about 400 meters from the finish, then accelerated again once it flattened out, but of course by then a lot of riders had gone past me. I ended up 13th, which was about what I'd expected under the circumstances. Kent got out-sprinted on the line, and Tom was 3rd.

With the Criterium scheduled for Sunday, I had all of Saturday to contemplate my condition while watching the first weekend of the Olympics on TV. I went out early in the morning for an easy 27 mile spin, and then a nice dinner at the local Olive Garden where I'd also eaten the day before. By the end of the day I was feeling marginally better, but would definitely be going into the criterium with no expectations.

Tom, Lonnie, and little ol' me

I got to the course a couple of hours early on Sunday for my race, which didn't start until around 10 am, mainly so I could get a good parking spot. That gave me a chance to chat with some of the USAC folks I know, like Bonnie and Venesia, before squeezing into my kit and getting the bike set up for a little warmup. The criterium had originally been set up to include the 65-69 age group, so would have been basically a 65+ race with potentially 75 riders, but people had complained and they had decided at the last minute to give the 65-69 riders a separate race. That brought our field size down considerably. I think we had around 30 on the start line. I was glad to see that everything was dry and rain was unlikely, at least for the morning races. 

Still feeling rather unconfident, I spent a lot of this race farther back in the field than I had the prior year. That probably saved a little energy, but also made for much more sketchy riding. Unsurprisingly, there was no successful break, so most of the field came into the final seven laps together. We were probably somewhere around 5 to go, coming into turn 2, when a rider came flying past me on the right around mid-pack and I thought to myself, "Where does he think he's going?" Well, I guess where he was going was into the barricades or something because as I went through the turn I heard someone yell something, followed by the sound of a significant crash. I guess at least a couple of riders went down, but with it being so close to the finish I didn't look back since I was more concerned about trying to maintain a position somewhere in the front half of the field, mainly for reasons of safety. 

Results

As usual, halfway through the last lap riders started to fight for position, and unlike last year I wasn't really inclined to fight back too much. I guess I went around the last turn about 10th wheel. I did launch a respectable sprint and passed a few riders before the finish, so I think I was probably 7th or 8th across the line, with no idea how many ahead of me might have been in other age categories. Last year I was 5th, when turned out to be 4th in my age group. This year I figured I was definitely off the podium, and after a couple of cool-down laps headed off to the car to get ready for the drive home. At that point I could hear the announcer starting the awards for the first three or four races, so I checked the online results (never saw paper results posted) and was kind of shocked to find that I was 5th. I turned around and went back to where they were doing the awards, and a few minutes later stepped onto the lowest step where Bonnie put a medal around my neck and we raised arms for a quick photo. I actually felt pretty good about 5th this year, considering. Tom ended up 2nd and Kent 1st, again.

The drive back was uneventful except for the usual alternating Indy 500 and gridlock around Atlanta where I image body shop techs are the highest paid in the nation. I still had a bunch of granola bars and drinks in the car, so I stopped just once for gas, which got me back home just a little bit after sundown. Eddie Corcoran was the only other NOLA rider who raced, and unfortunately he had gotten some kind of food poisoning or a stomach virus the night before his road race. Somehow he gutted out (pun intended) his road race, which was quite a bit longer and faster than mine had been, finishing 38th in a field of about 60 in his 60-64 category. His criterium on Sunday had been pushed back to accommodate adding that 65-69 race, and some other change, so he ended up skipping it. I think the re-scheduled time was late in the afternoon, so he wouldn't have gotten home until after midnight, and might have ended up racing on wet streets, so it wasn't an unreasonable decision under the circumstances.

It was back to the routine, and the heat advisories, on Monday, and then on Tuesday the lakefront bike path was wet and full of puddles and cut grass which made quite a mess of the bike. Yesterday I went out to the WeMoRi, jumping onto the group along Marconi as usual. That put me near the back as we made the right turn onto Wisner. Some of these riders seem to have a deep-seated fear of that corner, and when gaps started opening ahead of me I yelled "Pedal!" but it was to no avail. There was a half-hearted chase, but the gaps wasn't closed and I ended up with Charles all the way around City Park as the front of the group vanished up the road. Back on Lakeshore Drive we turned around when we saw the group coming, so at least we were there for the last couple of miles. 

Thank goodness for airbags! That curve used to have a cautionary 25 mph speed advisory sign,
but it hasn't been there since at least Hurricane Ida.

When I got home from work late Wednesday following a little end-of-academic-year party at Superior Grill, there were multiple police cars in front of the house. As it turned out, one of our long-time neighbors who lived in the apartment across the street had been found dead. The crime lab was there for a while, but we never found out anything more. As we were sitting on the porch watching all of that unfold, I heard the unmistakable sound of a car crash around the corner on S. Claiborne. A moment later I saw a car driving down Claiborne with heavy front-end damage, dragging various car parts along the way. I rushed down the stairs and around the corner where I could see a car up against the big oak tree at Lowerline and Claiborne. 

There were already some people there, but as I got closer I realized that the person lying on the ground next to the car was one of our neighbors! She was definitely injured but fully conscious and concerned about her dog, Wally, who was also in the car and is something like 18 years old. One of her friends took the dog straight to MedVet, where they pronounced him OK. I ran back to the house to find the neighbor's husband and to alert one of the police officers who were conveniently still there, so a unit was on the scene right away. The car was clearly not fixable. I'd guess the car that hit it was going at least 50 mph around the curve. Four or five blocks down the street I could see another police car behind a car stopped in the left lane, so I assume the car that hit her hadn't gotten too far in the attempt to flee the scene. The neighbor was finally loaded into an ambulance for a trip to the hospital that ultimately confirmed a bilateral pelvic fracture, some broken ribs, lung contusion, etc. Later that evening we met someone from MedVet who dropped off the dog who we left in the neighbor's kitchen. Ken came back from the hospital I think around 11 pm to take care of the dog and get a little sleep before returning to the hospital in the morning. 

Hot town, summer in the city

A Thursday morning with waterspouts over the lake

It's mid-summer now, and it shows. The pre-dawn rides start at 82°F with the relative humidity in the 90s. Then it gets hot. Surprisingly, though, turnout for the regular rides has been high, especially the Friendly Friday and Saturday Giro rides. Go figure.

There's a lot to catch up on this week, so I'll turn the clock back all the way to the week after the Tour de La., starting with the July 3rd WeMoRi. I was feeling pretty decent for that one. It was one of those where most everybody was still there for the finish. As usual, we came screaming down the Bayou St. John bridge at 30+ mph as people started to set up for the Marconi sprint about a kilometer away. This time of year there are some big groups of high school cross-country runners that meet up along Lakeshore Drive in the mornings. It's not really a problem for us, but this time I guess one of them inadvertently left us a surprise. 

July 3 Skid

I was still toward the back of the paceline when I heard what I thought was someone hitting a coke can. What it actually was, however, was one of those Yeti insulated cups. Charles nailed it and immediately hit the ground a couple of bikes ahead of me. He went more or less to the left as his bike spun off to the right. I hit the brakes hard and barely made it through between the sliding bike and a parked car on the right, clipping some part of his bike with my rear wheel in the process. Fortunately, Charles and his bike were more or less OK. Later that evening I was cleaning my bike and realized I'd taken off a big chunk of my rear tire when I locked up the rear wheel. Good thing I checked. Also, good thing I happened to have a new tire on hand.

That Thursday was July 4th, so of course there was a Holiday Giro that morning. I rolled out the door around 6 am into the relatively mild but predictably humid 80° air with an official "feels like" temperature of 87°, hoping for a reasonably controlled ride. With the "interim" Giro route upon which we seem to have finally arrived at a consensus, my usual 59-60 mile Giro rides are not more like 68-70 miles, with that extra half hour tacked onto the hottest part, of course. The ride out to Venetian Isles was still pretty fast, with an average speed a bit over 25 mph, but by the time we were halfway back every one was pretty wilted and hot.

Big Friendly Friday Group

The next day, the Friendly Friday ride had a pretty big group, relatively speaking, so of course it wasn't quite as easy as it sometimes is. Still, having a bigger group always make the ride better and usually also makes it seem a little easier since all those bodies make for a much sweeter draft zone near the back.

Big Saturday Giro

The on Saturday we had possibly the largest group we've had since the bridge closure. That guaranteed a fast pace, at least on the way out before it became oppressively warm, but the big long paceline also made it feel a little easier. It really reminded me how much better the ride is when you have 20-30 people on hand. The last part of the ride, of course, was super hot, which kept both the pace and hydration levels well below normal. I was thoroughly dehydrated by the time I got home, and subsequently took the hint to order up a fresh bag of Skratch, since I was just about out of the one I had. 

Steve and Charles had planned a ride out of Pass Christian for Sunday, so I made my way over there. We had a nice group of six, and the pace was pretty controlled, so other than, again, the heat, it was a nice 52 miler with a little bit of terrain. It wasn't until I got back home and looked at Strava that I realized Apryl had ridden from a friend's house to the ride, and then ridden back afterward, logging over 100 miles. She's apparently planning on doing the 200-mile LoJoTa ride in early September. Considering how drained I was by the end of my own 52 miles, I was impressed. That ride brought my weekly mileage up to 316, which was probably more than generally considered advisable considering the fact that practically every single morning my Garmin greets me with a Heat Advisory.

Last week wasn't much different, really. We have under this heat dome lately, so winds have been fairly mild and temperatures have been fairly high. Considering the prior week, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised to find nobody at NOMA for the 6 am Tuesday ride. Just as well, really, since I could clearly use a bit of recovery anyway. I did run into Keith Noonan who turned around and rode with me for a while. As I usually do when I'm solo for this ride, I turned around a little early so I'd get back  home at the usual time. Wednesday's WeMoRi was pretty fast, at least it felt that way to me. In reality, it was probably a pretty normal one. 

Thursday Morning Sunrise

On Thursday we had more of a group at NOMA, which made for a better ride. On the way back from t he casino we could see a line of rain clouds out over the lake that had spawned a number of waterspouts. Then again on Friday we had a surprisingly big group, which again meant an unsurprisingly fast pace. Mid-way through the ride we lost Charles, who I figured had a flat or something. He had come over to the house a couple of days prior to replace handlebar tape, and when I rolled the bike into the basement I could tell that the headset was very badly pitted. It was hard to imagine how he was even riding the bike like that. He had a replacement headset at home, and subsequently brought it over to the LBS in the Quarter, since replacing it would involve disconnecting and bleeding the hydraulic brake lines that run through the handlebars and head tube. He had gotten it back in time for the Friday ride, but soon realized something wasn't right. He wrote that it felt like you'd "just done a bong hit every time you take a tight turn or stand on the pedals."  Back at NOMA I looked at it and you could see the fork moving below the head tube, even though the preload adjustment seemed tight. My diagnosis was simply that something wasn't installed right and it would have to be taken apart to find the actual problem, which turned out to be an upside-down headset bearing. Anyway, it was a really good Friday ride.

What everyone looked
like after Saturday's Giro

The Saturday Giro was, again, a big one with at least 30 riders on hand for another exercise in group dehydration. There was some horsepower at the front, so it got quite fast and stayed that way all the way out to Venetian Isles. Fortunately the winds were light, which, combined with the large group, made it manageable despite some long stretches that stayed in the 27-31 mph range. Not surprisingly, the ride back was a bit slower as the temperature got up into the low 90s and everyone started running out of water. One new feature on the Giro route lately has been a regular encounter with two or three small dogs that have been running out into the group near the end of Hayne Blvd. The group really scattered on Saturday when they ambushed us, but somehow nobody crashed and the dogs didn't get hit. Later in the ride, somewhere on the I-510 segment, Matt and Jaden got into some kind of argument about somebody's riding, I think. Anyway, the pace remained fairly fast, and I got home on Saturday completely drained, just like my water bottles. I wasn't the only one. Later that day I went over to Tulane HQ and picked up the 56 cm Specialized so I could take it home and check it out. Gavin was flying into town on Sunday morning for a conference, and would be borrowing it for the week. I stopped by GNO Cyclery on the way home and picked up a couple of rolls of handlebar tape because what was on there was kind of shredded on both sides from what had to have been a crash. Otherwise, though, the bike was functional. I cleaned it up, cleaned and lubed the filthy chain, cleaned the cassette and chainrings and jockey wheels, adjusted the derailleur, lowered the handlebar, and of course changed the tape. The bike is one of three Specialized bikes that were donated to the club a few years back. It's a basic aluminum Specialized Allez with the low-end Tiagra components, so it's a little on the heavy side, but otherwise pretty nice.

Mellow Monday

Sunday's Giro was a little smaller and although the pace was a bit slower, it felt harder to me. I think that all those long hot rides had finally caught up with me. By the time we turned back onto Hayne Blvd. I was already rationing the water and Skratch that I had left, and all I could think about was the cold Coke in the refrigerator at home. I had originally been considering doing a long ride on the northshore, but was glad I'd decided to instead just do the Giro. Gavin's flight was scheduled to arrive at 10:15 am, and I got home at 10:00 even after taking a shortcut, but fortunately the flight was delayed about fifteen minutes, so the timing actually worked out great. I picked him up and we go the bike adjusted, then went to lunch, and hung around the house long enough to watch the day's Tour de France stage before dropping him and the bike off at the Marriott. This morning's Mellow Monday ride  had a pretty good turnout, and although it got a little fast here and there, it wasn't a particularly hard one, which was good because I was definitely feeling like I was in need of a little recovery.

Meanwhile, back at home, I am dreading the next electric bill, still hoping that one day the city will show up and clean out the clogged catch basin next to the house, and thinking about the inevitability of needing to have a lot of expensive exterior work done to replace rotting wood, install new gutters, and paint. For now, the hurricane situation has been quiet, but it's expected to ramp up again fairly soon, things usually get pretty spicy in August and September, into the early part of October. Keeping fingers crossed. Charley has been moving up in the local Dog rankings, and is currently in 2nd position as measured by number of steps. He shows up also on Candy's Strava page whenever she takes him for a walk and actually remembers to bring her phone and have the app running. Their typical daily walks are in the 5-7 mile range, so that's a lot of dog steps.