Got out of the country (sort of) for a week, as we hit the Mayan Rivieria. I say 'sort of' left the USA, since we stayed in an all-inclusive resort, meaning it was chock full of tourons & the menus there were very Americanized; see cafeteria food.
It was a great time, but I am sure that will be my one & only encounter with this type of establishment. We saw some cool sights: ChichenItza, Tulum & its wonderful beach, Playa del Carmen & its recently restored beach. Spending some time at the beach below the Tulum ruins was the highlight of our trip-1) the sunny finally broke free of the clouds, & 2) the beach & water were beautiful! Best meal was probably lunch in some tiny locals only joint we found strolling through Pla'aya-both of us had lunches & drinks for a grand total of around $4.80 & it had taste to it, unlike what we were ingesting at the resort restaurants.
Now for a photo essay of some of the trip highlights:
Our place had pools, man-made lagoons, but no real beach.
Chichen Itza......
Tulum's beach.......
Playa del Carmen's new beach.
And don't think I missed the local bike action, cuz here's what the locals were wheeling:
The Lyons gang came south on Tuesday, so had a rare Tuesday T.I.T.S. ride. Lots of others felt it was a good night, since we had either 20 or 21 riders roll outta IW! I was weak outta the gate, took it slow & hung way back on every hill this ride. I probably walked 40% of BoR-almost felt like selling the bike & taking up golf after that display. At least the Goat & some of the other burners had their race faces on. Besoft has a cool Garmin player of the ride stats.
Work got cancelled Thursday, so PBR Me! & I decided to try it again, this time with much better results, both legs- & lungs-wise. Headed straight over to Zorro/DR first, to hit it while somewhat fresh, instead of going straight up like I usually do. Kevin wasn't a bit hesitant at first to go over to the rocks, but he wheeled it pretty good today. You'll be cleaning it all soon enough!!
Back over the BoR (T.I.T.S. crew has now adopted it!) & a fun bl'ast! down Rooney, followed by a quick spin across the middle brought us full circle. Almost for me, since I now 4.8m of downhill to get back to the house. Good one: 23m & 2,600' (including road to/from) & was able to function afterwards.
Today had me on the Peugeot for a little jaunt. Rolled up to GM to meet someone to sell a tire @10. It was freakin' cold when I rolled outta the garage! Got up to GM & looked back towards the house & everything was fogged in. I met up w/Goat just after, as he & BadAndy just finished a GM/DR/MW ride starting in the middle of the night. He has some cool pix showing fog everywhere, except for the top of GM & DR.
Dirt is forecast for tomorrow, so to GM/DR/MW/?? with a few other fools joining in. Better weather than my brother is having in Pixburgh, he couldn't get out of his drive this morning, so they were gonna do some XC skiing from the house.
Winter in CO ain't bad, but can't complain about the beachtime in Mexico starting Tuesday!!
Got some curtain rods yesterday, or as they call them these days, 'window treatments', for the sliding glass doors & the bay window. So, this morning, I hopped to it soon after getting up. All was going well till I noticed the system of attaching it together.
Enter: baseplate, funky piece that holds rods, & the screws to slap it all together. OK, this don't look like it's gonna be fun. Attach the baseplate to the funky rod holder, then screw the entire setup into the anchors I put in....
Here's a view of it, where you can see how the bottom screw is easily accessible, but the head of the top one is snug tightly against the rod-holder mechanism.
After cursing engineers, present & past experiences, for a few seconds, I figured I'd just jam it in ham-fisted like.
Just made it take a bit longer than necessary, but they're in & look all fancy like.
Velocipedes
Earlier in the week I was thinking a 2hr trip south was gonna happen, but fortunately Pueblo got more whiteness than we did here, so got to go local. Rolled outta the garage @8am to meet Kevin at the Florida lot of GM, then do some climbing, which my legs haven 't done much of all winter.
We went straight up my usual; following GM trail, then Hayden.
Hopped on the road till we jumped on Rooney Valley for a bit. Instead of dropping to the bottom, we rolled over to Box o' Rox to have some fun going down. We stopped at the bog to take a look at what can be done to improve this section, which'll hopefully be job #1 when the T.I.T.S. crew gets it adopted. Decided to head up Zorro & play on a little bit of Dakota Ridge. It's been awhile since I've ridden anything techie, & my (lack of) skills showed. Usually just bl'ast this section with no problem, but not today!
Back over to GM & I told Kevin that we should head to the top once more, taking Rooney Valley this time. Wrong move, for my legs/lungs, cuz I was sucking wind big time! Somehow survived it & we wound our way back down Hayden, which was the suckiest part of the ride. All the mud/slop was hanging out in that section of trail.
Ended up with 2,520' of climbing, in addition to my 500' of road to get there. Not bad for a Saturday morning in January in CO.
Went to my 1st hardcore show - Skank Magazine presented Hardcore for Central PA #1 w/Crucifix, White Cross, Rat-at-Rat-R & 1 other band for $5.
Mohawks, spiked hair, shaved heads, leather, tattered flannel & loud, fast music......my entry to the beautiful world of punk shows, which took up many a night over the next many years. Grew up in the 17319, which was conveniently located to see some great shows (1hr to Baltimore, 2hrs to DC, 1.2hrs to Philly), so when I was forewarned of a show & had off work, we would load up someone's car & make a quick road trip.
Let's begin with what I consider to be the best compilation of all time: 'This is Boston, Not LA'
Contains a mix from some of the best Boston bands at the time: Jerry's Kids rock it as always; Gang Green are at their peak here; only weaknesses are Groinoids & Decadance tunes.
Saw the temps would be low enough to pedal if I got my ass out of bed early in the am, but when that time came around, I had lost any sense of motivastion, so surfed a lot of couch this week.
Finally watched The Cove last night & that was nasty. Traditional Japanese culture my ass!
Fun Fact:
Too many to just be a coincidence, did you ever notice that Dischord Records catalog numbers that are even multiples of ten (i.e. Dischord Records #10, 20, 30, etc.) are all releases from bands that the label's founder, Ian MacKaye, played in? Here's the list:
#10. Minor Threat "Out Of Step" 12"ep #20. Egg Hunt "S/T" 7" #30. Fugazi "S/T" 12"ep #40. Minor Threat "Complete Discography" CD #50. Skewbald/Grand Union 7" #60. Fugazi "Steady Diet Of Nothing" LP #70. Fugazi "In On The Killtaker" LP #80. Fugazi "Instrument" DVD #90. Fugazi "Red Medicine" LP #100. Teen Idles "S/T" 7" #110. Fugazi "End Hits" LP #120. Fugazi "Instrument Of Sound" LP #130. Fugazi "The Argument" LP #140. Minor Threat "First Demo Tape" 7" #150. The Evens "S/T" LP #160. The Evens "Get Evens" LP
Not all of Ian's bands' releases on Dischord follow this formula, however, as there are a few of them with catalog numbers that don't end with zero, such as the Minor Threat "Salad Days" 7" (#15) and the Embrace LP (#24) but it is enough to make you wonder what Dischord 170 is going to be.
After over a week of inhumanely cold temps, I was able to step foot outside Friday afternoon, then again Saturday morning.
Bolted outta the house a few minutes after logging off for the day & headed south to see what the conditions were like on Stonehouse. 36° was the reading as I rolled out, but it was late afternoon, so I expected the temps to start dropping quickly. My urban section was slicky, but as soon as I entered the single track, I had only packed snow to contend with for the rest of the ride. Checked out everything creek side on the way to Fox Hollow & all was nice.
Had a message from the goat when I returned, so we set up a morning meet w/spike & Steve. Started around 22° this time & warmed up as the sun raised its head. Getting to Fox Hollow was again a bl'ast!, but as entered the connector trail to BCLP, our thoughts of an easy day were dashed. Very bumpy snow, 6" or so deep made the going rough at times. Ended up being out for 4hrs!! BCLP & back is a normal 2hr run.
The 2 high points of the day: pedaling across the frozen lake
....and warm hands the entire time.
Political Rant time: Words by Margot Kidder, from CounterPunch
The Democratic Party needs an intervention and then it needs to be sent to rehab. The lunacy behind the thinking of many traditional Democrats that any Democrat in Congress is better than no Democrat at all needs to be exposed and treated for the infectious disease that it is. But there is no 12 step program for corrupt politicians, and turning the problem over to God is just not going to cut it this time, no matter what Sarah Palin thinks .
The absence of democracy in a congress whose votes are bought, sold, and traded like pork bellies by big corporations in exchange for highly profitable votes and amendments on bills is a bi-partisan infection. And the pus is everywhere.
Give me a nut job for an enemy anytime. You can take aim at the obviousness of the problem and roll a strike 99 times out of a hundred. But if your enemy is disguised as a boring but harmless friend, and wears the same logo on his sweatshirt as you do, then landing a punch is like trying to slug mist. There’s no connection, no delicious smacking sound, there’s no obvious win. The fact that 20 to 25 percent of Americans support policies and politicians that are bat shit crazy is not as much a concern as the fact that 50 to 60 percent of Americans support politicians whose policies are for sale to the highest bidder, and exist independent of any underlying morality or consistent philosophy of government. Arlen Specter calls himself a Democrat for God’s sake. And so does Ben Nelson. And Blanche Lincoln. These are not Democrats; they’re Republicans in Donkey suits. And somewhat tasteful donkey suits at that. None of them would have strings of tea bags dangling from THEIR cowboy hats, you can bet the ranch on that. They are much more dangerous than Rush Limbaugh could ever hope to be.
And oh how they bray, and the bray is as bad as the bite. With each snort and hee-haw the party trembles defensively and gives them whatever they want. To hell with traditional Democratic principles, its all about keeping the guy from leaving you, so what if he’s hit you so many times that your face is no longer recognizable? Keep that man. Get more numbers on your side of the aisle than they have on theirs and pay no attention to the actual quality of the people who make up those numbers. If they say they are Democrats, if they will wear our label, they must be on our side. Democrats can’t hurt us. Can they?
Look at Max Baucus, the most anti-charismatic Montanan in the state. How is it possible to recognize such a surfeit of blandness as dangerous? Talking with Max is like talking with drywall: he nods at whatever you say and he’ll smile vacantly at you for hours on end, but you’re never quite sure if he’s home or if he’s just had one motorcycle accident too many. I say this because I believe that those of us he purports to represent have a right to know who the person behind the mask really is.
The hideous truth is that this empty suit-person almost single handedly took the reform out of health care reform, has introduced and somehow passed more legislation to abet the cornucopia of crime that is our banking system than anyone else in congress, and has stalled the funding of any, if not all, modern programs that would give financial lifeboats of one kind or another to families in need. He did it by pretending he was a Democrat and by hanging in there long enough to get appointed, almost by default, as chair of the banking committee. And he gets elected in a state with the fourth lowest per capita income in the country by consistently “bringing home the pork.”
Billings needs a baseball field? That’s no problem for Max. Stick it on the nearest bill, regardless of relevance. Missoula wants a biking path? Easy as spitting. But you poor souls who are being screwed by the credit card company that got you so deeply in debt and then raised your interest rates so high that you had to sell your house to make the payments? Tough titty.
Max voted against a ceiling on credit card interest rates. You’re going bankrupt and about to lose your house because you got laid off and missed two payments, you deadbeat you? Max voted against allowing bankruptcy judges the leeway to lower interest rates or principle on mortgages in a way that would allow families to stay in their homes.
Can’t afford health insurance at today’s exorbitant rates? Max devised a plan whereby if you DON’T buy from one of the existing health insurance companies who trade your health for their profits you will get smacked with a whopping fine by the IRS, and they get to charge you whatever the hell they please. Hey, it’s your own fault; you should better manage your money.
Have to choose in the winter months between your medication and your heat? Max made sure that no pharmaceutical company will ever be asked to put ceilings on their profit margins, so if you can’t afford that one hundred and forty seven dollars for the only antibiotic that will work on your systemic sepsis, well, die baby die, you should have learned the rules of unregulated capitalism.
Everyone who is anyone donates huge sums of money to Max. It’s like landing on the social pages of Women’s Wear Daily. But Max is from Montana so its doubly chic, macho wilderness chic, with just a hint of cowboy. Here in Montana the corruption is as fresh as this morning's manure. No company with their shareholders interests at heart would dare forget mailing in their “Max Baucus for Senate” checks come election time. You’re guaranteed a lot of bang for your buck, and if your check is big enough and Max has to choose between the interests of his scruffy and often poor Montana constituents and the freshly facialed, Armani-clad CEO’s of Aetna or Goldman Sachs or Anaconda Mining, trust me, he’s going to go with the high-end set – they pay a lot of money every summer to learn to light campfires at Camp Baucus at the Big Sky Ski Resort and Max has become addicted to their donations.
The mainstream media calls Max Baucus and other Democratic blackmailers “centrists”. As compared to what, Chiang Kai-Shek? “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,” said Yeats, but that was in 1919 and he was referencing the Russian revolution. America’s centre has been tap dancing to the right since Ronald Reagan was loosed upon the world and it hasn’t taken a backwards step yet, so our centre is way out in right field and has no intention of coming back of its own accord. It’s up to us, unfortunately.
In the big D.C. high school known as congress, “practical” politics is all the rage with the in crowd these days. It’s Rahm Emmanuel speak for accepting the system as it is and playing the game better than anyone else. Get all the dough you need from huge corporations - and what’s a concession or two or twenty compared to several million dollars of fuck-you money in the campaign chest that will ensure you can four wall the country with television ads in 2012 and thus get Obama a second term? It is essentially a philosophy of “anti-change”, no matter what system of logic you apply to it. Rahm must have been out of the room when the campaign was going on last year. But wherever he was, he is demanding an ossification of our dreams. You want “Hope” back? Hope, schmope. The world doesn’t work like that.
And protesting will just get you are accused of idealism, that nagging little worm that lives in the hearts of nerds everywhere. And idealism is just not cool. It’s not practical. You must abandon childish notions of hope for a better world and look the corruption square in the eye and accept it. Work with it. Look at Max. He’s arguably the most powerful guy in the Senate. . So get with the program and shut up. Call this mess of health insurance backed suggestions “reform” and let’s move on. No one will really notice that it’s a ferocious defense of the status quo, so who are you to make a fuss? Be a good little Democrat. Say we passed an historical health reform bill. Lie, OK? Lie for the greater good of the party.
Sadly, the hard truth is that it’s hard not to feel like a little baggie of leftover peas in the face of the seeming omnipotence of these corporations, these dictates from above. Inertia and depression are logical responses to such an enormous monolith of corruption. And fighting for anything remotely resembling a just society, or expressing severe disillusionment with the fact that your own senator has been bought by JP Morgan Chase and Blue Cross/Blue Shield is just not done and is frowned upon.
But we can’t give in to the easy seduction of lying in bed with the covers over our heads hoping this whole thing will somehow pass of its own accord. Its not going to go willingly, and until we get really, really feisty and turn back to all that anger that Obama managed to tamp down with all his lovely speeches and turn it again into a force to be reckoned with, there is no hope for any kind of future worth having. The Democrats aren’t going to save us – we have to save them.
We can target every one of these fake Democrats and expose the hypocrisy that is running like a deep aquifer of sludge under their public personas. And we can, if we’re smart, soften them up for the blows of the more polished and hopefully “progressive” politicians who will remove them from office.
Will the forces who replace them be infinitely better than them? Who knows? They might be worse. But until we flex our muscles and show we mean business, it will be business as usual, and business as usual benefits no one. Until we get all our little homemade slingshots out and relentlessly whack at this destructive Goliath of our own making, nothing is going to ameliorate the ruthless destruction of what is still naively called a government of the people, for the people and by the people.
Margot Kidder is an actress and activist living in Livingston, Montana.
Fortunately it did stay in the double digits, just barely. The ride didn't start out so good - a NiteRider failure, followed by painfully cold fingers about 2 miles into it. Spike saved my ass - he brought an extra light & loaned me his pogies for the rest of the ride.
I'm thinking at about 25°, I'm gonna play it smart & stay inside from now on. Been experimenting with clothing & I think that's my minimum temperature. But then again, if I could grow a cool enough beard, I could make another layer........
Decided to go south-north & link up some hopefully dry sections of singletrack today. As predictable as I am, you know I went down to Stonehouse & took it west to Fox Hollow & wound through BCLP. Along the creek from Wads to the golf course was the worst of the day. Tried to hit as many options in BCLP & ended up hitting a little section I've never before encountered....cool!
Next is RR: I rolled up by the chapel, then up the road, where I happened to catch some nature (about to be) in action. As I rolled to the top I noticed some deer hanging around in the parking lot.
Off to the side is a doe, along with a buck standing nearby who is ready to get it on w/her. Anytime she walked away, he'd be right behind & doing his best to greet her rear end with his nose. They continued this for a while, across the lot & down into the bushes across the street. Good on ya, dude!
I decided to get pedaling again & rolled outta there cuz I believed MW was soppy. Roadie time: up to the service road to DR, popped out on the road & rocked back around the bottom of GM as sun was getting really low.....and really cold.......just before a 3-mile DH on the road. Which got me even really-er colder.
Tofurkey day & the Iron Bowl have passed. T-day was good. Iron Bowl was not so good.
Got out for a mellow spin to BCLP Wed night to see how my back felt & all went well, except for the fact that I ended up walking a climb or 2 that I always fly up.... & I haven't even gorged myself on Tofurkey yet!!
Noticed that one of my batteries wouldn't power the head, so did some checking & found that one of the batteries no longer took a charge. Bummer, but still have one left, which I used. I used it up in under 2hrs, so my nite-time pedaling has been cut down.
Friday evening brought another installment of the T.I.T.S. ride, back to its roots at GM. While getting ready to roll, I had an issue with my remaining 'good' battery. Hooked it all up & the light flashed on quickly & disappeared. Lucky for me, all the Amoeba's here, with Scar & PBR. Quick velcro to the head & I'm ready to go. Six of us rolled outta IW & wound our way to the top, then down the Rooney Valley trail.
Almost headed to Bo'R, but judging from what we saw on the south, we thought best to avoid the sippie hole that exists near the bottom, and instead took the lower to middle route. Only 1 incident to speak of, arrived to see the goat lying about 10' offtrail, his bike with handlebars facing the wrong way & a huge divet in the trail preceding this mess....
All's well that ends well. Since we ended back at IW for beers, it all ended well. Just playing around with my batteries/heads/cords & found my newest battery is still in action, & I may have a blown bulb in 1 of the heads. Amoeba is again on the back burner..........but not for long.
Boomer showed Saturday night & stuck around till Monday morning. I finished early Sunday, so we headed out to one of 'those' trails & I spectated, while he & a huge crew gravitated to the bottom several times over.
I got about 3 somewhat viewable pix out of the day.
Yes Virginia, smooth singletrack does exist in CO...they just have jumps built-in.
Good group showed up to show their support for our local MTB advocates & they in turn handed out loot to lucky ticket holders.
It was a chilly ride there. The ride home wasn't as bad as we thought, plus it was shortened a bit thanks to Spike.
You know what to do.....
12 November 2009
Another sweet day to get down to BCLP on the Peug. Finished early, so headed south to meet up with e for some mellow dirt on the 'cross' bikes.
e in action.
Changed out the freewheel on the Peug to a 20t, so let's see how it goes next time out. Today while out on the bike, my latest piece for the KM arrived.....the Monkey is looking blingy now.
