Yesterday's Frazz

Julie once paced me to a nice win on a tough, hilly 8 mile running race. There was this fast chick in Williamsburg that we affectionately called "Hurricane Hair." She always came out perfectly coiffed, with enough hairspray on to survive a tornado, and head phones.

J caught up with me at mile 6, and I was 200 yards behind Hurricane Hair. I had been there the whole race and just couldn't make up the distance. Over that last 2 miles J badgered the hell out of me and I got to within about 10 meters, 1/2 mile to go, I was about 2 meters back. Right before the end there is a down hill, then a sharp, steep hill and then over the top to the finish shoot. J was screaming at me.

What did Hurricane Hair tell the local paper who interviewed her after I beat the pants off her? I didn't know she was there... For two miles J screamed at me and with the headphones, that chick threw away her race.

Headphones, just all bad. (good for me though!)

Transportation into the Future

Last night I went to the transportation dog and pony show. There were about 40 people there total, 7 cyclists, and 5 of them were with me. I'm telling you, I was disappointed. I sent the message to the other local teams, and RABA and that was the best we could do. I tell people all the time that the moral majority was neither moral, or the majority. What they were was vocal. If we don't care enough to come out to meetings like this, then I'm afraid that we should just shut up and continue to take whatever comes our way.

I always find that before and after talks are where things get done, so of course I was the little social butterfly pouncing on poor unsuspecting politicians. Rudy Butler is on the Board of Supervisors for Goochland and about every transportation initiative across the country. God love him, he told me flat out that Goochland has no money for new bike lanes. I know that. I actually don't want bike lanes(gasp!) what I'd like to have is either a wider road or at least some kind of a shoulder.

Face it folks, I think its an easier sell to the public to say that we are going to widen the road to make it safer for everyone than it is to say that we are going to build bike lanes for those damn cyclists. I cant begin to say how many bad accidents I've investigated because the roads are narrow and have a large drop off from the pavement to a drainage ditch. Heck, half the roads in my county aren't even wide enough to be stripped.

Virginia's transportation budget is 4 billion. Nope, sorry, that was LAST years budget. This years budget has been cut 25%. Most of that goes to pay past debt. It's time for some reality. We can't even maintain the roads we have unless someone gives a little. We actually have to fund transportation, and then do the things that we need to do to make roads safe for everyone.

So if you talk to your representative, maybe that would be a good topic to have. Tell them that you ARE willing to pay a little more to have decent roads. Or at least come out to some of these meetings to see what the real numbers are.

Grrrr (Thanks Jenn, Adam, Cliff, James, Bud and his wife for coming. Thanks especially for James and Cliff giving me targets to pounce on. I'm terrible with names and need refreshers!)

Scooter love

I'm not much of a "stuff" person, but I've got a hankering to get one of these. The Stella gets about 75 miles to the gallon which sounds great, but at $2000, it would take a whole lotta driving to make up the gas price difference. Somehow the idea of paying for a scooter made in the USA seems like a better deal than paying for oil made in the middle east.

Of course if I could ride my bike over the stinkin' Wiley Bridge I wouldn't need a scooter in the first place...

So tomorrow night is what I'm sure was supposed to be a dog and pony show for Walter Stosch, former speaker of the house for VA. It's all about transportation and he's bringing the guys from VDOT. I'm going to be there, told him I'm going to be there, and that he and VDOT should be prepared to discuss cycling issues. It's awful nice that VDOT keeps doing all these "alternative transportation" studies at great expense, but I'd like to see some of them actually put in action! Grrrr...

If you have nothing to do tomorrow night, how about joining a few of us as we mix it up with our representatives at the Twin Hickory Library, from 6-8. Who knows, maybe if we can convince Walter that bicycling is an important aspect of his community he will act on our behalf.

Yeah, that will probably happen about the time I can afford Stella the scooter...

Black Dog

In general dogs on my bike rides don't bother me. Most just want to run along with me, reveling in the joy of a good run. Some want to get you, but don't have a clue how. The bad ones are the thinking dogs. The ones that sit and plan all day for when you are going to come by. Face it, I get home about 5:15, and am on the road by 5:30 most nights. It's predictable when I will get to certain places.

One of my neighbors (ok a mile away but where I live that's next door) has a border collie mix. They got the dog about a year ago, and in keeping with Goochland tradition, the dog runs loose. At first the dog made a little game of running with bikes. As time has gone on the dog has gotten more and more aggressive, and lately has just flat ass gotten dangerous. The sit and wait for you in the bushes by the road kind of dangerous. The lunge directly at you at a 90 degree angle dangerous. Trust me, you cant out-sprint what you cant see. Monday she almost got me, and even worse, just about ran me head first into a car.

Last night I saw movement at the house and called for the owner. As I came up the drive, the dog attacked me. If I hadn't had the bike to use as a shield I'd be in the hospital. Nice lady. Mid-60's, lots of money, well educated. Got the dog from the SPCA... the whole deal. I told her that the dog was becoming a real danger. She told me that she noticed that the dog was giving bikers a hard time... (long pause) I asked her if she understood the liability situation at hand. "Uh- huh?" You know, you know that your dog is dangerous, and yet you let it continue the behavior? All this while the dog was STILL trying to bite me.

After some give and take, where I told her that 1. I was her neighbor, and 2. the Litigation Specialist for a major insurance company, and 3. exactly how bad she could get nailed when her dog either bit someone, or caused someone to have a head on with a car she came to her decision.... Yeah, she'd just give the dog to someone else.

Why people like this have pets is beyond me. If you get bit by a black dog on Hanover Rd, at a house/farm called Windy Hill, I'll testify for you. She's on notice, she already knew, and I more than a little pissed about it.

Another Cyclist Killed Article

Read it here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cyclist-killed-web-may02,0,544144.story

I really hate the way newspapers write this crap...
"While there was a helmet found at the scene the police couldn't say if she was wearing it..."

Yeah, she could have been bathing in it, eating out of it, maybe was carrying a pet turtle in it. Most likely though, since helmets are ment to be worn on the head... SHE WAS WEARING IT.
And if the other driver turned right and struck her, they didn't collide, he took her right of way and killed her.

It's bad enough when the police write reports that either imply the cyclist is at fault when they aren't, but wouldn't it be nice if newpaper reporters also didn't play along?

Karen vs. The Mountain

Bill Battle

This is going to be one of those I'm honing my skills posts. (not a "I suck post as Mike May correctly pointed out that I should take a page from the pros who never suck... they are honing their skills, or have a stomach virus, or beri beri or something.)

I am not a climber. I'll never be a climber. Which per James is what my problem is. Not that I'm not a climber, but that I don't believe that I'm a climber, and you cant do what you dont believe you cant do. Well, not exactly. I can climb Wintergreen. I'm just slow as shit.

What was fun, in a masochistic way was riding around with James and Jake, who are both the skinny climber dude body type. Paired up with Tom Richeson on the team who makes Rassmussen look fat, and I was surrounded by skinny climber dudes. Jake was bouncing around feeling the love, Tom was doing that little Tom giggle, and James was busy trying to pull my head out of my ass. All in all, a party atmosphere, with Katie's daughter Kylie running around collecting rocks and attempting to get in the road.

So... I honed my skill up the mountain. It wasn't pretty, but I eventually got to the top. Thankfully everyone else hadn't packed up and gone home before I got there! Lets just say that the team did great... Jake 2nd cat 4, Tom 3rd 40-49, James 11th 40-49, Greg Guinter 12th 50-59, Frank Smith 16th, Bill Battle 17th, Katie 5th cat 1-3, and Sonya 5th cat 4, I squeaked 5th 40+. *Thats because there were 5 of us...*

Now good ole Bill was the star of the day. Bill has Battled Wintergreen for years, and swore if he could get below an hour he'd never do it again. Since last year he dropped about 28 lbs, and several times a week climbed Wintergreen on the computrainer. We all knew that Bill would do something wonderful on Saturday, and he blew away that hour mark, 51:10. I'm expecting that it may be weeks before Bill comes down from this performance. I may need some more honing, but Bill fought the mountain, and won!

Super chicks

I just got to give a shout out to two super chicks. Congrats to Graphics Goddess Jenn who was game about trying to do the fast ride, but had her doubts about hanging. Trick to hanging with the pack is to stay in the top third to get the plush puppy ride. Jenn, you rock! There she was, getting in position all night, working like a dog when I'd yell at her to get up there! And no surprises here, she finished the ride beaming like a high voltage light.

And big kudos to Col. Sharon from Ft Lee! She told me that she needed work on surging and stuff. So I told her to be tough, and rule the ride. Go ARMY! Off Sharon would go to attack the field every time you looked around! Get 'em, GET 'EM and off she'd go!

And super big kudos to Biker BJ. Just got an email from her main squeeze that she breezed thru her collar bone surgery and will be back kicking heiney in no time! Enjoy the drugs BJ, coming back is tough!

Happy Friday everyone. Sufferfest at Wintergreen tomorrow...