Well, looks like I'll be commuting by car for a few weeks. DOT is improving a major intersection along my route and the lane shift has made it too dangerous for me to ride through there. Unfortunately, the location of this section makes it impossible to go around without adding another 8 miles or so to my ride, so I'm screwed. It really sucks, what with gas prices being what they are now and having to deal with traffic on a regular basis again. I also haven't had a chance to try out the new bike rack at work either; it's kind of a bummer, especially since the property management company responded so quickly to my request to replace it. Hopefully, they can get whatever it is they're doing that forced them to shift the lanes completed pretty quickly and I can get back out on the bike again.
On the up-side; I'm getting some responses from people in my office to my post seeking runners to create a corporate team for the Ragnar Relay. I've only had 2 other people commit to it, but I've heard from a lot of people that are interested. The guy that somehow roped me into being the team captain says that it was a "slow burn" when he brought the race up to his running club. It started slow, but then took off; I'm hoping I'll see similar results here. The whole event looks like a lot of fun and I really want to be able to use the captain role in my annual appraisal next year. These kind of "extra-curricular" things always look good to the higher ups.
What is it with people that drive these gigantor SUVs, but slow down almost to a stop to go over a speed bump?? I was pulling into the garage this morning and got stuck behind someone in a Suburban who was taking the speed bumps at 5 mph. Seriously? If they're afraid to take it over a speed bump, why the hell did they buy the monstrosity? Are they compensating for big shortcomings elsewhere or do they enjoy taking out a home equity loan just to fill their gas tank? It boggles my mind.
I made a posting on our company forum looking for 11 other runners to help me form a team for this:
http://www.ragnarfl.com/
"This 191 mile adventure-fest will push you and 11 pals from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. Starting in Clearwater and finishing in Daytona Beach this relay offers runners a unique opportunity to run across the state of Florida as it passes through the shoreline towns of Palm Harbor, Tarpon Springs, New Port Richey, and the horse country of the Ocala National Forest. The race (and your stamina) wraps up within earshot of the roaring engines of the Daytona 500 and the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean."
Within about 5 minutes, I get an instant message from the guy that coordinates our entries for the the Gasparilla Distance Classic every year and also sends out the informal running newsletter for the office. He was going to include it in the message he was going to send out on Friday and wanted to know if I wanted to be a team captain. At some point, I foolishly agreed to this. So, not only am I going to participate in a race that will see me running a relay across the state, I'm a team captain. Which means that I can't back out if I come to my senses at some point. Oh well; it looks to be quite the adventure and the team captain part will look good on my annual self appraisal next year. It will be a pretty good example of "team building".
TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese man puzzled by food mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he found out a woman had been living in his home for months without permission, police said Friday.
WTF??? How do you not notice something like this? What is it about Japan, why are they always the source of all the really weird stories?
Mainstreaming Terrorism to Sell Donuts - from www.littlegreenfootballs.com
"I didn’t believe this story when people first started emailing about it; but sure enough, it’s true. Dunkin Donuts, the venerable old fried dough seller, is the latest American firm to casually promote the symbol of Palestinian terrorism and the intifada, the kaffiyeh, via Rachael Ray"
Someone please tell me this is satire. People can't really be this stupid, can they?
The bike rack in the garage in our office park is falling apart. It's one of those old school racks; looks almost like a parade barricade with an extra bar along the bottom to hold your front wheel. The vertical bars in between which you put the wheel are rusting at the welds and some of them have broken (or been broken) loose. To secure the bike, you actually have to loop your chain/cable around the horizontal bar at the top. Otherwise, someone could just remove the vertical bar and make off with your ride. If they were really ambitious, they could just take the whole rack; it's no longer secured to the ground. I leaned against it the other day and almost knocked it over, bikes and all.
We have a message board at work, so I posted a facilities request alerting them of the problem. They forwarded that request to the property management group and on Wednesday, they're going to be replacing the rack. Maybe I should petition them to name the new rack after me... like a new wing at a hospital or something.
So, I'm riding to work yesterday morning. On the down-side of a bridge, I'm cruising at about 30ish. Coming at me (the wrong way on my side of the road, but up on the sidewalk) is another guy on a bike; looks like one of the DUI Brigade. You know the guys; they've been popped for DUI too many times, have lost their license and now their only mode of transportation is some beat-up, too small for them, 20 year old K-Mart bike. As I pass him, I hear him shout something, but couldn't really catch it over the wind rushing by. I was about 20 or so feet past him when it filtered through. I'm still not 100% sure, but I think he said something about me being a circus freak. I'm way more confused than upset about it, because I wasn't even wearing anything outlandish. I had on a plain, black pair of cycling shorts, plain white Nashbar jersey, my backpack and black Specialized shoes. Oh well, WTF ever. If that's what makes you feel a little better about your sorry lot in life, you go pal.
