I remember when there used to be something called “the off-season.” No longer. Websites don’t like downtime, and so there’s always something needs doing over at VeloNews.com.
My days in the barrel as online editor at large are Monday and Wednesday. Come important events, like the Amgen Tour of California or any of the grand tours, it’s all hands on deck for the duration of the cruise.
It’s not physically demanding work; there’s no heavy lifting to strain the back, though calluses on the brain are a common occupational injury. But it can be wearisome, especially amid distraction and when combined with other tasks.
The resurrection of the basement has begun with a vengeance, and work crews have been scuttling in and out of there like roaches, dismantling the futon and carting it away to storage, replacing drywall and sealing concrete. This both disturbs and fascinates the cats, who as a consequence have been spending far too much time confined to my office. Turkish loathes and despises all characters of the two-legged persuasion, while Mia just wants to gallop downstairs and leap into the middle of it all.
So yesterday I had a basement full of drywallers and an office full of cats while I pushed pixels around the website in consultation with various colleagues, banged out two columns and a cartoon for Bicycle Retailer and Industry News and tried to diagnose a couple fresh computer issues that popped up like virtual Whack-a-Moles (O, the joys of working on 10-year-old equipment). No healthy, restorative exercise was to be had, but there were a couple bottles of wine in the kitchen and so recreation of a sort was available.
Today it’s more drywallers, and perhaps carpet and vinyl selection. But that’s not until the afternoon. And so with all deadlines met and no pixel-pushing until Monday, I think I’ll get outdoors for a couple hours and run a little fresh air through my headgear.
Late update: Damn, leave the office for an hour and look what happens: E.W. Scripps Co. throws the Rocky Mountain News on the scrapheap. I know at least one journo’ there — Chas Chamberlin, a former VeloNews art director — and I sure hope he can land on his feet. It’s an evil job market out there for us ink-stained wretches. But it looks like The Denver Post is picking up a few lucky sorts.
Meanwhile, Google is sticking a toe in the local-news market with Patch, a new online venture that aims to provide local reportage in backwaters ignored by cash-strapped newspapers. Public service or another step on Google’s march to global domination? We report, you decide. Thanks and a tip of the green eyeshade to Indiedoc on Twitter.
Mad Blog Media 
Great spring-like weather down here for two-wheeling. Only down side is that the snowpack is melting down nearly as fast as our banking system. Come summer, all hell may be breaking loose with wildfires.
Sunny day, i’m taking the day off… and the dog has projectile vomiting and diahrea, which I cna’t even spell.
So instead of getting some miles, I’m shoving 170 lbs of Great Dane into the back of a Forester (because the better half has the truck today) and hauling him off for a gut check.
Where’s the K9 version of the Medicare Rx drug benefit, I want to know.
Khal, we’re in similar straits here. I haven’t read a weather story in a while, but I expect this is one of the driest winters on record. One Texan chucking a panatella out the window of his Caddy and we’ll be in the shit.
Damn, Steve, I bet a 170-pound Dane can really squirt the Hershey. Hope the big guy’s OK.
Got the lab report from the vet… the pup’s gut has more bugs than Microsoft Vista and my wallet is now auditioning for the “after” photo in a NutriSystem commercial.
Cold, rain, thunderstorms. February in (or near) Chicago, ugh. Snow tomorrow. Even a sick dog would be a happy diversion from the weather. Steve O, glad you caught the problem in time. Makes sense that after universal health care for us that pets could get considered in home therapy providers and are a compensated expense. Just think what Patrick would be like without Mia or big whitey to distract him.
Patrick the basement looks to be coming along nicely. Think of the basement episode as just a chance for ‘Herself’ to warm up the shopping/home decorating skills ahead of the stimulus. You going to write for Patch? Hope it works better than outside.in It was supposed to be local resident supplied news, but is just a location specific filter to teh usual feeds plus lots of non-useful comments that don’t add to the story.
Poor pooch. I hate to see an ailing animal. They look up at you with those big round eyes and beg you to fix them, now, please, thanks. Mia spent her first couple weeks with us quarantined in the upstairs crapper while being treated for that feline respiratory disorder and all the while I felt like a Nazi doctor running a concentration camp.
Ben, sounds like you folks are right back in the deep freeze. We’ve had a couple pleasant if blustery days — I even got out on the Vespa today to run some errands — but I hear we have a chance of catching the trailing edge of something as it rushes over to rain on your parade.
The basement is indeed coming along. Drywall and painting are complete; we get together with the vinyl-floor guy tomorrow. Carpet will be last. The fun part is going to be the multiple moves of the washer-dryer combo, this 10-ton piece of gear that Herself insisted upon when we moved in. My part-time gig moving heavy appliances around and about in college has enriched many a chiropractor over the years.
Google is not the only one doing the Local Internet Journalist routine. I just got a job with examiner.com as their Dallas area transportation reporter. Now I have to figure out how to cover local news without reporter’s credentials. Sound like fun?
Opus,
You scored! Just like Faux Gnus but without all the screaming, moaning and belly-aching. Worse case scenario: just show up and yell “I’m with the press!” Being Dallas, it just may work….especially considering the new neighbor.
Best of luck in the gig.
James