Check this strange beverage that falls out from the sky. Rain. In February. In Colorado. I just heard thunder. The gods are probably trying to get me for yesterday’s Foaming Rant.
The sky is crying
Check this strange beverage that falls out from the sky. Rain. In February. In Colorado. I just heard thunder. The gods are probably trying to get me for yesterday’s Foaming Rant.
Mad Blog Media 
Update form McDowell Mtn Park.
The Desert Duathlon is in the morning. Rained most of today and supposedly most of tonight and tomorrow. Windy also. Both runs are off road in the comp track area. Then two different bike courses: road bike and mtn bike.
Hey, Charley … I’ve done the DD a time or two, if memory serves. But they never had an MTB version when I was doing ’em, and they used the North and Verde trails, if I recall correctly. Start and finish line on Asher View Drive.
Rain and wind, eh? Sounds like we’re on the same program. I hear thunder as we speak, and more rain. Oh, well, it’s good for the baby tree in the back yard.
Indoor trainer, Patrick?
Not to twist the knife (ok, maybe a little), it was mostly sunny and 72 today in the PetroMetro. I got in 3.5 hours on my new Look 595.
You won’t believe this. Two weeks ago, I went with my eight-year-old daughter to Sun & Ski Sports to look at a mountain bike for her. The Big Box carries mostly low to mid-range stuff–perfect for her. BUT, they had a 2008 Look 585 Ultra with Dura Ace 7800 and Fulcrum Racing 7 wheels for $2250, and my Look 595 with Dura Ace 7800 and Mavic Ksyerium wheels for $3000. They carry very little high-end stuff, and roadies never think to check. I stuffed a credit card full. How could I not at that price?
This bike is AWESOME.
Why didn’t I buy the 585 Ultra instead? Because I didn’t act fast enough. I figured it sat there for almost three years. It’ll sit there two more days while I screw up the courage to burn up a credit card. Alas, it sold, and I had to knock a bigger hole in my wallet instead. But it was so worth it.
Hey, Jeff … nope, it was pretty nice today, 60-sumpin’ when I took a break, albeit windy. I piddled around for an hour and a half, taking in various bike paths, bits of single-track and a soupçon of climbing. Only after I strapped back in for the second half of the shift in the VeloBarrel did the weather go lightly sideways.
Congrats on the new bike — it sounds like a deal for real. Nine-speed bar-end shifters are the only Dura-Ace in the garage here. Remember how simple and functional the stuff was back in the day? I think 1988 was the last year I had a full Dura-Ace group.
Patrick, are we led to believe that you are going soft? Rain in February is worse than the alternative? Now “rain and 40 degrees” in February is a different matter (as it is here in SacTown). But the skies are allegedly going to clear tonight.
Naw, it should be snowing, and like a mad bastard, too. I forget how far behind we are in terms of precip’ for this winter, but it ain’t pretty. The trails are a weird blend of sneaky ice hiding in shady bits and windblown dust. All my bikes have this fine brown powder on them that isn’t snuff.
Its blowing here since last night like a scene out of the Wizard of Oz. NPR says Arizona is being pelted with snow, wind, rain, fire, brimstone, etc. Gods are not happy, I guess.
3-6″ of blowing snow just starting here in NorMn. Makes for trainer time. Could be worse, a mere 2 miles away, the governor (Scott Walker, Republitard, Wi) is threatening to call out the national guard to quell the uprising over his gut the unions plan. I think this is just the start of an organized big biz plan to see how far they can push the middle class. Walker is just a mis-guided pawn, as are the rank and file Tea-baggers, in the grand haves keeping it all and you and I “just lucky to have a job” group.
Man, I’m staring to feel like Randy Quaid in the paranoia department lately, but the writing is on the wall…..
Boz, this is union-busting at its finest. You have two choices: bargain with people honestly in tough times (people may be stupid, but not that stupid, we know we are all in deep shit) or you can try to stick the knife in. Old Scotty has the knife. Trouble is, you stick the knife in your state workers and you are sticking it in yourself.
Been there in these situations. I was on the Board of Directors of a state labor union (U of Hawaii professor’s union) during an austerity budget. We repeatedly fought hammer and sickle with Governor Ben Cayetano on austerity measures that he tried to push down rather than negotiate and there were times I thought if he got any more frustrated with us, he was going to tell the National Guard to load us all on C-130’s and dump us in the ocean. But Ben, a “scrappy as a junkyard dog” Democrat who grew up on the Other Side of the Tracks (another reason I honestly love the guy), always took the high road and ultimately, so did we. At the end of a nasty strike in 2001, we settled for a small raise, biased towards the lower-paid community college folks. We knew the cupboard was bare and took a moral IOU on good faith to redeem if and when things picked up.
I was invited to lunch with Gov. Ben when I left UH for BombTown. He respected his adversaries rather than trying to screw with them. In return when the Hawaii economy utterly tanked after 9-11, faculty were writing checks to the Food Bank.
When you live on small islands, you can’t shit your nest and you don’t need to senselessly make enemies because they live a block or two away. Maybe someone needs to remind Gov. Walker that Wisconsin ain’t all that big.
Gov. Walker is just out and out union-busting, and you are damn right, its all political. So what do you do when you bust state workers unions? Then what? Sure, its a race to the bottom. And the bottom is where the Chinese are waiting to kick our asses, laughing their own asses off.
Khal, some very astute observations. One thing I would add is that if the state wants to eliminate collective bargaining agreements with the employees (since really the union can’t say no) then they should. Nothing like realizing that you WERE underpaying for a service that you are NOW overpaying for. So much for the arguments of “we’re broke” and “state workers make too much” that are currently going around.
As a state employee I would love nothing more than to walk into work and bargain for a new contract. Goodness knows that the years of previous experience handling some of the issues which the department I work for is now facing will be a boon to my pocketbook. Not to mention my resume.
I understand the calls for austerity and living within the state’s budget BUT it’s tough to hear all the wailing about “we’re broke” from the same folks who vote for tax breaks for millionaires and mega-corporations — the VERY folks who should be paying their fair share of the tax burden so ALL of us can have the benefits of a civlilized and organized society. The little folks are getting sick and tired of always being screwed while the rich just keep getting richer!
Larry, they are broke because they won’t raise taxes. Ok, fine. The fools who vote in the tax-cutting jet setters can let the country fall apart. Then who are they gonna bitch to about a lack of government services? Ha-ha-ha-bwaaa…..joke is on you, Mr. Lower-Middle-Class Tea Bagger.
Sadly, the joke’s on ALL of us. The services that go away and the infrastructure that falls apart are things used by most of us, not just the dimbulb Tea Party folks. The Repuglicans like to talk of government like a corporation and suggest we elect CEO’s to run things — using that analogy it would seem these guys should all be canned since they’ve failed to set the price of their “product” at a high enough level to cover the costs of creating it. But the biz-whiz corporate CEO can simply offshore his production to cheap labor, low-regulation countries, but since that can’t work with government, it would seem they’re instead trying to change the USA itself into a low-wage, low-regulation country, one where the fat-cats can do whatever they like. No wonder they bankrolled the Tea Party!
“…a low-wage, low regulation country, one where the fat-cats can do whatever…”
Why is that so painfully obvious to us and so obscure to these Tea Party folks? P.T. Barnum may not have uttered “There’s a sucker born every minute” but boy, oh, boy, it ought to be the GOP and Tea Party’s motto.
NEVER underestimate the skill of the Repuglican Party (or their corporate sponsors) in getting folks to vote against their own self-interest! They rail against the so-called “death tax” so the rich folks can hand down their wealth untaxed, despite the fact these kinds of policies make extra sure the rubes will NEVER be in a position for estate taxes to have ANY effect on them. But hey, they just might win with one of those lottery tix, “so better make darn sure no gummint can take my winnings away or stop me from givin’ em to my chilluns!” And while you’re at it, “keep your damn socialist hands off my medicare!”
Karl Rove famously said –“As people do better, they start voting like Republicans – unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing”
Any wonder why the R’s quite often come down on the wrong side of anything to do with education?