I’m really starting to hate Sundays. It’s like someone docks a Waste Management truck to my office window and offloads a metric ton of moldy corn dogs, crushed Grain Belt cans and elephant shit from the Iowa GOP caucuses into my iMac.
I clocked in at 7 a.m., just in time for the first lap of the men’s World Cup opener in Pilsen, and I didn’t really find the bottom of the VeloPile until about 4 p.m. Pee-yew. There’s more to be done, of course, but it never found its way to me and thus has become someone else’s problem.
Doesn’t help that I’ve somehow managed to throw out my back again, which adds personal injury to professional insult. Sending two Tylenol Extra Strength tabs after that old refrigerator-delivery injury was like pitting a Boston cream pie against Rosie O’Donnell, without the potentially funny bits.
Happily, as I do my part to help smash the State through Occupy Office Chair I’ve gotten some top-notch attention from Dr. Turkenstein, though I note he is prone to wistful window-gazing. And no black-glove coppers have pepper-sprayed me yet, so I’ve got that going for me.
Mad Blog Media 
So, what’s for dinner?
Man, I have no idea. I know I can’t stand in front of a stove or sink right now. Hell, I can barely stand at all. I’m devolving into one of the lesser primates. Ook ook ook. Ogg want banana.
Sorry to hear about the back. Mine’s sorta hanging in there. Get well soon and as my orthopaedic surgeon used to say, “rest and drink beer”. Had to lose a few lbs after that prescription back in the day, though.
Khal. I was in Bomb Town last Monday. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to White Rock. A lot has changed in 30 years! Come to think about it, so have I! A bit depressing seeing all the boarded-up shops in the shopping area. –Bruce
I think when the State built that big, fast, wide road (NM 502 and US 84/285) to Santa Fe and Espanola, a lot of small business suddenly found itself excessed out. Folks keep demanding more shopping up here on the Hill, but it ain’t happening. I think gas will have to go up to eight bucks a gallon for people to stop wanting to go down to the more plentiful hunting and gathering spots off the hill.
We are more likely to shop local now that there is a co-op by the airstrip. But it doesn’t take the place of Santa Fe.
Bruce, you want to see boarded up, pay a call on Bibleburg. We have entire shopping malls in bankruptcy, strip centers in decay. And don’t even ask about downtown. It’s basically an open-air arena for steel-cage death matches in which the contestants are both armed and drunk.
K, back in the day I lived in Española and drove to Santa Fe and back daily for work. After a bit I moved to Santa Fe and Herself drove to Bombtown and back for work.
In Weirdcliffe a 150-mile round trip for groceries was not uncommon, and today Herself drives to Denver and back twice a week for purposes of wage-earning.
Eight bucks a gallon won’t do the trick. I don’t know what would.
Thanks, K … it’s just one of those deals comes around a couple times a year to fuck with a guy, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Girl Scouts. I’m self-medicating with French rose and Irish keening.
How ’bout around $10 a gallon as it is here in Italy for unleaded? We’re free from caring much about gas and oil for the next six months as we’re either on foot or pedaling on two wheels. We brought a couple of road bikes, a couple of MTB’s and a couple of single-speed, fendered (and rod-braked!) shopping /transportation bikes down here with us.
What did Herself do in BombTown? Hopefully nothing on the Dark Side, like yours truly.
Sorry to hear about your back, Patrick. Maybe L5 is out of whack….
Watched local ‘cross action this weekend – I don’t ride!
I see the long and lean Dr. Turkenstein is in his think tank.
Have a great week and I hope you get the knot out of your back.
No bitching and moaning here – after seeing Giro di Lombardia we’re escaping the cold of northern Italy today for Sicily, where I guess it’s been raining but we hope that’s over by tomorrow morning when they kick us off the ferry in Palermo. From there a cross-island drive should have us in Syracuse by late afternoon though our actual apartment won’t be ready until November 1. The landlord will put us up elsewhere until then but it should still be nice with an ocean view. Hope your back improves OG! We’re really enjoying knowing little to nothing about the Repuglicans in Iowa, etc.
Larry, somewhere back home is an email from one of my cousins, Lori, who managed to ferret out which little town in Sicily my grandmother emigrated from when she came to Ellis Island back circa 1906. If I can find it, I’ll ask you whether you are going to be cycling anywhere near there with a camera in tow.
Patrick
Bummer about the back. Maybe the Turk chase Buddy around on your lumbar vertabre and knead things out. The claws may not help though.
Quick recovery.
Refrigerators are the mortal enemy of backs. Fortunately, mine goes out every 3-4 years. Take care. Two days of Hydrocodone works for me.
I don’t have a back problem (yet) but 2 Februarys ago I took a nasty spill on the ice outside the liquor store and wrenched my left shoulder, cracked 2 ribs. The shoulder still gives me grief.
But I didn’t break a single bottle!
Khal, just turned in the rental car today so we’re on two wheels or feet for awhile. But don’t despair. we’ll likely be renting a car a few times during the next 6 months, especially as we hope to come up with a CycleItalia itinerary (both guided and self-guided) before we head back up north in May to begin our 2012 tours season.