The evening meal consisted of bean burritos smothered in green chile with a side of Mexican rice. Dessert? Raspberry cobbler.
It was a quiet New Year’s Eve around El Rancho Pendejo.
Since I no longer smoke, drink or dance the hoochie-koo, I’m no fun on the big night. And we didn’t have any invites to fancy shindigs at which I might not act the fool. So we spent the day catching up with distant friends and family, cooking a bit of this and that, and going to bed long before the ball dropped in Times Square.
Neighbors with more stamina blew me out of a sound sleep as 2017 sequed into 2018, discharging their muskets, flintlocks and blunderbusses with wild abandon. If there was any body count, it didn’t make the morning paper, no doubt because those misfits were out in the street banging away too.
Having already achieved perfection I have no New Year’s resolutions. I’m taking a 30-day break from Twitter that may become permanent because I think it’s making my head fat and I’d like to be able to squeeze into my old hats again. Plus I think there may be more productive ways to pass the time, like pounding sand down a rathole, pissing into the wind, or baying at the moon like some infernal hound.
And there’s riding the bike, too. In 2017 I managed 2,767.8 miles, more than in 2016 but without a single, solitary tour. Bad Adventure Cyclist! Bad, bad, bad! Go sit in that office chair and think about what you’ve (not) done! And then blog about it.
This unspeakable sloth will persist throughout today. After a light breakfast Herself and I plan a short New Year’s trail run. At some point the black-eyed peas and cornbread will make an appearance, and the burritos smothered in green may get an encore, too. The raspberry cobbler, alas, is a goner.
Meanwhile, happy happy joy joy to thee and thine, and a thousand thank-yous for popping round the old cracker barrel during 2017. Let’s do it some more in 2018.
Tags: New Year's Day 2018
January 1, 2018 at 9:55 am |
The good news keeps on coming. Hell froze over yesterday, i.e., the Buffalo Bills made the playoffs.
Good thoughts on social media avoidance. 99% of the stuff there is garbage so unless one is getting a Ph.D. in Garbology, its usually best to not even read crap. I may at minimum continue to pare down my contacts so as to avoid annoyance. Or kill it. Trouble is, my electronic buddies will have to learn to use e-mail again. That seems to have a higher activation energy than saying “grunt, huff, piss, moan, blah” on Twitter.
Happy New Year to all and hope this year is better than the last one.
January 1, 2018 at 11:05 am |
I liked Twitter early on. Its 140-character limit reminded me of headline writing, which I always loved. Now it’s double that, and chock-full of evil racket at all hours (some of it contributed by me).
We’ll see how the 30-day skull-flush goes. I may lose Twitter altogether and devote the time saved to some more worthy enterprise.
Meanwhile, on sheer impulse I just croaked my Instagram account because Facebook is evil.
January 1, 2018 at 10:07 am |
H.H J.J to you and herself too. Enjoy your 30 day sabbatical, but please come back refreshed and ready to carry on. I am a sixty something misplaced / displaced Brit living in the Canadian Capitol Ottawa. I greatly enjoy your observations on life, politics and the general state of the world, continue to tell it like it is! Enjoying my Mad Dog Racing Team biking jersey, it has facilitated introductions to complete strangers all over Quebec and parts of Vermont. Looking forward to reading your own special insights into events in 2018.
January 1, 2018 at 11:13 am |
Back atcha, Terry. Give my love to the old hometown. I loved my short stint in Ottawa (1959-62 or thereabouts) and intend to return for a quick look-see one of these days.
Glad to hear the jersey is working for you. I did a stint in Vermont, too, back in 1977 (Winooski and the greater Burlington area).
Never fear, I’ll keep cranking out the nonsense here, if not on Twitter. There’s nothing short of the grave that can silence a Mick, and sometimes that doesn’t even do the trick.
That’s me and my sis, Peggy, at the old home place in Ottawa about 10,000 years ago.
January 1, 2018 at 2:01 pm |
Wow. Even looks like you.
January 1, 2018 at 10:48 am |
Awesome — Happy New Year 2018 to All, and to the joys and agonies of building great legs ! Please watch glorious and fun video on Seattle Times-of “friends who honored an artist’s last wishes with a water ballet in a Seattle kiddie pool” (sorry my tech skills to import this are dinosaurish).
January 1, 2018 at 11:14 am |
That was a touching video, Karen. Thanks for the tip. How’s Seattle? Still weird? My buddy Merrill and I spent some time there in the Eighties, when he was shooting for a Washington newspaper and I was on a copy desk in Oregon. We’d meet in Seattle to get weird.
January 1, 2018 at 9:10 pm |
You are welcome, and thanks for your expertise in fixing this. Yes, WSeattle hectic streets, with required fuel stop = Bakery Nouveau, heaven.
January 1, 2018 at 10:57 am |
Good morning! Did you change your header image? If you did, I really like it.
I never developed the Twitter habit. I still rely on email to stay in touch, or Facetime. Sandy is forced to use facebutt to keep up with kin back in Kentucky. She is making noise about quitting that and just using email and her blog.
I did 19 mountain miles yesterday to get to 2100.5 for the year. Seems my goal for 2400 wasn’t to be, although I did get more miles than last year. No tour for me either, not even an overnighter. I do need to change that, big time.
Chicken fried rice and a salad for lunch today. I think we will indulge in popcorn and a movie later. Got a $50 iTunes store gift card, and we might as well use some of it today. Watched “Concussion” a few weeks ago. Never have been a football fan, and I won’t be in the future.
If you keep leaving the door unlocked I will hang around next year. this is my favorite spot on the innertubes. Now, if we could only get a Mad Dog Media Cyclofest and Beer Garden scheduled for this spring. Or maybe a 3 day tour?
January 1, 2018 at 11:20 am |
Yep, Pat, that’s a new pic, from down on Elena looking back up at the Sandias. A new riding buddy here in town showed me that road, which parallels Tramway but is a lot less crowded. The climb back up is a nice steady-state, low-traffic half hour.
More miles is good, even if we didn’t get as many as we’d hoped. Reality has sharp elbows.
Some sort of gathering would be entertaining. Lemme cogitate on it. With one less deadline my dance card has a few blank spots.
January 1, 2018 at 2:59 pm |
If I can be any help, arranging lodging, food, beer, coming up for a route selection session, or handling communications and such please let me know. The Corolla squeezes a gallon of gas until it screams, and I don’t have a job. Have bikes, will travel.
January 1, 2018 at 3:56 pm |
Thanks, Pat ‘n’ Khal. Lemme mull it over and I’ll tug on your coats. There are a few well-traveled, knowledgable local folks who’d probably like to participate if we decide to do something around the Duke City.
You’d have to supply your own sidearms and Kevlar, but I feel certain we can find a sunscreen sponsor if this drought continues. Water may be an issue, but we can always drink the blood of the fallen.
January 1, 2018 at 4:50 pm
No kevlar yet but have a couple spare sidearms I could lend out, I suppose. I was thinking one of those WW II tank commander shoulder holsters would be nice for bicycle carry.
https://www.amazon.com/Tanker-Shoulder-Holster-Premium-Leather/dp/B00F9B498E/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_200_tr_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3YTCKMX7MC0NZ568VV9F
January 1, 2018 at 6:50 pm
Khal, we live in the West. No disrespect, but that tanker holster is pretty lame. A true single action isn’t a 1911 Colt, but a 1873 Peacemaker.
https://epsaddlery.com/product/doc-holiday-holster/
January 1, 2018 at 8:12 pm
Now that is true, pretty Western. But I might have to trade in one of my 1911s for a Colt Single Action. Or at least a down payment on same…
January 1, 2018 at 8:23 pm
Nah, go for the Vaquero. The Colts are just silly expensive.
January 1, 2018 at 3:22 pm |
I’d be glad to crash the party, too, if there is a get together in the Duke City.
On another note, O’G, you shamed me into finally updating the pic on the Los Alamos Bikes masthead. I got tired of looking at that picture of me when I was a man rather than whatever it is I am now.
January 1, 2018 at 3:32 pm |
Well done on the new pic, Hoss. You might want to go with white on that subhed to make it stand out a little better.
I actually have 33 Mad Dog Media headers in the hopper now, counting the new one. This particular WordPress theme lets you put them into a randomizer if you want to, so visitors see a fresh one with each new visit.
But I prefer to stick with one for a while, until I get bored. The new year is always a good time to make a change.
January 1, 2018 at 4:45 pm
I looked for that and Blogger doesn’t seem to let me change fonts or colors. I suppose I could go with WordPress. Maybe that next.
January 1, 2018 at 4:53 pm
Aha. Found the magic button to customize the colors. thanks!
January 1, 2018 at 11:24 am |
I am about to chow down on some black-eyed peas over rice as well.
As far as “Having already achieved perfection I have no New Year’s resolutions.” – I did that several years ago. I did try to improve myself, but after multiple attempts it appeared that I was already at a perfect state. It’s only a matter of perspective.
January 1, 2018 at 1:02 pm |
Pushing the envelope any further would be like putting lipstick on Mona Lisa, or arms on Venus de Milo.
January 1, 2018 at 3:02 pm |
With me it’s more like putting lipstick on a pig. Sandy has to tie a pork chop around my neck to get Duffy to play with me.
January 1, 2018 at 12:33 pm |
Happy New Year! So excited for sun and a double digit temp of 10 degrees.
Russell and Grant are battling each other and injustice, fast-talking in the newsroom in “His Girl Friday” on tv. I bet that’s one of your favorite old movies, Patrick. Thanks for kicking off another year of Mad Dog Bloggery!
Happy New Year to all!
January 1, 2018 at 3:32 pm |
HNY to you too, Libby. Sun and 10 degrees? Well, I like one of those things. …
January 1, 2018 at 8:30 pm |
It’s 0 degrees now @22:15 will warm up tomorrow. Then heavy winds and the high -1 degree forecast for Thursday.
I don’t remember such a lengthy cold spell. The heat is set higher than normal for me and I’m not turning it down at night. Trying to keep radiators and pipes from bursting.
January 2, 2018 at 9:51 am |
I’ll have a couple days in El-Lay this week before flying back to what looks like a deep freeze in Iowa. But only for a few days..then it’s on to Italy. Felice Anno Nuovo tutti!
January 2, 2018 at 7:04 pm |
Ah, sunny Italia. Safe travels and righteous riding to yis.
January 2, 2018 at 10:16 am |
In deference to my Southern Colorado roots, I whipped up a batch of posole to bring in the New Year and raise my body temp as the air temp is in the low teens. Green Chile next on list as some stray hatch chiles made it north of the Platte and Yellowstone rivers.
January 2, 2018 at 7:04 pm |
You can’t go wrong with posole. I think I have three or four recipes now and they’re all good.
January 2, 2018 at 5:07 pm |
Better Days Ahead Compadre. Used to frequent a convenience store often by my house manned by an ex Marine we called Mad Jack in the Bonehouse. From the second you walked through the front door Jack would saddle you up and ride you with banter, abuse, quips and loudly too since I think his hearing was shot. (hmm…sort of like dropping in on this blog) If you laid a ten spot down for a single can of Coke, Jack would snatch it and say “that will be $7.50 and no tips please”. You can imagine the first-timers thinking this gruff old grunt was screwing them. Every single time I was in there, which was hundreds of visits,Jack would always soften his voice a tad and call out to me “Better Days Ahead Compadre” as I was leaving.
Always made me smile, even if it was a bad day. Just like this blog.
January 2, 2018 at 6:22 pm |
Great story well told. Nice memory.
January 2, 2018 at 7:16 pm |
Ho, ho, what a tale. And what high praise, to draw comparison with Mad Jack. A thousand thank-yous.
There must still be places like that. Mine were mostly bars, alehouses, grog shops, boozers, pubs and other dens of ill repute.
There was Jinx’s Place, the de facto newspaper bar in Bibleburg, where it was always Christmas because Jinx — a former pro figure skater — never took the lights down.
And the Riviera in Glendale, a.k.a. the Glendale Country Club, where behind the bar a huge piranha idled in a tank bearing the nameplate “Adolf Scarf, Credit Manager.”
The Irish Pub in Pueblo (originally a bicycle shop) was owned by an Italian when I worked at The Pueblo Chieftain and the bartenders all seemed to be failed philosophy majors from the University of Southern Colorado. They routinely let good customers (i.e., drunken newsmen) stay on after closing to act the fool. And on St. Patrick’s Day the line formed on the sidewalk out front, snaked past the bar and then out the back door. You had to be quick to grab a pint on your way through.
Also, Beef’s in Alamosa, a.k.a. Joe’s Coors Tavern, where Marcella routinely knocked out cowboys and Beef, an ex-pug, would let underage dudes have one drink —and one drink only — if they had a pretty girl with them.
“Better days ahead, compadre.” I like that. Much more than getting clocked by Marcella.
January 3, 2018 at 7:42 am |
Happy New Year! Thanks for the articles you’ve been posting. Keep up the good work even if you don’t get paid for it now.