Look what snuck over the Sandias when
the weatherperson wasn’t paying attention.
The weatherman must have missed a memo while compiling today’s forecast.
That “20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon” turned out to be 100 percent, and by 7 a.m., too.
It reminded me of the Yiddish proverb, “Man plans, God laughs.”
Last week I logged nearly 150 miles on the bike, and come Sunday evening the legs were lobbying for a bit of R&R. So although Monday was a beautiful day for the old bikey ridey, I checked the forecast for the rest of the week and said, “OK, I’ll take today off. Haul the glass to the recycler, put a new chain and cassette on the Voodoo Nakisi, whip up a bowl of hummus. And tomorrow I’ll do a nice, long ride.”
Get bulletproof backpacks on the cats? Dream on. I can’t even get them to stop napping in front of a window. Worse than sitting with your back to a door.
Ho, ho, etc.
Tuesday dawned warmish, bleak and breezy, and soon I had to close all the doors and windows I had just opened because the vertical blinds were clattering like skeletons dancing the Charleston.
It was the flip side of Sunday, when, after Saturday’s deluge, I added fenders to Herself’s bike and a rack trunk full of rain gear to my own.
Naturally, the only water we saw on our ride was confined neatly to roadside puddles and ditches.
Man plans, etc.
Dark mornings breed dark thoughts, especially for a lifelong news addict. For example, did you know that the hot back-to-school item is a bulletproof backpack?
Look for them at big-box retailers everywhere. I recommend shopping online until you get one, and maybe even afterward. See if you can find a new congressperson while you’re at it, one of those action figures, not the kind that just sits there between massacres, cashing checks while the NRA pulls its string.
“Thoughts and prayers … thoughts and prayers. …”
Speaking of which, I could use a few of those myself. The sun has finally made an appearance, and even though I don’t have my bulletproof backpack yet, I’m going out for a ride.
Mad Blog Media 
August 6, 2019 at 10:04 am |
Since we’re on the subject of Irishmen playing outside in any amount of sun … quick reminder to every one to use sun screen. I’m getting a bunch of BCCs and SCCs removed today. Could be a 2 hour in and out, or a 6+, depending on what the docs find in my checking account or what loose change falls out of my pockets when they put me on the table.
Somewhere up in heaven, my County Cork ancestors are laughing at my ass, wondering why anyone as pigmentationally-challenged as me would live this close to the sun. I remember an Outside article about Irish surfers who braved the elements to ride this little known break. 100% overcast, neoprene from head to toe, and they still put on SPF Avogadro’s Number before hitting the waves. I inherited their skin tone but not their smarts, I guess.
So happy trails, but lather up first!
August 6, 2019 at 10:10 am |
i keep a bottle of spf 50 in the car right next to the chamois cream. ‘it rubs the lotion on its skin…’
August 6, 2019 at 3:35 pm |
I hope your skinning was minimalist. Last time I saw the skin doc she froze a couple bits on one ear and took a melon baller to my right cheek. I looked like Herself had shot me, but with a small-caliber weapon in order to make it a learning experience instead of a final exam.
August 6, 2019 at 4:37 pm |
I was expecting something one notch harsher than the normal freezer burn treatment, but I think I got your melon baller — quarter-sized hole that took 15 stitches. Showed the kids the pix, and they ask why my head was full of Chef Boyardee.
August 6, 2019 at 6:58 pm |
A co-worker recently returned from a Gulf Coast vaycay. He said they had a great time. A full week on the beach with no plans to do anything but laze. He said “we are not sunscreen people” and proceeded to regale us with tales of unscreened burns on the first day. They bought SPF 30 for the second day, but it wasn’t enough- the burns were made worse. Finally bought 50 and 70 so the week was saved…. he said. When they got home, his wife had to go the ER for her severely blisters lips.
When he said “we are not sunscreen people”, I had to bite everything in my mouth so I didn’t say “so you are skin cancer people?”
My 87 year old Dad is a lifelong lake fisherman who wore baseball caps. He currently has about 30% of each ear removed due to skin melanoma.
August 6, 2019 at 7:48 pm |
We only learn two ways: pain or money.
Anyone ever sunburn the inside of your nose? Arctic research project back in college, spent a month on the West Gulkana glacier. Lips, bottoms of ears, inside the old nose nostrils.
August 6, 2019 at 8:00 pm |
Wow, just wow!
August 6, 2019 at 10:08 am |
150 miles is pretty sweet. it’s way too hot and humid here to get in any respectable mileage. i’ve been sticking to the dirt roads and trails as there’s more shade. i took the gravel bike out sunday but it was threatening rain and there was thunder in the distance so i stayed close to the car and rode some gentle single track. once the weather threat passed i hit some more remote dirt roads. i probably didn’t get 20 miles in but it was amazingly restorative to be out in the woods.
August 6, 2019 at 3:10 pm |
150 a month for maybe 3 months would be an awesome year for me.
August 6, 2019 at 3:37 pm |
A buddy sez to me he sez that he’s done 1,500 miles in 50 days, with “quite a few” climbing days of 3,000-4,000 feet. He’s getting set for a trip to the Dolomites next month. I hope the Dolomites are ready for him.
August 6, 2019 at 4:40 pm |
Was perusing the STRAVA accounts of the serious folks at FOCO Fondo … lots and lots of 1,500 km/month kids running around in this neck of the woods. I guess when Eddy said “Ride lots,” they took his advice.
August 6, 2019 at 7:49 pm |
He also said, “Don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades.” Sage advice.
August 7, 2019 at 12:52 am |
I hope the WEATHER in the Dolomites is kind to him and he doesn’t arrive like a few of our clients back-in-the-day used to: Fried rather than fit. Reminds me of a couple where hubby worried about the wife – she arrived a but short of form but rode into the tour while hubby arrived at his peak and watched his form deteriorate to the point the wife was waiting for him on the climbs!
August 6, 2019 at 10:59 am |
Went out today in some serious humidity and found my legs must have been left back at the apartment, so I looped around and was back in barely an hour – not to look for ’em, but to shower and take on some overdue keeping of the books.
Word has it they accepted our offer on the Sicily house, but no pics until it’s a done deal.
And before you ask, there’s no room to put up any visitors for the night, but there are a boatload of hotels and various B&B’s (both regular and air) on the island just waiting for your visit.
We’ll buy the first round of Aperol Spritz!
August 6, 2019 at 3:15 pm |
My legs disappear whenever they feel humidity, or headwinds, or hills, or the chance of rain, or tummy rumblings, or any of a whole host of excuses.
August 6, 2019 at 3:38 pm |
Fingers crossed on the house, Larry. Tell the local hoteliers to gird for heavy lifting.
August 8, 2019 at 5:29 am |
Offer accepted, deposit made. I think we can say we own this now? http://ortigiaisland-re.it/en/property/ortigia-independent-house-with-sea-view-terrace/
They don’t show the ground floor where Zio Lorenzo’s bike shop will go…but that was the key thing La Professoressa used to sell me on the deal. The sea view didn’t hurt either…she knows what she’s doing 🙂
August 8, 2019 at 2:58 pm |
Is that snow I see in the background? 🙂
Congrats Larry and La Professora … enjoy La Dolce Vita, eh? 🙂
August 8, 2019 at 6:52 am |
Ooo la la la la, as our Belgian friends say. I’ve lived in places with worse views (the 9×40 singlewide trailer next to the tracks in Greality comes to mind). Well done indeed.
We need pix of the bike shop once it’s up and running, of course.
August 8, 2019 at 9:01 am |
Of course! With space on the island at a premium, this was a find – the ground floor pretty much perfect for what we want though at present it’s a low-end rental with the bed in a loft only Billy Barty could stand up in. The owner said the previous owner set it up as a kid’s bedroom/playroom, now it’ll be an adult playroom. That loft will be just for storage of bike boxes, etc. while underneath, on the shop floor we’re lucky the mechanic’s not 6 feet tall or he’d bump his bald noggin. Certainly not as spacious as our downstairs shop space in Iowa but I’ll make it work. The other floors just need some furniture removed/rearranged and we need to get a clothes washer installed pronto.
August 6, 2019 at 12:14 pm |
Clouds are building like mad here at noon but so far, every time this happens lately its a false alarm. I got in a quick hour ride this morning in the Sangre foothills to the north of town before the demo derby started on our master bathroom. Legs are still complaining about Sunday’s ride to the Ski Basin, but not as much as they complained yesterday when I did a short ride on the Tierra Trails.
I’ve got that Sicilian/Neopolitan/Lebanose skin tone, but still lather up with SPF 50. Especially that beak, which protrudes beyond the protection of my helmet visor.
August 6, 2019 at 3:39 pm |
I almost got it exactly right. Only rained on me for the last mile.
August 6, 2019 at 3:42 pm |
Cool down.
August 6, 2019 at 1:02 pm |
I rode to Brown Canyon ranch today. Cloudy and very warm, but no mud on the dirt road to the ranch house. Had the place all to myself save for a bobcat and kitten. I gave them a wide berth.
Speaking of thoughts and prayers, the head bigot is heading to El Paso. I hope he just gets ignored by all, especially the victims.
August 6, 2019 at 1:26 pm |
This country is starting to embarrass me.
August 6, 2019 at 4:54 pm |
When you’re young, you think, if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.
When you get old, you realize, if you’re outraged, you haven’t been paying attention.
Just started Jill Lepore’s These Truths. Not the same history we learned at the Hudson School for Wayward Boys back in the Ronnie Raygun era.
We’ve been pretty much shitheads since Day One.
August 7, 2019 at 5:55 am |
I thought These Truths was an excellent book.
August 6, 2019 at 3:52 pm |
Remember when it was “Asshole From El Paso?” Now it’s asshole to El Paso. Condolences to Chinga Chavin, Kinky Friedman, and El Paso.
August 6, 2019 at 2:52 pm |
We planned … Given the weather yesterday, a group planned a Crest ride from Doc Long’s (no one contemplating less than an hour) for this morning. The thunder started booming a little past half way up and by Ellis Trailhead (1 1/2 miles from the top) lightening was way too close for comfort so had to abort.
August 6, 2019 at 3:55 pm |
I was on the other side of the Big Hill, riding the “fingers.” I’d planned to do the tram climb and La Cueva, but while climbing Simms to Elena Gallegos I heard Thor tuning up Mjölnir and said, “No, thank you,” and headed for the barn.
Man, I don’t think I’ve done the Crest climb since 1991. Closest I’ve come since moving to ’Burque was riding from El Rancho Pendejo to Doc Long, where common sense overcame me and I turned around.
For damn sure I wouldn’t be climbing it in the 39×21, like I did Back in the Day®.
August 6, 2019 at 7:54 pm |
Ha! Rode two hours this afternoon with the high school MTB Team. Light rain at beginning, beautiful after that. Better lucky than good, eh?
August 6, 2019 at 6:00 pm |
God bless Jason Isbell.
August 6, 2019 at 8:09 pm |
El Paso. Got to be a Doc Watson number in there somewhere.