I got mooned on Thursday’s ride.
The Sandia Peak Tramway actually goes the other way, to (wait for it) the peak of the Sandias.
I usually go that way myself, from Tramway Boulevard to Tramway Road and up toward the tram’s lower terminal, before veering off on Juniper Hill Road for a bit of up and down along the foothills.
By Thursday I was sick of the same-ol’, same-ol’, so I continued down Tramway and under Interstate 25 onto Roy, 4th, Guadalupe Trail, and eventually Alameda, then spun onto the Paseo del Bosque Trail.
But I got sick of that, too, and fast.
A massive allergy attack reminded me of the bad old days on Randolph AFB outside San Antone, where there were plenty of allergens to clog the pipes. Here, too, it seems, thanks to a hot, moist summer. I was firing snot rockets right and left, from both nostrils, and trying to breathe through my ears.
So instead of enjoying a nice flat spin along the bosque, dogged by whatever it was that had me by the snotlocker with a downhill pull, I hung a left on the Paseo del Norte Trail and struggled home via the North Diversion Channel Trail, Osuna-Bear Canyon, and like that there. Felt like hammered shit all the way, too.
You can always feel worse, though. Depend on it. Some days there isn’t enough Kleenex in the world.
Mad Blog Media 
August 28, 2021 at 4:14 am |
The ragweed is all over down here; it’s spiky flowers are waving in the breeze like a thousand middle fingers saying achoo.
Our Marine will be remembered by his buddies.
August 28, 2021 at 6:43 am |
This story has been waiting to be written since sons started following their fathers into this war. Some family businesses should not be inherited.
August 28, 2021 at 4:53 pm |
This story ain’t any better:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/27/2048586/-A-lack-of-ICU-beds-doomed-this-non-COVID-19-patient-and-his-story-is-beyond-heartbreaking
August 28, 2021 at 5:32 am |
During the Viet Nam war, had my draft number come up I was ready to head for Canada only 100 miles away. When I see how ignorant and reckless America has become both politically and socially, I kinda wish I’d fled despite my draft number not coming up.
Despite my disgust with our imperial ways, I still respect those that volunteer to serve in the armed forces no matter how misguided and demented their leaders turn out to be. Next up: Saudi Arabia.
August 28, 2021 at 7:01 am |
I remember talking to one Marine who thought he was making a difference over there. And years later to a much-deployed Army guy who had the thousand-yard stare and was taking it back there with him. He liked riding his bike from Fort Carson into downtown Bibleburg to see how the other half lived.
Lots of troops, lots of stories. We hear them but do not listen.
August 28, 2021 at 8:05 am |
I referred to the Marine as ours since we are partly responsible for sending him there. At least he was on a limited mission this time with a clear objective. I have a real problem with all the whiners and complainers about how this evacuation is going down. This withdrawal agreement with the Taliban was made in March of 2020. The withdrawal date then was May 5th, 2021. Why did everyone wait until the last minute? I can understand those who are not citizens of the US getting the run around. But, they should have been the only ones left to evacuate along with a few essential embassy people. This whole thing was a piece of shit that the dumpster gleefully passed to Joe. Probably carefully crafted to make Joe look bad. We will never learn.
August 28, 2021 at 10:43 am |
Yes, we are responsible. We chose to allow an individual to become the leader of our country by means of an unelected electoral college. The assigned leader then let his emotions and a wily VP make decisions about retaliation for a clandestine terror event, and we invaded two countries chasing ghosts. The individuals who chose to volunteer to become military representatives, whose lives became dictated by the inept decisions of the deluded son in chief, have nothing less than to be proud of their tasks. They as generations of soldiers before them, performed a task that in most cases did not have an obvious reward or accomplished goal. But they do have one intrinsic reward, their honor. No manner of leadership failure will tarnish that reward.
Yes, we needed to exit Afghanistan and I believe that we allowed for sufficient time for all to exit the country that wanted to exit the country. But I believe that the US and our allies failed in that we thought the Afghani military would be stronger in resisting the passionate force of the Taliban. It seems apparent that they did not want to resist. That it may have been a decision they had already made mentally that accepting Taliban rule would be a given (fate acompli?).
As for blaming the current leader for this crisis, or to blame the previous leader, or the one before that is ridiculous. We are to be blamed. We allowed ourselves to be drawn into something that leaders, crusaders, dictators, etc. have been drawn into and eventually limped away from after losing the blood of the country, for centuries. We may never learn. Not so long as we are still human.
August 28, 2021 at 11:09 am |
It doesn’t help that over the years we’ve allowed the national legislature to dissolve into squabbling irrelevance and left the executive to assume more and more authority over this, that, and the other, especially as regards the projection of American military power overseas.
Watching Americans eagerly gobble up any tidbits about the British royal family, one suspects that, in their heart of hearts, what they really want is a monarch. Probably Conan the Barbarian.
August 28, 2021 at 11:26 am |
That’s an interesting point – monarchy. Perhaps because I enjoy watching Downton Abbey, that subconsciously I’m really interested in being led by a king and a queen, prepared to bow to royalty and give my all to queen and country? Yes, perhaps. But only if I’m a Duke or a Lord with lands, assets, a lustful lady’s maid and scandal to go along with it. Isn’t that what capitalism is all about? Getting the better of your fellow man, all the while convincing him that he is getting all that he deserves. There’s nothing wrong with being in service POG. Would you prefer to be the footman or the chauffeur?
August 28, 2021 at 11:38 am |
I will be a foole, same as I am now.
August 28, 2021 at 11:57 am
Long live the fooles! Any culture that doesn’t have them is to be avoided.
August 28, 2021 at 3:05 pm
better than being the piss boy
August 28, 2021 at 4:07 pm
It’s good to be the king.
August 28, 2021 at 8:14 am |
Yup. How did all the armchair generals think this was going to end? With a ticker-tape parade? Is there a better, softer target of opportunity than a whole bunch of people milling around like cattle in a feedlot? Chihuahua.
I’m clerking for some Suit in Kabul, I’d have started packing before the echoes of Ginger Hitler cutting his May 5 deal faded away.
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane … I ain’t got time to take no fast train. …
August 28, 2021 at 3:44 pm |
Doesn’t look like the fat lady has finished singing yet, either. Forty years of fucking around in Afghanistan, first sneaking in missiles to shoot down Soviet aircraft and then wondering why on earth there is the blowback and it comes to this end. I’m not surprised. This whole episode reminds me of a photo Charles Pelkey sent one day: Fighting for Peace is like Fucking for Virginity.
What was that expression John Kerry used about Vietnam? “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
August 28, 2021 at 5:07 pm |
Meanwhile back in the mitten state the sun is going down and it’s 86 degrees. Uh.. not normal up this way. But the good news is when it hit 94 today we bivouacked to the cool basement workshop and I showed my 11 yr old granddaughter how to clean and tune her bike. She took right to it and wants my bike tools!
August 28, 2021 at 7:17 pm |
Well done, Your Herbship. You gotta get ’em young if they’re gonna stick it out.
Hotter than the hubs of Hell here in the Duke City, too. The weather wizards keep teasing us with hints of showers, but it was 90-something this afternoon and puddles were in short supply.
August 28, 2021 at 7:31 pm |
Hot and dry here. So, what’s new about that? We all are hoping for a little more monsoon rain. Perhaps Nora will wet us down. It looks promising.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_ep4+shtml/235408.shtml?cone#contents
August 29, 2021 at 7:12 am |
Well, guys, it looks like the Big Easy is going to get some rain. They have strong leadership in that state that will help everyone handle it. He will be handing out masks at the shelters.
August 29, 2021 at 7:43 am |
Nothing to see here, move along, move along. …
August 30, 2021 at 2:46 pm |
Finally. Way to go Joe and Kamala.
https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-islamic-state-group-e10e038baea732dae879c11234507f81
August 30, 2021 at 7:58 pm |
A sad day, and long overdue. It was always going to end badly, if it ended at all. It was shameful that we let sons follow their fathers into that mess. José is taking a beating for all of us here.
August 30, 2021 at 8:52 pm |
I went to the White House website and sent them an well done message. I hope they get a bunch of them..