Inherit the wind

April 24, 2010 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 4 Comments

Looks like the lads at La Vuelta de Bisbee enjoyed some of the same gentle spring weather that afflicted me and my fellow cyclo-tourists during the Tombstone-to-Bisbee leg of the Adventure Cycling Association’s Southern Arizona Road Adventure last month (read all about it in the July issue of Adventure Cycling, assuming management does not regain its collective mental health).

We’ve been dealing with similar weather here in Bibleburg. It’s playing hell with my sinuses, and it doesn’t take an attractive photo, so you’ll just have to settle for an old-fashioned, text-based, filth-laden, standard-issue O’Grady description, which is to say that it mostly blows, and not in a good way, either.

Happily, Saturday is one of my days in the VeloNews.com barrel, so I didn’t feel obligated to force myself out for a few hours of sandblasted cycling. Tomorrow is another — Liège-Bastogne-Liège is on deck, and so am I — but it’s only a half day of work, the weather is supposed to improve and I’m going to get out for some exercise if it harelips ever’body on Bear Creek.

April showers

April 23, 2010November 16, 2010 ~ Patrick O'Grady

A glimpse to the west, where the real weather is.

A bit late, to be sure, but we’re getting them. The lawn likes the weather, as do the flowers, but I’d just as soon have sunny and 70, thanks all the same. Getting your vitamin D from the pharmacy just isn’t the same somehow.

I need to log some serious miles between now and May, too. I’m signed up for some extra duty at VeloNews.com, helping with coverage of the Giro d’Italia and the Amgen Tour of California. This always sounds like a good idea (more money) but rarely is (more work). If I wanted to work, I’d get a job.

However, as Herself reminds me loudly and frequently, somebody around here spent a ton of money on bike parts recently, and the piper must be paid. Maybe I could institute a “Barter for Bike Parts” program. Y’know, trade a Rhode Island Red for some SRAM Red. I hear this sort of thing is all the rage in certain circles.

Flowers, Fiore and foolishness

April 13, 2010November 16, 2010 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 4 Comments

From the backyard, near Chairman Meow's resting place.

Ooo, shiny objects: Apple has finally updated its MacBook Pro line. There’s even a shot of some nameless bike weenie in Specialized kit under the “Performance” tab. Kinda looks like Chris Horner. The universe may be trying to tell me something here. Probably that I don’t make enough money to buy all the shiny objects that catch my eye.

Meanwhile, in the reality-based community, the flowers are starting to pop up. They’re pretty, too. Plus they’re free.

And finally, scribbler Mark Fiore wins this year’s Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Good stuff. I bet he can afford a new MacBook.

Rollin’ on the river

April 8, 2010November 16, 2010 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 10 Comments

Nice day. I abdicated all professional duties and rode the creekside trail south until it dead-ended at someone’s pasture, just east of the Fort Carson exit off Interstate 25. It made for a rolling, 36-mile round trip from the DogHaus. Headwind out, tailwind back. Doesn’t get any better than that.

By the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it, my Nobilette cyclo-cross bike rocks. Sucker flat disappeared under me as I was riding it today. I felt as though I’d copped a ride on Aladdin’s magic carpet.

Herself and I had a couple buddies over for snacks and wine afterward and as usual we agreed that the body politic is afflicted with boils in dire need of lancing. But none of us has health care that’s worth a shit, and we can’t afford to catch anything, so we’ll leave the doctoring to someone else.

Hey, look, a shiny object! Is that iPhone 4.0 or Steve Jobs’ wiener in my ear?

The horror

June 4, 2009November 16, 2010 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 12 Comments

There is something dreadfully wrong about awakening to the sound of the furnace clicking on in June. If I wanted to be cold and wet all the time, I’d be a fish. At least then I’d be getting plenty of healthy exercise, swimming here and there. When was the last time you saw a fat fish?

At least it’s not raining right this minute, so maybe I have a chance of getting out and about on a bicycle today before the skies crack and the deluge resumes. A two-fer would be the lawn drying out enough for me to mow it. It looks like friggin’ Vietnam out there. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger.

At least I’m still alive to walk (or ride) the earth. Kwai Chang Caine is not.