Thanksgiving

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? As I reflect upon the last 15 years, I realize that Thanksgiving to me usually means sitting alone in some hotel in a strange city, getting dinner from the corner gas station because no restaurants close by are open. That's okay, because I spend a lot of other days of the year with the people I care about. And I'm thankful for that!

Here's hoping you all have something to be thankful for.

Veteran's Day

I'd like to add my thanks to all Veterans who have served. It's too bad that the date's initial significance as a commemoration to Armistice Day from the "War to end all Wars" had to be changed to its current meaning. Maybe someday there will be no more wars. When women rule the world. ;-)

Digital TV is coming

I just bought my first digital TV, a 10" jobbie for the travel trailer. For those of you that are still using rabbit ears, this clip will help you get yourself ready for Feb '09.

Song for Sarah

Responsibility

I need someone to blame!!! Do any of you use steepandcheap, tramdock or chainlove.com? Those freaking websites. I just "happen" to look on them and I'll be damned if a couple times a week there isn't something I just "need" to have. I've got more wool shirts and socks, cycling shorts and other crap coming my way and no freaking money left in my checking account. I try to rationalize this behavior since it's the "holidays". But all the stuff is for me. I guess I'm somebody. That I need to shop for. Cripe.

Higher Education

Since I kinda like wine, I decided to take a distance learning course from UC Davis...Introduction to Winemaking. It's hard to be disciplined enough to regularly watch the lectures, and before I knew it I had an email message yesterday saying that midterms had been sent to our proctors! CRAP! I'll be out of town the beginning of next week, my test center isn't open weekends and the test has to be done by the 6th, so I just sucked it up and went in to take the test today. I had no doubts that I'd fail, but after testing, I think I might have done pretty well. Now I just hope I put enough postage on the envelope that the proctor sends to the University. That would REALLY suck to do well on the test only to have it not even graded. Who knows, maybe I could have a new career in winemaking! I already have a second career in winedrinking, but that one's a money drain.

Vote!

I sent my early ballot in a week and a half ago, so why don't all you freaking political call center morons that have my home phone number quit calling me? I even changed my answering machine greeting to say "I've already voted, please don't leave a message", but since all of that garbage is pre-recorded, I get those dumb messages anyway.

Not sure I'm overly excited about either candidate, and whoever gets elected will sure have one hell of a mess on his hands. I'd like to see the new president elect tell the whole damn country to man up and start living responsibly. Yeah, I'm all for Social Security and national health care, but if your sorry ass decided to take out a home equity loan for a new car and vacation and now you can't afford your house payment because your interest went up to 6% and you never set aside an emergency fund, TOO FREAKING BAD. Go live in the damn street. Cripe, the stories I'm hearing tick me off. There was a great political cartoon in USAToday last week. Three doorways, one labeled "share the risk", one labeled "take responsibility", and one labeled "share the wealth". You guessed it, big line in the last one, nobody at the first two.

Everybody wants tax cuts. How the hell do we pay for the mess we're in? Two wars and a financial bailout. Let alone paying for bridges to nowhere (I realize the bridge actually links the town of Ketchikan with the island that the airport is on...I saw the site this summer. So it's actually a bridge to somewhere).

Too bad Hillary didn't make it to the finals. So who do I vote for? The inexperienced one or the one who said that airline pilots were unpatriotic, greedy, overpaid bus drivers (never mind that from day 1, a senator makes double what I do with a pension and health care the rest of his life. I was almost ready to forgive his ignorant comments, but I can't get past Sarah Palin)? I went on one of those websites that matches your views to candidates. I was a 100% match with Ralph Nader. LOL! I almost voted for him, but then remembered what happened to my vote for Ross Perot back in the 90s. And although I have voted for both parties and then some, I don't think I've actually voted for a president who got into office EVER. So Barak, if you lose, you can blame me.

Musings

Sitting in a hotel in Hartford, CT. I hadn't flown into this airport since my commuter days ten years ago, and back then we always had a short overnight very close to the airport. Now I'm in a decent hotel downtown overlooking the river. The trees look to be at their peak of color, and I'd love to go out and explore, except that it's 48 degrees and pouring rain out there. In the old days this wouldn't bother me, but now that I'm a soft creampuff from Arizona, it's just too much.
So somebody tell me about Hartford, because I'm going to miss it.

As I'm sitting here, I'm thinking about my bike back home. Last Tuesday I did a 200k for my longest ride ever (ended up being 131 miles), but somewhere along that ride I managed to dribble a bunch of Hammer gel out of my flask onto the front of my bike. Got it all over the fork, handlebars, front spokes, etc. Next day I tried to clean some of it off (emphasis on "some"), and the stuff was as hard as a rock. It took a freaking chisel and hammer to get the crap off. If it turns into rock on your bike, what the hell does it do in your stomach? No wonder I was feeling lousy the first part of the ride when all I was taking in was hammer gel! What would happen if I left the lid open on my big bottle at home? Would I end up with a big old rock like weapon or a paperweight?

On the other hand, you don't see beer doing that stuff. You pour beer on your bike, it won't turn solid. Would it make better cycling fuel? Only problem is that you'd have to go to the bathroom a lot or pee your chamois.

I think that I might be able to combine the two somehow to get the best of both products. You have Honey Stingers out there (Made from Real Honey!), so why not beer shooters in a convenient gel pack (Made from Real Beer!)? Malt Blocs instead of Shot Blocs. Pale Ale Gu? And maybe some Cabernet Sauvingnon Sport Beans. The possiblities are endless. Maybe we could even get Joe Six Pack out riding when he hears what kind of cool stuff we eat on the bike.

If it wasn't raining out, I'd go get some supplies and do some experiments in my room, but I think I'll just sit here and have a cup of tea instead.

Financial mess

As one of those poor suckers who has lived well within her means, this whole mortgage mess has me pretty pissed off. I'll be sending another $22k to the feds this year to bail out bozos on Wall Street and the main street losers who always had to keep up with the Joneses. I took a ride today in a ritzy neighborhood and found a dozen multi million dollar homes in preforeclosure.

Anyway, I found this humorous explanation to the whole financial mess. Foul language, so beware:

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true

Mixed Feelings

Since I bought my new touring bike, I have too many bikes. I decided on a whim to put the old Giant on ebay with a $250 buy it now price. Within a few hours, it was sold! The buyer has emailed and says he/she (Japanese(?) name...can't tell the sex) is a student at ASU and will pick the bike up on Sunday. I really needed the room for my new ride, but now I'm kind of regretting putting the old Giant up for sale. I guess I didn't figure it would actually GO, especially that fast! I was planning to take it to Colorado on vacation next week, but now I won't have it. Heck, it made a great beater bike, and it wasn't even beat. Think I'm going to be sad, but I just need to let go!!