Winter 2010. Yeah, it still gets cold.

Well, it's been quite a winter so far this year. We've had 2 major snowstorms so far and it's only early February. The first snow hung around for almost 2 weeks. This weekend the Northeast and MidAtlantic regions got hit the hardest we've been hit for almost 20 years and the snowfall in Western PA was the 4th heaviest snowfall since they started recording it. Where the hell is Al Gore currently. He should get his butt over here and shovel all this global warming that is surrounding my car. I'm still quite annoyed about how the global warming people are sticking to their guns and taking the attitude of 'you just don't get it' but still do not have any explanation for the debunking of their theories that has been going on for the past 20 years. It's the old 'if we don't pay attention to them, maybe they'll go away' tactic. If you're not on board with them, you are obviously some right wing nut job who is out to destroy the environment and probably kicks his dog when he gets home too. It's a thing called environmental cycles, Al. They happen. I've lived through a few of them now and entering into another one(depending on where you start on your cycles). I wish people would stop running after these clowns in the global warming market and begin taking a common sense approach to the environment. Quite lying and trying to scare the hell out of people about how things are going when all you are doing is trying to create this hysteria so the companies that you own can make a profit off of it. That's all this global warming scare of the past 30 years has been and most of the people of the world fell for it. I think assholes like Mr. Gore should be imprisoned for their role in this and the monies they made from these lies confiscated (gee, this could pay for some of that healthcare that people don't have). Oh, well, what the hell do I know. I'm just one of those right wing conservative nut jobs that want to ruin everything for the sake of a buck.

Maybe it's just me but .....

I'm thinking many of today's mothers are really helping set kids up for failure later in life. Sure they're making sure they do their homework, shower up, brush their teeth and play well with others. The thing that I've really been noticing, particularly since it's caused some severe stress with the mother of my two boys is that they all seem to have this underlying fear of instilling a good work ethic in the kids. These past couple weeks have seen a large amount of snowfall in western PA. Now, when I was young, this was a God-send to me. My brothers and I, as well as other kids in the neighborhood, would wind up helping neighbors dig out after a good snowfall. This paid fairly well and as I also carried newspapers before school, I had regular customers for the snow shoveling. There were 3 or 4 who I had it pre-arranged to clear their walks and driveways if there was more than an inch or two of snow. This got me $6-10 each snow day. It was a good supplement to the income of $15-20 bucks a week for the newspaper business. Keep in mind, I was 11 years old at this point and it was 1976. At that point in time, my brothers and I were sort of the capitalist pricks of the hill where we lived. We had all of the paper routes that mattered. We had the mall newspaper sales. On top of that, summer grass cutting jobs usually came to us. We worked hard and we were the ones who had the extra money for things like the swimming passes at the pool, our bikes and other items we wanted. We had to budget out the money we earned for the things we wanted. This was also the time when Nike and Adidas shoes were becoming popular. We usually got the good ol' Sears Winner II shoes but my parents would say, if you want to upgrade, we had to cover that cost. Then we had to balance the 'coolness' factor vs the money spent and make our decision.
All that said, my rant today comes from the wonderful time I've had attempting to get the mother of my two boys to understand that it is now time that they learn a bit of responsibility. That means more than just doing homework and cleaning up their room. They are 10 and 12 and easily ready to do even a bit of the things that I did when I was young. They'll begin to learn something when they see what it actually takes to earn their money and have to budget it out for the things they want. I want them to also learn that sometimes there are things in life that you have to do that you might not necessarily want to do. It'd be great if you could just play baseball, wii and other games in life but that doesn't provide for the necessities in life. Unfortunately for them, enter their mother and her ideas on the subject. If it's cold out, she doesn't want them outside working. They might get sick. She has thought of every excuse to get in the way of my little lesson in life for them. Most of the other moms at baseball and neighbors are the exact same way. Let the kids be kids, they say. Well, I got to be a kid too and I did these things. I ran around the hill, played baseball, went sled riding, had bb gun battles (and came home with some nasty welts from it) and lots of other things. My friends were the same way and we grew up fairly normal and are not lacking in our ability or desire to work. We didn't expect handouts, free college or anything else. We still don't. Unfortunately, the kids (mine and others I know) are learning that they don't have to put the kind of effort out that I would like them to. To me this is akin to sending them out into a warzone with only a popgun in hand. This sort of lesson transfers over to other areas in life as they will be growing up. Unfortunately, I believe we have a whole generation that has grown up without learning this and explains why people are always looking for that handout in life. They have an expectation that the great "American Dream" is a right to be had, not a privilege to be worked for. Too many of the kids today do not know what it is to put out the kind of effort that was expected of our parents and particularly our grandparents. If suddenly, the situation demanded that we put out the kind of effort that we had to during WWII, we could not do it. Too many people would be asking 'you expect us to do what?' People freak out when communities institute a recycling program and act like it is just so much extra work and why should we be expected to do this. I find it better to learn to deal with things that might be disagreeable first and then if you don't have to actually follow through on it, that's a bonus earned. We are doing a grave injustice to the people of past generations when we act so spoiled that we can't learn to shoulder the extra burden that our ancestors had to. This injustice will come back and bite us in the ass if we don't get everything back in line and learn that everything in life is NOT free, nor should it be. I hope that my boys do learn the things I want them to and understand this as they grow up. It's a constant lesson to be taught and never forgotten. I hope I can get the other parent involved in this matter to see this at some point and help make my job a bit easier. Now that I've had my little rant, I should probably get back to work...

Front row seats to Hell....

This past week was certainly an interesting one. After dealing with the news of the demise of our environment and the fact that global warming was pretty much a done deal for the past 30 years (right on the heels of the new ice age scare), there was a small incident at the University of East Anglia. The servers in the Climate Research Unit were hacked and a shitload of correspondence between many of the top scientists there was taken an published on webservers for all to see. And what was seen was a deliberate coverup of faulty research, blatant lies about global warming, and an effort to hide these facts on the part of the top scientists in this area of study. In the coverage of this, these "scientists" have been circling the wagons and claiming that 'this doesn't prove anything'. Of course, neither did they prove anything. Global warming as defined by Al Gore and his types is NOT happening. It's been one big hoax designed to do nothing but raise taxes on a global scale and exert control over populations via these taxes and regulations. How many times have we heard the scientists and politicians screaming about the dangers we were in and try the argument that we have to do something. Well, do something but make DAMN SURE we know what it is we're doing and why. And something of this nature has got to be tranparent to everyone for close examination so the sort of thing that has been going on would get caught early on and we don't waste billions and billions of dollars doing things that do nothing for global warming and in many cases harm our environment(ie catalytic converter and ethanol to name the most glaring examples).

The reaction of the 'environmentalists' who push the global warming theory shows what kind of people we are dealing with. They are more concerned that their info got hacked rather than the fact that they just got caught lying about their work for the past 30+ years. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a quick peek into hell and I advise everyone to take a good long look, then look at our 'leaders' and be a bit more skeptical about the things they are trying to convince us to support.

In my opinion, the people who have attempted to inflict all of this on us should be freakin jailed, Al Gore, amongst the first. These are outright crimes against the people of this and other countries and should not in any way shape or form be allowed to get a pass. Stand up people and flood your congressman's, senators, governors and all elected officials offices to stop this madness. Be a voice out in public and make sure others hear you. The 912 movements showed what can be accomplished when everyone, I don't care what political party you belong to, what religion you are or aren't, what race you are, whatever persuasion you might be, can accomplish when we all speak up! Let us all begin to right the ship that is our country before it is too late.

HoCo double weekend

This past weekend was the Howard County Double Cross weekend. My wonderful sense of purpose got me going late on Saturday morning so I wound up leaving a good 30 minutes late. That coupled with a slow traffic day as the police were out in force and I wound up getting to the race venue 50 minutes later than I was thinking I would. So with only 20 minutes before my race start, I bagged it and upped it to the 123s. This would prove to be a dumb move as I got blown away halfway through the first lap. One thing you absolutely not do is ride 1 day in the previous week and just think you're going to jump into even a smaller regional 123 race. After 4 or 5 laps of that silliness, I bailed and and began the warmdown. I was kind of hoping that I would've hung in longer, but the last couple weeks or work along with coming off from an injury and I just wasn't ready for this kind of effort.

The second day at Rockburn went better for me. I was racing in the Elite masters category which was only a small step down from the previous day. This time, I faired better and was hanging with the group through the first couple laps. I finally wound up running down and was then racing for the back of the group when going down the one trail, there was a group of spectators egging us on to do the log pile. I looked at it as I went past and thought, heck I can do that. There's a $5 prime in it? Sure, I'm game. The next lap, no one else had taken them up on it and using the MTB skills, I pulled up the front wheels and set it up and pedaled right up over the pile. It was a pretty good sized pile and I popped up over it. Well, I wasn't going home empty handed at least and there was a good cheer for me. I guess if you're not doing something well, at least be colorful about it. I finished up and didn't even get lapped so it was an ok day, all things considered. Taneytown is next week so maybe I can get rested more as well as some riding in to get me ready. After that, it's off to Reston. If nothing else, I'd like to grab the hole shot again which is something I've done there twice from the 3rd and 4th rows. It'd be cool to do it again.

USGP

The USGP at Trenton is this weekend. I'm going to do the 45+ this year. I guess even though I don't look it, I'm getting old. Eh, I generally don't worry about it except when people I'm talking to look at me funny when I tell them I remember the American pullout in Saigon. I'm coming off of a two week break after a nasty fall at a hometown race. The knee feels better and finally looks normal again. I don't know if I can push myself as hard as I'd like but the strength in the legs feels like its back. I was kind of hoping for a dry weekend, but that nasty ol' hurricane Ida has soaked the east coast so it's going to be a mess. I can only hope that it will be a very wet day rather than the peanut butter we had last year. I'll need the bikes cleaned alot so I hope I can find someone to help out with that. Past that, my services as a pit bitch are for hire, so if anyone out there needs one, I'm a can do type of guy.

Wonderful day in the free capitalist society!

Well, it's another wonderful day in this messed up world today. I just talked with a client who let me know that they needed several new computers and a server. GREAT!!!! More business is always good, right? Well, not so fast hot shot. She was disappointed in how they had to do it. Apparently I need to be on an approved vendor list (this is a govt connected operation). To get on this list, you don't have to have any special qualifications with the exception of paying a $500 per year fee. WTF? In looking at this, it's nothing more than legal extortion. We have to pay them for the right to do business. Wow, more and more, Ayn Rand is proving to be right. I am currently re-reading 'Atlas Shrugged' and what is happening now, is much the same as what is happening in the book. The free market system that is currently under attack in this country, is NOT what the free market system is supposed to be. Businesses today are lobbying Washington (and state and local) lawmakers for their business. Does business happen because the government says 'make it so'? Of course not. It happens because people have a need and the businesses are there to provide for it if they can. If they can't, well, their out of business and another company will replace them. This is how it happens(well, in a very simply put way, it's far more complicated but for this rant, I'll keep it simple). The 'wizards' in DC seem to think they have to screw with the formula to keep things fair. Hmmm, how is it fair if rules have to be in place so that a less capable company is able to survive but one that is properly run gets hurt? On top of that, when it comes to things like this little fee I'm bitching about, these are nothing but a drain on the system as not only does it not facilitate business, it raises the cost of doing business and there is no real benefit to it. My head hurts thinking about stuff like this. On the national level, these costs go up and only makes things more difficult and that just creates more problems. Nothing ever gets solved by having more fees for government. All it does is give them more money to do their little social engineering experiments at the cost to you and me and all the other taxpayers in the country. Maybe we all should just start saying 'NO' and take a step away from this wonderful society they are attempting to take from us and replace it with their version where we are in a position to be required to ask the government for our freedoms, benefits and lives for that matter. Oh, well, 'Who is John Galt?'

Granogue/Wissahickon

A week after Iron Cross and I was beginning to feel like King Freakin Kong. My legs were feeling a lot stronger and I was keeping up with the faster riders in Pittsburgh at the weekly practice at Frick Park. They hadn't done the long stupid race as I had, but I was still matching their starts and staying with them thru the training course. It was going to be a good week. Getting out to Granogue was an exercise in changing schedules. Once I got everything figured out and I wound up leaving later in the evening on Friday. I was going to stay a bit more than halfway over then finish the drive off in the morning. Unfortunately, I had some misfortune in the form of a bad sandwich from Sheetz. I woke up early in the morning not feeling well. My stomach was really starting to talk back. I tried a bit of breakfast, but it all bounced right back up. Ugggghhhh, I needed to get back to sleep for a bit. I got all my stuff out to the car but stayed at the hotel for a while to snooze and try to recover. I wound up sleeping til almost noon time. Scratch Saturday's race. I did drive to the course to catch the tail end of my race. After watching the womens and then the mens elite races, I was a bit bummed out. The course looked to be a good one for me. The areas that had always given me trouble were removed and the long push up to the top of the hill after the woods was now a short drop followed by a run-up. This was very close to the weekly trainly loop I do at the park 2 blocks from my house with the exception that it was shorter then the training course. Dammit, it would've been fun, even with all the rain and mud. So I zipped up to Pottstown for the Wissahickon race. For dinner, I had to scrounge around for something decent and eventually found a good chinese place. The one little Italian restaurant that we ate at last year had closed up so that put a bit of a damper on things. I did get a full nights sleep and felt fairly good for the race the next day but just not strong. I read the start right and on the 180s on the far side of the course, I was able to read how and where to be perfectly. The first one, I was off the bike and pushing through and jumped up on half a dozen riders. The second one, the clusterf*** was even a bit more of a mess but I was able to get past about a dozen or more riders and now was on the high side of the course while most others were fighting along the flat but muddy trail. I bombed the outside of the course heading into the horse corral and made it through to the back side of the course. Well things were going well to this point, except I really didn't have the horsepower to back my good start up. Once the course opened up, I fell towards the back and then having a bit of a chain issue I stopped to fix it and went to the very back. Oh well. Instead of just giving up, I decided I was just going to ride. I caught several riders back from my category and even started to catch some of the junior riders back that stormed past me early on. In the end, I got lapped by only 2 riders, Matt Krause and Roger Aphsolm, both of whom would have been able to finish somewhere between 10th and 15th in the elite race. So all in all, it wasn't that bad. Next week I have a couple local races so it'll be nice to just have those short 20-40 minute drives. Then, on to Beacon. I have my technique down for doing the amphitheater climb so I should do much better. Just stay away from Sheetz food.