Cold, cold riding

Well, I am determined to keep riding to and from work, I figure I can keep going until there is ice and snow on the bike paths. There are a couple of areas where I depend on a bike trail for my route, I figure I can keep going until those routes are covered. Bikes and ice don't mix.

With the cold, I had to break down and buy a pair of riding pants, basically riding shorts (padded in the right spots) that have an extra layer of insulation in them. They were a huge plus. I have also started to ride in a pair of snow-boarding mittens. They have a finger slot so my hands look like a lobster's hands. The finger lets me shift when I need to, when I am in an area where I don't have to shift, I put my finger with the other four fingers. I carry the pair of gloves Aunt Faye gave me three years ago in case my hands get too hot. That normally happens in the afternoons when I ride home. the mittens are great for the cold mornings (normally the temperature drops right before sunrise, exactly when I am riding), but can be too warm for the afternoons.

With then new routes that I take I end up riding 13.6 miles in the mornings and just over 14.5 in the afternoons. In the afternoons I go around one of the hills that I hated (basically it was riding up a steep hill so that I could ride down the other side): It took me down a steep hill on Van Dorn avenue, to a big intersection at Kingstowne Mall, then back up a hill behind the mall area. By staying on top of the hill I avoid the big intersection and going down a hill with a lot of traffic. Going down hills is fun, but if there is a lot of traffic, it takes the fun out of it.

OK, non-riding stuff. I am buying a house in DC, 5618 9th Street Northwest. A very nice house, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, big deck and a 2 car garage. The house is a detached house, very rare in DC. It has a small backyard, but is fully fenced. The area is in the process of gentrification - - a lot of the houses that are on the market in the area are houses that were foreclosed on and re-done. The house has a new kitchen, new appliances, new plumbing, new wiring, new HVAC, windows, floors, mostly everything but the bricks and roof. The roof is a slate roof that is supposed to last the life of the house. I thought it was a good deal, I will find out what the appraisers think of it next week.

It is kind of interesting to compare the googlemap streetview pictures (if you don't know what that is, ask a teenager please) which represent the "before" and the "after" house pictures from the real estate webpage. I will put the link in here and see if it works.
http://mrislistings.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?k=2325295XPTU5&p=DE-129373979-855

The most frustrating part of the house buying process this time for me has been the mortgage process. I have had 12 mortgages over the past few years, mostly on my rental properties, some re-financing and so on. 8 of those have been paid off and I never had a late payment. Most of those mortgages involved sending some paperwork, talking on the phone, lots of signatures and a quick approval. This time around most every aspect of my financial life has been under the microscope. So, if you are out there in the house buying mode, be prepared for intense scrutiny from your bank.

Sam and Cheney updates

Cheney is over her stomach problems and putting on weight. For folks that aren't tracking on Cheney and her digestive history, I'll give a brief history. Cheney is a pure bred boxer and has a narrow rear end, as most boxers do. Because of her narrow rear quarters, she was prone to digestive problems. Her first problem was a twist in her intestines; now her intestines are stapled to the wall of her stomach cavity so they can't twist. About a year after that, she ate part of her blanket, which didn't digest well. Another operation (the blanketectomy) later, she was fine. Somewhere along the line her pancreas was damaged. The damage caught up to her this year and her pancreas stopped producing the enzymes that allowed her to digest her food properly. Bottom line, she would eat, then poop, and it wasn't the optimal sort of poop the dogs in the TV commercials brag about. A very sharp vet at Hayfield Animal Hospital recognized the problem and solved it to my great pleasure (cleaning up non-optimal poop is no joy). Now Cheney poops mostly normal, as normal as a dog with 8 inches fewer intestines can poop.

Sam pretty is pretty happy, he no longer has to figure out how to walk along the paths trying to avoid the non-optimal poop.

Enough of that . . .

Husker Update

The Huskers ended their Big 12 career with a second straight loss in the Big 12 Championship Game. Good game, but we had no answer for the defensive speed of the Oklahoma Sooners. Our prized freshman quarterback (Taylor Martinez) looked like a freshman quarterback instead of the lightning fast, hyper-accurate passer he was in our earlier victories. I don't think the offensive game plan really helped him out. There were no quick pass routes opened up, no real misdirection plays and no reliance on what was working: The Rex Burkhead led wildcat ground game. I have no idea why the offensive coaches went away from that type of play, 4-8 yards a pop and the most accurate kicker in Nebraska history - - Alex Henery.

Ten wins is ten wins though, with a good chance for 11 wins with a bowl victory. I hope the Husker faithful think well of this, I distinctly remember the torturous Callahan era and remember the 4 win, losing seasons that brought us.

Oh well, next year . . .

N C State, NCState

Yesterday I went down to Raleigh to watch my second favorite football team (the Wolfpack of North Carolina State) play Wake Forest. My good buddy from NC, Bill S of Moncure, NC, asked me down to watch the game with some of his friends. Bill has 4 season tickets and normally shares them with good friends, I am happy to be included in that group.

When I was a very young CPT (ages ago . . . . 1991 or 1992, when I was stationed at FT Benning, GA for a year), I had the opportunity to meet the head coach of NC State, Dick Sheridan. He was a very down to earth man, and a football genius. He managed to get the Wolfpack to a few bowl games and had a few great teams. I got to meet some of the players, they were all gentlemen. We watched them play at Georgia Tech, Dick Sheridan invited us to meet the players, watch practice and everything. The Georgia Tech coach on the other hand, literally chased us away from the practice when we stopped to watch a few snaps. Of course we were wearing red shirts, but still, the head coach himself came over.

Fast forward several years, I met up with Bill, an engineer for the state of NC and we talked a ton of football. He ended up inviting me to a few games, about one a year. Most of the games I went to the Pack was into the game and either won the game or it was very close. The stadium is a nice one, the fans are football fans and the band is pretty good. All in all, a very entertaining college football experience. When I look at college football, I always respect programs that keep it all in perspective: Fans respect and cheer for both teams, there isn't a weekly demand for a National Championship, the team plays hard. NC State is like that, very loyal fans, nice stadium, just a good college football experience.

The Pack will never replace the Huskers, but I like em. Yesterday was senior day, the NC State seniors stepped it up and shut down Wake Forest. Wake Forest is having an off year, but are normally well coached, fast and play a very interesting mis-direction offense. Yesterday was not their day, they played well, mostly mistake free, but they got beat, 38-3.

I figured out how to attach pictures using Picasa, much easier than before, there are some pics from the day posted on the right.

Other notes:

Riding is getting kinda cold, but bearable in the mornings. The afternoon rides last week were spectacular, very good weather for riding. With daylight savings time, it is actually light towards the end of my morning rides. Of course, on the other end, unless I leave work early, I am riding in the dark. I have put more lights on my bike, so I think it is OK. I am going to stick with riding until the weather says "no more riding" (snow, ice or cold rain).

Fantasy Football:

This season will be interesting, I have moved from dead last to top 10. Wade is only 20 or so points ahead of me. Once again, if I could pick a wide receiver, I would be doing really well. I will keep you posted as the season goes along, but, I could squeak by Wade this year, unless he uses his last two trades.

Movies:

I am now a Netflix fan. Not only can you watch movies by disc, but you can watch them online. A friend of mine set up a computer with my big screen TV and I can watch anything that is online (Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ESPN3.com) on my TV. I have watched a few movies that stand out.

The Cove: Documents the Japanese systematic slaughter of dolphins in one of their coastal towns. Great flick, it provides another reason for me to lose respect for the Japanese fishing industry. Not only were they mostly responsible for the near-extinction of whales in the 70's, but they have continued to whale, fish other species to near extinction (tuna) and now systematically kill dolphins.

Note: I stopped eating all seafood two years ago as a response to the over-fishing of species done worldwide. After diving for several years, I can't imagine a world without fish. I know that folks want to eat fish and some societies rely on fishing for their sustenance, but the rampant over-fishing will not be a good planetary thing. I figure not eating fish will help one or two fish stay in the ocean.

The King of Kong: I thought this was fiction at first, the characters in the movie were so stereotypical that I didn't think they were real. The movie talks about the record holders for classic arcade video games and how they are documented internationally. I couldn't believe it. If you grew up in the 80s, check it out.

180 Degrees South: A much happier movie, but still with an environmental twist. In the 60s, three friends drove from CA down to Patagonia, stopping to surf along the way. A modern filmmaker traced their route, and wanted to do the same thing. The three kids from the 60s turned out to be the founders of North Face, Patagonia and Royal Robbins clothing and outdoors equipment companies. They have since spent a lot of their money buying land in Patagonia and turning it into nature preserves. Good flick.

Dogtown and Z boys: Documentary about the group of surfers that revolutionized skate boarding in the 70s. Very good flick, I enjoyed the interviews and film from the early days of skateboarding and surfing near Venice Beach.

Touring DC with Melissa

A few weeks ago (OK, probably a month ago) my sister Melissa came to DC for a weekend and we did some touring around. Surprisingly, she had never been to DC but had always wanted to come out.

I am always apprehensive when folks come to visit, because I like to have a plan of some sort for a visit. Luckily, DC is pretty easy for that, there are always a bunch of things to do or see. She came the weekend that Nebraska played Texas, so that was one good event (already blogged about: "Niles Paul, you are breaking my heart . . . . ."); the rest of the time we hit the museums and the monuments on the mall. We also had an opportunity to visit one of her best friend's daughters that was studying at Georgetown.

On the first day, we did a quick tour of a couple of Smithsonian Museums. The paintings that were on display were from the collections of George Lucas (the man that killed Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the savior of Star Wars). There are a couple of paintings that I really enjoyed looking at:

http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/tellingstories/

The first one was the Norman Rockwell's "Boy on a High Dive"; it shows a kid on the edge of a high dive, to me this signified taking a new risk or meeting life's next adventure. The second one was "Back to Civvies", showing a young man that has come back from WW II and nothing really seems to fit. That was very poignant to me, I think there are a couple of generations that are going to go through the rest of their lives where nothing seems to fit.

We also went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, there are a lot of displays of Americana here: Julia Child's kitchen and the First Ladies inauguration dresses as well as a display of self driving vehicles jumped out at me. The final museum we went to was the original Smithsonian Castle, we went there because it was towards the end of the day and it was close to the metro stop. The display that I really connected with was a display of Madeline Albright's broaches and pins. These were the pins that she would wear at different events throughout her life, all the pins had a significance. For example, when she was the Ambassador to the UN, and was sitting next to Saddam Hussein, she wore a snake on her lapel (?) because Saddam had called her a snake in an earlier encounter. When she was being asked to solve a huge problem, she would wear a magician or wizard's pin because it would take a lot of magic to solve that particular problem. She also had a few Star Trek pins and other space exploration related pins, very cool.

The next few days we hit all of the presidential monuments (pictures attached on the right), my personal favorite is FDR's, Korean War and the WW II memorial. WW II is just impressive, Korean War is understated and very well done. I like the quietness of the statues, during the winter, when there is snow, it is especially vivid.

Our final stop (prior to the Texas game :-( ) was Arlington, VA. I went there to visit a friend's sister's grave site, as well as check out JFK's grave, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Lee mansion. Lee's mansion (where Robert E. Lee grew up) was a mansion built by the Lee family, the museum there shows how the Lee and Washington families were linked. The estate was taken over by the Union Army during the Civil War and was turned into a hospital for Union Soldiers during the Civil War and as a cemetery. The grounds were then turned into a National Cemetery.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by members of the US Army's 3d Infantry Regiment. That particular day, we watched the changing of the guard ceremony, as well as a wreath laying ceremony. Very cool.

Checking In

Well, football season is back in full swing, so Saturdays are pretty interesting for me. This is a quick recap of the last three Husker games from my bleacher seat:

"Niles Paul you are breaking my heart . . . "

That was the wail that went up from a very nice Husker fan at he Union Pub 3 weeks ago when the Huskers didn't do so well against Texas. Setting the scene: The Huskers seem to finally be back from the bill callahan oblivion and have had a couple of good seasons with Bo Pelini at the helm. The one constant thorn in the Husker's side has been Mack Brown and his team from Texas. This year was going to be different, or so the 2 million or so Husker faithful thought. The Blackshirts were more than Ndamakung Suh, our newly found QB was racking up the yards at a blazingly fast pace, and the game was in Lincoln. We were going to win, no questions asked. Well, after dropping three passes that would have changed the game, our faithful senior wide receiver, one of the cornerstones of the offense that had suffered under Callahan and been redeemed under Pelini, dropped another one. When that happened, the air went out of the Union Pub and the devil cashed in another win for Texas. All told, there were 4 clear TD passes dropped that were right on the numbers or catches a wide receiver probably should have made. Good game by Texas, but dang.

Union Pub notes: A few years ago, I discovered the gathering place for the Husker faithful in DC: the Union Pub, near Union Station. I regularly went there if I was in town to catch the Huskers in a friendly environment. It is a pretty good place to watch the Huskers, standard bar food, beer and folks from Nebraska. Over the years though, a few cracks in the institution have started to show. First of all, the owner sells/pushes raffle tickets during the game, the story behind the raffle tickets has changed a few times - - it is either to donate to a scholarship, or to fund the cable reception of the game. He gets a little pushy about the tickets, which naturally annoys me, and if it is to fund the reception of the game, I would just like to remind him that I wouldn't be buying his 6 dollar beer and 9 dollar hot dog combo at his fine establishment if the Huskers weren't on the screen. I can do that at Applebees.

The second thing that struck me during the Texas loss was Husker fans may have lost their perspective, and that wearing a red shirt gives them certain liberties. For example, when Niles Paul and Bryant Kinnie dropped the last of their certain TD passes, a few folks called them idiots or other such names. First of all, they aren't the ones watching a football game in a bar, they are on the field, probably trying as hard as they can to win the game for the Husker faithful. Second, the idiot is the one guzzling beer and yelling at the TV. My perspective over the years have changed, I just like to watch the Huskers play, if one of them makes a mistake, I try to remember that they are in the 19-22 year old range and are trying their hardest and I appreciate their effort, I know they feel bad, and will feel worse when they see the film after the game. When I saw Bryant Kinnie with his head hung low on the bench after a TD pass went in and out of his hands, I felt bad for him, but it is only a game.

Enough about the Horns, bring on the Cowboys.

For some reason, Nebraska has had problems playing home games. I am not sure if the kids feel more pressure with 85,000 faithful in the stands or what, but sometimes they aren't sharp. On the road, different story. The Big Red Machine traveled down to Oklahoma City to face the Cowboys for the last time. The Cowboys have been up and comers in the Big 12 South for a few years, but haven't quite turned the corner against the Sooners, maybe this is the year, but they didn't turn the corner against the Huskers. From the start, this was a track meet - - when you spell NU and OSU or Nebraska and Oklahoma State, you will notice there are no D's there; last saturday, there was no D (defense) until the second half. The first half of the game, Taylor Martinez (the second coming of Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier combined) ran wild on the Cowboys and threw like Peyton Manning. Niles Paul and Bryant Kinnie redeemed themselves, and Niles Paul even threw in a 100 yard punt return for a TD as an apology to the Husker faithful. The second half, the Blackshirt defensive backs completely shut down the OSU air game, and the game was over.

Over the past years, Bo and Carl Pelini have built a defense that is specifically designed to stop the spread offenses that have sprung up in college football. The spread offense used to be the offense that would allow a smaller team use it's size and speed to knock off a more powerful team. A lot of more powerful teams adopted it, especially in the Big 12. Nebraska built a defense that was built on the same speed principles. Very small, quick linebackers and a lot of fast defensive backs. This goes back to Tom Osborne's transformation to speed in the early 90s. Nebraska could whip up on other teams with it's size and power in the 80s, but when we stepped out of the Big 8 and played other teams, they ran right past us. Now, Bo and Carl have built a defense that will stop a fast, spread offense, specifically Missouri.

Gary Pinkel took over at Missouri several years ago, and he brought a spread style offense to the Big 12 North, and Nebraska couldn't deal with it. They beat Nebraska a few times, and it seemed that Nebraska couldn't stop it, so other North teams adopted it: Colorado, Kansas and a few others. Nebraska suffered through a few 50, 60 70 point beat downs against those teams, especially in the callahan era.

This year, Missouri came to Lincoln for the last time, ranked number 6, with a Gary Pinkel developed spread offense that ran all over Oklahoma last week. This week was a difference story, the Blackshirt defensive backs shut down Missouri's receivers and Blaine Gabbert had nowhere to throw it. It did help that Roy Helu ran three long touchdowns and racked up 307 yards on the ground and Nebraska's offense pounded Missouri's defense on the ground. Taylor Martinez was injured in the 1st half, but Zac Lee (one of my favorites) came in and ran things just fine during the second half. The defense looked very good, the best they have looked this year and the offense hearkened back to the Husker great offenses where every play could go for a touchdown. It will be interesting over the rest of the year.

I watched the Missouri game at home, instead of at the Union Pub, it was much more pleasant - - I didn't have to travel there and had a great seat on my couch for the game.

Fantasy Football update

I fell out of the King of the Hill pool: The Saints didn't win, so that's that.

In the Tim's Fantasy Football League I passed Wade up this week, but he has two trades left, so I am not sure if it will last. But, it was nice to come out of the basement and move past him into 7th place for a week. We'll see how it goes. Next year, I will have better wide receivers, which is what I say every year . . . .

Not much, really

This week I was 4 for 4 on rides to work and back. I enjoy my new route, but there are a few things that are a little frustrating.

1. There are more red lights on the route. This requires a lot more rider kharma on my part, if I hit a few red lights early in the ride, I get a little frustrated and then get mad at later lights. If you miss a later light, more than likely I'll get stuck at subsequent lights. There is one series of lights just before the King Street Metro Station in Alexandria - - if I time things wrong I will hit three red lights in a row, then miss a couple more on Eisenhower Street. This happened on Tuesday, I got caught behind a bunch of cars at the King Street tunnel, missed the first light, missed the second light, hit the third green light (where I normally end up running a red light anyway) and then got stuck at three red lights in a row on Ike Street.

2. There is a Dunkin Donuts on the new route. This is the second bakery or bakery like store on my route. The first is a mystery bakery that I think makes donuts for grocery stores (generic donuts?), it is in an industrial area, there is no store, but I can certainly smell donuts and other good smelling stuff baking. I ride by that and think how good a donut would taste, then have to ride by the Dunkin Donuts (on Ead Street, just past 18th Street), I then have to think about how good a donut would be, with a cup of Dunkin Dark coffee.

One of these days I will take a few extra minutes to go find the mystery bakery and then maybe stop off for a quick cup of coffee at the Dunkin Donuts.

Husker update.

The Huskers dominated one of our annoying Big 12 North foes, kansas state. k-state used to be a doormat back in the Big 8 days, then they hired Bill Snyder. Somewhere along the way, Bill Snyder made a deal with the devil (nobody can attract quality athletes to the middle of nowhere, Manhattan, Kansas and put together a winning team without a little non-divine assistance) and started making k-state pretty good, and they occasionally beat the Huskers. This game was especially refreshing, Nebraska returned to the powerful ground game that made the Huskers great in the 90's, and we have found a quarterback that can run the offense. Taylor Martinez reminds me a lot of other Husker Legends - - Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier, not only is he lightning quick and fast, he has a very accurate arm.

I am not quite sure we are a top 10 team, I'll hold of until we put texas in it's place and beat oklahoma state. After than, I am pretty sure we'll have another special team. Nebraska's defense is lightning quick and deep, our offensive line is back to the glory days and we have a QB. Should be interesting . . .

Fantasy Football Woes

Once again, I can't pick a group of 5 wide receivers, I can handle a QB that gets injured, or has a few bad games, but 5 gaping holes in my roster from divas that can't catch a ball (Michael Crabtree) or stay with a team (Randy Moss) or just don't show up (Sims-Walker?), that is tough to swallow. Luckily, I passed my niece (sorry Sid) and one of my brothers-in-law had a rough week, so, we'll see. For the record, I am not in last place.

Well, it has been a couple of months

It has been a few months since I last did some typing here, so here yah go . . .

Because I still can't run comfortably, I have been riding my bike like crazy. I average about 120 miles a week, 4 times a week, everyday but Monday. On Mondays I lug in 5 T-shirts, 5 pairs of underwear, a bunch of veggie burgers and cheese for lunch, oatmeal for breakfast, bananas and carrots for snacks. Life gets pretty simple when you break it down like that I guess. I ride in each morning, do some push ups, pull ups and core exercises hit the showers with Tan Man and the Zombie then head off to work. My rides home in the afternoon are nice and relaxing, I actually spend the same amount of time riding to work and back as I would on the metro, but I have a lot more freedom and it is much more relaxing.

I have a couple of bike rack buddies, we chat some in the morning and talk about routes and such. One of them talked me into doing a century last month - - the Civil War Battlefield Century Ride.

http://www.civilwarcentury.com/

Pretty cool ride, it started off just north of DC in Thurmont, Maryland , went through an area where there were a lot of smaller Civil War skirmishes around South Mountain, crossed the Appalachian Trail (I took the pictures below when I hiked the AT last year with Andrew; one of the rest stops was right across the road from the Civil War Correspondent's Memorial) wound through Antietam Battlefield, close to Sharpsburg, MD, then up north into Pennsylvania, through Gettysburg (riding right past the field that Pickett charged across, Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard and Devil's Den) very cool ride, outside of some of the big old hills. There were some fierce climbs, but for every fierce climb there is a good scream downhill. This was the first time I ever hit 45 mph on my bike, very exhilarating.





This morning I discovered a new route to and from work, cutting a few miles off of my route, down from 16 to 14, which takes about 10 minutes or so off my time. There is a little more traffic, but that is ok. I spotted a few other riders on the way in, so I figure it is good to go.

Fantasy Football update:

I have climbed out of last place and passed my niece, Sydney. She picked her team based off of the names and how they all rhymed, so I am not sure that is much brag about. I am also in a King of the Hill league with Wade, so maybe I can last longer than him in that one.

I have started to look for a house to buy in the area, I will let you know how that goes. I am looking for a nice place with a nice kitchen a few large rooms and a nice bathroom. It also has to have a larger backyard for Sam and Cheney to poop in. Cheney update: Her blanketectomy is catching up with her. My vet here thinks that her pancreas was probably damaged during one of her stomach operations, so she has been going through serous bouts of diarrhea and lost a lot of weight. A few tests and pills later she is back to normal Cheney poop, not quite as optimal as Sam's, but much easier to scoop up than before.

Some Riding Around

I don't think I mentioned this, but I am on the Un-able to Run list - - - my plantar fasciitis and heel spurs have returned with a vengeance. Shortly after the Crossroads 17.75 km race I was out on an easy training run and I got that steak knife in the heel feeling again. This is the second time that I have had them, the first time it took about 6 months to recover from, so, stand by.

In order to keep in some sort of cardio shape, I have started to increase my riding and swimming. During the week, I ride to and from work 3 times a week, and have started to ride on Sundays. A couple of buddies of mine from work talked me into riding in a Century (a 100 mile bike ride/race) I don't think I will be doing much racing, but I am pretty sure I can ride it. This morning we got together and road about 35 miles on the Washington Old Dominion trail, one of the many rails to trails projects in this area. It was a pretty good ride, some nice flat trail, maybe a few rolling hills, but it was fun. Average pace was about 17 mph, I was pretty much the slow guy, no problems there.

This afternoon I got together with a group of folks from my running group for another ride, they told me it was about 20 miles, but it turned out to be almost 29. The route we took was the tow path of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, which ran from DC up through Maryland to Cumberland, MD near Harper's Ferry. It was a nice ride, the tow path was a gravel/dirt path, very different from this mornings ride which was on a nice asphalt path.

The canal was designed/thought of by George Washington, kind of a highway into the western part of the nation. It was a booming business for about 20 years, then the railroad took over and it became more of alternate way of transportation, apparently it also acted as a pretty good filter for the Potomac - - as sewage flowed out of the urban areas, it backed up into the canal. The trees along the canal absorbed the sewage and used it as fertilizer. These are the things you learn when you read the signs along the canal.

I have posted a few pictures of the canal and the falls.

The Falls: Pretty popular area for walking around and some kayaking. I guess the water level was way down, you normally can't see the rocks at the bottom.



A replica of one of the canal boats. The locks on the canal were only about 10 feet wide, so the boats had to be very narrow.

One of the locks: