So I was walking across the street to Scooter's to get some coffee when a guy carrying some bags approached me and said, "You're a smart looking fella".
I'm thinking to myself at this point, this guy is either a con artist or crazy. Clearly I am smart, and probably good looking too, but I wouldn't say that to a stranger unless I had a ulterior motive.
He goes on, "maybe you should read Missouri Statutes 323 on homeless people then, f*cker!" and then he walked off. I'm at a loss for words at that point, as a) he mumbled a bit of it and I was trying to digest what he was saying, and b) his concluding argument caught me off guard.
Perhaps he needed a little Christmas cheer. A sardonic reply came to my lips moments too late, but that is probably for the best.
Yet another reason I love working downtown. I guess you can at least see the crazies coming at you, versus in JoCo they are more discreet. ;-)
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Observations
Freedom is what makes this country great. Freedom to talk about issues, freedom to worship in a manner that aligns most closely with your beliefs, freedom to drive a Lexus in the left hand lane at 55 mph.
Ok, so I'm kidding about the last point. Mostly.
I was telling Penny (who calls me the pessimist) that as a society, the US has to be one of the most screwed up societies in the world. We're governed by greed, worship celebrities, and are so insulated that we often have difficulty seeing past our own noses. That all being said, why is it, that when you look at just one person, they seem so level headed? In other words, why is it that the individual pieces are so much different than the whole?
I just remarked that the most important news today would be the story about Brittany Murphy passing. This is terrible news, indeed, as it seems she was a talented actress that got mixed up in the wrong crowd and in most likelihood, OD'ed at the age of 32. But let's put that in perspective. One child dies every five seconds due to starvation. A child who couldn't possibly provide for themselves, dies one of the most painful ways possible. Brittany likely overdosed, or died due to a complication from her eating disorder. Her situations were avoidable, in my opinion. My point being, what's more important to all of us? Where should our focus be, in order to have a fair and just society?
Another example...Congress is on the verge of passing the health care bill. Yet how many people really understand what it means for them? I'm not talking about the rhetoric crap that's spread around in emails by biased parties, I'm talking about really understanding the bill, and how it relates to them, their children, and their parents. Now, I certainly realize that the bill is over 1000 pages long, but where does someone go to get an honest, unbiased opinion? Certainly not the media. They are more interested in Nielsen ratings and internet hits, by trying to lure people by "informing us" why Brittany Murphy died or what Kate Gosselin is wearing while shopping for her kids.
Maybe I'm turning in to a grumpy old man, but I think the truth of it is that I see how great we are as individuals, but how badly our society is turning out to be. Americans are born into a country where the possibilities are endless, but we are quick to embrace self-destructive behaviors rather than face difficult choices. Why workout five times a week when you can just pop a pill? Why force your kids to go outside and ride their bikes when you can let them play xbox 360? And then we wonder why you have to drug them into a stupor so they can "pay attention" in school? We're becoming a society of the quick fix. Why have a nice relationship when I can just tweet about things? Why have a nice meal when we can snarf down a bunch of genetically altered McD's in less than 10 minutes?
It does make me sad, and makes me wonder what kind of life I can expect AB and Kieran to have seeing just how far things have careened off of the good and middle path in my short time on this earth.
At least I had a great bike ride yesterday.
Ok, so I'm kidding about the last point. Mostly.
I was telling Penny (who calls me the pessimist) that as a society, the US has to be one of the most screwed up societies in the world. We're governed by greed, worship celebrities, and are so insulated that we often have difficulty seeing past our own noses. That all being said, why is it, that when you look at just one person, they seem so level headed? In other words, why is it that the individual pieces are so much different than the whole?
I just remarked that the most important news today would be the story about Brittany Murphy passing. This is terrible news, indeed, as it seems she was a talented actress that got mixed up in the wrong crowd and in most likelihood, OD'ed at the age of 32. But let's put that in perspective. One child dies every five seconds due to starvation. A child who couldn't possibly provide for themselves, dies one of the most painful ways possible. Brittany likely overdosed, or died due to a complication from her eating disorder. Her situations were avoidable, in my opinion. My point being, what's more important to all of us? Where should our focus be, in order to have a fair and just society?
Another example...Congress is on the verge of passing the health care bill. Yet how many people really understand what it means for them? I'm not talking about the rhetoric crap that's spread around in emails by biased parties, I'm talking about really understanding the bill, and how it relates to them, their children, and their parents. Now, I certainly realize that the bill is over 1000 pages long, but where does someone go to get an honest, unbiased opinion? Certainly not the media. They are more interested in Nielsen ratings and internet hits, by trying to lure people by "informing us" why Brittany Murphy died or what Kate Gosselin is wearing while shopping for her kids.
Maybe I'm turning in to a grumpy old man, but I think the truth of it is that I see how great we are as individuals, but how badly our society is turning out to be. Americans are born into a country where the possibilities are endless, but we are quick to embrace self-destructive behaviors rather than face difficult choices. Why workout five times a week when you can just pop a pill? Why force your kids to go outside and ride their bikes when you can let them play xbox 360? And then we wonder why you have to drug them into a stupor so they can "pay attention" in school? We're becoming a society of the quick fix. Why have a nice relationship when I can just tweet about things? Why have a nice meal when we can snarf down a bunch of genetically altered McD's in less than 10 minutes?
It does make me sad, and makes me wonder what kind of life I can expect AB and Kieran to have seeing just how far things have careened off of the good and middle path in my short time on this earth.
At least I had a great bike ride yesterday.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Once upon a time an hour felt like an hour
Now it seems that time is flying so damned fast we'll be celebrating our 20th anniversary instead of our 10th in a few weeks. Unbelievable! <---I always misspell that word.
I took K-lite to his 15-month appointment yesterday and his left ear tube has become clogged with only-god-knows-what. He's built up a slight infection now and so we're having to put the drops in his ear to hopefully loosen up the troll stool or whatever is in there. If that doesn't work, we'll recruit 50 of our best friends to hold him down while an ENT sticks a little wire in there and tries to clear that stuff out. That should be a special time. Hopefully it won't come to that. There could be some massive head traumas involved and I don't think our friends would appreciate that kind of treatment while trying to hold down a 15 month old.
Penny got an email today with a height predictor. Now these body proportion divinators aren't exactly accurate, but when AB's current state of body was entered into said 8-ball, it came back with 6' 6" by the age of 18. I immediately hung-up the phone and started busting out a two and a half hour full body workout, followed by mixed martial arts training. Should it come to blows, I don't want to get beat up by my kid. Or get my head chopped off by a well-placed lightsaber strike.
I just got done looking at some pics of snow falling across various parts of the US, and I've officially raised my snow flag up. KC weather is weak. So very, very weak. It gets searingly hot in the summer, bitterly cold in the winter, tornadoes in the late spring, and that's about it. What I want is snow. I'm not talking dig your house out of a thirty foot drift snow (although that would be cool just to see how nearly everyone would go into an armageddon-like panic), but just a solid 12" snow. Something that really covers everything, and looks gorgeous as it falls. Then that's it. The next week will need to go back up to 60 degrees and we'll begin spring. This 20-degree high stuff while it's dry is for the birds. Actually it's not, because they flew south.
I took K-lite to his 15-month appointment yesterday and his left ear tube has become clogged with only-god-knows-what. He's built up a slight infection now and so we're having to put the drops in his ear to hopefully loosen up the troll stool or whatever is in there. If that doesn't work, we'll recruit 50 of our best friends to hold him down while an ENT sticks a little wire in there and tries to clear that stuff out. That should be a special time. Hopefully it won't come to that. There could be some massive head traumas involved and I don't think our friends would appreciate that kind of treatment while trying to hold down a 15 month old.
Penny got an email today with a height predictor. Now these body proportion divinators aren't exactly accurate, but when AB's current state of body was entered into said 8-ball, it came back with 6' 6" by the age of 18. I immediately hung-up the phone and started busting out a two and a half hour full body workout, followed by mixed martial arts training. Should it come to blows, I don't want to get beat up by my kid. Or get my head chopped off by a well-placed lightsaber strike.
I just got done looking at some pics of snow falling across various parts of the US, and I've officially raised my snow flag up. KC weather is weak. So very, very weak. It gets searingly hot in the summer, bitterly cold in the winter, tornadoes in the late spring, and that's about it. What I want is snow. I'm not talking dig your house out of a thirty foot drift snow (although that would be cool just to see how nearly everyone would go into an armageddon-like panic), but just a solid 12" snow. Something that really covers everything, and looks gorgeous as it falls. Then that's it. The next week will need to go back up to 60 degrees and we'll begin spring. This 20-degree high stuff while it's dry is for the birds. Actually it's not, because they flew south.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
I like this video...
This is a huge race in Iowa City, and was held last weekend. It looks like a lot of fun to me, hope you enjoy the video.
Jingle Cross 2009: Friday Night Cross from Gizmo Pictures on Vimeo.
Jingle Cross 2009: Friday Night Cross from Gizmo Pictures on Vimeo.
I still think I should get extra credit...
So my 3rd cross race was this weekend, Boss Cross #4 at Barry Platte Park in NKC. The course had some rolling hills, two soft sand crossings about 20 meters long, and one set of barriers. I really enjoyed the course, it had a great mixture of effort/recovery sections and there were certainly some opportunities to drop a few gears and get some speed going. I also raced under the Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee colors for the first time, and I have to say, those guys are a nice bunch. Pretty quick too!
I really felt like I'm riding stronger, but still nowhere where I'd like to be for next season. I really don't have much base fitness, so while I might have the gas pedal floored, there just isn't a whole lot of power getting applied to the rear wheel. That just takes time and unfortunately, you can't build that up in a month or two. You can augment it, but if there is no base to begin with, it's tough. I've noticed that the more races I've been putting in, the more glaring my opportunities for improvement are. I'm delighted to have this information at hand and I need to sit down after my last race and write down a season's worth of notes. Despite all the shortcomings, I'm still super excited for Grote Prjis, which will be my assumedly final race of the season. I'm honestly hoping for some snow and muck just to have a great experience and something to cap the season off with.
Anyway, back to this weekend. I'm riding towards the back of everything, the guy ahead of me is too far ahead (read: not enough in the tank) to bridge the gap, and the guy behind me is probably thinking the same thing, so I'm just holding my position and having some fun. I go through for my 3rd lap and I hear the scorers read out my number. I'm figuring this is good and where things ought to be. I then cross the finish line for my 4th and final lap and everyone is gone. Just a few spectators, and the scorers are gone. Well, I'm thinking I'm not going to stop because I still have a lap to go and I don't want to pull a DQ on something so silly. So I hup hup to it and crank out another lap. Somehow, between here and there, I must have blacked out and ended up doing 5 laps. So one more than I needed. I even asked the scorer's to verify and I looked at the sheet and everything was square. Crazy. Maybe I should have drank more water or something. Oh well, nothing like free practice at race pace. I guess.
I really felt like I'm riding stronger, but still nowhere where I'd like to be for next season. I really don't have much base fitness, so while I might have the gas pedal floored, there just isn't a whole lot of power getting applied to the rear wheel. That just takes time and unfortunately, you can't build that up in a month or two. You can augment it, but if there is no base to begin with, it's tough. I've noticed that the more races I've been putting in, the more glaring my opportunities for improvement are. I'm delighted to have this information at hand and I need to sit down after my last race and write down a season's worth of notes. Despite all the shortcomings, I'm still super excited for Grote Prjis, which will be my assumedly final race of the season. I'm honestly hoping for some snow and muck just to have a great experience and something to cap the season off with.
Anyway, back to this weekend. I'm riding towards the back of everything, the guy ahead of me is too far ahead (read: not enough in the tank) to bridge the gap, and the guy behind me is probably thinking the same thing, so I'm just holding my position and having some fun. I go through for my 3rd lap and I hear the scorers read out my number. I'm figuring this is good and where things ought to be. I then cross the finish line for my 4th and final lap and everyone is gone. Just a few spectators, and the scorers are gone. Well, I'm thinking I'm not going to stop because I still have a lap to go and I don't want to pull a DQ on something so silly. So I hup hup to it and crank out another lap. Somehow, between here and there, I must have blacked out and ended up doing 5 laps. So one more than I needed. I even asked the scorer's to verify and I looked at the sheet and everything was square. Crazy. Maybe I should have drank more water or something. Oh well, nothing like free practice at race pace. I guess.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
5:30am
5:30am is entirely too early to wake up and work out. Sure, I'm glad I got it out of the way, but good God, when does the madness end? I can't believe I used to be out the door by 5:30 to get to DST on time. I guess that was before kids, so I wasn't going to bed as tired.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Hell, might as well take another 13 days off.
Yea, I know I'm the lamest blogger in terms of new content delivery. The impetus for writing out new content just hasn't been there. Not that there hasn't been enough stuff to write about, that's for sure.
My next race is on Saturday at Barry-Platte Park for the series finale of the Boss Cross races. I've been training sporadically, but training hard, nevertheless. Throwing up crossed my mind as I was done with my intervals last night, so that's worth something, right? Haha! My last race this year will be on January 10th in Old Shawnee Town, the Grote Prijs Shawnee. This should be super spectator friendly as you can purportedly watch from the warmth of City Hall while I race around outside sucking the bark off of trees as I roll by.
I've also been graciously signed to the Team Colavita / Parisi Coffee race team! Check out their website and see what I'm getting myself into. I'm quite excited, and I think I should see a marked improvement in my results training with these guys (and gals). I'm already excited for next cross season, but luckily I still have two races left this year before beginning the summer.
Talk to you all later.
I'm planning on taking a couple of months off of serious training before starting to train for my next event.
(edit: This is what I call a poorly edited posted).
In continuation of "I'm planning on...": I figure that I'll start a 12-week program in late Feb/early March for my next to-be-named endeavor. It will be quite the spectacle, and I better be in excellent shape to complete and not die. Of course, if my heart rate can hit 198 with no adverse effects, I might as well change the B in my middle name to stand for "bulletproof".
My next race is on Saturday at Barry-Platte Park for the series finale of the Boss Cross races. I've been training sporadically, but training hard, nevertheless. Throwing up crossed my mind as I was done with my intervals last night, so that's worth something, right? Haha! My last race this year will be on January 10th in Old Shawnee Town, the Grote Prijs Shawnee. This should be super spectator friendly as you can purportedly watch from the warmth of City Hall while I race around outside sucking the bark off of trees as I roll by.
I've also been graciously signed to the Team Colavita / Parisi Coffee race team! Check out their website and see what I'm getting myself into. I'm quite excited, and I think I should see a marked improvement in my results training with these guys (and gals). I'm already excited for next cross season, but luckily I still have two races left this year before beginning the summer.
Talk to you all later.
I'm planning on taking a couple of months off of serious training before starting to train for my next event.
(edit: This is what I call a poorly edited posted).
In continuation of "I'm planning on...": I figure that I'll start a 12-week program in late Feb/early March for my next to-be-named endeavor. It will be quite the spectacle, and I better be in excellent shape to complete and not die. Of course, if my heart rate can hit 198 with no adverse effects, I might as well change the B in my middle name to stand for "bulletproof".
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