@taylor185, I checked out the Counter Culture Coffee class and will keep it in mind for sure. I also admit I considered getting in touch with them to interview someone for the podcast. But that's probably a little too much just to get myself in the door for a cup of coffee. I'll figure out something. Last time it was Joe Van Gogh, which was good, and maybe a mile walk from where we met the Dukies. There's a place in Raleigh which serves Counter Culture, but it's not exactly in-line with my travel that day. My plan is to spend the vast majority of travel working on my book. I just finished editing chapter 26 which means I have 13 to go. My aim is to do 1/day then maybe print it out and do a full reading & mark-up that day. I admit that the first 18 are only partially edited. This is a really long process.
On the travel note, I was told we are a 95% "go" for the Seattle trip on 12/3, which is going to be a full 5 days, the week before Nats. It looks like I'll be resting that week and hoping it works out come the following Friday. The flight to Seattle is a real bear. Instead of staying with my BIL I may end up in a hotel and look for some spin classes. It's cool to stay with them but at the same time more tiring, as I need to literally be "on" from when I wake up to when I go to bed. Actually that's not true. They are incredibly laid back people.
I've picked up the Rubik's Cube again in an effort to relearn how to do it. The first layer is easy, and I picked up the second layer pretty easily today. Still working out the next few steps while I sit on conference calls. I solved it, but it was using the notes you can find online. I need something to keep me occupied on these work calls and this is as good as anything. I've tried reading books but it's impossible to split your brain like this.
@fidodie - I only ever raced cat 2 in the master's class, so I was always mixed in with the 1/2/3/4 crew. My first year of masters I was often in the top 5 in the NJ series. Week to week there was some combination of Kahl, Lombardo, Schlauch, and myself in the mix. I didn't beat those guys very often but on occasion I could. Now I see Schlauch destroying the 50+ class every week and it's hard to imagine I used to hang with him. The following year I raced only MAC and my goal was to break into the top 10 back when there were anywhere from 50-80 people in the class. I got into the teens a few times but never better than that. Those were some brutal classes back then. 2012 Charm City was probably my best finish ever, 17 of 96 in the 35+ 1/2/3/4.
96 racers in that class in 2012. This past weekend there were 25 on both days combined (14 & 11). That's a little sad.
Today I got on Zwift and rode 50 miles in Central Park. Chopping more wood. Have to say that after I do these rides I feel really excellent. Volume makes me feel good.
On the suggestion of
@seanrunnette I watched
Galaxy Quest, and it was worth the watch. I put it in league with
Time Bandits in terms of target audience. It's on Amazon Prime so many of you probably have access to it. I'm not a big Tim Allen fan but this made me like him a bit more. Sigourney Weaver & Alan Rickman are really good, and Tony Shalhoub will always be one of my favorite actors ever because of
Monk. He is brilliant in this, in his weird sort of awesome way. Bonus was Daryl Mitchell who we know from
NCIS: New Orleans, a show I don't recommend at all, but we ended up getting sucked into it for a bit. On the topic of
Monk, I really want to check out
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
I should also point out that before I watched this, I finished off the last episode of
Black Mirror season 3,
Hated in the Nation. This one was actually quite good, and I can recommend this as a standalone episode. I'll jump into season 4 soon enough and I just read that Netflix is in production with season 5 now. I also read that Amazon was working on a Galaxy Quest show but it's run into some road bumps along the way.
@jmanic the skull means, aside from racing in a graveyard, a more technical course. So, according to those ratings, I will fare best on a technical course that is dry. In theory that covers this Saturday's race all except for the fact that shocker, it's going to rain again Friday. We're now up to 1.08" the day before. I will steal a text that
@Santapez sent to me today. "You choose the years to race cross like the Donnors decide to go on road trips." It's hard to argue that right now.
Tomorrow is the last day of October. Oh and people dress up and shit.