Rain. It happens. As the sun sets earlier each day, we have a bad habit of looking outside and thinking that boy, this is depressing. This is dark. There's no sun. I shall now start the self-fulfilling prophecy of making myself sad because it's cold and the days are shorter. And then I wake up and this rain, it just comes down. Buckets, cats and dogs, a veritable cornucopia of misery! It's never ending. Yet, in some parts of the country, the world, they would kill for this rain. Ok, maybe not kill, but perhaps maim? I don't love it, nor do I hate it. Yes, as we discussed on the podcast it's responsible for the 2 worst cross races I have ever been a part of. I would be lying if I said otherwise. But we also need to be fair. Rain is normal. It happens, makes things grow. Allows the location we live to be a healthy place. And so on.
The combination that most annoys me is something we have no control over. In the last 36 hours, it has rained heavily which has knocked many of the leaves off the trees and onto the ground. As such, they're now only all over the place and in need of cleaning, but they're also soaking wet and unresponsive to most leaf removal approaches. For the next 2 months, the trails will be littered with wet leaves, which abruptly ends the part of the season which people often misguidedly cite as "the best time of year to ride."
Between this moment, right now, and Sunday morning, it's supposed to not rain 3 of the next 4 days, which should give the NoHo course some time to recover. Unfortunately, Saturday will likely dig up & expose some of the dirt we'll be racing on and turn it into mud. My one hope is that we don't show up to a course that's so sloppy it makes no sense to pre-ride. This is my main objection right now. I object to courses that are too sloppy to bother pre-riding. I embrace that this is a real possibility, however.
I also used the rain as an opportunity to vote today. When it was coming down the hardest, I ventured out because I figured there would be the fewest number of people at the polls. I think it was a 30 minute round trip in total to go vote, and much of that is because I went to the 2016 location which has since moved. I hope you voted today. I will not belabor the politics beyond that.
I also took the opportunity to enjoy some of the new Counter Culture coffee that arrived this past weekend. Back is the absolutely splendid bean from the roaster in North Carolina. I picked the Ethiopian over the Guatemalan to start. In general, Guatemala is not a hotbed for amazing coffee so I'll back seat that bag and go for the known quantity. I'm happy to say this bean is excellent, almost at the same level as last month's top offering. I did this while it rained outside.
I also played this on & off all day:
https://bongo.cat/
You may have seen this on the other thread. I found this, then on the Duke call I would just hit ONE bongo randomly. I never know what does and doesn't feed to the sound output on these meetings. In my experience you get different output captures between apps. When I asked my coworker if he could hear it, he said yes. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud the remainder of the meeting. Sometimes life is simple and good. This was one of those moments.
After discussing with my boss I told the project manager that going to Seattle isn't going to work for me on the week of 12/3. They immediately ran to the client who started whining they wanted me there. Then they asked if I could go 12/17-21. I mean, talk about shitty timing on all of this. We will discuss it tonight and determine if either of these weeks are going to work, or if I will force the issue and ask them to punt to January, or what. I really don't want to miss Neal deGrasse Tyson the week of 12/3 but then the week of 12/17 is kinda jammed up against Xmas. In any event, it rained outside while I pondered what to do here. I am still undecided & uncertain. But I am dry.
I rode the bike on the trainer while it continued to rain, and it being a rest (ish) week I did nothing of note on the bike. I managed to elicit a response from
@pearl on my ride title, which I consider a win. If I remember tomorrow, I will haiku my titles and talk more trash if possible. Also while it rained, I started
The Man in the High Castle. This was both recommended and NOT recommended. But I kept going through various shows and saying, "Ok I should let D see this, and this, and this." I think tMitHC is not something she will care much about. Towards the end of first episode I almost decided to call it one-and-done, because it seemed like the sole purpose of the series is to cast Japanese people in a negative light. But I decided to let it roll, because I think at least one person who reads this blog recommended it.
@MadisonDan perhaps?
Watched e4 and e5 of
Dark tonight.
Iggy don't like tech
Bongo cat don't give a fuck
All the while it rained