Coffee and Lies #137 Far and Wide

This week was all over the place.  I won’t even try and link up the assorted events.  In no particular order here they are:

Ready or not, Cyclocross season is coming.  Following the abysmal failure of my training program last year and the sobering reality of heart ailments targeting my demographic I have embarked on a new training schedule using twenty one day cycles.  My training always takes on an increased urgency in August.

With my love of gravel riding and a new objective for 2016 on the horizon my motivation for racing Cyclocross is pretty low.  The last time it was this low I ended up on the podium at the end of the year.  I have no such aspirations this year. I am nothing if not jaded. I am in fact ready to abandon my Cyclocross racing for 2015 at the drop of a hat.  All I need are some discouraging results or an injury and my fate is sealed.

                               That thing on her wrist is the "before" picture....
Hottie had so much fun with her wrist surgery she decided to do it again and go bigger this time.  Tragically her summer biking season is over and the next bike she will be riding is likely her fatbike on the snow.  The snow is months away and thus you have an idea of the magnitude of her surgery. She is relearning to use her left hand for all things and I am relearning to vacuum.

Taking care of Hottie kept me from partaking in the annual team cross camp in the Methow.  Since we bought the cabin every weekend from April to November is a lot like cross camp so I think I will survive.   

A deep-winter full-blown Coffee and Lies secession 

                            Note how Jesus-like the Wizard of Coz appears

I was able to join in the Coffee and Lies ride here in town and with most of the fast guys over in the Methow the ride here looked the way we describe that ride to others.  It was a friendly ride.  Usually it is a life or death race and we lie and say it is a friendly ride.

Following the ride our coffee conversation turned unusually serious as the topic turned to heart problems. As aloof and dismissive as I am, even the great Evo could not steer the topic back to wax based lubricants. As KB put it, working out may help the mechanical issues in and around your heart but it may harm the electrical functioning.   Whoa- serious shit.

Last Friday there was a secret meeting of the executive committee and white smoke was finally seen rising from the chimney of Brad’s cabin following the final vote. McWoodie sent an email announcing the committee had stuck a pin in the 2016 calendar and declared it time to return to the continent for some serious cycling as we did back in 2012.

                                 A chip off the chip off the old block
My oldest son and his wife have spent winters in Moscow and after trying the other extreme and spending this summer in Dubai my daughter in law and grandson will be visiting us for a few days while Zach finishes up his internship in Dubai.  At the end of the month they will rendezvous back in Philly for his final year of graduate school. 

So there you have it.  Looking back and looking forward. Looking near and looking far.  There was laughing and seriousness.  This week had it all.