128K

Nothing like having numerous people call you from the race site, before you have left your house, telling you not to bother because large objects are blowing across the highway and it is snowing sideways. I had to draw inspiration from the immortal David Farragut ("Damn the torpedoes, full blah, blah, blah, etcetera, etcetera . . .) to get out the door and headed east. It was a lovely day.

Deer Trail was about as expected and so was the race. With the majority of the race being either into the wind or with the wind at our backs, it pretty much stayed together. Krughoff and Gragus were in the minority, showing the necessary gumption to maintain a gap in the first part of the race. They were however reeled in on the last section heading into the wind. Amazingly enough the winning move slipped away in the downhill, tailwind section before we hit the crosswinds where the remainder of the race blew apart, pun fully intended. I got to the front of what was remaining of the group just before the left hand turn into the final section and ended up in the first of the chasing echelons. We dumped a few people at the last turnaround, thanks in part to my heinous turn, and rode it on in. I ended up 12th, could have been better, could have been far worse.

Post race we hung out, waiting for results in the arena/barn/night club/tornado shelter/other uses not listed-type building in "town". I think Derek's face says it all.

Post race festivities were much more exciting. I packed up the supplies and headed up to Walker's house for his semi-annual get together. The evening started out fairly standardly until trouble came driving up the road. What do a P.O.S. $1000 pickup truck and a $128,000 Porsche Cayenne Turbo have in common?


If you drive them into a creek/bog, they get stuck. Nothing you can't fix with a $35 tow strap and a $4500 Nissan Pathfinder. Add a $14 car wash and despite all blog evidence, nobody ever has to know it really happened. Hats off to Clay and his pulling stuff out of the mud abilities.


I spend Saturday night at Casa Brenner, in their newly furnished guest suite. I have to say it was quite lovely and I had one of the best nights of sleep in a while thanks to the cool, clean mountain air. Before making me slave away setting some tiles in the master bathroom, we brunched on some delicious banana, nut pancakes and drank a multitude of espresso drinks.

The problem we set out to solve was exaggerated below for blogging purposes.


In all reality, there wasn't that much damage to the drywall on the window sill in the master bathroom, but moisture does condensate on the window and accumulate on the sill below. We cut away the offending drywall and paused for some espresso.

We then set a piece of WonderBoard, canted properly so water would not accumulate on the sill in the future, yet not so severely that plants could not have a home sitting in the window. After another shot of espresso, we got to tiling.

Fine work was done by all. Joey will be on his own for grouting and caulking, but he'll do just fine. The new tile sill should last for years to come and should be a bit more resistant to moisture than textured drywall.

After a couple more shots of espresso (there was a theme to the morning) we got out for a ride. I hate you Joey Brenner.



We didn't ride for all that long and there wasn't that much climbing, but it was enough to hurt each other, especially with the wind. That was my weekend . . .