Having a sign up only makes things more official. Details are still few and far between but I can only hope the place opens soon. There are some good Indian options in town (Little India's, India's, India House), but it never hurts having something in walking distance.
I still like the gold leaf paint accenting the building. It is a very different look than the deep red from Lola's tenure and hopefully they painted away the culinary stink of BB's.
Speaking of eats, Scott and I hit up Coleman's Soul Food up in Five Points yesterday at lunch time. This shot was lifted from back in the day when it was Ethel's House of Soul. The interior could be described as spartan if one were to be generous. Despite the favorable writeup in the Westword, I have to say I prefer Tom's Home Cookin' around the corner. I guess to be fair the two places are in different categories, Tom's is Southern food and Coleman's is Detroit Soul . . .
I am somewhat spoiled when it comes to Southern Food and fried chicken. Between having Catherine cook it at home when I was growing up, annual stops at Wilber's BBQ on the way to the beach, Mama Dip's in Chapel Hill, and the Toliver House Restaurant in historic Gordonsville, VA. Gordonsville is the self-proclaimed Fried Chicken Capitol of the Universe, but unfortunately a little digging tells me that the Toliver House changed ownership and no longer has the Sunday evening fried chicken special, in fact they no longer have fried chicken on the menu.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . there are windows in the house across the street.
I think there is some sort of giant target on my front yard, calling to the public, begging for some form of abuse. Paving is complete, the road is smooth, a nice job all the way around . . . including taking out some branches of my street trees.
I got the dangling limbs off the tree and out of the way before leaving town on Friday. They were some big ones as you can see.
The front side of the tree looks a little bare now . . . I guess if I really cared, I'd file a claim with the City Forrester, have an arborist come out, and make sure the tree was healthy, happy, and ready to move on from the experience. I'll use the opportunity to practice my summer pruning (vs. dormant) to see if the information I have is correct. In theory, summer pruning should control the growth of the tree somewhat whereas dormant pruning will lead to an increase in new foliage come next spring.
Meanwhile, inside the house, in Dempsey's absence Lou decided to get a little taste of dog water.
I figured he'd be needy without human presense over the weekend, but I didn't think he'd get destructive. I came home to plants knocked off the window sill, pots broken and soil everywhere. The basil took a beating and I'm afraid one of the plants is a goner.
I mentioned something about cows cutting our road race short on Saturday, here's the proof.
A game of bike vs. bovine probably would not have worked in our favor.
Another weekend down, another couple races in the bag. As expected, it was nice getting out of town for a little bit and looking at some new scenery. Glenwood Canyon was greener than I have ever seen it which made for a lovely drive down on Friday afternoon/evening. That stretch of I-70 really is one of the finer pieces of highway engineering out there with the tunnels, grade separation, and the way the highway was placed in the canyon.
The tunnels frame the views nicely as you pass through a rock outcropping, from one side to the other. I prefer the "low" road headed east because you are closer to the river and the other half of the highway is usually out of sight.
It reminds me of the show Top Gear and the episode where the hosts drove super-cars through the scenic passes in Europe, picking the Stelvio as their favorite.
Glenwood Canyon is not as winding and there aren't any severe drop offs, but you get the idea. Substitute a 2002 Passat for the vehicle and there you have it . . . We actually stayed in New Castle, about 10 miles past Glenwood Springs. Thanks to Kevin's in-laws, we had some great host housing, much better than trying to cram into a hotel. The town of New Castle is a bedroom community with most of the residents working either in Glenwood Springs or out on the Western Slope where natural gas deposits have created a plethora of new jobs. Here's a view of the main drag in New Castle, but the majority of new housing is on the south side of the ridge where there are a couple of new neighborhoods, a new golf course, and a couple of schools.
Walking down Main St. was pretty amusing as the town has a lot of diversity. Brian's friend Harry is a 10 year resident and has plenty of stories to tell from his time in town. Unfortunately I didn't catch a picture of it, but the VW Cabriolet on an old Bronco chassis summed things up pretty well.
Racing went reasonably well and again, it was nice having some new scenery with a course that none of us had seen before. The course was rolling with only one significant climb just before the turn around. It followed the river which probably kept it from being absurdly hot out there and made for some nice views when you had the chance to look around. Once we got done with the neutral roll out, the attacks came fast and furious. The early break got off just before the first turn around at Gypsum and the three biggest team were represented with a VC, Rio, and Legacy Energy rider in the mix. That meant there were a lot of guys sitting around with no reason to work to keep the break in check. I didn't really want to put in the effort knowing there was a 10% hill somewhere out there and a lot of miles still to be covered, but sometimes it has to be done. I spent a good portion of the first half of the race on or near the front keeping tempo so the break wouldn't get too far up the road.
We actually caught them just before the climb where the race started to come apart. Some gaps opened on the climb, but thanks to some cows roaming in free range territory on the course, the turn around was shortly after the climb. I was in a group with a few riders trying to claw our way back to the front after the turn around and thanks to gravity caught back on midway down the hill we had just come up. Nobody was very interested in keeping the pace high and despite a few attacks here and there, within about 10k or so just about everybody was back together. At that point Kevin and a few others separated themselves from the group and again most of the larger teams were represented with Vitamin Cottage being the exception. They got to the front and started rotating, but didn't have much success at pulling the break back. For the rest of the race, Tim and I took turns covering anybody who tried to scoot up the road, trying to take advantage of the fact that we had a teammate in the break and had zero obligation to do any work. Having been on the wrong side of the mix in the past with VC, it was somewhat satisfying watching them try to get others to pull through with no real luck. Kevin took 3rd on the day, I was 16th and Tim was 24th. I was satisfied with my result and the amount of work I was able to put in early on in the race to keep it under control and enable one of us to get up the road when it mattered.
The crit was a different story and it is back to the drawing board yet again for me. I need to work on my riding in the more technical crits so I don't just ride myself off the back by being overly tentative in the corners. Tim put in some big efforts to try and pull the break back about midway through the race, but as the numbers got smaller and smaller, the race shattered and it got hard to keep track of who was where. Kevin got clear of the remains of the race and spent the majority of his day towing around a Legacy Energy rider who had two teammates up the road. Results have not been posted yet, but we had a pretty good showing for the weekend.
The trip back was uneventful, traffic minimal, and the house was still standing when I got back . . . can't ask for much more.
The news is full of economic doom and gloom, even more so than usual, but when it hits you in the pint glass, it's really time to start worrying. The WSJ ran an article about a week ago highlighting the growing trend in restaurants shrinking beverage size. I can only hope we will someday go to the European system where all glassware has standard measurements and has to be government approved. When I order a pint, I want a pint!
In other alcohol news, it looks like Anheuser-Busch is possibly looking to pick up an even greater share of Mexican Grupo Modelo in efforts to make acquisition by InBev impossible due to cost. InBev proffered an unsolicited $46 billion bid for one of the largest producers of watery swill in the US. Hmmm . . . a beer company with Belgian roots and Brazilian flair, I'll keep my fingers crossed. If the end result could even remotely possibly be Stella Artois at Budweiser prices I think everybody wins!
The team is headed up to Glenwood Springs for the weekend for some racing. We are graciously being hosted by Kevin's in-laws. Staying in a real house is much better than a hotel room. Being able to keep bikes outside of the same room as three to four cyclists is a huge advantage as gear has an amazing ability to rapidly take over all available space.
Dempsey is going to Camp Kendall for the weekend to hang out and live it up suburban style. I think both he and Brian will enjoy each other's company as they have in the past. How can you not love this adorable, little furball, hound of hell?
Just for reference, here's what Dempsey likes to do best in the morning and evening before meal time.
He has actually be getting a little more focused for his games of fetch in the morning as opposed to chasing the ball and then wandering around for five minutes. I'd say he's only a few weeks from being tennis ball obsessed.
Let the repaving begin! Yesterday morning I saw the paving "train" heading north on Lincoln Street from a few blocks down. Quite the operation they have with multiple dump trucks cycling through to dump asphalt piles for the machine to heat and spread before the roller makes it all flat and smooth.
The operation spans about a quarter of the length of the block, the part in the picture is the heating element I think and it sits somewhere in the middle.
Evidently this part spreads and flattens the heated asphalt.
The final product is pretty sweet looking for all sorts of playing in the street . . . street hockey anyone? If you want to get a game going you will be able to find me riding in endless circles on new asphalt, that is if they get done with the two remaining passes to complete the surface.
Evidently I (or somebody) has angered the wind gods, take your pick of mythologies. Just to be safe, there will be a ritual sacrifice of some sort every day of the week from here on out until the winds cooperate! Who doesn't love a burnt offering of toast, beef, lamb, chicken, grilled vegetables?
I guess for simplicity sake, I'll just go with the Greek Mythology and hit up Astraeus and his four sons. Astraeus took the easy way out, had some kids and pimped out his responsibilities to his four sons, a different wind direction for each. I think as of late there has been some serious collusion between the four of them as the wind has been coming from everywhere.
The view out the kitchen window has changed dramatically over the past few years. Back in the day, I had an unwanted view of the neighbor's bathroom window. That changed when I did the landscaping in the front and side yards and planted what was a non fruit bearing plum tree. As you can see in the picture, there is fruit on that there tree. The weight of the fruit accentuates the need to prune the tree, or at least pluck some of the fruit, as the upper branches are drooping dangerously close to the window. Any pruning or thinning experts out there want to help?
Fortunately the wind seems to have died down a little bit today, but I'm getting tired of riding around in what seems to be a constant headwind regardless of which direction I ride . . . even if I flip a U-turn in my route, the wind follow suit. Yeah, yeah, it is good training riding in a head and/or crosswind, more resistance and whatnot, but it wears on me mentally.
We are headed up to Glenwood Springs for a new race this weekend. The Western Slope Omnium features a never before seen road race and a crit in downtown Glenwood Springs. It will be nice to have a change of scenery and get out of town for the weekend.
After my second ride into work on the new commuter, I have been able to compile some statistics. The trip one way is 1.3 miles and takes 5-6 minutes by bicycle depending on traffic. This means that over the course of a year (assume 200 working days) I save $104 that I would have been spending on gas. I don't even know what the figures are these days for vehicle wear and tear, but I save on that too.
The cost to get the commuter up and running was pretty minimal. The only things it really needed were a new bottom bracket (not the easiest finding a square taper spindle, cartridge style, with Italian threading) and a chain. I put on new bar tape, the cushy gel stuff and have created quite the wish list for future commuting needs. If you want to buy me a gift, you can select from the following . . .
Riding around on the old Look pedals isn't really the best way to go. The potential for having a foot slip off would be greatly minimized by these pedals from Crank Brothers.
When the weather gets ugly, I'll still probably ride the 1.3 miles back and forth to work, but keeping the water and road grime from spraying in my face and up my back would be ideal. Some sweet fenders like these would do the trick.
Eventually, I'd like to build a front wheel with an internal dynamo in the front hub so I could have some light for safety at night. Sure there are battery operated options, but I'm trying to keep my carbon footprint to a minimum.
If you need to know where to send any of this stuff, let me know. I'll make sure it is as easy as possible for you to get these items in my hands and on the bike. For the time being, I'll keep riding the bike as is. I might have a line on a replacement freewheel already which is somewhat incredible. One of my teammates said he has an old, new 7-speed freewheel at home. If the spacing is right and the threading is English . . . it might just work.
