It’s been a day or two and you have my apologies for the lack of posts. In my defense, I have been super busy and haven’t had much of a chance to get some verbage up here for your edification. That also means this might be a long one.
Seeing that incoherency is the one thing that makes the Alliance cohesive, let’s go ahead and stay with the standard and skip all segues. Agreed?
First up on the Alliance radar, it appears that Spring has finally sprung. I would be overly joyed by said occasion if it wasn’t still forecast to be shitty weather on my day off this Saturday. If it doesn’t rain, I will be riding the Goose because the way things are shaping up this year it’s gonna be a short season. Spring has also brought nice little green things popping up in the Mooseknuckler Cycling Alliance World Headquarter’s garden. My favorite of all the crops, peas are coming up with a vengeance and my stomach is already rumbling with desire. Other things on the shopping list, corn, onions, carrots, squash, strawberries, cucumbers and beans. Should be another good year for us.
The weather was also nice on Tuesday meaning that I was able to get out and get a good ride in. Of course, this was in conjunction with my community outreach program. This means that I got paid to be there and show some of the local students one of our many awesome trails. Every time we ride the Barrel Roll, I offer extra credit for any student that can ride the technical section without dabbing. This is the first class that every single student attempted to ride. I got some pics. Here’s just one.
We rode the Barrel Roll and I am happy to report that the trail does have some ruts but they are minimal. The gritty race apparently didn’t do much damage. It did, however, manage to destroy a lot of the local riding population’s bikes. I know this because I’ve spent the past few days attempting to piece them back together.
This leads us to work. As I type this I am fretting with fear. Today is Cholla Challenge packet pick up at the shop and we will also have a whole bunch of nervous wanna-be trigeeks picking up rentals for the SHAC Tri tomorrow. I am as excited about going to work today as I would be if I were having a colonoscopy, which is to say not excited at all, fretting with fear. Which is partly the reason that I am sitting in front of this screen writing to you about it.
I’m not against triathlons or their participants, I just have a problem with people that are so damn up tight that you can’t be in their vicinity without feeling the tension. And you know, regardless of how awesome they do, not a single one of them is going to have any reason to be a dick out there but due to the tension most will be.
One guy who is absolutely not a dick, is Greg Mortenson. KB and I had the opportunity to listen to him speak last night. It was well worth the money. If you are not familiar with his work you should check out his website and then read his book Three Cups of Tea. He has been building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan for about a decade or so and has some insightful ideas on how to make the world a little less volatile, you know, peaceful.
His biggest thing is education, hence the schools. Speaking of education, did I mention that I love documentaries?
I was offered the opportunity to be a screener of documentaries for the upcoming DocUtah film festival. This means I get to sit and watch documentaries that have been submitted and then, with the rest of the group, we decide whether it should be considered by the judges for inclusion in the festival. This past Wednesday was our first screening. We saw a film that is yet be released. It’s called One Revolution and is about Chris Waddel’s attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro under his own power.
“One Revolution” Film Trailer from Amanda Stoddard on Vimeo.
We all felt it was worth consideration for the festival. I mean check out his rig. Four Pugsley wheels and the thing has a winch, how could you go wrong watching that?
I think that about sums it up for the past few days.
P. L. and R.