Spring Training?

It snowed today. Great big fat beautiful flakes. About an inch of it stuck to the ground. I love watching snow fall, any time of the year. Sometimes I even ride in it.

But our next training ride is in 2 days and frankly, I'm just a little too lazy to gear up for wet & cold. Guess I shouldn't be training in Seattle, huh?

PSR On the Road Again!

Today's day-long downpour only made me happier that the first event on our Puget Sound Riders' training schedule was yesterday - a gloriously warm, sunshiny day, complete with tailwinds in every direction! Fifteen riders rolled out of Redhook Brewery on the Sammamish River Trail to the edge of Marymoor Park, made a counter-clockwise loop of Lake Sammamish - with obligatory Starbucks pit-stop midway - and back to Marymoor, stopping at the velodrome for a glimpse of less scenic riding in a circle. Ending this 35mile ride back at the brewery was a stroke of genius. All together, a fine day had by all - one to remember next time the schedule and a downpour collide.


P.S. The map shows 27.66 but all odometers read 35miles. For good measure, I tacked on another 2.5miles to get to my car!

Money Cures AIDS

South Park is one of those crude programs that leave you in cringing in guilty laughter. Last night's season premiere met expectations, leaning right over the line when Cartman's tonsilectomy left him with AIDS. By the end of the episode a cure was discovered. One merely needs to liquify and inject $180,000 cash to repel the virus once and for all!
For all its crass humor, the episode took some worthy stabs at complacency - no one showed up for the fundraiser, including Elton John, charity was available only when Cartman claimed to have cancer (AIDS is so "retro") - and the money metaphor drove home the high cost of AIDS, particularly when the boys dropped by poverty-striken Africa to share the good news cure recipe.
I wasn't thrilled by how casually others tried to assure Cartman that having HIV wasn't such a bad thing anymore though Cartman certainly never bought it. My biggest cringe, of course, was Cartman purposely exposing Kyle to his infected blood. But then, that's South Park.

Read what POZ magazine had to say about the episode.

Sign of the Times

Saturday, I biked outside for the first time this season. Today, I mailed my first batch of fundaising letters. Two signs that my Ride season has begun in earnest.

Tonight I drove into Seattle. Frequently I think of Bret when downtown because he introduced me to all the nooks and crannies of the Emerald City. On this trip I could feel my brother's spirit everywhere - down the dark street near the U where we parked for a Huskies game and into the neighborhood where I got lost trying to find his apartment. Heading out over the floating bridge, past the dock where Bret revealed his AIDS diagnosis to me, I was overwhelmed with a sense of loss so did the natural thing to distract my mind - changed the radio channel. There, Stevie Nicks began singing"Landslide", the trademark song of good times and happy memories riding with my brother.

Yes, another Ride season has begun and I get the message Bret approves.