Poop

I filled my truck with gas on Thursday. Exactly 53 days since the last time I filled the tank. On the day Hurricane Katrina hit I cruised to the local hadji-mart and paid $2.52 per. By the end of that week it was $3.39 per. When I filled my tank on Thursday it was $2.46 per. I gleefully missed all the gouging that took place. Nice.

My first ‘cross race was last Saturday. Also my first B race. It went well. 9th place. I suffered like a dog for the first couple laps. Just didn’t feel great at all. The start was a gradual rise on a dirt/stone road that got steeper about a minute into it. I started in the back. No bigggie only about 25 on line. I’m amazed at the gears some people choose to leave the line in. Regardless of where I start, but especially if I’m starting in the back, I want a gear that will get me haulin ass in a hurry. I use a 46-21 on starts and shift to the 19 pretty quick and go from there. So, about 20 seconds into it, I was hovering around 10th. That’s pretty much where I stayed. Some came back from the front and some went to the front from behind. I raced with a couple dudes but one in particular, who finished just ahead of me, I spent the entire race back and forth with. He was terrible in technical stuff. The barriers, cornering, single track stuff through the woods. I was faster in those spots. But this dude was strong as a mule on straights and the dirt road stuff. His strength was my weakness and vice versa. In the end I was pretty happy with a top ten. The winner was two minutes in front of me. Not bad. My next race will be Lower Allen. 2.5 miles from my humble abode. It’s where do my ‘cross workouts. I’d like to do well. It’s a MAC race so I’ll be racing 60 other ‘crossers instead of 25. Can’t wait.

Coach Hebe crossing the line

This dude was strong where he needed to be

Inflicting pain on eventual 4th place racer

Big Hink is getting married next Saturday. Of all the friends I have in this world, Mark has been there the longest. When I moved to East Berlin way back in second grade my mom rented a house from Mark’s parents. His parents also had a service station/garage behind the house so Mark and I would do what little boys do at that age. Terrorize the next-door neighbor. We called him Mr. Meanie. He would bitch at us if we set on toe nail on his yard. Hell, we had baseballs, kickballs, footballs, any ball you can think of in his yard at any given time. It was a real sense of adventure getting our stuff back. Anyway, good to see Mark and Phylis getting married. The “bach party will be a round of golf at the Dauphin Highlands across the river. Nice joint. I played there once. I haven’t “swung a club in anger” in two years. It will be fun to see how it goes. Hebe, I think you should come out of retirement and dust off your clubs.

It’s now, in my own mind, officially ri-god-damn-diculous how fast years are ticking off. I swear it was only a month ago that spring arrived. Now everything is dying and it’s getting cold again. Next week we turn the clocks back already. Shit. The winter blues won’t be far behind.
No mas.