I started my very first fantasy football league this year, at the invitation of my cooperating teacher. She invited me before the school year started saying that it was something that the staff did. Being my first one, I drafted a three home team players and a bunch of others I had no knowledge of. As it turns out, all of the people who knew what they were doing and drafted the right players (many of whom have injured themselves), are not faring well. Whereas I, who had next to no idea what I was doing, now have the best record and beat my last opponent by 83 points.
Does anyone else play fantasy football? I'm a huge football fan, and the sport (to me) doesn't need any extra to be compelling. However, I'm also not the guy who knows anybody's stats or even many players beyond team's quarterbacks. And while I thought that this would make me care more about these other players and what they're doing week to week, it just makes me look at my phone a little more on Thursday and Monday nights, and on Sunday.
My yearly shout out for biking to work. Looks like Anchorage is pretty dry so hopefully there won't be too much of an impediment to to cycling for the riders up there. Get to it guys. Make some teams, get the word out.
This year I'm going for a 1000 mile month, which is going to be pretty tough with only 19 work days for me to do it in. Not sure what adventures this year holds for me as compared to last year, but I think I'm ready to get started.
Another year down for me.
Since this is the last day... work day, of May I thought I might go ahead and list my bike commuting numbers for the month and some of the things I've seen.
By the time I get back to my car today I will have ridden about 868 miles over 21 work days. All but three days I rode just shy of 42 miles round trip, two days were 45 r/t, and 1 day was 27. This beats my last years record of 823 miles which I thought was already about the best I could possibly do. It's also my very first year that I rode every single day, it helped that it was a good month for weather. I'll probably end up ranked in the top 50 riders in terms of miles out of like 14000 total, and in total I spent about 60 hours in the saddle.
I'm tired, really, really tired. That feeling has seeped into every single thought and aspect of my being. On the weekends I've tried to make plans, but kids allowing I often just find myself laying down and not moving. I'm so tired I have kinda started to understand what crippling depression feels like. But I also feel stronger in general than I have for a long time and the days where the tiredness isn't as bad I actually feel good and quite peppy, so next month when I cut back on distance I think I'm going to start feeling really good most of the time.
Now some of the shit I've seen. First of all I can count about 4 times that I have actually seen shit, real human shit just off the side of the sidewalk. Since a lot of my ride goes through areas where homeless people camp this isn't all that surprising really.
I saw a guy on a unicycle several miles away from anywhere in particular, along one of the busiest and shittiest roads I commute along which has no shoulder, no sidewalk, and the speed limit is 45mph and most of the vehicles are large freight trucks. Hella ballsy as shit.
I saw cyclist get a speeding ticket, he then complained to me before racing on past me, Asshole.
There was the skateboarder who was hit by a car and no one around seemed to be doing anything except one old lady who was calling the paramedics. He was lying in the middle of a 3 lane one way street and cars didn't really seem to know what to do or how to drive around the guy. So I hopped off my bike and checked on the guy, he was conscious but in a lot of pain so I just directed traffic around him until the paramedics arrived then continued on to work.
Saw a car drive the wrong way up a highway offramp and get basically pulverized by a truck coming down. Did not stop for that one.
Also randomly met a girl who was biking to an REI photo shoot, but didn't know how to get there. As it happened it was on my way so she tagged along for a little while, so I might know someone who's going to be in their next catalog.
All in all, an interesting month.
Ok so it turns out that I only got 3 of the Final Four for NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament. But, I was the only person in my office to get them. Cue razzing from a couple of college sports junkies who thought they had 1st & 2nd place in the bag, and their incredulity at anyone picking a 7-seed and a 2-seed in the Final Four.
To those interested: The coastal trail is interrupted for a large portion for the rest of the summer, starting (I think) west of Westchester Lagoon, and ending construction at Earthquake Park. Detour is available, but it sucks, and I ended up biking lost in Spenard for a while.
Bonny Sosa Tuesday Night Races are about to start up again (for all you Anchoragites)! here's the details:
http://www.muni.org/Departments/parks/Pages/TuesdayNightRaces.aspx (www.muni.org)
There's a huge incentive to register online this year - the price doubles if you sign up at the race! I think I'm going to get a season pass so that I feel obligated to go to them when I'm in town...
Sept. 16th is the Tunnel to Towers 5K run in Anchorage to commemorate all the fire fighters, police, and service men and women who lost the lives or were severely injured during 9/11 and the years following. The charity builds custom houses for wounded service members who can no longer live in traditional housing. I'll be running on the Alpine Emergency Services team. Anyone interested?
This weekend is my second try for Mt Rainier's summit. Yes I've done it before, and yes its going to be the same route. This will test my skill in other ways though. I'll be leading three other, mostly new climbers up, Alex Ramuglia being one of them actually. It'll be interesting to actually have to guide, keep track of, and take care of other people. So far the weather looks good and everything is set to go.
About the only worry I have is altitude sickness, not really for myself but more the other guys, otherwise it should be a good trip.
A reminder that for most other places that didn't get a record seasonal snowfall May is still bike to work month. And even in the municipality May 18 is supposed to be Bike to work Day. There will be fun and prizes and all that shit I'm sure.
On a side note, here is seattle the captains get a party thrown for them by Pikes Brewery. Since most hardcore cyclists are the type of dudes with less than 3% body fat they get wasted off of a single beer. I always manage to score several extra drink tickets, makes for an interesting ride home...
Got my bike pump replaced, tires aired up, and my tire spokes wrenched.
I have tasted of the cheese of accomplishment (ashow.zefrank.com).
To all you serious frisbee players:
What's official regulation size/weight? Where's the best place to get one (or more) in Anchorage? Online?
Tonight was the first of the Tuesday night race series. 5 miles (longest distance possible in the Farm league), and the trail setter told us after the race that he tried to hit every major hill possible. ^&%$ you "stairway to heaven"....
On a happier note, it should make the run next week at Russian Jack seem easy and very very flat...
Not me biking this time, but:
Lady: (crosses Northern Lights on her bike going north at the C Street intersection. Stops briefly at the NW corner to wait for the perpendicular crosswalk)
Josh: (driving, southbound on C Street, windows down, singing at the top of my lungs) "...You're a heart-shaped box of springs and wire / You're one badass fucking fractal!"
Didn't realize what that might have sounded like until about a minute later.
Edit: Jonathan Coulton - Mandelbrot Set (www.jonathancoulton.com)
So I got a new (used) bike, a Jamis Aurora Elite Touring Bike, circa 2008:
Somewhat bizarrely, until yesterday I had never really ridden a "road bike," or really any configuration of bike aside from a mountain bike. Taking one of my usual loops around my area, what usually took me 45 minutes took me about 35 instead. Which is to say that I was going scary-fast with what seemed like minimal effort, and hadn't even reached the end of my gears yet.
A thing that struck me as strange was the grip on the handlebars. Gripping vertically seems strange for me, and even a little tiring, given that I've been placing my weight on my wrists, and now my weight is on my thumbs. Additionally, the brakes seem in a weird place, and maybe even a little out of reach for what I'm used to, but it might just be that I haven't found the right place to settle.
Also, while I was thinking the gear changers would be familiar, not having the little indicator numbers on the gear changers is weird. For some reason, this is something my brain wants quantified. I'm going to have to get used to switching without looking down to see which gear I'm in.
Had an interesting failed mountain climbing experience this past weekend. Me and this guy I've been climbing with attempted the south face of Mt Stuart, 9415'. The trip ended up being much bigger than I thought as we originally planned for a fairly easy eastern approach (Blue line) but we ended up tackling the south face (black line).
We hiked in Saturday evening and made camp in a valley at the base at about 4100". Got up at 3 and was on the trail at 3:30am to try to get the best snow. Most of the slopes were a sustained 45-55degrees of snow, broken by bands of rock that were closer to 70-80degrees and were fairly technical requiring roping up and leading sections without our packs. Then hauling our packs up on the tail end of our ropes behind us. On the upper portions of the mountain the snow steepened to about 70degrees and we had to start belaying and setting pickets for every pitch. Around 1pm and only at 8300' we decided it was time to turn around and get back to camp seeing the summit slip away from our reach time and skill wise. This meant down climbing on those 70degree snow slopes which at first we did free (sans ropes) but after hitting some really sketchy rock sections we started setting up belay stations and would spend most of the rest of the way down going 25m at a stretch, maybe 50m if we switched leads every time.
Here I should say that we were on some of the scariest terrain that I have ever encountered. This climb was 10 times more difficult on skill, energy, and mentally than Rainier or any other hike or climb I've ever been on. It took us another 9 hours to get back down to our tent, with only 1 minor fall down on the lower slopes where we had switched over to glacier style travel with just the rope between us and no running protection. My partner fell and slid about 30', I tried to hold the fall but it drug me down and I managed to stop the slide partially by arresting with my ice axe and partially by aiming for the gravel scree at the edge of the snow field and using my body dragging in the dirt.
Took us an hour to pack up camp and we headed back to the car around 11:30pm. Climbed the 2000' to the top of the pass and descended another 2500' to the parking lot. Got back to the car right after 3am monday morning, just shy of 24 hours of pretty solid climbing, 19 hours of which were spent on the mountain. Katy was expecting my to call no later than 7pm sunday night and didn't hear from me till around 4am monday. So she had already contacted the state patrol, who was going to send out SAR at first light to try to find us. Finally got home at 7am and said fuck going to work.
Easily the most epic and insane trip I have yet undertaken. Many parts of it were scary, I don't want to repeat that again. Though part of me would love to attempt that route again some day with more time, and maybe a planned bivuac on the mountain somewhere. I learned a hell of a lot on that climb, a lot about my own fears, a bit about my strengths, and a lot about how much my climbing partner can take before he breaks, which was right at our last scramble up to the ridge before dropping down into the valley where the parking lot was.
 (picasaweb.google.com) |
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| From Drop Box (picasaweb.google.com) |
This picture isn't mine, but shows the mountain pretty good as we did see it. It's probably taken from around 6200' and doesn't really illustrate how big this mountain actually looks from the ridge. The blue line was our original route up, and then after changing our ascent, the route we wanted to take down but never got to. The black line is our way up and the red line is our decent.
In the Ninja Pirates soccer game Sunday night, the score was still 0-0 at the half. It was either downpouring, drizzling, or sprinkling rain throughout the ENTIRE game, and everyone (including me, but I didn't tell anyone) was not happy about a rain game. Continuing my habit of finding something/anything/everything to talk about to encourage people to step up their game, I told the team at halftime, "GUYS - Seriously. If we score a goal in this half, the rain is going to stop. I swear!"
My team was disappointed to find out I was lying to them. I keep telling them that if they hadn't scored a goal, they would have never proved me wrong!
More random conversations while biking:
I'm biking home on Friday, headed down Government Hill, crossing the two ramps that connect the Hill to the port and the port to the southbound lane on the Ship Creek bridge.
I cross the first lane without incident, but notice a large truck coming up the second on-ramp. I stop my bike and wait patiently. Doing so, I also notice a guy on a motorized bicycle coming my direction on the bridge bike/pedestrian path on the other side of the ramp. He stops his bike hurriedly on the other side of the crosswalk, cutting his motor, and waits for the same truck to go by.
I quickly pedal across the ramp while the other cyclist situates himself and tries to start his motor again. As I pass by, he tells me: "Everybody's happy."
I just say "Yep," and bike off in earnest.
Just a few moments ago I was pulling into the parking lot at work. A cyclist used our parking lot as a shortcut for getting from 9th Ave headed towards 8th Ave for whatever reason instead of using the sidewalk or street along F street. That is the wrong direction in a one way parking lot. She was: not wearing a helmet, listening to earbuds, and going at high enough speeds that when she saw the front corner of my truck (I didn't see her yet since I was still coming around the corner of another vehicle) that she left a 6 foot long skid mark in the parking lot. I didn't even know she was there, or knew how close she got to my truck when she stopped, until my truck came far enough around the corner of a vehicle that I could actually see her. Nothing really I could have done to avoid it, since I had no idea she was there. I was thankful I always drive slowly in that lot, and frustrated that she'd be that irresponsible in her cycling behavior.
Rapine cross - fantastic...Wambach header - amazing!
I guess the win negates most of my ranting about select bad calls (redo of the penalty shot, lack of offsides on the Brazil overtime goal, BS redcard), but the reffing was less than stellar in this game.
Stopped going north through downtown Anchorage. A semi truck and trailer honks at me on the corner, alerting me to the fact that he's making a right on red, and that I should pay attention. He starts the turn, making it very wide. I look behind me, and the rear wheels start to make the turn fairly close to the curb, and me. I've seen and had this happen before, and I know truck drivers are goddamn surgical with their vehicles, but I'm still a little nervous when the rear wheels come within six inches of my front tire.
A pedestrian appears behind the now-departing truck, and says to me:
"Big truck."
Again: random people saying ambiguous things to me while I'm biking to work. Was he commenting on the fact that the truck was big? Or that I failed to realize how big the truck was? Or was he saying it in a manner that said "Big trucks are jerks?" Or was he just providing a narrative to his and my shared experience of a big truck?
