Stayed up way too late last night - just do a mix of domestic crap to do, cooking and correspondence. Got some rest this morning and suited up and headed out on a brutally hot 64 mile bike ride - out past Purcellville up thru Hillsboro and into West Virginia and back. Took a quick potty break in Purcellville on the way back. It was hot as hell.

Came back and popped into the pool to cool off. Refreshing. Took a nap on the deck and then ran to of all places Walmart to pick up a few things. Got another Dragon Tree for my garden. Made a steak for dinner - yum. Now the task at hand, laundry. Meh.

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Today was an odd one. Went into the office with much anticipation of complete stress ridden tasks at hand, filed into a meeting where ABBA (Asshole Bi-polar Boss Asshole) went into a tirade. And basically fired one of my closest colleagues on the spot because her scheduled vacation with family coincided with a very busy time in the company. This dickhead had the gall to put her on the spot - "if you go on your vacation - it shows no loyalty to this company - if you go, you are not welcome back". To make a long story short....there was much tears of anger and "well, good luck, bye" from my colleague and stormed out (wtf do ya do?).

Here I am wondering what to do - in addition to the fact that I'm already overstressed and thin on any time to manage what I do - now my work schedule will double with her absence. Less important to my situation - she is a close work buddy and here faced with being fired for some silly outburst by ABBA (and possible missed medication) - she is going to go on a vacation (starting tomorrow for a week) with her family and being fired over it because ABBA decides to change the rules at will - and waits until today to drop the bomb. After she left, hastilly packing up her desk and throwing stuff into her bag crying....I had a (not a few) but MANY terse words with him afterwards when he called me in to discuss the situation. Starting with...I simply said "you fucked up - you need to rectify this situation, now! Can you recognize unfair of a HUMAN you are?"

Suffice to say - an apology call was made with the President of the company with him...and she decided to come back (thank goodness). She came in for a few hours for us to finish up obligations to our clients and our staff...will be back after the vacation - but with a lot of understanding that he cannot take latitude of abusing the HR rules we have. Dickhead ABBA.

So the rest of the day at work was totally fucked up with catchup and trying to field/avoid/squash questions about the drama. But it was eventually productive. I was really rearing to go out and abuse my body in the 96 degree heat-advisory weather on a long ass bike ride.

photo by d. scott gregory Prepping to make Gazpacho click on top photo to enlarge

Headed out towards Purcellville - was a long nasty & sweaty 44 mile training ride. Worked off MUCH stress. I decided to come home and work off a little more by cooking. I made 2 huge batches of homemade Gazpacho soup using the tomatos and herbs from my parent's garden. Took a while (usually all the prepping) - but omg...very tasty. Blanching the tomatos, roasting the garlic and jalepeno peppers...all the chopping, peeling. But oh so good. (Click on pic to enlarge).

Finally just able to do catchup, pay some bills and water my deck garden. I'm ready for the weekend.

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photo by Andrea Pastos bottom caption from back of photo Cycling in Alaska Circa 1986 click on top photo to enlarge

What started out as a horrible day, turned into a nice day. Had trouble sleeping all night due to a tooth ache - an agitated molar with a peppercorn that got stuck the day before...yowch. Was just painful (all better now). Jammed into the office and started running on tasks. The past few weeks have been painfully busy - but it's good to be busy, minus the stress. Managed to deal with crisis control and move on. My staff does great work and we have honed down a level of mutual respect for each other.

Enuff about work, finished up very late and suited up and biked out to Ashburn to try to meet up with my cycling club - they were already on lap two when I joined them. We did another 3 laps - was very pretty out, albeit a scorcher (was 94 degrees out when I left the office with high humidity). Sweat like a mo-fo. Had a nice spin down session on the way back to homebase in Herndon.

Was able to catch up on the news of upcoming events and races. I am only one of a handfull of the club that is going to do the Bridge to Bridge Century in September. The rest think we are all completely nuts. But - they count on us to be the "goats" when we paceline up the hills. We shine out front pulling the herd up the hardest hills. If you can imagine my tiny figure in front of a herd of about 20 guys all counting on me (and the other 3 goats) to lead the pack. I get them all up the hills and then when we level out...I break back to the mid-back of the paceline - I hear nothing but "yo dude, amazing pull!" "dang, you have goat legs (then make goat sounds), good pull man". Feels nice to be appreciated. I guess I've finally found my "specialty". I love it. All in all, twas a very sweaty & fast 46 miles.

Came home and did a few domestic things and planted a few more mums in my deck garden. It's starting to really shape up. Had a late start in the season...and a bad storm which wiped out the first effort.....but now it's lookin good. My neighbors have complimented me on it.

I was able to scan the photo from yesterday's post at work and post it here. Obviously a better quality photo. Cracks me up still. Click on photo to enlarge - Alaska is beautiful (except the funny 1980's cars). May go there next summer for my 20th high school reunion to meet up with some old friends (and some cycling events). Need to start planning that soon.

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What a pleasant day - perfect temperatures for a nice summer day. I enjoyed the hell out of it. Work was a little nasty - pure corporate drama and fires to put out, but made for a quick day. Finished up and suited up to head out to Purcellville - was a schweet ride out there and back. Had some company on the way back with one of my buddies from my bike club. We time trialed it back in record time. I was worn out when I finished. 44 miles in all.

Came home, fixed dinner and then gave my bike a quick clean job - a "lick and a promise". I'm such a flirt.

photo by Andrea Pastos Cycling in Alaska Circa 1986 click to enlarge

I was going through some old documents and came across a stack of photos from when I was a Senior in high school living in Anchorage, Alaska. I came across this gem (click to enlarge) - my apology of the quality of the image, I took a photo of the picture (scanner is incompatible with my new computer).

Paints a picture...circa 1986 - just finished graduating from high school and it's summer before I was about to head across the country to go to college. This pic was taken by my g/f at the time off a balcony of the townhouse she and her family were living at the time. Nice view of the range of mountains that circle Anchorage. I had just finished a 60 mile bike ride up in part of that range - came down to say hi to my g/f. She snapped that pic. Waxing nostalgic. Regardless...I loved cycling back then...love it now.

Funny note about the pic...back in those days...no one ever wore helmets..I wore just a cycling hat, but did own a leather cycling helmet - only for bike races. Times have obviously changed. Another note..I was riding a White Pearl finish Peugeot that I bought at a French/Canadian commissary while living in Germany circa 1983. There is a funny caption on the back of the photo that simply says "Mr. Spastic himself on his bike with the "M.A.S.H." mountains in the background" and "August 1986 Anchorage, Alaska" 19 years ago to this month that photo was taken - nothing has changed, hee hee!

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Comepletely cool time killer - a friend sent me a link for a website that has some funny technology (an applet that uses a morph tool) where you can upload a picture of yerself and see what you look like in 40 years (or 10 years, 20 years, 30 years...or as a woman). I went thru the process and then I animated it to show the "aging" process (last pic is supposed to be of what I'm supposed to look like as a woman). Will preface it by saying that the original pic was one I hastilly took in my kitchen right before the experiment - horribly unflattering, need to shave...bad lighting. But give it a try - a little fun (just make sure ya upload .JPEG files).

Here's the link.

Today was rainy - rained all night, great sleeping weather. Woke up a little tired and trudged into the office for yet another grueling day. Was busy all day, day flew by. Suited up and went on a nice 44 miler out to Shirlington and back - was storming in the midst, got a few sprinkles..nice cool weather though.

Drove toward home and stopped off at my local grocery store to pick up a few things and then stopped next door to the new Spokes bike shop to pick up some Cinelli cork handlebar wrap (mine's looking a little ratty...I change it every few months) and a whipperman chain link (fraid that the only one I have will accidentally fall thru the cracks when I clean my bike on my deck). Came home and cooked dinner and leisurely fooled around with that silly website and created the animation for effect.

Will be raining/storming the rest of the week - but the temps are good. Things to do, bikes to clean....work to prepare for...life is good.

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Work was a wild mess of continued corporate drama, but made for the day to go quickly by so I could suit up and go on a really long training ride.

It was marginally hot and stormy - verge of a storm the entire time. Biked out to Percellville and back - went very fast coming back - schweet tailwind. Finished up, came home and started my plans for training for the Bridge to Bridge Incredible Century Cycling Challenge ...

Bridge to Bridge Incredible Century Cycling Challenge is my next HUGE cycling event coming up, albeit - it's in September and I have 4 Centuries I'm doing between now and then. This one is gonna be freeking nuts. It's best described here with some amazing photos by Dave Cortner of the whole thing. "100 Miles of Pure Hill" as it's aptly described - what the hell am I doing? I have to laugh it off - I get pleasure out of this sort of pain. It's the thrill of the challenge.

I got an email reply back from Mike Magnuson (writer of Heft on Wheels), a very funny man and great writer/inspiring cyclist. Was cool to actually get a response from someone I admire - he's very unselfish.

Time to put on my triple chainring...or get a new mountain range rear cartrige... Oh the beauty of the strategy.

Lotta storms heading thru the area - all week. We need the rain, but I'm gonna be dodging lightning all week.

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Tiring day - slept in this morning and then suited up for a grueling 63 miler. The heat didn't set in until the latter part of the ride. But never reached the nasty levels that has been for the past few weeks. Felt great to sweat and grind.

Came home, then hopped in the pool for an hour. Cleaned up afterwards and drove down to see my parents to have a great steak on the grill dinner. Was great seeing them and we had lots of laughs and shared stories. I raided their garden for fresh herbs and some tomatos. I have garden envy.

Drove home and unpacked, getting ready for the work week, paid bills. Just catching up on email while sunday night anxiety settles in.

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