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in reply to: What mask do you use? #36487
Thanks. But it seems like we aren’t the only ones. I struck at least 5 “sold outs”.
in reply to: Met another warrior yesterday #36559Bump. I never look at the Unanswered[ posts. (This may well have been my first time in how many years?) Saw this and re-read it. Good one to read on this cool, cloudy day headed for 4-5 days of rain. I’d forgotten about that ride and that fellow warrior. Good memories.
You guys have rides or fellows you’ve met that are good stories?
in reply to: If your velo handle is based upon your past bike…. #36725Amanda Rose aka … aka … I’ve met him. (Not really by choice, Apparently he knew who I was. Came up and introduced himself (by his first aka which I have forgotten).
I’d put up with all three just to get Jennifer back. I didn’t even mind Fuzzball too much. She reminded me of a certain (male) I used to race against. Didn’t care for him but he was a good racer and won a few. It sucks that someone either came on to Jennifer or threatened her. I know nothing of her beyond her posts, but those alone were a gift.
Ben
in reply to: If your velo handle is based upon your past bike…. #36718Still have and ride mine so I’m safe.
in reply to: Merlin Cycles Ltd, beware! #365896ix, aren’t there two separate Merlins, the bike, first a standalone company then a brand made by LIghtspeed (and maybe others) and an on-line retail outfit in England? I believe eurochien is talking about the on-line one.
And Merlin certainly has English roots around 1500 years ago (if indeed he existed).
in reply to: CVNs 70 and 71 meet CV19 #36893Not worthy of a new thread, but hard to let rest – out VP has just toured the Mayo Clinic without a mask.
Now, Administration members get tested weekly I believe. We will see if he has to be quarantined in a week or so.
Brett Crozier gets COVID standing up for his crew and tossing his career for them. Mike Pence, if he does come down with it, will have acquired it in a show of bravado. (It might wake some people up so it could do some good.)
in reply to: Merlin Cycles Ltd, beware! #36587euro, is there a chance that Merlin has been affected by COVID? That perhaps they are running on a skeleton staff and are overwhelmed?
I really have no idea. They may be incompetent or dishonest. But these are not usual times and England has been hit pretty hard.
in reply to: The Ride of the Hard Man – interview w/ Hinault #363851980 Liege-Bastonge-Liege aka Neige-Bastogne-Neige. The year it snowed. And that hard man rode away to an 80 km solo victory.There is also the brilliant advice from his DS, Cyril Guimard. I won’t give it away!in reply to: Paging CK, TT geek talk #36841No, separate adjoining rooms.
in reply to: We lost one #36734I’ve been a regular at a blues jam Sunday nights the past couple of years, but not since this hit. Like him, I play the harp. And like him, I love playing in G, especially the moody or minor keyed songs where 3rd position works so well and I can play my favorite harp, the low F, the full bodied Mississippi saxophone.
I miss playing. I miss playing for the woman who loves to dance, has told me for years she loves my playing and bugs me when I don’t . I introduced a young man with autism that plays drums to another jam a year before we started going there. He got turned on to lessons on blues drumming and that jam. He’s getting really good! The band leader, one of Portland’s best blues guitarists, call out a shuffle and he is right on it! i”ve seen him keep things together when the bass player didn’t have a clue. Usually though, he is with one of several bass players who are very good and I get to play in front of A1 rhythm section. I go to sit with him and his family watch him, even when I’m not playing.
Anyway, that woman has been going through major breast cancer the past couple of years, dancing all through it. Her gift, like riding was after my head injury. Playing for her is a honor. No, no interest in her. Never was. If not for music and our shared (but very different) journeys “on the other side” I would never have done more than said “hi” to her. (I get along well with her boyfriend – a Harley two-wheeler.) Now I love her as a sister from a different womb.
I don’t even carry my “pocket” harp around anymore. (I’d have to wash my hands before playing, then after for others and really, the harp too since it’s been in my pocket with other stuff.)
Sucks not to be able to play the blues for others to hep us all go through this. I haven’t lost anyone close yet. I worry about her, not hearing anything and knowing she 1) has had her immune system decimated and 2) is a hugger.
Ben
in reply to: New dates for the Tour, Giro and Vuelta #36417zoot, unknown, yes but …
I was thinking about our unpreparedness as a country when I got up this morning and that a disease of this magnitude happening was a “when”, not an “if”. In fact, this was modeled for us 102 years ago. And in a country with the written word, paper, printing, libraries and then far more sophisticated means of storing and retrieving information and a society where the vast majority are literate. That no one remembers or knows what to do?
The “primitive” societies before us on this continent with no written word would have (before white man and the 90% culling of native populations) had medicine men, their apprentices and a solid line of stories. What worked 100 years ago would be part of their working legend. And (I know this sounds foo-foo but there is far too much medical knowledge that ancients have acquired and by how else?) the medicine man would seek knowledge that might well be “take your tribe to here” or go this plant, take these leaves and do this with them” or “put a sign on your door and stay inside” (well that was the Jews halfway ‘cross the world).
In the name of science we have turned our back on both of these sources of wisdom. Then we elect politicians who have no use for the scientists. (And all this after spending the past couple of centuries developing an infrastructure to rapidly deploy this disease to every corner on earth that might contain living homo sapiens.)
Which brings up the interesting question – what is the most intelligent species on earth? We claim it but don’t act it.
Ben
in reply to: New dates for the Tour, Giro and Vuelta #36409Re: opening up – I read an article yesterday that reviewed a study done years ago on the effects of closure, how soon, how long and how tight on various cities in the US during the1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. Consistently, the cities that fared best and recovered faster and stronger were the cities that did the most. The effects of the strong post-epidemic growth of the longest shut down cities rippled years down the line.
Two cities they looked at were Minneapolis and St. Paul. Close to the same size, separated by a river. Minneapolis took it seriously and had one of the earliest and longest shut downs. St. Paul stayed open weeks longer and opened up sooner. The epidemic cost St. Paul far more in lives, $$s and recovery for many years after. (And to this day, Minneapolis is the stronger city economically.)
“History repeating itself? We’ve never seen that.” (Nor have we ever opened that history book.)
Ben
in reply to: New dates for the Tour, Giro and Vuelta #36400I hope the Tour(s) come to their senses. If they do this, folks are going to get sick and die. They will be congregating wherever there is a way to watch. Ban them from the roads? Good luck! Are their enough gendarmes in all of Europe, let alone just France, to pull that off? (And a spike in police cases.)
There will be a spike in cases starting week 3 in the general population and there will be teams that come down with it. Some will get very sick and there will be Tour/team deaths. Maybe not riders. Maybe just older DSs, mechanics … And they will be bringing it home to their families. This will cost the tours millions and a lot of bad publicity for a long time.
Wake up, tours. I don’t want to be the “I told you so”. (I love the tours. If this was war, some deaths in exchange for hope might be warranted. But the virus simply doesn’t care. Every death means more spread of the disease and probably more deaths.)
Ben
in reply to: CVNs 70 and 71 meet CV19 #36892CVNs, the aircraft carriers. 71 is the Theodore Roosevelt, 70 the Carl Vinson.
The Roosevelt had the fame (nifamy) button pushed as its captain, Brett Crozier, went public asking for help with the growing number of COVID cases on his ship. Now it is reported that it has shown up in three other carriers, including the Carl Vinson.
This hits home for me. I lived in Alameda, CA when the Vinson, a brand new super carrier, came to be home ported there, replacing the venerable (and much smaller, non-nuclear Coral Seas. Brand new ship, brand new crew. A bunch of farm boys. Green as could be, but a crew that was going to take this seriously, grow up and be good. The guys you want to represent us if we really need it. At least, that was my impression seeing them every day when the ship was in. (I lived a block off Webster Ave, Alameda’s link to Oakland at the Navy base end of the inland.)
Those aircraft carries house a small city. And almost the entire ship is dedicated to warfare. The nuclear power, planes, an airfield, weapons. That small city sleeps in very close quarters, triple bunked. (When that ship or the other CVN, the Enterprise came in, the population of Alameda rose in hours.
I have been against every war we have fought in my lifetime (edit: except Bosnia, where we went in decisively, did our work and got out). But I also see the need for a good, disciplined military. That chain of command should run thorough the same, good, disciplined channels through the highest admirals and generals to the highest levels. I hope the Carl Vinson captain and crew get far better assistance than the Roosevelt got. And thank you, Brett Cozier, for doing the right thing. And for engendering a crew that I wold trust my life and country to.
The irony of ironies. CV 19 hits the CVN initialed C. V.
Ben
in reply to: New components for my road bike!! #36667Nice! I like that dropper post. Would have been nice last summer! Might even have made a real difference for me.
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