Veteran of four wars, four enlistments, four branches: Air Force, Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard. I am both an AF (Air Force) veteran and as Veteran AF (As Fuck)
Friday, September 8, 2023
Rode Alpine Climbs Near Grenoble
Monday, May 9, 2022
Victory Day, May 9, Is Also the Day I Broke 13 of 40 Bones
Sunday, October 11, 2020
The Physics of Descending on a Bicycle
Monday, August 31, 2020
Bike Racing Embarrassment: “What a big one!”
At most bicycle races, we deal with pre-race nervousness by riding to a tree and facing away from the road or waiting in line at a Port-A-Potty. At one of the most difficult races on the schedule in the late 90s, we had indoor plumbing.
The Mount Nebo Road Race was a nine-mile lap with a more than a thousand feet of climbing per lap. Race distances were three laps for Cat 5 to nine laps for Cat 1&2 on this very hilly course in southern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The race began and ended at the Marticville Elementary School. As start times approached, racers clicked down the hallway on their cleats to a boy’s room with three old-fashioned, full-length urinals.
Three urinals were bolted to the north wall. Morning light streamed in through the high windows on the east wall above the sinks. I stood in the line on the left side. There was a half-dozen men at each urinal. When my turn came, I looked down as I pulled at my bib shorts and saw a huge cockroach running around the drain.
Surprised, I blurted out, “What a big one!” I had spent 11 years in the Army earlier in my life. In a millisecond I knew how dumb my remark was. I finished what I was doing and walked out. In the hallway, one of my earnest master’s racer friends said, “Neil, you shouldn’t say that.” As if that was news to me.
It was nearly the end of the season and I was overseas every month for work back then, so I got less kidding about my gaffe than I expected. But I certainly know not to do running commentary on roaches in my urinal!
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Racing in Two Hours
I rode the course yesterday with my daughter Lisa. My sons and I are staying with Lisa in Minneapolis where she is in grad school.
She is at her office now, but will be at the race with my sons. Because participants FAR outnumber spectators at amateur bicycle races, I will most likely have the biggest cheering section at the game and the loudest. Some of the riders will have a spouse on the sidelines, but they won't be yelling like my kids.
Yesterday when Lisa and I rode the course, we were talking about the corners, the other riders, where the attacks might come, how strange races are when there are no teams, and all of the specifics that are the conversation of racers. Lisa raced bicycles form age 4 to 14 and was racing with women when she switched to cross country from bicycling. Even ten years after her last race, she talks about racing and racing culture like she is still in the peleton. Former players are the best fans.
Time to go and warm up.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Bike Update: Mike Zban Wins Brownstown
Brownstown is a great traditional road race course and a big favorite for me. Brownstown was the only USCF race I did in 2009--it was the race I rode in when I was home on leave.
On Sunday, I raced at the Emrick Blvd Criterium in Bethlehem PA. The course was a smooth, fast, one-mile D-shaped loop. Not quite flat, but a gentle uphill toward the finish and a slight downhill on the front side. Nigel and Jacari came to the race and cheered for me on each of the 23 laps. The race took just under an hour so they were yelling about every two minutes and fifteen seconds. The also cheered for my five teammates in the race and for a owmen's masters race that ran simultaneously. The boys stood on the side of the road with the family of one of the women in the race and cheered for her also.
Nigel and Jacari got to eat at Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds, so they liked the trip even with the 80-mile drive to the race.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sam Weaver the Parisian
Sam is an affable Californian who married a lovely French biochemist. They live just a mile south of Paris in the village of Malakoff. When he told me about living in Paris I started wondering if my wife could teach math in Paris. It would be a great place for Nigel and Jacari to live. France doesn't have the horrible history of slavery and segregation that America does. The right wing in Paris hates everybody fairly equally. But my wife is fluent in Spanish, so it is more likely she could get a job in Spain.
Because I had a decent road bike, it was the off season and the weather was cold--the high temp every day was either just above or just below freezing--I could ride with the peletons in Bois de Boulogne. Every day from 10am until dark, a two-mile road around a horsing racing track in the southwest corner of the city is closed to traffic and open to bicycles. In the dozen times I have been to France, there is always somebody riding this road, rain or shine, heat or cold.
I can't wait to go back!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Back to Racing--First Time Trial
This time trial was short, just 11 miles. It was very windy. The course was South-North out and back along a road that parallels the beach on the Chesapeake Bay near Delaware City. The wind was above 20mph with gusts out of the west. It was a side wind in both directions sometimes turning into a brief head or tail wind when the road twisted.
It was very cold and I got up late so I did not warm up very much--about 10 minutes. I should warm up for a half hour and some of my best results came with an hour warm up. I don't know where I finished, but I feel bad enough at 9pm tonight that I know I tried very hard.
No racing next weekend, I have to play Army. It will be a whole weekend of change of command ceremonies and awards, so I will be taking pictures for the entire weekend.
Friday, May 7, 2010
First Time Trial Coming up
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Nice Butt!
Since the road was flat--West River Drive in Philadelphia--and my head was down, it is possible that none of the young women in the car knew they were yelling at a member of AARP. I have to say no one yelled anything like that as I rode around Tallil Air Base.
Not So Supreme: A Conference about the Constitution, the Courts and Justice
Hannah Arendt At the end of the first week in March, I went to a conference at Bard College titled: Between Power and Authority: Arendt on t...
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Tasks, Conditions and Standards is how we learn to do everything in the Army. If you are assigned to be the machine gunner in a rifle squad...
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On 10 November 2003 the crew of Chinook helicopter Yankee 2-6 made this landing on a cliff in Afghanistan. Artist Larry Selman i...
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C.S. Lewis , best known for The Chronicles of Narnia served in World War I in the British Army. He was a citizen of Northern Ireland an...