The Second Half

We stepped off the plane in Flagstaff....

and it was 35 degrees. That was 50 degrees warmer than Minneapolis on Sunday morning where the temp was a brutally cold -15. Honestly, I forgot that REAL winter means that your car struggles to turn over, your nose hairs stick to the frozen membranes in your nose, and when someone in your family suggests an after dinner walk - you all move to the family room and play cards or sip an after dinner drink. I said to my Dad something to the tune of "Man, you gotta be tough to live here considering it can be 105, or -35 over the course of a year". He quickly replied "not tough, just stupid". He's still bitter about ovarian cancer taking out his wife, so chalk that reply up to 50% anger, and 50% truth.

Michigan is actually losing population, and it ain't about the cold - it's about an economy that is pretty depressed. I really enjoyed living there in the early to mid 1990's, but when you look at places like Saginaw, Flint, and Jackson it makes you realize how tough it is to live there. Mitt Romney took a harder than expected win there over Johnny Maverick primarily because he's a very successful businessman who preached a dedication to turning around the auto industry. He didn't mention squat about how he would do that, and I sure hope his vision isn't predicated on gas/oil machines.

So the democratic primary is on Feb 5th in AZ, as it is for most states. As a registered dem, I'm still on the fence about HILBAMA. John Edwards is done in my book, and I find myself caught in a position of pulling for the dem candidate that matches up the worst against McCain. I personally think that if McCain gets the GOP nod, even if it is solely due to his hot wife who by the way is the daughter of Hensley Distributors - the state Anheuser Busch rep - then there is no question in my mind that he wins the election in the fall. Call me crazy, but I think that the key to the election is not which minority dem candidate wins the primary....nope - it's who wins the Republican primary because if it's anyone other than McCain the dems will win. You know what? I'm cool with that. Cheap Thrill Hill, Obama, or McCain would all put a smile on my face.

And speaking of feelin' good - I managed to survive 55 minutes on the rollers today as I watched a rerun of the 2003 Tour, the one where Lance almost loses to Jan Ullrich. This isn't the one that convinced me that Lance doped like everyone else - that was in 2004 when he chased down Filippi Simeoni with an axe murderer stare on his face....those two had some bad blood (sorry about that) over doping scandals. Anyway, it felt good to move my legs again. Our Old Pueblo team consists of:

Jeff - hasn't ridden since 'Nam because he blew up his hotel staff and is working all the shifts himself.....training hours - 0 Good thing Jeff doesn't know he's doing the run for the Le Mans start or he might be panicking right now.
Eck - bad back, but is on the mend.......training hours - a few
Me - no motivation, working 55+ hours the next couple of weeks, and would rather be boarding....training hours - not much, but don't call it a comeback when I tear it up next week - 'cause I was never down
Josh - Just married in Jamaica, and now invested in some $6,000,000 crash course training system. training hours - top secret

I'll be ready, and I bet everyone else will make it there in good shape too - it's just a tough road this time o' year.

'Night