furiousferret

Cymru am byth!

Belgium BREXECUTED.

hubcyclist

go portugal

echappist

the second and third goals, things of beauty.

Belgium surely missed Kompany of experienced defenders.

that said, the ref also didn't award a potential penalty and a free kick just outside the 18. But Wales played a great game.

caloso

Well this is cool. A couple of son's friends rode their bikes over, knocked on the door, and asked if he wanted to go ride bikes and hang out. Just like in the old days!

There's hope yet.

rideaz

Awesome! I pulled up to my house today and couldn't get onto the driveway because there were 5 BMX bikes laying down, the kids were inside getting water before heading back out. The kids ride all over our neighborhood but there are some fuddy duddy folk here that complain about them to the community patrol and on social media because they make jumps, ride behind the grocery store and pile their bikes up outside the fast food restaurants.

TMonk

^
sounds about right.

canuckbelle

Bought a car yesterday ^_^ Fully loaded 2009 Mini Clubman S. Already has roof racks (just need to get the bike racks). Love it sooooooo much. First road trip is in a couple weeks for the Georgia Grand Prix.

hack

New car day! Congrats.

caloso

Yay. Missed the River Ride yet again due to spousal work and kid activity conflicts. And it's not even soccer season yet. #pityparty

Doge

Yea, I see you are NorCal, but this is a fun forum. https://www.socalsoccer.com/

topflightpro

I've been kind of lusting after a Venge Vias. I don't really know why. It's kind of heavy. The brakes reportedly aren't great. It's a PIA to set up, and it's not the prettiest bike.

And now Specialized reduced the prices by 25 percent - probably because they aren't selling well for the reasons I mentioned - which is only tempting me more.

On top of that, by my math, once I get paid out for my unused vacation time at my old job, that would be enough to buy one.

It's a good thing I've got strong self control with my spending, or I might be adding another bike to the garage - which now actually has some room in it because my wife took her back up bike up to where she is coaching.

carpediemracing 

Apparently the brakes are "perfect" now, according to someone overhearing a pro taking a spin on his bike at the Tour. This was in some bike review thing, maybe on VeloNews or CyclingNews.

You can go buy the bike now.

Heathpack 

@carpediemracing, how is your sister doing?

carpediemracing 

She is doing significantly better.

In the scheme of things it's still very tough. For example her triumph about two weeks ago was that she could pick up her 20 month old son from his crib. Until then she couldn't pick him up. She learned to use the washing machine. At that time she didn't know how to use a computer yet. Last week she could walk around the block without the walker, and at times didn't even use a cane. Doesn't remember her house still, at all. Completely foreign to her. Like she doesn't recognize it when she walks around the block. Often wakes up and doesn't recognize where she is.

On the other hand she's speaking sort of normally. Some stuff is off, mainly because I think she doesn't know what to say so there's some nervous giggling or something similar. She played the violin again. She could play Twinkle (the first thing people play in Suzuki method) from memory, but only the very first version (there are 4 or 5). We're talking stuff she did when she was 3, so about 35 years ago. She was a fantastic violin player - at the very prestigious local youth symphony she was the concert mistress in 8th grade, when older kids get preference because the younger kids can be the concert master/mistress later (so that meant she was so much better than every kid in the local high schools that they couldn't deny her the top chair). When she was 12 she blew through the piece that ended my violin lessons at 17. My "fun piece" is something I learned when I was 12. Her fun piece is the one that I couldn't even get the first of three pages, forget about being so comfortable with it that it's relaxing to play. So for her to be that far back is stunning.

It's completely nutty, really. I try not to pry too much but I'm guessing she really doesn't know her kids very well. I don't know if she remembers her husband. For example she doesn't remember living in Chicago which is where they met, dated, and got married over the course of 10 years. She has massive blanks in her memory.

She does have a good sense of humor though. Her husband showed her some pictures and videos. One of them was of a trip they did about 6 months ago where she learned how to ski. "I learned how to ski?!" She was psyched that she had learned how to ski. She doesn't know how to ski now, of course, but she's like "Well, I'm going to learn again."

Heathpack 

@carpediemracing, the brain is a convoluted thing, isn't it? It's good she's making progress and it sound like no more seizures, so that's good too.

How weird would it be to not really remember the people you were deeply connected to? She must be going through a quite a time in her life.

I love the attitude, though- "I'm going to learn to ski again!"

Thinking good thoughts for you all.

Doge

Daniel is in Basic Cadet Training at the Academy now. Head shaved, perfected the zombie look. We see pictures on a site that has access. Next communication will be Aug 23. I take a bike out Sept 2. He will MTB race for the first time, and RR in spring. He of course gets to choose what he will do (I know it may not be cycling), but he was excited to go by USA Cycling HQ and and see his "buddies" that were at Nats. He is looking forward to trying pursuit next year as the Velodrome is 7 miles and that fits well with his schedule. Trainer Kal say's he's a good fit esp for the time he has and Kal already trained one local Olympic gold pursuit rider, so there is some synergy there. Clearly I'm holding on, but if he still wants cycling there is lots of opportunity. goairforcefalcons.com Human Performance Laboratory - Air Force Academy Athletics Official Athletic Site should be interested in him, and of course he them.
I'm suffering a bit. I'm 2nd thinking about ME racing. Got to loose a lot of weight for hills, but this morning I irritated more than one guy on a tri bike.

carpediemracing 

I can't imagine going through what she's going through. Her kids are probably the worst off. They know something's wrong with their mom but at times they desperately want their "before" mom back.

For her it's worse because her family (meaning me and our two brothers) is over on the East Coast. Her husband's family is West Coast and Chicago, plus of course he works out there now. If she were around here we'd be able to help more. As it is both my brothers flew out there already, to help out with whatever. I won't be able to go but she seems okay with that.

One thing is that she's focused on how I'm doing, like how our dad is doing. That's a whole different story but our conversations always start off with her asking about our dad. I have to really turn the conversation around to focus on her.

The other thing is that it seems that everything happens to my sister. Again, it's got to be tough having one thing after another, seemingly without any particular cause/reason, hit you. If she were smoking and got lung cancer that wouldn't be a surprise, but the stuff she's had to deal with are seemingly random things like this seizure business.

Heathpack 

I wonder if she turns the conversation towards you & your Dad because it's easier for her. Personally I find it easier to focus on other peoples problem than my own. Maybe she is like that too.

There is never any rhyme or reason as I can see in life- why difficult things happen to some people and not to others. The more life I've experienced, the more temporary all the good stuff seems to me. Which sounds kind of sad, but it's not. It makes me savor & appreciate the good stuff much more than I used to, before I'd seen really hard things happen to people I care about. I completely recognize now that there's a chance everything good is transitory, so I might as well enjoy it completely while I have it. So sometimes the simpliest things- like a bike ride- turn out to be the sweetest. It puts things like race results in perspective- I think if I was younger, I'd be more concerned about winning vs not. Now I'm just happy to be doing it at all.

It's hard for kids, you're right about that. They can't understand & it's probably just weird to them. Who wouldn't just want their usual everyday Mom back? Hopefully it all just continues to improve until nobody can even remember how weird everything was once. Some kind of vaguely bad but fuzzy memory. We hope.

tetonrider

to me, the announcement of a 25% discount on day 2 of the TdF smacks of desperation. this is their flagship model, and this year they have zero excuses about rushing to get it to riders, no time for them to test, etc. in fact, they should expect to see a number of stage wins with this bike--and one would think this might create MORE demand.

must be a sign it is not selling well.

i'm saying all of this as a ViAS owner who LOVES the bike.

i've posted publicly about some issues i had; i was one of the very first few to get this bike last summer. i had a few parts replaced. i'm lucky enough to have a number of bikes to ride, and i typically keep one bike race-ready and another that i train on. i tend to view bikes as tools not jewels.

what has been most telling for me is that when i got the ViAS sorted, i walk into my garage and almost always choose to ride it. it just speaks to me. it's noticeably faster and has all the great handling of the tarmac (which while not everyone's cup of tea is a bike that no one can truly fault for any reason). it whispers in my ear to GO FASTER every time i'm on it.

for an equal build of an older style venge vs a ViAS, it is +1kg. that's a weight that EVERYONE notices in the parking lot. it's easy to feel and quantify. take it out for a spin and you don't feel that extra kilo....until you're at a sustained 8-10+% grade.

like any bike with integrated parts, it is more of a nuisance to set up, travel with, and even maintain. a switch from wide to narrow rims, for example, involves changing pad holders. on shimano brakes you're turning the barrel adjuster a few times (assuming you set up the brakes right in the first place!); on the ViAS you're busting out the special bag of parts and the allen wrenches. this is annoying, but IME is infrequent.

the brakes actually work very, very well--plenty of power and fine modulation. i'd say they come close to the gold standard brakes -- Shimano Dura Ace. i'll estimate 100% of the power and 95% of the modulation. i did have an issue with my first set of brakes, but that was corrected last july/august. it was the issue reported by cavendish and others and got fixed in the first round of production. however, that was enough for those guys to not stake their careers on it at the TdF.

i love the bike but would not recommend it to someone as their only bike. also, i have yet to travel (fly) to races with it; i continue to fly with my old venge. if one has a bike bag like the SciCon where you do not remove the bars, it's easy...but more expensive to travel. my buddy at specialized said that if one removes the stem/bars for travel with another, smaller bag, it is best to plan on sliding in a new front inner brake cable. i may fly to a race with it in september -- GMSR. i think it would be nice for 3 of the 4 stages and possibly break-even for the 4th with steep climbs).

i won't debate looks. i do think it looks silly when people ride it with a big spacer stack. i didn't love it at first but it has grown on me more. then again, i don't look at my own bike very often while i'm riding it. here's a photo snapped of me riding it.

hack

Spent a little extra time cleaning the drive train today. Shiny chain and cassette make me smile.

carpediemracing 

I think it's easier for her to talk about my dad than her stuff, yes.

I'm also realizing just how precious life can be. I never really thought of it when I was younger. Now, older, with a kid... I think about what I want my kid to remember. I know he'll remember pretty much anything significant from now forward (he's 4 years and 3 months old). He brings up stuff from the last year or so. He's doing stuff that I remember doing, at his age. It makes me realize that if I do something negative or bad it'll realistically sit with him for the rest of his life. I understand that negative stuff stands out more, which is why negative reinforcement is so effective, but I hope that he has some positive takeaways now and going forward.

Obviously I have no idea how this'll all turn out with my sister. I hope that the kids are good, my sister is good, her husband is good. The husband is really in a tough position - you really don't bargain for something like this when you marry someone. You marry someone because you mesh well with the other person in most/all aspects of life. If your spouse turns into a stranger, who doesn't know this or that... that's got to be so hard.

mattm

Damn.

I had somehow racked up 180+ mentions, now they're gone.. it's like getting downgraded to cat 5!

I see @Heathpack lost hers too.. you had like 1k right??

#33stats

Heathpack 

There are worse things that could happen. Look at it as a fresh start.

I did have a lot of mentions, though. I was never sure why but I think it's because I write lengthy posts. People don't want to quote it because it will push everything down on the page.

What's your excuse?

tl/dr

Heathpack 

Well hopefully it will all continue to improve until its at least normal ish again, Which is not an unreasonable expectation.

Hang tough.

rankin116

At work waiting for leftover blood specimens with extra low WBCs to come off the hematology analyzer so I can steal them for experiments. Planning to leave ~noon, so I'm slowing running out of time. Working on holidays bites.