Super Bowl Sunday
I don't really consider myself a football guy anymore. I used to, pretty much centering my weekends around football season. First there were NFL Sundays, then there were Rutgers college football Saturdays. Now, I prefer to ride my bike either day, or both if things work out. With the wife expecting, that's not going to change any time soon. But I'm indifferent, since I don't miss the football. In choosing battles, mine are centered around bike riding, coffee roasting, fire building, kayaking, alien anal probes, and beer drinking.
Having said that, this Super Bowl Sunday has little to do with football. After waking up to a pair of eggs lookin' at ya, rye toast with butter, and 2 cups of coffee, I put the mountain bike on the car and headed back to Chimney Rock, a follow up to last week's Truth ride. The trails were muddy, but not terrible considering the immense amount of rain in the past few days. Overall, I consider today a +3 and -1 compared to last week's ride, using a rating system I just made up.
I give +1 for my being over the cold I had, +1 for the fact that I remembered to bring a bottle of Accelerade, and a +1 for being a week more in shape than last week. The -1 was due to the occasional mud runs that slowed me down. But slowing me down is also getting me used to riding in the mud, something I could have used experience in at 5:00 in the morning on my third lap of last year's 24 hour race. In all, the ride was a +2, whatever that means. I didn't need to rest on the big quarry hill this time. I also went ass over elbows on one downhill. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.
When I got home, I put a new distributor and rotor on the Volkswagen Ipod in an attempt to get the goddamn thing to operate in the rain. The swap should have taken 7 minutes, but it took me 20, since I needed 13 minutes to get both freaking distributor clips back on. It started when I was done, so at the very least I didn't fuck it up any worse than it already was. After that, I watched the last 20 minutes of Rutgers choking away a basketball game to Seton Hall. Mid afternoon had us going to St. Peter's Hospital to see Orion & Michelle's new baby (Friday night at 11:21 PM, 9 lbs 15 oz, Colin Austin - yes, I said 9 lbs 15 ounces). I didn't want to go, because I'm a selfish asshole. But I have to admit, it was nice. You can tell the new parents are wiped out, tired from the circus they've gone through. We'll be in their shoes in 2 months. In fact, I stole Orion's sneakers just to get myself ready.
Then there's the Super Bowl, which is on the TV as I write this (or at least it was when I started). I opened the game with a Troegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale, which is possibly the longest named beer in the world. Coming in at a low 4.4% ABV, it's often a nice way to easy myself from exercise mode to beer drinking mode, my standard Sunday night ritual. Following that, I had a Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, which is the best Brown Ale ever made. Third beer of the night was Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, which is actually an American Double IPA, which is not really a whole lot like your standard hop-loaded IPA. This 90 Minute IPA is possibly the best beer brewed in America right now. Finally, I topped it off with something I have not chosen yet, because I'm currently upstairs finishing this entry while The Fossils play the halftime show of the Super Bowl. I'm considering a Stoudt's Double IPA, which is almost as good as the Dogfish, but not quite. On the other hand, these double IPAs tend to be a little sweet in order to balance out the high alcohol content. Good stuff, really solid football game.
Yeah, there was football, which I sorta paid attention to. But I was drinking beer, surfing, and doing stuff around the house. Sure, it's the biggest game of the year, but if the previous [number of NFL games] games didn't make a difference, why should this one? There are commercials, but they get less impressive every year. As for the football, well, my overall opinion is that I still have to get up for work tomorrow, regardless of what happens. Granted, you can say the same thing about my mountain bike ride today. But I really enjoyed that. I could ultimately give a rat's ass who wins this game, though I do find myself pulling for one of the teams.
I find myself rooting for Seattle, basically because I grew up rooting for the Cowboys and if you do that, it's hard to ever root for the Steelers. But also, the promos with the Steelers romanticizing the Super Bowl trophy were fucking gay. I found it interesting that only the Steelers did that, not the Seahawks. By the end, I was expecting them to anally rape each other with the stupid trophy.
So that was my Sunday.
Having said that, this Super Bowl Sunday has little to do with football. After waking up to a pair of eggs lookin' at ya, rye toast with butter, and 2 cups of coffee, I put the mountain bike on the car and headed back to Chimney Rock, a follow up to last week's Truth ride. The trails were muddy, but not terrible considering the immense amount of rain in the past few days. Overall, I consider today a +3 and -1 compared to last week's ride, using a rating system I just made up.
I give +1 for my being over the cold I had, +1 for the fact that I remembered to bring a bottle of Accelerade, and a +1 for being a week more in shape than last week. The -1 was due to the occasional mud runs that slowed me down. But slowing me down is also getting me used to riding in the mud, something I could have used experience in at 5:00 in the morning on my third lap of last year's 24 hour race. In all, the ride was a +2, whatever that means. I didn't need to rest on the big quarry hill this time. I also went ass over elbows on one downhill. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.
When I got home, I put a new distributor and rotor on the Volkswagen Ipod in an attempt to get the goddamn thing to operate in the rain. The swap should have taken 7 minutes, but it took me 20, since I needed 13 minutes to get both freaking distributor clips back on. It started when I was done, so at the very least I didn't fuck it up any worse than it already was. After that, I watched the last 20 minutes of Rutgers choking away a basketball game to Seton Hall. Mid afternoon had us going to St. Peter's Hospital to see Orion & Michelle's new baby (Friday night at 11:21 PM, 9 lbs 15 oz, Colin Austin - yes, I said 9 lbs 15 ounces). I didn't want to go, because I'm a selfish asshole. But I have to admit, it was nice. You can tell the new parents are wiped out, tired from the circus they've gone through. We'll be in their shoes in 2 months. In fact, I stole Orion's sneakers just to get myself ready.
Then there's the Super Bowl, which is on the TV as I write this (or at least it was when I started). I opened the game with a Troegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale, which is possibly the longest named beer in the world. Coming in at a low 4.4% ABV, it's often a nice way to easy myself from exercise mode to beer drinking mode, my standard Sunday night ritual. Following that, I had a Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, which is the best Brown Ale ever made. Third beer of the night was Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, which is actually an American Double IPA, which is not really a whole lot like your standard hop-loaded IPA. This 90 Minute IPA is possibly the best beer brewed in America right now. Finally, I topped it off with something I have not chosen yet, because I'm currently upstairs finishing this entry while The Fossils play the halftime show of the Super Bowl. I'm considering a Stoudt's Double IPA, which is almost as good as the Dogfish, but not quite. On the other hand, these double IPAs tend to be a little sweet in order to balance out the high alcohol content. Good stuff, really solid football game.
Yeah, there was football, which I sorta paid attention to. But I was drinking beer, surfing, and doing stuff around the house. Sure, it's the biggest game of the year, but if the previous [number of NFL games] games didn't make a difference, why should this one? There are commercials, but they get less impressive every year. As for the football, well, my overall opinion is that I still have to get up for work tomorrow, regardless of what happens. Granted, you can say the same thing about my mountain bike ride today. But I really enjoyed that. I could ultimately give a rat's ass who wins this game, though I do find myself pulling for one of the teams.
I find myself rooting for Seattle, basically because I grew up rooting for the Cowboys and if you do that, it's hard to ever root for the Steelers. But also, the promos with the Steelers romanticizing the Super Bowl trophy were fucking gay. I found it interesting that only the Steelers did that, not the Seahawks. By the end, I was expecting them to anally rape each other with the stupid trophy.
So that was my Sunday.
