Inane Asylum

The world is just crazy lately. Countries revolting against their governments, volcano’s, earthquakes, storms, you name it, it’s happening. And right up until last Friday, all we seemed to hear on the news lately was about CHARLIE SHEEN or LINDSAY LOHAN. Gosh…the world is certainly circling the drain if that is the best the media can do. I wish they (the media in it’s entirety) would make a pact and NEVER mention either of their names ever again. Wouldn’t THAT be something? I’ll start…I PROMISE never to mention their names again. THERE. A step in the right direction.

And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt been overwhelmed by the news about the earthquake/tsunami in Japan last week. The video’s I’ve seen are just so incredible showing the raw power of the ocean. I just finished watching the NBC Nightly news, and they were showing a 5 story tall hospital in that little town of 17,000 (that is all but wiped off the face of the planet now). The only survivors were on the 5th floor…as the waters went right through the rest of the building, blowing out windows and doors and just rushing on by, taking everything that wasn’t nailed down (and likely some that was) with it. I saw on CNN (online) news this morning that the Japanese Navy found a guy floating on the roof of a house, NINE MILES out to sea! His family gone, swept away. Nine miles is a LONG ways from shore. To think that when the torrential waters receded they took so much with them, most likely thousands of people included. In a human death-toll this tsunami can’t even begin to compare with the one over in Thailand during the Holidays a few years back. But in a devastation scale this is probably well past that. Japan is a quite developed nation. I’ve been there and traveled throughout the country, from up in the northern island of Hokkaido to the southern end of Okinawa. As far as disaster preparedness, I’ve heard they are probably one of the most prepared nations on the planet. But NOBODY can plan for an earthquake of that magnitude! Also on the news today the USGS has upgraded the quake from an 8.9 to a 9.0 on the Richter scale. It was one of the largest quakes in recorded history.

And why is it that it takes a disaster to get people (including myself sadly enough) to think about their own preparedness? Jeannie and I start thinking about ‘what if’. WHAT IF we had a huge quake here? After all, we ARE in Calif, home to a zillion big-time faults. Many of them offshore. IF we had a huge quake just offshore like the one in Japan, I can’t fathom how far the water would come in. I know they always talk about tsunami’s by mentioning the “wave height”…however the reality of a tsunami is that it’s much more akin to the sea level rising temporarily to that level. The tiny city in Japan (Sengai I think?) with the hospital is said to had a 30 foot wall of water blast thru. Ponder that…look UP and figure how high 30 feet is. Now imagine that if you are below that, you are DEAD as suddenly the sea level is 30 feet higher, and the water will come in with a power like you can’t imagine. If you’re caught in it, well, you are swept into a seething maelstrom of debris…the frail human body won’t last a minute in that cauldron of death. Every time we get a tsunami alert, we have surfers heading out waiting to catch ‘the big one’. They just don’t get it. I don’t believe you can surf thru the swirling moving debris of dozens, or hundreds (or even thousands) of houses and buildings, some on FIRE even. Those videos of ships being hurled along, bouncing off each other, being overturned, thousands of cars being tossed about like sticks. It’s haunting is what it is. Humbling. Mother nature throwing something HUGE at us. Earthquakes and Tsunami’s are much like volcano’s. Showing us once again how small and insignificant we truly are, and how quickly mother nature can shake the etch-a-sketch of planet earth and wipe it clean.

OK…enough on THAT note…it’s honestly just too depressing to ponder for long. So..what else is going on? Oh…that’s right….MARCH MADNESS! Yes…the annual college basketball national tournament. I don’t follow basketball, cuz, well…I find it pretty boring. I can however watch a FLAT cycling stage for HOURS on end with Phil and Paul doing their very best to fill in the dead-time and somehow NOT find that boring. What can I say…I guess it takes all kinds of people to fill the world. I do know that in the basketball world, these tournament games are typically awesome and decided in the closing seconds quite often. And I do like it that unlike any other college sport, truly ANY team in the nation has an actual shot at the title. If you are good enough to be invited to ‘the dance’, you have a chance. Sure, number 64 goes up against number 1 in the first round. But hey…nobody said it was easy. Just think, of ALL the college basketball teams in the country, what is the actual difference between the top 64 teams? Usually it’s not very much. And the Cinderella stories DO happen now and then. I find myself almost always rooting for the underdogs. I just love it when the David’s slay the Goliath’s. I haven’t even looked at the brackets, but the games start tomorrow (Tuesday) evening.

And in the cycling world: Paris-Nice is in the history books, and Tony Martin from HTC is the man. Wow…good for him. I’d think that will give him and the entire team quite a boost going into the meat of the season. I gather his team is grooming him as a GC contender in the Grand Tours. I’d think he is capable of doing quite well. He TT’s with the best of them, and has shown he can climb too! So, bring it on Tony…let’s see what you’ve got! My only sadness thus far is that I still have ZERO televised coverage. We are trying to cut our expenses and nearly doubling our satellite TV bill so I can have ONE channel is out (for now). Winter/Spring is always our hard times…you know…the holidays, property taxes, fully funding IRA’s and such. And I have pretty much zero overtime anymore…which was my bread and butter in years past. But the economy in the tank has long reaching effects, and I’m just happy we still both have jobs. A little belt-tightening won’t kill us, and we have SO much to be thankful for. So for now I READ about the races. I do think I’ll have to upgrade for July though…I just can’t bear the thought of not watching the Tour.

On a personal note, I’m working on my 2nd comeback of the year (cycling wise I mean). I didn’t ride hardly at all from about the middle of November until the middle of January. Just lots going on, the holidays, bad weather, then getting sick after the holidays. So I started a comeback (and was doing well) and THEN 3 weeks ago caught what I suspect was a bit of Pneumonia. I JUST put in my first ride last Wednesday…it was a lowly 34 miler after work, and my friend Gary pulled me the entire way. Early in the ride I felt like I might cough up a vital organ or 2, but as the ride progressed I felt better. And by the next day I hardly had any congestion in my lungs FINALLY! So Saturday I met Greg and his friends for a Figueroa Mt. loop ride. Last year on this day (Solvang Century day) we met for the same ride. We were going for a double loop….80 miles, 9000’ of climbing. Well, it was windy and COLD, and we only did the 2nd climb about 1/3rd of the way when the wind shut us down and we cashed it in. This year Greg and friends were again going for the double. I knew there was no way I could do that right now…so I met them on the road at the bottom of the mountain, and they turned around and went back up (it’s a 10 mile 4500’ climb) for their 2nd time. And they crushed me. In mere minutes they were almost out of sight as I limped along in my granny gear, just trying to keep moving. I am currently as weak as I’ve been since I started road-riding many years ago. But it will come back fast, of that I’m confident. I just need to suffer thru rides like that. 

OK. That’s about all I have for this week. Everybody be safe and stay warm. And if your weather permits, get out and do something outside! Enjoy life…as things can change in an instant! Smell those roses. And have a GREAT week!