They fight and argue and fight and fight and argue and fight and argue and argue and I’m mother trucking tired of it.

It’s time like this when I find myself thinking back to the days that I lived in an apartment downtown with my girlfriend, I rode my bike when I wanted, ate when I wanted and napped when I wanted. These thoughts are useless and do no good.

I just mixed an extra large margarita so things should be smoothing out shortly.

I had no time to ride today… I’m thinking of going for a solo night ride after I get a good buzz on…. ah who am kidding. I’ll ride tomorrow….. mother trucker.

To make choices that will make America a better place for my children. Unity not division.

About 30 feet from the watch out for alligators sign. It came down from the woods, crossed the double track and continued toward the lake. It’s length was slightly more than the width of the trail… or about 6 feet long. When it got about halfway between the trail and the lake it stopped and laid on it’s belly.

Of course I didn’t have my camera so I hauled tail to the house, got the camera and hauled tail back. It only took a few minutes. I hoped it would still be laying there but it was gone.

That’s kind of freaky because we have a family walk we do called “to the alligator sign and back”. Sometimes the kids get pretty far ahead. A 30 pound girl might be a tasty treat? I guess the good thing is in all the years I’ve been riding that trail, that’s the first gator I’ve seen.

I thought I lost the magic… then I found it again… then I lost it again… but now I think I’ve found it again. Maybe I need some of those mood stabilizers. Yesterday I had a good day… almost too good. Hope it’s still there Sunday.

BikeChain posse was in full effect yesterday. We even outnumbered the Higher Ground borg. Afterwards we headed back to BikeChain HQ for some grillin’. I carried the camera around the whole time and all I got was this picture.

They take record profits (among other things) and now want to be paid again. That’s double dipping. Wake up America. We’ve been taking in the arse for 8 years. You can’t see it? Does your anus hurt?

Or in other words:

The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies — who must soon vacate the White House — are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday’s New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

“Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

“Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

“At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

“Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions.”

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to “consult” in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this “collapse” is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn’t know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can’t figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this “bailout” package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

I rode yesterday morning in a brisk 60 degrees. Did a few hard efforts and got a little Ice Lung. Maybe there’s some acclimatization that has to happen when there’s a sudden drop in temperature and humidity. Maybe I’m a big pansy.

I’ve got the race bug. I’d like to go to Fort Clinch Sunday to race but things have been a little whacky with the Smith routine lately. It feels like we need a nice steady boring weekend to get things right.

Or I could throw the family into the truck and head over? Probably not. Maybe? Hmmmmm.

Yeah, I’ve figured out that 6 weeks out from a goal event is when things get real hard and I get real tired.

I’ve got the signs of a cold coming on but I’m fightin’ it with lots of sleep. As soon as the kids go down at 8 I crawl into bed and I’m out by 8:30 - 9.

There’s doubt creeping into my thoughts. Am I going too hard too much? Am I putting myself into a hole I will not be able to crawl out of? There’s only one way to find out I guess.

Last week I did intensity from wednesday to saturday. With the roads of the standard saturday group ride under water the roadies brought the ride to the northside so I had to jump in. I made sure to thoroughly bury myself by hanging around the front. I realized that Chris Marino is like the second coming of Bill Newmyer. He’s the best draft in the bunch. Being on his wheel is like being caught in a tractor beam.

This photo has nothing to do with this post but The Boy has taken up photography and these are his subjects. I thought it looked kind of cool.