Frustration

Frustration can take many forms.  One of those forms could be spending weeks waiting for it to start really snowing,  then,  FINALLY,  when it does decide to start snowing a bit,  you spend that weekend hacking up large quantities of Lung Butter,  rather than getting out to enjoy the new-fallen fluff.

Acute Bronchitis...  you all know it,  that lovely "fat person sitting on your chest" feeling,  along with the rasping and hacking cough.  ANYONE who has ever done a cross race is familiar with this little badge of courage,  doled out to those silly enough to push your own respiratory system so hard you fill your own lungs up with goo.  Almost fun after a race.   Not so fun for days at a time.   Lots of online medical info on this disease (Funny,  I don't see cyclocross listed as a cause anywhere in there...  seems to me participating in a cyclocross race is pretty much 100% effective cause in my research).   Best part is the "runs it's course in 1-2 weeks" line in all descriptions.   Lovely.

Maybe it will keep snowing.  Pray for me,  even beer does not sound good right now.

Year of the Tiger

One of the joys of living in a multi-cultural house is getting more cool holidays.  With half the house here of Ethnic Chinese descent,  Lunar New Year is a BIG deal around here.  A great excuse for a get-together,  lots of food,  drink,  and friends to celebrate the year of the Tiger.

Chinese New Year fever can even make usually uber-conseravtive Asians go off their rocker.  Even the super-nanny leaders of Singapore (a country that FAR more resembles a theme park than an actual state...) have lost their minds this year.

Back here in the good old U.S. our local Asian Market will now surly survive the economic downturn after the "stimulus package" we cranked out to them in order to get ready for this years little event.  Banners hung,  garage fridge restocked,  here we come little Tiger.  After a marathon,  2 day cooking binge,  The better half of the household had "about" enough food for the masses.

Friends,  neighbors,  and even some of the High Peaks boys descended on the homestead with desserts,  wine,  and beer in hand (Lots of Tsingtao...  maybe not the best brew out there but VERY appropriate....  my teammates are SO sentimental...).   A group pig out then ensued,  with much destruction to both the food and most of the teams winter weight control plans.

Even the skinny boy here is probably now up another few pounds.   Soon spring will arrive,  and I can start doing some kind of actual exercise-like activity to justify my food hoovering behavior.  Till then,  may ALL of you have a healthy,  prosperous and safe year of the Tiger.

Blues

My God this winter is a tough one....  Usually,  I don't have much "Wahh,  I miss summer,  Wahh I want to ride my bike..." going on in the winter.     In spite of such soul-emptying activities like lifting weights " to make me stronger on the bike" or other such activities,   Usually I get thru the darker season in good spirits.    Maybe it's old age working on my soul,  or a lack of GOOD skiing this year,  but for some reason,  I am getting a bit stir-crazy this winter.  First,  all I hear about is the San Juans getting puked on,  and now even Washington, D.C.  has better snow than we do.

Depressing.  Maybe it's just that I'm not getting my powder fix this year,  maybe it's been trying to catch up on "regular" chores after blowing those off most of the fall season,  maybe it's just plain cabin fever.  Lately that depression was trying to grow,  expand,  and and maybe even look for another outlet.

 Then today,  started planning for a spring MTB road trip.  Just that act seems to loosen me up a bit,  and maybe we are not going to go quite that far off the deep end just yet.   South West Utah calls again.  Some of that stuff I've not yet ridden,  memories of other trips come flooding back.

OK,  maybe winter is not really all that bad.   Might even start to snow around here again.   All is well.