Stawberries we picked from Blue House Farm
After coming home from the high of ACL, last week was pretty much destined to suck, and suck it did. Not that I didn’t do my fair share to make things worse. I mismanaged my vacation time this year, meaning that if I used any vacation time for the Friday and Monday on either side of ACL, I wouldn’t have the vacation days I needed for planned trips for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Two weeks in a row of having to cram 40 hours worth of work into 4 days, waking up at 5:00am to do it, as well as being sick the whole time, and not getting any miles on the bike (or any exercise at all) made for a miserable week. Going from high to low like that was a definite shock to the system, so going into last weekend I was feeling sick, tired, and just generally bummed out about everything. However, somewhat unexpectedly, the last weekend turned out to be a really good one that lifted my spirits.
'Dood'
We started Saturday morning by getting breakfast at a place in Oakland called Aunt Mary’s that mixes bible belt southern cuisine, cajun, mexican, and Texan food. After that we drove up to a dog park in Davis for a little event put on by a breeder of goldendoodles (a mix of golden retrievers and poodles). We got to spend 2 hours playing with cute dogs and have a lot of questions answered. As soon as we find a place that will allow us to have a dog, you can rest assured we’ll be contacting Sierra Vista Doodles to get on a puppy list. The rest of the day we spent hanging out at home, cleaning up, watching college football.
Rachel's 10k at Stanford
Sunday morning Rachel ran a 10k in preparation for her half marathon coming up at the end of October. As payback for all of the mornings i forced her to get up at 4:30 in the morning and drive to nowherevill, CA for a bike race, i rode around the course on my bike taking pictures and offering words of encouragement.
Blue House Farm Fall Harvest Festival
After the 10k we hopped in the car and headed to the coastal town of Pescadero for a Fall Harvest Festival at Blue House Farm, the farm we get our CSA box from. They had a home made pizza oven cranking out some delicious pizza, pumpkin carving, tours of the farm, strawberry picking, fresh pies made from fresh picked produce, music, wreath making, and fresh coffee and tea. It was also really cool to see where the vast majority of the produce we eat comes from.
Blue House Farm Fall Harvest Festival
Sure, we were at a farm that does the local/sustainable/organic trifecta. Sure almost every car in the parking lot was a Prius or a Subaru. Sure, everyone seemed to be wearing some article of Patagonia clothing. Sure we were eating off of real dishes and drinking out of recycled mason jars because it was the ‘right thing to do’ for the environment. It was totally and completely an event that matched the stereotype of NorCal hippies. But at the same time it was an amazingly fun and satisfying experience. After such a crappy week, it was nice to get away from the rampant materialism and self centered-ness of Silicon Valley for a few hours.
After a week of feeling thoroughly bummed out, the weekend really lifted my spirits and made me feel a whole lot better, even though no single event was a ‘game changer’.
Last night (Tuesday) a bunch of my bike racing teammates got a prominent local bike racer who has been racing and training with a power meter for a few years to do a little casual seminar for us on training with power and allowed us to spend a few hours picking his brain. Wow, what an informative few hours. I feel like i picked up a ton of stuff that would have otherwise taken me months to figure out. Talk about a good use of time. Plus, the guys i race with are pretty fun to hang out with.
I was planning on waiting until the end of October to take some time off the bike, but getting a cold, plus a few rainy days we’ve had here have forced me to change my schedule and take 2 weeks off now instead of later. I’m already giddy about racing with these guys next year.
Somehow, three years ago today i used my persuasive powers to convince a cute girl to go on a date with me. It was the first date i had been on in over a year after a rough break up. Somehow, i used those same persuasive powers to convince said girl to move to California with me. Three years later we’re still going strong. Woo-hoo. To Celebrate the occasion, we’re going up to wine country (Healdsburg, not Napa or Sonoma) this weekend for a little relaxing, some wine tasting, and some eating. Some of my favorite things. We’ve got reservations Saturday night for Thomas Keller’s restaurant Ad Hoc. I’m pretty excited.
Oh, BTW, there’s a wine from Monterrey County, CA called Poppy Pinot Noir that we had last night. Not only is it damn tasty, but at only $14, it’s quite a bargain. Just thought you should know.
That’s about all for now. Hope everyone is doing well. Toodles.
