blief

I’m certifiable – I must be.
I stand at my desk, I recline on my bike, I type in Dvorak (on a QWERTY keyboard) and I’ve even recently shaved off a perfectly good head of hair.

What have I done now you ask? I’ve gone and paid good money to ride my bike 100 miles by myself around in circles just because some equally certifiable blogger did it three years ago and then somehow got 500 friends to do it with him – and the thing is, I’m psyched to do it.

Okay, rationalizing now…the money goes for a good cause – Livestrong, yeah yeah. I know plenty of people with cancer who’d appreciate the thought, and I do think of you.
I’ll get some schwag, and a shirt, mostly stuff I don’t want or need.
And I don’t really have money to burn right now but…what am I saying – I’m doing it because it is just goofy enough and somehow cool enough to appeal to that part of me that still remembers what it’s like to dig a hole, an all day hole, for the heck of it.
The part that likes to sleep outside in the rain BECAUSE it’s raining.
The part that once counted 3,000 cars passing by on the way home from Granny’s house.
The part that once dared myself to slap a bee faster than it could sting me.

But did I really have to publicly pick a course with a combined elevation gain of 11,811 feet? (not that I’ve counted) simply because it happens to be part of a 1.0069 mile loop right outside my front door?
Ok – yes, yes I did, for the same reason I tried to slap that bee and…well…I wasn’t faster than the bee.

But I’m older now (much older) and wiser and meh, what’s a hill or two…or one hundred.
The real hard part is going to be keeping track of my laps.

I’ll come up with something.

Well TheMommy has been really tired – she had the shakes a couple of days ago (explained by a sugar low) – then yesterday she was nauseous most of the morning and now today I am staying home from work because she has…well…we’re gonna find out what she has soon.

But let me just say this…if she has what we think she has…it’s name will start with an ‘M’ or maybe an ‘H’.

Hoy, it’s gonna be an interesting day.

Here I am, up at 02:00 local time, watching a cricket match…strike that…THE cricket match of the year.

India vs Pakistan in the 2011 cricket world cup semi-finals.

I don’t really feel it in my gut, just how important this game is to my friends from India, but at some level I MUST get it because well…here I am. I know that many, many, MANY (all?) Indians and Pakistanis regard this game as the biggest game for their side since 2003 – the last time these sides met in a world cup match. Those same fans are up also in their various offices and homes, watching.

Can’t say I would be here, alone in my office, at this un-holy hour, watching this match if it weren’t for those self same colleagues who took an afternoon last summer to show me and others how to play.

I am, amazingly, mostly tracking the terminology and even some of the more subtle details. I don’t have a good idea of pace and run-rate of this caliber game other than what I can glean from the emotion of the crowd and from the tone of the announcers.

I am very happy that the stream includes English speaking commentary – and that the game didn’t start on IST. 🙂

Go Blues!