it's wednesday already, ain't it...

Yesh. Overdue happenings. Action-packed weekend.

Start with a trip out to Grand Rapids for the IMBA trail school thingie. Pretty cool, actually. For 3 hours they talked about all kinds of things like Fall Lines, Grade Reversals, Outslope, and los of other stuff. Making good trails and trail systems to ride bikes on, that last a long time, that are copacetic with hikers and equestrians, don't need much maintenance... and are fun to ride on. Gotta say, those Trail Care Crew folks have a pretty cool job. Drive back and forth across the country showing people how to build trails, and along the way getting to ride all those trails too.

So the presentation is over, and they lunch gets put out on tables, but I have to bail because I've got a 2 hour drive back before PunkinFest, and I head out to the parking lot. Realizing that I left some swag inside, I go back, and when I walk out again, there's a couple people on the way in from the parking lot chatting near the sidewalk. Double take. Triple take. Holy shit... that's... that's... I know who she is, but brain not working... I just watched Off Road To Athens last week, and she's an Olympian and a pro and National Champ, and World Champ and an ass-kicker and .... I was caught so off-guard I could not think of her name. GAH. It escaped me. I felt ashamed, but I managed to eek out a starstruck "uhm, Hi. you're... uhm... pretty cool." She's there with her husband and a friend and asks if I know these trails, and of course I'd never been there before today, so I feel sillier, even.

In the car 2 minutes later, names come easy: Allison Dunlap. I'm such a dweeb. Apparently she's in town because her husband's family lives nearby, so visiting and all. Anyway, so that's my star-sighting/feeling like a dork moment for the month.

So then I drive back to AA in time to get a quick disco nap before heading out to Pete & Wendy's PunkinFest (Barn Christening) Party. Good times, there. Tons of food, drink, and merriment. Union Pulse was going to Canada for a gig, but got turned back at the border, so they came to the barn instead and played a set for the partiers. After the live music, some 80's tunes made their way into the audio and Brooke and Shawn were killin' it on the dance floor with their mad breakdance extravaganza. Yes, they have skills.

So as all good parties should have, there was the starting of the fire (camp-, not barn-) and the gathering there-round. And then Garth gets out his spears, sets up a couple pumpkins, and while I never would have predicted it, apparently throwing spears at pumpkins is a crowd-pleasing activity. It went long into the night. And while those pumpkins 30 ft away were fairly safe for most of the time, a couple people did indeed hit them. You'd think it's easy, but spear-tossin' (accurately) is pretty tough. Drinkin' and sittin' by campfire rounded out the evening, and then off to bed.

Sunday... well, Sunday is turning out to be a regular gig... the local boys from the couple of alleycats I've been to have been gathering on Sunday afternoons for bike polo. Fun, that be.

So Matt and I met up for some trail riding beforehand just because, and then looped back to the park where people were starting to gather. The other Matt brought mallets and stuff, the cones came out, and the hijinks ensued. After a couple times trying it, I'm starting to notice some subtleties. I wouldn't go so far as to say strategy or tactics or anything like that, but I can see some normal patterns of play now. When it comes to ball-handling style, there's dribblers, long-bombers, blockers, sharp-shooters, all kinds of strengths. All I know at the moment is that if I have the ball, I'm the dribbling, between the legs, tongue-out-Jordan-style, take-it-to-the-hole type. I can't make a long shot to save my life, but I'll juke a muthafucka all day like some Harlem Globetrotters ('n' shit, yo).

Pete seemed to take the hockey enforcer style, using his charging and coaster-brake cruiser skids and rattling chain guard to intimidate the dudes on the shiny fixies. Gotta say, if you love a bike too much, don't bring it to polo. Silly shit happens. Low speed crashes, multi-bike entanglements, and dudes like me happen too (if I'm rubbing wheels with someone while scrabbling for the ball, my wheel pushing on theirs in the hope of forcing them to put a foot down... is a good strategy).

But in the end, Pete was getting ridiculous with his bullying and no one would take him on. The best thing I could do for my team was to share my elbows with him, and going for the ball on the breakaway was a good excuse. Didn't even get near the ball, just putting him into the grass was what was needed. Sorry Pete, but you bring that cheese, you're gonna get the shoulder every time.

Last night (tues) was the Halloween alleycat, and while it wasn't freezing, I did get a little chilly. G came out and staffed a checkpoint, but realized that there's stretches of boring in that - and didn't bring a book or anything. I raced and had a modest 10th, but I'm gonna blame the fact that one checkpoint wasn't set up or visible when I got to it (I had to go back and do it later). Probably was there, I'm just whining. Had a bad case of the Post Hard Riding Coughing afterwards, but whatever.

Ok. mmph.

All I got right now. Happy Halloween, y'all.