Rock and Roll

I'm sitting here listening to a Rolling Stones LP.  Michael is a big 70's music fan.  He was intrigued by the crates of records up in the attic, so I've been promising him for years that I'd get our old turntable fixed up so he could listen to our classic rock.

So today we picked up the turntable from Audio Lab and set it up.  He was totally in to it for about half an hour then got bored and wondered off, but I'm really enjoying listening to the old music and hearing the occasional pop or crackle.

Julie is a bit disgusted that I spent $215 fixing up antique technology.  I told her the guy at Audio Lab says this turntable is worth $1500 now.  She said, "Great, sell it and use the money to buy an HD-TV."

Back in the Saddle Again

My plan was to ride lots of miles this summer and I started out strong in the spring.  By mid-June I had completed the 100K and 200K of the Boston Brevet Series and completed the 150-mile Harpoon Brewery-to-Brewery ride from Boston to Windsor, VT.  But I missed the 300K brevet because I hit an SUV on my bike a couple of days before the ride.  Then I missed the 400K and 600K brevets because I was on vacation during those rides.  With Jay focusing on a new job our Sunday morning rides became sporadic (though we did have an excellent ride in the fog to Ipswich), and I basically stopped riding for most of the summer.

But now I'm back in the saddle again (or if that's too old school, check out Aerosmith's version).

Last weekend, I rode the Five Notches Ride in NH with the Rippers.  It may be due to my lack of fitness, but I thought this was the hardest ride I've ever done.  We rode over 5 mountain passes in 93 miles.  Actually, since I made a wrong turn just a couple miles from the finish, I ended having to ride an extra 6 miles up an extra mountain.  Although I was exhausted, it was a fun weekend.  A group of 15 of us went up Friday night and stayed in a couple ski houses owned by Rippers.  It poured rain all day Friday and was raining at breakfast Saturday morning.  The rain stopped before we started riding and didn't start again until dinner time when we were safely back inside.  The trees were in full color and the reds, oranges, and yellows of the maple trees contrasted beautifully with the white clouds and green pines.  The Rippers are a great group to ride and socialize with, but the ride fast and really put the hurt on me.

Today I had another fun ride with HUCA, the Harvard University Cycling Association.  The Harvard-to-Harvard ride is a 75-mile fund raiser that starts at Harvard University, rides through Concord and out to the town of Harvard, before returning to campus.  The university race team provided ride leaders and sweepers to make sure no one got lost.  Forty or fifty riders started together, but I did most of the ride with a group of about 8, including Anna McLoon and Shane from HUCA.  Anna races for Harvard during the school year and for Colavita during the summer and knows a couple of the Rippers (Ed Sassler was her first coach, and Kristen Gohr also races with Colavita).  For a few miles I rode with Garth McCavana, the Associate Dean for Student Affairs for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.  The hills in the Greater Boston area were almost easy after struggling through the mountains of New Hampshire the week before.

The good times kept rolling as I got back to Winchester to watch Nick's soccer team win 4-0. Then =Sam and Mabel came over to watch the Patriots beat the Forty-Niners.  The day will be perfect if the Red Sox can come back and beat the Angels to sweep the first round of the playoffs.