ohio state sucks

i kicked the weekend off in high style with a trip to homegrown down in newark. i forget that newark isn't really all that far away from me, tending to consider west chester as my home base. but a quick drive south yields a larger college town with a place like homegrown, a comfy place where no one is allowed to smoke. lovely. no smoking in public places in delaware. superb. buddy and rotten were celebrating the friday happy hour and after mocking me ever so slightly for my beer choice of stella (belgian budweiser, was it?) we got to catch up and talk about bikes and climbing, two of my favorite things, both of which i can't claim to be so hot at anymore (or ever...). following glappy hour rotten and i joined a small contigent of dccod'ers for pumpkin carving (in my protest of all things halloween, i did not participate, but was really impressed with the carving skills, once again) and will ferrell movie watching. we took in "blades of glory" on, what i must say was a good sized, though perhaps slightly small, screen projected on the wall. having spent my formative years in (insert thick accent here) minnesoooota, i have been skating since before i could walk, and seeing the scene where they are running through the streets in figure skates brought back familiar memories of trying to walk to and from the locker rooms or stands or warming huts in those ridiculously uncomortable things. i laughed pretty hard.


and it was raining pretty hard when i headed home. amazingly it didn't let up all night and when i woke up at 8am saturday with still-uncommitted plans to head to state college i decided to roll over and make up my mind at a later hour. at 9am it was still pouring but i was intrigued enough by the weather to check the state college forecast. hmmm, it didn't appear to be raining up there. but my neighbor with the roosters was uilding an ark here, so i waited longer. i ate, showered, threw a few things together, made sure it was still pouring out, ran a few errands and decided i would delay a decision until 11:30am. still raining, but a little lighter. by 12:30 the weather had resigned itself to clearing and i hastily threw the bike in the subi and took the backroads to the turnpike, to harrisburg, knowing i could turn around at the first sight of inclement weather. things stayed clear and even more amazingly, i averaged 75 mph all the way to the narrows, where i hit none of the anticipated traffic and actually made it to the quaint moutain hamlet in near-record time. after a quick stop at the shop to daydream about a road bike that might one day be mine, i headed toward beaver stadium for some good old fashioned tailgating. it was so good to see a couple of the boys from elk county and meet some new folks; we played cornhole (don't go there), watched extremely drunk people play dizzy bat, drank ourselves some champagne (mgd baby) and ate some grilled food while trying to stay warm in the wind. as much as i would have been excited to head to the game, i didn't have a ticket and was actually hoping for a hot shower (to wash off the eau-du-grille and to thaw my feet, which felt like i had been skiing) and a non-halloween-y night. which i got.


after a slightly and certainly not overly lazy morning i got myself motivated to go for a bike ride, which i did on my way out of town. i layered up and climbed some hills. i felt a little groggy, but otherwise good and enjoyed a nice roll around while checking out the beautiful leaves. the descents were chilly, and the cold air into the lungs definitely takes my breath away a bit. i let myself fly down the hills, feeling for those moments just about as gleeful as when skiing. it is so good.


as always i was bummed to leave the cawledge, but the drive home went quickly and the shuffle was pumping out a good mix to keep me awake. i do think, however, that starbucks decaf is rather caff-y because i can't sleep quite yet, which is unfortunate because i have to be up and at em in the morning most mornings this week and it is always nice to get a head start on sunday night with some good snoozing. so, i'll try to get at it again now.