Saturday was a 5+ hour nonstop blast entirely with Shawn, a good chunk with McNeil, and some time with Devin, Dallas and Pat. Beautiful ride out on highway 66 to the gates, at the Bunnin/McNeil conversational pace that had me working pretty hard. Riders were filtering in and out of Cadence Cafe and the Cinnamon Spoon by the dozen. There were smiles everywhere, stories, catching up from winter, and a definite absence of hardened stares and frozen toes and just trying to make it home - in a word, Calgary's first taste test of spring. It was fun. So here's what came to mind - a tribute to fun times, warm times, and those points in life where right now is the funnest thing going, no need to think ahead to tonight or tomorrow or whenever. Guess there's something about a relatively nonsensical two word chorus that'll do that:
I was bagged Saturday night, although Bunnin did some gourmet chef action on burgers so we could settle in for Olympic action and some shelf rearranging action. Although I'll credit Craig with the lion's share of the actual shelf rearranging, Devin, Shawn and I did maintain support with a beer in hand. Here's a priceless action shot of Shawn renovating. Misfits t-shirt aside, everyone knows a proper shelf relocation project isn't complete without Cypress Hill, so we followed suit. I think Shawn could star in a really offbeat "tim the tool man taylor" style home reno show where the reno's are minimized, but the bike tinkering time is maximized. As of yet, TV shows focusing on trick buildups of Kona Major Jake special edition frames seems to be an untapped market segment.
Sunday was a timed event - early start for early finish to be home for the Canada vs. US gold medal hockey game. Cruised through town a bit, then out to the northwest for a couple of solid hill intervals. Nothing like preparing to watch hockey by doing a few short, high intensity intervals to remember just how hard those guys have to work on the ice. It's nice to feel fitness coming around (or that type of fitness anyway) where at the top of a relatively long hilltop jam I just feel like breathing hard for 20 seconds and get on with it again (vs. the my guts hurt, my body doesn't like that level of intensity, and I think I'm going to puke). Definitely a quality little chunk of training in these two warm days.
Watching the last events of the Olympics - the curling, 50km cross country with Devon Kershaw's awesome performance, let alone the medal going to the country who cares most if I can say that - the Norwegians. And lastly, but CERTAINLY NOT LEAST. The political history, family roots, and excitement of mens hockey has been phenomenal this weekend. With a Slovak mom who lived through the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, father side Norwegian lineage, and our family living in the US and now Canada, the mix of Canada vs. Russia, Canada vs. Slovakia, and Canada vs. US is a lifetime of history in our household. I'm pretty sure the TV has never been host to more stress and yelling in it's history of being planted in this living room... Crosby and Iggy pulled the clutch manoeuvre in overtime, good god were we on the edges of our seats! This photo is just like any other from TV, other than it's sent by a work buddy of mine from the epicenter, titled "glorious gold".
From another lucky colleague/attendee, this one was titled "Be very proud, what a great country"
Naturally, Rocky beats Drago.
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