Death And Burlington

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 10% BF

Well, we went to Burlington anyway, and it turned out to be the right move. We all brought our road bikes -- that was probably the first "road bike vacation" I ever did, not counting PPRAC -- and did an 87-mile ride along Lake Champlain, across the Charlotte Ferry and into New York, then back via the Crown Pointe bridge and up the Vermont side. We got caught in a few sprinkles and one deluge, but it was mostly pleasant going. That was Saturday; Friday night was bar-hopping (me and Brian) then dinner at Pacific Rim -- spiciest noodles I ever ate -- with Greg & Judy and Kris & Eric, then a rockabilly band at Red Square and a deadhead/jam band at Nectars. Saturday night (after the ride) was dinner at the VT Brew Pub, and a somewhat more subdued version of Friday night; Kris was in bed early for her marathon, and we were all tired. Doug and Lori arrived in the early evening.

Sunday morning was watching Kris race her marathon, which was pretty easy for us since the course was routed to go through downtown about every 3-5 miles. She did very well, made her goal and looked surprisingly not-shattered afterward. Back to the hotel, naptime for everyone for a while, then we went out to the New England Culinary Institute for a celebratory dinner, and yet more barhopping -- Kris was finally released from her training regimen. The town was a little quieter though, no throngs of tourists (though Brian and I ended up hanging out at Ri-Ra, the Irish pub, with a bunch of singing, pubcrawling Dubliners -- heard everything from "Rule, Brittannia" to "The Rose" to "Goodnight Ladies"), and the people who were out seemed a little rougher around the edges, especially later in the evening. Monday was a travel day.

Rest in Peace, Carole: I found out last night that my cousin (technically, my cousin-in-law) Carole passed away. She had breast cancer; the details were not clear to me but apparently they'd known for a while that there wasn't much the doctors could do for her. Mid-forties, husband (my mom's cousin Paul) and two young kids. So sad. Memorial service will be this weekend.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Gallagher: my friend Joe's dad passed away last Tuesday. Don't really see or talk to Joe anymore, so I didn't hear until Doug told me -- and he'd heard it from Bernie, who rides with Joe these days, apparently. Joe was one the younger kids in a big Irish family, so his dad was up there in age, though you wouldn't know it to look at him. He'd actually fought in WWII, so his funeral (on Memorial Day) was a military service. I'll have to give Joe a call, also stop by his mom's to pay my respect. That makes three deaths last week.