That's right, I have been sent down to here to Athens, Georgia so that Air Canada could challenge me with the age old question: Why is it not okay for me to fly without my baggage, but a-okay for my baggage to fly without me? Now, I suppose in all reality, I should be pleased that I even made it down here to Athens yesterday. My plane was late leaving Calgary so I was forced to do the 2000m-dash-with-shuttle-ride-to-terminal-2 in the Toronto airport before smiling nicely at the customs guard while dragging my bag and bike box through immigration only to arrive at the departure gate and have the woman in charge of boarding tell me that I was to be on the next flight. Well, conviniently enough, the plane was still nicely at the gate - the problem was that she had been "paging me since 1:10 (for info I deplaned the previous flight at about 1:25) and so I had been taken off the flight". They had been paging me because of the gross incompetancy of the women who I paid for my bicycle - she forgot to take the expiry date of my credit card. Alas, I made it safe and sound to Atlanta yesterday afternoon slightly after 4pm local time - the same cannot be said for my luggage.
Bike and bag showed up 18 hours later. This is life I suppose - but why do the airlines HATE ME? They left my bike in Melbourne on the way to New Zealand, they left it in Vancouver on the way to San Diego - it must be some kind of karmic kick in the pants...maybe I should be nicer to people? So as I'm putting my beautiful bike together, I discover that the idiot Air Canada baggage handlers have decided to leave a lasting impression on my paint job. I keep telling myself that it is only a bicycle....it's only an inanimate object - I'll get over it - but it's only a week old!!! The bottom line is that I hate airlines. Point final. And Air Canada is the WORST of about 11 evils - and part of its evil is that it's unavoidable. Maybe I should start a letter writing campaign - what am I going to change? I don't know, but if I learned anything at the University of Victoria, it's that I should protest anything and everything, even if there is no good reason.
With that off my chest, I'm going to go enjoy a beautiful ride through the scenic areas of Athens, Georgia. It's lush and green and should give me a good chance to acclimatize to this here weather (it's only 23 out and it's supposed to be colder tomorrow). Out the door I go!
Friday, April 28, 2006
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Walking in a Winter Wonderland...
So it's been awhile...the title of this post was supposed to be something about being back in Cowtown and enjoying the hoopla of the Red Mile and being right in the action of the Flames first playoff game. And while that is going to be a major topic here (I'm going back to my roots man) it is actually snowing here. Now, for those of you from Calgary, I know this isn't a huge surprise - and while I enjoy being home....the trainer just doesn't do it for me so much. To give those of you who aren't regular frequenters of this part of the world, the temperature here yesterday was 20C and tomorrow we are supposed to hit a high of 9C - but today there are flurries. No, not yummy McDonald's McFlurries but snow falling. But that subject has been exhausted - plus I'm heading out of the city next Thursday - maybe it's a blessing so that I can get all my errands done (you may notice that I am currently on the computer and not doing ANYTHING productive). Having said that, it might also be God reacting to the accountants at work who want me to come in today - still not thinking that's high on my list of things to do (but don't tell anyone!!!)
So the Flames won their first playoff game at the Dome last night! Carmen was kind enough to slave over the keyboard yesterday to procure the coveted tickets. We were in "the zone" which meant that we were in first come, first serve seating and ended up two rows from the very top of the stadium - but hey, we got to see the WHOLE ice rink. If you ask my honest opinion, the Flames were lucky to squeak out with the win. There were times where their playing was a little lack lustre. They need to shoot the puck more - too much pansy assing around in behind the oponent's blue line. Superb playing came out twice to kill 5 on 3s and if they had played with that intensity the whole time they would have dominanted, as it was they scored a pretty good goal in the second period only to be answered by the Mighty Ducks in the third. The ducks goal a pretty awesome experience - not only was the goal pretty lame (mind you, a goal's a goal!) but the entire stadium was silent - only the red goal light went on. Definately intense - I wouldn't have wanted to be a Duck's fan in there - in fact I don't think there was a single Duck fan! Calgary went on to score in the first overtime to finish off the game and send all the happy fans off to spend time with the Calgary police force down on 17th ave - definately a whole lot of alcohol was consumed (oh yeah, and did I mention that my opinion of the Flames not playing great wasn't a popular one amongst the crew I went to the game with?)
The truly interesting part about what was going through my mind as we were watching the game was that I was thinking about what those boys endure as professional athletes. I was thinking about the amount of travel, what it would be like to hit the ice, night after night and have to refocus with the crowd being so intense. Maybe it's cause I'm reading a sports psych book at the moment, but I was somewhat wrapped up in the behind the scenes footage!
And to address the fact that I haven't really updated this thing for about a month I'll give you a breif synopsis of what I've been up to: sleep, eat, work, train. Not terribly interesting - hence why I didn't feel that you needed to be bored with reading about how I was terribly exhausted from travelling, racing and now I was doing other people's taxes (which reminds me that I need to do my own today at some point). After two weeks of feeling like I might have mono again, I'm back at 'er and feeling pretty good - I'm on the new bike and pretty stoked to head down for the Athens Twilight crit. Should be good times! Oh yeah and check out what Becca bought me for Christmas - isn't it kick ass? All the cycling pins for the Beijing Olympics - definately cool! K, well I've wasted more than enough time, so I'm going to go jump on the trainer - for those cyclists out there - enjoy your ride and remember: Calgary is NOT a good place for a cyclist - stick to winter or indoor sports!
So the Flames won their first playoff game at the Dome last night! Carmen was kind enough to slave over the keyboard yesterday to procure the coveted tickets. We were in "the zone" which meant that we were in first come, first serve seating and ended up two rows from the very top of the stadium - but hey, we got to see the WHOLE ice rink. If you ask my honest opinion, the Flames were lucky to squeak out with the win. There were times where their playing was a little lack lustre. They need to shoot the puck more - too much pansy assing around in behind the oponent's blue line. Superb playing came out twice to kill 5 on 3s and if they had played with that intensity the whole time they would have dominanted, as it was they scored a pretty good goal in the second period only to be answered by the Mighty Ducks in the third. The ducks goal a pretty awesome experience - not only was the goal pretty lame (mind you, a goal's a goal!) but the entire stadium was silent - only the red goal light went on. Definately intense - I wouldn't have wanted to be a Duck's fan in there - in fact I don't think there was a single Duck fan! Calgary went on to score in the first overtime to finish off the game and send all the happy fans off to spend time with the Calgary police force down on 17th ave - definately a whole lot of alcohol was consumed (oh yeah, and did I mention that my opinion of the Flames not playing great wasn't a popular one amongst the crew I went to the game with?)
The truly interesting part about what was going through my mind as we were watching the game was that I was thinking about what those boys endure as professional athletes. I was thinking about the amount of travel, what it would be like to hit the ice, night after night and have to refocus with the crowd being so intense. Maybe it's cause I'm reading a sports psych book at the moment, but I was somewhat wrapped up in the behind the scenes footage!
And to address the fact that I haven't really updated this thing for about a month I'll give you a breif synopsis of what I've been up to: sleep, eat, work, train. Not terribly interesting - hence why I didn't feel that you needed to be bored with reading about how I was terribly exhausted from travelling, racing and now I was doing other people's taxes (which reminds me that I need to do my own today at some point). After two weeks of feeling like I might have mono again, I'm back at 'er and feeling pretty good - I'm on the new bike and pretty stoked to head down for the Athens Twilight crit. Should be good times! Oh yeah and check out what Becca bought me for Christmas - isn't it kick ass? All the cycling pins for the Beijing Olympics - definately cool! K, well I've wasted more than enough time, so I'm going to go jump on the trainer - for those cyclists out there - enjoy your ride and remember: Calgary is NOT a good place for a cyclist - stick to winter or indoor sports!
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