The vessel

Many times of late, he had asked for the spirit of consciousness to fill his lowly vessel with clarity and enlightenment. The last time, early in the pre-dawn stillness, he thought he heard a voice whisper, "I fill you up daily, but you keep leaking."

Now knowing his carbon and clay container was more colander than cauldron, he set out to plug the holes as a silver rain began to fall.

First order of hole filling business then, should be to determine what to keep in and what to let out. Didn't take long to see that all he had were things he had found.

Thunder.

9,999

Was he running to it, or away from it? Why the need for perpetual motion? An image of the one-armed lawyer from St. Croix popped into his consciousness like a firecracker, its luma disolving along with the memory of the girl.

The passing green Fiat slapped him back to the present with a backhand of volume and lyrics from another time, another space, "send guns, lawyers and money, Dad get me out of this". You can lose your mind, lose your money and lose your love but don't lose your passport buddy boy. Keep movin, breathe deep and relax. Warren Zevon might even put his approval stamp on this episode. Define love, she had said.

Heads: Or Tales of the Ten Thousand Things

He sat quietly in a dark Venetian cafe and continued the mental thread: The connectedness of everything was called the Mother of the Ten Thousand Things in the Zen tradition, so his current plight of being down to his last 5 Euros, meant some mystical dot was about to connect his poverty to his prosperity? Was that it? The yin of his hunger was about to be fed by the yang of the fast? Why was it that every-time he felt as if he finally understood something the cosmos would show him almost immediately just how little he truly understood? What a great sense of humor this great spirit has, truly comical. And he knew how hard comedy was. He also knew that if he was to act on the dream he needed to start soon. Like right fucking now, today. To tell the story of the Ten Thousand Things, one day at a time, would take 27.3 years. March of 2035. He hoped that Blogger and YouTube would still be around and offering free space. The story was to be called: Heads: Or Tales of the Ten Thousand Things, and he felt slightly humored that the first of the 10,000 interrelated things would be a Euro 5. It was so perfect, assuming he understood the story's ending and it wasn't just another Buddha joke.

He ordered a double espresso and laughed.

Two images from the ride yesterday. Although the very adept and powerful rider is signaling me that it is OK to pass, it appears as if he has something else in mind.


There was every imaginable type, size, style, color, model and combination of bikes, riders and their pals on the marvelous hills of Bainbridge. This green pooch on the flat stretch at Point White seems to affirming to his master: Got Your Back Buddy.

We hope to have this ride converted to a CompuTrainer RCV in time to train for next years event. It was a little cold out there.

Four faves from the PMX5 DVD vaults. Top to Bottom: Farrago, Songs and stories on the Triathlon Trail, 2005. BIG FIX 2006. Some very impressive fixed gear riders go coast to coast for Histio. The Twelve. NW Triathlon 2004, all about TTRT, triathlon training and racing disorder. Nasty stuff. NW Triathlon 2002, One Perfect Race. Ronan and Trevor go to Kona. Includes the hit song, "I wanna be a Wahoo". Send me ten bucks and I'll put one in the mail for ya, but HEY, supplies are limited!

We are in negotiations for a sequel to BIG FIX 2006 as the boys have targeted a re-creation of the trip taken in 1908 by two kids fresh from college, who rode from Santa Rosa to Seattle. Could be fun.

OK, today's the day. Chilly Hilly 35. 3K of elevation gain over 33 miles. Bainbridge Island, WA. A ride that Bicycle Mag rates as one of the four best in America. WOW. I will be filming for an RCV starting at 9, and then hopin' on the semi-retired Great Panuzi (2000 Softride Rocket Wing) to do a high speed (?) lap myself. Here is a shot from 2005 or so of all the folks riding over from Seattle on a Washington State Ferry, the Wenatchee it looks like. Weather should hold at 40 with some clouds but little rain. Let's ride. I am gonna try to get the RCV pushed into the already hectic schedule in time for a summer release, so stay tuned, and BTW, I finished Kona yesterday and Oceanside is final rendering as I blog to you. Peace and Love my bicycle brethren. I'll add some shots from the ride today later.

On Sunday, Dec. 23 we rode the LeMond RevMasters for 12 straight hours to raise money to buy Island kids new bikes for Christmas. We raised almost 3K and gave away nine cool new bikes (Schwinns and Treks). Thanks to Jeff at Classic Cycles, the Bainbridge Athletic Club and all the gang for sittin' in with me. And Lynn brought me a beautiful Berkeley Breathed illustrated book called "The Red Ranger Came Calling". A long, but rerwarding day.

My latest most favoite band, the Drive By Truckers. First heard 'em when I was down in Panama City Beach, FL for IM Florida, bought two of their CDs at Blockbuster and have been hooked ever since. How 'bout these for some lyrics:

My mama told me your life is such a mess
Your dummer than dogshit is what my Daddy said
I was just sixteen when they showed me the door
I keep their picture but don't look at it no more

My first wife told me you need to get a life
My second wife told me to get another life
I bought a bottle and the Impala's parked by that tree
So come on darlin', if ya wanna be number three

Sometimes I feel like shit
Sometimes it ain't half of it
Somtimes I'm so high I'm afraid to go to sleep
Sometimes I'm lower than the company I keep

Lyrics by Patterson Hood/Music by Drive By Truckers

BIG thanks to Matt and Jan for giving me a ticket to see them at the Showbox.

Kati modeling the jerseys. Check out this YouTube spot I created for our Indoor TT, http://youtube.com/watch?v=GZpsmN4Ie4E

Our custom club jerseys from 2007 featured the stunning artwork of Frank Samuelson, my old buddy from an era long gone. This is just the front, we added some sponsor logos, natch, on the soulders (Nuun) and sides (Oomph!) and had Pactimo in Colorado manufacture. They did a great job and we sold about 50. Art on wheels.

CT in action

The world famous CompuTrainer in use at the Multi-Rider center in Seattle. Up to eight riders can ride the same course simultaneously and monitor their progress, all this while seeing real time displays of power, watts, speed, distance and time. And coming VERY SOON, you will be able to see an actual course displayed on a big screen as you ride. That would be the RCVs, of course. www.RacerMateinc.com for more info.

In February of 2007, as I was very contentedly leading my Wednesday morning spin class, RacerMate Inc. of Seattle, WA called and left word that they would like to hire my services to produce a new line of software products to augment their world famous indoor bicycle ergometer, the CompuTrainer. The idea was to film high profile triathlon courses, add their proprietary codes that activate load generation so that while you, as the rider, cruise along a bike course, you would not only feel the changes in topography, but SEE them as well. The whole indoor training enchilada one might say. And I said, si, you bet.

And so almost overnight I became, TA DA, RCVman. Real Course Video man. And the journey began. Was in California for the 2007 ToC, Lanzarote, Switzerland, England, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Idaho, Wisconsin, Arizona, Baja, Mexico, Lake Placid, NY, Newfoundland, Hawaii, and on and on. It was a blast. So far we have released two RCVs (CDA and Kona) with all the rest in the works. As we sit here on the last REAL cold week of 2008, we are gearing up for the 2008 filming season, which looks to be starting in Australia and South Africa next month. So here we go again.

We all thought (that would be two people) it would be interesting to document the action and adventure that takes place in the process of producing the RCVs, so this is the spot for the 2008 blogging of RCVman. Could be fun.