Ramblings of PlainJane: The End of the Beginning

And so we wind down this first month of 2013. The last month or so has been packed with ups and downs, new beginnings, the ending of one era and transitioning to a new one. In between all of that, I've had the typical comedy of errors and hijinks that most people who know me have come to expect.

First, as I mentioned in my last post (over a month ago! i'm such a terrible blogger these days), I took on a new-new position with a new company. In between jobs, I had the pleasure of living the life of a wanna-be pro cyclist. I told my coach that I had free time and she accommodated me with back-to-back 3-4 hour rides for about 2 weeks. As an aside, by "wanna-be pro cyclist" (WBPC) I mean the pro-cyclist life without the sag support, daily massages and chef-prepared nutrition. So, pretty much I was just an out-of-work chick who rode her bike a lot.

Anyway, she made sure I didn't overdo it, as I am prone to do, but we did load up the base miles. It was a strangely liberating feeling with just me, my powermeter and my ipod for hours on end. The only downside is that there are only a couple of routes out of town (that I know) so by the time I started working again, I was ok with the "break" from MacArthur/Poolesville/10am routes.

Somewhere in those two weeks, the boy and I made the trek out west for the holiday. I continued the WBPC routine out there with the compliment of a couple indoor rides due to snow. On our way out we happened upon an unexpected snow storm somewhere around the VA/WVA line. It was awful - borderline blizzard conditions. All kinds of crap from the road was being kicked up (snow? ice? rock salt?) and I could barely see the one lane that was still passable on the 3 lane highway. I'm not a wuss driver -I raced sprint cars in a prior life! but this was bad. We made it safe and sound, only about 2.5hrs later than we hoped, but I swear that took years off my life.

The next day we went out to the car only to realize that one of those flying objects actually broke through glass. I needed a new windshield. Progressive was awesome and set up something for the day after Christmas. Only it snowed that day and none of the back roads were viable. In the meantime, the boy was going to take the car to town for last minute shopping but ... it wouldn't start. Nothing. Not even pretending to turn over. We put the car into the garage and hooked it up to a charger- it would start but once we turned it off - nothing. So we jumped it and took it to Advanced Auto. One guy tried saying it was my starter but thankfully another, more experienced, guy said no, I just need a battery.

In the end, my souvenirs from this trip were a new battery and a new windshield. Sorry, I didn't get you anything. If it makes you feel any better, I wound up having to replace my brakes and rotors after this trip as well. This was a very expensive trip - next time I'm flying.

I leave you with some random pics from the past month or so.