busy, sort of...

Watching soccer at Efebos cafe in Pilsen.


I haven't posted all week. I've had to follow both the World Cup AND the Tour, so who has time? The Tour is a little blemished this year by the suspension of the two favorites and Valverde's crash, but I haven't lost any interest. I love these "boring" early stages where the lesser-known riders try for a lucky breakaway that earns their sponsor a little camera time (Did you know that Agritubel makes tubular metal products for livestock pens? And that Bouygues Telecom is a French mobile phone company?). Then comes the agony of the riders off the front as the sprinters' teams reel them in a minute at a time...Can they hang on for a surprise victory? Maybe...? Nope! The dynamics of these flat stages and the sprinter's competition aren't changed at all by the absence of some of the general classification contenders.

It's a good thing I have lots of cycling to follow on the internet, because I haven't been able to ride my bike at all since I did a road race in Whitewater, WI a couple of weeks ago. My right knee, which had been feeling reasonably okay all spring, got sore and remains so. I'm not going to ride on it like this, so I am suspending myself indefinitely. Unfortunately I had to miss the state championships last weekend, which I'd been targeting for months. Pbbbbt. It is back to the pool and yoga class. I don't imagine I will ever be able to really ride again. I am dealing with that about as poorly as you might expect.

On the positive side, however, I am using the "free" time to work on a fundraiser for the radio station of the Oaxaca Teacher's union. It's going to be July 23 from 2-8PM at 1821 S. Allport. We're going to grill some carne asada and sell beer and have some music by local groups here in Pilsen. It should be fun, and hopefully we'll make enough money to buy some new equipment for the station, which was destroyed when state police violently broke up a teacher's strike on June 14. You can read more about that here:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/15/1411208

I have to go around the neighborhood this afternoon and try to hit people up for raffle donations. We'll see how that goes!