August 26, 2009

It was another relatively uneventful weekend.  Kris competed in the Eagle River Triathlon as part of a team.  She handled the bike leg again.

The race was on Sunday so we took a training run on Saturday.  I made Kris ride her heavy commuter bike while I rode my road bike, knowing that her race ride on a lightweight road bike would feel so much better.  It was a little unfair, but I owed her from a training run from last year where the bike arrangements were reversed and I was getting left in the dust.  I had no need to ride the course in any sort of time so I just used the efficiency advantage to relax and enjoy the ride.  We worked on lines through the turns and looked for course hazards.  I did shoot ahead a couple times to enjoy the speed and handling of my bike.  On the longest hill I sustained a solid 37 mph for an exciting amount of time.  It was the fastest I have gone on a bike in years.  The short wheelbase and twitchy steering gave the speed a little instability, but I enjoyed it anyway.

Sunday was relatively painless.  We arrived at Chugiak High School a little before noon expecting to wait around for a few hours but the team got underway very quickly after arrival.  I didn’t even really have time to scope out a good place for taking pictures of the bike leg start.  Kris was already underway by the time I got settled and I only snapped a couple of quick photos as she pedaled down the course.  After that I knew I had about a half hour to set up for the second photo op as the course consists of basically two out and back legs.  I walked along a stretch of the course looking for good lighting and backgrounds.  I found a wallet on a park bench along the road and ran it over the race officials before continuing my search for a good photography location. 

I settled on a turn with hopes of getting a few sets of shots.  I began experimenting with taking photos, trying to capture the turn with one camera and a side view of the passing rider with another.  I was set up too close to the turn to switch cameras that quickly.  I liked the side view better as I could set a long shutterspeed and blur the background.  I practiced technique using the monopod and began getting consistently good results.  I was well prepared by the time Kris arrived.  Unfortunately just as she arrived at the best point for photos, two riders returning on the second leg whizzed by, partially obstructing my shot.  I managed to get a couple decent ones before Kris was out of range.

I began looking for a good finish position and settled on a spot a short distance after the final turn.  I was close enough to the turn to get a good picture and far enough to have time to switch cameras to get a passing rider shot.  I practiced my technique numerous times, turning both cameras on and removing the lens caps as a rider approached the turn, taking the picture with the longer lens, and then following the rider with a shorter lens as they passed.  It was a fun way to occupy my time and work at one of my hobbies.  When Kris arrived, I was ready and got both shots.  This also allowed me to duck under the ropes and move into position to get a picture of the team’s runner heading out for the last leg of the triathlon.

The team did alright, finishing 8^th out of 19 women’s teams.  Kris was the strongest member of the team turning in the fourth best team bike time.  I think they had fun.

I can’t go anywhere without seeing someone I know these days.  At the triathlon, I ran into a friend from my State employment days.  Chevron employees had three teams competing so I knew most of them.  I have gotten better at running into people I know.  It used to bother me more, never really being sure if I wanted to talk to anyone.  It used to happen rather infrequently.   Now, it is a bit more matter of fact, a bit less of an unusual event.  I even ran into my old boss from the state in Best Buy last week and he lives in Juneau.  I just went over to him and said hi even though I really don’t have much to say to him.

I went fishing on Sunday evening.  Kris was wiped out from the race, but I still had a little energy.  It was drizzling as I headed out to the creek.  The water was a little high and a little murky, but I could see my lure adequately to think it wasn’t a total waste of time.  Around the second bend was one of the biggest pools.  I fished each corner of the pool and felt a few bumps, then success.  A colorful fish surfaced and darted in every direction, peeling my six pound test line at will.  The fish swam by every log jam along the edges of the pool and I managed to keep my line clear.  The battle wore on for an unusual amount of time for such close quarters.  I had to fight to get the fish into the shallow calm water on my side of the pool.  I finally won the battle and carefully extracted my hook from the unusually large silver for Campbell Creek.  I stepped it off at about 30 inches in length.

I retied my line and continued fishing.  The rain kicked in.  It was the heaviest rain I think I have seen in Alaska.  I stood there as it just kept getting worse.  My old rain jacket seemed to be working and it was a long walk back home so I kept fishing.  Soon everything turned muddy.  The water was too murky to see anything and I was uncomfortable trying to wade across the deeper pools.  I fished a couple more holes and called it quits.

I had another first Alaskan experience, golf.  Chevron had a golf outing and I got signed up for it.  It was a four man scramble and my team had three sets of rental clubs which is always a bad sign.  It was a long day and I was the anchor for our team.  I was surprised at how well I was hitting the ball.  Even my short game was pretty good and kept our team out of really big trouble.  It was fun to play again.  The greens were horribly slow.  I think they were an unusual grass.

It was also just amusing to golf in Alaska.  Denali was visible for most of the morning.  We saw three moose and a fox. A cow walked across the fairway in front of us.   A bull moose was apparently teaching a young moose the ropes.  The bull was waving his big antlers back and forth, dancing, bobbing, and charging at the young one.  At one point the bull charged in our direction, dipping his antlers at a park bench as he trotted along.  The fox was rather habituated, sitting right along the cart path as we passed.  The fox was truly beautiful.  I wish I had taken a camera with me.

Kris and I have spent a lot of mental energy lately discussing our future.  It is getting to be time to do something different.  In a way, we are both disappointed that we have landed in high powered careers.  It wasn’t really what we were targeting.  We are both burning out on the stress and demands of the positions.  We are allowing our egos to drive us to deliver more each day to keep our names in the forefront of our respective organizations.  I don’t think we are really addicted to the recognition, but I think we both fear the sense of failure that could come without it.  It seems like a form of mental illness, but at least it pays well. 

We have been crunching numbers and we know exactly where we stand in life.  The last few months have been exceptionally good to us with investments accelerating as the market rebounds.  Many of our older investments are a bit lower than their peaks, but we still aren’t hurting too badly.  We feel poised to capitalize on a recovery.  Long term finances seem like no concern, but we have a midterm problem.  We don’t really have enough money to get us to an age where we can start drawing on those more traditional retirement funds.  We need jobs for a few more years at our current income, but we aren’t going to last that long.  We could switch to lower incomes and work for a longer period of time.  The problem is that the ideal situation would be part-time work and it really is a tough situation to find. 

We also don’t know what we would do without working.  Sure, we all envision the carefree lifestyle of financial security, but we are concerned that we could easily turn into mental mush by not challenging ourselves.  We sincerely believe that people are not good at predicting what will make them happy so we almost need to employ the George Costanza trick of doing the opposite of what we think is a good idea.  We actually have an idea that would provide a clear pathway that would include some serious leisure, some serious learning, and some major pushing of our comfort zones while providing zero financial risk.  It seems too perfect so there must be something wrong.  We are in no hurry.  The rest of the year will go quickly.  We are looking to approach 2010 with a renewed perspective and some sort of plan.  I think the plan is forming.