Today is that day. I’d had a “relationship” with 11:11 for a while. I wrote a post of it last year. I’m not much of a superstitious guy. I believe much more in randomness than any predestined occurrences. That being said, 11:11 has somehow crept into my mental being. I’ve sort of been looking forward to today for a long time. For over a year. I don’t have any vision of why. I don’t think anything special is going to occur today. But, I can always hope it does.

Lots of people have some kind of relationship with 11:11. Some of them attribute it to some kind of spirituality. I haven’t gone that far, but I do think that our minds are pretty untapped and we just don’t know how to access the information that our bodies are absorbing constantly.

I hope everyone got a chance to check out the moon yesterday. It was great. I can really understand how our ancestors and others got so into astronomy in the past. They didn’t have too much going on during their day and the sky was in continuous flux throughout the year. It had to of been super interesting. It still is, we just don’t have enough time to take it in as we should.

I’m not going to Louisville to race the USGP cyclocross. It just didn’t feel right, too rushed. I also feel under the weather, so I figure I can use the energy and money better later. There is a local race right here in Topeka tomorrow night. I doubt I’ll race that either, but won’t know until I ride a couple more times. I had hoped that I was just feeling weird from traveling, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Tonight I have tickets to see Lucinda Williams in a small venue, Liberty Hall, in Lawrence. That should be good, other than it is standing room only. And, I’ve written about standing for long periods, it just doesn’t work that well. Especially when I’m not feeling good. But, I’m okay with it this time.

Today I’m going to go out and ride for a long time, really slow. Sometimes that slow, sustained effort seems to purge the sickness out of my body. I know it’s a reach, but that’s all I got right now.

It can’t hurt.

Pre-ride breakfast.

Trudi's niece and nephew, Hannah and Parker went to see Wait, Wait, don't tell me last night, in Chicago. I'm jealous.

I have 3 of these guys looking for new homes. These two, plus a short hair one. About 8 weeks old. They are the most people oriented kittens I've had the pleasure to be around.

I don’t go to much live music, but I hope to change that in the future. I spent 4 hours standing next to the stage watching Lucinda Williams last night. While watching the concert, I was thinking about the similarities between being a touring musician and bike racer. How about that for a weird comparison?

I started thinking about it pretty early, when Lucinda Williams said, “I have a cold and it fuckin’ sucks.” Then she went on and said not to worry and she was going to give us our money’s worth. She then proceeded to play for the next 3 hours, continuously. All I could think the rest of the concert how bad a life it must be, when you have scheduled concerts and it is nearly impossible to cancel. Much different than racing bikes, when I can make a decision about racing or not on my own.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve raced a ton of races sick. Pretty real sick. But, I made that choice. It wasn’t because of some obligation that I had to a bunch of fans that had paid money to come watch me race. That would be a lot harder decision.

Anyway, I started thinking that I should really be in Louisville at the USGP, even if I’m under the weather. I was thinking that if she can stand on stage and perform for 3 hours with a bad cold, then I should be checking the course out in Kentucky and not worrying about the results.

So, I made a decision last night to go ahead and race the local race tonight in Topeka. But that was yesterday. Before I woke up this morning and can barely stand. Plus, my ears have not stopped ringing yet. I guess I was a little too close to the speakers. Anyway, it goes back to the post that cyclists aren’t good for much anything other than riding bikes. Definitely not standing up against a stage for 4 hours, drinking a fare amount of spirits. I’m going to go out on the group ride in a little while and see if it’s as bad as it feels now.

Lucinda is playing tonight in Denver. The tour bus was warming up as we left. She probably still has a cold since I have no idea how it would get better with her schedule. Pretty crazy schedule for a 58 year old woman. Almost makes racing bikes seem easy.

Pretty good “stands” for the concert.

This guy, Blake Mills, opened for Lucinda Williams and then played lead guitar the rest of the night. He was incredible. 23 years old, from Venice, CA. He has a long musical career ahead of him.

The last 11:11 on 11.11.11 in my lifetime. Pretty good day all around.