I didn’t drink any coffee before I was 30 years old. Not really until 34 I think. Now I drink a ton. At least in my estimation, it seems like a ton. Most days it’s twice a day. I drink tea in the morning. I started that somewhere in my late 20’s. I’m not sure when I started drinking coffee. I think it was living with Michael Engleman in Boulder. He could drink an unbelievable amount of coffee. And alcohol.

The first time I remember racing with coffee is at a Norba National in Spokane. Paul Biskup brought me a double espresso 5 minutes before the start. I had a very good race. That started the whole thing. Gee, thanks Paul. Now I drink coffee religiously before every race. It is part of the routine.

I’m not sure if coffee is good for your health or not. I think not, but there are studies out there that say otherwise. I know that when I’m sick, I have no desire for coffee. Tea is good then, but I never have the stomach for coffee when I’m sick. That tends to tell me that it isn’t that great for you in general. I know that thought process is flawed, but that is how it works here.

I’ve experienced coffee all over the world now. Guatemala, Brazil, New Zealand, etc. It’s amazing how much different it is. I was interested in who drinks the most coffee as a country. I found this list of amount of coffee consumed per capita. I was surprised. But, after looking, it makes sense. Seems the colder the place is the more coffee consumed.

I’ve had some of my best pre race encounters at coffee shops before a race. I few years ago, I was standing in line before the Redland’s criterium and some guy came up and introduced himself and said he was a fan. He told me it would be an honor to buy my pre race coffee. I told him that was okay, but he insisted. I ordered a quad espresso. I was a little embarrassed, but that was what I was ordering. Anyway, I ended up finishing 5th in the criterium. I went across the line and a couple hundred meters later, this guy was standing there, crazy happy. I wasn’t that impressed with my result, but after talking to him for a bit, it became contagious. He said it was the highlight of his bike race spectating experience. I rode back to the hotel thinking how great it was to be so easily pleased.

Anyway, yesterday, working on the car, I drank a fair amount of coffee. Last year, working on the roof, 18 hours a day, I was way over the limit. 5-10 a day at least. Manual labor requires coffee for productivity. I’ve never thought of cycling as manual labor, but it really is just that. Maybe that why I enjoy construction. It’s a lot like racing bikes. They both involve physical labor, coupled with mental considerations and prowess.

I've had this Saeco machine for a while. When it breaks, I'm going to upgrade. It is way too easy, push a button and espresso comes out.

There is a certain beauty of new brake rotors. Mine were pretty shot.

I really have. And it is starting to disturb me. I used to pride myself on knowing the prices and/or value of things. But now, the pot of money that people have is so giant, some stuff is just off the charts.

Part of the reason I live in Kansas, most of the time, is that real estate here is a fraction of the cost of most places I go. I was screwing around with Zillow.com. It a real estate website that covers the whole county. I’ve been kind of looking around for a building lot somewhere “super expensive”. Santa Barbara type expensive. There are some lots there, up on the hill, for around 300K. You can buy a unbelievably nice house in most places around here for way less than that. But, it seemed pretty cheap to me. But, there also was a house there listed for 61 million. Without that much land. 10 years ago, the most expensive house in the country was in Laguna Beach and it cost 25 million. I’m sure there were more expensive private listings, but that was advertised as the highest listed. Now, 25 million isn’t that much. I guess is just that much more money around nowadays. But, it blows me away.

I still have a long list of stuff that went wrong at Cyclo-X Nationals from my perspective. I know that Wayne Stetina and Steve Johnson are eagerly awaiting it. I think the entry fee rant I did kind of hit a sore spot. But entry fees seem nuts. $65 to race for no prize money. $105 if your late. It’s not like we’re only racing one or two races a year. Or a month. A lot of us race more that 8 times a month. Sometimes much more. Cycling is a blue collar sport. It’s not golf. It’s not polo. Let’s try to keep it that way and keep the costs to the participates down to a reasonable level.

Anyway, I finally got out and “shopped” yesterday. That is a couple days earlier than my normal Christmas shopping. I ended up buying only one thing, for me. But, I had no idea what seemed reasonable for most anything I looked at. We’ve been convinced that we need to spend $2000 on a TV, so when I see a really nice one for $800, it seemed like a deal. The same thing goes for cycling equipment. There are a ton of $8000 bikes out there. But, you can get a pretty raceable bicycle for less than $2000. And much less than that if you’re willing to buy something used. If I was racing on a budget, that is the only way I’d buy a bike. But, that’s just me.

Gas is getting expensive again. Oil is over $90 a barrel and going up. I own some oil stocks that kind ofstraddles the oil play. They go up when the gas prices are high and go down when it get cheaper. Kind of reassuring on your mind.

We’re driving to Chicago in a couple hours. I like the drive. I usually do all my Christmas shopping in a few hour spurt up there. I like the people watching. Lots of diversity in Chicago. Everyone seems in such a rush. It takes the pain out of the shopping watching everyone else stress. That is sort of strange.

I’m not sure where I was going with this. I guess I was trying to figure out, in my own mind, how to get a handle on this time of the year. A huge percentage of American’s spending will have occurred this past month. It was pretty enjoyable racing bikes and not thinking about it until now.

I had no idea that you could buy a mattress for 4K at Sears.

We got these pears from Kent and Katie Eriksen. They are from Harry and David. Thanks guys. They probably cost around $6 each. But, they are well worth it. Doesn't it seem like they should have been going the other way?

This is what I bought yesterday. If you're looking for a Christmas present for any cyclist, this would probably do it. It's $39 at Sears, but you still need to get the19.2V battery and charger.

This is the price check for 15th place at a UCI race. I'm not slamming JingleCross here. I'm slamming the UCI for making the mandatory prizelist so low it doesn't even cover entry fee for most of the places.