Thursday, September 11, 2008

Sorry About That

I didn't really mean to neglect this blog, it just sorta happened. The hit counter says 70-80 visitors continue to check in each day, which makes me feel quite guilty indeed.

Perhaps I owe you an explanation.

When we got home from North Carolina, I had twelve phone messages from Barack Obama. That was strange because he usually only calls once or twice a week. Sensing this might be important, I called him back immediately. He got straight to the point, "Will you be my running mate?"

Obviously I was flattered, but my first thought was whether or not Washington DC had decent group rides. Apparently he had anticipated my concerns because he quickly added that the Secret Service agents would ride with me whenever I wanted, and that they'd even do a few races where I'd be the protected rider. Literally. He then sweetened the offer further, suggesting that DARPA would develop me a power meter weighing in at 10 grams.

I spent a week seriously considering the offer --and so I was too distracted to blog-- but in the end I said no, and suggested he find somebody a little older and more politically seasoned.

And just when I was about to blog about that experience, I got a call from the Theoretical Physicists at CERN regarding their new Particle Accelerator. Seems they had a little problem with an upcoming experiment. They were planning to smash some beams together at high speed, but were worried they might accidentally suck the entire planet into a crushing black hole. That got my attention too.

So I spent the next week deeply engrossed in some physics calculations --and so I was too distracted to blog-- and thank god I did because I found a couple critical errors in their software. I emailed them a patch last week. Since they started up the machine yesterday, and we're still here, I guess it worked. You're welcome.

Which brings us up to last week. I started having some "Is-this-really-all-I'm-doing-with-my-life?" kinds of thoughts. Not exactly rising to the level of a mid-life crisis, but distracting enough that I wasn't interested in blogging.

You know, thinking about things like, "Should I quit my job, and am I finally done with bike racing?"

Stuff like that.

But there's also the inevitable follow-up question, "Then what will you do?"

It's hard to answer the first question without also addressing the second one.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I think the answer to question #2 is obvious?
Break dancing baby- you have the perfect power to weight ratio!

Obviously ;)

Anonymous said...

he's back!! thought my browser was malfunctioning - us SB riding scene junkies need our fix and you are our dealer, like it or not
;-)

Tom Anhalt said...

Yeah...he's BACK!

Chester...not break dancing...DDR baby!

Marco's a DDR fiend! ;-)

Marco, you're cyclist, both as a participant AND a fan...always will be. Not that there's anything WRONG with that, of course :-)

Anonymous said...

Coaching.

Coaching!!

use that knowledge you have picked up over the last 57 years of bike racing.

(Ok, I'm being selfish because I would love for you to coach me next year.)
But I really do think you would be an awesome coach.

Boelter

Anonymous said...

Marco, Thank you for finding our software problem. During the first experiment we did in fact create the unstable black hole, which existed for about a femtosecond, as you predicted. Without your work we'd all be dead, and most of Switzerland, France and Germany would now be squashed into the size of a mosquito.
CERN

Marco Fanelli said...

> Thank you for finding our
> software problem.

You're welcome ...and thanks for enabling my continued delusional behavior! Next up: I'll take on Global Warming (but I need a nap first...)

Thank you Boeltero! But not 57 years ...just since 1975, so let's see... that's only 33 years. I'm considering jumping into coaching, and all delusions aside, I feel I do have something to offer. We'll see.

Greg Knowles said...

Marco Fanelli, Super Hero! I knew it. Welcome back!