Top 3 of 2009

December 30, 2009 · Filed under personal value

Rooster asked me last year what my “Top 3 of the year were.”  I like the idea; it’s a dense statement of that person’s year.  My top three of this year are processes I’ve incorporated into my life.

Functional Cycling

I think it’s amazing to look back last year, at this time, when I was completing my first 6 months of bike commuting.  As a casual observer you might not notice the outward differences between how much I bike commute between last year and now, but from an inward perspective I see a great change.

Last year, bike commuting seemed like a big deal. As in, a hard-core activity.  Since then, I’ve discovered bicycle touring which catalyzed my love for getting around on a bicycle.  Bicycle touring changed the way I like to vacation: a slow, but moving adventure that throws you into someone else’s community faster and deeper.

I think bike touring changed my view of functional cycling from more of an ego based push to a more inward happiness pull.  Cycling to and fro work allows me to unwind.  It allows me to feel alive with the breeze against my face, the blood pumping through my veins, and the close-up visual appeal of watching the asphalt quickly transform from future to present to past.

I don’t have as much interest convincing people they should try bike commuting. It’s not that I care if you do or do not bike commute.  The thing is I just like to.

Give me bike, or give me liberty.

Dawn Patrolling

I think running on your own motivation is totally possible.  The human brain is a very powerful device.  So much so that I think running is 80% mental with the remaining half just being physical.

Running with others creates a social commitment for those days when you’d rather sleep in or sit around and watch football.  Some people are gifted with the natural drive to go out day after day and week after week training hard, but I don’t think the average person naturally has that gene.

The Dawn Patrol is a group that organically formed from the SoCal Trail Headz.  It’s a group that is entirely inviting and welcoming, with one exception: you need to be at the trail head at 5:00:00am.

Since I’m a half hour commute away, I usually wake at 4ish.  I have not once regretted waking harshly out of my peaceful slumber to run with this group. Actually, I cannot speak highly enough of this group, and I bet they would the same of me.  It’s a natural symbiotic journey together on the trails.

This group was the journey that helped me finish my first 50 mile race this year, set an Absolute Personal Record (APR) in the 50km, as well as PR in the marathon and the 50km.  Not to name drop, but the group constantly gets visited by such incredible people like the Easter Bunny, a leprechaun, Santa Claus, and Super E-Rod, to name a few.  And, the best part of all is that my body is now used to the process of waking abnormally early one to three times a week now!

Home Adventures

As far as project jargon goes, I would say that I am in the experimental phase of home adventures.  I consider a home adventure something of personal growth you experience in your place of temporary permanence.  For me this year, I allowed myself to watch television, grow stuff, and gain comfort wrenching on bikes.

There’s still a lot of room for growth — or adventure — in this area.  So, I have that going for me, which is nice.

I ask because I’m interested: What are your top 3 accomplishments for the year?

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Goals for Oten

December 23, 2009 · Filed under personal value

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt

As you can see, that’s a quote from my homeboy sportsman, Teddy.

In 2009, I created three goals for the year.  I’ll recap those as well as my Top 3 experiences of the year at a more appropriate time, like once the year is over.

Now, I look forward to setting direction to ‘010 (Oten).

Electricity.

My first goal is to understand electricity more, with a slant towards renewable energy.  It’s weird to call myself an engineer, considering my lack of knowledge in this field of electricity.  I don’t quite know how, but these are my current interests:

  • installing a generator bicycle hub
  • creating a solar powered device to tell people the sun is out
  • programming a micro-controller with some LEDs or something

My goal is to understand the fundamentals, through a couple concrete projects.  I think it is interesting to read the limitations in solar and wind power.  I think it would be rewarding to get some first hand experience understanding electrical loads and how to physically put the pieces together.

Boston.

I have a one year goal: from the 2009 Chicago Marathon, to run the Oten Chicago Marathon (on 10/10/’010) in less than 3:10, then qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

I have two major races planned to get me there: Surf City Half Marathon (February) and the OC Half Marathon (May) to help the training.  Other than that, I want to keep the amount of racing low.  From what I’m reading, I’m focusing on two workouts during the week: the speed work and the long run with recovery runs sprinkled in there.

The hardest part I see so far is: (1) recovering from a run with less than desired expectations and (2) not talking to all my non-runner friends about how awesome my splits were in the intervals I did 5 days previous.

The first requires grin and bear.  Excuses or not, you need to be able to “lace ‘em up again” to fix it.  The second is not so bad, and probably a good exercise in listening (not interjecting) in conversations.

I think it’s a good goal: challenging but possible to bring a 3:35 down to a 3:10.  I think it will be a good experience. . . what’s the point of doing something if you’re not extreme about it??!

Budgeting

I hate planning.  I try to automate things, like saving, in my life  to avoid spending time doing anything close to planning.  However, I think when you budget the surpluses in your life — for me, projects and entertainment — it becomes something more revered.

4 Big Books

One of my interests is to become more pretentious cultured.  Since I started the corporate gig, I usually read a book if it keeps my interest.  Time for reading was easier to make when I didn’t have pressures to always look busy during the day.  Anyway, I want to coerce myself to read some classics.  My first book I picked out is Dr. Zhivago.  I don’t know if this a classic or not, but I think it seems pretentious enough to fit my goal.

That’s about it.

I think the key to goals is creating something concrete, yet flexible.  For, my real goal is not the end, but the journey.

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Evangelize Indifference

December 15, 2009 · Filed under think about it

Today on my commute, I saw a licence plate: “DIV NAKD.”  My initial thoughts were, “I wonder if the driver might be a SCUBA diver.  Sure enough two feet above the licence plate the sticker with the SCUBA DAN Flag, read “Discover Diving.”

NAUI certified me as a SCUBA diver a few years ago.  I don’t like SCUBA diving.  The actual diving, with Go-Go-Gadget lungs!, is fun.  But for the most part, I didn’t like all the preparation, clean up, and the general energy demands that the “sport” requires, like compressing air, transporting compressed air, sometimes getting a boat ride, and the need for all the gear that goes along with the sport.

I still value the experience.  It was a great way to actively learn about partial pressures and molecular diffusion that bores the average chemistry student, yet becomes suddenly more exciting when “death by nitrogen asphyxiation” is thrown into the mix.  And what better way to determine if you like a sport then to try it out!

Discover Diving.

It made me think: why?  Does DIV NAKD think my life will be fulfilled if I discover diving?  Is it the missing link to nirvana?  Will chicks finally dig me?

Then, I took inventory on my self-applied advertisements.

  • Bee Friendly (with a smiling cartoon bee on it).  Yeah, I’m ok with that one.* My main goal with this is for me to smile, when I see it.
  • Pass Gas (with a picture of a gas pump and a bicycle).  This is probably breaking my above rule to spread the message why have more foreign dependency than we need, if you can help it.  But, I like the implied fart humor, so I’m keeping it.
  • Yes, my bicycle has issues. If you don’t understand this sticker, then show up to any roadie group ride.  You will learn why I like this sticker.

Before this commute, I saw a message of camaraderie, #whyweride.  I decided that I liked this message.  It wasn’t so much, if you don’t ride a bicycle your life will suck.  It was a more: this is why I like to ride a bike.  The difference I see as evangelizing versus leading by examples.

*Although maybe “Bee an Ass” with an evil grin and a big stinger on its backside may bring out more emotions or entertainment, if that’s the end goal.

My next upcoming trip has two goals: alone time for my own reasons and POCAR training.  I’m going to areas people consider remote or rugged terrain.  So far, I’ve heard:

  • Sweet!
  • Huh, sounds like something you would do.
  • That is dumb; you are going to die.

I understand the first two.  I don’t understand the third.  Of the people that make this death statement, ALL of them have less outdoors experience than I do.  I think they might be extrapolating that with his experience, I would die.  (I don’t think he would.)

I’ve heard these statements before.  On one occasion, I learned the most culturally when I did NOT follow the nay-sayers’ advice.  So, I have experience tuning these pressures out.  I seek my own adventures and failures.

Just because you’ve gone down one path doesn’t mean that others should, too.  And, just because you seek to not go down one path doesn’t mean that it isn’t right for others.

So in general: unless you agree with me, I don’t want to hear your opinions.

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Slab City

December 1, 2009 · Filed under a real trip, sustainability

On the few bike tours I’ve ridden, my elevator speech to the question regarding “the best part of the trip” includes a favorite natural scenic landscape and a fun cultural experience.

On the Turkey Tour, my favorite cultural experience was visiting Slab City.

I like the summary of Slab City is Krakauer’s Into the Wild.

The Slabs functions as the seasonal capital of a teeming itinerant society — a tolerant, rubber-tired culture comprising the retired, the exiled, the destitute, the perpetually unemployed.  Its constituents are men and women and children of all ages, folks on the dodge of from collection agencies, relationships gone sour, the law or the IRS, Ohio winters, the middle-class grind.

And, my favorite visual summary is the school bus converted into a sailboat trailer.

I imagine the resident(s) live in the yacht year-round, roughly half the time on water and the other half on a school bus in the desert.

Here is dre’s map of our Turkey Tour.  Slab City, or the Slabs, is near the far east point, Point F.  From this view, I think the Salton Sea looks phallic.

The Slabs are three miles east of Niland, CA.  Niland is a small town located within a few miles of the Salton Sea with a couple of restaurants, a gas station, a grocery store, and a laundry mat.

I find the amount craftsmanship very interesting in the Slabs.  Not just a sailboat on a school bus, but the way so many people are able to live not only independently, but also communally.

Most people reside in RVs.  Actually, if you look around the internet, it is frowned upon to camp in a tent.  The reason for the frowning is not the more common American housing value but in disposing human waste.  Like other biodegradable wastes, human wastes take much longer to biodegrade in harsh climates like the desert.  Junk waste is actually the biggest problem in Slab City.  There’s a lot of trash from transients, broken down cars, tires, regular trash trash, and dumping from Niland townees.

A part that I found interesting was the amount of solar cells there.  Virtually all of the RVs have renewable solar power.  Around a campfire, I learned the buzzwords in solar power: inverters, modified sine waves, and true sine waves took the cake in addition to the other more traditional electrical words.

I think it’s neat how independent these people are.  They don’t pay “rent” or pay for utilities like electricity and water.  Water is free behind the gas station, bee tee dubs.  In addition to that, the campfire we found included retirees making fun of home-buyers.  I don’t express the thought much because it’s tireless to someone with closed ears, but in society I am apart of the minority that thinks taking a large bank loan, in hopes of “my” housing value increasing is a bad investment.

Note that I don’t say it’s bad to have a house; there are pro’s.  But, I think a loan is a bad investment so much that I view it is as a liability and a speculative gamble which I’m not interested in even if you rent out a room or whatever. (In my opinion, an apartment building is more of an investment than a house.)

Anyways. . . it’s always nice to find your other birds of the same feather to flock together.  It was just a passing comment around a campfire, but it put a little smile on my desert chapped lips.

The community of the Slabs felt comforting.  In our short 24 hour visit, people constantly introduced themselves to us and our claimed patch of dirt in the range of young seniors, middle aged, young adults, and even a boy of about 10 years of age.  We were fortunate enough to make a connection earlier in the bike tour which catalyzed our ability to eat a great traditional Thanksgiving dinner which later led into the campfire.

Even without that catalyzed close knit experience, I think it is place worth spending some time to either winter over, stay a night, or even check out Salvation Mountain during an afternoon of your Southwest road trip.  It may pull you out of your consumerist and isolated housing comfort zone; it may give you renewable energy ideas; you may find cool trash or all the books you want to take home in the library; but, it will help your craving for a shower.

If you are interested in more pictures from the Slabs as well as the rest of the Turkey Tour, check out dre’s picture journal on the ‘book.

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Reliving the Mental Barrier

November 30, 2009 · Filed under a real trip, bicyclez

It’s hard to tell someone less experienced that a future event is “challenging but very possible,” when you are nearing onto the decade mark in the arena of said events.  Specifically, I am referring to my experience in slightly stoopid endurance events, and in particular a 400ish mile bike trip.  No matter how many days that are on the agenda, 400 is big number.

The trick is to divide the miles into days.  I remember reading something like this when I was embarking on my first marathon.  ”Yeah, it is ‘just one mile at a time,’ but it’s 26 of those!”  It didn’t sound quite right to me.

In marathons, the experience that I go through involves a few major stages: the initial start of finding a good pace, the majority miles where I’m in some kind of groove, the decision point to keep the pace or speed up, and the final push to the end.

So, a marathon isn’t quite one mile at a time, for me.  Yet, it’s no longer a daunting big mileage to me, either.  It’s now roughly four stages I pass through.

I enjoy life moments that let you relive personal learning experiences.

Even though I heard her perfectly, I asked dre what she said when she told me, “That was a fun [up-] hill [climb].”

She thought a climb was fun??

I was shocked.  Days before, the same person that gave me an earful of concerns and reasons of how our 400 mile bike ride was nearing impossible to hear that she just enjoyed climbing a hill!

The previous day was a tortuous 33 miles in a mix of rain and freezing rain.  We broke up the frigid day making hot chocolate in a state park handicap bathroom.

. . . and after a day like that, I could see why an 8% grade incline in a snow covered mountain range with a big tail-wind and a warm sunshine on your shoulders which also marked the halfway point for the day, really could be a fun uphill climb.

Kudos to dre, for turning another leaf and my ability to live vicariously.

On our 2009 Turkey Tour in Awesomerica.

Disclaimer
It turns out there aren’t always food drops and water bottle hand-offs in real life; who knew?  If you’re some roadie thinking that 40+ miles per day isn’t that accomplished, put some gear, food, and water on your bike so that you can cook and camp along the way.

Or, just remain calmer than I am.

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Et tu, Bicycle?

November 17, 2009 · Filed under bicyclez

As jiff explained to me this morning, I am cursed by the Ides of Yesvember.  On Yesvember 15 in 2008 and 2009, I crashed on my left elbow.

2008

My crash was worse in 2008 as I endo’d a mountain bike at nearly top speed. (Haven’t had any interest mountain biking since; who knew?)

Mountain bike crash on Yesvember 2008.

The worst part of this experience was that I crashed between laps in a team relay.  During the laps, I saw a rider with a ghost white face bee line to the medic tent because he had 5 to 10 sticks the size of my pinkie finger lodged into his deltoid, like from a warrior scene in a movie.

As if the seeing this guy wasn’t enough to bring down my mental bruise from the crash, a crazy lady soon came into the same area with half the skin on her face missing from her road rash.  She was doped up on adrenaline and requesting that she get cleaned and patched up as soon as possible so she could still compete.  After the adrenaline wore off, she decided to drop from the race.

I eventually made my second lap, even though I rode much more cautiously.

2009

This year I was in an intersection barely riding at a walking pace, when I decided to stand on my pedals [to accelerate faster].  My chain fell off the front chain ring which threw me into a tailspin where I landed on my same left elbow as the year before. In throwing my left hand off the bars, my handlebars impaled my gut. Furthermore, I created a “yard sale” with my bike pump and pannier coming off the bike.  When dre and a cop asked if I was ok, I did the wind-is-knocked-out-of-me-just-let-me-wallow “Yeah ok” and a wave.

The cool thing about this year is that I put another hole into a shirt I crashed in before, on an alpine slide.  The shirt has about 20 holes now.  So, I have that going for me, which is nice!

[And, I understand more why dre recently bought me a Road ID!]

‘010

I am forewarned about the Ides, Bicycle.

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Pancreatic Race Lives Up to Its Function

November 15, 2009 · Filed under runnin

From my vague memory, the pancreas aids in the digestive process. It extracts nutrients and makes some conversions, then ultimately makes crap.

I don’t like to be negative, unless I feel it is entirely warranted.  And now that I’m a roadie snob, it goes along with the territory that I nag and whine. . .

I can’t pin point what part of the race I hated most, so I’ll give you my chronological experience.

I showed up at a reasonable time, 30 minutes after registration opened and one hour before the race started to find that the registration line was 50 people long.  Even though there were three registration tables, everyone lined up in the H-P Last Name line (n00bs).  This is the second time I blame my father this year; the first was for the Eastern European inclination to being sun burnt.  There are a few ways to prevent this, but I won’t waste my time with that right now (roadies don’t make improvements).

I finally get my race SWAG (Stuff We All Get). “Excuse me, where do I pick up my bib [race number]?” “Oh, we aren’t timing the race this first year.” Ah man, the whole reason I wanted to do a small 10k was to get in a hard run. I figured that without timing, people wouldn’t be as likely to go as hard. But, whatever, there are probably still going to be a few people who will run hard.  It’ll be ok.

The next problem I had was that all the n00bs were putting on their race day shirt, for the race!  I have never felt like such an outsider AT MY OWN activity!  Whatever though, if people like to run to raise money and awareness, or possibly honoring a loved one, for the 4th most common type of cancer then let them eat cake, too.  (Just don’t call it a race; call it a fundraiser.) Now 30 minutes before the race, I am surrounded by the COTTON purple shirt wearing freaks, 95% of the racers.

I like minimal warm up before races.  This distance, 10k, for me means running a mile or so with a couple of goal race pace strides.  I do my thing.

It is now race time.  Homeboy MC calls the crowd to the grass area. I don’t see a starting line, but whatever those aren’t really necessary, just more of a nice ascetic. Oh hey, we’re here AT THE RACE START TIME to stretch together.

White flag. You win, pancreas.

I walked over to the coffee pot. Sitting on the park bench with my coffee, I watch the sheep go from the grass to the canopy area due to the limits of the wireless microphone.

They stretch.

Alright sweet, time to start the 10k.

“Before you start [realizes the microphone doesn't work at the starting line]. . . ok, I am just going to shout this: the course isn’t marked well, so please listen to these directions of the course.”

WTF.

Note that there wasn’t one map of this course available before this time. This should have been a red flag for me, or at least it is now.

After messing up and corrected by the audience a couple of times, the emcee finally starts us about 20 minutes late on our two loop 10k.  Perhaps you already see the next roadblock. . .

The race was a 5k and 10k.  After running a relatively fast pace on the first lap, the second lap was an obstacle course to get past the walkers of the 5k.

The one good thing I have to say about this course is my PR.  I ran a 31 minute 10k, which is a little bit better than my projected goal time of 45 minutes (sarcasm). The race was a touch short, only 4.2 – 4.4 miles depending on the Create Your Adventure Finish Chute.

Thankfully, dre calmed me down from my unnecessary negatives, and also realized we might be better off just leaving. Now, the Create Your Adventure Finish Chute adapted into the parking lot. A beautiful encore. Effin bravo, pancreas!

In case you are wondering, I have more rants from this race.  I figure this is good enough, though.  In all actuality, I was happy with my tempo run race pace that averaged about 7:12/mile.  This is a VO2 max improvement for me, since my last race, the Chicago Marathon. (This is projected extrapolation from a McMillan Calculation.)

I attribute this to two different reasons.  The first is a mid-week workout over the last month alternating weeks in the form of track/tempo/track/easy.  The second is that in every other long run I have been doing at a normal easy pace for two thirds of the run then transitioning into a tempo run to the last third of the run.  The latter is new to me, and really takes the long run from a 10 and turns it up to an 11.

My next planned race is in the Winter Trail Series #1, the 12k on January 9th. Between then, I’m going to try out my pacing debut for the Chimera 100 Miler, in miles 62 – 87 ish.

Manamana.

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Second Amendment Challege

October 23, 2009 · Filed under personal value, runnin

I’ve started two challenges, which together forms the compound phrase: Bare Arms.

Bare: as in barefoot running.

My inspiration for barefoot running is Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run.  I listened to McDougall talk recently.  One of his tenets is that the mechanical advantage from shoes has not reduced running related injuries.  Mechanical advantages have, however, become a large industry for shoe companies.

McDougall cites the Tarahumara culture for his running discoveries, including a recovery from a running-related injury.  He now runs both barefoot and with Vibram Five Fingers (VFFs), but not exclusively. (Check out Barefoot Ted’s opinion of VFFs.)

And so, I am starting to delve into barefoot running with a beginner 5k training schedule to try to develop better form.  The form may in fact make me slower.  I’m perfectly okay with that.  I like running, and I want to keep running, injury free.  Also another comment, I don’t plan on becoming the radical “Barefoot Pete.”  But, I think it would be nice to have the ability to go on easy runs barefoot, and focus on technique.

I’m three workouts in. It’s neat to revisit n00b running experieces: the feeling of relief at the end of the run as well as confidence that I can run a little bit farther the next time.  I don’t look for cushy surfaces, like grass.  I take it as it comes, whether its the silk of the sidewalk, the coolness of the grass, or the grittiness of the asphalt.  I notice my calves are sore after I run.

Arms: 100 push up challenge.

This is just for fun.  It’s something I picked up from dre.  I’m about half-way through their suggested training plan.  In HB lingo, “I’m getting my chest all yoked.”

I guess in summary it’s fun to have some goals to change things and break any natural monotonies.

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Roadie Snob OC

October 14, 2009 · Filed under runnin, shenanigans

Similar to Bike Snob NYC, I stereotypically hate roadies.  And by that I mean that I like to make fun of them.  That stereotypical runner or cyclist athlete seems to only care about splits, heart rates, effort zones, gear performance, and a bunch of petty crap. . .  yet at the same time I have interests in some of those areas. It’s rare to see this stereotype oriented towards functional transit (cycling or running), group inclusion, concerned about others’ health,  or having fun.

It is with mixed emotion that I turn from trail running marathon distances to shorter, higher-paced runs, for a bit.  It’ll be great to decrease my resting heart rate and increase my lung capacity.  However to do so, I’ll need to be a little bit more of a slave to a schedule, AKA a freakin’ roadie.

So, I’ll just make fun of their compression socks, their running flats, and pre-run rituals.  Eh, not really, but I don’t want to become one of those do or die competitors.  For me, that’s a recipe for burn-out disaster: my biggest enemy.

At the same time, I want to ride out whatever wave I’m on right now.

I plan to follow a Runner’s World Smart Coach 1/2 Marathon plan, but only as a guideline.  It has a lot of easy zone running, with a few days of harder runs.

Regardless, I’ll get a 1/2 marathon PR at Surf City!  In searching, I just figured out that all my 1/2 marathons were either in 1/2 IronMan’s or bandit runs, oops.

Yeah, first non-roadie move: bandit running!  Think about it.

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CHICAG09

October 13, 2009 · Filed under runnin

I race for fun, including my intentions for this year’s Chicago Marathon.  It’s also nice when you’re having a good time to put down a good time.

Myself and Rooster after the race

This race was so built up that I was fearing it was going to suffer the high-expectations-low-results phenomenon.  Everyone I talked to — on the plane, carrying my entrant bag around, and wherever else — talked this up. “You’ll love it. There are such large crowds.  You get to see a great view of the city.” The afternoon before the race, I remember telling Rooster “I just want to run this already.”

Fortunately, it did live up to its hype.

The crowd was electrifying. The course meanders through many neighborhoods in Chicago.  So, there are diverse types of cheering from the big dragon costumes in Chinatown, the smells in Greek Town, and the mariachi bands in Little Mexico.

My favorite neighborhood was around the eighth mile, Boystown. It’s hard to remember exact details in this stretch because I wasn’t quite prepared for it.  You slowly enter hearing the club music echoing off the buildings and shops.  As you get closer, the people get more and more enthusiastic, and more flamboyant.  I also think it’s fair to say that almost everyone was cross-dressed.  There were multiple performance stages.  Cheerleaders on one. Choreographed dancers with the twirling guns on another.  And, at the aid-station cross-dressed dudes with beards, on a stage, in addition to cross-dressed dudes handing out water and Gatorade . . . and bananas, of course.  It was that try and see as much as possible, without making the awkward eye-contact kind of moment.

As for my paces, I had a hard time holding back at the start of the marathon. My goal was to hang on to a 9 minute mile, and dwindle the pace down to a 8:49 average minute mile, so I could PR.  Instead, I took some risk and slowly brought down an 8:30 minute mile to an 8:11 minute mile, for a 16 minute PR, 3:35:33. Wahoo!

It was a fun race, and it’s always nice to have home town support, including my dad!  The mass-transit adds a neat perspective for spectators.  The L runs parallel to a lot of the course, so you can hop on and catch your beloved little runner at multiple spots.

After the race on the way to the beer tent, we saw Dean Karnazes, who was about to go out for the second loop of his double marathon.  It was neat to see that he has the same effervescence for life, as he writes about in his books.

Now for the first time in a couple of years, I don’t have a big race on my plate.  I didn’t plan it this way, but it is nice to not have something lingering.  I think I am going to veer away from ultra’s for now.  I enjoy the low-key enviroment with all the camaraderie, but I don’t feel as healthy training for those distances.  Nonetheless, there isn’t anything specific in my upcoming race plans.

On my flight into Chicago, someone flying behind me reminded me of an annoying way people from the area end a statement, so. . .

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