Yup, change is a-comin'

So: I accepted a darn good job offer from a start-up in Berkeley, which will be a big change from working for GlobeCo in south San Jose in so many ways. Not quite as many as if I were moving to the Maldives, OK, but still, change. Change. CHANGE!

I don't know Berkeley terribly well: e.g. plunked down at Shattuck and University, I'd have no idea where to go to get groceries. But I won't be moving up there until after I start working, which won't happen until after I get a work visa, which won't happen until I get my passport renewed, which won't happen until I go back to Canada Feb. 1 or so...assuming ticket prices have not radically changed (!) since I last checked. For the interim working-but-not-yet-moved period, I'm really looking forward to those Los Gatos-Berkeley commutes on Hwy 880 (a.k.a. where hours and day of your life go to die).

Oddly enough, I'm still motivated to get something done at Old Job, but the time constraint has me thinking and experimenting a bit frantically. It'd probably be best to trim the to-do list down considerably at this stage to make sure a few things get done, as opposed to getting a lot of things not done.

Oh yeah: bike race this morning. Gooey, play-doh-like mud (Carr index #3) in places.* And I have no fitness. Didn't sleep in quite enough to sabotage any chance of racing, but it was enough to guarantee that there was no chance for me to warm up or pre-ride the course.** The small B field took off in front of me and I plugged along behind, which worked out well enough for me to pass a few mechanicals and outgassed riders--5.5 long laps later it was done, and I was 7/11 (+2 DNFs).

*I can plow through mud, oddly enough. Is it my size? Bike position? Big glutes? You tell me. Oh, and the pedals with their advertised "open body [that] sheds mud easily and yields easy cleat entry and exit in all types of riding conditions"? Not in mud #3. I don't know if any pedals were working well today, mind you.

**Cyclocross is a completely different beast when you do not have a chance to pre-ride a course and have no idea what's at the bottom of the hill, around the corner, under the mud, etc. It would be interesting (though impractical and unlikely) for a promoter to somehow enforce a "no pre-ride" event simply to see who can learn the fastest on the fly...or is that like MTB?