KNowak

The Last Lecture.

Many of you have probably heard about Randy Pausch's Last Lecture that was given last year at Carnegie Mellon.  It has actually gained a cult like following on Youtube with millions of people logging on to view it.  If you haven't seen the Last Lecture video yet please do yourself a favor and watch it.  You'll be happy you did and I can guarantee you'll learn a few things.   

Randy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last summer and was only given 3 months to live.  In spite of that he news, about a month later, he gave The Last Lecture as a way of handing down life lessons for his kids to later watch.  He had been interviewed on a number of different shows and seemed like such a down to earth kind of person.  I've followed his story this past year or so and I realized what a fantastic person he was.  Smart, funny and 100% devoted to his wife and kids.  

Randy had survived much longer than those original 3 months he was given and in doing so touched the lives of so many people.  Sadly, Randy passed away today at home, with his family. 

The guy was only 47 years old and this shouldn't happen to people who are only 47 years old. 

2008 Photo of the Week #30

Kayaking is an activity that Kelly and I love to do...and frankly don't do enough.  We've been all over New England, up on Lake George in NY and even while we were in Hawaii.  It's just such a fun sport and a great way to spend an afternoon.  This shot was taken on the Charles River out towards Weston, MA.  May 30, 2005 

Col de Wachusett.

While Wachusett Mountain is technically only a mountain by about 6', it's still a mountain and it's still a bitch to climb up on a bicycle.  Especially when its unbearably hot outside!  Myself, Jo Jo and Brian Murph all took part in the Climb to the Clouds training ride Sunday, all 105 miles of it!  This was perhaps one of the hardest physical activities I've ever done and it took everything I had in the tank to finish.  It was one of those rides that absolutely sucks when you're out there, but once you finish and get off the bike you're really glad you did it and I'm sure it'll pay huge dividends come PMC weekend in 2 weeks time.  About 2 of the 105 miles were flat...that's it.  The rest was all climbing and descending.  It seemed like around every corner and every bend there was another climb.  They were all nasty and all steep.  At a few points I actually thought smoke was going to start shooting out of my quads as they were burning so bad. Some of the steepest parts on the mountain were at about 9% grade...a horrible slope to ride up!

The route took us through towns I've only heard of a handful of times before; Sterling, Westminster, Bolton, Stow, and Princeton.  Beautiful country out there in western, MA.  The route was extremely rural so we didn't have many cars around us at all. 

Overall the ride took Jo Jo and I just over 7hrs to complete, which is a ton of time to be in the saddle...but what can you do [Brian "the Hammer" finished in just under 6hrs].  Just for some comparison, the riders in the Tour de France tackled 110 miles today, and went up two legit mountains, in around about 5hrs time.  That's why they're the professionals I guess!

Towards the end of the ride the sun finally broke through and it got even hotter than before.  Thankfully with about 10 miles left a huge cloud settled over top of us and unloaded its cargo...we got soaked.  It felt great and actually provided some much needed energy for me.  It also cooled us down a good bit too which was nice. Too bad it couldn't have happened like back at the 50 mile mark or something!

A few photos from the summit:

       

     

A funny story from the ride: On one of the first really hard hills I was in my grove and setting a tempo to get me over.  Some dude rolled up alongside me and asked what I had for mileage on my computer so far.  A bit annoyed I looked down and told him...trying to get back to the matter at hand.  I did notice his bike though...a sweet hand-made Serotta.  Then I recalled that the voice sounded a bit familiar....so I looked at his face.  It was none other than our junior senator here in the Commonwealth...John Kerry.  I then said hello and we chatted for a bit before he, his long legs and his expensive bike all moved ahead.  It was good to see him out there logging the miles and gearing up for the PMC too.  

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Semi-related:  If you only watch one stage of the Tour de France this year make sure it's this Wednesday...as the riders will go over two famous climbs...the Galibier and L'Alpe d'Huez.  This stage will probably decide the winner.

Totally un-related:  A big shout out to Bob-Dog-San who is in Hong Kong this week.  I'm sure he'll be checking in at some point. 

"Revs Tackle Naked Nut on Plane"

I wish I could take credit for an amazing headline like that...however full credit must be given to the Boston Herald.  If you haven't heard the hilarious story of the Boston to LA flight last night where a guy geared fully down in the bathroom you have to read about it.  [click here for Boston Globe story].  The story actually goes from funny to scary very quickly as after he suited back up the guy decided to try and open the exit door.  Thats when the Revolution general manager, Craig Tornberg, and former Rev/US National Team player, Mike Burns, leaped into action and hog tied the guy right to the seats.  [similar to when I was ambushed one fateful night in Newport, RI, but that's a story for another time].  They were able to toss the guy out in Oklahoma and continue the flight.

While the Revs can't seem to win an MLS Cup they sure can still make headlines!

Why Cheat?

You may have heard by nowthat a 3rd rider in this years Tour de France has been thrown out for using enhancement drugs.  Riccardo Ricco is the biggest name by far and had already won 2 stages.  There was a great deal of talk about him being a major contender for the overall race victory in a few years.  Yet he decided to throw it all away and take a gamble that eventually he knew he'd lose.  Not only has he been tossed out of the race, but so has his team.  The sponsors are so embarrassed that they've already proclaimed that they too are done with cycling. 

I don't know what else its going to take to make these guys realize that cheating isn't' worth it.  The sport in general is going after this problem with an iron fist [exactly the opposite of what we see in pro baseball or football] and while you may pass a few test eventually it'll catch up to you.  You will get caught and you will ruin your career.  Simple as that.  I understand that winning is important, it's everything, but is it worth that much?  I really do feel bad for all those guys out there who race cleanly and get cast in a poor light because of this nonsense. 

That's all I got on this...just very disgusted. Say your piece down in the comments if you want.

2008 Photo of the Week #29

The John Hancock Tower in the Back Bay with Trinity Church in the foreground.  May 21, 2005.   

A 3 hour Tour.

Well...more like 2.5 hours, but close enough. 

As if my body wasn't beaten up enough after riding 75+ miles with Brian "The Hammer" Murphy  at 7am on Saturday, morning we all decided to head up north for a sunset kayak trip out of Rockport Harbor on Saturday evening.  No rest for the weary! 

We used a place called North Shore Kayak and they were great.  Hooked us up with a few guides and off we went.  No time to type today...so a photo recap will have to do the job.  Enjoy.

        

       

       

       

         

       

        

       

         

   

Letter to the Editor

I've never written a Letter to the Editor before so for my first time I thougth I would start small, really small.  I chose The Carlisle Mosquito because of a sign placed along one of the towns roads earlier this week.  It really rubbed me the wrong way and I wanted to let them know. Especially after an Op-Ed piece in the Boston Globe the other day written by a friend of a friend. [you can read that here]  A copy of the Letter I wrote is below and I'll let you know if it eventually gets published:

While I reside in Cambridge, I work in Concord, and am a regular cyclist through your town several mornings each week as I train for my yearly commitment to the Pan Mass Challenge.

I enjoy the tranquility and beauty of your town very much but was incredibly dismayed by a sign I saw on the side of Concord Street last week, presumably put up by the Carlisle Police Department stating that “All bicycle laws will be enforced” and that “All riders please ride single file and be safe”. [photo attached]  Signs like these do nothing more than exacerbate the notion that motor vehicle drivers “own the road”. 

 

While I understand that some cyclists who ride 2 and 3 abreast create a problem on the roads, a majority of the bicycle-car issues arise from aggressive drivers who feel that cyclists have no place on the roads.  And while I say that, it is with the caveat that 99% of the motor vehicle drivers aren’t the problem, the other 1% are.  With the popularity of cycling ever increasing, especially with more folks commuting via bicycle due to higher fuel costs, cyclists and drivers need to co-exist on the roadways.  A sign with more of a “Share the Road” tone would have been much more effective.  Most cyclists do everything possible to stay safe and allow cars to get around them and it is the cyclist who usually bears the painful and expensive brunt of any collision with a motor vehicle.    Reckless drivers who get annoyed that they may have to slow down for a few seconds are our worst enemy while riding. 

 

It is my hope that signs like these would come down immediately and that the Police Department would enforce both the bicycle laws and the vehicle laws, equally and fairly, and not force cyclists off of your roads because they feel unsafe and unprotected by the police. 

   

These are a couple photos of the sign along Concord Road:

    

    

2008 Photo of the Week #28

Talk about tasty...how about them kabobs!  We try to use the grill as often as possible at our place.  If you ask us, everything always tastes better if it comes off the grill.  April 18, 2005. 

4th of July Weekend.

A few weeks ago if you had asked us what our plans were for the 4th we really didn't have anything set in stone.  As it turns out we ended up having an action packed weekend and a ton of fun to boot.  If you ask Kelly she'll tell you that that it's usually go, go, go at the Nowak residence and this weekend was par for the course.  Gotta get as much into each day as possible, right?

We didn't have any plans for Thursday night, other than recreating a salad recipe from Karen for dinner, until Nick and Jules called to see if we wanted to eat at Jose's with them.  Hmmm, let me think.  OKAY!  We pushed the salad til Friday night!  Dinner at Jose's was superb as usual and after-wards we dipped back to 18 Whittier for a few wobbly-pops and to watch some of the Sox/Yanks action on TV.  They had asked us what we were doing for the 4th and other than my bike ride in the morning [of which you have already read about the misery]  we didn't have much going.  Our plan was to ride down to Memorial Drive and watch the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular from the Cambridge side.  We did that a few years ago and it works out great.  Of course we had that salad to make now so we invited them over for chow beforehand and then mounted up the bikes for the 5 mile ride down to the Charles River.  If you've never been to those fireworks before it's one of those must do's before you croak.  The pyrotechnic guys say its the job every firework guy dreams of getting.  At the end of the show they pretty much put up as much stuff into the sky as humanly possible.  Massive explosions of color and sound...so much so that your ribcage rattles from the percussions.  Quite the feeling! 

On Saturday morning we drove down to Mattapoisett to spend some time with Steve, Christy and Mr. Drew.  Of course Howie, Sue, Lizzy and Mike were all there and Jo Jo and Jill Jill made the trip down as well.   We didn't waste anytime swimming out to the newly built raft that Howie put together, much nicer than it's predecessor, and shenanigans and tomfoolery ensued.  Perhaps that's why my back is in so much pain today.  As Kel said, I'm no spring chicken anymore and diving off the board trying to catch a football for a hour and half straight probably wasn't a good idea.  Back at the house we grabbed some lunch and a few too many frosties before we started to play horseshoes, wiffle ball, and boccie ball, in that order.  Being down there brings back the glory days of massive, unsupervised bonfires and visions of Murph-dog drunk off his ass playing his guitar to made up songs in his head.  Too funny.

A bevy of photos from Mattapopo below:

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

   

   

    

Once we left there we made a b-line for 4 Montauk Ave to have dinner with Margy and Bob-dog.  As always, Margy outdid herself and dinner was great...especially the Omaha Steaks.  [every time I hear "Omaha" I think of our boy Tom Brady.  Is that just me?]

Sunday we were up early again, this time to pick up Nick and Jules and head for Good Harbor beach up on the North Shore.  Talk about some differencein water temps between south and north...holy cow!  Water must have been 10 degrees colder up there versus Mattapopo.  And lets talk about the weather there.  For almost the entire time we at the beach there was a thick fog.  You could barely see 50 feet in any direction.  It was a bizarre feeling not being able to see any of the houses or the tiny island just off-shore.  You really had no sense of scale.  Kind of cool...yet kind of freaky at the same time.  I thought the sun would have finally burned it off...but no luck!  After plenty of time on the beach we decided to throw some dogs on the grill back at N and J's for a simple little dinner.  We chilled with them for a while before heading home to get started on the baskets full of laundry we needed to do.  A nice slap in the face to welcome us back to reality! 

All in all a great weekend, of course tiring too!  Kel was zonked out as soon as she hit the pillow last night.  We got to see and hang out with a good many friends and family and that's really all you can ask for over a 3 day weekend like that.  We're looking to do a big kayak trip this coming weekend at sunset up in Rockport...should be a great time and I'm sure we'll see a bunch more people we haven't seen in a while!

That is all from here.   

A Painful 50 Miles.

On Friday morning myself, Jo Jo, Jo Jo's brother and a 4th guy, Mike Fav set out to tackle a good 70-80 mile training ride.  I should have known the ride was doomed from the start after two telling signs.  First as I was loading my bike on to the roof of our car around 7am my neighbor walked by and asked if I was going for a hike.  The question really caught me off guard because who goes for a hike with a bicycle?  Sign #2 was the fact that Mike Fav was a solid hour late for our agreed upon 8:15a start time.  That really sucked having to wait there for him in Jo Jo's parking lot as the rain started to come down. 

Once we finally shoved off it was a steady rain but we forged ahead and established a decent pace.  Unfortunately we overlooked the fact that it was the 4th of July and we had to go through and around two different parades.  Not the end of the world, but a bit of a pain in the ass.  After that we were moving along good, ready to really kick it up a notch.  Little did we know that our problems were just beginning.  Mike asked us to hold up so we could look at his front break which was rubbing really bad on his tire.  None of us were carrying the correct wrench set to fix it properly so we decided the best plan would be to simply remove one of the break pads to stop the rubbing.  Obviously this left Mike without front breaks, but he'd survive!  Problem solved and we were on our way again.

Fast forward to about mile #32 when we were tackling a decent incline near Wrentham.  Jo Jo and I were up out front and after about a half mile we couldn't see Mark and Mike anymore.  We waited for about 5 minutes before doubling back.  Our assumptions were right...flat tire on Mark's rear wheel.  We made the change as quickly as possible and got back on our way.  It wasn't 3 more miles down the road when Mark yelled out that he'd flatted again.  I knew exactly what it was...something stuck in the tire.  In our haste to get the first one fixed we failed to do a quick check of the tire and make sure it was free of debris.  There was decent sized piece of glass suck in there causing all of the havoc. 

It's at this point Mike noted his front break situation was getting worse.  The metal piece that holds the pad was now grinding along the side of the wheel.  Not good.  Mike and I decided to forge ahead in search of a store where we could fix the problem while Andy and Mark repaired flat tire #2.  Mike and I got to a convenience store and he went inside trying to find a plastic zip tie that would do the trick.   No luck...he walked out with a shoelace and some tape.  MacGyver style it was.  We rigged it up and were good to go.  Andy and Mark joined back up with us and we all hoped that our mechanical problems would be in the past.  We set back out and had a good pace going for about 15 miles.  We were taking turns up front, having some good conversation and bottom line, getting a great work-out. 

Then, it happened.  Just outside of Medway High School I was off the front taking my turn blocking the wind when I heard the loudest explosion that close to me that I've ever heard.  It sounded like a gun shot but in actuality it was my rear tire.  I immediately knew that my day on the bike would be over.  Jo Jo, who was directly behind me, said he saw a big puff of smoke and something shoot out to the side of the road.  Once I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road we were able to track down the culprit...a beer bottle cap.  Damn Medway punks throwing their trash out the car window.  Thankfully it was my rear tire because had it been the front I could have easily gone ass over teakettle right over the front handlebars. 

Since we were only about a mile or so away from Jill Jill's house we put in a call hoping that someone would be able to give me and my disabled bike a ride back to Jo Jo's place in Natick.  Jill's step-dad Rich took me under his wing and got me back to Jo Jo's while the the rest of the boys finished the ride.  I kinda felt like a tool but there wasn't much I could really do. 

Isn't it amazing what a little bottle cap can do to something under 120psi?  Hopefully this will be the last of the mechanical problems this year for Team Xaverian and we'll have a smooth PMC ride next month!

PMC Update: 4th of July Edition.

I thought I would give everyone a quick PMC update here before the 4th of July break since this little 200 mile jaunt is essentially 1 month away. 

So far so good on the training although the past two weeks have been a bit disappointing.  Hopefully this weekend and the next will really kick things into high gear.  I've also been heading out 3 mornings each week before work to hammer out my 17 time trial loop that I do.  The miles will certainly add up quickly and before I know it I'm sure I'll have a good 1,200-1,400 training miles under my belt.  Jo Jo and I are headed out for 75-80 tomorrow so that'll surely help!           

Lets talk some money for a bit, okay?  At this point there have been over 78,000 individual donors to the PMC that have combined to raise $9.2 million dollars.  Do the math on that and you're talking about an average donation of about $115 bucks. I'm still amazed at how many people step up for this thing and that 78,000 number is astounding when I look at it.  I think the ride is well on its way to making the $34 million dollar goal this year. 

As I mentioned in the email that was sent out early last month, I really see the money donated to the PMC, and eventually Dana Farber, as an investment.  An investment in our future. The numbers show that someone you know, or maybe even you yourself, will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in your lifetime.  The research being done as a result of the money I am raising will be extremely beneficial in keeping progress moving forward and hopefully finding cures to many more of the cancer types out there. On several occasions now I've heard the president of Dana Farber in Boston explain how critical the PMC is to the work that Dana Farber researchers can do.  "When the write the book on how cancer was beaten the PMC will be in the first chapter" he has said. 

So, If you'd like to make a donation to my efforts please do so by clicking here or mail a check to me [email for my address at knowak@sgarzi.net ].  I'm getting extremely close to reaching "Heavy Hitter" status for the 2nd year in a row now.  Not really an accomplishment of mine, but it speaks more to how generous and giving the people I know are!   

Have a great 4th of July and maybe you'll see me out on the roads.  If you do, be sure to give us bikers plenty of room out there when you drive by!  Thanks.

2008 Photo of the Week #27

What a great photo to post this time of year.  Nothing like a little bbq and lunch outside.  This is our small little deck at the apt, but it does the job.  April 10, 2005.   

Monday Items.

1.  When we got the new ride earlier last month it came with a 3 month free trial of XM Radio.  At first I really didn't know how I was going to like it, but after the trying it for a while I do think it has some merits.  Especially on those trips to places where we don't know the radio stations and want a break from the iPod.  I will say that it's great for listing to the Red Sox or Celtics [playoff run] while we were on some of our trips down to NJ.  In fact, just yesterday I listened to the entire Sox/Astros game on our way home.  No way I could have done that with regular radio.  So...the free gig is up at the end of August...we'll see if we keep it, but as of right now I think we're leaning towards it. 

The one thing that does annoy me about the XM is that every time you go underneath of an overpass the signal gets fuzzy and you hear static for a half second.  This really sucks when trying to pay close attention to a ballgame!  Anyone else experience this with their XM or could this be an issue with my antenna?

2.  A couple weeks ago I was told about a new site/blog affiliated with Boston.com called The Big Picture.   You've got to check it out.  It's a collection of some amazing photo journalistic shots that a group has started posted and linking too.  It's a great way to see what's happening in the world and will often time put a face with many of the stories you hear about on the news.  Hopefully I'll be able to take photos similar to what you see up there!

3.  As I mentioned a while back...I signed up and ran in the 3.5 mile JP Morgan Corporate Challenge.  Me and 12,000 of my closest friends.  No joke!  I finished with a time of 30:53 which is respectable.  And you can probably shave a minute off of that time if you knock out the parts where I had to walk around some of the turns or under the Mass Ave underpass because there were just too many people to run!  I ran with a crew from the office down the street, most of whom I have worked with in the past.[hence why the t-shirt I'm wearing doesn't jive with the office name at which I am currently employed.  I know all you detectives out there would be curious as to that issue]  Here are a few shots from the night.  Of course the best part of the evening is after the race when all 12,000 people cram into every bar in the city and get the party started!

       

        

4.  Not sure if any of you have heard the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida as of yet, because if you haven't you definitely should.  Whether you like it or not doesn't really matter I guess, but if you want to read an amazing review of it, including a song by song breakdown on par with Chris Berman breaking down the Sunday afternoon games on ESPN, check out the post that MWP did last week by clicking here.  He really did a great job. 

5.  A good friend of Kel's family, TJ,  just got hitched a few months back and bought a house in the greater Ft. Lauderdale area.  The place is a bit of a fixer-upper, okay...it needs a lot of work, and TJ decided to start a blog to share the process with everyone.  I've linked to it in my sidebar and you can also get to it by clicking here.  Check out it...he's called it It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere.  Lot's of good stories up there already and a slew of photos you can check out. 

6.  This past Friday we made a rare early morning departure for NJ in order to arrive before Tommy and Heather's engagement party extraordinare. They rented out a hall, blew up more balloons than you can shake a stick at, and everyone had a great time.  There must have been 100+ people there as the two families came together.  I'll create an album for the photos later tonight once I sift through and edit.  Lot's of good "keepers" on the memory card, that's for sure!   Too bad I don't have any of Papple when he tossed his cookies, not once, but twice in the same night.  Made for a difficult time out on the bike the following day, ha buddy?  Check back for the link to the photos later  [Most likely on Tueday].  UPDATE:  Photos are up and ready for your viewing pleasure.  Follow this link or click on the Tommy and Heather folder to the right.  And be sure you don't miss the second page!

7.  On this coming Saturday the 95th riding of the Tour de France kicks off.  Yet again there is no clear favorite in the field and it really will be any mans race at this point.  There are a lot of issues going on in cycling now, many of which you could probably care less about, [ Contador not being allowed to race, race organizers squabbling, Landis being officially stripped of the 2006 titltle] but one thing is clear; never before has the Tour needed a squeaky clean race more than this year.  I hope that the riders step up to the challenge and police one another to make sure that no one is getting an unfair advantage.    For these 3 weeks in July the eyes of the cycling world, and even people who aren't huge cycling fans, focus on the Tour.  Hopefully they'll get to see its pagentry, teamwork and skill instead of its blood-dopping and pill popping side.  I know that watching the race every night on the Tivo really gets me fired up to be out on the bike the next day so be sure to tune into OLN [now called Versus] and watch a stage or two! 
 

8.  Our good friend Louie at Tuck-a-Buck has informed me that he'll be trying to ressurect his defunct blog over the next few weeks.  I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I won't hold my breath!  Follow that link and you can see for yourself. 

9.  Lastly, at Tommy's party on Friday night I spoke to a whole slew of people who told me they were regular readers here at KN.com, just that they never leave comments.  Either they don't understand how or are just too nervous.  So...comment away people.  You know who you are.  The comments make this place a heck of a lot more lively!

2008 Photo of the Week #26

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.  At night.  Simple and elegant.  Date Unknown.