Thanks go out to...

Believe it or not, I've got to actually (I can't believe I'm going to do this) the Bush Administration, and the formerly Republican lead Congress of the United States of America. Those of you that know me, and or have frequented this page before, or maybe you've mistakenly clicked over to it in the past, know that I do really loathe George W. Bush as a President. To sum it up, he might not be the worst President of all time, but he probably will be the worst President in my lifetime. I mean, who would have thought I would long for the days of Ronald Regan and George H. W. Bush? I didn't think that would happen on my watch, but alas, here we are. Anyway, back to the thanking part of things.

If there is one thing that Bush as done right in his disastrous 2 terms, it's that he pushed back the start of Daylight Saving Time to this weekend. Now we get that extra hour of daylight the second week of March instead of the first weekend of April, which in my opinion is a kick ass decision right there. I guess this was part of an energy bill that passed through Congress awhile back, and W signed it into law, and here we are. March 11th, and the sun will now be up until 7:30 or so, at least around here. I know that up North in the great cold State of Maine, my Dad is cherishing the extra hour of sunlight. For years when I was a kid, and or at college and living at home at least part of the time, immediately after December 21st or 22nd (whichever one was the shortest day of the year in Maine) he would start tracking the increase in the days almost on a daily basis. And he would tell us about them as he tracked them, so I knew, just knew that he was excited for extra daylight. Now, does this really matter in Maine where they are not only under a blanket of snow, but more like a wall of snow, yeah, it probably does. As having spent a majority of my lifetime in Maine, I can say that in the winter months, it gets dreary when you wake up, it's dark. Drive to work, it's dark. Get to work, it's pretty dark until well after 8AM. Leave work at 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon, yeah, it's still dark out there. It stinks, it drags a man down, but hey, that's what we get for living in the chilly climes of the Northern parts of the country. But now, we have an extra hour of daylight, and in NC where the weather has been getting nicer and nicer over the last few weeks, this means more riding after work for me. Which is something I've promised myself not to take lightly this year. Meaning, don't waste the daylight hours. Get home, change those clothes, get out on the bike. I also have this sort of crazy plan to start riding into work a couple of days per week when the weather warms up more. Why is this crazy? Well, it's a 35 mile ride up, and a 35 mile ride back down in the afternoon, so a 70 mile training day. Which sound nice, if it's a weekend. Could be tough doing that, so we'll see how that all shakes out here in the near future. I would like to do it, because it would give me some crazy hours for training, and I've got to go there, and come home anyway, I might as well get some benefits from doing it, and I think I would arrive at work, a little tired, but feeling better for it. You know, endorphines, feeling good, things like that.

But yeah, thanks Bushie, you've actually done something right for a change. It's much appreciated by the cyclists that I know and speak to.