Attention Deficit David

Glass towers

Glass towers, originally uploaded by davidjschloss.

Climbing the Hill

Climbing the hill, originally uploaded by davidjschloss.

I'm in California working on something for the new project I'm rolling out in March (I still can't talk about it officially until all the papers are signed) and I'm having an interestingly great time.

Years ago I launched a dot com, an online publishing company that was centered around a mountain biking website that was launched very early in the dawn of the 'Net. For a long time I spent my warm-weather weeks driving or flying to mountain bike races all over the continent and reporting on them in real-time. The site was called GearHead.com, (later sold to a bunch of asses) and we were one of the first sites to ever to live race reporting, and we pioneered things like getting digital photographs up to servers from dial-up lines in West Virginia.

Yesterday I landed in San Francisco with Wil, my friend/coworker and we set out to the city to prepare to do some race coverage and media support and suddenly I was transported back a decade to the days when I'd travel with the media caravan from town to town, taking over an area for a few days and moving on.

This trip so far has been strangely emotional for me. It's great to be launching a new part of my life with cycling as the backdrop (and indeed I chose this race because it fits both into my new job and into my favorite activity) and I've fallen right back into the fold. There have also been some nice perks.

Yesterday, for example, I had the privilege of having dinner with the famous photographer Graham Watson and Darach McQuaid (brother of UCI president Pat) at a great restaurant where we downed a good bit of wine. This morning I got up to head over to get credentials and hit the course, shooting from the starting block and then catching a ride in one of the team cars up the hill to Coit Tower to walk up the remaining 800 meters to the finish. Some great vantage points, although the misfiring shutter on my camera is really causing me some issues. (I can't shoot above 1/500th of a second).

Not everything is cycling though. On the way back from Coit Tower, I passed by a woman sitting at the Fog City Diner having a meal who was applying makeup from a gigantic compact with the words "Lauren Hutton" on it. It was a truly large compact, the largest I'd ever seen and in fact I'd say it was pushing the boundary of the very term. Then I glanced up to see what sort of woman would be applying makeup from such a large object, and realized it was actually Lauren Hutton.

Yesterday, Wil and I were out walking to dinner when we stumbled upon several dozen of the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill, out for a jaunt, I suppose, away from their famous perch. A few dozen people were hanging out around the trees, many with food for the birds, including apples on long sticks, nuts, and more. The parrots, hung from trees, landed on shoulders, dropped onto people's heads, etc. It was really a surreal and beautiful experience. Dozens of people astounded by the colorful birds that just happened to be in a park in the middle of a city.

It's a terrific trip so far and bodes well for the rest of what I've got planned for the next years of my life. More on that in March.

The wild parrots of Telegraph Dude

The wild parrots of Telegraph Dude, originally uploaded by davidjschloss.

It turns out other teams suck as much as the Rangers

It turns out other teams suck as much as the Rangers, originally uploaded by davidjschloss.

IMG_0685.JPG

No habla...

No habla..., originally uploaded by davidjschloss.

These Are The Creatures In The Neighborhood

Looking out the window I happened to notice a squirrel running across the property with what appeared to be a completely whole bagel in his maw.

The little guy ran to the biggest tree in our yard, a more-than-100-year-old-pine and ran up it. He emerged a few minutes later with no bagel.

About a minute later I saw him running up a tree across the street, again with a bagel in his mouth. This tree is deciduous so I could watch his progress up the barren limbs. He got to the very highest spot and ran around a bit, up and down the branches. Finally, he deposited his bagel into the "v" of a branch, and then ran down the tree.

I watched as the bagel swayed slowly in the breeze at the top of a tall tree, a little yellow "O" moving slowly back and forth.

The squirrel ran back down that tree and disappeared in a bunch of garbage cans. A minute later, he ran back across our property in a different direction from the first tree, again with a bagel in his mouth.

I had no idea squirrels were jewish.

Awwwwwww Puddy Tat

Awwwwwww Puddy Tat, originally uploaded by davidjschloss.

Boston At Night

Boston At Night, originally uploaded by davidjschloss.