Climb

And my weekend begins tomorrow!  Who knows what today will bring.  The weather is going to be dreary with rain, sometimes heavy at times.  At the store, all of those special buys are being condensed faster than lies slip from the lips of the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Let me tell you, that's pretty damn fast!
I wasn't going to get myself anything 'big' for Christmas this year.  With that being said, I can tell you it arrives next this coming Thursday.  I scheduled myself an emergency vacation day.  Golly.
Cori, my cover artist, and I had a nice long chat yesterday.  This one was similar to the conversation we had about "The Body in the Tower," when I said "you know, I think bullet holes would be neat."  That's how it works.  I make a suggestion and she counters.  This back and forth continues until we settle on something both of us like.  I will give you one detail: no people are going to be on the cover.
There is one more cycling challenge I need to accomplish before I move to the higher level.  I need to ride Passo Giau, in Italy.  This is what I rode yesterday.

That's right, I climbed 1,112 feet in altitude.  That 3.6 miles is over half of the ride... and it never levels out.  Interestingly, my heart rate does not go up much, usually sitting at between 116 and 125 beats per minute.  My legs weren't bothering me at all.  Another 2.7 miles and I'd have hit the top and completed the challenge.  For a while I was concerned the challenge might be too much.  Now I'm not.  Hopefully, during my 4 day mini-vac over Christmas, I will plunk my ass in the saddle and finish this sucker.
And, of course, the impeachment comes ever closer.  Word is out that the Idiot Jerk is in a very volatile mood.  The whole world is watching our tinfoil dictator being humiliated.  Doesn't that make you feel good?  It should.  And the Idiot Jerk wants to drag out the impeachment trial as long as possible... because he believes he will prove his conspiracy theory correct, and at that point people will start feeling sorry for him.  He will never understand he's about as sympathetic as a turd in a toilet bowl.  The longer he drags this out, the longer Republicans try to turn this into a dead horse, the more Independent voters he loses.  The GOP will not realize until it is way too late that he was sent to destroy their party.