Please allow me to be the first to wish everyone a happy New Year. New Zealand is the first major populated area to click over to January 1 every year, as there's only one time zone between us and the International Date Line.
The mass-international-midnight-text message would have been pretty expensive, so you get the 8-hours-belated happy new year in a blog post. Thrilling, I know.
Yesterday held a new bike ride for me that included a climb to the only ski area here with a paved access road. Paved, yes, but with any consideration for maximum grade, no. This 5.1 mile climb is the steepest sustained climb I've ever done. Will look forward to improving this climb lots. I was faced with a choice on the way down - melt my brakes or pass cars. So I passed cars. Saw two other bikers coming up near the bottom, and they were switchbacking across the uphill lane. Gonna be a long climb that way...
I worked last night, as did nearly every single employee of Monty's. It was all hands on deck, and the bar was absolutely nuts all night long. We took in about 3 times our normal take for a busy weekend night. We all worked exceptionally hard, but we had a fair bit of fun behind the bar, too.
We stopped serving at 2:30 in accordance with our license and it took us until about 4 to finish cleaning and closing the bar. We all hung out in the bar for a bit after the closing process was finished, mostly to enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet. It was right about 5 when I took my leave of the remaining crew and walked home, the sky already lightening rapidly to the southeast. After a snack and a bit of relaxing, the rest of the Monty's crew came ambling down the street towards our pad, and they came in just as I was lacing up my shoes.
One thing was certain: the only way I was going to run today was to do it before I went to bed. So off I went and got about 9 miles in. Came back, found the crew intact, and it is still intact as I write this just before 8am. Fockler has to be back at work in 35 minutes, and sober he is not. I am amply ready for bed and will sleep awfully well for a while. Think I'll let the rest of my day after I wake be consumed with snoozing on the beach and a nice open water swim. Then it's back off to work at 5:30. Pretty sure tonight will be more mellow than last night; Queenstown went big!
