Ahhhh-so

Great ride this morning at the "Seize the Road" bike tour here in town. It's put on by the Epilepsy Foundation of Louisiana so it's a good thing to support. Like I expected, it was pretty fast almost from the get-go with LaS'port leading the charge ahead of the rest of the tour riders, with a few extra riders mixed into our group for interest. We spent a large part of the first 28 miles at race pace...there were a lot of breaks attempted and reeled back in. I only sniffed the front of the pack a couple of times, once dragging them up to a break by Bolt and Patrick (something I rarely do more than once) when we were near Blanchard. I remember one time where we were chasing DP and Patrick...for about 1/2 mile we were cruising above 30 mph. Most of the time we stayed between 24 and 27 mph which was pretty darn fast in the terrain we rode in. Finally, about 30 miles in I and a group of six lost the lead pack which was no surprise to me. I haven't been doing long fast training rides in 8 weeks and just wanted to hang as long as I could. Still, it was a good ride...our group ended up covering the 60-mile course at a 22.4 mph average, so a less than 3-hour effort. I'll take it.

Jonnene was with a group that covered the same distance with a 18 mph average but she dropped her chain twice and that cut back her chance to be a little faster.

As to last Thursday, I spent 12.5 hours on set (actually, two different sets) and didn't get in front of the camera ONCE! It was interesting to see the whole process and watch some of the acting but I ended up not getting my big show-biz moment. Just a lot of time standing around, sitting around, talking to some of the crew (one of the lighting guys was a Louisiana native from Lafayette...sounded like a true Cajun), and grazing at the food services table. We were not going to starve, that's for sure! The afternoon set was at a local park where there were several camera angles shot for the same basic scene. What's interesting here is how EVERYTHING would be moved from place to place to stay out of the camera's view...I mean, tents, tables, lights, reflectors, extras (including me), crew, anything was moved from one spot to the next in less than 10 minutes! The good thing of all this is that I do get paid for doing nothing. The check is supposed to come in two weeks. I might get called back since I didn't appear in front of the camera. Extras usually only work one day or one scene since the movie people don't want the same person showing up in the background repeatedly in a movie.

But my movie career is not over yet. I've gotten another callup to be an extra next Thursday in "Leaves of Grass" which has nothing to do with Walt Whitman's collection of poems. This one stars Ed Norton, Susan Sarandon, and Richard Dreyfuss. I'm supposed to be in a scene as part of the congregation at a local synagogue (yea! I get to sit down a lot!). I was also asked if I could use my truck in a scene showing traffic in front of the synagogue which means I get paid a little extra for using my vehicle. Dreyfuss is supposed to be in the congregation scene so I'll get to see him at work. Should be interesting. Depending on things I could be there all day again or it could be short and sweet.