My Package was Suspicious

The original title of this was Chasing Daylight, but the current title is a lot better
A few notes from 34,000 feet above Real America. We’re flying west towards Portland and we should land not too long after sunset:

I qualified for the enhanced patdown (we’ll call it the EP) at Logan today. Before I make any jokes, and I will, I felt as bad for the TSA agents (who were extremely professional and described everything they were going to do multiple times) as I think they did for me. I did get one comment from a third agent (who wasn’t in the room for the EP) that it was probably my compression socks that caused the whole kerfuffle. But anyhow, the reason for the EP? “Sir, we saw an anomaly in your private areas”. You’re damn right you did. The jokes were far too easy (see, twitter feed, etc). Offsetting that unfortunate invasion of my privacy was the fact that JetBlue has waived their bike fees for the month of July (which made my response of “bike parts” to the ticket agent seem a little silly). Anyhow, if you want to make any jokes about the EP, make them in the comments.

A bit about the contests/charity fundraising. Part of the reason that I’ve not asked that anyone donate to a specific charity is that I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my life to not have been significantly impacted by any disease/disaster/etc. That’s not to say that life for my family has been all roses and trumpets, but the impact to me, while significant, has been slightly removed. Furthermore, for contests like the ones I have run in the past, I like to let the people who win the contest choose where the money goes. It befuddles me slightly that participation is so low (it’s not as though I’ll be insulted if you choose a time that is far slower than I think I can go). After all, it takes very little effort on the part of the contestant. There will come a time (next year), where I might ask you to donate to a specific cause, but that time is not now. So what’s the point? I guess I feel fortunate to be making a living I enjoy, train for crazy races, and enjoy the company of wonderful friends and family. And while I’ve been impacted by various events, no singular event/issue/disease has impacted me as much as I know it has impacted others, so I’m more than willing to donate to a cause that’s impacted my friends (just ask any of my siblings, dear friends, etc).
While playing Beirut at the family compound, I decided that one good way to get people to donate would be to really do something crazy. The only issue is, I’m not sure what level it would take. See, I’ve got this natural sweater of mine that I get a not so gentle ribbing about from time to time. At a certain level of funding, I’d be willing to wax it. At a higher level, I’d be willing to wax it and publish the video. I think. But now it would be you donating to the charity of your choice, and me doing something crazy. Like I said, I’m not 100% sure. But the thought is out there.