Welcome back... It's Autumn

Well... It's been almost a month since I was last here. Where does the time go? It sure does seem to go fast and there has been no shortage of things happening here during the last month. Some good. Some not. Some neither. Some I'm not sure about. But whatever the case may be for these isolated instances, overall, I seem to be approaching another crossroads. Another? Since when was the last one? Well I don't know, life is a constant crossroads isn't it? Does it really ever stop? Should it? In the past month,

1. I've been out riding the road bike ALOT.
2. I spent a few days getting the full, first-hand experience of Mr. MRSA bacteria infection.
3. I raced my first cyclocross race of the season right here in podunk li'l Victor, ID, one mile from my front door.
4. I ran Table Mountain two weeks ago for the last time this year.
5. I ran the Teton Crest Trail one week ago for the last time this year. In a continuous white cloud. In the snow.
6. I've been immersed in the world of Wells Fargo as I prepare to be converted from my small-town, back-in-time, disorganized, ill-managed, make-up-the-rules-as-we-go bank to a big-time, cutting edge, organize the split hairs on our heads, micro-managed, rules-set-in-stone bank. From what I've experienced so far, I think it will be a very welcome change.
7. Our financial markets have finally succumbed to the 20 years of abuse and greed that they have been subjected to. Maybe now we will abolish our broken Wall Street system in favor of one not based on speculation and run by thieves and our entire country will soon be manged by a gigantic, all-encompassing government that reduces the ability of crooked "businesspeople" and "economists" who are only looking to make things go huge while they are running the show, to abuse their power and make decisions for the here-and-now, fill their pockets wth money that doesn't really exist, then dump the ensuing disaster into the laps' of their successors. Does anybody else see a good reason for the exponential growth in the stock market over the past 20 years compared to the 70 years before? This problem stems from WAY before G. W. Bush ever took office. Does anybody else see this?
8. Our Presidential Election became another case of two grown men arguing at each other and pointing fingers like two little school boys. Is our country so full of dumb, mindless, lemming-folk who are so incapable of knowing what is right and what is wrong that we should leave these decisions up to greed-happy, attention-starved lawmakers in Washington? No! I, for one, feel helpless about all this. How come the whole election process contains so much finger-pointing and blaming and saying whatever it takes to please the campaign donors, special-interest lobbyists, and those who push for quick fixes to problems that don't necessarily need fixing. Let's take the whole system back 20 or 30 years and try again with the knowledge and resources we have now. And maybe business won't be so big and grand and maybe there won't be as much "strength" in our economy. But hey, maybe THERE WASN"T EVER SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
9. Winter has announced its presence as evidenced by the inch or two of snow that has fallen over the past couple days here in the valley. Nights will now be consistently below freezing until...May?
10. I feel bored, confined, and restless.