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10/11/06
Four weeks from
today Jen and I will be married. This morning we went to the
courthouse and got our marriage license. Interesting little
adventure that was. If you're going, be sure you are of "sound
mind" and not under "guidence." That was basically the hardest
part for us. Paid our $$ and left with a
certificate.
Also had our life insurance exams. Had to
fast for 12 hours. It was killing me. I started to slur my
speech and feel faint from lack of food. I think she checked
extra hard for track marks before she took my blood. Whatever,
it's done. Now I can start that smoking habit I've always
wanted.
So word is out about the Spot/Twin Six
gig. It's got me excited and nervous all at the same time. I
guess that equals anxious. Wow combine that with a wedding in
four weeks and I'm a mess! Anyway, it's cool. It's the
direction I've wanted to take my mt. bike racing for a while
now. It may not be as many races as I'm used to, but will
certainly be races of better quality and length. My problem
now is figuring how/when to start training. Last year I
took 3 months off to work on our house and came back
way stronger then expected. So do I take off 3 months
again, possibly 5, or start killing myself now? Maybe that new
smoking habit will help me decide
To the right are hedge apples. As a kid we called them
monkey balls or monkey brains. They come from Osage Orange
trees. We have a hedge row of them that runs the length
of our property. In the fall, they drop like leaves. They're
kind of cool. Just another wonder of nature found in our
yard.
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10/9/06
BIG NEWS!
I'm a Spot/Twin Six Whore! I
ordered my
bike last week. Should be
in very soon. More on all that
later... Don't get me wrong. I'm excited
and have things to
say, but I gotta
purge some other stuff first.
I'm finally a happy Chris King customer
again. Not that
Chris King did
anything to make me otherwise, but my rear
hub had been hosed since Seven Springs.
After screwing it
up more myself,
ordering parts and putting it back together,
we're buzzzzzing again.
My other rear wheel is in a world of
hurt. Last Monday
at Thorpe I somehow
completely ripped a spoke
out of the
rim. Jen says no "extra" expenditures till after
the wedding. I've put two rides on it
like it is, but probably
pushed my
luck a little. Poor little piece of crap.
Unfortunately it's beyond my maintenance
skills.
After the hub fix, I replaced a
bottom-bracket, aligned a brake
and
tightened my headset. I actually have one complete
functioning bike now. I'm finding the
problem with having two
bikes set up
similar to each other is something's always
wrong. Only on the first
day of the double build, did
everything work. It's either a
little something on each is
hosed, or
one is completely hosed. In addition to the done
rim, the suspension fork needs a little
TLC on the currently
down bike. The
likelyhood of me getting to that anytime soon
is so non-existant, I went ahead and
ordered a fatter tire to
run on my
rigid in place of suspension. Yee ha! What
happened to the off-season?
So I realize
everytime you visit things are a little different. Still
working on things. Jen's the only
one who's actually
complained.
She likes the original weekly picture and short
blurb format better. I did too, but I'm
liking the writing. If
nothing else
it gives me exercise. I'm considering going back
to the original format and adding a
link at the top to this stuff.
We'll
see. Don't have a whole lot of time for much right
now.
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WTF?
My Dentist's admin is driving this ^ and
I'm driving this
The stinky sticky Hop Wallop car. I
really have to do
something about
it.
We did
finally do something about the rehearsal dinner
location. After much research, my mother
decided on the
Kimberton Inn. They had a really
cool private room
upstairs, so that
should be cool. Saturday morning, we got
a suit for me and Thursday I think we
decided on a photog.
Late last night
we ordered and overnighted the invites.
Busy, busy busy.
Sunday afternoon
was a cool team (Bean's) party at
Craig's. He had a whole roasted pig that
was out of this
world. Too bad Craig's
wasn't available for the rehearsal
dinner.
Saturday Jen and I went to the Kennet
Square Brew Fest.
It was cool, but not
sure I'll go next year. Something about
standing around with a bunch of dudes
getting drunk on 2
oz. servings of
beer just wasn't that exciting. Maybe if I had
a notebook to take notes on everything I
tried, I would have
gotten more out of
it (I can't even remember my favorite),
but that may have exceeded the limits of
lame. It's a big
scam anyway to get
you to go out to dinner in Kennet
Square afterword - as we did. We tried
the Kennet Square
Inn. Not bad, but
they should leave catfish to the south. I'm
kidding really. We had a fun time. Buddy
and Matt were
there to guide us to
the good stuff. See don't we look like
we're having fun?
At this particular moment we were
waiting in the slowest porta-potty line in the world. It
wasn't so fun.
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10/3/06
"Something has to change. Undeniable
dilemma.
Boredom's not a burden
anyone should bear. "
Took the day off yesterday to kick back
and do some relaxing -
not
exactly. Took off to Jim Thorpe with ol' man Rick to do
some
riding with Jamie. Both of them were recovering
from head colds
so we decided to take
a little easy and do some of the American
Standard/Deerpath loop. These trails are
part of what made
Thorpe famous for
mt. biking in PA. A few years ago, the state
made them illegal to ride on. They exist
mostly on state game
lands and
hunters didn't appreciate the noisy flashy bikers
spoiling their hunt.
"It's not
enough. I need more. Nothing seems to satisfy.
I don't want it. I just need it. To feel,
to breathe,
to know I'm
alive."
In all the trips I've made to Thorpe to
ride with Jamie, I've never
done these
trails. Not so much because they're illegal, but there's
plenty of other cool stuff to ride. For
years now I've heard war
stories
about American Standard. It's usually described as 20
some odd miles of single track rocky
goodness or hell depending
on your
persuasion. It didn't disappoint. It's totally "zone out"
rock
garden riding. You get yourself
in a groove and you don't stop,
don't
loose momentum, and don't get off line.
"I can help
you change tired moments into pleasure.
Say the word and we'll be well upon our
way.
Blend and balance pain and
comfort deep within you
till you will
not have me any other way."
At the end of the hardcore stuff, we had
a choice of not so long
double track
or a little bit longer double track to get back to the
car. The early fall afternoon was so
nice, we decided to take the
longer
way back. The double track was some old dirt road, long
ago left alone by cars and trucks.
Saplings grew to the edge and
over the
top of the path for quite a ways. It was a tunnel of light
fall colors running along the ridge top
with undulating hills to roll
up and
down. On one such down we passed a large timber rattler
caught in the shade of the afternoon sun
his belly fat with a fresh
afternoon
meal. Between the shade and obvious bulge, he wasn't
very aggressive as we stepped closer for
a view. |
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Then it was on our way
again up and down the hills a little more
cautious for our venomous afternoon
friends. At a point in the
ridge we
came to an overlook with the Lehigh winding it's way
below. In the distance the rooftops of
Thorpe stood above the
slightly
turning forest around it.
"Something
kinda sad
about the way that things
have come to be.
Desensitized to
everything. What became of subtlety?"
With the sun slipping away to the west,
the cool air brought on a
chill that
made us move on. Through some clear mountain
streams and up a few more hills we were
back to the car. An
excellent ride by
any means. Some beers in the parking lot and
fresh clothes, the afternoon was perfect.
Then we hit
the road for the Tool concert in Wilkes-barre. Yeah
just like that - all peacefull and
tranquill then off to a rock
concert.
"How can it
mean anything to me
if I really don't
feel anything at all?
I'll keep
digging till I feel something."
We stopped in Thorpe for some food (more
beer), then piled in
my car to head
up the road to Wilkes-barre. Rick had gotten
tickets about a month ago. Props to Rick
for such a great idea
day. The
drive up was mostly uneventful besides not really being
sure where we were going and the bottom
of a beer bottle
deciding to dislodge
itself from the rest of the bottle directly over
the center console of my car. "No officer
I haven't been drinking.
That's simply
the full beer that spilled itself all in my car." It
sucks. My car smells like those smelly basement bars back
in
college. The show was cool. It was
the same as when I saw
them in May,
but more people. Maynard was feeling better this
time and was a little more animated. I
was a little dissapointed
with
the visuals. Usually they have a large video screen playing
images in tune with the music. They had
the images, but the
screen was broken
up to smaller numerous screens across the
back of the stage. Made it harder for me
to focus and zone out.
Got home late. Too late
for these old bones. I think my hearing
is finally coming back.
The snippets of lyrics belong to track 1 of Tools
album Aenima. They opened
the show
with this song. It's my favorite.
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10/2/06
2:30 pm Sunday afternoon and I'm
drunk. How's that happen? I
guess
it's to be expected when you go riding with a guy who's
blog is titled Bikes and Beer. The
Wissahicken plans fell through
because of rain, so Buddy asked if Ben
and I would be so kind to
escort some
people around the Downingtown Trails with lunch at
Victory afterwords. Sure. The rain
quit. It was a beautifil day.
My favorite time of year.
The ride was good. It turned out to only
be Buddy, Matt, Ben and
myself. The
trails were slick with trecherous off-camber wet roots.
I was loving it.
Now sufficiently sober
it was time to tackle my King hub. It's
been out of commission since Seven Springs.
I borrowed my
friends King hub tool, watched the
videos, read the instructions
and went to work. The hub body wasn't so
bad. I got it all apart
cleaned up
and reassembled without much incident. The
drive shell I
screwed up. There's a piece that you're supposed to
thread out before you try to knock out
the inner bearing. I missed
that step
and started hammering away on the bearing. It's
destroyed. Luckily King can replace most
every part.
Unfortunately I'll have
to wait another week to ship the part. Such
is life.
I'm off work today. Riding Thorpe this
afternoon, then off further
north for
the Tool concert. Back to work tomorrow.
That will suck. |
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After the ride we hit Victory for some
lunch and a few beers.
They had a new
Harvest Ale described as "like a Hop Devil, but
with more alcohol." Sounds like a Hop
Wallop to me, I'll take a
large one.
It wasn't like a Hop Wallop at all or even really a Hop
Devil. It was similar in color to a Hop
Devil, but really smooth.
Thirsty
after a hard ride at Downingtown, the first one went down
fast. Then auto-magically a second one
appears in front of my
plate. And
that's how I got drunk by 2:30 in the afternoon on a
Sunday.
So now what? Jen says might as well keep
drinking, but where's
the challenge
in that. Instead I set out to complete some chores.
I started first with dishes. They don't
require a whole lot of mental
capacity. After that I went about hooking
up the phone line to our
office. When
we first moved in, we (I) ripped all the phone
line/jacks out of the upstairs. All this
time our phone and
answering machine
have been in the basement. When I installed
the home
network, I put a jack in the office, but never wired it.
In
the waning hour of my afternoon
drunkness, I finally made the
connection. Now our phone and answering
machine are happily
co-habitating on
the computer desk upstairs.
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9/30/06
I'm
not lying to you when I say I covet Cross. I was
almost there this year, but time just wouldn't
allow it. Yeah it's true. I have five or six bikes
but no cyclocross. Hopefully next year.
Comforting, though probably
just for me, is what I covet. I have friends (we
all have these friends) that are into their cars,
their neighbors car and some dudes car at work. If
not cars, it's houses, vacations, big flat screen
HD TVs, etc.
Ok so how's a car different
than a cross bike? It's not the bike. It's the
experience. The bike has little to do with it.
It's the time of year. The weather. The
conditions. It's balls to the wall badass for 45
minutes. It's fast. The wind burns. The rain
freezes. It's not happening for me this year.
Other experiences I covet. And
one I have
time for.
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Closed the pool today. It was
way over do, but as always time is limited.
Went pretty well I think. Lowered the water, blew
out the pipes, covered it, and cleaned the
filter.
Even had time to cut the
yard. Hadn't done that in a while. I could feel my
neighbors shaking their heads at my lawn when I
drove by. Oh well. It's cut and good for another
few weeks I guess.
Tomorrow there's a ride down
in the city at Wissahicken. I've only been there
once before. It's fun. Just watch out for the
people.
Briefly noted:
SAP 2005 Holiday pictures
updated
Riding Jim Thorpe on Monday
with this guy
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9/28/06
Mountain Bike Group Ride
Rules
1. Slower riders should always ride
to the back of the group.
That's pretty much it. I've
been riding in various groups for four years now. The
rules are rarely spoken and I've never seen them
written. But they do exist and are mostly understood.
It's the interpretation of the rules that seems
to get confused. The obvious question is that
speed (fast or slow) is a relative term. One person's
fast can certainly be another person's slow. It is your
job when you start a group ride to figure out the
definition of slow and fast for that group. You must
continue this interpretation throughout the ride.
You should assume if you are
new to the group or the trails that you are going to be
slow - start in the back. As the ride progresses and
you've assesed the group and trails, you may decide to
move up, but only on a rider by rider basis.
With each person you get in front
of, you need to be damn sure of your skills in relation
to theirs. Are they fast on downhills, uphills,
technical, etc. And how does all that compare to you?
Make adjustments where appropriate.
You may figure out that one person
is particularly slow everywhere but the downhills. Let
them go first on the downhills.
You may find a person that was slow
in the beginning of the ride has now warmed up and
rubbing your wheel. Let them go in front of you.
Just
because you or someone else is slow today or at a
certain part of the ride, does not mean they will be
slow everytime or everywhere. You must pay attention to
this and yield when necessary.
You must
be aware of your skills and fitness and those around you
on every ride throughout the ride. Everything changes
all the time. Pay attention and adjust to the group
dynamic.
It's true riding a bike is an
individual task, but riding in a group takes it far
beyond the individual. In a group (like most group
activities) you become responsible for the experience of
those around you. This is true for everyone in the group
even the fastest riders.
I have heard people argue the
faster riders are being selfish when they get upset with
slower riders in front of them, thus hurting the
experience of the slower rider - in truth the experience
of both riders has been diminished. What's the point of
the slower rider being in front? What do they have
to gain? What of their experience is lost by riding in
the back? If you are unfamiliar with the trail and
afraid of getting lost, it is the responsibility of the
faster riders to stop and wait for you. If needed, ride
back and find you.
Again, the responsibility of the
groups experience is shared by everyone.
If you're
at the back and get hurt or your bike is damaged, it is
the responsibility of the group to ride back and help.
They should do this. They should not continue
without you. Unless you tell the group to leave
you, you and your experience is their responsibility.
If
you're trying to learn a trail and/or improve your
skills, it cannot be done in front of faster riders. The
best way to learn is to follow and watch. Challenging
yourself to stay in front of someone is a lot harder
than challenging yourself to keep up with someone. If
it's become too easy to keep up with a particular rider,
then move on to the next - where appropriate (if they're
still kicking your ass on the downhills, pull over and
let them go first for the downhill). If you find
yourself at the front of the group, then obviously
you're worthy of the "staying in front" challenge - good
luck. It's hard.
Thank you. This has been a message
of the public Ass Kicking service. Have a nice day.
And never underestimate the power
of beer.
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9/25/06
Culinary
Wasteland...
Jen and I are lost - up to our
eyeballs in food, rooms and
reservations. Here are some
highlights. Saturday night was the
Arthur Awards for our dance studio.
We got all dressed up and
were
completely overwhelmed. I really can't put into words
all the
things we saw that
evening. Wasn't exactly good or bad, just
a lot - sort of like the Sunday
paper - news, tragedy and the
comics all rolled into one.
Sunday
race day at Bear Creek. We won second place in the
large
team competition. It was a
close call for us, but we pulled it off in
the end.
Went to two more restaurants
- the Marshallton Inn and Ludwig's
Oyster Bar. Waiting on price
lists/menus to make the final call for
rehersal dinner dining.
Tomorrow
night is a DJ exhibition. Wednesday riding - what's
that?
Thursday dancing and
Friday more food. Holy crap when's it gonna
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And a surprise for me was fifth
place in the Elite mens 30-34 age
group. My first year in the dreaded
"train your ass off" category
and I get a trophy. A teammate
beat me out of fourth place by half
a point. I beat another teammate
for fifth with a single point. I don't
have time for a full race report,
but I can say Bear Creek is hard,
my body hurts and dehydration sucks
- gotta quit doing that.
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9/22/06
Jen says I'm a
bit O.C.D.
I've had
iTunes for almost two years
now. In iTunes there's this cool little feature that
records how many times you've listened to the song
you're currently listening to. The particular song I was
listening to yesterday, I had listened to 70 times. That
may not be out of the ordinary, but all the other songs
on that album average about 20. In my music
collection I have a handful of songs like this. This
song happens to have the highest play count. The next
song is Wooden Ships by Crosby Stills & Nash at 68.
It's
true. I will put a song on repeat and let it run for a
half hour or so. Or I will make a little four song
playlist and listen to it all day. Is it O.C.D.? I don't
know. I like the songs - either the lyrics, their sound
or the combination. It sooths me to just let it play -
maybe that's a little O.C.D.?
The song
in particular is A Perfect Circle's Passive. You
can watch the video here. It
came out as the title song for the movie Constantine.
Interesting flick (the Devil was sinisterly humorous),
but whatever. The lyrics are here. I'm a big
fan of Maynard's lyrics. I simply like the song,
though it's not my favorite of all songs.
Maybe today I'll listen to it some, but I'll probably
move onto something else. We'll see.
My ebay items went off last night.
Without fail some numbskull got the winning bid for one
of my items. He has a -2 record. Meaning he's had two
transactions and both went sour. The first communication
I get from him is as follows:
Hey,
Im pretty stoked i won ur derailer,
i was hoping to get it really quick, i need it on my
bike fast. so i was hoping money order would work. i
live in BC, canada. So please hurry and replie.
Im new at this thing so have
patience.
Thanks
My
response:
You've put me in an awkward
position. My item specifically said I sell only in the
US. If you want this transaction completed, I'll first
need an address from you and a shipping preference (UPS,
USPS, FedEx, etc.). I'll have to visit said shipping
facility, get a shipping price, and contact you with
that price and my address. Once I get your money order,
cash it, and fill out customs paper work, I will send
the item.
If you cannot comply with these
instructions, I have no choice but to refuse your
winning bid and report you to Ebay.
Let me
know how you want to proceed.
So
far no response. He has three days. The clock is
ticking...
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9/19/06
Fresh parsley anyone? Better than
spinach right?
This was one of three catepillars
in our parsley plant. Kind of like
the three pairs of Shimano
pedals I got today from the Brown
Santa. Not really, but I had to get
there somehow. These are
the replacements for my
Candy's. It's tough switching things
like pedals when you have multiple
bikes, but I got lucky and
found
these beauties for $52 a pair. They're normally around
$79 or something. Not sure when
I'll get to try them, but I've
got to get some time on them before
the race this weekend. Have
to
get my one bike rebuilt too. My King hub is hosed since
the
Seven Springs race. I tried
using it for the race this past weekend,
but it wouldn't even spin. The
headset is a little stiff too.
On Sunday
I got Jen's car fixed. Changed the oil, rotated the
tires
and fixed the power
steering.
BADASS
read and learn
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Mother and I have
been rehearsal dinner shopping. Started
Sunday night with the Thorndale Inn. The place
was a complete
dive. We couldn't
figure out where the front door was. Inside
wasn't much better. BUT the food is
amazing! It's soooo good.
Even the coffee kicked ass. Monday
I had a work dinner, so it
was
off to Coyote Crossing for some
mexican with the co-wokers.
Tough week so far huh? Yeah
every morning I've been riding to
work off the gluttony. Today we hit
Eagle Tavern
for lunch, the
Kimberton Inn for dinner
and Ludwig's Inn & Oyster Bar
in
between. Eagle Tavern
didn't make the cut. Ludwig's had a
decent room, but we haven't tried
the food. Kimberton had an
awsome room, but the food was only
almost as good as
Thorndale. So
far in the running is a dump with great food, a
cool
place with decent food, and
a decent place with food we haven't
tried. We have a few more places to
try. Stay tuned for the
results.
It was all a pain in the ass. I
decided I'm done changing oil for
good. It cost $19 for the oil and
filter and I still have to recycle the
used oil. I can take it somewhere
and have it done for that price.
It's just not worth my time. Like
any car project, it took twice as
long as it should. I don't have
time for that. Interesting though, the
routine tasks were the headaches.
The power steering was
pretty
straight forward.
Nor do I have time for a 109 page
power point slide to be read to
me bullet point for bullet
point, but that's a story for another time...
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9/17/06
Five Star came and
restocked our freezer Thursday night. Great
service and great food. Bring on
the bombs! I'm ready.
After the food was dropped off I
got busy on some overdue Ebay
work. I hate Ebay. Not actually
Ebay, just the people that use it.
You spend all this time setting it
up, writing descriptions and
instructions, then someone asks a
stupid question like "can you
ship this to the moon and can I get
it in pink." It freaks me out,
because I'm worried somehow it will
change my rating when I tell
them No, go crawl back under
your rock. Anyway, got a few items
up. Feel free to bid and mess
with their heads.
Got an RA number for my pedals.
They'll be going back for
warrenty and the replacements up on
Ebay. I'm finally done with
Crank Brothers. Got 3 pairs of
Shimanos on the way.
Mom showed up this weekend to go
rehearsal dinner shopping.
Woohoo! Out to eat everywhere -
everyday.
Did the New Milford race on
Saturday. I kept debating back and
forth all Friday. It's a two and a
half hour drive to get there. The
course is only a 4 mile lap and
it's six laps. It makes you dizzy
and you lose count.
Rocked out with the fender again.
Highly recommended for
two-niners in the mud. So how'd the
race go? Sort of typical. The
start was a downhill gravel road,
so I was dead last into the
woods. Wasn't long after that I had
my first kill. The guy was
totally lost in the mud and rocks.
Got around him pretty quick,
then got passed a lot by the class
behind me. Oh yeah there were
10
starters, so now I'm 9th. The first lap was hard. I
made all the
climbs, missed a
turn and killed myself. At the start/finish a guy
I
know yelled "settle in
Bob" and he was right. I hadn't settled in
yet. I was trying to force it too
much, so I spent the second lap
trying to settle in. Things got a
little better, but it still hurt more
then I thought it should. I diced
it up with Elk a little -
more like
got in his way and
annoyed him. Then got passed by Werner. That
annoyed me. I've ridden with him at
Thorpe on his home turf and
kept in front of him pretty easily.
Why the hell was he stomping on
me today - oh well. He's cool. I
let him go. Third lap came around
and I was still "settling in". By
the end though I felt good. Actually
felt ready to go - ready to race!
Lucky for me, I had 3 freaking laps
left to go. I "broke the seal",
cranked it up a few notches and took
off. Immediately I started seeing
guys from my class, beat, broken
and passed. Eigth, seventh and soon
enough sixth was mine.
Crossed
the finish line, had a few beers and drove home. In the
end I'm glad I went. It
was a tough race, but I needed it. Now if I
could get some riding in during the
week, maybe it wouldn't take
so
long to warm up in the race.
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The team needs points for second
place team competition in the
series, but I didn't want to drive
all the way up there by myself. A
bunch of the other team members
couldn't make it, because of
prior commitments. Over and over
again I was like what's the
point? Rick wasn't sure if he
could go, because of his kids
soccer game and Sean wasn't sure if
Lander would want to ride
three
of us in my car. Huh? Lander doesn't care. What the hell
Sean? I went to bed still not
knowing. Woke up at 6:30am with a
text message from Rick. He was good
to go. Pick up Rick at 8
and
head off. At 8:22 I get a call from Sean he asks "is
everything
ok?" I reply, "Yeah
just fine." Then he says "where are you?" "I'm
on the road with Rick, you never
called back so I made alternate
plans" Sean realizes the
mistake and he and Lander head off on
their own. Oh yeah. It's
raining. Been raining all morning. So
we're heading off on a two and
half hour drive to do a race in the
rain or at least mud.
And muddy it was - as you can
see in the picture. This was
peanut butter mud too. Not
like Jiff, like natural peanut butter
that is runny and thick at the same
time. Your wheels just spun
without going anywhere. It
would divert your forward progression
to sideways into the weeds in a
split second.
Busy day today. Fix Jen's car, fix
my bikes, cut the grass and go
out to eat. Busy, busy,
busy. |
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9/13/06
Five years ago this month 913 won the WERA Mid-Atlantic
D-Superbike and Formula
2 Novice Championships. So today
should be my day! 9/13 - 913?
uh-uh. My pedal axle snapped 3
miles into the ride tonight. This
is the second time I've broken a
Crank Brothers Candy pedal axle.
These were the "stronger"
replacements pedals for the last
ones I snapped. What the hell?
I
thought it was rediculous when my Genuine Innovations 16
gram
co2 cartridge wouldn't fit
in my Genuine Innovations Second Wind
pump (yeah i got a flat too), but
snapping a pedal axle
(for the
second time!) takes the cake. Felt strong tonight.
We're mt. bikers. Sticks are fun -
tacks mostly useless against
tubless tires with liquid laytex
vascular systems. Confrontation
is key. Dogs bark because they are
confined and can't confront.
People throw down sticks because
they're afraid to confront.
Passive-aggressive gets you no
where.
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Big fast group.
Ben was railing Skelp Level. I couldn't decide
if I was going to rail it or watch
him. Flat tire made up my mind
for me.
Rode with the D-town boys last
night. Good ride. Felt strong.
Love the cool clear nights. Ripping
through the quiet dark woods.
Dogs barking in the distance. They
know something's out
there. Property owners know
too. We're making trails
on
their property and riding them. They half-heartedly
throw sticks
across the trails
to stop us. Sometimes put down strips of tacks.
Some videos:
Crazy Germans
Dumbass
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9/11/06
Would you like to see our wine
list?
Ran out to get a tuxedo
tonight. It wasn't anywhere near as
complicated as I thought it could
be, though I did hold off on the
details like shirt, tie, cuff
links, etc. till Jen gets back. When it
comes to tuxes there's only a few
styles to choose from, so it's
easier than a suit. Any goofball
looks good in a monkey suit.
It's not
even for the wedding. With this dancing stuff Jen and I
are
getting into, there's a few
formals she wants to hit. When in
Rome...
Got to ride to work today. Felt
strong, though tired. Need to catch
up on sleep before, my check
bounces.
Jen's been gone thirtysix hours now
and I'm already having full-on
conversations with the pets. The
cat and I have quite a nice dialog
going. The dog just looks
at me and wags his tail if he's not
passed out in the middle of
the bed. It's a shame I had to leave the
tux for alterations. I'm sure the
aminals would have enjoyed the
fashion show.
Tomorrow
night is a night ride with D-town boys. Haven't ridden
with them in a while. Should be
nice, cool and fast. Can't wait.
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9/10/06
Holy crap ! I didn't ride
at all this weekend. I've been neglecting the
house and various house chores, so
this weekend was camp Bob.
Saturay I started with a
load of dishes, then moved onto the pool.
After backwashing it last
weekend, it started pumping D.E. back
into the pool. That's bad, so
I shut it down till this weekend when
I could take a look at it. My
first thought was that I busted a
filter grid
again, so Friday night I pulled the filter all
apart and
cleaned it.
Turns out all the filter grids were fine. I was
hoping
I'd put it all back
together and it would just work. As I'm putting
new D.E. into the skimmer, Jen's
asks, why are the jets so
cloudy?
While the silicone is drying, I
start cutting the grass, which
includes, raking the black walnut
garbage out of neighbors yard.
I have a black walnut tree over my
driveway that drops all kinds
of debris in his yard and mine.
It's annoying, but there's
something about having a black
walnut that I put up with it. After
getting the front yard cut, it's
time to take a shower and head to
University Mews for Jeff
and Sarah's house warming party. That
requires a train and cab ride. Get
to the party, drink some beers
be merry, then home by 10pm. Sunday
5am the alarm goes off.
Jen
leaves for Dallas for two weeks and I have to get her to
the
airport by 7am.
All the while I've been
periodically brushing the pool to stir
up the D.E.and get it sucked into
the filter. By now it's late
enough to start making noise. I
fire up the leaf blower and
start to clean the driveway. The
storm we got last weekend,
wreaked havoc on the oak and cherry
over our driveway. I
got tired
of crunching acorns leaves and twigs when I drove
around. With the driveway clear, I
could take some time to
check
out Jen's car. The power steering gave out over a
week ago. I thought it was simply a
hose that blew. After
getting
under the car I realized it was the belt.
Is it dinner yet? Cook some burgers
and get back to work. This
morning when I was printing Jen's
boarding pass, I noticed our
network closet was retaining a
considerable amout of heat.
Between the computer we have in
there, hard drives, printer and
litter box, there's plenty to make
the air nasty. I got the return
grill to remedy that. I cut a
12"x12" hole in the top and screwed it
on. I think it's working - I guess.
If not, whatever. I think it looks
kind of cool in some whacky
industrial sort of way.
So I guess
that's it. I can't remember anymore. I've spent
nearly
two hours building this,
so I guess this counts too. Oh yeah, now I
have to mop since I spilled my
gin & tonic everywhere. Hopefully
I'll ride to work tomorrow, then
ride Tuesday and Wednesday
nights. For those wondering,
here's an update on the bruise. I
think it hurts worse then it did.
Looks sort of better, though it's
migrating
everywhere.
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Damn! Didn't fix it. Still broke.
As I'm about ready to call
the
pool shop and pay $$$ to have them come out and fix it,
I
remember I never replaced my
multiport valve gasket. What if it's
busted and allowing water and D.E.
to leak between lines? I pop
open the Multi port value lid and
sure enough, it's done. The
gasket is a wreck. I run to the
shop, get a gasket and a new
valve lid (piece of mind), run home
and throw it together.
Get back from the airport around
8am and start
more chores.
Originally I was going to do trail maintenance, but
no time this weekend. Since it was
so early, I had to find quiet
chores. I started caulking. Our
front stoop has a pretty big gap
between itself and the house. I
caulked it. The window installers
missed the bottom flashing for the
window over our sink, so I
started on it. The gap was too
wide, so I had to fill it with Great
Stuff. I also had some gaps around
the front door and bedroom
windows that needing filling. While
the Great Stuff dried, I
caulked a few more odds and ends
around the house.
The AC compressor kind of died on
us about a month ago.
It was so
dead now, it had welded itself solid, thus not allowing
the belt (which also ran the
power steering) to spin. The belt
must have burned itself off. Easy
fix was to get a new belt for
a
Protege without AC. Run off to Pepboys to check it out.
The
guy says there's no such
thing. They don't have it - can't order it.
Screw them. Get some lunch, stop at
Home Depot and get back
home. At
Home Depot I picked up a return grill, telephone
junction box, gutter guards and
clippers. All for more chores. I
get home and throw the gutter
guards in the detached garage
gutters, then fire up the tractor
and finish cutting the yard. Run
the weed wacker and do some
weeding. Finally I get to fire up
my new chainsaw and cut up some
fallen limbs. Pull out the leaf
blower again to clean up grass and
leaf clippings. Finish caulking
the kitchen window, move the extra
drywall to the detached
garage,
and throw a load of towels and blankets in the
wash.
Not sure how long I'll maintain
this format. It's time consuming
and I'm not sure of any
entertainment value. Tomorrow night I'm
going shopping for a Tux. Maybe
that will provide something
interesting. As a footnote. I did
find the belt for a protege w/o
AC - some place online. Hope
it works.
Some bike related videos:
Mullet Mafia in Iraq Sucks
Sick
Trials
...at least somebody's riding |
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9/8/06
*** His and hers
cutlery ***
This week Jen and I both got
our very own cutlery sets. To the right is Jen's.
it's a Montrose knife block set including all
kinds of sharp and shiny goodies.
Below is my new chainsaw.
Granted it's not quite as nice as Jen's knife set,
but I think it will get the job done around here.
This past weekend we had the top of a tree come
off. My new 18" should rip through it pretty
well.
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On a stupider note I
almost got run over tonight riding home
from work (yeah I said
stupider). Some lady in a Big Red SUV
came within inches of me on the shoulder. I was a
little upset, so I did some yelling and a few hand
gestures to express myself. Lucky for me her
husband was right behind her in a BIGGER SUV towing a
boat. He layed on the horn and gave me even less
room. It's bad enough people are dying all over
the world to fuel these hungry muthas. Why do they
have to kill me too?
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When I
bought the saw, I had already purchased it and was
at a second checkout counter buying
something else. The guy
at the
counter was like,
"I see you've got some work to do"
referring to the saw. I looked
at the saw then back at him and
said,
"work or play depends on your
perspective." The clerk in a very
listen
here kid sort of way says,
"I had a
few trees go down this weekend. Trust me. Cutting up
wood is a lot of work."
Now this
is three days after I get back from doing a 24hour
mountain bike race through a
hurricane. Don't tell me about
work you ol' geezer. It took
everything in me not to say,
"who said anything about cutting
wood?" | |
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