Saturday, February 26, 2005
Friday, February 25, 2005
and again....
"We were once so close to heaven,
Peter came out and gave us medals,
Declaring us,
The nicest of the damned."
XXXOOO
Peter
Peter came out and gave us medals,
Declaring us,
The nicest of the damned."
XXXOOO
Peter
Song of the day comes from.....
They Might Be Giants....
"A woman came up to me and said I'd like to poison your mind with wrong ideas that appleal to you. "
Isn't that the story of my life????
It goes on....
"A man came up to me and said I'd like to change your mind by hitting it with a rock."
It doesn't get much more real than that.
Hugs and kisses,
Pete
"A woman came up to me and said I'd like to poison your mind with wrong ideas that appleal to you. "
Isn't that the story of my life????
It goes on....
"A man came up to me and said I'd like to change your mind by hitting it with a rock."
It doesn't get much more real than that.
Hugs and kisses,
Pete
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Finally found Jason's Kryptonite....
I've got to be true to myself. That is always the most important thing. It is in my nature to be hateful and demeaning to everyone that I call "friend".
With that in mind, I've been searching for that certain special combination of things that cause Jason to freak out, tremble in fear or just break down and cry like a little girl.
The jingle bells on the single speed were a good start. Even if I can't keep up with him on the climbs, I'm usually able to stay *just* close enough so that he can hear them in the background. On those 1 in a million rides where I can actually catch up to him on a climb, I get the added bonus of him freaking out because they're closing in on him.... stalking him... slowly driving him insane. Since I am only able to catch him on a climb when he's having a really bad day and is hurting, the damage inflicted by the bells is even more effective.
I really needed to take this abuse to the next level. There really is only one set of conditions in which I can actually keep up with Jason. I finally found that magic substance that when Jason is in its presence, it saps him of both his morale and his obvious aerobic and muscular advantage. What is the kryptonite that I talk of???
SNOW!!!!
I knew something was up when I told him about the weather report yesterday. He let loose a string of obsceneties that would make a sailor proud. This morning he sent me an SMS with even more nasty things in it because I somehow caused this snow storm to descend upon the DC area.
Just to make sure he didn't wimp out, I pretended to be a nice guy and say that I had all the parts he needed to finish the bike project he's working on. I played like I was being a good friend and that I'd work with him on installing it in my shop after the ride tonight. It sounds like a nice thing to do... But it was really malicious and devious of me. My sole purpose was to make it so he *had* to come out and ride in the snow. I dropped subtle hins like "Its okay if you don't make the ride... we'll still work on your bike at my place after." I've found that if I'm outwardly a jerk about riding and tell J that he's a wimp for skipping rides, he just blows me off. If I use "double reverse psychology" on him and tell him that its cool if he misses a ride now and then, it totally freaks him out. I come off looking like a cool guy and a good friend, and he gets suckered into riding when he otherwise wouldn't go out. It works every time.
So tonight's ride in 5-8" of new snow (11" by morning) is specifically dedicated to Superman... Enjoy the kryptonite ride. The Voodoo Queen and I will be there to witness your triumph over evil.
Fondly,
Pete
PS. Please disregard everything in this post except this line. I'm a sarcastic bastard if nothing else.
With that in mind, I've been searching for that certain special combination of things that cause Jason to freak out, tremble in fear or just break down and cry like a little girl.
The jingle bells on the single speed were a good start. Even if I can't keep up with him on the climbs, I'm usually able to stay *just* close enough so that he can hear them in the background. On those 1 in a million rides where I can actually catch up to him on a climb, I get the added bonus of him freaking out because they're closing in on him.... stalking him... slowly driving him insane. Since I am only able to catch him on a climb when he's having a really bad day and is hurting, the damage inflicted by the bells is even more effective.
I really needed to take this abuse to the next level. There really is only one set of conditions in which I can actually keep up with Jason. I finally found that magic substance that when Jason is in its presence, it saps him of both his morale and his obvious aerobic and muscular advantage. What is the kryptonite that I talk of???
SNOW!!!!
I knew something was up when I told him about the weather report yesterday. He let loose a string of obsceneties that would make a sailor proud. This morning he sent me an SMS with even more nasty things in it because I somehow caused this snow storm to descend upon the DC area.
Just to make sure he didn't wimp out, I pretended to be a nice guy and say that I had all the parts he needed to finish the bike project he's working on. I played like I was being a good friend and that I'd work with him on installing it in my shop after the ride tonight. It sounds like a nice thing to do... But it was really malicious and devious of me. My sole purpose was to make it so he *had* to come out and ride in the snow. I dropped subtle hins like "Its okay if you don't make the ride... we'll still work on your bike at my place after." I've found that if I'm outwardly a jerk about riding and tell J that he's a wimp for skipping rides, he just blows me off. If I use "double reverse psychology" on him and tell him that its cool if he misses a ride now and then, it totally freaks him out. I come off looking like a cool guy and a good friend, and he gets suckered into riding when he otherwise wouldn't go out. It works every time.
So tonight's ride in 5-8" of new snow (11" by morning) is specifically dedicated to Superman... Enjoy the kryptonite ride. The Voodoo Queen and I will be there to witness your triumph over evil.
Fondly,
Pete
PS. Please disregard everything in this post except this line. I'm a sarcastic bastard if nothing else.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Gotta black magic woman....
Well Speedgoat came through BIGTIME with the forks. Many thanks to them for going out of their way to fix the order that they lost. Dang I enjoy building bikes. I wish I could do it for a living and actually make a real living.
FORK YOU! -- or rather FORK ME! Its a Surly Instigator that I got from Speedgoat. Not too light, but certainly strong.
The build was a piece of cake. I took a few things off of my old bike. I put an XTR rear brake on that I'd had laying around. The bars and one brake lever came off my old SS. The stem was one I had laying around. I already talked about where the front wheel came from. The rear wheel is the one I've been riding for a while. The seatpost and seat are old.
Here's what it looks like. The kittens seem to approve.
Gracie seems to approve of the disc brakes.
The first test ride was fun. I just went and rode around the neighborhood. I needed to try out some of the positioning. Since I've been riding a lot more technical stuff, I thought I'd try a little more upright positioning. I moved the bars up about 1/2". Trials riding seems to be a bit easier. We'll see what its like on the snow ride tomorrow.
FORK YOU! -- or rather FORK ME! Its a Surly Instigator that I got from Speedgoat. Not too light, but certainly strong.
The build was a piece of cake. I took a few things off of my old bike. I put an XTR rear brake on that I'd had laying around. The bars and one brake lever came off my old SS. The stem was one I had laying around. I already talked about where the front wheel came from. The rear wheel is the one I've been riding for a while. The seatpost and seat are old.
Here's what it looks like. The kittens seem to approve.
Gracie seems to approve of the disc brakes.
The first test ride was fun. I just went and rode around the neighborhood. I needed to try out some of the positioning. Since I've been riding a lot more technical stuff, I thought I'd try a little more upright positioning. I moved the bars up about 1/2". Trials riding seems to be a bit easier. We'll see what its like on the snow ride tomorrow.
Happy Trails.
Pete
Is there a winter wonderland on the horizon????
Just when Mom Nature is telling us that we're going to have spring-like weather, the weather geek posts up that we're expecting 3-5" of snow tomorrow, with an additional 2" accumulation by Friday morning. Jason is NOT going to be happy about this. I, on the other hand, am EXTATIC! I'm so ready for another snow ride, that I'm not even noticing the ache in my shoulder and knee that tells me that the weather geek is probably right. I can't tell if it will be snow, sleet or rain, but I can tell that something wimply this way comes. I'd say something wicked, except I can't imagine 5'7" of snow being something wicked. I'm a 3-4' of snow kinda guy. I'm still waiting for the next big blizzard. I want a 1993 or 1996 storm to hit this area.
New topic.... Possibly the best line on a song from the 80s? The Art of Noise, "Paranomia" --- "And on Mike, the lovely CHER!. You okay Mike?"
or if you prefer,
"On Drums, THE POPE!"
Have a nice day. Lets pray for snow!
Pete
New topic.... Possibly the best line on a song from the 80s? The Art of Noise, "Paranomia" --- "And on Mike, the lovely CHER!. You okay Mike?"
or if you prefer,
"On Drums, THE POPE!"
Have a nice day. Lets pray for snow!
Pete
Flying is easy....
In the immortal words of Douglas Adams, "Flying is easy. Just throw yourself at the ground and miss."
I'm reminded of these words as I continue to deal with the aftermath of my crash at EF. I'm able to ride just fine, but getting up in the morning is hard... especially after a ride the day before. This is nothing new to me. I just need to double up on the yoga and really work all the kinks out. Little by little I'm getting better. I'll be back to normal soon.
In the IPOD today is a bunch of really eclectic 80s music. I'm bouncing back and forth between INXS, The Art of Noise and Big Audio Dynamite. It is a good day. :)
Oh yeah... My forks arrive today.
Hugs and kisses.
Pete
I'm reminded of these words as I continue to deal with the aftermath of my crash at EF. I'm able to ride just fine, but getting up in the morning is hard... especially after a ride the day before. This is nothing new to me. I just need to double up on the yoga and really work all the kinks out. Little by little I'm getting better. I'll be back to normal soon.
In the IPOD today is a bunch of really eclectic 80s music. I'm bouncing back and forth between INXS, The Art of Noise and Big Audio Dynamite. It is a good day. :)
Oh yeah... My forks arrive today.
Hugs and kisses.
Pete
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Nice guys finish last....
I've been itching to get the new forks for my SS. Having worked in a bike shop, I HATED it when people would call every day to see if their parts had arrived. For that reason, I tend to not follow up with places to see if things come in. I either see it arrive or wait for them to call me.
That bit me in the ass this week. The guy that "ordered" the forks never did. I finally got tired of waiting and called. "We have one right over there on the wall, but I don't see your order for one." I explained the situation and the shop made everything all better. Had I called last week, I'd be riding the bike now. Oh well.
A comment on shops... I love doing business with a few of the local shops. I tend to buy bigger stuff from a friend who's got a shop in Pennsylvania. Speedgoat is my favorite place to shop. I know I should buy local more, but these are friends. They take care of me. I do spend money in local shops. I probably should more. They do lots of good things locally.
My new Surly fork is on its way. It should be here tomorrow. I'll try and have the bike built up tomorrow night. It would be fun to ride it Thursday if that is possible. It'll be nice to be riding disc brakes again, even if it is my old Hayes brake. It still works.
This has been a rough week. I've had a lot of good going on, but a bit of tough stuff too. I'll be glad when it's over. J and I are thinking of going to Joisey on Monday in search of bikeage. We'll see how that goes.
Later!
Pete
That bit me in the ass this week. The guy that "ordered" the forks never did. I finally got tired of waiting and called. "We have one right over there on the wall, but I don't see your order for one." I explained the situation and the shop made everything all better. Had I called last week, I'd be riding the bike now. Oh well.
A comment on shops... I love doing business with a few of the local shops. I tend to buy bigger stuff from a friend who's got a shop in Pennsylvania. Speedgoat is my favorite place to shop. I know I should buy local more, but these are friends. They take care of me. I do spend money in local shops. I probably should more. They do lots of good things locally.
My new Surly fork is on its way. It should be here tomorrow. I'll try and have the bike built up tomorrow night. It would be fun to ride it Thursday if that is possible. It'll be nice to be riding disc brakes again, even if it is my old Hayes brake. It still works.
This has been a rough week. I've had a lot of good going on, but a bit of tough stuff too. I'll be glad when it's over. J and I are thinking of going to Joisey on Monday in search of bikeage. We'll see how that goes.
Later!
Pete
Monday, February 21, 2005
NIN
The IPOD rules the day today. And I'm trying something a little different. It is a national holiday... Happy Presidents Day everyone!!! There are few people in the office and we're 100% customer free. That means I can crank up the IPOD a little and not have to worry too much about people overhearing what's going into my ears.
Today's music selection? Nine Inch Nails. It is some singles CD that I found that has a few different songs on it and 5 different versions of the song "Closer to God". You know that one... Sing along with me, "I want to fuck you like an animal. I want to feel you from the inside."
Lets just say that my outlook on work is a little different today. I need to do this more often. I've got a lot of work done.
I'm going to cut out early and hopefully get a loop in at Accostink if it isn't too wet. I'm bummed that everyone else got to ride today but me. I need a relaxing loop today.
Talk to y'all later.
Pete
Today's music selection? Nine Inch Nails. It is some singles CD that I found that has a few different songs on it and 5 different versions of the song "Closer to God". You know that one... Sing along with me, "I want to fuck you like an animal. I want to feel you from the inside."
Lets just say that my outlook on work is a little different today. I need to do this more often. I've got a lot of work done.
I'm going to cut out early and hopefully get a loop in at Accostink if it isn't too wet. I'm bummed that everyone else got to ride today but me. I need a relaxing loop today.
Talk to y'all later.
Pete
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Greenbrier State Park and Museuming.
Oy peeps.
Yesterday's ride at Greenbrier was amazing. There were at least three big rides going on at the same day... one of them wasn't one that is often ridden by folks in the club. In spite of that, we had a pretty good turnout for the Greenbrier ride.
As we often do, Jason, Wayne and I showed up early for a lap or two. We only had time for one lap. I'm glad we only did one lap. The one we did was really fast for us. We completed the whole lap in 52 minutes. That sort of set the tone for the rest of the ride... but not in a good way.
I felt pretty good up the red climb on the first lap of the group ride. I felt great as we topped the ridge and started down the orange. When we started up the Copperhead trail towards the blue trail, the trouble started. Jason and I both started falling back. J asked if I was Mr. Cliffbar. I said I had one left that I'd split with him. It took until the blue climb for it to kick in for him. It took till half way up the blue climb for it to kick in for me.
The third time up the rock garden trail and log crossings was tough, but I made it. I stopped a few times.
I need to find a better way to eat when it is cold out. My body doesn't want to eat when it is like that. I'll experiment with that.
For photos, you can click here.
Laura and I went to the National Gallery today to see a few exhibits that I'd been wanting to for ages. Both had actually closed. I was bummed, but we looked at some post impressionist paintings and some cool sculpture by Alexander Calder. I'll post up photos of that later tonight.
Talk to you later.
Pete
Yesterday's ride at Greenbrier was amazing. There were at least three big rides going on at the same day... one of them wasn't one that is often ridden by folks in the club. In spite of that, we had a pretty good turnout for the Greenbrier ride.
As we often do, Jason, Wayne and I showed up early for a lap or two. We only had time for one lap. I'm glad we only did one lap. The one we did was really fast for us. We completed the whole lap in 52 minutes. That sort of set the tone for the rest of the ride... but not in a good way.
I felt pretty good up the red climb on the first lap of the group ride. I felt great as we topped the ridge and started down the orange. When we started up the Copperhead trail towards the blue trail, the trouble started. Jason and I both started falling back. J asked if I was Mr. Cliffbar. I said I had one left that I'd split with him. It took until the blue climb for it to kick in for him. It took till half way up the blue climb for it to kick in for me.
The third time up the rock garden trail and log crossings was tough, but I made it. I stopped a few times.
I need to find a better way to eat when it is cold out. My body doesn't want to eat when it is like that. I'll experiment with that.
For photos, you can click here.
Laura and I went to the National Gallery today to see a few exhibits that I'd been wanting to for ages. Both had actually closed. I was bummed, but we looked at some post impressionist paintings and some cool sculpture by Alexander Calder. I'll post up photos of that later tonight.
Talk to you later.
Pete
Friday, February 18, 2005
A typo that causes zits that last a very long time...
Enduracne.
I think that says enough right there.
Hugs and Kisses,
Pete
I think that says enough right there.
Hugs and Kisses,
Pete
Its freaking cold out here.
Winter has returned. So much for the beautiful photos of riding in the snow while wearing t-shirts and shorts. It is back to being really cold again. Last night I am glad I had the leg warmers because it was definitely leg warmer weather.
The ride was fantastic. The folks that we had on the casual night ride were great. We took it easy at the beginning and just rolled through the creek trail, letting ourselves warm up a bit. We did a nice little stomp up the power lines trail, and then the fun really began. Since this is one of the last rides on the race course before IMBA re-designs it all, I thought we'd do as much of it as we could. We hit each of the leafs of the trail. After starting off kind-of flat in my pre-ride, I was somewhat surprised to have any power at all on the climbs. I heated up the legs and lungs slowly and let them decide how the ride would go. They seemed to enjoy being abused, so I turned it up a little.... and a little more.
I'm not talking about flying or anything. I don't do that shit. I'm not a fast rider, and I probably never will be again. But for me, the ride went pretty darn well. I stomped up some hills in the race course and got myself pretty much out of breath.
After a swoop throught he IMBA section, we went for a few laps in the bowls. It was GREAT to ride the creek crossings and log stacks again. It wasn't cold enough to freeze the brakes solid like it has been in the last few months. That made for much more fun. Wes was GOD on the logs. He launced over a log that was over 3 feet tall without batting an eyelash. When he finished, he said it didn't really count since he'd half clipped out of his pedal. Bwahhahahahaha. That counts as far as I'm concerned. He didn't dab... just clipped out half way.
The climbs in the bowls were great. By this time the group had pared down a bit and a few of us wanted to go a little fast... kind of impromptu, short intervals. Chris was sweeping and he knows the trails very well. I didn't have to worry about leaving anyone behind. We stopped at the top of each climb. That allowed J, Wes and I to speed up a bit on the tight sections. It is fun as heck to launch the SS through that stuff. There's nothing to that bike, so it flies through the turns and accelerates well. Even a dolt like me can feel it pushing to go faster. It felt great.
The coolest thing about last night was the return of two riders that had been off for a while. I don't get to ride with Wes much... even when he's on the bike. He's usually with the much faster group and as you've read above, has some serious bike handling skills. He's flying over logs and I'm watching in amazement. He'd been off for 4 months and was hanging with our group to get back into it a bit.
Dom also came back last night. He's been sick for ages and isn't really fond of the cold at all. He had a rough night. I give him tons of props for just being there. He was obviously hurting in every imaginable way, but he stuck it out for almost 90 minutes. He gave it all he had. His fitness will come back. I just don't want him to get discouraged. He'll get everything running again. He's got the skills. He just needs to get his legs back under him.
Funny thing was Dom ragging on Santa Cruz for sending their prodcution of some of their frames overseas.... To asia of all places. We were laughing like crazy that an asian guy was ragging on asian production. He's a "buy American" kinda guy. Good laugh.
It is a blues day in the IPOD. Jimi Hendrix, Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Blues Traveller, even a little Lyle Lovett, though he's a little more country. I need some Dwight Yokum some time soon. It sure beats the sound of BADGER BADGER BADGER.
Have a great night. I'm going to try to get to bed early so that I'm ready for tomorrow's ride. It should be a fun one and one in which we work pretty hard.
Pete
The ride was fantastic. The folks that we had on the casual night ride were great. We took it easy at the beginning and just rolled through the creek trail, letting ourselves warm up a bit. We did a nice little stomp up the power lines trail, and then the fun really began. Since this is one of the last rides on the race course before IMBA re-designs it all, I thought we'd do as much of it as we could. We hit each of the leafs of the trail. After starting off kind-of flat in my pre-ride, I was somewhat surprised to have any power at all on the climbs. I heated up the legs and lungs slowly and let them decide how the ride would go. They seemed to enjoy being abused, so I turned it up a little.... and a little more.
I'm not talking about flying or anything. I don't do that shit. I'm not a fast rider, and I probably never will be again. But for me, the ride went pretty darn well. I stomped up some hills in the race course and got myself pretty much out of breath.
After a swoop throught he IMBA section, we went for a few laps in the bowls. It was GREAT to ride the creek crossings and log stacks again. It wasn't cold enough to freeze the brakes solid like it has been in the last few months. That made for much more fun. Wes was GOD on the logs. He launced over a log that was over 3 feet tall without batting an eyelash. When he finished, he said it didn't really count since he'd half clipped out of his pedal. Bwahhahahahaha. That counts as far as I'm concerned. He didn't dab... just clipped out half way.
The climbs in the bowls were great. By this time the group had pared down a bit and a few of us wanted to go a little fast... kind of impromptu, short intervals. Chris was sweeping and he knows the trails very well. I didn't have to worry about leaving anyone behind. We stopped at the top of each climb. That allowed J, Wes and I to speed up a bit on the tight sections. It is fun as heck to launch the SS through that stuff. There's nothing to that bike, so it flies through the turns and accelerates well. Even a dolt like me can feel it pushing to go faster. It felt great.
The coolest thing about last night was the return of two riders that had been off for a while. I don't get to ride with Wes much... even when he's on the bike. He's usually with the much faster group and as you've read above, has some serious bike handling skills. He's flying over logs and I'm watching in amazement. He'd been off for 4 months and was hanging with our group to get back into it a bit.
Dom also came back last night. He's been sick for ages and isn't really fond of the cold at all. He had a rough night. I give him tons of props for just being there. He was obviously hurting in every imaginable way, but he stuck it out for almost 90 minutes. He gave it all he had. His fitness will come back. I just don't want him to get discouraged. He'll get everything running again. He's got the skills. He just needs to get his legs back under him.
Funny thing was Dom ragging on Santa Cruz for sending their prodcution of some of their frames overseas.... To asia of all places. We were laughing like crazy that an asian guy was ragging on asian production. He's a "buy American" kinda guy. Good laugh.
It is a blues day in the IPOD. Jimi Hendrix, Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Blues Traveller, even a little Lyle Lovett, though he's a little more country. I need some Dwight Yokum some time soon. It sure beats the sound of BADGER BADGER BADGER.
Have a great night. I'm going to try to get to bed early so that I'm ready for tomorrow's ride. It should be a fun one and one in which we work pretty hard.
Pete
Thursday, February 17, 2005
DEAR GOD, PLEASE SAY NO!!!!
I need to find a song about getting a new bicycle. As it is, when I get a new bike, I turn on some rock and roll or blues and play in the shop till the project is done. This bike will be raised to the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
When I say new, I really mean "New to me". As you may have read before, I picked this frame up from Josh after he and his girlfriend found the needed more room in their apartment. It had something to do with 11 bikes between two people. I can't quite understand that reasoning (as I've probably got more than 11 bikes myself), but I'll enjoy the frame I got in this deal. :)
The paint needed work. I took care of that pretty quickly. It isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but I needed the bike to be built up and running soon. I took off the stuff that had been covering the chips and scratches and used some good, old rustolium on it. I'll do a more serious paint job down the road. Now that I have a compressor, I can do a lot of that stuff at home.
Forks should be here today or tomorrow. Gary gave me his old headset which will tide me over till I can afford a CK. Everything else will come off the Jinglespeed.
Which brings up a topic of discussion that will be interesting to pretty much everyone I ride with. The question is, Will the jingle bells be transferred to the new frame??? I know you can't wait for this answer. I can even hear what you're thinking.... "Please say no, DEAR GOD PLEASE SAY NO!"
I'll get to that in a minute. This frame is made by a company called Voodoo. It has a lot of karma itself. It is, in a way, its own mojo and in theory, should require no additional charms to bring its rider good luck. But I'm a guy that believes in superstition when I ride. I've had good mojos and bad mojos. I've had great mojos that have searved me well and been put out to pasture. Spoon guy, Catdog (May he rest in peace) and Sumo guy have all been great to me, but they served their purpose and have moved on to different (though not always better) uses. I'm tending to think that the jingle bells still have some utility left in them. I guess I just answered my own question there. The bells are staying. Sorry folks.
One of the cool things about the bells is how non-riders tend to react to them. At EF last weekend, I had so many people smile land laugh as we passed by hikers. Though I'm sure the hunters would like to shoot me, I was pleased with the good cheer that the jingle jingle jingle brought to those who hear it for 10 seconds as I pass. It is often a good thing since my lungs are so blown out that I can't manage to say "hi".
My most sincere apologies to those who I ride with. Jason keeps saying he's going to find something more annoying to use as a mojo. That will sure make us a fun team to ride with. LOL
Have a great day folks. Sorry I haven't been more offensive or disgusting. I'll work harder on that.
Pete
PS. For more photos and the evolution of my single speed, please check out this link.
When I say new, I really mean "New to me". As you may have read before, I picked this frame up from Josh after he and his girlfriend found the needed more room in their apartment. It had something to do with 11 bikes between two people. I can't quite understand that reasoning (as I've probably got more than 11 bikes myself), but I'll enjoy the frame I got in this deal. :)
The paint needed work. I took care of that pretty quickly. It isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but I needed the bike to be built up and running soon. I took off the stuff that had been covering the chips and scratches and used some good, old rustolium on it. I'll do a more serious paint job down the road. Now that I have a compressor, I can do a lot of that stuff at home.
Forks should be here today or tomorrow. Gary gave me his old headset which will tide me over till I can afford a CK. Everything else will come off the Jinglespeed.
Which brings up a topic of discussion that will be interesting to pretty much everyone I ride with. The question is, Will the jingle bells be transferred to the new frame??? I know you can't wait for this answer. I can even hear what you're thinking.... "Please say no, DEAR GOD PLEASE SAY NO!"
I'll get to that in a minute. This frame is made by a company called Voodoo. It has a lot of karma itself. It is, in a way, its own mojo and in theory, should require no additional charms to bring its rider good luck. But I'm a guy that believes in superstition when I ride. I've had good mojos and bad mojos. I've had great mojos that have searved me well and been put out to pasture. Spoon guy, Catdog (May he rest in peace) and Sumo guy have all been great to me, but they served their purpose and have moved on to different (though not always better) uses. I'm tending to think that the jingle bells still have some utility left in them. I guess I just answered my own question there. The bells are staying. Sorry folks.
One of the cool things about the bells is how non-riders tend to react to them. At EF last weekend, I had so many people smile land laugh as we passed by hikers. Though I'm sure the hunters would like to shoot me, I was pleased with the good cheer that the jingle jingle jingle brought to those who hear it for 10 seconds as I pass. It is often a good thing since my lungs are so blown out that I can't manage to say "hi".
My most sincere apologies to those who I ride with. Jason keeps saying he's going to find something more annoying to use as a mojo. That will sure make us a fun team to ride with. LOL
Have a great day folks. Sorry I haven't been more offensive or disgusting. I'll work harder on that.
Pete
PS. For more photos and the evolution of my single speed, please check out this link.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Jason's Sadistic Training Program
Okay this is a little weird for me.
Jason's just been telling me about this really weird training program he's on. Two days a week he goes to the weight room and they hook up jumper cables to him and adminster electric shocks to him while he's lifting weights. I'm a little confused by that, but whatever works for him.
I send out a hearty "Good luck with that" to my buddy Jason.
Pete
PS: Yup! I'm hallucinating again. :)
Jason's just been telling me about this really weird training program he's on. Two days a week he goes to the weight room and they hook up jumper cables to him and adminster electric shocks to him while he's lifting weights. I'm a little confused by that, but whatever works for him.
I send out a hearty "Good luck with that" to my buddy Jason.
Pete
PS: Yup! I'm hallucinating again. :)
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Here I am....
"Look,
I understand too little too late,
I realize that there are things that you say and do that you can never take back,
But what would you be if you didn't even try,
You have to try,
So after a lot of thought,
I'd like to reconsider,
If its not to late,
Make it a cheese burger. "
Thanks Lyle. I needed that. :)
Pete
I understand too little too late,
I realize that there are things that you say and do that you can never take back,
But what would you be if you didn't even try,
You have to try,
So after a lot of thought,
I'd like to reconsider,
If its not to late,
Make it a cheese burger. "
Thanks Lyle. I needed that. :)
Pete
Monday, February 14, 2005
Enough Mr. Nice Guy.
Oy oy.
I used to goof around with application programming for Palm OS Handhelds. My brother has a software company that does a pretty good business writing custom aps for people. I'm still on a few e-mail lists for Palm stuff since I sometimes carry mine and am looking for an excuse to carry it more often. I keep saying that my next phone will be palm OS, but it hasn't worked out.
In honor of valentines day I received an e-mail from Palmgear.com. The subject of the E-mail was "Who says your palm can't be romantic?". I'm just wondering why my spam blocker didn't catch that one. :)
I can't wait to see what T-shirt Hell sends me. :)
Pete
I used to goof around with application programming for Palm OS Handhelds. My brother has a software company that does a pretty good business writing custom aps for people. I'm still on a few e-mail lists for Palm stuff since I sometimes carry mine and am looking for an excuse to carry it more often. I keep saying that my next phone will be palm OS, but it hasn't worked out.
In honor of valentines day I received an e-mail from Palmgear.com. The subject of the E-mail was "Who says your palm can't be romantic?". I'm just wondering why my spam blocker didn't catch that one. :)
I can't wait to see what T-shirt Hell sends me. :)
Pete
Betty Fu strikes again....
I had a long list of things to do on Saturday. I had to get my nails done. I really need a haircut badly. The cars need to be washed. I can't remember when they've been this dirty. There must be at least 7 loads of laundry that need to be run through. Instead of riding this weekend, I decided to stay home and get some things done. Boy was a I glad I did. I hate starting off the week feeling like I didn't accomplish anything over the weekend.
NOT! Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
That is about as un-me as you can get. Screw all the stuff I was "supposed" to do, I'll do that later. Its time to get out and go riding. It was supposed to be close to 50 degrees on Saturday, so I scheduled a ride at Elizabeth Furnace. I think lot of people had the same idea that I did. Brian scheduled a faster paced group to ride at the same time. We had more than 40 people in the parking lot ready to ride exactly at 10:30. Well maybe it was closer to 11am.
Brian took his group up the blue trail and over the top from the Bear Wallow side. Tommy took a faster, casual-paced group up over Mudhole gap. I lead the third group up over Mudhole gap right behind.
Jason was freaking on fire today. I chased pretty hard and stayed about 20 yards back from him most of the way up the climb. When we started passing people in the faster group, I figured that I'd better hang back for my own group and just count the people that got past me. We all had radios, so we figured we'd sort it out pretty well. That worked okay.
We picked up a few people from the faster group who decided to hang with us for the rest of the ride. I hung back to the back of the group to make sure all was well with my sweeper. Everything was rolling along nicely, so I hopped on and headed to the top. I managed to catch up pretty quickly. Jason was getting cold (read "antsy") so he'd come back down to meet me. We regrouped right before the short, rocky downhill section, then headed up along the trail that follows Passage Creek.
This was my first time riding this trail on a rigid single speed in close to 13 years. It was not as bad as I remembered it. I did three of the 5 creek crossings and walked the two that I've bailed in lately. This is not a good day to fall in the creek. JoeP found out the hard way. I felt kinda bad since I did manage to get photos of him falling, though I didn't have the ISO set right on my camera. The photos came out fuzzy. That isn't why I felt bad though (well okay, its a little bit why). I don't know Joe *that* well, and I didn't want to piss him off with the photos. He and I talked later and he's cool about posting them. You'll see them on the link at the bottom.
Did I mention that we needed to do more climbing? The rocks were actually kind of fun on the SS. I think I'm going to like riding a steel SS with steel forks though. The oversized aluminum is great for lightness, but you really feel every single bump. My bike will gain a little weight, but it will also be much more ridable. More on the new bike situation later. :)
I hung back on the next seciton and talked to Chris for a while. He'd been off the bike for a month or more after having surgery. The doctor had Okayed him for the ride a few days earlier. He was seriously itching to ride since he'd built up a new bike in his off time. He was sporting an absolutely gorgious Turner 5spot. His goal to keep the later upgrades to a minimum was to deck it out with all the nicest stuff. He did a damn good job of it. :) The bike is beautiful. He was riding it well too. He was definitely enjoying the 5" of cush in comparison to his old hardtail.
Back at the front we split off and took the loop that skirts the resevoir to the west. Ricky has dubbed this the "Raise Skirt" section after a bad abbreviation I'd typed into the last time I'd GPS'd the route. No raised skirts were there to be seen, but a few people dropped trow to mark their territory. This section of trail is a lot of fun. Its got a few steep stomps (that I didn't clean) and some slightly rocky drops. I took a bad line on one of them and paid the price bigtime. As I started down, I told myself "Self, I'm okay as long as I go to the right of that rock at the bottom". Well that didn't work out as planned. I got into a rut and could't get off that line. I hit the rock I was trying to avoid square center. It launched me over the bars and I smacked my head pretty hard. Thanks to Bob Gyro for designing a kick-ass helmet. I had some good bruises on the side of my leg and my left butt cheek, but only a bruise the size of a yoyo (I just measured it... its the same size as a Yomega Wing Force ball bearing yoyo with the new and improved clutch) on the side of my head where the helmet has saved my noodle. I was up instantly, did a quick invantory... 10 fingers, 10 toes, both arms and legs work, dang my head hurts. I hopped back on and decided that I'd deal with that later. I didn't see stars or anything. I wasn't rattled, just sore.
I flatted and bob stayed back to help out. Thanks dude! I had switched packs and didn't have my tire levers. I could have gotten it without, but it was easier to have him around. Many me pumped up the new tube so fast that the valve broke. Not really... it was an old tube and the valve failed from being ancient. Tube #3 is still holding air nicely. Joe hung back and lead us up to the hike-a-bike.
Then came the hike to the top. Yowza that still kicks my butt. I rode a few sections and then just gave up and hiked to the top with Bob. I've seen Jay and Larry ride that section bottom to top. Neither of them is human. I could never do that.
The ride down is great. Still feeling a little rattled from my fall, I walked almost everything to the first switchback. I had fun talking with Karen on the way down. She's always fun to ride with and a great person to have in the club.
Once back on the bike the flow came back pretty well. I walked two of the bigger rock gardens but I rode a few of them too. I had three walkovers when I got myself into trouble. The switchbacks were SWEEEEET though. The Colorado boy in me still oves those things. I ride them every chance I get. Chris said he striaghtlined one and went flying down the backside of it. I met Tommy in one and it looked like he'd had a rough day. That guy is FREAKING TOUGH! He'd had some hard falls and was still making his way down. My hat is off to him. He's picked up skills really quickly and is becoming a great rider. It is fun to see and read about his enthusiasm. It helps me psyche up for rides like this.
We were finally back to the parking lot. Gina and Joe were still taking it easy on the way down. We'd stayed in touch with them on the radios on the ride down. Joe's hand was bugging him. Gina was just not feeling so great. Jason, David, Dennis and I hopped on the bikes again and headed back up to meet them and make sure all was well. Ricky had found them and was riding down with them. The 4 of us climbed up for just short of 2 miles. I'd really wanted to make it one more mile up to the junction of the pink trail and cut across for a fast doubletrack downhill. I didn't have it in me though. After stomping around all day and slamming pretty hard on the back side, I was finally done. I figured I had just enough to be able to stomp my way to the top of the three little climbs we had to do on the way back down. I was right. I was happy not to have to drive home.
After all that, Betty Fu took us on a seriously fun ride. The group was great. It came out to just short of 18 miles by the calculations of the GPS.
Sorry for rambling. I just thought I'd write while I had this stuff on my brain.
Pete
Here's the link to the ride.
NOT! Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
That is about as un-me as you can get. Screw all the stuff I was "supposed" to do, I'll do that later. Its time to get out and go riding. It was supposed to be close to 50 degrees on Saturday, so I scheduled a ride at Elizabeth Furnace. I think lot of people had the same idea that I did. Brian scheduled a faster paced group to ride at the same time. We had more than 40 people in the parking lot ready to ride exactly at 10:30. Well maybe it was closer to 11am.
Brian took his group up the blue trail and over the top from the Bear Wallow side. Tommy took a faster, casual-paced group up over Mudhole gap. I lead the third group up over Mudhole gap right behind.
Jason was freaking on fire today. I chased pretty hard and stayed about 20 yards back from him most of the way up the climb. When we started passing people in the faster group, I figured that I'd better hang back for my own group and just count the people that got past me. We all had radios, so we figured we'd sort it out pretty well. That worked okay.
We picked up a few people from the faster group who decided to hang with us for the rest of the ride. I hung back to the back of the group to make sure all was well with my sweeper. Everything was rolling along nicely, so I hopped on and headed to the top. I managed to catch up pretty quickly. Jason was getting cold (read "antsy") so he'd come back down to meet me. We regrouped right before the short, rocky downhill section, then headed up along the trail that follows Passage Creek.
This was my first time riding this trail on a rigid single speed in close to 13 years. It was not as bad as I remembered it. I did three of the 5 creek crossings and walked the two that I've bailed in lately. This is not a good day to fall in the creek. JoeP found out the hard way. I felt kinda bad since I did manage to get photos of him falling, though I didn't have the ISO set right on my camera. The photos came out fuzzy. That isn't why I felt bad though (well okay, its a little bit why). I don't know Joe *that* well, and I didn't want to piss him off with the photos. He and I talked later and he's cool about posting them. You'll see them on the link at the bottom.
Did I mention that we needed to do more climbing? The rocks were actually kind of fun on the SS. I think I'm going to like riding a steel SS with steel forks though. The oversized aluminum is great for lightness, but you really feel every single bump. My bike will gain a little weight, but it will also be much more ridable. More on the new bike situation later. :)
I hung back on the next seciton and talked to Chris for a while. He'd been off the bike for a month or more after having surgery. The doctor had Okayed him for the ride a few days earlier. He was seriously itching to ride since he'd built up a new bike in his off time. He was sporting an absolutely gorgious Turner 5spot. His goal to keep the later upgrades to a minimum was to deck it out with all the nicest stuff. He did a damn good job of it. :) The bike is beautiful. He was riding it well too. He was definitely enjoying the 5" of cush in comparison to his old hardtail.
Back at the front we split off and took the loop that skirts the resevoir to the west. Ricky has dubbed this the "Raise Skirt" section after a bad abbreviation I'd typed into the last time I'd GPS'd the route. No raised skirts were there to be seen, but a few people dropped trow to mark their territory. This section of trail is a lot of fun. Its got a few steep stomps (that I didn't clean) and some slightly rocky drops. I took a bad line on one of them and paid the price bigtime. As I started down, I told myself "Self, I'm okay as long as I go to the right of that rock at the bottom". Well that didn't work out as planned. I got into a rut and could't get off that line. I hit the rock I was trying to avoid square center. It launched me over the bars and I smacked my head pretty hard. Thanks to Bob Gyro for designing a kick-ass helmet. I had some good bruises on the side of my leg and my left butt cheek, but only a bruise the size of a yoyo (I just measured it... its the same size as a Yomega Wing Force ball bearing yoyo with the new and improved clutch) on the side of my head where the helmet has saved my noodle. I was up instantly, did a quick invantory... 10 fingers, 10 toes, both arms and legs work, dang my head hurts. I hopped back on and decided that I'd deal with that later. I didn't see stars or anything. I wasn't rattled, just sore.
I flatted and bob stayed back to help out. Thanks dude! I had switched packs and didn't have my tire levers. I could have gotten it without, but it was easier to have him around. Many me pumped up the new tube so fast that the valve broke. Not really... it was an old tube and the valve failed from being ancient. Tube #3 is still holding air nicely. Joe hung back and lead us up to the hike-a-bike.
Then came the hike to the top. Yowza that still kicks my butt. I rode a few sections and then just gave up and hiked to the top with Bob. I've seen Jay and Larry ride that section bottom to top. Neither of them is human. I could never do that.
The ride down is great. Still feeling a little rattled from my fall, I walked almost everything to the first switchback. I had fun talking with Karen on the way down. She's always fun to ride with and a great person to have in the club.
Once back on the bike the flow came back pretty well. I walked two of the bigger rock gardens but I rode a few of them too. I had three walkovers when I got myself into trouble. The switchbacks were SWEEEEET though. The Colorado boy in me still oves those things. I ride them every chance I get. Chris said he striaghtlined one and went flying down the backside of it. I met Tommy in one and it looked like he'd had a rough day. That guy is FREAKING TOUGH! He'd had some hard falls and was still making his way down. My hat is off to him. He's picked up skills really quickly and is becoming a great rider. It is fun to see and read about his enthusiasm. It helps me psyche up for rides like this.
We were finally back to the parking lot. Gina and Joe were still taking it easy on the way down. We'd stayed in touch with them on the radios on the ride down. Joe's hand was bugging him. Gina was just not feeling so great. Jason, David, Dennis and I hopped on the bikes again and headed back up to meet them and make sure all was well. Ricky had found them and was riding down with them. The 4 of us climbed up for just short of 2 miles. I'd really wanted to make it one more mile up to the junction of the pink trail and cut across for a fast doubletrack downhill. I didn't have it in me though. After stomping around all day and slamming pretty hard on the back side, I was finally done. I figured I had just enough to be able to stomp my way to the top of the three little climbs we had to do on the way back down. I was right. I was happy not to have to drive home.
After all that, Betty Fu took us on a seriously fun ride. The group was great. It came out to just short of 18 miles by the calculations of the GPS.
Sorry for rambling. I just thought I'd write while I had this stuff on my brain.
Pete
Here's the link to the ride.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Do what you gotta do...
I had a long talk with a friend last night. Things haven't gone as he'd planned of late. I guess the best thing I can say is to live your life to the best of your ability. If you've got a chance to do something, take advantage of that. Have something that you're passionate about. Let your soul guide you instead of your brain.
Sorry to go deep on this one, but it hit me hard this week. Too many crappy things are happening to some wonderful people. It makes you think and it makes you want to do everything you can to let others know that they shouldn't wait for things to happen. You need to make things happen.
Time to go work on my car. See y'all later. Gonna get greasy. :)
Pete
Sorry to go deep on this one, but it hit me hard this week. Too many crappy things are happening to some wonderful people. It makes you think and it makes you want to do everything you can to let others know that they shouldn't wait for things to happen. You need to make things happen.
Time to go work on my car. See y'all later. Gonna get greasy. :)
Pete
Thursday, February 10, 2005
There's something really sexy about cartoon virgin rabbits with bags over their heads playing keyboard solos.
There's something truly amazing about the Internet. Now I know why the word Internet should always be capitolized. I originally thought it was one of those executive orders that the Clinton administration pushed through at the last minute in tribute to 8 years of faithful service by the guy who invented the InTeRnEt (al gore).
The word Internet should really be capitolized all the time because of things like THIS.
Cute bunny. Nice song. I like it when he cries at the end. It warmed my heart.
Hugs and kisses,
Pete
PS: Thanks again, Hippy Kwan. Al Gore sends his love (in a totally heterosexual way).
The word Internet should really be capitolized all the time because of things like THIS.
Cute bunny. Nice song. I like it when he cries at the end. It warmed my heart.
Hugs and kisses,
Pete
PS: Thanks again, Hippy Kwan. Al Gore sends his love (in a totally heterosexual way).
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
She Freaking Blocked Me!
In the immortal words of someone wise, "Don't be jealous because I've been talking to babes on-line all day."
I thought I'd share this with you because it changed my entire life.... or not. ;)
http://www.letslol.com/blockedme.swf
Thanks Hippy Chang for that link. Don't cut your hair man. You've definitely got a Bruce Lee thing going on. He's like the only guy I've ever seen that might scare a ninja.
Have a nice day.
Pete
I thought I'd share this with you because it changed my entire life.... or not. ;)
http://www.letslol.com/blockedme.swf
Thanks Hippy Chang for that link. Don't cut your hair man. You've definitely got a Bruce Lee thing going on. He's like the only guy I've ever seen that might scare a ninja.
Have a nice day.
Pete
A Picture Share!
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Send and receive Pictures and Videos through Picture MailSM. For more information go to www.sprintpcs.com.
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Rattling the rocks in my head...
Oy!
I wanted to go riding today, but instead I decided to do home improvement projects and some basic personal hygiene. That's just the kind of stuff you want to read in a blog, eh? I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. ;)
I've often been accused of having rocks where my brain should be. When I rattle my head around, noises come out of my mouth. It is the closest thing I get to simulating thought (as opposed to stimulating thought). Last night Jason came over and we were working on the list of trails to be riddin on our trip out west in April. Lets just say that the rocks in my head were bouncing around like popcorn in a popper.
The hard part was picking trails that we didn't want to ride. Fruita is relatively easy. We've got a little more time there than in St. George and I know the area better. We're basically going to ride almost everything. It makes for a few epic days, but that is the fun of this, isn't it?
The day we arrive in Fruita, we'll do an aclimatization ride. That means we go out and do a short ride and have it kick our asses. Heat up the legs a little, blow out your lungs from lack of O2. Then go eat, sleep and generally recover from the drive out. You'll feel much better the next day. Its kind of like when Neo blows chungs after being removed from the Matrix. You gotta get all the crap out.
The next day will be a little tougher, but still doable. We'll start with a warm-up loop on Rustlers on the Kokopelli side of Fruita. We'll cut across and ride Moore Fun from east to west. Then we've got options. If we're feeling like some scenic riding to put miles in the legs, we can double back on Mary's loop and then hit Horsethief Bench. If we're feeling sadistic, we can just turn around and do Moore Fun in the opposite direction. That combination will cover most of the eastern end of the Kokopelli side of the trails.
After that, we'll spend a day on the west end of Kokopelli. Troybuilt to Lyons Loop to Mack Ridge to Mary's loop to Steve's loop to handcuffs to Lyons loop to Troybuilt ought to do the trick. :) That is an epic day with TONS of vertical. There are plenty of ways that we can shorten the loop up. The only tough part is that once we start the last section of Lyons loop, we really need to finish all the way out. Julian and I did this two years ago and it really kicked my ass. I rode a few miles at the end with a flat tire because I was too tired to change it.
After some serious food and a really long night of sleep, we'll hit Book Cliffs. This is the rollercoaster side of Fruita. This day isn't about miles, it is about steep drops and short blasts up. It is fun in a way that most people from this end of the Mississippi can't imagine.
The last day in Fruita will be in the Lunch Loop area. Gunny and Eagles Wings in some combo are on the plate for the day. I've seen videos of these and read a lot about them. It is a nother day of tough climbing and ear to ear grin inducing downhills.
At this point we'll find an airport and pick up Wayne. I don't know which airport yet. Hopefully Grand Junction. If so, we can get a short ride in on something to help Wayne get used to altitude and get rid of jetlag. Then it is off to Moab.
I wasn't going to go to Moab on this trip, but Jason likes the town and we're so close that we can't not go. Wayne and Chance need to ride there once... just to say they did. I'm guessing that a good ride will be Amasa Back since Jason hasn't ridden it before. We'll then shop and goof off in Moab and maybe spend the night there since it would suck to have to drive long and hard after a day of riding. We'll get up early and head for St. George in the morning.
St. George is a lot tougher to plan for. First off, there's a bigger variety of trails in the area. Within an hour of St. George, there is a mind boggling number of trails that all need to be ridden. We limited it to a few.
Gooseberry Mesa: This is one of those annoying rides that is just so good and so hyped that you have to ride it at least once. There's plenty to keep us entertained for a day there.
Green Valley: This is a smaller trail network that we'll spend part of a day on. I picked this because it is fabled to be quite technical. You can have a lot of fun goofing off on it. I thought Chance would enjoy that more than a bit.
Broken Mesa: Broken Mesa is a fun trail that has a bit of technical stuff and is also very scenic. It also isn't extremely long. Though there is a fair amount of elevation gain/loss, the trail is a good ride for the other half of the day when we're not in Green Valley.
Thunder Mountain: Here's where things start to get silly. Jason hadn't really read up much about Thunder Mountain. This is the ride that I've read about for years and really want to include in my next trip west. I've seen photos from this area and they are amazing. You can't imagine the jaw-dropping beauty that is there just waiting to be photographed. After this trip you'll be able to imagine it quite well. :) What's funny about this is that the trail guide says "Don't do this as an out and back unless you want a really brutal day of riding." Jason and I looked at it and said "COOL!"
Cassidy Loop: Did I mention that we're being silly on this part? Well we are. As long as we're out in the area east of St. George riding Thunder Mountain, Cassidy is right across the road. We might as well double up and do that one too. :) That is one of the epic days... 30+ miles with close to 4000 feet of vertical. It is just too pretty and too cool not to ride.
Learn more about these trails at this site: Utah Mountain Biking
Please pardon my lack of sarcasm or offensive language. I'll try and misbehave more in the near future.
Love,
Pete
I wanted to go riding today, but instead I decided to do home improvement projects and some basic personal hygiene. That's just the kind of stuff you want to read in a blog, eh? I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. ;)
I've often been accused of having rocks where my brain should be. When I rattle my head around, noises come out of my mouth. It is the closest thing I get to simulating thought (as opposed to stimulating thought). Last night Jason came over and we were working on the list of trails to be riddin on our trip out west in April. Lets just say that the rocks in my head were bouncing around like popcorn in a popper.
The hard part was picking trails that we didn't want to ride. Fruita is relatively easy. We've got a little more time there than in St. George and I know the area better. We're basically going to ride almost everything. It makes for a few epic days, but that is the fun of this, isn't it?
The day we arrive in Fruita, we'll do an aclimatization ride. That means we go out and do a short ride and have it kick our asses. Heat up the legs a little, blow out your lungs from lack of O2. Then go eat, sleep and generally recover from the drive out. You'll feel much better the next day. Its kind of like when Neo blows chungs after being removed from the Matrix. You gotta get all the crap out.
The next day will be a little tougher, but still doable. We'll start with a warm-up loop on Rustlers on the Kokopelli side of Fruita. We'll cut across and ride Moore Fun from east to west. Then we've got options. If we're feeling like some scenic riding to put miles in the legs, we can double back on Mary's loop and then hit Horsethief Bench. If we're feeling sadistic, we can just turn around and do Moore Fun in the opposite direction. That combination will cover most of the eastern end of the Kokopelli side of the trails.
After that, we'll spend a day on the west end of Kokopelli. Troybuilt to Lyons Loop to Mack Ridge to Mary's loop to Steve's loop to handcuffs to Lyons loop to Troybuilt ought to do the trick. :) That is an epic day with TONS of vertical. There are plenty of ways that we can shorten the loop up. The only tough part is that once we start the last section of Lyons loop, we really need to finish all the way out. Julian and I did this two years ago and it really kicked my ass. I rode a few miles at the end with a flat tire because I was too tired to change it.
After some serious food and a really long night of sleep, we'll hit Book Cliffs. This is the rollercoaster side of Fruita. This day isn't about miles, it is about steep drops and short blasts up. It is fun in a way that most people from this end of the Mississippi can't imagine.
The last day in Fruita will be in the Lunch Loop area. Gunny and Eagles Wings in some combo are on the plate for the day. I've seen videos of these and read a lot about them. It is a nother day of tough climbing and ear to ear grin inducing downhills.
At this point we'll find an airport and pick up Wayne. I don't know which airport yet. Hopefully Grand Junction. If so, we can get a short ride in on something to help Wayne get used to altitude and get rid of jetlag. Then it is off to Moab.
I wasn't going to go to Moab on this trip, but Jason likes the town and we're so close that we can't not go. Wayne and Chance need to ride there once... just to say they did. I'm guessing that a good ride will be Amasa Back since Jason hasn't ridden it before. We'll then shop and goof off in Moab and maybe spend the night there since it would suck to have to drive long and hard after a day of riding. We'll get up early and head for St. George in the morning.
St. George is a lot tougher to plan for. First off, there's a bigger variety of trails in the area. Within an hour of St. George, there is a mind boggling number of trails that all need to be ridden. We limited it to a few.
Gooseberry Mesa: This is one of those annoying rides that is just so good and so hyped that you have to ride it at least once. There's plenty to keep us entertained for a day there.
Green Valley: This is a smaller trail network that we'll spend part of a day on. I picked this because it is fabled to be quite technical. You can have a lot of fun goofing off on it. I thought Chance would enjoy that more than a bit.
Broken Mesa: Broken Mesa is a fun trail that has a bit of technical stuff and is also very scenic. It also isn't extremely long. Though there is a fair amount of elevation gain/loss, the trail is a good ride for the other half of the day when we're not in Green Valley.
Thunder Mountain: Here's where things start to get silly. Jason hadn't really read up much about Thunder Mountain. This is the ride that I've read about for years and really want to include in my next trip west. I've seen photos from this area and they are amazing. You can't imagine the jaw-dropping beauty that is there just waiting to be photographed. After this trip you'll be able to imagine it quite well. :) What's funny about this is that the trail guide says "Don't do this as an out and back unless you want a really brutal day of riding." Jason and I looked at it and said "COOL!"
Cassidy Loop: Did I mention that we're being silly on this part? Well we are. As long as we're out in the area east of St. George riding Thunder Mountain, Cassidy is right across the road. We might as well double up and do that one too. :) That is one of the epic days... 30+ miles with close to 4000 feet of vertical. It is just too pretty and too cool not to ride.
Learn more about these trails at this site: Utah Mountain Biking
Please pardon my lack of sarcasm or offensive language. I'll try and misbehave more in the near future.
Love,
Pete
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Mom! Jason called me the anti-Yoda!
Jason: Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny
Jason: Darth Pedro
Peter : Pretty much. I'd change the Anger, fear and aggression though.
Peter : Pretty much. I'd change the Anger, fear and aggression though.
Peter : Perversion, rudeness, foul language; the dark side of the Force are they.
Jason: Thats great dude
Jason: You're the anti Yoda
A comment on the quality writing you'll find in my Blog
I just had an interesting conversation with my friend Jason. We were comparing reading someone's blog to talking to someone in person. Lets just say there are a lot of similarities.
I think this is particularly true with my blog. Here's why I say that...
I often send myself e-mails to remind me to do things or spark an idea for a project that I know I'm going to work on later. Other than matrimonial bliss, e-mail is the one constant in my life. I always write it, I always get it.
I had an idea for my blog that I wanted to write, but can't from work because it is pornographic. The IT guys would have too much fun with that.
So I sent a reminder to myself with a few ideas for something I want to write later... something I'll have to research extensively. Wouldn't you know it? My spam blocker wouldn't let the e-mail through. Bwahahahhahahahaha I guess I'll be riting that one on my rosey palm. :P
Have a nice day.
Pete
Whose bright idea was this?????
Okay, I've been running for a few months now. I don't run every day, but on days when I doubt that I'll get a ride in, I usually haul my ass out and run for a while. Back in the early 1890s, I used to run track, cross country and marathons. I did one 50k trail run in Leadville Colorado. That was plenty for me. I don't ever want to go back to running like that again. I just do it now so that I can maintain some fitness through the winter on days when it is too muddy to ride. It helped a lot last year.
Someone smart suggested that I switch my runs from early morning to lunch time. I'm having symptoms of not getting enough sleep these days. By not running in the morning, I get to sleep in a little more. While the cats don't like it that much, I thought it was working well so far. That was until lunch time today. Oh! by the way, this is my first day of running at lunch.
So what's my beef with running at lunch? There are tons of people to run with and they're all dang fast. Its the same thing with cycling... if you ride with someone fast, you work to try to keep up. When I'm on my own, I run at a reasonable, but maintainable pace. My goal isn't to break any PRs or anything. I just want to get out and show some signs of life.
That just doesn't happen on the national mall. Even the big guys in the grey sweatsuits are fast. I just blended in and ran for my normal 45 minutes. I didn't realize till I was cooling down on my way back to the office that my legs were SCREAMING! What the heck did I do? Idiot me realized at that point that in the 45 minutes, I'd done almost 1.5 miles further than I normally do in that period of time. I guess its good for me. I'll just have to learn to live with it.
What's in the IPOD today? Old Aerosmith, Dog's Eye View and Lyle "No finance. No Romance" Lovett.
Have a nice day. I sure did so far.
Pete
PS: Can someone bring me a wheelchair?
Someone smart suggested that I switch my runs from early morning to lunch time. I'm having symptoms of not getting enough sleep these days. By not running in the morning, I get to sleep in a little more. While the cats don't like it that much, I thought it was working well so far. That was until lunch time today. Oh! by the way, this is my first day of running at lunch.
So what's my beef with running at lunch? There are tons of people to run with and they're all dang fast. Its the same thing with cycling... if you ride with someone fast, you work to try to keep up. When I'm on my own, I run at a reasonable, but maintainable pace. My goal isn't to break any PRs or anything. I just want to get out and show some signs of life.
That just doesn't happen on the national mall. Even the big guys in the grey sweatsuits are fast. I just blended in and ran for my normal 45 minutes. I didn't realize till I was cooling down on my way back to the office that my legs were SCREAMING! What the heck did I do? Idiot me realized at that point that in the 45 minutes, I'd done almost 1.5 miles further than I normally do in that period of time. I guess its good for me. I'll just have to learn to live with it.
What's in the IPOD today? Old Aerosmith, Dog's Eye View and Lyle "No finance. No Romance" Lovett.
Have a nice day. I sure did so far.
Pete
PS: Can someone bring me a wheelchair?
Monday, February 07, 2005
1000 ex girlfriends reaching out to touch me...
I'm a curious geek. I want to know who's been looking at my web site and where they came from. Luckily my provider gives me lots of that information. I was looking through statistics today and found some interesting information. My number of original hits had been pretty steady over the last year... at least on my Frank Lloyd Wright site. Original hits are ones that come to my main page by either typing in the link into the address line, or from a search engine. When it is from a search engine, I get info on which engine and what they typed in to arrive at my site.
In December, my original hits doubled. In January they doubled again. I got over 4400 original hits in January. Oddly enough, a little over 1000 of them searched on my name to get to my site. Getting a few hundred per month isn't unusual since I post on the Frank Lloyd Wright boards with my own name. They get to the site by searching on it and it takes them to me. I'm just curious as to why that number has increased by 5 times in as many weeks.
My first thought was that all my ex girlfriends were hunting me down. Then I remembered that I don't have more of those than I can count on my fingers and toes.... and only one of them is psycho enough to type my name into google 1000 times per month. (I attract winners, eh? Makes you wonder how I got lucky finding my wife.)
Jason's idea was that all the people who got my name from truck stop bathroom stalls finally looked me up. I'm not sure about that either. Most of them call my cell phone.
I guess I'll find out soon enough. Surges in original hits are always followed two weeks later by a surge in fan/hate mail from the web site. I'll let you know how that goes.
Till then, please ponder the immortal words, "The wage of sin is death, but after taxes its just kind of a tired feeling."
Have a nice day.
Pete
In December, my original hits doubled. In January they doubled again. I got over 4400 original hits in January. Oddly enough, a little over 1000 of them searched on my name to get to my site. Getting a few hundred per month isn't unusual since I post on the Frank Lloyd Wright boards with my own name. They get to the site by searching on it and it takes them to me. I'm just curious as to why that number has increased by 5 times in as many weeks.
My first thought was that all my ex girlfriends were hunting me down. Then I remembered that I don't have more of those than I can count on my fingers and toes.... and only one of them is psycho enough to type my name into google 1000 times per month. (I attract winners, eh? Makes you wonder how I got lucky finding my wife.)
Jason's idea was that all the people who got my name from truck stop bathroom stalls finally looked me up. I'm not sure about that either. Most of them call my cell phone.
I guess I'll find out soon enough. Surges in original hits are always followed two weeks later by a surge in fan/hate mail from the web site. I'll let you know how that goes.
Till then, please ponder the immortal words, "The wage of sin is death, but after taxes its just kind of a tired feeling."
Have a nice day.
Pete
Bring on the obscenety!!!!
Just kidding. I get plenty of obscenety in my daily life. I will put in a tongue in cheek rant about the superbowl commercials. I thought it was funny as hell, and a good indication of how uptight Americans are in general that after the broadcasting the GoDaddy.com commercial that featured a rather busty woman having a "wardrobe malfunction" in front of a commercial oversite committee, Fox Television received a phone call from the NFL asking them not to air the second of the GoDaddy.com spots that were scheduled for the third quarter. What Fox did instead was show exteded shots of the almost naked cheerleaders, thus giving us plenty of boobs to look at, while removing any creative and whitty humor. What a freaking bunch of putzes. I went in and voted for the GoDaddy.com commercial an extra 50 or 60 times as my favorite, even though I liked the career builder.com commercials with the guy working in an office of chimpanzees. The Fedex Kinkos commercial was pretty good too. Anyone who kicks Bert Reynolds in the crotch deserves my hard earned cash.
RANT OFF!
Great ride yesterday. The snow made for a fun and challenging first lap and a pretty dang tough second lap at Greenbrier. 4 of us made the first lap, 9 joined me for the second lap. SUCKERS!!!! ;) There was a fair amount of hiking on the first lap and a ton on the second lap. Most uphills were pretty darn tough. I'm feeling it today though. I ran this morning and my legs felt like lead.
The Mutanoraptor 2.4" tires were PERFECT in the snow again. I need to definitely get a spare set. While others with lesser tires were spinning away, I was able to stomp ahead a bit -- that is before my lungs gave out and I was left gasping for air on the side of the trail.
I felt for Jason though. He's really intent on doing some good, hard rides. This snow stuff just isn't for him. When the snow conditions are good, he's happy and rides great. When it gets soupy and nasty, he still rides great, but it just wears on his patience and he just gets frustrated. I know where he's coming from. Something inside me is definitely bent that I really enjoy that shiznit. He'd chop my leg off and beat me to death with it if I said "this reminds me of home" one more time in his presence. So I won't bother. :) (Did I mention that those conditions remind me of home???)
We're contemplating rides for next week. We'll see what Elizabeth Furnace is like. It should be fun going and playing in the big rocks. If it is too wet, we'll go hit Greenbrier again. The snow should be gone, or at least limited to small icy patches by then.
Hope y'all had a great weekend. Laura and I sure did. We made a trip Saturday to the Londontown Archeological excavation and historical park. Their winter garden was beautiful. We'll go back there in the spring when the house is open and everything. You can read more about that on my web site.
Here are the photos of the Greenbrier Ride. Here are photos of Londontown, Maryland.
Take it easy,
Peter
RANT OFF!
Great ride yesterday. The snow made for a fun and challenging first lap and a pretty dang tough second lap at Greenbrier. 4 of us made the first lap, 9 joined me for the second lap. SUCKERS!!!! ;) There was a fair amount of hiking on the first lap and a ton on the second lap. Most uphills were pretty darn tough. I'm feeling it today though. I ran this morning and my legs felt like lead.
The Mutanoraptor 2.4" tires were PERFECT in the snow again. I need to definitely get a spare set. While others with lesser tires were spinning away, I was able to stomp ahead a bit -- that is before my lungs gave out and I was left gasping for air on the side of the trail.
I felt for Jason though. He's really intent on doing some good, hard rides. This snow stuff just isn't for him. When the snow conditions are good, he's happy and rides great. When it gets soupy and nasty, he still rides great, but it just wears on his patience and he just gets frustrated. I know where he's coming from. Something inside me is definitely bent that I really enjoy that shiznit. He'd chop my leg off and beat me to death with it if I said "this reminds me of home" one more time in his presence. So I won't bother. :) (Did I mention that those conditions remind me of home???)
We're contemplating rides for next week. We'll see what Elizabeth Furnace is like. It should be fun going and playing in the big rocks. If it is too wet, we'll go hit Greenbrier again. The snow should be gone, or at least limited to small icy patches by then.
Hope y'all had a great weekend. Laura and I sure did. We made a trip Saturday to the Londontown Archeological excavation and historical park. Their winter garden was beautiful. We'll go back there in the spring when the house is open and everything. You can read more about that on my web site.
Here are the photos of the Greenbrier Ride. Here are photos of Londontown, Maryland.
Take it easy,
Peter
Saturday, February 05, 2005
A cry for help....
And you thought the Mayonnaise was bad?
Check out these people...
http://www2.ari.net/jpurkey/furby321.html
And my personal favorite...
Squirrels.org
That's gonna drive me to drink. Good idea. I think I'll go have a beer. :)
Pete
Check out these people...
http://www2.ari.net/jpurkey/furby321.html
And my personal favorite...
Squirrels.org
That's gonna drive me to drink. Good idea. I think I'll go have a beer. :)
Pete
Embracing my whiteness.
For a bunch of reasons this week, I was given the opportunity to better understand what it means to be a white man in America. Asside from my complete inability to jump, dance or look cool, I do have some things going for me. Probably the most important of those things is Mayonnaise. I've often joked about the white, semi-gelatinous condiment, but I'm beginning to really understand what a truly misunderstood substance mayonnaise is.
I'll let you explore these sites and I'm sure you'll agree, now is a thrilling time to be white and eating mayonnaise. Please right click and open in another window if you want to follow the rolling comentary on each site. I know you'll want to come back for more.
Mayo Connections
How can you go wrong with a web site called "mayonet.com"???? Not only do you get some very interesting history of mayonnaise, but you also get a recipe for making your own mayonnaise. We'll get back to that in a moment or two. Most imporantly, this web site documents the many amazing influences that mayonnaise has had on our life, from the Mayo Clinic to Cinco de Mayo.
Now the French are completely confused and disoriented by American mayonnaise. In France, mayo doesn't come from a jar, taste horrible or make the ultimate projectile in a food fight. (Well the last one is pretty universal I think) ;) Mayonnaise is made fresh with good olive oil, eggs, spices and lemon juice. It tastes completely different, dare I say good? They also use it in much more reasonable quantities than Americans do... but then that's just part of being an American. Why use a little when you can use a lot???
The World of Mayonnaise
I'll just quote the tag line on this web site. You can enjoy surfing it and make your own conclusions. "Welcome to the World of Mayonnaise 2002 - The Best Reason to Own a Mouth." Definitely don't miss the Gallery. It is worth the price of admission.
Spectre Family Web Site
Finally, another family of white people who fully embrace and adore the ambrosia of the white bred (and bread) world!!! They point out some great facts about mayonnaise... including that the Titanic went down with about 12,000 jars of the stuff on board. Coincidence? I think not! Those pesky Britts were so intent on keeping the wonders of mayo from the colonies that they sacrificed the lives of those aboard in order to keep it from our shores. And to think the popular theory of the great cruise ship's sinking still revolves around that flimsy iceberg theory. We'll get to the bottom of this conspiracy eventually.
NOMAYO.com
Obviously the US Department of Homeland Security is onto this guy. He won't last long. Ketchup? Soy Sauce? Mustard? Salsa? We can see which way his tree leans. He's obviously a subversive crackpot WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH HIS TIME!!!!!!!! (Unlike us, right?)
The History of Mayonnaise
Finally an unbiased and realistic site that takes a good, long look at the world-wide impact that mayonnaise has had on the universe as a whole.
Why I hate Mayonnaise
Another crackpot. This guy thinks that just because he can draw a cute cartoon, he has the right to slam an American institution as important as Baseball, Apple Pie and Mom. (People didn't have Mom's before 1776?)
If you've made it this far in this blog entry, I think you really need to have your priorities examined. Don't worry. You'll learn. When I get going on a topic like this, the best thing is to just turn off the computer and go for a nice, long bike ride. Please do yourself a favor and spend some quality time with family or loved ones. Life is way too short for this kind of shit. ;)
Have a nice day.
Pete
I'll let you explore these sites and I'm sure you'll agree, now is a thrilling time to be white and eating mayonnaise. Please right click and open in another window if you want to follow the rolling comentary on each site. I know you'll want to come back for more.
Mayo Connections
How can you go wrong with a web site called "mayonet.com"???? Not only do you get some very interesting history of mayonnaise, but you also get a recipe for making your own mayonnaise. We'll get back to that in a moment or two. Most imporantly, this web site documents the many amazing influences that mayonnaise has had on our life, from the Mayo Clinic to Cinco de Mayo.
Now the French are completely confused and disoriented by American mayonnaise. In France, mayo doesn't come from a jar, taste horrible or make the ultimate projectile in a food fight. (Well the last one is pretty universal I think) ;) Mayonnaise is made fresh with good olive oil, eggs, spices and lemon juice. It tastes completely different, dare I say good? They also use it in much more reasonable quantities than Americans do... but then that's just part of being an American. Why use a little when you can use a lot???
The World of Mayonnaise
I'll just quote the tag line on this web site. You can enjoy surfing it and make your own conclusions. "Welcome to the World of Mayonnaise 2002 - The Best Reason to Own a Mouth." Definitely don't miss the Gallery. It is worth the price of admission.
Spectre Family Web Site
Finally, another family of white people who fully embrace and adore the ambrosia of the white bred (and bread) world!!! They point out some great facts about mayonnaise... including that the Titanic went down with about 12,000 jars of the stuff on board. Coincidence? I think not! Those pesky Britts were so intent on keeping the wonders of mayo from the colonies that they sacrificed the lives of those aboard in order to keep it from our shores. And to think the popular theory of the great cruise ship's sinking still revolves around that flimsy iceberg theory. We'll get to the bottom of this conspiracy eventually.
NOMAYO.com
Obviously the US Department of Homeland Security is onto this guy. He won't last long. Ketchup? Soy Sauce? Mustard? Salsa? We can see which way his tree leans. He's obviously a subversive crackpot WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH HIS TIME!!!!!!!! (Unlike us, right?)
The History of Mayonnaise
Finally an unbiased and realistic site that takes a good, long look at the world-wide impact that mayonnaise has had on the universe as a whole.
Why I hate Mayonnaise
Another crackpot. This guy thinks that just because he can draw a cute cartoon, he has the right to slam an American institution as important as Baseball, Apple Pie and Mom. (People didn't have Mom's before 1776?)
If you've made it this far in this blog entry, I think you really need to have your priorities examined. Don't worry. You'll learn. When I get going on a topic like this, the best thing is to just turn off the computer and go for a nice, long bike ride. Please do yourself a favor and spend some quality time with family or loved ones. Life is way too short for this kind of shit. ;)
Have a nice day.
Pete
Friday, February 04, 2005
The need to immortalize...
Every now and then something comes into your life that you really want to celibrate... something that inspires you to immortalize it for future generations. Since I can't really do that, I thought I'd post it on my blog. :)
Scary Squirrel World.
Many thanks to my good friend Barbara for enlightening me. I can now die a happy man.
Have a nice day, dammit!
Pete
Scary Squirrel World.
Many thanks to my good friend Barbara for enlightening me. I can now die a happy man.
Have a nice day, dammit!
Pete
This is not X-treme...
Goooooooooood morning.
My arms hurt. They don't just hurt a little. They hurt a lot. Whenever you start a new workout regimen, any coach will tell you to take it easy in the beginning. It is important to build up your level of effort in any activity over time, so as not to do any damage to your body.
Dr. Einstein thought he'd been doing this. I'd been riding the single speed for 8 or 9 months now. I've been doing strength training through yoga and even a little in the weight room. Let me just say that all that preparation was woefully inadequate to prepare me for the level of effort it took to ride the tandem last night. It didn't help that the first ride totalled almost three hours, that there wasn't a 30 second span of time when I wasn't wrestling 370 pounds of J (Jason or Julian depending on who was on the bike), myself and bike around corners, across ravines, through creeks or over logs. I was having too much fun to care.
That activity makes it sound like we did something worthy of the X-games or something. It was just a ride. It was something I'd love to repeat week after week for the rest of my life. That isn't X-treme. It is just being alive. :D
I'll let my web site post tell the rest of the story. It has photos too. Jason shot video. That will be interesting and cool if it turns out.
http://myroadtrips.peterbeers.net/mbrt/4Accotink-Wakefield/2005-02-03_Tandem-Night/Wakefield-tandem.htm
Jason was amazing on his first tandem ride. He handled the bad conditions and new riding style with aplomb. (don't you just love that word? I want to type it again... aplomb) Julian was his normal self. That means that he was superhuman strong while being completely neutral on the bike. While I'm feeling like I've got a bull by the horns up front, he is pedaling away in back, remaining centered on the bike, powering us out of trouble, and somehow interpreting the weird noises coming out of my mouth into instructions for how to help get the bike over the obstacle in front of us. Our communication was perfect last night. That amazed me and is a credit to his ear and brain.
What is on the MP3 player right now? 3 Doors Down -- "Away from the Sun".
Talk to y'all soon. I need to relax my arms a bit.
Pete
My arms hurt. They don't just hurt a little. They hurt a lot. Whenever you start a new workout regimen, any coach will tell you to take it easy in the beginning. It is important to build up your level of effort in any activity over time, so as not to do any damage to your body.
Dr. Einstein thought he'd been doing this. I'd been riding the single speed for 8 or 9 months now. I've been doing strength training through yoga and even a little in the weight room. Let me just say that all that preparation was woefully inadequate to prepare me for the level of effort it took to ride the tandem last night. It didn't help that the first ride totalled almost three hours, that there wasn't a 30 second span of time when I wasn't wrestling 370 pounds of J (Jason or Julian depending on who was on the bike), myself and bike around corners, across ravines, through creeks or over logs. I was having too much fun to care.
That activity makes it sound like we did something worthy of the X-games or something. It was just a ride. It was something I'd love to repeat week after week for the rest of my life. That isn't X-treme. It is just being alive. :D
I'll let my web site post tell the rest of the story. It has photos too. Jason shot video. That will be interesting and cool if it turns out.
http://myroadtrips.peterbeers.net/mbrt/4Accotink-Wakefield/2005-02-03_Tandem-Night/Wakefield-tandem.htm
Jason was amazing on his first tandem ride. He handled the bad conditions and new riding style with aplomb. (don't you just love that word? I want to type it again... aplomb) Julian was his normal self. That means that he was superhuman strong while being completely neutral on the bike. While I'm feeling like I've got a bull by the horns up front, he is pedaling away in back, remaining centered on the bike, powering us out of trouble, and somehow interpreting the weird noises coming out of my mouth into instructions for how to help get the bike over the obstacle in front of us. Our communication was perfect last night. That amazed me and is a credit to his ear and brain.
What is on the MP3 player right now? 3 Doors Down -- "Away from the Sun".
Talk to y'all soon. I need to relax my arms a bit.
Pete
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Its maaaaaaaaaagic!
Oy dudes and dudettes.
I'm happy today because I get to ride with two of my favorite people tonight. J and J are finally going to meet. What's better is that I actually get to ride the tandem with each of them for the first time (for J) and for the first time in a year or two (for J).
Now for the magic. I took this:
(Photo removed to annoy you)
and waved my magic wand (no photos of that! this site is rated PG13 (for the moment at least)) and came up with this:
>
If you want to read the whole story, click HERE and it will take you to my web site where there are plenty more photos.
Talk to you after the ride. :)
Pete
I'm happy today because I get to ride with two of my favorite people tonight. J and J are finally going to meet. What's better is that I actually get to ride the tandem with each of them for the first time (for J) and for the first time in a year or two (for J).
Now for the magic. I took this:
(Photo removed to annoy you)
and waved my magic wand (no photos of that! this site is rated PG13 (for the moment at least)) and came up with this:
>
If you want to read the whole story, click HERE and it will take you to my web site where there are plenty more photos.
Talk to you after the ride. :)
Pete
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Stop reading here...
One of my favorite authors starts his first book with these wise words:
"If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and ver few happy things in the middle."
This could easily be said about my blog. In all good conscience I connot recommend that you read any further. I suggest that you find someone else's blog to read and enjoy... someone with something intelligent or insightful to say. That certainly isn't me.
Well since you obviously ignored that advice, you must be punished. This web site ought to be sufficient to cause pain and suffering.
http://www.orapois.com/br/arquivos/01032005140525688g.swf
Have a nice day. I'm sure I'll post something much worse than this later today.
"If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and ver few happy things in the middle."
This could easily be said about my blog. In all good conscience I connot recommend that you read any further. I suggest that you find someone else's blog to read and enjoy... someone with something intelligent or insightful to say. That certainly isn't me.
Well since you obviously ignored that advice, you must be punished. This web site ought to be sufficient to cause pain and suffering.
http://www.orapois.com/br/arquivos/01032005140525688g.swf
Have a nice day. I'm sure I'll post something much worse than this later today.
Well that was nice.
I couldn't just write a nice, welcoming post for my first entry on the blog. It just wouldn't be me and it wouldn't be right.
I would formally like to blame Jason for convincing me to start a blog. Please make sure to stop by his blog and post rude comments on it in payment for getting me started on this dang thing.
Have a nice day, dammit!
Peter
I would formally like to blame Jason for convincing me to start a blog. Please make sure to stop by his blog and post rude comments on it in payment for getting me started on this dang thing.
Have a nice day, dammit!
Peter
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