since i have some time off i have been chilling and watching some television. in doing so today i witnessed something that i have never seen before in my life.
it was a televison advertisement for the emergency room of a local hospital.
really?
do they really need an ad?
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
closer
so on the heels of a blistering second place tie at the p.o.r.c. turkey run on saturday and hugely relaxing and awesome easter sunday i show up at work on monday to get the awesome news that me and three of my fellow employees are being laid off as a result of the current "recessionary climate".
fantastic.
i'll update a little later to elaborate....
fantastic.
i'll update a little later to elaborate....
Thursday, March 20, 2008
all the latitude
i just broke down.
what i mean is, i have been keeping my credit card in a secure place and not making any purchases with it, possibly in the hopes of maybe making a hefty rapha purchase for my birthday or something similar. but as it goes, i visited the lomography website yesterday. man, they've got some cool things. so i check it out again this morning. then again right before lunch. then again after lunch. and then one more time about ten minutes ago and i have this strange sensation of doing something i'm trying not to do. wait..."hey fingers, stop typing in that credit card info!"
it doesn't work, my fingers don't react to my command. in fact they are doing quite the opposite.
my sense of self control just broke down on the interstate that is the world wide web.
i have a feeling that all of my buyer's remorse will go out the window when my package arrives though. then i should be the new, proud owner of a lomography all weather action sampler four lense camera, some 35mm black and white film, and one of their snazzy hip-shot bags.
what i mean is, i have been keeping my credit card in a secure place and not making any purchases with it, possibly in the hopes of maybe making a hefty rapha purchase for my birthday or something similar. but as it goes, i visited the lomography website yesterday. man, they've got some cool things. so i check it out again this morning. then again right before lunch. then again after lunch. and then one more time about ten minutes ago and i have this strange sensation of doing something i'm trying not to do. wait..."hey fingers, stop typing in that credit card info!"
it doesn't work, my fingers don't react to my command. in fact they are doing quite the opposite.
my sense of self control just broke down on the interstate that is the world wide web.
i have a feeling that all of my buyer's remorse will go out the window when my package arrives though. then i should be the new, proud owner of a lomography all weather action sampler four lense camera, some 35mm black and white film, and one of their snazzy hip-shot bags.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
under the cover of darkness
lately i have been considering creating my own sort of cycling zine. actually, i sort of already started it. i brought my camera along on this morning's ride and tried to snap some pictures. most came ot as a blurry mess, but a couple came out pretty well. i'm not exactly sure the folks in the pictures were as thrilled as i was about the pictures. oh well. maybe this will teach them to ride faster to escape me. oh wait, they already do.
Monday, March 17, 2008
spewing of hatred for the company
lately i have been spending some time reorganizing and rearranging our house. mostly the bike room, but the activity has slowly spread over the entire house.
i have an old rock shox duke sl u-turn suspension fork that has just been hanging out for sometime now. it has been quietly staring at me from the corner of of the bike room. it has been silently begging for a purpose.
i decided at some point on friday that on saturday i would install some suspension on my khs and give the fork this purpose. i almost feel like i'm going to do the fork a favor by using it. but let me preface this by stating that i have been fairly vocal about not riding suspensions of any kind. all of my bikes were rigid and the closest i wanted to come to a suspension was running my tires at low air pressure. anyway, after our ride saturday morning i headed to the shop with the fork in one hand and my khs in the other.
the first task was to find some v-brake posts. i had some that i had taken off the surly when it was new, but they were too big. i dig in some drawers at the shop and find some more. right diameter, wrong threading. my foray into the land of squishy seems to be ending before it even really begins. dj, the mechanic on duty, has me look in some of the packets that come with new bikes. since some new bikes have forks eqipped with disc brakes but holes for v-brakes they include some posts, just in case. so i start digging. again, wrong size. finally, in a stroke of utter brilliance dj digs an old manitou box from a pile and pulls out an aged suspension fork. i pull the brake posts out and try them in the duke. the threads are like butter and go in smoothly and perfectly.
i hang out for about an hour installing, wondering why it doesn't work, having dj check my work behind me, then repair my screw ups and then it is done. the solo-one is front end suspended. now what?
since my legs were pretty spent already going out another ride seemed counter productive, even though i really wanted to.
sunday shows up soon enough and i load up the dogs and the bike and head for the trails. i get set up and start riding. i want to start on a trail that begins and ends near the parking area just in case i need any tools at the car to make adjustments. the first two miles are awkward, i'm riding with a freewheel, which i haven't done on the trails in a while. and i am riding with a suspension, which i haven't done in an even longer while.
the forks sucks up some bumps. in the sections of trail where i usually have to contemplate different lines due to speed, pedal strike, or lifting the front end, i find myself just floating through, feet at three and nine as i coast through obstacles without even thinking of my line. the descents are fast. this is somewhat alien since on a fixed wheel you are pretty limited when it comes to speed downhill.
it took a couple miles to get used to brakes. when to, when not to, which one, etc. were skills i had only been using on the road so i tried to apply the same logic to the trails. i think braking is one of those skills i will never fully master on the trails.
a lot of people see fixed wheels on the trail as being tiresome since you have no "breaks" to coast and catch your breath. i suppose this can be true, but not really. yesterday i wore myself out way sooner than i usually due since i was braking, this made the ride feel very "stop and go". i pick up a lot more speed with a free wheel (and since the khs is geared a lot taller than the surly) but i also slow down a lot more when i need to brake for something. with a fixed wheel i feel more in control and more consistent. when freewheeling i feel like the bike is taking me for a ride, sort of. both are fun, one is a lot more relaxing which i find to be almost the entire point of riding the trails, but still, there is definitely room for both types of riding.
as it stands i will be leaving both bikes set up exactly as they are right now, until i decide to do something differently.
i have an old rock shox duke sl u-turn suspension fork that has just been hanging out for sometime now. it has been quietly staring at me from the corner of of the bike room. it has been silently begging for a purpose.
i decided at some point on friday that on saturday i would install some suspension on my khs and give the fork this purpose. i almost feel like i'm going to do the fork a favor by using it. but let me preface this by stating that i have been fairly vocal about not riding suspensions of any kind. all of my bikes were rigid and the closest i wanted to come to a suspension was running my tires at low air pressure. anyway, after our ride saturday morning i headed to the shop with the fork in one hand and my khs in the other.
the first task was to find some v-brake posts. i had some that i had taken off the surly when it was new, but they were too big. i dig in some drawers at the shop and find some more. right diameter, wrong threading. my foray into the land of squishy seems to be ending before it even really begins. dj, the mechanic on duty, has me look in some of the packets that come with new bikes. since some new bikes have forks eqipped with disc brakes but holes for v-brakes they include some posts, just in case. so i start digging. again, wrong size. finally, in a stroke of utter brilliance dj digs an old manitou box from a pile and pulls out an aged suspension fork. i pull the brake posts out and try them in the duke. the threads are like butter and go in smoothly and perfectly.
i hang out for about an hour installing, wondering why it doesn't work, having dj check my work behind me, then repair my screw ups and then it is done. the solo-one is front end suspended. now what?
since my legs were pretty spent already going out another ride seemed counter productive, even though i really wanted to.
sunday shows up soon enough and i load up the dogs and the bike and head for the trails. i get set up and start riding. i want to start on a trail that begins and ends near the parking area just in case i need any tools at the car to make adjustments. the first two miles are awkward, i'm riding with a freewheel, which i haven't done on the trails in a while. and i am riding with a suspension, which i haven't done in an even longer while.
the forks sucks up some bumps. in the sections of trail where i usually have to contemplate different lines due to speed, pedal strike, or lifting the front end, i find myself just floating through, feet at three and nine as i coast through obstacles without even thinking of my line. the descents are fast. this is somewhat alien since on a fixed wheel you are pretty limited when it comes to speed downhill.
it took a couple miles to get used to brakes. when to, when not to, which one, etc. were skills i had only been using on the road so i tried to apply the same logic to the trails. i think braking is one of those skills i will never fully master on the trails.
a lot of people see fixed wheels on the trail as being tiresome since you have no "breaks" to coast and catch your breath. i suppose this can be true, but not really. yesterday i wore myself out way sooner than i usually due since i was braking, this made the ride feel very "stop and go". i pick up a lot more speed with a free wheel (and since the khs is geared a lot taller than the surly) but i also slow down a lot more when i need to brake for something. with a fixed wheel i feel more in control and more consistent. when freewheeling i feel like the bike is taking me for a ride, sort of. both are fun, one is a lot more relaxing which i find to be almost the entire point of riding the trails, but still, there is definitely room for both types of riding.
as it stands i will be leaving both bikes set up exactly as they are right now, until i decide to do something differently.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
many who have gone before..
go to http://www.dothetest.co.uk/
if you have a blog or a myspace or whatever and ride bikes you should probably link this there.
if you have a blog or a myspace or whatever and ride bikes you should probably link this there.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
and we'll have a shoot-out
back from vacation. well, not really vacation, just a couple days off to spend kicking it around the house with shea and the animals. one day we went to mobile to look at the 'our body' exhibit. one day we got a new sewing machine, which has been seeing almost daily use. one day i broke the camera lense in my phone, which isn't a big deal at all since i don't take pictures with a phone, but now it at least looks tough. most days though were spent eating and drinking too much and getting fat, but that's ok. i think i gained about six pounds over the course of a week, but hey, what's 154lbs. amongst friends, right?
i was supposed to meet up for the usual tuesday morning ride today but when i got up it was pouring, so i immediately got back down.
this coming saturday, and maybe sunday, i am helping with a somewhat major trail reroute at our local offroad trail system. it should be fun and the weather is supposed to be nice. this should be good as i need some old fashioned hard work to help me feel like i am still able to accomplish something useful. we'll see.
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