Saturday, May 31, 2008

New Car Seat

The Car



The Truck


Since Jubal is growing up like little kids do, he gets a new car seat that conforms to all kinds of safety standards that our government has come up with. Thanks to the countless test dummies who enudred crash after crash to make sure my kid will be as safe as he can. The new seat is sweet because it has no 5-point harness system. It uses the car's seat belt.

Ahh, another weekend in the mountains. What should we do? Bike ride? Hike? Mtn Sports Festival?

Decisions,

Have a great day
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Friday, May 30, 2008

24 Solo Viewing

It was a good night and a lot of people walked away with some cool stuff that was donated by local bikeshops. We had a smaller turnout than I had anticipated but we still managed to raise $350, all of which goes to World Bicycle Relief.

Thanks to Asheville Pizza and Brewing Co. , Mountain Sports Festival for the sponsorship ( let's do it again next year and make it even bigger), Liberty Bicycles, Bio-Wheels, Youngblood Bicycles, Gripped Films, Chris Etough-Trek/VW.

Mtn Sports Festival jumped on board:
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Thursday, May 29, 2008

They Are Real


Asheville Citizen Times

Thanks to Asheville Citizen Times ( click on it) for a great article!!!

24 Solo

Tonight is the night!!!
10pm
Asheville Pizza and Brewing on Merrimon Ave
$5
Benefit for World Bicycle Relief

Scammers

What was it I said yesterday about being taken advantage of?

Last night, 8:20pm someone knocks on my door. In my neighborhood, people don't knock on your door at 8:20pm. Surprised, I go to the door, look through the window and see a 20 something guy standing there. I go out on our porch and ask if I can help him. (first mistake). He reaches behind his back and I think to myself " He's got a gun". His hand comes back around with a laminated card about 10"X4". It has his picture and a paragraph describing something about a $20,000 savings bond. He says he is on a points drive. He is working towards starting his own machine shop and needs this bond to start his own small business. Knowing that it is a scam but confused as to what he wants, I say, " So, what do you want from me. ( second mistake). Again, he reaches behind him. Again, I think" He has a gun", and I get ready to throw down.

Lucky for him, he pulled out a tattered little booklet. I am not sure what the booklet is for but at that point my gut tells me" fight or flight". Not wanting to beat someone to a bloody pulp on my porch, I choose flight. I tell him" I don't think we are interested". I go in the house, lock the door and call the Sheriff's dept. ( I still have the number memorized from 4 yrs ago when our car was stolen). The Dept. said that there had been one other phone call already, and that a unit was en route to check it out.

Have a great day.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

No Insurance

I'm not sure what to write. Jubal is left hanging without health insurance due to misinformation from our insurance agent. What now?


Have a great day.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Burn 24




The Lemans start




My happy suport crew chief
Jubal gets to race
Jubal, just before his race, runs across the finish line with daddy
Jubal wins

They are out there In the middle of the night the local bike club hosts, "Alien Invasion". The set up a bunch of these aliens, with green lights and glow sticks. It can be a little startling in your middle of the night ride. Later that morning, they were cleaning up and left the aliens in a pile. I could not resist tying one to my back and riding back to camp with him flapping behind me. It was great to hear laughter and cheers rippling through tent city as I rode through!!!



Having fun




The Janes Team Car
Thanks to Liberty for the tent
Ready
Waiting
Blast off



I went into this race fairly complacent. I set a goal for myself because I knew that I should at least accomplish something. The goal was two-fold. 1. don't bonk. 2. ride 100 miles. I accomplished both.


1. don't bonk:


I'm not sure what I did that was right, but I did a lot of stuff that seemed wrong. Like eating two pieces of pepperoni pizza and a Wendy's JR Bacon Cheeseburger at 7:30pm. I had completed 6 laps at this point and went out for 3 more by 11pm when I was so tired and sleepy that I decided to go to bed. With the course at 7.5 miles in length, I figured I could still reach the 100 mile mark in the morning.


2:30AM: Rhonda, Jubal and and I are sleeping soundly in our tent. We are in the middle of tent city, right by the start line, just before the course narrows down. We are 100 yards from the transition area where team racers hand off the baton to team members. We are 100 yards from the huge lights that are generator powered and give off enough light to make it look like the sun. Yet, we sleep soundly then. Then suddenly, the Trek/VW racing team mechanic fires up a generator 30 feet from our tent. The thing had been running earlier in the afternoon. Generators are fine and all but the the saying for motorcycles:" Loud pipes save lives", does not go with generators. And no one had informed this guy. That generator was obnoxiously loud. Louder than loud. It sounded like the muffler had rusted off. Even the huge generator powering the four giant football stadium lights was quieter!!


Knowing that I was not going to be able to sleep, and wanting Rhonda, to be able to sleep some more, I got out of the tent, walked over to the dude and said" Hey man, how long are you going to let that thing run?". To which he replied" About 20 minutes, I need to make some coffee, why?" Why? Are you serious? At 2:30am ? Why? I said," Well, because there are people around here trying to sleep". He said" Sir, this is a 24 solo, I need it, and I am allowed to have it". What? That's fine, you are allowed to have it, but are you allowed to be so rude and inconsiderate to every fellow human being in a 500 yard radius? I had so many things I wanted to say, but I just said "OK", and walked away.


I was, by that time, not going to sleep, so I started getting ready for a night lap. The lap was not great, but it was good that I was able to get another lap in, before sleeping again for a couple of hours.


5:30am: Jubal sits straight up in the tent, throws back his sleeping bag, says" Daddy where's Pooh", and starts trying to unzip the tent. I coaxed him back into his sleeping bag, after which to my relief, he fell back to sleep. After asking him about it later, he said that he just wanted to make sure everyone was still out there!!


2.ride 100 miles:


6:30 am: getting ready to go out for some more riding, I ask Rhonda and Jubal to make a biscuit run. I bum some coffee from the Vassago guys ( not the Trek guy, the respectful Vassago guys were able to get their coffee without anyone in a 1 mile radius even knowing what they were doing!!). Back on the bike for a ride with the rising sun. At 7:30am I am feeling good and realize that this is the time of day that I usually ride. The temp is cool and my body likes it. Back to tent city, eat half a sausage biscuit, drink coffee, ride. Another lap, another half of a biscuit, ride. Another biscuit some Burn energy drink, ride. I'm feeling good, and still able to power up the hills.



One lap to go and I'll meet both of my goals. The I make a mistake. I had a sample of some Clif Shot Bloks, they are a candy like energy supplement. Jubal had been asking all morning for a taste, so I decided to try them too, and let him have a taste. I ate the serving and took off. Suddenly I realized that I had never used these on a ride before. Big mistake. I still felt fine, but 15 minutes into the lap, I didn't felt sluggish. Half way through the lap, I eat a GU. 5 minutes later, I get some energy. I feel a little bit funny from the Clif Bloks, but I am able to finish strong.



15 laps, 112.5 miles!!!! I placed 26th out of 55 riders, rode 1 more lap than last year.



I'm not going to say never again, but I will say that these are not my favorite format. I'd rather do a cross country 100 miler any day.




Have a great day.

Friday, May 23, 2008

The Day Before

I always get antsy the day before a race. There is nothing more to do, but I am a doer and like to do things to progress. But I don't like doing senseless things like washing the bike again. I am almost packed and ready to go. I consider spending a little dough to drive down the night before and get a hotel. Or I could sleep in my own bed and leave early. There is the family to consider as well. Hmmmm, what to do. Probably end up staying at home.


Here is the bike I'll be riding:

Fully geared!!!

I'm taking my Bianchi WUSS as a backup, just in case something breaks.

Rhonda and Jubal are coming along as my support crew. They help me keep it real!!

Have a great day.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Why does it feel like Friday?

It does, I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm mental. Maybe I'm losing it. Maybe I already lost it, and I keep telling myself that I have not lost it. Which indicates that I have lost it. I really don't want to ride for 24 hours this weekend. Maybe it is the plastic covering that has been over the windows in the office for a week and a half. They are painting the building. We are losing it. We need our view of Eden Lake.

2 Days left until Burn 24. I am proudly repesenting World Bicycle Relief and Liberty Bicycles. I worked out a deal with Liberty to use there ez-up tent. That's great because now I won't have to spend the $$$ to buy one that I will use 3 times in a year.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Work

Work is now consuming my days. Imagine that, I don't even have time to get worked up for Burn 24. I have decided that 24hr races are not my thing. I don't relish losing sleep. I don't like to catchup on sleep. I have trouble mustarding up to get excited. If I had some beef, cheese and a bun I would now have a cheesburger.

Have a great day.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Crazy Stuff

I called Charter Internet service last night because our rates are going up. We have had the introductory rate for two years. I wanted to see if they would extend it for another year. We have Vonage telephone and the option is to switch phone and Internet to ATT. That would cost about $5-10 more. Before I can even beg for another year of intro rate, the woman tells me that we should have been receiving the discounted rate ( even thought the "discount" is $7 more than my current rate"?!?!?). She tells me that the computer does it automatically and we have to fool the computer .... and blah blah blah.


I always try to be nice to the reps as I am sure that they get the full brunt of people's rage. She finally gets things worked out and asks if I need anything else. I ask her to authorize my wife, Rhonda. She promptly does this and tells me that there is a song that was written about Rhonda. I say, " yeah, Beach Boys, Help Me Rhonda", to which she responds that if I know that song then she can probably figure out how old I am. I agree and try to say goodbye and thanks. Then it started to feel weird. She wanted to keep talking about it. I tried to say goodbye again, she tried to keep talking, I said thanks and goodbye. I think she said goodbye, but I did not wait around to find out. Weird.


The deck roof project has stalled out. I have been calling the electrician and Progress E trying to figure out the cheapest way for me to spend money that I don't have and did not intend to spend. I called Everitt from PE yesterday and told him I would wait at my house all morning if he could come by. He said he would call around 7-7:15am. He didn't call, he showed up, at 7am. I'm not complaining. I'm glad. He told me that they could get the truck back there. I could have told him that.
So, now the electrician has to come back out and give me another quote, the cheaper one. I asked him if he was tired of coming out there. He said " Money is money". I could not disagree.
Have a great day.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

May 20th, 1998

May 20th, 1998: Jubal is born, after 25 hrs of labor and a C-section.
4 yrs later, his birthday present: a bike, ( imagine that).
Look at that smile!!!

Another great smile, ( and a random jogger)

Strange family....


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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Saturday

So, I have been making phone calls between some electricians and Progress Energy. It seems that it would be easier for Progress E if I had the power meter moved to the left side of the house ( as in, left side facing the back, see below). But that will cost me an extra $300-$500. I decided that I am not going to pay $500 to make some dude's job easier, when he gets paid well for what he does. I'm all about giving people a hand and doing things the easy way, but when it costs me more than I really have, I don't feel inclined.
I also decided to follow the electrician's advice, and have the meter moved to the right side of the door, on the back of the house. The only problem with this is that Progress E will have to drive their bucket truck into my yard, to make the changes to the incoming power lines, and will likely leave giant ruts. That will be easily remedied with fill dirt though.
In addition, there was a branch that would be in the way once the new power lines were installed. So I went to town on that branch and opened up the area. Below you can see pictures. In the first and second picture you can see the white spot on the tree where I cut the limb.
In the middle of the third and fourth picture you can see the weird animal that must have been building a nest in the tree. I am not sure what species it is, but it looks to be some sort of mammal. Not a squirrel, although sometimes it chatters like one, and sometimes it screeches like a Nazgul!! I might set a live trap to see if I can capture it.....


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Friday, May 16, 2008

Intersting Day



I was feeling kind of lonely this morning and wishing for some company on my ride to work. I got 3 miles into my ride and saw a small group of cyclists ahead. I caught them and it turned out that they were riding to work in support of Strive Not to Drive. So, I had some company on the way to work.




Later, as I was sitting in my office, Brad Johnson walked in.






And, to top it all of, it is my 10 year wedding anniversary!!

Have a great day.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Burn

I just realised yesterday that this race is in 1.5 weeks. I thought for some reason that it was in 2.5 weeks.
I am very excited about this race. Last year I placed 20th. That was after going to bed at midnight in 14th, and dropping to 35th.
I'm switching it up tonight and heading out to Kitsuma instead of Bent Creek. Kitsuma is way more technical that most of Bent Creek, and the climb back up to the parking lot is long and steady.
Have a great day,

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Sacrifice

Giving up yourself for someone else. That's what I did last night. Then rode the rest of the race by myself, and enjoyed it.

The pace has picked up and no one told me to bring a bigger gear. What in the world? I could barely hang on again, and did not manage to place at all. In the final race of the night, the points race, I was able to pull my teammate Annette Kamm back up to the lead group. After that, I watched the pack slowly attempt to lap me. I still raised my arms as I crossed the finish line.

Fun times!!!

The pack coming through turn four. You can see me tucked in behind the Kurt on the far right.
Stretching. You gotta keep smiling.
Warming up on the rollers.

Have a great day.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

24 Solo

Wow, the DVD's are going like hotcakes!!! Get yours before it is too late.

The 24 Solo viewing is picking up momentum. All of the local bike shops have donated procucts or gift certificates for door prize/ raffle. Mtn Sports Festival has come on as a partner/sponsor!!

Life has also picked up pace. Like a frenzied sprint into summer, I am the team player trying to hold back the chasing peleton in an effort to enjoy spring before it becomes the blazing furnace of humidity!!!!!

Have a great day.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Old Toll Rd

Great day in the woods. A fun group of guys ( and a girl) who didn't care who was first or last up the mountain, who didn't care who was th best downhiller. Just out for some fresh air, sunshine, challenge, and some good laughs. I'm looking forward to next time!!

This is me:
The view from Heartbreak
Another view of the valley below Heartbreak Ridge:

A view of the WBR sticker on my shock: ( don't forget to make a donation and get your copy of 24 Solo)



View of the valley




Towards the end Jeremy got really hungry:


Have a great day.

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