The Kenny Report

I want to get me some of that cash

2008-12-07T20:33:00.000-08:00

This is my official appeal to get in on some of this “bail-out” money. The other day I sat and watched Ford, Chrysler, and GM beg for more low interest loans. I want to put in my pitch for too. I’m asking for $100,000 in an interest free open-ended loan. This is equal to two years of my last salary. I can use this as I see fit with no oversight, but here is how one might just use this money (no guarantee that I will follow this outline).
1. Health care for not only myself, but my wife and 9 month old son. COBRA insurance doesn’t cut it. Due to my last salary I receive the maximum amount of unemployment benefits and this is still less per month then what COBRA would cost. What’s just as bad, because I get the max amount, I don’t qualify as low income.
2. Further education. Not only for me, but think about future cost of schooling for Mackenzie. For myself, this will allow me to position myself to be competitive in a future job market.
3. I need to buy the biggest and most inefficient vehicle produced by Ford, Chrysler, and GM. This is a really big one because if I don’t or can’t buy it, then they can’t produce it… wait a minute… I ride my bike to work (when I am not layed off) scratch this one, I’ll buy a failing bank and apply for even more cash. Better up that 100 grand, how about 100 million.

What's new

2008-11-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

My faithfull reader(s) may be wondering what the kenny has been up too. Well, I have been busy learning Java, as you can tell by my totally bike geek gear calc applet.

Big news... Lance returns to racing... Bigger news, The Kenny returns too.

2008-09-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend may have marked the end of my hiatus from racing... in a unspectacular way. I entered the Bogus Basin Hill Climb. I can't say that I was at my best, but since I have been riding this 3500 foot climb, I figured I could do it in 1h 10 mins or so. Not so. I wasn't feeling great and had no energy and ended up at the summit in 1h 17min gun time and something like 1h 16m chip time. The start was scary, it was a mass start of over 300 riders. I didn't know that was how we were going to start (I thought it would be by age group). I farted around too long and when I lined up I was at the back.

Go West Young Man

2008-06-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

The drive is complete and I finally decided to update my blog. It took us 5 days to get hear but we made it to Boise without killing ourselves or the cats.

Day 1 - we made it all the way to West Baltimore. Well to give us credit, day 1 also included loading the ABF truck, cleaning the apartment, rounding up the cats, and loading the car. To compound the issue we were forced to drive through the section of Baltimore that formed the basis for the TV show "Homicide, Life on the street".

day 4. we made it to Lincoln Nebraska only to be awoken by drunken redneck chicks at 3 am having a fight outside of our motel room.

central Nebraska,
Mackenzie's thoughts on Central Nebraska,

Day 4. Tristan checks out the water quality in Laramie Wyoming,

Thank You officer

2008-04-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just paid for 2 hours of a city meter readers salary. Why? I was 14 minutes late to plug the damn parking meter. Its 5 cents for 15 minutes and the fine was 23 dollars.

What's new

2008-04-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't been keeping my 3.2 fans up to date on the events in the life of Kenny. The latest news... I have become the latest casualty of down ward spiral of MFS/FedMed. My position was eliminated on 4/14 and I'm to turn over what is left of my responsibilities by this Friday. Then I get to enjoy 3 weeks severance and benefits through the end of May.
This news came as no surprise to me. What did surprise me was the timing. I was in the middle of composing my resignation letter and thinking how much time will be needed to turn over my job. 3, maybe 4 weeks of training is what I was thinking but I guess the big guys think otherwise. 2 weeks... That's only giving the guy taking over 1 data load to learn how it works. Oh well, I give this company another 6-8 months before it no longer matters.
As for what this means to where I'll be living and working next. Sarah and I have been planning to move to Boise, ID for some time now. The weekend before getting the axe, we decided it was time. We will make the move mid May. Pack up the apartment, bikes, more bikes then Sarah will realize and drive to Boise with an 8 week old infant and 2 cats... Sounds like fun, anyone else want to join in???
I don't have a definite job lined up but have a few leads. Boise is listed a one of the top Tech locations in the country but I personally think this listing is overblown and I'm going to end up back at a bike shop. Ok, I did contact a bike shop already and may have something lined up.
As for riding... I was planning to make the trip to Greenbrier, but since the Wee-Man was born, my training has been slacking and I would probably get beat by some 300lb heart attack on wheels.

First outting.

2008-03-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we took the 'Wee Man' to his first doctor visit since leaving GBMC. Tristan had to make sure Mackenzie was safe and secure in the car seat.

Sunday, March 9th

2008-03-12T12:55:00.001-07:00

At 1:36 pm on March 9th Sarah gave birth to an 8lb 8oz 21.5 inch long boy. Mackenzie Edward

T - 3

2008-03-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

Still no sign of the little one...

T - 5 days

2008-03-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

Gusts to 30 mph, head wind and a chance of rain. Sounds pretty close to a prefect Kenny bike commute day. Add in freezing rain and it will be a classic commutin’ Kenny day. Ahhh, the old days when I didn’t have a doting wife who worries about me… and come to think about it, no money and not too much sex either.
I am really hoping that the winds don’t change direction because as they were this morning I will have a prefect tail wind ride home.
Not too much to report. Sarah is still pregnant… T – 5 days.
I have been reading the parenting stories by Flick and I am getting ready for Poop and eye gouging fights(especially since Sarah is talking about a 2nd kiddle). Well, I am already used to poop. That usually starts “Your cat…” which could mean either one of them, depending on what follows… “missed the litter box again”, that would be Tristan, he is a bit big for our litter boxes and some times his butt isn’t all the way in. Or “used the bath tub instead of the litter box”, that would be Amilie, I’m not too sure what’s going on there, it might be that Tristan is pouncing on her when she uses the litter box. Since Pregers is also a micro biologist and knows the possible pathogens that can be lurking in cat poop, it becomes my job to clean it up.

Today in the news

2008-02-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

“I believe that our economy has got the fundamentals in place for us to ... grow and continue growing, more robustly hopefully than we’re growing now”… “So we’re still for a strong dollar.” George W Bush

Take a look at the exchange rates and see just how strong Bush has made the dollar.
Looks like the almighty dollar is kicking some Indian Rupee ass…

Dirty Bomb

2008-02-15T06:43:00.000-08:00

Last night our cat detonated a Dirty Bomb in the litter box. We had to evacuate the building. I guess he is preparing us for when we need to change diapers.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles…

2008-02-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

In this case just Trains and Automobiles, mainly trains… With the ice storm hitting us at 3:30 and all the traffic reports for my commute home were approaching a Jam Factor 10 with multiple car accidents I decided the train home would be the safest and sane way to go. I walked (Ice skated) the little less then a mile to the Shady Grove Metro station. The DC Metro web site claims the running time from Shady Grove to Union Station is 40 minutes. It was really somewhere over 1 hour. Not that I’m complaining, as the train crossed the beltway and 270 I could see it was a 4 lane parking lot. As I was buying my MARC ticket, I heard the announcement that the delayed 5:34 train was now boarding. This was the train I originally wanted to catch but since the Metro was running at reduced speed on the above ground sections I figured I would get the next train. Since this one should be leaving first, I went for that train instead of waiting 10 minutes. I guess everyone else had the same idea and we all packed in standing room only. Some fat woman behind me kept yelling “Move up, Move Up” until a bunch of people turned around and gave her a look that said “If you don’t shut the f up we’re all going to take turns punching you in the mouth”. Thankfully, the “Standing room only” only lasted a few stops when everyone got off in the ugly Burbs of DC and even more thankfully the annoying fat woman decided to get off and wait for the other train. I think erosion moves faster then this train as it took 2 hours to get to Penn Station. Home on the Johns Hopkins shuttle and only a short walk to the apartment. As I crossed a small side street that was ice free(or so I though) I hit a patch of ice at the edge and went down hard. My right hand is a bit road rashed and my right hip is sore.
My commute back to work today was pretty uneventful except the MARC train to DC moved even slower then last nights and I found out that I could have taken the King Farm Shuttle from the office to the Metro and back for free.

Hangin

2008-02-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

I had a very odd voice mail message from this guy who said he was a Tobacco Officer. He wanted to know “if we were still on for hangin out on 31st and Greenmount?” “North East Corner”. He went on giving his cell phone number, which after the first 4 digits it seemed as if he forgot what is was and then changed his mind and gave his office number. I had no idea that such a person as a Tobacco Officer even existed, let alone made plans to hang out with one. As for 31st and Greenmount, I wouldn’t say that’s the ‘Hood but maybe a stray bullet away.

The Gorn

2008-01-31T10:24:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I must have tweaked my neck and now I move a bit like the Gorn.

Big Night

2008-01-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

It’s that time of year again, for the pres. to deliver his State of the Union Address. Let’s make some predictions.
1) He will call for military action in Iran.
Or, at least will accuse Iran of something worthy of considering military action.
The administration has been pushing towards this for several years.
2) Same sex marriage will be brought up.
This is always something the conservatives can rally behind and give a big standing ovation.
3) Some G.I. Joe/Jane will be pointed out.
This is less to acknlodge the service of this person and more to make everyone who does not stand and blindly agree about the curent war look un-patriotic.
4) Some republican yes man will say it was the best speech ever delivered at the state of the union.
Come-on, bush can get behind a podium and light farts fire and the conservative cheerleaders like Limbaugh, and the “want-to-be-Limbaughs” will say “that was the best thing ever. Do you see, he has the guts to light farts in front of the Dems. Hillary and Obama couldn’t do that, and could you imagine Algore??? He would think it would cause global warming. Cha,Cha,Cha”…

So that is my prediction. "Good Night and Good Luck"

blogers block

2008-01-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

I seem to have a case of writers block and haven’t been keeping this blog up to date. I was thinking of a way to end the block when I thought When all else fails, make fun of Kyle.
I was out for my lunch walk and was passing a construction site. They’re in the process of building a huge retirement home. Active Living home, I think is the proper term. Oh well, back to the walk. As, I passed I noticed a guy out front with a big push broom. He was sweeping the street in front of the building site. I thought, “wow, a job for Kyle”. Also down the road is the “Quizno Tard”. At least that’s what I call him. He stands out on the median strip and waves a big Quizno’s banner and always says “Have a nice day” as you walk past. For all I know he could be the regional Quizno’s Manager, but hey that’s another job of Kyle. No one would fart on him, and he could “score” with all the hot chicks that walk past.
Last night I broke down and rode the trainer for and hour. I ashamed to admit I will do the same tonight. I didn’t ride to work at all this week because I’m a pussy. Actually, my route to work is getting noticeably heavier traffic and with gusty winds, early morning low temps and early AM retarded commuters drinking coffee, yakking on the phone, checking emails and attempting some variation of driving at the same time have made my ride commute a bit hectic. Last week on one of my ride days, I decided to leave work early and beat the heavy traffic home. I came to the conclusion that riding in the heavier traffic was safer then dealing with the rude a-holes who drive home at the earlier time. I had one pull out in front of me while looking me in the eyes. At least 3 or 4 who thought they could slip past me while traffic in the opposite lane was coming at them at 40 mph and around a blind turn. Countless, not even bother to slow or make room as they squeaked past coming within an inch or 2 of my left side.
I had a voice mail message from a Haywood... Haywood Jablowme, you meant to call Jack Mahogoff not me.

Meltdown II

2008-01-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

Just as I was getting ready to make my "Top 10 List Of Things That Need To Go Away", I see this Breaking News Headline: "Meltdown: Spears Taken to Hospital After Custody Standoff".
Now what does this have to do with my Top 10 list? Well, the top 3 spots were going to be taken up by the Spears'. Yes, all of them Lynn, Jamie-Lynn and Britney too.
Please!!! go back to the trailer court that you came from and never return... Unless you are naked and holding a bike, I'm sure Scambaugh could use a new Ebay model.

Last/first&last/first

2008-01-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

Last: Last ride of 2007. On Sunday the 30th I rode a nice little ride around Baltimore county before it started to rain. In fact, the last 2 miles or so was in a light rain. With the roads being still wet and icy in places (I swear in a 5 mile stretch of rt 32 I passed 3 accidents) I didn’t ride to work. But that brings me to the first & last.
First & Last: I haven’t run a running race all year. In fact, I have not run at all this year. Monday afternoon I left Charm City and headed up to York to the “Some-are-home” and packed, along with my bike, my running gear. My dad and I entered the New Year’s Eve 2 mile run in Red Lion, PA. 2 miles through hilling Red Lion… This was the first official and last official run for me in 2007 as I finished in 2008. This was probably the toughest 2 mile run I have ever entered. It started down hill, turned around came back up the hill and then further up the hill and down a hill that was a killer to come back up. Good thing was the finish was down hill to the square in Red Lion. I ended up running it 14 minutes and some seconds. My dad finished in about 19 minutes.
First: My first ride of 2008. Tuesday morning, I took my mountain bike up to Rocky Ridge. Actually, I rode my mountain bike to Rocky Ridge (My parents house is only a few miles away). I did a lap on the usual trails. I ended up feeling the previous nights run and walked up part of the trail 8 climb. I ended up just riding an easy paced ride and took my time getting back to the “Some-r-home” in time for the traditional Pork and Sauerkraut dinner.
And of course... First post of the year.

Style Report

2007-12-20T07:37:00.000-08:00

Politics: Spoiled Two-Year-Old Style
Listing to NPR this morning I hear that our president now runs the country just like a spoiled two-year-old trying to get his way. By effectively holding his breath until he gets what he wants, Congress passed the new spending bill. What's next throwing a temper tantrum?

Cars: Maryland Style
I have been thinking about Maryland DMV lately and how the 1 inspection for as long as you own the car policy works. This came to mind last night on my commute home when I spotted a cool 70s/80s era VW bus with a 3 inch tree branch as a rear bumper. Now this isn’t too bad because if you drive around Baltimore long enough you will see countless cars with no rear bumpers. The best one, is the guy I see some mornings getting onto I95 driving the car that has no front quarter panels.

Commute: Kenny Style
The bike part of my commute to work this morning was pretty uneventful. Well, I did hit a small patch of ice and said the quote that DK told me he heard at a ‘cross race, “I almost quashed… I almost quashed”.

Meltdown…

2007-12-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

Not a Hammy style drunken, self indulgent meltdown or a full blown Seve Out. Although, I am going to agree with Steve, that some people should be pulled from their cars and shot. The driver of a Ford F150 MD plates 93J 052 is one of them. Thanks a-hole for first blowing your horn at me at red light and then cutting me off and slamming on your brakes in front of me.

On the subject of idiots, I received a voice message the other day. The message said “Ken, this is Jim. I’m a recruiter phone number is 410-xxx-xxxx” and then hung up. This left me wondering what sort of recruiter? Army, Navy, Job??? And why is he calling me? I assume it was a tech job recruiter calling for a job in Baltimore and he found my resume on Monster.com. I might actually call back and leave the message “Jim,This in Ken. I’m a recruit…” and hang up.

Big Mary

2007-12-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

Watch this long enough and you will get and eye full of "Big Mary". At the very end Visit PA Ray is seen starting.

Back in the saddle

2007-12-04T09:03:00.001-08:00

After being sick and then taking vacation, this weekend was my first ride in over 2 weeks. I took the new mountain bike up to Loch Raven and did some exploring. I read some article a while back in the Baltimore Sun or the free paper about riding at Loch Raven and I remember it saying something about it being rocky and you can get in over your head pretty easy. I haven’t been on a mountain bike since I broke my scrap-pile a year and half ago at the Idyllwild Spring Challenge, so I readied my mind to walk the technical stuff if I needed. I would have to say that article must have been written by someone on a hybrid. I didn’t think it was rocky at all. I was on a fun, twisty trail with logs and roots but all rideable and then I was on a trail that looked like no one rides. I need to do more exploring of the area, seems like I just scratched the surface of what is there to ride. Oh yes, the new Trek 9.8 rode great. I think I had the fork too stiff but everything else was “Best Ever”, “Made my other bike look like a toy”…

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving... I'm going to Disney World...

What's newer

2007-10-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

The news from Sarahs second ultrasound is.... It's a Boy...
Sorry guys I couldn't talk Sarah into the name
Steve Don Ray Kyle Allen or Elliot Peppertard or even slip Legend in to the name. Kyle may get an even bigger head because future mini kennys middle name will be Edward no matter what first name we choose.

What's new.

2007-10-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

I just found out that the Kuhndog has a blog... What's next, K-Ham will update his...

Nothing new for me this week. Just programming away and reminding the wifeie that she is Pregnant not fat. I need to put the 'Cross bike back together and maybe do a cross race or 2. I have decided on what new mountain bike I'm getting, but I haven't run the full price tag past Sarah yet. I finally made up my mind to get one of these sleds.

Movies of interest lately, watched Sicko - pretty good. 2 Days in Paris - really good. Next up, The Kingdom. Ok, so my sister-in-law was on the editing staff so I may be a bit partial.

Mullets

2007-09-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

You really need to check out this site... http://www.mulletsgalore.com/ Check the categories. They actually have a category for Mulletard. I think Elliot, Peppertard and Jessy would make good Hesher mullets. And, The Future of America photo look like half the guys from my high school year book.

Sharp Glass and Stingers

2007-09-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

Sharp Glass and Stingers... What a week.
Last week was a good week, until the last half. It started out great. Last Sunday was the Johns Hopkins Pathology department picnic, which was a big Crab feast. I stuffed myself on a dozen crabs (last year we got more), corn on the cob, burgers and dogs and of course beer. They through a nice shindig even though they don’t pay Sarah all that well.
The bad part started Tuesday morning when I sat down to breakfast. I thought I stepped on some cat food (bare foot). I didn’t think much of it until I stood up to put away the milk and sharp pain shot through my foot. I pulled a good sized sliver of glass from my foot. When I hobbled to the kitchen counter to get something to stop the beading I ended up bleeding all over the floor. The floor looked like the scene from Die Hard after he has to escape through all the broken glass.
With the foot healing, I rode to work Wednesday and then again Friday. My Friday ride home was going pretty much uneventful until about 6 or 7 miles from the car. Something big, black and flying struck me in the chest and then landed on my left thigh. By the time I flicked it off of me it stung me. It must have been a hornet. It was about and inch and half long and its sting felt like I was shot. My leg, almost immediately, became stiff and the where it stung me turned red, like a burn. I now have a red mark on my leg that is about the size of my hand.
I did get 2 good rides in over the weekend. Saturday was a short easy ride to test how the sting healed and then Sunday was a good 3.5 hour trip around Baltimore Co. including Loch Raven.
Let’s see how this week goes… I’ll keep my eye out for big, black flying objects on my ride home today.

Photo Project

2007-09-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

I need to start carrying a camera with me when I drive and or ride to work. I get to see some amazing things.
There was the obvious Trani walking down Howard St. Her/His huge“Fakies” moved less then the just as huge adams apple.

The best one, and I really wished I had a picture of this because its going to be hard to describe, I witnessed while sitting at a red light. It was pretty early in the morning and I was in front of Camden Yards stopped at a red light. Out of the corner of my eye I see an old man crossing the street. Nothing unusual with him, he was wearing typical ugly old man clothing. You know, ugly shorts pulled up above the navel and an equally ugly gulf shirt. As he got closer, I noticed something looked off… I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then, as he passed in front of me, I spotted it. He had on woman’s shoes… Big black pumps with about a 5 inch heal. I almost spit out my coffee laughing. I then look at the car next to me and to see if they spotted it, and they were laughing even harder.

Office Space and Covered Bridge ride

2007-08-20T11:56:00.001-07:00

The company I work for recently moved to a new office space within the same building. This past Friday I packed up and my laptop, coffee cup and folders and moved from my luxurious 8x8 cell on the 3rd floor to the new 5.5 x 6.5 first floor efficiency in what I thought was a back alley but now that I sit here Monday morning I find that it really is a thoroughfare. Nice little down grade and not to mention that I am separated from the rest of the programmers (So much from cross collaboration between projects). My bike will not fit in the cubical with me and I still haven’t found any available space to put it. The carpeting is new and still has that awful new industrial carpet smell and I don't even have a "Sevie Dog Nose". If my stapler goes missing or I find my desk in the basement… As much as I’m complaining about the new space, I would hate to be in our receptionists shoes. She went from a nice big front desk to a glass top coffee table. That is supposed to change, but I can’t see how they can fit anything in that space.

After the move, I had a headache and wondered if it was due to the carpet smell or was I coming down with some cold. It may have been both, I had stomach problems and felt light headed all Saturday. By Sunday, I still felt sick but good enough to go ride the Covered Bridge Metric Century. As bad as I was feeling I still got to the lunch stop in 1.5 hours and then to the finish in another 1.5 hours. About half way from lunch to the finish a pack of tandems blew by me and I was just able to catch back up to them and “Tandem suck” to the finish. I later found out that the couple ringing the cow bell and waving to the passing riders were Floyd Landis' parents. I always wondered if that ride went past the Landis home as we pass through Farmersville. I did see some Holmes regular customers, in fact I need to give Steve a big “HEEYY STEEVE, HOWS IT GOING???” I ran into Rabbit after the ride but didn’t spot the Monkey and he was supposed to be there too… Damn, no Monkey Tails to give the shop.

Oh yeah thinking of the Monkey, I heard the perfect Geibel radio commercial. I have no idea what they were advertising because I wasn't paying attention until the end when guy #1 says something and then guy #2 responds with "I knew that". I just about crashed my car when I heard that one.

Well, back to work… I need to put the proper headings on those TPS reports…

The Devil lies in the Poinsettia

2007-08-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

A few mornings ago, I sat, half awake, sipping my coffee and eating my breakfast cereal of choice. When from behind me I heard some ruckus, “the cat’s are chasing each other again” went through my mind. Then, all of the sudden, in mid-air, a blur appeared to my right heading for the kitchen window. At the far end of the blur, about a foot or so above the window sill a cat materialized. With a crash, he landed on the Poinsettia, which by the way survived from Christmas to mid summer, crushing the plant and sending the pot to the floor. He landed, sort of un-gracefully, with the pot and plant. Then in a very cat like movement, he darted from the wreckage, sat down in the kitchen and then acted as if nothing happened. I have no idea what possessed him to do it. Sure he looks innocent, just look at the picture.

I think it’s like those stories you hear of two little old ladies living together and one suddenly kills the other. Her reason, I looked her in the eye and saw the Devil…

my new comutin' machine

2007-07-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

Hangin at the shop

2007-07-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend marked the 1st official time I came back to Holmes Cycling to work. DK and Sevie were at the MS150, and KHam was at MTB Nats, so all the "old school" employees were working. Horse-man, Lee, "time trial" Bob and me "The Kenny"... Of course Ray, Jeff, Benny and even Frank were working too. I didn't sell any bikes, but I did try to sell one to a woman who turned out to be an old manager of mine from my EDS days. I still remember the painfull 2 full days it took to go over my yearly review(that was considered to be fast compaired to her other employees) and the just as painfull interview that took almost 8 hours that I had to endure with her... Good luck to Ray in selling her a bike, you'll earn that salary on this one.
After work, Ray and I did a nice ride around my old training routes. I think Ray was holding back... we averaged something around 19.5 mph for 38 flat miles.
This news may be out by now, but to my 2 or 3 readers, I will soon need to buy a baby jogger and maybe a bike trailer too...

Nothing to say

2007-06-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

I really didn't have anything to add today. So, here is another honeymoon photo... Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre seen from Musée d'Orsay.

Newest Member of the Family

2007-06-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome the newest member of our family....

Cat, Tristan....

Last week Sarah and I made a trip to the Baltimore County Humane Society to pick out at cat. We ended up making our choice with this Big Boy... All week Sarah was upset with all the cats that were given up and wanted to save a second one. So, friday we back and picked out a friend for Tristan. He was still at the HS so we were able to see if the two of them get along. We can't pick her up till tuesday so I don't have any pictures yet.

Open letter to drivers

2007-05-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

This morning, on my ride to work, I had a nice near miss with a driver. He swerved, head on, into my path and then at the last second back away. This once again proves my "Retard Ray" theory.

I found this on www.bikecommute.com

An Open Letter To Drivers
Dear Driver:
Over 40 million Americans, young and old, want to bicycle on public roads. Sadly, many are afraid to do so, in large part because drivers sometimes squeeze past them too closely. Even though most drivers don’t mean any harm, this frightening and illegal behavior has scared millions of bicyclists off the roads. Please remember that the laws in every state require that "Drivers shall pass at a safe distance & reasonable speed." (Va. DMV)
Almost everyone has forgotten that when there isn’t safe space for passing, then bicyclists should use the whole vehicle lane, and motorists wait their turn. Please understand that, no matter how we feel about it, every person has a fundamental civil right to equal access, and safe passage, on public roads. This is, and has always been, the law: "Every person riding a bicycle shall have all of the rights and all of the duties applicable to other drivers."
Please note that when bicyclists squeeze over to the right, they end up squeezed between hazards, sliding on sand or debris, or colliding with parked car doors. That is why, bikelane or not, in most states the ride-right rule for bicyclists has always been: "ride to the right *EXCEPT* when passing, turning left, or to avoid objects, parked cars, moving vehicles, pedestrians, animals, surface or other hazards; or when in a vehicle lane too narrow for a bicycle and another vehicle to pass safely, side by side, within the lane."
Safe bicyclists will politely *merge* left and ride nearer the center of a vehicle lane, instead of squeezing next to hazards -- just as any safe driver would do. Some may think this unsafe: but please note that there is only one general rule in the law for safe bicycling, and it instructs that safe bicyclists behave the same as safe drivers:
"Every person riding a bicycle shall have all of the rights and all of the duties applicable to other drivers."
So please remember: whether in a bikelane, crosswalk, or not, squeezing past scares people. Please keep a safe distance when passing bicyclists and pedestrians, no matter where they are on the road. If you can’t pass safely, please wait. The law has always required that we share public roads equally, and safely, with everyone.
***
Bicyclists, in turn, must understand that *they* can do the most to make themselves safer, and more respected. Millions of bicyclists manage to ride in traffic every day, year after year, without collision or trouble. Many are Cooperative Cyclists, who have learned to use all the rules of the road to politely cooperate with other drivers: not only to signal, but to politely merge, yield, change lanes, use lights at night -- all the rules. They are rarely squeezed past, and studies show that they are far safer than other cyclists -- as safe as drivers overall.
(Please see www.bikeleague.org and study the Bicycle Drivers Manual at www.bicyclinglife.com )
Police and prosecutors don’t always protect the right of bicyclists and pedestrians to be safe. Sometimes this is because cyclists, overall, tend to act unlawfully. But our laws say we are not responsible for the bad behavior of other people. So please: enforce our common-sense traffic laws fairly, and equally. Please concentrate on individuals who do endanger others: most especially, those who use their vehicle to harass or threaten others, squeeze too close to bicyclists or pedestrians, or ride without lights at night.
Please remember that the roads were not built just for cars: before the car, public roads in the USA were already being paved for bicyclists. Every pedestrian and bicyclist, without exception, has a fundamental civil right to use, be safe, and be protected by the law, on public roads.
Please note that every State Drivers’ Manual recommends that safe practice for motorists is:
"Adjust your speed for blind hills, curves, pedestrians, bicyclists, and slow-moving vehicles.
These conditions make the posted speed limit unsafe. By law, you must drive slower.
It is your responsibility to adjust your driving to assure everyones safety."
(Va. DMV)
Please remember that this is, and has always been, the law. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Chief J.W. Rittenhouse (Ret.) Charlottesville VA Police
Ms. Lauren Cooper, Professional Bicycle Commuter
Comments & Questions: CycleMedia@yahoo.com Permission to copy and distribute with credit is granted.

Yet another Honeymoon photo

2007-05-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

Hey Sweetie... Check out this little cookie

2007-05-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

I'm about to Sevie Out!!!

2007-05-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

I had a close call with a Sevie-like meltdown this morning when my security badge didn't work on the door that until recently was kept unlocked. The best part is my desk is on the locked side of the door. Although the "semi-tard" who designed our office layout has a secure door which one can avoid simply by walking around to the back of the office and come in through the unlocked side of the doors. My near Sevie Out was then overted by the scent of fresh pizza in the brake room. TGIW... free pizza day...

It's all about the image

2007-05-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

I was going to give a long and boring post about the wedding and honeymoon, but something at work today made me laugh. Today and tomorrow there is some big “dog and pony show” with one of our clients. For the past two weeks they have been going around getting people from other companies run by the same owner the fill in empty cubicles. I kid you not on this one. Empty offices now have someone in them and empty cubicles have employees that I never saw before. It’s like the walked the D.C. streets and found all the crack-whores they could find and hired them for 2 days. Today, like most Tuesdays and Thursdays was a ride to work day for me. I don’t have a safe and secure area to keep my bike so it comes with me to my cubical. Would you park you bike in a garage with a construction site next door where you know every one there has a hack saw and could cut my best lock in seconds. Today my manager came to me and said “I was told to tell you not to bring in the bike tomorrow.” My response was “can I park it in Tom’s (the owner) parking spot?” Unfortunately I need to drive to work tomorrow to pick up some stuff, get keys made and some other thing on the wifeys list or I would park my Giant TCR C1 next to the owners Aston Martin, unless he drives his Mercedes-Benz McLaren which then I think I would park my 1995 Jetta that’s missing 3 hubcaps and until I get the new starter installed needs to be push started in the next spot over. I wonder which image is better for the company image, A well paid programmer driving a $1500 POS or one riding a $3500 bike?

The Big Day... April, 21 2007

2007-05-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

Just another teaser

2007-05-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

Sarah and I on the Seine.
More to come later

I'm Back... Did you miss me?

2007-05-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

Back and officially hitched. It was two trips in one... Victoria BC is a beautiful city and cycling friendly too, wished I had the bike with me. Paris... What a city, wish I could stay longer... More updates and pics to come, but right now I'm trying to adjust to the time zone changes and pretend to work.

Jetta for Sale

2007-03-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Jetta is now posted on Ebay. All I need is a Scambaugh-like picture and I’m sure to get my reserve.

Driving In Charm City

2007-03-09T10:20:00.001-08:00

I just herd a report that Baltimore has been averaging close to a shooting per day. With the way some of the people drive around here, probably half were out of driving with semi-tards. The rest are due to a bunch of Tards who happen to be armed.
On to driving in “Charm City”, my advice is as follows. Don’t proceed through a light that just turned green because some semi-tard will be running the light. Worst of all he/she will think that it was your fault. At all cost avoid 4-way stops. I have been nearly t-boned and run over on my bike by some a-hole who thinks that just because the car in front of him stopped that he/she doesn’t need to stop. I had the thought it was because they were on the phone but I have watched and that is not the case. They are just stupid. Again they will think it is your fault as you will notice when the lay on the horn. Even worse are the cops. I’m not really sure what it takes to get a traffic ticket, besides letting a parking meter run out(I have at least 3 of those), and I have witnessed them doing the same idiotic things as other drivers.
I have a Retard-Ray theory that explains a few things. It goes as follows. With all the defense contractors in the area I believe that they are testing a Re-tard ray or signal weapon. This signal is broadcast from cell towers and interferes with normal brain function. It pretty much turns everyone into a semi-tard. It effects some people differently then others. Some drive really bad and others just do dumb things. In the end who ever is exposed will eventually get kill in a car accident or get shot by some tard or be the tard doing the shooting and thus less military force is needed to overthrow a city. This is pretty much a “Faith Based Theory”. In other words, I know it’s not true but I believe it to be so it must be true. I think it was Mark Twain who said “Faith is believing in something that you know ain’t so”.

Ok, enough of my theories and on to the Kenny update. Last month… Sarah and moved into a nice big apartment and then went out to the Indian restaurant in our building to celebrate my birthday. I’m getting old, I turned 38 and Sarah turns 38 in a few days. Work has been going well. At least for me. They had a small restructuring and a few people lost there jobs. The really cool application that I wrote for one the other groups is now no longer going to be used. So there was several days worth of programming flushed away. As for my car. I just got her inspected, in PA of course, and it cost me $600 bucks. Anyone want a 95 Jetta? It will be one Ebay in a week or 2.

Movin on Up

2007-01-21T18:47:00.000-08:00

Everyone sing along. We’re movin’ on up, to the east side, we got a de-lux apartment in the sky.
Ok not really, but Sarah and I are moving form the tiny 3rd floor, efficiency to a medium one bedroom apartment on the 7th floor. Medium is really not the right description. It’s pretty big and has one the biggest walk-in closets I have ever seen in an apartment. The view is alright. I don’t thing we can see the Johns Hopkins U athletic field, but I’m sure we will still be able the here the Lacrosse, Soccer and Football games.
I made a visit to bike shop and gave my steed the overhaul she desperately needed. All the commute miles and miles keeping up with David, Greg and George (I think they think my name is Tim) on the Saturday rides was starting to show. I also picked up the Sidewinder rack for ‘V’. Oh, ‘V’ that’s Sarah’s car, short of Vivian.

We had a Scambaugh visit while I was at the shop. Now that was an honor...
That’s all for now. I have to pick up Sarah at the Airport soon. She spent the weekend at Disney with her crazy family. Yeah, I know I’m marring into them and already think they are insane.

The Scott Farcus Affair or "I hate the smell of Tapioca"

2006-12-25T12:03:00.000-08:00

The Scott Farcus Affair or "I hate the smell of Tapioca"
Christmas day and I am sitting here reading Bram Stokers Dracula while 24 hours of A Christmas Story continually runs in the background. Sarah is at work and all I have to do for the day is wash the dishes, make sure the duck thaws in time for dinner, not eat too many cookies and refrain form opening our presents. Sarah and my presents to each other is the Trek T1000 tandem, the Yakima Sidewinder rack and a subscription to Netflix. No surprises with gifts there, in fact our first movie arrived the other day. The wrapped gifts are from Sarah’s family, sent in from Bosie, ID. I do plan to make a trip to the “summer home” on Tuesday for my parents gifts. Thinking of gifts, I have yet to stop by the beer distributor or liquor store for the guys at Holmes. Not that they more alcohol. I was thinking of the countdown to getting rid of Bush calendar or a Hillary ’08 bumper sticker for Al.

Help stop Blog neglect

2006-12-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

So much to say, so little talent to say it… I have been neglecting my blog for almost a month. I have a bunch to put in but don’t know where to begin(or end).
First off Merry Christmas all 3.2 of you who read this, you guys can fight of who is the .2 are. I have to make Sarah watch the best ever Christmas movie tonight. I can’t believe she has never seen A Christmas Story. It’s not Christmas without Ralphie and Randy on TV for 24 straight hours.
On to work… I have worked out my Partial Drive Commute to work. I park just outside of Columbia, MD and ride to Rockville, MD. It’s a bit heavy with traffic at a few spots but not overly bad. I end up with about a 2 hour commute each way. Atleast half of that time is on the bike time and that is worth the extra time. Not much else at the moment, just keeping on programming and making it look like I’m not goofing off.
Later… for now…
Oh, and Ray… Keep the package to yourself…

Jam Factor 8

2006-11-23T21:58:00.000-08:00

I was leaving the office for home at 2pm on Thanksgiving Eve. The report from www.traffic.com had my route listed as a Jam Factor 8.0 and climbing. Rt 95 was jammed approaching the Baltimore Beltway. As for the DC Beltway, the image of 4 lanes of cars going nowhere very slowly was my guess to what they meant by a Jam Factor 7.3. This report came in at 1:45pm; it was then I decided to take my back roads route. This route usually takes about 1.5 hours. All was going fine until left Rt 32 and started to north on Rt 95. It took and hour to go what normally takes 15-20 minutes totaling the entire drive at just over 2 hours. I can’t imagine how bad it would have been if I had taken 495(DC beltway). Holiday traffic and the fact that it was crappy weather made this one of the “worst drives ever”.
A bit of pre Thanksgiving thanks hit me early as turned onto Conway St in front of Camden Yards. I pass this way 2 times a day and see the same homeless guy pacing back and forth. I always feel bad for this guy but today I felt doubly bad. I don’t know if it was the approaching holidays or the cold and crappy rain. I really wanted to give the guy my jacket or anything, but I just drove on. I’m thankful that I was going to have dinner with my future wife and then a big Thanksgiving feast that can’t be beat with my family.

OLN or should I say Vs. Sucks.
I was flipping around the channels last night and found CN8 was airing 2006 World Cycling Championships. Wow!!! I actually get to see something other then the Tour De France. Where is OLN or what ever its called now? Just a few years ago you could see most of the Spring Classics, live coverage of Pairs-Roubaix, daily coverage of all three grand tours and Worlds. What is airing on Vs? Survivor re-runs and Hockey!!! Even the cycling coverage they do have sucks. Gone are the European announcers, who actually know the sport, replaced by stupid American announcers who say things like “every one dopes to keep up with Lance”.
A coworker asked if I thought that Floyd Landis doped or not. My response of “They all dope” surprised him a bit. He then asked “Even Lance?” I said “Especially Lance.” This brings me to my question. What’s the difference between taking EPO and sleeping in a hypoxic tent (or taking some “natural” blood enhancement)? You are still enhancing your crit levels in ways other then through training. Really, it doesn’t matter how your crit levels go over 50%, it is still just as harmful to you body.

First week of the new job

2006-11-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

Well, the first week of my new job has come to an end. So far so good, a little tedious operational work to do but for the most part I’m back as a programmer. As for the commute… Baltimore, MD to Rockville MD mapquest route is to go rt95 to 495(DC Beltway) to rt270 with an estimated time of 59 minutes. Yeah Right!!! My first day, I left just after 7am and pulled in to the lot at 9:15. That was considered fast. I now have a route that takes an hour and half and have been told I should be able to get it closer to one hour. My goal is to train and bike to the office.

I was way over dressed for my ride. I had on my very cool Holmes vest, Arm Warmers and Knee Warmers (hey the Legend says if the month ends in an R ware them) and I was over heating within 20 minutes. I finally found when the Mt Washington (Joe’s) Bike Shop Saturday ride start. 10:15am. All the months of solo riding in northern Baltimore County I would never see big groups, just small groups of 2 or 3 riders. Today I was riding at 10 from the apartment. I was climbing up the small but pain in ass hill on Park Side and thought my brakes were rubbing. I was fixing the alignment when I heard people talking. Coming up the hill was a group of 20-25 riders. I jumped back on my steed and caught on the back end of the group. I stayed with the faster guys for almost the whole ride. I did pop on a climb up Mt Carmel Rd and since the group was going to go a way I didn’t know and I didn’t want to get shelled somewhere I wasn’t familuar I decided to take it easy and come in Falls Rd. However, I forgot about the two climbs on Falls. I ended up running out of water just as got back to Joe’s. 3 hours at a fast pace wasn’t what I had intended as I started, but all in all it was a good ride. I haven’t ridden since taking the Tandem out last Sunday and haven't had a hard ride in over a month. Next week I’ll be ready for them…

I see Ray has his MySpace set up. Check his Trippy Unbealiveabe Blog

Oh yeah. I updated the Scambaugh pic. Not as slutty as the old ones but it will do...

It’s official…

2006-10-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

Yes its true, on November 6, 2007 I will be back working in the IT field. It’s been a long time coming. I spent the last five years standing in lines at job fairs only to get sent to the next table. For two years I heard “sorry we have nothing for you” and then it switched to “you should have come here 2 years ago”.
It’s good to get back into programmer mode but I am going to miss the bike shop. Where else could I have witness the Wow Tard or Sevie vs Manny Rios or the 29er Man, or the flustered father during a delivery give the line “KNOCK IT THE FRICK OFF!!!!” to his screaming kids. I need to come up with favorite stories of customers, shop stuff and Kenny stories. The Kenny story is easy. We all know this one. It is, How Eliot Came To Have An Uncle Kenny or What Really Happened In The Garage With Aunt Susan. The Open Letter To Jill was one of my less finer moments but none the less it was funny telling her that the Monkey is a-hole and she can and has done better. As for shop stories, Don flipping out while building a Gym was great. He was livid, almost as bad as Hebe freaking out. Tim calling Don a F-ing A-hole after believing Don Farted on him. It’s going to be hard to pick a Sevie story. The Me Manny Rios story, Telling Chris to put the bikes in Al’s office and the Sevie method for dealing with the Mexican border top my list.
I’m looking forward to getting back to programming. However, reentering the office environment is going to be a tough. Did you ever see the show Working? It’s probably the best comedy on the average America Office environment. I swear whoever created the fictional company Upton Webber at one time worked for EDS.No worries, The Kenny Report will still get updated.

What I think about while riding in the dark

2006-10-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

So what do I think about when riding the 27 mile each way commute? Do I think about my upcoming wedding? Hell, no… The truth is, the other day I had Billy Joel’s The Piano Man stuck in my head but I made new words. I call it 29er Man.

29er Man, Sung to The Piano Man
Spin us a ride, you’re the 29er man. Spin us a ride tonight.
We’re all in the mood for a good laugh, and you got us giggling all right.

Kyle at the shop is a friend of mine.
He gives the discounts to me.
He’s quick with a joke and fixes my spoke.
He said Da I think this is killing me.
As his smile ran from his face.
I think I could me a pro racer boy, if only I could beat Ray.
(sung in your best Daaa voice) Oh, La, didy DA, didy DA, La, didy Da-a-a.

The geared bikes sound like a carnival and my buddy rides a fixed gear.
We climbed Dead Woman’s Hollow; it took only half a year.

Give me a few more commute days and I'll work out another verse or two.

Tri-Flow and Side Show

2006-10-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Can anybody tell me what the name of the candy the smells like Tri-Flow and where I can get some? Every time I use Tri-Flow on a bike I get that euphoric feeling and a memory of a candy from my childhood. It was some pink, peanut shaped, marshmallow thing. Someone, anyone tell me I’m not making this up. I remember eating them at summer camp and getting them in my Halloween trick-or-treat bag. Grant it, they probably caused cancer or were toxic in some way. Anything that smells like that can’t be to good for you. So, the next time you’re lubing a chain with this stuff, take a big wiff and see if the sweet scent of Tri-Flow evokes the same memories in you.

On a different note... did I hear Rush Limbaugh correctly? Did he really say this? I heard him say, "NBC laid off employees not because they needed too, but because they wanted to cause the unemployment numbers to go up before the elections". What F'ing planet is this guy on? You know, years ago he was funny and could make his starchiest caller sound like an ass without them knowing what he just did. Now, he's just some blabbering Side Show announcer.

Dry spell

2006-10-02T22:34:00.000-07:00

I have been on a Blog dry spell. To start, Sarah and I took out the tandem for a test spin. Everything seems okey-pokey. I also proved I could heft the extra weight up steep hills well. Not that Sarah wasn’t helping… Also it was 10/2 today. Yeah, yeah all the Lance fans know that date, but what it really marks is the anniversary of the first face-to-face meeting of Sarah and I.

Tandem

2006-09-15T21:40:00.000-07:00

I did it… I ordered the Trek T1000 tandem Sarah and I are riding the Seagull Century on this thing. As long as I don’t crash it or Sarah doesn’t bonk we should be ok. I do see one problem with the Seagull. Would you want the woman you’re about to marry meet Rabbit? For those in the know, I need not explain, those not, I doubt I could.

Popoki-noni-alani

2006-09-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

I was going to ship some pedals in this box but I guess the cat will go instead

I got it

2006-09-01T07:56:00.000-07:00

I think I figured out the pissed off customer from the other day. I figure he went home and said “Holmes is a road bike shop, they were pretty lame for free riding stuff” or something along those lines. I probably didn’t fit his stereo-type bike shop guy image. Yes, I have a tattoo, but it covered. No, I don’t have body piercing and no I don’t smoke dope. I didn’t say “Dude, check out this rig… I took this out the other day and hit some kick ass drop-offs. Man, you should see this illegal down hill run up at Lambs Gap”… Now say that with a stoner like voice and a stoner giggle at the end. That’s probably what he expected from a bike shop guy not some old programmer analyst who’s former employer was EDS. It’s funny but it really took about 3 or 4 months before I un-brain washed from the EDS dress code.

May be I have Tourette Syndrome and my vocal tic is “F-ing body pierced, tattooed a-hole” and I just don’t know it

2006-08-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

So the day was going on as normal. Waited for the delivery of our new fitness line of treadmills and repaired bikes. While unloading the truck full of 300 + pound treads I was saved by the call of a customer I have been helping buying a baby jogger. After getting her to commit to the one we have in stock I went up front mark it as sold. After getting back to the counter I helped the next two customers. The first guy needed a spoke installed and wheel trued by Thursday. No problem, with luck I will work on it by the end of the day.
The next guy wanted a full-faced Giro helmet. Easy answer, I would have to order that but I have this other full-faced helmet from Six 1 Six. He didn’t like the $99.99 price tag and told me that another bike shop has the Giro for $75 and asked why this one is more. I gave my standard answer that one. “It’s the venting and weight.” He then asked the weight. My answer, “I don’t know”. He ask to see a Giro catalogue. Now I have been looking for the damn thing for a week for myself with no luck but I gave it a shot and looked for him. No luck I couldn’t find it. I was showing him the Giant Faith free ride bike and Glory down hill bikes in the Giant catalogue. He asked why is it cheaper then the Specialized? My answer. “I’m not familiar with the Specialized so I really don’t know”. Next question “how much does it weigh?” “Don’t know”.
A bit later in the day I started to catch a bit of a call that Ray took and said to myself “I glad I didn’t get that one”. From what I could tell Ray had some irate customer who thought we wronged him somehow. Then I realized he was saying that we insulted his son, who was recently in the shop. It then came clear he was talking about the guy who I helped with the full-faced helmet. He said that I either called him a “pierced tattooed punk” or insultingly referred to him as a “downhiller”. He started in on that he was recently in the Marines and is not a tattooed downhill punk. I’m not sure what his deal is. Did he interpret my ignorance of some esoteric bikes as insulting him? Did he not like my shaved legs? Does his father not like his taking to down hilling? Maybe some where in the conversation my unkown Tourette Tic came out and I called him a “M-Fing pierced, tattooed, downhilling A-hole. Here have a Mountain Dew, don’t you people drink those?”
As for tattoos, here’s mine…

Covered Bridge Metric Century

2006-08-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

Sundays Covered Bridge Ride.
Sightings…
Rabbits: 2 (I ran into him twice so I count that as 2)
Monkeys: 0
Bridgestones 1 (looked just like my old RB-1 too)
Amish kids on 700c scooters: 4
future Floyds (as long as they get testosterone patches): 4, 6 if you count the girls
People who need to ride their bikes more then once a year: I lost count
Crashes: 1 looked bad too
Covered Bridges: 4
Holmes Jerseys (including mine): at least 5 although I did spot a McPartland without a Holmes Kit.
I have no idea how fast I rode. I started at 8:20 and missed the group I was going to ride with. I rode hard to catch them only to find out that only 2 showed (Al Padilla and Don Putt) and they started before 8am. I did have a customer of ours (didn’t get his name) try to hang on until lunch but later said he couldn’t hold my pace on the rollers. After lunch I hooked up with some riders in Iron Hill jerseys and cranked to the finish. It started out at 7 of us then 5 and then 3 of us finished up together. Good 62 mile ride and I was done before noon.

Sleeping in, Riding Home and Meteors…

2006-08-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

Friday morning was the perfect morning to either sleep in or ride to work. I chose the former. But, I did make up for it and put the bike on the car and grabbed clean cycling gear to ride home. Nice cool evening to ride the 28 miles home. I ventured through the closed road signs to see if I could get around the construction without going out my way. Good news, they are almost finished with the rt24 construction, so I was able to ride through with no problems.
Tonight my dad and my niece, Rachel, are sleeping under the stars watching the meteor shower. I ventured out around midnight to see the condition for sky watching. Thin high cloud coverage was blocking most of the sky but I did see one meteor bringing the night total to six. I hung out hoping to see another “Big One”. I have spotted two such big ones in my life. As a kid I was sky watching during the August meteor shower. My dad had gone in the house and my friend John had fallen asleep. I had to be around 12:30 or 1 AM. I remember my dad went in to watch Fridays. The sky lit up bright blue, so bright that the stars were washed out. Then a big “rock” streaked across the sky followed by a smaller “rock”. Ever since then I hopped to see another large meteor. A few years ago, 4 maybe 5 years ago I was trying not to make a fool of myself playing tennis with my friend Jen. I looked up and saw a similar meteor, only in daylight. All I can do is keep watching.

Jessie “the tard” Cantorie

2006-08-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

We had a visit today by none other then JessieTard. He needed some other part for his little mini flatlanding bike. I took notice of his gearing. He runs a 24t chainring and an 11t cog. A little math is needed here.
Gear inch= Chainring/Cog*wheel size*Pi
In this case gear inch= 24/11*20*3.141 or 137.0618 inches
Giving a cadance of 130 RPMs how fast can Jessie go?
Well…
MPH= 60gr/63360

where g=gearinch and r= pedal RPM
So we come to...

MPH= 60*137.0618 *130 / 63360

bringing us to MPH = 16.873

Long Sunday ride

2006-08-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

With Sarah in Idaho and then Victoria for the week I had the chance to ride a few of the roads in PA instead of MD. I think I have warn a grove in the roads around Northwest Baltimore County as I pretty much ride the same loop every week. I decided to ride my commute route to Camp Hill and then decide were to go from there. What difference not having a 10 pound backpack weighing me down makes. I was feeling good enough to decide to take a long loop home by way of Bull Rd. But first I made a trip to Mechanicsbug, for no reason except to lengthen the ride and to cap off my water bottles at the High School parking lot. After filling my bottles I headed towards Lisburn. I forgot how far it was to Lisburn. I did't forget how steep Moors Mtn Rd is up over the climb. Someone back me up on this one, the climb up Moors Mtn Rd hits 10%. I love riding Bull Rd but again I forgot something. I thought that after Andersontown Rd there was only one climb and then a down hill run to where I turn to go around the ODCC. I was wrong, there are two more killer steep rollers after the initial climb. My ride ended up being 4 hours long.

trans-Canada bicycle trip

2006-08-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

A nice blog from a Mike Kincade's trans-Canada bike trip (Carlisle area rider)
http://www.mikeslowski.blogspot.com/
I wish I could retire...

funny email

2006-07-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from a Dog's Daily Diary:
8:00 am Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm Wow! Watched TV with my master! Heavenly!
11:00 pm Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Excerpts from my Cat's Daily Diary:
Day 683 of my captivity:My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates are fed hashor some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rationsperfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep upmy strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape..In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the floor. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet.I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearlydemonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely madecondescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. Theaudacity! There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight.I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event.However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard thatmy confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn whatthis means, and how to use it to my advantage. Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of mytormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must trythis again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs. I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches.The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released --andseems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded! Thebird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with theguards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. Thecaptives have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell,so he is safe....... for now....

WOW

2006-07-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

WOW!!!! I feel like the "Wow" 'tard who visits the shop. My interview with AAI for the Data Analyst position for the UAV Shadow 200 flight system left my head spining and all can say is "WOW". My brain has not worked in binary for a few years and it showed when they started asking me to convert a Hex string and tell them if the lights were on and what the flight number was. They did let me play with the simulator for a short time.

Job interview

2006-07-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

I found a nice quote that describes working in the bike industry.
"These arn't plumbing fixtures we're making and selling. The end results of what we do make people hapy and healthy. Not many people can say that about there jobs."
That quote popped up from memory as I get ready for an interview to get back into the IT field. I truly would say that the perfect job for me would be in the IT department of one of the bike companies.

I’m going to Hell for this one

2006-07-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

I delivered an exercise bike to the local ‘tard sweatshop. Ok, ok, they really do a good service both for the community and for the TMRs (Trainable Mentally Retarded) they employ. By the end of my visit the manager/coach/therapist or whatever he was, seemed to be so starved for non-tard conversation that I couldn’t get away from him. As I delivered the bike I over heard one woman say “Oh, ain’t dat purrdy”. I thought, not only a tard but also a York tard at that. All of the bad pronunciations and miss used grammar in the common York dialogue one could probably be called mentally handicapped by just being born here.
For most of my life I tried to not use, or at least limit my use of, York-Ebonics. My brother and sister are bad offenders of this language. For instance my brother might say “I seen that movie last night”. My sister will ask “What fur shirt are you wearing?” One that I catch myself using from time to time is, all, as in “The tea is all” translating to “There is no more tea”. One can’t forget about the mis-use of the word “whenever” as in “whenever I went to the movies last night”.

A typical York conversation could go:
“Whenever I went to the movies last night I seen Pirates of the Caribbean. What fur movie did you-uns see?”
“I seen Pirates of the Caribbean. Some dopeic kids were in front of us in line.”
“I thought the girl selling the tickets was shushly. Did you eat?”
“Sarah and me fressed on popcorn and it was all before the end.”
“Yeah, I been fressing on schleck a lot”

Did you keep up? If not here is about as good of translation as I can give.
“Last night I went to the movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean. What move did you see?”
“ I saw Pirates of the Caribbean too. Some doppy kids were in front of us in line.”
“I thought the girl selling the tickets was a bit hyperactive. Did you eat any thing?”
“Sarah and I ate popcorn and finished it before the end of the movie.”
“Yeah, I have been eating junk food lately.”

Oh, yeah I almost forgot. Skid Row… that’s the name of the hair band we couldn’t remember.

WTF

2006-07-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

I will admit that I do driver to work from time to time. Today I was cruising along on rt 83 north in the right lane with the cruise control set to 65. As I approached the hill to ressers summit, where the speed limit drops to 55mph and a slow moving truck lane opens to the far right, I was passed by some ahole in a Jetta driving in the truck lane while flipping me off. He then cut me off and then cut off the driver to my left. WTF???? I was 10mph over the speed limit what was he pissed off about? Did he not like Passat TDIs? Or maybe it was the Elderhostel sticker or the Appalachian Trail hiker sticker that my parents put on the car. One suggestion was the John Kerry bumper sticker, but then again if it were a Bush supporter he would have been in a gas guzzling behemoth with a gun rack. My other thought was that it was reTodd, but I don’t think he has the Jetta any longer.

The Ride Home

2006-06-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

The ride home after all the rain. The Yellow Breeches was up against the girders of the Bridge Street bridge. The Conewago still has the road on Brunner Island under water. Last year when this was flooded I waded through knee-deep water to avoid backtracking 2 miles. That was in daylight and this time the way around was straight on rt 181. When I looked out on the Susquehanna it looked like Bashore Island was under water. No big loss, just a bunch of trashy shacks to act as weekend homes for a bunch of Cutters. I think it was DK who called York the “Arm Pit”. Well, my commute to and from York is the crouch of that arm pit. I have run into all types. I have had a pickup truck play chicken with me, some duschbag yelling profanities at me out of the passenger window (his 12 year old looking son was in the passenger seat). Funny how the mind of the narrow minded works… Oh, and that same guy wanted to fight me too. That was until he saw I was about a foot taller and was ready to shove the car up his arse if he took one more step, then he threatened to call the police. Lets see what else, I almost ran over a drunken woman coming out for the red neck bar in Goldsboro, had a kid on a BMX bike race me and I have been hissed at by geese. There are a lot of good things too. Like getting hissed at by geese, passing the farm with the donkeys and donkey colts (what do you call a baby donkey?) hearing the frogs in the spring and seeing other riders along Valley Rd.
I have been thinking about doing a pub craw on the way home. Start at the White Hill and hit all of the bars, cutter ones included, on the way home. Someone mentioned that I wouldn’t make it home standing. Truthfully, I wouldn’t make it out of the White Hill if I entered wearing my cycling clothing.

I know I’m late on this one, but the flag desecration amendment was shot down on Tuesday. Now what are the republicans going to use to rally the troupes behind? Instead of some substance they have been acting like a bunch of cheerleaders rallying the crowed behind the team. First it was gay marriage then it was anti Mexican immigration and then Flag Burning. What will be the next sensational item? Oh, by the way, one retires an American Flag by burning the flag. The only difference between the flag being burnt for retirement and one being burnt for protest is the thoughts in the mind of the person doing the act. Are we really going to allow the government to tell us what to think? Didn’t we have the “Cold War” against Communism to defend us against this very thing?

An ounce of prevention

2006-06-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday way my usual 3 hour loop around northern Baltimore county. I’m soon going to know these roads as well as the Coumberland Co, PA roads. It can be a bit hilly but nothing more then rollers as you ride past horse farms with white fences. My loop takes me from Baltimore to Hampsted and back again. The only kicker is the last climb of the ride, Lake Dr. It’s a steep hill that on its own isn’t bad; it just comes after 3 hours of riding.
After my ride I was listening to radio while cooling down (napping) when I realized they were talking about health insurance. I didn’t catch the whole thing but it sounded like Massachusetts passed a mandate that everybody needs to be covered. I know the conservative talk show are going to jump all over this one come Monday. All in all it sounds like a good idea, if it will be subsidized. I wished I had heard the whole thing. Having been off health insurance for a few years myself I’m glad to be back on. I was probably one broken collar bone or bad iritis flare-up from financial ruin. Being a bike racer the thought of a bad crash was always on the back of my mind. Being some one who has gone through recurring iritis, not having insurance is real health risk. In the past, when I was covered, would take care of a flare up quickly with a visit to my eye doctor and then fill the prescription for some steroid eye drops. Not all that cheap. Without insurance I had a flare up. I treated it first with an over the counter anti-inflammatory and then if it didn’t go away I went to the doctor. When I was one of the many not covered by health insurance I paid out of pocket for a battery of blood tests and chest x-rays to find the cause. After about $1000 worth of tests, nothing was conclusive so I was referred to a rheumatologist for further testing. When I found he charged $250 per visit I never went. Hears the deal… I’m not even 40, I’m fit, I eat right, and check my blood pressure. Who would think that I could have something that if left untreated will cause the eye pressure to rise and cause glaucoma and even blindness. Like they say, An ounce of prevention...

Honest Person

2006-06-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

Yes there are a few good and honest people left in this world. And, one of them is Mr Ed the building maintenance guys at the Ambassador Apartment building. On a long shot Sarah asked Mr Ed if he found a wheel along 39th St Tuesday morning. He said, “yes and I though it looked like an expensive wheel so I locked it in storage”. He retrieved the wheel from storage and showed it to her. Sarah recognized it as mine and he gave it to her. I had this wheel written off as a complete lose due to stupidity. It was truly a lucky break that an honest person found my wheel. A big Thank You goes to Mr Ed.

Daaaa

2006-06-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

I can’t belive that I’m admitting to this but I geibeled big time. Tuesday morning I did the stupidest thing ever. I was leaving from the apartment in Baltimore to head to York and then to CH for work. I loaded up the bike and pulled out away from the curb. I dropped off Sarah at to catch the shuttle to Hopkins Hospital and then north on rt83. I stopped off at the summer home to check email and decided to drive to the shop and the ride home. Just about half way to CH I noticed that there was no wheel in the back seat. I pretty much freaked when I realized that I never put the wheel in the car in the first place. If anyone reading this (other then the 4 guys at the bike shop) and you happen to be in Baltimore, MD on 39th St between Charles and Canterbury be on the look out for a front Bontrager X lite tubular wheel.

Legendary cross photos.

2006-06-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

There maybe more then one legend.

Hebe is called The Original Legend

But the Real Legend has to be Marshal Sachs and here is why…

While I’m looking at legendary cross photos lets take a look at young Kham getting ready to kick Tim Johnsons arse. Or so he thinks…

Now there may be many people with this name, but even I will admit there is really only one Kenny…

and I still ware those shoes…

Need to update the Scambaugh Pic

2006-06-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

Need to update… Its been an odd week. Scambaugh has been stopping in at the shop but hasn’t posted anything on Ebay. I have no new Scambaugh pic of the week to add, but I have an oldie but goodie to replace the current pic. Ray did have a good Scambaugh story from last week but its better if he or Nancy the future Mrs Champ tell the story. Little Kham went south for the NORBA race. Jessie no longer “works” for the shop. He is now “working” at the Italian Oven. I wonder if he is allowed to wear his wife beater while washing dishes. Young Matt is now a high school graduate and will be heading off to school next year. I did hear DK made Kham clean the bathroom but I wasn’t impressed with his work. Sevie hasn’t stated any sevieisms. Ok, that’s not entirely true. He did show up at work with Cutter truck all decked out with lift kit and massive tires. I really wished I had my camera that day I saw it.

I don’t have any race reports or commute to work words of insight. Back in May my Scraple lived up to its name and Cracked and Failed 3 miles into the Idyllwild race. The photos I took of the failed carbon chain stays didn’t really come out all the good so instead here is a shot of Sarah and I post race. Notice I’m sporting the new Visit PA shirt.

I never did get the name of the little chickie who said she new flyin Ryan.

Maybe next week I’ll have some photos from the Phily Pro race.

Someone owes me $2080

2006-06-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

I’m beginning to think its time to reinstate my old rule that I don’t go for the food. This one goes way back to when I was working nights at EDS and owned a $40,000 car. To make a long story short one day the EDS version of Sevie, Judy, had me pick up some super sized drink and meal along with 5 or 6 other peoples junk food. Never again did I pick up food for other people. This time its was prompted when I noticed that over the last two weeks I have been getting screwed out of $20 for lunch. Last week it was KFC when my meal was 4.99,K-ham’s was 4.99, Big Al was 5.99 and with the sevie sized meal at 14.99. I only got 15 bucks handed my way by Kham. Yesterday it was Chef Wong. The bill… $31 + a few for tip. I was handed 10 buckaroos Where’s the rest of it??? It seems that I have been getting screwed out of 10 big ones a week. With 52 weeks a year and 4 years of getting screwed that comes to $2080.

Wedding… it has been official for some time now and the date has been set for April 21, 2007 in Victoria, BC with the reception being Tea at the Empress. The guys at the bike shop have been getting on my case about being invited or not. My initial joke is to invite everybodys S.O and guest. But one big point really stands out… Those A-holes didn’t invite me to their weddings.

Sad day

2006-05-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

I found this pic today and will say that this was taken on a sad day at the summer home... That was the day my red '61 VW microbus delux was picked up by its new owner. Back when I had the money to restore her I didn't have the time. Now that I have the time I didn't have the cash.

Why do I commute to work by bike?

2006-05-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

Why do I commute to work by bike? Ever since I started ride 27-28 miles each way to and from work I have been asked this question may times. Most will expect the answer to have something to do with the price of gas. The real answer is not quite that simple. In fact I drove to work the week gas prices hit the all time high because I burned myself out the week before. One answer is fitness. Ever since I moved from one block from the bike shop to 20some miles away the best way to get in any riding is to ride to and from work. Another answer is stress. Why deal with big trucks, inconsiderate drivers and traffic accidents on Rt 83 when I can ride back roads the entire way. Riding along Valley Road on a crisp clear night with no traffic is all it takes to remind me how horrible driving home can feel. I have noticed that Valley Rd is not the quiet country road it once was. Now with all of the ugly $400,000 houses being built on the old farmlands the traffic has picked up. I can’t see the appeal of these over priced houses. They are not pretty. Nor are they architecturally interesting. They just repeat two designs in mirror image. They’re just big but not even really all that big. Anyone buying these, in my opinion, has no taste. And when the housing bubble bursts and everyone’s variable rate 5th mortgage comes due you should be able to pick up one of these monstrosities for less then half price.
Back to the saving money idea, I was trying to figure out the cost of driving to work. With gas at $3.00/gallon and my car getting about 38 mpg it comes to about $4.50 for the round trip. Now when I ride I need to eat. That $4.50 ends up being spent on lunch at Roberto’s or Chef Wong’s which ends up costing $5.00-$9.00. So much for saving money…unless I carry leftovers with me or make rice and beans for lunch. Ok, I still have to eat when I drive so I guess I do still save. I have to be realistic here or I will start sounding like that one Saturn car ad that claimed that is was cheaper to drive then it was to ride a bike. They didn’t add in that you still have to eat when you drive and they used some really high bike maintenance cost.
A really good reason for me riding to work…It’s a bike and fitness shop, I better ride. A good reason for you to ride to work… you figure it out…

I’m not a Pisces!

2006-05-08T22:16:00.000-07:00

I’m not a Pisces! I’m an Aquarius! I just looked at my profile and Blogspot set my Zodiac to Pisces. My birthday, as mom will remind me, is 5pm February 18. That’s still Aquarius, the cusp I believe is what the Astrologers would say.
Thinking of Mom, mother’s day is this coming weekend. Thinking of this weekend it is also the Idyllwild Spring Challenge race. I still haven’t changed the chain rings and rear der on the mountain sled or dug out the travel case. I’m sitting here looking at a slightly dirty Scalpel with way too big gears for the climbs and a tweaked der. I’m pretty much going into this race blind. Sarah’s sister, Katie, is promoting this race and keeps telling her to remind me that it is technical. Now, I don’t know what the west coast calls technical but none of them have ever ridden in Michaux so I have been taking what they say with some skepticism. I’m sure it has technical sections, but really, its NORBA sanctioned so how bad could it really be? I know it will still push me and make it shown that I’m a roadie. And, after all the crashes, bumps and bruises, cuts, cursing, and huffing and puffing I’m sure my mom would remind me that the pain I’m in is no way near what it was like to give birth to 9.5 lb me.
This past weekend was a night at opera for Sarah and I. We got all dressed up, Sarah in a beautiful red silk dress and me in my black suit and no bike grease stains. After 6 years at EDS I’m very comfortable in a suit but I have to say this was a bit uncomfortable. Uncomfortable because earlier Saturday morning I worked for a bike rodeo doing free safety checks for kids bikes. I worked outside in the sun wearing my Teva sandals and no sun block. I ended up with bad sunburn on my legs and, worst of all, the tops of my feet. My shoes fit right on the burnt spots. Back to the opera. We saw Puccini’s La Bohème. The musical Rent is loosely based on La Bohème. The music was beautiful music and story sad. The leading lady dies in the end. Don’t they all??? We ended up getting front row seats for $20. I don’t speak Italian therefore I had to strain my neck to see the sup text. For all you super smart people yes, sup text not sub text. Sup is above, sub is below and the text screen is above the stage.

Gee, Thanks Chris

2006-05-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

Call the NASCAR mentality or call it the Ford vs Chevy mentality, I think I had a customer with this thought process. I had a couple looking for a good bike to get into cycling. The husband wanted to get his wife away from the hybrids and onto a traditional road bike but he did sample some road hybrids. They test road the 2005 Giant FCR 1, which by the way is probably the only hybrid that I would consider riding and then on to some road bikes. It was pretty clear early on that they had the “We’re a Ford Family” attitude. He didn’t want matching bikes but he did want them to have bikes from the same manufacture. This was too hard I just needed to find a really big bike for him and an average bike for her in the right color. Ok, the right color was tough and it didn’t help they were both highly indecisive. She liked the pink Trek 2200 but didn’t want him to spend that much on her. They seemed to be settling in the $800-$900 range. Then a stroke of luck, coincidence, good timing or whatever you call it happened. Another customer returned from test riding his new Giant TCR C2 (full carbon) and proceeded to talk up the bike. I love it when that happens. I then said the price of that one and that Giant offers one for even lower in price. I now have him at the $1700 level full carbon and her wanting the pink 2200. Trying to convince him that its ok to have two different manufactures was that last task to do. I was using my own experience with the Giant product to help show him the for $400 more then the aluminum Trek and for $200 less then the full carbon Trek he gets full carbon Giant (OCR or TCR composite) and in a color he likes.
This went on for what seemed like two hours and then in one fell swoop it all came crashing down. While I was helping another customer Chris-tard took three second to undo what took over an hour to build. It only took two statements. First, “Treks are built in the US”. I’m ok with that one, nothing wrong with it, but its not entirely true. Then he went on to repeat the old crap that Bicycling magazine or whomever it was used to use to convince people to buy steel bikes. It was the final blow. “Trek dealers are everywhere, if you ever break or have problems with one you can get it fixed anywhere”. Not only did he just tell the guy that the Giant was junk and going to break, but also in the way he said it, he made it sound that all bikes are going to break and he should just get a cheep bike. Now he probably will just end up with a $600 bike. Gee, thanks Chris, I just lost a sale on a bike that I believe in and probably lost the sale all together.

Where's Kenny

2006-05-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

Today’s entry was going to be some glowing report on this past weekends racing at Greenbrier including how Visit PA Ray was in the feed zone and in his best Daaa voice yelled "best race ever". Or, maybe how Sevie ranted about how the AC at work is set to “piss you off mode”. Instead I noticed that the link on DKs Blog to me is called “Where’s Kenny”. So here is a little test, find Kenny in this Easter 1981 pic.

Need help? Here is the recreated pose taken 20 years later.

Population

2006-04-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure how the topic of population came up at work today but it Then again it’s the bike shop the conversation can go at break neck speed from “how big were those tits” to “what’s the square root of –1”. What is the population of the Harrisburg area was question at hand. The world according to Chris puts it at 600,000!!! Did he pull that number out of his ass? I don’t know where he got data and I don’t know what towns he included. According to the US Census Bureau web sites population finder, the data for 2004 follows.
Harrisburg: 47,635
Hershey: 12,771 (2000 data)
Camp Hill: 7,465
Mechanicsburg: 8,843
Carlisle: 18,074
Total = 94,788
Where are the other 505,212 people? I can't imagine a 500% growth rate in two years.
York County 408,801 (2005 data)
Dauphin County 253,995 (2005 data)
Cumberland County 223,089 (2005 data)
Lancaster County 490,562 (2005 data)

Oh by the way the bet was 10 square miles. Which as you all remember from math is not 10 x 10 miles but 3.1622776601683793319988935444327 x 3.1622776601683793319988935444327 miles.

Now for the world according to Sevie
Population control. (stupid people)All the stupid people are sent to Kansas and fenced in.
(birth rate) Add something to the water supply to act as birth control and only allow those that pass a parenting qualification and are not on welfare get the antidote.
Immigration control. (From Mexico) A double fence with guard towers ever 400 yards (The sevie doesn’t use that metric crap) and anything between the two fences gets shot. (From anywhere else) I haven’t heard anything on this one… yet…

Always know where your towel is

2006-04-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend was moving time for Sarah and myself. We needed to do a seemingly simple move from her apartment in Mt Washington to the new apartment at the Ambassador. I figured on getting the balk of it done by Friday night and finish up Saturday and Sunday after the race. This was all based on having a full days use of the freight elevator at the ambassador and packing everything into my dads van. What I didn’t count on was that the building manager was a bit disorganized and didn’t mention to Sarah that we need to reserve the elevator time and that it was being used at noon for several hours. We could use it until noon. As it turned out the girl using the freight elevator started early but was moving out of the apartment next to the one we were moving in to. So we ended up working in with her. After two small loads of awkward stuff (TV, TV stand and stuff like that) we ended for the day and took break at Sherwood Gardens with Sarah’s friend Mary.
It’s Saturday and its time for some serious moving. Sarah boxed while I loaded the van, which meant I lugged stuff down three flights of stairs. An hour of this and it was time to get over to the new place for the first load. Back to old place and repeat the lugging and boxing for two more hours. When we returned we didn’t have much time to unload before the maintenance guy who was there to lock up the elevator and service entrance after us, Mr Ed, was going home. I think he felt bad for us because he started to help. We’re still not done, off to Ikea to get some new shelves and a small love seat. Oh, and the TV stand was too small for my TV so we need a new stand too. We decide to just use the main elevators for this load and slipped by any building staff that might still be around.
Michaux, it’s a yearly ritual to go beat up myself on the rocks and mud of Michaux Maximus race. This year was no exception to how tough this race can be. The trails were the usual rock covered pathways and the weather added to “fun”. April in central PA can range from very warm and pleasant to light snow (last years conditions) to torrential rain (this year). On the good side, it wasn’t too cold. This year they started us on the south side of the Bendersville Rd Climb. I did my usual rocket start and pulled everyone up the two-mile climb. Once on the technical crap everyone started to pass me. I was really paying for not riding my mountain bike all winter and for the gears I decided to run. I was trying to save weight and money, so I took my XTR crank off of my cyclocross bike and put it on my mountain bike. This was much lighter and better quality then the CODA crap I took off. The down side was that the chain rings are a 36 inner and a 48 outer. I added a 24 granny thinking this will be all I need. It worked great on the road section, but once I hit the technical stuff I was over geared. I would spin out the 24 and bog down in the 36 and only hit the 48 on one down hill. The next race I’m changing the middle and outer rings. The rain made me ride a bit cautious, I walked the one section of Graves Ridge that I usually ride. I will say the tubeless setup help. I ran 30 psi and didn’t get the bounce that I usually have from running 45-50 psi. After two and half hours I was finally finished, 19th place in the sport vet. I think that was the slowest time I ever had at Michaux. Back to moving… Sunday evening we started to clean and pack up small things. I was half passed out and Sarah was pretty tired too. She decided to take Monday off from work and take the whole day Monday to clean. Five hours of cleaning and more packing we were done. I did, however, forget to take my big towel out of the dryer when we locked up. It was my changing, cleanup and very useful towel at races. As you know, “you should always know where your towel is”.

Easy Like A Sunday Morning

2006-04-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

After work on Saturday I put in a little 25 mile ride with Chris, the new guy at the shop, around Mechanicsburg. He’s good runner but new to cycling. He was amazed the we went up a short hill at 20mph and I wasn’t pushing hard. Now I could brag about that but really with the tail wind we had I think I could have stopped pedaling and still got to the top at 20 mph. It was a long day for me and getting this ride was nice. I spent the morning at the Brethren Home in Cross Keys helping with a Bike Rodeo. Basically I tuned up bikes for few old folks and showed them how to remove wheels so they can fix flats. I did witness one wipeout. One old guy took a spill on obstacle course. Nice thing is its easy work.

Last night I finally finished up my newest mountain bike project. I converted my wheels to Tubeless using the Stan’s Tubeless conversion kit. Now run Tubbless Tairs. My plan for today was to get up early, test ride the tires at Rocky Ridge Park, eat a big turkey dinner and go to Baltimore to see Sarah. That plan is in action. I woke up early, early for me. The turkey cooking smells are wafting from the kitchen. Sarah is still at work. My ride, however, had a slight glitch. I lowered the tire pressure to 30 psi. Wow, I never had them that low on before, well that low on purpose. As I climbed up the road to Rocky Ridge Park I noticed something felt wrong. My rear hub was loose. I thought “A loose harb? It’s still new. Well its not too loose I just won’t do the long loop and fix it later” and kept riding. Cruising down the trails over logs and rocks I was just loving the tubeless setup and flying. Either that or it was just the “placebo effect”, either way I was pushing a faster pace then I usually push. I cleaned a section that will sometimes give me problems and came to a rocky climb. Part way up my gears just would hold. They skipped and jumped all over the place. I stopped and took a look at my rear wheel. The rear hub so loose that it was causing the cassette to move to the point where the chain would jump. I couldn’t believe that a six-month-old XT hub would come loose that easy. I had to stop every 5 minutes or so to hand tighten the cones just to get back home. So much for an easy Sunday morning ride. I work for a bike shop and fix this sort of thing all the time. I even complain the customers need to learn some basic maintenance or at least do a check up before riding. Then I go and do this. Sort of like an over weight doctor telling you to loose weight, or like Newt Gingrich pounding his fist on family values and then divorcing his wife on her death bed and disowning is sister. Oops, politics, better change back to biking or what ever it was I meant to put out hear.

Happy Easter…

Jack Balls and Brothers Leg.

2006-04-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today I rode to work in near record time. 27 miles 1 way with a heavy backpack in 1 hour 35 minutes over hilly terrain. I dodged the rain and for the most part stayed dry. When I arrived at the bike shop I was hungry as usual and was greeted by the aroma of Jack Balls cooking in the shop kitchen.

What are Jack Balls? To say that they are meat balls in a tomato sauce wouldn’t even begin to explain them. Just like saying that Jack is a retired dentist wouldn’t even come close to explaining the Jack.

Today was a special day indeed. Not only was it Jack Balls day but we had a double Hebe visit. Yes the Legend and Brother of the Leg. made a visit to shop. A day doesn’t go by without a Legend visit but a Brother Leg., that is a different story. I swear, if I close my eyes I can’t tell which one of them is doing the talking. It’s true, they sound alike. Here is my method for telling them apart. If one is blabbering on about Lance and the discovery team, then that would Eric (Brother Legend) on the other hand if one is jabbering on about wattage and sustainable power on his last ride and you smell fresh noxima and chamois that would be the Legend himself.

How I met my future wife Sarah

2006-04-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

How I met my future wife Sarah…
We met on Match.com. I had to look at that profile. When we emailed back and forth she told me her bike, a Bianchi, is named Biancha Celeste Francesca hence the ID. She also made the comment that she looked forward to getting my emails it was like waiting for an email from an old friend even though we were just getting to know each other. When we talked on the phone I had mentioned that I was thinking about doing the Seagull Century on a tandem. When she drove up from Baltimore to meet me for dinner (Cornerstone coffee shop and Bangkok Wok) we talked about riding the century on a tandem and much, much more. Her sister is a really good mountain bike racer(and race promoter), so we had a good connection with the biking already. We made plans to ride the Seagull a tandem that a friend of mine lent me for the weekend. The ride turned out to be a rain out, but I did spend the weekend at her place and we got to know each other. We went to the aquarium, stood in the rain with everyone else to get tickets and walked around the inner harbor. We did get to ride the tandem the next day, when the rain finally stopped. It was a great ride... great weekend... we have been together ever since. When I talked about the seagull century having the lunch stop on Assateague Island she was interested in visiting Island and going to the shore. We took a long weekend in November and went camping on Assateague. It was November so the water was a little cold, the nights cold enough to make us curl up in my tent to stay warm but the days were incredable. We then went to Idaho for her fathers birthday party in December where I got to meet the whole family. Although, she was introduced to most of mine on Thanksgiving. In May we are going to California for a mountain bike race that her sister Katie is promoting. We're also making it a family visit and vacation, Disney Land and all.

She's a Micro Biologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Pretty cool job, she showed me the Micro Lab last week. I had fun trying to look at bacteria and other cells through a microscope. Even more cool, she used to work for the forest service doing field work and even fought forest fires. Oh, I can't forget to mention that she is kniting me sweater too.