happanewyeeeerrr!!

the rioja is flowing and the pizza party is raging but i pause from the festivities to propose a toast to all of you beautiful people! to the promise and hope of 2010! have a Safe and Happy New Year!

on the brink

Whenever I start to feel like I am being annoyingly jovial, I watch this and quickly settle down.

Worldometers - real time world statistics

"for the rest of us!"

Happy F!*#ING Holidays!!! With all seriousness, hopefully everyone has experienced a few relaxing days proceeding the frenzied bustle that is the helliday season. No matter what holiday you celebrate, the important thing is sharing some time with family and or friends.
Turned out a nice long solo snow ride yesterday.

Guess what I saw in the middle of the ride?! I had to try a zoom shot even though I only had my point and shoot. I love birds and I especially enjoy birds of prey. When I was a child, my father used to tell me that he had been an eagle in his past life. I often hoped that maybe I would be one too someday.

It was a privilege to see this bird enjoying it's reward on this cold afternoon.

Despite the encroaching darkness at the end of my ride, I knew that the sun never set on the singlespeed empire. Thoughts of nutty thumb print cookies and warm soup soon danced in my head as I headed home.

The 1x1 is setup in it's usual fixed gear mode with a studded tire up front and nevegal rear. I blew the bead out of my other snow tire last season trying to mount it on an old Rhino Lite rim but the Nev will do just fine until I can get ahold of another Innova. It takes a solid effort to push the 17t through the snow but it is oh so fun!

Winter riding can also be a learning experience. For example, I learned that when it snows, the hordes of people who walk their dogs on the trails do not have to pick up their dog's excrement. I unaware of this change in local law due to snow but I suppose if you are lucky, the old adage that you learn something new everyday, will hold true.

this thought is dated but I still like this frame so figured I would share. I hope to add a CX bike to the collection some day, after my next mtb frame that is...
Me thinks this should be mine! Seriously nice SSCX frameset from Raleigh. I like the Miller Highlife theme better than last years paint job.


enjoy and more soon

slackin in the new year

Apologies for such long breaks and lack of content as of late. The 1.5 people who actually check in on this blog were most likely able to find higher quality entertainment lingering mere mouse clicks away but I am making it a point to pay more attention to the ol' blog. It's not that I have been inactive per se but rather find my own activities rather routine yet still enjoyable in the moment.

This was the last half pint of dry hopped IPA at the Avery tap room, quite possibly one of the best beers ever. $1 off pints when you bring your helmet in on Saturdays.

Aside from the road rides, mountain rides, trail runs, and normal tomfoolery with friends on my fixed gear, which is more about stopping in breweries rather than giving the Lance look back to weekend warriors, we actually hit the mtns last weekend for a few snow turns and heaps of hiking.




I can't wait for some real pow turns, the scratchy wind blown gets old quick.

Thanksgiving was great, thanks for asking and our locally raised and slaughtered turkey blessed our house with incredible quality right down the very last spoonful of epic soup. Our normal T-day ride or run was replaced with what hopefully will be a new tradition, the turkey loops. Basically loops on the road bike, 45min to 1hr in length with stops home between each one allowing for ample basting of our precious bird.

The day after Thanksgiving was a great day in the 60's on mtn bikes most of the day. We ran into friends along the way and the weather was one of the last warm ones of 09.

We came up on this young lady who had open her leg up on a nasty sharp rock up on the trail. For some reason, I missed the best picture with her making a tough girl face and flexing for the camera while blood ran down her leg. She was riding with the Sports Garage crew and actually pedaled out, so props to her. The cut was deep.

So here we are, early Dec and its 2 º outside (feels like -7 according to the feels like meter). We are up for another nice layer of snow tonight and tomorrow on top of the current blanket of white from the weekend. Time for the studded snow tires on the 1x1!

Here is a link from an old friend back east. What Linus never told you about Christmas.

don't let the evil corporate xmas monster bring you down this season. try not to shop too much and forget about wasteful xmas trees! see you soon