The Early Dirtbag gets the worm

Got 11 hours of sleep last night.
Unfortunately Al and Jasper were raging late into the night.
So I was responsible for ops this morning.

Finally got him put down.


Prepped Sourdough and made Chicken Salad.

And started getting things together for curried Squid and tempura fried avacado.
Who is coming over for dinner?

Planning to head down to BC for a trot this afternoon. Rain forecast is off and I need to recon to see if I can ride sandy soils in the 60 degree weather tomorrow. Woot.
All my NE homeys are slogging through the 7th ed. of Trans Iowa.
Will TK or Cornbread Bring it on home this weekend? I hope!
Will M-Dub kill tall boys outside of a rural gas station? Without a doubt.
We are ramping up for the closing on Wed. then I got Butch helping me move in on Thursday.
Big Things, man, Big things.....

Fort Collins trip and the multiple use

So last week I made the trip out to Fort Collins, CO for some riding under the guise of work. I was actually out ther to get trained on how to use the NLEAP model. NLEAP is a model that has been around for some time but its most recent incarnation has been to join it with GIS programs to evaluate how different scenarios in agricultural productions system affect nitrogen use and loss pathways.

What this really meant was that I was gonna have to sit in class all day before I could get some riding in.

Upon arriving in the FC, I moseyed over to Full Cycle, as they appeared to have the largest selection of nicer demo bikes in stock. They had a full arrray of sizes for a Giant Anthem 29er in a X2 build. They also had Reigns, Trances, a Ibis Mojo HD, and a Maverick ML8. The Giants could be had for $50 a day, while the Mojo and the ML8 were 75 dollars a day.

I should also point out that if you should desire a more modest mountain bike you should get in touch with New World Adventures. Its like 5 blocks from Full Cycle, and they have really reasonable older, fully functional mountain bikes for rent.

So for the first night I went with a Anthem 29er and headed for the foothills trails just on the western edge of the campus. After a couple of laps around the little lake trails we headed north along the foothills trails. I managed to make it up to the overlook, before darkness started to descend. Time to turnaround unlock the fork, and head back towards town. Brap.

Then Next morning I got up really early for some FIFO bidness while throwing down 950 lumens. I road all the way to the north side of town on the foothills trail before the sun started coming up. I was just me, the coyotes, and a suicidal rabbit.

The next day I turned the Anthem back in and checked out the Ibis Mojo HD. It was pretty well spec'ed with X9 all the way around, and Stans Flow wheels with a 15 mm axel.

I can honestly say that I have never ridden a 6 inch travel bike, and I probably will not in the future. The Ibis was a sweet bike, and once you were pointed down hill it was awesome, but I just felt like I was wallowing in all that travel. This wallowing sensation, not to be confused with "Wallering", was especially pronounced in technical sections that undulated and did not allow you to carry a lot of speed.

I took the Mojo to Horsetooth Mountain Park, climbed up the top to Spring Creek, tied that into Walthan, then down and over. It is a really technical trail with a lot of chunky rocks. There were a couple of parts where you could really appreciate all the travel, but for the most part I was left wishing that I had the Anthem. I will say that climb up Horsetooth went surprisingly well on the Mojo. My contempt for the way it handed in the technical non-downhill sections probably had a lot to do with being on a a unfamiliar bike on a unfamiliar trail. A gravity dropper post would have been a nice addition to this demo, but that’s neither here nor there.

Needed something to complement the Borscht I made tonite.

Which brings up the subject of why I do not get as much posting as some my more genteel readers are accustomed to. Having kids were does consume a large part of your life, but fear not, I am learning how to better manage my time.

A large part of being a trophy husband is deirectly related to the ability to multi-task.

Making Jasper dinner.

In Big Al's dinner.

My boys were sated.

Empathy (or lack thereof)

I am a really empathetic person.
As a rule, I celebrate with people when they succeed, and commiserate with them when they fail. But, when I read Steve Tilfords account of his shelling at yesterdays Redlands Race, I could not help but smirk. Not out of the usual reasons, I really like steve. I think that he typifies all the things about professional cycling that I really like. He rides his bike and races because he enjoys doing it (or at least he seems to). Steve commented that he felt like a local cat 3 racer that got shelled off the back. Not to be mean spirited, but I felt vindicated that even people like Steve get thrashed occasionally (and sits on the sidewalk drinking beer afterwards). I think that I am gonna put Steve on my sidebar. He has some really great insight into life and a wealth of experiences.
Temps are gonna hit 50F today. Am going to ride south into the cities, and cruise around the neighborhoods near our new house. We finally found a home that got Ali and me all hot and bothered. We made a offer at 10pm, counter came back at 9am, our counter-counter was accepted at 11am. The previous owner had had the house on the market for like 250 days. The housing market really has hit rock bottom here. Good me us, but I feel bad for a lot of other people that have seen their home values plummet. Guess I still have a little bit of empathy left.

Under the category of new experiences, Jasper threw up in my armpit this morning. Fatherhood brings about all sorts of new emotions and sensations.