Post number 300.........

Kinda easy to figure out the title to this post, huh? 300 posts already? Man, I sure have a lot to say about nothing.............



Anybody ever use this? It's kind of hiss or miss as to when it's available but I downloaded it from the "support" page-check on the left hand side of the page for a link. It's worth the download-I was really sursprised at how much faster web pages download even though I am on a cable internet connection already........and it works on Firefox as well as IE 6. You can thank me later...

These bikes are sick. Check out the rear tire on that bad boy. Makes me almost ashamed to ride my store-bought Kona around the neighborhood.

I get quite a few e-mails commenting about stuff folks have seen on my blog, not all of it's nice but I have a thick skin. I am going to allow anonymous comments again for awhile to see how it works out. Go ahead and disagree with me if ya want-just try not to be too much of an asshole about it or I'll just delete your post.

I went for a ridey-ride up at Rocky Ridge Sunday instead of fooling around with my Cross-Check.

It was a gorgeous day so who could blame me.

I ate too much..........

My family took me out for a belated birthday dinner Saturday night after watching an awesome movie.

Anyone ever eat at Old Country Buffet?

It's full of people like this and they all have one thing on their minds.........FOOD and lots of it and stay the hell out of their way. The place was full of senior citizens which is okay but get a bunch of seniors together and all the wanna do stare at people and wander around because they forgot where they are sitting.

Kinda creepy, well it was until our daughter let an awesome belch rip...........the old lady at the table next to us really enjoyed that. I also enjoyed watching some lady dispense 10 or 12 ounces of soda on her arm instead of in her glass. I sure hope she didn't drive there..........

I went into full "Thanksgiving mode" which means I ate 2 plates of fried chicken, mashed potatos, stuffing, gravy and salisbury steak.

Then I had dessert.

I don't think I will eat anything for a day or so.......I'm kinda full.

Looks like rainy Sunday-I think I'll take the Cross-Check apart and get it ready for winter.............

Till later.........

The Donut Guy's guide to Supermarket Etiquette

Okay, so lets face it, I'm not gonna be using my unusually high IQ to be curing cancer.

I make donuts for a living.

I figured I would at least write up a guide for folks so they annoy me the least possible amount when they are shopping..............

Here are some guidelines and observations...............

-I see you, we've made eye contact. It's not necessary for you to yell HELLO, HELLO, HELLO until I walk over to see what you need. Trust me, if you're in hurry, I'll go slower just to piss you off. I'm here all night.

-Do you work here? Mmmmm, lemme see, I am covered in flour, wearing an apron, have donut glaze all over my shoes and am holding a pair of oven mitts............ Yes, I work here, asshole. If you need assistance, just ask me.

-If you call in on the phone to order something, it's not a good time to play "Family Feud" with 5 members of your family while you all argue about what you want written on the top of your cake. Go ahead, take all the time you need, I'm just gonna misspell the name on the order form anyways.

-When you come in or call to place an order for something........please try to speak English. Yeah, I realize some folks might have just moved here from Turkey so they can staff the local convenience store, but somebody in your family has to speak English. Bring'em along next time.

-This one's simple. Take a bath. Or at least wash your armpits and use some deodorant.

-If you have kids, go ahead and bring them along shopping, but please, please don't let them ride inside the shopping cart. Shopping carts are top heavy. Kids fall out of them very easily. Trust me, I know this from seeing it happen more then once, so don't be an indignant asshole when I politely ask you to take your child out of your cart. Kids have died from falling out of shopping carts.

Speaking of kids, we ain't your babysitter. I could give a shit if Junior opens up 6 packs of cookies and eats one or two out of every package. You're gonna be the one buying 6 packs of half eaten cookies.

-Here's another simple one. Be nice. Face it folks-very few of us make 80,000 bucks a year working in a supermarket so lets make a deal......you at least make an attempt at not being an asshole and I'll try my best too, okay? You know why? Life's too short and you'd be surprised at how well you are treated when you are nice.

Fat happens. Sure, some of us are a little overweight (me) and some of us are grossly overweight.

Whatever.

If you do happen to be in the second category, at least dress properly. I mean seriously, go ahead and get the next larger size of slacks when you shop for clothes the next time. And while you at it, try and buy a shirt that covers your entire stomach-that goes for guys and girls.

If your a guy, at least try and wear a shirt without grease stains. If you are a woman, try and not wear pants so tight that we can read your lips, if you know what I mean. If you wanna wear a white shirt, you might want to think about wearing a bra-grocery stores are cold. We get a laugh out of old men trying not to be obvious when they check you out. Half the time, their wives catch them and the other half the time, they end up walking in a pole or something.

One more thing about fat bald guys........skip the mustache and goatee thing. We know you are trying to make your chin more distinguishable but it usually ends up making your head look like a bowling ball with a tuft of hair growing out the center. Not a good look.

Last thing -whatever you do- don't shoplift. I have been working in the retail industry for a long time and I have a knack for picking out the shoplifters from the crowd. I have no problem pointing you out for security to detain. Go ahead and try me, I love catching shoplifters. You're taking money out of my pocket when you steal and that ain't cool.

That's about it for now, till later and thanks for reading.

My numbers and thanks go out to Mike.

I haven't looked at my site numbers for awhile.........70 to 80 people (on average) read this on a regular basis?

Wow.

I'm almost sorta nearly famous.

Yeah, .........right.

Mike from Banjobrothers.com is gonna be sending me a racktop bag for my Surly to try out this winter. Here's the pictures of the products there are coming out with. I can hardly wait until I can buy one of those messenger bags-they look way cool.

I like the fact that they deal with LBS's..............I suppose mail order has it's place but without LBS's, most folks would be riding Huffy's so spend the extra few pennies to make sure the guys at the shop can pay their bills too.

Thanks again, Mike.

IE 6 blows..........

I read this newsletter every week because I like to stay up to date on spyware issues. Most, but not all spyware issues pertain to IE 6. I haven't used IE 5 or 6 for years. The only time I use it is when a website won't run on Firefox...............which isn't very often nowadays.

Firefox isn't the easiest thing to set up (but it ain't that hard) because you have to download and install plug-ins for it (flash, shockwave,etc). It is way more customizable then IE however, you just have to "explore" a little bit. (yeah, I know-bad pun alert) If all you want to do is browse porn sites, use IE-you deserve the spyware that will be automatically downloaded onto your computer.

I have about a dozen "extensions" installed on my build of Firefox, I don't see any pop-ups, banner ads, pop-unders or and slider ads. In fact, if I see an ad I don't like, all I have to do is click a little tab at the bottom of the ad and I'll never see it again.

Ever.

All kinds of extensions are available, you can even keep track of your cell minutes on your T-Mobile account.

Now all I have to do is get rid of the 40 or 50 spam messages I get daily on my Yahoo mail account. To be fair, my Yahoo e mail addy is my "junk" e mail address, everytime I have to register for something or other- my Yahoo e-mail gets used.

I'm toying with the idea about moving this blog over to MSN, any fellow bloggers have any experience with MSN blogs? I actually have a MSN blog started but I want to play around with the layout some, right now I am not that familiar with it.

The only thing that turns me off to this point is the fact that their "word verification" for comments is even more of a clusterfuck then Blogger's is. I need new glasses or something, it took me a couple of tries to get something to post. I must be a retard.

Reading articles like this, scare the living shit out of me. Maybe the cyclist in the article was fairly new to cycling or something. I know when I ride in traffic, I ride like I am part of traffic and not an obstacle to be ridden around but......If I knew there was a soccer mom in a 3 ton SUV in the local vicinity bearing down on my rear wheel.............I'd get the hell out of it's way. Eye contact goes a long way...............

A fellow bike blogger has come up with what I think is an excellent idea. Sure, I'd like more trails and stuff but I don't think government should be paying for them in the first place. The less government....the better.

Sometimes being morbidly obese kinda sucks.

Just imagine what's gonna happen to this poor bastard when his jailhouse "buddies" find out why he's there. He's gonna be walkin' funny for a long time.

I used to smoke. It was a real bitch to quit, so I think this is a great idea. You wanna kill yourself? Go ahead, as long as I don't have to help pay for it.

Holy crap, I gotta get in on this new fad. What the hell? Did this reporter just wake up from a 5 year long nap?

If I ever have to go back to dial-up...........shoot me.

Here is one of my all-time favorite videos. Before you click on the NSFW link, ask yourself this.........Am I narrow-minded about religion or politics? If you are.............save yourself some aggravation and skip it. If this guy ends up burning in hell, I'll be right next to him because it's exactly how I feel. If you are close minded about religion and politics and you clicked on the link anyways......... and I know you did...............whaddya think? Does the guy have a point or what?

This might be a witch-hunt, but let's face it........the guy is a sleezeball. As are most of the residents of the White House.

Oh yeah, this is a real shocker. Budweiser must be stunned.

Those damn Christians know how to ruin every holiday don't they? Oh, by the way, if you are reading this and you are my mom..........the website in the link is a satire web site so don't get too upset, your son hasn't turned into a devil worshipper. For those of you that don't know......my mom does read this blog.

Love ya mom:-)

Mike from Banjo Brothers e-mailed me and asked me if I would like to test out something from his 2006 line of products.........heck yeah I would!

That 2000 cubic inch messenger bag looks way, way awesome.

2000 cubic inches?

Good Gawd, that's gotta be huge. Send me one of those and our 18 year daughter and I can fight over who gets to use it!

Gonna be switching the Cross-Check over to winter mode this weekend. That means the cross tires, rack and light mounts get installed. I love the way it looks with those 700x45 fatties and fenders.

I'll post up some pics after I get it switched over. I love going for road rides at night in the fall, I usually head out for some lightly traveled roads nearby and ride for an hour or two. I run a 10 watt light on my bars, a 3 beam LED on my helmet, 2 rear blinkies and I wear one of those highway worker orange vests with reflective tape all over it.

I look like a total geek but it's worth it, to make sure Billy Joe Bob in his pick-up sees me.

Gotta go, time to get our 12 year old up and ready for school...........

Till later and thanks for reading.

Word verification..............

Don't have lots of time, only one thing I want to put out there...............

Is this "word verification" thing for posting comments a total pain in the ass or what? It seems that the letter strings are getting longer and longer and getting harder to read.

.................maybe I am just extra cranky this morning.

I know it's to cut down on comment spam but do all blogs have this problem?

More later this week or weekend, just to busy to put much up right at the moment.............

Till later.

Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online

Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online

I read this and thought it was from the USA. Britain is just as bad as we are..........

Holy CRAP.......

Newsday.com: Wilma winds intensify to 175 mph as it becomes possibly worst storm ever

No riding..........

I'm about ready to trade in my 46 year old back for a new one. I was planning on riding Sunday afternoon but things didn't quite work out that way due to my back still bothering me. I did manage to get a nice hike in up at Rocky Ridge Monday morning.

A hike in the woods is okay but I woulda rather had a ride. At least it was a nice day.

Sometimes the news media likes to make you think one thing while you are actually watching something else. Kinda hard to trust what you see sometimes............

These guys are musical geniuses. Or not.

I'd like to try something like this. Minus running over the squirrel.

This video is drivin' me nuts. How the hell did he do that?

Another one of those video compliations of people getting the shit scared out of them.

This is an interesting piece of software. To be honest, I rarely read through the agreements before I install anything.........maybe I should.

Here's my pet peeve of the day..........

People with shitty telephone ettiquette.

Here's an example of a call I received yesterday.

Caller- Is Janet there?

Me-No.

Caller- a few seconds of silence.............. When will she be back?

Me-I don't know.

Caller-Can I leave her a message?

Me-Yes.

Caller- .........again a few seconds of silence then the person gives me the message.

Me- By the way, who are you? Then the person finally identifies themselves.

Is it me or is it too much to ask for when a person calls to identify themselves if they don't know to whom they are speaking?

Another pet peeve? Table manners, but we'll get into that one some other day............

Till later.

Rip Van Winkle.........

I didn't get much sleep Friday and made up for it Saturday by sleeping 12 1/2 hours. Not 12 1/2 hours of sleep where you get up a couple times, 12 1/2 hours of "dead to the world" sleep. When I woke up, I thought the clock was wrong, I couldn't believe I slept that long.

I guess I'm all caught up now...............

My mom made me a very cool birthday card this year. She scanned some old photos of me into it........


That's me in 1968. Dig those apehanger handlebars. I'm pretty sure that's the bike I broke the head tube off of by jumping over gravel piles. I was hard on bikes when I was a kid.
Still am.


That's me and my dog Charlie in 1965.


Another shot of me with my dog. Don't mess with me. I sure look pissed off about something, don't I?


That's my first car. Dig those socks.


Here's me and my second car. I beat the living shit out of this car. It had a 302 in at and it went like a bat outta hell.

Wow. Is this poor guy OCD or what?

I love practical jokes.........

I was an only child, unlike this family. Holy shit. 16 kids? From the article, it sounds like they can afford them and all but 16 and they want more? Pretty soon they will be able to have their own zip code. Whatever, just as long as they don't end up like this.............

Middle management terrorism.

This guy gets around. But not as much as this guy.

A joke..........

A huge muscular man walks into a bar and orders a beer.

The bartender can't help but stare at the guy because in contrast to his large muscles, the man has a head that is the size of an orange.

The bartender hands the guy his beer and says, "You know, I'm not gay but I want to compliment you on your physique, it really is phenomenal! But I have a question, why is your head so small?"

The big guy nods slowly. He's obviously fielded this question many times. "One day," he begins, "I was hunting and got lost in the woods. I heard someone crying for help. I followed the cries and they led me to a frog that was sitting next to a stream."

"No shit?" says the bartender, thoroughly intrigued.

"Yeah, so I picked up the frog and it said, Kiss me. Kiss me and I will turn into a genie and grant you three wishes."

"Keep going!"

I looked around to make sure I was alone and gave the frog a kiss. POOF! The frog turned into a beautiful, voluptuous, naked woman.

She said, "You now have three wishes."

I looked down at my scrawny 115 pound body and said, "I want a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger."

She nodded, snapped her fingers, and POOF there I was, so huge that I ripped out of my clothes and was standing there naked!

She then asked, "What will be your second wish?"

"What next?" begged the bartender.

I looked hungrily at her beautiful body and replied, "I want to make sensuous love with you here by this stream." She nodded, laid down, and beckoned to me. We made love right there by that stream for hours!

Afterwords, as we lay there next to each other, sweating from our glorious lovemaking, she whispered into my ear, "You know, you do have one more wish. What will it be?"

I looked at her and replied, "How 'bout a little head?"

Holy Mother of God, this is funny............

With that, I think I'll go hit the sack for a few z's

Til later.

Thanks..........

Just want to say "thanks" to all the folks that e-mailed me and wished me a happy birthday.

Thanks.

There, I said it.

Till later.

46 by God

I turn 46 today and I feel it.

46? 46 on the outside and about 12 on the inside.

Holy crap, that's closer to 50 then it is to 40. Gotta get serious about dropping a few pounds and start back up working out, none of my clothes fit. The "obesity at mid-life" got my attention in this article. My pop had a heart attack when he was 50 and I ain't gonna be going down that road if I can help it.

And I'm pretty sure I can help it.

Went back to work last night after being off for a week due to my lame back. Sure would like to say I had a relaxing time last week, but I spent a good bit of it with an ice pack on my lower back. Feels a bit better but I kinda think it's gonna be awhile until it's 100%.

I forgot how much fun work is, by the time I had everything baked....... I was baked. I'm wearing one of those back support belts for at least part of my shift because it forces me to have the correct posture. I have a prescription for muscle relaxants but I hesitate to take any while I'm at work for fear of cutting a finger off or deep frying my forehead bobbing for donuts in the deep fryer.


I suppose people have worse problems then a little lower back pain, but it sure would be nice to make it through a whole day without some sort of discomfort..........or brain damage.

Anybody see this? Horses with diapers? WTF? Do they make horse diapers? I guess if I lived there, I wouldn't appreciate a horse taking a 20 pound dump in front of my house either. Hell, I'd be out on the front yard with one of these. I have to ride through enough horseshit when I am out mtbing..............

This is some seriously cool shit. Where I live, the 3 ton SUV's with the soccer moms (or dads) on their cell phone rule the road. I didn't see any road rage in that video but there sure as hell is a lot of it around here. I see more of it when I'm driving then when I am riding my bike strangely enough.

Maybe it's because when I ride my bike, I signal all my turns and take the lane when it's too narrow for a bike and a car.

I ride my bike like I own the fucking road.

When I'm on my bike I've had people lay on the horn for me to get out of their way, they seem to lose all the bravery when I pull up to their driver side window at the next light, tap on their glass and ask them what their major malfunction is.

I suppose I get my confrontational manner from my mom, she doesn't take shit from anybody. Go ahead and piss her off, you'll see.

My Aunt Helen is not having a traditional viewing or burial service, just a memorial service in a couple of weeks. Personally, I think that's a great idea as I hate and I mean HATE going to viewings and funerals. Everyone can get together and talk about all the cool stuff my great aunt did without her body laying in a casket 10 feet away.

I don't understand the whole viewing thing, I mean if you haven't seen someone for awhile and you go to their viewing when they die.....what the hell are you supposed to say?

Oh, they look good?

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick, they're dead! How the hell can someone "look good" when they ain't breathing?

When I die- I want my ashes spread on the trails I ride. I'm pretty sure that ain't legal, but I'll be out on the trails for a long time.....................

I bet even money that George Bush will be be picking someone else to be a Supreme Court justice. Maybe this time it will be someone who is a judge already. He is about a dumb SOB.

Did everyone see the video of the guy in New Orleans getting the living shit beat out of him? Cops have a tough job and NOLA cops even more so. Do I think the cops should be fired?

Why, yes I do.

I think Mr Davis is gonna have a good case for a lawsuit should he decide to go down that road. He's lucky he didn't get killed.

This means winter is on it's way. Here in Pennsylvania it goes from 70 to 35 in the span of one or two weeks and stays shitty until April. I know lots of my fellow bike bloggers are way more hardcore then I am. When's it's cold enough to freeze up my water bottles.........it's time to stay inside.

Go hard or go home.

I go home, thankyavurrymuch.

Did something to my computer I should have done awhile ago......... I cleaned out all the unused registry keys, dll's and old files. I used a program called Easy Cleaner and another called Crap Cleaner. Cleared out nearly a gig of unused stuff, over 100 old registry keys and my boot-up time is a lot quicker now.

It always makes me nervous when I am screwing around with the registry because I know if I mess it up, the computer might not boot back up. Let's face it-I make donuts for a living, I'm not an IT professional.

This is a good article about...........mmmm, I forget.

Recycling is bullshit. I wish we had Showtime..........If anybody wants to buy me Penn and Teller's Bullshit DVD's...........here's the link.

Buy a Hummer and save gas. Is this a great country or what?

I entered the Powerball lottery for tonight. I think the main prize is 140 million bucks. If I win..............yeah, you guessed it..............instant retirement.

Till later and thanks for reading.

Aunt Helen................

My Aunt Helen passed away this past Sunday at 5 AM.........

We sure are gonna miss her.

Till later.

5 things .........

What are the five things you couldn't live without?

Excluding my family, air, water and food.............

#1 Would have to be my bikes. If I had to pick just one bike out of my stable-it would be the Cross-Check. That bike can do it all.

#2 I'd say my computer and it's broadband connection to the internet. It's how I get my news everyday and it's also a relaxing form of recreation.

#3 Would be my iPod Nano. I use it mainly to listen to podcasts but it's also nice to listen to music once and awhile.

#4 My LBS. Sure mail order is nice if you want to save a few bucks but mail order ain't gonna let you try out 6 different stems until you find the one you like. Support your local bike shops.

#5 Ice cream. Peanut butter and chocolate swirl is my favorite.

Went to visit my Aunt Helen yesterday, she ain't doing so hot. If I ever have to stay in a nursing home-somebody please come and get me out and put me on the back of a tandem and go down the scariest hill you can find.

When I die, I want the last two words out of my mouth to be.........

"Oh shit"


If it doesn't fit-force it.

A joke......

A little boy was lost at a large shopping mall.

He approached a uniformed security guard and said, "I've lost my grandpa!"

The cop asked, "What's he like?"

The little boy replied, "Jack Daniels and women with big boobs."

Not sure how this guy does this, but it's kinda neat.

Hey, I'm thinkin' I might vote for this guy.


I can hardly wait for this trial to be over. Doesn't make me very proud to live in York.

Till later.........

Stuff I've noticed..........

Ever notice................

-When people put the "I'm away and can't answer the phone right now" message on their answering machine-they talk painfully slow like the person that is calling is mentally challenged and can't understand people talking normally?

-Whenever you are following someone entering a building-that person in front of you stops and stares at the ceiling as soon as they are inside?

-When people talk on their cellphones-they can't walk or drive in a straight line?

-When people are in line at the checkout counter at the supermarket-they act surprised when the cashier asks them for money and it takes an additional 3 minutes for them to fumble around to find their wallet?

-If you are at the mall and one of those roving salespersons comes up to you to sell you something, they will leave you alone if you pick your nose right as they make eye contact with you.

-When you go into a store and the salesperson won't leave you alone after you've told them you are just browsing? The "pick your nose" trick works quite well here as well.

-Whenever I order food at a fast food restaurant, it never looks like the picture on the menu board. It looks like someone sat on it.

If I could have done something like this to my father when I lived at home, I probably woulda did it. I love practical jokes. Thing is, if I woulda tried something like that with my pop..............one of us wouldn't have lived through it.


Maybe I'll buy my dad one of these instead.

Back is feeling somewhat better, can't sit or stand in one place to long, it let's me know it ain't happy. My doctor gave me a prescription for a muscle relaxer, they work pretty good but they make me kinda dopey. Well, dopier then usual.

I can't believe this is in court. The fact that it's in York County isn't a surprise though. After all, we had someone arrested at the York Fair for animal bestiality with a sheep a couple years back.

Our area has had at least 3 to 4 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. It's been awhile since we've had any rain so since I can't ride right now, I say-let it rain.


Lots more here.

Our daughter turned 18 a couple days ago.........how did she manage to grow up so fast? I guess the same way I managed to get to middle age so fast. October 12th is my 46th birthday.

46 on the outside and 12 on the inside.

Till later.

NYPD Bicycle Theft

That really sucks.

Strapped to an ice pack.............

Having a lame back is no fun at all. While mine isn't as bad as some folks........it's bad enough.

As I am typing this-I have a ice pack right at the base of my spine to reduce the amount of pain. It's more of an annoying pain then a searing pain so I suppose things could be worse.

My lovely wife has problems with her sacro-illiac as well and when hers acts up-it puts her out of commission, so I ain't gonna complain too much................

Looks like it's time to play some more games with politics. I guess the politicians forgot about all that stuff going on down in New Orleans already.

I don't know which is scarier..........the flu or George Bush.

Reading this article........ one word comes to mind. Vietnam.

Till later..........

October is.............

Random thoughts (again)

I wanna a big bike like these guys.

As I get older, I am becoming attracted to more off-beat kinds of cycling. I took a ride on my chopper on Sunday and got stopped a couple of times by some young guys on skateboards and a couple of older guys who wanted a closer look at my bike.

I let the kids take a spin and one of the older guys (my age) took a ride as well. They all thought it was way cool and wanted to know where I got it and how much it was.

Goes to show you, bike riding ain't never gonna go out of style no matter what kinda bike you ride or who you are. Try to be in a bad mood while your riding a bike-you can't do it, especially if you have a chopper like mine. I grin like a 12 year old when I ride it. I guess that's why I bought it.

One of the county parks we all ride our mountain bikes in has been sabotaged by some asshole spreading staples on the trails.


Here's a picture of the staples. Notice how the bastard has twisted them so they have at least one point sticking up?

Not cool at all. We have an idea who is doing it but until someone catches him-we have to put up with it.

I don't know why people have to go through life being so angry at the world, all this person is doing is making it bad for himself because we ain't gonna stop riding the trails we helped create. Life is too damn short for stupid shit like this.

You want gun control? One shot. I'd say that's pretty good gun control.

This website tells you a lot about how government is run. Or how well it's not run.

I sure hope they don't come out with one of these for donuts. Like America isn't fat enough already. And I'm not helping any, am I?

Bad joke time.............

Jesus, hanging on the cross, says, "Peter, come here." Peter, thinking he is about to receive a profound religious truth, moves towards Jesus but the Roman soldiers push him back.

Again Jesus summons, "Peter, come here." Peter tries again, but the Roman soldiers again push him away.

Jesus summons a third time, "Peter come here." Peter gathers all of his strength and finally breaks through. Bleeding from several lance wounds, Peter says, "Yes, Master?"

Jesus looks upon Peter and says, "I can see your house from here!"

Check out Emmanuel's trip around the world. He just finished, this is a link to his last journal entry. I've been following his trip via his podcasts and it was very interesting. Some of my high school friends and I had wanted to ride our bikes across country after graduation, this trip goes way beyond something like that.

If I was a Marine, Dick Cheney would be about the last person I would want to see.

If I lived in New Orleans, this would definitely suck. I couldn't imagine how badly my house would stink after it was submerged in sewage and then baked for 4 weeks at 9o degrees. I think I would just move somewhere else and start over.

You are really gonna have to be a geek to dig this site, all kinds of high speed camera action.

Last link for today, this is too cool for words. I really like Cleverchimp's bike.

That's about it for today, looks like I am gonna have some spare time this week, my sacro-illiac is acting up again, so I might be taking a few days off of work and riding. I have something like 8 or 9 weeks of accumulated sick pay........looks like it's time to use some of it.

Till later and thanks for reading.

Happy Birthday Dad

That's my pop in (I'm guessing) 1957 or so.

Today is his 68th birthday..................


This is a picture of my great Aunt Helen. She is about 18 in this picture. She's now 85 years old and not in the best of health.

She has been all over the world and has more friends then I have brain cells.

She's pretty cool.

Till later.

Ultimate light for bicycling at night.

Politicians are scum.

20 Things That Only Happen In Movies

Now I know.

The Donut Guy rides a bike.......

Yeah, I know it's been awhile since I've had a ride report but I plan to ridey ride one of my mtb's later today. If I remember to take my camera............I'll take some pics to share with ya'll.

I keep reading more negative stuff about the Bush presidency..........how much worse can it get? One thing's for sure, it'll be a long time until I vote Republican again. Or Democrat for that matter.

I'm not the smartest guy in the world but it's getting close to the point where I might be able to do a better job.

Some of the things I'd do by executive order............

Make it mandatory for everyone over the age of 18 to carry a sidearm at all times.

Make everyone and every company pay 10% of their earnings as tax. No exceptions, no loopholes.

Double the going price of gasoline and use ALL of the extra money to pay off the deficit and when that's paid off........ fully fund Medi-Care and S.S. And when that's fully funded? Put some money in the bank.

Look at what Government agencies that were around in 1960......keep those that were here in 1960 and scrap the rest.

Pay U.S service man and woman competitive wages, just cut the pay of most elected officials to fund the pay raise.

Outlaw cheap ice cream and cheap bicycles.

Vote for me.

I'm going to bed.

Till later.

Hey Dad....................

I think I broke something.............

Yup, sure enough our 12 year old is now the proud new owner of a fractured elbow. He took a fall while using his Razor board last night. One good thing, at least it was his left elbow so he will still be able to write and do homework......................

Looks like the President got the "Let's conserve" message out. Maybe if we drove more fuel efficient vehicles? I know that some folks actually need 3 ton SUV's to tow horse trailers, travel trailers, etc.

Most folks like myself?

Something smaller usually suffices.

I have mini-van powered by a 3 liter V-6 that gets 20 miles to the gallon. Sure I could get something smaller but it wouldn't seat 7 people and I have the need to transport that many people from time to time.

Bush needs to get a set of balls and set firm mpg standards for the automobile industry. Bigger isn't always better, we should make folks that want to drive 3 ton SUV's that get poor mpg numbers pay through the nose for the privilege.

Wanna get something that big? Make it available with a small turbo-diesel. Need a big honkin' V-8 in there? Pay an extra 10 grand in gas guzzler tax. Or get one of these.

York County is in the news again. Yay. Religion in public schools? Bad, bad idea. Public schools are paid for with taxpayer money so I think religion and government should be seperate.

Ya wanna go to school? Go to a school.

Want to go to church? Yup, you got it-go to a church.

Having said that, my wife and I happen to think that religion should be part of our children's education so that's why we pay for our kids to go to private school. Am I some kind of religious nut? Nope, not even close-the quality of the education at most privately funded schools is quite a bit better then what is available at public schools.

Since my wife and I only made 2 kids, we want them to turn out real good.


Kinda neat cartoon. I stole it from a fellow blogger that lives and rides in Alaska.

Greedy bastards of the day award. And the dumb bastard of the day.

Been riding almost "zero" miles on the old bicycle. Between work, visiting my aunt in the hospital, and doing whatever................I have the grand total of 1 ride in the past week. Kind of disappointing but the aren't peeling up the roads or trails anytime soon, so I know I'll make it out more soon. I certainly hope so as my fitness level fell off a cliff this summer.

I am so damn glad I don't live in the "Bible Belt" I guess if I auger my mountain bike into a tree it's because I pissed God off and he's showing me who's boss ? .........If that's the case-"He" woulda did it a long time ago.

Only one question. Why? His arms are so big, he looks deformed. Whatever, people say that about my forehead too.............

Till later.

Thank you Mr.Smeltzer.............

Only have time for a quick joke a buddy sent me...............

Oh, by the way-if you are a George Bush supporter, this joke is gonna piss you off...............

Moral Dilemma



This test only has one question, but it's a very important one. By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally. No one else will know, so you won't be fooling anyone but yourself if you give anything but a truthful answer.



The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember, your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Please read slowly and thoughtfully, giving due consideration to each line.



Here's the situation:



You are in Louisiana; New Orleans to be specific. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding. This is a flood of Biblical proportions. You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper, and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster.



The situation is nearly hopeless. You're trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing under the water. Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury. Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water. He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris.



You move closer...somehow the man looks familiar. You suddenly realize who it is. It's George W. Bush, President of the United States!! At the same time you notice that the raging waters are about to take him under...forever. You have two options - you can save the life of G.W.Bush or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the world's most powerful men.



So here's the question, and please give an honest answer:............





Would you select high-contrast color film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?

Till later.

I'm slow...........

Had a great ride with a buddy of mine down at Redman on Sunday. We took his 13 year old son and his S.O.'s 13 year old daughter for a nice 2 hour ride.

I love riding with kids and turning them on to how much fun you can have on a bicycle. Adrienne is going to be a really good rider if she sticks with it, she has natural balance and small spills don't faze her a bit.

We did one section with quite a few logs on it and she went back and did it a second time because she fell on a tricky section the first time she tried it. She got it the second time-good stuff.

Reading some of the news this weekend...............

What the hell is wrong with these people? You know it's bad when 35 rockets only "might" threaten the peace talks. How many rockets will it take to seriously threaten the peace talks off? 100?

As bad as Rita was, is could have been much worse. Looking at the huge lines of traffic of folks trying to get out, I thought of one thing...........

Bicycles.

Sure, not everyone could have ridden out the affected areas but at leasty half of those folks could have made better time riding a bike then sitting in traffic.

Not all bicycling advocates like this idea, I think it's better then nothing.

A joke........

A little old lady answered a knock on the door one day, only to be confronted by a well-dressed young man carrying a vacuum cleaner.

Good morning," said the young man. "If I could take a couple of minutes of your time, I would like to demonstrate the very latest in high-powered vacuum cleaners."

"Go away!" said the old lady. "I haven't got any money! I'M BROKE!!!"

And she proceeded to close the door. Quick as a flash, the young man wedged his foot in the door and pushed it wide open.

"Don't be too hasty!" He said. "Not until you have at least seen my demonstration.." And with that, he emptied a bucket of horse manure onto her hallway carpet.

"If this vacuum cleaner does not remove all traces of this horse manure from your carpet, Madam, I will personally eat the remainder."

The old lady stepped back and said, "Well I hope you've got a damned good appetite, because they cut off my electricity this morning.

I sure hope it's gasoline powered or something.

Give me some of what this guy is on. I'm surprised he hasn't lost his job. Yet.

I'm sorry, but I laughed my ass off when I read this. How can someone be so damn stupid?

WHAT? This shit is totally ridiculous.

Anybody watch the Food Channel? This guy is my favorite.

This is cool. If I had a spare hundred bucks, I donate it.

Monty Python. This is one of my favorite scenes from any movie ever made. Not for the squeamish.

This might be one way to get off of mass mailing lists. Seems like a lot of work though..........

Till later.

How cold is too cold?

Been reading a few of my fellow bike bloggers blogs and since quite a few of the blogs I read originate from Minneapolis..............I was wondering, how cold is too cold to ride?

Here is PA, winters aren't usually brutal but we do get some cold snaps down into the teens and twenties.

How cold is too cold for me?

I'd say about 40 degrees is my comfort limit. Even though I use chemical toe warmers and booties- my feet still get cold after more then an hour or two of riding. Yeah, go ahead and call me a nancy-boy but unless I am out on a group ride when everyone one else is suffering as well, riding in the cold just ain't fun.

If you have never met me, just know I am not right in the head. Kinda hard to believe that I'm almost 46 years old, huh?

All the orangutans are gonna be extinct? Nah, just ship Britney's husband over there........it'll work out.

This quiz is amazing.

Japan has cool vending machines.

America has some really stupid TV shows. I just can't help but think that watching some of that shit is gonna automatically lower your IQ by 10 points.

Till later.

Hot donuts.........

I get this customer 2 or 3 times a week that comes in at 2AM looking for hot donuts.

Real nice lady except she is usually drunk off her ass and insists on having donuts right out of the fryer. I always explain to her that when donuts come out of the fryer-they are extremely hot because the oil is right around 375 degrees and she would burn her mouth if she ate them and then I give her some that have been out of the fryer for a few minutes.

I've explained this to her at least 2 dozen times.

Last night she turned up and seemed to be drunker then normal because she was really loud and I could only understand about every 3rd word.

Again, she wanted donuts right out of the fryer. Tonight-she got her wish..........

Since I have few working nerve endings on my fingers from handling hot donuts for 30 years-I handed her a donut right out of the fryer. Amazingly (probably because she was hammered) she didn't drop the donut and managed to stuff about 1/2 of it in her face.

Unbelievable.

She's gonna wonder why the inside of her mouth is one big 3rd degree burn tomorrow when she wakes up from her alcohol stupor....................

Till later.

Bits and pieces.........

I really don't have a solid block of time to sit down and write up very much during the week. So when I see interesting stuff, I'll steal it and post it here..........................

Damn, if only I woulda got that doctorate in astro-physics........things woulda been different.

If I had a "big and tall" chain................I'd call it "Fat Bastards", but that's just me.

My brother-in-law is a very successful trader. I'd better not show this article to him-he might chainsaw my head off.

Not only do I think the pay raise should be repealed.........I think our legislators should work as volunteers with only a modest living allowance while they are in office.

They don't sell alcohol in grocery stores here in PA. If they did, half our overnight crew would be hammered.

Man, don't be picking on Wal-Mart-they just had a whole shitload of good publicity with their hurricane relief efforts. Sure, they are bent on paving over every level spot in America and selling us cheap-ass Chinese made stuff. What's wrong with that?

I suppose with higher gas prices, there is going to be an influx of new riders. I almost killed one this morning around 5 AM on my way home from work. Guy wearing dark clothes, no helmet, no reflectors and no lights...........riding into oncoming traffic..........can anyone say "organ donor"?

I was reading "People" magazine last night at work. I'd have to say that I had no idea who at least 1/2 the people featured in the magazine were. I recognized a couple of movie stars and a few TV stars. I guess it's an okay magazine in you are in the mood for a little mind candy.

What magazines do I read regularly? .............take a guess. Go into a Borders and check out the "cycling" section. I read all of them. My favorite mag is Dirt Rag. They've stayed pretty much the same ever since I started reading them back in 97 or 98. I hate to use the term "They keep it real" but in this case-it fits.

I also read a few trade magazines related to baking and food marketing. Next big thing?

Flaxseed.

Trust me on that.

I'm in a great business, when the economy goes in the tank-the more people eat. The better the economy..........they eat even more.

Let's see.......I wanna see you ride a fixed gear bike backwards on just the rear wheel. Whoa.

My 85 year old aunt got out of the hospital yesterday, the only think she wanted was a beer so my wife took her one of the ones I bought last week. Now I am down to 2.......looks like I will have to go buy more.............

In 2006.

Not much to say......

Except that working for living sucks.

I forgot what it's like to sweat like pig in a bacon factory.

It's not a whole lot of fun.

Ever meet one of those folks that say they would continue working after hitting the lottery?

I am not one of those people.

I'd be calling in from my cell phone from the middle of a mountain bike ride to give my "0" day notice.

No hard feelings.....................

Till later.

Some peoples are assholes, some aren't.

This is only gonna make sense to you if you happen to live in York. So bear with me if you are one of my loyal readers from somewhere else.............

Rutters has terrible customer service.

I went there this morning to get gas and a paper. First thing, I stopped at the row of pumps closest to the store right in view of the cashier. Did he turn my pump on?

Hell no.

Now I understand that everyone has to make a living, but if you are working at a Rutter's............you don't have aspirations of becoming a brain surgeon, it ain't that hard to turn a pump on.

When someone puts the nozzle of a gas pump into their car and turns the pump on, the console inside the store beeps. How hard is it to stop talking to your co-worker for a second and hit a button?

Second thing is they were were almost totally out of coffee. Hmmmm....Sunday morning 7 AM....you would think that they might have it together and be able to keep up with the steady stream of customers coming into the store. Nah, that would be too easy considering there were only 5 or 6 employees shuffling around.

Third thing- The counter at Rutters is so full of crap they wanna sell you, it's hard to sit your purchases down so you can get your wallet out, so I slid all the worthless shit to one side with my forearm so I had room to put my stuff down. The clerk really got cranky with me at that point and asked me not to touch his "display".

Whatever pal, just ring my stuff up and shut up.

I love Sunday mornings............

Now on the other hand...some people are angels.......... We went to visit my great aunt this weekend. She is 85 and in the hospital. We all love her to pieces and so do the nurses at the hospital where she is staying. When someone cares about what they are doing-you can tell. My Aunt Helen is doing a lot better then she was so hopefully she will be out of the hospital soon.

My 89 year old great uncle is also in the hospital with a black eye. He took a fall and was lucky to just bang himself up a little bit. They did take him to Hershey Med just as a precaution though. Getting old is scary.......

When I get old-I wanna either die in my sleep or smack into a tree at high speed on my mountain bike and bite it instantly.

Our club also had it's annual fund raiser this weekend. It was great to see all the folks that help out with trailworks and rides. Even though I didn't win one of the bikes they had up for raffle, my son and I had a great time.

I have some pics of folks getting awards but I didn't get any pics of the poker ride, the clubs membership guy took some pics but his camera jammed. Maybe next year his daughter can be the "official photographer". I've seen some of her work, she won an award this year for her work..she's pretty darn good.

On to other things.............

Sometimes, I can hardly wait until the Middle East runs out of oil. Unfortunately when that happens, they will own most of the U.S.

As much as the major news outlets love to cover all the human suffering going on down in Louisiana and Mississippi........there are still some good folks out there helping out. Amen.

This is a pretty good program but as the father of an 18 year old..............I'd still like to see her have a plan "B" .........things happen.

Here's an article to further reinforce my viewpoint that pets are not like children.

It's back to work tonight so I'll being posting less.......

Till later.

I have no taste.............

A lady walks into a bar and sees a really cute guy sitting at the counter.
She goes over and asks him what he is drinking.

"Magic Beer", he says.

She thinks he's a little crazy, so she walks around the bar, but after
that there is no one else worth talking to,goes back to the man sitting at the
bar and says,

"That isn't really Magic Beer, is it?"

"Yes, I'll show you." He takes a drink of the beer, jumps out the window,
flies around the building 3 times and comes back in the window.

The lady can't believe it: "I bet you can't do that again."

He takes another drink of beer, jumps out the window, flies around the
building three times, and comes back in the window.

She is so amazed that she says she wants a Magic Beer, so the guy says to
the bartender, "Give her one of what I'm having."

She gets her drink, takes a gulp of the beer, jumps out the window,
plummets 30 stories, breaks every bone in her body, and dies.

The bartender looks up at the guy and says,
"You know, Superman, you're a real asshole when you're drunk!"

I love a good joke.

Food art.

Find a human.

You know you live in redneck country when your local Wal-Mart has one of these in their lobby........

Anyone that reads this blog knows how I feel about our current administration. If you are a new reader-lemme fill you in.............George and his cronies are a bunch of dolts.

I can't believe this asshole didn't get shot.

What the hell was this guy thinking? And he's sorry for not sterilizing the pin? I think he is missing the point...........If he did that to one of my kids-I'd teach him what suffering was all about.

This guy is about to become richer then Bill Gates.

This guy should use a bike and a trailer, that way he wouldn't leave pony shit all over the place.

I don't know about you folks, but if I lived 20 feet below sea level...............I'd seriously think about having a roof hatch installed.

Wow, for the price I paid for a 6-pack of good beer last week, I coulda had a whole case of Budweiser. At the rate I drink beer, that woulda been enough for at least 3 years.

Till later.....

I snore...........

My poor wife.

Most of the time, she never has to put up with my snoring because we work different shifts and sleep at different times. This week however, I have been on vacation and evidently-I snore loud enough to wake the dead, so she has been sleeping on the couch.

Only 2 more nights and it's back to the grease ranch for me.

Till later.

I was planning on doing a road ride Thursday evening but the timing really didn't work out so I hopped on the chopper to do a ride around the neighborhood. A friend of mine saw me and pulled over and we were talking and he asked me how much it costs. When I told him 700 bucks I think his eyes popped out of his head.

Hey, it's all where your priorities lie I suppose. I liken it to a pedal powered middle-aged crisis kind of thing. Ain't no way I will be able to afford a sports car, so why not have a few spiffy bikes on hand to ride around?


That's a pic of my friend's son Alex standing in front of a whole different kind of chopper. My buddy is the shop foreman for a large header manufactor and they get to do some wild one-off work from time to time and Alex gets to check out his dad's handiwork.

I'd say he's a lucky kid.

The best I can do is 16 bites.

This is some scary shit. And it's gonna happen.

George needs to download a file


Even Ronald likes a little porn now and then.

Here is why I immediately head for home when I hear thunder when I am out riding. Had 2 close calls over the past 10 years-I don't wanna be 3 times lucky.

Hopefully this dumbass will have a black drill sargent when he gets to Paris Island.

Till later.

Took a little ridey ride...............

Did about 25 miles on Wednesday. I had my Surly out again, I think folks see the fenders and the rack and for some reason-I get way more space on the road then when I am on my C-Dale R-500. It's that or the fact I was weaving all over the place looking at stuff.

I wasn't in a hurry today so it took me 2 hours to ride the route I have linked above-sometimes it kinda fun to stop and just check out the scenery.

One thing that's interesting about riding around my town is that when you go North-South, you are either going up or down a hill. East-West is a little bit better but overall-York County ain't very flat.

Another thing that's a point of interest is the variety of housing you come across in such a small area. 15 minutes on a bike can get you from $10,000 rusty trailers to $50,000 fixer-uppers to $500,000 McMansions. We live about 50 miles from Baltimore so lots of folks are moving into the area to beat the high cost of living in metro Ball-more.

When I got home, my iPod Nano had arrived courtesy of Fed-Ex. I wasn't expecting it until Friday or next Monday................it's way cool and it's way thin. I like the fact that it slips right in your pocket. It's perfect for listening to podcasts and it has lots of room left over for music.

Got my van back from it's annual PA inspection and emission test. It passed everything but it needed a rear wheel cylinder..............I thought the brakes felt kinda funny.

Anyways- if you live in York and you need a good garage- go to Jim's Auto Repair on 11th Ave in North York. His number is (717) 848-2749 Trust me on this, Gary (He bought the garage from Jim) won't steer you wrong. He is one of the good guys.

Our son will be looking forward to this, we have one preordered. I play the "car racer" type of games but I stink at Halo 2. Figures.

I like reading blogs and google just came out with a new blog search engine. I like it.

Here's some exciting new shaving news........... Five blades? I use one of those razors with 4 blades, guess I'll have to upgrade.

I'm having a tough time figuring out how the hell she managed to get famous in the first place. Puffing on a cigarette? Nice. If she didn't have money-there is no doubt in my mind she would be living in a trailer park somewhere.

Mike is in the news again. Looks like he has a stunning list of "B" and "C' level stars to sing with him.

Jimmy may as well give up on saving this. Carter is right there behind Bush in the list of "Worst Presidents Ever". Sure, he's a nice guy and all-but he has accomplished way more since he was voted out of office then when he was President and I totally respect him for that. He is a great man who was at best, an average President.

Can you imagine how Bush would have handled the Iran hostage situation back in 1979? ...............Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick-there probably wouldn't be an Iran right now.

While I like this idea, I don't want a bicycle powered ambulance to come pick me up if I have a heart attack.

The space shuttle has outlived it usefulness. Not that I am against space exploration but it's a damn shame that this is not being funded any longer. It seems to me that it is worthwhile.

What do I know, I make donuts for a living.

Till later.

Drivers license............

Now I don't wanna slam Penndot because they are probably only as efficient as they need to be......



What I mean by that is, if the folks that work there go above and beyond what they are "normally" expected to..........heck, they might be expected to do that all the time.

I went in yesterday morning to get my drivers license renewed. Fairly simple right? It is simple, only the lady that was doing my paper work had a phone call from a fellow employee while she was in the middle of doing my paperwork.

If something like this happened in a "normal" business, what usually happens? That's right-you put the person on hold and finish dealing with your customer and then find out what the co-worker on the phone wants.

At Penndot-you totally ignore the customer for 10 minutes while you chat with your fellow employee.

Nice.

One good thing, I changed my party affiliation, I am no longer a registered Republican.........I am now a member of the Libertarian Party. I don't totally agree with everything the Libertarians are about but I couldn't stomach being in the same party that George Bush is in and they ain't no way I am voting for Hillary in 2008.

Nothing against voting for a woman-I just don't like her politics.

Gonna save about 10 bucks in gas today by running all my errands by bike, I don't normally have the extra time it takes to do that but I'm on vacation this week so I have no excuse not to.

I hooked my mom up with podcasting software on her PC, since she is recently retired-she is getting a whole lot of use from her PC, now she'll be able to listen to podcasts while she does stuff because I gave her one of my old MP3 players.

Bike videos? Oh yeah. Pete is your man. Download a couple of these to play this winter when the trails are under 2 feet of snow.

This guy is dick, the fact that he is black has nothing to do with it -if he was white- he'd still be a dick.

Read this as it doesn't happen very often. Am I bashing Bush? You betcha, he is one of the worst presidents ever. Numbers don't lie.

Interesting article. I think I have been watching less TV the older I get. I have better things to do with my spare time.

Why does a dog lick it's own balls? Because it can.

Till later.

Vacation slacker.......

I am soooo lazy.

My first day of weekday vacation, I rode my chopper around the neighborhood in the morning, took a nap, had some ice cream, played around with the computer and then went on our club's evening social ride.

I had all kinds of stuff planned for Monday but the 4 hour mid-day nap kinda put a kink in those plans. 4 hours is about the perfect length for a nap in my book.

Why are they always touching each other?

This is fun? Ooooookay.

This is interesting, but I usually just hang the phone up.

Time to go-here is my agenda for today.........

-Retrieve my Raleigh from my nephew.

-take the rear wheel from the Raleigh to my LBS and have them put a BMX cog on it to replace the free wheel on there now.

-Clean the inside of my van.

-Take pics of my C-dale so I can put it up for sale.

-Take a nap.

Till later.

About damn time.

Easy like Sunday morning........

Fantastic ride Sunday morning. Not a cloud in the sky and perfect temps to go riding. I think we did about 35 miles before I split off to ride home. Took a 2 hour nap after reading the Sunday papers and having a steak sandwich and a bowl of p-nut butter ice cream.

Couldn't ask for a better Sunday.

I am thinking about selling my Canndale R5oo road bike and my Redline Monocog to free up some money and space for a new bike next year. I'm fairly sure I want to sell the C-dale but I have the Monocog pimped out the way I like it-so that might stay............

Ran across this blog entry this morning. While I wasn't quite that poor growing up, there wasn't a whole lot of extra money floating around either. At any rate-it's a good read.

Here's one of the good guys. I've seen some video footage of him and someone like him oughta be in charge of FEMA.

Looks like George is going to tour some of New Orleans...........note that he waited until all the residents have been evacuated before he showed his face. What a pussy, his old man and Clinton went to evacution centers and spoke with some of the survivors to show some compassion.


I ordered one of these. I can hardly wait to get it.

I bet Wolf Blitzer would like to take that one back. (SFW video on a NSFW website.)

Till later.

Beer.

I drink something like 6 or 7 beers a year. Since I am on vacation and I was out of beer, I splurged on a 6 pack of Troegs...........

Mmmmm yum.

I spent Saturday night in front of the TV watching the Richmond night race and had me a couple. Now I'm not a beer expert by any means but this is one smooooth beer and 2 of them pretty much put me out of commission.

Good stuff and they have bike jerseys as well. Any beer that sells bike jerseys is A-OK in my book.

Going for a ride in a couple hours-nothing like having a couple beers the night before in preparation................ I'm gonna get my ass kicked.

At least I'll be riding in style on my Surly.

This has nothing to do with anything. Pretty cool though, huh?

Somebody sent the following e-mail to my "junk" e mail addy........

FROM:DR.RICHARD DANDI.
THE DIRECTOR AUDIT
AND ACCOUNTS UNIT
IN I/B/A INTERNATIONAL BANK OF AFRICA.
20 REU DE COMMERCE
LOME REPUBLIC OF TOGO.


ATTN,

WITH DUE HONOUR AND RESPECT,I AM DR.RICHARD DANDI,THE DIRECTOR IN CHARGE OF AUDIT AND ACCOUNTS UNIT DEPT OF INTERNATIONAL BANK OF AFRICA, LOME-TOGO IN WEST AFRICA.I GOT YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS RECOMMENDED BY A FRIEND WORKING WITH TOGOLAISE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, AND I DECIDED TO CONTACT YOU FOR BENEFICIAL AND A 100% RISK FREE BUSINESS TRANSACTION.DURING OUR AUDITING AND INVESTIGATIONS IN THIS BANK,MY DEPARTMENT CAME ACROSS THE SUM OF ELEVEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS(US$11,500,000)ONLY BELONGING TO OUR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MAN WHO DIED ALONG WITH HIS FAMILY(NEXT OF KIN)IN THE 5TH NOVEMBER,1997 AEROPLANE CRASH IN ABIDJAN. BEFORE OUR DISCOVERY OF THIS DEVELOPMENT,THERE WAS NO
TRACE OF CLAIM FROM ANY PERSON AS THE FUND REMAINS DORMANT IN HIS ACCOUNT WITH THIS BANK. ALTHOUGH,I KEEP THIS INFORMATION SECRET WITHIN MY JURISDICTION TO ENABLE US PUT CLAIMS AND TRANSFER THE SAID AMOUNT
THROUGH A TRUSTWORTHY FRIEND OVERSEAS WHOM WE SHALL PRESENT TO THE BANK AS THE BONAFIDE NEXT-OF-KIN TO THE DECEASED FOR A PROFITABLE AND SUCCESSFUL DEAL.

MEANWHILE,ALL THE ARRANGEMENTS TO PUT CLAIMS AS THE BONAFIDE NEXT-OF-KIN TO THE DECEASED,TO GET THE REQUIRED APPROVAL AND TRANSFER OF THIS MONEY TO A FOREIGN ACCOUNT HAS BEEN PUT IN PLACE.THE DIRECTIVES AND THE NEEDED INFORMATION WILL BE RELAYED TO YOU AS SOON AS YOU INDICATE YOUR INTEREST AND WILLINGNESS TO BENEFIT YOURSELF FROM THIS GREAT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.INFACT,WE COULD HAVE DONE THIS DEAL ALONE BUT BECAUSE
AS WE ARE CIVIL SERVANTS WE ARE NOT LEGALLY ALLOWED TO OPERATE FOREIGN ACCOUNT AND IT WOULD EVENTUALLY RAISE AN EYEBROWS ON OUR SIDE DURING THE TIME OF TRANSFER BECAUSE WE ARE STAFFS IN THE BANK.

THESE ARE THE ACTUAL REASONS WHY IT REQUIRES A SECOND-FELLOW WHO WILL FORWARD APPLICATION OF CLAIMS TO THE BANK AND ALSO PRESENT A FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNT WHERE THE MONEY ON HIS/HER REQUEST WILL BE
RE-TRANSFERED INTO. ON CONCLUSION OF THIS TRANSACTION,YOU WILL BE ENTITLED TO 25% OF THE TOTAL SUM AS GRATIFICATION.5% OF THE TOTAL SUM WILL BE USED TO REINBURSE EXPENSES THAT MIGHT ARISE FROM TELEPHONE BILLS AND OTHER EXPENSES DURING THE TRANSACTION,WHILE 70% WILL BE FOR ME AND MY PARTNERS HERE.PLEASE YOU HAVE BEEN ADVICED TO KEEP TOP SECRET AS WE ARE STILL IN SERVICE AND INTEND TO RETIRE FROM SERVICE AFTER WE CONCLUDE THIS DEAL WITH YOU. I WILL BE MONITORING THE WHOLE SITUATION HERE IN THIS BANK UNTIL YOU CONFIRM THE MONEY IN YOUR ACCOUNT.WE
THEN COME DOWN TO YOUR COUNTRY FOR SUBSEQUENT SHARING OF THE FUND ACCORDING TO THE PERCENTAGES PREVIOUSLY INDICATED AND FOR INVESTMENT IN ANY COUNTRY YOU MAY ADVICE US TOO.

ALL OTHER NECESSARY INFORMATION WILL BE SENT TO YOU WHEN I HEAR FROM YOU. I SUGGEST YOU GET BACK TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE,STATING YOUR WISH IN THIS DEAL

YOURS FAITHFULLY,
DR.RICHARD DANDI.

Gee, ya think I oughta help this poor guy?

I was checking the weather for my week of unalderated week of cycling bliss and it's gonna be hotter then hell later in the week. This might have changed by the time you read this but our local TV station is calling for some very hot weather later in the week. Like 999 degrees.

Okay, here's a radical idea...........let's pull out of Iraq and maybe that will save us a little money. Why are the guys in Washington suddenly concerned about the budget?

This is funny ......................but it's also true so it's not really funny.

Here's a blog from a guy that lives in Alaska and rides. So no complaining from anyone that thinks it's too cold to ride.

Till later.

A rant.............

Thank you Jesus..........................

Some guy on a message board I frequent is riding to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Tour of Hope.

He wants to "show God's love in a small way to those suffering with cancer"

Wonderful.

That's great and everything but somebody oughta tell this guy that Lance is agnostic and I'm pretty sure Lance would be the first person to tell you that God had nothing to do with him beating the odds and living.

Okay, rant over.............

Later.

On vacation..........

I'm taking my last week of vacation next week. Don't have any big plans for the week, I do plan to ride just about everyday.

This year with both our kids in high school, I will have more time in the afternoon to ride, I"ll just have to use lights in a few weeks.

As much as I like summer, fall is becoming my favorite season. I love riding in the chilly morning air with just a hint of your breath turning to condensation to keep you company.

This morning, my father and I are going to help my great aunt and uncle move from one section of the nursing home they live in to another. My aunt is in her late 80's and not in the best of health at the moment and requires more care so they have to move to a different section of the assisted living facility they live at.

I really hate nursing homes, when I was a kid, we visited my great-grandmother at one and I still remember the smell. It was a combination of urine, detergent, old people sweat and mold. That smell was bad but not as bad as watching my grandma take several years to die.

My wife is a nurse and works with folks like this day in and day out. Not sure how she does it, I would think you need a real passion to help people to work in a nursing home.

One thing's for sure-after putting up with me for the last 25 years.........she pretty much has her ticket to heaven pre-stamped.

Now, I ain't the smartest guy in the world, but as I read this news article- I'm wondering why the federal government can't pull something like this off. Which is all the more reason to donate to the Red Cross. Sure, the RC isn't perfect-but it's a whole lot better then whatever FEMA was trying to do in the past week.

Went to our kid's high school last night with our 12 year old to watch a football game. Did that ever bring back memories. If was fun watching all the 14 year olds walking around trying to act cool.........not like I ever tried like that to fit in.

Till later..........

Photo Essay

Found this Katrina photo essay...........pictures speak louder then words sometimes.

Surly Nation...................

This is my favorite bike.

Without a doubt the best bicycle I've ever owned.

When I die, I'm taking it with me.

Someday, I'd like to write this well. Neat story and way cool trip. And I think I want one of those Pugsleys. Thought about a nice new FS bike next year but the thought of all that maintainence with pivots, linkages and shocks is kinda off-putting. Sometimes simple is better.

Note to self; Don't put iced tea in a water bottle and leave what's left for several weeks because you'll have a water bottle with crusty spooge that moves.


This is just plain stupid. Bicycles are traffic.

Go F**k yourself Mr Cheney. My feelings exactly.

Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't begrudge the victims of Katrina anything but how can the government spend money that fast? Wouldn't it be easier (and probably cheaper) just to write all the victims who lost homes, cars, etc a generous check to cover their losses and fill in the below sea level part of New Orleans???

Just a thought...................

Till later.

Sell the Ranch.

Comment Spam.

Along with everyone else on Blogger, it looks like I will be turning the comment verification thingie on so I don't get "comment spam"

What a pain in the ass.