Stereo Simulcast

Back in the 1970's when I was a little brat my mother and I had a movie night of epic proportions!

This was the era before cable,  before the VCR, before the big screen and certainly before surround sound.  Popcorn was popped... pillows and blankets were laid out.  Mom tuned the stereo to the radio station that was broadcasting the soundtrack to coincide with the TV channel airing 2001 a Space Odyssey!   Wow... it was awesome!

Cats!

They do the darndest things right?  I did not grow up with cats and never really considered myself a cat person.  After living with cats that belong to my roommates I slowly began to like cats; understanding them is a whole another story.  When Megan and I were renting I promised her we would get a cat when we bought our first house.  Shortly after we moved in we rescued our first cat together, Sage.  She was a great cat... A hiking cat.  Unfortunately she disappeared.   One year later we rescued two more cats, well kittens, brother and sister.   We named the orange fuzzy boy Oliver, which went well with his sister Twix.  They are big fuzzy Maine Coone mixes.  He is lazy and loving and she is fast and twitchy.  I'm learning, but i think more important is the cats learned to tolerate my inability not to treat them a little like dogs. 
We have tons of pictures of Oliver, but Twix is hard to photograph.   He is always liking himself... see!

Snow Ride... Finally!

Fresh tracks in the snow!! 

Some of you may know that I Love snow!  One of my biggest losses when I left New York was the snow!  Every year when it actually gets cold here I pray for snow!  I have sweaters that I can only wear once every couple of years because it does not get cold enough, although, I complain about the cold because it is cumbersome to dress appropriately and it hurts the lungs.  But really I feel that if it's going to be cold it might as well snow!  I used to really enjoy skiing and sledding and skitching!   What really annoys me is when the weather forecaster's puff up the forecast and get me all excited for nothing.  The only other thing worse is when we get ice instead of snow and we are crippled.

So today it finally snowed!  The weather forecaster's made such a big deal out of it that many have been calling it snowmageddon or the snowpocalypse.   By 2pm  it was still not doing anything and I was cursing the talking heads as usual.  So some friends and I decided to risk our lives and have some fun riding our bikes in Bent Creek;  no, not fat bikes!  We Had a blast! And 3/4 of the way through our ride the snow actually started to amount to something.   We finished the ride at Gabe's house and spent some time warming up in his shed around his kerosene heater drinking home brew and cinnamon whiskey.   Greg gave me a ride home in his 4wd pickup so I could stay warm, avoid the salt on the roads, and play in the snow with Megan and Abby before dark.  Once home Megan and I took Abby for a walk. Abby really likes the snow and had a great time along with us.  As I sit here and type I think we have six inches of snow and still going.  I am really excited to go out and play in snow again! I absolutely love it when it snows! Just wish I still had that sand barrel cover that I used to go sledding with!

My riding buddies striking a pose!

Proven wrong!

Lately I have been disgruntled with the mountain bike industry. Six years ago I purchased a high quality Trek Fuel Mountain Bike and since then I feel that there have been no major improvements for the cyclist!  For the past five years the bike industry has been shoving preferential crap down our throats as the next best thing.  Really? A change in wheel size is going to revolutionize the bike? A choice between three, two, or one chainrings in the front is going to make me feel like superman? Or is the automatic seat post dropper going to save my life? Come on! What am I a fool to spend thousands of dollars for this new technology?
But today I saw a post that changed my mind!

Schwalbe!

This is something I want to try.  And it doesn't require buying a whole new bike!

Home Throne!

After

Five years ago Megan and I bought our first house.  The finding and fixing up of our home is a long story indeed.  But one of the most important rooms in the house was of major concern, the bathroom.   In each home we searched I inspected the bathroom.  Making sure to test the flush of each toilet to ensure the plumbing was good.  In our home of choice I could tell the plumbing was good, but the toilet was bad; basically the water moved around but took time to go down... bad hydrolics.  So, we bought our house and spent the day of our closing ripping out the floors and gutting the crawl space.  Guess who got the shitty job?  The crawl space was nasty, but Megan's mom was really embarrassed when the toilet malfunctioned on her.  From the beginning, despite protests, I knew toilet needed to to be replaced, but it was not considered a priority until it was obviously a problem; when I first flushed it the water just kind of moved around but did not seem to have a purpose.  So, along with removing and replacing the duct work, gutting and redoing the crawl space, removing the floors, sealing the subfloors, and putting down new flooring, it became necessary to redo the bathroom as well.  All of this along with packing and moving in at just the right time (2 weeks) before our lease expired (so an extra thank you to those who helped us move in the nick of time!).  We obviously knew the bathroom needed to be redone, since we had already purchased a new sink and vanity before we closed on our house; $29 was a steal!  After consulting a co-worker I was dead set on purchasing the best toilet money can buy, a kohler, and am still happy we did so!  The vanity took a little bit of work because they tiled around the old vanity and ours was not the same size.  So when you see our bathroom you can observe my creative skill in making the new vanity fit into a larger space; its awesome!  I also installed a new light-set and mirror cabinet; the old mirror had some crazy persons writing, which advised we looked for her buried behind the house somewhere; creepy!  All of the electrical switches and outlets needed to be replaced and Megan thouroughly cleaned the fan/heater for me.  The toilet was quite the learning experience in the replacement process, but replacing the door was probably the most difficult process of all believe it or not.  Then just a few weeks after we moved in Megan found the shower curtain online, which happened to complete our beach theme perfectly!!  I am now very glad we spent the time and effort to make our bathroom a comfortable place, especially since our kitchen plans are permanently put on hold until we win the lottery or something; any ideas, wink, wink:

Before!

36 Year Old Fortune... Really!

Yesterday, in the mail, I received some items that my mom found while sorting through some old family mementos.   After looking through the photos, I opened an envelope with something I have never seen before. My grandfather's money-clip with two Chinese fortunes never found before, amazing!

Sadly, I never really got to know either one of my grandfathers.  My dad's father I did not meet till just before he died and my mother's father died when I was six. I got to spend plenty of time with my mother's father and to this day I still consider him to be a legend in my own mind.  We ate pistachios together, cut the grass,  and even made a tree fort out of the forsythia bush! My one largest regret in life is not getting to know my grandfathers better.  I just wish I get to know my dad better before I regret that as well; getting there though.  

Just yesterday my mother sent me a money clip that belonged to my grandfather.   Immediately I noticed some papers tucked up high in the clip that no one noticed before..  My grandfather had apparently saved two Chinese fortunes that meant something to him.  "The only sure thing about luck is that it will change." and "You are a source of wisdom and strength to many people."  Makes me wonder more about who my grandfather was as a person.  I have some things, photos and a large memory about our time together, but it is hard for me to place him as a person considering I was just a child when I knew him.  The other thing my mother sent was a pocket knife with my Uncle, Albert Conte's Insurance Company name stamped on the side.  Him I never really knew, but sense great things.

I guess as we grow older we tend to realize more and more how little we really knew of our ancestors.  Now is the time to get to know our family before it is too late!!  Call or email me!! And lets get the ball rolling before we are too old to remember or just not here.

Relax! Have a Homebrew!

Currently I am studying the nuances of brewing and just learned that drinking beer depletes B complex vitamins from the body and that the sediment at the bottom of the bottle and homebrew itself is full of B complex vitamins.  What a wonderful coincidence!   

Just the other day, while working on the latest bike, I opened and drank my first bottle of beer I brewed myself right here at home!  And right now I am drinking from bottle number 4; this time I drank the nourishing vitamins from the bottle before rinsing.  How does it all taste you wonder?  Well it tastes very much like beer!  Yummy beer!  All made and bottled right here in my own home!  I compare my Pisgah Ascent Imperial IPA to RJ Rockers Bell Ringer... Both good stuff!

Thursday I am going to share my beer at homebrew night at hops and vines.   A place to share and taste others homebrew and talk about homebrewing! Hopefully my beer will be approved!   I will then make a selection for my next brew... maybe a brown ale!

My first personal homebrew!  And from a Bell Ringer Bottle!

One Nice Day!

Today started out warm and then towards the afternoon the cold winds changed everything.  Last night it rained... tomorrow it will rain, pretty much through next week with spells of freezing weather and snow.  This sad forecast is why I took full advantage of the nice warm sunny day we had on Saturday!   Climbing up the mountain I was warm in the sun and mostly comfortable riding in the shade on snow covered trail.  I climbed to the highest point legally allowed by trail and decided to enjoy the glorious weather.   For a half hour I sat in utter solitude, basking in the sun and fully appreciating the glorious day!  Now I realize how much we tend to ignore the beauty of the comfortable seasons of the year....

Old Bike is the New Bike!

A few years ago single speed bike riding was the hot new trend; I think this was just before the 29er phase.  I never really bought into either fad.  In fact, I think I am usually before or way after fads in my discoveries of new ways to do fun things.  Just recently I got the hankering to try something new for me... single speed.   So I took my old Cannondale frame and pulled the shifting system off and set it up to run with just one cog, viola single speed (with a little help from Gabe).  Still need to get the dedicated crank hooked up, but the ghetto version works just fine. I also put a different fork on and flat pedals.  It is basically a high-tech BMX bike!

Once complete I took the bike and Abby outside for a test ride.  No helmet, no bike clothes, and no bike shoes.  Just head out the door and pedal.  I can tell you that being able to just grab the bike and go was liberating.  Not to mention the simplicity of not worrying about in which gear to be.  Just go go go.  Of course, going up hills was a little challenging without being able to shift into an easier gear.   Like Gregg from the shop says: "Three gears; sit, stand, run!"  I can't wait to take it out into Bent Creek and see how I do out on the trails.   For now I like having a bike that I can just grab to go get the mail,  etc.

One Gear!

Pedals that do not require special shoes!

Look no clumsy shifters!