Monday, December 31, 2007

Boom!

Man, I hit the deck yesterday like a ton of bricks! Feeling it today fersure...............

We had a great ride from CD's crib down in Ham-ville, 7 riders, 2 hours and 25-ish miles of "seasonal roads". 5 total crashes, of which mine was the "best" (read: "worst"). Dang..these dirt/snow/ice rides are just as cool as it gets and I 'don't even know why!

(Story within a Story- I was sittin' @ the Sub Joint on Saturday, eatin' lunch, readin' the paper and positively wallowing in the fact that I had NOTHING planned for Sunday. An empty square on the calendar is rare enough......but a weekend? Way rare! At that very moment my phone rang and there was CD, lookin' to see if I wanted to ride. Which I did, as it turns out.)

We were on the way back, after hittin' some new-to-me dirt roads and I was next to M-2, talkin' about their upcoming new kid when all of a sudden I was on the deck. No warning, no time to think to myself "careful here, feels kinda slick", nothing. Just Boom and Ouch! Still............the ride was a blast and a great way to wrap up a great year! (FNG Ross went down twice and Tator once, just to make me feel better)

New Years Ride tomorrow.............I haven't missed one in at least 25 years and I ain't gonna start now. Hope some folks show up. (I think they will)

No NY Resolutions for me..............I prefer the "Kaizen" (spelling?) theory of "continuous improvement". Lots of work to do!

What a full year 2007 has been! It feels like we made some progress @ the shop.........there were lots of great rides, a couple of good races, lots of new folks.

I'll take it!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Post "Holidaze" Thoughts

So.
Another Christmas in the books. Another onslaught of bad holiday music, media-fueled shopping madness and travel.

I really don't like it that my first reaction to the "How was your Christmas?" question is that I survived it. Seems way too grown-up / world-weary / cynical............hell...........too bitter to be me, y'know?

Still...........there it is. I gotta figure out a way to change that...pronto... before I see an old fart in the mirror that I don't wanna see.

Other that that (kind of a cop out, huh?) things are pretty cool here @ Ye Olde Cool Bike Shoppe. We did have a pretty fun Christmas and we really don't have all that much added stress or angst, (making the previous bitching even less appropriate - we'll see if I leave it in there) and it's been cool having folks that we don't see all the time stopping in. (Travis, Tim from Colo. Springs, Hedgpeth!)

The Indoor Rides are rocking..........we're getting 12-14 every time and the sweat is flowing free.

I've missed the last two Crazy Bastard Rides and that's not cool............I need to get out w/ them boys and grrls and slide around in the muck! Next week for sure.

Next week is the big shut down for the inventory / computer deal. Ted and Jeff have been encouraging me to get outta here for the duration, given my lack of empathy for and/or tolerance of computers in general and our point-of-sale system in particular. I have the same malady that my friend Heather calls "that damn work ethic thing" so it's not likely but I will try and stay out of the way! We'll be closed from 3:00pm on 12/31 through the rest of the week.

Cool stuff comes in every day............we just got a few Co-Motion tandems, the first of the Salsa frames and our Surly Cross Check project bikes are gonna get built up as soon as we re-open.

Gotta figure out what to do about the website..............yuck.

Jeff's getting the Velo Ventures stuff lined up, that'll be way cool.

The weather for the New Year's Ride looks appropriately iffy. All the better for the main reason for the ride. (To gain the moral high ground, silly!) I hope we have a big turn out.

We're tryin' to put together 4 teams for the Ultimate Cycling Challenge from our little community and I'll be ridng on 3 of 'em and organizing 2. We'll have teams representing the local club (M.C.C.), the shop, the JDRF Team and the Velo Valeo Vixens, the women's tri team/club that Jess and I got roliing last year. It's a good cause and a ton of fun so If you wanna ride on any or all of these teams.....let us know! (Me for the MCC and JDRF teams, Jeff for the VCC one and Jess for the Vixens, but I can hook you up w/ whomever)

Jeff and I put together a tentative Fun-Raiser schedule for '08. I think we'll schedule them 3-4 months out instead of for the whole year, that way we can schedule around 'cross races and tours and such. Watch the website and the newsletters!

Gotta go..............sorry 'bout the post-holidaze whining there. Workin' on it!

MC

Friday, December 07, 2007

"Ironic, if ya like that sort of thing."

So...........we're bustin' down some icy dirt road somewhere out in the middle of whereinthehellarewe lat night on the Crazy Bastard ride.... (We spend a lot of time there!) and all of sudden my rear wheel locks up. I do those rides on my (in)famous glow-in-the-dark fixxie-'cross and the chain had somehow come off and jammed 'tween the tire and the chainstay so all of a sudden I'm doin' these b-i-g s-l-o-w fishtails down this hill w/ the other guys scattering around me like they'd all just found out that the paint on my bike WAS radioactive, as is sometimes speculated about. Somehow I keep the rubber side down and bring 'er to a stop in the middle of the hill. Put the chain back on, all the while wondering what happend and back down the road we go.
2 minutes later, on a nice flat open section of road I go down like a ton of bricks, damn near takin' CD w/ me. (Woulda gotten some bonus points for that!) In Crazy Bastard parlance I did a "spud" w/ a side of "slider", but no "bowler". (Translation- Spud: Noun. To hit the ground hard enough to be "planted like a potatoe". "Slider" - Noun: A crash envolving a long slide across the road surface, usually accompanied by flopping limbs and/or sudden stops as a result of collisions w/ inanimate objects. "Bowler" - Noun: A "slider" that takes out some or all of your companions.)

That's the irony by the way, assuming that you were wondering.

(By the way..........the title is a quote from a movie. Be the first to e-mail me w/ which movie and win a VCC pub glass!)

Other than that.............it's been a busy month or so! I've managed to crash in each of the last 4 'cross races but have yet to break anything major on bike or body. I did manage to tesr up my shin bad enough @ Manhattan Park that it got all infected and led to a trip to the doc for a RX of antibaotics and now every time I go down I hit the same damn place again. Still............so far so good. One more race, tomorrow @ Ridgepoint Church. the big Finale el Grande! We're gonna have chili and frites and stuff to give away..................oughta be a hoot! Jess and I are doin' the C race on the tandem and then I'll try not to suck in the B's.

JDRF stuff is happening...............we're getting close to haviing the '08 season planned out and we have a buncha new riders lined up already. Dang! That is so cool!

Ted's been gone all week @ Barnett's and he has 2 weeks to go. Kinda short-handed around the shop but we'll get through. Startin' to see a little Christmas biz, but not outta control yet. Kind of "good news / bad news" I guess.

Still looking for some folks to sign on as Velo Citizens for '08.........know anyone that wants to work in a cool bike shop and bust their ass for almost no $?

It's been quite a year! I was talkin' to a friend out west about a trip to the desert next Spring and that got to thinkin' about our trip last April.................man, that seems like it was years ago!

I guess that's good, right?................It means that there's so much goin' on that it makes it seem like it's been longer than it has since we did stuff last Spring or last year, right?

Right?

Right!

Gotta go..............be well and have a great Holiday!

MC