I am tired!!!!!!

We have had about as nice a weekend that can be had. The weather was absolutely perfect! last night we were still outside at 8pm. Just didn't want to go in the house, even the dog had to be carried in. He did not want to go in.

Saturday I went and rode the mountain bike and had a good ride, we hit it pretty hard. Basically at race speed, I need to figure out where I am in the fitness category. I held my own until the 20 mile mark and then I hit my threshold, had to let the the other guys go. I have learned exactly how far I can push myself before I go to deep in the reserves. If you go to deep you will "bonk". That is an expression cyclist use when referring to completely wearing yourself out. When you reach this point you don't even have the energy to raise your arm. That is not an exaggeration I have been there before and it takes a few days to completely recover. So that being said I try not to go there. Now I know where I stand, it will take me a few more weeks to get myself back where I need to be. Right now though I am happy with the results. Considering the fact this winter I took the approach of not doing anything as far as training, just riding on occasion. I feel I am in pretty good shape.

Friday I said I was going to get a bunch of worthless pictures for the blog this week, didn't happen I never even got the camera out of the box. But I will work on that, most of the time I take it with me on the road bike but not the mountain bike. I just haven't ridin the road bike lately. All my riding has been in the woods.  The group I ride with sure as hell ain't gonna wait on me to stop and take pictures. On the road I tend to ride by myself more often, I enjoy the quite time.

When you ride and have nothing but a road in front of you your mind has all the time in the world to unwind and think things through. This is one of my favorite pictures. I love going down to S.C. and getting lost in the rural areas.

I guess that's the reason I tried to be a truck driver for 5 years, most people see a road I see possibilities. The great unknown; what will I encounter what will I see type of thing. Every stop , every encounter with other people is an opportunity for a new adventure. At least in my mind I see it that way. If you don't see it like that maybe you should open your mind a little more. At the least you might meet somebody new or have an interesting conversation once in awhile.

Looks like we are going to get a storm here this afternoon, going to blow threw pretty quick, should be able to ride tomorrow. Will be going by myself so I might get a picture or two..

Don't forget the grain towers! Next I might start taking pictures of water towers. Everybody can relate to that............
   

Camera.......Pictures..........

The last few days (or weeks) I haven't taken any pictures. I have been getting my head back into the bicycle and haven't given it much thought. That's all about to change, I am going to hit the road this weekend and load a card up! I will do just like all the people who go on vacation and come home with 3500 shots of nothing. That's how many my camera will take on an empty card.

remember this

Back in the day we mer mortals used to take pictures with a camera that could only take 35 shots on a roll of film. Now we can take so many we don't know what to take pictures of. Think about it when you only had 35 shots before you had the hassle of changing the film you would think about it before you pushed the button. Now we push before we think. Which kinda fits most peoples level of intelligence. The people in this country would not be able to get to work if their GPS stopped working in their car. But that's a whole blog by it's self. I am just pointing out how we are so dependant on technology.

So the point I am heading toward today is the fact that we don't fill up photo albums anymore. We just recently redid our living room and when we got rid of the big ass entertainment center I noticed we had picture albums. Not that they just appeared out of nowhere, they have been there for ever I just don't pay any attention to them. So I got side tracked, had to sit down and go through them for a little while. Brought back a lot of memories and I got to see myself with hair again! That was worth a laugh. 

Then about the time Cody was ten and Chase five, they went of the grid. Now they are tied up in the digital world of Cd's. Free from the pages of the unopened album's bottom shelf, a life they have had for years. To a life on the top shelf of my closet. Chase acted like he hasn't even seen a photo album before.  Yes we have a Picture Mate to print pictures but you just never get around to it, then you do and you need a new print cartridge. Then you take more pics and move on. Never to get back to the ones you already did nothing with! 

I have a box full of my electronic equipment; camera, video camera,helmet camera all my junk. In the bottom I have about 10 SD cards. Lately I am to lazy to even put them on Cd's, I just get new cards and keep going!!! One of these days I am going to pull out all my cards and show everybody; see all my pictures!!

I recently found a few disposable cameras from the trip dad I took to Sturgis S.D. in 2006. When I got to the Rite Aid to get them developed they acted like they really didn't want to even do them. I am going to pick them up today, it will be the first time I have had pictures developed in years. I am kinda excited. Does it seem weird that it was only 2006 when we where still using disposables, at least I was. Now you can get a small digital camera for a 100 bucks. That will take fantastic pics. 

I miss the time when every shopping mall had the Kodak picture hut in the middle of the lot. Oh yea remember those, you didn't even get out of the car. You just pull up and drop off your film and get new film. Come back in a few days and get your package full of pictures with negatives. My kids don't even know what negatives are. When we were growing up we used to stop at the Kodak hut and get water from the dude that worked there. True story!!!

Oh well, times change and we move on. It's called progress. You may not always like it(I don't) but it keeps happening..So have a nice weekend and take some pictures, but do something with them. Not just store them in the closet like I do..If you have a picture album laying around take a few minutes and look at it this weekend, believe me it will make you laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!     See ya Monday.........  

Oh Yea......

Oh the possibilities. Now I am starting to get pumped. I have been on line all morning looking up all the races in our area for the season. I am still leaning on the Southern Classic Series but now that we have decided to do our own thing this year we are looking at all options. I am not worrying about the overall in any particular series, just doing good at any race I enter.
 

I like this series it is fun with a lot of fast people. For the most part all the races are close enough they don't hurt to bad on the pocket book. So if we do some of these we can still throw in a few of the Southeast Regionals. Now they have really big fields and a lot of fast people.

This series is like the premier series for the southeast. At any race on the schedule you will have people from about 5-6 states in attendance. All of these races are qualifiers for the nationals. You finish in the top ten of any one of these races and you can go to the nationals. The best part is some of these are very close to the house.

As you can see, the picture above is the start at one of the Southeast Regionals, this is just the expert/pro/sport classes start. The way they do the start is pro's out first, then experts, then sport (that would be me), All your beginners and masters classes, including the juniors race in the morning and we usually go after lunch. If you look close at that picture you can see in the top left corner just how far back and the amount of people who show up for these races. I would line up about half way through there for my class.

Then we have the local summer series, it starts in the middle of April and goes through the summer every Wednesday night. I will pick and choose the ones I want to do in this one. We used to run all over Charlotte for these but now I want to concentrate on the weekend races.

I do want to do this race it is a one off event and very fun. It is at the end of April. I think Cody and I are going to do this one as a team! It will be the first time he and I have done the duo thing together, should be fun.

Then at the end of summer we have this one it is a twelve hour race in October. I have to get Cody back in shape for the endurance events, hopefully he will get motivated for them. He was always a little to young before now so I am kinda looking forward to riding with him. As you can see there is more than enough to keep us busy this year. Sometime in the middle of all this we have about 10 track meets to get out of the way this spring. Needless to say it will be a busy summer. I hope to get some good pictures at the track meets so stay tuned..

I also found this, it is a elevation map for the first stage of the Pisgah Forrest off road stage race. They have this one in the fall, five days long 36 miles a day. As you can see it is in the mountains and looks like a hell of a lot of climbing. I would like to do this someday but hard to spend a week of your vacation just for a bike race.

That's about it for today so I will leave you with a shot I took a few years ago, this is hwy21 south from Richburg S.C. toward Columbia S.C. Now that is a roller coaster!!!!!!

The Middle..........

That's right it's the middle of the week. The misery is just about over. I always start to get a little excited when Wednesday comes around. You only have to suffer through two more days, then you get a couple of days. Believe it or not I do like my job and the people (for the most part) I work with. I just enjoy my weekends more than the week days.

Now that the sun is staying out longer I can finally get in an afternoon ride. Time changes in a few more weeks and nobody looks forward to that more than I do. Last night I hit the woods right after work and it was perfect, it hasn't rained here in few weeks, everything is dry and fast! I haven't ridin a lot this winter as I have talked about already but I am starting to get the urge. Racing season is like three weeks away and I am beginning to get excited. All I have said for the last month is that I don't want to race. Now I do!

My times are starting to pickup, not far off my fast times when I am racing and training. So I feel like there is still hope! I have decided that unless somebody wants to give my bikes and uniforms or other free stuff I am going it alone this year. No club teams, I either want a sponsor or I will do it myself. That way if I don't want to race a particular race I don't have to.

Have you ever seen those army duffel bags? I have two of them slam full of riding clothes. So I sure ain't paying for more! The team I helped get started is doing well, they have signed up a whole group and won't miss me. They might miss my points in the team races but that's it. No hard feelings I just want to move on. I liked it better when I was the only one wearing the uniforms for my shop, now they have a bunch of people out there. I like to fly solo.

Remember, lead don't follow!!!!! At least I get more satisfaction out of it that way. I like to be in charge. Looks like I am heading to Virginia on the 12th for the race Sunday the 13th. Kinda getting excited about it.

So last night I went right after work and hit the trail. My time was only 2 minutes off my fastest time ever for this particular trail, so yea I was pretty stoked. I think that's what has me rethinking my year of riding.

Well anyway enough about me. Check out this bicycle, yes it is my Surly-Pugsley fat tire bike I still want to add to my collection. They have a race in Wisconsin every winter in the snow, 135 miles straight thru. Start at 7:00am and the winner usually finishes in about 21 hours all in the snow! This year it was -21 at the start! As you can see from the picture of the bikes you have to carry emergency supplies iincluding a sleeping bag and tent, stove and fuel! If you get lost you are supposed to stop and wait it out for help, if you can't find your way back on track. Now that's a race! I ain't sure where you live but this race was only a few days ago. These pictures are from then, as you can see they have some weather in Wisconsin....

Check out John Daly's new golf bag. Wireless Internet and cable TV..Via Caddy Shack....Only he could show up with this and get away with it!!!

Of course I have a super grain tower for you today ............You realize how much grain would be stored in this place. They have miles of conveyor belts in this place..

Flat spot...

I seem to be in a flat spot. To me that means I can't think of anything to write about. I like telling about my mundane life and trying to put enough of a spin on it to keep people entertained. From the stat page I feel like I am doing a decent job. I get way more views than I would ever thought I would get. Some days I just can't think of anything to write about.

Usually the day after I have went home and did absolutely nothing and laid around all evening  and  basically was worthless. Yes I am guilty of that, not proud of it but I have my days. That's when I get on here and just freestyle. "Freestyle" I like that word I got it off that the show "Pickers" that's what they call it when they have nowhere to go and just look for junk in peoples back yards. I guess when I "freestyle" I am looking through the junk in my brain trying to comment on anything that comes across my little mind.

How about this for starters, when I was younger I used to go to all the races at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Now I won't go near that side of town on race week, are you kidding me it is a zoo. Nascar lost me when they got all politically correct, and all the drivers started coming out or the same factory. They all act the same , none have any personality. Or if they do they aren't allowed to show it. The cars all look alike now and it just seems too manufactured, if that makes sense.

Then along comes this kid, for one of the legendary teams. Woods Brothers. One you never hear of anymore because they are small now, they never merged with any of the big teams. Or you could say sold out to any big teams. Nascar has only 3 teams that are power houses anymore, last year the 3 combined, won like 75% of the races. If they ever asked my opinion on why the TV ratings suck I would tell ya that's the reason. No personality among the drivers.

So now we have Trevor Bayne, 20 years old and a high school dropout. He quit school to pursue racing. That won't get his parents any awards, not in this day and time. But it is paying off that's for sure, he just got a check for about 1.7 million dollars after his win in the Daytona 500. That is about the only race I watch anymore. He is only gonna race like half the cup races this year because his Woods Brothers team only has the money to race that many. At least he is young enough that we still have a chance he can keep his own personality.

So anyhow that's about it for my "freestyle" writing today. I had nothing in my head and this is what I ended up writing about. I am not a big race fan but for a few hours Sunday they had my attention. When the kid races again I might tune in to watch it.

Last but not least we have a grain tower today....I love these things............

Monday Again.............

Monday again, I usually call my post on Monday, Monday. Makes a lot of sense doesn't it. But what else would you call it. I might call it my least favorite day of the week, I hate Monday. You need a day to recoup after a 2 day weekend, at least I do.

If you don't you better get up off the couch more often. Last night I was so tired I had to take a 2 hour nap so I could make it to the bed to go to bed! Does that make sense to you. In other words I was tired. The weather was about as good as it gets the whole weekend. If you are an outdoors person it was the perfect deal. I did do some shopping with the wife Saturday but I still made it out to ride.

Did the road thing Saturday and hit the woods Sunday. The trails were absolutely perfect! Went to Sherman Branch, that is the local hot spot. If you ride a mountain bike Sherman is the place to be. Eleven miles of perfect single track. Went with the intentions of a nice easy ride and left with my tongue dragging. The leaves are still of the trees so you can see through the woods, so when I see someone that I know is out in front of me I can't help it, I have to catch them. So that is why my tongue was dragging! To top it off the local mountain bike club was having a social ride and they had about ten people riding together. They were all in the parking lot heading into the woods when I pulled up. So that gave them about a five minute head start on me. Of course I had to catch them, and I did! I had to work hard but I managed to get to them at about the eight mile mark. Then I had to kick it so they wouldn't catch me!!!


You look kinda stupid if you catch a group and pass all them and then slow down and get in their way. I made sure I didn't look stupid. Plus some of the guys in that group think they are the bomb. Never hurts to push them sometimes.

Winter Storm Pounds Midwestern States

Next it is hard to read headlines like this when we are having such beautiful weather. If you read my last post last week, talking about moving you may have noticed most of those houses where located in the snow belt. Maybe I need to research cheap houses in Florida. That's my kinda weather.

Sun sand and the beach! I can deal with the heat, the snow would drive me nuts after a while.You see the bicycle in this picture, Florida is calling my name.Have a nice evening see ya tomorrow............



  

Moving........

You ever think about it? I do. When we where growing up we moved a few times before we ended up here in North Carolina. I loved it, you ever watch House Hunters it is one of my favorite shows. I used to love when we were looking for a house. We would spend the day going thru houses and driving to them and driving by the schools to see what they were like. At least what the schools looked like. The area and all of the above. It was fun to me. I don't think my brother ever really liked it but I did.

Of course you would want it all to end up the same way. Yes same kids same wife you know what I mean. But..... "You Ever Think About It".

When we moved here dad had an option of Charlotte or Chicago. Then if my memory is correct (it might not be I was 12) they decided Charlotte is where they wanted him. We lived in Lexington K.Y. for the most part when I was young. We were in the city, I loved the city! When we were in Atlanta G.A. we lived in the country. It was cool but I prefer the city. So I think about the Chicago move the most. How would it have been different, would I have the same career? You never know, I sure didn't stand around on the corner as a kid and say " when I grow up I am going to be a lumber salesman"..It just worked out that way.

Then we ended up here and in the country. It was fun had a lot trails for the dirt bike and all the woods you could imagine. I had a paper route in K.Y. and hung out at the bike shop near the mall. When we moved here the first time mom took me to the bike shop I about cried. We had to drive to Charlotte and that was a long way away. Now you can't even tell where Charlotte ends and Matthews begins it has grown up so much. Guess what, I am out in the country even now, ended up buying a house east of Charlotte about 40min. Kids love it.

Yesterday I was on the net and stumbled across an article about houses that are selling for about the same as a car. When you see that it really makes you think. I could sell the house I am in now and move to one of these places, buy a house have it paid for and work about anywhere and be able to pay the bills!

 This house was the most expensive one at $49000. It was in South Bend Ind. Beautiful area I have been there. Gets a lot of snow but what the hell if your house is paid for and all you pay are the utilities. You don't have to go out that much!

Next we have Michigan at $34500 Shebogan I think. But still a cool house. They just don't build them like this anymore. it reminds me of my grandmas house in Kansas. I love the older homes with the porches and nice yards.

Then we have Arizona at $34900. Can you believe that. Although I don't like this style of house at least it is cheap! No wonder Bristol Palin moved there. I heard she bought her house out of foreclosure that means she got it cheap. Oh well to hot in Arizona, for me anyway.......

Last we have Iowa at $47500. I love Iowa it is as flat as Kansas if not flatter. Have you ever seen the dirt in Iowa, doesn't look like the dirt anywhere else I have been. Almost black it is so rich. Here in N.C. all we grow is feed corn that crap will grow in concrete. Out there they grow corn for human consumption. We feed the pigs!!!

I talk about moving to Ashland K.S. all the time. My mom says I wouldn't like it out there after about a month, she might be right! Now I need to find a cheap house in the city and not Detroit. Oh well "You Ever Think About It" ....................Later.................

Day Behind..........

Ok finally got a post up today (wed) It's been a hell of a couple of days. When it rains, it pours!! So it's been raining in my life for the last 3 days!

As in my other post, you saw the pictures of the car. We hit a deer Saturday night, had to go to court again on Monday and the septic tank decided it was time to quit working. As far as the septic tank, it works again got it going real fast. Hard to live without that. I left the camera in the house for that operation. Just didn't really think anybody would like to see those pictures!!LOL...Take my word for it, we had it fixed...

Next I had court Monday and again if you reference the post from two weeks ago you will know what a joke I think the court system is. Monday was just a reminder of my feelings. It was a total waste of my time, because I had my back to the punks who threw the drink at me I couldn't say which one did it. So they dropped the charges. They both admitted being there but neither one of them would say who threw the drink. I may not be a rocket scientist but that just doesn't seem right. They are both guilty plan and simple, but no they just throw it out of court. What a total waste of tax money all those people up at the court house getting paid from my taxes and can't even get this done right.

So if you are a bicyclist and get run over or hit by flying objects thrown from cars. Tough shit!!!! Just deal with it and move on. Even if you find out who did it doesn't matter. That's the way it works...........

So maybe we turned a corner yesterday. I have a friend of mine fixing my little truck so I really didn't want to bug him for the truck. Even if I was down to 1 vehicle. I called yesterday to check on truck and he said yea it's ready come get it, that worked out. Last night we took the car to the body shop and went to pickup the truck. So back to 2 cars. Should have the van the first of next week.

shop clock

We did have Valentine's day on Monday, Karen got a lot of chocolate and cards and she really made me happy. Checkout the picture of my new shop clock. A bicycle wheel, how cool is that.. I have needed a clock in the garage every since we had it built. Now I got one!!! Even pumped up the tire before I hung it on the wall..........Yea I can be a redneck!!!!!!!!

One last shot for the day. Seems like I don't have many pictures today. So I wanted to add this one, we are back to one of my favorites again.. Grain Towers....Texas style......McKinney I think

What The Hell--Late Monday Post

Ok as you might have figured out already I drove a big truck, a.k.a. a tractor trailer for about 5 years. I am going to keep the intro to this story short so stick with me, won't take long. As I was saying I drove the truck for 6 years and cover almost a million miles. No kidding I have 980,000 miles! I am that close to having a million in a big truck. Accident free, no but damn close! I missed out on my plax and certificate...Damn..

The only accidents I have been involved in where due to Other peoples stupidity. But I have been in an accident, so I can't claim a million miles with no wrecks. At least ones that were my fault. Unless you count the time I turned over my truck dumping a load of sand. I could try and say it wasn't my fault but it was. Shit happens when you pull a dump bucket. As you can see when a 40ft trailers is up in the air that high the back had better be level. If not, over it will go!!! It did too!!!!!

Of all that time on the road you would think I might have run over a deer at some point, but actually I have never hit a deer............Until now, we where having a good weekend up until Saturday night about 10:30. We were on our way home from the mall. We went to Concord Mills, it is about 30 minutes from our house. We stopped and had dinner and were on our way. About the time Karen said DEER, it was to late......

As you can see by the pictures I couldn't miss him, he caused a lot of damage. I was going about 60 at the time out in the middle of nowhere no cars around, no lights. Just dark, BOOM. Chase was laying down in the back of the van and Cody saw it happen. Chase sat up and said "did we hit a pothole" . Cody was like no we just hit the biggest deer I have ever seen. He wasn't lying either.....

damn deer!!!

 I started this post Saturday night right after we got home from the crash. I have my little truck in the shop (clutch job) now the car is heading to the body shop. We went from 3 cars to 1 in the span of three days.  

 Had a great weekend. Rode my bike sat. and sun. little windy but beautiful. Kids played outside all weekend and the weather shows a great week ahead! All I am waiting on now is the time to change then I will be able to ride after work..Later..........

Finally...

One of the kids wants to race this year. Chase has came to the rescue, Cody is still on the fence but at least one wants to go. We had a talk about it last night. Out of the blue he asks, when we are gonna start racing. Caught me off guard. So now he wants to ride this weekend. Cody has soccer and Chase is the perfect age to get back to racing. He is gonna rule the juniors class.

So yesterday my title was Play Nice. So I am . I decided to see if I could make a friend off the web site. I have an extra bike frame laying in the garage so I thought I would build it up into a single speed. I need parts and somebody who knows what to buy. I got like 5 responses. Already got a phone number to call. I am kinda impressed! See my advice is already paying off. I need to listen to the little voices in my head more often!! Everybody has the voices, I am just the only one who will admit it.. LOL..

Finally:::Its Friday:::It's the weekend:::One of the kids wants to race:::And I am being nice...I hope the karma gods are watching. Maybe I can finally hit that lottery I talk about sometimes.

Riccardo Ricco

I have a back up plan, work on Monday! Now for a new subject, see that picture that has got to be the dumbest dude you have ever laid your eyes on! His name is Riccardo Ricco,he is a pro bicyclist. Or maybe I should say he was a pro cyclist. This guy won a couple of stages in the Tour de France in 2008, and failed a drug test during the race and was kicked out of the race and suspended for 2 years. Well this year he is finally able to race again and was picked up by a pro team and would have been in the tour this year.

Tests prove Riccò had blood transfusion, Dutch newspaper says

The head line says it all. Saturday he passed out and was rushed to the hospital, he was running a fever of 105degrees and his kidneys shut down. Perfect health Friday and Saturday he is in intensive care about to die. As the newspaper headline reads he had a blood transfusion and it went wrong. While he was storing the blood he managed to let it get to warm, so the cells started breaking down. Then he gave it to himself and that's when all hell broke loose inside his body.

Are you kidding me. Sometimes it's nice to be married to a nurse she tells me all the details that they don't put in the paper. Do you want to win so badly that you will risk your life!! That is crazy, the damage he has done to his body is insane!!!!!!

So anyhow I have a riding partner for the weekend and Karen and I are doing a charity walk in the morning. Don't know what the weather is gonna bring and don't really care. My new approach to the weather is that it is gonna have to work around me. I am tired of working around it.

For the pictures of the day we have a dog that is about to pee in the floor and a person who is gonna be late for work.........Got to smile about something!!

Play Nice............

Play nice, sometimes it's hard to do. I try but I just can't help it. I can be very opinionated (a smart ass) and don't mind voicing my opinion. People who think they know it all are my favorite targets. As you have read in some of my previous posts, we have a local mtn bike club. I would like to join it, just to help with the cause. They have done so much for the mountain bike community in this area it really is crazy. I benefit just as much as they do, probably more than a lot of people who are already in the club. I can play by all the rules, even when I don't care for some of them. The only problem I seem to have is the Rain rule. Well actually I don't have a problem with the rule, it is simple enough to understand.

BUT the majority of the club members seem to think you should not ride unless there is dust in the air. They try to play trail cop and the whole nine yards. Just over the previous weekend, well after the 24 hours since we had rain. That is the rule they all want to enforce. One guy who got stuck walking his dog instead of riding saw a few riders riding the trails at a local park. He actually took pictures of them and posted them on the club web-site. Are you kidding me, what a wuss. Just because he felt it was still to wet to ride!! His wife must be the one who calls the shots in his house. He was just pissed because she wouldn't let him ride and made him walk the dog!!!

So anyhow they have been telling everybody to go ride the trails at other locations, trails the club does not maintain. Now am I the only one who feels this is rather ironic. Well me being me I pointed this out on the club forum, took about two minutes for someone to post back a reply telling me how wrong I am about this. I point out the obvious, at least to me and they go all self righteous. This is not the first time that a club member has felt they are the smartest. The other day one member had the nerve to tell one guy who just moved here that his friends up north don't know what they are talking about. His friends where telling him to suck it up and deal with the mud. I for one thought that was pretty brash!! Tell a man who just came into our community your friends are stupid..........

Play nice...Well that is my title today, and my own advice to myself. If this blog is good for anything it gives me an outlet to vent sometimes. I am going to try not to start anymore arguments with all the "trail police" who seem to think they are so much smarter than the rest of us. I am going to join the "club" and try to fit in. Although that is rather hard for me, I like to lead not follow. Maybe I will just watch from the outside, and send in my money. They are not going to change just because of me. The money will be put to good use, and that is something I will benefit from. The rain will stop, the ground will dry up and this will be over till next winter. So play nice........

Since I have voiced my opion and I feel better how about this picture. That is Tiger Woods new 50 million bachelor pad. Not to bad, located in Jupiter Island Florida. Yes it is a gated community.   

Random..

First random thought of the day. Shark attacks were up by 25% last summer!!! Now ain't that the shit's!!! We live within 3 hours drive of the coast, so every year we try to get down there 2-3 times a year. The water of the coast here is kinda murky. Then they put this report out there and they gonna scare me right out of the water! Last night we were just talking about a week down in North Myrtle Beach to end the summer this year.

Pictures like the one above make me really like the looks of a snow covered mountain. I hate moguls and can only ski half-ass anyway but at least you might enjoy (only break a leg) skiing. Shark gets you and you only have 1 leg left. Cody found a new TV channel FUEL TV, here lately all he watches are snow boarding video's. Maybe some big fish is trying to give me a clue. Go to the mountains!!!!... Although they are looking for Bigfoot about 45 miles from my house right now. Some guy from Salisbury N.C. convinced the Animal Planet he has proof Bigfoot is hiding right there. He might eat you and leave no trace.

Yes we go mountain biking over there. Actually we have a race there every year. I bet the times will be a lot faster this year than last. I for one know I will be going a lot faster. Probably run into a tree looking over my shoulder.

All you will be able to think about will be "what is that behind the tree". Bet it will be a low turnout....LOL... I would be able to go a lot faster after running into that....The shadow anyway, I would just drop dead if I ran into "HIM"....

The only thing worse than being eatin by a shark or Bigfoot would have to be meeting your maker the same way this poor squirrel did. That had to hurt, the rider! He went straight over the handlebars..

Or maybe we could go to Hungary, apparently they have so many empty mine shafts there that they race bicycles in them now. This picture was from the first "Mole Race". That was the name of it. The only thing that could go wrong here is the roof collapse! Although I wonder how competitive the race was. Only a broke ass commuter would ride with a rear fender on his bike!!!! LOL.. Do not reference prior pictures of my touring bike..There is a difference between a touring bike and a "race bike". Somebody will call me out on this one, I commute sometimes on my bike..When my ass is broke!!!

But, if you call your race a race you need to have real racers! But please note how small that bike is for this person. If he sat down while he was "racing" he would break his knees on his teeth.....

Since I have no direction today how about this one. I have never understood the drive-thru beer store concept. Just doesn't add up to me. Seems kinda redundant, you gonna make it even easier to drink and drive!!!!!!

Well that is about all I have to say today. So here is my grain tower for the day. See ya......

Finally.........................

Now that gas is $3.12 a gallon it is time to stop dragging my feet. I have a 1999 s-10 pickup truck that has been sitting in the driveway for 2 months, clutch went out. Had big plans to fix it myself and that has never happened. So to plan B, Charles to the rescue. I have a buddy of mine who rebuilds cars. I bought this truck from him so I think he ought to fix it free>>>. Just kidding.

I have had this truck for a year and haven't spent a dime on it!! Really it is a great truck no complaints. I just need to get it fixed. So today I have a wrecker meeting me at the house after work, he is gonna follow me to Charles house so I can leave it to be fixed. By the way mine is blue, but this is the only picture I could find.

So a few days ago I wrote about CYCLING. That was the title. I was talking about Alberto Contrador failing the drug test at the last Tour de France. Well like I said they did suspend him, and now he is appealing it. He still claims the meat he ate is the reason he failed it. You know what this reminds me of, 15 years ago when drug testing became the norm everybody used to claim "poppy seeds" would show up as weed. BS that was never true. The meat excuse is total bogus too. So now we wait to see what the outcome will be.

You see how many people are in that picture. I know cycling is still not main stream here in the states but look at that picture. See all those people, It is huge over on the other side of the big mud puddle. We call the Atlantic Ocean.

Anyhow to change the subject again. They are calling for snow tomorrow night (Wednesday)! The kids are all ready happy, at least Chase my youngest is. Cody my oldest doesn't really care for the snow. He knows it takes days away from the days off he has from school. They are only calling for 1-2 inches but that is enough. The schools will close and the stores will sell out of milk. Happens every time. It will be a record though, we never have 4 snows in the same year.

Oh well it is time to call it a day. We are back to grain towers today, yea I am still fascinated by them. I just think they are cool......................You see the one building about to fall over. I bet ya money they still use it for storage........