A Ride And the Rain......................

It's hump day again and the weekend is coming. Left work yesterday and didn't even get to the stoplight out on Hwy 74 before Sonny was calling. The weather was about as perfect as you could get and it was time to ride. After I got home and picked up Cody from track practice it was 5:30. We hit the road at 6:00 and had a great ride, about 25 miles of perfect sunshine and temps.

The highlight yesterday was Sonny got a new bike! I love new bicycles, no scratches and clean as a whistle. The best part is it is idenical to mine. He bought a Motobecane Sprint from Bikes Direct. I love this bike I have had mine for about two years now and have had no problems with it. Mine is dirty and has few dings on it but that's only cosmetic. Washing cars or bikes is not a big priority of mine. Now I will keep the oil changed and the chain lubed but my cars and bikes don't get a lot of soap love. Back to Sonny checkout the picture.

Yep that's it. Sprint by Motobecane. It looks just like that picture too. The best part of this story is it was a surprise. His wife ordered it for him and he had no ideal it was coming. That's pretty cool. So after the ride I went home and showed my wife the 2011 new bike buyers guide and told her all about what Lori did for Sonny. I think she was awake for the whole conversation.......LOL.......At least I hope she was!

Now to the Rain. Yep it's raining again and supposed to the rest of the week. Oh it is cold also. I am sick of the rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Catching Up........

So I have some catching up to do. I wrote Monday's post 1st thing, we had a busy day planned. You see my oldest Cody is 15 years old and he finally finished drivers ed Saturday morning. Bright and early Monday am we loaded up and headed to Polkton, time for a new chapter in our life.

From our house you are better off to drive 40 miles east to a Highway Patrol station than you are to go to the one 5 miles from our house. The one 5 mile away will have 50 people in line at 8am on a Monday and the one 40 miles away will only have 3-4. We got there and were the 2nd ones in line.

So my boy took his test and PASSED! I knew he would, and of course he missed the railroad sign. I do every time. Then she is going through his paperwork and she says you need the one from school that says his grades are good enough. Yep we drove 40 miles and didn't have all the right stuff. I had two choices at that moment; blow my top and ruin the whole day and experience for him; or laugh and drive 40 miles back to school and 40 miles back to finish this. I chose option number two.

What the hell, am I going to get mad because I am going to be later too work! Hell seemed like a good excuse to be even later! Besides I was spending the time with my kid. So 80 miles later (total of 120 now) we where back in Polkton. Ten minutes later we were back in the car and he was driving.

one week playing in the dirt next driving!

Raining like hell and in the little blue truck, a straight drive! That's right stick shift! You might as well learn the hard way and he made me proud!!!!!! We took our time and went down a few back roads for him to get the hang of it. He did and we got home. So now I have a half licensed driver in the house and 1 year from now he will be driving be himself.

 

OH YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I work with about, hell everybody I work with is Damn Carolina fan. Guess what WE WON. Thats right Kentucky is on to the Final Four!!!!! Carolina is on the way back to Carolina!!!!!!!! OH YEA!!!!!

This picture says it all...Go Kentucky. That's my team baby! Now we face Uconn Saturday for a chance to play in the Championship game.

My favorite player is Josh Harrelson, he is a little short for a center but he is a big boy and makes up for it with his determination. He wants to win, he is a senior and if he loses that's it, his college career is over!

Last but not least we have John Calipari, the man the legend. The higgest paid college coach there is. Yep Kentucky don't play. The big blue alumni don't play.....GO KENTUCKY.......

Sunday AM..............

As the title says it's Sunday am. We are about to go get some breakfast and hit Lowe's. Chase is up and Cody is at Austins house. Still raining, supposed to stay a light rain today and back to heavy rain again tomorrow.

My boys play at 5:05 and I will be watching. At 5 you better not bother me. Between now and then I have to find something to do. This weather sucks and I will be glad when it's hot. Bring on the 95 degree days. I can deal with that a lot better than the cold.

Back to my Model A. I am fascinated by this guy, I read his website everyday. I like the fact that he takes the time to update it everyday. That is one of my pet peeves , if you start a blog or website then keep it up. Don't just stop! It leaves everybody hanging.

I want an old car or truck to drive everyday. I don't need a radio, the one in my older truck now only works when it feels like it. So that wouldn't be a big problem anyway. No I have no plans to fix it either. The picture above was taken the first day of spring in Michigan, that's where this guy lives. He was bragging the other day about having made it through winter and spring was here. Then mother nature dumped 10inches of snow on him. I am complaining about the rain and he just got 10 inches of snow.

He drove over to Frankfurt Michigan yesterday and took these pictures. That is lake Michigan he is looking at. Take note of the snow! I think I like rain better.

Go Kentucky.....I leave you with that......................

GO BIG BLUE........................

Here we go it's Saturday and my boys pulled it out last night. I grew up in Lexington KY and love the KY Wildcats!!!!!

Last night they played the Ohio State Buckeyes and won. OS was the number 1 seed in the whole tournament. nobody thought they were going to win that one. But we did!!! So now we get to play North Carolina Tarheels again tomorrow night. We beat them last year and they beat us once this year. They are playing good right now and so is Kentucky so it will be a good game.

Go Big Blue........They play tomorrow night at 5:05pm.......I will be right in front of the tube................................................


Today was a busy day for me, hit the ground running this morning. I was up at 7:30 and out the door by 8. Picked up breakfast and a load of mulch, back home ate and had Cody at drivers ed all by 9. Then loaded mom's mower up and went to her house. Mowed her yard , took her mower to shop for the yearly service and hit the bike shop. Back home by 1:30. Karen had unloaded the majority of the mulch and I finished it. By then it was raining hard!

Time for lunch and basketball. That was about it. I am tired and ready for Sunday. Rain rain go away.........................

2 Blogs......And A Mow

So now I have two blogs. I think I have mentioned already we are trying to come into the present century at work. We fight change, but sooner or later you have to come around. So we are on Facebook and have  a few Utube videos on installation of products and our website. Naturally we have to have a blog.

matthewsbuildingsupply.com

All my true fans will now have to checkout our company website to enjoy the full potential of my unlimited knowledge! That was good for a laugh anyway. Seriously it is actually easier to write that blog than it is this one. Here I have to think about what I want to say, there I just pick a subject and start rambling. How easy is that, any moron could do that. Hay wait a minute they asked me to do it! That means they think I am a moron or I am the smartest moron that works there! OK that is the way I am going to look at it. I am the smartest moron!!!!

You ever hear that saying "It's hard to soar like an eagle when you fly with buzzards". Some of the guys at work read this , they will like that comment. The kicker to me is I am not even on Facebook. yet I am on Facebook. Call me a redneck but what the hell. This technology thing is giving me a headache......

On to the mow! yep had to finally breakdown and get the yard done. I hate mowing grass, if it was up to me I would have a natural area up to a foot away from the sidewalk. Yes that is the mower I ride, except I don't have that stupid rollover bar on mine. Seeee ya.........

The Car...................

Today I had people who read my blog ask me about the post from yesterday. You know what the number one question was ? It really got 19mpg. Yea that's what it gets; not what it got. Of all the little facts I put in the story yesterday that is the one fact people seem to notice the most.

I don't think they had ever given any thought to the mileage a car would have gotten in 1930. They just think that because of technology, the cars of today must get twice as much mileage than cars of old.

They do in Europe, but here we as a society think it is our god given right to drive the biggest damn car we think we can afford. We think we are supposed to drive 30 miles each direction to work and god forbid somebody mention carpooling!!

That is enough about us and our stupidity. Lets get back to the Model A. As I said I would love to do what he is doing. It brings back a few memories for me. I used to have a 1979 Honda Civic, I paid 1000 for it drove it for 2 years before i sold it for more than I paid for it. It needed a paint job and the motor was so worn out that if you drove it to the beach you had to stop about half way. Once you stopped you would have to take the distributor cap off and set the points again, you had to reset them about every 150 miles. I carried a pack of matches just for this purpose.

I could fill it up for about ten dollars and drive it for 300 miles before I had to fill it up again. Granted gas was only 95 cents a gallon. So now that gas is almost 4 dollars a gallon you think people would be all over cars like that. No, not here. We just sit around and bitch about the gas prices.

My car was blue, not yellow. But this car is just like my old one. Would you drive it!!!! I would again in a heartbeat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Would You Try This..........

OK I came across this Friday, I thought it was pretty neat. This guy bought this 1930 Model A Ford car on craigslist with the goal of driving it everyday for a year. His name is Jonathon Klinger and lives in Michigan.

His reason behind this you ask, because not everything a person owns should contain a computer! I like that and agree with him, does everything have to have a brain. Whats wrong with people that they think everything has to be smarter than they are. Are we as a society so stupid we can't think for ourselves.

Not a bad looking car either he bought it from an older couple and it hasn't been restored yet. Of course you wouldn't want one that had been redone anyway. Yes he has had a few problems with it over the last few months, but he and you and I could fix it if we had to. Now you open the hood a car and can't even see the motor. The last thing you he or I could do would be fix it.

How do you like the gas gauge , the tank holds 8 gallons. Now here are some interesting facts about this car from 1930. Top speed is about 62mph. He gets about 19miles to the gallon if he keeps it around 40-50mph. The car is the happiest at that speed. He stays of the interstates and uses the back roads. He goes down to his parents house 400 miles away regularly, takes him 12hours. Might not impress you but it does me.

If you reference some of my older blog, I have talked about my 2000 S-10 truck. It has a little four cylinder and doesn't like the interstate either. So I can relate to some of his driving techniques , I stay on the secondary roads as much as possible and my truck is happiest riding along at about 55 anything over that and the motor sounds like it is about to fly apart!!

Jonathon's website is "365daysofa.com"  If you want a trip back in time stop by his site and check it out. I enjoyed it and will be checking back in every so often.

It wouldn't hurt for everybody to take a few months of their lives and lower their standards for a short period of time and drive an older junk car. People come flying up behind me all the time and ride my ass like I am keeping them from something. Every morning I take my son to school, at least 3 out of 5 days a week I get passed. The speed limit is 45 and I will being doing the speed limit yet people fly be me like I am the problem. Yet we get to the stop light 8 miles further up the road and I am usually e few cars behind them.......

Try that for one week and see how many dirty looks you get. Drive the speed limit and see what happens.................

Albany NY........Or Greenville NY

Greenville will be the destination but I know nobody has heard of it , Albany is the closest city I know you have heard of. Karen works with a guy Steve who just happens to be as dumb as I am. He thinks he wants to go touring on bicycles with me. He is from Greenville NY and mentioned we could ride up to his parents house from Monroe NC. That will work for me because it is about 800 miles and we could do it in 10 days (80 miles a day). I am going to do a few short tours this summer and we are going to do this in the summer of 2012.

I don't really care where I go I just want to go! So Greenville NY works just fine. Now here is the catch , go look at a map and checkout how many mountains there are between here and there.

Basically we would be riding in the mountains the whole way. Catch 2 Steve has never done any bicycle touring. He doesn't even own a bike yet. Do I think he can it , yes. He just ran his first marathon here recently so he can make it. We just need to get him started.

We would have to cross the Appalachian mountains the Pocono mountains and the Catskills. If you gonna do it you might as well go big. So now we start planning.

Are we going to camp and carry all the stuff required to do so. Or are we going to stay in motels every night. That is called credit card touring. With all the climbing we have to do I am all for that. it would be neat to camp a few nights, but I might like a nice bed every night if I spend 80 miles a day in the mountains.

Ya know why I am excited about this trip ! We are going to stop by OCC!!!! That's right America's favorite dysfunctional family..................................

Bronchitis..............

That's what we (he has) have. You can tell he don't feel good when Chase asks to go to the doctor you know he feels bad. Have you ever meet a kid that wants to go see the doctor. Although he does like her, he doesn't like the rest of them at his pediatrician.

So anyhow we have spent the day together, we went to the doc's and then hit McDonald's on the way home. I thought maybe that would cheer him up! It did tell we got back in the car and he went right back to sleep. They said he is contagious so he will be home tomorrow. My mom is going to watch him so I can go back to work.

On the way we saw this truck , on the way back we got pictures of it. Chase liked it, he thought it was cool! It was at an auto repair place and had the motor out of it. Needs some work but what the hell it would be fun to play in. Everybody has some redneck in them, even my kids. Must have gotten it from there mom......

Had this picture on the camera also I got it the other night. Had a storm coming in right at sunset. Not the best shot I have ever taken but I like it...............

Late Again......

Yep it's Tuesday (now Wednesday) and I am just now getting around to posting. Lately Mondays have been busy and I just haven't had the time to do it. I got this thing called a job and they actually want me to work!! Growing up is not all its cracked up to be! Oh well you have to pay to play , so I guess I am just paying the price.

The weekend was fantastic, great weather both days. Went Saturday with a group and rode road bikes. Then Sunday went out for another ride. Got home Sunday washed the car and started working on the pool. Chase is about to jump in already, he can't wait to swim. That water is cold too! I wouldn't get in there right now for anything. Yet he is all pumped up ready to swim. You ever see the kid in the pool with his lips blue and shivering because it is so cold , you ask them are they cold and they look right at you and say no. That is my youngest, he loves the water.

So last night (Monday evening) I decided now that time has changed and the sun stays out longer , I am going to make a full on effort to run errands on my bicycle. Last night was the maiden voyage! From the house to Walgreen's is about 42min. I am not using the computer for these trips . I don't care how many miles, I need to know how long it will take. Not at a race pace either, just an easy pace. If I ride to town I don't want to walk into a store dripping with sweat. Not a bad ride , I can get to Wal-Mart,Walgreen's,K-mart and the Mall. I haven't figured out how to carry 2x4's yet but Lowe's is between Wal-mart and K-mart. The gas going through the roof is just in time for my new plans.

Now you can see the need for a Big Dummy bicycle in my garage. I can get milk home in 20minutes. I can make it before it even spoils.

Now it is Wednesday and I am just now getting this post done. I came home yesterday with plans to finish this post and my computer would not cooperate, funny how every time this happens nobody knows what happened to it. Oh well that's what happens when you have kids. Who share your computer with you.

Oh well Chase is home with the crud. We are fixing to go to the doctor and see what the problem is So for now see ya...............

The Party.............

Ok, I got the pictures now! As I have already mentioned last weekend Karen took Chase and her mom out to Kinston for my little nephew's birthday party, Wriston. He is now 4. They had his party at a chick-fil-a restaurant with about 15 kids there.

chase and wriston

Chase was standing on his knees for this picture. Yes he still loves to play in the jungle gym, that's what you hate about them growing up. He had a ball at the party and played on all the toys. If he was with kids his own age he would never have gotten on the toys.

I miss the days when we had kids this small , we used to have parties at the restaurants and set up the table like they did. The boys used to get so excited when we would have their party and all there friends would come. I wish I had audio for this pic. you know it was loud!!!!!

Wriston even had his great-grandma there you know the noise was about to drive her crazy. Look how wet the kid was. He was having a ball!! Believe me this kid is wide open!!!!!! On your birthday your allowed to run and gun like a wild man....

Of all the kids he invited , he only invited 1 little girl. His girlfriend, that is as cute as it gets. He didn't want any other girls there.

That's them, the man of the hour and his "girlfriend"...Now with a name like Wriston what do you think his girlfriends name would be. It sure ain't a normal name that's for sure...So we proudly present to you Wriston and Joegina!!! Don't they make a cute little couple.. My wife said she is a very shy little girl , very quiet. Opposites attract...

So anyhow I kinda hate I missed the party. I like my little buddy he is really smart for his age and fun to be around and to top it off he is already a chicken farmer!!! This is a pic of him with his favorite show chicken Rita..God rest her soul, a fox ate her a few weeks ago and he still talks about her. He and his chicken farming momma had taken her to the state fair to show! If you ask him about Smitty ( that was another chicken they had) He will say stupid chicken! He didn't like Smitty. Smitty didn't like Wriston and would try to flog him every time he was around..So they made chicken and dumplings out him...That's funny!!!!!

Busy...........

This week has been crazy at work. I haven't had the time to write anything this week. We are working on a new marketing program at work that has been taking a lot of time. I am doing a lot of cold calling now trying to find new customers. For the most part I get a few responses a day and a lot of " No thanks". Most people will at least give up an e-mail for us to send some info and a link to our website.

It's all about the dollar, I found this picture yesterday and had to put it in here somehow. We need more money. At least new business or customers with money. I am not picky I just want a pay check and more vacation days.

So I sat down last night and went through my pictures I have on my home computer. Everybody in the house uses the laptop, everybody but Karen, she says every time she wants to use it somebody is on it. Back to my pictures Cody has saved a bunch on there so I copied a few. He is all into BMX these days so naturally he has pictures of that check these out.

Every time I open the computer I have a new screen saver, I like these they are pretty cool. Every time I turn around Cody has a new pile of dirt in the yard, he wants to build something this big but we gonna have to come up with more dirt!

How about this bike, a custom chopper with two seats and gears. I found it on the Bike Snobs blog. He had been to the hand built bicycle show in Seattle. That took a lot of work!

At the same show they had a hand built carbon fiber tandem. You are looking at a 10,000 custom bike. If my wife would ride this thing I would buy it. I don't really want to ride this with my buddies....

I have really tried not to mention this the last few weeks but I came across this picture and I couldn't stand it any longer. We are actually watching a man melt down right before your eyes. You know what Charlie has in common with Nascar. The only reason we watch is for the crash!!  

Well I guess I am about done for the day , haven't had much to say this week . My mind is kinda tired. it will drain you calling all these strange people and kissing so much ass. Hoping to get some new business. Oh well the weekend is around the corner and i am going to play tour guide Saturday. Got a group of friends coming down my way for a road ride in SC.

I like this picture , that's the only reason I put it up here. The river front in Louisville, KY. Pretty sweet looking...............

Late Monday............

Ok I am back , had a busy day yesterday and never even got here. I swear , why are Mondays such a pain in the ass. I am guilty of this also but you ever wonder why people want to be lazy on Friday , knowing they will have to pay for it on Monday! We all get lazy toward the end of the week and don't want to do anything . The attitude is I can just do it on Monday. That will come back and haunt ya......And it did yesterday.....

So we had a good weekend , Karen and Chase went to Kinston and Cody and I went to the lake and tried our hand at fishing. We suck didn't even get a bite , and barely made it back to the truck before the bottom fell out of the sky. In a canoe you better pay attention to what the weather is doing , we where along way from the truck when we decided maybe we need to head toward the dock. It took almost an hour to get back to where we started. In a canoe it takes awhile. Believe it or not I forgot the camera and don't have any pictures from our first trip of the year.

Sunday started with rain and lasted about all day . I made the most of it and spent the day doing the husband thing , went shopping with the wife and basically did what ever she wanted to do. Scored some major points!!!! Rain makes a long day. If it was warm enough I would have rode in the rain anyway but it wasn't so I didn't. Easy as that......

Now to change the subject check out this chart , this is the first stage of the Trans America Bicycle route. When you pay for the maps you get about 12 different maps total. You follow all of these maps and you will and up in Astoria OR. That is a ride of 4264 miles. Most people do it in about 3-months. I may have to ride 1 map a year but damn it I am going to ride this route one of these days.this map will take you 367 miles. The one you order will have a lot more detail in it and all the roads for you to take.

You know we are down here in Charlotte NC and the weather is about a week away from really turning into spring. Then you see these pictures from up north and they are getting hammered by (hopefully) one last snow storm. The top one is of the Mississippi river up toward the Dakotas and the middle one is from the Hudson river up around Hudson NY. The last one is of the Tahoe mountains out west. Thank goodness I live down south.

Don't forget the flooding , this picture is from Ohio. You really take it for granted how good the weather is down here. Here I am , all I am worried about is the time change!!

Ok, I am about done for today . But here is some food for thought. Can you drive this car? I bet your kids can. Mercedes is gonna build this car and instead of a steering wheel you have a joy stick! Fly by wire , I don't think I am ready for this... At least you can drive it from both sides.
   

All Kinda Random Rambling............

Now that's a title! No direction, just thoughts. I love goggle, just type in a word and get all the pictures you want. That's where I keep coming up with so many random shots.

Lets start with Kayaks and Canoes. Tomorrow Karen and Chase are taking Karen's mom out to Kinston, NC for my little nephew's 3rd birthday, Wriston is his name. I like that name very original. Back to kayaks and canoes. With them being gone all day Cody and I are going out on the lake with the, guess what kayak and canoe. Gonna carry the cooler and some snacks and do a little fishing. Little being the key word if you know me, I am not a fisherman!!

Now back to the goggle pictures, checkout these few I found looking for boats. These are dead on what we have I have a canoe and the kid has the kayak. Not that you really care but both of ours are red.

Now these pictures made me look twice! If I ever looked back and saw what this guy saw the shark would have free lunch! I would drop dead of a heart attack and fall right in the water, shark would be feed. End of story. Everybody would stand around at my wake and just shake their head.

How about this shot I got it off a blog I have been following, a couple have been coming down the west coast and stayed in a camp ground that had bear traps set up. That would make it hard for me to sleep I don't know about you but what the hell. They are on bicycles and got there kinda late, leaving and heading to another place was not an option!

Then I have also been following another guy from Canada he is on a 20,000km bike ride around the USA he is in New Mexico right now and got caught in a dust storm the other day, that would suck. Look at those pictures that is dust filling the sky's. This is the middle of the day, dust had the sun even blocked out.  Make your water taste like dirt..

How about this, I have been following this family for two years now. They started their journey in Purdoe Bay Alaska. and are in route to Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego. Look that one up; it is like the southern most tip of South America, over 2o,ooo miles from their start point. They have been on the road for 2 years now and are within 320 miles of being there! That's impressive. If you ever want to check them out their web-site is familyonbikes.org

Next we have a little church humor, I love people who have a sense of humor and access to a sign. It is a little hard to read but says---Everybody welcome..no matter how you were raised---

Today I am going to finish this with a truck a grain tower and tell ya what I am going to do.

Get it "kwitcherbitchin". Quit your bitching, KW style..Made ,me laugh anyway.....

Now my grain tower for the day...................and since you have made it to the bottom of the page I have....

Gone riding........Have a nice weekend...................