It's Been Awhile ,,,,,,,,,

Awhile since I rode at Beatty Park. Yesterday I left work a little early, I had to meet a plumber service at the house. Long story short, the state of NC now feels that I should pay a plumbing company 250 bucks a year to inspect my septic system. I guess they feel I don't have enough sense to notice if I have sewage in my yard. If you ask me it's a total ripoff!

Anyway I thought I would end up with a nice free afternoon, not! The guy was there for almost 2 hours. By the time he left it was almost 5 pm. By the time I got to the trail and ready it was gonna be 5:30. So I went to Beatty, the closest place I could think of. I figured I would just go and ride a few easy laps and enjoy the evening. It seems like that philosophy has worked good lately.

One problem! I pull up and I see a guy I meet a few weeks ago. We have a mutual friend and we rode together then. So he comes over and says high! We get ready and my nice easy ride is out the window! We hit the woods and it's wide open, we knock out 3 laps really fast. A lot faster than I had planned! It's funny how fast you can change plans when the time arrives. When it was over I was glad I ran into him. I got in a lot better ride than I would have if I had been by myself. We even swapped numbers and plan to ride next week.

After that I headed home and slept like a baby last night! After my late night the night before I had no problem sleeping last night. Yes the kid played his new game and had a blast last night. He even said thank you again last night. I love my boys! Now we are getting ready for the tailgate party Friday and senior night at football.

I have Saturday and Sunday open so we'll see what happens then.......

Midnight in Monroe ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

                         What where you doing at midnight last night?????

I was standing in the parking lot of Game Stop! If you read this very often you realize I talk a lot about my oldest son Cody. Well I have a younger son too. Of course I mention him to but right now with Cody being a senior and all the stuff he has been up to it seems like sometimes I don't mention him very often.

Well Chase likes to play video games and he likes to write programs on his computer. He is our go to guy when it comes to the computers around the house. So when he wanted to be there at midnight for the release of Battlefield 4 I decided to take him!

I went ahead and made him go to bed early, believe me I did too. At 11pm I got up and he did too. Out the door we went! At the stroke of midnight they started passing out the new games. We where back home and in bed at 12:30. Now he is at school this morning and he can say did you get Battlefield 4 yet? NO! Why not I did....

Call me a bad parent whatever you want! My kid won't forget the time he and I stood outside at midnight on a school night waiting for the release of his new game! That was the most important part of the whole night. Have you seen the new Chevrolet commercial where they inficise the dad's that take more pride in being a good dad or friend or husband than they do worrying about working....

That's me baby,,,,, work sucks, life is fun..... If you let it be...............

Things Change !!!!!!!

I swear I use that title a lot. At least once a week I get on here and talk about my plans and what we are gonna do. Then the next day I use the above title and talk about how everything changed, guess what! Things changed! I thought we had a plan and within 10 minutes it all changed. We got home Friday night after the game and all of a sudden nobody wanted to ride to the mountains.

It's to cold! After sitting in the bleachers all evening everybody decided they just didn't want to go to a place that was even colder than were we where. It was about 38 degrees Friday night and it was gonna be 28 when we got to the mountains. Just like that plans changed.

We ended up going out for a nice lunch yesterday and that was about it. The kids came and went all weekend and I rode. Karen had a good birthday and we changed up our plans for the mountains. In two weeks football will be over and we will be able to leave right after work. But as I say that it looks like they are gonna make the playoffs, if they win the last two games we will have home field advantage. Then Cody will have his mascot duties and we will probably delay the mountains again.

Point is with kids you better be flexible!

The only plus for me was the fact I got in a good ride Saturday. I went down to Anne Springs Park in Ft. Mill SC. I haven't been down there in a while. I will be going back, the place rocks! I rode 2 laps and had a good time..

Ready Set Go.........

She says were ready so I say let's go! I got my ride in last night and Cody had his last soccer game. Even though we are only gonna be gone for 2 days it's funny how much you look forward to it. We won't leave till around 11 tonight and won't get there till 1am or so. We only have tomorrow and half a day Sunday but I need this trip!

I am saving all my days until Christmas so it's been awhile since I had a day off so this is like a little vacation to me. It's funny how a day and a half out of town and out of your usual routine can seem like such a break! We humans are kinda funny when it comes to things like that. Just the "change" is all you need for a recharge of your batteries so to speak.

The kids are happy and excited so it's gonna be fun. I say "kids" but Chase has decided he wants to stay with grandma. She will spoil him all weekend, he knows that. Cody and Kayla will have fun. The best part of Saluda is the fact we are staying in town and the kids can walk to anything they want.

After a few good meals and a little bit of leaf looking I will be relaxed and ready for the stretch till Christmas. I can't wait for that two weeks off...........

Plus it's the wifes birthday this weekend so it's gonna be fun....

Sometimes ,,,,,,,,,,,

Sometimes nothing can be so exhausting. I got home yesterday and made myself walk to the mailbox. After all that excitement I went with the wife to her mom's for a few and then came home and pretty much hit the couch. Not sure why I was so tired but I was.

I managed to put down a good hour of sleep. Then I got up fixed Chase and I something for dinner and about the time we got through Karen and Cody walked in. She had stayed at her mom's all evening and Cody had been at soccer, he stopped by to pick her up on the way home. They ate and we ended up on the couch for the first few innings of the world series.

No ride no walk no nothin', that was the whole evening. I did manage to get the car packed and ready to ride after work today. I plan to ride on the way to Cody's last soccer game. We have to get everything packed tonight so we can leave from the game for the mountains tomorrow night. I say "we" like I am gonna help pack but actually I am gonna stay gone all evening and outta the way! I won't get home till around 8:30......

That Sucked !!!!!!!!!!!!

So yesterday I have all my stuff loaded and plan to ride right after work. On my way I could already tell I just didn't feel like riding. I knew if I didn't go I would just be lazy and lay on the couch all night so I went. I hit the woods and was enjoying a nice easy ride, things were going good and I was getting through at a nice clip. I even found myself day dreaming a little bit, I though to myself "man this is nice".

"Bam", as I start to get up off the ground I am thinking what the hell just happened? Then I realize my mouth is filling with blood! Shit! I bit a hole in my tongue! No kidding, it bled and bled and bled! It wouldn't stop! I had to drive home 30 minutes so I was already thinking "how's this gonna work".

I didn't want to spit out the window all the way home so I didn't have many options. I ended up stopping about 5 times to spit and by the time I got home I was throwing up! Not fun..... Not fun at all!! By the way it had been about 45 minutes since it happened and it hadn't stopped at all. It was still bleeding just as bad as when I did it.

I went ahead and got cleaned up. Then I asked the wife what I should do, she is the nurse ya know. She tells me I have to options. Option one is wrap an ice cube in a rag and hold it on my tongue and see if that will stop the bleeding. If that doesn't work option two is go to the emergency room and have my tongue stitched up!!!!!

My reply to that was a whole line of expletives, all together they meant "that ain't happening"!!!

Back to the ice cube, apparently the ice cube constricts the blood vessels and that will stop the bleeding. I ended up walking around for about two more hours with a rag and ice cube hanging out of my mouth. I may have been sick the rest of the night but at least it finally quit bleeding!

That my friends made for a great night,,,,,,,,,,,

Time Is Gonna Fly'''''''''

It seems like every time I turn around we have reached another hurdle. A point in time I really didn't want to reach, and each time something clicks by it makes me sad in some type of manner. Not really sad as in sad, sad. More of a sad as in I realize life is moving along.

That make sense??

Does to me!

Are you wondering where I am going with this? We had another senior thing last night at school, every time we do it just makes me realize again how close he is to graduating. Last night we had senior night for soccer. Karen and I went to the school for the afternoon early dinner with the kids and then they had a little ceremony at the start of the game for all 4 of the seniors.

She and I got to walk him out on the field and the principal gave her a flower and shook my hand. Then we had photos and it was pretty much over. Because it was senior night we had about 10 times as many people show up for the game. That was nice usually it's the same 10 parents at every game. To have that many kids and parents there was really neat! I was surprised how many students showed up. It was a lot!

Over all it was a great night! It's just that every time we have something like this it just makes you realize how fast it's coming. We have one more soccer game Thursday and the season is over. We started playing a few days before school started and here we are at the end of October. Christmas break will be here before you know it and half the school year will be over.

If the first half came and went this fast you know the second half will do the same. Even he is starting to feel like it needs to slow down........

I Like Last Minute Plans ,,,,,,

This might not be totally last minute but it sure as hell was spur of the moment. The wife has a birthday coming up this weekend and I really hadn't made any plans beyond a dinner, card and flowers. But that all changed, I woke up yesterday and checked my banking account. I took inventory of the bills I have lined up for this weekend and decided we needed to do something.

Something besides the dinner flowers and a card. I had her do some inquiring about the mountain house we have access to and found out it's empty this weekend. Last year we went up and went horseback riding in the Pisgah National Forrest. This year we are gonna go up and go hiking in the Pisgah National Forrest! We have a few big items planned for Christmas so I have been watching the funds. That's the reason I had planned to take it easy for her birthday.

But when you sit down and figure out how much flowers a card and dinner all cost and the car gets 36 miles to the gallon. What the hell it's my story and I know she would rather go some where than stay here so we are going to the hills. Hiking is cheap (free) and I can cook dinner Saturday night. We can go out for breakfast Saturday am and lunch will be whatever we find while we are out. Sunday we will head home around 4 so we will do breakfast and lunch. Easy weekend and she's happy!!!

Saluda has a great little downtown and we can turn the kids loose and don't have to worry about what they are doing. The front porch has a great view and it's a quick and easy couple of days away. Plus I never got to take my usual fall mountain bike trip so I still have that money set aside. Might as well score some points around the house and take the wife and kids up for a few days...

Happy wife, happy life !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekends ,,,,,

That's what I live for! Got the car loaded and ready for a quick lap after work and then we are going out for a few drinks with some friends tonight, then I have all weekend to ride. Not sure where I plan to go but I am looking forward to it.

This is week 2 we have an away game. So the kid has no mascot duties and we aren't going to Anson County for the game so it's a free night. Next week we will be back in action! We do have senior night Monday and the final soccer game on Thursday. As much as I hate it Cody will be done. He might still do track in the spring but that will be it. High school sports will be over!

Now if I could just get him back on the bicycle!

I hold out hope but so far no luck. I would love to have the kids back in the woods like they used to. Cody is in the woods but he's hunting not riding. Chase is old enough now he does his own thing. When he was younger all he wanted to do was whatever his brother was doing, he's over that! They grow up!

Sometimes faster than you want! I miss Cody being 10 years old. I wish they both could stay small.

Anyhow if you haven't noticed October is almost over, I used to look forward to it just because we went trick-or-treating. Now my kids both think they are to old to go. I always dressed up with them and planned to this year. But I can't get either one interested. Chase just asked if we would buy some candy he would be happy.

What the hell.... This growing up sucks!

Maintenance ,,,,,,

And nothing else. That pretty much sums up my evening. I worked on a bicycle and a beer. Evening over, now I want to ride and because of that it's raining! Go figure, I wasted the evening last night and now my ride is in question. Maybe I should have paid a little more attention to the weather.

Since I had such a boring evening how bout I throw in a product review. The other day I was at the bike shop picking up a few items and I needed chain lube. They were out of the stuff I usually use. So I came home with a new product called "White Lightning", ya gotta love the name!

I used it on Saturday, 3 rides ago and the chain is still smooth as silk! I was surprised to find that. It works better than what I was using. Was being the key word, I now have a new product.

Find it, try it, you'll like it....

Nuff said,,,,,,,,,,

After Ride ,,,,, After Post ..........

I am on a roll with my titles this week. Pretty straight forward and to the point. Although it might become redundant by the weekend.

So yesterday I did exactly what I said I was gonna do. I hit the woods and didn't even look at the clock when I was ready to go. I left the computer in the truck and I even took my camera with me. Back when I used to post pictures on my blog I always had my camera with me, I never knew when I might need to take a picture. Maybe I need to start posting pictures again, that seemed to give me a reason to slow down.

I didn't stop to take any but at least I had it with me. Anyway I had a great ride and it felt like I was going fast. I passed at least 10 people and never got passed. Although the last person I passed made me work for it. But once I was by him and put a corner between us he fell of pace really quick. Yes I went to Sherman and did my super loop, all the options twice. I have ridden there so many times It just seems more fun instead of riding 2 full laps.

The point is though I had a great ride! I can't tell you when the last time was I took the camera and even thought about taking pictures. I know I got there by 4:20 so I can only guess I was ready in 10 minutes. I loaded up and was at the store at 6 so I figure I rode for an hour and half. That's how I am gonna start tracking my rides, by time. No miles, just time. And by time I mean yesterday counted for an hour and a half.

Not that I rode a "time of" an hour and a half for a lap at Sherman. I did my version of a loop not a regular loop. I "just spent" an hour and a half on my bike that's the way I am gonna look at it from now on. It's just fun, all for play. That's why we ride, enjoyment!

I don't see a pay check just because I ride a bike in my future So I better enjoy it.

The After Post ,,,,,,,,,,

That would make this the post after the post, which was yesterdays post! Follow? Good! After I wrote yesterdays post and read it myself it made me think. First off I thought about how I needed to change the grammar in a few spots to make it read a little better and then I thought who cares, I write this blog because I want to not because I care about my grammar. Big deal if I screw up once in awhile. If you are a regular reader you come to expect crappy grammar and some times boring content!

That probably covers 50 percent of my readers, the other 50 just read this to verify there life is as boring as mine!

Now to the point. After seeing the kids Sunday and chatting with them it made me think about riding. My riding in general, how I beat myself up trying to go faster and then if I skip a day I feel like I missed out. Why, I don't know, I enjoy riding and always look forward to going. Why would I put pressure on myself when I do go to try to go even faster and then judge my ride based on what a clock says when I reach the end of my ride. I can't tell you how many times I have came out of the woods and looked at my computer and said "that was a crappy ride".

Even though I had a great time and a great ride. I make that comment on the fact my computer doesn't read what I want it to. I just spent an hour riding my bicycle that cost a couple of thousand dollars around in the woods and I base weather or not it was a good ride on the fact a 50 dollar computer doesn't read what I want it too....

How stupid is that!

Today I am gonna leave my computer in the truck and see if it makes a difference. Instead of basing how much fun I have on a computer, I am gonna base it on "how much fun I have"....

Makes sense to me............

It Made me Laugh,,,,,,

So yesterday I had said I was gonna hit the road bike. When the time came I just didn't have the gumption to hit the road. I decided to head to the woods for another mountain bike ride. I guess I am back in the habit of the woods.

Well I headed to the trail and started riding, I decided to do what I call the super loop. That means I ride the options twice. Sherman has a main loop and 2 options if you ride all the trail you end up with a little over eleven miles. If you do the options twice you end up with a total of about 16 miles. I prefer to do it that way instead of riding a full 2 laps. The middle section is just really boring to me.

So yesterday I am there and doing my thing. I have already done the first option twice and and I start the second option for my first lap of it. I get about a mile in and come upon two kids. They are probably around 12 or 13 years old. They say hi and I ask how they are doing, we exchange pleasantries and I head on.

It made me smile! They where there riding but they were not your regular cyclist type kids. They had on blue jeans and riding Wal-Mart type bicycles. Both of them had these big backpacks with the water in them. They did have helmets on but you could tell they had nobody in there family who rode. If they did who ever that might have been would never let them out looking like they did.

It was that obvious they were not cyclist.

So anyway it made me smile! So of course as I came around for my second loop I came upon them again. This time I decided to stop and chat a little. They had their mom drop them off and they try to come at least once a week. It takes them about 2 hours to ride a lap and they stop and take breaks and bring their own snacks and stuff. They were really good kids just having a good time riding their bikes.

So back to my comment about them not being cyclist. If anything they are probably the closest thing to real cyclist having a good time riding their bikes than I have seen in a long time. They have down to the simplest form of riding. They don't care how many breaks they take and they sure aren't trying to set any records. The sole purpose of their ride is to have a good time.

Nothing else!

Myself included, I think way to many of us forget about that part of cycling. In it's simplest form it's all about having fun and riding your bike.

Those two kids taught me a lot yesterday....

Slow We Go ................

Or at least slow I go. I got to Steve's trail yesterday am and met Mike B. and a few of his buddies. I knew I was under the weather but as I said Friday I still wanted to get a few miles in. So we meet and we start, someone says what pace do you guys want to do. The reply came of how about medium hard.

I think to myself "I should be able to handle that". Guess what about 5 minutes later I was all alone and riding really slow! Medium hard was just a little to hard for me. I don't know if I needed to warm up more or the fact I was just not feeling it. Either way I rode by myself and that was that!

I even ended up skipping a section or two just cause I wasn't feeling it. There towards the end Mike came back and rode the rest of the trail with me just so we could chat. That was cool, he and I don't get to ride much together so that was alright. At first I thought this sucks having someone comeback for you. But then I said what the hell and enjoyed the company.

Today it looks like the road bike and a few miles around the house.

So I Feel Bad ,,,,,

Big deal, it is what it is. I accept it and now I will deal with it. I plan to ride all weekend, it might be slow but I am gonna ride. I need the miles and the fresh air. Maybe I will feel better.

I haven't ridden all week and sleep has been elusive! So I plan to hit it nice and slow tomorrow. Although I did sleep well last night I managed to mess that up this morning.

This morning the alarm went off and I got up got ready and headed out the door. I get to the store and all the lights are out and nobody is there! What the hell! I finally look at my clock and realize I got up an hour early! I set my alarm to go off an hour early.

Damn it! I had gotten up and never even looked at the clock, to go out the side door I walked by 3 different clocks and never even noticed. What a way to start the day. At least I was early to work.....

Clicking Along ,,,,,,,,,,,,

Really nothing spectacular here lately, honestly a little bit of riding and a whole lot of running. When I reference running I ain't talking about with my feet either. Last night was a perfect example.

I got home and had about an hour break, just long enough to rest and not long enough to do anything. Then it was to the soccer game when that was over, at 7:50 it was a 35 minute ride to the church. I picked Chase up and home we went. We sat down for supper at 9:15 last night.

That pretty much sums up the usual for our days lately. I get to ride about 3 days a week and the rest we run. We still have football Friday night, since I am not going to the mountains we are gonna do the game. Then I have Saturday and Sunday to ride.  Then maybe I might get to the mountains next week.

Yep the guys are all talking about making that happen. It seems just about everybody can go that weekend. So now I have my fingers crossed. If it doesn't workout next week it ain't gonna happen. They close the campground for the winter at the trail head the end of the month and Karen's birthday is the last weekend of the month. So next weekend is it.

We either go or I am out....

No Answer Yet ??????????

I asked again last night and she isn't really responding. I take that as a "no she doesn't want to go the mountains" response. Not what I was looking for. So now it looks like I will be here all weekend. That sucks. You look forward to something and then it falls apart at the last minute.

Is what it is.... Move on and find something else to do. But we are gonna go, she just doesn't want to go now. So now I wait...

I did bring all my lights today, I have everything charging now. With the new temp change and it really feeling like fall now I am ready for a night ride. Yes it was 88 Saturday and Sunday but now we are in the mid 60's. Fall has arrived!!!

Not much else been going on we only have one soccer game this week and that's tonight. Chase has church and Cody has soccer. The schedule is Karen is gonna take Chase to church and I am gonna go to the soccer game. I will get to see the first half and a little of the second half. She will see a little of the first half and all of the second half.

Between the two of us the kids are covered!

Now What ??????????

Well I had a trip planned this weekend for the mountains, now it looks like it won't happen. Everybody has pretty much cancelled. It's down to me and one other guy. Me being me and not trying to be rude. I just don't really want to go and hang out with one other dude all weekend.

Plus he's slower than I am so riding together wouldn't work to well. I would end up sitting around a lot waiting. Not fun!

So as a backup plan I asked the wife if she wanted to go up for a night. She might, that's about all I got out of her. So right now I don't know what I am gonna do. That kinda pisses me off! I was all happy and ready to spend a few days riding in the mountains.

Oh well, I will still do something this fall, just not sure what.

Decisions ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Ok, first off we had a great weekend with the football game and homecoming on Friday night. The place was packed, even though I didn't go to Piedmont High school I still ran into people I haven't seen since I walked out of high school 25 years ago.

It's always fun catching up.

Maybe tomorrow I will get to that a little more. Today we need to talk about my lazy ass style of riding lately! Yes I have been riding but no I haven't been pushing myself. I just go ride and that's it, I have even been avoiding riding with my fast buddies just cause I didn't want to ride that hard.

Well Kelly came to the game Friday night and I agreed to show up for the group ride Saturday morning. Now when he texts me and I agree that's one thing. I can skip it and not even think twice about it. But when I looked him in the eye and said, "ok I will be there" that changed things.

If I decided to bail, then I would have been lying when I said I would come. So I got up and went riding witht he fast guys! Did I keep up?

Nope! But I sure as hell had fun!

But now I need to make a "Decision", do I want to get back on the gas or just keep pedalling around for the hell of it. There is a big difference!!

Ready For The Weekend !!!!!!

I rode one night this week and we had company one night, besides that I haven't had much motivation. In other words I didn't do shit last night. I just didn't feel like riding. So I did the next best thing.

I loaded the dog up and we went to the car wash. I washed the bike, it's been about 6 months since the last time I did that. Then it was home and I gave it a full service. Now it's shifting really well and I am ready to ride. Maybe that will be the motivation I need to get back out.

I do plan to ride this weekend but nothing nailed down. It's been awhile since I headed south so I might do that. I need the miles and I don't really want to get in a hurry. I just want to be out covering some ground.

Tonight is the homecoming game at the school and the kid has a full day of mascot duties. He will probably loose 5 pounds today with it being 88 degrees. It's been cooling down but that went out the window this week. Now it's hot again, this will probably be the last time it gets hot though so it won't be long before we are in the cool stages of fall.

I can't wait!

We Got Company ,,,,,,,,,,

It was kinda last minute but who cares. That's what I signed up for! The phone rang Tuesday on my way home. It's kinda funny because I have been riding my motorcycle all week and I just happened to be at the store on my way home when the phone rang. I f I hadn't answered it then, I sure wouldn't have called the number back. I didn't recognize it.

Anyhow I answered and it was a couple who are pedaling through and needed a place to stay. So I said yes, they came through last night. They got to the house at 5 and we had a good evening.

They even cooked dinner for us. That was a first! Karen sat back to watch and she did the cooking. We had a few beers and the girls had some wine. It made for a nice evening. They left this morning and are headed to Chester SC. They made arrangements to stay with another couple tonight.

They started there trip in Richmond VA and are headed to Phoenix AZ for a total of 2425 miles! They plan to be there at the end of November and are gonna stay with his sister until they get jobs. She has taken a year off from college and he is doing about the same. Right now he is a welder and learning the trade.

When he gets a job he plans to take the test to become certified. He said he is waiting till he gets to Arizona because it will be easier to just get certified there than try to transfer his certification from Virginia. He plans to work in the shipyards around Virginia Beach in a few years. Once he gets his certifications and settles down a little bit. It pays really well..

It must be nice to be that young and have no bills or commitments. To just load a bike and take a year to travel and see what's happening on the other side of the country.

I keep telling my son..... You only live once!!!

Amazing !!!!!!!!!!

I got home got ready and headed out the door. It's been about a month since I have ridden the road bike. I actually walked out to the garage and had to look around to find the bike. I had forgotten I had hung it up in the rafters.

Then of course the tires were flat, or at least low.

I pumped things up and hit the road. I got to the end of the driveway with no plan and traffic was coming from one direction so I went the other direction. That ended up being the plan for my ride. No direction!

Anyway I ended up with 27 miles and had a great time. It's been awhile, you just roll along and the speeds are a lot faster! You ride in the woods and 10-15mph feels fast. You ride the rode bike and roll along at 18-20 and feel like your flying!

It's funny how you just need to change up once and awhile. What's old is what's new again..........    Amazing !!!!

Let's Ride ,,,,,,,,,,,

I might have mentioned that I was kinda burned out on the road bike lately but I am starting to get the urge again. Or I just don't feel like driving some where to ride. One of the two....

Point is I am gonna ride the road bike tonight and I am looking forward to it. I rode the motorcycle to work this morning so I didn't bring the bike or anything. The road is calling my name! Besides I need to work on my tan as long as I can, it won't be long till it's cold and you have no tan!

We did have a soccer game last night, got home about 8:30 so that pretty much killed the evening. We got home and nobody wanted to cook so it was hot dogs and chips for dinner. Then tomorrow night will be another soccer game. Before you know it the week is over........