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........

Go Green Bay........

Ok I guess you figured out who won the Superbowl. Yep the Green Bay Packers!! My team is the Eagles and the Packers eliminated them in the playoffs. So at first they weren't the team I would have pulled for but then they meet the Steelers in the big game. Now growing up you where either a Cowboys fan or a Steelers fan and I still to this day don't like horses so guess which team I liked. Yep the Steelers..

But I don't like Ben. The guy is a jerk, all I have heard is how he has changed and I hope he has. Good thing both cases against him were dropped. He would still be in jail. But that's my opinion. So anyhow I am glad the Packers won. Now we can forget about Brett Favre, they can change the name of Brett Farve blvd. To Aaron Rogers Blvd...The healing will be complete!!!!

Ok, now I can get off my soap box and move on. It was a good game stayed up and watched the whole thing. Karen hung in there till about 9:15 then she was out. Chase was more interested in the Puppy Bowl on the Animal Planet than the Super Bowl. The joy's of being 10.....

So it was a beautiful weekend, got out and played both days. The wind was terrible Saturday and made for an awful ride but at least I was out and off the couch. Sunday had a little wind and was perfect. Went out and made the best of it. Not racing this winter has been nice. The weather has been hit or miss so they have had some crappy races and some perfect ones also. Not racing I haven't had to worry about training. That has been the best part, I go out and ride and if I ain't feeling it in the legs I just enjoy the ride at a slower pace. When I am on my game it feels even better.

still one of my favorite pictures....

Cody is into the BMX bike and Soccer so he hasn't given much thought to the bikes. They both had good report cards last week so it is hard to get mad at them for not riding. I have good kids and you have to let them figure out what they like to do. Not what you want them to do!!! If it was up to me we would be training and getting ready for the spring. Right now it looks like I might be doing a few races this year and that's about it...

The kicker to that is the bike shop who has really helped me and the kids out the last few years finally stepped up and put together a real race team this year. Got sponsors and the whole nine yards, and here we are going to pass on the whole deal. Kinda bums me out. I would like to be apart of it but don't want to commit if I am not going to be dependable. Oh well I am 42 not 15...Although it has made riding more enjoyable not worrying about the level of my conditioning.......

The thing is a mtn bike race takes all day, none of the ones I want to do are around this area. I like doing the trails we never get to ride on. So I leave and it takes me 2 hours to get to a race and then race and 2 hours home. I have tied up all day. A day that was not spent with the kids. So you move on, we got a canoe for Christmas and it is just about time to get it out. They are both ready to head to the lake and play on that. We found a river trip of 25 miles on Rocky River which is not but a few miles from the house. Found it on a rafting web site about N.C. rivers. So looking forward to that.

So anyhow found this picture this morning, got to add that to the things I got to get done before I croak..The Aurora lights!! This was taken over the weekend from Fairbanks Alaska. What a sight..

One last thing how's this picture to put things in perspective. That's Yao Ming with his custom mtn bike the guy with him is the same height as I am 5'10"........That's one big dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weather............

We are getting rain all day today and that will make a messy weekend. I was planning to mtn bike this weekend, can't now. Looks like it will be a road weekend again....But at least I can find my car and it ain't as cold as it could be. Got to love Chicago. This is Lakeshore Drive, and all these cars where left the other day whem that storm came through. Thank god we are in the south.

They have been towing all those cars to a lot and you come get your ride. Now there where 700 to 900 cars towed to 3 different areas. So that being said, no they are not charging you to get your car back but you are going to have to go to 3 different lots and find your car. Then if it is in the middle of the lot you are going to have to wait till everybody else gets their car out of your way. What a nightmare!!

What would you do. Makes you think twice about becoming a bicyclist!! That's right you could have at least pushed your bike home the other night. It might take those pour car people a week to get their wheels back. You can learn a lot from kids they just take it all in stride.

They have kids who are in high school who have never had a snow day. Now they have had 2 this week, agian if we get a "chance of snow" schools close. My kids are jeolous they have been watching the news and they know we would be out for a month.

So anyway from my view point down here in the no snow zone called the south it is nice to see the pictures people send to the local paper. I copied these pics from the Chicago Tribune.

Well that's about it for now, hope you have a great weekend. Make the most of it, you only get 52 weekends a year..What a ripoff!!!!!! You work give or take 5 days a week and only get 2 off..How come in Europe they get 4-5 weeks vacation and I know people who don't use the 2 crappy weeks a year we get here. Are they just stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Thursday.......

I am fighting a cold or the flu, not sure which one yet. Doctor Karen has me on Tami flu so I should bounce back pretty quick. I don't go to doctors they are for sick people! Plus that's why I married a nurse. You know what though after she deals with sick people all day we don't get much sympathy around our house. She is gonna kill me for that statement. I thought it was funny though.

So anyhow been trying to find a subject for today but just can't seem to get motivated, this might be my shortest post yet. It's cold again here but nothing like it is out west. Cold here is in the thirties If it got below zero everything here would shut down, just like it does with 2in's of snow. I feel for my brother he is in Philadelphia and actually owns a snow blower. That's one toy I have no need for.

Mom sent me these pics. of Lead S.D. it is a little south of Sturgis in the southwest corner of the state. If I had snow like that I would only have to dig out one time. Once I got out I would head straight to the airport and head as far south as I had money to get me!!! Could you imagine dealing with this everyday. Not me!! Look how deep the front yard is in the last one. It will be June before that all melts!!

Now to change the subject and the climate look at that picture it was shot in Florida, they don't get snow down there. But anyway that guy is having a bad day, he tried to go around a car who was turning into a parking lot, no patience. The car was waiting for the truck to pull out of the lot and so he drove right under the front of the truck. Once again that just shows, just cause you have money don't mean you are smart! Believe me most of my business is the custom home market. I have meet some stupid rich people over the years. A lot of stupid rich people.

I owe this pic to mom also. I guess she saved they day as far as my blog goes. Rule #1 ....This should be one of the golden rules!! Loose lips sink ships!! That's what this picture reminds me of.

Well that's about all I have to say today. Tomorrow is the day. End of the week..........

Epic

Now this sounds like my kinda ride, this is a 42 mile road ride in New York City. They close  the roads to  traffic for the event and you get to ride around NY, all 5-Burroughs. Check out the route map.

Ok, I tried to copy a bigger map but couldn't find one. They limit the entries to the first 32000. That is a lot of people, checkout the pic of the start. When they turn you loose the people in the back would probably have to wait 30 min. to get moving.

It wouldn't be that hard of a ride just a long ride. Sure would be fun though, see the elevation chart. The only hills are the bridges. You don't even have  to take your bicycle you can rent one there for the day. Now this would not be my first choice for a bike to do this but would work for a lot of people. It must because they run out of rentals every year.

Next year this is gonna be a must do. If ya notice the date on this it is right on my anniversary, we have plans. LOL. Got to keep the wife happy! Although you never know she might be ready to ride it by this time next year. She actually brought this to me. I never even knew she read my bicycle magazines. The Vegas part is what got her attention and the Red Rock Resort. Anyway you go to Vegas stay at the Red Rock and call the local bicycle shop, Mcghie's. They will bring you bikes to the resort and from there out through the Red Rock Canyon and back is a 17 mile ride. They advise you not to try it in summer because of the heat but I think we could work around that.

Also they have primo mountain biking trails to ride so she could have a spa day and I can go ride. Got to have a plan.

Doesn't look to technical but what the heck, you would be able to say you had been riding in the desert and you would get a lot of good pics. So a few years later you could look at all your pics and the only thing you will remember will be the money you lost in the casino. Been there done that. Every time I think of Vegas, that's all I remember. How much I lost. They didn't build that place by losing money. See I get to talking about it now and had to tell that, and it has been about 4 years since we went.

So today I leave you with a sunset shot of a grain tower..LOL..I thought it was cool anyway...........

The..............

Today I am kinda at a lose for a subject, usually I mention the day before, or I come up with a subject that I feel is worthy of my intellectual ability(lego tractors LOL). Well yesterday after I came home from what we in America consider our judicial system I vented a little bit and spilled the beans on my day. So today we are going to talk about some of my random pics. Trucks and towers, with a tractor or two. We have a bike or two also. Got to cover all the wheels.....

First up is this picture of a tiny little town in Kansas. This just happens to be Kansas but it could easily be any town in eastern N.C.. The best part about these little towns are the people. You know you can get unloaded without the headache, and there will be a little diner right across the street from the mill. Just about guaranteed, and that will be just about it. They will have a gas station/convenience store and maybe a car wash. But what else do you need in life. You can get gas and wash your car for church on Sunday, and then after church go to the diner. Then for entertainment you can go to Wal-Mart Don't worry they don't go without. I promise there is a Wall-Mart in the next town.Or if you are in Japan their name is Seiyu..Then there is Asada, that's the name in the United Kingdom..Walmex would be Mexico..Go figure..In India they keep it simple Best Price.... More simple facts about wally world. One third of all Americans will shop at wal-mart every week, guess what the number one item wal-mart sells the most of, banana's. Never would have thought that..........

Now if there is a highway near by they will have a tractor dealer. How they stay open is beyond my belief. How often do you see new tractors working in a field. All I ever see are old tractors. New ones ain't cheap either, if you have that many to sell you would think you would see new ones in the fields working? But if you need anything for a truck, you bet your ass they will have it. No kidding when I was trucking I stopped at one a couple of times when I needed a fan belt or something. Never let me down..

Then sometimes you will find a grain tower right out in the open with no town at all. Now if they are in the middle of nowhere that means that was the only place the railroad would let them tie into the tracks. Usually the town will only be a few miles away..



flask!!!



So on to bicycles, after yesterday I think I need one of these on my bicycle a flask holder!!Although I don't think that will help my training but it might help in the recovery. With a flask full of your favorite beverage you might just forget about how bad the race turned out after all the training!! 

How about this one to get ya of the couch, a 4grand commuter. You would half to use it a lot to justify 4g's, be hard to use the "I am saving gas excuse" . I could buy a lot of gas for that kinda money..

I can't see the logic in the commuter but I could sure justify the 8 grand for this road bike. You would have one bad to the bone ride. Next shop ride everybody would be checking it out! Well worth the money!!

Well that's about all I have to say today..Thanks for stopping by, Yep I am going to leave ya with a truck......