Title goes here.

Not much to report.  Figured I should try to put at least a few blog posts out a year.  Uh, yeah.

I rode in this morning in -10 degree wind chill temps.  It wasn't bad overall except for my nose and the tips of my fingers.  In case you're wondering, here was the clothing breakdown:

Base layers - wool long johns, midweight wool long sleeve shirt, wool socks.

next layer - Bonty commuter pants, cycling wind vest.

over layer - Minus33 lumberjack wool workshirt

Head - Pearl Izumi Balaclava, Bonty winter cap

Hands - wool glove liners, lobster mitten/gloves.

Feet - plain old Addidas Sambas pedaling my flat pedal commuter.

Also, to protect my eyeballs from becoming marbles, I wear some horrid shop safely glasses.  They are huge, but that also protects most of the skin around my eyes that the balaclava doesn't cover.

I was sweating by the end of the ride, but that was because I had a tail wind and was trying to ride quickly on my heavy commuter.

Thanksgiving was nice but tough.  Spent time with as much family as we could.  Christmas will be similar.  At least we'll have my lil bro, his wife, and their cutie pie 1.75 year old in town. She's talking some now so it'll be fun to interact with her.

I really need to clean my bike so I can't use that as excuse not to go on rides with people.  I meant to clean it last week so I could ride on Saturday with a few people I knew were heading out.  Sure wish I had a basement or someplace inside to make a mess with cleaning.  That will be one of my requirements in a house, whenever I get around to buying one - a basement shop with a drain.  Someday.

I need a bike ride

I propose a bike ride next Saturday.  SHOMER SHABBOS!

It's mah birthday that day, so I want to ride for a bit in the morning.  Not sure how far as I haven't been on a real group ride in a while.  The legs may not hold up for a 4+ hours.  Maybe if the pace was mellow.  So if you're training for cross and need to put in some efforts, please do so on a different ride.  It'll be small chainring and large cog selection for this rolling birthday present.

Ride specifics: from Jones Bros in Aksarben at 7:30am (be there early for coffee, if needed).  If the wind's out of the North, we'll head North. If the wind's out of the South, we'll head South. If it's East or West or no wind, well then we'll just ride in circles or something.

How's that for specific?

UPDATE: Ok, more specifics.  I will wait till later in the day on Saturday to see if the rain clears up.  Then I will definitely do a ride Sunday morning also.  Not sure when.

No 7:30am Saturday soppy ride for me.

Le sigh.....

Shomer Shabbos!

True story: I was riding down the Keystone to my bike building job when I came up to a guy shuffling along while hunkered over a stroller and talking on his cell phone.  I of course called out, "Passing on your left" of which I knew he'd be pretty oblivious.  What I didn't know is that there was a very anxious dog behind a fence along the trail that couldn't contain her excitement any longer when I passed between her and the stroller pushing reluctant father.  Lots of barking ensued and I think the guy nearly crapped himself.  I hear from him after I'm leaving the interesting scene, "Go ride on the road."

I continue riding on trying to process what I just heard.  "Ride on the road?"  On the road I usually hear the opposite, "Get on the sidewalk," so I was in deep turmoil as to where my place in the world should be.  Guess I need to invent a flying bike.

Ok, that actually wasn't a true story.  Or was it?  With the other guys writing great stuff I decided to join the party partly.  I read the reply that Fred made on an old post about joining their pact to write once a week.  His reply was a couple days after I made the post, but I didn't see if for a month for some reason.  I wonder if I should tell him that I did see that reply?  What do you think, Brady?

I do enjoy their stories though. You never know if they are telling you their version of real life experiences or just making something up completely.  I guess that's what makes a good writer.

So anywho, SHOMER SHABBOS!!!  I'm proposing an easy 3 hour ride from Aksarben in the morning (7am or 8am start, tbd) this Saturday.  It's gonna be a warm and possibly windy/rainy one, so the earlier in the day the better.. But it will be fun.  And when I say "easy ride" I mean that there might be some punchiness, but don't expect me and Randell to follow all of them. That's right, I said Randell.  As in Jon Effing Randell of cat 1 racing lore.  He has recently come out of retirement from newborn wrangling and brewing/beer drinking.  Well, he's still doing both in abundance, but adding easy riding to the unending list of parental responsibilities.  And like me, he's a little soft of the mid-section and formerly strong of the legs.  But we're working on it.

I imagine we'll head South and maybe do the old Wednesday Night Worlds route, or maybe hit the Glennwood Loop.  However, those routes might delve into the 3-4 hour mark.  We'll see.  2.5 hrs has been our norm for the past few weeks.  Bumping up to 4 might be a tad much.

UPDATE!!  We will be leaving Jones Bros Cupcakes at 7:30am.  Arrive early if you want a cuppa somefin.

So I was at this graduation party the other night and I saw this:

Well actually, I added the knife part, but then I walked over to the bookcase and saw something that caught my eye.  Could it be?  It was a copy of Catch-22.  Where are the snowdens of yesteryear anyhow?  (I added the anyhow for dramatic effect).

Oh, so that's where it went.  Hmm.  Then a few days later I had strawberry sherbet for lunch.

So yeah, I can ride tomorrow at 6.  Sounds good.   Hey do you guys know this Rafal Doloto fellow.  He was facebooking about a ride tomorrow morning.

Maybe I'll take up Hard Liquor

Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. What's the old saying? "If you don't have anything nice to say, don'tsay anything at all." Yeah.

Aside from the once easy but now more difficult 3 mile commute to and from work, riding has been on the back burner. Even with all this nice weather.

I have ridden from work to the bike building job for Trek Papio a couple times. But I've been zonked after that, so I fear what a Wednesday Night Worlds or fast weekend ride could bring.

So to get away from the epic pasttime of video games, I wanted to try something new. I also needed a new belt for work as my current one is somehow shrinking. What?

I picked up a basic leather working kit from Tandy Leather. I had tried leather working when I was much younger without great results. Now that I'm more patient (maybe less ADD?) I can put in the time to get good at the stamping, carving, tooling, etc of fancy leather working. Besides, my work belt is just too tight even with the added hole on the end. What?

Would it be cheaper and healthier to eat smarter and exercise more? Well yes. But that would take time away from leather working and drinking beer and Playstation and ....

So anyway....

My big bro and a few other people I know have posted requests on Facebook and gotten great results. Need a cheap beater car to get you through the year? Someone on Facebook might have one. Need baby stuff because you have no money at age 19 and work at a restaurant? A well-to-do couple might have loads of things they'll never need again since all their babies are in school now.

I ask for a simple slate of steel or smooth rock for my leather working hobby on Facebook and get this:

friend 1: Only if you build me a leather mask....

friend 2: can you make me a nice Brooks saddle?

friend 3: Check any counter top company like Martins or Universal. They have remnants laying around I think you could pick up pretty cheap.

friend 4: Stupid granite taking up all that counter space.

friend 5: I have a big piece of concrete in my backyard, I will check the dimensions for ya. It is a little jagged around the edges, however.

Three comedians and a couple helpful responses. Alas, I guess that's the way most internet posts go. Thank you friends, for the suggestions and laughs.

I asked around at work too and found out that my boss used to do leather working as a serious hobby/extra income. He has a ton of tools and books about it. He also brought in a couple slates of granite for me to have. Awesome!

Not awesome was lugging it home in a messenger bag on the bike. I came home and had to know how much I was toting:

Along with that, I had some books. I'm guessing I had a loaded road bike in my messenger bag. I survived, but was worried about tipping over at stops.

So, I'm gonna put together a couple items to get some leather working in. Then I'll get my belt all fancy and nice lookin.

Then I might combine all my new trades and make this:

Anyone know of a good cheap vodka?

Cue the comedians!!!!

Yay new year!

It's 2012 and according to some, we won't be around this time next year. Meh, whatevs.

My last post stated that I was riding more and such and so on, but that has waned. It's tough to stay motivated and ride solo which means on the trainer for those that work till it gets dark. And the group rides sometimes are demoralizing since others can hold a conversation at their easy pace going uphill while I'm above LT and drifting off the back.

Meh. MEH I SAY!!!

I need to lose 10-20 lbs. If only I could go on a bike ride without my bike. That would drop the weight right there!!! I tried to cut out breakfast to reduce caloric intake, but after a few weeks of that, I saw no change in weight. If anything it crept up a pound or so. I think I snacked more in the evening after starving all morning. So that didn't work.

Now I'm going to try to change my liquid consumption. I've tried it before, but I think I really want to cut out beer and coffee. I know that's lunacy to most cyclists if not most the population, but I'm tired of spending the extra mullah on beer and always needing an extra boost in the morning from coffee. I've been off the beer for a week. Yesterday afternoon was rough as I was really craving one, but I made it through with a few tall glasses of water. Now I just have to cut out the morning joe without going into convulsions due to a caffeine headache. I have titrated down to 1 cup each morning this week and will try to be done with it over the weekend. Well, "cup" meaning 16oz or so, not the 8 ouch cup of coffee that doesn't exist anymore. I know beer has a bit of calories, but the way I drink coffee - with cream and sugar - is part of what's keeping me plump. I recently read somewhere that the caffeine in coffee transports sugars to your body quicker. Since I don't burn those sugars while I'm at work, I store them as fat. I know I could just go with black coffee, but doctoring it up makes it barely palatable as it is now, so I don't think I could go that route. Besides, if I want to feel some actual jolt from coffee I have to down half a pot now. I miss the days when one cup made me feel like a meth head. Not that I know what a meth head feels, but I remember first trying coffee and feeling like I could see into the future.

I never remember seeing past 2012 though. Hmmmmm......

Fire in my belly

I just had a great weekend of riding with good buddies.

On Saturday, E.O'B., Bryan, Brady, and I did a fun little loop to downtown, up Hickory hill for the coming weekend's Hickory Hill Climb Challenge (which I'm not going to do very well at), the hit up good ol' Bellevue Blvd before catching the tailwing express home. Good times.

Then on Sunday, all 4 of us met up again at Seymore Smith park for some CX action. It was tons of fun lawn racin' as Shim calls it. On a side note, anytime I partake in CX anything, I keep thinking of this video:

I have never mastered the flying leap remount so I always have to do the "Step N Hop" remount. Not graceful at all.

Anyway, back to the fire in my belly. After all that cycling goodness over the weekend, I got up early (thanks in part to going back to standard time) and went to the gym to get some non-cycling specific stuff worked on.

So now, it's Monday, I've come off a few days of some great workouts, and I feel this heat radiating inside me. It's like I have this anger and rage. I feel like The Hulk. Well, ok, maybe not as enraged as The Hulk. But at least half as much. Ok, maybe a third.

Hopefully I can keep this fire stoked and shed some of the flub that I've amassed over the last couple years of little to no riding.

Then, maybe I can get fast on the bike again.

Then, maybe I can learn a flying leap remount.

I hate commercials

One of my main motivators for getting rid of cable was the commercials. The never ending price hikes didn't help either, but really, I just couldn't stand commercial breaks. I could never watch one thing. As soon as a commercial came up, my very dexterous thumb would go to work on the remote finding other content to watch. I'd fly through the channels I mostly watch until I found something on that wasn't a commercial. Some times, I'd have to fly through the channels multiple times since EVERY ONE had a commercial going.

I loved Hulu when it first came out because, guess what, no commercials. Then they added commercials, unless you paid for it, then you'd just get less commercials or something. I haven't been on that site in a year because of this.

Now people are harping on Netflix for the price hike. It was eleven freakin dollars to get one dvd at a time and stream everything they had. Now it's a "shocking" 60% hike up to a staggering $16.

Really? That horrible huh?

Can you think of any other bill that's only $16 a month? Digital HD Cable with internet is something like $120 a month for most people. I pay $50 just for internet from Cox Cable alone, which again creeps up a couple dollars every year.

People complain that there's nothing on the streaming services of Netflix. But how many times have you heard the same about television programming?

So give Netflix a break. Otherwise they'll have to start feeding us commercials somehow.

If that happens, I'm going off the grid, for reals.

Lurking in the Shadows

I pulled a Fred. I haven't blogged since a serious climate change. Shame on me.

My blog used to be used as a ride organizer, but now there's this. It get's used almost weekly, however, I know there's way more impromptu rides going on. So, how does that work?

Well there's this new fangled thing called social media. These continuously updating sites let you post a little, but not a lot, on what's happening. I belong to them about as much as I belong to Husker Nation. I reside there, will watch what's going on with some interest, but rarely partake in any involvement.

I can never fit what I want to say into a meaningful Facebook post. And Twitter doesn't even let me begin a thought. If you'll notice, my blog text area is most of the page, or widescreen. I did this because I'm awfully wordy and didn't want my ramblings to take numerous scrollings like some people. (Sorry Brady, your's was the best example I could find. Please, keep up the entertaining posts. Love them.) Also, I figured most people would be posting widescreen youtube videos in the future. But then a weird thing happened.

"In the future" became social media where links are used rather than thoughts, and smaller is better. Even the screens used to view social media are smaller. Did the cell phone help create social media, or did social media push cell phone's into what they've become? Either way, I'm not sure I'm on board.

Bryan was recently faced with the question of how important social media is to him. He went with a pretty sensible phone by today's standards. I had mentioned in a response to an earlier post, if he wanted to avoid Android, he could go with a Blackberry via Virgin Mobile. I figured he'd like the idea of saving money monthly. I really don't know his situation, so I probably assumed wrong, but I like VMs prices - $25 a month (plus tax, so $27) for unlimited web/text and 300 minutes a month. When I got a bonus from work, I tried out their LG Optimus and tried to like it. Well, aside from liking the name a whole bunch, the battery lasted maybe 2 days. That was with turning everything off (GPS, Gmail Sync, Wifi, etc) aside from regular cell phone reception. I know this because there was an app that let me see all the currently running processes. Kinda cool, but worthless when you find out that searching for cell towers and running your OS only nets you 40 hours of battery life. So that went back to the store and I used the bonus to pay down some debt.

Maybe if I could afford any of it, I'd be singing a different tune. As it stands now, I'm almost offended at the idea of spending $70+ a month on a data enabled phone just to stay connected when most people have perfectly fine computers at their job and/or home. If interesting things happen between your job and your home, you can easily use your large screen and large keyboard to write a very well thought out blog posting.

I know I'm being particularly "fist shaky" about this subject (a term I learned from Miah in a Facebook conversation about fireworks) but I don't think I'll ever be a frequent poster to the social media anytime soon, if ever. So I have a jump start on being uncool to my kids, if I have any.

So, I am around, lurking in the shadows, following what's going on, but usually not commenting on (or "liking") it. Hopefully I'll pick up riding more sometime soon since I recently got a slight promotion at work and don't have to work weird hours anymore. I'm done by 4:30pm almost every day. Now I just have to remember how to ride fast. I rode with Mr. Miles this last weekend and was shown how utterly long it's been since I've ridden with any speed. Who know's maybe I'll show up to a WNW ride and ride with the C group. C group being me, by myself, just getting to Ft. Calhoun while others are getting back to the store.

Progress

I'm happy to announce there's been some progress.

Riding home today, a car passed me on Leavenworth's left lane (I, of course in the right 3rd of the right lane) which contained a passenger that rolled down the window in rainy weather to yell, "Side Streets, BITCH!"

So yeah, significant progress.

1. The argumentative passenger was in a vehicle that was kind enough to make a full lane change to get around me. I've found most people do this nowadays. It also helps that I do take up a 3rd of the lane. There's not enough room to allow a cyclist and a car in 1 lane on Leavenworth (or many of Omaha's streets) so I take enough of the lane to require a full lane change to pass me. This is safer for all involved.

2. As the one sided argument went, I should seek out, and travel on side streets. This is a somewhat valid point. The side streets are probably significantly safer than the main streets, albeit substantially hillier. However, I was 4 blocks from joining Leavenworth's bike lane, and there's no real side street route to get to said bike lane. This argument is a huge upgrade from the old, "get on the sidewalk," or, "get off the road" admonishments. Had the conversation been 2 sided in a more relaxed situation, it might have went,

"I ride a bike to work."

"Oh really? I accept that riding a bike is a viable means of transportation, I only request that you stick to the side streets so the faster moving, heavier traffic could move along more expeditiously. Have a good day."

Well I can dream, can't I?

TAG! I'm it.

So I finally got that cold that everyone else and their mom has had. My wife had it like 3 weeks ago, so I must have caught it from someone else. A co-worker of mine called in sick a day before I would've called in had it not been Saturday. I actually still had to work that day since there was an event that no one else could work. Oh well, overtime pay is always welcome.

I hope all you peeps at the MTB races had fun. Wish I could've been there to help out and watch/heckle.

Not much going on in Munson land. Just payin off debt, workin for The Man. I don't have any guarantees, but in the next few months, I might be getting into a house and/or getting a new position at work with a bump in pay. Hopefully both happen, but only time will tell.

COME ON, TIME, WHAT'S THE DEALIO???

That is all.

Saturday Group Ride.

Not sure why, but my "Blogs I Read" didn't post the latest and greatest over at GroupRideOmaha.

10am from Jones Bros cupcakes. Get there early for coffee. I know I will.

Sunday Gravel (AKA FROZEN BEARD RIDE)

Sorry folks I'm out tomorrow, your still welcome to park at the house if you'd like, but I won't be able to make the ride this week.

Mo Gravel Mo Glory

I don't know about the title of this post. We going to make it to MO valley tomorrow.
Start time 9:30 am.
Meeting place BK bridge.
New this week group b. IF you would like to join group who doesn't have 5-6 hours to burn on Saturday. Here is the scoop the b group will be slower pace and distance.
Maps compiled by MOD
route a
route b
All are welcome just remember plan accordingly and be smart about your prep.

Sunday's Gravel RIde (Frozen Beard Ride)

2-6-2011 ( I was waiting for Rafel to post first, but I'm sure Saturdays ride info is forthcoming).

Same details as below, leaving at 11:30 a.m. 5224 Lake Forest Drive, Papillion, one block to gravel, cross bikes, time and distance to be determined by group at ride time, most likely in the 2-3 hour range. This is not a no drop ride, but we will regroup several times. FROZEN BEARDS not required but encouraged, refreshments to follow.

Sunday's Gravel RIde (Frozen Beard Ride)

Same details as below, leaving at 11:30 a.m. 5224 Lake Forest Drive, Papillion, one block to gravel, cross bikes, time and distance to be determined by group at ride time, most likely in the 2-3 hour range. This is not a no drop ride, but we will regroup several times. FROZEN BEARDS not required but encouraged, refreshments to follow.

Aloha!

in case you miss the info

Saturday ride has been pushed forward 30 minutes.
Meet at BK bridge at 10 am.
Route and info on MOD's Site
All are welcome but you should always plan accordingly

Sunday's Gravel RIde

Ride will start at 11:30 same details as below, route and distance will be decided at ride time based on weather conditions. Cross Bikes, we regroup, but this is not a no drop ride, plan accordingly.

As promised

Since Friday is not enough notice for people, I decided to put the ride info up day early.
Saturday 10:30 am get ready for 60 miles of loess hills goodness. This much I can tell you for sure.
Route is extender from last week. MOD has the route. Couple of cat 5 climbs according to mapmyride.
There might be Ice beards
There will be coffee after
Most importantly there will be gravel glory
We also will have several guests from Lincoln throwing it down PCL style
Not everyday you can ride with DK200 reigning champion :D
If that's not reason enough it ( it should be) , it will be 8-10 degrees warmer than last week. SO you have no excuse (unless it's work) All are welcomed... plan accordingly

Saturday Ride

Not much change is needed. If you think that 18 degrees is a heat wave which it should be considering it's twice as warm as it was earlier this week come on down.
Meet at BK PED Bridge @ 10:30
About the same route as last week less pavement more gravel (yey gravel)
Little longer distance from the bridge think closer to 38 miles.