Author Archives → soiledchamois

Closer To Not Being Closer To The End

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Playing Catch Up, Monday 1o:50 PM

This blog is funny in that if I go one day without posting something, I get the itch to post something; whether it be some unfunny commentary, tales of one of my short and shitty rides, or just a couple of photos. However if I go more than four days without posting I reach blissed out on Valium and sleep med levels of apathy about ever posting anything again. Then once I hit five days without posting something, apathy gives way to creative ennui, or I actually go for a ride and have something that I feel like blathering on about.

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As Expected

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In the midst of various home and freelance work projects I looked at the weather forecast for the week and saw that Tuesday looked to be the one day over the next few that I could finally get out on some singletrack. Despite my left hip and lower back being in various stages of suck, I forced myself to load up the PrOcal and head up to the trails.

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Thoughts After a Year

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After B’s soccer match on Saturday I stuffed my ever-expanding body into my ever shrinking kit and headed out for a quick 25 mile ride before dinner. As I rolled along dirt roads in the crisp air that qualifies for spring in Michigan I realized that I had ridden right through the Boone’s 1 year birthday last month without any acknowledgement whatsoever. I believe we were moving that day, so I guess I have an excuse. However I hope to make up for all that here today.

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Squeezing

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I had hoped with our move over I would be back to a semi-normal riding schedule. Sadly, this week things have not really come together. First weather got in the way (hard to believe it’s nearly May given how cold and crap our weather is), then a long “to do” list was presented to me by our realtor in regards to our old home which is going on the market in two to one hundred ninety-six hours.

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Getting Settled

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I, er I should say we, are finally getting completely settled into the new crib and totally digging it on so many different levels. As a bonus I finally have a desk for my Mac and junk, and it only took me four hours to put together. Thanks Staples! (Not really, maybe next time you could get it shipped in 500 different pieces instead of just 400?). In any event, I have a desk and it looks swell in my office. Even better than finally getting settled in a new crib is getting in two-days in a row in of riding.

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Slow (Back at It)

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The past week has absolutely flown by! It seems that everything has been moving non-stop: house walk-through, house closing, moving boxes, traveling for B’s soccer, moving day, un-packing, sorting, arranging, getting things done to get our old home on the market, picking up a new lawn mower, mowing the small patch of grass at our old hose (15 minutes), mowing the large patch of grass at our new home (45+ minutes), taking B to soccer practices, getting some light “at-large” web work done, and doing all the other stuff that is expected of a father/husband done.

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Two In a Row?

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After a crap week of riding, it felt amazingly good to get out for a second day in a row on the Boone. Slightly warmer temps, less wind, and remembering to actually wear the appropriate base layer helped me go a few miles further than yesterday and get in a ball hair under 30 very unimpressive miles. Yeah, my hip/back still hurt a bit, but screw it, I was riding my bike when I should have been home packing, updating the shop’s website, the soccer club’s site, getting a flyer finished, packing, doing laundry, painting the basement, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner.

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Almost Warm

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Spring in Michigan means that even when there’s no snow, sleet, or freezing rain, ride time often greets you with 32˚ temps and a crisp 10+ MPH wind coming out of the north/west. With a heavy sigh into the vat of coffee raised to my rotund face, I reluctantly made my way up to the Chamber of Farts™ to strap myself into Part 1 of my winter riding gear (spring ensemble): wool socks, fat condensing base layer, lined bibs, and Craft WindStopper base layer*.  Then down to the big box of bike shit for Part 2: riding jacket, cool weather gloves, vintage Bikeman.com skull-cap and my regular Pearl Izumi kicks. With that, me and the Boone were out the door…

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Waiting It Out

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I woke up Friday rocking some sort of allergy/head cold thing. I was less than thrilled, but it’s not too bad and hasn’t slowed me down too much. Of course it’s hard to get slowed down when doing nothing. Saturday morning we got a dusting of now, so I figured I’d wait it out and see if it would melt. The sun came out and the snow did indeed melt, but with the temperature struggling to get into the low thirties, and the wind gusting out of the north, I had no desire to be out freezing on my bike. Instead I grabbed my camera–so as to take some crap photos–and did a short hike around one of our local county parks to get out and blow the stink off me.

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