I was back on the trails at 7:03 AM on Tuesday to lumber out another loop of woodsy walking while doing my best to fill my camera’s SD card with nature nubbins and critter pics.
The morning was damp and humid under a slate grey sky that does its best to monkey with my shots and force me to over-familiarize myself with Lightroom’s shadow slider.
As previously mentioned in the last post about nothing, I took the weekend off from lumbering, enjoyed the spring weather, watched football, and hung out with Wifey. B was also home for Mother’s Day, so that was a bonus. It was all pretty swell. Well, other than the Spurs losing yet again in league play. I hate them.
With all that out of the way, I was eager to get back in the woods to burn off the weekend’s bad choices.
STORY NUMBER ONE
For Friday’s hike, I waffled on taking my ancient Canon s95 point and shoot, and the ALMOST as old Fuji x70 instead of my normal set-up. In the end, I opted for the Fuji at the last minute for some reason, and was soon hurling myself down the road toward the trails.
The week of lumbering has been damn good so far, and dare I say I have been feeling better mentally and physically than I have since roughly last October. *knocks on every piece of wood in the house*
I woke on Tuesday morning at 5:55 to the soothing sounds of a steady spring rain falling. I flirted with the idea of preempting my 6AM alarm, farting, rolling over and going back to bed, happy to spend a little longer under the covers as the rain pelted the windows. Instead, I turned off the alarm, farted, and got out of bed.
Lola was fed, coffee was downed, dumps were taken, and soon I was on my way to the trails, eager to get some soggy miles in my feetz.
I had an excellent but busy weekend with B’s graduation and the celebration of said graduation.
The graduation was great, and bit overwhelming. There were over 1,300 grads just in the Com-Arts-Sci Department, and multiple other departments were having ceremonies all weekend long!
Is your nubbin buttered? Would you like us to assign someone to butter your nubbin?
I’m fairly certain that no one on earth, aside from me, calls tree buds, flowers, and other plant-based woodsy matter “nubbins” (short for Nature Nubbins). However, like most of the stupid things I think, say, and write, it popped into my head years ago and never left my lexicon.
Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.
– Derek Zoolander
As predicted, the week has been a busy one, but that hasn’t stopped me from getting on the trails. I just couldn’t go as far as I may have wanted to.
Wednesday, I got to the trails just after 7 AM and did a quick 4.39-mile loop. A loop that was only “quick” because I saw virtually nothing that I wanted to photograph, and the shots I did take were complete shit. Not one keeper!!
After two days of pseudo-slack, I was up and at the trails at 7 AM on Monday in search of miles for feetz. Miles were found.
Today, April 28th, is the 20th anniversary of The Soiled Chamois. We all know it should have ended long ago, along with nearly every other bike blog from the early 2000’s. But, as they say, here we are.
Much has changed along the way, for better and for worse, but for some unknown reason, I keep hitting the publish button. For that you have my apologies.
I like to think the way I write has got better over the years, along with my perspective on things like bike racing, bikes, photography, and life in general.
The bulk of the bike-oriented blogging was done from 2005 to 2013 and on Google’s Blogger platform, and sadly, when I look back from time to time, I can’t say I enjoy reading it; that’s why it remains offline these days.
There’s a saying out there amongst office-working types; “This meeting could have been an email.” Well, I think it goes without saying the bulk of my posts over the past 20 years could have been a Facebook post or, better yet, maybe just not posted at all.
However, I am a creature of habit, and this digital fish wrap helps me bring my favorite hobbies together, share some words, and have an outlet for the creative part of my brain that I don’t know how to shut down. (I imagine more stuff before 7 AM than most people do all day!!)
At best, I hope my blog can inspire you to get outside or maybe laugh. And at worst, you find me an insufferable prick that can go fuck himself.
The blog post below was the first “real” post I did as The Soiled Chamois. I don’t have any photos from the ride, but I included one of me and a 15-month-old B-Man taken a week or two after that first post. The pic is just before the start of my first race of the 2005 season (The Revenge of The Rattlesnake XCM in West Virginia). B looks less than thrilled to be on the start line, and 33-year-old me looks emaciated compared to 53-year-old me!
I don’t think I have another 20 years of this shit show in me, but until my hosting plan runs out, I’ll be here.
Later.
