Blood, Clouds & Cows

bush_beer_farm_field

Busch Light on dirt.

My Monday morning was spent in my doctor’s office for a six month check up on my blood thinners and to get some blood work done. After that I drove all over Mount Pleasant looking for (and failing to find) some replacement parts for sliding drawers in the panty. I probably could have squeezed a ride in there somewhere, but to tell you the truth the low, dark clouds that hung over central Michigan, gusting winds, and temps in the high fifties just made me want to drink coffee and curse the reality of being a home owner. HOUSE GODS, WHY DO YOU MOCK ME??

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The MJU II Project No. 3 & 4

StyulsEpic

This post has even less to do with cycling than most of my posts do these days. The closest you’ll get to cycling here is that nearly all of the photos in the post (except for the one above) were taken while riding my bike. The following has to do with my continuing forays into shooting photos with old point and shoot film cameras. Instead of rehashing all the reasons why I tracked down an Olympus MJU II (also known as the Stylus Epic) camera several months ago, I will just refer you to the posts The MJU Project No. 1The MJU Project No. 2.

Now on with this post…

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Squeezed

corn_grain_elevators_

When I woke up this morning I had no REAL intention of riding. I figured that I would sit around, watch a ton of soccer football all day (BPL, Bundesliga and maybe even the lackluster MLS), drink some adult beverages, eat some white trash Mexican food, then head to bed, where I would sleep like shit for eight hours before starting another cursed week on this shit hole of a planet on Monday.

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Hardtail Rambling

dirtroadflowers

I had to spend two days off the bike as I took care of a variety of house issues that included HVAC repairmen and appliance delivery drivers. Oh well, life happens. With that said, I was anxious to get out for a ride on Friday, but I was also geeked to spend some time snapping some pics with my DSLR. This would normally call for one of my fat bike rambles in which I roll at a slug’s pace around Michiganderburgh snapping pics of rural dirt road life as I see it. However, I just wasn’t craving a slug’s pace, so I brought my 2010 Salsa Ti El Mariachi out of retirement, put my Porcelain Rocket DSLR Slinger on it, and headed out for a ride.

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Making Hay, Etc…

makinghay

I took advantage of this morning’s cloud cover to avoid the blazing sun and get out for a ride before the “fit but fat” thwarting Michiganderburgh heat and humidity had a chance to do any sort of thwarting to a fat man such as myself. To paraphrase/fuck up an old adage– I was making hay while the sun DIDN’T shine. Or at least riding slowly by hay while the sun didn’t shine.

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Rambling Through The Heat

hotmuddydirtroad

This week has sort of been all over the place; one day I’m doing nothing but random house stuff, the next day I’m walking around in the woods like a crazed hermit with a camera, the next day I’m on my cross bike north of town rolling on fast, hard packed dirt roads, and the next day I’m on my fatty, rambling over, wet, muddy dirt roads in ninety degree heat for just under thirty miles [I think thirty miles on a stock fat bike equals fifty on a regular bike, but I might be wrong on that].

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Squeezing It All In

quickgravelbarn

With time on my hands the past couple of weeks I have been trying to squeeze in a bunch of stuff before fall arrives: riding, hiking with Wifey, picture takin’, hanging out with the boy, fishing, catching up on all my normal house stuff and getting some estimates for some home improvements we need done before/if/when we decide to move to another part of the MP area. Not all of that is fun, but it’s not all that bad either. It really the least I can do whilst Wifey is out slaying figurative bacon to bring home. Not to mention the stuff that IS fun is PRETTY FREAKING FUN and I am lucky to be able to do it. The crap parts are just things that everyone has to deal with.

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