Shredded Tires and the Winter Bike League

This past weekend was the first Winter Bike League ride of the year. The WBL is probably the most organized, efficient, and coordinated group rides ever. Meets Saturday’s in Athens from December to Februrary. Did I mention it is free. Big thanks to all those who orchestrate the WBL and make it what it is. Folks, you will not find this kind of thing everywhere, or should I say anywhere else.  http://winterbikeleague.com/site/

Our course took us 85 miles. It hurt, as I haven’t been riding much recently, with my face getting eaten off by school and such. Cloudy, dreary, and about 30 degrees. The ride was good,125 riders, fast, fast, and faster than I expected. Cramps about mile 40, endless rollers, and cross winds, all made for a dull and gritty facial expression lasting 4 hours. 

Best of all, Kenny Rogers came out to greet us from his house. That is somewhat of an exaggeration, but we did ride by his mansion. He literally lives in the middle of nowhere. I mean c’mon Kenny Rogers, you’re the freakin Gambler’ and you live in Ila, GA? I still heart you though.

I have failed to mention up to this point that the night before the ride I changed my rear brake pads. While doing so I noticed that my rear tire was worn down to the threads from a few thousand miles of wear and tear. “Well,” I thought to myself, “another ride wont hurt, I’ll change the tire Monday. Get home. Eat. Go to bed later. Wake up at three in the morning to the sound of a loud crack. Investigate. Nothing. In the morning I look at my tire. This is what I found.

Note to self: Change tires when threads appear.

But kudos for getting the absolute most possible miles out of a tire.

November…

So…November has come, and holy cow, it has almost gone.

School has been consuming my life, as usual. 

But alas, I have achieved a minor victory. My thesis proposal has been submitted to my committee for review and I will defend in two weeks.

Before I explain my project in a little detail I want you to think about the following images. These are of the TVA Buffalo Mountain Wind Farm not far from my research area. 

What do you feel about this? Is it good or bad? Why? Who wins from this, who loses? Why? Do you like it, do you not like it?  Why?

Your opinion is valid no matter what. There are at least two sides to every thing, usually more, the bottom line: Its complicated. 

An attempt of a non-jargon explanation of my research is as follows:

I am attempting to find out 1. How sides of a controversy over a large proposed wind farm in Ashe County, NC framed environmental issues with relation to scale (think local, regional, global etc.) as a foundation for their percieved spaces of dependence (spaces which people depend on for their essential interests/ livelihood for which their are no substitutes)?

2. How both sides invoke the framing of environmental issues and affect the spaces of engagement within which the politics of securing their spaces of dependence unfolded?

3. Finally, how a local 3rd party organization affects both sides previously established spaces of dependence and the spaces of engagement, by attempting to promote community based renewable electricity?

So, in short how a controversy over large scale wind power has affected a community, and how efforts to promote community based renewable electricity in its place play out.

Some more stuff I grewed

Flowers is pretty

Torture by Music

Here is a list of bands/ artists whose music was played non-stop for days on end to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

– AC/DC  

– Aerosmith   

– Barney theme song (By Bob Singleton)  

– The Bee Gees  

– Britney Spears   

– Bruce Springsteen  

– Christina Aguilera  

– David Gray   

– Deicide  

– Don McClean   

– Dope   

– Dr. Dre   

– Drowning Pool  

– Eminem  

– Hed P.E.   

– James Taylor  

– Limp Bizkit  

– Marilyn Manson   

– Matchbox Twenty   

– Meatloaf   

– Meow mix jingle  

– Metallica  

– Neil Diamond  

– Nine Inch Nails  

– Pink  

– Prince  

– Queen   

– Rage against the Machine  

– Red Hot Chili Peppers  

– Redman  

– Saliva  

– Sesame street theme music (By Christopher Cerf)  

– Stanley Brothers  

– The Star Spangled Banner   

– Tupac Shakur

 

 

I personally think that the Meow Mix jingle, Barney theme song,  as well as the music of James Taylor, Brittany Spears, and Limp Bizkit are certainly all forms of torture, and the U.S. governement should be ashamed of making anyone listen to that crap.

 

Scan the list, see what you think

Snow and Leaves

This weekend we headed up to the mountains to spend some quality time with the fall leaves. We headed up saturday morning to Cherokee, NC, which if you have never been has more crappy trinket shops with names such as Tom-Tom’s Tomahawks, Medicine Man Gifts, Pow-Wow Gift Shop, etc. We hopped on the parkway at its terminus and enjoyed the beautiful misty ridges in the distance and the bright colors all around. Once we got up to a decent eleveation it began snowing pretty hard. Getting snow and fall leaves all in one trip really made for a nice getaway from stupid Athens.

 

Raccoons

There are a number of reasons I felt I must post this video. Instead of explaining, I’ll just let you enjoy and think for yourself on this one!

Raccoon AttackRaccoon Attack

T-Shirt Retirement and some questions

So I just recently retired my oldest, and longest running T-Shirt. YMCA Basketball, 6th grade, Dark Blue team T. I have worn this shirt so many times it is not even funny, and now I am happy to see it has made it to retirement. What might retirement consist of you ask? Why cutting the sleaves off of course. Now I can lounge in relaxed yet cool style, this shirt can now leave behind the hardships of protecting my armpits, and enjoy a free flowing, temperature relieving lifestyle.

In some other news, school is underway, has been for a month…just trying to graduate. Now for those of you who don’t know geography and geology are different things. However, geography is in some ways related to geology, and geography and geology are the two departements in the building. And as such, I interact with the geologists from time to time. But I will have to say, their colloquium this Friday, does not look very interesting. In fact Detrital zircon size variations and hydrodynamic fracturation of age populations sounds…well…quite terrible. I don’t think I will be in attendence, but on second thought, if I go, I can rest assured if I ever need to, I can whip out my knowledge of detrital zircon fracturation…bam.

USPRO

 

So last weekend was the US Pro Cycling Championships, held for the 4th year running in Greenville, SC, which happens to be the home of Big George Hincapie, I believe Big is his legal first name…We went up Sunday for the road race, which we did last year. We were pumped and ready for a good show, and we were not left dissapionted. We set up shop on Paris Mountain, a relatively small mountain, but at an infernal pace, it is the deciding factor in the race. Last year the pace up the mountain was slower, and in the end there were a lot of riders to contest the final few km’s and breakaways. This year, Big George had other plans, shred the field down with a stupid pace on the climb, and contest the finale with only a few other riders. Success, Big George, scores Big win #3 at the USPRO championships, good time had by all, certified hitmen of the peleton seen in action, pain and suffering viewed up close and in person, awesome, and to boot I got to sit down and eat a sandwich!

Here are some pictures, and maybe a video.

 

Family Fun Time!

 

 

Dave Zabriski solo break

 

Wrinkle Free

So we have a crappy 10$ ironing board from Target.

It sucks.

I have never really understood how to operate it, and today was the last straw.

I had to destroy it, or it would surely destroy me, man vs. machine, fight to the death. 

Although there were no eyewitnessess, the aftermath was caught on camera.

Colors!

Some pretty colors out in the world today.

A bowl full of homemade salsa. Full of color.

A bowl full of frontporch. Full of color.

A bowl full of dried lavender. Full of color.

Well, the lavender smelled better than it looked…

The flowers of success

After struggling with growing plants, mother nature has finally decided I am worthy of transforming a seed into something green and living. 

I don’t even know what kind of flowers these are, but I really don’t care. They are flowers, I told them to grow, and they did! 

Tomatoes are also growing well now!

Kudos for me for doing something a kindergardener could probably do! What can I say I’m a late bloomer…..

 

…yea that was pretty lame wasn’t it?

Some cool thoughts

The title was a lame attempt at a pun.

We had the Airconditioning fixed today.

So when we got back from our honeymoon, we heard a little bit of dripping coming from the attic where the AC is located. Slightly worried, we investigated, discovered condensation on the unit, and then proceeded to turn it off after finding out that it will probably explode at any minute. So one week went by, hot as poop, humid as poop, 7 fans running, sweat dripping, oily skin, oily hair, lice, bedbugs, skunks, mice, rats, iguanadons, and to make it worse I am pissed that the weather is humid and not perfect fall weather like it is everyday in Victoria!

And then we called the air conditioning people and got the unit pumped with coolant, subsequently discovering that Georgia was actually settled by Air Conditioning companies who paid settlers to live here and encourage colonization and development because they knew it is impossible to live here during the summer without AC. So now we can sleep easy, assuming a change of coolant fluid did the trick, lets hope.

And we know Pearl is a little happier, knowing she no longer has to share the window with the evil box fan.

 

Room for 2?

Honeymoon part deux

 

We are back from the Honeymoon! And what a blast it was. Updates from last time. Adventures included taking a ferry to vancouver, and then an absurdly expensive cab ride….Vancouver was a neat town, I would like to spend a couple of days there, perhaps while on our way to somewhere else. Our time in the city was limited, and after some walking, a very odd food court experience, a fudge and marshmellow brownie, and a nice cheap bus ride, we were back on the ferry to Victoria. The Ferry however was probably the highlight of the adventure, as we got really good perspective on the coast line and channel islands! 

 

The previous day was highlighted by some whale watching! Which, unfortunately did not result in the spotting of a killer whale, but was really fun anyway. We were on a 12 man zodiac cruisin around 40mph through some bumpy water in really awesome red full body life jackets. We saw a Meinke Whale and some elephant seals, so all in all it was a good time, and I am glad we went. 

 

Sweet life jacket

 

 

The best adventure of the trip was by far sea kayaking. We headed out to the harbor, about an hour bus ride away, and were both pretty nervous about the open water. After tracking down the kayak dock, we headed out, and boy was it fun. I only thought once about bad things happening, i.e. transient killer whale attacks…and flipping in a big channel. It was a blast, seals, starfish, herons, and bald eagles came to watch us kayak, and they sure got a show as we battled 10knot headwinds and blowing, swelling surf. We stopped at a beach to take a break, and stretch the legs, and by the end of the trip we were both tired. We had a sweet double kayak, I couldn’t fit in the back to steer, so Jen steered with the rudders and I set pace up front. After the long day in the water we just ate some sandwiches in the hotel and passed out. 

Highlights aside, the best part of the trip was the city itself. I would absolutely have loved exploring Vancouver Island, but it is so huge and wild that will be left for another trip. The honeymoon was for relaxing and walking around the city enjoying each other, the little alleys, the hanging baskets, the view from our hotel, and the harbor at night. 

 

 

The Ferry to Victoria/ Seattle

One fun ferry ride, One scary cab ride, Two scary plane rides, one jog around long term parking, and one sleepy drive later we were well recieved by two incredibly ferocious and loving kitties back home. 

 

Success. The Honeymoon was unforgettable, a highlight in life.

HoneyMoon Part 1

Wedding has come and gone, and what an amazing day! More on that later, as pictures continue to roll in. Currently we are lounging in our hotel room, bathrobes, and maple leaf cookies!

We took off from Charlotte, last Sunday morning. The stay at the Monte Vista Hotel in Black Mountain the night before was great, such a quaint and unique place. The drive to the airport in the morning wasn’t too bad, leaving at 4:45am, and staying close by to the wedding was a good move, we were definately more relaxed than if we had tried to drive to Charlotte that night. The plane rides were scary as usual, but our time flew by (haha) with a few (7) games of Air Plane Yahtzee!

We arrived in Seattle, and our hotel room was really nice, the reviews of the place were mixed, but I really like it, it was cozy and fresh, I think people expect too much. The view from the room was nice, and after napping an hour we ventured out to our favorite pizza place in the world. We had been there once before, and the second time certainly did not dissapoint. 

So we woke up in the morning after a long sleep, hopped on the ferry to victoria and arrived in our hotel for the week!

The View from our bed in the Hotel

We happened to arrive on British Columbia Day and there were a lot of people out and there was a festival on the inner harbor! We grabbed some pitas from a vendor and rented a scooter to cruise around the town! That was sweeet, cold along the waterfronts but a lot of fun, and some amazing views.

After motoring around, we rested in the hotel a while and then ventured out for dinner. Victoria is a reallllly cool city. It has the feel of a big city in some parts, but just outside the city is wilderness. The inner harbor and old town are the best places by far, and the city is so walkable, bikeable, and funable. There are haning baskets everywhere, and not just any ordinary hanging baskets, ginormous exploding, firework like hanging baskets that add a lot to the city. 

More pictures of the city to come!

Beautiful place, beautiful sunset, beautiful wife!

More to come!

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who came to the wedding. Each and every person there truly made the day special. 

Off to Canada, Eh!

To Jen

Jen,
You are my everything. You feed my soul, strengthen my heart, and fill me with unimaginable joy. I promise to love you unconditionally from this moment foward. I promise to respect you, trust you, care for you, be honest with you, share every part of my life with you, and give myself completely to you, and you alone. I promise to put your life before mine, and protect you with every part of my being. You are my best friend and my life partner. I am so happy to dedicate my life to you in holy matrimony.

 

I Love You

I Love You

I Love You

I Love You with everything that is in me.

Jennifer Anne Kelley, you are my one, and my only.

I Love You

Wedding prep and funtime weekend

Getting pumped and ready for the wedding!!!!!!!!

Last weekend had a great time, quality friends and fun all around. Cool cabin, frisbee throws, star tripping (spinning in circles staring at the night sky and then falling down, tons of fun), tubing down the Green river, tables outside, naps, swings, hammocks, dinners all in all an awesome time x 1,000,000,000!!!!!

A word from the tour

Eat it Cavendish…you are a poop face crybaby. 

 

Thor is at least a million times cooler than you.

Things to report

Hello.

Many things to report since last I was here. June has ended, almost as quickly as it came. Looking back on the summer though, it has been a long break, and I hope to appreciate it as I move on to the hustle and bustle that the next few months are threatining to be. I finished teaching my summer class. I really enjoyed the summer session class better than the spring session, and I am very glad to have had the experience of teaching so far. 

The biggest news of the summer so far, however, is Jen’s new job!!!!! I am super pumped about it, as I know she is as well. She will be a TA in the high school just across the street working in special ed. She put up with that shit job at stupid friend of the family for so long, she deserves a break between now, the wedding, and the beginning of school. I am really proud of her for sticking with that crappy job, and perservering to find a new one, and most certainly a more promising one. 

Last thursday July came in with a bang, literally. Jen and I decided to head up to Virginia to stay with the family and enjoy some time off with them. Our trip home began with a crazy Jeep  trip into the woods, up a stream, and through mud holes. 

In an exciting turn of events, Mom took the wheel and smashed thorugh a big mud hole! Something I will indeed not forget!

The weekend home also featured some good bike riding with dad, some Harry Potter with Mom, a visit to Michael’s work, fireworks with Wilson, Chrissy, Mom, and Dad (wish you could have been there Michael), bike riding with Travis, and many other adventures too exciting for this little slice of the world wide web. 

All in all a great time at home, working towards the wedding, getting hyped for the honeymoon, and mentally preparing myself for the fall.

Summerblerg

June 20th or something, I don’t even know, I have been absent minded, lazy, worthless, and poopy all summer. 

Gearing up for the wedding, just around the corner!

I don’t think I have any exciting pictures or anything, but I did see bottom soother in the grocery store, on sale for $6.75!!! I don’t even know what this is, or how to use it. 

bottom soother

Let’s see, I have zero motivation for anything, I really am wishing I had a job that gave me something to wake up for, because right now I don’t feel like getting up for much other than breakfast, but breakfast usually calls me between 8-9, 6:30 on teaching days. And it is hot and humid as poop here. I walk outside, 7 in the morning, sweat. 1 in the afternoon, really sweat. 6 in the afternoon, sweat some more. 10 at night, still sweating. I have probably added at least 5 pounds of salt to the Georgia soil this summer. 

Let’s see what else, I definately want graduate school to end, I have mixed feelings about going back, but what can say, I asked for it, I got it. The cat’s are crazy, Fozzie won’t be quiet in the mornings, and all he wants to do is play fetch. Pearl is, well, just Pearl, head cocked to the side. Pearl if you are reading this we love you, you too Fozzie. 

OOOH I almost forgot, our honeymoon has been decided! We are headed to beautiful Victoria, British Columbia! I am really excited, we are staying in a nice hotel, and get to explore a region that I really really wanted to see when we lived in Portland.

Here we will experience Killer Whale rides, Grizzly Bear rides, Sea Otter rides, Ferry rides, Cab rides, Buggy rides, Parliment rides, Garden rides, as well as French Fries and Gravy, Maple Leafs, and meet the entire cast of Degrassi the Next Generation!!! It is going to be AWESOMMME!!!!

Ughhh

 

Health insurers invest billions in tobacco stocks

Health insurers around the world collectively hold $4.5 billion worth of tobacco industry stock, according to a new study. The Consumerist has great highlights on the story, including this killer quote from the study’s co-author, David Himmelstein, “[It's] the combined taxidermist and veterinarian approach: either way you get your dog back.” Also: Toronto’s Sun Life financial lied and said it didn’t have any tobacco stock — it has over $1 billion.

Why is it a big deal? “If you own a billion dollars [of tobacco stock], then you don’t want to see it go down,” says Himmelstein, “You are less likely to join anti-tobacco coalitions, endorse anti-tobacco legislation, basically, anything most health companies would want to participate in.”…

But with $4.5 billion still invested in Big Tobacco, many insurers are reaping profits from a cancer-causing industry. As Himmelstein puts it, “Is this who we want running our healthcare system?”

Cat Fetch and some veggies

The cats LOVE plastic balls with bells in them. We discovered this early on in their easy little kitten lives. We also disvovered Fozzie loses the balls in 5 minutes, and Pearl picks them up and hides them. So they only really get to play with them when we find them in odd corners of the house…until yesterday! We got them 12 new balls, of which we have given them 4, and they have lost 3. These balls brought on a heavy dose of curiosity and sniffing at first, but soon they were jingling all over the house. 

Pearl found her own new game, where in she picks one ball and chases it everywhere before hiding it after she is tired.

Fozzie, on the other hand, discovered a new, and much more interactive game. Fetch. That’s right, Fozzie is a feline fetch fanatic. He howls at you until you throw him the ball, he gives chase, picks it up, walks back to you, and drops it right at your feet. If you don’t believe it, just watch for yourself.

 

In other news, a new CSA this week featuring, carrots, radishes, cilantro, lettuces, cabbage, beets, turnips, and an odd purple sea creature looking vegetable known as kohlrabi (also known as a german turnip)

The past couple of weeks

So. 

Over the past couple of weeks, one thing stands out. My worthlessness. I have been sitting around being pretty lame and lazy. It was nice for a couple of weeks, but now it is definately time to be productive. I start teaching next week, 3 times a week, so not too bad. I have been unable to even look for a job this summer, other than teaching, which pays me through July. This is because I am pretty much un-employable given my schedule, cant work in June or August…so here I am, not being very cool. I have been riding my bike enough to stay in shape, just a hundred or so miles a week, nothing serious. I plan on picking back up to about 200 miles a week through July, and then just take it easy, riding leisurely through October and then back to training miles. 

In school related business, summer reading begins now. 1-2 journal articles a day and 1 book every 1-2 weeks. If I can do this my summer will be a success. 

As far as post graduation prospects, I am beginning to search for any internships, opportunities, reasearch positions etc. in the areas of renewable energy and energy conservation. I feel that with my interest in these areas combined with work experience and my graduate school research, I will be most competitive searching for jobs in the renewable/ local energy and conservation arena. Combined with GIS skills I feel this is probably the best route to take considering I have degrees in history and geography, which is fine and dandy, but does not ‘qualify’ me to do anything specific. Flexibility at this stage in the game is not all bad, especially since I could probably change my mind tomorrow and decide to pursue my 5 year old dream of being a pirate. This might not be all that bad since I hear Somalia has been hiring pirates recently….that was mean, those people are hungry, more power to them, they are very good pirates. 

So we had a good mother’s day here, Erin and Jordyn came down to suprise Jen’s Mom and Grandmother, great suprise!

We also had a close encounter with the Ghostbusters!!!

And I made a quiche, it was so easy and tasty, it will certainly become a staple of my dinner menu!

This weeks CSA foodz

Yum.

Strawberries, kale, totsoi, hot radishes, easter egg radishes, lettuces, arugula

 

Foodz

Tour De Farm

This weekend was the Tour De Farm bike ride, good food, farm tour extravaganza. This is an event was put on by some of our friends, and we were more than happy to enlist our volunteer services. The weekend consisted of lesuirely riding bikes between local, organic, family farms and then taking tours of the farms. We camped out on two of the farms, and unfortunately rain struck the first night, but no one really complained as everyone had accepted it as a possibility. All of the farms were super awesome and really pretty. Some of the farmers were full time, while some had full time jobs and farmed on the side. It was really nice to get out on the farms and learn more about how they grow, but more than anything it was pretty eye opening to see the amount of work that goes into operating a farm. It is one thing to know and appreciate that your food actually comes from the dirt, but it is another to see it in action and learn about how it is done, I am really glad for that experience. There was also tons of really good food. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners were all amazing and super fresh. And I’ll have to say eating carrots and asparagus right out of the ground is about the best thing ever.

I could be a rabbit.

All in all tour de farms was a lot of fun. I am glad I got to help out, and just glad to have participated

 

Dinner the second night.

 

These are heirloom cattle. They are descended from the cattle that Spanish colonists brought with them, they are related to the Texas Longhorn, but they have adapted over 300 years to the climates, soils, and grasses of Georgia and Alabama. This is one of only half a dozen heards still preserved.

The Semester Ends

So today marked the end of the year/ semester at school. I finished up my two papers today, it was a good feeling, no matter how good the papers were. 

The end of the year/ semester brought with it something almost more exciting than finishing my papers. As I pulled into the driveway on my bike after riding home on this the last day of school, my odometer read 1000 miles! Last semester I commuted exactly 500 miles, and this semester I went for the repeat, another 500 miles exactly. It was a good feeling indeed 1000 miles of safe commuting with nothing but pedal power.

 

 

The 1000 mile mark

CSA Action

This year we are participating in a local CSA. CSA stands for community supported agriculture. CSA’s sere as a great way to 1: Eat locally and get a taste of what foods grow in your area; 2: Eat fresh, taste food only a day or an hour after it was harvested; 3: Support small local farming, currently small farmers are a dying breed. Large industrial farms dominate the market, and small farmers have no security. If they take a loan out and have a bad season, they are out of business! Through the CSA each member is a shareholder and pays up front for the projected season of food. If the season is bad, the shareholders absorb the risk. It is a great way to eat locally grown and fresh food while trying new things and supporting local farmers!

Our CSA is with Roots farm, just a couple of miles down the road! We paid in with our neighbors, and will split each week’s food items in half. The cost for us averages out to 15 dollars per week for about 20 weeks, for more than enough fresh fruits and veggies. Here is a look at what we got this week!

 

Immigrants

There is a mass migration of sorts here in Georgia. An exodus out of the desert southwest of North America, where Spanish flows like the waters of the Rio Grande. This mass migration has gone largely unnoticed until now, but fear not our friends from the south are not here to harm us, they are here to find a quality of life they are not priveleged to where they are from. They are here to raise families, they strengthen the community, they encourage diversity, and they just want to live their lives! Do not be afraid of their foreign appearance, their unusual cultural practices, their Leprosy (1 in 6 carry Leprosy) or their diet, embrace these fine beings and accept them as you would anyone else. After all, we were all immigrants to this continent at some point. These immigrants I am talking about are of course Armadillos

 

A friendly Armadillo

First recorded in Texas in 1849, they have expanded their range over 150 years to the north and east, in Florida, releases from a zoo in 1924 and a circus truck in 1936 assited the migrating population. Now the northern edge of their territory runs through Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. 

Please do not discriminate against these wonderful creatures! Do not harm them, do not curse their name!

Fox News would have you believe a different story of course: “Armadillos Invade North Georgia”

But do not fear them, accept them as part of our community, and do not discriminate subjugate them to your prejudice.

Another senseless hate crime just down the street….rest in peace

 

Rest in peace

Twilighting

This past weekend was Athens Twilight. This is a weekend of activities running, biking, triathalon, etc, capped off by a big pro-am night criterium. I participated in the morning criteriums, did’t do so well, but had fun. 99 Riders at the start line of my race. We get underway clip in, some guy leans on me for way too long, I thought he was going to fall but I shrugged him off. But the danger was not over, after 200 yards…the first crash. Third lap, crash. Fourth lap, crash. Wow, glad I stayed out of trouble, but not so happy about ending up at the back of the group, my mistake. Nothing exciting other than that. Two long straight aways, about 1k each, sprint out of corners get up to 30+mph. Fast and painful.

Garden attempt #3 and some paintings

So if I haven’t updated you on this years gardening, let me fill you in up to this point.

Garden attempt #1- herb garden + flowers: I try to nurse small seed herbs in a cat cage indoors, to keep the cats out and keep the temperature up. The large seed I plant flowers take, but the herbs fail miserably. Too much water, planted too deep, too many seeds.

Garden attempt #2- Cats eat 3 of 4 flowers…down to one…oh please survive. Herb garden round 2: Fail. Same mistakes

Meanwhile, I throw some seeds outside in frustration…one week later success. I think the key to the small seeds especially is just to let nature do its thing.

Garden attempt #3: All outside. 2 nursed tomato seedlings planted in bucket with trellis. A fower box, with my prized unknown flower still hanging tough, but I am worried that the transplant to its new outside home might hurt it…pleeease survive I have waited for like 8 weeks now and I want some darn flowers to look at. A couple of herb boxes, mostly basil and cilantro and some green and hot peppers!

 

The garden

 

 
 

Last remaining flower

 

I have also finally put most of my paintings up. I have gathered up frames from various places and put up most of my paintings around the house. It really feels nice to have them up again after such a long absence. A couple of Monet’s, Van Goh’s, and some fine Candian folks now warm our house and inspire us to break out the crayons.

 

A September Gail by Arthur Lismar

 

We also got some dust ruffles. They look better, and hopefully will spare our box springs from Fozzie and Pearls talons of destruction.

Bikes and Boats

This weekend we headed up to Asheville to visit Jen’s parents and for me to race the collegiate conference’s last race of the season in Brevard. It was a good visit, we also got to see wilson, chrissy, and travis, as well as travis’ dog tenzing. The bike racing was tough, the road race on saturday was 3 laps of 15 miles each lap for a total of 45 miles. The course was rolling with the exception of a stupid hill so steep I saw it required the ever ridiculous ‘paper boy’ zig-zag across the road to try to get up. So I move up to the front of the pack of riders, and hold my position before the first time up the climb. I know I am not going to be able to keep up with the strongest riders on the climb so my strategy was to go from the front to the back over the course of the climb. This worked, almost. I lost contact with the lead group of riders and they gained about a 45 sec. or a minute on me over the climb. I worked with some other riders off the back for the next 20 miles to bridge back up, and we had the main field in sight shortly before the second time up the big climb, but…they went fast, I went slow, and they were gone forever, no shot of good finish, I drop out 1/4 of the way through the 3rd and final lap knowing I have no chance and completely out of water…

The criterium was sunday. 45 minutes around a tough 1k course. There was no place to recover on this course. The front side was a moderate climb, and corner 1 went straight up hill, and the back side was gradually descending so no coasting, all pedalling, lots of pain, no mercy, sprint lots. So I was going well I had made it through some big accellerations, but that steep section after corner 1 was killing me. I felt like puking the entire time. I was holding good position but with 4 laps left I got dropped on the steep section!!! ugghh pretty upset I couldn’t hang and contest the final sprint, but I was shot, delerious, and my vision was starting to get bad. Off the back, I took a corner wrong, clipped a hay bail that was sticking out a little bit in the road, toppled over, not hurt, bike/ clothes fine ( thank you wet pavement, you saved the day) hop back on my bike and finish 20th…

 

 

So overall, I am pleased with the collegiate season, I only started training in February and did 3 race weekends with some ok results and some lessons learned.

Hava happay birthaday

It’s Michael’s birthday (happy birthday!!!!). I wasn’t able to get you a present so instead I got you this picture, taken while driving on the interstate. You can entertain yourself wondering who he (or she) might be calling, what they are talking about (probably their awesome haircut and outfit), and who could have possibly thought this was good for advertising and not creepy at all. Enjoy!!!

Bowling magic

So, parents are in town! We’ve been having a good time since their arrival this Wednesday. We’ve been doing some hangin out around the house, getting the cats high on cat nip, and today after a good bike cruise around athens with dad, an epic bowling adventure. 

First round, individual competition. Jake wins 109 to Jen 102 Mom 102 and Dad 108!!

Second round, Jake and Jen vs. Mom and Dad….Mom and Dad crush

Third round, re-match, Mom and Dad win by 11 on Dad’s last frame!! Good match.

Lessons learned. Bowling is fun. 

Boone time

Got back from a good weekend in Boone yesterday. We got up friday night, met up with some fantastic peoples, I got some quality food from earthfare, dined in the store, and drank lots of water. Saturday started with a stop at stick boy bakery, bran muffin and strawberry smoothie oh yea, followed by a cheering sesh at state farm for the charity 5k, good times. The afternoon revolved around me going to the uphill time trial, I told jen it would be the most boring thing imaginable  and so she went to hang out with some friends while I did that. Saturday night= long overdue reunion with black cat, I built my own burrito and won. Lots of good people. Sunday was similar, road race in banner elk, followed by lunch. Good food, good people all around!

As for the bike racing, the TT went okay. I wanted to get under 30 min, and I got 27:35, enough to land a 7th place finish, I’m pleased considering the difficulty of the course, and my absolute inability to find a rythym, my effort was hard to gauge, I’d like to do it again, I know I could do better, but overall I am pleased. 

The road race was ridiculously hard and I got D-ropped. The course was 47 miles, made up of a 6.5 mile loop around banner elk, repeat 7 times. Up 194 going out of banner elk was a slow gradually increasing climb, this got steeper and steeper until it turned up pigeon roost rd, where it got steeper, and then horsebottom rd, where it got even steeper still, this was followed by a screaming descent where speeds reached 50mph. The race was fast from the start and began to get strung out, and then the lees mcrae team went to the front and put the hammer down on the steep sections breaking up the group. I caught back on the descent, and hung in until the next time up the steep climb, and I got popped off the back, I tried to catch back on, but it was in vain, I spent the next lap holding my position and met up with some other riders off the back, we kept up a chase, but there was no point. Out of about 30-40 starters, I was between 15th-20th position back when I pulled out, if I had finished the race my position would not have changed, hence why I pulled out, thats just how bike racing works. In the end, there were no large groups of riders, just a constant stream of small groups who got shelled on the climbs, most of the winners finished in groups of 1 or 2. Overall I was ok with the result, and I was definately glad to have raced.

Aprilz

April is looking to be a busy month. An update from a previous post, I noted that 2 weeks ago at the UGA Time Trial, my goal was to get under 20 minutes. My timer read 20:01, however, the results came in today…(that took forever) and I got 19:59!!!! One second might as well be 1 minute, and I am quite pleased to have squeezed out all my effort to reach my goal, which ended up landing me a 6th place finish, sounds good to me.

So, headed up to Boone this weekend! I’m stoked, get to see good people, eat good food, and to boot there are 2 bike races at Lees-McRae. A time trial Saturday, uphill, from Valle Crucis towards Banner Elk along 194, for a total of 5.25 miles, let’s I hope I finish in 30:00 or less, we’ll see. Road race on Saturday 50 miles, 7 laps around Banner Elk, hope the weather is nice, let’s just hope I finish.

Got pleanty of school work until then, and more after this weekend, just trying to keep my head above water at the moment. New goals in school, I want to take a wider range of courses next semster, some techniques, cartography, GIS, etc, to round myself out as a geographer, honestly coming out of a geography program without that background would be a waste. At this point I just want to be a well rounded individual and geographer, I don’t want to specialize unless I get into a job that requires it, so for now I hope to do lots of different geographic things instead of focusing toooo narrowly on the jargon and B.S. that comes with narrowing toooo far down.

Until next time.

Rainy days and clouds

It has been raining. A lot. I guess that is good. Looks to have been the result of your standard mid-latitude wave cyclone event. So, where am I? Good question. At the moment I am hanging out in sweat pants and a sweatshirt, a sweat-suit if you will, although the top and bottom are not matching. I am running low on socks, I have no idea where our socks dissapear to. I feel like it is next to impossible to actually lose something within your home, it seems next to impossible for things to just up and run away when you’re not looking…but then again, it has been shown that cords will tangle themselves when placed in a drawer http://www.pnas.org/content/104/42/16432.full…so it is not unreasonable to think your things will simply dissapear on their own. Anyway, so I got some new socks, I’m stoked. 

Let’s see, what else has been going on. I don’t know, maybe the brain cells in my head are getting tangled like cords in a drawer…oh well…can’t stop them, I guess I’ll have to untangle them. 

Well, this was lame. Nothing exciting happening. Nobody got a 100 on my most recent quiz, and there was a farily good grade distribution, that’s good. I was showing a movie in another class last tuesday, I had never seen the film before, but at the end of class I had to fast foward to a certain section (this is a VHS mind you) so I am fast fowarding, and I stop right at the very first second of the section I was supposed to show! A minor victory in the constant struggle against poop that annoys you.

What has been going on?

So what has been going on since my memorable encounter with a wagon on chrome rims.

I went home! Last week, well more like two weeks ago now, Jen and I went up to charlottesville. It was really nice. We saw monticello, Jen’s first time there, they had a new visitor center, 42 million $$$ worth of new visitor center, and a cafe which served reasonably priced and fresh food!!! what a suprise, i thought they’d try to make up for their ridiculously expensive VC by serving 10$ veggie burgers with frozen french fries…but no fresh panninis and kettle chips! Score! We had a snowy morning friday, and went to a car show with Michael and Andrea. I asked the Volkswagon guy when they were going to come out with another mini-bus/eurovan..but he said not anytime soon, so I kicked him in the shin and keyed his ugly looking 2009 beetle. 

After we got back to Athens I endured a crap filled week of deadlines and papers, Tuesday/ Wednesday were poopy. 

This weekend was my first bicycle race in almost 2 years. It was the UGA cycling weekend, featuring a TT and a road race which started literally right outside my backdoor. The TT was ok, painful, I almost threw up, but my heart rate monitor proved its worth as I paced myself to a mediocre finish without blowing up, I wanted to break 20 min, I got 20:01, I’m pleased. 

The road race in the afternoon was mega fast. 44 miles and 4 times up the steepest freaking climb next to howard’s knob, granted this is only about 1 km long. My strategy was to get to the front everytime up and fall back by the top to save energy, this worked for a while, but just before the last lap, I was cooked, and I cracked at the very top of the climb, which fortunately for my ego was well after about 3/4 of the field had gotten dropped, I rode in, finished the race, and sprinted it out for not-last. 

The crit was today, 45 min + 3 laps. I was quite pleased with my performance up until the last lap. I stayed in the front third of the pack, chased down a break, was playing it good. The last lap I held back, I was too conservative, stayed mid-pack when I could have moved up, and on the little hill before the finish got caught behind a guy who was sinking like an anchor through the field and out the back, I think he dropped his chain, I lost most position and finished in the field. 

All in all good weekend, I am pleased, and best of all was having Jen there to yell at me to stop being slow (she didn’t actually say that, but I pretended)

On tap for tonight, homeade pizza. Breadmaker wins!

Scenes from Georgia

While riding my bicycle through rural Georgia this past weekend I was witness to something I am sure not to forget. It was a group ride, and we were re grouping at stop sign surrounded by pastures. As I came to a stop I hear the clip-clop of horses on the pavement, I look up and see an old conestoga wagon, (think Oregon Trail). This was no ordinary conestoga however, it had been made-over, Georgia style. There were four mules pulling the wagon, and three passengers inside. As the wagon pulled up my jaw almost dropped as I notice that this was no ordinary wagon, no, it was rolling on 20 inch chrome rims. The passengers, who were sitting in old car seats, had apparently mounted a wagon onto an old car frame, and then put chrome wheels on it. As they passed the driver slowed down. He said hey, asked if we were tired and hot, and then suggested we drink a cold Bud Light, and pulled his open beer out of his drink holder to show us what he meant. No body wanted his beer, so he rolled on, rims glistening in the sunilght.

 

The Past Fortnight

I like the word fortnight. I think it should be broght back into mainstream usage, but anyway, some goings on from the past fortnight.

1. School is eating my face, my will to live, succeed, etc. There are good things about school, but motivation is severely being diminished, see #5

2. Some lady in the grocery store was telling a story about how she slipped on some acorns and broke every bone below her waist.

3. Bicycles are good

4. My desire for a motorcycle has resurfaced, a convertable would be good too, probably not a convertable truck

5. I have discovered that one 20 page paper has basically denied me $15,000 dollars, I did not think that would happen

6. I am quite bitter at times because of this

7. I may or may not be going insane again

8. That could probably be a good thing

9. My interest in VW minibus has also resurfaced, man that would be sweet

10. I’ve become addicted to Boca Meatless Chickn’n

11. Got a new heart rate monitor, we’ll see exactly how excited I am when I get it and put it on

12. The cats are growing, and transforming into attack cats, beware intruders.

13. I would like spring to come

14. My favorite animal is now officially the Griffin

 

No Thanks

FREE WEEKEND OF CAMPING

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Reply to: see below 
Date: 2009-02-10, 8:43PM EST

 

 

Free weekend of camping in my private camp site.  
Call Ray @ 706-371-5009  

• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 968079122

 

 

 

 

[Found on local Craigslist....]