Feeling Almost Human

Had 2 days of work after the towing episode, and Wednesday was canceled, so aimed to do some re-wiring in the forecast sunny & warm 60f weather. When I began the job, I had a strange feeling that the clouds overhead were keeping it a bit on the chilly side, and found it was not even 40f at 11am.

11 of 12 wires were completely snapped

My body was felling achy and weak, so I powered through the slicing, splicing, soldering & jamming all the wires back into place and once again had a working car. 

Good enough for gubmint work

Me, on the other hand, I was hurting, so I headed straight to the hot shower, then off to bed....where I stayed until Saturday afternoon. Major chest/head cough roughed me up good, and had to cancel 2 days of work in that time. Monday rolled around, and felt almost back to normal after a full day of work, so rolled up to J.Paks HQ to grab my newly-finished framebag. Love Joe's handiwork, this thing rocks! 

Frame Pack & RukSak packed with lots of room still!

I knew the Monkey needed some TLC as winter puts a beating on bikes (plus I don't think I've done any maintenance on it since summer) so I pulled the cranks to find the non-drive BB cup was seized, d'oh! No Surly Mr. Whirly BB cups available anywhere, looks like production can't keep up with demand, so I decided to go with an XT instead. Slapped it in & the KM is ready to roll, sporting some fine J.Paks equipment.

Ready for TITS tomorrow night, hope I am

Psyched to get back on the bike after a 2-week furlough....hope I survive.

Metal Circus

Took up GBS's offer to pedal a FatBike today.  Squeezed myself onto a L Pugsley that had some strange levers beside the grips, and when I pressed them with my thumbs, it made it easier to climb, what a novel idea!  Great fun, despite the 60° weather & dusty trails.

What would Bob Mould say?

Things took a turn for the worse when loading up to head home. My marvel of Teutonic engineering refused to move from 'P', so had to get it loaded up & deposited in the driveway.  

1st time tow, as the shipping plugs were still intact.

Quick research at home showed it to be something I had recently looked at repairing, but put off in hopes of more time/better weather. Warm weather this week will be a blessing. 


For the other old folks out there that get it.

Mayan Winter

Since our last episode:

Moving seatpost installed

Xmas eve on GM

Xmas surprise, no mo' cold toes!

Met up with Kevin (b-day boy) & Joe for a NYE pedal around Elk Meadows to make sure all was in order for the next morning.

Eerie looking

The beginning of a new year also meant it was time for the 4th Annual Beerd Belly Ride.

Booze

Bikes...of all sorts

Blue skies

Belllies

Booze, again

Back on the home-front: finally moved into the 90s by picking up a fancy Droid4, so time to play my part in being a Stravasshole!

The holiday times are usually a bit slow at work, so I finally got some long-awaited home projects. First on the list was a minor job of re-painting the upstairs bathrooms, in order to cover up the salmon/peach walls. Hall toilet went smoothly, but the main bath ended up turning into a bit more work, involving new paint, vanity, sink, faucet, mirror & wall cabinet.  I am now IKEA-experienced.  Godmorgon!

Must stay hydrated during house repairs.

Next up was the basement project. It only took 4yrs, 3months & 12 days, but the house finally became 100% carpet-free. (Except for 2 small spots where some previous workers built 2 closet walls on top of the carpet in one of the basement BRs!) Re-painted most ceilings, all the walls, replaced all light fixtures/outlets/switches/plates, then laid bamboo looking resilient flooring in all the rooms. I now have a garage again, as we were finally able to bring thin the couch Mally picked up earlier in the fall.  An acceptable room/place to zone out, finally!

Finished it up just in time to head back to an all-day everyday work schedule for the past 10 days.  Hoping to get out this weekend for a little pedal - plan on putting my fat ass on one of those fatbikes for a lil' spin on Sunday out of GBS.