Thus beginneth the break

A prelude of things to come...

Thursday. Got a bunch of stuff coming up: Mother Nature's going to be quite cooperative with me and my cycling/firewood gathering endeavors this weekend; and, my friend Rob's (and his family) up in the Vail Valley this weekend.

Friday. I'm mentally decompressing in my house. It's been a long, busy week culminating in giving final exams, grading those final exams, and entering those grades along with comments via computer into the district website where parents can log-in and check out their kids progress (or lack thereof). My only outlet for this stress is riding the rollers. Usually it's at 4 in the morning before I do my morning, weekday breakfast rituals. Riding the rollers is no substitute for actually riding in the streets, feeling the wind, hearing the whirr and hum of the drive train, and the friction of the tires and wind resistance opposing my progress. Those sensory inputs are like doses of a drug that needs to be increased because previous doses' have no affect for the current high. If it wasn't so sunny here in Colorado I'd be a real mess. This weekend though my friends (talking to you), the weather's going to be cooperative. Cooperative means: sunny, above freezing, and with little to no snow on deck. Stressing out about finishing up the year coupled with a serious case of the jonesing-on-the-road-bike fix can be mentally disastrous. If I can get a 2h+ ride in tomorrow, it'll be exponentially therapeutic. I also have to buy a cord of wood as well. About to run completely out.

Saturday, I was pretty pooped out from loading, delivering, and stacking a cord (of lame pine as opposed to hardwoods) that I didn't get out on my road bike. I leave that for the Sunday team ride with the newbies up in Boulder. Hopefully chilly-chill because my legs haven't been riding at all since October. My wish is that everybody's in off-season mode and it won't turn into a shit on your neighbor ride (if the nudniks don't show).

Here's the wood on our front yard (after I hammer threw it all manly-like from the truck)


Here's the end result with my daughter for scale (she actually helped in stacking)...


A couple of days ago, Melissa got some washable markers for our kids to embellish our sliding glass door with a Christmas motif. Instead my second daughter inquires about her chances of NOT being on the receiving end of a gift from St. Nick.

I know it's hard to read but she articulates: Dear Santa, I like Christmas, I am sometimes a good girl. Will you still give me presents? Circle Yes [or] No. Too cute that girl...

Sunday was a day or riding with the Vitamin Cottage-Natural Grocers newbies. Great new kids on the block. The coolest surprise was immediately recognizing (my sweet) Melissa's old friend and ex-colleague John showing up for the ride. John's going to be racing for us this season (45+ Cat I.V.). Seems like the new people are mellow and interesting. I love mellow and interesting. Appears the chemistry with this group will be goods to gizzoe (sorry Snoop Dog)! We rode a mellow 2 hour (20 mile/hour pace) ride skirting the outline of Boulder while the incumbents (us old guys like Kenny and me) sussing the abecedarians (recruits), and general jawing. Kenny looks different in a cool, non-threatening, Ted Kaczynski beard in full effect sort-of-way. Not a lot of new guys but at the very least a decent core of like-minded, riding hominids to start the new season with.

Heading out of town...


Heading back to Boulder on the Diagonal Highway with the Flatirons in the horizon


On the way back we hit a local bakery and absorb various forms of solids and liquids in the form(s) of lattes, soups, and muffins. It was a great way to start the week (or end the week depending on where you reside on Earth). It's forecasting snow for Wednesday night, better get it while the gettin's good y'all.

Got Firewood?

The weather was good so it was another opportunity (albeit lackadaisical) to gather, split, and stack some more firewood. We had to hike it in because the snow pack's too high for the ATV nowadays and the only trunk-like pieces left in our piles were the big uns so we didn't haul too many away from our lot. I'm starting to work off some of the potential energy I collected from Thanksgiving as kinetic energy via (not so efficient) work.
Here's what we were able to bring up...

Here's what it translates to (three, huge, wheel barrow's worth) after splitting it; doesn't seem like much although it's better than nothing I suppose. Thank you maul splitter, axe, and Stihl chainsaw.

Note to self, this sucks, I'm gonna get an earlier start on this nonsense next year.

Happy Giving of Tanks Y'all (i.e. eating no riding)

Mount Sopris' perspective from their deck, nice to see everyday no?

Team M, plus Grandma went to visit Melissa's cousin (Grandma's niece) in Glenwood Springs for Thanksgiving. We headed out Wednesday and nary was there any traffic to speak off. On the flat spots out near Vail and Copper we were rolling pretty good, as good as a loaded 4runner with six people and cargo case up top could roll. Tanya and her husband's property consists of 6000 acres overlooking Mount Sopris. Very beautiful scenery for two cool people to raise their two very cool boys. It was quite an excellent time hanging out with them.
Their oldest son Chase is quite tall for a 7th grader so instead of riding/working out (like I could do that anyways), I played basketball with the kids each morning or played two hand, touch football with an all weather nerf football. Playing basketball at my advanced years is kinda hard on the knees with all the zig-zagging involved but it was still fun playing with the kids. I'd lift Mason over my head so he could "slam-dunk" too.
One time I got to ride Chase's 80cc motocross on the property with the kids hanging tightly to my ever-increasing waistline during eat-fest 2009 (aka Thanksgiving). Maricel particularly dug it, I would open up the little 80cc motor out here and she would say, "go faster Daddy!" Kids are cool. So now I have to work on Melissa in order to get our Team M motorcycle...
Any calories spent playing football or basketball with the kids were negated by the quality of food I'm stuffing down my gullet.
This was my first "Black Friday" experience too. The Glenwood Springs Wal-Mart was advertising a sweet, bundled deal on the Wii and another sweet deal on the iPod touch, 8 gig including a $50 iTunes gift card (for Chase from his Mama). I volunteered for this mission in unfriendly territory when they opened at 5 in the a.m. Of course they didn't have the bundled Wii as advertised so I got the regular sports Wii at the regular price but at least they had the iPod touch. Jeez! Y'all should've seen all the hominids out there just grabbing shizzle or lining up to get shizzle. I bought a three pack of underwear for myself because naturally, I forgot to pack it when I did my last minute packing and batteries for the digital camera with all the pictures I would be taking this weekend. As (bad) luck would have it, I found the trainee cash register person's queue. It was painful watching him struggling to find the UPC code on the boxes to be checked out. Painful y'all. Painful. 1 hour and 15 minutes later I was outta there! Seemed like I accomplished a lot though standing like a lemming in this line and that in order to show the true meaning of westernized Christmas-consumerism! Ooo-weee, but that's another blog entry y'all...
Saturday was spent on top of Glenwood Caverns. Absolutely fun family time. Firstly we did the Cavern walking tour (as opposed to crawling or adventure tours they have there).
Bacteria caused these reddish hues on the cavern's wall.

The stairs we hiked up and down

Cool stalactites...

Here's what we did after the cave tour: 2 rounds of laser tag, 2 rides on the alpine slide, and two 4D movies (where the seats move, I got kinda sea-sick on one show).
The line for the gondola ride down was long so we spent some time drinking the adventure park's eponymous brew-on-tap...

and taking pictures of the town from up top, 'round twilight...

...and the girls (in sepia tones)...

The absolute highlight of the evening after spending 4 hours playing with family and friends was soaking up the hot springs pool at night while watching the lighting and fireworks show of the historic Hotel Colorado. Parking was a beeyatch! There was this surreal moment when we were all hanging out in the deep end of the pool near the diving board. Maura climbed out of the pool to walk over to the diving board, tolerating the sub-freezing air temperatures with steam coming off her body in waves and as she ran to jump in the deep end, the fireworks exploded behind her. A sub-freezing, phantasmagorical episode y'all.
This results in some very tired kids (and adults).

Dreading the ride (and facing the reality of Monday morning) back Saturday after spending such a fantastic time with (extended)family.

Shnap! No riding outside tomorrow (or the next days)...

Here's some undisturbed, newly fallen snow from our front/side yard.

How come the weather's just absolutely peachy during the weekday but when the slightest hint of weekend shows up it turns absolutely ill?! It was in the sixties most of the week now it's snowing and sticking up here. Everywhere else it's just a mess. Some teammates and I were going to go for an off-road excursion Saturday morning but looks like I'm going to bust out the rollers in my living room instead. Ahhhh, how utterly mind (and crotch) numbing. Hmmmm should I do three, four, five, or six minute intervals (maybe I'll step up to them as part of the session)? Oh joy of joys!!! Then the joy of inter-interval cool downs whilst my heart is beating like a hummingbird in my throat. Wow, this is waaaaay better than Christmas. Ooooo-weeeeeee!!!!!! Looking forward to this in the morning!!! Hmmmmm? Which is more fun riding rollers or repeatedly hitting my frontal cortex with extreme velocity with a ball-peen hammer (technically it's called peening) inflicting blunt force trauma? Maybe I'll smack my mellon holding the ball-peen hammer with my non-dominant hand just for variety's sake? Decisions, decisions y'all....
Saturday comes and I'm on the rollers. Since I'm on this LP kick, I listen to the Smiths' Strangeways, Here We Come. First side's for warming up and kicking it to big chainring steady state; second side's for intervals. Did four (maybe five?), two-minute intervals with two minutes of forced recovery in-between.
Saturday night as we're coming home from a get-together with friends Mother Nature lets 'er rip again with some major non-blizzard quality snow dumpage. This of course begins on our journey home. All manner of people were going to ditches and emergency lights from vehicles coming to their rescue made for an illuminating ride back to the foothills of Denver. This one nitwit CRUISED by me in a fwd, Chevy Malibu when the roads were slushy but within minutes the temperature drops and the roadway's now this pebbly ice/snow obstacle course-see his taillights in a ditch. Doofus...
My Tundra kicks a$$ by the way. Can't live out in the high-country without 4wd or all-wheel drive. Some nitwit in a non-4wd, lifted truck was fishtailing in front of us; i though he was going to take us out! Punched the skinny pedal to get around his non-local self. Every now and again I see the arc of his headlights in my rear-view mirror proving to me once again that he's fishtailing and as well as being a nuisance to people with better judgement in inclement weather. My old Audi woulda ate these road conditions up! I miss the German handling and sportiness but not the repairs associated with S cars over 100,000 miles. This was the car where on a road trip to Moab, I would go 110 mph for ten minute blocks of time. The ten minute mark was when reason would kick in and say, "dude, if you get busted at these speeds it's straight to jail!" I would back her down to 90, see no cops, and spool her back up to 120 again. Ten minutes later the angel on my shoulder would parrot the jail statement again. This went on from the Vail Valley to Glenwood Springs when a 7-series BMW blew by me during one of my 120 mph stints (in Colorado, there's a bit of animosity between Audi and BMW owners). My Audi was electronically governed at 125 mph. After that velocity, the fuel injectors would slowly shut down...crazy.
Sunday we wake up to at least a foot of new snow. 2 hours later, the ATV with the blade attachment and good old manual labor with a snow shovel gives us maneuverable space on our driveway and dirt road.
later the sun tries to poke through but to no avail...

Maura loves riding the ATV with me but the winds at 16°F did her in early. Ite my son's asleep. Gonna run two miles for some cross-training on the treadmill.

64° F up at 8400' today!

Here's Maricel as a midi on a picture postcard day in November!

Awesome kids. After I took Maricel to her soccer game, I got in one of my favorite climbing loops up here. Speaking of her soccer, her team is soooo studly and the score was a little lopsided, that her coach in order to not run up the score, told her girls they had to kick the goal shots with their left foot. Maricel had three, non-offsides breakaways but couldn't close the deal because the opposing goalie could defend her left-foot kicks. My other daughter, supposedly scored multiple goals too (I'll take her word for it!), during her match and rematch due to the blizzard. As a poppa, I'm so proud of my chilluns!

The weather is nutty. One week it's a blizzard and the following week it's in the sixties. I'll take whatever I can take. Yesterday, I off-roaded with my teammates for a night ride at Green Mountain. We figured it's one of the quickest places to dry out but boy there was some pretty stout, muddy places out there. Still, it was an hour of decent riding at night. I was last on the choo-choo of teammates climbing up the steep fireroad, breathing like steam engine (and going just as slow I'm sure). I love my lighting system...

Today though was outstanding. Blue skies and a slight, pesky south wind but really I couldn't complain. Okay I can, here's the stuff that just made it a little tricky: the shady areas on the road when I'm blasting a downhill made for some wet, icy spots; and the sand from CDOT putting some traction on once melted snow. If you hit it as if you were hitting a railroad crossing in the rain, usually you roll right over it. The switchbacks kept me honest. I did a mental inventory on the gears I used to climb this stuff in and I was pretty much in my granny and couldn't punch through the rollers but it is the off-season so I just settled back to an intensity just below tempo on the climbs. One guy passed me on the first climb and that's cool but when they look back it's game on sucka. I hunkered down in a gear I could sustain but it was burning my lungs just enough for me to weather the short, steep climb. He had about a 20-car length on me at the start of the descent but usually my throttle's wide-open on the downhills. It took about 3 minutes for me to pass him and I could tell he was doing some heavy breaking in the icy spots. Plus I passed him in my preying mantis tuck (knees hugging the top tube, feet at the three and nine o'clock position, and hands on the tops of the handlebars with my chin resting just behind the stem) saying non-verbally, "Take that you fraidy cat of descending you and I'm not even pedaling." Curses to you testosterone!

Well the pictures do my ride justice. It was pretty difficult because I'm pretty much in the off-season meaning I don't ride regularly. In fact, it's been two months since I've ridden with any intensity. Running's not so bad I guess; riding the rollers absolutely suck!
In order, highgrade...

...pleasant park...

...more pleasant park...

...city view (we're getting higher kids)...

...altimeter check (2590.8 meters for my metric buds)...

...city view, finale...

My biggest goal in the off-season is to not balloon up in weight and I was pleased with myself that when I was flying the team colors I didn't feel like a stuffed sausage.

To finish up a lovely day, I did manly things before the sun went down. My perception is that of contributing to the familia. I changed my sweet Melissa's oil in her 4Runner with Mobile1 synthetic, washed her car, and changed out the kitty litter boxes (I hate that). As I'm making dinner--a manly dinner of quiche may I add--I'm drinking a lovely Spaten Optimator and have the LPs queued up on the record player. Listening to the Stray Cat's Built for Speed. Next up, David Gilmour's first solo LP-about face. Children, life is pretty sweet right now...

October Break 2009 in Tejas

It took me 15 hours to get to Plano, TX from my house going the KS, OK route as opposed to my usual hypotenusal route via the TX panhandle. Right triangularly speaking, I decided to go the three-four route instead of the five. It was long. Don't know if I want to go that route for the return trip. A friend said though, that the OKC bombing memorial (RIP victims; Timothy James McVeigh there's a special place in hell just for you), was a pretty touching tribute to the loss that day. Worth checking out in a Schadenfreude kinda of way. Maybe, but that just makes it a 15 hour trip.

Ruby's doing great! She remembered us when we walked through the door. Her tail waggin' mightily and when she's super happy she does this mouth vibrational thing on your hand because she can't control herself. It was great seeing everybody although Mason and I were tired from sitting all day trying not to let boredom kill us and trying to be aware of other drivers. Driving's kinda like lifeguarding. Aware with boredom letting you know he's around by constantly tapping on your shoulder. I swear, Oklahoma has the biggest congregation of the world's $hittiest drivers. Second only to drivers in Phoenix, AZ.

Monday was spent getting a USB compatible LP player so's my daddy can convert his LPs to MP3s. Once we got it I got crazy playing some old LPs I left behind back in the day. It was a sonic blast from the past: Devo, Yes, Van Halen, Carol King (my Dad's), Kansas, Johann Strauss (Dad's again), EW&F, Pink Floyd, Styx, Led Zeppelin, Beatles...all on LP! Brought back some awesome memories. Mullets, high-top tennis shoes, parachute pants, power boosters, walking barefoot in the summers, pimples, concert T-shirts, skin tight bell bottoms, Members Only jackets, bandannas, aviator sunglasses, checkered Vans (shoes), upturned collars on Lacoste shirts, and "feathered" haircuts. What also helped was jamming after a meal I made for my folks: vegetable stir-fry with coconut milk, tofu, broccoli, onions, and yellow bell peppers, topped with fresh basil leaves on a bed of rice. Yummy. Washed it down with Spaten's Optimator. Oooo-weee! Man, listening to LPs with a full tummy hanging out with my parents and son on a super rainy day with a hint of the Optimator's buzz was kinda like Christmas. All the software works. Did a trial run, works nicely. The only things was the sound was clipping so we turned down the gain manually from the turntable. Oh, we purchased the ION TT-USB that's iTunes friendly.

Tuesday. It's going to suck going back to Colorado with the weather so beautiful as it was today. Mostly Sunny, high of 74°F. Took my old pal Ruby and my son for a 2 mile walk to burn off some energy sitting all day yesterday due to the thundershowers. After dinner, I helped my Dad figure out the bugaboos on ripping and burning on his new ION TT-USB onto the iTunes. It's all about hanging with my parents and father-son bonding on this go 'round. Didn't tell hardly any of my Texas chums I was coming down because the hours go so quickly and I don't ever want to regret NOT spending time with my folks (if you would've asked me in my twenties, it'd be a completely different story). Early afternoon, my Dad and I are going to check out a record store in Dallas. We're pretty much bitten by the LPs again. I'm eyeballing John Coltrane's A Love Supreme used on vinyl boi! After dinner Mason and I worked on some "worksheets" so that his brain won't go completely gelatinous whilst on vacation.

Wednesday was my Mom's birthday. We celebrated that joyous day by me making dinner and dessert. Dinner was fettuccine noodles in pesto with salmon flakes and dessert was from scratch carrot cake and the cream cheese icing. Not to toot my own horn but the dinner was pretty damned tasty y'all.
Driving around Dallas is pretty interesting. It's almost as nutty as SoCal driving. 4 lanes of people exceeding the speed limit by a good 10 mph. Aggressive but you get to where you're going pretty quickly. Started to pack the big stuff that evening. Was feeling a bit melancholy because as usual, we had a great time enjoying each others' company. I hate that penultimate day of leaving's feeling you get in your heart and head. We hit the hay early for the sake of quality REM time for a day's worth of mindless driving. It's that glucose deprivation thing you get because your mind has to be pretty darn alert...

While in Texas, it's been snowing like a banshee back in Colorado. In fact they got close to two feet of snow; and where we live the drifts pile up close to 5' high. The snow up there translates to rain here in Texas. I check the NWS site for the route and I'm expecting crap. When I woke up this morning it was gray and not the 100% chance of thunderstorms. I quickly packed up the rest of the junk into the truck to take advantage of the calm before the storm (it pays off because I get a text from my Dad saying they're getting hammered). After we said our goodbyes we hit the road. Hit all manner of weather out in the Texas panhandle. Finally settle in Dalhart; get some Chinese take out and we veg in our jammies (incidentally, it was by far, my most greasy take-out to date-yummy!)! My fortune cookie says,"

We'll get cracking by dawn...
My Dad lets me liberate one of the Spaten's for when we bed down. I do believe it's time for a Spaten. Grandad said the storm front's moving eastward, so by Friday (tomorrow, as I currently type), it should be clear but colder than the Western Front (a not so obscure WWII reference). Quick check at NWS' website and it's going to be sunny. Ah yeauh; bust out the sonnenbrille. As I flip channels I go to an MTV, reality love show and I swear, Ray J--not to be insulting--looks like one of my friends (Chip!). Raton Pass was a sheet of ice and the blowing snow on I-25 made for interesting driving but the snow sure was pretty. It's good to be in Colorado. I'm glad I took this old route back because I-70 (the route I took going to Texas) on the Kansas/Colorado border was shut down due to snow and blowing snow (still!).

We make it back to attend our daughters' parties at their elementary school; but I see the work that's ahead of me shoveling the snow out so that we can at least get to our house. Nutty but it's on par with October blizzards we usually get in Colorado. It's trick or treating at Grandma's Saturday. I'm going to enjoy the weekend before work starts up again Monday...

Hillbilly Weekend

Seeing that I totally blew off splitting wood until the September, freak-ish snow storm, that event reminded me to get my arse in gear and consequently I rented a hydraulic wood splitter this past weekend. Wasn't having a whole lot of luck renting because all the other hayseeds around me were doing the same thing until i called the last rental joint. It was also conveniently located 10 minutes from my house. What a fortunate break. The sucky thing was this past weekend was GLORIOUS weather-speaking. How would I spend it? Splitting wood in my worn-out steel toed Doc Martin industrial rated shoes, ear protection, straw Stetson hat and my overalls my li'brah gave me back in the day. Remember Captain Kangaroo's Mr. Green Jeans (yes, I'm dating myself)? I pretty much emulated that except inside the overalls think instead of a 5' 7" devastatingly handsome filipino wannabee competitive cyclist. All I need is a corn-cobb pipe, an ox named "Babe", and some banjo lessons to complete the hillybilly transformation...
I figured seven straight hours would do me completely in so I busted ass splitting as much of the "trunk" sized pieces of wood as opposed to the smaller stuff I could tear up using the mauler and chainsaw. When it was all said and done, I probably split 4 Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck sized beds (filled to the top!) worth of hardwoods (evergreens suck but they'll burn). We loaded two bed-fulls on Sunday next to our house and I'm guesstimating we have another two we can load up to stack next time. We better do it soon because the snowy season is pretty much upon us in the high-country (my Suunto altimeter says 8,500'); that was Saturday...
Sunday, my father in-law Bob whom unlike other peoples' in-laws, I actually think he's a badass, came over to help replace our small firebox-stove with the bigger, cast iron firebox (fireplace stove) in our barn (left behind from the previous owners). The latest one we have in our living room has an ill-equipped firebox volume rating deficit compared to the square feet it has to heat. Enter the stove from the barn. It's at least 2.5X more volume than the lame one in our living room.
We'da considered a pellet stove but that requires electricity. Where we live the snow malingers until April where freak, spring snowfalls are so heavy they snap trees in half which snap power lines, that leave us without electricity for days on end! So, while a pellet stove might seem practical, it won't do a thing without electricity. Our well pump runs on electricity too so once Mother Nature unloads her snow on us we keep a bathtub full of water just in case...
We take the barn from the stove to our house on an industrial grade dolly. Afterwards Melissa and I pick up the 200 lb "wimpy" stove from our living room outside. Okay, so while I consider myself to be fairly manly (at least manly enough to move a 200 lb stove with my wife), sadly I was not. When Melissa and I were moving the stove, I had to take these baby, shuffle steps and sadly I was the one to call "break" every 10 feet. Yes, I'm a wimp and one of the first signs is to publicly admit it...
Well kids! Seems like we're getting our ducks in a row to make this winter a smidge more manageable and hella more comfortable. Hella is a Système International d'Unités (i.e. a S.I. recognized unit). With the old firebox our living room would be barely in the sixties during winter. Now (albeit it's not the December deep-freeze), I can walk around in just my boxers and flip-flops and be actually warm. It's great. At night, we pack the firebox with wood and when I wake the house is still warm. Simply amazing. I wonder why we didn't get it done sooner (well, I actually know why: it's because I'm a talented and gifted procrastinator-that's why!).
I'm in Texas now visiting my parents and I forgot my cord to my digital camera so next time I'll show you the picture of our new stove. You gotta earn the privilege to be comfortable up here in the high country. I'll take this type of living any day though over city living back in Denver. Denver's nice; but not so much my thing anymore. It's quite a paradigm shift when you start bike riding conversations with, "Damn y'all, my chainsaw's the $hit!"