Freezin'

Ice. More Ice. Even More Ice. How much ice can you stick on a car? A friggin’ lot if you live in North Dakota. Getting back from the cities was quite a trip this weekend. We had to retreat from the highways to a hotel in hopes of not joining many other travelers in the ditch. It was the most freezing rain I’ve seen in a while, and I think if anyone was confused as to whether or not winter has hit here in the north country, it pretty much slapped us in the face to let us know it most definitely has. I stood in a parking lot in Fargo Monday morning, I put my arms out, and started to slide without trying across flat ground covered in glare ice during 40 mph winds. So yes, it’s crappy out. (But no, I’m not going to stop riding my bikes.) The cold season is tough, but not successful in stopping me. Eat it winter. You make a scene every year and stick your chest out like the big kid in class, but me and my Surly are just gonna trip you when you walk past our desk. I will be enjoying the fat tire snow rides with whoever else is enlightened to not hide with their tails between their legs.

Bird's in the oven...

Alison and I are down in the Twin Cities for Thanksgiving, visiting her family. It’s always good to get down here. Turkey’s in the oven, and even though I just got up (insert laziness joke), dinners only a couple hours away. Should be tasty.
The ride down here seemed to take sooo long this time. Al and I were shooting for Chipotle, our favorite burrito grill for dinner, and the timing was not right. We were super starvin’ two hours out from dinner. We had a couple apples to tide us over, but that didn’t quite do the trick. I resorted to eating a questionable old granola bar found in my flight bag. Al didn’t want any. I lived, she lived, and Chipotle was wonderful when we finally got there. The wait did give me a chance to read a great article in Bicycling magazine however. They did a piece in the latest (Dec. ’05) issue on people who ride not for fun, but necessity. We all see the beater bikes chained to trees in various workplaces around town, and there are of course riders to go with them. It was an article focused on the poor who ride out of not being able to afford a car, but who obviously need to get to work. (I can relate somewhat, but I’m a rich rich man compared to the people in this article.) It took a look mainly at the Spanish-American demographic group in Los Angeles. There’s a big difference between myself, commuting on an expensive Surly 1x1 to get to my flight instruction job, and an immigrant riding a WalMart bike to a temp agency, who may or may not find work to support their family. I always find it shocking to read of how poor many people in our country are, and how a huge portion of our citizens would rather ignore that fact than do anything to help change the situation. Anyhow, it was very interesting reading, I recommend it.
For now I’m going to spend some time with family and enjoy Thanksgiving, thankful that we are very blessed, and even though money can be tight sometimes, we are quite wealthy when it comes down to it, considering in the world we live in.

Mud and singlespeeds...

Well, I figured out how to get pictures from my cell phone onto my computer after only a few months of trying. So now you will all be blessed with grainy, grainy pictures of things I find interesting. Today is your first one- yesterday David K and I rode at Turtle River, and got very muddy in the process. This picture only shows my bike at about %50 of how muddy it got during the day. Good times. We were actually wishing it was colder so the ground would freeze instead of being so mucky, but we had a good time anyway. The horse trails were our turf, instead of the normal singletrack rides, as they had the least amount of stickiness. Gotta lot of cleaning to do on the poor Surly, but it’ll shine again soon. Good rides.

Rollin' with a smile at midnight...

Some rides just feel better than others. I had a good ride tonight. Full of turkey and pie (fuel suited more for a singlespeed commute than a road century), had a good night with friends, and the temperature was behaving nicely for a November night- 32 degrees. That’s a whole bunch of degrees for a winter commute at midnight. Commuting has it’s “why do I do this” moments, but it also has the “oh yeah, I remember” moments too. I remember.

Early bird...

Well remember earlier this week when I was frustrated at not working all week. Yup, still haven’t. Grand Forks has been plagued with funk weather ever since I returned from Tom and Erin’s wedding. I totally would’ve stayed in Bismarck this past week had I known. Still haven’t ridden the local singletrack there on my Surly. I thought about heading out to Turtle River to ride today with my roommate, but I had to bake a pie. Yeah, sounds like a stupid reason not to ride, but I literally had to bake a pie. I’m going to an early Thanksgiving dinner tonight hosted by Alison and her roommates. Should be a good break from the sitting and thinking about work. I think I’ll ride there to make up for the lack of singletrack this afternoon. Hopefully the turkey won’t weigh me down too much so I can make it back home.

Good spew.

I just read a great mechanics article on Surly’s website on singlespeed drivetrains:
http://www.surlybikes.com/spew3.html
Man, I don’t know how mine has lasted as long as it has. They’ve pretty much convinced me that it’s gonna break at any moment, lookin’ at the wear and tear I’ve put it through so far without replacing parts. I’d say it’s high time to throw on a new drivetrain altogether, but alas, I may have to press my luck for awhile longer, seeing as the finances aren’t there. Maybe I’ll sell the stereo out of my dead van to fix my living bike.

Can't tell if I have a job...

This is the third day in a row I have had no work. And that after a weekend off, and Thanksgiving Break next week. Uggh. Flight instructing should not be labeled as a job, but more of a grad school type of a situation where one is poorly compensated for their time and work, and not guaranteed to be able to pay the bills. If it weren’t for the bills, I would absolutely love all this time off. I have so much time to bike, run errands, clean house, whatever I need to do, but man, I think I saw a tumbleweed blow out of my checkbook the other day. I’m going to post my resume online at a few places and see if anyone is looking for an over-educated under-paid individual these days. Hopefully in mountainous terrain.

The chill has arrived...

Winter. It’s definitely here. The wind chill in breezy Grand Forks is currently -2F. Every year I forget how unpleasant those kind of temperatures feel, but time has proven that they won’t stop the riding. One must be a crazy person, but nonetheless, riding is still fun when your snot is freezing inside your nose. I’ve always said, if people can be out skiing in the winter, I can be out riding my bike. Since the little bit of work I have these days keeps getting cancelled, I think I’ll head out and do some pedaling tonight, possibly to the local bike shop to help a friend pick out parts for his rockin’ new Surly Karate Monkey singlespeed that he’s building. Sweet bike, I totally approve. Should be a good time.
In other news, Alison bought me my wedding ring today. I definitely like it. I went the titanium route, since gold and platinum are too sparkly for my taste. I’m not a sparkly dude. I was wearing it around for awhile today, and her roommates said I was acting like a girl. :) Probably. Oh well, it’s exiting to think that we’re getting married in less than three months! Well, I’m off to forage for some dinner.

Weekend in Bizzo...

Well I’m going to have to say that this past weekend was great. It was wonderful to get to visit Bismarck again, which I have decided is the best town in ND for sure. Mom and Dad- I’m going to have to pretend you’re still there sometime to visit the town itself. :) But yes, I’ll be coming to Minot to see you too. :)
Tom and Erin’s wedding was also a good time, seeing as it was the main reason for the trip. It was great to see a bunch of you college friends, but we sure missed the Paasch’s- you guys better be at my wedding! :) It’s always nice to get everyone together for reunions now that everyone (minus myself, whoops) has moved off to all sorts of exotic places. And seeing good friends get hitched is always fun. Alison and I are sure lookin’ forward to having our own wedding soon too. All these other weddings are makin’ us anxious. :) We’re getting invitations ready, so be on the lookout for yours…
I’d have pictures of the weekend, but the only camera I was sporting was my phone, and I still haven’t figured out how to get those onto my computer. Probably costs 5 bucks a picture anyhow.
Well, seeing as my only student for today called sick, I now have the rest of the day (much like the whole day so far) to take care of errands and chores. I better get my apron on and my checkbook out…
Later.

Homebound...

I’ve finally taken a trip home. I’m sitting in my parent’s living room in Bismarck this morning. I’m in the wedding of two of my friends this weekend, and helping my parents move to Minot. I think the weather today is supposed to be unusually warm for Nov. 11th- something like 65 degrees. I totally should have brought my road bike, but I suppose I’ll be a bit too busy. Anyhow, speaking of that, I think I should probably get workin’…

Less than a week...

So my van didn't even run for a week before breaking down again. Most people would finance a replacement vehicle, but I'm being stubborn, so as not to end up in the "American Dream" of being so buried in debt that I can't breath. Ideally, I'm going to stick to only school and home debt. You can live without a car for periods of time, even in America, where there's gas in our veins. It's inconvenient, but life’s not about convenience sometimes. Sometimes it’s about getting tougher. The budget will balance someday.

Next on the Pommel Horse...

Well myself, along with a couple friends of mine mess around with an under-used program on our computers from time to time out of humor’s sake- Microsoft Paint. And today I received a bizarre and hilarious entry to our paintings from my buddy Eric from Duluth. Man it’s funny. This is the caption he sent with it-

"Near our home in Duluth, there is a set of railroad tracks that we pass overwhen driving up the hill. Whenever we drive over the tracks we always say thatwe see a herd of White Tailed Deer doing gymnastics in the area near thetracks, and the squirrels are generally doing the judging (although, i haveseen a fox fill in in the event of an absent squirrel)"

Yes, he’s a grown man. No, I don’t know what provoked this.

Fair weather Nov. group ride...

Well another Turtle River ride went down today, and it straight up rocked. I didn’t even ride my geared bike cuz singlespeeding was so flippin’ fun. I’ve decided that I end up going faster on the one-speeder cuz I have to. There’s no other choice, cuz that’s the one gear I have. I read from other ss’ers that that happens, and they end up dropping their geared buddies on rides. Fun. Also, I’ve assimilated someone to ride singlespeed with. My good friend David was out on the trails with me today, and he’s pretty much decided to purchase a Surly Karate Monkey, which is a sweet steel 29’er (29 inch wheels), with horizontal dropouts, making it one cool singlespeed frame. Yeah that’s right. If you didn’t know how cool that is, now you do. Fast and smooth.
Anyhow, the GF bike forum is growing a little more each week. People still seem timid to post group rides, as not everyone knows each other, but that’s what it’s for. They’ll catch on.
Winter isn’t here yet! It was 50 degrees during the ride today, and it’s Nov! Excellent. It can just stay this way and we can just skip the forty below sadness that we are normally crushed with come January. It’s no wonder my van is dying if I ask it to drive in that crap. Brr. Bedtime. More later…

Fixie project update...

It’s sweet what you can do with some tools and an old bike. My fixie project has been moving slower than ever, but the bike is ride-ready. Still more to do with it to make it a complete project, but that will probably happen in the spring if I happen to have any money. And we’re only talkin’ like $60 buck, but hey, there’s lots of other bills and this is an unnecessary project. Anyhow, here is it, a ‘70’s vintage Schwinn le Tour, converted to one fixed gear. Had to re-space the rear axle and re-dish the wheel after taken the old geared freewheel off, and since their was no provision for a regular, reverse thread lock-ring on the hub, I cranked down a normally threaded lock ring off an English thread adjustable cup bottom bracket against the track cog. Wow, that was a lot of shop talk. Sorry if you don’t care, but I’m proud that it worked. I've tried to post pix of the bike, but so far something isn't working. You'll see it soon. More on that project as it slooooowly progresses….

Fixin' for some sweet rides...

I worked on my fixed gear bike tonight. It's still not completely built up as I want (got no money), but it's rideable. I through on the mustache bar Edward gave me, and it's lookin' very retro. I took it for a short ride in the beautiful weather tonight (freezing rain), and it was totally fun. Needs fenders though, I had a nice streak up the back at the end of the spin. And it's definately getting an e-brake installed. Fixies can be death traps in town. Motorists don't know what it's like to ride a bike anymore. And I guess I can't blame them for not expecting cyclists out in craptastic weather, but still, I don't think people pay much attention when they drive. It's a bit unnerving. But anyhow, the fixie is sweet, and I plan to work on it further, and do more riding with it until the snow stays, then it's definatley Surly time. Off to bed...

Git your cooling on...

Stayed up 'till two last night, and my van's cooling system is FINALY working properly, at least for now. Replaced the old thermostat, which was busted clean in half, and the associated gasket had turned to a gooey pulp, not really looking much like a gasket at all anymore, so the repair was needed. The fix was a mess, cuz my radiator has no draincock, so it's lower hose had to be pulled, resulting in no good way to drain in a organized way. Fluid everywhere; sucky cleanup. But anyhow, that problem is fixed. Now I have to figure out what is grinding/clunking when shifting into gear, and sometimes when I start/stop. Scarey. I don't think it's the motor/transmission mounts, so it could be something internal. Yikes. Gotta buy a new vehicle. Hopefully this one can limp for awhile, but if not, I have my Surly, and it doesn't hate me like my van does. More later...

Why Buttons?!

Usually clothing isn’t a much discussed topic on my blog, but today I decided that on a long sleeve button-up shirt, their should be Velcro at the cuffs and not friggin’ buttons. I don’t know about you, but it takes me forever to get the buttons on my cuffs together, because one hand is useless in the process. Is this efficient? Surely not. Would Velcro be easier, although not fashion appropriate, yes. I don’t need to be fashion appropriate. The elderly have wonderful clothing. It’s designed to be comfortable and easy to manage. The only thing wrong with it is that it’s usually cotton, and merino wool or synthetic fibers would be a higher-performance material, but the elderly aren’t typically doing much performing. I dig their Velcro and easy straps though.

Van?

We'll I'd anounced my van was dead, and I may be temporarily wrong. I went in to Dietrich's yesterday (the bus station I work at part time), and the mechanics and I poked, prodded, kicked and shook the van to the point that we got it started. The alternator seems to be charging again, and we now suspect bad connections rather than the alternator itself. So, at least temporarily, the van is rolling down the road. I'm still saving for something else, cuz I no longer trust this vehicle after it has broken on me repeatedly in the past couple months, and is at an insane mileage on the first engine. Although, the engine itself seems to be the best thing left on the van. Anyhow, I may try to replace the thermostat today or tommorow, since that's under 10 bucks, and we'll just see about the clunky transmission mount. I haven't figured out if I need a lift for that or not. Man, bikes are so much simpler, and less costly. But cars don't make you show up to work with a sweaty crack. Nasty. I'm sorry I did that to you.