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…