Thursday, April 29, 2010

San Felasco

There's been a flurry of cycling activity amongst the executive editorial big-wigs here at One Utahdog Place, World Congress of the Americas. This past Sunday I did the metric century option in the Tour De Forts, a local event here in town. I also burned two days of leave last week, and went to San Felasco in Alachua on Wednesday, and Santos in Ocala on Friday. I only took pictures at San Felasco though. So you'll just have to trust me on the other two rides. It's OK, I'm an executive here at Utahdog World Headquarters, and you know from the recent bank collapses and bailouts that we executives are perfectly ethical and trustworthy.... er....

The weather rolled in when I first arrived in Alachua, but it didn't rain on me at all, and the trails were fast and smooth.


*
First trail in and I see...
*
*
A hawk!
*
*
Blackberries are on the way.
*

Most folks don't know that the original working title of the movie, "The Man From Snowy River" was actually "The Man From Itchy Bottom Lake". They went the snowy route when halfway through post production they realized they wanted to do a sequel, and nobody would pay to see a movie called "Return to Itchy Bottom Lake".









Red Bug Run and Soggy Bottom Loop. Somebody had enchiladas before naming these trails. With extra salsa.


The gnome still patrols. He migrates around the trails as people see fit, and is currently holed up in this hollowed out tree.
I rebuilt the EWR for the season too. New BB7 brakes, Sram X0 drivetrain, Saint cranks, the wheels from the E-motion I sold, and a fresh Race Face bar. Alteks, Thomson goodies, and the SDG remain. No need to change those. Don't f*$@ with perfect.

Three leaves. Watch your step.


So in four days time, 34 miles, 32 miles and 63 miles. Not too bad for an old bastard.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

city tour

The local chapter of the American Planning Association hosted a river tour of Jacksonville and we went along. Neat to see the city from a different perspective...

Northbank view from the Southbank and Friendship Fountain, where the tour started off.

Hart Bridge from below.

Mathews Bridge from below.


Unloading containers at Tallyrand Dock.

Sailing out by the Blount Island Terminal .

Broward Bridge at Dames Point. This is where we turned around and headed back into town.


Freighter on the way out.

Mathews Bridge in the foreground and Hart behind.

Downtown from the river, taken from just west of the Hart Bridge

Southbank Skyline and the three new residential towers.

Hyatt Hotel and the Northbank skyline beyond.


Alsop Main Street Bridge from below.


Not a bad looking town if I do say so myself...so come spend some money before the Baptists push all the elected officials to cut all taxes and lay us all off! We're already closing libraries and turning off the street lights. Ugh!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Mud Room!

I almost called this post the 'shit box'. but then I remembered that I run a family oriented pseudo cycling blog, and that sort of foul talk is frowned upon by the brass in the gleaming towers of One Utahdog World Congress of the Americas.
*
So 'Mud Room" it is. We've got this little mud room off the back of the kitchen (Kristen calls it the "Kitchen Annex", which is almost as pompous as One Utahdog World Congress of the Americas!) that holds the fridge and a small cabinet filled with cleansers and cleaners and other stuff Mr Wolf would use to clean brains off the seats of an old green Nova. The room, whatever you want to call it, is nasty. It looks like a brain-splattered green Nova. We're getting a new fridge, so now is our chance to tidy up the Nova.
*
Concrete wall, unfinished wallpaper, and a textured, finished painted concrete floor, that outlines the location of the old fridge because the previous home owner of our little HGTV puzzle of a house was a lazy weasel.

More Concrete and dirt. Yummy. Lets cook.

The floor goes in. $30 worth of adhesive tiles.


Room never had proper baseboards, so after the lick-em stick-em tiles were in, I went to work installing baseboards and door frame trim. Including the little corbel fitting that anchors the baseboards at the door frame. This little detail is my lame attempt at matching the original home's door framing detailing elsewhere. When my shoulder recovers from all this manual labor, I'll paint the corbel thingie to match the rest of the trim.

Nice yellow paint. A light shade that adds quite a bit of warmth to the space, but still matches the wallpaper elsewhere in the kitchen.


Frame, baseboards and floor in. Looks good. Not bad for less than 100 bucks. AND we used Home Depot reward dollars from Kristen's credit card too! So essentially...FREE!


Put back the rug, and add a little paint for the brick steps, to tie it all together.

And then the fridge of course.
*
Tadah!
*

Not too bad for a fat lazy cyclist wannabe with too many old bikes and not enough saddle time. I should do unlicensed repairs for all my friends and neighbors!
*
The black tape on the fridge handle keeps it from banging against the door, and the Buccaneer magnet keeps Henry from denting the front of the fridge with the doorknob when he runs headlong into the door to get back in to eat his dinner after we let him out to tinkle. I know that it could happen because it already did. Fridge was in our house for 8 hours, and Henry dents it. That dog is a menace.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Garden 2010

Got the garden in just a bit ago.

Here I've kept the Chives on the far end, and added tomatoes and peppers.


This box has 10 corn plants in it. Give it time...

More peppers...

...and more peppers... I like peppers. Peppers make good beer. Not really.

More tomatoes...and a plastic chicken.

I've also hybridized a special grass seed that flowers like a dog having a seizure. Pretty.


Monday, April 12, 2010

Crescent Beach

You know, what with the new sneakers on the Land Rover, and me and my big butt always craving burgers and beer, the girls and I had to hit the coast before the spring break masses invaded our shores and coated all flat surfaces with vomit and spittle. The weather was clear and the temperatures were low enough to keep the tan-in-a-can set away, so we went to it!

Nice open space...a Florida Beach in cooler temperatures...never fails.



Being native Floridians, we don't mind a little toe-chiller action. Good for the soul. That and the burgers and beer that we had to walk off.


Lesson in clams. See here...dig them up and they root right back on down!


Right after we left, 14 tour buses packed with drunk kids from Ohio, and a band of Harley riding bankers and lawyers showed up to celebrate Bike Week together in a sweaty froth. OK...we didn't actually SEE them...but you know it's coming!
*
Welcome Summer!

Almost an Update!


No, I'm not dead, just swamped. More to come!