what an awesome feeling!

Seems the theme around right now is the goodness of good weather. It was 46 degrees when I rode home tonight. I was in my shorts with no gloves, no balaclava, and only a base layer under my jacket. If I didn't need my jacket for my ride this weekend (I'm gunning for a century on Sunday) I would have just wore a long shirt instead. I left the shop at 4:30 and rode in full light. That was the best! I look forward to a lot of warm weather riding.

These two pictures are of the hike-a-bike section that is on my commute. I only have to do it in the evenings because I leave early in the morning when there is very little traffic and just stay on the main road. At night all the coffin drivers are eager to get home and I feel like a target. The picture above is looking towards the shop. The one below is looking towards home. It doesn't look like much but it is pretty deep and sections of it are quite post holed. It is super soft because of the warm up so I sank through about six inches of snow down into about 2 or 3 inches of water. Nice!

This last picture is of my latest project. It is phase one of a kitchen/Bar area in the basement of a 6500 sq ft house. It is there secondary kitchen for the entertainment room. I made up this facade and installed it so that I could template for the tops. They will get installed next and then there are columns that continue up to the ceiling. Should be pretty sweet.

Have a good weekend and check back to see if I pull off the century. The weather isn't looking that great.

This week

looks good up there, doesn't it?

Last Saturday I rode to the shop for a while. My wife and daughter picked me up and we went to Catamount for some fun. Justis and I were sledding while Dawn met her friend for a round of snowshoeing. On the way home we saw a roadie on Mountain View Drive cranking up the hill. He had a grin on his face when we went by as he saw my bike on the roof. When we got home, I looked up at my bike on the roof and just liked how it looked so I snapped this photo.

ice castle

 This was still on Church Street as a remnant of the winter festival. It was cool to look at and had lots of detail but nearly impossible to get a good picture of it. It being translucent and the low light made it hard.

Schwinn MTB. I love the pie plate!

 This was out in front of Dealer.com when I stopped by to catch up with my friend for a ride home. Not anything to write home about but I liked the shadows and textures.

San Jose in full fight mode

This picture speaks for itself, I guess.

Last night I went to Lowe's to look into some tools I need for a build coming up and this was tucked into the corner of the building. I assume the thought is (by whomever owns it) that no one will take it for several reasons. 1.) it is in a well lit area so someone would clearly be caught if they were taking it. 2.) The seat has been removed as a security measure. I mean who wants to steal a bike that they have to stand up all the time to ride? 3.) Clearly no one will want it because it's not worth it.

I can only imagine what the thoughts were. Maybe it was abandoned!

I am hoping to get out for a mid to long distance ride tomorrow. I have a couple people on the hook to join me. We'll see if it pans out. It should be descent with the weather.

morning commute

Today I stopped at the same spot to snap a photo. I am loving how it is getting light out earlier. It has been hard on the emotions to ride both directions of the commute in the dark.



Church Street looking south at Cherry Street


This photo was taking at the same time as the one on my last post. Nice light, huh?

Just behind me was a fenced off section where there was some snow sculpting going on. From what I could tell, it was part of the Winter Festival. The sculptures were not complete but they were getting there.

I heard that there is things such as a huge castle down at the waterfront but I didn't hear about that until later on. Maybe I will ride down in the morning and see if I can find something.

And for the heck of it, I thought I would throw in a couple of pictures of a piece of furniture that I am working on. It is a firewood box made of quarter sawn white oak in the Arts & Crafts style (Stickley). I made some little butterfly inlays that are used as joinery. In this particular case, they are cosmetic.

still being built but it shows the general idea

close up detail of the butterfly inlay

There's a storm a comin!

Church Street looking south at Cherry Street

official announcement

I will do the Tour Divide 2013.

If you are not familiar with this, you can click here to check it out. I have actually already started with my training base since November. I get 100 miles a week just with my commute which has been great. I am already over 50 consecutive days commuting by bike. I have done a few 50 miles rides and I did a century for the month of January. I pledged to do a century a month every month until I depart for the TD.

This season of biking will be full of events. The 2011 brevet schedule is set and I plan on attending them all. I will replace my centuries in April, May, July, and October with the brevets that will be held in those months. April has a 200k and a 300k! Also on the agenda, of course, will be the Vermont 50. This will be my third time doing it. The first attempt failed. I got pulled after riding 38 miles. The weather was horrible and it was completely mud logged. That didn't help me at all. Last year had incredible weather and I was able to finish in 9 hours and 14 minutes. This year I hope to trim 30 minutes off of my finish time.

I haven't quite sorted out in my mind the reason(s) for wanting to do the TD. I do know that it will most likely be the single most challenging thing that I ever attempt in my life. It will life changing and it will be an experience that will remain with me for the rest of my life. I will be working on my letter of intent and I will post it when I get it sorted out. Feel free to follow my progress and watch as I prepare for such an "EPIC" event.

positive 32

Tonight's ride home was pretty awesome. It was real nice to ride without the balaclava. I left off my mid layer and also rode with one layer of socks instead of two. It is amazing how your body acclimates to the temperatures. Today's high was 52 degrees warmer than than the low that we had just two days ago. That's crazy! The warmer temps helped clear up the roads. I nearly had the sizzling bacon sound of the studs all the way home. Hopefully I can find a day in February that rivals today for my next century.

Thanks for reading!

negative "WHAT" degrees out this morning!

I am not sure what the temp was for sure. It was -24* at my house when I left. The news said that it was -9* in Burlington. I am sure it was colder than that. I have ridden in -8* and this was way colder by comparison.

Nothing is dead! My toes hurt more than usual and for obvious reasons. I am doing the wool sock, bag, cotton sock method with my cycling shoes. I found that using flat pedals with my hiking boots and appropriate socks are not any warmer. I would have to go to my Sorel's for warmer feet and I couldn't even imagine riding with those on.

My nose was the only exposed part of my body. My balaclava is designed to cover to just under my nose and with my goggles on, it leaves that little triangle for my nose. I rubbed chapstick on my nose to help with wind block. It did ok but was definitely a point of concern. Some of my breathing helped warm it but then it would instantly become frosty from the temps.

my bike did fine. It didn't have any shifting problems but at that temperature it was a snail. There was some obvious lag after freewheeling when the hub would catch up to the pedals. I forgave it for being that way. Its not like I was able to turn my legs all that fast. Kinda felt like a was riding in slow motion.