My crack

Not that one. I'm talking about the drug. A few weeks back someone told Heather and I that we might like the HBO series "The Wire". So we jumped on Netflix and Season 1 was here a few days later. We're near the end of Season 2 now. At the moment it is my drug of choice.

In other news we went on a 6 hour back to school shopping marathon yesterday. Now I have new socks and underware and some really nice pens. Today is my last day of freedom before reporting to Basic in the morning. I can't flippin' wait.

Craigslist find

When I moved out here I gave my old Reel Mower to Adam. We really don't need one as our grass is a mixture of dirt, wildgrass, and wildflowers, along with just a sprinkling of poop. Our HOA cuts our grass but they only do it twice each year and it's usually right when the wildflowers are in full bloom and then they leave clippings everywhere. So we scored this free electric mower today. I am going to take matters into my own hands. The HOA is pretty nice because they paint our decks and stain the house every few years, they reseal the asphalt once a year, take care of anything on the outside of the house (including the roof which might need replacing after that last hail storm), and shovel the driveway. However, we have been told now since we moved in that we are on the list to have our retaining walls replaced. With all this recent rain, they are really dangerous and have now begun to fall down. We really lucked out in getting one of these houses. We always have people driving up our little street wanting to buy. We actually had two cars stop last week and ask us about selling. We're hoping that it'll be relatively easy to sell when we are looking to move back. If we can get the walls fixed and do some things with the lawn, it's only gonna increase the curb value. We don't have a very big lawn so this should fit the bill. I'll have to pick up a cheap electric trimmer (I gave that to Adam too) now but it should make the house look a bit nicer.

It seemed to be in pretty good shape and it came with a rear bagger and a mulcher.

Here it is after being cleaned up. Yes, I waxed the paint and I even put a little Armor All on the tires.

If I had a small trailer, I would load this thing up and try to get my own business going. I could probably head over to the massive homes up the street from us and make some real bank. But then I'd have to get about 5 of those 50' extension chords cause some of their lawns are really big.

Bluebird days

Absolutely stunning weather the last 2 days. Hardly a cloud in the sky and the evenings have just been breath taking. I went exploring tonight and found another new trail. It started out like this and then turned into some pretty decent hiking through some loose stuff.

Eventually it went through meadows of hardly used singletrack.

Something died here. Probably an elk.

I was actually going to check out a few lakes that I had spotted on Topofusion. I found them but they all had these massive gates that were on lock down and the driveways led to summer access homes. Not a problem. I'll find more. Ran into these 2 little guys on the way back through town. Last year the house next door had a mother shacking up under the porch with all her youngins. These might be two of them. I love the foxes. Or Foxii.

I am so gonna miss evenings like this when we finally move.

I was supposed to be a millionaire....

In the past I've had a few thoughts that I've seen blossom into million dollar ideas for some other shmuck. My entrepreneurial creativity started back in 2002 when I first wanted to develop a product that cities could purchase and paint on walls that would repel spray paint from those pesky kids doing their tagging and gang related graffiti/artwork. The spray paint would just run down the wall and not stick and then city workers would just have to hose it down instead of repainting and having those patched sections that never match. For years that idea sat in my hopper while I tried to figure out who I could trust to go to with it and help me become the millionaire I know I can be. Then in 2005, there was a product that I thought of that had something to do with eliminating the stench of dog poop. Yes...it is easier to just pick up said dog poop and crack the windows but we all know there are lazy people out there that don't wanna get up outta the chair for such mundane tasks. I support these people and their odd choice and wanted to develop a non-aerosol scent that would block the offending poop smell. Just tonight another one of them was put into action by someone else. Again...I am standing on the dock. I can't take all the credit for this idea as it was on what was the greatest show to ever grace public television and, of course, that is....Seinfeld. No it was not a restaurant where you bake your own pizza pie (what a lame idea). Yes...it was the restaurant where nothing but peanut butter and jelly is served. I've mentioned this idea to co-workers for years but always ended up just getting off the pot. So now in Colorado Springs you can eat at such a place. I was gonna call it PB and Jays but they've named it OPB & J's. They've pretty much covered all their bases too. Those bastards. Different types of bread, various jellies, jams, marmalades, apple butter, crunchy peanut butter, smooth peanut butter, natural peanut butter, peanut butter with cinnamon and honey, Nutella, toasted bread, non-toasted bread. International entrees would include Belgian waffles with your choice of smears, Crepes, Croissants, etc. Don't even get me started on the beverage and side choices.

Very bitter right now. Must........not.........clench............TEETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Bike??

I could do the Tour Divide on this. I could carry waders, a fly rod, plenty of materials/tools to tie flies, a warmer bag, a nice pad, a comfy chair, good food, and even.........beer. I wonder if I would clench my teeth when I twisted the throttle? And I realized something else after looking at my Orbea when I got back home. It's also orange and black. Hmmmmmmm.

The saga continues

Latest report from my dentist:

1. The bone and soft tissue around one of the temp crowns is very swollen and upset. Because of this, the perm crown can't be put on. I thought they had taken care of this issue already when I was put under but now they will have to go in and cut away the gum and grind the bone down to make room for the final crown. Sounds lovely.

2. After the Endodontics adjusted the bite on this last tooth they worked on, it felt much better but now the tooth that had the first root canal (which is directly next door) is flaring up again because it is now making more contact. So that bite was re-adjusted again today and we'll see if this causes the other one to get upset again.

3. The tooth that got the last root canal is ok in terms of pain but it is unprotected and needs to have a temp crown installed and then eventually a perm crown. That's another 1100. I would love to wait until January so I have more insurance but my doctor says that given my oral history, she thinks I am in a lot of danger of losing that tooth entirely after it splits so she'd love to do it tomorrow. There was seriously talk about putting gauze in between the teeth throughout the day. I did find some dog bone crumbs in the couch but not 1100 dollars.

4. I think, together, my doctor and I may have determined why all of this happened to such a nice, good looking guy like me. I clench my teeth like nobodies business. Even after wearing a mouth guard, my teeth still feel like they've had serious pressure on them all night. Then it dawned on me. Cycling. I constantly grit my teeth while doing hard efforts like last night. I do it when I climb. I do it on flats. It doesn't matter what the road or trail is like...if I'm doing a hard effort I am absolutely mashing my teeth. Weightlifters do this a lot and sometimes have similar issues. I've been doing it for 20 years and I bet that's why I'm in this situation. My doctor thinks that even if I ate bananas, I'd crack that tooth in half just from riding. Not really sure where to go from here. It's such a habit that I don't think I can ride hard while staying relaxed. She's going to make me a custom mouth piece for riding (it's kinda like the free toy in the box of cereal after all the loot I've dropped there this summer). I know there's times at work when I'm talking to someone who's pissin' me off and I clench my teeth so it's not all with riding. Maybe more of a lifestyle issue?

I think I'm gonna quit riding and just tie flies and cast and get back to doing more photography and car stuff. Maybe I'll take up ballet? That's pretty damn graceful right? I bet I could even make that competitive.

Back to school

I try to refrain from talking about work on here as it's just not appropriate but it's about that time again. I'm actually very much OK with going back to work this year. I even volunteered to work registration today as sometimes we get transfer students in and the counselors don't quite know where to place them to serve them best and they defer to the special education staff to do so. No new students showed up though so I got to use that 3 hours to go through some schedules and try to figure out how I'm going to set things up.

The one difference this year is that I am now the department head for special education. I'm pretty sure this will entail more meetings and responsibilities but I was not given a key to the city. The principals asked if I wanted the position. I THINK they know what they're getting into but....we'll see. I'm truly honored that I was asked. I must be doing something right so I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

Bodhi's got that look like he's gotta poop so I better tend to him. Thanks for checking in. If you're from back home....we miss you.

fjdslkejrrueiw fuvdvdffg fjie feopf ;dop jdofj !!!!!!!

I would really like to do the Crested Butte 100 in late September so tonight I wanted to do some harder, 10 minute intervals. I made it 6 minutes into the first one before throwing in the towel because of some pain that flared up in the first tooth that got a root canal way back in June. Super cold sensitive from the air hitting it. I'm supposed to go back to the doctor tomorrow morning for a permanent crown install so I'll have her look at that tooth yet again. I'd really be up for pulling all my teeth and going with a custom grill. I don't do gold jewelry though but I think I could do silver. Heather says that only hoosiers get their teeth pulled. I don't know too many hoosiers running around with grills and I bet I could get some fake teeth for a hell of a lot less than 5 large.

Well enough

Is something I can never leave alone. I painted the wheels on the Subie recently. They turned out a bit lighter than I was shooting for but the color I wanted was hard to track down and I didn't wanna go with a custom made color as the car is pretty dinged up and I hate to be that guy who's polishing a turd so to speak. I have some simple mods in mind for this car but not too much and one of the reasons for that is cost. Back when I had the black Golf, I installed a super nice exhaust from the guys at Techtonics Tuning for 300 bills. A cat-back system on this car is gonna run me twice as much. In my opinion, it's kind of silly to do just a cat-back system on these cars because of the Boxer style motor and the sound that it can make once setup with the right exhaust. Borla unequal length headers really bring out the kind of oddball sound of the firing order on these motors. If I do it the way I want it's gonna easily be a grand. Heather's not gonna go for that at all since the entire exhaust including O2 sensors and cats and muffler are brand new and she knows that.

Oh well. It's also kinda nice to have a quiet car. I do have plans for some mudflaps from Rally Armor and I'd like to do some rally lights to it but I'm having some issues figuring out how I'm gonna mount them up. Rally Innovations has a killer light bar that mounts on the subframe but they get 260 bills for it. Once school starts back up I may get some tube and see if I can bend up and weld something that doesn't look too ghetto fab. Heather doesn't know it yet but I've been looking into some time speed distant rallies where she would have co-driving duties.

Singlespeed??

My 26" mountain bike has gone from geared to ss at least a dozen times in the last few years. It's currently geared because my chain tensioner (a singulator) broke the last time I took it off. When I rode it as a ss, I liked it but I never stuck with it all that long. I'd really like to ride a true ss without a tensioner or an eccentric hub (like the ENO) or an eccentric bottom bracket. Yesterday I got to thinking whilst I was riding. My Orbea is such a nice bike right now. I don't want it to get dirty. I guess the bigger issue is that because Heather and I had to spend 5 grand on my grill this summer, I will not be able to spend the kind of loot I did on it this year. It's pretty much gotta get me through next year as it sits right now. So.......I'm considering making it a ss. Does anyone have any experience with this? This BB gets excellent reviews other than the bearings going out rather quickly but a set of Phil Wood bearings would take care of that. I could just ride the 26" bike through the winter but the fork is done for and I really like 29ers more. I could also get a Karate Monkey frame/fork and build it up but then I'd have to spend more money. Thoughts?

Then again, yesterday I decided to use a 32x22 all the way home. I was ok on the climbs but I bet I looked like a damn fool spinning upwards of 130rpm's. That's just silly. I did a lot of coasting. Not sure how ss'ers do it.

So much fun

My teeth have been feeling a bit better so I decided to do some exploring this morning. I was out the door by 7 a.m. with my fly rod, some coffee, and a rucksack full of snacky cakes. Right away I had pain when breathing with my mouth open. I think the cool air hitting that tooth was making it flare up. So I had to ride slowly. I saw this massive 10 pointer just outside of town. Sorry for the backdoor shot.

I jumped on Ring the Peak just outside of town and took it to North Catamount Reservoir where I rigged up and started fishing with a nymph setup and drank some coffee and ate a Rice Krispy Treat. I saw 2 beautiful bald eagles. I didn't catch any fish at the reservoir but it didn't matter. Then I started to ride counter-clockwise on the ring. Not too far up there's a creek. It was a little blown out from all the recent rain. This creek holds some really nice brookies but they were hip to all my tricks.

I hadn't been on this trail in a long time and I was having a blast so I decided to head up towards the Crags.

Eventually I headed back towards the reservoir.

I fished some more blown out creeks along the way. This little spot had a brookie that had to be pushing 10". Then I stumbled upon a new trail that ended up taking me all the way around North Catamount and brought me over to South Catamount Reservoir. I ended up doing a loop around it before climbing back out and heading home.

Yesterday afternoon I was in so much pain that I had to call my doctor at the Endodontic Specialists again. I really don't like taking pain killers but I do get a brief repreive with them. He was able to see me first thing this morning. He did some more testing and then decided to go in and adjust the bite a little bit. Apparently if it's off by even the slightest of margins, it can cause a load of stress on the ligaments in the jaw and then this can cause stress to other nerves and cause other teeth to fire up. All this has caused me to probably clench even more at night and it just gets worse. The Doc is a nice guy but I wanted to hit him hard when the air from the drill hit my teeth and sent me to the roof. The tests don't really indicate that any other teeth are in need of a root canal. That's a great thing as I don't have 2 pennies to rub together anymore. Since I'm not worrying about the race, I have slept like a baby the last 2 nights. The more I sleep the faster these things should heal up. He gave me more pain killers and now some muscle relaxers to help me sleep better this week.

Rest in Peace Skip

Skip belonged to my dear friend Scott and his lovely wife Kim. For the last 3 years Heather and I have stayed at their house the night before the start of the CTR as they live super close to the trailhead. Besides taking up his guest room once each year, we also spend a good deal of time fishing and hiking, and drinking beer and the occasional coconut Rum together. At our wedding ceremony, I asked Scott to read a passage from A River Runs Through It and he agreed to do so. Scott and Kim sprung Skip from the joint back in 1999 and he's been exploring the beauty of Colorado as a member of their family ever since. Skip enjoyed their company, and they his, for 11 years. It's unfortunate that they didn't know each other during his other three years of life but...at least they did know each other. Tragically, Skip passed away early this morning.

"...in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the South Platte River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise. Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters."

You will forever be missed Skip. May you run happily in endless fields of green.

Not an easy decision

After a great deal of thought last night, I decided to not start this year's race. There were half a dozen times yesterday where the pain was enough to make me react by either simply putting my head down and whincing or getting off the bike entirely. One of those times happened while eating blueberries but several happened while eating nothing at all. The tooth that received the most recent work is just really agitated and I worried that I wouldn't have fun or be able to eat well enough along the way. I think it's best to let my mouth recover fully and then re-evaluate things. Thank you so much to everyone for the kind words of encouragement. Talk to you all soon.

Warm up

I made it up to Littleton in a leisurely 4 .5 hours today. I was in horrible tooth pain for about 3 of those hours. I also did get rained on. This could be an interesting week. So long for now.