Fishing report

I really wanted to fish 11 Mile Reservoir pretty hard today but there just wasn't much going on there. I managed to lose 3 spoons that run $5 a piece. After about 2 hours, I decided to get outta there. I headed for another part of the reservoir but just wasn't thrilled with the way things looked. So...being that the next reservoir was about 20 minutes away, I decided to book on over. I stopped to say a quick hello to the rangers doing boat inspection and then headed back to my favorite cove. The wind was howling and weather was blowing in over the Divide but I decided to put on my waders and get in the rough water.

Breckenridge is out there.

This is Spinney Mountain. It's not much of a mountain but I spend a lot of time looking at it.

I kid you not. This was on my first cast and only after a couple bumps of the spoon along the bottom. Suck it Rambach!!!!!

I was wanting to get into some Pike today but they weren't in the shallows quite yet. The cold weather didn't help. In a few more weeks they'll move into the shallower water to sun and bow to my knife.

Look at that fat belly. You like that don't you Rambach??

All in all I landed 5 Rainbow's and every one of them was just a hair under 20". When the one above hit, I really thought it was gonna be 20" and come home with me but I couldn't stretch her out. I lost that pink spoon shortly after releasing this fish. I switched to a gold spoon and got shut down for the next hour before getting out.

birds

There's a little guy that pecks on our house and he is beginning to not only create a nice hole in the siding, but he's also rubbing me the wrong way. During the summer we have some issues with the woodpeckers but this is some other kind of non-woodpecker, pecker bird. It is tiny and I could fit it in my closed fist. So far I have beat on the wall, thrown an apple at him (with a near miss), and thrown a raquetball at him (I was tired, it was early, it was not a pretty effort). About a week ago, I decided to call in the big guns. I got an owl decoy. I first had it on the deck but then the dogs just stood at the window and barked and growled at it and that was equally maddening. Ideally, you wanna move it around once in a while so I decided to relocate it to a nearby tree. The other day I happened to be outside and actually saw this little bird drilling away at the house. He would stop and look over at the owl for a second and then go back to work. I saw him repeat this process several times before I ran around the corner yelling with my arms flailing. I'm going to move my owl friend today and also cut up some pie plates and attach those to the house but this is getting out of hand. I will admit that I did look at a few different BB guns and air soft guns last night at Walmart. I'm still researching but I'm almost positive he's not protected under the law. I need to get a pic of it and send it to my friend at the DOW. I really do not want to kill this bird. There's not much I could use from his body. Before I resort to shooting it I do think I am going to try a fist full of gravel.

In other news, Dharma ate a whole bag of buffalo wing flavored pretzels last night. She had to go out and poop at 3 in the morning.

I was going to ride tomorrow but instead, I decided to get my new fishing license. Now I'll get a good hike in as I head to the back coves of a reservoir just out of town that should be free of most of the ice by now. I will be looking for big Northern Pike but will also be thrilled with any Rainbows too. I'll eat the Pike though.

Bob Villa is a punk

This is the ugly builders grade vanity and counter that we were originally working with. It wasn't horrible. Just generic. I don't think there's anything private under the sink.

Here's it is all done. We just had a giant mirror above the sink but I want to do something different but I'm crunched for time. Heather can't get ready in the morning in the bathroom and she's not happy about that. My plan is to cut the mirror down and then I'm going to frame it some nice moulding and paint it to match the vanity. Should look slick. I just gotta run down and get the moulding and then I'll build it at school in the wood shop.

Nice little Sunday

Every time I load pictures here I get them in backwards order. Oh well...deal with it. We've had some bathroom stuff down in the garage now for a week or so and I decided to go ahead and get after it today. The bathroom got new paint that turned out to be a bit more gray than we anticipated but we were trying to match it to granite that was special ordered so it was a bit of a challenge. These are the new fixtures that go with the new top and sink.

This is mid-process of course.

We debated about doing a new floor but it was already ceramic and not horrible to look at. The vanity is actually oak and I hate oak. Heather painted that with a glazed paint that's available from Rustoleum. She also did our bedroom furniture as well since it's ugly oak too. We did a new light fixture but I forgot to take a picture of it so you'll have to wait. I need to get a different p-trap tomorrow and fix some minor plumbing issues and it should be done. We also got brushed hardware for the vanity. It's always hard to get good shots of a bathroom but it should turn out nicely.

The screws supplied with the light were not long enough to mount it to the wall so I had to run to the store. I ended up getting some that were a bit longer than I needed so I was just gonna cut them down with a hacksaw. I damn near cut the top of my thumb off while doing that. Don't ask how. Uncharacteristic of me, I let the expletives fly (and loudly) right after doing it. It wasn't painful but I know better than to handle a tool in that fashion and that's all I'm saying.

This is a gratuitous Dharma shot. I took it without looking at the screen because I knew she would move if she knew about the photo. She was just sitting in the sun yesterday.

Got me thinking

I've been going over bits of the training plan that I got from LW Coaching and I'm really excited to get on with it. I won't officially start with them until April 9 so, in the mean time I'm just going to ride when I feel like it. I already have more base mileage in than I did for that first attempt and I'm very confident I can work through the plan without candy assin' it. One of the things that shouldn't surprise is the difference in zones between where they want me to be and where I normally ride. I ride in zone 4 routinely and often flirt with zone 5.

My strategy this year is going to be a bit more like a diesel motor and just hum along at a lighter pace than in year's past but to also travel lighter than I've done before and move through the night. I have no idea how the sleep apnea is going to impact me. It can't be much worse than in the past but the concern for me now is that I'll be on the CPAP and oxygen for several months and then be forced to race without them.

One thing that I've been kicking around a bit is using aero bars for this year's race. I know that sounds odd on such a gnarly trail but the rationale behind it is that if I come to a detour on pavement, or fire roads at 4 in the morning, I intend on grinding it out. If a different position that puts different pressure on my saddle, triceps, and gives my numb hands a break from the grips means that I can ride even just 2 hours more each day then it's at least worth investigating. I could use them through Bailey and to the top of Kenosha Pass, into and out of Leadville, into and out of Buena Vista, along the fire road towards Fooses Creek, from highway 114 until I start the high altitude sections, and maybe along highway 550. A lot of mountain bikers aren't comfortable with aero bars but I got my start by racing duathlons so I am quite comfortable in that position.

My friend Marshal loaned me the clip ons he used for Tour Divide last year and I started playing with them last night. Some guys use a pretty radical stem to get the bars high enough but the saddle to bar drop on my bike isn't very much to begin with. The pads were a tad low so I swapped out the hardware that he had been using for longer bolts and 1/2" nylon spacers to bring them up. I've only ridden up and down the street but they are super comfortable.

Here you can see the new spacers. Don't worry Marshal...I took measurements before I made adjustments.

They do add a bit of weight but not that much and I am dropping more weight off my total from last year (see....I didn't have to use that one word). Right now I don't think they're going to get in my way on tighter trails but we'll see. The other added benefit of these is that they give me a very organized way of adding my heart rate monitor and a light because you know I like things to look a certain way from the seat. Running a light off to one side would make me cringe. I already know how I'm going to do it if this works out.

I'm so glad I'm not single

Why? I don't know too many gals that want to get with this:

The first night was awkward for sure. The mask rubs the area under my nose totally raw. Maybe I'll develop a callus there. That'll be a good look. The good news is that Thursday morning is the first time in the well over 5 years that I have felt good when I woke up. This equipment requires cleaning every morning or else you can get sinus infections from bacteria. By the time Heather got out of the shower, I had everything clean, a shirt ironed and a cup of juice. I'm a big kid now.

Unfortunately, yesterday morning I was back to my usual self. The second I opened my eyes I knew something was wrong. The oxygen machine has 2 warning lights that require you to call the company right away. One of them was on and I wasn't getting oxygen so I'm sure that's why I felt poorly. They came up yesterday and switched it out to a new machine. This morning I feel about like I did after that first night. I will probably be more awake today but, by this evening at dinner, I'll be tired again. It should get better each day.

I just feel bad for Heather. I was going to make an insulated box for the O2 machine but after talking to the company, the best I can do is put it in the other room and run 25' of tubing to my bed.