The Soapbox

And On Saturday We Go to Hong Kong

2010-10-30T11:48:00.003-04:00

It feels a little strange to be doing day by day coverage of a trip I completed almost a week ago, but I refuse to leave this travelogue unfinished. Besides, if the stories didn't outlive the adventures it would be a sad set of adventures in the first place. So, the story of my last full day in the far east....

Saturday was an early morning since I had to get checked out of the hotel and through immigration to Hong Kong with enough time to explore a little. I collected my luggage, had some breakfast and was ready to meet Dave and Freya by 8:45. Interestingly, anything before 9 am is very early for Chinese business. Freya was going into Hong Kong with us since she regularly visits the island but there were some kind of traffic issues and they were running late. To pass the time I shot some video of the Baolilai Hotel lobby. The lobby is quite nice and always smelled like you were walking through a floral shop. The aroma of fresh lillies was almost an affront by the end of the week

After Freya made it over to pick us up we hauled me and all my luggage to the tran station to board the MTR, Hong Kong's efficient train/subway system. You can board the MTR in Shenzhen City after clearing immigration/customs from China into Hong Kong in the station. I didn't realize that HK and China were still so separate after the island's return from Britain. Still separate immigration, customs and even currency. So we stand in line for a while, get stamped out of China, fill out some forms, stand in another line, get stamped into Hong Kong, declare that we have nothing to declare, and we're on our way. Here's a video of the immigration line leaving China. Note the "no photos" sign, heh.

The MTR was quite nice and is a very popular way to get around. Public transport should be so nice stateside. The ride across the island to Kowloon and Hong Kong was actually very pretty. The mountains reminded me of North Georgia, but the peaks were steeper although not quite as tall. Throw in the subtropical plant life and housing that crawled in and out of the valleys and you have an absolutely stunning area. I would love to go back and explore some of the more natural areas in the area. I bet there's a small group of epats somewhere there with some really killer mountain biking in those hills.

We disembarked at the end of the blue line, one of the main stations. We found a storage service for my luggage and set off to explore Hong Kong. Our plan was to check out some of the older city and do some shopping in the street markets, then head over to the high end, newer districts to check out a couple of our supplier's screens and window shop. The first stop was a small temple near the train station that was quite beautiful. I don't know how old it was, but it was kind of dropped right in the middle of large apartment buildings. We were allowed inside where people were praying and leaving small gifts and incense. The altars were absolutely amazing and I was really touched by the same sense of the divine that I somestimes feel at the rail of our own altar during communion. You can believe in God as a superbeing or just as a higher concept that humans are trying to reach, but it was very obvious in that place that we are all reaching out to the same thing.

After leaving the temple we hit the bank to exchange our Yuan (or RMB) for some HKD and do a little shopping. The old streets are narrow and the signs sprout from the buildings on either side like some kind of forest growth, nearly meeting over the streets. The effect is a little vertigo inducing at times, but also kind of like a country lane with trees stretching over it. Then there are the market stalls....structures made out of poles and tenting, stretched tarps, folding tables, glass counters...and anything else. They spill off the sidewalks to almost meet in the middle of the streets inbetween the main roads, leaving a walking path 3-4 feet wide between their open fronts. Anything is available and thee streets are kind of organized by type of merchandise - wearables and accessories, electronics, household goods, etc. They were a little sensitive about photos - as I've mentioned before. Even the streetside food vendors gave my camera the stink-eye. This is one thing you'll just have to go see yourself.

As we got out onto the more mainstreets, the pedestrian traffic eased some and i was able to shoot a little.

Shortly after that we wedged ourself through the crowd for a tea break. This was probably one of the most crowded areas we experienced with people jostling and bumping on the narrow sidewalks.

Just afterward we found a street of shops all geared toward guys. They were all selling model cars, RC cars and airplanes, motorcycle accessories, ...and model guns. They were the strangest thing - full scale, super detailed fake guns of all varieties from pistols to grenade launchers. Plus you could buy accessories for all of them - different magazine clips, stocks, grips...on and on. I guess in a country where owning guns is illegal, this is the next best thing. I couldn't help but think of a US kid carrying one of these in public and the law enforcement response. Frightening.

Having wrapped up our shopping we took a cab to the other side of town - the new super-lux districts filled with Louis Vuitton, Armani, Tiffany, and many other things I can barely pronounce and never afford. Did I mention the wealth in HK is staggering at times? The cabs here deserve a discussion of their own. everyone of them is a Toyota Royal Crown Comfort of fairly recent vintage with an automatic rear door. easily half the cars in the street are these red and silver cabs. the back seats are rediculously roomy, although the interior rminded me of my '82 Corolla a LOT. The cabs seem very well regulated and are a good option for almost anyone. English is very common in the streets including the market sellers and the cab drivers. It may not be conversational, but if you know where you want to go, they can figure it out. Again, if public transport were this well organized and controlled here it would be a beautiful thing. The taxi actually took us to the ferry dock where we took the open ferry across to the new part of town. The ferry ride cost $2.40HK, about 50 cents US. The bay was clean and the sea smelled wonderful, just like the coast back home. It's such a difference from the waterways around a major US city that it was staggering.

The new side of the city looks like New York or Chicago - glass skyscrapers and luxury cars, super malls and Starbucks. It was something to see, but I'd rather be in the street markets.

After much walking about we grabbed a cab to pick up my bags from the train station and take us to my Hotel out by the airport. The 45 min trip cost us $190HK, about $25USD and gave us a great view of the deep water freight harbor and a 5km bridge that was reminiscient of the Golden Gate. The hotel was a Novatel and nice enough, although the service was lackluster after staying at the Baolilai for a week. I did ramble the attached outlet mall for a while, picking up a set of headphones in a chain electronics store and a travel pillow from a department store. Shopping in a foriegn depoartment store is a little surreal - some of it is so familiar and at the same time so alien.

The next morning I collected my luggage and caught the free airport shuttle, clearing customs and check in easily. I definitely want to come back to Hong Kong and spend more time. after the gritty, work-a-day landscape of Shenzhen, HK is a different world. One I want to know more about.

TGIFIC- Thank Goodness it's Friday (in China)

2010-10-27T16:08:00.004-04:00

So now that I've covered my amazing adventures with Big Mike, all that remains is a Friday in Shenzhen, a Saturday in Hong Kong and a long boring flight home. All this jumping around in the time stream is taking a toll on my quantum state, so I'll try to wrap it up sequentially.

Friday I finally got to cover all the new info on the signs we were there to inspect, do the inspection testing, and generally make some progress on the issues that brought me to the east. It all went well and was something of a relief given the evaporative nature of our schedule the previous few days. Planning a schedule or itenerary in China seems a lot like chalk-drawing on the sidewalk in a thunderstorm. At the end of the day we were very honored to receive parting gifts from the supplier, a very beautiful, traditional Chinese tea set and a selection of fine tea each for Dave and I. It was a lovely gesture and I plan on using mine a great deal. I've become quite fond of having tea and the unimagineably delicate tea set is the perfect service for it. After presentation of the gifts we all gathered in the lobby for a group photo, something that's very important for them as well as us. If you look closely, the small pink sign says something about welcoming their "Honorable guests from Aero Eagle." They obviously didn't know us well when making the sign....

Sean, Kelly, Freya, Dave B, me, Mr. Kuang, Tony, and Ivy

After the photo shoot we headed into Shenzhen City for one last dinner, this time at a well known Sichuan restaurant. More spicy food ensued, this time with local Snow beer instead of Tsingtao. The into was three small dishes of variously spicy appetizers, a firm tofu with a distictly cheese-like texture, thin sliced pig ears served cold (!) and sprouts of some variety. This was quickly followed by the requisite dumplings, this time with a layer of toasted sesame seeds on the bottom for an unexpected, smokey crunch. The first big dish was a fish soup, almost hot-pot style, that featured heavily on Sichuan flower peppers. These little things were known to me by reputation but never by experience. The flavor was wonderful and the burn was unlike aything else I've had. It started as a tingle on the very center of my tongue and grew quickly to real heat, possibly as a result of the other peppers in the dish. The feeling was kind of like the aftermath of burning your tongue on hot coffee, or maybe the way a cold carbonated drink kind of sizzles your tongue if you drink it really fast on a hot day, all while maintining a slightly floral bouquet. We also tried several types of tofu (all good), some special medicinal greens that I think they grow as decorative hanging baskets stateside (weird, weird flavor), a lovely sweet-spicy shimp and peanut dish, more cold spicy chicken, and sliced cold pork that was then dipped in powdered dried peppers. Of course there were a couple types of noodles but instead of hot tea we had hot soymilk, something I found that I really enjoy. Of course their soymilk is fresh pressed, barely sweetened and not thickend, unlike all the "health food" soymilk here that is thickly, sweetly vanilla'd. Heaven forbid it actually tasted like soymilk instead of trying to pull off a lack-luster milk impression.

One of the final items was a large meatloaf-esque concoction that was made with beef shortribs molded in with rice flour, layered on top of a kind of cooked gourd similar in taste to acorn squash. Although the flavor wasn't like anything I'd had, it immediately nailed my comfort-food button. I could easily see it being a favorite in cold months. Here's a short video showing the beginning of dinner. If you look quickly, you can spot our "box of beer" on the floor by the table. This is a plastic industrial tote filled with ice and beer, the much-better equivalent to the American "Bucket of Beer."

Driving through Shenzen City at night, I was again reminded of the movie Blade Runner. With the haze of pollution, the LED screens 5 stories tall, massive cranes, construction and neon-lit alleys, actual Shenzhen was not unlike the toxic waste world in the movie. I hope it will never proceed to the levels of toxicity and disrepair seen in Ridley Scott's film, but it certainly looks closer than anywhere else I've been. It has a certain sci-fi charm that you can see in Whedon's "Serenity" and "firefly" as well, never letting you forget that all is not well while still charming you.

So where was I......?

2010-10-25T19:58:00.003-04:00

Where was I with the story? Oh yeah, getting in the car with the big, half-lit American expat Mike. Right,

So, Mike convince our waitress Morgan to wrap my food to go (which is "take-away" in Mandarin) , ordered some beer for the ride, and away we went. I was very sure to inquire about local open container laws since I was getting into a car with a plastic bag full of ice and beer, but open container laws are nonexistent there. There are extremely harsh drunk driving laws, but nothing regulating passengers. Since we had a guy from the hotel that was paid to be the sober driver, I chalked it up to "when in Rome" and opened a beer after climbing in the back seat of the Camry. Mike got settled in the front seat and we headed out. At the bottom of the drive to the hotel, Mike says "Hey we gotta stop and get my translator." The car pulls over and two 20-something Chinese girls pile into the back seat with me. Um....yeah. Translators. Okay.....

Now, I was thinking the same thing you are right now, I guarantee. But, they were nicely dressed and did seem to have a good grasp of English and might be of use in communication. I figure if things get too...friendly, I can always excuse myself and hire a taxi back to the hotel. I've got enough money to take a taxi all the way across China, and I have the Hotel address in Chinese on my room card. What the hell...

So we shoot the breeze and have a few drinks as we work our way through traffic to downtown Shenzhen City. Mike starts teaching me a few words in Mandarin with Emily and Alicia's help, and We're having a good ole time. The traffic is thick and the as trip stretches out Emily begins to feel car sick, apparently something she goes through often. Instead of going directly to the shopping center, we went to the Shangri-La Hotel for a cold drink and a rest. Okay, hold on, Shangri-La is a SE Asian hotel chain of 5 star hotels, it's not at all what it sounds like. I swear. We all sit in the bar, have a few drinks and the girls ordered some food. Mike stays at these hotels all over in his travels and is one of their gold level frequent flyer types, so we get the red carpet treatment. Through conversation I learn the Emily is actually an assistant manager in the night club at our hotel and does frequently help guest with shopping and translation. I won't speculate as to what other services she may or may not offer, or may or may not arrange by request. Alicia also works at the hotel, and they have been together for 5 years. I'm not really clear if Alicia means friends for 5 years or ..."together" for 5 years, but it doesn't really matter. Once Emily is feeling better, we walk the three or four blocks to the shopping mall, LouHu Commercial City. The walk over is less crowded than some of the other places I've been, and just before we leave the hotel Mike tells me to keep a hand on my wallet because once in a great while thieves have been known to razor-slice your pockets and take the contents. Hmmm.....

I had actual read about this market in some of my initial research about Shenzhen, so I was somewhat prepared. As we approach the place people start walking up to us and saying "Hallo, what do you need, purse, watch, what you want....etc etc." These are "touters," people that make a few bucks by directing gullible travelers to certain shops to buy....whatever they want. The correct response is to ignore them, tell them "booyow" or something similar that means "Don't want." All through the day these guys and girls are matching your step and trying to grab at your arm to go show you something. It turns the afternoon into a tiring but interesting carnival. The shops inside are mostly glass front, full counter spaces reminiscent of an old mall, but the spaces are so tightly packed and the aisles are so narrow that is almost feels like a flea market. The touters and booth hawkers don't help any. Mike has a couple people he buys from regularly, so we see the first one - a watch and handbag specialist. When Mike walks up she immediately sends a runner for a couple cold beers and pulls out the watch catalog and the purse catalog. See, they all have a catalog, 3/4" thick, of every watch around. You simply flip through to find the brand you want, then point out a few. The shop owner sends a runner to whatever other stall or backroom has that model, and they bring it back in about 15 minutes. Mike selects several Rolex models and I point out a nice Coach handbag for my wife.

Now, at this point I want to make sure everyone knows that there are no fake or counterfeit goods in China. I know it's true because their government says so. But the deals you can get in these little backwater markets on top luxury brand items are just staggering.

We assure the proprietor we will be back and then head up stairs with our cold beers to see what else we can find. Mike was also searching for an old contact that sells Polo shirts, and we found her on the second floor. Did I mention that this place was 5 stories? We started haggling on some shirts with Mike, Emily and the shop owner going toe to toe over golf shirts. If you pay more than 2/3 of the original quoted price, or if you don't start to walk out at least twice, you aren't getting the best deal. Really. we finally worked the price down to 40RMB per shirt (6.15USD) and I bought 5 in solid colors. Although I normally wear an XL these days, I took her advice and got XXLs. I should have gone with one more X, but they'll be allright if I keep exercising and don't put them in the dryer.

After another hour and a half of cruising the shops and being harangued by all the sellers, we migrated back to the first shop and haggled out a final price for the watches and purse. Mike was worn out by that point, not being young or in good physical shape, so we walked back to the Shangri-La to find our driver. The girls couldn't believe he was tired, so they stayed and shopped, planning to return by train later. On the ride back to the hotel, Mike managed to spill the remainder of his white wine over the shifter and center console of the car, which angered the driver. Just. a. little. I thought for a few minutes we were about to be hiring a cab from wherever he kicked us out, but luckily we made it back to the hotel without the driver blowing a gasket. Mike tipped him enough to have the car cleaned twice and take his entire family out for dinner for a week. At least when he acts like an idiot American, he does his best to apologize and make up for it. Tipping is generally not done in China at all, so it was a nice gesture.

From there we met Dave B in the hotel bar and Bitt and I ended up at the street vendor for dinner. Sadly, I din't shoot any video of the market. I just didn't want that much attention.

Back to the grind

2010-10-25T11:26:00.003-04:00

Sorry to leave you hanging, but the last couple days overseas got kind of hectic. Since my flight left early Sunday morning from Hong Long, I had to check out in Shenzhen Saturday morning and stay Saturday night in Hong Kong. Add a late-running farewell dinner Friday night and any free time to post quickly evaporated. after a long flight I'm back at work in old Maconga today, so I will fill inthe rest of the story and post some videos as soon as I can. Stay tuned....

Friday night wrap up

2010-10-22T11:25:00.002-04:00

Sorry faithful readers, I just got in and I have to check out early tomorrow for the switch to the Hong Kong hotel so I can catch an early flight Sunday. You will just have to wait for the story of my adventure with Big Mike, but I did post some pics from today on the smugmug site, so check those out for now. I should have some time to kill tomorrow night, so hopefully I can update then. good night from Shenzhen for the last time this trip!

Go wit da flow

2010-10-21T09:30:00.010-04:00

Today I was supposed to go and train on the new control system on our signs. Both my contacts showed up on time at the hotel only to tell me that the signs weren't ready so there was no way to train. Dave B had already headed out to see another supplier so I was kind of stuck. I tried to get in touch with Dave but that kind of fell through. I was starting to feel like a caged bear and was pretty unhappy about the cancellation, so I changed into a tshirt and headed out to walk the streets around our hotel and see if I could find something on which to spend my cashy money. Now, I may have alluded to the fact that I stand out a little over here. There are taller people here, but average seems to be about 5'6" or so. I'm a little taller. What few taller people are around are thin like a bamboo stick. I am not. And I have yet to meet a Chinese citizen with a goatee. The usual reaction in a crowd so far is staring and a little blank surprise, or a chorus of "hallo" from a couple people. They're not really trying to be friendly and say hi. Believe me.

So off I go and circle a couple blocks in kind of a figure 8 around the hotel, walking maybe a mile or so. I stopped and looked at some stuff but didn't find anything worth buying. I attracted a fair amount of attention, but no aggression or ill comments. It was a little nervy at first but got easier. Striking off into the streets when you know exactly 2 words of the language (Hello and thank you) by yourself is not exactly a guaranteed win. After a couple of blocks I kind of settled in to it and could relax a little. It was pretty cool although I did draw stares. No surprise there.

After walking around I visited the hotel garden and hung out for a while enjoying the stiff breeze and nice weather that you apparently only get when there's a SuperTyphoon just off shore. I almost even saw a little patch of sky that kind of looked like it once thought about being blue in a forgotten dream. Just for Mom and cathy, here are some videos of the garden:

Why yes, Virginia, there ARE Chinese fringe plants in China but they cut them in funny shapes

The main garden

just for Cathy:

I sat in the garden until I got hungry and hit the Hotel bar for a cold Tsingtao, some spring rolls and dumplings. I was sipping my beer and waiting on my snax when this great big pot-bellied American wobbles back into the bar to retrieve the last half of his white wine bottle just as the waitress is picking it from the table. From his accent he's a yankee, but he is discussing taking the wine with him, half in English and half in Mandarin, and generally having a good time. I watched with a smile and chuckled to myself. The guy heard me and said hello. We started talking, as usual the first topic was why we were in China. The guy (Mike) oversees purchasing from several factories around SE Asia and runs some production where hi lives in taiwan, a 3 year transplanted Wisconsonite. After hearing it was my first time, he says "Hey, I was just headed down to Shenzen City to do some shopping. I've got a driver from the hotel and a translator. You wanna go?"

So here I am looking at a 6'8", half lit American expat I just met who is suggesting I hop in a car and drive 45 minutes into a strange city where I don't speak the language to go to "the WalMart of knock-off goods." And he's planning on taking the wine because there are no open container laws here. And Dave is off to who knows where with no way for me to get in touch.

Ummmm.....yeah. What would you do?

So of course I have them wrap the snax and beer to go and hop in the car. I know, not the brightest thing, but you gotta trust your gut, and good adventures don't happen without a little risk, right? Tally ho!

It was quite the adventure, and I'm still worn out. I survived easily, had a good time, and got back to the hotel safely before 6:00 pm. I will give you the full run down in a separate post. I'm too tired to get everything in the way it should be.

When I got back we ran into dave B in the hotel bar, so we all sat down and had a few drinks and discussed trading and working around the South China Sea. Now I have at least one contact in the area, sort of. Taiwan, anyway.

Dave discovered a local street vendor food court last night, so off we went into the night in search of pan fried noodles while Big Mike headed upstairs for a nap.

We found the same vendor and pointed to a bunch of stuff that he threw in a hot wok while we sat in the folding tables and plastic chair area around all the carts. In the back of the square, a DJ was playing music and a bunch of people were line dancing. Really. It was fantastic, maybe the best food I've had yet. Dave at 3 plates of noodlea and I ate 2, and we each had a big tsingtao beer, and it all came to $30RMB or less than $5. Excellent.

Dave and I were able to blend in a little since we were sitting down and it was dark, but every time some walked up to one of the tables near us, there'd be a pause in the conversation as they saw us. Pretty funny.

If it's Tuesday, It must be Hunan

2010-10-20T07:29:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a very long day of problem resolution and development work with our supplier. We were able to get problems squared away and make some real progress on a software project, but it was an intense day at times. I had an opportunity to work with their head of R&D and their main software engineer who is developing a US-market specific control program. It was a typical engineering give-and-take then heated discussion leading to a solution. I was working through a translator and couldn't understand any of their internal discussion, but I knew for certain the entire time what was going on. I have had enough of the same type of strategy sessions that I didn't need to know the words to know the score. It was pretty cool.

Lunch was a quick bite of beef with wide rice noodles in broth, and a BLT sandwich. It was absolutely the worst sandwich ever. I think they don't really understand the concept of mayonnaise. The beef was good, however, and the noodles were the slipperiest thing I've ever put to chopsticks.

After a long day of intense meetings, our CSR/translators and I decided we needed spicy food and a beer. I introduced them to the concept of "hot food and cold beer" at a local upstairs joint known for extra spicy Hunan cuisine. Dishes included: more chicken hearts with peppers that varied from hot to homaGODi'mgonnaDIE!, a mild beef and pepper dish with great flavor, cumin roast pork ribs that were fire on a stick, dried extra spicy duck (with head) that looked like month old road kill in august but tasted better, a really good eggplant dish in a hearty sauce, spicy crystal noodles that were very good, a local whitefish in spicy broth that was the best fish I've had here yet, and some whole wheat steamed buns. And lots of cold Tsingtao beer. We had a great time, probably the most fun of any dinner yet as all four of us loosened up and kind of cut loose. Again, we had a private room, but this was in a slightly threadbare, somewhat scruffy restaurant that was probably know for the temperature of their beer as much as the temperature of the food. Judging by the reaction from the other customers when we came up the stairs, we might very well be the first westerners to eat there. Ever. A whole room of tattooed, working class guys goes completely quiet....just keep going and be cool.....

Today we wqere driven into Shenzhen City (from the industrial district where we're staying, Bao'an) to look at several of our supplier's local LED screens, see the nicer part of the city, and do a little shopping. The city was much greener and cleaner than this area with beautifully planted and landscaped arears along all the roads. It reminded me some of Atlanta having skyscrapers interspersed with natural areas, but the flora was significantly more abundant than in A-town.

Today we started with a late brunch of traditional breakfast dim sum in the Chinese restaurant in our hotel. An assortment of dumplings, the best spring rolls ever, beef stomach in brown sauce, fried flour sticks, steamed greens with soy sauce, pork ribs with taro root, and the traditoinal eggwhite or rice roll with meat filling. This went with a jasmine tea that was like drinking fresh flowers, and a bowl of freshly pressed soy milk that was slightly sweetened.

Shopping at the markets in Shenzhen City was part tradeshow and part fleamarket, but all entertaining. We visited a local electronics market but I haven't found the bike light I wanted yet. We went to a cell phone market so my colleague could get a sim card phone for use here and he bought a - cough - iPhone 4 for about $60. I picked up a cool LED watch at the watch market for 50RMB after much negotiation, which is about $9. Since our hosts had to call an early day for another customer meeting, Dave and I had a couple martinis and a not-too-bad cheeseburger in the hotel bar. Both of us are feelign pretty beat by this point, but I have to be up for massive training tomorrow. I think I may try out the pool or take a walk around the garden. If I crash now, I'll be up at 4 am...

Typhoon Who?

2010-10-19T10:27:00.006-04:00

If you haven't heard yet, it looks like my Asian experience will include an up close look at a typhoon. Typhoon Megi just got done raping the phillipines and now it may feel like a Hong Kong cigarette. But don't worry.

Right now, no one here is overly worried for a couple reasons. One, Megi weakened siginficantly after hitting the Phillipines. It is strengthening some now but also has started to wobble on its track, and that usually weakens one. Estimations are sying it might be equivalent to a strong cat3 or weak cat4 hurricane when it makes landfall. Second, there's a high pressure front dropping in out of Mongolia that looks to weaken it some and perhaps push it north of Hong Kong for landfall. Being south of the eye will guarantee a lesser impact. Third, building codes locally require typhoon resistance and much engineering has gone into drainage for the heavy rains that are common in the wet season. I know that this is China, and code enforcement might not be the best, but at least some forethought went into it.

Also, we have friends here now, and I believe that they will help us to make sure we are safe and well cared for in any emergency. Hospitality here is a major commitment of honor. There's a possibility that my flight may be delayed Sunday, but other than that I think we'll be fine. Of course, that doesn't mean we will stay on the 17th floor that night either. If things get really bad, remeber that I am a good southern boy raised outdoors, and my partner Dave knows the lay of the land here. We're capable.

Now, having cleared that up, let me tell you about the fun we've been having. Our contacts with our major supplier were very happy to learn that we like real chinese food and want to try everything instead of only wanting KFC like most westerners. The VP of Marketing is an avid cook and considers himself an expert on chinese cooking, so he has been helping us sample a different type of regional cooking at each meal. Monday at lunch we started with Sezchuan since we both like spicy food. We ate at a well-known local place called Flowertown and I had my first experience with Chinese dining. Many different main dishes, soups, and side dishes are put in the middle of the table on a big glass lazy susan and everyone takes little bits of each dish as they wish. Serving chopsticks are provided, as well as spoons for the soups and heavily sauced dishes, but taking a bit of something with your personal chopsticks and eating it directly is perfectly fine. Messes are made, sauces are dripped and noodles are slurped, but no one cares because the follow Confuscious' direction to truly enjoy food. I have not met anyone yet that didn't really love to eat.

Anyway, the first lunch included spicy chicken heart and stomach with hot peppers ( my favorite,) a beef and pepper dish with cumin that tasted like good Mexican food, a whole split local fish topped with spices and accompanied with special rice noodles (good noodles, not big on the fish,) Cairman Mao Pork - thick cubes of por with lots of fat cooked in a red sauce slightly sweet and touched with cinnamon and nutmeg, a beef soup that tasted like good american beef broth, sliced cold spicy chicken, and gold-and-silver bread - a mixed plate of steamed and deep-fried rolls, fresh steamed bok choy and some other stuff. Grand total for 4 people for a 2 hour lunch? about $40. Oh yeah!

At dinner we were honored to be given a fabulous meal by the Director Vice President of our supplier company. We ate at the Chinese style restaurant here in our 5 star hotel - in aprivate room. Picture a super-lux private room with plush seating area and 4 or 5 staff for the 6 of us dining. An absolutely unreal experience. The meal was Cantonese style, highlighting very fresh ingredients with lighter sauces that let the ingredients shine. We started with good Jasmine tea and conversation, then leisurely moved to dinner. Dishes included Marinated sliced flightless duck (gamey but good), a whole crab with glass noodles (try eating crab with chopsticks), fantastic tofu blocks in sauce, beef spare ribs, candied nuts with sesame, steamed lightly sauced baby bok choy, Kung Pao chicken (the same one, but so different,) a dish of dark kidney beans cooked with papaya (completely unexpected but fantastic,) large steamed dumplings with meat filling that looked like little balloons, shrimp fried rice (yes, they eat it here), grilled snowfish with ceese and some kind of starchy vegetable, and finally the most magical seared Abalone I've ever tasted. All served on damask silk table cloths with gold utencils and mahogeny chopsticks as we discussed the differnece in American and Chienese approaches to knowledge and life while sharing the best white wine I've ever tasted. Folks, this country boy is a loooong way from boiled peanuts and Budweiser. And enjoying the hell out of it.

Sunrise in Shenzhen

2010-10-17T20:47:00.002-04:00

Good morning from Shenzhen! Since I didn't sleepmuch at all on the plane and we got in late, I slept pretty well. I left most of the curtains open overnight for a little extra light (hey, i'm on the 17th floor, who's looking in?) and crashed into the big cushy bed about 1:30 am local. At 6:30 I woke up with a start and thought "Holy CRAP! I'm in CHINA!" I've spent a couple hours arrranging all my stuff in this plush hotel room this morning, and we will be meeting our suppliers around 10:30 for a late "Chinese Breakfast." I'll let you know what that amounts to later. Could be Burger King.

I posted the first round of photos. You can see them here - My Smugmug

Here's a video of our late night dinner in a noodle shop overlooking one of the street markets a block from the hotel with our friends from Yaham Optoelectrics:

On behalf of Delta Airlines, Welcome to Hong Kong

2010-10-17T07:56:00.001-04:00

Here we are in the airport, one hour early thanks to a 60mph tailwind. Now we have to catch the 8:30 ferry to Shenzhen, clear customs, and get to the hotel. Wheeeee!! I shot some pics of the polar ice floes from the air, I'll post up when things settle and I have a chance to roost.

That is one long flight, I kid you not....

Nature's Table Bistro

2010-10-16T09:24:00.001-04:00

If you're ever in the Intl Terminal at ATL - eat here. fresh food that is really - really - good. Only time I've looked forward to eating at the airport

2010-10-16T06:47:00.001-04:00

Just testing out the mobile blogging feature....which won't do much good from China anyway. Here's a pic from yesterdays non-flight

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China looks a lot like South Atlanta...

2010-10-15T16:50:00.003-04:00

And we have lift off....wait, no we don't. After 2 attempted take offs that were aborted because the check engine light came on. Then we went back to the gate. Then after telling us "15 more minutes" about 5 times, we all got to grab our luggage and return to the gate. Apparently the repair the new Boeing 777 required went from "a few minutes" to "about 18 hours." Our flight was cancelled and the best we can do is to reschedule for the same rodeo tomorrow, leave ATL for Detroit at 10:55 AM, fly Detroit to Hong Kong at 3:30 and arrive Sunday night (HK time).

Through the whole experience, I want to give the Delta employees credit for being as helpful and kind as you can imagine. After much confusion we found three people at the International Rebooking counter that worked with us over an hour to sort out our best option, track down our luggage and get us a hotel and meal coupons. They went so far as to give us free overnight kits ( see pic), travel vouchers for $100 off our next flight, and cards for free drinks in flight.

And so it is that I find myself at the Comfort Inn North in South Atlanta (??) instead of stuck in a 777 high over the pacific. I think I'll look up some friends and go have a drink. Lord knows, I could use one...

The "Skyteam overnight kit" including a skyteam logo tshirt (xl), basic toiletries including push up deodorant, and a note in 15 languages that says "We regret to inform you that your luggage has been lost. Our deepest condolences in your time of bereavement." Or something like that.

Mechanical Pencil Overkill

2010-10-13T06:05:00.005-04:00

I found these on a recent foray to our local house-o-office-supplies. A large pack of mechanical pencils. That look just like real pencils. um, huh?

Is there some tyrannical, gestapo school district out there forcing its students to rely on the antiquated wood-and-carbon sticks for communication, driven by secret kickbacks from the pencil lobby? Is there a heroic rebal alliance of forward-thinking students distributing these cloaked, highly advanced writing instruments to like-minded learners? Perhaps they are designed thusly in order to help the technophobe masses ease themselved into the advanced technology of non-sharpened pencils. I can see some confusion on that front, especially when granny first inserts one of these mimic wonders into her Grindapoit2000 5hp gas-driven pencil sharpener. Or maybe they just look kinda cool. I'll concede that they do.

An even better question though - WHY THE WEEPIN' JEHOVA DO YA NEED 28 OF THEM? They're MECHANICAL so they're REFILLABLE! So you can REUSE them! I checked, it says so on the package. Even accounting for loss, or -horrors- mechanical failure, 28 seems like more than overkill. And why 28? That's obviously smaller than the average class size in secondary education, and golf courses would need a smaller version, without erasers of course. Wouldn't 30 or even 25 make more sense? I suppose odd numbers would make the even distribution of yellow and black models more difficult.

It looks like one more product is happily answering a question no one asked. Don't we all feel safer because of it?

To The Far Side of the World

2010-10-10T12:39:00.002-04:00

In the movie "The Truman Show" the lead character dreams of going to Fiji because it's as far as you can go before you start coming back. It may not be Fiji, but my upcoming trip to Shenzhen China certainly seems about as far from here as you can get, geographically speaking. It will be my first foray outside of the country, though hopefully not my last. It will be the longest flight I've taken, on the largest plane yet. I'm still a bit shell-shocked, but the excitement is starting to build as well. I've always wanted to travel overseas, and China specifically was on my wishlist but seemed pretty unrealistic given the vast difference in culture and communication. Or so I thought. Now, thanks to a return to a job I know well, it has moved from dream to booked, prepaid reality.

Normally I try to research the destination before I go for business in order to make the most of my time away from whatever obligations take me there. Surf the web, check the travel Channel site, read up on what Tony Bourdain did while there...any kind of local knowledge from like-minded adventurers can be useful. This time I haven't done much of that. Its such a foreign culture that I am trusting in my travelling partner who has been there repeatedly, and in the hospitality of the business associates we'll be visiting. It should be an adventure of the best kind. Or the worst, but I choose to ignore that possibility. I will try to keep updates coming and will try to post picture to my photography site (See link at right.) Since internet access will be free and cell coverage expensive, don't expect those nice picture messages like John H sends out. After all, I barely qualify as a Junior International Man of Mystery. So far.

In a side note, the new (old) job (or is it the old(new) job...) is going well. The strangest thing is that it looks the same...but it tastes different. I left, worked elsewhere, and returned to different circumstances that Mike and I negotiated. Everyone else kept working there, so their view and their experience never changed. To them it's the same old job, but to me it's not. Add in that I know information about future company plans and actions that they aren't cleared for, and it can be a strange experience sometimes, I am happy to be back and I'm enjoying the work and the people. I seem to have found a peaceful center regarding work in general that I couldn't claim in the past. I believe the time spent at the asphalt plant was necessary and good. I put some tools in my toolbox that will serve me well, and gained some perspectives that I needed. The new adventure should be a good one.

And then it was Tuesday..

2009-12-17T07:09:00.008-05:00

Tuesday was slightly less than spectacular. We grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald's and headed to class. The classes have been pretty intense as company training goes. Maybe not drinking from a firehose, but certainly like a well-pressured garden hose. Most of the guys in the class are actually instrument techs fom major production facilities, so they have a technical background that we lack. The class is well organized, though, and we've been keeping up with no issues. We'll certainly have a first-rate understanding of our equipment at the plant. Lunch at the school was Tex-mex, and was fair except for the corn tortillas which had the texture of well-worn Nikes.

After class I sojourned off to Mellow Johnny's bike shop in downtown. For those of you that don't follow cycling, this is the local shop owned in part by Lance Armstrong. The shop was huge, and very nice. They have an on-site coffee shop and training facility with computer linked stationary trainers and huge screens. They also have a commuters area with showers, lockers and support equipment. They have a real focus on commuter gear and support overall, and not just the trendy no-brakes-fixie kind. The staff was also very friendly and helpful, something that's rare in the high-vis celebrity store. I could actually see shopping here if I lived inthe area.

After the bike shop wechanged at the hotel and headed off to the legendary 6th street. It was dead. I think there were fewer bars open than there were on Sunday. After driving around and finding nothing interesting that was open, we ended up at Joe's Crb Shack. I try to avoid chain restaurants, and now i remember why. Overcharged for crappy food, annoying staff and watery drinks. I won't even give them the dignity of a real review.

Monday in Austin

2009-12-15T08:46:00.008-05:00

Monday in Austin dawned gray and misty, but warmer than i would expect for December. We braved the I35 up to Reaseach Blvd (the 183) and grabbed a quick bite at an IHOP near Emerson's facility. Traffic wasn't too bad, but from hearing the locals talk, I'm guessing we were just a little early - and lucky.

We're taking a process control hardware troubleshooting class, so at least the classes are fairly hands-on and not endless lectures. I'm very impressed with Emerson's setup here. Everything is top notch, including the eats for the class. In the hall / break area outside class there is a free-for-all vertical cooler stocked with water, sodas, juice and so on. They also have Starbucks coffee in the tureens, and the put out pastries, fresh fruit, and biscuits and gravy about 8:30. Lunch is included in the classes (as it should be for the price) so I was expecting typical fare. I was happily surprised to get a light buffet with a small fresh salad bar, artichoke hearts baked with onions, roasted acorn squash and a nice spaghetti carbonara. Man, that's first class eats. They also kept rotating out snacks of small pastry, trail mix, Chex mix and others throughout the afternoon.

After classes we headed back south but took a detour around the 360 Loop. This was kind of unplanned. When visiting new places I often get a wild hair and take off in unknown directions with little hope of recovery. We didn't even have our nifty hotel-provided map, but, hey, it's a loop right? We have to get back around eventually...

Let me say eventually can be a long time in Austin at rush hour. Okay, it wasn't that bad and we did get to see some of the countryside. After seeing lots of hills, rocky cuts by the roadside and LARGE homes, we made it to the south side of town and to South Congress Avenue. I saw many road bikers out torturing themselves on what would be a grinder ride in heavy traffic. I also saw several guys on knobby tires that didn't look to be commuting. South Congress eventually crosses the lake back into downtown, but just before the bridge is a great, funky little area of shops, bars and restaurants. We ate at a highly recommended place called Guero's Taco Bar.

The outside seating in a dirt courtyard covered by ancient Spanish oaks wrapped in white lights was absolutely out of sight. With a local band on the small stage, I could certainly imagine whiling away many a summer night in the soft glow of the antique lights. Unfortunately, imagining it was all I had since they weren't running service outside and the stage was empty.

The inside of the restaurant was a hodgepodge collection of various south-of-the-border decorative memoribillia that has become the go-to style for casula dining. Somehow, they managed to do it right and the whole place had a great ecclectic, slightly worn feel that made it a welcoming place to hang out.

I ordered a Don margarita that was notable for the smoothness of the the smoothness of the tequila but otherwise un-noteworthy. For appatizers we opted for the guacamole and queso dips, both of which were good. My entree for the evening was a taco plate - 2 large soft shell tacos on homemade tortillas with your choice of about 8 different fillings with rice and beans on the side. I decided to try the renowned Al Pastor (slow roasted, marinated pork with grilled onions, pineapple bita and fresh cilantro) and the Al Carbone (chicken marinated in orange juice and peppers.) The tacos were very good, if a bit dry. A condiment bar with fresh limes, salsas, and so on was available and probably would have moistened them up nicely, but I wanted to try the flavor in it's purest form. The Al Pastor was particularly nice. The beans were fair, but the rice was simply delicious. I can't say enough good about it. To be honest I was thinking pretty highly of the meal until the check arrived. I guess a big-city-surcharge is too be expected in the trendy areas, but I felt a little overcharged even with the quality of the meal. But hey, it was good eats.

Austin - the journey begins

2009-12-13T20:20:00.003-05:00

Today my coworker and I departed the cold rainy south for one week of training at the Emerson facility in sunny Austin Texas. Having always heard good things about the other A-town capital, I have been looking forward to the trip. Tag along in spirit, and I will try to keep you updated.

The trip through Atlanta-Hartsfield and the flight out were unremarkable, other than being downgraded to a CRJ-700 for the flight. It's not quite the Miata of commercial jets - more like the bottom rung Camry I guess. Not quite roomy, not quite sporty, but it will get you there without any drama. The view from my cramped window seat was of the top of a flat white cloudbank to the horizon. So I read a book.

The clouds burned off just as we started descending for Austin. The land I could see was flat - a green and brown patchwork of farms and small neighborhoods dotted frequently with water. Small ponds, creeks and rivers seemed to be everywhere, but that could be the result of the aforementioned retreating clouds and rain. The Austin airport is significantly smaller than Hartsfield, but I guess most are. We picked up our rental car (I upgraded us to a nice Mercury Milan - Shh, don't tell anyone!) and headed for the Holiday Inn at Towne Lake. The Hotel is older but has been updated. The room strangely doesn't have a full-drawer dresser, but there are a couple small drawers in the entertainment center that will function. Other than that, it is fairly nice - clean and comfortable. Here's the view:

We drove over to the training center, just to locate it, and then drove back to 6th street downtown to hunt some grub. Sixth Street is the bar and party district of the city, and most of the bars were open. The scene was pretty laid back given that it's Sunday night, but you can see how much fun it could be. The street is in old downtown, so the buildings are all great old brick that have been fixed up to varying degrees. There are bars, curio and tshirt shops, a couple hotels - all kinds of stuff. If you doubled old Cherry Street in Macon, and then stocked it with the Buckhead section of Atlanta and then threw in Little Five Points in Atlanta for the weird factor, I think you'd be approaching Sixth Street. I think if I had gone to college or turned 21 in this town, I would have spent way - WAY - too much time down there.

We ate at Paradise, a nice sports-bar kind of place recommended by Fthr. Chad, a recent Austinite who is now rector at St. Francis in Macon. As per his word, the catfish tacos were outstanding and the bar was nice. They were displaying large original artwork all over the old brick walls, giving it a nice twist in atmosphere. Good art and a mohawked bartender are a rare combination, but it seems to work. The Fireman's 4 pale ale was good, but not outstanding. It was very cold, though, and that's always worth a mention. As it was, I could only drink two.

We'll be exploring several places through the week that were recommended by Chad's lovely wife Amanda, so stay tuned. And if you happen to have a favorite Austin hangout, let me know. We're always looking for something cool to do...

Mark it off the bucket list

2009-11-03T17:33:00.002-05:00

Today I accomplished something that I've been wanting to do for some time. I rode my bike to work. And then I rode it home at the end of the day. Ever since I started biking seriously I've looked for ways to ride more and drive less. Well, sort of. I've always thought it would be cool to live in an urban area that put home close enough to work and shopping that I could do most of my daily travel by bike. Living in suburban hell and working 25 miles away kind of put a damper on that, but I'll admit I didn't push to hard to commute to the few local places I shop.

But now I work just less than 14 miles away, and most of those miles are rural roads. Ever since I took the job I've been toying with the idea of riding in. Today I did it and had a pretty good ride, but I don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon.

I learned a few things on the road today.

Number One: An hour long commute sucks, even if it IS on a bike. By the time I got near the house, I was just pissed off that I was still not home. Honestly, the ride was pretty enjoyable, but 14 miles is just too far for me to do it often. If I lived 5 miles closer, it would be hard NOT to ride to work. It was great to watch the sun come up while on the bike. Riding an hour home after a full day's work on the other hand was just a chore, and that's not what I want riding to be.

Number Two: Road riding for me is a very social activity. Riding an hour by myself sucked - I started talking to myself (well - more than normal) on the way home. I think it would be better with an iPod at least. The experience really made me understand that interacting with my friends - even the limited talking in a fast pace line - is a big part of why I ride.

Number Three: There is a heck of a lot of traffic on Houston Lake Road in the afternoon. Don't any of you people WORK?

So, there it is. I did it, but it will be a while before I do it again. I might consider doing a half-and-half commute. Drive in with the bike, ride home, ride in the next day and then drive home. That might not be so bad. Plus, if we ever move for employment, I know my ride-to-work radius is about 10 miles when buying a house.

Canon Image Stabilizer makes my pics BLURRY??!!

2009-10-02T21:01:00.005-04:00

Back yard at sunset

Jobsite at sunrise

The above images don't have anything to do with the post title. That's below:

My new Canon XSi DSLR camera came with an EF-S IS lens. The IS stands for Image Stabilizer. It has a mechanism built in to negate camera shake. I noticed that my first longer-exposure, low light shots had some blurring in them. This specifically showed up while shooting on the tripod. I figued my tripod was crappy and started pricing more solid versions. But then I noticed an odd effect whilst shooting the wine glass on the tripod last night. The image moved around in the view finder, noticeably, while the camer and tripod were rock steady. I then turned the IS off (there's a small switch on the lens.) The image in the viewfinder became still.

Strange.

To confirm this, I shot four images back to back tonight. I zoomed the lense all the way out (55mm) then shot with and without the IS. I also repeated the process using the mirror lock. The internal mirror is what allows you to see through the lens when looking in the viewfinder. It snaps out of the way when you take the picture, causing the loud click most people associate with taking a picture. Locking the mirror makes taking a shot a 2 step process. The first button push flips the mirror up. You let the camera settle, then press the button again to take the picture. This avoids any blur from the vibration of the mirror moving.

So, here's the result:

Details: shot on A-DEP profile with center weighted average metering and auto focus. A wired remote trigger was used. All were shot off a tripod with all legs in shortest position sitting on a table. All shots were taken within 5 minutes. Interestingly, the auto exposure, auto focus didn't choose the same shutter speed or f-stop on any of the photos. Before you cry foul, the sharpest shot was actually the longest at 15 seconds. The shortest shot was the no mirror, no IS image at 8.5 seconds. I don't know if the IS function in the lens affects the automated choice of shutter and aperture. Even if it does, it seems like it should make choices that minimize blur when the IS is ON, and that's not what shows up here.

So, if I'm shooting on a tripod the IS will definitely be turned off. Maybe it does help when hand holding the camera, I'll have to test that to find out.

2009-10-01T19:50:00.004-04:00

Here's a few shots of my favorite models, workin' the black and white

Sitting on the deck tonight enjoying the b-e-a-utiful weather and a few adult beverages, my lovely wife said "hey, look at the reflection in the wine. That would make a cool photo." Well, a half hour later she finally got to finish that glass of wine. She was right, it made for several cool photos. Interestingly here, you can see the progression from first snap shot through the photo shoot with the light changing as the sun set. These are the high points of the experiment.

For more info on Three Sisters Vinyards, Georgias best wine, visit the website.

We recommend the Fat Bot Red, the Fat Boy White, and the Blood Mountain Red.

More pics

2009-09-27T19:53:00.004-04:00

a few pics from Kat's house

2009-09-23T19:44:00.008-04:00

I am lucky enough to have friends and family that encourage my artistic endeavors, as wacky as they may be sometimes. Thanks to all those that contributed. Maybe this time's not quite so wacky.

This is the first crop of images from my new Canon Rebel XSi digital SLR camera. For the uninitiated, it's a digital camera that gives you all the creative control of an old-school 35mm pro camera. I always have an image in my head before I take a picture. This camera gives me the control to make that image a reality. Click to enlarge.

Snapshots of the recent past

2009-09-20T18:56:00.005-04:00

Finishing out the construction of the new facility has been hell of a journey. I've been pulling a lot of hours over the last few months and haven't had the energy for long discourses on the blog, but I think we're close to crossing the finish line. We've got the system and the new mill up and running, we've had our grand opening, now we're waiting for someone to make some sales. Far too much has happened for me to recount, so I thought I'd throw out some mental snapshots that have stayed with me.

Brian, Terry and I are standing behind the mill building. When we look down, we experience a concurrent ohno second. There is a perfectly silent second while we all look at the white foam and water creeping out from under the wall from inside. In the silence I hear Brian say "Where's that coming from?" We're all running suddenly for the inside of the mill room with his wods visibly hanging in the air behind us. Skittering into the mill room we find six inches of pretty white foam blanketing the concrete floor across half of the room. The half million dollar mill unit looks quite nice silhoutted against the fluffy white clouds of soap mix, and for one weightless second, we all enjoy the spectacle in silence as our stomachs fall into our boots.

It's five minutes past sunset on Monday night, and I'm still at the site - by choice this time. I'm sitting in a camp chair with a cold beer and the clouds are slowly darkening overhead into evening. Fresh killed dove breasts wrapped in bacon are sizzling on a charcoal grill and the wild hog quarters have just finished almost a full day on the smoker. It's my birthday, and I'm pretty sure it's the best one I've had in years. My wife and my friends are gathered in a field, cooking things locally caught, laughing a great deal and taking a deep breath before the circus starts. I'm thinking that for once, I'm right where I should be.

The next day has come, and it's D-day, the grand opening of the site I've worked months on and was hired to run. The sun is breaking through clouds, spiking the temperature in brutal humidity. I've just led the heads of state from three different companies on a tour of my site that they paid for. They are satisfied, perhaps a little in awe of the site and (I hope) it's captain. As we walk back across the truck scale toward the circus, I look back at the red scoreboard readout for the scale. It's crystal clear at that moment that the numbers on the readout in no way tally the weight that these men carry. And they love me.

At the end of a long day and a longer night, it's 4:30 AM and I'm watching the sun get lighter on the eastern horizon. Standing 30 feet in the air on our load tower and listening to our first real load of product pumping into the semi trailer below, I think that this is a rare view. Not many people get to see this, a job completed after an all night haul, just like not many people see a humpback blow in an Alaskan sound. I'm almost sick to my stomach from lack of sleep, but the product is right, the customer is happy, and we came through in a pinch. I hope I don't have this view again any time soon, but it's one I'll treasure.

This one is just for Kathleen

2009-07-11T22:54:00.003-04:00

Crouching Tiger, Hidden....um...Tiger.

Because Kathleen is tired of seeing snakes on my blog, we get saccharine instead.

I TOLD you that was a big snake!

2009-06-27T20:59:00.003-04:00

So, I cleaned some stuff out of the garden shed today, the same shed where I found the ... ahem....large snake. He was gone, but he left behind a present. Apparantly I was right about him shedding his skin. This is laid out on a six foot table, and the tail end of the skin was missing. I'd guess there was another 10" of skin somewhere.

This is the middle of the skin, just to give some perspective. The belly scales were almost 2" wide

The head of the snake was just as big as it looked in the earlier pictures

You may not realize that a snake's skin stretches as he sheds it, so the actual snake is never as long as the skin you find. Still, considering the skin was over six feet if you include the missing tail portion, that means the actual snake was just north of 5 feet long.

Told you that was a big snake.

Always Rotate Your Tires

2009-06-21T20:45:00.003-04:00

It's time to replace the tires on the pony car. The tire shops always want to charge me a fee to dispose of the tires. I had a different idea....

Crikey that's a big snake

2009-06-07T20:50:00.006-04:00

So, having been gone a week, I had to do some lawn work. With as much rain as we've been getting, mowing weekly seems to be the name of the game, at least for the front yard. After mowing, spraying some herbicide and weed slaying, I took a stab at cleaning up my garage a little. As part of the process I took the yard tools that had collected in the corner and moved them back out to the storage shed.

Let me explain about the shed. This is one of those little 8x8, prebuilt sheds that are kind of barn shaped. You can buy them at most of the major home improvement chains. This particular shed was purchased by the previous homeowner to store his yard stuff in. There are assorted chemicals, grass seed, and some small tools and stuff out there. I'm not sure what all may be there, because I've never done more than open the front door and throw a rake or two in. It seemed fairly mouse infested, and cleaning it out was a pretty low priority. It's probably been six months since I opened it.

So today when I carried the garden hoe, 2 shovels and rake out, I was in full cleaning mode. Looking around the shed from safely outside, I noticed an open cardboard box sitting in the top of a two-wheeled push spreader full of grass seed in the back corner away from the door. Sticking out through the hole in the box was some shredded pieces of trashbag. Now, I'm thinking, If I was a mouse I'd be camped out in that box and setting up housekeeping. Nice and cozy, right on top of the buffet. So, being the kind of guy I am, I decide to whack the box with the garden hoe and scatter the mice.

Whack. Box rocks up on one side. Nothing.

Whack harder. Still nothing. That box seems heavier than I expected. Hmm....

So I lean in to the shed a little where I can see into one of the holes a little better. Wow that trashbag looks like.....scales.....

Is that a SNAKE??!!

No, he'd have bailed out after I shook it....I think. Well, I'm at the other end of a garden hoe, maybe I can pull the top of the box toward me and look in.

Holy CRAP, that's a SNAKE!!! **drop box**

man, the coils on that thing had to be two-and-a-half inches thick.....that makes him four feet or better, depending on what type of snake....

What kind was he? That's a good question... Hmm...Very dark, but I think I saw a pattern....That could be a black snake...or something poisonous.....crap. If it's a four-foot-plus poisonous snake, I'm going to have to figure out a way to kill it, for my safety and my dogs'. I wonder what a shotgun would sound like inside that shed. This could get messy. I'm going to have to look again. Ehhh, crap.

Okay, tilt the box, gently....little more....Okay, dark black with just a hint of a pattern, that's a black snake. Good, non poisonous, but that means at 2.5" thick, he's pushing six feet long. or better.

That's a lot of snake. And he's looking at me. Um, .... hello. Yep, oval head, non poisonous. Seems pretty calm as much as I've harassed him. Eyes are clouded, he must be about to shed his skin, so he's laying low.

Okay big fella, smile for the camera.....

Now, you stay in there and eat all the mice you want. But stay out of my garage, mister. Please.

Shuffle off, Buffalo

2009-06-05T16:33:00.004-04:00

Once again, I'm at the gate 2 hours before my flight. I guess I've got time to grab some munch before the flight, and offer my last thoughts on Buffalo (and Tonawanda, et al.)
Buffalo is a good solid town. I've enjoyed being here. Contrary to expectations, everyone i met was extremely nice, maybe nicer than the average joe back in the sunny south. It's very obvious that this is an area with a long history of hevy insdustry. I've never thought about how the economy of an area impacts the aesthetic, baut I really saw that here. The town is worn around the edges, a little beat up and kind of....gritty. Buildings are close together, the atmosphere bustles without seeming overly tense. It's almost as if the entire area is one big factory. The colorful, homey touches you see in the local restarants and bars remind me of the personal items you invariably see tacked up at work stations on a production line. People go a little out of their way to knock the edge off the hard edged, heavy equipment town. It's a pretty neat place because of the people. There's a sense of pulling together on a small group basis, be it with family or the folks that immediately work together . I think this is the reult of generations of hard daily work and god-awful weather conditions. Survival (and sanity) meant tight knit relationships through months of lake effect snow. It still hangs on.

I did notice some differences in people here. Foul language is much more prevalent and accepted. I found it fairly entertaining at times. People here are generally better drivers. Most of the downtown streets have a double yellow center line but are two lanes wide on each side. The fun thing is that there are no lane dividers, and no real lanes. Traffic organically flows from two wide, back to one around turning and parked cars, with no accidents witnessed in a full week. They also know how to merge with no drama, no wrecks and in very short distances with no disruption to traffic flow. It was refreshing and amazing.

After almost a full week here, I can say I'd love to come back. If the winters weren't so god forsaken, it wouldn't be a half bad place to live. I could be happy here if they could fix that.

But don't come here in the winter.

Damn, still in Buffalo

2009-06-04T20:52:00.004-04:00

I woke up this morning and looked outside, only to be greeted by this. I'm still in Buffalo. Damn.
It's not that bad, really, but I've reached the point where I'm ready to go home. Busines travel by yourself is rough.

Once again, I started my dining day at Tim's, and once again the toasted bagel, banana nut muffin and XL double-double coffee was freakin' excellent for $4. Really, can't we start a petition to bring them to Georgia?

At Midland Asphalt, I got to run two more mixes on the mill. We made, 12,000 gallons of Tack Coat and 9,500 gallons of CRS-2P asphalt emulsion (cationic rapid set - #2 hardness with polymer.) Both runs semed to turn out well and I didn't break any equipment. Running the mill feels very comfortable to me. Using the computer control system and setting percentages and such is squarely inside my comfortable knowledge base. While I still have plenty to learn about the process, I can already see that I will enjoy the job and do it well. Believe me, that's a big relief.

For lunch I went across the street to Athena's Family Restaurant which is, surprise, a Greek place. It really reminded me of a lot of the midsized, family-owned, home cookin' restaurants we have at home. It's just different comfort food. I had the stuffed cabbage special with a cup of split pea soup. The soup was good and thick with lots of flavor without being too salty as is sometimes the case with split pea. The smooth texture and rich flavor is quite a surprise given the scary baby food appearance. Clearly, this stuff didn't come from a can. The stuffed cabbage was two fist-sized meatballs made from savory seasoned ground beef mixed with brown rice, then wrapped with cabbage leaves and cooked with a light tomato gravy. They were even better than they sound, somehow tasting like food I grew up with, although I don't think I've ever eaten it before. The side of slightly lumpy homemade mashed potatos topped with tomato gravy was also great, but the mixed vegetables had seen better days. I'm not sure if they were canned, frozen, or just homeless, but I do know they were inedible. Wrap it all up with a glass of tea and a dinner roll for just under 10 bucks, and I can understand why the place has been busy all week.

For dinner tonight, I set out to find Andersons, another locally famous joint for Beef-On-Weck and milk shakes. I got lost because they had half of buffalo blocked off for a charity marathon of some sort. I ended up within a couple blocks of the Lake Effect Diner and decided to go there instead and try their version of the Buff-town classic. I should have done it sooner. The Kimmelweck (I finally got it right) roll was a work of art. I wish I'd had my camera. A nice high-domed roll crusted with course salt and toasted rye seeds that gleamed like rock sugar and sprinkles was piled with tender roast beef that was sliced slightly thicker than normal and served with a side of fresh horseradish and au jus. I opted to spread on the horse and pour the juice over the beef and top bun before assembly. This makes for one messy sandwich, but more importantly, it was traffic-stopping, jaw-dropping delicious. Of all the Beef-On-Wecks I've had this week, this was miles ahead. The accompanying serving of home fries tasted like i had cubed the tubers and cooked them myself. Since it is, after all, a diner, I added on chocolate malt milkshake to go. Now, I've got a longstanding relationship with the chocalate malted. We go way back. This malt was the best I've ever had, bar none. It wasn't overwhelmingly large, and the chocolate was dark, rich and fudgey, not the limp-wristed, look-I-added-syrup-to-vanilla crap that fast food joints foist off on you as chocolate. Scrum-diddily-umptious, to quote Willy Wonka.

Honestly, if the winters weren't so horrible beyond comprehension, I'd consider moving here just to be on a first name basis with the staff at the Lake Effect. Damn.

Now I'm back at the hotel, mostly packed, printed Delta boarding pass in hand, and I'm ready to wing out of here. I've come to some conclusions about this northern town on the edge of the canals, but you'll have to tune in tomorrow to hear them. Gotta keep you coming back after all....

Hump day in the Buff (part 1)

2009-06-03T20:42:00.008-04:00

Since good ole blogspot limits my total picture uploads, I've been forced to break this entry into 2 parts. In the first I'll cover mill training and gastronomy, and in the second I'll show you the cool stuff I found after work.

Since the hotel buffet sucked like a big suckin' thing, I decided to give my new friend Tim Horton a chance at breakfast. They have an assortment of breakfast combos ranging from simple muffin and coffee to full blown sandwich with choice of side and choice of beverage. I opted for the full deal, sausage-egg-and-cheese-on-toasted-sesame-bagel with XL coffee and glazed sour cream doughnut as my side instead of hashbrowns. The coffee was good, if a little weak for my taste, and the sandwich was top notch. Nicely toasted bagel with solid, nongreasy sausage and a fluffy egg, and they had it ready in a heartbeat. It's not what you'd call gourmet, but it's hard to go wrong with solid food done well. The doughnut was as fantastic as the one yesterday, so no complaints, only raves. Total for the meal? $4.85 with tax.

I took a minute to look at the lunch combo menu. You can get a sandwich or roll-up combo with a cup of soup with your choice of beverage for $6.99. If you just want fries, it's even cheaper. Not bad. The shot below is the interior of the restaurant, all decorated for "Camp Day." They collect donations one day a year to send needy kids to summer camp. Pretty cool.

For lunch, Jeff and Stu ordered pizza and wings from their favorite local joint, whose name I'll have to find out tomorrow. The local pizza is a semi-deep dish affair, not quite the bread-fest that Chicago deep dish pizza is, but far from the thin-and-floppy NYC stuff. Honestly, I can easily understand why Pizza Hut and Papa Johns went out of business here. These guys put 1/2" of cheese on top of a hand tossed crust with sauce that's MADE FROM SCRATCH every day. Wow. The Cheese and pepporoni we had was easily the best simple pizza I've every had.
The wings were really good, nice and meaty with a good crisp base and a tasty hot sauce, coupled with a kickin blue cheese dip. To be honest, I don't think that Buffalo has some magic touchjust because they invented the wing. THese wings were really good, but I'v ehad a good run of wings back home that would go toe-to-toe with these. Specifically, I'm thinking of The Wild Wing Cafe in North Macon on a good night. Honestly, I don't want to diminish the rating on the ings I had today, but if you can't get wings next time you're in Buffalo, don't let it keep you up at night.

Post work I visited the Buffalo Naval and Maritime Museum (see part 2 of this post for details) and then went back to the Pearl St Brewery for a couple beers. Since I was planning on having leftover wings and pizza, I didn't sample the food this time, only the beer. I started with a pint of their Lake Effect IPA. It was good, but not the kick-in-the-teeth IPA I've become accustomed to. It was darker than most IPAs, and had a nice sweet touch. I followed that with a pint of thei Street Brawler Oatmeal Stout. It was VERY good, bringin in a distinctly smoky flavor with lots of stout meatiness, but finishing mild with little to no metallic aftertaste. It was also lighter on the palette than most without the syrupy edge that some stouts develop. Taking a risk, i opted to get a growler of their seasonal Saber's Edge Double IPA to take back to the hotel and enjoy with the leftovers from lunch. For those of you not familiar with local brew pubs, a 'growler' is a half-gallon, refillable bottle that can be brought back to the brewery and filled with any of their house brews. To give you an idea why this was a good idea, a pint costs $4 and a half-gallon is only $19. It's even cheaper if you bring it back for a refill. I really lucked out on the double IPA. It's by far the best I've had from their brewed-on-site offerings. It's very hoppy, but not quick the swift kick to the head that you get from Stone Brewery's Ruination. It's more like Stone's standard IPA or Sweetwater's IPA, but with a darker nut-brown color and lots of thick sweetness. It almost tastes like there's lots of local honey involved. Its very drinkable without the normal bad aftertaste of a really hoppy IPA. SO drinkable that I finished the growler, and now I'm having a hard time typing.

The back decks of the Pearl St. Brewery as seen from the Parking lot

The first level deck (2nd story) has a great view of the strangest interstate exchange I've ever seen. You really have to drive this beast to understand how odd it is.

Yes, Virginia, you can make a cooler out of a hotel bathroom sink. MacGuyver, Take that!

You can't go wrong with leftovers, especially paired with good local beer.

Hump Day in the Buff (part 2)

2009-06-03T19:23:00.008-04:00

So, continuing from above...
One of the guys mentioned the Buffalo Maritime and Naval Museum as something I should see since i was downtown. It turns out there are a vietnam era Guided Missle Light Cruiser, WWII Destroyer and WWII Submarine tied up at a dock right behind my hotel, and they're open for tours. So, for $9 I got to go on a self guided walking tour that covered every inch of each vessel. It was amazing, and I took tons of pictures. Here are the best

USS Little Rock Guided Missle Light Cruiser (big boat on right), Uss The Sullivans destroyer (smaller boat on left) and the USS Croaker submarine (um, it's the black one):

Prow of the Little Rock (sorry, don't know how to rotate these after upload)

Prow of The Sullivans

Ordinance for the 5" 38 gun on The Sullivans. I like the way the b&w setting came out looking very flat and vintage

The view from the hotseat, sitting in the starboard bofor's gun seat - twin 50's on the right.

The Talos nuclear missles on the aft deck of the Little Rock. This is the only guided missle cruiser on display in the US

Self portrait on the prow of the Little Rock

Galley of the USS Croaker sub. Man, there is a reason they don't crew guys my size on these things. Clausterphobia, hello. Notice the cake mixer center left is so big it would barely fit through the door center right. Just for the reference, the CO's suite is smaller than the closet in our spare bedroom, and it was the luxury accomodation.

The aft torpedo room on the USS Croaker

Self portrait leaning on 2 brass screws. Those are propellers for you land lubbers. The boat in the background is a 'Nam era PT boat, ala The Kennedy years. I never knew those were so ... big.

My best John pose

If it's Tuesday, it must be Tonawanda

2009-06-02T19:51:00.008-04:00

Today was quite the full day. I finally saw an asphalt emulsion mill, I met the man that can destroy Dunkin Donuts, drank a beer at a junkyard, saw a national landmark, got lost twice, and had dinner in the dark.

I rousted out of bed at my usual 5:15 AM (plus one snooze) and prepped myself for the day. The Adams Mark Hotel surprisingly does NOT offer any complementary breakfast - or complementary anything, cheap bastards - so I went down to the Deco restaurant in the lobby for the breakfast buffet. What a tragedy. Thirteen dollars for a buffet of iffy eggs, limp bacon, cardboard-flavored French toast and rusty water coffee. In short, don't stay here.

I then rolled the Magic Bus (every sidekick needs a nickname) up to the slightly northern suburb of Tonawanda and spent the day learning about my new charge, the asphalt emulsion mill from two kings among men, Jeff and Stu. The mill looks like this:

Running the mill is like a combination of gourmet cooking and solving Chinese logic puzzles. So it should be right up my alley.

We took a break mid morning and I ran up the street to a little bakery and coffee shop chain that is expanding into this area from Canada. It's called Tim Horton's, and ladies and gents, that man can slay Dunkin. Unfortunately, Mr. Horton himself died a while back by stuffing a Ford powered Pantera into a bridge pylon on the Queens Expressway at 140 mph. Now, the hockey star's name lives on at every corner where Starbucks fears to tread. The XL coffee was good, the sour cream donut was un-freakin'-believable, and together, the were $2.85!! With a full range of donuts, muffins, bagels, breakfast sandwiches and light lunch faire, they manage to keep prices down to slightly rediculous levels. A sausage biscuit COMBO for $2.99?? What's the exchange rate? Isn't that like one Canadian dollar or something? Unreal...

After work Stu (Stew?) and I went to a bar just up the street. Literally, just up the street. There's a little local bar every 100 feet. I guess when there's 8 ft of snow, you don't want to walk too far to get a beer. The bar this time is Gene's Junkyard Bar & Grill, and yes, there IS a junkyard across the street.

Talk about local flavor. Notice the miniature model A truck on the roof. I had a couple draft Labatt's Blue (Canadian Miller Lite) and shot the breeze with a couple old timers at the bar. The feature item on their menu is a fried Balogna sandwich with onions and provolone cheese with chips and a pickle for $4.50. Bet on it, I'll be back for that.

After work, I drove up to Niagara Falls. It was....smaller than I expected. All the pictures I've seen are from the bottom looking up, and it looks HUGE. The only way you get that view is from Canada, and I don't have a passport. sadly, they just started requiring them for entrance YESTERDAY. No kidding. Don't get me wrong, it was an impresive sight, and that is one hell of a lot of water going over a cliff. I felt the same way about the statue of liberty. Looked bigger on TV.

After the falls I decided to drive south and seek out some evening nourishment. The guys at the mill had recommended several local joints, so with only sketchy directions to go on, based on traveling from an entirely different area, I figured I could probably find the Irish bar that sounded like a good place to eat. After getting lost twice, almost making it back to Niagara and then running a red light, I finally saw one of the other places they had mentioned and settled on it instead. The shot below is NOT that place, but I had to take a picture. Click on it and read the sign. Must be truth in advertising because they were out of business.

This is the place. Swiston's Beef and Keg, if you can't read or are rotationally callenged. The vintage sign and early-70s faux-Spanish building exterior let me know up front that I was in for an experience. The awning over the front door had been made into a tunnel leading to a pair of heavily carved dark wood doors with massive handles. These opend into a small room that was only big enough for the next set of the same doors and that was only partially lit. Opening the doors into the bar, I stopped short. I stopped because it was so dark in the place that I couldn't tell where anything was. The lights were - dimly - on over the bar, so I headed that direction. I had the sense of walking into an unlit cave - I could feel the expanse of space around me, but I damn sure couldn'e see it. At that point I decided the small entry room must be like an air lock for light to ease the transition between the two worlds. I sat at the bar and let my eyes adjust. The interior was done in heavy, heavy faux Spanish, dripping ornamental ironwork, heavy carved wood and paintings of conquistadores. No, they weren't on black velvet. It was red.

Finally adjusting, I could see that there were tables around the perimeter. It was so dark in the corners that vampires could easily have spent the day there if there were no handy coffins at sunrise. The reason it was so dark was because every lamp (including the chained swags) had that textured, amber glass in them that we all fondly recall. I'm pretty sure Starsky, Hutch, and Rockford were meeting in the back room.

I ordered up a Genessee draft beer, light in color, smooth in taste and low in content. It amazes me to hear beer snobs put down Budweiser while praising the likes of Genesee, Stella Artois and such. They're much the same - good thirst quenchers when cold, with minor varying tste signatures. For food, there are few options. Like the sign says, beef and keg. I started with the Beef on Weck. It arrived quickly on a small plate with....nothing. No fries, no chips - not even the broth dip that I thought was mandatory. There was something that I think was a pickle spear, but it was too dark in there to be certain, so I didn't risk it. The sandwich was good, displaying more rye character in the Weck roll than I had before, but with the same salt crust. I quite enjoyed it, although it would have benefitted from a side car of au jus. Wrapping that up in short order, I asked what else a wayward traveller might procure to fill the empty belly. They apparantly serve two things besides Beef-on-Weck. Chili and popcorn. The popcorn sits out in baskets on the bar, so I chose chili. I was really pleasantly surprised with the very savory, meaty chili. It was more like the chili my mother taught me to make than any other I've had. Thick, with lots of beef, onions and kidney beans in savory, not too tomatoey stock. It had a nice black pepper kick that separated it from our family tradition, but was otherwise quite similar. As anyone who's had our chili can tell you, that's high praise. I washed down the fair-sized bowl with a second Genessee and struck up a conversation with a couple elderly patrons steadily sipping cocktails several stools down. Total damage for 2 beers, beef-on-weck and chili - $14

Swiston's is one of those throwback places that are a real treat. It's dark (real dark) and funky, but good prices, good food and friendly people make it a great place to be go. If you have nightvision goggles, anyway. It very much reminded me of the Kuntry Kastle in Paducah - a hold over from decades past that is too good to let go.

Dining in the Buff (alo)

2009-06-01T20:13:00.004-04:00

Lunch at the Pearl Street Brewery and Grill was good. I sampled their Trainwreck Amber Ale, which was quite nice with good roasted malt flavors and a clean, slightly metallic finish. It started to hint at a cream ale consistency, but stopped just short and ended up a little on the thin side. I'd give it 4 of 5 stars. The meal of choice was Beef on Weck. This seems to be the Buffalo city sandwich, sliced roast beef on a Kollenweck (or some such) roll, accompanied by a nice robust au jus and fresh ground horseradish. The Weck roll was nice and crusty with a smear of some kind of sea salt concoction on top. It was very good, a notch or two above any broth-dipped-beef style sandwich I've had. The towering pile of thick cut, skin-on seasoned "pub fries" gets high marks as well. The bill was a bit steep however, at 20 smackers for a sandwich plate and 2 pints, but probably not The atmosphere of the place is fantastic, all old brick, wood, brass and BELT DRIVEN CIELING FANS. No kidding. The building dates back to the late 1800s, but I don't know yet if the fans are authentic or just hella cool.

Sadly, I forgot my camera. But I'll take it next time.

Dinner was at the Lake Effect Diner. Built in 1952 and delivered to Maine, this authentic diner was transported to Buffalo and reopened instead of being scrapped. They now serve the local college crowd a mix of traditional favorites and fresh eats at very good prices. First, the building is unbelievable inside and out. It's the first vintage diner I've been in, and it was too cool for words. Second, the food was really good. I had the stuffed potato pancakes, a house specialty. I opted for the "traditional" version, so I got ham, bacon, grilled onions and peppers, 2 scrambled eggs and provolone cheese stuffed between two potato pancakes. For all my southern friends, potato pancakes are like a beutiful union of scattered hash browns and fluffy pancakes made in Waffle House heaven. It was a great diner meal, nailing down all the familiar comfort foods (except grits) without being gluttonous in proportion or too greasy. I think I've had greasier PB&J, come to think of it. Frighteningly, they also have the best unsweetened tea I've ever had. If I try the sweet tea, it might break my heart. The kicker? The bill was $10. Hell yeah.

So, now I'm about to sack out in my lovely concrete bunker overlooking the interstate. Tomorrow I'll be at the mill all day, so there'll be fewer updates. I may try to make it up to the Falls after work if the weather turns out nice. I'll take plenty of pics.

G'night kiddies.

Ahhh, Buffalo.

2009-06-01T12:40:00.003-04:00

Well, here I am in Buffalo. The flight was a little bumpy, but pretty good over all. The first gate we docked at malfunctioned, so we had to wait 20 min on the plane and switch to another gate. Happily, my luggage made it. Then I found out that the company didn't precharge the car rental, so I'll have to get reimbursed for a week's worth of rented auto goodness. Good thing I have a little in savings. I also got stuck with a minivan instead of a midsize sedan. At least it's a late model Toyota Sienna, "The Cadillac of minivans," as Chili Palmer would say. The Hotel looks like it was really nice about 10 years ago, but it's a little past it's prime. Not bad, just a little outdated. Parking in the Hotel garage is $10/day and isn't comp'd. What the hell??!!

I'm on the 9th floor with a great view of the fountain out front, the I-190, Hwy 5 interchange, and - if you crane your neck to the right and squint - the Niagara river. The best thing I can see is the three storie veranda on the back of the Pearl Street Brewery and Grill. The weather is overcast, making the whole town seem kind of drab right now. Hopefully it will look better in the sunshine. Hopefully we'll get some sunshine.

Now I need to unpack and go find some lunch

Sunrise, Concourse B

2009-06-01T06:55:00.003-04:00

In short order the new job has decided to send me packing. Calm down, it's just for training. I'm flying out this morning for beautiful Buffalo, New York. Ah Buffalo, home of...um...chicken wings. And it's close to Niagara falls. and...uh.....I hear it's beautiful this time of year....

I'll be learning how to run an asphalt emulsion mill in Tonawanda, NY this week. I hope. I'd love to come home with the knowledge to fire one up and run it, but since I've never actually SEEN one, that may be a bit optimistic. Of course, the folks that hired me have never seen one either, so at least I'm not at a disadvantage.

So, here I sit in Concourse B at Hartsfield watching the sunrise with a large cup of Seattles Best coffe that I swear you could sub for jetfuel. It's Good Stuff. The fun part is that my flight doesn't leave for another 2 hours. I guess they've really improved security and check in throughput when I wasn't looking.

The terminal is bustling with business people on their way out for another week on the road, and you can tell the real road warriors easily. They just look bored. The spiffed-up tie-wearers are probably headed out for that critical sales meeting, carrying the hopes of a desparate company in their matching black carry-on roller bags. The rumpled suit coat with no tie must be making the long hike back from the red eye, leaden with the knowledge that his deal didn't go well. Then there's the group of over-chipper grandparents. All shines and smiles, off to Chicago, New York, Vegas, or some other location they would have enjoyed more thirty years ago. Younger people seem to be stumbling through the lanes in pajamas, and I'll keep telling myself they just got off the late-night cheap flight so I don't stand on my there-goes-the-youth soapbox. The human tide continues to wash and recede in waves as the planes come and go.

Man, this is good coffee.

I'll try to keep a travel diary through the week, so check back often.

a look at the adventure

2009-05-19T20:33:00.002-04:00

Well, here's a look at the mill site. The larger tanks in front are for finished product, the medium and small tanks are for raw materials. The red iron will be the building that houses the actual shear mill unit, a small lab, and my very small office. I'm working with the crews that are running lots and lots of iron pipe.

The work is hard right now. I'm on my feet climbing all over these tanks and concrete footings outside all day. But it's also rewarding. At the end of the day, I can see the results of my work on the site in front of me, and I can feel it in my arms and legs. Not a bad feeling at all.

A Season of Change

2009-05-11T20:43:00.002-04:00

I started a new job today.

It went well over all. I met some people that are my people and I met some that are not. The work will be hard, but the opportunity is good. I'm a little overwhelmed, but I think that's to be expected after a first day - especially in a newly formed joint venture company. Opportunity does not come without a steep learning curve and that's okay.

It seems to be a season of change. I worked for Mike for seven years, longer than any other job I've ever had. I was committed to that job longer than anything else I've ever done voluntarily, except my marriage. It's a little bittersweet to be moving on, but the time is right. The new company has huge opportunities that could take me almost anywhere in the world. Literally. I think that the best thing about this new world is also the worst. Suddenly, the horizons are far, far away and the road is very wide indeed. Infinite choices feel a lot like working without a net.

More snowy pics

2009-03-02T21:50:00.002-05:00

The view up the street

Mini Snow Man

Hey, did we mention we're INSIDE dogs??!!

We got about an inch of snow in the morning, then it melted off. We went to the store (for milk and bread, like good southerners) and had just come home when it started snowing again. We got another inch or so, but by nightfall, it had turned to rain and started to melt off. Despite the weatherman's dire predictions, the temps barely got down to freezing and the commute this morning was fine, although there was still plenty of snow in the grassy areas around Macon. By noon, it was all a memory except in the deepest shaded spots. Whatever did survive today will certainly make it till tomorrow since temps are going to get down to the mid twenties.

So, Saturday it was 76 degrees with sun, storms and a tornado warning, Sunday we got 2 inches of snow, Monday it will hit the mid twenties, and by next Saturday they're predicting sun and a high of 78. Gotta love this state.

Take that Don & Angie !

2009-03-01T10:26:00.007-05:00

It DOES snow in Georgia!

It's snowing this morning, but it's not sticking. At least not yet. We've had enough rain that we're now under a flood warning until Wednesday, so the ground is really wet. I don't expect it to do more than give the grassy areas a blush of powder, but you never know. With lows predicted in the 20s tonight, it may make the morning commute a little slick.
After working a LOT of OT this week, including all day yesterday, I was already planning an easy day today, so a little frozen precip is just icing on the cake. We slept in, had a late breakfast and did the only sensible thing you can when it snows.

wait - remember what I said about not sticking? Scratch that.

Carrie's gonna hurt me when she sees this one.

So, we're going outside to play in the snow now. I'll post more pics tomorry.

Patient Update

2009-01-05T17:22:00.002-05:00

Well, I've had the bike thoroughly checked out, and it will probably be fixed by the end of the week. The broken shifter just needs a replacement main plastic body, to the tune of about $50 including labor to rebuild it. That's one of the nice things about Campagnolo shifters, they ARE rebuildable, unlike Shimanos.
The front wheel also need to have a spoke replaced and be trued. One spoke had a nasty bend in it, looking like a greater-than sign >. The large side was facing forward. This gives me a little more info about what probably happened. I clearly remember my front wheel making contact with the other bike's drive side rear wheel. I think I must have caught his rear derailleur or frame in my front spokes and turning me into (as one coworker put it) a yard dart. That is the only thing that explains the bent spoke and the severity of the hit I took when no one else went down.
The end result is that the bike will be fully functional again for under a C note, and I'm healing fine. I was never as sore as I expected to be, although I did call in Friday and force myself to stay stationary and heal. By yesterday, I was feeling fine and we put away all the Christmas decorations.

Then today, I woke up puking my guts out. I went to work and tried to tuff it out, but after two episodes hugging the work toilet ( I DON"T reccommend it) I was homeward bound by 9:30. I've spent all day asleep, and I'm feeling much better other than a lingering headache and some wicked body aches. I can't tell if the aches are a sign of a lingering virus, or the post effect of dry heaves following a bike wreck. Life is so not fair sometimes.

Touching Tarmac (or, The Price We Pay)

2009-01-02T08:06:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was New Year's Day, ad therefore time for the annual new years ride from The Bike Store in Warner Robins. This was my second year braving the cold temps to take the road bike out with the group. The ride usually draws a good number of people that don't normally ride with the organized groups, and this year was no exception. We had a GREAT turn out, almost 50 riders. There were a lot of new faces, which is exactly what we need.
We had made it about 10 miles out when I had a little...incident. I was hanging at the very back of the pack to keep an eye out for one of our regulars who was having an off day and had fallen a ways back. I felt good and was having a good day, riding mid pack until we took an unexplained lap around a shopping center where I ended up at the back. On the next hill, our guy (we'll call him Roger) started to fall back, so I stayed on the back so he'd have a friendly face nearby. We had turned onto Hwy 96, one of the busiest roads on the ride, and I was riding the white line and drafting behind the next rider to miss some of the cold wind. With no warning, several people ahead of me braked, and the guy directly in front of me (who we'll call Bob) had to lock up his brakes, actually hitting the next rider up. I had no time to react and grabbed a big handfull of brake just as I connected with his back wheel. Looking back, I think he dodged right as I dodged right, sweeping my front wheel. This resulted in a godawful faceplant on the blacktop at around 14 mph. The actual mechanics are only speculation, but the result was fact. It rung my chimes hard.
I immediately got up and started checking for broken bones. The first thing I noticed was that my sunglasses were skewed horribly. I was bummed, thinking I broke my shades, until I felt my face and realized they were skewed because my cheek was swollen to ridiculous size. Then I was scared. I apparently took the brunt of the hit on my left cheekbone and helmet. Luckily, I didn't break anything(like my skull or part thereof), though I'm not sure how I avoided it. Drink your milk, kiddies, calcium is good for you.
A quick shakedown revealed no broken bones or gaping wounds, just some hardcore bumps and scrapes. A slightly sprained wrist and a case of full body whiplash. The bike was a little less lucky, breaking the left shift lever, shredding the bar tape and bending the handlebar drop slightly.
Bob was nice enough to wait with me while another friend rode back to the store and truck-flighted me back to my car. If the broken lever hadn't left me with out front brakes, I probably would have tried to ride back to the store. It would have been painful, but I probably could have made it if the bike was okay.

Hell of a way to start the new year, but I've had worse.

So, since this was my first time "touching the floor" as the pros say, what have I learned?

1. Don't draft behind people who are not intimately familiar with close pack riding.
The group directly in front of me was fairly inexperienced with group riding. There was no reason for anyone to stop that quickly on flat road without cross streets or stop signs, BUT.... I KNEW they were inexperienced and I NEVER should have been that close. I may have been distracted, or glanced back at Roger, I don't remember, but I should have been further back than I was. Building the skills for riding calmly and safely in close proximity takes a lot of time, and I should have given them the room to learn. Besides that, even in pro groups, sometimes bad things happen for no reason. That's why they're called accidents.

2. Pavement hurts a hell of a lot worse than dirt.
Maybe it's the speed you travel on the road bike that makes it hurt, but I think the hard surface takes most of the blame. The last time I looked at my speedometer, we were cruising a just over 16 mph. If I braked at all, I probably hit the ground going about 13-14mph. I have no concept of how bad the pros hurt when they go down at 35-40.

3. All the gear we ride with is there for a reason.
If I hadn't had on a helmet, I would probably by drinking soup through a straw and getting sponge baths. With a good helmet, I don't even have a concussion (at least, I'm pretty sure I don't.) The helmet is cracked, but after a hit like that, I'd replace it even with no visible damage. The winter tights I had on are shredded a little, but saved me several square inches of skin, I'm sure. The leather palms of my gloves are rashed pretty good, but not torn through. If I hadn't been wearing them, ouch. Gear is expensive, but I will remind myself it's cheaper than a hospital.

4.Everything has a price.
Falling hurts, and it can permanently damage you. Riding on the road is dangerous. Riding on trails is dangerous. Every time one of us gets on a bike, we need to be aware that we are VOLUNTARILY risking injury, maybe death. That's the way it works. Will it keep me from riding? Hell no. If you want to be safe, sit your fat arse on the couch and lift nothing heavier than the remote. I'll take the risk. Pain is temporary.

I Quit

2008-11-27T21:33:00.002-05:00

CAUTION - NEW POST AHEAD

That's it, I quit. I'm resigning from our society. Maybe seceding is a better term. I'm going to form my own separate society. Want to know why? I'll tell you...here's a list

1. Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition - This new battery powered wonder replaces the beloved rainbow of paper Monopoly money with...DEBIT CARDS! I shit you not, it comes with a little mini card reader and debit cards. The "banker" simply key in the property amount (now in the tens of millions - inflation, ya know) and swipe your card. No muss, no fuss, no MATH, no THOUGHT. Who didn't practice making change by being the family banker? Anyone not secretly treasure those orange big-money bills? No wonder every pimply fast-food cashier needs an online toush screen register to make change and our banking system is in ruins. For GOD'S SAKE people, don't rob the next generation of ANY CHANCE to master simple math! Oh, and just so you can pick ahead of time, the player pieces now include a dog in a handbag, a Segway, and a flat screen TV.

2. The Decline of Western Education. The generation currently graduating high school is the FIRST EVER to have a smaller percentage earn diplomas than the preceding generation. I don't want to scare you off by turning this into a word problem, so I'll summarize. For the first time in American history, we are measurably (in the scientific sense) getting DUMBER. You can skip all the granola-munching "a diploma doesn't equal intelligence" crap. It's bullshit, and deep down, you know it.
Secondly on this point, since 1997 there has been a 20% decrease in the number of BS degrees awarded in hard sciences (engineering, chemistry, physics,etc.) This means that we as a society have decided that warm, fuzzy learning like pet psychology and history, are more important than knowledge that allows you to MAKE things. Making things is fairly central in advancing as humans and having a stable economy. And that puts us at a distinct disadvantage against other societies that are working hard to teach all their little rug rats math and chemistry. Think about that. I'm sure I'm going to get some hate mail from all my liberal arts friends. Sorry, you guys are the exception. Really.

3. Paris Hilton. Okay, I really have nothing against her personally, hell, I've never even seen her video. But she has come to stand for our current obsession with status and image in place of substance and value. You can go ahead and add American Idol, Survivor, and almost every other reality show to that list. At some point, we gave up on really working on any sort of base value, and just settled for a quick paintjob and some chrome plating. Worse yet, we've begun to wear our stupidity and lack of any ability with PRIDE. Suddenly, it's okay to be inept and useless. Think about Paris's reality show and tell me I'm wrong. Look, people, if you can't do something useful here on Earth, QUIT BREATHING MY FREAKING AIR.

4. Politics. Despite my outlook on the new president-elect, I think the state of American politics is deplorable. It would qualify as laughable if it wasn't costing us the country. Look, if any executive had screwed up as bad as the people we put in charge over the last decade, we would have fired them and probably arrested them. At best, they would have gone out of business and ended up making incorrect change at a fast food restaurant. We trusted them to be educated and make the right choices for us all, but instead they've made choices that made quick-kill profits but turned a blind eye to the long term investment. Now there's lots of argument about how to fix everything, but nobody wants to talk about the road we took to get here. Seriously, when the Russians and the Canadians are pointing and laughing, how bad have we screwed the pooch?

Okay, that's the top four. I'll give you the others when I catch my breath.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Back in the Saddle Again

2008-09-02T16:34:00.003-04:00

due to weather and work, I had been off the bike for over a week when I finally found time for a ride last Thursday night. As a matter of fact, I had been off the ROAD bike for almost 2 weeks before we headed out into a beautiful, warm evening on our velocipedes. I wasn't sure if I could make it around the full 25 mile Perry lap, or if they'd have to leave me hunched in a ditch somewhere quietly crying and rocking myself gently. Luckily, I found my groove and avoided all but a little crying and rocking. Really, half of my mental malaise was just being off-bike, I think. Somehow things always look rosier perched on a good bike. My dear wife even commented that it was plain sickening how quickly my mood improved once I started pedaling. I countered that she therefore assumed I was in a BAD mood to start, which wasn't the case. Of course looking back, it was the case.

As it usually does when I've been bikeless for a while, the peculiar grace of our hobby struck me solidly about two miles into the ride. Here we are, bipedal creatures, whose limbs have evolved (or were created) for piston-like resistance to the anchor of gravity, whirling along whilst straddling an ungainly contraption that, if left to its own devices, would topple resolutely to the tarmac and lie like so much scrap. There is nothing obligitorily natural between the motion of a cyclist and the motion of a walking man. Having one leg on each side of a solid rail is usually not the way to get somewhere. Small rubber tires that hold less air than one swimmer's lung are generally not what you want for covering distance.

And yet,
Here we are. With the open fields of soybeans slipping by in near silence, save the rush of the breeze, pouring ourselves over the asphalt into the cool shade of the pecan grove. Not for some short distance that can be seen or grasped, but over miles and miles, ending where we began in geography but leagues away in experience. Having surveyed the usual countryside, we return by circuitous route, to the place where we first mounted the odd contraption, and we are all - slightly - changed by the journey. As peculiar as the motion and the form of the cyclist might be, more peculiar still is the change wrought on the cyclist. How differently does a wren exist having jumped the nest and flown? Can a robin, back in the safety of a nest, still smell the high air currents that sift occasionally from a ruffled wing? we are cyclists not by the ownership of a bike, or spandex, or any other item. We are not cyclists because we think bikes are the great white hope of alternative transportation. We are cyclists because of the miles and leagues and centuries of wind blown past our forearms, through our helmet vents and spun crazily out through the whirling spokes of our driving wheel. We are cyclists because now matter how clean, the smell of the wild breeze and open path cling to us.

time flies...

2008-08-26T20:23:00.003-04:00

Man, it's been over a month since I posted to the blog. Sorry for not updating. Work has hit high gear, like it usually does about this time. With implementation of the new MIS system looming, I have even more to do at work, so I seem to have fewer hours to accomplish it. Lots of projects. Lots of stress.
Combine that with the never-ending tropical storm Fay keeping me off my bike, and you have one grumpy puppy.
Suddenly, my birthday is right around the corner. As a kid, this was a great thing. as an adult, it means I have to pay lots of money to the state for car tags. Great, now on top of work-stress and no-bike stress, I've got no-money stress.
Beautiful.
At least it looks like the remains of tropical storm Fay is moving off, so maybe we can get back outdoors. We'll go walk Thomson tomorrow to check for storm damage, and hopefully we'll be out on the road bikes Thursday night. Maybe that will ratchet down the stress-o-meter.

Foiled Again

2008-07-22T21:05:00.003-04:00

I started the day today at our Oconee office in Greensboro (GA), which meant leaving the house at 5:45 AM, at which time I'm usually in my birthday suit sleepily rummaging through my underwear drawer wondering what color drawers complement khakis and the clean-shirt-of-the-day. Oooh, sorry for that image.
Anyway, I had to meet a tech guy there to finish up the hardware install for the network in the new office. He was an hour late, so I sat like a lump for a while, then I sat for a while longer while he set up the equipment. I dashed back to Macon and picked up my road bike from the shop. I had to have a spoke replaced on the rear wheel that let go on the ride Saturday. I also had them face the bottom bracket shell. When I installed the bottom bracket and torqued it to the recommended spec, it developed a bind in the rotation. The included instructions (where English was the fourth language down the line) told me that if a bind developed from an out of true shell the proper procedure was to back the piece out, add some lock tite and tighten to 30 Nm. I did that. Well, all except the LockTite part. Hmmm..that detail might have kept the bottom bracket from unscrewing...which it had. It was unscrewed about an eighth of an inch. EEK.
Anyhoo, I picked the bike up and hauled back to work, only to run into some network issues that jumped on my ass like angry beavers on the last sugar maple. I really wanted to ride tonight, for no other reason than to test the terry saddle on the road, but the angry beavers got the best of me. I had to bail on my ride buddy and work late. It sucked, but I did manage to trap the angry beavers and back them into a corner. At least if I had to work late, I came home wearing a nice beaver pelt cap.

But I still didn't get to ride. Bummer.

Going the Distance

2008-07-20T21:15:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we rode from Perry to Montezuma for ice cream. On our road bikes, I mean.

No, really, we rode from Perry to Marshallville and then to Montezuma so we could get some ice cream at William Brown's Farm market. We left at 8 AM so we would hopefully be back before the real heat of the day. The mileage totaled a little over 50 miles of *fairly* flat roads with *fairly* light traffic. We put together the ride as a social ride, keeping a slow pace so we could ride together and talk. This also made the ride more approachable to newer riders like Carrie.
I think everyone had a good time. I drifted around in the pack and could hear conversations on all kinds of topics throughout the ride. It's nice to have rides like this because it gives us the chance to really build friendships and a sense of community. Fast rides are great for training, but when the pack is running 20+ mph, no one has much of a chance to talk about the movie they saw last night or the great car they just test drove. Hell, most of us are too busy trying to suck in more oxygen than a human should need to bother talking. Social interaction isn't the point of a training ride. A training pace ride is meant to make you a faster rider, and talking doesn't write that check. Talking is necessary, however, to make a stronger community. People who are only concerned with being faster are missing out on half the reason to ride. Some people join gangs, pledge fraternities, or pay country club dues just to find some sense of belonging. It's human nature to go to almost any length to be part of.....something. Locally and all around the world, there's a huge clan of people who pedal, and all it takes to be a part of it is to show up. It's a damn shame that some people miss out.

Okay, enough soap-boxing. The ride went well. I've managed to convert the road bike to an all-Campy drive train with a shimano rear wheel and cassette, and thanks to the Jtek Shiftmate, it's working pretty well. It hangs between gears once in a while, but no more than the all-cheap-shimano drive train I was running. The shorter crank arms feel worlds better, and the aero drop bars are really comfortable. In general, I'm feeling better than ever on the bike. I did find that after about 30 miles my saddle is near insufferable. Now, at some point, even the best saddle starts to feel like glued down shards of glass, but I think mine could be better. I swapped the Terry Fly onto the road bike today, so we'll see if it's any better. Several of the guys have offered the use of their box-of-rejected-saddles so I can try a few and find what works. Looks like more product testing.

Diana and I had said at one time that we would do our first Century ride this fall at Albany's nut roll, but after riding 52 miles, I must say that 100 seems like a stretch.

Of course, I would have said that about 50 miles not long ago.

Better find that saddle.....

Locals Only #2

2008-06-11T20:35:00.003-04:00

Emilio's Cuban cafe, 402 Hwy 247, Bonaire

Emilo's has been open several months and we've eaten there several times. It manages to pull of a surprising combination of good food and good atmosphere in a standard strip mall, which is pretty impressive. I drove by it in the new shopping center at the corner of Sandy Run Dr and Hwy 247 every day for quite some time before stopping in. I was definitely missing out.

The cuisine is traditional Cuban, with lots of starches, spiced meats, and (of course) black beans. When I say the meats are spiced, I don't mean they're habanero hot or jalapeno driven. I mean there are a lot of spice flavors involved, with lots of emphasis on garlic and onions. It bears some taste relation to Mexican fare, but also has a lot of ties to traditional American comfort food. Don't expect to attack the main courses with vegetarian glee or low-carb fervor.

The appetizer selection is a little limited, but you won't find anything they serve on another menu in town. The Yuca Fries ($4.25) are akin to firm, dry french fries, and are well worth the time just for the Mojo sauce they include. They come nice and crispy and the sauce is a wollop of garlic goodness that's cooled with a cream base and maybe cilantro and lime. Whatever is in there, it's an Emilio's secret, and it's damn good. The Ham Croquettes ($3.00) were kind of like salmon patties made with ham. Wait, it's not what you're thinking, they were good! A little on the greasy side, but how can you dislike fried ham?

They do of course offer a Cuban Sandwich ($6.25) and it's tasty. It could have a little more meat for the price, especially since it's sans sides. You can get a 1/2 Cubano on the lunch specials menu with sides of rice and beans for $6.75, which I think is a better deal. They do have several other sandwiches and combos as lunch specials, and also serve breakfast.

All the dinner entrees include choice of white or yellow rice (get the yellow), Black or red beans (black, of course) fried sweet or green plantains (sweet, definitely) and mojo marinated boiled yuca or yuca fries. I really like the boiled yucas - lots of onions with a tang of lime or maybe vinegar and plenty of garlic. The staff calls them "an acquired taste" but I acquired it the first time I tasted it. With all of those side, you better come hungry.

My favorite entree is the Lechon Asado ($10.95) which is marinated pork served shredded. It looks dry, but is actually slow cooked to juicy, spicy perfection. The Arroz con Pollo ($10.95) is the cuban version of chicken with yellow rice, and it's 100% comfort food. Good and filling, and packed with subtle flavors. The Carne con Papas (meat and potato stew) also hits a comfort food home run, so thick and chunky that it's served on a plate and doesn't run around. They also offer a sampler platter that lets you pick out a new favorite.

If you have a sweet tooth or a chocolate obsession, don't miss the Mid-Night Havana Cake ($4.50.) It's a chocolate mousse cake that absolutely defies description. Unless you're a chocolate professional, it may be too much for you. If you are there with your spouse, order two if you want to stay married. Trust me.

The last item to cover is the coffee. If you go, you have to order the Cafe con Leche, a beautiful concoction of steamed milk and Cuban espresso. The coffee is strong, the cup is large, it has about 3 cups of sugar in it, and it may be the best coffee I've had in town. There's a reason some of the staff wear t-shirts that read "Powered By Cuban Coffee."

As with other local dining, the service has been good every time we've been there. The wait staff is happy to explain any of the dishes and make good recommendations. The management even happily stayed open late the last time we stumbled in five minutes before closing. And they even have killer live music once a week! So, go try some thing new, maybe you'll find the comfort food you've always dreamed of.

This is your town. Eat here!

Ridin' the Broom

2008-06-10T21:33:00.003-04:00

Well, I went out on the Tuesday road ride as usual, despite the near-record heat. It was actually a pretty nice night for a ride, once we got rolling. I was feeling pretty good for not riding in a week. I've been concentrating on pushing harder on the climbs, and they were seemed easier tonight. I don't know if they really are, or if I was just having a good night. By the time we reached the silos and turned right on Mosely, I had finished one bottle of water and the second was as warm as bathwater. Since One of our good friends and fellow cyclists lives on Mosely, I planned a stop for fresh ice water.

Everything was great until we started back out of her driveway. When my back tire hit the street, it didn't feel right. It was everything but flat. We rode back down the driveway and borrowed a floor pump, only to watch the guage fall from 100 to 90psi in less than a minute. Sigh. I think I might have pinched the tube coming over the construction on highway 49.

Now, being a fairly prepared kind of guy, I do carry a spare tube and tire levers and stuff. But frankly it was too damn hot to bother changing the tube when Kat offered a ride back to the store in a nice, air-conditioned truck. I'll get to it before the next ride.

Hey, everybody rides the broom once in a while......

Using My Marbles

2008-06-08T20:41:00.005-04:00

Well, another weekend done and gone. I read an account once of a late-middle aged man who suddenly realized that he had a limited number of weekends left in his life. He bought a bunch of marbles and counted them out into a big glass jar, and every Sunday night, he'd take one out. I guess it's a bit morbid, but on Sunday night, I like to look at the marble I'm holding in my hand and ponder if I've spent it well. It's a process that will make you reevaluate what you do between work days. I'm still relatively young, still not half way through the average life expectancy of the American male, so I don't mind dropping a marble in the work bucket occaisionally, but I'm pretty stingy with them. In an effort to make the most of this marble, I worked late Friday night to set up the new server at work and get it on our network. That way I could bring the laptop home and work on the data entry stuff without spending gas money and time to drive back to Macon Saturday.

It worked out well. I cut the front and back yard early to try and beat the heat, then spent the next six hours sorting and entering info on all our materials for work until my brain ran out my ears like thin tapioca pudding. With raisins. I had a nice np and met the usual suspects for a friendly dinner of grilled beast. Today carrie and I ushered at church and went to my Mom's house for lunch and helped install a new window AC unit at their house. We did the usual grocery shopping and finished the night up with a very nice Oriental chicken salad for dinner. Now we're vegitating on the sofa and watching Pulp Fiction on VH1. A nice quiet end to the day.

So, all things considered, the marble was pretty good this weekend. Not the shiniest marble I've had, but reasonably respectable. I didn't even get on the bike. Heck, I only saw my bikes taking the road bikes out of the truck and hanging them up. Hopefully I'll get to ride a little more this week. I've got a vaction coming up that's built around riding the bejeezes out of a bicycle in the north georgia mountains, so I'd better start turning over a pedal more than once a week.

See, I figure a week's vacation is like a great big, swirled glass shooter, and I'm damn sure not wasting THAT marble.

Marble image from roscoeartglass.com - get your own marbles

Ugh...Work

2008-06-05T12:29:00.002-04:00

Work has been picking up lately. a lot. We're implementing a new Management Information System, a big-brother-esque program that will handle everything from estimating and invoicing to logging employee time on jobs. I'm the point man on the implementation, as well as an expanding role as IT guy and sys-admin. I'm kind of enjoying the tech side of the job, but we're hitting crunch time on the data processing which is translating into more working hours. I got a new laptop that's real flash, so at least I can work from home some, but it's still cutting into my riding. This weekend I may have to come up to the shop and install the new server system which has finally arrived.

It seems like every time I get on track with more riding, life steps in and puts the brakes on. I know this is something we all fight as cyclists, but it's so frustrating. Tonight will be three times this week I brought my bike to work with plans of riding and now won't be able to. Yuck. It really sucks when it's work related. I can complain about all the things I have to do, all the jobs I have to cover, but in the end, that's my job. I'm here to handle all the shit no one else will take on. It pays all right, but it sure is a frustrating way to work some days. Of course, other days go by and it's pretty easy, so maybe I shouldn't complain too loudly.

So, anyway, it looks like I'll be riding the trainer tonight for a half hour while dinner cooks so I can work into the night on my laptop. I'd rather be out on my bike even if it is 98 degrees today and so damn dry the grass smolders in the afternoon. I'll also have to get up at the crack of dawn Saturday and mow my yard so I can come to work and get the server installed, which means I won't be working on the truck like I need to before vacation, which means I'll have to skip riding sometime next week so I can fix the truck. We won't even talk about the bike washing and repair and cleaning the camper that has to happen before then, too. And Sunday's shot because I'll have to usher at church, take mom out for lunch since I missed doing it on Mothers day (hey, there were tornadoes, man) go grocery shopping and clean up the house.

No rest for the weary. Boy, am I weary.

Flat Rockin'

2008-06-03T12:14:00.002-04:00

My good friend Jesse was in town last week and he decided we should go to Flat Rock park over in Columbus and ride Saturday. Actually, the original plan was to go to Tsali because another friend of a friend needed a lift that direction and it was a good excuse to ride. But, the f-o-a-f found another ride and gas is expensive, so we opted to sleep in and drive less. Flat rock has been recommended by several people, but I hadn't ridden it yet, so off we go.

The trail starts in a state forestry run park on the edge of Columbus. The slick rock and creek at the front entrance are reminiscent of Indian Springs State park near Jackson, and it seems pretty well maintained, if a little aged. We found the trail head and I followed Jesse out on the trail. Which is to say, we rode around the pic-nic tables for a while. When you're used to riding deep in the woods, it's a little strange to be hauling ass through an open, well groomed area passed tables and parking lots and not getting yelled at. the trail cuts back and forth for a good while offering some steady though not steep climbs and some long woo-who downhills. Some of the ruts offer a fun chance to catch air. The trail then cuts through a couple miles of wooded area similar to the Children's home trails and emerges back into the open. Ride a little further and you come to a little slick rock and a lovely short downhill to a two foot rock step-up going up a climb. You have to commit to speed and loft the front wheel to get up it. At the last second, you think "What the hell??!! I'll never make that!!!" If you're going fast enough to make it, by that point there's no way to bail. Interesting catch 22. I made it up with no drama, but still had to stop and let my adrenal gland crawl back into it's normal spot. The final 2 miles or so are screaming fun flat and REALLY tight twisties. It's santos FL meets Sarah's Slalom at Thomson. It was so fun we did it twice! There are also some nice deep woops and one long culvert that you can play BMX on if you feel skippy. They're fun, but we somehow couldn't find the legendary Big Woop, so I can't verify it's size or woopiness. We did get in a little over 14 miles of rippin' fun, averaging almost 9mph, which ain't bad on a fat tire bike.

I'd definitely suggest making the drive to do flat rock. There's enough trail to get soundly lost, which always exciting. And if you don't have a good enough time, you can always stop at Lane Packing for peach ice cream on the way back.

Locals Only

2008-05-20T20:09:00.002-04:00

WARNING -- Non-bike content---

For those of you that wonder where I've been and why I haven't posted, let's say that the government insists that I don't inform, and leave it at that.

For a couple years now I've made it a habit to watch several shows on the Travel Channel that feature culinary adventures in the interesting corners of the world. Tony Bourdain has become something of a personal hero. I've always liked good food (yeah, act surprised) and I'm fascinated by foreign cultures, so it's no stretch that these shows have become favorites. The great thing about these shows is that they don't feature five-star restaurants and luxo-liners. They visit the hole-in-the-wall, locals only restaurants and vendors where the food truly reflects the culture of the area. I started at some point to seek out these independant, locally owned eateries when I would travel. I found it surprisingly hard to get info on them, even from locals. When I went to Hartford, I was fortunate to have a Connecticut ex-pat working with me at the time. When asked about a good place to eat in her native city, she replied "Oh, they've got everything! Outback, Carabba's, Chili's...."

Um, huh? We've got those in Warner Robins. They're called chains, and I'm pretty sure all their food is cooked in some factory outside Albequerque from reconstituted chalk dust. What about fresh local seafood? Aunt Betty's pancake hut? C'mon, gimme something!! One of my main gripes with dining in Warner Robins is that all the local restaurants go under while there is a 3 hour (yep, 3 hour, no lie) wait at the new Olive Garden. And that's when it hit me.

I had no idea what local restaurant to recommend in MY hometown if someone asked..... I was one of THEM.

So, my quest for local food began. After just a couple months, I can tell you there are a LOT of great, independent restaurants around here. If you want to play along, I'll try to throw out reviews and finds as I discover them. I encourage you to support these places because the food is better, the service is better, and the price is better. This is your town. Eat here!

Thai Kitchen, 713 Watson Blvd across from the civic center, Warner Robins
This is my current favorite. Thai Kitchen serves, you guessed it, Thai food, as well as some favorites from Chinese and Japanese menus everywhere. The restaurant is a one woman show. The owner, who's name I'm ashamed I haven't learned yet, also takes your order, fills your water glass, and cooks your meal. Talk about being invested! She does have help on busy nights from her children. The service is personal and fantastic, but don't expect to be rushed in and out at break-neck speed. Food this good is meant to be enjoyed, so take your time.
If you're not familiar with Thai cuisine, you should be. Earthy flavors mixed with sweetness and potent heat are signatures that separate Thai from other eastern menus. Almost any dish can be ordered mild or spicy, and coconut, peanut, and lime flavors are prominently featured.
There are several appetizers available, and I recommend the Satay Chicken (on a steeck) and the Tea Roses, which are artfully formed rounds of ground pork and wonton. The spring rolls are also well worth the time just for the phenomenal sauce included. The fried dumplings vary from the normal Chinese rendition by being a more substantial pastry bordering on hard, and much less oily. While not my favorite, they may be of interest if you are a dumpling connoisseur.
The national dish of Thailand is Pad Thai, a dish of thin rice noodles with green onions, crushed peanuts, and a savory sauce made with more peanut flavor. As with most things at Thai Kitchen, you get your choice of chicken, beef, pork, or tofu. The sauce is fantastic - rich and soothing with a touch of sweetness and heavily grounded in peanuts. I can tell that this is comfort food from the other side of the world. And the portion size means you get to enjoy it again for lunch the next day!
The Spicy Red Curry is my favorite so far, a totally unique and wonderful taste. The combination of sweet coconut milk, spicy hot chilis and the bitter touch of fresh basil leaves is absolutely sublime. Served as a hot-pot with steamed or fried rice, the heavenly concoction is spooned over rice on a separate plate or enjoyed straight from the bowl. If you like it hot, order the curry spicy and add several spoons of the red pepper relish that you're given. Man, that's the stuff.
I intend to return frequently and explore the other menu offerings. Salad of marinated ground meat, carrots and lettuce? Dark red coconut cream curry paste with potatoes and peanuts? I'm hungry already!
The best part is that all this personal service and unbelievable food is reasonably priced. With appetizers in the $5 range and most entrees going for $8 - $11, you can get a real meal for Zaxby's money, with out the first styrofoam container or cup. If you want something different, you can't go wrong.

There are plenty of other good local restaurants to come, so stay tuned.

This is your town. Eat here!

By the Numbers

2008-04-08T21:23:00.004-04:00

I've never been a huge fan of math. That may sound suspicious to those of you who know my educational background, but it's the truth. I can DO math, but it's a necessary evil of sorts. I don't like anything where there is one and only one right answer. I prefer to view the angles.
Biking however can easily become a litany of digits. Numbers bound freely around the conversation of longtime cyclists. mileage, kilometers, average speeds, max speeds, beats per minute, wattage output, VO2 max, feet of climbing, percentage grade.....the list grows beyond belief. The science of fitness and sport dictates a measurement for everything, a method of comparison that is unequivocal and free from the sway of post-exercise euphoria. When races are won (and paychecks earned) by the coefficient of drag reduction that results from an altered wrist position on the aero bars, it only makes sense to nail down the numbers.

So, I can tell you that on Sunday Carrie and I rode in the second coming of the Milledgeville Bike Club's April Fool's ride. We rode 34 miles at an average of 11.5 miles per hour. I can tell you I rode 3.8 miles at the Thomson trails Monday night, and that tonight Diana and I rode 25.57 miles at an average pace of 16.3 miles per hour with a max speed of 33.2 miles per hour. I burned 2300 calories on the ride tonight. I could chart the routes and give you total feet of climbing, and I might be able to puzzle out the wattage within one order of magnitude. I can say that on a Tuesday night, I have ridden over sixty miles already this week which is a record for me, as is the 16.3 mph average.

But it's much harder to tell you about the smell of the pines on a deserted road in Baldwin County as the sun broke through the morning mist and we climbed a paved ribbon past a white-washed church where large women in large hats were just gathering to worship. It's harder to tell you about the moment when we realized halfway through our ride tonight that we were stronger than we thought, and the way our legs and lungs burned as we proved it for the rest of the ride. If you're not a cyclist, telling you that we could barely walk when we got off our bikes and it almost made us laugh out loud at the accomplishment would be like speaking in tongues.

Numbers are easy. They're cut-and-dried and can reduce any rider to a bar graph to be compared to any other cyclist. But they're only footnotes compared to the rest of the ride.

First ride of the season

2008-03-10T21:08:00.002-04:00

Well, our first mountain bike ride of daylight savings time was poorly attended. Carrie and I went to ride after work, and only Jesse showed up to ride. When we got there, we were actually outnumbered by people hiking with their dogs on the trail. They all left before we got out on the trail. Jesse chose to ride with us instead of doing his usual warp speed attack, and we breezed through about two and a half miles of very laid back trail. It was nice and easy. I was a little surprised that no one else came out given the beautiful weather. Oh well, guess they missed out.

Critical Mass?

2008-03-04T19:59:00.003-05:00

Okay, maybe it's not critical. Maybe we're just approaching mildly serious. Or more accurately, mildly visible.
If you're not familiar with Critical Mass bike rides, this is a good time to open a second window and run it through the googly search. Go ahead, I'll wait. Okay, so now you know it's a mass invasion of a city by bicyclists that shuts down traffic and progresses from point A to B. The point is to block vehicular traffic and make the drivers painfully aware that bikes ARE traffic. I'm not going to debate whether or not this is effective or even a good idea, but I welcome comments from anybody who thinks they can make their point with out using the words "dude, man" or "like."
I bring this up only as a backstory to my experience on our road ride Sunday. This weekend was certainly Spring's warning shot across the bow of Winter. March comes in sunny and seventy degrees, so Carrie and I decided to join the group ride at the bike store. Diana opted to join us. Now, the Sunday ride is billed as casual, but even then I didn't expect to keep up. Carrie is averaging 12-13 mph and both of us hadn't been on a bike much since being sick. Add that to the fact that Diana ended up needing five stitches in her hand the morning before the ride, and it's obvious we weren't planning on being contenders. It seemed like there was a good turn out for the ride, and they rolled out en masse at five till one. Diana was still getting her gear on, and I was a little surprised no one bothered to check with us as they left to see if we were planning on riding with them. We weren't, but it would have been courteous to check.
We mounted up and headed out, and within a half mile Bill had circled back to check on us and make sure we were okay. We assured him we were, and discussed expected averages and distances. Once he was sure that we were set and knew that there was no need to rein in the group to wait on us, he split to catch up to the group.
We crossed the interstate and turned south, making our way to highway 96 and further south on some very pretty, quiet roads. My favorite point was a third-of-a-mile climb on shake and bake pavement on allendale road. The sun was beating down between the tall pines and we were cranking up a grass fringed stretch that felt like it could have been on a col in southern France. Fantastic.
The other thing that struck me was how nice all the motorists were. We got smiles and waves, everyone passed with plenty of room, even the guys in the heavy duty trucks were reasonable. a couple people gave us a thumbs up instead of the customary middle finger. We even had a woman pull up to a stop sign where we were resting and ask if we were okay! Concern? What a revolution!
Which brings me back around to Critical Mass. Maybe, just maybe, we are starting to have enough cyclists on the road that people are becoming aware of us. Maybe drivers are starting to see us as people instead of obstacles. Perhaps we're starting to step up to a new level of visibility.
Maybe it was just a rare, good day. But I'll take it.

30 miles, 11.5 mph average.

Oh. CRAP.

2008-02-20T13:09:00.003-05:00

Okay, somehow I've slipped up and managed to get myself elected as Central Georgia Cycling's 08 President. That's it, I'm never drinking whiskey at Shane's house again.
But seriously, I guess it's time for me to stop muttering snarky comments from the back of the room and step up on stage. I know it's very likely going to be like having a double root canal at Lowe's sometimes, but I think it's going to be a good experience overall. Ask me in 6 months. we've got a good active group of riders in the mid state area, and I'm sure there will be a demanding chorus of complaints and ideas, but that's what American Free Process is all about. In the end I hope that I will, with due assistance, be able to seek out the path that makes riding better for everyone on pedals around here.
Thank you, and good night.

Yep, you missed it

2008-02-05T20:22:00.000-05:00

You missed it. All of you missed it. Well, all except Brady, but I'm doubtful he's reading my blog. What did you miss? A fantastic night to ride. Last night was beautiful. Seventy degrees and clear with good tacky trails and a beautiful sunset to boot. There were some muddy spots, but what fun is mountain biking if you don't get splatter marks. Brady and I were the only ones that came out to ride, and believe me, everybody else missed out. If you aren't kicking yourself by now, you should probably start.
It's been a while since I've ridden by myself for a full lap. I forgot how much I enjoy it from time to time. Mind you, I really prefer to ride with someone else. First off, it's just fun to ride with a friend (or friends) and adventures are always best when shared. Secondly, you will never push yourself as hard solo as you will when you have someone to challenge you. Riding solo has it's own charms. You seem a little more involved in the woods. I hate to use hippy-dippy, granola scarfing new-age terms, but you really get in a different sort of headspace. Sort of a zen balance of connecting with the trail and flowing over the earth like water while at the same time finding a refreshing disconnectedness from worry and concern. And in case you're wondering, no, I didn't smoke any of the random trailside greenery.
In the end, I had a good time. I even pushed myself a little and turned in a 35 minute lap including one quick check to make sure gravity was still working. It was. Thirty five minutes is not terribly fast, in fact it's five minutes off my best time ever and WAY slower than the hard boys around here, but as an early February run, it ain't bad. It seems like my ebb tide riding schedule hasn't left me stranded too far up the beach.
And just for all you folks that couldn't make it, did I mention we nailed down a full lap without turning on our lights?
Go ahead, start kicking.

The Top Priority of the Summer

2008-01-27T20:04:00.000-05:00

Ahh, sometimes fate drops a plan right in your lap, which is better than a scalding bowl of wonton soup, to be sure. If you happened to receive the recent SORBA / IMBA e-newsletter, you may already have heard of the Muddy Spokes Club, but if not, let me educate you. The state park system here in the great state of Georgia has bike accessible trails at several of it's parks. In order to promote use of the parks for exercise, they have formed the Muddy Spokes Club. You send in a $10 registration and you get a card. You then go to each of 11 parks and ride the trails there. At each park, the nice ranger will punch your card. When all the holes are punched, you mail the card back and they send you a commemorative T-shirt and another card. The trails range from flat, short and paved to long, mountain singletrack runs with "scenic overlooks." For any of you new to mountain biking, if a trial has scenic overlooks, it is has to be way the hell up on a mountain. Which means climbing way the hell up a mountain. The total mileage of all the trails is 68 miles, with the shortest at 3 miles and the longest at 12.
Most of the trails will probably be less than challenging, but the experience should be great. Besides, we needed a good excuse to tow our camper all over and stay in beautiful parks all summer. REALLY.
In other news, Carrie got her first crack at our normal Tuesday road loop today. Since the weather was nice (61 and sunny) we decided to embark from Kat's house and do the tuesday loop with Diana and Craig. We did the entire 20 mile loop, including the Bible Camp Creek climbs. The wind was a little on the brisk side, but I was mostly comfortable in a short sleeve jersey with base layer and tights. It was a little cool in the shade, but since it's still January, I'm not complaining. Carrie did great, once again, making it up all the climbs and even cruising at 20+ mph on some of the later flats. Since we're doing the thirty at Biking Bleckley, this was a good run up for her. We averaged 12.9 mph and Carrie said she felt like she could have done another 10 miles. I'm sure with a tasty sag stop along the way, she'll have no problem. As long as the weather stays reasonable, it should be a good trip.

EXTRA CREDIT QUESTION: What movie ended with a the start of a road trip to get Aerosmith tickets, the "Top Priority of the Summer?" Bonus points if you can name one of the characters that used the phrase on screen.

just a mechanical update

2008-01-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

For all of the concerned readers who've flooded my inbox with impassioned concerns for Big Red's health and recovery, I offer a quick update. Nate at Bike Tech sprang into action and hunted down a replacement suspension link. Okay, in truth it was sitting lonely in their spare parts bin. Anyhoo, for the bargain basement price of $20, I've got a slightly used link with bearings in better shape than the ones I had. The link is from an '06 bike and it is heavier than the hollow link of my '07 by a few grams. It's also one friggin' cast piece with no welds to break. I'm sure the hollow links are fine for skinny racer boys, but they won't work in the big boy leagues.
So, after an evening of hectic assembly, I put the bike back on the trails, only to find that my new chain makes it painfully obvious that the middle chainring is way past usable. When you torque on the pedal, the chain skips around the chainring like a big damn ratchet. Plus the pulleys on the rear derailleur sounds like a yard sale coffee grinder full of marbles. I'm off tomorrow at lunch to pick up a new chainring, some derailleur parts, and a new shifter cable.
Fear not, loyal readers, Big Red is on the mend and should be back in the thick of the fight next week. If Sunday truly is sunny, the road bike will be back in service while Red recuperates. Wait till you see the black bike with new TeamFlipper livery.

Ididaride 08

2008-01-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

After much delaying and trepidation, we were ushered from behind the velvet ropes of the waiting list onto the grand stage of the registered riders. Jodi called slightly more than a week before the 50 mile ride was slated to go off and announced that there were slots available from cancellations. We jumped on the chance like mountain bikers on free beer. Oh, if we had only known.
Now, for the uninitiated, the Ididaride is put on by the Suwannee bike association in white springs, FL. It is a fifty mile off-road ride held in January every year along the banks of the tea-colored Suwannee River, star of outdated songs. It's not a race, in that it isn't timed. The only point is to finish. Let me allay the tension and tell you now, we didn't. See, it started raining about 2:00 the morning of the ride and rained continuously until about 10:30. Since the ride started at nine, it was a nasty way to start a ride. Worse than the weather (did I mention it was 50 degrees?) was the trail. the first 5 miles was ridden on forest service roads cut through the north florida scrub, which is palmettos and pine trees. Normally, these roads are dark gray sand. After 2 inches of rain, they are black gumbo mud and water from pedal to bottom bracket deep. Worse than that, the roads are utterly boring. It's like the I-16 of bike trails.
Anyway, to glaze over the heartache, Carrie was done after five miles of gawdawful mud. I was frustrated and bored to tears, and we decided to chuck it in. You know when you're riding a mountain bike and daydreaming of being at WORK, it's time to bail. I was very disappointed in driving all that way and not seeing more than one tenth of the trail, but Carrie was not able to go any further. I was moving too slow to have warmed up, and starting the day with an average speed of 4 miles per hour does not make a good 50 mile ride. My bike was also making heart-wrenching noises. None of which makes me any happier about not riding.
The rest of the weekend was great camping with friends, despite the cold weather. We took Monday off to recover and clean bikes. Carrie's bike recovered nicely, but big red wasn't so lucky. On disassembly, I broke the bolt on the derailleur hanger, found out that most of the bearings in the rear suspension are shot, and found out that the Horst link where the rear shock is mounted is cracked on the weld. I don't think this ride was the direct cause of any of these, except maybe the bearings, but it's a pisser of a way to end a disappointing bike experience.
I'll probably give the ride another shot next year, but if it rains, they can shove it. I heard there was some nice singletrack, but the trails I saw would make me take up road biking. I had a great time overall, as I always do with my biking family, but the Suwannee trails certainly have to redeem themselves next time I ride there.

Back on track..er..trail

2008-01-06T21:10:00.000-05:00

We planned to pick up Diana and rally to the trailhead at Dauset, meeting John and Kat for a little two wheeled celebration of Georgia's mild climate. It's nice to live in a state where you know there will be at least one day a month of perfect riding weather, even in the dark months of winter. It's January but I was out today in shorts and a jersey, perfectly happy.
Our big plans almost got canceled due to a family tragedy, of sorts. My Mom's dog passed away, and we almost had to cancel the ride to offer familial support. Things didn't work out that way today, but I'm sure our support will be needed in the future. That sort of thing is never easy.
In the end, we left a little later than the rest of the gang and caught up with them on the trails, returing us to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress. Carrie was excited about the day and hoping for a good Dauset experience. Everytime we go up there, Carrie seems to have a bad day. She has been getting better steadily, but Dauset tends to throw more mileage at her than she's ready for, and manages to do it on a bad day. Everyone that rides knows all about bad days, they strike for no reason at all and can be very frustrating. After her glorious success at a first road ride, Carrie started out feeling confident about having a good ride this time.
We caught up with Kat and Diana at the pavilion and then conquered Fern Gully, part of Sandy Creek, The Huff n Puff Extension, and Brownlee. Carrie headed back to the pavillion then, and Kat, Diana and I rode some more. In the end, Carrie covered a solid 5 miles, riding some sketchy stuff and vicious hills, and had a good time doing it. I clocked about 7 miles and had a good time as well, despite some gunbo-thick mud in the low spots on the extension. One of the muddy spots looked so inviting that Carrie decided to stop for a quick mudbath, but continued refreshed with no ill effects.
A lot of what we rode today was on the race course for the 12 hour. I think that I'm in a little better shape than I was then. The climbs seemed easier today, in no small part because they weren't half way through a 10 mile lap, but still..... I think I'm still seeing an improvement, which is encouraging. I've managed to lose those 5 Christmas Cookie pounds, and I'm establishing a new weight goal. By the end of the summer, I'll be down to 220 pounds. That's 20 lbs away, and I think it's attainable, but I suspect it will be a slower process this time. I don't think I want to weigh less than that.
At least, I don't think that NOW.

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

For the first time Carrie and I went on the annual Bike Store New Year's Day ride. It was a first because they do this on the road, and we haven't had road bikes in the past. The ride started at about 1 PM New Year's Day and was planned for about 40 miles at "hangover" pace of about 17 mph. Now, let's be honest, I don't think I can ride 20 miles at that speed, much less 40 with the big boys. I'm not sure who really believes 17mph is a "hangover" pace, but I am pretty sure they're way too serious about training to actually have a hangover.

Well, the weather decided to be about half crappy for the ride. I say half, because, hey, it could have been raining. That would have been worse, but then I'd have stayed inside and it wouldn't have mattered. It decided to be bright and sunny - and COLD and WINDY. Highs around 50 with 25 mph gusts, specifically. Which means it was gusting faster than I can normally ride, and being of the wider variety of human, that can be great as a tailwind, and a lot like riding into a parked bus as a headwind. Some people were smart and scheduled a different bike ride.
So, after a quick raffle drawing in the store (thanks Bill, even though I didn't win anything) we assembled and departed. That is to say, our collective shivering coincided to move us in a forward direction. With semi-aero wheels on the road bike, the gusts were enough to almost pull the handlebars out from under you if you weren't hanging on pretty tight. Of course, my hands had frozen to the bars, so I was in no danger. The big event this year was that Carrie decided to come out on her very first real road ride, despite the iffy weather. Up until this point, her only experience was a couple orientation rides and a stout 20 mile trainer ride. We ended up doing 26 miles at an average of 11 mph. Not too shabby in these conditions on a first ride. We climbed both Powersville hills, rode part of Hwy 49 into Byron (the scariest part to me) and circled back through the neighborhood to end at the store. Carrie managed to drift her roadbike around a turn with a patch of gravel in the middle like a Japanese stunt driver. Not only did My Dear Wife ride all the hills like a champ and practice her cyclocross skills, she was even still able to smile back at the truck.

As a matter of fact, all of us were smiling. Frozen like cheap vegetables, but smiling. Kat and Diana chaperoned Carrie and I and were kind enough to handle route planning.
After we got back we went to the bulldog cafe and had a guinness to celebrate our survival and defrost our interiors. It also gave us a good warm place to wait for the other riders to return. Interestingly, we didn't take clothes to change into, so I actually went into a sports bar wearing tights. And I was sober, even. Luckily, the place was pretty empty, so I survived.
All in all, it was a great start to the year. Let's just hope the winds ease up.

Christmas comes and goes...

2007-12-28T17:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't been much on typing of late, dear readers, but as usual Christmas has been hectic. Why is it that we over schedule ourselves an extra 50% to celebrate the birth of a man that was all about PEACE? I'll never figure it out....
Anyway, Christmas eve brought cold temps and a group mountain bike ride for those of us still in town at the pig trails. It was around 40 degrees when we hit the trail, but we had a good time anyway. I've never ridden that trail much, but like it a lot. Let me tell you, though, anyone that preaches love for the pig trail while complaining about Thomson is crazier than batshit. That is one rooty, rough trail, a LOT more so than Thomson. Maybe all these people rode thomson last decade some time and have never been back. Update, guys, the trail has changed.
Off the soapbox, and on to pictures:

Let's see, in other news, the Christmas cookie fairy visited, and left me an extra 5 lbs. Thanks, really. Looks like I'll be getting plenty of use out of the trainer my sweet wife gave me for christmas so that I can still fit in the cool Twin Six Argyle jersey she also gave me. Was that a shameless plug?
I'm finding it really hard to schedule enough time out on the bike, especially the road bike, so the trainer should keep me pedaling through the nasty weather. One of my fellow riders likened riding an indoor trainer to (and I quote) "a hot poker up the ass," but I don't find it quite so objectionable. The trainer, that is. I've got a "gut buster" interval set from the Chris Charmichael column in Bicycling magazine that gives me an hour ride if I can work up to doing the whole thing. I should be there in a week or so if I stay on it. Alternating 2 min of all-out pace with 2 min of recovery, repeat 5 times, 8 min recovery spin, another 5 reps with appropriate warm up and cool-down spins. We'll see.
Happy New Year, Kids, and I'll see you on the trails somewhere soon!

Ahhh, Family

2007-12-08T19:25:00.000-05:00

Today we drove down to Fitzgerald to connect with my Dad's side of the family for Christmas. Fitz gerald's in south Georgia for those of you that are scared to be out of site of the interstate. It's about an hour and a half south of Warner Robins. Maybe an hour in the Mustang. It's an interesting town. Like most towns in south G-A, it's a typical farm town, but shortly after the civil war it was re-invaded by the north. The post-war years were hard in the northern midwest for farmers, bringing massive droughts and catastrophic crop failure. Word of the hardships reached the farmers of Ben Hill County, who were in the middle of an extremely good year. In good christian fashion, they rounded up a wagon train of donated necessities and sent it north. When the hungry yankees were presented with such bounty, they figured they knew the address of the promised land and moved south. On arrival in Ben Hill County, they were welcomed in and the newly expanded town was officially named and mapped out. Given the unique make-up of the townsfolk the north-south streets were named after Southern generals and the east-west streets were named after Northern generals.
So, we drove down to the town of general streets and met the fam at Tom's Super Country Buffet. We started doing this a couple years ago. They fix a great spread and don't mind that we take up half the joint and hang out for 2 hours. And nobody has to clean their house before and after the party. I'm rare I guess, because I actually enjoy the company of my family. I know some of them are way out of touch, and there's always some you have less in common with than others, but I love them all. I look around the table and see people that have come up from simple backgrounds through hard times and still retain laughter and light. They have thick country accents that I can hear echoed in my own voice, and they laugh the same way I do at the same things. Most of us have hand calloused from honest labor and faces that bear marks of joy and tears in equal measure, but still smile.
We ate and talked, and talked, and talked. After a half hour goodbye, a few of us went to Granny Sexton's grave and the aunts put out some new flowers. Standing there in the strong December sun listening to the wind blow through the marble markers, I looked around at my bloodline, and was proud. Don't worry Granny. We're still here, and we're going to be fine.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2007-11-22T10:13:00.000-05:00

So, even with all the yummy, mouthwatering tidbits we'll inhale later, what am I thankful for today?

FRIENDS!!!

THAT was a Good Game.

2007-11-18T19:49:00.000-05:00

Saturday dawned bright and cold, and found us on our way to the Cracker Barrel to meet Shane and Diana for breakfast before trail building at Thomson. Momma's Pancake Breakfast with heaps of hot maple syrup is by far the best trail-building fuel in cold weather. It's a known fact. So, after gratefully imbibing several thousand calories of homestyle goodness, we rolled out to meet Dean and the OMBA tool trailer at the trailhead. Dean, hardcore hero that he is, had already pulled a lap or two before we got there at nine. Did I mention it was barely above freezing at that point? Dude...
As the day warmed up, we had a LOT of people show up. I think it was the most people I've ever seen working on Thomson at one time. It was great. We started by following Shane (our trail boss and the man with the plan) for a refreshing hike through a solid quarter mile of tangled underbrush which we were planning to clear. Two and a half hours later, we had cleared, cut and cussed up about a quarter mile of rideable trail. Poor Shane damn near had an apoplectic fit trying to rein in all the energy and joyful misdirection at the front of the work party, while also keeping Bruce from cutting down every freakin' tree at Thomson. Thank God he had loppers and not a chainsaw. I'm pretty sure he's the third largest source of world deforestation, right after hurricanes and harvesting of the rainforest for IKEA furniture. We went back through and touched up and back cut for about another hour and retired to the picnic tables for pizza and beer.

I'll refer you to Kat's Flickr account for photo coverage of the event

After the work party, a bunch of us mounted the steel steeds (or aluminum, or carbon, whatever) and tried out the new run. I think it's great. Or will be as soon as it rides in and has some consistency other than that of a memory foam mattress. I've heard some comments through the grapevine that it dumbed down the trail, but I think people may be missing the point. We have to build trails that don't cause permanent damage to the woods, or if that's not possible, we have to reroute the bad ones eventually. Nobody wants to ride through three foot deep wash basins. Anybody ride the Thomson trail around '99, when it was only a little under 3 miles and not maintained? Ever see those washed out trails? I don't think anybody remembers how bad it was. The point is, given the soil type through much of Thomson, some trails won't have a long lifespan. You can build straight-down, aggressive stuff, but don't be surprised when it has to be taken out in a couple years. Wait about six months and these new, flowy trails will develop some scary spots, trust me. If it's not challenging enough, ride faster. Technical skills don't only mean those you have to use at trackstand speed.
Okay, nuff soap box.

Today, Diana went and rode Arrowhead. Kat was planning on going, but caught a bug and wasn't feeling up to riding. Hell, she barely looked like she was up to standing, so Diana and I let her stay home. It was my first time riding Arrowhead, and I must say it's a great trail. The trees are at peak color, and it was stunningly beautiful. The air was just warm enough to ride in shorts, and the trail was blanketed in so many colors it was like riding on a tapestry. I really understand now why the OMBA crowd is so obsessed with the trail. There's nothing else like it around here. It really is a huge asset to biking in the area, even if i do get tired of hearing about it. You can certainly tell it was built by strong riders who enjoy climbing. There's a LOT of climbing. It seems a little choppy and hard to build a rhythm, but the first ride on a trail is always a little rough. I've heard people say it's easier than Thomson, and I can see that. If you are a rider who's strength and fitness is better than your bike handling and balance, I would imagine you'd prefer this trail. Thomson caters to riders with above average bike handling, and will let you slide a little if your fitness is down.
All in all, it's a great trail. Worth the ride, and worth the drive to get there. The last climb out may be the steepest thing I've ever climbed on a bike. I'll rank Arrowhead a close second to Thomson as my favorites locally. Kudos to those that built and designed it.
The only mishap was when leaving, I left my front wheel laying beside the truck and promptly backed over it. You gotta love Sun Rims RhynoLITEs. I totaled the skewer and bent the bejeesus out of the disc rotor, but the rim was still damn near true. It was out so little that I would almost bet it was that way from riding, not being run over. The XT hubs spin as pretty as punch. Let's hear it for tough parts.

Kountry Kastle, Revisited

2007-11-13T19:05:00.001-05:00

Okay, I just figured out how to email myself pics from my phone. Ya know, for a Ga Tech grad, sometimes I'm a real caveman. These are shots of the bar at the Kountry Kastle, taken like any undercover PI would, with a phone. You really don't want to spook the customers. If you still haven't eaten there, start driving now. They're open late.

And this is a shot of the "Mix N Match your own six-pack" rack at the World Wine Store in Paducah. This seems to be pretty popular out that way. I guess the do the same thing locally, but they know everybody only wants yellow fizzy beer, so they go ahead and package them that way.

Just a quick internet find

2007-11-12T21:29:00.000-05:00

No real news other than Ididaride participation looks less hopeful after talking to the registration lady, but while bookmarking all the FL mtb forums I could find (hoping to find a couple slots for the ride) I found my new family crest:

Kat, you may want to right click and choose "Save As" or the Steve Jobs equivalent.

I also found the indoor trainer that will be number one on my Christmas List: SmartCycle

I'm the most talented biker I know -- or -- I think I need a new helmet

2007-11-08T20:53:00.000-05:00

So, after much waiting, I finally got to go out on the urban ride in Macon. It was cold and turnout for the ride was a little low, only 5 riders. And they got to witness a fine sight. One that you should all be sorry you missed. I hit a tree. Hard. IN DOWNTOWN.

Okay, we were riding through a park near Mercer (I think) at a pretty good clip. I'd been hopping curbs, riding a few stairs, and generally having a whopping amount of fun. As we cut across the grass I see two Crepe Myrtle trees ahead of me, planted about six feet apart at a forty-five degree angle to my direction of travel. The branches were not quite touching, and were just tall enough to walk under. I figured it would be cool to switch back between them, so I accelerate a couple strokes and chicane through. The limbs were a little lower than I thought, so I ducked down pretty far and cleared them easily.

Now, Before we go any further, I want to take a minute to discuss proper decorative planting. Ask any gardener worth their potting soil how one should plant to maintain a natural look, and they'll tell you never to plant in even numbers. Always plant an odd number.

Can you see where this is going?

I charge out from between the TWO Myrtles, look up with a big smile and have time to think, "Well, shit, there's another tree." I remember my headlight clearly lighting up the twin trunks, so I was probably a bike length away, going maybe 10 or 12 mph. My only reaction is to throw my weight back, grab a BIG handful of disk brake and duck. Which worked out, kind of. I almost stop before my front tire hits the tree, but I think I probably would have gone over anyway as hard as I locked the brakes. Ass end rising, I slam the front of my helmet into the tree and drop the bike, but manage to remain on my feet, somewhat dazed. I take off my helmet (somewhat disheveled) to find Mike and Jeff staring at me mouths agape and eyes alight. Once they knew I was okay, boy, did they have a good laugh. Which is exactly what I would have done. To quote Jeff, if you do an endo correctly, they can see both your asshole and your bottom bracket. He said I was doing fine.

The bike was fine, the helmet's a little dented, and my neck's a little sore. But I rode the rest of the tour with no problem.

Well, I needed a new helmet anyway......off to surf the Performance Bike site......

Go West, Young Men

2007-11-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went west. A good friend needed help retrieving a lonely corvette from the frozen north. Well, it'll be frozen in a couple months, anyway. Being the good chums we are, we borrowed a trailer, bought some beef jerky and left at the ass-crack of dawn. Wait, scratch that. We were no where near the crack, it was more like the ankle. Dark thirty. Damn early. So we ate breakfast in Atlanta, lunch in Paducah, Kentucky, and dinner in Edmundsville, Illinois. We picked up a Vette, slept in a motel, had brunch in Paducah, and dinner in Warner Robins. And we had a good time.

Yeah, like there aren't stories to tell.......

First, if you're ever in Paducah, KY, find the Kountry Kastle for lunch. I don't know where exactly it is, besides the bottom of an off ramp, but if you ask anybody driving a pick-up with a ladder or gun rack, they'll point you right. I'd recommend getting the $3, half-pound Angus burger, but you might also want to consider the fried balogna sandwich and fried dill pickles. Or the herd of buffalo (32 wings for $11) or the tamale special. Top it off with onion rings and a 32oz beer for $3.20. The part you can't put a price on is the atmosphere. Dark wood paneling and old neon cast middle-America glow on well-worn vinyl booths and vintage bar stools. I could retire there. Try to ignore the stumbling drunk next door at the strip club, especially if he's bouncing off cars at 1pm like he was when we saw him.

Second, Jesse is a man of his word. If he tells you he has boxes of rocks he needs to move, by God, the man has rocks. And plenty of them. Doesn't matter why, or where he got them, or even if Shane helped him get the rocks off (ahem.), it only matters that the rocks are in Illinois and need to be in Georgia.

Third, the St Louis arch is one of the coolest man-made things you'll ever see. Especially at night. We almost opted not to go see it since it was late and 25 miles away, but we suddenly had a spark of reason and braved the chilly night to hunt down the big sucker. It was.....beyond words. And so I'll use pictures:

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Fourth, six cases of beer is all you can fit in the back seat of a 2004 F150 and still have room for a Jesse. In the same way that wine connoisseurs will seek out local vineyards while traveling, we seek out new and different beers. Some of these we know and love, but can't buy locally due to the vagaries of distribution and antiquated import laws. Some of them are just stuff we've never tried before. Good thing nobody else went, they'd have been very uncomfortable under all that, and the Vette was already full of rocks.

Fifth, Shane can drive 70 mph towing 6000lbs and still shoot a full manual SLR camera. Pretty well. On a bridge over the Ohio River. No kidding. It's a good thing I brought a change of undies.

And Lastly, Corvettes look better in Georgia.

Yep, 1300 miles in 36 hours, so we averaged 30 mph, even while sleeping. And two very good friends. Makes for a Damn Good Weekend.

29:48

2007-10-29T21:10:00.000-04:00

Twenty Nine Forty Eight.
What, you may ask, is that? Is it a bible verse? No, my right wing, bible-drilling hotentots, it is not a 'For God so loved the world that he invented the bicycle' quote of heretic intent. Is it the total commercial time in a one hour episode of CSI: Hawkinsville? Well, it may very well be, but that contains not its significance in this venue.

That, kids, is my new best time at Thomson.

That's right, sub 30 minutes for one lap. Okay, okay, I admit that that's ride time not total time, but like the asterisk at the end of Maguire's records or the positive B sample on Floyd's record, I refuse to let it alter my achievement. Technically, I stopped for 8 minutes or so to talk to someone and that is not reflected in ride time, but the rest of the ride was non-stop, so THPPPPPBBBTTTT!! - which is the sound it makes when you stick your tongue out and blow real hard. Go ahead, try it.
I was riding by myself and started off cold and not feeling very good. I was pushing myself, but just sort of lacked the drive to really thrash on my poor body. Sometimes when your out alone, you can be merciless and gut it out right to the edge, but it was cool and I wasn't feelin' it quite to that extent. I pushed to around 90% or so and ended up at the spider web in 10:20, where I stopped to talk to Diana, who was undecorating. After that I was feeling a lot better since I was nicely warmed up, and proceeded to run the back side of the trail without stopping. By the time I came up the smoking room, I had to stop for about 30 seconds so my vision would quit wavering, but continued on without really recovering. The new reroutes really help with maintaining your speed. My legs started coming apart before my lungs really gave out. At the top of the climbs, my form started to fall apart. My knees would start angling out randomly and the handlebars were sawing back and forth like I was trying to cut the fork off, but with concentrated effort I managed not to fall on my ass and keep moving. It's like my body was saying, I'll go any direction I can if I don't have to push straight down on the pedal.
All in all, I think I could have pushed harder. I had a little left, I didn't leave everything on the trail. Maybe next time.
But, having typed that, I have to wonder. Did I really have any more? or is that my cycling addiction talking? Only one way to find out......

The Coffee Shop Ride

2007-10-28T15:37:00.000-04:00

Carrie and I crawled out of bed this morning and decided to ride for our breakfast. This is as close to the historic hunter/gatherer schtick as I plan to get. One of the things I've always held as goal was to begin doing errands on my bike. I can't bike commute - it's just too far on dangerous roads with no facilities to freshen up at the ens. I can however, use two meat-motor powered wheels to go get the occaisional meal or forgotten grocery item. It's not that easy to do bike errands in our suburban-sprawl, Generica hell town, but thanks to the access roads and Cohen Walker, I've got safe, easy access to a Publix, some fast food restaurants, and my new favorite - Duncan Donuts. So far, I've avoided the temptation of donuts, but they have wicked killa good bagels, and an everything bagel has always held a warm spot in my soul. Especially with cream cheese and a large coffee.
So when we got up this morning, realizing we were out of coffee, I suggested we ride to DD for our morning repast. It's about 3 miles one way, and only has one or two mini-climbs. On the road bike, I could probably make the run in close to the same time as taking the car, given the traffic and Rube Goldberg street architecture of the area, but Carrie doesn't have a road bike (yet.) We rounded up the cold weather gear ( it was windy and in the 50's), unloaded the bikes from the truck after last night's Halloween ride, and set out to the call of caffeinated beverages.
It was a beautiful morning, though a little cool to start. I decided a road bike is MUCH better on the road than my mountain bike. My legs were a little stiff from riding last night and hitting the pedals straight out of bed, but we clipped along at a stady 11+ mph. Carrie did great on the climbs, and kept rolling toward breakfast. The DD was ridiculously busy, and we stood in a long line of Church-goers who regarded us with a mix of curiosity and disdain for our heathenist lifestyle. The girl that took our order asked about our bikes, and generally seemed interested in riding, which was cool. We sat outside by our bikes and watched the sun climb up through a beautiful morning while we enjoyed our coffee (with sugar) and cream-cheese laden bagels. Hey, if you ride to the restaurant, you can eat whatever you damn well please. Those are the rules, bub.
I love going places by bike. I'm not going to lie and stand on some soapbox preaching about decreasing my carbon footprint, it's something different. When you are on a bike, you play by your own rules. The topography is different, and you can choose thousands of ways to get from A to B, seeing things along the way nobody else sees. You are your own transportation, subject to any detour or side trip you choose. You are absolutely, completely independent.
Bike = Freedom.

Changing Seasons

2007-10-24T20:04:00.000-04:00

I'm calling tonight the first cold weather ride. Okay, it's only in the low sixties out there, but it's damp and dark as only Georgia in the winter can be. Mostly, for the first time during a ride, I looked down and thought, Damn, my toes are cold. Of course, bib shorts, short sleeve jersey, and thin socks don't offer much insulation.
The cool weather always makes me realize how adaptable we are as humans. People that spend a lot of time outside (cyclists, for instance) acclimate pretty quickly to the weather. I rode all summer in ridiculous heat and learned to tolerate it. Riding while it's in the mid 70's now feels like a cool fall day, and sixty degrees sends me running for toe covers. But, come spring time I'll be used to the cold. Sixty degrees will have me back in summer gear and seventy five will feel insufferable.
Temperature isn't the only thing we get used to. The years I'm riding a lot I find I feel more "plugged in" to the natural environment. You can almost feel the plants waking in the spring, the rush toward blooming and budding. The air is fragrant and rich with life returning. And in the fall you can feel everything slowing down like a worn out kid going down for a nap. I think this is one of the reasons outdoor activities are more popular than ever. Whether you're riding the local hills, shooting rapids, or even out hunting, spending time out there fills a gap that is getting bigger in this techno society. I'm sitting here at a computer typing away, and you're sitting there reading. We move just a little further away from our origins. So we all find ways to try to regain a little of that connection.
So some of us go ride. It's a hell of a lot more productive than sitting in a tree waiting for warm venison to amble by.

On less spiritual notes, my weight seems to have plateaued at an even 250, which is 20 lbs from my starting weight. The road riding has almost stopped for now, and I haven't ridden much for the past few weeks, so I'm confident it will start to drop again as I pick up my riding a bit. Jesse and I rode at Thomson tonight, and I turned a personal best time. I won't embarrass myself by posting it, and I had to make flipper ride a single speed and kick him in both knees to keep up. And I still think he was sandbagging. But I'm still faster than I used to be.

Picture Credits: The fantastic illustration is by Mary Teichman. For more info, visit PictureBook. Here's another one by her that you guys might like:

Singin' in the Rain

2007-10-23T18:35:00.000-04:00

We finally got some rain here in the deep south, and we decided to go riding in it. Actually, that's not quite right. We were out riding when it started riding, and we kept riding. I love riding in the rain. Not the lightning striking, monsoon downpour rain like we enjoyed at Santos, but your average, steady rain. The woods are beautiful and quiet, and all the colors seem to deepen. Most times, I'm already sweat-soaked anyway, so a little more wet really doesn't matter.
The other reason that I like it is that your average reasonable human is at home warm and dry and thinks we're crazy. Hell, a lot of the bikers around here think we're crazy. I'm not sure if the separatist, extremist quality of the sport drew me to it, or if I enjoy riding because I'm that kind of person. I've always valued being different from the herd, but I never use that as a motivation. And that's why riding in the rain is so much fun. The people that mountain bike because it's "Xtreme" and is the cool kind of thing you see in a mountain dew commercial don't ride when it's raining. They're busy standing around at cocktail parties and singles bars impressing people with stories of they're latest "Xtreme" ride. They wouldn't dare get all that muck and grit in the XTR workings of they're carbon double-bounce bikes. If asked why they're not riding, they may say it's for the good of the trails, but don't believe them. They just don't want to get messy.
So, I'll enjoy riding in the rain, or when it's 105 degree, or when it's 20 degrees and pissing sleet. I'll freeze, bake, suffer and repeat. I'll be riding while they sit at home and read about the latest $600 Italian retro wool jersey and how it defines style and who you are as a biker. They can leaf through the printed-on-heavy-stock, beautifully photographed catalogs. I don't think those catalogs are a tribute to our sport. I think they're trying to sell me something. But I plan to be too busy to listen.
I'll be out riding in the rain.

Welcome To The New Blog!

2007-10-18T19:25:00.000-04:00

I decided to switch blog hosts. The geocities blog offered no creative control, so I came here. So far, so good. I'm going to copy the last post from my old blog over here, just in case you missed it. And for the millions of new viewers, the old blog can be found here:

<<<<The Old Shopfiles>>>>>

Monkey Business

I think I've got a monkey on my back. I'm not really an addictive personality. I even managed to stop smoking cold turkey, back in the day. But I think I've finally crossed the line.

The saddest part of this is that it's the result of hanging out with the wrong people, just like my parents warned. They're all addicted. All the classic signs are there, if you really look. Weight loss. Neglect of family and friends that don't share in the addiction. Anger and mood swings, especially if kept away from the drug. And now I'm too far in to get out.

My name is David S, and I'm a mileage addict.

I'm noticing that with my increasing level of fitness and decreasing weight, I'm riding stronger than ever. I'm finding that I keep longing for longer rides, which sucks because I'm running out of daylight. I feel like a wound spring before a ride. I can feel the strength in my leg, I can feel the tension building inside and I know I'm going to have a killer ride. I felt that way last night before the road ride, and managed to climb all the Bible Camp hills in the big ring, clocking 17-15 mph over the top.

And I'm starting to undertand a little more about my friends that have been riding at high levels.

I could never imagine riding a century in the past, but now it's not such a strange thought. Walking back to the car at the fair this year, I kept looking at the perimeter road and wondering If I could get a century in when we do the ACS Relay for Life next year. I find myself worrying about not riding enough, especially on the road, since the time change will happen soon. I told Carrie that an indoor trainer is a necessity.

But unlike all our favorite stars, I don't think I'll be checking into rehab any time soon. I think I'll let this addiction run it's course, even if it leave me a shrunken shadow of the man I was before. It may take many, many years.