a look at the adventure

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

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

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 !

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

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)

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

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