Mountain Biking

Mom, on a whim the other day, decided that for her birth day she wanted to spend more time as a family. and that to do this we were going to go mountain biking.
so she bought us all mountain bikes. Now, let me remind you that we aren't exactly a small family. Mom, Dad, myself and three younger brothers. Thats SIX bikes.

Got them all loaded into the truck and we headed out to the state park for their first ride. well, the brothers had taken theirs onto the land and messed around on them for awhile. the rest of us hadn't had ours out yet. something about work, school and kiddos.

Hit the trails around 1130 on Saturday. Got everybody on their steeds and away we went. the first trail we took wasn't all that complex. involved a few tight spots between trees, but nothing horrible.
Pulling back onto the road, mom's chain broke. now this is the first time that bikes been ridden and, no offense, but mom isn't exactly a powerhouse. Nor was she changing gears while really cranking on the pedals. it just snapped. To say the least she was frustrated. But decided to call it (not like there was any other option). She had to leave in a few minutes anyway for a prior appointment.
Getting back I discovered that I'd run over a nice 1" thorn with the front tire. reach down to pull it out and the tire starts going flat. the thorn was holding air. so I stick it back in and continue on riding. Its still holding air this morning (Monday)

The rest of us took a longer trail after mom left. took a couple spills but nothing that damaged (seriously) the rider or bike.

Took a tiny break after that one then hit the trail again. This time dad's chain broke on a down hill. please note that mom's and dad's bikes are the same brand and model of bikes. Oddly enough, my brothers and mine are all the same brand, but different models.
Anyway, we kept riding while dad walked back to the truck.

Had a great time, but man am I outta shape for that stuff! and I'm not entirely convinced that clip on pedals are such a great idea on a MTB...

Whats with all the Birthdays?

not that its a bad thing, but there's been a whole heck of a lot of BD's lately.

Becca's was earlier this week.
Shayla's was Thursday
Bekah's was yesterday
Mom's is today, as well as Hunkin's
Brothers and cousin's are in 10days and my roommates is the day after that!

Happy Birth Day to the whole mess of you!

Flippin' Awesome!

Had a good weekend.

Friday the gymnastics team, myself included, headed off to a small academy and performed our show for them. Its the first show of the semester and our routines need some, ok a LOT, of polish. but the kids really enjoyed the show and were happy to have us there. I spent a bit of time performing, read: showing off, on the trampoline during the show. I believe it was captured on film so I"ll have to track that down and stick it online for y'all to see.

Friday evening our team held vespers for them. Did a great job and the kids came away saying they were blessed.

The coach, the bus driver and myself got to stay in a school sponsors guest house. Much to the chagrin of the team who stayed on the over-full dorm's lobby floor. The bus driver is my old coach and also coached the current coach when he was in college. We wound up acting like a trio of girls and sitting up till 1AM and swapping stories and eating ice cream. The tales we were telling were quite a bit different then I would expect from a similar gathering of females. Politics, guns, gymnastics, family, food were just a few of the subjects that were covered.

Saturday morning we got up around 0830 and headed to Sabbath School that the team (it was all my brother in this instance) lead out. Again the kids enjoyed it and came away blessed. Many gave us hugs and thanked us for coming.
The bus had to be back in town for another school function so we skipped church, ate lunch and headed home.

To shorten the trip home, I called my friends in GA. it helped but I was quite sick of the bus after 3.5hrs.

Landed back here about 1545. Got the equipment all unloaded and I landed at the apt around 1630.

Sat around not doing a whole lot till about 1800 when I met a friend and another couple for a trip to the FTW Stock Show and Rodeo. I didn't think far enough in advance and the Rodeo was sold out so we wandered the stock buildings looking at a bunch of horses.

Hit On The Border for some grub, stuffed ourselves silly, got a free brownie ice cream thingy (which is huge, but mighty tasty) for an upcoming birth day, (which reminds me, I still need to find a costume for that party...)
then headed home.
I normally hate waiting for a train, but it makes for some nice talking time!

had a great weekend and the weather is looking wonderful for the rest of the week!

Cirque

If you've never seen Cirque Du Soleil, your missing out.

Cirque is bringing their Corteo show to Dallas Feb 9 - Mar 11.

Those of you in Houston get the pleasure of seeing it as well. but you'll have to look up your own dates.

Their shows aren't cheap, but they are worth every penny.

Ah, now THATS a weekend!

Saturday I managed to get out and go for a 140mi ride on the ST1300. I managed to turn a normally 30min trip into a 2.5hr adventure! county roads are so much more fun then the highway.
By the time I got home, the temp had dropped 11*F and the wind was forcing me to lean the bike way over.

Sunday my Pathfinder club (think Royal Rangers, boy/girl scouts) went down to Carl Chandler's Law Enforcement Academy for some firearms and self-defense instruction.
We had kids ranging in age from 13-17, both boys and girls.

Started the day off with a "This is what I've done" from Carl Chandler and continued into the rules of the range.
We then took the kids down to the three (handgun, rifle and shotgun) ranges. Went over the basic rules again, showed them how to load and handle the guns and turned them "loose." (they were still under very close supervision)

They took turns with the weapons and continued rotating around to the three ranges and trying their hand at the options. We had .22LR, 9mm, .40cal, .45cal pistols. Shotguns ranged from 410 to 12ga, rifles were all .22LR. one of the instructors brought out his AR-15 for us to shoot a few rounds through. And Carl brought out his Savage 10FP .308 rifle for some of us to shoot.

Let me tell you, that Savage was VERY addicting to shoot! I only put four rounds through it and I'm really wanting one! too bad I can't afford to get it any time soon. Someday!

Kids had a great time and we brought all of them back so it was a safe day.

Productivity

Had a rather productive day today.

Arrived at work at 0830 and proceeded to solve the worlds problems, well not actually the world, but a couple various depts on campus were happy with me today.

Left work promptly at noon and had lunch with my mom and brothers.
Following this, we drove to Dallas and crashed the Apple store, where I picked up a new iPod to replace the one that died on me over Christmas.

80gb iPod in white, 2yr extended warranty, protective case, education discount, 10% off for trading in the old iPod, plus uncle sams sales tax brought the total to $461 and change.
coulda been worse and I fully expect to have over 2yrs of service out of this iPod as well.

Arrived home around 1530 and got back to work on the alternator on the 4Runner. Discovered it wouldn't quite fit so a trip to the parts house was in order for a persuasive device. some would call it a file. a few minutes later, I had the alternator bolted in place and verified to be working.
That accomplished it was time to replace the aging and no longer brilliant headlights. Got those swapped and realigned to point correctly and what do ya know, I can see!

finish the day off with mom's hot cinnamon rolls and thats what I call a good day.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

for the love of dead alternators

The alternator died on the 4runner the other day and I started replacing it last night.
I say started, because I didn't get it finished.
of the two bolts/nuts that hold the alternator on, I dropped one of the nuts. and of course, it was never to be seen again. I spent 30min looking for the stupid thing.
it didn't go through and land on the ground.
it didn't stop in the frame anywhere.
it didn't land on the skid plate.
it didn't wind up on the axle anywhere.

It just plain vanished!

so off to the local parts house for a replacement. they were closed.
Ok, so I'll run into town and get one there.
Lowe's didn't have one, spent 20min looking.
the other parts place didn't have one
Home Depot did have one, but I had to track somebody down to find the stupid thing for me.
So I spent over an hr and a half trying to find this thing and by the time I got home, it was too dark to bother working on it. so I'll work on it this afternoon.

oh and how much did the stupid nut cost? $0.38

The ST is home

Finally made it up to Honda West to pick up the ST1300. They said they looked and performed about every test they could think of, but couldn't find the leak.

So I'll ride it and see what happens. should the leak come back up, I'll take it back.

Heated grips sure are nice!

Not good news

Got a call from mom this morning. Apparently my grandfather was scheduled to get some angioplasty done this morning. Well once he got there the Dr's decided his heart was too blocked to for angioplasty to work. So they rescheduled him for heart bypass surgery this afternoon.

Oh and come to find out that he fractured his wrist getting out of his chair late last week.

If you could keep him, and grandma, in your prayers it would be greatly appreciated.

Funny rendition of PMS

Stumbled across this on one of the motorcycle forums

PMS = Parked Motorcycle Syndrome

I know I get grumpy if my bike(s) are parked for too long!

Rollerskating

The school took all the students up to Arlington Skatium for rollerskating Saturday night.
I didn't have any specific plans to go, but a friend invited me along and she's plenty cute enough that its hard to pass on an invite. So she and another friend of mine took off to beat the buses.

got up there and missed the turn, shoulda been paying more attention to where I was going, so took the next turn into an adjacent parking lot in hopes we could cut across. well no such luck, but the grass separating the parking lots was just too inviting and I drove the 4Runner through there. I know I'm a horrible person.

Skated around for a couple hours then came home. Watched an episode of The Unit then decided that since it was after 3AM it was time to crash.

Had a good time. not enough sleep, but hey, you can sleep when your dead right?

Woo Hoo! Captain's reunion!

After not having seen my former teammates from an old gymnastics team
for way too stinking long, we had a reunion Friday night.

Putting a bunch of ex-gymnasts in a gym with me being the most senior
member is not exact the brightest idea ever.
We played a wonderfully fun, yet highly prone to induce injury, game
called trampoline tag. when the person who's "it" lands on the
trampoline your on, and your "frozen" until a non-frozen player lands
on your trampoline. the third time your frozen, you become "it"

now put 10-15 people bouncing every which direction on six
trampolines, and you get the idea how it could be detrimental to the
health of one's ankle's.

On top of that, we built a couple three-high's, butterfly's and a few
other things that I wouldn't advise trying at home.

But the most fun was had once we got tired and sat around swapping
stories of old times and munching on pizza.

now if we can just get together more often...

An unwelcome sight

Took this yesterday morning but forgot to post it.

My Viffer sitting forlorn under its ice-covered cover

It really WAS leaking!

Honda West called me this morning in reference to my ST1300. Seems they couldn't find a leak in the brake system anywhere. I can go pick up the bike.

The reason it went up there in the first place a leak I found in the bottom of the Proportioning Control Valve (PCV) between the back and front brake system (linked brakes).

I bled the brakes and filled the rear fluid container and took the bike to them last Thursday. By the time I got there, the rear brakes were feeling quite mushy, so I figured it had run out of fluid (it was leaking a lot just sitting on the center stand)
They said it was full of air, requiring nearly a whole bottle of brake fluid to get it cleared.

Guess I'll go get it and ride it and watch that rear brake fluid container like a hawk

Oh yippie, Ice.

So the weather weenies have been screaming that this is the ice storm to end the world. Typical of the news media selling fear to everybody.

The weather finally got cold enough to freeze the streets. so this mornings 5 block drive to work took 2x as long as normal. not like its an issue, work is actually closed for MLK day.

Here's a pic I took this morning while I was waiting for the defrost to work on the 4Runner



As always the camera didn't capture what the eye saw, but thats the joy of a less then pro camera.