Josh and Allyson

Winter.....

2009-01-27T20:35:00.006-05:00

It's been a month since I've done my random ramblings on here, so I figured that it was time to give the people what they want.......reading material to sleep to.

As always, there's been a lot going on. 2009 didn't' start out as a great year honestly. Getting hit with a ton of bricks on the first day of 2009 is not how I had hoped that the year would start. Thankfully, we've all slogged on through and things are starting to get easier. The girls (cats) have honestly been a huge help to Allyson and I on this. Although......Nellie doesn't make it any easier to read the newspaper.

Although we aren't setting the world on fire, work has been going fairly well. The orders have still been coming in which is a good sign. I do have to say that I have seen a shift in consumer thinking. I have to say that I'm rather impressed that the owners had the foresight to make sure that we were in a position to take advantage of this shift.

Last weekend, we went to Lunch with the Boggs' and the Raub's. Holy Toledo do the kids grow fast. Seems like just a few weeks ago when Jack (Raub Jr.) could fit almost in the palm of your hand. Now the little guy puts down bottles of formula like a gas guzzling SUV hell bent on draining the planet of dinosaur juice. Lucky for Jaclyn and Corey, he's starting to develop those soccer player legs... Ben Boggs is running around like a madman now also. He's even starting to be able to throw. (I'm sure that Josh hasn't pushed this issue at all.....) Looking at how fast this has all happened...suddenly, I feel old. I must head to the basement and play with my toy tractors as a remedy......

Speaking of tractors, I've been busy with mine. With all of this snow, the Gravely's have been getting a workout. Enough of a workout in fact that I've got to replace one of the drive clutches in the 1966. We're supposed to get a boatload of snow tonight, and I'm hoping that I can push it all tomorrow, but the clutch is starting to slip even in the lowest ranges, so it's time for a replacement. On top of that, the Cub ended up getting a serious vibration at the end of the season last year. The drive flange on the back of the engine busted. Unfortunately, it took the rubber coupler and the driveshaft with it. Ouch to the tune of $100. Oh well.....at least I can work on it "as I please" now instead of trying to get it done before the lawn turns into a jungle. It's a good time for some maintenance on it anyways...right?

Finally, a biking update. With that solitary nice day that we had right around Christmas, Tim and I hit the roads to get some actual miles in. It went well. I felt good on the bike. The road (although pothole ridden) felt good underneath me. There was a hellacious wind that day, but it was just nice to be out on the road. This year, not only did the team get a completely new kit design.....but I bought some "bling" for myself.

Yes folks......Carbon, titanium, and chrome. Lowry asked me "you gonna have the guns this year to back up that type of bling?" My response pointed to "there's not a snowballs chance in July"

Perspective

2008-12-22T17:51:00.008-05:00

ok....this'll never win the award for "best written blog". But there's some stuff in here that I need to blurt out in my usual brutally honest, open, and wordy way.

My perspective on a lot of things changed this past Sunday. How? Through two friends and the effect that they had on an entire neighborhood. In a sense, I feel a touch guilty. I took so much away from the experience and all I did was fix a couple of flat tires and grab a few bicycles off of the back of a truck. Ok....I know. I'm putting the cart before the horse.... Or is it the trailer in front of the bicycle?

Over the weekend, I was priveledged to be a part of Elves 'n More.

Here's some background:

Two guys that I happen to ride with started a charity called Elves 'n More. To make it long story short, they pick a neighborhood that is having a tough time and with the help of some volunteers, they take bicycles by the hundreds (close to or at 1,000) and pass them out to the kids in the neighborhood. It was really just astonishing as to how it all comes together. The organization and caring that these two guys have is beyond anything that I have ever seen.

For some more background on the charity itself and how the day went overall, check out the following link. (make sure to check out the video)

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=103560&catid=45

For me, the whole afternoon was a bit of a rush as far as the emotions are concerned. I really can't even begin to describe most of them as I haven't ever experienced anything like it. Right towards the end of the day, it was all explained to me when I overheard one little boy...

A lot of the bikes were already gone. In fact, what you see in the picture was all that was left. As one of the volunteers was walking this boy out to the parking lot she stated, "I know that this may be a dissappointment, but all that we have left are pink, girls bikes". Without even the slightest hesitation, the young man responded with, "I don't care what color it is. I've just always wanted a bike."

It was a cold day as far as the temperature was concerned. I'm pretty sure that it was well below 0 with the wind chill figured in. As cold as it was, I don't think that anyone felt it.

'Tis the season

2008-12-14T10:55:00.004-05:00

There's a lot going on for everyone this time of year. Family gatherings, shopping, etc etc etc. We've been especially busy recently as (with the help of my folks) we've re-done the living room. Gone are the "gray-ish" walls. Gone is that hideous black glazed tile on the fireplace hearth. Most of all, gone is that white shag carpeting that was a giant dust vacuum!!!! Wooo hoo. We're out of the 70's people!!! I knew that there was an oak floor underneath that hideous compilation of carpet, but I didn't know what type of shape it was going to be in. As we pulled the carpet back, I kept wincing just waiting to see a big spot of BLAH in the middle of the floor. The last piece of carpet came up and we found gorgeous flooring throughout. Chalk one up for the good guys!!!

The topper for the whole project was the mantle that my dad made. Before, the fireplace essentially had a slab of wood tossed on top of it. Now, we've got a beautiful focal point for the room. When we started this project, I put some can lights in the ceiling to toss some light on the fireplace. Now that we've got the mantle, it really make it worth looking at. Thanks dad!!!!

Allyson has done a great job of making things look nice..... I think that they'd look nicer with more tractors on the shelves, but she's not buying into that....yet.

I want to make sure that I'm not known as "captain lard ass" on the cycling team this year so I've been watching what I eat and hitting the bike pretty hard recently. Lots of basement miles. Mindless, soulless, painful basement hours. On interval days....10 minutes of warm up, 20 minutes of making my legs wish they were never born, 10 minutes of "recovery", 20 more minutes of "Why do I put myself through this?" followed by a good 10 minute cool down. We'll see what happens this spring...... I'm really excited for the coming cycling season. Last year I felt was a bit of a "wash". With the new job having so much opportunity, I really feel like I'll be able to do a lot of good things this year. I'm more stressed, but in a hopeful manor instead of just wondering when the axe will fall.

On top of the training, I'm still commuting by bike. I finally bought a rear fender so I'm not showing up to work with the "skunk stripe". If it's not raining in the morning when I leave, I'm on the bike. I found another route that takes my commute from 0.66 mi to just over a mile. It's not even a ride to get warm or any sort of anything, but it is a good way to at least move some blood around in the morning before getting to work.....especially when it's 12 degrees out. The mountain bike is not especially fond of the commuting though. Coming home on freshly salted road in sleet, does not make for a happy drivetrain. It was beginning to sound less like a finely tuned machine and more like a DeSoto without oil. So.....after a few months of neglect, I spent some time today to show my trusty steed some love. As I investigated things, it's becoming obvious that parts are going to be needed shortly. Both sets of brake pads are starting to disappear. The rear tire is starting to look like a road bike tire. Guess it's time to buy some "proper" commuting tires. She's gonna need a full bath here one of these days...... I think I'll wait until it's warmer.

Allyson and I always say "we should send out Christmas cards" every year. Every year, the time just isn't there. Sooooo....we'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy, safe, and healthy holiday season.

Commuting

2008-11-12T20:15:00.003-05:00

Well, I started the new job at the end of July. So far, I've commuted just a touch over 100 miles back and forth to work on the mountain bike. Now that may not sound much, and it really isn't considering that I've been there for about 3 1/2 months now. But when you consider that it's only 0.66 mi from doorstep to doorstep (including the driveways), that's a lot of trips. That's basically 150 trips. 150 times that I've saved the car from starting and stopping. 150 times that I didn't have to open and close the door. etc etc etc. That's also 150 times that I've put on the helmet. 150 times that I've swung my leg over the bike. 150 times that I've gone through that one traffic light. 150 times that I've either locked or unlocked the bike from the fence at work.

I'm also realizing that I've got to knock some serious lbs. off before the season starts. So I get home, put the mountain bike in the garage, then head down to the basement to mindlessly pedal on the trainer. Guess it's time to start buying more CD's to listen to. This could be a long winter at this rate.

Don't think that the Subee is sitting in the garage abandoned though. If I've got a lunch meeting, or need to run an errand on lunch, it makes the short trek to work. Heat? It doesn't even think about getting warm.

With the weather getting colder, I can almost see the guys at work thinking "I wonder when he'll wimp out and just start driving all of the time." As long as I can make it to work dry, I'm going to ride. A little moisture on the way home won't hurt right? During a couple of weeks in September, I actually used more gas in the tractor than I did in the car. Who's taking bets on when I finally toss in the towel?

Fall.....

2008-11-09T07:59:00.009-05:00

As I get older, I find it amazing how quickly time seems to go. It's like there's a brick on the accelerator and no brakes. It seems like just a few weekends ago I was tilling up stuff in order to plant the garden. Now, I've already had to till it back in for winter. Amazing on how quickly the seasons change.

On that note, we spent some time with my folks carving pumpkins. Overall, I think the end results came out pretty darn good. Starting left to right, front row then back.....there's Allyson's ghost screaming pumpkin, Holly's happy

(although needing some dentistry) pumpkin, mom's cat silhouette pumpkin, then dad's goofy sniffing paint fumes pumpkin, my PO'd pumpkin, and Holly's other pumpkin which I like to refer

to as Mr. Bill.

On other notes, my folks have been helping Allyson and I re-do the living room. I've decided to put a set of can lights in the ceiling to point some light on the fireplace. Unfortunately, this has involved me wedging myself into the end of the attic for a number of hours. Cramped quarters, inhaling large quantities of insulation and dust, and just generally being cold are not many of my favorite activities. Add in wiring to the mix, and you've got a recipe for me to invent new curse words. On the bright side of things, the lights are in, they work, and I didn't fall through the ceiling.

Allyson recently got called for Jury duty. Not only was it jury duty, but grand jury duty. Thankfully, she didn't get selected for it as she wasn't really looking forward to it......at all.

Other than that, we're just waiting for the holiday season. Since the end of my cycling season was shot by the stress of the new job, I'm already back on the trainer in the basement. I've got a fair number of extra lbs. that need to come off before too long and I'm looking forward to making the coming year a more "complete" season for me. I've missed the riding and racing and I'm really looking forward to getting back out on the tarmac and putting some miles underneath the wheels. If the economy doesn't take too much more of a dive....maybe a new bike is in the cards for the spring. Only time will tell though......

Long time coming.....

2008-09-15T19:11:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since I've been able to update the blog. I've got 10 minutes so I'm going to try and have a stab at it.

Well, in June, I was working for a transmission parts supplier. I could very easily go on and on about how I wasn't exactly happy with the way that things were run. Buuuuttttt......I'll just leave that to your imagination. Either way, they decided to downsize and that included me. Soooooo.....I spent the month of July watching the Tour de France. It was a nice break, but not knowing if and or when the next paycheck is coming is a bit tough on the nerves. It gave me more time to finish up school.....but that's not exactly how I wanted to do it.

Along comes the end of July and I've landed a job that is right out of the "dream jobs" book. I'm the sales manager for ECS Tuning http://www.ecstuning.com/ (I know...a shameless plug). It's a company that caters to German car owners. Right now, we're working with VW, Audi, and BMW. So not only am I working in a very cool area of the automotive industry, but I'm working for a company that is progressive thinking. The guys that run the show are sharp!!! Add in the fact that I've got some really good opportunities to run my portion of the business in a creative manor, I'm happier than a pig in slop. The icing on the cake? Work is only 0.66 miles from the house. Yup....just over 6/10th of a mile. 3 and 1/2 minutes by bicycle....on a really really slow day. Needless to say, I'm saving a fortune on gas. It's been a lot of hours to get some of the stuff rolling....but can honestly say that I enjoy my job.

The biking part of life......well, other than the very rare occasion for a ride, I haven't been out much at all. Now that I'm done with school and I've got a touch more free time, I plan to get in some solid training to build up for next year. Allyson is planning on me doing more of the housework.

Last week, Rocket was pretty darn sick. The big sign of a problem? She wouldn't eat. Rocket not eating is like me not being sarcastic. Something is seriously wrong. She was sick enough to spend two nights at the vet hospital and to have Allyson and I scared half to death. Thankfully, Rocket seems to be getting much better and is once again looking at her food dish like it's made of gold. Both Allyson and I really want to express our gratitude to my sister, Holly, and the staff at the Hartville Veterinary clinic. We really don't know how to thank them enough.

Beyond that, it's just the same old same old around here. Allyson has her hands full just trying to keep me in line and I've got my hands full with 52 projects around here and in the garage. Sleep? What's that?

Back to racing......

2008-07-13T20:21:00.011-04:00

So I've been off of the bike for a while...but there was some serious stress happening. In fact, there's still some stress, but I've got more time to deal with it now. My last course was a large part of it. When signing up for the "Organizational Behavior" course that I just got done with, it should have read, "We expect you to devote the next 7 weeks entirely to this course. Kiss your family, friends, and job goodbye as you'll be spending all of your time pretending that you find this basic group psychology fascinating." To say the least, it was a bummer. 1/2 way through the course, the average grade was a 62%. Thankfully, I was one of the few skewing the curve a bit higher, but it was terrible. Since the course has ended, Allyson has noticed that I'm acting much less like a rabid badger on meth.

I'm on the red bike. I'm surrounded by teammates in this picture. They were protecting me for the finish.....or not....

So "The Chapel" race series is back. This is a neat little "crit" series put on by a local Church to help them raise money for projects that they have going on in the community. For me, it's a race that I can actually do something in. Essentially we ride around in the parking lot going around very tight corners in a small group at 24 mph. Why do I like this race so much? Two words answer that...."no hill". As I've joked with Miner before, I don't like to climb anything steeper than the natural curvature of the earth. It's flatter than a flat thing that's been run over by something very heavy. I like it.

The race went well for the most part. A few people attacked, but they were usually reeled in before much more than 1/2 a lap went by. About 15 minutes in, Brent Laning caught a pedal on his way out of a turn. I saw his bike start to slide, then it caught, then it launched him a few feet up in the air. I was busy trying to avoid having the same fate but managed to catch a look of "this is gonna suck" on Brent's face while he was in the air. Unfortunately, he's got a broken rib from the ordeal....but he's alive to ride another day. Unlike other races, the pack didn't take off like a scared cat when they heard the accident. Because I was behind the incident, I had to suffer a bit in order to get back up to the pack, but I made it. Towards the tail end of the race, a split kept forming in the field and I knew that one of these times, it was going to stick. So, I made sure that I worked my way towards the front 1/3 of the field. With 3 laps to go, I started working my way towards the front, but didn't have the legs at times and didn't have the line at other times. When it came time for the sprint, I was about 14th or 15th. By the finish, I had made it up to somewhere around 10th (give or take a spot or two). This just proves to me that I've got a good sprint.....I just need to stop using my head as a chamois cloth and get myself in a position for the sprint. I'm still learning a ton with each race and gaining confidence on holding my position in the pack and working my way up. I'll get there eventually....

Remember the garden that we started? Yup, the dirt flying everywhere around the Gravely. The garden has taken on a life of it's own. I'm thinking that we spaced things a touch too close.

The pumpkins, squash, and zucchini have gone nuts. The corn has done well also. We already had some good radishes and a few onions even. In fact, we had some squash and zucchini from our own garden this evening. The tomatoes (those are against the house so they aren't in the picture) look like they are doing pretty well also. I had the first ripe tomato today also. I'm thinking that next year, the Gravely needs to stretch it's legs a bit more and till up quite a bit more dirt.

Allyson has been still propping me up and working her butt off. Last weekend, Allyson and I went for a bike ride on the towpath out of Clinton which was nice. Round trip was 20 miles which we were pretty sure is a new record for her. I'm glad that she's still enjoying it.

Her biggest gripe right now is the fact that I'm hogging the TV. After 2 1/2 years, you'd think that she'd know that July is "The Tour". She sits there and reads while I watch the tour. I'm finally starting to figure out that no matter how cool I think something in the tour is, I don't need to rewind it to make her watch the part. The analogy that I'm coming up with is her rewinding something for me on Grey's Anatomy.

On top of it all, Jaclyn and Corey welcomed baby Raub into the world on Friday. Jack Riley Raub is Jr's name. I'm sure that well be over there to visit soon, so if you have any wishes that you want me to pass onto them, just let me know!!!

So for now....that's about it. I'll probably update it sooner now that I've got more time.....

Expensive food.....

2008-06-05T06:36:00.000-04:00

At almost $4 per gallon, everything is expensive. Soooo.....Allyson and I decided that we'd put in an actual garden this yearto try and save some cash. Not only do we get fresh veggies out of the deal, but I get to run the Gravely as a bonus.

Look at that dirt fly!!!! I was having an absolute blast running it and it really makes the dirt nice for planting. While I was finishing up destroying this patch of lawn, Mike Barkey from down the road asked if I'd be willing to tear up some of their yard. Needless to say, I was down there in a flash.

This was all happening over the Memorial day weekend. Now, we've actually got corn, onions, radishes, zuchinni, squash, and pumpkins sprouting out of the ground. Pretty soon, we'll be eating like royalty.........

I also got my new ride!!! A 2005 Subaru Legacy wagon is now mine. Holly (my sis) wanted to get the Outback version, so she cut me a deal just too good to pass up on her old one. So far, I absolutely love the car. It rides nice, handles well, has enough room for the Brady Bunch to live in the back, and looks good to top it all off. With this, something has to go. Allyson considered putting me out on the front lawn with a "For Sale" sign around my neck. It took some convincing, but she finally realized that she'd have to pay someone to take me away. Soooo...the GMC is up for sale. I even posted it in Craigslist. http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/car/708009426.html

The class that I'm taking now is sucking up all of my time, and it seems like a fair bit of my soul also. Just 3 more weeks of this one, and then there should be an easy one, and then I'm DONE. It just can't come soon enough.

Unfortunately, between the crappy weather and the class, this has all lead to a severe lack of seat time on the bicycle. I can tell that I'm not anywhere close to where I should be "fitness-wise". No excuses though. I guess that I'll just be suffering a bit more when it comes time to lay the chips down.

Allyson has been busy holding down the fort as usual. Without all of the work she does around here to keep things running, I'd be wearing the same pair of socks for the 3rd week now and not remember what my kitchen sink looks like because it would be under a huge pile of dishes. Even with all of that, she found time to plant a ton of stuff around the house. A couple of weeks ago, her and mom hit the greenhouse and found some good deals on flowers. Next thing you know, they've got dirt flying everywhere and they've got it looking like we've hired someone to make the house look good. I'll try to have pictures posted here in the next couple of days.

Whew....it's been a busy couple of weeks.....

The last Race At The Lake.....

2008-05-11T08:04:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the last RATL for the season. After the race, a few of us were talking about how "Stark always seems to get marked heavily." After thinking about the first part of the race, I can really see why. Everyone is attentive and really thinks about what's going on. It's not the "every man for himself" attitude that many teams seem to have. Chris Smith, Matt Turi, Tim House, and Marshall Leininger all took turns keeping things "under wraps" for the first part of the race. We've got some big horsepower on our team for sure, but most of all, we've got guys that think about what's going on and what they need to do. How do I know this? I have an excellent view of all of this as I hang on to the back of the pack. Best seat in the house.....

I'm also figuring out that I need to be more aggressive in the pack. I can stay near the front, I just need to work a bit harder at doing so. I still get a touch of the heebe-jeebies towards the middle of the group when I don't feel that I have a "way out" if someone goes wrong. I just need to relax and hold my place. It'll come with time.....

For the first time this year, a breakaway went away and stayed away. About 7 laps into the race, a 4-man break got away. As they were opening up their gap, "The Flying Fletcher" as I'm going to call him wheeled his way up to the pack. Every team that was there in numbers had someone in the breakaway. With this, no one was really going to chase. At a few points, it was 6 wide at the front and everyone was chatting and laughing. An independent (Brent is his name) tried to bridge the gap, but he was essentially hung out in the middle of nowhere for a while and decided that the pack would be a good place to sit for a while. Eventually, the independent and the Snakebite rider in the break got punted out, so Snakebite put on the chase for a little while. Unfortunately for them, they just couldn't get it organized well enough and it fizzled after just a few laps. Until about two laps to go, all was quiet. Just after crossing the start/finish line with 2 to go, I knew that we wouldn't close on the break, so I decided to have a go at it. I opened up a small gap on the field, but no one was going to come with me. About 1/2 a lap later, Summit got organized at the front so I sat up and let them reel me in. I figured that I'd get back in the pack, recover for 1/2 a lap, and get ready for the field sprint. As I was getting reeled in the pack though, someone cut right over on me and put me in the grass. With the rain we've had recently, it was like going through a mud bog. Just like 2 weeks ago, once I got back on course and pedaling, the pack had now gapped me. Oh well, it happens. I stayed vertical. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to get a cyclo-cross bike though.....

The Flying Fletcher got the win and we had two other riders in the top 6. All in all, not a bad day for Stark Velo.

Racing....

2008-05-04T19:33:00.001-04:00

Once again, I'm behind on the blog. Oh well. It happens.

Speaking of being behind, the bike racing has been absolutely brutal. I've been able to do some work in the pack and for the team, but it's been limited. (Yeah yeah, I'm limited. I know) Brian runs a power meter and his normalized power for the past two races has been over 300w. Although it's not enough power to light up a small metropolitan area, it is enough to make my legs feel like they've been dipped in diesel and lit on fire. In race 2, two riders touched wheels which send one of the riders towards the deck. That forced an impromptu test of my "off road" skills as I basically ended up in the woods to avoind hitting him. By the time I was back on the tarmac and ready to go, the pack turned up the pace a bit and there wasn't a bike without an engine that would be able to get me back into the pack. This weekend was race 3. It turned out really wet and cold and instead of a true "pack", we ended up with riders spread all over the place. Tim, Matt, Marshall, Brian, and I were the ones braving the weather. As a team, we did a fair bit of work towards the beginning. We led the pack for a while. I was even able to reel in a "break". (Ok...so it was more or less closing a gap...but I'll call it a break for dramatic effect.) Eventually, I was in a group of 5 riders that got tossed out the back of the front group when a small gap opened up. That gap grew quickly and as many times as I tried to bridge, it just wasn't going to happen. Eventually we reeled the main group back in thanks to Tim and someone from Summit. On the last lap, a small gap opened a few riders in front of me and I waited too long to try and jump across. Lesson learned, stay towards the front. I'm learning a lot and having fun suffering. (Did I just say that?)

Allyson has been busy keeping things running smoothly around here and keeping me from losing my mind with everything that's going on. She's even found time to plant flowers and help me clean up a bit around the yard.

School starts back up for me this week...but there's only 2 classes to go including this one. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel....I think.

Until next time......

Josh and Allyson

Slacking.....

2008-04-14T19:59:00.000-04:00

OK, so I've been slacking on the blog...but I've been busy!!! Between school, work, and the bike, it's been a realllllllyyyy busy spring. And yes, I've even been trying to spend time with Allyson. (Although she's been super supportive through all of this.)

Speaking of biking, I've been on a couple of absolutely brutal rides with some team mates over the past week or so. Brian Miner (the one closest to the camera) has been scouting a couple of good routes for the team to do in the northern direction. He came up with a 37 mile route with 2,600-2,700 feet of climbing. Everyone else on the team seems like they can climb like billy goats. Being more of a sprinter, I climb like a rock. To top it off, I broke a shifter cable on the one ride and ended up having to do 2 big climbs in 39/15. The only analogy that I can make is find the steepest hill you can. Stop your car at the bottom of it and put it in 4th gear and try to start your car moving up the hill. My legs hurt for 2 days..... On the 3rd day, I went on the same ride...but faster. My legs hurt for 4 days....

Unfortunately, this winter was hard on the roads around here. There has been 2 different race series cancelled because of lousy road conditions around here. Ugh...... The RATL series starts this coming weekend which I'm excited about. I'm shceduled to peak for races 2 and 3....but we'll see what happens.

Other than that, I'm just getting ready for spring yard work. Dad will be bringing the tractor and the wagon over in the next week or so.... Oh yeah....the Gravely's are ready to tear some stuff up!!!!!! I can't wait to bust up some dirt with the rotary plow....

Easter

2008-03-23T09:21:00.000-04:00

Sooooo, easter is finally here. That means it's time for spring right? We can only hope... Saturday evening, Allyson wanted to color easter eggs. She wanted to do 9 eggs for some odd reason, so I convinced her that she needed to do a bright orange one for the Gravely. We even tried the traditional "black" egg (drop it in every color) but it turned out a hunter green with some purple stripes in it. As you can see below, she might have gone a touch nuts with the glitter.

Then again, it came with enough glitter and beads to make your average craft show jealous.

All of you know that I can't possibly do a post and have it be all putting pastel colors, beads, and glitter all over a couple of eggs. It's time for the blog's testosterone injection. Yup, sticking with the tradition over the past couple of weeks, I've going "Gravely" themed for this.

This is a video of the '59 Gravely blowing snow back to where it came from and beyond. Mind you, I pretty much left it jsut above idle for this clip. There's no tire chains and the tires are pretty well bald...

Now that's what I call a great machine. Think about this also. This Gravely sat under a truck cap for 2 years out in a field. I cleaned up and adjusted the points, went through the carburetor, and it starts on the 2nd pull usually.

I'm hoping to race the bike next week as pretty much any of the races in this area so far this year have been cancelled. That may not be a bad thing as I'm just starting to feel a touch better from my sinus yuckies. Maybe I'll even get to ride the bike on the road someday.....

Another week......

2008-03-18T19:32:00.000-04:00

Ahhh yes… Another week goes in the record books. We had some “ok” weather during the week for once. Unfortunately, it wasn’t here for the weekend when I can actually do something with it. Hopefully, we’re done with the house looking like this for a while…….

As far as the bike goes…. As the week wore on, I found it tougher and tougher to get on the bike. Top it all off with not feeling 100% to begin with, and you’ve got a great recipe for sitting on the couch. The cushions on the couch are beginning to hold the shape of my ever widening posterior.
Allyson has kept busy with work, riding the bike, and trying to keep the house straight. (Which I do a pretty good job of destroying.) She actually spent more time on the trainer this week than I did. I’ll have to watch out or she’ll be waiting for me to catch up when we start riding the trails this spring….

I painted a few things for the Gravely this weekend and I’ve got a number of carburetor parts on order. I’m also looking into getting the other jug ready to rebuild. Then it’ll just be an easy swap and I’ll have the ’66 running better than new. I'll be able to mow, plow, till, and just generally destroy the yard with even more power. (Insert manly grunts here)

The Motorcycle is up for sale. $4,300 o.b.o. is my asking price if you know anyone looking for a beast like this. We’ll have to see what happens.

On the good side, things are going just a touch my way in the market right now. Even on a few of the down days, I've made a few pennies here and there. Maybe someday, I'll make enough money to cover the comissions that I get charged for each trade.....

That's all for this week.....

Josh and Allyson

Hot and cold

2008-03-06T20:05:00.000-05:00

As much as I love moving snow with the Gravely, I’m ready for the end of winter. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the snow, but I’m done now. It’s time to move onto 80 and sunny…...like now people.

There were two bicycle races scheduled for this past weekend. One got canned because of the weather. There's a race this Saturday that they already cancelled because of the big bag of dog doo that mother nature is supposed to dump on us the next couple of days. As old man winter continues to hang on with an icy grip, I'm beginning to realize why doctors are prescribing so many "happy pills" these days....

Allyson and I went to the auto show this past Saturday. We decided that most any car that I like, she doesn’t. If we both like it, we can’t afford it without each selling a kidney on eBay. Either way, until the lottery calls telling us that we won, we’ll be sticking with the trusty steeds that currently reside in the garage.

That's about all for this week. Until next time......

P.S. If anyone is reading this, leave a comment so I know that someone out there is actually reading this.

Our first blog.....

2008-02-29T00:10:00.000-05:00

With all of the spare time that we don't have, I've decided to start a blog for Allyson and I. Why? Peer pressure. All of the other kids are doing it, so why shouldn't we?

Currently, I'm hoping for sunny and warm weather this weekend as there are two bike races that I could be attending. I like to race, but not in 30 and raining. In fact, 40 and sunny really isn't all that great when there's a foot of snow melting on the roads. Then again, it beats spending another two hours in the basement on the trainer. As I pedal my life away down there, I often find myself wondering if I'll make it to spring without needing to install padded walls. I'm hoping that when I get out on the road, the "voices" will subside. A team mate of mind mentioned that he's watched the Tour de France enough times over the winter that he's starting to feel close to the fans that he see's on the television. He feels like he knows them now. If I've said that riding if my therapy, training on the rollers in the basement is why I need therapy.

So far, Allyson has been very supportive about this whole "semi-serious" biking thing. Hopefully, it stays that way. Either that, or I'll be shopping for a couch that's comfortable to sleep on.

With this being the "first blog", comment until your heart's content. Please, don't make fun of my writing too much though. It'll get better with time. I promose....or not.

Josh and Allyson