Our old neighbor Rae in Tehachapi posted up on Facebook the other day
A tree limb fell next door and took out the garage and part of the kitchen…
That was our old house and that garage is where I spent 75% of my time because my office was out there.
Something new Carrie and I are getting into for the first time… endurance racing. When we moved to Eugene, Carrie started working out with Eugene Crossfit and I got right back on my mtn bike. A year later and now we’re both doing crossfit (but not with Eugene Crossfit) and we’re both training for an endurance race.
Carrie is entering the Blue Lake Triathlon.. which is a a sprint triathlon consisting of 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride, and a 5k run. Carrie’s race is in June.
Having a great Sunday morning. Listening to some really good Blues in KVMR, a local station that plays a wide variety of stuff. The sun is peaking out and looks like we are gonna have partly blue skies today.
My hope is to find a sitter for the kids for an hour or so later on this morning so Carrie and I can go for a trail run. If not I might just need to put a couple of the little ones in the double jogger and go for a run in Amazon park.
Back to my coffee and a Tinker Bell puzzle with Jaden.
Yes it’s been quite sometime since I posted anything. Sorry that life get’s in the way. Plus I’m not one to share my up to the minute happenings.
So what the hell have I been doing for the last several months? Well there’s work which is very busy right now. The kids which keep is extremely busy. And somehow between working and maintaining the children, Carrie and I find time to work 3-4 days a week.
Jaden is now riding a bike without training wheels. Nathanael wants to be Jedi Master Cowboy Woody. Annie is hitting her terrible 2’s about 8 months early. We had to remove the kitchen chairs from the house because she drags them everywhere to climb up to something she shouldn’t have.
We’re looking forward to spring as the rain is getting a little old… although it’s been a pretty mild winter up here in Eugene. I thought it is was rather funny a few weeks ago when California was getting pummeled by snow and rain… it was sunny and warm up here. The downside is right now the Cascades are hurting for snow it seems so it could be a pretty long and lousy fire season.
This animated video says it all. Anyone for Tea?
Well it’s been an interesting couple of weeks. Mom has been visiting which has been a blessing! Mom played with the kids and spoiled them to death which gave Carrie and I a well needed break.
I got to get out and ride some single track on my single speed. I even got to ride a trail with my wife this past Sunday. We drove over to Brice Creek, which is about 50 minutes or so from the house… about 25 miles or so east of Cottage Grove, OR in the Umpqua National Forest. What a beautiful canyon. Lush dark green forest with a canopy of old grove Douglas Fir.
Something i’ve been wanting to do is mess around with some video editing with mountain bike footage. Being the cheap skate and not wanting to drop the coin on a helmet cam, I created a quick, cheap and simple mount for my Sony Cool Pix digital camera to shoot some video of our ride up Brice Creek. Once we got home I started messing around with Microsoft Movie Maker and published a quick video with music in under an hour.
Being the camera was mountained on my handle bars… its pretty shaky at some points…. especially when I started going fast.
I’m a baby wearing daddy. We have 3 children and I’ve carried each extensively. I remember the first sling we had with our first (Jaden)… the thing was huge and girly and I hated it… we were short on funds so I went and bought a snuggly carrier for $20. The snuggly I thought, was ok until Jaden reached 6months old.. then it just hurt my back.
Later on we bought a Maya Wrap when Jaden was a year and half. When our second child (Nathanael) was born he caught RSV and spent 11 days in San Francisco Childrens Hospital… the Maya Wrap was my savior.. I wore Jaden (29mos) all over SF. We still have the Maya and use it daily with Annie (our third). I like the Maya at night when putting her to sleep because I can easily sit in the recliner and let her sleep in the sling.
But our latest and probably my favorite is our new ERGO Baby Carrier. Annie has been sick these last few days and the ERGO has been great because she likes to sleep upright due to nasal congestion. The other night Carrie had the ERGO in the car and I had wear Annie in the Maya Wrap for a long time and it really started to strain my neck and shoulder.
The moral of this post is that there are some cool baby carriers that even dads will like, that aren’t girly and that are very comfortable.
Dealing with Dell tech support is always entertaining and a royal pain in the ass.
Last year I leased a Dell Vostro 1500. Since the day I got it, it would randomly crash. After having it a month or so I finallly called support, they ran a bunch of diagnostics and they tell me I have to run the repair process on the operating system, and if that doesn’t fix the issue then I have to reinstall the OS.
I just converted my hardtail mountain bike to single speed. For those who don’t live in the Pacific Northwest, a single speed mountain bike might sound a bit crazy. I thought so when my fellow river guide & friend Eric showed up with his Marin single speed… I surely questioned the thinking behind it all… until now.
I was stoked to start riding again once we got to Eugene, OR. I was even more stoked because Carrie gave me her full suspension GT I-Drive 4.0 in exchange for a buying her a new hardtail. The first group ride I did, I couldn’t believe how many people were riding single speeds.It wasn’t till a few rides later that I realized why. The mud.
I was on a 3 hour tour with a couple of friends and half way through I was starting to have chain suck complications. I was cursing my way up a climb when my friend Davey said to me, ” I’ve got 2 words for ya… single – speed”. I went home, and a week later decided to go for it. I asked for some advice on cog and change wheel sizes from the Disciples of Dirt Yahoo Group and sought the expertise of Sheldon Brown.
For my single speed conversion I went with a 34 tooth Surly stainless steel chain ring, a 20 tooth Surly rear cog, a surly single speed conversion spacer kit, and a Surly Singulator chain tensioner.
I’m looking forward to riding this weekend and taking my newly converted single speed for her maiden voyage. I let you now how it turns out. After testing her out in front of the house I’m a little scared… the gear ratio is higher than I though it would be… but I guess there’s no better way to get my climbing legs back after be on the bench for 5 years.
What an amazing.. never told before story!
