Grand Endeavors

This Saturday, after a cold morning, the sun finally came out and warmed the air just enough for me to stop everything that I was doing, get kitted up, and throw a leg over my bike for a little spin through the country. I was feeling spry and decided I would take advantage of the conditions with an out-and-back to Millheim. It was a little ambitious considering I haven’t ridden much this year but it’s a flat route so I wasn’t too worried.

Things started off great. I was feeling like a rock star and turning over the pedals like it was my job. The sun was on my face and I soaked in all the vitamin D I could. I assumed there was a bit of a tailwind helping me out (because there usually is) but I wasn’t going to discount my own abilities. That, I would later realize, may have been a bit presumptuous on my part.

Like all good cat 5 racers I ended up going out too hard with the wind aiding my escape. This allowed me to make good time on the way out but left me with a soul-crushing slumfest on the way back in. I felt like I was pedaling squares on the entire ride home. It wasn’t my best effort on the bike. At least the scenery was nice and the stop at Elk Creek to refill my bottles didn’t hurt either.

Enough Already

I assume it’s the time of year but I’m starting to hit a breaking point. I’m getting completely fed up with being cold. I realize that’s kind of a sissy thing to say, but it’s true. We’re midway through April I would have expected things to start warming up by now but it’s not happening nearly as fast as I would like. Sure we’ve had a few teaser days of real warmth but nothing that says, “Put on the sandals and sit outside all night long.” This lack of warmth bothers me for several reasons but mostly it’s about the bike.

Since the beginning of March I’ve been in that mid-seasonal funk where the slopes are closed, yet it’s not warm enough for a gilded-lily like me to regularly be on my bike. I’ve taken advantage of the few warm days but that’s just enough to make me mad and also realize that I need to ride more. Between the ridiculous amounts of rain and the less than warm temperatures, I haven’t been able to get out much and it’s driving me crazy.

I guess if I was tough I’d be out riding regardless of the conditions. Then maybe I’d end up like Jared taking first at the Steel City Showdown today or like Vicki crushing every event she enters. I, of course, am woefully less disciplined and don’t like riding when my water bottles freeze. If my pleas for warm weather to ride aren’t enough, I would at least like to see the grass I planted back in March start to grow.

Best Laid Plans

All week long I was looking forward to this weekend. The weather was finally supposed to be warm and I was going to get reacquainted with my bikes including my first mountain bike ride of the year. That, of course, was not the case.

Since my mountain bike has been on hiatus all winter I knew it was going to need a little work to get it back on the trails. I spent part of Friday trying to get things dialed in but realized that I needed a new rotor on the rear wheel. I had some obligations downtown on Saturday so I decided I would visit my local bike shop to procure the necessary equipment. I figured I would spend Sunday morning getting the bike put together and ride in the afternoon.

When Sunday morning rolled around, things didn’t go as I imagined. First, I spent way more time than I wanted getting my bike taken care of. By the time I finished I didn’t feel very motivated to ride so I thought I’d hit some golf balls instead to get my game figured out for the season. When I arrived at the driving range I noticed it was completely torn up and was being redone so that was a complete waste of a trip. With two big fat strikes I thought I’d take advantage of the light breezes and go to the park with my kite. That was reasonably successful until the wind stopped blowing.

With all of these failures behind me I decided this was some kind of a sign and so I did the next best thing and watched golf. It was much more exciting than it sounds and was a riveting final day with lots of ups and downs. That was followed by a nice meal with the neighborhood folks. I guess things ended much better then they began.

Mysteries from the Deep

As with many weekends in early spring, I found myself in a standard dilemma. The weather was relatively decent and I contemplated going for a bike ride, but I wasn’t feeling very spry. Instead, I decided I would attempt to finish a house project I started over a year ago. It wasn’t a monumental task but definitely required some time and involved a lot of dust.

So my house has a full basement. It’s all relatively finished space but some is definitely more livable than others. It’s split into three separate rooms and every room has the same stupid Homasote panels firmly nailed or screwed to the ceiling. As far as I can tell they serve no purpose and hinder any kind of access to the wiring, plumbing, and other home infrastructure. I’m quite certain they were installed when the house was built so there is a solid fifty plus years of dust and cobwebs safely stashed away behind the panels. I’ve slowly been taking these panels down as necessary to gain access to the space above and decided it was time to remove the last of them.

One thing I’ve learned with these home projects is that often times you’ll get more than you’ve bargained for and could wind up with more work to do. Fortunately I didn’t come across anything like that, but I did find a few oddities that still have me baffled. For example, behind one section of ceiling, there was an extension cord. That’s right, an extension cord. The male end was visible, but the cord went into a hole that should be in my living room, however there is no evidence of a cord on the upstairs. I thought it was best to leave this alone and most certainly not plug it in.

Another delightful find involved a coil of Romex that was probably about twenty feet long. It appeared to have been disconnected from something because one end was nicely wrapped in electrical tape. As I followed the other end of this wire across the basement, I found it went through a different hole into the living room. I’m not at all sure what’s on the other end of this wire but I should probably figure that one out. With any luck, it will unlock a magical land of rainbows and unicorns. Either way though, it seems like there’s a lot more going on in my living room then I am aware of.