Journal Archive from May
May 31, 2001
Well a whole lot of madness going on. Might as well bring it all on at the same time I guess. Today I was finishing the final packing around the office because tomorrow is our last day here in Worcester. Go on ask me how thrilled I am....Well I'll tell you. We are moving to Westboro adding on another 20 minutes to my commute. My current company recently acquired the old company I used to work for a few years back. So instead of moving 13 people here, the two of us are moving there. Not only that the 'Rent was cheaper' which I guess is understandable. Still not very thrilling of a drive because there is no easy way 'to git thea from hea'. (a little New Englander joke) Other than that tomorrow we need to head to VT to get our marriage license because the time is ticking down. Wow, it's just around the corner! Right now I'm chowing on some homemade pizza. I love this stuff. I finally perfected the dough, and now we have one of those bread machines that has a pizza dough setting, so all I do is through all the stuff in there and we can now have pizza in half the time! Woo-hoo! Still trying to get rid of this poison ivy too. Darn stuff!
May 30, 2001
Well this morning that little rash I woke up with turned into full blown poison ivy. This stuff stinks. I guess I can't complain too much because I only have a few small spots on my arm. I knew other who had it much much worse. So I think I'll lay off the bike for a day or two until it fully dries up. In other news, literally, if your from the Greater Worcester and Boston area pick up this Sundays Worcester Telegram. There will be a feature on trials in the sports section. There will be an interview and pictures of myself, along with interviews from Tim of Trialsin USA, and I think info from Pete Wilk's page. I had the photo shoot today at Purgatory Chasm which was a great and fun little ride! Allthough I did take one little fall for the camera.....make sure logs don't roll away before riding along them. Oops! I can't wait to see it. The article should be jammed packed full of trials information.
May 29, 2001
Why does it feel like a Monday! I'm just having a hard time getting going today. I have been trying to hunt down sheet music and songs for the Church service of our wedding. I found most of the things I need except the Ave Maria sheet music. Jewel does an awesome version of this by the way. Oh I'm sorry, I know this is a trials site, I just got a little carried away. Not only that I think I have a case of Poison Ivy breaking out on my wrist. It must have been from a fall I took during the XC ride yesterday. Hummm, hopefully it is just a minor rash. Keep those fingers crossed!
May 28, 2001
I'm back in the groove of biking! I guess I have been in a slump, well also very busy, but I'm glad to be back on my bike. Today I visited Gary Graham and Anita! Gary used to be a riding partner of mine a few years ago. Now he is taking the cross country trails by storm. So we did an awesome XC ride right in their back yard. When I say in his back yard, we leave from his porch and end right where we started! Incredible trails that he and his buddies are making into some BC terrain. It's nice being back on a XC bike, you can really feel that flow when your on the trails. After the ride we had a small waffle brunch. Those were awesome waffles Anita made too! Next time we'll ride will probably be before the wedding in VT.
May 27, 2001
Competition day! As we expected it was raining pretty good too. You have to make the best of it though. I felt pretty good riding allthough had many bad mistakes because it was so slippery. I also had to leave early to get to a friends party this evening. Well overall I'm still trying to find out how I did.
May 26, 2001
Wow, today was definitly looking up. The rain held off for setting up at least. I met Paul Peasley, the coordinator of the race, early because he brought in ton's of stuff for us to ride. There were ton's of logs, spools, timbers, 2 cars, and some fun natural stuff. We worked pretty hard to get things in place, lucky we had a Cat to move things around. Tim showed up in the afternoon and all we needed to do by then was tape the sections. We took rain into consideration so we didn't get too crazy. Overall we were finished by about two in the afternoon. On the way out we hooked up with Craig and headed to the hotel. I was grabbing my stuff out of the truck and realized I forgot the bag with all my clothes in it! I had my riding gear bag which had plenty of extras in it but I still needed a few things. So I had to make a quick trip to the local store and get a toothbrush, tooth paste, you know, that kind of stuff. By the time I got back it was time to eat! We order some good pizza and just kicked back. After that I needed to work some of the pizza off so I headed out with Craig for an urban ride. Nice stuff in the area. Craig kept having bad luck with his bike, deraillure cables, chains and face plants, oh my! You can ask him about that though. After the ride I couldn't wait to hit the shower and go to bed!
May 25, 2001
The rain is still going strong. It has been raining for the past few days and is supposed to continue into the weekend. Of course we have an EFTA event scheduled this weekend out near Boston. It will make things interesting with all this rain. I'm just gathering up the last few things I need to hit the road bright and early tomorrow morning to begin setup. Hopefully see some of you there!
May 21, 2001
Work has been going crazy for me lately. I'm really happy about this because it's fun and makes the day fly right by. Well when I got home tonight I went out for a little ride. I almost kicked myself for being off my bike for so long! It just didn't feel right. For good news my Rock Shox is sitting at Ted's for me to pick up this week! I love that fork. The Manitou is ok but it really only is a Cross Country fork. It will be nice to get my SID back on. I'll be heading up either tomorrow or Thursday to visit, pick up the fork, and drop off some stuff for the new secret machine! Yes a new Top Secret Ted Project soon to be unveiled. Keep tuned for updates.
May 20, 2001
Lot's of running around. We headed to the cake person, we headed to the flower person, we headed to the mountain, we headed to the...well you get the idea. So far so good, it looks like everything is coming together. I'm just too exhausted to do anything right now. By the way I didn't get a chance to ride either because we got back too late. No biggie, theres always tomorrow!
May 19, 1001
An action packed day! This morning Wendy and I helped move one of her friends (Gina) from work. It was pretty easy that's for sure. Most of everything was already packed and they had rented a large ryder truck and I had my trailer emptied as well. It was just large stuff like tables, furniture, beds, etc. Once we packed up we headed to the new condo and unloaded. It only took a few hours and we were heading back home after noon time. Well we also had an agenda. We needed to meet Wen's parents and head to VT to finish all the little arrangements for the 16th. We stopped home to get everything we needed and Nero, and headed to her parents. We finished loading up with all their stuff, and Diego (their cocker spaniel) and headed to our apartment. The drive went really fast until the Post office and General Store outside of Jamaica, VT was on fire. This brought us on a 45 minute detour on dirt roads and over a mountain.....literally! But we were on track. We made it to the apartment just in time to make dinner. So we unloaded the vehicle and brought everything inside. I thought it was relax time until I was notified we 'had a floater!'. Remember that mouse problem I talked about a while back, well hopefully this was the last one. Yes this mouse was belly up in the bowl and must have been at sea for quite sometime. This thing was so bloated from being in the water we couldn't flush it. So grab the salad tongs! No not really, we just scooped it out in a bag. After that it was a very relaxing evening filled with a few cold consumable beverages and a great dinner. But now it's off to bed!
May 18, 2001
The weather today has been a bit lousy so riding was out of the question. This was a bummer because I needed to unload my demo section to help a friend move tomorrow. Well we'll just have to see how the weather in on Sunday!
May 14, 2001
Monday, monday monday.....enough said. Well here is some neat stuff for you! Here is a link to Charlie Beristain's web page. Charlie's site is loaded with some pretty cool stuff especially related to biking. http://pages.prodigy.net/charlieb/recreation_day/recreation_day3.htm The main reason for this link is because Charlie was one of the awesome photographers taking pictures of the MDC Discovery Day demo. Not only that he is one of the NEMBA Mtb. Bike Patrol, who keep our trails save around the CT area. Well any-hoo check out the pictures of Trev and I and then poke around the rest of Charlies site! Later on this week I promise to get a picture section under the multimedia section also.
May 13, 2001
I'm currently sitting in the local laundry place washing our clothes, very tired from last night, because my washer and dryer combo died. So I have 4 washers going right now. NICE actually because I get all the laundry done in a quarter of the time. Other than sitting here still working on a few small projects, I'm inside watching my clothes go round and round. I keep having thoughts of a huge hamster wheel or one of those globes of death to ride my bike in. Not that it would be much fun after the first ten minutes. After I'm out of here I plan on heading out for a kayak cruise of a small local river. I don't even know the name of it. But I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow. After that it's head home and prepare dinner for Wendy and her parents, well it is Mother's day afterall! But right now it's back to doing laundry. Oh and about last night....... the world may never know!
May 12, 2001
Today was heading to my parents for a combination Birthday for my Dad and Mother's Day. The Mother's day is for my mom of course, just making sure you all knew that. It was quite interesting before that because I did not get presents for both for either of them. It was running from place to place to get the gifts I needed to and I picked up the last one just in time to make it there for lunch. No problem, most of you guys are like this also so you know what I mean. It was a fun day we had lunch and was visited by my brother and his family. After that we headed home to get ready to go out. That's what I'm doing now, getting ready. We are going out for a late night on the town with a bunch of friends It should be pretty interesting.
May 11, 2001
It's been a crazy week once again. Trying to get everything prepared for that certain day coming up really fast! I guess you can say it's crunch time. But I have been neglecting this thing once again. Truthfully there's nothing too profound to share anyway. I have been in a slump where I haven't even touched my bike at all. Although I have been out and about messing around on the unicycle. That's always fun and turns peoples heads. I have come to the point where I kind of figured out a type of pedal kick on the thing, not a big one, but just enough to hop me forward a bit. Other than that it's back to lists and preparations!
May 6, 2001
Yes I did compete today at the Wrath of Sun Valley. I woke up late this morning a little achy from yesterdays shows and riding. The motivation was there so I got out of bed gathered my bike and gear together, and went to ride some more! Not only that it is really close by and who could pass up another beautiful riding day. Also I really can use all the practice I can get! It was a small event this year overall, but the sections were fun and challenging. I still can't believe how hard it is to break a rear window on a VW Jetta! I had the local Fire and EMT's cheering for me. They couldn't even believe how it lasted with the amount of force I was hitting it and how much it bowed inward. Sorry I let me fans down. The worse part the next rider who went though hit it just right and it just blasted everywhere! ( I think I must have weakened it ;-) Next time. It was another nice day of riding got a great workout and took home third place to boot. I just couldn't wait to get home. Wendy's parents were making dinner and it was awesome! Now I'm going to drag my exhausted body to bed and get some rest.
May 5, 2001
Yet another super day of Trials shows. It was tough getting out of bed this morning so I was glad everything was already packed. I hopped in the truck and headed to West Hartford Reservoir for two shows with Trevor Young. I arrived a little after 8 found my spot and parked the truck and trailer. It couldn't have been a more perfect day. It was sunny and in the high 60's for temperature, very comfortable. I began setting up and Trev arrived around 9. We finished getting all the obstacles where they needed to be and grabbed some breakfast. After some energy food we had a little practice session before our first show. At 11:00 we kicked off our show. It couldn't have been any more perfect of a performance. It lasted about 20 minutes and Trev and I were pulling some heart stopping stuff flawless! I added a new launch ramp in the section which made a great addition for getting directly to the big boxes, and a few new planks. Afterwards we chatted with many of the spectators and probably planted the trials bug in a few of the younger ones. We had some lunch, and that roast beef sandwich was awesome. We ventured around and did a little natural riding in the area. The next show was at 1:00 and went just as well. This show we mixed up a bit. During the show we made the gaps bigger, and the tricks harder, which definitely kept peoples eyes glued. Overall an excellent day, well up till the point when we had to pack up the trailer. Just when you thought you were tired enough! The people were great, the Hartford MDC needs a huge thanks for hosting such an event, and as always NEMBA for being such great supporters for cycling and especially trials! I'll have pictures and video to come in the next few days. Now the debate is to compete at the Wrath of Sun Valley tomorrow? We'll have to see what happened when I wake up tomorrow.
May 4, 2001
Today was a great day, I was able to get so much accomplished! Mainly it was getting everything prepared for tomorrows show. I had to get the truck and trailer washed, and get everything loaded. You can imagine all that preparation stuff. Later in the evening I met up with Wendy and our friends at the local pizza establishment, had some good food and beverage. Need the carbo load! So it's off to bed now so I can get up early for the demo.
May 3, 2001
Can you say HOT! It has been in the 90's here the past few days and the next few days to come. Riding has been very nice, it's funny to think only a few weeks ago it was in the 30's. Even my cat Nero is trying to find any way to keep cool, here he is kicking back in the sink! Yes, Nero absolutely loves water. Every morning he's on the edge of the tub while I take a shower trying to catch the water. Too bad he can't make it to the show this Saturday. He's heading with Wendy to a birthday party instead. What a social life he has. Today I was also getting all the new demo stuff packed in the trailer, which seems to be getting tougher. More stuff equals less space. I'm thinking I need to make a new step box, one that fits better in there. I just don't feel like starting a new project now things are getting so busy! We'll have to see. Tomorrow I need to get the truck and trailer washed and ready to go.
May 1, 2001
Day's are definitly moving along to that June 16th date! Wow. Today was kind of a get back into the groove day. It was more relaxed than the past couple of days. For riding today, it was very difficut to get motivated for some reson. I think I'm just getting kind of tired of riding by myself all the time. But I rode anyhow. Just more and more practice, I felt really cheesy after landing a 4.5 foot drop totally flat though. Thank goodness for suspension! That was about the time I thought I should call it a day and hit the shower. Even a bad day of riding is better than a lousy day of anything else!
So here is that important info I have for you. This weekend, Saturday the 5th I will be performing at the West Hartford Reservoir for the MDC Recreation Discovery Day. I will be joined by Trevor Young and his death defying feats. The show times are 11am and 1pm. There are loads of other activites happening as well, everything from cycling to horseback riding. Hope to see you there!
Directions: Take Exit 39 off I-84 and head towards Farmington. At the junction with Route 4 turn right onto Route 4 drive towards West Hartford. Just before you pass a large pond on the left, turn left into the park's main entrance, between two stone pillars. Follow the access road until the very end in which you will find a large gravel parking lot.
