The Mundane

For those who doubt my prior claims of half a birthday cake here is a picture. And it was a good cake too. I wish I had the other half to assuage my sweet tooth. Misao bought ten pounds of pure cane sugar. That should keep us stocked for at least a week.




Outside of a short lecture at UWM mundane tasks have been the standard. Getting the sales tax report ready, working on the finances and going to get an oil change. Going to the dump tomorrow to get the rubbish out of the way and keep the repairs moving. Then there is the Halloween cyclocross race at Washington Park tomorrow, and the 'Tour of Tosa' on Sunday.


I checked my car in for the oil change today, and went to the waiting room with eager anticipation. One look at the cookie tray and my dreams were smashed. Empty! The room was a bit full but one man was evidently self conscience and guilt struck at my glance. Obviously he ate more than one, leaving me with none. I bet he had three or four.

So there I was cookieless. And me still getting over missing half a cake. Life just isn't fair.


And we received '7' in the mail. Another mundane task. I heard that computers were freezing up halfway through the new operating system installation. So if you, my many readers (over 1,000 U.S.), never hear from me again... all I can say is; Maybe I should have bought an Apple.

No Sugar

Haven't rode my bike much at all. Haven't written at all either, with several pieces sitting unfinished on more than one blog. I rolled out of bed in time to listen to one of my favorite talk show hosts and found coffee in the coffee maker waiting for me, but... no sugar.

No sugar. Coffee without sugar. Could things get any worse?

My mind has been buried in the house and a furniture project I am putting together in my head. So as the coffee was heating in the microwave I started right into working on the house. Didn't even shower or change.. or put on shoes. Using power tools the highlight of my day.

Four hours later I stopped for a yogurt before getting back to the work. I left a message for my friend to buy a 2x4 for me and drop it if he had the time, since Misao had the car. He never came by. Not sure if it was cause I told him a few weeks ago I'd beat the crap out of him if he said something I found offensive again. I doubt that was it.

So I'll have to run out to Menard's tomorrow before Misao goes to work.

The Guess Who. Good band.



Still having trouble with 'vista'. Will 7 be any better? I dont think Misao knows how to spell her name. The spell check keeps telling me it's mis-spelled.

Happy Birthday

Today is Misao's birthday and I asked her, "What do you want to do on your birthday?"

"Go to the Casino." she said.

So after churching we went to red loobster and after the casino where she got $25 worth of points for her birthday to spend on their restaurants. Then I bought her half a birthday cake.

It was a beautiful day and I asked Misao if she wanted to go for a bike ride. She said if I carry her on my back she would go. But time was short and we didn't sleep much this entire weekend.

Happy Sweetest Day

Yes tomorrow is Sweetest Day. A completely manufactured holiday created by certain industries to boost their profits. And we are in dire need of profits and will be trying to take full advantage. It means another weekend of non-stop action.

Last weekend it was rolling out of bed early to participate in the Trail work day Saturday and then the WORS finale on Sunday. Yes, there is a very beautiful and always well designed new section of mountain bike trail at Crystal Ridge. A rework of the Alpha Trail that winds through some lovely forest. Making the trail that much better. We walked the entire layout after we finished the days work and on our way back all the flags marking the county approved trail were gone. Not the first time according to the 'Beer Man.' But the county marked the trail GPS like and re-flagging will be no problem. Another trail work day this Sunday. I most likely wont be able to make it. Sunday is church day... unless there's a WORS race.

The trounce in the woods cheered me up. It would be nice to hit the North Woods and just work on my own little piece of land. They say a man lived out there for a year in an outfitters setup. That's why the access road was torn up. Driving in and out in all kinds of conditions. Of course I am supposed to be moving to Europe, but the finances aren't there.

Have to get a picture of the team from the Wigwam MTB Challenge. WORS has been promoting the GoPro camera all year and I have heard only good things about it. And it is not overly expensive. There was some talk by the nemesis of old of creating an all Clydesdale team for next year. Says he can get plenty of sponsors meaning spiffy new digs if it happens. An option if I'm still here. But first, and where ever I am, I have to get the training going strong. Working the abs and mid-section sure cleans out the insides but I have to get back on the bike.

Trying to work things out in my life I've come to a suitable analogy. It's like a plane where the pilot has died and I, a blind man (not really, just for analogies sake), am forced to land the plane even though there are other pilots aboard. And no one speaks out. And there could be few or many on board. I can't tell. The thing is... I could land the plane if people wouldn't keep lying to me.

Again... Happy Sweetest Day. No frowns allowed.

Summer is Gone

Yes, after some unusually warm September days the allusions to Summer are over. Several days of freezing nights and everything begins to shut down for Winter. It was still a week too early in Sheboygan to catch the Autumn colors in full glory at the Wigwam MTB Challenge. The trail conditions were perfect and the weather cold. And no I didn't enter the WORS Photo contest.

I didn't find the river crossing. I wasn't feeling that great. Finding it hard to motivate myself these days. If it wasn't for a picture of a cat in a blumentopf on the blog it may have taken me much longer even to get another post out. (cats are evil) Here I found an out of the way feature to catch some shots with my camera. The battery was low and the continuous shot feature wasn't working correctly and I found I didn't get all the shots I thought I got. And talk about air! A few good shots like this.

I found this corner of the track where some skilled mountain biking was going on up a rooted climbing turn. I caught some pictures on the approach through an interesting arrangement of trees. Sometime I'll have to get this years photos on Flick'r. I haven't had time to edit most of these photos yet. And I still have endless problems with 'vista.'

As the battery was dieing I just had to get a picture of the Shed Master. A man who can admire his image where ever its found. It seems the camera battery is actually defective. Nothing goes my way.

Check out my first attempt at video editing. It's late and time to say me prayers and go to bed. Good night to all.

Ok... A double take. I'll have the corrected version of the video on you/tube later.

Unser alter Kater ...

... schläft an seinem Lieblingsplatz - in einem leeren Terrakotta Blumentopf.

A hard Freeze

Yes, tonight is the first frost, at least first for those of us near the lake, and tomorrow night will be a hard freeze. And look for that snow to be flying. So much for global warming and so much for the Wigwam MTB Challenge. WORS' biggest cash award event of the year. Wet and cold will be. I still hope to be there with my camera. The complementary trainers provided by CycleOps, donated for the WORS competitors to warm up on, will be on sale for $229 plus tax. No extra cash for me to pick up one of those used items. Wigwam, the sponsor makes great socks. I know they will be giving free socks to the competitors. I'm not quite sure if there will be any for sale. I don't know why not.

And, it's raining again... oh no. But the weather should break for tomorrows trail work day. I will probably go, but who knows. Afterwards back to working on the house. Made a big step forward on my home repairs yesterday. I needed much less material wise than I thought, which was a pleasant surprise and saved some coin.

Will drown my sorrows today in writing. Then jump out to the gym and do some quick errands. Most likely I wont finish anything today.

Go Packers!

Go Favre!

... Wait a minute!


Is that purple I see? Yes the hype is spread thick over this evenings game. For those of you who may not be from Wisconsin or Minnesota the entire population of the fore mentioned states will be sitting in front of our TVs this evening from beginning to end. An interesting you/tube video in the sidebar, there for a couple months, shows the Vikings' fans ripping Bret Favre. Along with the WORS Border Battle. A Packers win will have everyone here talking Super Bowl.


Health and other concerns will keep me from racing the final WORS event, but I hope to be there with my camera. Training for next year will be my focus after I get the repairs on my home to a required level of completion. Trying to keep a schedule but odd jobs that I am in dire need of keep setting back my plans.



Working in the basement today this item of interest dropped from the ceiling. It took me about three seconds to realize it wasn't a toy. Single shot breech loading .22 caliber. I always thought I may find some secret stash of cash as I do the seemingly endless repairs on this old shack. We'll see how this little item cleans up.

As we work our retail business I am always amazed at the popularity of Halloween. For the last several years as October 1st rolls around the zombie, vampire and satan wanna be's are out early drinking and carousing.

Besides working on the house I have been writing. The first time I am working on pieces on nearly all my blogs at the same time.

GO PACKERS!

Happy Ch'usok

Or harvest moon as we say in the west. But in Korea they call it Ch'usok and nearly the entire population will be going to their ancestral hometowns. The trains will be packed, isles filled with standing passengers. The roads will be traffic jammed over the entire country and when I was there cars that broke down were lifted out of traffic by military helicopter.

A shot of the honey I used to harvest. It isn't legal to keep honey bees in the city. If any of you living out of county and would let me keep bees on your property for some free honey let me know. The closer the better with the volatile gas prices.

Of course the population density in Korea is one reason many use bicycles and motorcycles to get around and even to carry large stacks of goods. I used a bicycle myself and later moved up to a motorbike when I was there. Just take a look at this bad boy. A full 88 cc's.

Overcast wet and occasionally raining makes it a laid back Saturday. Found this apparently new series on PBS as I run through some of my computer tasks and look to spend some time writing today on several of my blogs (if it dries out I really should cut the grass and work on the house). I'm blaming 'vista' for the formatting problems I'm having. Also related with the show is this adventure site that has some mountain biking and other sport oriented adventure travels.

I was channel surfing the other night and we caught part of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" on TV.

Misao said, "He looks like Keanu Reeves."

"Really!" I said.

Woooeee!