My Story as Told by Water

It rained yesterday.
I was working.
Building bikes.

After a long and lonely work week with temps going above 105+ according to the forecasts and 110+ according to my bike computer it made my heart ache to see and hear water right outside the door without being able to enjoy it. Today I picked up David James Duncan's My Story as Told by Water. It didn't help the heartache.
Duncan speaks of his childhood of fishing and creek stomping fondly. It took me back to my own childhood. The countless hours spent sitting with my slingshot in the tree with the little round green fruits. The awesome power that I enjoyed imagining myself having over the banana trees as I slashed my machete through its fleshy body to get to the regime of bananas at the top. The combination of frustration  that I had for Monkey while he went scampering off with my highlighter that I needed for AP Euro, and the love I both felt toward and from him when he would hop specifically onto my lap, belly up, wanting it to be rubbed.
And that was just the childhood of 'home'. Some of the most defining memories come from sliding down a slide into a mud pit in a cave in some province in China. Or finding myself swimming in place against a strong current deep in one of the oldest protected rain-forests in the world in Malaysia. Or jumping into the deep dark blue of Ha Long Bay, Vietnam with MCC friends and family amongst the giant jutting rocks that give the place its magical feel. Or snorkeling with the Schrock-Hursts through shallow beautiful coral right up to the edge of the reef in order to peer over the edge and into the darkness of the deep. Or being stranded on an overturned catamaran in midst of a tropical storm with my cousins with out sight of land. Or simply sitting on the bottom of a sandy ocean floor with scuba gear, gazing up at the sun twinkling through 50 feet of clear tropical water disturbed only by the bubbles we send upwards.
As you can see, my story too, can be told by Water. From what I've heard, and from the little I saw on Saturday, that water is coming. Its coming soon and it'll be coming hard.
I can't wait.

SUPER MOOOOOON!!!

AHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

It has been brought to my attention that another full moon is coming up. That, is not the news. This up and coming full moon is a super one.  
And so lets go riding!!! It'll probably be a chill biek ride along some river trail where we can chill and chat and mess around with out serious cause for concern.

Biek Rides and Long Socks

Being Studly

'twas a big mountain.

I've been feeling pretty great lately. I've got my bib-shorts, slick jersey, bright green glasses. I've been riding a lot, riding fast, and riding pretty hard. Its been hard to not start getting a bit full of myself. Luckily I have a couple effective measures to combat such tendencies.

Tall Socks!!!

In this way I make my own small stand against the cycling elite's attempt to make us all into tightwadds. Also, please note the frame mounted pump, the saddle-bag, and all the other stuff I could've taken off.
In the end though, if I am ever confronted by one of the esteemed 'keepers' and forced to explain my blatant rule breaking I will just claim an attempt towards the fifth.
And, if the socks isn't enough to bring me back down to earth there's always this:

The most effective form of watching is to just watch the first couple of seconds in rapid succession.


In other news, my housing situation has changed yet again! Not nearly as dramatically as it has in the past though. Really all thats happened is that Zander has moved out to go on a pretty epic summer adventure, but more on that later. So, its now basically as if I've just moved into my own place! suddenly its just me in this place. I get to organize things as I will and basically have the place to myself! Or at least thats how I was feeling earlier this week. Last night I was reminded that of course I still have my weekend roomie who works and lives in Phoenix during the week...

Regular readers may also remember a moonlit night ride that was publicized. It was a great time, some of the Mennos and Zander were a long. Well, sadly I have no stunning moon photos to share, but I can say that it was a very lovely time and I fully intend to go on another great laid back biek ride with my friends next time it comes around.




Although frankly, I really don't think you need to wait till next month to ride in the light of full moon....

Full Moon Banner

Not to be out done by Ben's awesome poster and event I made a poster too. ^
Also, Sabino Canyon is a beautiful bike ride:

But it's also Hazardous. There are lots of Peds that one must yield to.

It makes biking 4th Ave interesting. I'll let you know when I attempt the stunt for myself.

And in closing, Zander is a cool dude.

The Long Edition

A lot has happened over this past week. But first of all I just have to say. Bill Waterson, of Calvin and Hobbes, is brilliant. I don't know how he did it, but somehow he happened to place the perfect poem at the perfect time in the perfect place (this poem, this past week, in the bathroom):

I made a big decision a little while ago.

I don't remember what it was, which prob'ly goes to show

That many times a simple choice can prove to be essential

Even though it often might appear inconsequential.

I must have been distracted when I left my home because

Left or right I'm sure I went. (I wonder which it was!)

Anyway, I never veered: I walked in that direction

Utterly absorbed, it seems, in quiet introspection.

For no reason I can think of, I've wandered far astray.

And that is how I got to where I find myself today. 

Basically Calvin and Hobbes is the best. And although I'd love to share some of that quiet introspection with everyone, I've gots lots more fun things to write about so you'll just have to wait.


First of all, I'll just give a quick run down of the past week's events.
Friday morning, Jon kindly drove me to Phoenix. On the way we some how ended up getting into yet another deep and engrossing conversation about the liberalism/conservatism, baptism, and other groovy stuff.
Friday Night I arrived in Richmond and Evan was right there to pick me up! Luckily Nicole had not yet gone to bed so I at least got to say hi. Then I reunited myself with my tall bike! and went to sleep.

Saturday I managed to recruit the SH boys to help me reunite myself with my mountain bike!

Such Studs. See it live.

Lucas' home made trailer was much easier than trying to carry the bike box while riding the tall bike. 

Then it was Bachelor Party time!!!

Jacob likes his bottle. Who wouldn't, its from Rocktown after all.

We had a pretty good ride. As evident by how fast we are obviously going in these pictures.

Then we made a big ol' campfire! And hit pottery.

The next morning it rained. So much for sleeping under the stars!

Then Sunday, some of us (Jon, Jason, Matt and I) went to good ol Mud pond!

Then it was back to Lancaster where some great ping pong happened, some good times with parents, and then to top it off a very classy breakfast!

Then back to 'burg. And good times were had by all.

I even managed to get Lucas and Nicole to come mountain biking!!!

After they left, I did the ride again. And then biked home.

The Pond at Mud Pond was Beautiful!

It was a very pretty ride home.

 At some point during the week David took Todd, Dan (David's Dad) and I climbing.

And then, evidently, a wedding happened. However, I have very little photographic proof. So whether it actually it did is really subject to speculation... I think someone may have proof though. Ask around.

But seriously, it was a very beautiful wedding. The ceremony took place in a meadow on a hill. There were sheep in nearby fields and their pleasant far off baaing was idyllic. The songs sung, the parent's blessings and Hannah and Ben's vows made for a very touching time.
The reception, however, I do have proof of:

Kaitlin just can't wait to sing the Happy Song!

It was a fun time!

Then Sunday mountain biking happened again! There are some pretty cool videos, maybe I'll get around to posting them sometime, but for now you'll have to be content with watching me wheelie onto my butt.

Whooo-Hoo-Hoooo speeds

This morning really made my day! I had been looking for a longer hard ride ever since doing Saguaro East with Jon on Saturday. That was a great ride and Jon was a great riding buddy, but it was a bit short, and sadly ended abruptly when I had to sprint off to work and was late.  :-(
And so finally it happened. Ricardo suggested we go riding sometime and tuesday morning it was! I was so excited for it that I made sure to go to bed early and stripped my bike of the non-essentials.

I did end up putting the pedals back on...

It was a beautiful day. Some steep climbs. Even though this isn't a picture of them...

And some good notsosteep climbs.

Whoo-Hoo-Hoooo Speed. (As seen at 0:53)

Not to mention the good descents. Of course the above video (found by me here)  is not of myself as should hopefully be clear by the ridiculousness of the double speedometers. Something that (although I might do for some currently ununderstandable good reason) you won't find on my bike.
In the end though, I was feeling great! I felt like I had just gone on an awesome bike ride, because I had, and I felt like I rode hard, because I had. Even the poor rankings on Strava won't get me down! well, at least not much...


In other news, I'm pretty set on getting a GoPro.

I do this kinda stuff all the time. You guys just don't know about it because I can't get my phone out in time to get good pictures of it! and even if I did it would probably (despite my above-par bike handling skillz) cause me to do this:

to either my bike, my phone or my self.

Weekly Stats, plus some stuff!

TM: 9:07
AVS: 15.3
MXS: 35.3 (I didn't get any good box truck drafting in this week)
DST: 140.25
ODO: 440


I also want to say a bit about why you've heard so little from me lately. Contrary to what you might think it is infact not because there are no exciting things to share in my life. Largely it is due to a relatively small, but practically huge piece of technical equipment; my computer charger. It is M.I.A. and I have therefore not had regular or consistent access a good blogging device. In addition, I have not done a good job of photographing the goings-on around me. and so, while I really have been doing great and fun things and keeping busy, and biking a bunch, I dont have proof.  :-(
But! If you are interested in some of the (potentially hypothetical) things I have been up to here is quick run down:
- The Bizanteen Bikes program (my AmeriCorps job) sold a bunch of bikes at the GABA Swap meet last Sunday. It was a good time and lots of people were selling lots and lots of cool bike stuff. Although I didnt really have time to do much shopping since I was selling bikes.
- My student in Bizanteen is awesome and finished rebuilding a bike (that we sold at the above event).
- I've decided not to get a motorcycle, or a van, or anything else that awesome, but instead go for the smaller scale awesomnesses like bike parts and gear, and saving for Big Adventures.
- Saguaro East is a good ride. Even if it did make me a bit late for work... I'll have to do it again sometime soon.
- Stripping of the steel framed steed is going less than optimally. The deadly chemicals I bought to take off the paint for me didn't do a though job so now I'm hoping for someplace that can sand blast it. I'm excited for it to become a bike! I just think it might take awhile...