I woke up this morning and looked outside to find a bunch of white shit all over the place. Man, nothing puts me in a rotten mood more. It always sucks when it snows but especially on a Sunday. That’s my day to ride. Well, I stewed for a while but while The Wifey was off to the grocery store (more on that later) I decided I wasn’t going to let a bunch of icy shit ruin my fun. I put the ‘cross wheelset back on my TCX and headed out into the great unknown. Immediately I realized riding in the snow is actually sorta fun. Not my ideal scenario but I rode over to the Fairview Township park approx ½ mile from my humble abode. I’m lucky when it comes to community parks. I have Fairview and Lower Allen both within 2½ miles from my front door. Fairview is cool. It would definitely make a great ‘cross venue. Lots of off camber, short steep hilly, long flat, paved bike path type stuff. I tinkered around and carved a ‘cross course throughout the park and did a few laps. Before I knew it an hour had gone by, I was smiling, and my feet were a little cold. So I went home. It was all I needed. Other than my feet being a bit chilly I was properly dressed considering it was 33 while I was out. I’ve been wearing my new Nike thermal bib tights lately. These things are nice. No worries so far in temps as low as 25. I got ‘em through Trek for $5. Yep, $5.
Having the right gear, both clothes and bike, make such a huge difference. Working at Holmes helps when it comes to having the right gear. I’d never be able to support my habit if not for the employee purchase or pro deal and the occasional blowout list. The EP is a wonderful thing. Usually figure that I pay approx half of retail on any given EP. The beauty is, given that I buy at such a great price, I can ride/use said goodie until my attention span tells me it’s time for something new. At which point I can sell and most often get back what I paid in order to pay for the new goodie. Almost as though once you make your initial investment you’re in the club.
Thursday I switched my light road bike stuff back from my TCX to the LeMond Tete. A Syntace stem, FSA carbon cranks, and Bonty Race X-Lites were the biggies. While I was at it I also installed a new Ritchey WCS carbon fork and stem on the TCX. The fork is lighter than the Alpha Q I took off and placed on my other TCX(The Wifey’s bike). I didn’t get a chance to weigh it but my main ‘cross sled in full race mode should be somewhere in the 17.5lb range. Pretty sweet. My Tete weighs 16lbs. Erin’s new bike, a Giant TCR carbon, weighs 17.5lbs. Nice ride for her. She likes to ride on the road. She put in 1000 miles this year on the spare TCX.
Back to Erin’s visit to the grocery store. First let me preface by saying this is in no way a complaint against my wonderful wife. She runs a tight ship and puts up with more than enough crap from her neurotic husband, your humble narrator. Today she nailed the grocery visit. 100% effort on her behalf. Every stupid little food neurosis I possess was satisfied. Diet Iced Tea, not the regular stuff-got it. Lite Cookies & Cream Ice cream, not the super fattening premium stuff-got it. Breyer’s Lite Raspberry Yogurt, not the full on high fat stuff-got it. Mangos, kiwis, green bananas-got it. Zero fat chips, the kind that’s supposed to make some people, not me, shit their brains out-got it. Wow, as I write this I realize two things. First, I AM neurotic. Two, all the pounds of fat I’ve shed over the past couple years from eating lowfat/no fat food probably isn’t any healthier than all the freakin’ chemicals I’ve digested from such lowfat/no fat food. Oh well, I like being skinny instead of fat so until I grow a second head or a sixth toe or something like that aspartame wins out over lard. Anyway, props to The Wifey. I love you E.
Last night we went to Herby’s for some Mexican grub. Best place in Harrisburg for mex, hands down. Not the easiest place to get to, but worth the drive. Not distance wide but it’s in a weird area of Steelton. Lots of rights and lefts. VisitPA Ray and his better half, Nancy, joined us for the chow down. Good stuff.
I finally bought a lapper. I got it from Best Buy. Toshiba. It’s a nice little rig. Now, as I type away this very instant, I’m in front of the 55’er watching some HD football, surfin, and bloggin. Is this what they call multi-tasking? Wednesday we’re getting set up with DSL so we can go wireless ‘net. I was paying $10 for dial-up. Verizon DSL is only $5 more. A no brainer. Nice. Out.
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