Much needed Updates…

The end of the semester crunch, along with mounting home and lab work to be done, has taken a severe toll on my blogging capacities. With that said here’s a quick update on where things are going in my life. Abby and I got chickens (15) on March 24th. They’re a handful and are getting bigger, much bigger. So big that we are building a pen for them in the back where Boogy’s old pen was, which will someday soon have a coop with laying boxes and protected roost for them. This past weekend I ran sag for the Cohutta 100 race, riding the 65 mile race with a 35-40 lb B.O.B trailer. It was fun, but quite challenging. Dave Holmes and Andrew Howe accompanied me on the journey both completing the 100 miler with excellent times. Sunday I managed to finish a lengthy take home test, build and set in raised beds for our garden, and get the concrete footers in for the chicken pen fence. This combined with a 1-hour cleanup of a muddy Cohutta race, completely exhausted me. Pics of the chicks and cool home projects coming later…



Cohutta 100

Sagging the 65 miler was the first good endurance challenge of the year for me. The race started out wet and BOB was all over the place in brush creek. My most embarrassing and almost day ending dilemma happened about a mile in. I started after the 65 wave pulling up the rear sweep. The 35 mile race was closing in on me so I moved to the side of the trail to let these speedy fools plummet to their death on the slick trails in front of me. As I stepped to the side of the trail in the rain that was now pouring down on me, I could have sworn the ground was flat and even through my mud and fogged glasses…wrong I stepped into a hole that perfectly accommodated my left ankle and seemed to beg me “where would you like me to break your ankle today?” This surprise coupled with the weight of a muddy bike and trailer I was towing sent me face first into the ground, and kept me writhing in pain something akin to this family guy episode for a few minutes…

Being the stubborn headed male I am I proceeded to ride an additional 60 miles on a sprained ankle and Sunday morning I might as well have had a peg leg. It was worth it thought because I got to help and ride with a lot of people, who seemed to be in just as much pain as me. All I had to do to maintain was just keep riding, as walking hurt bad on the ankle. Dave did really well finishing only minutes behind Floyd Landis on a singlespeed and Andrew burned up the gears on the 100 as well. Enough about the race for now here’s a few pics from it...

Cohutta Studs

My 40 lb Buddy.

First Traffic Incident of the year…

This morning I was nearly hit head by a red Honda accord that “grazed” me as I was in the turn lane for the bus. The passenger mirror hit me in the right leg as I swerved to avoid a direct collision and popped off onto the ground. The guy stopped in the middle of the road and yelled for me to “get the fuck off the road!”. Naturally I wanted to kill him, but after I turned around he sped off. I had a take home test to turn in, and the bus had just pulled into the station so I picked up the mirror my leg knocked off and got on the bus with it. I got some good looks on the bus and finally people started talking to me about it. Even though I really wanted to chase him and get his plate it was very satisfying to throw his rear view mirror into the dumpster this morning. It had wires, so I hope it was really expensive. If you see a newer red Honda (I think Accord) with out a passenger rear view mirror please send me the plate number. Or just set it on fire… =)