Arsbars Again

Talk Now

2008-10-11T22:18:00.003-04:00

Ok folks, talk now or forever hold your peace.

My original thought was when I move home Arsbars gets deleted. Many years ago Arsbars was created when I lived in Columbia, SC... far far away from home, living with someone I didn't communicate very well with (not their fault, or my fault but a fact.) I've been writing on arsbars for 5 years. I've been BLOGGING for about 9, yes before blogging was a word.

So, comment no or forever deal with my decision. Should I keep arsbars? Should arsbars become my do everything site and RideCharlotte.com go away? Should I got back to word press?

Comments start now and go through Monday night.

Friday

2008-10-10T21:15:00.002-04:00

Back to regular scheduled program. Server went fritz, opps. Been posting a decent amount over at RideCharlotte.com

Try that for a while. For now I got an Xtracycle in the mail so I have camping, photos and rides to take.

Sunday

2008-10-05T21:07:00.002-04:00

"I think I'll bag that trip for two
And pack it up to Kakadu.
Honey, it's not for the weather
Or the lack of loving you.
I got all this in between
Something I could not foresee.
All the deals I made don't matter
If I can't just let you be.

Gone again gone again
There ain't no way I'm gonna let this heart mend
Gone again" - Indigo Girls

There's a town up north on my mind. Home is where my heart is. Schooling to be had. Travels to be made. The next 6 months will be a whirlwind of travel, climate change, more education and hopefully better climbing legs.

Yes - I'm moving again. After Christmas I will be moving back up north. Home. Annapolis, Maryland. I'll be taking classes, riding my bike, helping my parents and loving a gorgeous woman with two wonderful kids. I never know what life is bringing my way. If you are dear friend this is a fact you should now. I'm 23 and I have many things to see. To learn. To take photos of. To experience life before life experiences me.

My dear mom sent a good thought my way this morning.
"What if you don't know what you should know or when you should know it? Is that necessarily wrong if you keep changing your mind?"

Roger that.

Saturday

2008-10-04T22:58:00.004-04:00

Dinner party, friends, good game of cards (my brain hurts now) and it's time for bed.

Friday

2008-10-03T20:58:00.002-04:00

Friday = Wednesday in actuality for me.

Today wasn't a bad day. Lack of water and food for most the day made me a bit cranky but no one complained too much. Errands for most the morning and then normal bike shop stuff. Signs being made and inventory put on the floor.

Had a commuter buddy for the first time today. A co-worker from the shop rode from Matthews, NC (15 miles east) on the bus this morning to Uptown. We synced uptown and caught the bus to Davidson, NC (20 miles north) and then rode the 5 miles to work from Davidson to the shop. The last part bus/ride is my daily commute. I was glad to be able to share some insight and time with someone on my commute. He drives roughly 90 miles per day in his car or motorcycle/scooter so even if he can do this commute 3 times a week he will really be saving money. (And being green.)

Another step forward in my mind. I'm pretty certain if I didn't do this commute daily he wouldn't of even allowed it to pass through his mind. On this note of commuting. I am attending a meeting, on Monday, with Ingersoll Rand at their headquarters to promote commuting and cycling. Many details to nail out before Monday but the idea is bi-modal commuting, company encouragement, maps and maybe cycling safety/mechanic classes.

Is it wrong that at 9pm I'm in bed? A CD to make and then I'm hitting the sack.

Thursday

2008-10-02T20:02:00.004-04:00

Twin Six sale. Stock up on jerseys, tshirts and goods for the holiday season.

All 2008 T-shirts = $15
All 2008 jerseys = $45
Select socks = $8 to $10
Tons of bottles = $5

Buy me good things for xmas or my birthday (November 13th.)

On that fun note, chilly commute. First chilly commute of the fall season. Felt amazing. Long day at work. Broken helmet, broken shoes, broken toe, all of that good stuff. The cold is allergies now (I hope) and I'm not so needy (thank god.)

There's a lot of work to catch up on for work and work. Signing off. Roger? Roger.

Wednesday

2008-10-01T12:40:00.003-04:00

Xtracycle is in my dreams. Wiki's are going to be written, video's taken and instructions for all of you out there with no mechanical sense. Right now I'm trying to figure out SRAM's Dual Drive hubs vs Nuvinci hubs. I don't want to run a front derailleur and crank so now I'm am left thinking of other thoughts. Rohloff would be cool, but very expensive..

Oh - I'm sitting back at Dunkin Donuts, no styrofoam this day, posting up and researching my next attack on commuter-ism.

Tuesday

2008-09-30T10:58:00.002-04:00

Feverish night sweats, aching headache and throat scratchy. I'm feeling sick. Woke up, hot shower, and dog walk. Currently I've camped out with Day Quill and hot tea at Dunkin Donuts. Slowly feeling better but I have much to do today before I can get back in bed.

Papers to write, articles for various blogs and need to ride up to UPS to get a light that came in for me during Interbike.

Monday

2008-09-29T13:04:00.003-04:00

Oh lovely Monday morning. It was hard to wake this morning. Lack of motivation has set in. Maybe being overwhelmed has also set in. Work to get to, papers to write, dogs to walk.

A lovely voice on the other end of the Blackberry awoke me from my groggy-ness. Finally rolling out of bed to a whimpering puppy in her crate. Shirt, shorts and tennis shoes we were out the door. Two dogs on leashes going down a flight of steps is NOT fun.

Walk to the park, play fetch. Frollick. How I will miss Maddie when Jeannie returns and takes her home. I still believe Fiona needs a playmate but its not the time to get another puppy right now. Plus it will hard to find another dog like Maddie.

Off to work for a meeting. I drove - Maddie can't be left alone for 10 hours like a bike commute and morning meetings would entail. Work until 645/7pm and then home to finish a paper and frollick more with the lovely pups.

Tuesday and Wednesday are days off. I need recovery from my vacation in Vegas!

Sunday

2008-09-28T20:43:00.002-04:00

Good day at work. Many bikes sold - even for it being late September! Last weekend of September. Scary feeling how fast life is passing me by. Need to slow down and watch the daises, or is it grass?

Anyways. In my attempt to cut craziness I turned off my internet again. About 4 months ago I went through the phase of not needing it but now I simply don't want it. I have a dunkin donuts 2 blocks away with free wifi. I figured a cup of ice cream 4 days a week is cheaper than Time Warner charges for internet. So here I am. PLUS I haven't been getting any reading or writing done for school or personal. I would get on the computer to write, then I would "check my email" and next thing I know I was on SteepandCheap.com buying a jacket. At that moment I had enough. Time Warner was called and it was turned off.

No car, no tv, and not internet. Some people would shrivel up in my shoes, I feel free!

Friday

2008-09-27T11:19:00.003-04:00

Got back to Charlotte early AM (like 6am.) Caught a cab home to take a short nap and catch the bus to work. Did I mention it is pouring out? A very wet commute to and from work led to the want and craving of fenders. I have them, I simply don't want to down grade the width of my tires to fit fenders in there. Anyone know how to retro-fit around the brakes so I don't need to do this?

Thursday

2008-09-25T23:47:00.002-04:00

Great show. See you next year. I'm now waiting for a flight out of Vegas to home where there is green, and the temps don't hit 100 degrees in late September. Red eye flight out of Vegas at 10:40pm. For you east coasters that's 1:40am. I arrive around 5:30am. Which means it's a 4 hour flight. I hope that's enough sleep for me. I get home, hopefully around 6-6:30, hoping for some sleep if I can and then getting to work. If I get home by 6:30 I plan on sleeping till 8:30, bust over to the bus and get to work a wee bit late.

We'll see how I sleep on the plane. For now I'm going to write and then nap as I'm 2 hours early for my flight.

Wednesday

2008-09-24T23:01:00.001-04:00

Tires, rims, frames, tools, oh my. Colors out the ying yang, lots of walking and talking. Tomorrow I'm trying the iPod to keep me company. Are you here at Inter Bike? Let me know!

Tuesday

2008-09-24T10:19:00.002-04:00

Outdoor Demo of the 2008 Interbike is in the books. Constantly I was in shock, between the terrain, dust and tons of bikes I was really in an overwhelmed fix all day long. I've never been to Vegas, I've never been to a desert and I've never been to Interbike. Those three things all at once was a lot to handle. The dust and dry/hot weather was also something to get used to. Constantly sucking down liquids in the 98 degree weather.

So I rode some pretty cool bikes. The Haro Beasley sticks out the most in my mind. Also rode a folder Pashley and a Raleigh CX bike. All very cool but again the Haro stuck out.

Wednesday starts the Big Show indoors so keep your eyes pealed on 650b.com, TheBikeLab.com and BlueCollarMTB.com. Or follow me on Twitter

Monday

2008-09-22T16:35:00.003-04:00

Web work and ride planning this morning. Now I'm sitting in this airport known as CLT (do find it as funny as I??) and off to my layover in Chicago. Final destination is land of boos and boobs. Las Vegas.

Sunday

2008-09-22T11:35:00.003-04:00

Overcast skies lead me to believe it was going to rain the whole commute home. Sticky yet cool and chilly to the bone. Felt like I was getting sick but I seem to have shaken that. Eating left over Bojangles, Fiona is going to visit Jeannie for the week while I'm away at Interbike.

Saturday

2008-09-20T21:54:00.002-04:00

Bus was running behind and the weather was beautiful so I skipped the bus and road to work fully. Commute was amazing, 27 miles one way, crisp air with a little nibble on the fingers. Slowly getting used to it being chilly! More photos from the ride home can be found on Flickr.

Great day at the shop. Shared some thoughts with customers, helped sell some bikes, informed on bike paths, rail to trails and those things.

Started my commute home a bit late, with my trusty Stella in my rack bag I felt confident heading off into the dwindling light. Never needed to put the light on and that is including my stop at Bojangles for a biscuit at tea. (We all have our needs in life.)

Friday

2008-09-19T07:56:00.002-04:00

Knee warmer and light long sleeve jersey. It is finally feeling like fall in the Queen City.
Sent via BlackBerry

Thursday

2008-09-18T21:03:00.002-04:00

Thursday? Did a week quickly pass me by?

Recap, quickly now.
Friday - fly to MD, enjoy being home and the familiar sites.
Saturday - fly to OH, enjoy family I haven't seen in a few years (since high school.)
Sunday - attempt to fly home to Charlotte. High winds, delayed flights, missed flight connections landed me back in MD for an extra (unexpected day.)
Monday - eat many crabs, nap on my parents couch and recoup. fly home to Charlotte(finally) with friend in seat beside on the plane ride.
Tuesday - scheduled day off from work, food, couch purchasing, walks and laughs
Wednesday - borrow friends car, load couch, move couch, love couch, watch a movie, take more walks and relax

TODAY - Finally back at work after 6 days off, one unscheduled. Playing catch up before I leave on another jet plane next Monday for 3.5 days in Las Vegas for Inter Bike and bike nerdism. That's not too far away. Did I mention today is my first day of being car free?

Now back to normally scheduled programming.

Thursday

2008-09-11T22:43:00.000-04:00

Gone for the weekend...

Talk on Sunday night or Monday

Wednesday

2008-09-10T22:28:00.001-04:00

You get no photo.

F&*&(*king ANTS!

Tuesday

2008-09-09T20:22:00.002-04:00

Boy, what a day. Car fixing, money spent, bus missed and a little bit of rain. Cheers to you, Arleigh!

Monday PM

2008-09-08T22:53:00.002-04:00

First Monday night mountain bike ride through Cool Breeze happened tonight. A decent group of folks too! Started off with 9 people I believe. Did both of the Lake Norman loops and had some day light still to offer. Quick couple of slices of pizza from Fuel and it was on the bus to get home.

Other than that great story my Monday was a normal Monday. Tomorrow morning I am dropping off the Audi to get fixed up to go away next week and then meeting with an amazing graphic designer to brain storm for a jersey design for the new mtb team. The team? Trek Bicycle Store Charlotte & Cool Breeze Cyclery. A team for both stores. A very exciting venture. A very exciting time to be me.

OH. Last night I had dinner with Jeannie. No dropped jaws. It was a nice casual dinner at Rock Bottom. Felt nice to be able to sit across the table and talk. Talk about whatever we wanted and not need to bite my tongue about certain relationships that are happening (or not happening.) I've missed her friendship and know I need that friendship in my life.

Sunday PM

2008-09-07T20:57:00.003-04:00

Long ride into work. Buses don't exactly run on Sunday to 25 miles away out of town. 19 miles one way. Rolling hills. One speed, rack weighed down with pack and 37mm tires made it a great ride but now I'm zonked. That's a pretty long "daily commute." A full week of commuting by bike/bus is under my belt. Motivation and inspiration is in my legs. Going car less is here now.

The cracked Lemond is morphing into the Salsa. Salsa is getting a full Campy drivetrain, shifting and a short tour is in my future. Can anyone recommend a decent 4 season, light weight, tent? MSR?

Saturday

2008-09-06T22:16:00.001-04:00