Crumbly Cookies will Crumble

I'm learning lately that I can't control everything and maybe nothing. I guess that may not be the biggest revelation of the decade, but it is deeply affecting me.

At the end of the year I will jobless and moving to a big city. As I embark on this journey with my sweetie at my side I am filled with excitement, sadness, and holly smokes this is scariness!

We will be arriving in our big new city of Seattle on 1/1/11, which I think is a good omen. We will be frantically looking for employment.

I'm looking forward to lots of new posts regarding rainy rides, traffic, and lattes!

off-season isn't your grandpa's hibernation

and there i was riding my bike in the torrential downpour and gale strength wind trying to come to a stop at a stop sign at the bottom of a hill. as the stop sign rapidly drew closer and closer i eagerly awaited the engagement of my breaks. as time past i continued to wait and wait. at the very moment i started to evaluate what the appropriate evasive maneuvers would be my breaks engaged. i smiled.

the very next corner i took i almost laid the bike on its side as i passed through the low level gutter system. that thing was slicker then snot. short moments later i turned north on the bike path and head on into a 20+ mph wind, and just as quickly as the ride started it ended. it was my second shortest ride of the year, the shortest being the one i made it to the end of the street before turning around, but at least it was during the off-season!

the first real rain storm of the season always produces dangerous conditions and is a refreshingly pure reminder of how much dedication being a bike racer requires.

which leads me to my final point.

I LOVE FENDERS! 

the end

new hat

anyone who has known me for the last two years could pick me out in a crowd. not because i stand out as anything special, but because he/she would recognize me because of my hat.

growing up through early adulthood i never wore a hat. i never liked them and/or thought i looked particularly good in a hat. something happened a couple years ago though. i found a hat that i really liked and it looked good on me.

old faithful

i never named my hat, but like my early childhood blankie i didn't leave home with out it.

now over the last few months are started to feel the need to get a new hat. not because i want to get rid of my favorite hat, but because i've started to realize that different occasions require different hats.

the process has been very laborious. it's not easy to replace your favorite hat. not only does the style and color have to be right, but so does the price. after searching high and low on a recent trip to seattle washington i was able to find a new hat.

new hat!

i'm easing into wearing!

offseason writers block

my last race of the 2010 season was the mount ashland hill climb. the race was one of my higher priority races, i had a solid race but not quit the performance i was hoping for. however, this post isn't about the race.



after the race my teammate spencer and i got back on our bikes and started the "offseason" in style with an epic ride that included one of my favorite dirt road climbs.



since that ride we have done several epic rides including dirt and gravel roads. we have seen a lot of action on these rides as they have included more flats, remote areas, near crashes, crashes, and epic catastrophes then our "inseason" training rides did.

with more time comes more opportunity to document the rides, so hopefully the writers block (aka lack of interest) i have been experiencing lately will diminish and i'll have some new content soon.

team's facebook page!

does your pump work like others?

something that i have come to realize over the last little while has changed my universe i don't think anything can ever reverse the affects of this new found knowledge.

this knowledge is regarding pumps, and specifically bike pumps. what i have discovered is that bike pumps don't like it when anyone uses them other then his/her master. my pump works perfectly for me, but no one else, and your pump works perfectly for you but no one else not even me! 

i am forever changed by the magnitude of loyalty that bike show exhibit!

why do i think that's funny?

i don't really know why, but i think it is funny when i see a picture of a little kid flipping the camera off. it just never gets old. hence one of the reason's i like this new website i stumbled across this week. i think that reason and the fact that this guy is a bigger prick then me!

it's called27b/6 and i think you should check it out!

going to pick up hunting

i think i'm going to get in to hunting, but none of this light weight panty waste water downed version of hunting. i think i'm going to get into falconry.

i've got to do some more research before i really start getting into it cause i still have some questions. my main questions are what kind of birds can you have, can you have spotted owls, california condors, or are you limited to more well known birds of prey?

now you might think that they prey would be limited to smaller creatures, but i disagree. i think that you just need more birds. i think i'll end up with about six birds.

i can't wait to send them out, and then whistle on some sort of little peter pan whistle, and then see them come flying over the ridge and deliver a big horned sheep for the family bbq!!!

everlasting irony

i think it's interesting that every movie, book, or story that has an individual that is immortal (aka can live forever) is totally not stoked about it. and, the ones that happen to be stoked about it end up screwing it up in someway and either loose his/her immortality or become un-stoked.

i think that might be the meanest joke of irony ever.

expensive

on my recent trip to elkhorn a lot of the conversation centered around gear. even riding/racing for a team the cost of bike's and bike related gear isn't cheap. it kinda leaves me in a perpetual state of feeling like i'll never be able to attain the bike, wheels, or gear that i want for racing.

at the end of the day you can drive yourself mad by researching options and looking at prices.

the harder thing to keep in mind is that performance isn't about how light your bike is but how well you have been training. keyword in that sentence is performance. because mentally it would sure be nice and i would feel cooler to be riding a new race bike!

elkhorn recap - a musical

well, i missed a few days and a few songs while i was racing the elkhorn classic stage race. bike racing is hard, even when your not on the bike, and i was just not left with enough time and/or internet connection.

sometimes i forget that not everyone corner of the universe or even our wonderful state has high-speed wireless. although, i'm not really sure why...

all that aside there were songs each day, however, i don't like living in the past. therefore, i will give a couple songs that sum-up and recap the dippy weekend:

oregon trail road race


pleasant valley tt


spencers - dooley mt road race


my - dooley mt road race


two very different songs for two very different races!

i think one of the things that fascinates me the most about bike racing is that every racer i talk to has a song running through his/her head while he/she is racing. never are the songs the same and never do the mean that same to each racer.

somehow music allows us to deal with the deep dark places we push ourselves into and through while we suffer with our fellow gladiators in the rink we call racing!

travis is the name and peaking is the game

in this fun game of being a bike racer there is a subplot called "training" and then further "subplot-layers" within "training". the current subplot layer i am in is "peaking." it's something that i have heard a lot of other racers talk about, but that no one ever seems to do. and not for lacking of trying on his/her part, but it's kind of an illusive aspect of training and it is really hard to judge or gauge.

so this weak starts the start of my peaking for a stage race in just over a week. today's ride taught me two things really. the first lesson i learned on the road today is that i love riding my bike even if i ride uphill for an hour and a half into a headwind and then turn around and ride down hill into a headwind for an hour.

the second thing i learned today is that a ferrari going 9x (i.e. 99 mph approximately) the speed you are going uphill on a windy road is really fucking quiet and can easily scare the crap out of you!

so remember to make love not war with the wind and watch your back cause those european sports cars are out to get you!

KATT WILLIAMS: Every Day I'm Hustlin'

off to portland

i find myself on the fringe of another trip to portland. i am very impressed with myself, well, at least with the amount of trips i have been able to take to portland within the last year while not owning a car!

with another roadtrip on the horizon you can be safe to assume that there will be some new "conversations from the road" very soon!

Race Race Race Race Race

So far this spring has been my heaviest racing schedule ever. It has been really fun and I have learned a lot. I got my upgrade to cat 3 and raced my first three races as a 3 last week. The jump was definitely an increase in race speed. The combination of the increase of speed and the bulk of racing I have been doing left me wrecked after the weekend, so I am currently enjoying the rest week!

hate crime

as a society we are use to the term hate crime, but to clarify a hate crime is crime motivated by prejudice. typically a hate crime is directed at a group of people or an organization. however the hate crime i'm focusing on today is one that is directed at genre's.

i don't understand how people can hate an entire genre of music. i'm so sick and tired of hearing people say, "i hate country music," "i hate rap music," or "i hate pop culture mainstream music."

i believe that all music is created equally and should be treated with respect because it is after all music. all music has it's time and place. not all music is appropriate all the time, but you can't discredit an entire genre of music because you dislike a song or two. if you are one of those individuals that claims to hate a genre of music i would challenge you to stop being such a small minded nit and open up to the idea of challenging your social stereotypes and musically narrow ear. with a greater grasp and appreciation of all music genre maybe you will become more enlightened and not such a nit.

gestation

Thought of this question awhile back. I've asked a few and the responses have been really interesting. So, here it goes!

If you have to pick one animal to be carried in the womb for it gestation period which animal would it be?

Ranttastic

I ranted the other day about dogs and horses and their owners ettiquate in the post bike path bitches. Since then there has been two new developments on this topic.

The first is just an aspect that I forgot to mention that my good friend Thom Kneeland pointed out to me. That is the dog owners with the retractable leashes are just as dangerous, if not more so, then the dogs off leashes. Just because the leash can extend to 30 feet does not mean that you should allow for that. I don't know what would be worse hitting your dog, having it bite me, or being closelined off my bike.

What I really don't understand is that as a dog owner you are setting yourself up for major losses because you are responsible for any damage caused by your animal whether that is personal injury or damage to equipment. Don't be stupid. Be respectful!

The second issue is I, well really my blog, is now blacklisted and cannot be viewed on a web browser at Musicians Friend. I don't really have anything to say to this other then; really? hahahaha that's funny!

creating new words is fun

new word is: supdate

origin is: concatenating "whats up" and "update"


definition #1 is: "yo! what's up? give me the update!"


definition #2 is: "hey baby, how you doing? ready to grab some dinner? maybe a movie?" (this definition is more of a stretch with this new word, but still worthy of mentioning.)




word creator: me
definer: missy kieffer

Bike Path Bitches

I'm an animal lover. I am a pet owner. However, I don't appreciate a lot of pet owners mentallity. I don't care how great your dog is, how friendly, or obidient he/she is. There are leash laws for a reason. I don't understand why dog owners feel they have the right to have their dog unleashed on the bike path or mountain biking trails.

No matter how amazing your dog is the safest thing for everyone is if your dog is on a leash. It will chase people because that's their normal genetic response. It will bite! Or, it will get hit. None of these situations are going to be pleasant for any party involved.

Also, while I'm ranting about bike path etiquette, people riding horses should have to clean up the horse shit off the path. That is the one thing that dog owners can seem to do adequately, and lets think for a minute, who takes bigger shits dogs or horses?

I just know that one of these days I'm going to come around a corner and while running over horse shit will hit someones stupid dog and it's going to get ugly.

Sense (since?) of Humor

I'm not the funniest guy in the world, and I am definitely not aspiring to be a stand up comedian. However, I do think that I can be fairly quick witted and clever. At the very least cheeky and fun. An interaction a few weeks back changed my sense of humor ego a lot though. 

A couple friends of mine and I were talking and one of them mentioned a slight lack of desire to travel very far to race his bike. I followed up his comment, without thinking much before I spoke, that I was racing as much as possible, near and far, because "it, bike racing, was more fun then hookers." He looked very shocked! Calmly he said, "I wouldn't know." At that point I was back tracking on my words as much as possible.

It made me realize that maybe I'm not as funny as I thought and that not everyone gets my sense of humor.

Oh You Silly Hipster!

Recently I was pondering over the social novelty that is Hipsters. Mostly my thoughts were turned to them because I don't really understand how this movement has happened. A major launching point to my curiosity was because I was checking out LA's bike shop's, Mellow Johnny, website and I was surprised at how hipster the site is. Made me start asking all kinds of questions.

What items sell really well at a hipster bike shop? What would I sell in my hipster bike shop?

I bet you would find a lot of items not traditionally sold in a bike shop at a hipster shop. I think that a cigaret vending machine would be a huge success. Items such as cycling shorts or jerseys wouldn't be found on the shelves. You might be able to have a marijuana vending machine too if you were in Cali. Are there hipsters in Cali though? Beanies, touks if your north of the border, would sell like hot cakes.

Originally I thought that to run a successful hipster shop you would want to sell footwear brands like Adidas, but now I think that might fall outside of the counter culture non-mainstream lifestyle code that hipsters live by.

Don't get me wrong. I fully support free thinking, indie-rock, bad art, and flannel shirts. I just can't help but wonder sometimes: what shampoo do hipsters use?

Twinkle Twinkle Lullaby Freaking Out

Last week I got a phone call from my almost 3 year old nephew about 9pm. He was asking me to sing him a lullaby. Him, his mom, and I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over the phone. Well, to be honest, they sang the song and I fumbled along rather awkwardly trying to remember the words.

I have kind of a weird brain that typically allocates a lot of memory resources to songs and song lyrics. I was surprised that I couldn't remember the lyrics! My nephew wasn't very impressed by his uncles lullaby skills either.

It came down the line that I needed to brush up on my lullaby knowledge. I have been doing research and looking up lyrics. Do you realize how long and hard of a song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is? Well, incase you didn't/don't:

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

When the blazing sun is gone,
When there's nothing he shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, through the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

In the dark blue sky so deep
Through my curtains often peep
For you never close your eyes
Til the morning sun does rise
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are

Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are"

That is not an easy song! I am actually really stressed out about this. What long term impact will occur for him if I can't learn this song and be able to sing it with him? I don't want to be remembered as the uncle that couldn't sing Twinkle Twinkle Little star!!!

If the Condom Fits

While traveling recently I have noticed that there a certain locations that sell condoms in their bathrooms through coin operated dispensers. Now, I've noticed this before, but I hadn't really given it any thought. But last week while using a bathroom in Sutherlin Oregon at a Chevron I actually took notice of it and gave it a good hard contemplative thought.

This is what they look like if you've never seen one before!

Through my amazing powers of reason (thank you Southern Oregon University!) I was forced to ask this question, "when did the sale of condoms in bathrooms originate from and why?"

I would be so scared just to find myself in this bathroom. The last thing I would be looking for is a condom.

My first theory is that it was a marketing strategy by the condom company's. A strategy similar to Pepsi or Coke and their use of vending machines possibly. Or maybe there was originally a commission (e.g. the OLCC ) that was put in charge of controlling when, where, and how condoms were sold.

This bathroom is less scary, but I still doubt I would be concerned with a condom.

I haven't been able to answer my original question yet. But it has left me with yet other questions, like why are condoms still sold in bathrooms? And, why are condoms sold in bathrooms that seem the least likely for someone to actually need to purchase a condom? Why don't you see condom vending machines in bathrooms in bars, pizza shops, bike shops, coffee shops, or movie theaters (i.e. places that don't conveniently sell them on the shelves ten feet from the bathroom)? Is this a good economy for the condom vending machine market?

I think all these questions are good condom for thought!

New Project

Here is my newest project. It is inspired by an ex-coworker and my best friend. Ex-coworker once said that she would really like to know what goes on in my head. Why? I don't know. My best friend and I have amazingly inspirational idea's and conversations, and for a while we have talked about documenting them. Why? I don't know.

Both of those factors have moved me to create this blog where you will gain some insight into what goes on in my head and some of the great idea's and conversations that come out of it.

Read it and weep!