BDAY4ME

Today would be my birthday.  I enjoyed a visit from my parents as well as a delicious dinner by KT.  Mom's apple dumplings made for a perfect dessert.  DNL entertained us during his longest ever sit at the table in his high chair.  Many people said "Happy Birthday" today.  A nice day it has been.

Last night I declared I would ride to work this morning regardless of the weather, perhaps as a birthday gift to myself.  I set my bike out, with new light attached, and laid out my gear to greet me at 6:30 this morning. 

I was on the rode by 6:40 and it was an exhilarating ride, complete with spotty rain and wind gusts of 22mph (per the Weather Channel).  Fortunately the wind was mostly at my back or side.  Several strange looks were received by coworkers as I rode into the building.  Hey, it's my birthday and I wanted to ride!

- AAron

Time to Maul

Friday night's foray into nightime photography worked out pretty well.  I got some good comparison pictures of the bike head lights.  It was surprising how many vehicles were traveling down Messner Rd through the swamps at 10pm+ on a Friday night.  Some of the traffic had to be due to the Triway football game.  The web page bike light review for the shop is en route... link to come soon.


The weather for the weekend messed up plans for riding on Saturday and then messed up plans for riding on Sunday.  It did clear off Sunday afternoon and was really nice out, but the time for a ride had already passed.

Instead of riding a bike I decided to exert some energy splitting firewood.  After an hour I had split a good stack.  I still have about four times this amount of wood cut and waiting to be split.

Yellow handled maul in center of picture.

Let there be Light

Enjoyed a nice morning commute today that began in the dark.  Thanks to my new light, I was able to light it up and ride in the dark.  Too bad it's a camera phone pic, but it's still a nice picture of the sunrise greeting me this morning:

Tonight I'm packing up my new headlight, RYN's new headlight, a camera, and a tripod for a field trip to some deserted back road.  I'm going to try to take some pictures in the dark that show the light output of the lights.  These pictures will end up accompanying a review that will be posted on the shop's web site.  I'll have to post a link once it's uploaded.

Until next time,

- AAron

DNL's First Rainy Ride

In defiance of a forecast for afternoon showers we headed to Fredericksburg for a southerly ride on the trail with DNL.  Unfortunately RYN was not able to join us but HLNA was along for the ride.

Rain was not an obstacle from Fredericksburg to Holmesville but a crazy buggy driver was a bit of a challenge.  Apparently he thought his buggy should not be passed by cyclists because as we first tried to go around he flogged his horse into high gear.  DNL and I were not having any of that so we dropped the hammer and showed him his one horsepower was of no match.  The only problem was the ladies did not do the same so we had to sit up and wait for them.  In the meantime crazy buggy driver caught up.  But this made for great fun because we got to do it all over again.  The second time the ladies caught up was at a crossroad and the buggy was stopped.  KT asked who should go first and the buggy driver said his horse was not willing to move, as horse froth billowed from its mouth.  I'm sure some of these events could be used in an Amish version of Fast and the Furious.

Light showers greeted our arrival to Millersburg.  We sat in the picnic shelter for 30 minutes or so until learning from an Amish guy with a cell phone and radar access that the showers were about passed.  We outfitted DNL with my rain jacket and headed north.

DNL in rain gear on the trail.  He says: "Daddy out kicked a horse!"

Now the bikes sit in the garage covered in an gross slurry of buggy droppings sprayed up from the wet trail.  They are certainly due a good washing!

- AAron

Eggcitement in the Backyard

I do believe it is time to introduce a project, especially with the big news of the day: we have our first egg!

For the past couple years KT has been interested in raising chickens.  This spring I gave in and built her a chicken coop as a birthday gift.

After submitting concept drawings to KT, I had an approved plan and began construction of what would be called a "chicken palace" by the neighbor.  The barn siding is 140 years old and was purchased from a farmer down the road.  He also gave me corrugated steel roofing a few years back to cover firewood piles.  I reallocated a few panels from the firewood area for use on the coop roof.  Enough talk, pictures tell the story:

 

 

And now, back to the big news of the day, four months after moving into their palace one of the six chickens laid her first egg!  Hopefully there are plenty more to come.

Monday Bike Commute

Mondays are a good day to ride to work, the morning ride makes for a nice introduction to the work week.  Last year I began commuting a couple days per week and surprised myself...

I thought the morning commute would be a bother.  I like to wake up and get to work as soon as possible.  For example, if I get out of bed at 6:30 I'm out the door by 6:45 and at work by 7:00 if driving to work.  I figured a 40 minute morning bike commute would have me thinking "come on, I just want to get to work to get the day started!"  And I figured the commute home would prompt me to take a longer route and add miles.

As it turns out, I thoroughly enjoy the ride to work and the ride home sometimes seems a bother.  Waking up on the bike is enjoyable and I still get to work by 7:30 if I leave home by 6:50.  On the way home I automatically take at least a slightly longer route due to traffic, there's too much traffic on my morning roads at the end of the day, but often end up thinking "come on, I just want to get home!"

With DNL in the picture it is more desirable to get home without delay.  Several times this year I have ridden to work and had KT pick me up while she is already on this side of the town getting groceries, etc.  Today Katie is going to pick up my bike during the day, after a grocery run, and I will ride home with a coworker.  He wants to see the chicken coop I built in the spring (now there's a project I'll have to share in a future update).

Oh yeah, a big benefit to pedaling to work... seeing a bike every time I turn around at my desk!

First post! Two rides in one day.

I guess this would be the first post to my freshly created blog.  Hopefully it does not become stale too soon.  My intention is to use the blog as a diary of sorts, to record notable rides, projects, and more.  So without further delay...

On my first ride of the day... I left home around 8am.  With RF planning to race at the Knob tonight I was riding solo.  The first destination was Fredericksburg, which brought the climb across Harrision Rd. west of Fredericksburg into play.  I stopped at Lem's for a morning coffee.

Munson Knob from Shreve Eastern Rd.

In Fredericksbug I jumped on the bike trail and rode to Holmesville.  The trail was pretty much empty of other users so I had a nice time trial south.  In Holmesville I left the bike trail behind and ventured acrosss a series of county and township roads, resulting in a not so direct routing to Shreve.

By this time the morning clouds had lifted and blue sky was in full affect.  I was wearing arm warmers with a short sleeve jersey thinking the warmers would be pulled mid ride but they remained on arms for the full ride.  My guess is the temperature did not make it much above 70 during my ride.

Blue skies on Springville Rd.

From Shreve I connected Jefferson, Springville and McKee Roads to get back home.  While eating lunch and sipping another cup of coffee I decided to start this blog.

Second ride of the day... with DNL under the care of Grandma, KT and I headed out for an afternoon ride.  We did a loop that passed us through the Killbuck Marsh twice: Messner on the way out and Willow on the way back.  It was a nice ride beneath the continuing blue skies.

KT riding east on Messner Rd.

And now... it's getting close to game time.  I wore my OSU jersey today but I'm not sure it will be of any help for the Bucs tonight against USC.

On the way home from our ride KT and I saw the Goodyear blimp,

presumably flying south to Columbus for the game. 

Signing off,
AAron