Maintenance on a Rainy Day

A bit of drive train maintenance and overall cleaning was a good thing with some partial rain last week. One question: What do you use to clean the frame behind the crank?

A clean bike on the Ultimate bike stand

I replaced the Performance brand chain cleaner with one from Finish Line. The latter worked really well and didn't seem to leave a mess all over the place. Not sold on the Performance degreaser though. I'm sure "biodegradable" has something to do with it. Sometimes I just need down right nasty chemicals.

The bike I sponsor (I pay them)

Work Monday

It's always tough packing the truck for the return trip back from the beach. It was a hot week and the weather was overall pretty darn good! One last week before school starts...

North 12 Loop

Riding Goal Accomplished! With overcast skys and the wind out of the North it was a tale of 2 rides from Sanderling to Corolla to Kittyhawk and back. 45 miles and 2.5 hours later I'm a bit stiff and couldn't expect any different. Otherwise I feel good, so far....

Off to the beach!

OBX Rides

So far I've been safe from redneck drivers out on North 12. Today was a nice ride up to the Corolla Beach (end of the road and the start of the sand road to points North). 28 miles round trip and a personal best average speed, which I was suprised by given that the winds were directly off the sound and not much help in either direction along with 94 degrees and humidity. Lots of cyclists out!

Those same winds off the sound brought out the biting flys from the mainland. A bit of a pain up at the beach. Colin, Lauren, Jodi and I brushed it off and spent the day in the waves. Lauren loves to swim with daddy as we "duck-dive" under the waves.

We'll all sleep good tonight.

Almost time

Just about everything is out to load the truck in the morning and head down to OBX. I had my neighbor come over as I'm having problems keeping my 2nd largest cog engaged with the chain. The derailleur is fine for everything else but same. This seems a bit strange as I'd expect shifting to be slightly off for the other cogs as well. It doesn't look bent and the positioning seems okay. Cleaning and lubing didn't help the cause. We left it as is and will let 3Sports handle it when I get back.

I'm fine for the OBX as the flat environment won't get me any anywhere close to this gear. Just hoping it doesn't get worse.

I wish a good week for all. I will post during the week if I can get the dial-up connection working.

Cheers.

Friday Trials

I tried to take today off, just too much going on and there's some stuff at work that needs to be closed so that I can mentally disengage for a week off. Oh well.....





Quite a lightening show last night here in Midlothian. After 13 years of living in MI and 10 years here in the Commonwealth, I HAVE NEVER SEEN OR HEARD ANYTHING LIKE IT! From about 8pm through 1AM, it was a strobe light show. By 10PM both kids were in bed with us. A few of the thunder cracks felt and sounded like they hit the house. They certainly got me to jump twice. Looking outside this morning it's amazing that very few trees are down. However, power is still out to be about 42,000 homes in the area.

Preparing for Beach Week

Not easy getting things wrapped up at work to enjoy a week away. I always end up making a list of tools to bring along for some work around the house AND, as always, end up thinking about not overdoing it with the endless projects so that this can be what it's supposed to be...vacation with the family.

With that in mind, here's what my new list looks like:

• More sand castle building and body surfing with the kids on the beach and less book reading
• Enable down-time for Jodi:
• Take on more meal prep and clean-up.
• Watch kids so she can shop, spend time with her mom, read, sleep, etc.
• We always get in bike rides, fishing, walks with the kids and need to keep that going (they're growing way too fast).
• Call some friends and family I've neglected for too long.
• Dinner: just me and Jodi, make it happen.

Of course, bike rides will also be in there and I'm committed to a ride I haven't done before: loop from Kitty Hawk to Corolla on Hwy 12. I'm estimating about 43 miles. Doable, and it's been decades since I've done distances beyond 30 miles.

The weekend...

Just starting on my first cup of coffee after a ride, shower, light breakfast and some time spent with the kids (and getting ready for a 9am call).

Stuff to do this weekend:

• Noon Pizza Party w/ the family over at church to close out Lareto
• Anniversary dinner this evening (17 years tomorrow)
• Mow the lawn
• Clean bike
• Attend Saturday Eagle Scout Award Ceremony of a friend's son
• Some long rides
• Church
• Pool
• Start getting ready for the beach the week of the 19th

100 again today

It was already 80 degrees when I got off the bike this morning at 7:30AM. Just not fun to be outside. It looks like the weekend might finally bring the SouthEast some reprieve. The heat doesn't bother the deer as I saw 6 today in different pockets.

SOME PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS GRUMBLING THAT THE ROSES HAVE THORNS; I AM THANKFUL THAT THORNS HAVE ROSES.

Alphonse Karr

Too Darn Hot!

98 degrees today with a head index of 106. Even at 6:30AM I was dripping on my ride. Not sure you can drink water fast enough.

Baseball Done

...at least until Fall Ball. Colin's team won 14-2 in 4 innings to close out their experience. It was a fun game.
One more picture for the home team....

What to do....

With baseball finally ending tonight a period of almost 6 months comes to a close. Colin will be ready for a break until Fall Ball. I know I am. Got to start thinking of the things I can now get done. Here's a start:

• Some longer bike rides. My morning rides stop at about an hour and it would be nice to start kicking that up a notch
• House stuff: new knob/latch for the back screen door
• Trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. Time to hit the slides...
• Trip to the D.C. zoo. Kids loved this 2 years ago to see the Pandas
• Wrap up the Private Pilot High Performance Endorsement so that I can fly whatever is in the CAP hangar.
• Beach Week 17 days from now....
• Celebrate 17 years of marriage
• Possible Trip in Sept to the Reno Air Races (if I can get a hall pass)
• Maybe take in a MLB game...