WeeWickin' N Drinkin'

12mm Over the Calves for Kids? (His socks match OldGreg).
With a dumpster like Mike's and calves the size of his dad's, this kid is going to be a hammer!

Since we missed the Tap Room Thursday for Officer Mike's shindig, we had a small get together Saturday to throw a few back in celebration of his recent graduation. First day on the job and he got to pull his gun, clear a house, make an arrest, a few traffic stops, drive with the lights on, and got a free breakfast. Did I mention he gets to carry a gun? Sweet.

So H. is a trauma nurse, Mike a cop, Jeffy the paramedic showed up... company like that sure makes one feel pretty pathetic (although pretty damn safe). Luckily "I'm leavin' on a jet plane" gRant & Jen showed up with lil' WestyG to brighten my afternoon.

WestyG lovin' hanging out with Uncle Thad

And this is how we slam a Sly Rye Porter

The Thin Blue Line

H. and I were able to get out in the frozen rain and cold temps (it was 78 just two days ago?!!) and across town in all the traffic hiccups in time to watch our friend Mike graduate from kindercop to full blown "he has real bullets in his gun now and can shoot you" cop.


It's been a long, hard effort for Mike and we're super proud of him for his commitment and determination to complete the rigorous training process. Something like 42 candidates started and only 29 made it all the way. He was 1 point away from Top Cop, pretty amazing. Tomorrow at 6:30am he takes to the streets for the first time.

Trained to Serve, Serve with Pride. Our Session 59 Grad.

Congratulations Mike! Best of luck in the new career.

Amazingly the mustache appears the moment they take the oath

Aloha Hunter

Greetings from the Honolulu Pier, where the weather is phenomenal, the beaches pristine, and the little umbrella drinks divine. Too bad you can't join me... even worse that I can't be there either. A friend and ex-coworker from 12 years ago emailed me the above photo of a little item I left behind when I moved down to Nashville. It's found a new home in Hawaii, as has Javier. I never expected to have either show up in my inbox. Imagine his surprise when I show up on his door step!

I got another surprise in the old school inbox yesterday too, this time old technology from a newer tech friend, Hunter. Do they still teach printing in schools? Thought everything was keyboard driven and touch screen nowadays.


It's good to see some kids still have manners. Hunter is thanking me for a Bacon lunch box (mmm bacon) (oh, thanks again Dan!) and for the fun time we had working on the trails at the SORBA DSG trail work days. Then, in what I can only assume he has picked up from his Uncle gRant, throws out a sneaky sales pitch followed up with a bit of smack.

maybe Uncle gRant should take lessons from young Hunter?

Well my friend, yes I will see you at Dirt Sweat and Gears (May 9th, sign up now and don't forget to donate for a chance to win a Moots frame) and yes, you are probably a lot faster than me on your bike. (Get dad to explain that one to you). Thanks for the letter little buddy, get to training, I've got $20 riding on you turning a faster lap than Petird.


Hey Dug the Head:

Swing over to Dicky's place and read up on the following photo. We're going to need you to fire up that silk screener and make a few t's for next year's post Snake Chilli's dinners. The backs will need too read "Stranger", "Rudder", and "Double Dutch" for OldGreg, Jeffy, and Squish.

Swiped with glee (and a strong antiseptic) from teamdicky.com

Getting Back Into The Swing Of...

... soaking up headwinds and vitamin D. Great day to enjoy being outside today, 78 degrees of sunny warmth and windy with some scattered clouds.

I met up with OldGreg this morning and we biked over to REI armed with some left over b-day gift cards and refund checks to pick up necessities for a few adventures planned this spring. While perusing the store, we ran into Unckle E, which is pretty typical when I'm out riding near Franklin, but normally it's a passing wave or a horn honk. Today we were able to enjoy a Chile Burrito lunch out on the patio. I've forgotten how much I missed good weather.


On the way home we got stopped by a train (rarity in Nashvegas) and witnessed some interesting juxtaposition of railroad graffiti.

Is that read more books or read more graffiti?

Support Your Happiness

Photo used by Permission. Credit:Bryan Bloebaum BlueTree Images

Thanks to Bryan for taking the shot of me enjoying the halfway point descent. In the photo you can see the Swiftwick Tech T and the merino 12's. I heard a lot of "Can you get me a Swiftwick shirt like that" and "can you get me some of those socks" from people around the finish line party, followed shortly by a few people saying "just ask Sharp to give you one".

Here's the thing, just like the photo above, Swiftwick (and other sponsoring companies like them) are donating to help our scene grow and thrive. The photographers are out trying to earn a living taking memorable shots for you to remember your adventures. Likewise Swiftwick is in the business of making great apparel, but in order for them to keep making great products, we need to support them by buying their products. Why take advantage of friends just to save $23 on a shirt? I don't get it.

Swiftwick is a local TN owned and operated company who's products are TN (USA) made quality stuff and they give a lot to cycling, SORBA, and to the Southeast in general. Their products are stellar and well worth the price. I wouldn't be using them if I didn't believe in them. Please support your locals when you can: breweries, apparel companies, lbs' (MOAB, EastSide, Harpeth, etc..), and your community.

Enough ranting.... it's a beautiful day out there today in TN land. Nearly 62 degrees this am when Slumlordess Hannah and I ventured out for a spin. This was her maiden voyage on Fish (her new road bike from EastSide Cycles). It was a recovery spin for me that felt more like a good ol' morning commute since it's been a while for temps to be over 40 before 2pm.

The Hannah and Fish

The pups and I are chillin' with "all the door" open (eh OldGreg?) today while working. Well, I'm working, they are basking in the sun. Full time employment may be elusive, grocery budgets tight, and wants going unmet for a while, but it's all good, sitting here enjoying the pursuit of happiness. I'm going to enjoy it while I can. The cold temps and gloomy weather appear to be on the horizon.

open air offices rock

Bad Idea on Easy Street

only good for easy spins, I still think trainers suck

Wanting to spin the legs out after yesterday's effort, especially on such a spring feeling yet overcast day, I just couldn't convince myself to get outside. There aren't any "easy" routes from the cave, every direction has hills that hurt, usually at both ends. Such is life in the high country of North Nashville. I love this about the new locale, but it makes it tough to stick to an easy ride and not go too hard. So I took a page out of the Bad Idea Racing picture book and set the road bike up on the trainer. Put CBS.com on the computer and watched a full episode of Numb3rs while spinning out the legs, I guess a trainer does come in handy every once in a while.

Check out the latest prize handed out from the NWGA crew:

I think the arrow is there to help people realize which "Canada", kinda like the Michigan hand thing

Snake Creek Bottle Opener/Dog tag. Hell yeah! Note the packaging though: Made in Canada. Also note the arrow pointing which way is out. Canadians are funny. I see it as more a descriptive helper. For example:

Dude handing out prizes: Here ya go.
Dude getting prize: (looks over prize and says) Made in Canada?
Dude handing out prizes: Yup, Canada.
Dude getting prize: Canada?
Dude handing out prizes: (points up)
Dude getting prize: Oh, Canada. Cool.

Here's a photo for Dicky. I know what you're thinking: are those 4's or 12's?

hounds tooth or argyle?

Endurance Walking?

Photo Cred: Steve Sharp

The last round of Snake TT's for '09 has come and gone. Great weather and a semi dry trail finally greeted the 300+ racers from around the Southeast (and Ohio) showing up to toe the line. Having had some equipment failures lately, I was locked into a 34x18 gearing. Doable, but stout for Snake. Run what ya brung right?

The day turned out good for the Moots/Swiftwick crew. Meanjoe crushed 47 minutes off of his previous attempt and rocked in at 3:34! krs1 cruised by me with about a mile of trail to go and raced home to a 3:39! Dustin the pro finally was able to catch us old guys on rigid singlespeeds and had a 3:3x?? time too. Took him long enough to catch us though, heck I was walking for what seemed forever before he finally caught up.

The gearing proved manageable for the bulk of the race, however the last 5 singletrack miles of the final 8 miles was a bear. Meanjoe caught sight of me at the left turn of doom and rode with me for a while. Learning from past mistakes, he eventually went on his merry way motoring to the finish. krs1 caught up to me shortly before the towers and swiftly left me in his dust. I was walking and griping, not about being sore, tired, or cramped I was feeling great, but pissed that I couldn't ride the most fun stretch, I just couldn't turn the gear over in the uphill rocks and keep momentum. I felt like I had brought a road gear to a mountain bike race. Frustrating.

krs1 offered some words of encouragement, luckily it sank in. I dropped a few more psi in the tires hoping it'd help me crawl over the rocks and keep some sort of momentum without requiring leg pressing. I got to a short rocky grunt up and stalled out, track stand style. Two photographers happened to be right there clicking away and started yelling at me to "stop posing". A few weak pedal kick maneuvers and I was able to lurch forward and clean the grunt, I can't wait to see that photo run.

From there I just tried to keep the pedals ticking over, soon enough the gravel downhill was in sight and my gearing felt much better! I rolled across the line 3:42, my best time yet with probably the most walking I've done at a Snake race. Hodge said it best when I told him how much I had to walk: "That means when you were riding, you were really moving!"

Sub 3:30, you're mine next year.

Props to everyone. Thanks again for driving Meanjoe, and Jeffy for hooking us up to make the shuttle work.