Day Twelve - Getting Down to the Wire

My last Friday as a free man was fairly uneventful.  I made a quick run to the bank for some direct deposit paperwork, drove J's mom up to the reservoir to hike around a bit and check out the view of town from ~500ft above and wrapped up with some delicious Japanese food at Jeju's.  With the huge lack of excellent restaurants in town, it was quite refreshing to find one that pleased all three of the diners.  Watch out for the Spicy Tuna Roll though...it's not just a Tuna Roll with kick, they kind of make the tuna into a paste.  Not really ideal.  However, the Samurai Roll is well worth the $14 or whatever it happens to be...that was quite delicious...and elaborate.  I wish I had taken a picture.  Maybe next time.

Note: Not actual Samurai Roll that I consumed but a pretty good recommendation (foreground)

I am starting to wonder which of my many bags is acceptable in a business-casual environment.  I may just have to go with the classic Timbuk2 messenger...at least until I get the scratch for a RE Load waxed canvas bag!

Day Eleven - Cleaning & Driving

We've got family coming in to town which means two things.  1) Get the place ready for presentation and 2) acquire said family.  I did get a good amount of cleaning done...although the Dyson suddenly died as I was vacuuming the sunroom.  I guess I'll have to look at that at some point.  I also whipped up some delicious BBQ and some mediocre mac & cheese.  It's my first attempt at M&C and I was a little rushed, so it's kind of mushy and lacking flavor.  I'll nail it next time.  The pulled pork was delicious...as always.

Day Ten - Lots of Packages Today

I ordered a few things last week (this of course has nothing to do with the fact that I am expecting a steady inflow of cash soon) and everything arrived today.

First was a small collection of Chris King Bling.  I got the replacement bearing for the one I destroyed last week and a few finely machined tools to work on my creaking bottom bracket.  Since I was stranded most of the day yesterday with the Honda in the shop, I took the opportunity to run some errands.  Two bike shops, two hardware stores, one grocery store, two department stores and Jimmy Johns somewhere in the middle.

The second item to arrive was a tiny camera I got off of Ebay.  I've actually wanted an inexpensive really small camera for a while.  I already have a digital camera but it's too big and clunky to stick in a pocket or carry on rides in a useful way.

Last but not least was a none-too-soon supply of tea.  I was getting dangerously low and needed to replenish.  I can't wait to sample some of these bad boys!

Eight & Nine - Dark Hours

The last two days are a perfect example of not being able to recall what I "did".  I mean, it's not like I sat on the couch all day.  It's just that I didn't really do anything of consequence, hence it doesn't stick in my brain, hence, I can't recall what I did.  So when I try to recount, it feels like I completely lost two days of my life.

Fortunately, that's not the case.  Monday was pretty chill.  I think I just did some cleaning around the house in the anticipation of some possible poker (which did not end up panning out).  I also confirmed that my Honda was in fact leaking a little bit of fluid onto the driveway.  The funny thing is that I thought it was from the plumber's visit last week.  I never saw his car, but I assumed a plumber would have an old truck and assumed that old truck would be leaking oil in my driveway.  (I don't even know if he parked in the driveway).  I only noticed because sometime in the last couple of weeks I cleaned up the driveway a bit and now I can park in a different spot.  Who knows how long I've been leaking fluid(s) and how long it would have taken me to notice if I just parked in the same spot all the time.

Anyway, that takes me to Tuesday.  First thing I did was drop the car off at the mechanic down the street (which is quite convenient). It turns out I was leaking fluid from the clutch slave cylinder and I also needed a radiator hose replaced.  That actually grounded me for most of the day so I cleaned a bit more, worked a little more on the polo scoreboard project (making some good progress there) and after picking up the car I went for a short MTB ride.  So, nothing monumental, and nothing really worth mentioning when someone asks "So, what did you do today?"

Even this post isn't worth tagging with a label...

Day Seven - Recovery

There's a lot to do after any camping trip that includes a big ride.  Clothes, sleeping bags, tents to deal with, dishes to wash, car to unpack, bike to put away, more clothes.  A nice perk to being unemployed is that one can tackle these tasks at leisure.

I thought about playing some paintball today, but I really don't feel quite right after the ride yesterday.  I think the elevation combined with the distance really wears me out.  So, I did some stuff around the house, watched a little TV and sometime after washing some dishes and before unpacking the car I did manage to make one of these.

My buddy Fenton sent me a link the other day and suggested I try making one of these with the remainder of my free days...so a couple of days ago I picked up an old fork and this afternoon, I went to town.

There's not much else to report for today.  Even an unemployed bum needs quiet weekends every once in a while.  I did wrap up the evening with a stop by a Blockbuster kiosk and for the low price of $2.99 I was able to pick up this piece of garbage.

I really thought it would be better than is was.  The ending was anti-climactic and he didn't even get the girl.  Kind of a waste.

Day Six - Honkytonk Badonkadonk

Today was the Monarch Crest Trail.  35 miles of riding, 3,500 ft of climbing with most of the climbing above 11,000ft and almost 7,000ft of descending!  It's a really gorgeous ride with some phenominal views and even a little East-Coast style riding.  One of these days I'll tally my observations between Colorado and Virginia riding but for now I'll just say it was nice to ride in the trees a little bit and railing corners.  I was quite surprised that a good bit of the ride was actually shaded. It didn't feel like hot, exposed CO riding until the very end.

If you are thinking about doing this ride I have a few thoughts.

• It's awesome, do it. 
• It's quite fun with a group.
• Even though there's 3,500ft of climbing it's all very mellow.  Nothing too steep until you reach the last 10 miles where there's some short gut busters.
• Get on the trail early to beat the heat and afternoon thunderstorms.
• A shuttle is necessary, plan accordingly.
• A map is a good idea.  Absolute Bikes in Salida has an excellent map.

My recap from a non-trail perspective

1. The King hub performed flawlessly, even missing a ball in one of the bearings
2. I overpacked.
3. I do not like Ergon grips at all.  My hands were both numb and in pain at the bottom of a 5 mile descent.  

Oh, if you've gotten this far and you are wondering what the hell the title is about.  This song was playing when I went into the restroom before the ride.

Day Five - Driving Driving Driving

First things first...

Last night I went over to a friends house to service my Chris King hub.  As I mentioned yesterday, I have a not-so-great experience with servicing this particular hub.  (Here's the recap).

Unfortunately, the last time I tried to do that, I destroyed several of the bearings, marred the axle and gouged the inside of the freehub body.  

This time the King hub did not quite make it out as good as new.  The hub service instructions are very complete and very specific and as a result you really have to pay attention to every word in every instruction.  It's not like assembling some piece of cheap furniture where you can just look at the pictures and get the idea and run with it. no no.  So, in one of the many multi-step processes I didn't quite assemble the tool correctly and I blew out the inner race on one of the bearings.  There were little steel balls everywhere.  I had pretty much figured that was it and I was already trying to figure out which rear wheel I could use since my FSA wheel was at the shop getting one proprietary spoke replaced.  Well my buddy was not so fatalistic. Using his magnet on a stick, we (mostly he) actually managed to get 17 of the 18 tiny balls off of the garage floor and into the bearing.  We got it all back together and it rolled as smooth as butter.  That being said, I still brought a spare rear wheel to Salida for the big ride.  We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, today I had until about noon before I had to hit the road to Boulder, then Leadville then Poncha Springs.

I completely cleaned out the inside of the Honda.  Here's a protip for you shop-vac owners, Keep those filters clear and your vac will suck like it's new.  Before the cleaning and packing of the car I called Chris King and told them what I did and tried to buy a new bearing from them.  Get this, they will sell you the $160 tool to completely disassemble and destroy your $400+ hub but when you do destroy it, they will not sell you the parts to reassemble it.  They are very gracious about working on the hub if you ship it to them, but they will not ship you hub parts.  So I ended up buying the $37 bearing online...and while I was at it I bought the bottom bracket tool as well.  So, I suspect I'll have the opportunity to destroy a $100+ bottom bracket sometime next week.  Good times.

Day Four

This is such a great view!  The climb starts way down right in the middle of the picture.  I almost cleaned it, just one dab about halfway up through a technical section.

So I finally got out for a little ride on the FSR.  Debrief...Shifting works well, handlebar is still in one piece and the jury is still out on the Ergon grips.  I did notice that my rear hub was acting funny.  It wouldn't catch right away after coasting or backpedaling.  A quick call to Ed at Chris King confirmed my suspicions, the hub needs an overhaul.  Unfortunately, the last time I tried to do that, I destroyed several of the bearings, marred the axle and gouged the inside of the freehub body.  Second time's a charm though, right?

I am headed out in a few minutes to meetup with someone that has the hub service tool and hopefully a better track record than I do.

Aside from the hub issue, I got some other good things done today.  I did a little bit of packing for the Monarch trip, purchased some reasonable everyday shoes (that are not sneakers), and I had two fairly profound thoughts today.

Profound Thought 1:

I am pretty sure having a fancy pants phone will actually save me time in the long run, even though it has many many time sucking features. 

Profound Thought 2: 

I am pretty sure my mailman is fucking with me. Although I don't have proof. 

If I have some time next week, I'll go into a little more detail on those thoughts.  For now, I've got to head out and get this hub issue worked out. Hopefully, the report back tomorrow will be positive.  Especially since my backup wheel is in the shop. (I think that was briefly mentioned somewhere in Day Two)

Day Three

I am starting to think 100 pushups is quite a lofty goal.  I am up to 34 in a row and there was a slight hiccup when I had to replace my EVO (since I lost the progress on my app) but I am back on track.  Maybe I'll reset my goal to 50...That's still a pretty good number.

Anyway...onto the day's recap.

First, I had the pleasure of watching the plumber fix some minor issues in the bathroom.  One of the simple pleasures of working from home or being unemployed is that you can basically schedule any service for anytime. Cable guy at 2:00PM, plumber at 9:00AM, sure, why not?  It's also quite great that I am in a rental and I never see the bill.  While Jim the plumber was fixing leaky faucets and climbing into the crawlspace to turn off the water, I paid some bills, worked a little more on my Polo Scoreboard and just did some general internet goofing off.  The scoreboard is coming along nicely but I've got to buckle down and figure out the next details so I can order another round of parts.

When I did finally get out of the house today, I decided to take a trip to try and purchase some reasonable pants.  I don't think my new employer would be happy with me showing up in sweats or cargo shorts...at least not until I get casual weekdays implemented.  I think I ended up in JCPenneys and picked up a couple of pairs of Dockers.  I can't believe what they charge for pants these days!  I mean, if I had it my way, I would wear Levi's 569's every day with some black Asics.  So comfortable.  I don't think I am going to have quite that flexibility in my new job.  But we'll see.

I think sometime after plumber and pants I managed to snipe a digital camera on Ebay.  I've got a decent Sony but it's a little bulky and I've wanted a super slim camera I can just slip in my pocket for a good while.  You see, one of the ways I pass my time is by scouring Craigslist.  I have definitely found some gems, and one of these days I'll finish my post about the stuff we've actually purchased, but I digress.  I found someone selling a pretty slick little Nikon Coolpix but when I went to meet her it turns out the screen was messed up.  It worked fine when you took the pictures but no bueno when you wanted to review them.  I passed on that deal but then got kind of obsessed about getting that camera.  So...

Wait a minute...I distracted myself for a minute...Back to Craigslist.  Here are a couple of gems I've found recently in my free form searching.  

First, can concealers.  (The original ad has been removed but you get the gist).  

Second, a legitimately good deal on a new bike case.  My buddy has one of the same brand and it's rock solid.  Too bad I don't really have a use for one right now.  Maybe for Iceland next year...

I wrapped up the day with some awesome polo with the Cheyenne guys.  A few of them came down to Fort Collins for some epic games.  Those guys have been playing well and definitely gave us a run tonight.

Apologies for the long winded post, I guess it was a pretty fruitful day!

Day Two

So, day two.  I thought I would get a chance to head out on the FSR today, but the afternoon thunderstorms squashed that plan.  In anticipation of riding, I did do a little overdue maintenance on the bike.  Actually, the first step was to swap a tube for J's commuter bike.  It was a good warm up for the task ahead.

I had a pretty smooth cable replace job on the FSR.  I snapped a cable back in April and just slipped a new cable into the housing, I also noticed that the housing on the front shifter was pretty beat up so I figured it was time for a wholesale swap.  I got through the rear when I ran out of housing...so off to the bike shop.  I also figured this was a good opportunity to replace a busted spoke on my FSA tubeless wheels...damn, proprietary spokes!

During my trip to the shop, well actually shop number 2 of the trip, I strongly considered buying the Chris King bottom brackett injector tool, but decided I didn't want to spend $60 on a part that I would use for 10 minutes a year...I still need to clean out my BB though...not sure how I am going to pull that off.

Anyway, back from the shop I replaced all of the shifter cables and gave the drivetrain a thorough cleaning.  (It may be time for a new cassette soon).  I am just about ready for Monarch Crest.  A little riding should help confirm that the shifting and cockpit are adjusted to my liking.  Maybe tomorrow I'll ride.

Day One

So, I've officially accepted the job offer (well verbally anyway) and the countdown begins.  Two weeks from today I'll be sitting in a new office probably filling out paperwork, signing confidentiality agreements, giving up any rights to any awesome inventions I may come up with and one more thing...oh yeah...earning a paycheck.

I figure this is a great time to document what I do in a typical unemployed week.  I guess this isn't really typical since there's a slight sense of urgency, but I think it's still a valid exercise.  I don't know how many times I've been asked "So what do you do all day?" and I've had to honestly reply..."You know, I couldn't tell you."

So, what did I do this fine Monday.

I got an early start to the day and mowed the lawn before it got too hot. I did go out of my way to mow the alley behind the house, but I couldn't quite dig up the motivation to bust out the weedwacker and trim up the edges of the lawn...even with all of the time in the world, there's not enough time for that.

I also managed to acquire a new handlebar for my mountain bike...oh, and I picked up some grips too.  My old carbon bar was due to be replaced and I found a guy on Craigslist selling brand new Easton bars.  The rise and width match my old bar pretty closely so I am quite stoked!  I also picked up some of those fancy Ergon grips for my new cockpit.  Can't wait to try them out...probably tomorrow.  There's nothing like new bike stuff to motivate me to ride...I've got to test the setup before Monarch Crest Trail this weekend. I think we are looking at 5 hours of riding...It's advertised as a lot of descending but it does start at 11,000 ft and climbs up to almost 12,000.  We'll see how that goes.

Also, in preparation for the new job...I picked up a few shirts.  I only had the stamina to hit one department store...going into those places is like walking around at 12,000 ft...exhausting!

No More Sweatpants and Mimosas

Well, it's happened.  I have found a new job.  I will be working for a cool company doing some software development for smart grid products.  With my start date about two weeks away I thought it would be grand to chronicle what happens between now and then.  There's a few odds and ends to wrap up before my start date and there's always a few projects that I've got going on.
(BTW, just kidding about the mimosas)