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)

Things to Do When Moving to a New Town

So, we are right at the 6 month mark...still new to town but definitely finding our way around.  Here's a list of some of my accomplishments since moving to Fort Collins, along with a few things still to be done.

Get a Speeding Ticket

I actually accomplished this one before I was an official Colorado resident.  It turns out Fort Collins has traffic cameras in a few select neighborhoods.  I was looking at rental places back in December and I managed to blast through a 25 MPH section in my rental Prius...yes...a Prius.

Get Your Picture in the Newspaper

I am not sure that I've ever had my likeness in a VA paper but it didn't take long to get my face in a Fort Collins periodical.  Some CSU student was putting together an article for their paper and snapped some pictures of the local polo group.

Join Some Clubs

I have found myself leading the charge for Fort Collins Bike Polo (the hardcourt flavor anyway) and we are also tied in to the Overland Mountain Bike Club.  I am trying to keep my participation at a reasonable level so I don't find myself over extended like I was in C-Ville.  We'll see how that goes.

Find a Place to Hang

Over the years I had a few places I could hang out if I was just looking to kill some time.  In the early years it was Charlottesville Aquarium...then that shifted to C-ville Bike and Tri and Rudy's Paintball.  Unfortunately, Rudy's closed its doors but the bike shop was always a good time-killing spot.  I have yet to find a nice local place where I can just hang out and shoot the breeze without being a lingering weirdo.

Find a favorite ride

This one is tough.  We went back to VA recently and got a chance to ride some local trails.  It's so very nice to know every root, rock, corner, ledge, switchback and you just take it for granted.  I am contemplating picking a trail and just riding that for two weeks...just so I have something familiar to look forward to.

Project update

Things are going well with the two recently announced projects.  I made a slight shift to a different pushup paradigm because I just got a new droid phone and I found a free app (vs 2.99 for the legit hundredpushups.com app).  Anyway, that's been going for about two weeks so far...not really much else to report there.

The polo scoreboard is also going well.  I've got a lot of the basic logic worked out but I need to do a little work on the sound.  This kind of stuff is always a struggle...two steps forward, one step back kind of thing.
Here's a short video of what it does so far.  Once I've get the prototype all sorted out I can really start to think about how I want to build the final setup.

Two New Projects

I hesitate to announce new projects because...well...sometimes they just don't get finished.  I feel pretty good about these two (admittedly, I usually "feel pretty good" about every project) so I am going to go ahead and put them on the table.

They are pretty abstract right now, so this will be short.

The first, is a high tech bike polo scoreboard.  You would think that it would be pretty easy for 6 players to keep track of a game that only goes to 5 points.  But, put a few all out sprints in there, a couple of PBR's and after several games...scorekeeping is hopeless.  I am planning on driving the score keeper with a popular hobby microcontroller (Arduino) and putting the whole setup (countdown timer and scores) in some sort of enclosure.  I've got a lot of the code written and an Arduino Nano sitting on my desk but I am still waiting for some components to get across the country before I can really start building and testing the prototype.

The second is pretty straightforward...I started it once before but only made it about half way through.

One Hundred Pushups

I'll do the test today and start on the actual routines Monday.

Just did the test and pounded out 24 good pushups...which lets me skip ahead to week 3 according to the website.  YES!

2004 vs. 2006

In 2004 USA Today ranked Charlottesville as the best place to live.  In 2006 CNN Money ranked Fort Collins, CO as the best place to live (with many Top 10 finishes since then).  I never thought I would have the chance to move from one "Top Ranked" city to another but here I am.  Each of these cities definitely has its perks.  Personally, I can't say which is best just because of the relative time I've spend in each (10 years vs 6 months) but I have definitely formed some impressions.

I think this is a good time to reflect on the pros and cons of these two fine cities while "The 'Ville" is still fresh in my mind and "FoCo" is still fresh and new.

First, an easy one...Weather.

This is really a tough one. As a cyclist, it's really hard to beat the Central VA winter.  With winter lows typically in the 20's you can pretty much ride 50 weeks out of the year without too much trouble.  If it gets really cold (for VA) then you can just ride in the woods, somewhat protected from the wind.  As long as there isn't snow on the ground, you can suit up and do some riding.

On the flip side, we have Colorado winters.  BRRRR!  For example, January 1, 2011 the mean temperature was 6 degrees (F) with sustained winds of 22MPH.  There's no way to be on a bicycle in that kind of weather.  In contrast, the mean temperature was 48 degrees in C-ville.

But now...6 months later. It's about 70-80 degrees here in the fort with pretty low humidity, while my Virginia friends are suffering with 90-100 degree weather and so much moisture in the air it feels like a steam room.  I guess weather is not so easy.  I think the lesson here is that we are going to have to pick up skiing.

More to come...