Monday, October 20, 2008

The Supposed Golden Path?

My drive home this morning was slowed dramatically this morning as I attempted to drive by the baseball stadium, and now helicopters circle over head. Why you might ask?
As the song says, I've found myself in some kind of Hell. I must have died the night I got hit and nobodies gotten around to telling me about it yet. Isn't it enough for me to suffer living in this backwards ass town surrounded by mouth breathers?
Apparently not, for their queen has arrived in town! And not just in town, but two blocks down the street in my beloved Skysox stadium. Which at this very moment is being filled with dumb Republicans (redundant?) who will hang gleefully on Sarah Palins every word, despite the weird mix of pep rally/cross burning that her speeches seem to have become. The good news is is that with any luck she'll say something colossaly stupid again and I'll have some more ammo to put in my quiver to shoot at people at work.

How am I going to sleep today with so much energy from the dark side of the force radiating into my house?

Friday, October 17, 2008

Finally, a Mountain Bike Ride!

Its been awhile since I posted a ride, which is what this blog is supposed to be about, so I present:
Cheyenne Mountain State Park, I think perhaps the most under rated trail systems on the Front Range. Its only been open for about 2 years so I think a lot of people don't even know it exists.Although, A race, sponsored by my good friends at Ascent Cycling, is being held there tomorrow so I think the secret is getting out.

The Riding here is easy to moderate, with only a few technical sections (that kicked my ass today, since its been so long since I rode the Niner). My map and profile are incomplete as the batteries in the GPS crapped out. Cheap ass "industrial" batteries.



On the way into the park you pass this....


....which goes up here where...
...this is, which is where........the end of the world comes from....
....at least NORAD moves it all here. (saving money you know!)
All of this is right across the street from the Park, so when the bomb drops Cheyenne Mountain State Park will be a super bad place to be. But anywho...

The lower portions are all really wide, fairly easy climbs. Packed well and so far holding up to the weather. Medicine Wheel did a fantastic job building all these trails from scratch.

Feel the flow.
At least till you get up higher and you get to places like here. I watched some guy try blaze by me here all pimped out on his carbon hard tail and spandex. I assume he was pre riding for tomorrows race. He did have to do this section twice to clean it. Made me not feel so bad for finally giving up and walking.
While I was waiting I just happened to notice this. Wonder if you can eat it?Just up the trail is this fun little feature. Wish I'd been here to see if lycra-boy cleaned it.
this is my 3rd and finall pathetic attempt. I have a 3 try obstacle rule. If you haven't made it in three your not going to, I just wind up mad, hurt, or both if I keep trying.


But then the descent begins.This will be THE place to be at for the race. The berm is super high, and the chicane below it only encourages speed.
plus the outside of this corner just below (where my bike is laying) is very open, great place to sit.
I'll bet these guys will be scarce tomorrow. I only saw three today, every other time I've been there I've seen at minimum 5.
There is also a bunch of turkey's running around. I tried to get a picture but I didn't get the camera out fast enough and the pics came out like crap.

Views of Ft. Carson and Fountian (the water tower way out yonder).

Then there is this fun little climb. There are a couple like this, including an up hill off camber one at the exit of a 90 degree corner. Didn't make it to that one today.


More views on the way up Talon, the highest point in the park.

This is the Very tip-top. The terrain is kind of sketchy up here, hence the carin on the left to assure you, yes, you are on an actual trail.

Coming down is a full tilt roller coaster. How fast you say? I had gnats pasted all over me. Ferrari fast.
I usually do at least two laps here. I usually wuss out and do all my consecutive south side climbs up this road to save as much energy for the technical climbs as I can.
I always end my trips here on Bobcat Way, which has lots of big water bars for jumps and is butter smooth. And pretty today with fall on the way.
Cheers!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Digging Out of the Hole


Last weekend, instead of heading out into the hills for a ride despite the immanent arrival of winter,
I decided to take care of some thing that's been bugging me for a long time. I refer of course to the steering wheel in my Jeep, which has been 90 degrees off since the day I bought it.




Some time ago (2 years or more) I decided to tear into it and see If I could fix the thing figuring it would be as simple as pulling something apart, reorienting the steering wheel and putting it back together. Wrong! And to top it off I managed to ruin the horn and the airbag quit working.

So I borrowed a puller (2 actually, thank you Joe and Steve) and ripped the Jeep apart to discover...

...that I had broken this thingy, according to Jeep, the "Clock Spring" $266.30 A rather expensive goof on my part. If you read the label on the clock spring it says to not do exactly what I had done. Which would have been helpful if the stupid thing wasn't buried underneath a bunch of shit.
I did all this only to discover, that there is only one way the steering wheel will go on, just like the rest of the system, everything is "keyed" to only fit a certain way,

so, 300 bucks and several hours later I'm back where I started.

"Fuck!"

So, after some research, (thank you Google) which I probably should have done, oh, lets say seven years ago, I discover this fancy do-dad underneath the front end.
Basically, you just loosen the two clamps, turn the piece they hold a bunch of times, and viola! The steering wheel now faces the way the Jeep is actually traveling!

Good Times!

An Open Letter to my Republican Friends

Well let me start by saying I know I said I'd keep politics to a minimum, but fuck it, tiss the season right? This came in my e-mail from a Republican,
whom despite that, I consider a friend, and it pissed me right the hell off. Its factually inaccurate in several ways, is backed up in no way by anything credible, and to top it off is down right insulting to any one capable of a free thought outside the Fox News studio.

*********************************************

This is a matter of opinion and opinions are like (well you know) everybody has one.
My personal opinion? I agree. If after reading this email you disagree, Please, no need to reply back to me. Your opinion is yours and that's fine, just delete it.

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.
Pause a moment, reflect back.
These events are actual events from history.
They really happened!!!
Do you remember?
1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male extremist.
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim male extremists.
3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim male extremists.
4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim male extremists.
5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim male extremists.
6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was
murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim male extremists.
7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens , and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim male extremists. ( remember the pilot of this flight was from Richmond , MO )
8. In 1988 , Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim male extremists.
9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim male extremists.
10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim male extremists.
11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim male extremists.
12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim male extremists.
13. In 2002 reporter Dan iel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by-- you guessed it-- Muslim male extremists.
No, I really don't see a pattern
here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people... Absolutely No Profiling!
They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males alone lest they be guilty of profiling.
According to The Book of Revelations:
The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.
And Now:
For the award winning Act of Stupidity Of all times the People of America want to elect, to the most Powerful position on the face of the Planet -- The Presidency of the United states of America .. A Male of Muslim descent who is the most extremely liberal Senator in Congress (in other words an extremist) and in his 40's.
Have the American People completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of Reason ???
I'm sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the 'unknown' candidate Obama...
Let's send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other stupid attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves -- if they have any such sense.
As the writer of the award winning story 'Forest Gump' so aptly put it,
'Stupid Is As Stupid Does'
Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet..do it!
or again. . . just delete if you disagree.
**************************************************
And this was how I responded:


If I may:
The author of this piece of "opinion", and it is a piece, is correct. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. But your opinion doesn't mean sh*t if it is premised on completely false information. According to the author, Supposedly from the Bible, and I quote "The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything." except that the book of Revelation says no such thing. I'm not Thomas Aquinas or Martin Luther but I'm pretty sure that Islam wasn't even a religion for a couple hundred years until after John wrote that portion of the Bible. What the Bible does say, is that Gossip, i.e. outright slander in this case, IS a sin. (Romans 1:28-32)
Whats even more important is that McCain's conscience recently got the best of him, to the point where he told supporters that Obama is "a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with (him) on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about." Which is good, because recently McCain rallies have started looking a lot like KKK rallies.

I mean really, there are still people out their who actually believe that Obama is a Muslim? Where do these people hide? We shut the satellite off in our house 3 months ago and I'm more in touch than that, or maybe because of it. Not that most Republicans are interested in "facts" any more. In fact I'm guessing I lost some of you by the end of the first sentence. Your not interested in "facts" like McCain led the Charge on a lot of the bank deregulation that got us in the financial mess were in now. (the collapse of the DOW average isn't what you need to worry about BTW). Or the fact that McCain wants to deregulate health insurance the same way. What could possibly go wrong?

What I'm asking, is if you vote Republican, understand why. Its not that hard to do a little research. I found all the links for this piece with our good friend Google. If you still want to vote for McCain, that's fine, I understand that different people have different value systems. But the vitriolic slander pieces floating around don't change any ones mind. In fact you might just wind up pissing someone off enough for them to spend 2 hours on a Friday night looking for ways to shut you down.

But that's just my opinion, feel free to delete this if you disagree.
Cheers!
Shane

P.S. RFK's assassin was Sirhan Sirhan, who was disturbed for sure, but not a Muslim. And Pan Am 103 was destroyed by "rouge" Libyan Government officials. Although I suppose you could make the argument on that one.