Photo dump

                                             
                                              Traffic backed up past the office.

                                             A frozen Sac

                                             

Im here from downtown

Happy Holidays

From the K Man and the K Lady

Breaking stuff

                                              About 3 miles later I broke this MF.

 Had a couple of good road rides,  including a wicked night road ride on the SS with Skip, Bud Light, Chris Moore and J Edgar.  We saw more deer that Cmac and Nelson combined for the year including a monster.   

 

Epic spiriting under the head lamps ensued.  I broke this MF.  Sometimes the sprinters get it wrong.  He did have the worlds greatest victory salute on the last sprint though.

I took my best looking fishing buddy and headed up to Bennett to open the catch and release season today.

I broke this MF and a bunch of his buddies.  

The K Lady broke these MF's and a bunch of their buddies

Benton County

The K lady and I ventured to Warsaw.  Trails were in good shape and for the most part leaf free. We were talking to some guys at the trailhead,  they said have a leaf blower on a trailer that they pull behind a bike.  It was pretty sweet.  Nelson would like it, they have a bunch of squirrels. 

We saw a couple of camels around Urbana grazing in a field.  That was unexpected.

Audible

The K Lady and I made an audible Saturday and skipped Mizzou homecoming.  I think it may be the first time I have missed in about 20 years.  I needed some exercise.  Too much time sitting on my ass in court the last month.  We headed down to Lake Leatherwood.  If you remember correctly,  this was the site of JB's  victory earlier this year.  I couldn't find a plaque, so maybe we were in the wrong place.  Then we had a little BBQ at Bubba's in Eureka Springs.  Outstanding.

Today had a little court in Camdenton.  What a difference a week makes.  I was up there a couple days last week and the leaves were poppin.  They are all down now.  I hit Honey Run.  Trail was hard to see the leaves were so thick.  I had to use the Force.  But I did see a Big Wheel in a tree.  So I got that going for me.

Good stuff

More horseshit

Nads and I caught 5 or 6 high school kids riding horses at Sac, (including a black kid riding a horse that had a confederate flag blanket under the saddle).  Words were exchanged.

Random questions

Does anyone else have a couple of people in their office that "overlaugh" at each others stories? How do you not punch these people?

How is it that within the span of 10 minutes you can see someone in bankruptcy driving a BMW and someone with several enormous judgments and tax liens driving a Lexus?

How can a person attempt to to park 4 times, in a parking lot, and fail while talking on the phone?

Who calls a lawyer at midnight to talk about real estate?

Why does this weather here suck so much?

Brew review:

Boulevard Pilsner is excellent.

Sam Adams Coastal is weak.

Founder's Centennial IPA is outstanding.

Happy Global Handwashing Day!

Sunday I went down a rode an opener loop at Chadwick on the single speed with JB, Jimmy St. Louis and CMac . Terrible idea on my part. Here's a better opener:

(Best part is about 3 minutes in where Bramhall looks a Trucks with a "how cool is playing with Clapton?" look.)

Im chafed

Universal Sports was on a temporary channel.

blah blah
>
> Please be advised that Universal Sports was a special temporary channel to broadcast the Tour of Spain and is no longer available.
>
 

Speaking of chafed.

The Tao of Dalton

"All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it's absolutely necessary. And three, be nice." 

Words to live by.

Add that to Warren Zevon's "enjoy every sandwich" and you pretty much have my personal credo.

Time travelling

Went down to horseshit junction Saturday to remind myself why I never go down there.  It is pretty though.  East red was good.

Last time I was at Busiek things looked a little different.  But alas December is around the corner.

                                               WITMF?

Another time traveller has been recruited.  

Sunday Skip, JB, CMac and Jimmy St. Louis met for a couple of hot laps at the Sac.

We were soon joined by Bud "Light Rider" Hogan.  Good times were had by all.  

FYI  if you send a nasty email to Directv about Versus, you may or may not receive a bunch of movie channels through the end of the year gratis.  

I must say Universal Sports may be my new favorite channel on TV.  Schlager(sp?) and Gogulski are growing on me.  Fast.

On the road

Had a little work to do in Lee's Summit and Jeff City last week.

Hit Cosmo park in Columbia on my way back from the Summit. Cosmo is a great park, I wish we had something like it here. I used to fish out there back in the day. Hit Rhett's Run for about 30 minutes and then this happened last Thursday.

After a visit to the Cole County courthouse and brief stop at the Capital it was off to the Lake and the K Lady's family reunion. Make a couple of appearances at Honey Run. Got into the worst case of seed ticks you can image. Apparently there is a strain of OFF resistant ticks in Camden County.

What is better this guys license late or his business name? Stay classy Springtown.

Took my 300th victory of the year over Farasy on the Tuesday nighter.

Hit Sac last night. Turned over a grand on the time machine.

Check this out.

Bullriders and Bicyclist Unite!

Watching the Tour of Ireland on Versus.   Direct TV is running a scroll at the bottom of the screen that they may quit carrying Versus August 31 due to a contract dispute.  Is that a negotiating ploy?  Am I supposed to call Phil and Paul or "a certain Mr. Lance Armstrong" and tell them to cave in?  What that did was have me confirm that Dish has Versus, Speed, Fox Soccer and Fox News (Beck and OReilly = greatest comedy team since Martin and Lewis).  Way to drive your customers to check out your competitor.  Dumbass.

Direct TV, I've been with you since the Prime Star days in the bachelor pad, but I fully intend to follow up on my email tonight that I will drop you like a hot rock if I don't have Versus on September 1. 

Speaking of dumbass check this out.  Good thing he doesn't have any power in this deal or anything. Oh wait he does.  What a dick.

Man I feel old

John Hughes died. Check out this list. 1983-89. 

Thanks for the laughs.

80's weekend

The K Mobile 1989-1995. Best car I ever owned. Saw this beauty coming back from the courthouse last Thursday. This baby still has the crease in the gas tank cover from attempting an ill advised fueling attempt late one evening.

Speaking of ill advised.

Notice the heater at the end of the propane box. Genius. I took this by Six Flags on a ride up at the in-laws Saturday around Wildwood.

They paved the roads again around Wildwood(they were about 2 years old). This is the best ride around.

Hit Castlewood Friday evening with the K lady and the father in law (his home course. He lives 3 minutes away from a connecter trail. That's rough.)

Ran into the K Lady and her father Saturday.
Went to the little lady's high school reunion. It was fantastic.

I avoided mine like broken glass, but going to someone else's is great. I highly recommend it.

A few highlights:

Some guy may or may not have brought a stripper (judging by her outfit/dancing, I voted yes).

Some guy was going on about how much money he made, till someone called him out for a recent bankruptcy.

Some girl came up to one of the k lady's friends and said "you know, you were a real bitch in high school, but I kind of like you now".

Sunday went to the ball game.

If could go back in time

Seeing Shatner on Conan reminded me of this gem I found a few years ago.  If I could go back in time I would pay $100 go back to 1978 to sit in the audience at this award show.

Nice farewell speech by the pitbull.  Why don't you stop talking for a while.

Know your farmer

After the sugar buzz crash from  the sudden withdrawal of the nightly Tour de France fix, the K Lady and I ventured back into the real world.

Went to see Food Inc at the Moxie

Fantastic.  You will feel like a dickhead for eating fast food.

WWJD

You know the germans make good stuff.  

Help a brother out

One of the down sides of having a sweet wife is that on occasion you wind up with a few of these.  This little son of a gun was found at the garden.

About 10 weeks old.  A pretty nice little fella.  

I am paying for shots and snipping. 

Perfect for Sophia Nelson or Eliana Farasy.  

Somebody take this thing off my hands.

I couldn't believe my eyes

Mike Mertz.  

Approximately 7:15. 

On his bike.  

Near the James River bridge.

No helmet. 

Still looks fast.

Wow

That's Dumb.

That's odd. 

That's a train wreck 

Random thoughts

 I overhead two women at lunch talk about John and Kate plus 8 for 45 straight minutes.  Who gives a shit?    Is this where we are?  Is this what accounts for doing something, getting a TV show because you have a bunch of kids. American Idol contributes nothing but shitty pop music, but its a phenomenon. How many people can name the other ten men who walked on the moon after Armstrong and Aldrin?  How many people can name a Medal of Honor recipient?   We have a couple wars going on, health care is ruining the country, the economy is in the tank but apparently the only thing that carries any water in this country is going on TV and acting like a dick.

I will not be watching Fanarchy on Versus (see previous comment).  Makes me long for the Tapout ads.

That Lance Armstrong is one savvy bike rider.  I'll bet Contador is muy furioso.  

Who is the target market for the Progressive insurance ads with Flo?

That Roger Federer is one savvy tennis player.  What a match. 

The Basque and the Dutch have some great names.

Found some Hamm's.  A little thin.

Movie review

I have seen a few good documentaries recently

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders

Sicko

Blood Sweat and Gears

(Springfield has another movie star)

Non documentary

Les triplettes de Belleville

best silent french cartoon about cycling I have ever seen

Put your hands together

Took a break from secret training with J. Edgar for a little 

convention at the Lake of the Ozarks over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Hit Honey Run a couple of times. May be my favorite single speed trail.

The crew that maintains that trail is good.

Watched a little Versus Sunday with the old Tour stages

from the Postal era.

Two things:

1) The pros look cooler sans helmets. They just do.

2) Lots of guys with "blood value issues" were 

doing pretty well

Book Mobile

Received my VeloNews TdF special issue last week.  I feel like a kid at Christmas receiving the Sears catalog.

Picked up up some Schlitz a couple weeks ago to go with the PBR.  Outstanding.  Don't know why either ever went out of style. 

 I am looking for some Hamms right now.  I haven't seen any since I moved from Columbia.  Those cartoons from the 70's are paying residual returns now.