Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Here are a few things I learned, or reminded myself that I knew, but forgot.

1. Don’t touch liquid plastic.  Its hot!
2. When you’re drilling on something, measure 45 times before doing it.
3. When using a voltmeter, have the plugs inserted into the correct slots
4. Finding a campspot on the beach in the summer in San Diego is impossible
5. Mountain bike chain rings are dangerous

I’ll write more on the dangerous mountain bike chainrings tonight.  Our Noble Canyon ride turned into the Noble Rescue Ride.

Went out for a ride tonight with Dan.  Last time I rode with him he royally kicked my butt.  This time, he only kicked my butt.  PQ was nice and the weather was good.  Some of the trailwork that was done over on the sh!ts trail is in pretty bad shape.  Really loose and unfun   No pictures, my camera is busted.  I did however finish the ride with a smile

I’m not sure how to start other than to say ‘Thank you Alison.’ As many of my friends know Alison and I have been together on and off for over five years. Fortunately, mostly on. Unfortunately now we are off. I haven’t said anything directly to people because I feel like I’m some kind of joke. Unable to make something work with an incredibly awesome woman. Maybe I its just me that feels I’m a joke. I’m horribly sad over the whole thing. I can’t even express the level.

For those of you who don’t know Alison. The best way I can describe her is quirkily magnificent. She has her quirks, some honestly would drive me nuts. But, her magnificence far outweighed any kind of quirk she had. Unfortunately, I’m just plain busted when it comes to relationships. I haven’t had many long term relationships, but when I have I’m ‘All In’. For some reason it didn’t happen this time for me and I feel like a complete failure about it. She says “She found me at the wrong time.” I wish I had my head on right and could have made it the ‘right’ time. Loosing her is my biggest regret.

She was probably the best thing to happen to me, and I’m just too stupid to realize it.

Regardless. She was my best friend. My partner in crime. We rode motorcycles together, paintballed, mountain biked, camped, surfed and a ton of other things together. I’ve never had anyone do so much with me and give so much to me. I doubt I’ll find another that will.

As they say, a picture says a thousand words. Here’s a few hundred thousand. Thank you Alison.

Happy happy birthday!!!!  Have a good one!  Miss you!

Kevin and I were embarking on our first of many legendary journeys.

http://www.m0to.com/blog/2007/05/27/day-3/

That’s all I have to say about that.

Last week I got a new tattoo.  I don’t have a bunch of tattoos.  I have three actually including this most recent one.  My rules on tattoos are I need to want them for at least three years, and they need to mean something to me or about me.  This most recent one is something I had thought of doing about 10 years ago, but didn’t.  For those of you who have known me through the years know the last six years have been a little rough.  I don’t expect anyone to understand why as we all live our own lives.  But lets just say I haven’t been the happiest dude around.  About three months ago I was talking to someone and I said “You know, the happiest I ever was is when I would get home from work everyday, and ride my mountain bike.”  A week or so later it hit me, is that was what was missing from my life.  Riding.  Since I can remember I rode a bike.  It was my ticket to freedom.  With a bike, the world was my oyster.  After breaking my back on the dirt bike.  I had stopped riding.  Also, all my friends who rode were gone, married with families, or otherwise pre-occupied so I didn’t get back into riding.

Then, about two months ago Alison wanted to look at new bikes.  She was riding the really old bike of mine and doing well, but we both agreed she’d do even better on a bike that fit her better.  That’s when it happened.  I sat on a Santa Cruz Nomad and was like “Oh! This bike was made for ME!”  Then, I obsessed on it for two weeks, and then I bought it.  And, I couldn’t be happier.  Since then my attitude is better, I’m healthier, and I’m way more fun to hang out with!  So, in comes the new tattoo.  I never want to forget to ride again.  Its such a part of who I am and it helps me recenter and find myself again when I’m lost.  I’m glad I found riding again.  I’m glad I have friends who will do it with me.  Thank you!

Hey gang.  Alison and I got to ride Anderson Truck trail for the first time this weekend.  We joined some of the guys from the Kearny Mesa Bike Warehouse along with a few of their friends for a ‘way too early’ in the morning ride.  The ride time worked out well for me as I had plans to get on a train at noon to go up and see my Mom.  When the alarm went off at 5:30 AM I did have my second thoughts.    We met Christos at Santo and the 52 at 6:30 and followed him out to Alpine to the bottom of the trail.  Once there we waited a little bit for the rest of the gang to arrive so we could shuttle up to the top.  We were short on time so we had to forgo the pleasure of pedaling up the mountain.

After unloading at the top we got to experience Jeff’s warm up routine.  Many jokes were made, but I’ll bet that he’s in a lot better shape than the rest of us are and typically less sore.  This was a first time run for us so Alison and I were both pretty cautious.  I’m still getting used to riding again, and I don’t have a lot of steep descent or jumping skills.  But, I was able to get some great shots of the others!  Some of the jumps were huge to me.  Like 5-8 foot drops or jumps.  Just way too big for me at the moment.

As you can see here on the left.  Some of them were so big I could squat under them and they didn’t even know I was there!  For the most part the big stuff was up top and the lower half was fast single track.  The second half was something I was comfortable with.  Ruts and rock gardens don’t make me nervous like steep descents or big drops.  I did however accidentilly roll off a drop I was ready for.  When I came down I was positioned wrong and slammed my seat into my chest.  I think it was the first time I’ve ever seen stars.  I never knew what that looked like before!  Nice little white spots appearing and disappearing in your vision.  Kinda trippy.  I think its cause I usually crash on moving vehicles I tuck and close my eyes right before impact.

We had a couple of crashes, some road rash.  None for me though as I prefer to be remembered as ‘that chicken guy’ than ‘that guy who crashed 8 times’.  I figure once I’m more comfortable on the bike and build my skills up more some of this stuff won’t be as scary.  Fun ride! Can’t wait to do it again.  You can see the rest of my pictures here: Anderson Truck Trail

As those of you who know me, know I’ve been selling stuff on Ebay. Its great, things sell that I would have a hard time selling locally. This last week, I listed some of the remaining dirt bike/super moto stuff I had and specified I would only ship to the US and Canada. Some guy in Russia decides he wants to buy it so pays the buy it now. And, on top of that he has zero feedback. The end result was he took my item off the market. And now he’s non responsive. Great… So, now I have to go through the whole drill with Ebay showing that he’s non responsive which is going to delay me selling this item now for two weeks. Joy!

Ah well, guess that’s the way things work. Fricken lame.

Update: Apparently, because I did specify which countries I would ship to I was able to decline the bid and relist.  Ebay support was actually pretty useful!