who i passed today

another drivers ed car going 29mph in a 45 zone. the poor girl driving was petrified to be behind the wheel. after i passed her i watched in my rearview as she swerved no less than 3 times into the gutter before pulling off the road.

things i used to eat

Who i passed today

Two moving trucks going uphill. Awesome.

morning commute 2/14

first let me start by saying the commute home on the ruckus was cold last night. 24 degrees with 25 mph winds = around an 8 degree wind chill. it was with that in mind that i got a ride from kel this morning. 17 degrees out so i didn't want to suit up. it's going to be quite a bit colder where i will be going this weekend. luckily i do not have to scoot to work there.

Morning Ruckus Commute

Fishin'

A buddy of mine gave me a fly rod a few weeks back. Felt bad that i lived here and couldn't fish. I love sympathy. Anyway went fishing yesterday morning down at N Mills River. it was warm out, flies everywhere, fish literally jumping out of the water feeding. Did i catch anything, no. Man fish are smart, and picky. If you don't have the right fly on, they aren't biting. That, and the fact that my lack of casting technique causes a .00327gram fly to land on the water like a flock of canadian geese. On a couple of miraculously smooth casts i actually saw a fish dart up to my fly only to turn its nose and hit another fly, launching out of the water like those great white sharks do on discovery channel. Still, catching nothing on a mtn river is better than being at work.

it's been a while...

that's an understatement. i just noticed my last entry was december 7th 06'. that's a long time and a whole hell of a lot has happened since then. i could give you the long story but the short of it is kelly and i decided that quality of living was worth more than steady money so we (me) quit our jobs and moved to asheville. we had actually been planning this for months and had originally thought we were moving to boulder, co or fort collins, co. ultimately we looked a little closer to home and landed here, 809 sand hill rd, asheville.

i'll spare you the drivel of the past two months...basically we've been looking for jobs and riding. that's about it. kelly has pretty much gone off on most of the educators up here for their lack of follow up after interviews and i have recently been overheard calling my last interviewer a "skank" for not calling me back, regardless of the job status. so yeah, jobs are hard to come by up here, the rumors were true. any of you that know me well know i am a creature of habit and have a comfort zone that i do not like to venture out of very often. it's been real tough for me not knowing my immediate future but i am dealing with it well. with that said here are the latest happenings.

we got fleas, again. on top of the stress from relocating we are having to deal with a "28 days later" infestation of fleas in our garage. we read about how putting borax down on the floor pretty much does away with fleas without having to call the chemical man. about 40lbs of borax and 50 or so flea bites later i think we still have them down there. i say think because i am avoiding the garage like the plague. i bought a 12 gallon shop vac to suck the cretin up but that is a project for this weekend.

kelly has had more interviews than i care to discuss. she has been a trooper through this all, really busting her ass to find a job, unlike me. the latest on the teacher search landed her in spruce pine, about 50 miles away. oddly enough, for a position in a town of just a few thousand they have an amazingly progressive school system it seems. cross your fingers on this one, the commute sucks but it's a great job. kel also found work at earthfare and in the process scored us a 20% off discount! she hasn't straight flipped on anyone yet which is a good thing. i can honestly say that i would like to see her go off on some trustafarian though, maybe even assault them with a roll of quarters or one of 8 varieties of organic carrots.

i have not been as on top of things as kel. while i knew i had a job lined up if i needed it, i thought i would be more proactive in my job search. sike. i have managed one interview, with the skank, and that is all. but things are looking up. i took my pee pee test today and start work tomorrow as an assistant field engineer with trident concrete forming. you see, we're building condo's, so things really are looking up. get it...sorry, i don't have the wit of a certain kenny klatte. But i do have some timbaland boots...

starting tomorrow i have 60 hour weeks to look forward to, just mr. brandon koski when he was a landscaping person. gonna be a big change from sitting at a desk looking at the internet but after sitting on my ass for two months i need an honest days work.

that's it for now, this is long, sorry about that. i'll try to update more than every 7 months from now on.

Bikin'

Been riding some lately. That is hard to do when you have been working 14 hour days. And being in the bike business will kill your enthusiasm to throw a leg over the bike, I don't care what anyone says. When all you do is the business end of the industry all day and night over and over again the last thing you want to do sometimes is ride. However, the weather has been great and i've been psyched on riding my mtn bike lately. Took my Vicious cycles apart for some cleaning which means i've been riding my singlespeed. I had forgotten how much fun the singlespeed can be. Quiet, efficient, nothing to think about...it makes for quite an enjoyable ride through the woods. Our local trails (i mean trail) here are perfect right now, super tacky with just enough moisture to keep the dust down. And since i have been working overtime I am able to get out for long 2-2.5 hour lunches and enjoy the midday temps.

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