A dark run to the Darth side

Tuesday I was sick of not riding after a great weekend run with the crew so I ran down 176 to main to bonner over to darrell and to Darths to remind him to wake up after his surgery. It was quite black out by 430 my return leg but it was good to get out. I had minimal interference from traffic. I consider 1 honk minimal. I didnt check the numbers but at apperox 18-22 miles and all road it was a nice little stretchIt is pretty flat, although everything is more extreme seeming in the dark of afternoon. I am glad the days will be on the upside of daylight now.

A Brisk Ride

Wednesday of last week was a fairly cold day at 33 degrees. The winds were out of the West and were gusting to 20 miles per hour. I had to coax FGB into riding with me. It wasn’t like calling CK and receiving a hearty, “yeah what time do you want to go?” After getting FGB worked up and excited about riding we donned the necessary layers and mounted our aluminum steeds. After a short 1.9 miles FGB was saying how glad he was to be out riding. All it took was getting him past his fears that it would be cold.

If you notice in the picture I have a can of Halt hanging from my water pack courtesy of CK. Thanks CK it actually came into use on this ride, not just once but twice the can was actually fired at a persistent canine pursuer! The route we chose, of course, took us West into the wind. At about 6 miles into the ride we were attacked by a pit bull running loose. He charged at FGB so I slowed down and stuck my arm out so he’d have something to aim at. Little did he know that that arm also had a hand attached to it and the hand was holding a can of Halt. He charged at my out stretched arm and I fired. The wind caught the spray and I missed the target, but the smell of the pepper spray was enough for him, he kept barking and snarling but he stayed well out of range of the fiery spray. Good to know it doesn’t even have to hit them to be effective. Not even a mile from that dog an australian sheep dog comes tearing out of his yard, passing us with ease, and cutting in front of me and stopping in the middle of the road, tail between his legs and growling. I once again unclip my Halt and raise my arm to fire. As I get closer I can see he’s not going to give way and is timing my feet for a strike. I let loose with my red spray of fire and it hits it’s mark right on the snout of my worthy foe. With a yelp he runs back to his yard and as we pass, victorious, he just stands there with a perplexed and fearful look on his face. I dare say if ever we pass by that way again he won’t even bother to come off of his yard. Since the law states that dogs must be leashed or fenced in at all times I think, in the future I will spray any dog that comes out of his yard in any posture other then happy to see you! About a mile from home we were “chased” by another dog. Chased is in quotation marks because this dog was so fat that I was afraid it was going to have a heart attack just trying to do the 11 mph we were going. Needless to say compassion got the better of me and I didn’t spray this mutt, he’s got enough problems.

FGB and I did a 13 Mile ride into a brisk wind with dogs at our heels and survived. I was afraid that the dog experience would sour FGB on the idea of riding, but thankfully he loved it. There is a certain thrill in meeting the challenge and overcoming it that is good for a thirteen-year-old boy. It is safe to say though that FGB will never forget his can of Halt again, you’ll notice that he doesn’t have one strapped to his pack. The next entry will be all about hunting squirrels and rabbits in the family woods, my first hunting trip

Timber King or Food?

First of all a big thanks goes out to Darth for being the editor and impetus for this blog. I haven’t done much riding since we have received much rain in Indiana unlike my friends in Illinois who got clobbered with snow. The rain has all frozen and the ice patches are quite treacherous. But all is not lost I have been hiking with the family in the frozen woods.

Saturday we all donned our winter gear and headed up to Pokagon State Park in North East Indiana. The Baby was a sight to see, she had no winter boots so we layered her up in a couple pairs of daddy’s wool socks. The bike trailer came in handy as a baby transport and carry all for our gear and as you can see when the dog got too cold we tucked him into the back with FGB’s down blanket. He rode like a mini emperor in his human drawn carriage. Now something’s definitely wrong with this picture.

The changes in a deciduous forest in the fall and winter of the Midwest are drastic and beautiful. The leaves all fallen and brown, the greenery that usually fills the ground with life, and color, and insects all but gone, and the sun setting between the trees all lent itself to a somewhat melancholy feeling. I was reminded of the fragility of life and yet even in the midst of apparent desolation we saw the beauty of life. A falcon landed in a tree just above our heads and hopped from branch to branch showing its agility and grace.

As we hiked around the back end of the park we began to hear the exuberant howls of elated children as they raced down the toboggan run. It is a tall run that takes a good 10 or 15 minutes to walk up and mere seconds to fly down. FGB begged to go down the run but I hadn’t brought any money to rent a toboggan with so I promised him a trip as soon as we had some proper snow. I don’t know what they were sliding on. I guessed that the park either made snow or iced it down with water.

On the home front we have a pair of rough legged hawks down from somewhere in the great white north of Canada to over winter in our bean field. They are awesome birds with a wingspan of about 4 feet and all the majesty of a great bird of prey as it soars on the updrafts and swoops low across the fields in search of unsuspecting rodents. We first noticed them when Marie let Timber out the back door to go potty. He ran over to the tall weeds growing above our septic field and began to root around in his normal way. Marie was watching him from the sliding glass doors when she noticed a large bird from across the field heading in the direction of our house. It took a moment but she soon realized it was a bird of prey and it was heading straight for Timber. Thinking quickly she called Timber to come and eat and always eager for food Timber charged into the house. As soon as Timber got to the doorway the hawk wheeled and went back to the bean field to continue his hunt. We’re not sure if he would have really tried to take down the dog but as Timber is the size of a rabbit were not taking any chances from now on he’s on a short leash or we go outside with him.

Just to Update

Hey guys long time no blog. I am still know to this technology so I am afraid tp reveal myself. Well here I go I am still bowling on Fridays anf Every other Sundays. I am the most inconsistant bowler I know. I can bowl 180's 190's and low 200's. The in the same week bowl like 110-130's. My league average is 156 in both leagues. I am looking forward to getting into my old form of bowling an average of 170's-180's. One of these days i will have my consistancy back and can get my average up. Bowling kind of plays head games with me. I think I thow the perfect ball and get a split. Though a bad shot and get a strike. I guess this is the same with life you think you did something right and get a bad report. I think I do something wrong and get praised for it. Then you have the average throw and you get the spare, and this is the average day in a persons life. I wish luck come to me more often and get that average life going again. My other problem is letting oppentents getting into my head and just playing head games and me not ignoring it and do the best I can do.

35 More Minutes Inside

Well today I was able to hit the bike inside for another 35 minutes. I hook up the iPod and ride while Darth Kid 2 is napping. It gives me the much needed alone time as well as some good exercise. I do hope to be ablt to continue this routine the entire winter.

Come spring after my elbow heals from getting a tendon repaired I plan on riding as well as Join a Shotokan Karate Club. I was in Tae Kwon Do for years as a kid and teen and did make it to a 1st degree black belt prior to having life happen. Now that I am set in life and need some kind of additional outlet I am thinking getting back to Martial Arts is a good thing.

So come spring after I am100% healed I will be an exercise freak...

Ride On!!!

Just keep walking

I'm sure we'll get there by next week". I think that is a quote from a very old INXS song. Darth. I would love if I could get some of that music long promised.

I think Thanksgiving was the last time I rode as it was very nice and I went jersey and shorts about 16 miles RT to dinner ( yeah I changed for dinner), I ws going to try to ride last friday and had switched over my lights and installed the interchange rack (probably wrongly) on wife's old SC30, but a mounting bracket fell apart so I await parts. Thursday I hope to send the bag to trek to get the zipper fixed. Cold is OK, snow is OK, but both together is a problem as everything is ice and too much to ride through but not enough to not crunch through.

Sunday and Monday I did 1.5 miles on the treadmill in 30 minutes each day. Today I did 2 miles in 40 minutes and my back is now telling me it is unhappy. Better than nothing.

A Few Changes Made

I made a few changes to the blog and added a few things.

1. Feedburner Email Subscription. People can now sign up to receive new posts via their email.
2. Technorati Search function. This is a search of the blog as well as a promotional feature having the blog on the Technorati site. Additional search areas. More people to find us.
3. A Link to my NEW Work At Home Dad Blog. " A Man Among Mommies"

As the month goes on I have a few ideas for some simple changes. There is a new version of Blooger available, but it is still a beta version. I have "A Man Among Mommies" in the new format, but it has a few bugs and does not work right with FireFox. IE7 is currently the least buggy. (That is odd)

Once the new blogger is up and running correctly I will make some major changes in format, color and features. You can see some of the features on the A.M.A.M blog.

On the Exercise front I rode last night for 35 minutes and had blocks of time where I was riding over 20 mph. Good workout.

Ride On...

Snow Removal At it's Finest...

Well I have not posted in a little while due to my complete lack of activity. I did ride inside a few times and last Monday rode for more then an hour. Yesterday however I spent some quality time with the snow, a shovel and a borrowed snow blower. The estimated final count was between 12 and 15 inched. Because of the elbow issue it is really not a good idea for me to shovel. Mrs. Darth went out and started shoveling since she did not drive into work. School was also cancelled so it felt a bit like a Saturday. After 2 hours of shoveling Mrs. Darth had maybe 1/3 of the driveway done. After looking at it I decided that was crazy and went down to a neighbor and asked to borrow their snow blower. It was a pretty beat up machine, but beggars can not be choosers. It took me over 2 more hours to finish the drive. I then needed to use the shovel to dig out the mailbox as well as the front stoop. This morning I need to go to the dentist and repair the chipped tooth I got when I fell of my bike as well as fix an old filling... Oh Joy...

This afternoon Mrs Darth and I are going to go check out some snow blowers. We are leaning towards getting one since after the 20th of December I will be unable to do any difficult work. We probably will not need it more then 5 times a year so I am sure it will last a very long time.

Be Well and Ride On...