Ed - Onnnnnnn the EDGE

Ed came from Maryland for a visit last week. Without going into too much detail he is facing that thing a lot of us middle aged folks face. Ailing parents....but he's got a double dose because his wife Mary also has ailing folks..My plan for him was to not have a plan. Let him do whatever. I turned him off to blackjack, roulette and slots but I swear he looked like he was having fun. We even entered a tiny Blackjack tournament at the Silver Legacy which I won a whole 40 bucks. We watched the Friday nite Hot August Nights parade. After he adjusted somewhat to his surroundings we headed to the rim trail on top of Kingsbury and did the bench and back. This has never happened to either one of us. A runner not only passed us on the climb(the whole thing is a climb) but disappeared. After we turned around and were almost back he passed us again but we did have 3 flats. The tire gods were not with us but 1 of the flats was at a spot overlooking Lake Tahoe and I thought, 'there are worse places to get flats'. The following day we just rode around our lunch trails. Ash Creek trail, Postal, Jack Rabbit, Deer Run and part of Mikes and Baldy Green. He was impressed with everything but the hot sun. East Coasters are mostly used to riding in shade and rocks. He also made the comment that I've been making since I moved back, 'This sand takes a different skill'.....If you crash and are not in need of a helicopter Ed will mumble something like Hillbilly Bear or Billy Bob would, '...mmmmm..you be aaaaright' as he rides by you. Thankfully I didn't hear that on our 2 rides. I miss riding with you brother.....Hang in there.

some pics...

http://picasaweb.google.com/srussel459/EdsVisitPart1

Jackholes

The world is full of jackholes...I'm included for sure but.... to me life is about trying to overcome the jackhole ignorance you were born with and probably subjected to for the first 20-80 years of your life. So then you get a career or any job or maybe just get married to the closest thing that will have you, then and only then can you really see what Jackhole unchecked can become. I'd like to suggest to anyone who has worked at 1 place so long that they've worn a brown spot in their chair to just quit and go find another job and try to be the new person. See whats it's like. I try to be sensitive to the rest of the jackholes around me in general. I can respect people I don't care to be around. I can keep my mouth shut about 92.5 percent of the time but sometimes I think I might become a full fledged jackhole myself. Act like an ass 100 percent of the time. I think I'll strive to be a know-it-all, sensitive jackhole ass with a MLM scheme. With a political agenda that is unwavering. Add a twist of high brow religion and you've got it all. I think I'm sick of people for the most part...Strangely, now I feel better.

Jackhole in Chief - Scott Russel
Editorial Director - Scott Russel
Creative Director - Scott Russel
Senior Associate Editor - Scott Russel
Deputy Art Direction - Scott Russel
Fashion Director - Scott Russel
Senior Gibberish Overseer - Scott Russel

Motorcyclists

Over the last decade I've ridden bicycles both road and Mtn far more than motorcycles. I've had probably a dozen different motorcycles dating all the way back to the 6th grade. I used to race motocross and hare scrambles into my early 30's. 2 years ago I bought a Suzuki street bike and ride on occasion. The odometer just turned 5k so that goes to show how much I don't ride. I just returned from a ride over the Mt Rose highway to Lake Tahoe and back Rt 50 down into Carson. The predominant thought I had during parts of the trip were how hard it is to ride a motorcycle. A lot of bicyclists seem to poo poo the idea that motorcycle riding is tough. They seem to wear a badge of courage that they've pedaled to wherever and back. I'm guilty of it too. But for my bicycle riding friends who haven't ridden a motorcycle on the road I'd just like to take my short trip today in comfortable temperatures and give you a small taste of some challenges. Wind....out of nowhere a gust of wind can blow you off the road. A setting sun can be hard to look into when driving a car but on a motorcycle its really tough. Think Ray Charles. On my way down the mtn pass into Carson they were doing road work so the lane I was in was basically it for approx. 9 miles.. Trying to stay in my lane not knowing if the new pavement was slick and trying not to dare cross the center due to a huge ridge was tough. And of course there was a mini van behind me and for some reason he didn't want to pass on the right. Inside my helmet I was talking out loud telling myself to just be calm and breath. This almost never happens on a bicycle. A quick scare or a fall on the bicycle but the stakes are usually so much higher on a motorcycle. There are exceptions to everything so shut up. I think motorcycle riding even at normal speed is tough. On a different motorcycle note I'm still not sure of the wave. Seems like I always wave late because I don't want to be the guy who waves and doesn't get waved at back. It's cool to feel a brotherhood but damn that wave gets on my nerves sometimes because I then feel guilty if the person waves and I'm late......

Editor in Chief - Scott Russel
Editorial Director - Scott Russel
Creative Director - Scott Russel
Senior Associate Editor - Scott Russel
Deputy Art Direction - Scott Russel
Fashion Director - Scott Russel
Senior Gibberish Overseer - Scott Russel

Air Stagnation Alert and Charbroiled

ALERT 1 - Non Precipitation Advisory
AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON PDT FRIDAY FOR MUCH OF THE SIERRA NEVADA AND FAR WESTERN NEVADA
Issued: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 3:45 PM PDT
Expires: Thursday, July 10, 2008 5:00 AM PDT

---------------
Finally the weather has caught up with my brain. Today as I was walking to Arbys and passing by Burger King in almost 100 degree heat I noticed in addition to the smoke moving in from the fires the smoke from making the whoppers had somehow increased in intensity, giving real meaning to the term charbroiled. For a brief second I thought I had finally made it to hell and felt what it must be like to actually become charbroiled.

Realization

http://picasaweb.google.com/srussel459/MidJunemtnBikeFromJeffsHouseUpKingsCanyonAndDownAshCanyon
Jeffs pics...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/facilitybikeclub/sets/72157605754617891/

1/2 mile short of 36 miles and 8 minutes short of 5 hours....J-mo like a lot of people who live where they have lived most of their lives started to realize he hasn't done some of the bigger climbs around the area from bottom to top. When I lived near DC I almost never went to some of the greatest museums in the world. I scraped the surface so to speak. I won't bore my small readership with directions and details other than we started at Jeff house at 9am and ended at his house around 4.30ish pm. We climbed high enough to see Lake Tahoe and then around a bit and down a Canyon that is a part of our lunchtime rides. At the top of this Canyon on our descent it was so steep some of us experienced brake fade and we could smell our discs/pads overheating. A couple of hikers congratulated me on making the final hill before you make a short descent to enter the Flume Trail. When I told them I had climbed from Carson City they seemed to look semi-impressed. For fit riders this isn't such a big deal but I know some fit folks who might have hesitations at a 5 hour ride with 4 of it climbing. Ryans girlfriend Christine was tough as nails. Since I know them the least I ended up in nice conversations during portions of the climbs only to realize she was setting a nice pace. At one point 3/4 of the way thru the hardest climbing...the point in which little hills seems to take a lot out of you.... I was chatting with Ryan and Christine was in front grinding these climbs out and instead of soft pedaling on the rest parts you could hear the clunk clunk noise of her shifting to harder gears. She's got hammer in her blood. Probably comes from hanging around Ryan. In summary it was nice to do this suffering with this group of people. No mechanicals, no whining and just a sense of being lucky to have such nice surroundings to suffer in. Now that's it's done I don't ever remember suffering. Oh that's right...I just got the feeling back in my big toe. Gotta stop mashing and start spinning. Now when people say they climbed Kings Canyon to Spooner, up to Marlette over Sunflower Pass and down to Hobart and finally back down Ash Canyon, those of us who have never done it will have a response. And 1 final realization. I can still ride a mtn bike. I was starting to wonder. I gave myself an early Bday present with this simple realization.

Thanks Lester, Ryan, Christine and J-mo..

Thoughts

Not exactly my thoughts but I read something in Bike magazine that actually wasn't the usual bike related boring bullshit. Mike Ferrentino wrote a nice article entitled, 'killing time'. In it he quotes Eckart Tolle...This is the quote that sums up everything to me....'To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and the future for your fulfillment'....Holy heck! How could all my random thoughts be summed up in 1 sentence. This article is from the June issue. I don't think I can add anything to this other than a deep sense of identifying with that 1 idea.

Jim @ Jackie G

http://picasaweb.google.com/srussel459/JimJackiesHouseAndOtherRelatedPics

This is a short story complete with pics of one of my circles of friends that I'll call Jim/Jackie....

This story starts of with Joe...I met Joe thru Joe who used to date and is now married to a roommate of mine back in the 90's...Both Joe's are bicycle folks and both still race. Joe #1 turned 50 this year and he's still at it. Joe #1 also turned into a good close friend and mentor to all things bicycle. Good friends tend to have other good friends which is where Jim comes into the picture. Jim started to ride bicycles with us and since he lived at the bottom of a mtn it was always climb 1st. I can remember him slumped over the handlebars at the top of the climb on our 1st ride together. I'm not sure if he vomited but it was close. I don't seem to remember him complaining though. Skip forward a few rides and he was good to go. Eventually his inner circle started riding and he kinda become the unspoken leader. He was the 1st to jump in and fix a problem for his friends to the point that I still don't think they know how to fix a chain. Many times I can recall thinking someone was gonna have to walk out of the woods from a mechanical and somehow Jim fused a rock with a stick and got the bike going enough to get home. Jim is also a lover of ALL things nature so if you're riding behind him and a new flower/bird/bug/tree catches his eye..get on both brakes. He eventually established a ride mostly on Wednesdays. For that ride all you needed to show was a 6 pack and 2-3 bucks for the pre-cooked Lidos pizza. After pizza and a beer Jim and the boyz would play music(see pics). After Jim/Jackie got their youngest son Jimmy into college they decided to travel since Jackie is a nurse and can find work anywhere. Since they were just getting their feet wet and weren't sure of places they might like to settle they offered me an opportunity to house-sit for them. I had recently moved back to Maryland and wasn't sure of anything so an opportunity to live at their place and be close enough to my mom AND afford rent was perfect. I really didn't pay rent in a sense. Containing 6 acres is not as easy as it sounds. I learned to drive a old, big tractor so I could bushhog a field. I must say this tractor is etched in my mind. I was always worried that #1 it would stop running or #2 it would tip over. I learned to use the barn for 4 days when the septic system got too filled with shit. It wasn't my fault.I learned that I like hotubs. I learned that if you're 90+ and still help shovel your own driveway your're tougher than I'll ever be.(thanks Mattie) I learned if you buy the wrong cat food they may turn to rabbits instead. I learned that teenagers can at times test your nerves but are mostly lovable. The extreme swings of a teenager is what sticks with me..predictable yet unpredictable..responsible yet irresponsible..I learned a phrase that I'll never forget...'Am I naked'! (Thanks Jimmy)....I learned that I can't or don't want to learn how to play drums yet I still like banging on them as long as I have headphones on(thanks Pete). I knew but witnessed that a house is nothing unless you fill it up with something. They filled it up with more than 1 thing but to me it was love and acceptance and like me they are picky about who gets close. Acceptance is not a given. (My personal thoughts are: I'll accept you but if you're cruel or mean you might get shunned or worse. They were actually more accepting than I think I am of others) I also received a new name during xmas 1 year during my watch. Honorary name(Scotty G) as in Griffin. I appreciate that. Skip forward a bit and they now live in Truckee and still rent their place in Maryland but for real money. I think its been too long since I've had a beer with them.

ps. I took my mother out to meet them shorlty before I starting living there and she was weak that day and didn't get out of the car. Jim and Jackie came up to us and talked as if they'd known her forever. I didn't get out of the driveway and mom looked at me and said, 'those are my kinda people'...Thats the short story of Jim and Jackie G as told by Scotty G.