A Small Concert with Liz Longley

Continuing our revival of our social life, the Beautiful Mrs K and I were invited to an intimate concert with Liz Longley.  She has an amazing voice and connects so well with her audience.  We were floored.  The setting was perfect and we were honored to be guests.

She also plays the piano.  This was a very emotional segment for her and for us.  You can visit her at lizlongley.com or follow her on twitter @lizlongley

Peacemaker Lobster and Crab - A Fantastic Food Experience

 My wife and I don't get out very often, so it's important that when we do that it's well worth it.  Well, Peacemaker Lobster and Crab in the Soulard area is absolutely worth it.  Brought to you by the same people that run Sydney Street Cafe, too.  The atmosphere was great and the food was better.  We were adventurous and ordered a lot of food just so we could try it.  You can spend more money at Applebee's, too, which is astonishing.

We could have been rolled out of there on stretchers.  So full of good food.  To top it all off, we had home made ice cream that was so good.  I mean, really, really good.

It gets 5 stars on my 4 star scale of places to eat.  Go try it out.

Midlife Crisis - Stairclub Record Achieved!

In an alternate universe, my younger self is really, really pissed off.  20x stairclub record, achieved!

Car Watching - 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback

 Ah, my favorite Fastback.  Well, it's a toss up between this and the 71-73.  The 67 has the little slots in front of the rear wheels and the framed Pony grill (no framed pony grill on this one).  The owner is a new mountain biker and I was able to get some shots of the car and ask him a few questions.

This is the phoenix from the ashes of a coupe that bit the dust.  He transplanted the engine, along with a few upgrades, into this Fastback.

 It has an awesome profile.   The modern wheels are actually pretty nice looking.

 If you go over the paint with a magnifying glass, you can see flaws.  But as a driver this thing is stunning.

 The concave 67-68 tail light panel gets me every time.  And the roofline as it molds into the trunk lid is awesome.

So, what's in it?  Internal combustion goodness, that's what.  Not only is it a manual transmission, but the V8 is no joke.  It's a 302 that's bored and stroked to the max to make it a 347cu in.  On top of that?  A Procharger centrifugal supercharger.  Yikes.  700-ish horsepower is what the owner thinks.  A nice catch for a Saturday morning!

Nice Long Ride At Greensfelder

Fantastic day to ride mountain bikes.  Whereas Friday the trail was a bit muddy, today it certainly was not. I went to Greensfelder again because I had to truncate my ride Friday.  My goal was to ride all of the trails there in one big loop.  It was a great ride for a total of 15.5 miles and 1600 feet of climbing.  One glitch:  My rear tire was seeping air the entire time.  It's been going on for a few weeks now, but the leakage accelerated today.  I'm blaming the tape job on the rim, because as you can see there appears to be dirt collecting on the seam between the tire and rim, both sides, all the way around.

And for all of you seat bag haters, I say BEHOLD!  Captain Seatbag to the rescue!  I topped the rear tire off and finished the ride in style.  I did, however, forget to close the seat bag.  No harm, no foul, all of my goods were still intact when I reached the car.

Bottom line:  Greensfelder has some bad ass, challenging trails with a fair amount of distance if you put them all together.  And...don't forget the seat bag!

It may all seem like fun and games, but

The Cobra has sat silent for a while.  It's a real bitch to drive a topless car past Thanksgiving, I'm telling you.  I started it last week and was disappointed with the floppy idle.  Today I made some time to get under the hood treat the beast with some loving care.

The plugs are old.  They didn't look too bad, but I'm going to replace them.  While I was in the vicinity, I noticed a lot of darkness on the plug wire boots.  Sure enough, the header bolts were loose.  That explains a lot.  Next week, I will button this up with new plugs and a little dielectric grease on the wires, along with a solid torquing of the header bolts.  Then I'm going to tame the Holley Mighty Demon.

Then I shed my civilian clothes and donned the outfit of Captain Seatbag.  Greensfelder was great for 75% of the time, but the other 25% was not so great.  My intention was to do the entire trail system from Dogwood all the way around to the new stuff and up out of Eagle Valley. I had to tread lightly on the north facing stuff that wasn't rock, so I only managed 13 miles and 1400 feet of climbing.

Car Watching - Re-watching the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta

 Hello my old Friend!  Seems Chesterfield Valley is a regular stop for this particular F12.  I blogged about it a few months ago and here it is again.  In the brilliant February sunshine, it was breathtaking.

And I couldn't resist the Prancing Horse.

30x Stairclub and Creepy Photos

Contrary to most recent photos, I have run stairs mostly at night.  It has just worked out that way over the many years that I have done them. No matter which stairs I have run (MRH bleachers, West Richmond, etc.) I have never felt spooked or wary of running them at night.  Tonight I thought about taking photos of the Shrewsbury strairs and what should I find but some really freaking creepy shots!  I like the first one, the lighting is awesome.

The shot from the top looking down makes me think that Micheal Meyers from the Halloween movies should be standing down there, creepy mask and all.  But standing there taking these photos wasn't in the least scary.  Fun shots, though.

Thirty times up and down tonight, felt pretty darn good.  #stairclub !

These can't be my kids

What are they even doing??  Fire, smoke, kids running around, dog freaking out...

Mountain Biking because I Heart Climbing

 I've spent a lot of time lately indoors on the trainer.  This last week has been good for the soul with better weather and being able to ride outside.  Today I went to Greensfelder again because I thought it would be the best chance to get in some good climbing in a short amount of time.  The trail was 80% deluxe, 20% slime.  I stuck mainly to the north and east of the grounds to avoid any real slime.  I threw in the asphalt Scenic Loop, a short 2.1 mile jaunt through Greensfelder that has some eye-popping 18% sections.  And a downhill where I topped 38mph...on my mountain bike, mind you.  If you look closely at my rotor, you'll see a lovely rainbow shade, with a lot of dark purple.  Yeah, after you hit 38mph, you have to grab a handful.  That will sand right out....right??

It was only a little over an hour for me, 13 miles and 1600+ feet of climbing.  There's another cool climb that I hit twice today, the gravel double track that climbs up from the depths of the area to the Scenic Overlook.  That climb hits 20-plus percent several times.  It's a real grunt.

Climbing day - Mission Accomplished.

Work isn't always Boring

 I can find a thousand things every day that I find interesting.  Some of those things will be work-related.  On Fridays and some Sundays during the last year, I've worked a second "job".  Money is always a draw to working extra, but I can't tell you how many things I've learned to do.  Lights, wiring, plumbing, sanding, painting, pushing, pulling, and good old fashioned put yer back into it stuff.

Remember how much I hate heights?  Once again I overcame that fear to get some rooftop work accomplished.  First....this ladder.  Hate these things.

 Once out on top, today's brilliant sunshine and the brisk air gave me some real energy.  Here I'm looking West toward highway 64.  I wish that horizon included some mountains, but it doesn't.

After some semi-skilled caulk work, I had to descend the hellish ladder again through this hellish port hole.  Man, couldn't the ladder come up and over the edge here?  I mean, I've seen enough Three Stooges skits and Road Runner cartoons to know that an ill-timed stumble sends you head first down one of these things.  Lucky for me, the gods of slapstick were not against me.

Ready for 50

At the beginning of 2016, I took stock in my health and I wasn't happy.  I had a lot of ailments and my cycling-imbalanced body needed work.  If I wasn't going to be racing, I decided I had to make the most of what I had left.

I never once visited a gym, but I have a couple of dumb bells and a pull-up bar.  Push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, planks, and a few shoulder exercises with the dumb bells.  Twice a week.

This is the result, about 6 weeks away from my 50th birthday.  This is me.  I'm never going to give in to old age.  Age eventually wins, but I want to live the way I want to live.  When my time comes, I won't be sorry.

Somewhere there is a saying, something like "It's not the number of years to your life, but the amount of life in your years."  I'm sure I butchered that, but you get the picture.

Onward and upward.

Greensfelder on a Cold Morning - Sweet!

 Warm sunshine, cold air.  It was 27 degrees when I started.  I was worried about the freeze-thaw cycle so I wanted to get out early.  But even with the sun, there was no thaw.  A little sheen on the dirt in some spots, but no mud, no splatter.  I did the Eagle Valley descent, climbed up into the old trail a bit, a loop of Fossil Ridge, a loop of Beula (sp?), another lap of Fossil Ridge, and then climbed out the final race loop climb.  An hour and my fingers were frozen.

Look Ma!  No mud!  #captainseatbag

The Kids are on My Mind

 I'm exhausted from a long week.  I really didn't want to parent tonight.  When I say that out loud I invariably start thinking about the kids.  Maybe it's guilt.  Whatever it is, it happens every time. 

On Saturday night, Eli's basketball team had a great game.  He looks kind of like a little twerp holding the ball here but I think it's just his stance.

 They won the game, 25-8.  And I didn't get to the game, I had to work late.

 Then I think of the little princess.  This is a really old pic, from 2003.

2003 again.  I don't get to see her enough anymore.  She has school and a job.  I think she made more than me last week.  Hey girl, can you spare a little change for your dad?

 Then there is Tyson.  This is from 2005.  He and Hanna have always been two pees in a pod.

This is the little guys birthday in 2005, he was 4 years old.  Hanna looks like she wants to eat some of that cake.  Tyson is taller than me now, a sophomore in high school.  He's all about sports, girls, and his phone.

I don't remember the year, I think this is 2009.   This is at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They look so good together, don't you think?

I'll feel better already.  Maybe that's because the kids are in bed early?  Wait, I hear them arguing. I'll just parent tomorrow.....

That's What I Learned From My Dad

If you read this blog from time to time, you'll know that 2016 was the first year since 1979 that I did not race a bike.  It was a much-needed break, a break that gave me some perspective on why I have hung on to racing for so long.  I also had to find out if I could live without it.  The answer is yes, I can live without it, but no, I don't want to.

What is the significance of the stairs?  Running stairs is a hard workout, one that I started while I was in high school.  But it's also a connection to a former self.  This set of stairs is constant, and running it today is the same as running it in 1989.  There are few hard, fast comparisons one can make with one's past, but this is a good one.

I wrote down a time of ten minutes flat for 20x up and down the stairs in 1989.  The other day, I nearly equaled that.  That makes me happy because I know the 22 year old Tim Kakouris was a tenacious son-of-a-bitch and he would not have enjoyed having this almost-50 year old on his ass.  At 10 seconds back, he would have felt me breathing down his neck.  Small victory for me.

What is the significance of 200 rpm? BMX bikes have improved over the years, but spinning the pedals has not.  In 1986, a couple friends gathered together and we plugged in an RPM computer to see how fast we could spin on the rollers.  I remember getting 204 rpm, just ahead of my buddy who hit 200.  I hit the rollers the other day and saw 189 rpm.  Not bad.  I took the bike outside and hit well into the 180's several times, and nailed 194 rpm one time, flat pedals and all.  I would love to see the look on a 19 year old Tim Kakouris' face if he saw me spinning next to him down the track.  Small victory, again, for me.

Are these bragging numbers?  No, they are not.  There are 7 billion people on this planet and I imagine a great number of them can do a great number of athletic feats better than I.  But to me they are victories over the aging process.  They are victories over time and victories over life, both of which, as they creep along, take with them lots of delicious little bits of who you are with them.

I don't like the person that was the younger me, but I admire his drive and I admire his audaciousness.  He was too stubborn (and stupid) and his ego was too big to do the sport the right way, but somehow he still accomplished a lot of things.   Becoming a better man while holding on to some of that jerk's athletic prowess is a goal for me now.  It's not the racing that I cannot let go of, but the feeling of accomplishment and how I measure up.

I have others to inspire.  I don't care if any of my children ever take up cycling as a real hobby.  But what I want, what I need, is for them to be inspired.  Whatever form that inspiration takes, so be it.  I would love for them to sit down with their children and say "....that's what I learned from my dad."