Lemons out of Lemonade - Epidemic Edition

School closings, businesses shutting their doors, event cancellations, and general pandemonium from incredible misinformation...it's been a rough couple weeks.  When you factor in the wet and cold weather, it's enough to make an active person go nuts.  But I had to formulate a plot so I didn't end up in jail or shot.  I figured I could take the one shit bike that is still set up for mountain biking out to Greensfelder and just to laps on a rocky loop to avoid the mud.  And in the car, what greeted me?

That's right, baby.  I knew it was going to be a good ride as soon as I heard Falco on the radio.  It's not my usual rap diet but I came of age in the 80's and what self respecting 80's kid was blown away by this weird ass song?

I had to get a photo of where it all began for me.  Greensfelder is a magical place in my world, so it was worth a bike-selfie (or "photos of my bike leaning against stuff").

Knockin' out teeth, clockin' much dollars on the 1st and 15th!  March 15th!  Beware The Ides of March, or so the saying goes.  It's supposed to be the date for settling of debts, monetary and otherwise.  I settled some debts with Greensfelder today, climbing over 2500ft in just 10 miles of riding.

Berryman Trail, Revisited

When I rode the Berryman Trail in January, I had a great time and wanted to come back right away. Well, life and the weather have not shared my enthusiasm for this.  Upon hearing the forecast for the weekend, I braced myself and just said "Self, we are going to Berryman on Sunday!"  And so it was.  I cranked some love songs on the CD player and headed west on 44 to the promised land.

It doesn't take too long before this guy comes into view.  However, the Bourbon water tower is still 20 miles from the Brazil Creek Trail Head.  It's a fun 20 miles, though.  Twists, turns, and some really cool views. It always has me wishing that I had a racier car.

Oh, and the ride? First off, the trail was in good condition.  The surface of the trail is rocky, so 90% of it is literally unfazed by the rain or the freeze/thaw cycle that plagues the soil in the STL.  Just a few mud holes, never a problem, to deal with.  I was having a great time, flowing really well.  But the 12 mile mark came and Jesus Christ in a rowboat, I got a puncture in my rear tire.  I was devastated. But I pulled up my big boy pants, fixed it, and still ended up more than 10 minutes faster than my January ride!  Yeah!  I was super excited when I rode into the parking lot upon finishing.

It took me a while to rack Blurple onto the Focus and get steered toward home.  After an effort like that, I'm usually pretty knackered.  It seemed like it took forever, but I finally spotted Taco Bell on the main highway.  Lifesaver!

Before I rolled my bike into the garage at home, I spied the big gash in the rear tire.  No hope for the sealant to work on that one.  I must have hit the only sharp thing on the entire Berryman trail

Home Improvement Weekend

After living with 2 of our 3 basement windows being broken for 10+ years, it was quite a sight to see the new glass block windows.  I wish I could say that I put them in myself...but I didn't.  It was a wonderful Christmas gift to our family.  The difference it makes in our basement is amazing. And no drafts!

One improvement I can take partial credit for was this new ceiling.  My in-laws have owned a two-family building close to Francis Park since they lived there 40 year ago.  Even Deanna rented there when I met her.  The ceiling in the second floor back porch was crumbling, so we started working on it a couple months ago.  My super handy brother-in-law and I finally finished it yesterday.  Just simple bead board and trim, but man, it made a huge visual difference. Oh, and nail guns are fun!

Happy Birthday Hanna - The 20's are Funny!

Although Hanna has a real knack for taking awful photos of me (on purpose), I don't really share that affinity.  I was glad this photo of her wearing a sombrero and whipped cream on her nose turned out pretty funny rather than wretched.  I'm guessing it's hard to take a bad pic of her.  She recently had a birthday and we all love Mexican food, hence the fine headwear.  Happy birthday, kid!

Ford Eco Sport - Good thing it's a Rental

So I have been a Ford guy since I was old enough to know the difference.  My parents had them so they were familiar and easy to recognize.  I haven't loved every Ford I have owned but I have at least liked each one.

However, the pudgy, homely, disproportionate car you see in this photo would have to do a helluva lot to gain a place in my heart.  Behold, the Ford Eco Sport. 

My Focus, which I will say has gained my respect if not my love, had a couple of factory recalls outstanding that I have waited years to take care of.  Yesterday, I dropped off the silver hatch back to finally get those taken care of.  The super-nice folks at Sunset Ford offered a rental car while mine was getting the love, and I couldn't refuse a rental car since I still gotta work.

In the cold, dark, misty night, the Enterprise rental guy led me to this off-red (sorta pinkie looking red) lump.  He apologized, perhaps seeing the disappointment on my face.  I took the keys, knowing that there was no reason to be upset because I just needed transportation.

The Eco has 2k miles on it, so it's essentially new.  Yet, that is the most positive thing I can say about it.  I mean, just look at this thing.  I has the most unpleasing shape of any modern SUV (high-car, if you'd like) on the road.  I found out pretty quickly that the only difference when pushing on the gas pedal lightly and pushing on the gas pedal violently was more agricultural, farm equipment-like noise from the front of the car.  No difference in speed, really.  Just more noise. Checking out the sticker price which was still on the window, I was surprised to see that they wanted $24k for this thing, farm noises and all.  Must be because the tractor engine under the hood is a turbo.  A turbo THREE CYLINDER 1.0.  Wow.  One can only wonder what the outcome would be if they DIDN'T have the turbo on this beast.  Seems like a heckuva lot of money for an engine that is missing it's 4th cylinder.  Don't get me started on the auto start/stop feature.

Can't wait to get the Focus back. I will gladly hand the Eco's keys back.  There are some things, however new, that just aren't worth it.

Happy Dog Happy Life

Make no mistake: anytime Rex gets a chance to lay on top of me, he will take it.  Especially if I lay in bed next to the beautiful Mrs K.  He loves TV time.  We don't get to watch much TV, but when we do, so does Rex.  He was so damn happy to get the PERFECT spot between my legs and on a throw pillow.  So happy that he was actually smiling and wagging his tail like crazy.

Yep, look at that smile.  A few moments into the show, and he was snoring.  Snored through the whole show.  Happy dog, happy life.

Return to the Berryman Trail

I can't remember the last time I rode the Berryman Trail.  It's locally famous and has changed a bit since I first rode it with friend and mentor Neil Kopitsky in 1989.  I know I rode it in 1996.  But I can't remember a time after that.  It had been long enough that I had to ask for recommendations on Facebook as to which trail head to start at, and which direction people like.  I totally remember getting off at the Bourbon exit.  That was easy.

And I remember this intersection, in which Highway W (really is an upside down M) would take me to the trail head.  But wow, it was quite a ways on W.  I didn't remember it being that far.  In total, it was 20 miles from Highway 44.

But there it was.  Marked better than it was in 1989, for sure.  The Brazil Creek trail head.  A small, quaint lot with a well-kept all weather bathroom.  I was totally the only person there.

Ah, a trail map!  Not that I thought it would help.   I was always surprised at how poorly the trail was marked with the little silver diamonds nailed to random trees along the Berryman.  Lucky Neil showed me the way the first time around, so each time after that I was diligent when coming to cross roads.

Certainly in the early 90's there wasn't a cool sign designating the Berryman as a cool place to mountain bike.  That was certainly a plus.

The trail was in solid shape, with no mud to speak of.  It was 90% leaf-covered, but trampled down enough that it wasn't a problem.  I climbed over 5 downed trees.  I only had a brief moment of panic when I came to a crossroads and didn't see the NEW Ozark Trail (OT) signs that were now so prevalent.  After a minute, I spotted one and was no worse for wear.  The entire 25.5 miles, I saw two people.  I was virtually alone, which was an awesome feeling.  I wasn't feeling so awesome when I finished.  Anything over 2 hours is long for me, and it took me a shade over 2 1/2.  I was glad to be done, but also pretty happy to be able to ride such a long, storied trail in the dead of winter.  It was 39-40 degrees most of the ride, with some pretty high winds, but weather was never a problem.

....and I stopped at Pizza Hut in Sullivan.  How cool is that?  I continued to eat everything in sight for the rest of the day.

I Hate Painting

The Great Paint of 2020 started a few days ago.  Every room and our house needs painting, but we began with the upstairs since we are going to replace the 15-year-old carpet and there is no way in hell I'm going to get paint dripped on that.  Our room was first, just because. The obligatory patching of the drywall was the first step.  There are always dings to fix, so that took a while.  Then the ceiling paint.  Finally the walls. The beautiful Mrs K did our bathroom yesterday.  Yikes.  I hate painting.

When we got the room put back together, it looked great. And it must have felt great, too, because a few minutes after we sat down, satisfied with a job well done, this happened.  Kind of like he made a nest in our perfectly clean, newly painted room.

Just for kicks, he got up there again tonight, in my spot.  We have a lot of other rooms to paint, and I have a feeling he will still be making his home on my bed, in my spot.

Attempting to get the Kids into Mountain Biking

As good as my kids have always been at riding bikes, none of them have really taken to it as a first sport.  They like baseball, football, soccer, volleyball, etc.  Totally fine sports, but c'mon man!  Deanna and I took Eli to Cliff Cave on New Years day (and hundreds of other people had the same idea...), one of our many attempts to get him enthused about riding.

We met Deanna's brother Kevin and his young man Michael there, too.  Eli did ride the Bluff Loop with me a couple of times and missed getting through the dip by ONE pedal stroke.  All this on one of the old Shit Bikes. All those Gateway Cup kids race wins are no fluke! Michael is quite the bike rider, and he kept asking for more so we gave him more.

Deanna took him for another few miles, around the Outer Loop on the other side of the road.  He seemed to really like it.  I bet he slept well, though.  All said, it was a promising day on the bikes.  Not that I want to live vicariously through my children's sports, but it would be great to see them get the joy that I get from cycling.

Last Post of 2019 - 2020 Will be a Great Year

Seems like a tragedy to ruin a great end-of-year blog post with a photo of  a grilled cheese sandwich.  But, quite the contrary.  This grilled cheese has salami on it, which makes it a super special grilled cheese sandwich.  And that's my metaphor for 2019...it was super special.  Not any one thing made it that way.  The culmination of so many things going right for Deanna and I make 2019 the best year of my life, of our lives.  And I get grilled cheese with salami so there.

What was I thankful for at Christmas?  Everything.  I don't need gifts.  I just need people that care.  And I have so many of those.  I did get a keyless garage door opener, though.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I got socks.  Not just any socks.  THESE SOCKS!  I won't tell you about the truly wonderful things that our family gave to us, because it's mostly stuff that didn't go under a tree anyway.  We are loved, and no one let's us forget that.

We went out.  We traveled.  We laughed. We cried.  We struggled.  We triumphed.  We aged.  We acted like children.  Bratty ones.  We worked. We played.  We adulted, probably too much, probably not when we needed to, but we adulted and I'd like to think we made our parents proud.

Best of all, we did it together.  We are not great as loners.  We do our best work when we work for something, for each other, with each other.  Forget about that time we almost killed ourselves with the extension ladder.  There are no photos of that so we're probably good.  Next year, we're going to live the same way, hopefully better.  Whatever happens, it will happen.  Mostly, we just care that we're doing it together.

Rex - On Being Rex

Our lovable mutt is pretty predictable.  If I come home and he doesn't greet me at the door, I know why.  It's because he's enjoying a particularly wonderful nap....in someone's bed.  On this occasion, it was in Hanna's bed, with just the right amount of sunlight warming his nose.  He didn't wake up when I walked in to take this photo.

If the beautiful Mrs K is working on her computer in our room, there is absolutely no doubt where Rex is.  Yep.  He's doing his best, imitating me, in my spot, on my pillow, in my bed, right next to her.  Nope, didn't wake up for this photo, either.

When it snows, there's a fantastic chance that Eli will be throwing snowballs for Rex to catch with his mouth.  This is a bad capture from a video that I took after last week's snow.

When Mrs K and I stretch or do planks on the bedroom floor, there is a 100% chance that he is trying to lay on top of her.  If she doesn't let him lay on her head, he will whine and moan like he's been left out in the rain.

Christmas morning, he was the one waking us up for presents, not the kids. He got some squeaky toys and a rope.  Mostly demolished, mostly on my bedroom floor.

Rex, in his favorite place during his favorite time of the day.  

Do these lights make my Xmas Tree look fat?

Before I get to the xmas light drama, I have to tell you how much fun I've been having riding the longer travel mountain bikes.  We got a Trek EX8 for Deanna a couple of months ago.  She really loves it.  I finally took it for a couple of rides myself at Greensfelder and WOW!  I may just lay waste to 30 years of cross country experience by saying that these new generation of long travel bikes are just better bikes.  I had so much fun at Greensfelder and could have ridden much longer if I had the time.

The beautiful Mrs K insisted that I give her bike back.  So I did.  But I was able to borrow a demo EX and we rode at Cliff Cave...each of us on our long travel bikes.  I proceeded to mop up my own fastest time on the Bluff Loop.  I'm sold!  Now I just have to get one of my own.

Now to the interesting part.  This large bundle of wire and lights were the xmas lights that we used on our tree last year.  And this year....one half of one strand worked.  The others were dead as a door nail!  Bizarre! So, so wasteful.  But never fear....

We had bought a few strands of indoor-outdoor lights to put up on the exterior of the house.  And our "exterior light" child procrastinated when asked to do his job and put them up.  And procrastinated.  No exterior lights.  How fortunate.  We repurposed them for the tree.  Now, it might be just me, but our tree kinda looks like an exploding star in our living room. We will see how long this lasts.

Wisconsin, Margaritas, Cliff Cave, and Greensfelder

I have an extremely blessed life.  You'd never know it if you listened to me complain.  But I do.  This past week, I spent most of my time in Madison with my fellow Trek-ites.  Notice I didn't call them Trekkies because that name is taken.  The convention hall was stunning, right on Lake Monona. We were there for some learnin' and some teachin' and some good times.

I didn't sleep well while I was there.  I usually don't when I'm out of town.  Missing my honey accounts for some of my sleeplessness.  I'm trying to justify this amazing breakfast of Monster and donuts, so roll with it.

One of the nights, I strolled past the capital building and found Ian's pizza.  I remember eating here when I lived in Madison in 1994.  Good pizza.  They had Cherry Pepsi in a coke cup, too.

 I drank some water, too.

However good one's travels may be, there is no place like home.  The beautiful Mrs K picked me up at the airport and promptly drove us to Creve Coeur where we rode mountain bikes.  She had packed it all up for us and it was glorious.  We also celebrated my return home with some margaritas.  Some is a vague term.

Still full of margaritas, we joined some of the GORC crew for some finishing touches on a new section of trail at Cliff Cave.  Trail building can be tough work.  Just look at this guy.  He looks like an old man.  Wait.  That's me. I'm still standing like that.  My back hurts.

 The family that builds trails together is cooler than most.

To make all of our backs feel better, and to celebrate the new switchbacks on the Overlook Trail, we all ate sandwiches and basked in the glory of a 59 degree sunny day.  So happy we were finally able to give a little help to the wonderful trail builders at GORC.

After the trail build, I felt it was an appropriate time to take out Mrs K's awesome, long-er travel mountain bike.  I have always been against such things.  But times change and so does my spinal column, so I tweaked a few things and hit Greensfelder.  Trail was in great shape and I must say I am a huge fan of the Fuel EX.  She says she wants the bike back, though.

Huge shout out to Dan B for the ride-along at Greenselder.  Way more fun than riding solo!

Winter is Settling In

Even though it comes every year, pretty much around the same time, I always hope that winter will skip us.  I know it's kind of childish, but I can't stand cold weather.  Can't stand being stuck inside.  I really hate scraping ice off of my car, too.  My hopes have already been dashed, of course, since we have seen snow, sleet, and even temps in the teens already.  Too early if you ask me.

So as winter settles in and mocks me for yet another year, the beautiful Mrs K and I have struggled to make the most of it.  We've bundled up a few times already, sometimes even at night, and braved the elements.  Just last night, I set my bike up on the trainer for a workout and she ran on the treadmill.  Not a bad set up, but I was hoping until at least January before we had to resort to actual indoor training.

Today really got to me.  Really high winds, temps in the 30's, plus snow flurries and even some sleet was crushing my soul.  But Mrs K and I suited up (she got some awesome winter cycling shoes on sale!) and rode our gravel bikes over to Dogtown to do some South City hills.  Just as we got over to Southwest, she ditched me.  I kinda expected it, 'cause it was pretty brutal.  Turns out, she was the smart one.  I forged ahead, did my US RDA of hills and motored home.  My hands were frozen, as usual.  Can't keep them warm for nuttin'.

We did warm up enough to head out to a family birthday dinner for Gus.  And we got a good photo of us as a bonus.