chollaball.net

beckie saw this, and the box, and thought I ganked it from a dumpster.  i have been known to do that. But no, again the day is saved by several feet of duct tape wrapped round the hand pump. I don’t want my dinner to spill.

It went like this…

i was biking the kids home from school, as per usual. Minding my own business. There was an artsy-walky thing going on at school. Little did i know. Hence our fashionably late arrival. Kids pranced around, showed me paper machete, and ran themselves retarded on the playground. By the time they were hungry, they’d nearly won the party, with an abundance of pizza and a dearth of eaters. $5 firesale, we took 2.

i was gonna strap it to the roof with bungy, wrap it up in a grocery bag in my pack, until G volunteered Alana to hold it.

Me: Alana?
Alana: i don’t want to
Me: pizza!
Alana: *gnom gnom gnom*

I’m a thinker like that. Its 4-20.

It sat on top of her like a delicious blankey.  She still howled and begged me to take her up and then down the big hill again. I’m scheming up an interval workout, soon, really really soon. But not tonight. When we pulled into garage she was hiding under it.  For a second i actually thought she fell out.

Back after a 1 year layoff! BEST.RACE.EVAH!

Seriously Jim? I said on my registration I’m a fatter’sack’o'crap this year?

these have been sitting for 10 years in the garage, we do not play shot-chess.  Complete with their own 661 armor and a fistful of sharpies, i was inspired. If I could not break 2 hrs, I would win the Bunny Bribery Award!

one girl asked me if my kids did these. Hellz no, my artistry is a match for any kindergartner.

They were a huge hit.

Bunnies at Turnoff to Egg Hunt: these are so cool, you made them for us?
Me: yup!
Bunnies at Turnoff to Egg Hunt: oh i like that one, no i like the black one, oh look at the pink one…
Me: thanks for volunteering…now hurry the fuck up and pick.

riding to the start i saw this coyote. Hard to see, huh? So is the curb when you are snapping photos of a blurry coyote. Worst injury of the ride.

Derrick likes the glasses and the kahlua at the start

I raced, i cramped, I did surprisingly well. Were it not for stops to give out glassware and lend a dude a tube I would have tied my PR of 2:01.  Oddly, that year I made BV in 40 min and Telegraph Pass in 1:02, this year was 45 and 1:07.  Did I seriously make time on the HAB and ridgeline? The downhill again came faster than expected, and I had legs leftover. Next year I’m screwing the bunnies and the people needing tubes and shooting my wad as soon as we finish the hike-a-bike, mebbe i’ll finally break 2 hrs.

Amy pioneering the Squealer half-marathon

good times at the awards ceremony. i was disappointed it skipped the receiving of the Best Bunny Bribe – I surely missed a most-excellent group hug. The girls all bought me a big Lemon Drop, stoke for next week’s ride.

Chongo podiums again!

Do I still ride bikes?  Its a fair question, but I have proof.

Feb 5: High desert and snow on Trail 37 in Prezkit, day after we hiked the Canyon

Feb 19: first time riding K-Trail by the Superstitions, with Gordon

March 15: 38mm tires in place of 32′s make the Masi a kinder ride. Diggin’ my reflection at AZ Falls, where I met Yuri, Gordon and The Gnome for a 50 mile ride urban ride down to Boulders on Broadway

March 23: i dont want to hold her down dont want to break her crown when she says lets go i like the night life baby

I’ve repurposed the Blur, there is no need which I wouldn’t take the HeiHei or the Bird — $5k well spent. But I do need a bombproof utility vehicle, that i dont lock up cause its insured for $2500 more than its worth, and i dont clean and i dont lube and i dont care. Everything that once was shiny or new has been swapped out, drilled out rims for thorn-resistant tubes, but the seat is still comfy! A few more reflectors and its the Masi’s bigger, tougher, sturdier twin. Good for river rock and crapassminichunk, good for runzeheunding, good for pedaling G to school and locking her bike then towing Alana and locking the trailer then pedaling to work.

March 30:Good for mildly-offroad glowy sunsets.

G learning to notice things at bike speed

tinyGnar Junkie hit it 7 times in a row. i spotted her the first 3, then didn’t bother. She hit it the next morning going into school. Chagrin and consternation abounded amongst teachers’ aides.

This is your captain speaking, you may now feel free to move about the cabin. Alana puts her seatbelt on, she cannot take it off – is this an instinctive survival skill or anti-survival skill?

March 31: N. Snottsdale Slightly AllMountain Suburban Terrorist ShredFest. Drop-to-flat on Thompson Peak Parkway.

reload the tree

can this view be cross-triangulated to the tree?

this one made the school art show

this one i helped out

This year sounds like is should be special!

I don’t feel older, but I do. tireder, fatter, brokendowner, greyer, grumpier, drunker and duller. I’m not sure I can make 42 more at this rate of decline.

Genevieve asks if I wish i was a kid. Sweetheart…you can’t imagine how badly. When she asks what I wanted i can’t even remember. Now i just want a day off.

Looking back is revisionist history written by my current state of mind. Bad days it is makes me depressed, melancholic, regretful of every choice that landed me right here where I am. Good days I celebrate every moment leading up to this one of perfection, but focus more on the accomplished feeling rather than the feeling. At what age did it become so hard to be happy? Sometime around 2 kids, 2 mortgages and 2 jobs ago…

Genevieve was psyched to give me a present, Beckie bought cake, and goddamit it was time for ThNR, even if it would be table for 1.

It was the worst 1 hr ride ever. Sidewall slice, pedal smack riding the wrong lines to protect the soggy rear wheel sent me tumbling over bars banging both knees in exactly the same spot, and I couldnt even find my own damn tequila tree.

but I did. and all was well again, at least for awhile.

Brougham – I Walked In

Steamworks after a long drive. ‘Life of Pi’ audio was great, other than the accents giving me work flashbacks. I got more out of the peanuts than the kids did.

gearing up

morning games while waiting for the Spring snow to soften up. We stayed in my buddy’s over-garage studio – 5 min from downtown, along Junction Creek

Spotted Alana coming back from her childcare’s snowmen-making. She had no idea it was me

no day riding is complete without apres ploughmounding

Animas River Valley

Sunday morning

conditions were bony and only tolerable from 10:30-3. Most everything but the groomers was gangbanged and hard.  Lots of edges. Proof was had that a bad day snowboarding is still a good day.

wrapping up in Durango

next day – building a firepit in Mexico

Capt Hazelton

¿cuanto cuesta?

cinco

What is the going rate for a tooth? I’ve been told $5, I’ve been told $1, I’ve been told $3 in Tempe and $5 in Snottsdale. I neglected to mention its for me, I finally pulled it out, after G gave me permission. I get it…who knows what the hell a lost tooth will feel like til you lose one? There was a tiny red spot in the center where the body fed it, that snapped like a band when i pinched it & pulled. G didn’t even flinch. Then we rode bikes for ice cream.

the light just went on.

and in same ride she put it together with steering and pedaling. i was startled, baffled, joyous. She pedaled uphill, she stayed in cadence, she used her core. She steered along perpendicular sidewalks and called out white roads and black roads. She crossed-up her wheel at 0 mph and .4% grade and fishflopped out of the cockpit onto the blacktop, smacking the back of her head. The helmet left her with nothing but shat pants. The next night she both remembered and laughed about it, and did all the same better again. She called the streamers her bike’s ponytails. I carried it down the path into our neighborhood, wanting to walk it across the street after tiring of coaching. She called me out ‘dad we’re not walking on rocks!. Put down my bike!‘ She is very willful.

Is my appreciation of her maturation because it is on her bike, or is her maturation because of my appreciation on her bike?

2 good days in a row.

20 degrees at 8:15am. Bright Angel started with 4 miles of snow, ice and slush.

Dorky McLooserson updates her Facebook Status: ‘In The Canyon, very slippery‘

The sketchy conditions lasted almost to Indian Gardens. Our pace paid the price for the difficult descent. Calves still hurting 2 days later.

Warning: If you dress like a 70′s PE teacher, do not attempt to hike the canyon rim to the river in one day

Snowmelt led to several unexpected water crossings

top and bottom

18 miles was not too far to carry the flask…

…and the rabbit

stopped 1:45 into the climb for our only break, finished the climb up Kaibab in 3:30

that hurt

enjoying kahlua and coffee outside El Tovar, soon to be assimilated by a swarm of Japanese tourists, their hive-mind decided this exact spot of the rim was where they must co-locate. Tip to our foreign guests: you look stupid wearing a hospital mask, and you wouldn’t be at risk for disease if you didn’t invade others’ personal space.

El Tovar

celebratory drink by the fireplace