Music Man

I haven't able to motivate myself enough to get out to ride in the cold.  Pathetic, I know.  My friends aren't great motivators either.  I make plans without them (or by myself) and say no a lot when asked to go ride, so I guess I can't really blame anyone for not asking me to go out to ride in the cold.  When faced with the choice of riding alone in the freezing cold, I usually choose the easy way out (this time of year anyway.)  Luckily, all is not lost when I don't ride bikes.  It's a lot of what I do, but not my whole life.

I haz other hobbies, you know.

I decided to head over to the guitar store on Saturday since I had a gift card to spend.  I like to go there anyway, since it's a lot like hanging out in a bike shop:  lots of shit to eyeball, touch, and lust after.  It's a good alternative to being frozen on a bike.

Anyway, I've been in the market for a new pedal to go along with my other effects.  Specifically, I was looking for a chorus pedal to replicate the sounds of some of the songs I play.  After thorough research, I ended up with something pretty rad.

I know, it's not that exciting to those of you that ride bikes and come here to read about my pathetic bike adventures.  But, it's exciting to me and my pathetic music interests.  This pedal sounds good, and gives me the perfect effect for some of the Nirvana stuff I've been playing.  Big deal, right?

Sure.  But the funny thing is, I didn't really consider that when I bought it.  I had my choices narrowed down to two different brands, but something told me to get the Small Clone.  Something in the store...

Look closely at the kid in that photo.  Does he look familiar?  Yeah, you guessed it.  While it may seem like a coincidence, I say bullshit.  The kid walked in there with his dress up clothes, picked up a few different guitars, and played them.  He only played songs from one band in particular.  Yeah, you guessed it again.  

He was trying way too hard.  He wasn't that good, but at least he had some sort of passion.  All kinds of kids try to emulate people when they are finding their way in life, and if this kid turns out to be a great musician all because he tries to be just like Kurt Cobain, then so be it.  

Everyone need a hero.

I'm too old for that shit I guess, but I still find inspiration in other people.  I think everyone does it.  I don't pretend to know anything about human nature.  

That's not true.  I pretend to know about everything.  That doesn't mean that I do.

Hopefully this post was sufficient enough to get you through your morning poop.  One thing I know for sure, is that you only come here to pass the time.

Who gives a shit.   

Work Work Work…

I skipped yesterday.  I do that from time to time.  I almost skipped today too, and I’m still not sure why I didn’t.  It’s not like I need to be here.

But I am.

I like this blog stuff.  People read it, some tell me they like it (or hate it), and it helps me keep track of what I’ve done or even vent a little.  Besides, I feel like I’m doing a public service by giving people something to read while they sit on the toilet in the morning.  I know that’s my prime blog reading time, so it must be yours, right?

Anyway, this week has been hell with work stuff.  Being on call isn’t usually too bad but for some reason I’ve had just about all I can handle the past few days.  On our Tuesday Social Ride da udda night, we had a pretty big crowd.  We turned on our lights and hit the trail.  The group stayed together pretty well for being so large, and we finished lap one ready for more.  I had to go to work though. 

I left while the rest of the gang kept riding.  My plan was to meet them at a local watering hole after I finished my work.  It was a great plan, since I made it to the restaurant just minutes before the group did.  We ate, shot the shit and all that, and I had to go into work again.

Shit.

This isn’t really a whiny pants fest or anything I guess.  I’ll just be glad when I am free of this after hours stuff (tomorrow morning) and can get back to wasting time on my own in the evenings.  The stress is really getting to me, mostly because it’s cutting into my bike time.  Luckily I’m able to squeeze in another stress reliever though…

Music.

My guitar room (that sounds weird) is centrally located in the house, so it’s easy to take a few minutes a play a little bit.  Our new puppy, Carl, likes to follow me around the house and really likes it when I play music.  It seems to help me relax a little bit, and it definitely helps him.

At least I have something to keep me from going bat shit crazy.

There will be none of that fun shit tonight.  I have to stay really late, possibly putting in a sixteen hour day.  I’m on a project right now that’s nearly over, but it would’ve been over much sooner if I had some help.  Instead, I’m working late into the night because during the day I get to see my coworkers read books, take naps, and be pretty much worthless. 

I can’t wait to hang out with some bike people.  Or Carl again.

One more day…

Recovery

You know, I needed a break from being so Enduro™ over the weekend.

Photo credit:  Chris Green

Here’s a video I forgot to post from the Jerdon Mountain Challenge:

It makes it look really fun, and if you didn’t know any better you’d think there was hardly any climbing.  Ha.

Saturday was a long day.  I wasn’t really tired so much from racing as I was from being out in the hot sun and getting up at 5:00 a.m. to get there.  Plus, since I had just gotten over a cold, my body was weary and ready to take it easy.  I hung out in Old Fort for a while, chatting it up with friends and relaxing.  I eventually got back home in the late afternoon and I didn’t feel like doing much of anything.

The little lady and I had plans that evening, but she was tired and didn’t feel like doing anything else that day.  I should’ve been tired too, but after having a beer, stretching, taking a hot shower, and scarfing down a big ass cheeseburger I suddenly felt rejuvenated. 

The plan was to go see Hysteria, a Def Leppard cover band.  I would end up going alone.  I’m not really a huge Def Leppard fan (I listened to them in high school like most everyone else my age), but the real reason I wanted to go was for curiosity purposes.

I wanted to see if the tribute drummer only had one arm.

That's not weird, is it?

So, I went.  Down to the South End of Charlotte I drove, walked in the door (I had a free ticket), and stood up front near the stage.

They had the look I guess.

You know, they were actually pretty good.  They played all the hits and even played some obscure shit that I wondered if anyone had heard it before.  The best part about the show was the people dressed like time had stood still, hanging on to their youth by looking like glam rock douchebags.  Well, maybe that wasn’t the best part.  I got to watch a wild pack of CrossPump chicks get shitfaced and act like savages, bumping into people and spilling drinks all over the place.  Security stepped in several times, but they kept talking their way out of getting ejected from the venue.

Ah, such a nice crowd.

As a bonus, my curiosity was rewarded when the drummer played a solo…

with only one arm.

He had his other arm tucked into his shirt and a patch sewn over the sleeve opening.  While I didn’t expect the drummer for a Def Leppard tribute band to cut off his arm for the sake of historical accuracy, I thought the fact that he made an effort was a nice touch.

It was a great way to relax after a long day in the hills.  The night went on a little long though, and I wondered how I was able to stay out until one o’clock in the morning after getting up so early.  I had a free ticket to the show, but I think I would’ve gladly paid the ten bucks that everyone else did to get in.  I was entertained which I guess is the point.  Plus, as a struggling “guitarist”, it’s nice to watch people play live. 

I’d definitely go back and see them again when they come back to town.

I’ll see you there, right?

Fun Friday

I wasn't here yesterday.  Did you notice?  If you read Dicky's post yesterday, you probably thought it was because of this:

It was not.  I survived.  Twas fun.  Hopefully we do it again real soon and all that.

Nope, yesterday I had to drive to Raleigh, NC for some work stuff, stay all day, and drive back home last night.  I'm pretty beat.  Okay, maybe the Wednesday night thing added to that.  Anyway, since it's fun Friday and all that, I'm gonna have fun.

I'm probably gonna stay home and play with my new toy.

For those of you that don't know/care about music, this is my new Wah Wah pedal.  The little lady's response to me walking in the house with it was, "Oh great.  More noise."

Yeah, noise.  So I can do this:




I might be stuck inside for a while.

Y'all get out and do some epic shit this weekend.

Monday.  I'll be here.  With tales of mountains, music, and beer (most likely.)

Music Soothes Me

I used to listen to music just about every time I rode my bike, went running, skateboarding, etc. For some reason though, I starting doing it less and less. I gave up running quite some time ago to save my knees for cycling and the skateboarding hasn't been very frequent, so that may have had an effect on my music listening habits. On the bike, I had scaled it back to just endurance races, choosing to ride shorter, cross country distances just listening to the sound of my heavy breathing.


I started think about the last time I actually rode with music, and I had to go all the way back to last year’s 6 Hours of Warrior Creek. Having music for six hours definitely kept me going, but for some reason I put down the MP3 player after that.

Maybe because the one I had was a little bulky, and had to be strapped to my arm.





I’ve been using MP3 players for a long time. While I was digging around in the drawers of the computer desk da udda day, I found my very first one.

The Rio 500



This thing was the shit back in its day, holding about two hours of music with an extra memory card. I listened to it pretty much everywhere I went, and loved the fact that I could listen to music from my cd collection without having to carry around one of those bulky Sony Walkman thingys.


Yeah, I had one of those too.


While I still have two perfectly good (albeit old) MP3 players, I found myself wanting to get something a little smaller that wouldn’t have to be strapped onto a body part somewhere. I tried using my phone a few weeks ago, but the case I have for it also has an armband. Plus, the battery life sucks too much. There’s no way it would last for six hours or more.

I finally broke down and got one of these:



Yeah, I bought an iPod Shuffle. I’m not the trendy Apple type, so it just about killed me to give money for this. In fact, when I told Lunchbox what I had done, he said, “Why?”

I wondered that myself.

With the Shuffle, I could put a shitload of songs in it, clip it somewhere on my bib shorts, and not worry about it. At only around fifty bucks, I wouldn’t cry too much if I lost it on the trail somewhere. It’s light, small, and it stays outta the way.

Did I mention that it’s small?



I’m not exactly jumping onto the technology bandwagon with a measly little Shuffle, but I couldn’t see myself spending big money on something that may get broken or lost. I used it at my race last Sunday, and if it wasn’t for the music going into my ear I wouldn’t have known it was there. In fact, the whole broken pedal fiasco would’ve been a lot worse if I didn’t have something to listen to whilst I suffered.

I dig it.


I guess I can “race” for six hours at Warrior Creek in a few weeks while I listen to various artists performing my favorite tunes.


Metal, hip hop, showtunes…whatever the hell will keep me going.