My view this morning.
July 28, 2013
After 200k miles, I realized (confirmed really) it was the seats in the Tacoma that were really hurting my back. So today I did something about it. I love the truck too much to sell it, so I got a pair of seats from a 2002 Toyota 4Runner and went to fixing them. 3 of the 4 mounts bolt up in the original holes. So after cleaning the carpet and new to me seats, I removed the problem mount, and rigged a new one. The odd issue was the seat belt receiver, they are different sized, so I had reuse the Tacoma's. I can already say it is a great improvement, but still not as cushy as the Land Cruiser.
July 27, 2013
Congratulations to Laura Greene (the only photojournalism graduate student who showed up for the graduation recognition, although most of her class was there to cheer her on) both for finishing and being the newest staff photographer at the High Point Enterprise.
July 25, 2013
I was a pickle judge today. It was more stressful than I imagined. After Googling how to judge pickled fruits and vegetables and understanding the difference between the American and Danish judging systems, I was stumped by the non-pickled "refrigerated" pickles.
July 20, 2013
My first triathlon in 6 years. 2nd place in Masters Clydesdale (old and fat guys)
Long Story: On July 22, 2007, I started Ironman USA in Lake Placid despite knowing my knee would not allow me to run, I had a good swim (just under 1:14 for the 2.4 miles) and a good bike (6:30 for the 112 miles), putting me near my PR pace, but then proceeded to walk at least 20 of the 26 miles of the marathon (a 7 hour marathon) - Needless to say not a great ending to my triathlon career, but my knee only hurt when running and none of my training partners in NY were doing multisport so it was easy to stop. A couple of years go by, I move back to NC, gain a ton of weight, start riding with Clay and Kay and the desire to get back into triathlon on a very limited basis creeps back into my mind.
Race Day: (6 years minus 2 days later) I will admit, it is fun, I still hate 4:30am wake ups and the pre-race running around, but I even had time to go for good karma points and at the last minute take a guy back to my truck to change his rear tube (saving his race day)
Swim - I have only been swimming again for about a month, but I felt good, I had forgotten the feeling of swimmers pulling my legs, or hitting me with wide arm recovery, but the swim went fine, 15:30 for the 750 yards and out of a beautiful rolling bike course. I averaged 20.1 on the bike and was only passed by two people while riding down a bunch from earlier waves. The run. I have to admit, I still hate running and this 5k was my longest run in 6 years, I have been running for a little over a month, but had not gotten up to 3 miles yet in training. (It's OK, right? I mean I never ran 26 miles when marathon training) so who knows what will happen. I ran my goal pace of 10 min miles and was passed by what seemed like hundreds of runners (2 lap course) to finish in 1:30:57.
I missed first in the Master Clydesdale by less than 2 mins (all lost on the run) and finished 86th of the 140 males overall. I am happy with my first triathlon in a long time and glad Deb and Sam came to cheer me on (Sam took all the action pictures) and congrats to Clay and Kay for their age group awards!
July 15, 2013
I have not driven the Land Cruiser in 7 days as I prepared the Tacoma for the camping trip, several of these guys helped keep any bugs from taking up residence in the truck, should I thank them?
(PS Bob Owens was right, a house in the woods has problems.... insects are one)
July 14, 2013
Good morning and time to head home. We had been so lucky with missing on the area rain until the drive out of the woods, after crossing back into NC we drove along for almost 2 hours before finding pavement. It must have been a great trip, I gained two pounds since Friday.....
July 13, 2013
Another day, more FS road driving, we passed by Max Patch again and we took the longer hike up along the AT before making camp right on a creek. We camped the night before next to a creek too, but this was my view out the back of the truck.
July 12, 2013
I used half my annual personal leave to get out of work on Friday to meet friends from ih8mud west of Asheville, NC for a weekend of off road driving and camping. After a late meet up, we hit dirt, creek crossings, a short hike up Max Patch some more driving before making camp.
July 9, 2013
Getting to the end of summer semester and the students are really stressed. I had to remind them... "How do you eat an elephant? - One bite at a time."
July 1, 2013
So close for Sagan. I think it has a been a great start to the TdF, a crazy 3 days so far!
June 30, 2013
We camped last night and quickly made the decision to head home, Deb is sore/ etc. and I have now a full summer cold.... it was a long ride home!
June 29, 2013
This weekend was a rare, all three of us go camping weekend, so we chose the cooler weather of the mountains and a ride on the Virginia Creeper, a hike near Mt. Rogers and maybe a swim. We camped at a near deserted Beartree Campground in the Jefferson National Forest and got a lazy start to the day. I wanted a workout so I chose to ride up the 17 mile section to Whitetop Mountain and would meet Deb and Sam after they got a shuttle ride. 1:50 later I arrived and soon we were on the way down. The cool thing about the Virginia Creeper is it is all down hill (unless you go up) and since I knew some spots I wanted pictures from I left the two ladies and went a head for a cool bridge crossing. When they didn't show up, I knew something was up. Deb was passing Sam and somehow Deb managed to grab too much front brake and endo-ed landing on her helmet. By the time I got back, she was riding, but not happy. We rode the final 11 miles down, and since she had all the classic concussion signs, we headed to the ER... it was confirmed and we were sent off with medical for pain and instructions. Everyone knows the saying "Happy wife, happy life" ?
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