Give a toast to the sun, drink with the stars

IT'S LIKE THAT...

Ugh.

The first image, is Columbus Ohio, maybe 2002 or so? The second is a view overlooking Durango, shot from above the PowerLine Trail above FLC campus. Just thought it was interesting..

So whats up... Nothing new, just sort of stopping in. I'm still lurking about here but haven't really shot or created anything worthy lately. Which is just fine really. I have plenty of shots from the last few months I could probably cull through, but I doubt I will ;). I really need to work on updating/rebuilding the web site again. Every time I do this, I swear I'm going to make scaleable or whatever, but I always seem to end up ignoring it. Will try not to do that this time. We'll see.

Last Monday, I woke to several inches of snow on the ground before my ride to work. That was an unpleasant surprise, to say the least. But, it is November, so such things should be expected. However, riding in the snow is fairly entertaining, as long as I'm dealing with inches of it, and not feet. Hopefully the snowboard will provide a nice diversion this year that I was not able to enjoy last year.

Most of this was gone by the time I rode home from work, believe it or not. At the moment, only remnants of it exist in the shadowy areas on the trails, where the sun cannot reach...

And as far as the bikes go, in the last 7 months, I've wasted two freewheels and a back axle. I don't think I've every burnt out a freewheel in my life, and now I blow two inside of half a year. Since they're pretty much entry-level wheel sets, I'm not sure its economical to replace the back hub, or just get a new set of wheels altogether. Either way, since the freewheel blew on the Giant, I ended up re-outfitting the single speed with the Tora Fork and it will be main ride until spring, at which time the Giant will become the uber-downhill-trail-abuse bike. That's the plan anyhow. With the economy in the tank, I might just be scournging for food. But I'll remain optimistic.

So yeah - Saturday was spent re-building the single speed, and I ended up taking it out for quick shakedown ride. Everything seems to work okay. And then Sat. evening, my friends Ben, Justin, and several others larged it up out on the town, so to speak. I think we started at the Ranch (or the El Rancho or something like that) - a sort of scruffy small town bar where everybody looks like they just came in from the fields, and plaid/flannel is king. Watching (to what amounts to as city looking folk, dressed to kill by the way - NOT in plaid or flannel) the fooseball match and eating peanuts took on quite a surreal tone, and I spent some time gazing at a mural above the bar - OF the bar - seeing if I could myself in the crow depicted therin. I did not see myself in there, no anybody I know. Which is probably a good thing, I had this strange feeling that if I saw familiarity in that mural, I might be forced to stay there for eternity as the result of some undisclosed twilight zone plot. After the fooseball match, and a short period of listening to music not fit for a flannel bar, we made our way to the Lost Dog Bar and Lounge.

To say the Lost Dog is the polar oppsite of the Ranch would be an understatement. Where flannel rules at the Ranch - mini skirts, heels, D&G, and your basic Shopping Mall -Wear rule at the Dog. Its Durango's best guess at an urban night club. They probably have the most square footage of any bar in Durango, most of which serves as a dance floor. Which is funny, because upon our arrival, it was completely vacant of humans. After a quick stroll through the front room to browse the art hanging on the wall, we did some drinks and hit the dance floor, and don't you know after about 30 seconds, all the wall flowers peeled themselves off and joined in.

And that's all I have to say about that... Except I had a good time with some great people. And oddly enough there were no fist fights.

Durango. Just below College and Main, 8:30 am Sunday. The Calm after the storm.

Today, I did a longer ride on the single speed, and am pleased that everything seems to be working out on it. New wheels will be nice eventually, but I think the suspension forks from the Giant will do nicely on there for the winter. Winter.. ugh.

Yep.. so that's that for now. Not a bad weekend for mid-November. maybe the snow will stay away (crosses fingers)...