Single Speed

 A couple years after I built the cyclocross bike I decided to build a single speed mountain bike, don't ask me why. I bought a Niner One Nine frame, scandium, super light. I built a set of wheels and bought cool single speed components. I think the finished bike weighed about 18 pounds. I was racing a short track cross country series in Jacksonville with my geared mountain bike and took my new single speed to try during warm ups.When I drove up to the race site I heard "Oh good, Dave brought his single speed we can have a single speed category tonight". So I had to race it. It wasn't as bad as I had feared. There was a long uphill gravel section at the start where I had to stand out of the saddle but the rest was woop de do single track downhill. I think there was only one other guy riding single speed. I kept riding it in the short track cross country races. There were several Short Track race series that year and I raced them all. There were only a couple other guys racing single speed so I always finished on the podium, so to speak. The Jedi Mountain Bike weekend was the State Championship so double points. There were only two single speeders in the short track race. The other guy lapped me twice. At the end of the season OBRA listed me as the number one single speed mountain bike racer. The guy that lapped me twice at the Jedi race was second. It was kind of bogus but I did race a lot of times. 

Start of Cyclocross for me

 It's been so long since I even looked at this I'm not sure how to post. For a while now I've been thinking that I should do this again. In my old age I'm remembering a lot of stories that should be written down. I just today read on Facebook that the Southern Oregon Outlaw Cyclocross race series won't be held this year. Back in about 2005 I built a Cyclocross bike. I didn't know anything about Cyclocross but I thought the bikes were cool. It was my first time building a bike. I bought most of the components on eBay. I didn't know how to install a headset so I contacted Molly Cameron in Portland and she installed it for me. When I picked up the bike she said people had admired it and said that I had to race it. I went to a Cyclocross clinic put on by Jana Jensen owner of Cycle Analysis of Jacksonville, Oregon. She encouraged me to race so I did. My first race was at Emigrant Lake. It was tough. During the first lap I thought "this is too hard. I'm going to quit at the end of this lap". Then I thought "OK one more". I finished the race. That was the beginning of my Cyclocross career at age 61. I'll continue the story in my next post. 

Genius

 I'm sitting in the Sweet Spot listening to music. I first listened to a Beatles Compilation. It's pretty amazing and greatly satisfying to remember that these, mostly uneducated, untrained lads were such musical geniuses. Then I listened to Time Out by Dave Brubeck. Totally different but still genius. Then I thought about my background in music. I was, if you can be, a music major in high school. I played the trombone. I was pretty good. I'll tell you my favorite story about that time. I was taking private lessons from a guy named Woody Thompson. He was a trombone player and he was the musical director at Arcata High School, we both lived in Eureka, across the bay. Back then there were dinner clubs where you could have dinner while a dance band played for you. Woody had a dance band. There was actually a musicians union. The union had a band that played at local events for free. Woody was the director of the band. When I was a junior in high school Woody invited me to join the band. My mother drove me to the first practice and I wasn't late but everybody else was already there. I got out my horn and went to the trombone section. The other trombone players were already seated and the only empty spot was first chair so I sat there. One of the other players, a grown up who got paid to play trombone, said "Mr. Thompson will assign a place for you to play". I hollered "hey Woody, where do you want me to sit?". He replied "you're good right where you are". Take that asshole. I wasn't a genius though and I split my lip later playing a fourth of July parade with the Musicians Union Band and ended my musical career. 

The Sweet Spot

I'm sitting in the Sweet Spot, a protected from the north wind exposed to the south sun corner on my deck. It's raining at times and sometimes hailing. I'm under the eaves and have a half patio umbrella to protect me from the rain. I have a propane fire pit with a really cool heat projector thing. I'm comfortable and warm. I like being outside. I have some new outdoor speakers for my streaming stereo. I usually don't play them very loud because I don't want to offend my neighbors who are wonderful.  It's winter, it's raining, they won't be outside to hear my music. Pink Floyd,The Dark Side of the Moon.

New Post

I worked for the City of Arcata from about 1964 to 1981. Most of those years I worked at  City Hall across from Flynn's Inn which was myArcata home bar. One year I was the inspector for a contractor doing TV inspection of the sewer lines. The crew was "old guys" probably about thirty years old. One time we went to Flynn's after work to drink and play shuffleboard. We finished a game and went to the bar so the losers could buy a round. When we went back to the shuffleboard table someone had taken it. An argument ensued and all of a sudden it was the four of us at one end of the bar and everybody else at the other end. A college kid stepped forward and one of my "old guys "stepped up. My "old guy" took off his shirt and he looked like Popeye, tattoos and muscles. The college kid went "Oh my god". No fight occurred.

Rambling Thoughts

I'm sitting on the deck, in the Sweet Spot, with the propane fire pit going and a glass of wine. I have some rambling thoughts going and was going to share them on Facebook. This is a better space to share rambling thoughts although they may not be read by anyone.

For some reason I am remembering Oregon Ducks sports, probably because Susan just posted photos of masks she has just sewn and some were Ducks fabric. We became Ducks fans because my buddy Jeff Boyer went there to grad school and Eugene, with big time college sports, is just four hours drive away. Our interest was mostly football but some basketball. We went to a couple games at McArthur Court, the old brick arena. One game was a Ducks game and our seats were near the ceiling. It felt like we were looking straight down onto the court. The fans would all stomp on the floor in unison and the whole building would shake. They had to pause the game because the backboards were swaying too much. Another game we attended was an NBA exhibition game between the Trailblazers  and the Pacers. Our seats for that game were about four rows off the floor but behind one of the goals. Not the best but Paul Allen was sitting right behind us.

I'm Back, I Think

I think that I want to start writing to my blog again. This post is a test to see if it is still available to me.