When You Shake What You Got And Girl You Got A Lot

If there's a dog around, especially a golden retriever, I'm going to make friends with him/her. The dog in the picture is Jake and the photo was taken in Hopkins at the Raspberry Fest Criterium. His owner was racing that day and Jake was being watched by the guy's wife. After his race he came over and asked me what I was doing with his dog. I told him we were bonding.

Here, kitty kitty. No idea what the cat's name is. Debbie and I took a walk to get some air on our La Crosse trip and found the cat. Why did I take a picture? Who knows? I guess I'm just that kind of guy.

Who needs a beer? Not me, but I had to take a picture of the world's largest six-pack in La Crosse. How do I get to the location of the world's largest ball of twine?

I want this bike too. I woke up at about 4 this morning thinking about it. Do you think it would cost me more than $1000? I like Rasmussen too. He earned his stripes with me on a nightmarish day when he fell twice and had four bike changes. King of the mountains! How cool a title is that? Oh yeah, thanks for the use of your page, Sascha. If I win the lottery, I'll buy both of us one.

Sunday Morning Donut Ride has been moved to Saturday so we can hang out with Larry on Sunday morning. I think we're going to the farmer's market and then out for breakfast. Sorry Uncle Larry, I get up at 5 on workdays. I'm not getting up at 5 so we can be at the market at 6 on a Sunday. I'll be sleeping in till 6, or at least until a bratty 13 year old golden retriever starts wu-wuing.

The Cat 6 Racing Squad will be racing in the State Championship Crit on Sunday. I'd like to go. It's not too far from the house which is nice. Maybe the dog will be there again.

A Sea Of Orange

I think my Salsa looks pretty good amongst marked elm trees. I used almost a whole can of paint when I marked this group of trees. These trees are actually on City property so I didn't have to leave a nasty-gram for some poor homeowner. I've left a lot of nasty-grams this week. It's not personal, it's my job. The skills that pay the bills.

Did my autobiography at treatment last night. My counselor William wanted me to elaborate on how the death of my father affected me when I was 8 years old. He also asked me who told me of my father's death. That was the million dollar question that its taken someone 39 years to ask.

I get a new old squad car to drive for my job tomorrow. It's a black and white Ford Crown Victoria. I spent about a half-hour cleaning my current car. I had branches in the trunk. I still need to vacuum the trunk out, but other than that, I'm good to go.

No treatment tonight. Yahoo! Longer ride through the lakes home sounds good. Dinner with the lovely Debra at Dixie's across from Lake Calhoun sounds even better.

The Fleet

After seven months of blogging I finally have pictures of our bikes. Everything except the tandem and Debbie's Diamondback are pictured. Top photo shows my Specialized Rockhopper, Trek 7500 and Giant 870. Bottom photo is of my Surly Crosscheck, Salsa Las Cruces and Debbie's Crosscheck. Notice the difference in seat heights of my bikes and Debbie's Surly. It's kind of cute. At one point while I was setting up for the photo I had the bikes all over the alley. Fun, fun, fun.

For some reason I woke up at 3am today and couldn't get back to sleep. My heart wasn't in the commute this morning. I would rather of stayed home and slept till 9. My ass is draggin' today. I hope nobody wants to argue about getting their tree marked. I'm not in the mood.

We found a moth at one of the parks and surmised that it was a female gypsy moth. Gypsy moth is a pretty fierce defoliator of almost all shade trees. We've got our resident entomologist on the case.

I made a collage at treatment last night. I had to cut pictures out of magazines and paste them on a board. I chose National Geographic for my cuttings. I needed to express how I viewed myself when I was drinking and how I saw myself feeling in the future. The drinking side included pictures of a donkey, witch doctor, crocodiles and some natives by a water hole. My future side showed a polar bear momma with her cubs, a desert and a beautiful star-filled night. It was one of the best exercises I've done since I started treatment because it allowed so much self expression.

If You Wrote All The Women's Names Down I Know...

Through the magic of Walgreens one day/one hour photo I'm able to post pictures of the fabulous Ella. Let's see, we have a picture of mommy (Kris) and then Debbie with Ella and then me and Ella. Ella is almost three weeks old and already has had 15,000 photos taken of her. We took 5 pictures so there may actually be 15,005 photos. Cameras didn't exist when I was a baby so there are no baby photos of me. Good thing because I'm told I wasn't a cute kid. Ella on the other hand is adorable. When you hold her, it's hard to have an aggressive thought in your head. You just feel so relaxed. I'll feel the same way when I hold my great-niece Aimee in about 21 days. I'll take a shitload of pictures and post them when I get back from Chicago.

Our 19 year old child prodigy Nick graduated to Phase 2 of his treatment program last night. You get a medallion at graduation and everyone passes it around while giving you a short commentary. We pretty much all echoed the same thoughts. We told him that he's very young, intelligent and can be anything he wants to. He's said that he wants to make a lot of money some day. We told him that money isn't everything. If you hate what you do, all the money in the world won't make it better. I think those of us that are older are a little envious. Nick has a chance to be sober at an earlier age than we did. It took me a long time to get to the point I'm at now. I should've gone to treatment 10 or 15 years ago. But I didn't and I can't turn back the clock. I can only be happy that I eventually came to my senses. I haven't been this happy in a really long time.

Stop Making Sense

A weekend of riding included 53 miles with Debbie and 30-35 with hereNT. Finally got new brake pads for the Salsa on Friday. Craig trued the back wheel and put the brake pads on. The pads on the back light up when you hit the brake. Cool. Saturday with hereNT was cool because he showed me some trails by the river and 35E that I hadn't been on before. We found a couple of decent hills to climb. The Sunday Morning Donut Ride was spectacular as always. Debbie and I actually took pretty much the same route as J and I did on Saturday. It's not much more fun to go up those hills on the tandem. Ah hell, hills are fun. Especially when you get to the top.

The Kinder's baby Ella is so cute and cuddly. I held her for about an hour on Friday. I even fed her. I've got pictures of her that I'll post soon. I'd post the pictures today but the one hour photo machine at Walgreen's was broken. K-Mart sucks and Walgreens isn't far behind. Walgreens is close to my house so I get my pictures developed there. Kris (Ella's mommy) says she shops at Walgreens because her investment club has Walgreens stock. Sell the Walgreens stock and invest the money somewhere else girls.

I cleaned and degreased almost the entire fleet yesterday afternoon. My car gets washed once a year whether it needs it or not. I try to clean my bikes at least once every two weeks. Makes sense, doesn't it? I took pictures. See last paragraph referring to Walgreens. Maybe I'll get a digital camera soon. I wouldn't want to be too technologically advanced so there's no rush.

Quit drinking. Ride more miles. Eat like a sumo wrestler.

Hotter than hell weather and virtually no rain means no lawn mowing. God waters grass. I don't. If I'm going to bitch about mowing the lawn, I'm not going to take measures to make it grow faster so I have to cut it sooner and bitch more. Elementary Watson.

Let's start the countdown to my August trip to Chicago. To see Aimee for the first time. To ride the Illinois Prairie Path. My sister-in-law Carol's pizza. Dunkin Donuts. Dominick's waffles. Coffee with that nice foam. Valu City. Harbor Freight. Maxwell Street. The All-Night flee market. Twenty-two days until the eagle lands. Are you people ready? And he's sober!

How Did I Do, Keith?

Some guy called the City Manager to tell him that I needed to mark the diseased elms on the 6500 block of Bloomington Avenue. This guy said there were three that weren't marked. I did a sweep and marked 8 trees. Leave me your address Keith and I'll send you the Dutch Elm Disease brochure. The block is awash in orange paint. The phone will be ringing off the hook tomorrow because most of the homeowners were at work. I'm off tomorrow so they'll be talking to someone else tomorrow.

Debbie and I meet with the family counselor Greg again tonight. I'm sure he'll have more exercises that point out what an ass I was when I was drinking. It's ok, I can take it. Last night's group meeting was a hoot. Everyone was in a good old fuck you kind of mood. We welcomed a new group member (John) who looks like he'll fit right in. My counselor always reminds me that he's leery of people who turn themselves in for treatment. I'll prove to him that I'm really serious about it.

Looking forward to riding with Debbie tomorrow. I think we'll ride our own bikes so I can stop at Freewheel for new brake pads for the Salsa. I got an e-mail from hereNT about riding on Saturday. That'll be cool. He like to ride really fast. We'll have to explore some new trails. From his blog it looks like he's really in to trail exploration these days. And he's riding a shitload of miles.

I'm sure Debbie and I will ride the tandem on Sunday after we watch the ride in to Paris. After 2100 or 2400 miles or however long the Tour is, it must be incredible to ride in to Paris. And even more incredible when you're wearing that yellow jersey. We've been watching the Tour at lunch for three weeks now. What the hell are we supposed to watch during lunch after the Tour is over.

Haven't You Guys Ever Heard Of Rain?

Glad that the rain had let up enough at 6 this morning so we didn't get soaked in the first two blocks of riding. Lightning is a completely different matter. Didn't see many (any) of the regulars we usually see at that hour including my recumbent bike guy on Portland Avenue. I really don't mind rain as long as I have a change of clothes ready when I get where I'm going. Mrs used her new blinkie headlight for the first time today. It really is hard to ignore that thing blinking at you. It's darker in the morning when we leave for work and that's not going to improve.

Busy at work with assessment notices. Me, my boss Randy and Jane in the Data Processing Department work together on those damn things. Everything is very time sensitive, which is a procrastinator's nightmare. The notices are going out later this year thanks to yours truly. I put it off just as long as I could. Assessment notices cut into tree marking time. That's ok, you need a break from arguing with people about tree stuff.

Nick from my treatment group graduates tonight. He's only 19 years old and a real smart ass. I like him and I'm going to miss him. I'll have to call him once in a while to check up on him. Hopefully, he'll call me once in a while to check up on me. You need a big support group when you do this kind of thing. It doesn't hurt to have a loving wife who supports you, either.

July 21st - 7:23 am: Nick showed up late for group so our counselor William is making him wait until Monday to graduate. I gave Nick the address to my blog so hopefully he'll check it out. Hey Nick, learn how to be on time. And slow the fuck down in your car or you'll be riding a bike too. And not by choice.

Hammock Problems

The people at 70th and 4th are going to need to find another way to anchor the hammock because I marked the tree it was hooked to for Dutch Elm Disease. Sorry guys, it's my job. A new place for the baby's swing will also need to be located at 68th and 4th. I've dealt with that guy before so he shouldn't be too crabby. He has a nice dog. The dog's name is Stoli, named after the vodka. Maybe I'll name a dog Surly some day. I ended the day at 68th and Wentworth. I rang the doorbell and was greeted with, 'what do you want'. Oh, we have a hard-ass, do we? We specialize in dealing with tough guys. I just enforce the ordinance. It's not personal.

Debbie and I met with a counselor last night for our family session at treatment. Debbie thinks the guy tries to put words in her mouth. I was going to ask the guy if he was a former addict or alcoholic. My group counselor William introduces himself as chemically dependent when we go around the room. Bolstad told me that the counselors with no abuse history get no respect and now I understand. You don't want to be lectured by some guy who's never been through the problems associated with abuse problems.

I rode my old Trek 7500 last night after treatment. The last time I rode that one was on Saint Patrick's Day. I need to get the drivetrain fixed so I can say that I'd ridden that one 10,000 miles. I've only got about 1000 miles to go for that. That bike seems really small compared to my other bikes. I have a lot of love for that bike. It helped me lose 100 pounds and took me all over the place. I've ridden it in Wisconsin and on the Ironman. It just needs some attention from the great mechanics at Freewheel.

A Bar Every Fifteen Feet and Raymond In Rehab. WTF!

For those of you who don't know what WTF stands for, it stands for What The Fudge. I would never use the f- word on my blog or in conversation. OK, here we go with the weekend wrap-up. Was able to get a 27 mile ride in on the Salsa on Saturday morning before our trip to La Crosse. We even had time to stop at Freewheel to pick up Debbie's new Salsa jersey that I gave her to celebrate crossing the 1000 mile barrier. I'll get a picture of her in it for all to see. The jersey is really neat. We also had time before we left for her to get a new skirt for the party. I'll have a picture of her in the skirt soon too. Me and my disposable camera cover a lot of ground. Why no girl, a woman never has enough clothes.

The trip to La Crosse was a load of fun. I haven't seen that many bars in a small area since I was on Bourbon Street. Come to think of it, there's three bars in Sayner, Wisconsin, which has a population of about 75. La Crosse is a really nice town. We especially liked the downtown area with all the old buildings. The party was great. Good food and live music. Angie's Auntie and her band are really great musicians. And who knew that Angie and Alex could play guitar. The party was held at the hospitality room at City Brewery. All that beer and me in rehab. No big deal.

Found a new trail on the way home from the airport on the train yesterday. I saw some people riding so we took out the tandem in the afternoon to explore. The trail leads to the Mendota Bridge by Fort Snelling. We rode across the bridge and over to Mendota, down the big hill to something called the Great River Trail. Downhill at 31 mph, weeee! We finally ended up at the ranger's station at Fort Snelling for a water bottle fill-up. On the way back home we passed a couple pulling a kid trailer (kid dragger). Mommy was pulling the trailer and was laboring in the 93 degree heat. I want to pull a kid in one of those things and give him the ride of his/her life. I'd get one and pull Snowy around except she'd bail the first time she saw an animal to chase. Girl's got spunk, even at nine years old. God bless you, Snowy. What would I do without you?

You Know Your Plastic From Your Cash...

It's really been too hot in the afternoons to do much extra riding on the way home. I may take a swing around Lake Harriet on the way home today just to get a few extra miles in. Hell, who am I kidding, I want to see all the women on the beaches. I may stop and just fall in the lake.

Mrs found some great bargains at the consignment shop yesterday and was able to avoid a felony arrest. Way to go, girl. I just wasn't into looking at clothes, so I took a walk around the block. I stopped to talk to some guy working in his yard. We talked about trees, of course.

We're off to La Crosse, Wisconsin tomorrow for a party. It's being given by Angie and her husband Alex (or their families) to celebrate their wedding and Angie's college graduation. Well actually, they got married in January of '04 and she finished her Master's Degree last winter (I think). But, there's nothing like a good party and sometimes it takes a while to put one together. The dogs will be taken care of by a girl who has her own pet sitting service. She's in law school and you can sure tell it. We had to sign a legal document before services could be rendered. I told her that they're only allowed to watch three hours of television and bed time is 9 pm.

Have a great weekend. Ride fast, but drink a shitload of water.

What Hits The Spot On A 90 Degree Day?

According to the kids on Bloomington Avenue it looks like gum is what you need on a really hot day. No, I'm not kidding. I stopped in my official City car hoping for lemonade or Kool Aid or cold sauerkraut juice. None of that to be had. Just gum. So I bought my gum and exchanged pleasantries and left. I remember a kid who had a lemonade stand at Lake Harriet one hot day several summers ago. I patronize every kid's stand so I stopped. The first sip of lemonade made me discover something. The kid must of used a frozen concentrate. He did however forget to add the water. I thought I was going to hurl. Luckily, there was no diabetic coma.

Alert the media. Nu Look Consignment shop on 50th and Penn is having a half-price sale today. I'll take the lovely Mrs because dinner out has been promised. Don't get in her way because you might come away with a broken arm. There's a mens section in the basement which is roughly the size of my bathroom. Guys don't get rid of clothes until they're ready for the rag bag. I'll find something to buy even though I have a shitload of clothes.

Did Discovery take the day off today? I guess there wasn't anyone who mattered in front of them so they kind of coasted in. A Frenchman won on Bastille Day. How ironic.

Went to my first AA meeting last night. I think I'm going to shop around for another AA group. I like my regular treatment group better. We have a closeness forged by our common problem. I hope I keep contact with those guys after treatment is over.

Working my first Friday in over a month tomorrow. Ick. It won't be so bad. By 7:30 tomorrow morning we'll have donuts. Donuts good.

Well, time to put my bike clothes on and hit the gum stand on the way home.

Just Ride In The Shade

It's really quite warm outside today. As Donut Guy might say, it's 90 degrees with a 900 % humidity. I've drank 4000 gallons of water and Gatorade but still feel dehydrated. Not as dehydrated as I was when I was drinking seven days a week. I'm hoping I can find a few lawn sprinklers to ride through on the way home. That always helps and somehow it makes you feel like a kid.

I've been riding the Salsa to work lately because I have to bust ass to get home. Then I gulp down some dinner, shower and drive the car to treatment. If it were cooler I'd ride my bike, but I'd hate to get there and then have to sit there stinky and sweaty.

My legs get sore just watching those mountain stages of the Tour. What kind of climbs do you practice with to get to the point that you can tackle those mountains. Woof. The really impressive thing to me is that they're going to come back tomorrow and ride another 100 miles or more. We've been watching the Tour during lunch. The boys are really interested. None of them ride a bike, but they're interested anyway. I wish I could get some of these guys to go on rides with me. It isn't like a little exercise would kill them.

1000 Miles! There's No Stopping Her Now!

Congrats to the fabulous Debra for surpassing 1000 miles for the year on your commute home tonight. I think now you're going to have to set new goals for the year. You may have to set your sights higher than 2000 miles. But savor you're first big mileage accomplishment because it will be the one you remember forever. We're going to keep you riding just as late in the year as we can. I'll pay for the GD clothes to keep you warm. If you see something you need to keep warm, just buy it. It's 90 today so I don't think you need a set of leg warmers yet. Freewheel, REI, Nashbar, Marshall Field's, Victoria's Secret. Anywhere. The picture above is of Debra's brand new Surly taken last December. I brought her bike upstairs and staged a photo with her fiber optic snowman. I called her at work proclaiming that I was going to ride her new bike down the basement stairs. Why yes, I was drunk at the time.

Love ya baby. Ride far. Ride fast.

Welcome To The Neighborhood, Ella

This picture was supposed to be at the bottom of the page. I'm so f'ing computer illiterate that it's not funny. This is Snowy with her mother's red kitchen walls in the background. Dogs are so photogenic. They always have their good side turned to the camera. So pretend that this picture is on the bottom of the page and nobody will get hurt. Shit, I just hit the preview and this post came out looking totally wrong. No, this isn't Ella. Sorry Kristine, I don't know how to fix this and I've spent 45 minutes putting it together. What a dumb shit you are Ray. So, post all the comments you want that agree with what a dumb shit I am.

Congratulations to my friend Kris and her husband Joe on the birth of their daughter Ella Sophia. Ella weighed in at almost 9 pounds and is 21 inches long. I have to disclose that size information because women are always interested in that kind of thing. Ella will have two dogs to play with, which I'm sure will be a hoot for her. She'll grow up going to garage sales and will always shop at World Market. She'll probably be able to run pretty fast because her father is awfully GD fast. She'll hopefully inherit her mother's mechanical ability, good looks and creativity. Both of her parents are intelligent, so she's got that going for her. She's too young to have a bike for right now, but when she's old enough she'll probably ride a Surly set up as a single-speed (50 x 18 for you bike geeks). Sorry Jeremy, she may not be ready for a fixie right off the bat. We'll make sure she learns how to ride safely which means I won't be teaching her how to ride in traffic. Congrats to the proud parents. I'll post a picture of Ella as soon as I can. Speaking of which, I wish I could post a picture of my great niece Aimee. I have one from an e-mail my sister-in-law Carol sent me. Let's not forget my computer skills are limited.

Debbie and I rode the tandem out to Hopkins for the Raspberry Festival Criterium yesterday. Derrick took third in his class and Tyler would've done better if it weren't for some kind of mechanical breakdown. It's really exciting to see people you know race. That and women racers in spandex are pretty cool too. I can't forget to mention that Kevin from Freewheel (No, not Kevin the owner) raced in a couple of classes. He's really young and has a great racing career ahead of him.

Under the I'm so excited I could just shit department, the lovely Debra will surpass 1000 miles for the first time in her riding career this week. When she does it I'll post a longer tribute to the baddest 4' 11" riding machine on the planet. I took Debbie out Saturday evening for a ride to expand her bike handling abilities. A commuter can never have enough riding skills in my book. She handled the LRT portion of her skills test quite admirably. I kind of cheated by riding my Rockhopper. Those 26" tires make maneuvering really easy.

My Intro To Mountain Biking

After escort service yesterday, I rode through downtown and headed to Wirth Park. I was riding my Rockhopper with the slicks on it. These are a wider slick but there's still no tread to be had. I quickly found a trail marked 'More Difficult' and figured I'd give it a shot. They're not kidding when they call it single-track. Within 30 seconds I found a corner I wasn't going to make and tried to put my feet down. I more or less tipped over into a small ditch. Yes, I was laughing my ass off. I got up to find a stream of blood running down my arm from my elbow. No surgery needed so I kept riding. That was really fun. The twists, turns and uneven terrain make it a blast. I think I'm a convert. Since it was my first time I carried my bike over some of the logs that are set up on the trail in order for you to bust your ass. I stayed and played for about an hour. I would've stayed longer but I knew I had 17 miles to ride home.

Today, I drove the car to Lebanon Hills Park in Burnsville or Eagan. I call anything south of the river - South Suburbia. The Trek/Gary Fisher company reps had a load of mountain bikes and road bikes to test out. Most of the bikes were too small for me so one of the reps let me ride his Gary Fisher Rig which is a single-speed mountain bike. He has it set up with a 34 x 20. Again, I had a ball out in the woods. I was out about an hour and a half this time. That was enough. It's like 90 today.

What have I learned from my introduction to mountain biking?
1) I want a bike with more than one gear.
2) I want a front suspension fork.
3) I want a wider tire than the slicks on my Rockhopper.
4) Mountain biking is very strenuous. That and it beats the shit out of you.
5) The whole dirt and blood thing appeals to me.
6) It gives me the excuse to get yet another bike.

Peace out. Raspberry Fest Crit tomorrow. Debbie will proudly be wearing the Cat 6 colors.

$60,000

My group and I outlined the 30 years of my drinking career last night at treatment. We estimated that I spent about 60 grand including the sizeable tips I used to leave bartenders and cocktail waitresses. Big Daddy thinks the estimate is on the low side. Think of how much bike shit and other stuff I could've bought with that money. Oh well, as Mother says, 'live and learn'.

A big bike weekend is planned. Tomorrow, I'll ride with Debbie to the hospital and then I plan on heading to Wirth Park for some mountain biking. Ma has a 2:40 doctor's appointment and then she has some shopping she needs to do. Hopefully I won't need to see the doctor after Wirth Park.

Freewheel has demo days at Lebanon Hills Park on Saturday and Sunday. I'm going so I can ride some really expensive bikes. I hear that Lebanon Hills has some really cool trails. I'm really looking forward to it.

We'll be taking the tandem out to Hopkins on Sunday. The Cat 6 boys will be racing in the Raspberry Festival Criterium. It'll be fun to watch people we know. I hope there's food.

I Can't Think Of A Title

Not much going on these days besides work, riding, and treatment. Tonight I have to outline 30 years of drinking for my treatment group. Then the group gets to remind me that it wasn't the most prudent activity. No shit.

All my pictures have disappeared. I've e-mailed Blogger to find out what the story is. I knew it was too good to be true. It was too easy for me.

One more day of work. I think I could work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays until I'm 70. Four day weekends every week would be awesome.

Gotta go. I've got an argument with my counselor waiting for me.

4:45 AM, Yuck!

After four days off, getting up this morning sure stunk. I think it's because you have to hit the ground running. I always have time for a couple of cups of coffee, but the time blows by too quickly. We're on the road by 6. It's a nice time of the morning to ride. I rode further with Debbie this morning so I could get the bulk of my miles in before work. I have to bust ass after work so I can get to treatment by 5:30. Tonight is what they call skills. You do group exercises to help you after you leave treatment.

We rode the tandem three times over our four day weekend. The tandem is a blast. It's perfect for people of unequal riding ability. Debbie loves it because she gets to go faster. She has a little over 100 miles to go for 1000 for the year. We'll have to hold some type of ceremony to celebrate. I think 2000 miles is easily within her reach by the end of the year. Debbie is becoming a hardcore. She's extending her distances and riding faster. She still needs to become more comfortable in traffic which is a skill that comes slowly. I think it was Nathan who wrote on his blog that motorists smell fear. I agree with that statement 100%.

Marked five dying elm trees on private property this afternoon. Those people will have to dig into their own pockets to pay for the removal costs. Of course our contractor will remove it for a fee. The fee for that tree on 68th and 15th turned out to be $5000. This isn't the part of the job that's too much fun.

Hold Everything

I went over to Kenwood Cycle on Thursday after work and rode the On One single-speed Inbred. I liked it, but ... It was probably worth a $1000. I found out that I'm going to want something with more than one gear. This one was gold. I really like the blue frame that Donut Guy and I are dreaming about. Yesterday, when I talked to Mike at Freewheel, he said they can order it. Then, Tyler and I will pick out the goodies. Then, I can take it to Wirth Park and fly over the handlebars. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

After two days of posting pictures I'd taken with my disposable camera, I can't get pictures to post. How's that line go? Technology has failed me. Maybe I just got lucky. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Debbie and I are probably in the minority. We don't have a computer or digital camera. We do, however, have 7 bikes and a tandem between us. Try riding a GD digital camera some Saturday morning. Sorry, I'm still pissy about not getting the pictures to post.

The special effects of War of the Worlds makes it worth seeing. I think some parts of the story are a bit thin, but hell, I'm not Roger Ebert. I'm glad I saw it at the theatre because I don't think it would be as cool on a television. Everybody's telling me to go see Batman. I like the Batman movies. I grew up with that hoky tv show where a graphic saying POW would come up when someone got hit. George, you're old enough to remember that stuff, aren't you buddy?

Looking forward to the Sunday Morning Donut Ride. In honor of those skinny little shits riding in the Tour, I believe I'll have two donuts tomorrow.

Have a great weekend. Ride your bike. It's the 4th of July already. Three months from today, you might need to wear a jacket for your ride. Ain't I a picture of optimism.