Stupid Hurts

I always wondered where pro-bikers pissed on long bike rides, now I know

and there you have it

It has been a fairly quiet week for me, most of my time has been spent researching bicycles and networking with people to secure places to stay while crossing the country.

This weekend involved a trip up to Jacksonville, Florida for another Vitamin water promotion.
I was reminded I have no patience for riding in cars for any extended length of time. Which is odd seeing how I can pedal a bicycle for near nine hours strait without much protest

Saturday night ended with me calling an early night from fatigue but not before seeing my co-worker Chris in his Halloween costume. A Santa hat and a Jason mask.

I wonder if anyone actually rode with him in that getup.

You know after I was complaining about my bike being heavy. I saw this one chained up outside of a bookstore, wonder how does it corner

This week has been spent researching for my trip across country and preparing for a big vitamin water promotion in Jacksonville this weekend. Here is the bike we built for that
here is Adam on it

And here is our fridge full of you guessed it VITAMIN WATER!!

Ohh aside from that, I am going to spend my days off looking at bicycles and what not, and doing more research for my trip

In between working and training for my trip I have been feeling kind weird the last few days. Not sure why really, but I think it has something to do with my planned cross country blast. It is only 2 and a half weeks away at this point. Honestly I am a little scared of the whole thing, I am plotting to ride across country on a bicycle during the end of fall/ beginning of winter. Part of me wants to wait, but I feel if I don’t leave soon, I will be trapped here till march when it gets warm enough again up north for me to ride.  I really do feel trapped here, Orlando just doesn’t do much for me, hopefully somewhere else in the country will.

According to my current plan I would be leaving the second or third week of november, but part of me wants to hang out for a few more weeks to buy a new bicycle and get used to it, I am not sure if my current rig is up to the several thousand mile task ahead of it. The bicycle I have been eyeballing is $748

Not really what I expected to pay when I entered into the sport. If I hang around two more weeks to buy it then I won’t be leaving to late November and probably not hitting California until later January….. choices choices choices.

wow this is a cool gallery, I am still looking for my great photo project

Spiral pictures - Spiral photo gallery

Oh fu…. (cue internal monologue)

This must be what a lawn dart feels like. I look down at my feet and I see clouds between my shoes, I don’t want to look above my head. I already know what’s waiting for me. How did I find myself here I wonder. That’s right I wanted to ride my bicycle to the beach. I must have zoned out a bit back…….

WHOOMP!

Well that sucked. Let’s see, can I get up? Check.

Can I walk? Check.

Hmmm where is my bike? Good. Nothing seems broken, well back at it then .

It never feels good to hit the ground, at least this time I was lucky enough to land in the fairly soft dirt that caused me to hastily dismount my bicycle in the first place.

Sixty some odd miles later I did eventually make it from Orlando to Cocoa Beach. While watching the moon rise over the waves I had time to reflect. Honestly there wasn’t a feeling of accomplishment or anything. I had more fun pedaling out to Cocoa beach than I did visiting the beach. After a bit the fact I had just pedaled 80 miles sank in and I started to give thought on what to do next. Eventually I chose to ride back to Orlando that night. Unfortunately I learned that my limit for one day is about 120 miles before I collapse. So after a brief nap on top of a re-elect someone for something campaign sign I managed to pedal to a bus stop where I caught a bus back home. And I had time to recollect my thoughts.

Total mileage for the Weekend. 138
Total saddle time: 9 hours 48 minutes
Total signs defaced; 1

And further proof all the good names are taken. Cocoa has the worse name ever for it’s public transport. The Space Coast Area Transit. Who really wants to ride something called the SCAT.

This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a bit. First off I found this website called Stumbleupon.com they have this plugin for Firefox that sends you random links that other people have voted as being awesome. I decided to give it a try. The first site it sent me to was this one °°°°°°°THEIR CIRCULAR LIFE°°°°°°°
It features time lapse photos of several crowded areas and you can control the sweep with a wheel interface. check it out it is pretty cool

So after two weeks, I finally got my Ibook back. I found out why it took so long. Originally it was just a video card issue, but while they had it they decided to install a new keyboard a new screen a new top and several other parts, I think my track pad is new to. Unfortunately in all this newness they found it necessary to wipe my hard drive. 1100 pictures GONE!. Oh well I am all about new beginnings and starting over, now just to figure out where I can come up on a copy of Photoshop for the cheap.

Also my buddy Don has won the Wizard 15th annual costume contest. This really wasn’t a shock he won last year as well. His costume? a 11+ foot tall Megatron and Optimus Prime. Since is moving soon the Megatron has actually gone up for sale on Ebay.

and since I have my computer expect recent pics to hit my gallery soon

Just a few more days till I get my Ibook back, Finally!

Step 1 - Request

Product received by repair center (05-Oct-2006)
Step 2 - Service

Repair completed (13-Oct-2006)
Step 3 - Return

Product shipped to [tag]Apple[/tag] Store (14-Oct-2006)
Shipped via FedEx Air

of course since tomorrow is a sunday it won’t hit the Apple store till Monday. it only took them 15 days total. At least I will be getting it back.

Other than that the highpoint of my week had to be meeting Tony Todd and giving him directions to Fridays, He played the Candyman in the Candyman movies

Other than that my weekend has been spent passing out Vitamen Water at a Pepsi  sponsored event till I got escorted off premises by the cops. Just another day in my life.

I have been spending more time on my bicycle lately since none of my electronics work. The biggest thing I have learned is that when you pedal long distances you have a lot of time on your hands to think.

This completely explains why whenever I see pics of pro racers they are all wearing earphones. Since I didn’t have mine with me I passed the miles by trying to take stock of my current situation. Somewhere along the way I came to the startling realization. If you take equal parts “Fight Club” and “Forrest Gump” you get a pretty fair rendition of my life up to date. All I need is a well dressed alter-ego with a box of chocolates and I am spot on. Granted I am a bit more Gump than Durden It is amusing how much I can really relate to both characters.