New Blog

I started a more business related blog that has pictures and descriptions of my work, that sounds completely dull but I try to keep it interesting, so far there has been no talk of bikes but it will be updated more than this one.

http://sunwoodworking.wordpress.com

Commuting

I started working as a woodworking instructor at Living Classrooms in Fells point back in June.


I have been driving about twenty minuets to the Light Rail and taking my bike downtown to Meadow Mill, Woodberry, and biking from there, we have opened up another site on Milton st. a couple blocks east of Johns Hopkins, its the ghetto man, really, it's bad.Fortunately my hours are off hours for the dealers and such evil ones,but that may change as the days get shorter.I am saving about thirty bucks a week in gas and the stress of the morning rush is like a Calgon moment compared to how it would be if I drove.


The mechanicals go like this;
two flats, one was near the train so I walked the other was a rear in the morning I had to fix.

In front of an elementary school a woman pulls right out in front of the car I am following, she hits her brakes and I hit mine skidding into the rear bumper, over the bars, on to the hood, slide up and hit my head on the rear window cracking my helmet and enlarging my right cheek bone a bit, I am really glad I was wearing my bucket.The woman's car I hit was super nice and the woman who cut us both off yelled at me and was sure she didn't do any thing wrong, even after the security cop told her she did.


My fender snapped clean, I was rolling along at a fair clip on a new fancy 700x25 pumped up to 120psi ,went from the smooth asphalt to the cobble stones and it broke at about the fifth Stone in. I rode this fender for two months straight with no problems I was very pleased with it but I think it had to much flex and when I rode over the cobbles with the high pressure it sprung to far.The other tire was a 700x38 @ 80 PSI, never had a problem. I want to make a thicker one out of a more flexible species, I really don't want to get into laminating to messy and wasteful.

One broken spoke, and a tire that the belts broke inside, never saw this happen before, it was a great tire that served me very well for maybe three years, not sure, but it lasted a long time, it happened when I left work I was praying it wouldn't explode in the ghetto I just wanted to make it to Gillford ave., Mt. Vernon was all I was asking from it and I made it all the way to the train.

It's so nice to ride every day I have driven only a hand full of times, I miss it and feel guilty when I have to drive. Oyeah after saying that last Friday some kids walking along Patterson Park threw a big rock at me, it landed like four ft. away in the middle of the road, that's another one I would be glad I had the helmet for.I turned around and rode up to them asking why and they said it was their friend behind the bushes, I didn't see any one but I don't think it was them they really seemed to feel bad about it.

This year I ordered some hop rhizomes from Oregon and they have done pretty good I think, Its my first attempt. I was at a pizza beer joint in State College PA for the single speed worlds a few years ago and they had them growing all over the porch , I thought if they could grow there then they should be hardy enough to grow here, three hours south.I don't brew and don't have an interest in starting to but I enjoy the results of the craft and appreciate the process.So I keep missing the Bootlegger's Bliss, a mid Atlantic underground tasting that involves two wheeled shenanigans. Your supposed to bring your home brew for sampling with other like minded folks, wonder if I could get in with a bag of Cascade hops and a six of Bells Two Hearted ale?

T.S. Hannabofatfanna

We left last Saturday for Frisco N.C, we go every year this time, and it was raining all day due to T.S Fay on Friday while we loaded the truck.











Here it is Friday and we are back home,drove in and out of the outer bands of T.S Hanna, get home , unload and it starts to rain she really was chasing us down. first time we ever came home early because of a storm, and we could have stayed through it but why drive in 30mph plus winds and driving rain, why wait out something that could linger? We were blessed with an absolutely beautiful week.







Surfed every day, got to ride with Art and Brueck in some killer warm head high crumblers and wondered what the hell I was doing in some over head crushers at Roadanth and Buxton.










Man, I had to take these pics at the groins in Buxton , the water was immaculate, and I almost want to apologise for the tourist picture of the Light House, something about it , you feel a need to take it.







This is the South side of the cape, we had a new moon and the tides were reacting to it, real high and real low, with a tropical storm off shore made for strong side shore currents and produced waves on around the hook, first time I have seen this and the pros and cameras were there to catch it.



































please click on this pic, it almost does it justice, the size and the natural beauty, I have never been to Hawaii but this looks like so many pictures I have seen of it.
















Fishing on the edge of the earth.











Wednesday in Rodanthe the winds backed off to the west, with the east swell, perfection.





yeah some one is in there
more pics from the week can be found here.Big Hell Yeahs to rickyd and all the eastern SSers that rep'ed at the worlds recently

Is There Any Body Out There?

Dating myself but I really like Pink Floyd, I'd like to watch "The Wall"again.
So yeah I am using a songs lyric to ask a question.
Yeah its been a good long time since I typed here, I'm so busy and that's all I will say for now.
I don't know how people do it every day or even regularly.
This is a great idea, sometimes you just need a tube or something little and don't want to go into a shop for it.
This is a good idea but it wouldn't last long in Baltimore, with no bike lanes that thing would be a pile of parts ground between a delivery truck and a parked b.m.w.
Concept bikes, this is a neat looking one, people are very opinionated about it, I like the idea of lights integrated with the frame.

Lance Armstrong unveils his new commuting bike shop

Lance Armstrong unveils his new commuting bike shop

That makes me wish Lance was from Baltimore.

"Runnin' With The Devil"

YouTube - David Lee Roth "Runnin' With The Devil" Vocal Track

David Lee rules Van Halen has never been and never will be as good as when he was rockin the throat!
I hung around this guy years ago that could do the perfect D.L.R., Pat Truit Ocean City local and exceptional wild man, Billy Carlile did a nice version too.

Living Class Rooms

Yesterday I did a demo of green woodworking at the Living class rms in Balt. it was allot of fun, nine girls about ten years old well behaved and funny, full of questions. Kids love this stuff, touching the wood and feeling the moister in it, splitting a log apart and seeing the inside and then making some shavings with the draw knife, exciting stuff. Little kids are inspiring, their energy and interest in things even though the attention span is short it's easy to get them back into it.

It's a unique school that gives back to the comunity and shows the yout's natural things in life that most of us take for granted. These pics are from over the summer, unfortunatly I didnt get any yesterday , but I do go back again in Febuary and twice in March.

House

-WOW -

Alot has happened since the fall. Tons of good riding went down, then we bought a house and I got some chunks in my knee. We sorted it out so we had thirty-some days before we moved in.

We really wanted to do the floors and paint before we moved any furniture in, it worked out pretty good.There was also some roof shingles that had been worn away by a limb and some banged up flashing that was letting rain water in just enough to stain and lift the paint.So I definatly wanted to patch that stuff before the remnants of any hurricanes or the soon to come winter storm blew through.We striped the paint off the trim in one room,it would have been nice to do it all but there just wasnt enough time.

It was totally worth it,looks killer. All of the woodwork is Yellow Pine.

I was able to work out the chunks in my knee just about the time I got my new frame then the weather changed and the time change made riding real hard to squeeze in. I still have only gotten a few rides but man I like it, the twenty nine is so fast, I read a discription the other day "riding a 29er is like riding in a bike not on a bike", yeah like that. I had some pics but cant find them , Ill post some.

We spend so much of our hard earned money on insurance these days, my parents wernt burdened with this excesive spending for somthing that "might happen", I am not talking just about health either.I try not to think about how much moore comfy I could live not paying as much as I do for somthing I never use.But I know nothings gonna change when the politicians are paying out equally to each party. hillery is fourth in recieving the large sums, wasnt she suposed to fix health insurance when bill was in there?

Here is a bike tool for the rider. wewe

64mm turns 100, never disapionts.

Stay Calm

Carry On