Uninspired, but not Disinterested start to 2017

[Dave Taylor]

Ss category at short track?

Trying to get back into the swing of cycling things since the holidays has been rough. Between a crappy two weeks of cold (was a low of 10 or so for the 4 days) snow, rain and Mandi going back to work, I was not in any rush to try and be outside. I easily talked myself out of it.

"The roads are wet."

"I don't know where my arm warmers are."

I just didn't have the urge to do it.

I was hoping I would never have to ride inside based on the weather down here. Last Monday, I broke. To make sure I wasn't going to get too fat or go too long without pedaling, I dusted off the cobwebs on the trainer and set it up in the living room.

Jack seemed to enjoy the sound it created, put him right to sleep after a nice warm bottle. He's been sleeping through the night, which has been amazing. He's smiling and in general is a happy, predictable boy. It's awesome seeing him be happy and he's almost at the point where he's going to start to laugh.

Right now it's easy to kind of let him be on his own or sit on the trainer while he isn't interested in being held, or is due for a quick sleep. In the future, I can see this being harder and harder as he starts recognizes me more, calls for you, that kind of thing. It's a feeling that, as weird as it sounds, seems to be replacing my desire for this peak cycling fitness.

Now I don't want to be fat and shit stuffing my face with canolis for breakfast. I do still enjoy riding bikes and going fast on them. I would never say I'm going to quit bikes or anything like that, I don't see that happening in that extreme at all. I would still like to show up to the 3 hour group ride and drill it with the boys. I still want to put a number on my handle bars or on my back and race. I'm sort of struggling with the idea of just being mediocre in my own eyes and being 100% okay with it at this moment. I need to not think about "what if I trained" or "I'm faster than this". I'm just not sure how I'm going to feel in the next year or so about racing fitness. If you know me, I flip flop back and forth on everything, maybe this is just a phase at the time.

What's on the calendar doe?

The cycling event schedule just never ends here. The last cross race of the year for NCCX is on Saturday, and then the weekend after that, the first MTB Short Track race is happening. It makes sense that you could ride your fitness into Short Track, but up north, it was always the "get the legs going for MTB" season race. Not the "ride your fitness from CX into MTB season". It makes sense why people were freaking RIPPING this time last year. They just finished nationals and were raging. You almost need to pick a discipline to skip in order to not go completely mental. I've always been a fan up peaks and valleys of fitness and down time. Once I started training, it was all I knew and it made sense. You can't be on your A game for 12 months out of the year. Here you can be on the gas all the time and race once a month. So instead of being 100% for 2 months out of the year, it seems you need to be 80%, all year round... I think. Strange.

I've been toying with the idea of unzipping my SSAP SS setup and throwing it on the Scalpel racing the SS category for Short Track. I would probably just do the sport category for my age group anyway based on how the riding schedule has been going, which is fine. I was looking at the times for the Super Sport and my age group and they are almost exactly the same, so why bother. The age group and SS start times are at 10ish instead of 2:40, which makes the whole afternoon open to do things. I don't think I would win my age group... If I did that would be interesting.

While I have sworn off of singlespeeding year round, it's funny how things come full circle. Before we moved down here, I thought that if I was going to stomp the Cat 3 races (we see how that worked out... HA!) I would just race the SS category if I was forced up graded. I would convert the SuperX to a singlespeed and have a fun time. I don't know if I will be traveling as far as I have in the past to race cross, but the ~1 hour away races, it would be fun, I think. Maybe I'll get myself some cut off shorts too?

The snow is melting, the sun is staying out longer and Spring is right around the corner.

Ss

 

[Pearl]

I think the SSST gig is up and I finally beat the one dude I was battling with the first two races (first race I lost contact on the gravel road due to a bobble, and second race he popped his chain) fair and square without a huge cat and mouse game. So that was good. 2nd place got to put 2 squares into a football square pool, which I obviously didn't win anything from. I never win anything from those.

We will be in NJ for the fourth race, maybe I will see some of yous. For the 5th race and last one I will do the "Super Sport" one. So that is that. The winner, Justin, pushes this huge freaking gear of 38x18 and I just can't do that. I mean maybe I could try, but apparently my bb30 crankset is stuck in my frame so I couldn't even try

Since the recap and videos aren't drawing enough attention, maybe this crazy dream I had last night will gather some interest. I hardly ever remember dreams, or as many details as I do below. I actually told myself the story in detail while I was sleeping to not forget. I even woke up and wrote a note on my phone that said "FBFight".

I think my brain had this idea as a starting topic because @stb222 and I were chatting Friday about poaching the D&L Fat Epic ride, or Kevin was going to stand on the side of the course with funny signs, skittles, something like that.

Suddenly I appear on a road/cross/gravel bike riding with Cody from Halters and two other people I cannot remember right now. One of them could have been @jdog. It could have been Kevin too, since we were talking about doing this. I'll stick with that. We are on the canal path just cruising and picking up random fat bikers that are in misery. We jumped on the course behind the split/turn around for the half way point of the shorter distance. The event has a bunch of arrows and a course marshal at the split pointing people in the right direction. We decide to stroll into the longer distance that dumps towards the canal path along the water. We arrive at some sort of aid station where a rather large crew of people are gathering.

Everyone is standing around in a big circle, almost like a rap battle is happening. It isn't around the aid station, its just on the other side of the path. We stroll over suddenly and then out of nowhere, someone gets punched right in the face and a huge brawl breaks out, kind of the like The Outsiders:

I can remember seeing three teeth fly across the crew and shit is going down. I have no idea why, but all the sudden there is just bodies of people knocked out all over the place. I think I saw @jimvreeland in on this too. Or it was another guy with a beard. Blood, screaming, curses, It wasn't clear what the fight was about or who it was vs who, but we are like holy shit.

I don't remember how it ended and I rarely remember this much about my dreams, but I wanted to write it down incase a huge brawl goes down at this race and I can have the timestamp of "I told you this was going to happen".

 

[stb222]

Man, wouldn't that be a pisser when doing some M&M handups and getting stomped by a pack of Fat Bikers.

 

[Patrick]

whatcha baking in the superbowl brownies????

 

[pooriggy]

We will be in NJ for the fourth race, maybe I will see some of yous.

Give us the dates, Utah will let you destroy his new scalpel at TOS.
Your dream reminds me of an Elton John song, Saturday night is alright for fat bike fighting.

 

[rlb]

Blood, screaming, curses, It wasn't clear what the fight was about or who it was vs who, but we are like holy shit.

Good story. You can make this dream a reality.

 

[The Squirrel]

Hmmm.

 

[Steve Vai]

A fight at the D&L is quite possible. Steve almost started a brawl last year when he rode off course and gave up his podium spot to a guy that could follow directions.

 

[Pearl]

A fight at the D&L is quite possible. Steve almost started a brawl last year when he rode off course and gave up his podium spot to a guy that could follow directions.

 

[Steve Vai]

Why leave it to chance? Start it!!

 

[Pearl]

Someone asked me this question yesterday:

How do you like the mtb life in Charlotte vs NJ?

I thought it was a loaded question and couldn't be written down in a strava comment reply, so I figured I'd write it here.

The local riding in NJ is much more diverse than it is in the Charlotte area. We really only have two trails that reminded me of home, and they are not the Ringwood/Mooch trails of home. You can get to some world class mountain biking in Pisgah that is 2 hours away, but just like traveling the 1:30 for me when I was in NJ to Stewart or White Clay (which is actually close to 2 hours) it is something you rarely do. There is enough hills and techy terrain around to get your fix, but traveling out to the mountains here is just another game. I would say the one of local trails are a mix of Six Mile if it was rooty and a little elevation gain. The other has some steep climbs and feels more like a rocky Hartshorne. When we moved to this specific area I was worried about riding. I figured there wasn't anything close enough to us, but now I realized I have the two most diverse trails. So that is awesome.

This looks like a local trail in NJ. it's a 10 minute drive from my house.

I do think that back home, if you ride bikes, you're a cyclist. The mix of people who ride and race EVERYTHING is very high. Sure, you only see certain people at MTB races or CX races, but the overlap is like 75% of the people you see all season.

Down here, it seems that people stick to one discipline. Or that is what I've noticed. You have a road scene and road shops. The local shop to me is mainly service and he's more enduro kinda guy than anything. I brought my CX bike in for some love and said he hasn't worked on one in ages. Kind of interesting I thought. Back in NJ, the shops are much more diverse and while some have specialities, you will find every type of bike being sold and in the stands being repaired.

It also got me thinking of looking into how the cycling life in general is here versus home. My view on this will always be skewed based on my level of fitness/"expertise" than it was when I first started riding at home.

I think the fact that I started riding and got sucked into vortex of Halters, the Allaire beginner rides and meeting people at the same level of "I'm looking to ride my bike for fun" and a shop that was out building the trails and a cool place to hang out, it was sort of being adopted by a family.

Used to meet Capers, Dustin and Walter to night ride. I think the bike that Walter is on, Capers owns now.

Meeting up with these fools and always pushing each other was a great gateway into cycling. As we grew in cycling and wanted to get faster, our friends grew with us. We all started racing cat 2. We all decided to do the Stewart 6 pack. We all started going to A rides. We all started training. Sometimes we lost parts of the crew along the way for various reasons, but found even more as we went along through the years. The amount of people I met through cycling is just staggering.

Now, flash back to last year (believe it or not we have been down here for a year), I have no one still like my original family. I tried to reach out on the local forum which sucks compared to the home of mtbnj, I'm this guy who is looking for fast people to ride with and find a new home at a bike shop. I don't have time to do the beginner ride, and those aren't the people I want to ride with anyway. Am I a dick? It's strange, it's almost like I need to fill out a dating application to find people.

I have met some local people and slowly over the past year started to infiltrate into cliques and crews of people. I've been given tours of the mountains and met awesome people who only race mountain bikes in Pisgah. The fact it isn't as organic as back home feels weird. I'm some random guy from New Jersey who they've never met that is kind of fast enough to be interesting but not enough to really notice. I guess it is kind of like your first crush or something. Everything about the first time homies of cycling are always going to be the best. The stories are bigger, the feelings are awesome, that kind of thing. Kind of like when I was into cars. We always remember those OG times where it was the beginning of the crew and it was awesome. At some point we think it got shitty and always remember how much better it was back in the day. Then we fade out.

I just realized I was one of those people in the car scene that faded out. I have some friends who still play with cars and have gone from playing with hondas to racing NHRA All Motor Honda class and another buddy who has a big turbo Supra that is beautiful. I wonder if they think the old school days were better? Or maybe it's so long ago, it's totally forgotten about?

Here are two photos from the H2H jungle race 2010. Where are some of these people now? I see Paul M in the back, Sturm in UT, I remember that guy with the flat pedals won that day. I remember Chris passing me that race and thinking man, I need to be fast like Chris. I think Joaquin still races fat bikes or something.

I wonder if the people who we have lost along the way and faded out from cycling still think about those days, 5-6 years ago and tell the tales about them. I was talking with Bill about our first trip to Kingdom Trails, before I ever had a Garmin.

Kingdom Trails, 2009. I think I everyone was running tubes in this photo.

I feel like we rode SOOOOO many miles. Kingdom was epic, everything we expected. I have no idea how many miles we did but we rode 3 days and it felt like a HUGE trip. We went to Kingdom two years ago and in three days rode every single trail, and some more than once. It was awesome, but it wasn't as awesome as that first time we did it. The same thing with Charm City, Nittany, all that stuff. Why is that?

 

[Dave Taylor]

Someone asked me this question yesterday:

How do you like the mtb life in Charlotte vs NJ?

I thought it was a loaded question and couldn't be written down in a strava comment reply, so I figured I'd write it here.

The local riding in NJ is much more diverse than it is in the Charlotte area. We really only have two trails that reminded me of home, and they are not the Ringwood/Mooch trails of home. You can get to some world class mountain biking in Pisgah that is 2 hours away, but just like traveling the 1:30 for me when I was in NJ to Stewart or White Clay (which is actually close to 2 hours) it is something you rarely do. There is enough hills and techy terrain around to get your fix, but traveling out to the mountains here is just another game. I would say the one of local trails are a mix of Six Mile if it was rooty and a little elevation gain. The other has some steep climbs and feels more like a rocky Hartshorne. When we moved to this specific area I was worried about riding. I figured there wasn't anything close enough to us, but now I realized I have the two most diverse trails. So that is awesome.

This looks like a local trail in NJ. it's a 10 minute drive from my house.

I do think that back home, if you ride bikes, you're a cyclist. The mix of people who ride and race EVERYTHING is very high. Sure, you only see certain people at MTB races or CX races, but the overlap is like 75% of the people you see all season.

Down here, it seems that people stick to one discipline. Or that is what I've noticed. You have a road scene and road shops. The local shop to me is mainly service and he's more enduro kinda guy than anything. I brought my CX bike in for some love and said he hasn't worked on one in ages. Kind of interesting I thought. Back in NJ, the shops are much more diverse and while some have specialities, you will find every type of bike being sold and in the stands being repaired.

It also got me thinking of looking into how the cycling life in general is here versus home. My view on this will always be skewed based on my level of fitness/"expertise" than it was when I first started riding at home.

I think the fact that I started riding and got sucked into vortex of Halters, the Allaire beginner rides and meeting people at the same level of "I'm looking to ride my bike for fun" and a shop that was out building the trails and a cool place to hang out, it was sort of being adopted by a family.

View attachment 48092
Used to meet Capers, Dustin and Walter to night ride. I think the bike that Walter is on, Capers owns now.

Meeting up with these fools and always pushing each other was a great gateway into cycling. As we grew in cycling and wanted to get faster, our friends grew with us. We all started racing cat 2. We all decided to do the Stewart 6 pack. We all started going to A rides. We all started training. Sometimes we lost parts of the crew along the way for various reasons, but found even more as we went along through the years. The amount of people I met through cycling is just staggering.

Now, flash back to last year (believe it or not we have been down here for a year), I have no one still like my original family. I tried to reach out on the local forum which sucks compared to the home of mtbnj, I'm this guy who is looking for fast people to ride with and find a new home at a bike shop. I don't have time to do the beginner ride, and those aren't the people I want to ride with anyway. Am I a dick? It's strange, it's almost like I need to fill out a dating application to find people.

I have met some local people and slowly over the past year started to infiltrate into cliques and crews of people. I've been given tours of the mountains and met awesome people who only race mountain bikes in Pisgah. The fact it isn't as organic as back home feels weird. I'm some random guy from New Jersey who they've never met that is kind of fast enough to be interesting but not enough to really notice. I guess it is kind of like your first crush or something. Everything about the first time homies of cycling are always going to be the best. The stories are bigger, the feelings are awesome, that kind of thing. Kind of like when I was into cars. We always remember those OG times where it was the beginning of the crew and it was awesome. At some point we think it got shitty and always remember how much better it was back in the day. Then we fade out.

I just realized I was one of those people in the car scene that faded out. I have some friends who still play with cars and have gone from playing with hondas to racing NHRA All Motor Honda class and another buddy who has a big turbo Supra that is beautiful. I wonder if they think the old school days were better? Or maybe it's so long ago, it's totally forgotten about?

View attachment 48093 View attachment 48094
Here are two photos from the H2H jungle race 2010. Where are some of these people now? I see Paul M in the back, Sturm in UT, I remember that guy with the flat pedals won that day. I remember Chris passing me that race and thinking man, I need to be fast like Chris. I think Joaquin still races fat bikes or something.

I wonder if the people who we have lost along the way and faded out from cycling still think about those days, 5-6 years ago and tell the tales about them. I was talking with Bill about our first trip to Kingdom Trails, before I ever had a Garmin.

View attachment 48090 View attachment 48091
Kingdom Trails, 2009. I think I everyone was running tubes in this photo.

I feel like we rode SOOOOO many miles. Kingdom was epic, everything we expected. I have no idea how many miles we did but we rode 3 days and it felt like a HUGE trip. We went to Kingdom two years ago and in three days rode every single trail, and some more than once. It was awesome, but it wasn't as awesome as that first time we did it. The same thing with Charm City, Nittany, all that stuff. Why is that?

Thanks for the write up. That was me that asked. I am pretty new to the mtb scene in nj but appreciate the diversity. Somehow how I wonder why NJ doesn't do all these week day night races like the northeast and cali though?

 

[Pearl]

Thanks for the write up. That was me that asked. I am pretty new to the mtb scene in nj but appreciate the diversity. Somehow how I wonder why NJ doesn't do all these week day night races like the northeast and cali though?

Oh, that Tuesday Night thing is just a big group ride, I just like calling it the World Championship because it's a big deal

Putting on a race AND getting people to come are two big reasons. Putting on the Short Track, even the no frills version, still takes a good amount of setup/breakdown/teardown. Trying to get people to show up after work in NJ rush hour traffic? OOF.

Somehow in Charlotte they do pull it off down here, starting in April. I'm going to try and swing a couple of them. They pull 100 racers on a Wednesday night at the beginning of the year. That is staggering to me. It fades to 60, which is still a lot. The timing company that does all of the timing for the races in the area is top notch too. The race fee is pretty fair and its run like a H2H race... It's impressive. Finding someone in NJ to step up to even run it would be hard, but getting the numbers may be even harder.

 

[hotsauce]

That's fucking deep, yo.

When I started posting here I thought @pearl was just a mythical loud mouth that posted memes. +1 on the level of self reflection.

 

[Magic]

Now, flash back to last year (believe it or not we have been down here for a year), I have no one still like my original family. I tried to reach out on the local forum which sucks compared to the home of mtbnj, I'm this guy who is looking for fast people to ride with and find a new home at a bike shop. I don't have time to do the beginner ride, and those aren't the people I want to ride with anyway. Am I a dick? It's strange, it's almost like I need to fill out a dating application to find people.

I think you do kind of have to get back to those beginner rides to grow into a new, local family. There are always faster guys at those group rides and maybe you'll connect and ride together from there. I also find that a lot of the fast people almost seem antisocial or just don't want to have company on a ride, others just don't have the patience to ride with slower people. I first met MTBNJers at group rides, got a tiny bit faster, and continue to ride with different groups of friends that stuck together to ride at about the same level. Being in a new area, I think it'll be hard to just ask for a fast guys number and grow into cycling buddies. Do some shop road rides and group rides and see what happens.

 

[pooriggy]

It was awesome, but it wasn't as awesome as that first time we did it. The same thing with Charm City, Nittany, all that stuff. Why is that?

Agree, I also find the first time doing something I can recall it with greater detail and zeal.
As awesome as the first time is, you think the next time will be just as awesome...but it rarely is.
However there are things I do every year that are somewhat of a ritual, or a tradition and I do find comfort and purpose in said events.
Just don't be that fuckin guy from Jersey, always talking how great the cycling scene is up north

 

[jShort]

Someone asked me this question yesterday:

How do you like the mtb life in Charlotte vs NJ?

I thought it was a loaded question and couldn't be written down in a strava comment reply, so I figured I'd write it here.

The local riding in NJ is much more diverse than it is in the Charlotte area. We really only have two trails that reminded me of home, and they are not the Ringwood/Mooch trails of home. You can get to some world class mountain biking in Pisgah that is 2 hours away, but just like traveling the 1:30 for me when I was in NJ to Stewart or White Clay (which is actually close to 2 hours) it is something you rarely do. There is enough hills and techy terrain around to get your fix, but traveling out to the mountains here is just another game. I would say the one of local trails are a mix of Six Mile if it was rooty and a little elevation gain. The other has some steep climbs and feels more like a rocky Hartshorne. When we moved to this specific area I was worried about riding. I figured there wasn't anything close enough to us, but now I realized I have the two most diverse trails. So that is awesome.

This looks like a local trail in NJ. it's a 10 minute drive from my house.

I do think that back home, if you ride bikes, you're a cyclist. The mix of people who ride and race EVERYTHING is very high. Sure, you only see certain people at MTB races or CX races, but the overlap is like 75% of the people you see all season.

Down here, it seems that people stick to one discipline. Or that is what I've noticed. You have a road scene and road shops. The local shop to me is mainly service and he's more enduro kinda guy than anything. I brought my CX bike in for some love and said he hasn't worked on one in ages. Kind of interesting I thought. Back in NJ, the shops are much more diverse and while some have specialities, you will find every type of bike being sold and in the stands being repaired.

It also got me thinking of looking into how the cycling life in general is here versus home. My view on this will always be skewed based on my level of fitness/"expertise" than it was when I first started riding at home.

I think the fact that I started riding and got sucked into vortex of Halters, the Allaire beginner rides and meeting people at the same level of "I'm looking to ride my bike for fun" and a shop that was out building the trails and a cool place to hang out, it was sort of being adopted by a family.

View attachment 48092
Used to meet Capers, Dustin and Walter to night ride. I think the bike that Walter is on, Capers owns now.

Meeting up with these fools and always pushing each other was a great gateway into cycling. As we grew in cycling and wanted to get faster, our friends grew with us. We all started racing cat 2. We all decided to do the Stewart 6 pack. We all started going to A rides. We all started training. Sometimes we lost parts of the crew along the way for various reasons, but found even more as we went along through the years. The amount of people I met through cycling is just staggering.

Now, flash back to last year (believe it or not we have been down here for a year), I have no one still like my original family. I tried to reach out on the local forum which sucks compared to the home of mtbnj, I'm this guy who is looking for fast people to ride with and find a new home at a bike shop. I don't have time to do the beginner ride, and those aren't the people I want to ride with anyway. Am I a dick? It's strange, it's almost like I need to fill out a dating application to find people.

I have met some local people and slowly over the past year started to infiltrate into cliques and crews of people. I've been given tours of the mountains and met awesome people who only race mountain bikes in Pisgah. The fact it isn't as organic as back home feels weird. I'm some random guy from New Jersey who they've never met that is kind of fast enough to be interesting but not enough to really notice. I guess it is kind of like your first crush or something. Everything about the first time homies of cycling are always going to be the best. The stories are bigger, the feelings are awesome, that kind of thing. Kind of like when I was into cars. We always remember those OG times where it was the beginning of the crew and it was awesome. At some point we think it got shitty and always remember how much better it was back in the day. Then we fade out.

I just realized I was one of those people in the car scene that faded out. I have some friends who still play with cars and have gone from playing with hondas to racing NHRA All Motor Honda class and another buddy who has a big turbo Supra that is beautiful. I wonder if they think the old school days were better? Or maybe it's so long ago, it's totally forgotten about?

View attachment 48093 View attachment 48094
Here are two photos from the H2H jungle race 2010. Where are some of these people now? I see Paul M in the back, Sturm in UT, I remember that guy with the flat pedals won that day. I remember Chris passing me that race and thinking man, I need to be fast like Chris. I think Joaquin still races fat bikes or something.

I wonder if the people who we have lost along the way and faded out from cycling still think about those days, 5-6 years ago and tell the tales about them. I was talking with Bill about our first trip to Kingdom Trails, before I ever had a Garmin.

View attachment 48090 View attachment 48091
Kingdom Trails, 2009. I think I everyone was running tubes in this photo.

I feel like we rode SOOOOO many miles. Kingdom was epic, everything we expected. I have no idea how many miles we did but we rode 3 days and it felt like a HUGE trip. We went to Kingdom two years ago and in three days rode every single trail, and some more than once. It was awesome, but it wasn't as awesome as that first time we did it. The same thing with Charm City, Nittany, all that stuff. Why is that?

Can I give you a hug?


Do you think people can ride as much and race competitively and still consistently make those golden memories ? I'm not sure it's possible.

 

[soundz]

Here are two photos from the H2H jungle race 2010. Where are some of these people now?

I am in pic 1. I think I took pic 2.

 

[UtahJoe]

I have met some local people and slowly over the past year started to infiltrate into cliques and crews of people. I've been given tours of the mountains and met awesome people who only race mountain bikes in Pisgah. The fact it isn't as organic as back home feels weird. I'm some random guy from New Jersey who they've never met that is kind of fast enough to be interesting but not enough to really notice. I guess it is kind of like your first crush or something. Everything about the first time homies of cycling are always going to be the best. The stories are bigger, the feelings are awesome, that kind of thing. Kind of like when I was into cars. We always remember those OG times where it was the beginning of the crew and it was awesome. At some point we think it got shitty and always remember how much better it was back in the day. Then we fade out.

I imagine you live amongst a large group of transplants? Like yourself? I felt like Utah was this way for me....While the people were really nice in general, I found that I only really have a couple of long lasting friends. There was always something lacking in how I bonded with them...My long time friend from school who I still talk too...He was from LA...but his family was from the east coast, he was a small italian kid who talked just like he was from NJ come to think of it....We probably bonded most on the fact that we were the black sheep of mormon utah. I think we bond most with what feel like home. And when I lived in Utah, all the pretty mountains and awesome snow, dirtbikes, guns, etc...could never make me forget about home. For me..there was alot more to going on a ride with say you @walter and @Dusty the Whale etc...Like I dont really care what the ride is..fast/slow...I know ill be entertained. Which is why I still love riding with my friends from martys.

 

[stb222]

A large part of the difference is that you did alot of this bonding in the 20's before you had anything else to worry about, house, baby, marriage; makes shit a lot easier when you have no commitments other than work. You know I always think it was funny when you would talk about the sacrifices you have made for training an such and that sacrifice ended up being that you couldn't nap that afternoon. Now with your little one, that probably seems different also. In any case, a lot harder to bond with people when you have limited time and everyone has there specific reason for being out there. It will never seem as good as the good 'ole days but it is better in other ways. As long as you dont get stuck trying to chase how it was, you will be fine.