James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Man he's funny...we have seen him 3 times, but a long time ago, like when he first hit in the early 2000's (circa "The big yellow one is the sun" routine). We still listen to that concert and he truly makes Steph laugh-cry lol How is his current material?

Current material is good, but not the same as his prime. I’d seen some of his stuff from a few years ago and was worried he lost his mojo. Not the case as the show was still entertaining.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

…I’m going to write this like an excited kid and not use sentences which started at 6:30 when I got up and got to CRTM by 7:30 then had coffee with Dave and did TM until 12:30 then I went to town to recycle some electronics before going home for lunch after which we drove to Black River to get some coffee and then drove to Nassau to ride where I thought the trails were a bit beat up & eroded but we had a good time then we drove home to find 6 teenagers in our house even though it’s not our weekend but you know how kids are and then I drove 2 teenagers home and dropped the dog at the sitter for a sleepover to see how he does then went home and got 4 more kids and brought them to the pizza place and bought them dinner before going to Acme for food then home where D made a nice dinner and we watched 1 Ozark while I sorted GU then Clif orders then wrote up the Ida recap then took a shower now I can read for 15 minutes before I fall asleep because it was a long day.

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iman29

Well-Known Member
Today

…I’m going to write this like an excited kid and not use sentences which started at 6:30 when I got up and got to CRTM by 7:30 then had coffee with Dave and did TM until 12:30 then I went to town to recycle some electronics before going home for lunch after which we drove to Black River to get some coffee and then drove to Nassau to ride where I thought the trails were a bit beat up & eroded but we had a good time then we drove home to find 6 teenagers in our house even though it’s not our weekend but you know how kids are and then I drove 2 teenagers home and dropped the dog at the sitter for a sleepover to see how he does then went home and got 4 more kids and brought them to the pizza place and bought them dinner before going to Acme for food then home where D made a nice dinner and we watched 1 Ozark while I sorted GU then Clif orders then wrote up the Ida recap then took a shower now I can read for 15 minutes before I fall asleep because it was a long day.

View attachment 167894

Interested in dog sitter outcome we are looking for a better solution for Shelby next time we want to go away whenever that is.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...I woke up really early to get ready for the bike festival. Packed up the car and got there by 8:30. Plan was for me to volunteer half the day and for D to go out and ride. That is what happened. Talked to a lot of people and enjoyed the nice day. Standing around is actually really tiring. I did enjoy a killer burrito though.

Drove home and had a coffee then went to the farmer's market then Costco. Plan was to go shopping the day before but yesterday's kid nonsense spiked that.

D off to watch soccer and I went for a road ride where I hammered myself for an hour. Then I painted the front-facing rails for coat #2. Almost done with the white part of this section which took a hit this week. Hard to believe how long all this takes when you do it 30 minutes a pop.

Tried to swap the chain & cassette on Zac's bike but his hub body is shot beyond belief. Working on his bike is like doing any plumbing yourself. Thought about fixing D's road bike but parts are not as easy to come by on 10-speed stuff.

Put in a reservation for a place in Bentonville for next month.

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...it is Monday. Work is going to be a bear this week due to our other architect being out for the next 2 weeks. No amount of posting on the internet is going to change that so I will leave it at that. Work was work and other than it bringing an abrupt end to an otherwise good weekend, it was nothing of note.

Got Zac's bike back together but of course he needs a new front ring now. I probably should have just bought that in the first place. This stuff sure isn't cheap right now, is it?

Front porch section painting now done for the white part. Floor part half sanded and I should be able to finish that tomorrow. This is a boring story, I know.

We went to CR tonight because it's fun and it's Monday. The blue gorge is rideable which is neat. Not at all a long-term solution but it works for today.

I am realizing this blog has become boring, rinse & repeat lately. I am sorry for that.

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...the extent of my outdoor activity was taking Bear for a walk on blue with my axe. Thanks to the happy root chopping crew from Saturday, my axe is as dull as ever. As we were riding yesterday it really struck me that while the blue outer loop is not terrible in any particular spot (even the gorge is ridable), it's pretty much beat the fuck up everywhere. There are more roots & loose rocks than you can shake a proverbial stick at. In fact, I cut out plenty of roots and turned them into sticks to shake at my dog today. I wasn't sure how this was going to go with me stopping to chop roots out. But he loved chasing each and every one of them. If anyone rides blue in the next few days and wonders why half the roots are laying in the middle of the trail, blame my dog.

After some text discussions with JimV I decided to cannibalize my cross bike (ha ha) for a rear shifter to put on D's bike. I replaced the broken one with the same SRAM Rival 10-speed shifter from the now completely unused bike, replaced 1 housing and both cables, and put it back together. In the process felt that her rear caliper was really sticky so I took some T-9 to it and now it returns just dandy. First pass and the brakes are good and shifting seems pretty damn close. I'll fine tune it tomorrow.

Now the cross bike - actually both of them - are in total states of disrepair. Not sure what to do with these as my cross days are probably over. And if they are not, I will likely just buy a new bike.

After trying valiantly to hit it 1 more time, I am giving up hope that I can make it back to KT this year. We had the Columbus Day Weekend lined up but my god, it's impossible to get a place up there right now. Kinda sad that we won't be able to make a return trip this year. Next year we need to make sure that we hit it at least twice. I really want to check out the new trails, but more than that I just want to go back up there again. On that note, I feel we have done too few team events this year.

Wrapped up the day by lifting weights again. Settling in on a routine but I am still tweaking it to flow better. I am less sore today compared to last time. So I think the adjustments are starting to happen. I changed the order of things as an experiment and I think it mostly worked, but maybe not entirely. New record of 17,100 pounds. Someone recently said to me that lifting weights is rewarding in the sense that you see specific, measurable progress in this respect. That statement was right. D has also joined me in doing this and I think she is liking it so far.

My camera roll is empty so you get a memory from 7 years ago at the MTBNJ/JORBA picnic. Remember we used to have these every year...

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...I went on a hard road ride. We have a loop we do when we have an hour, which I did after Jorbafest and did it in 55 minutes or something. I extended it today and climbed up Somerville. When I hit the base of our road I was at 19.1, which dropped to 18.9 when I slogged up the hill. I am not a fan of killing myself then stopping. I like to cool down but when you live where we do, it's a tough ask. But I went hard today, because as I ride less I try to go harder. I felt pretty good.

The weather was also nice & cool which I do better with. This would explain why I have historically done well in cross, at least as far as that phase of my racing days went. I feel much more alive and I do not sweat buckets and feel like death on a ride like today. I am really enjoying this weather and holding out on any indoor rides as long as I can. We all know this will not last forever.

The other outdoor thing was the dog walk while Simon had practice. It's pretty convenient that he practices in the same park we walk the dog. Topic of conversation tonight was a new sitter we found. The one from last week was ok, but he's been acting goofy this week and I think in part he is a little mad at us for leaving him. I know, dogs are dumb but this is the second time he came from an overnight acting screwy. I know Ian was wondering about this, They were ok but there's a vibe which was off with them. We found someone in North Plainfield that seems a pretty good candidate that we are going to try soon. Figuring out the perfect fit isn't always easy.

He's been a little more clingy than normal this week. He rarely sits in the office with me and today he was here much of the day:

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...I did another afternoon ride because my day started at 6am. And when we have a full contingent of kids later in the day, you never know what will happen. I did a moderate ride which was the reverse of yesterday, until it wasn't. Not quite as fast but fast enough. Putting out decent power on these rides. Not that there's a target for this other than burning greased lightning, or something.

Around 5:00 I took Simon, Bear, and a pick-axe to CR to walk the blue loop again. I'm going to make these trails my focus now instead of the ball fields because they are in serious need of love. As expected, I found roots laying in the trail every few minutes for a while. Simon and I built something which I will leave as an exercise to the reader. We also drained the massive hole that formed right before the middle cut through. Nicked out a few standing pools to allow them to drain so I can deal with it later. We often give blue the least attention for whatever reason but it needs some love.

I know that lower trail is a bit of a lost cause but I'm going to chip away at it because it annoys me. Also, I try not to say stuff like this online anymore but I am irritated so I will. To the individual who destroyed some of the work we did on lower blue, I hope you mistakenly sit on a spiked dildo and all the spikes break off when it reaches maximum depth. You are an asshole. I am also pretty sure that individual is not reading this post.

Bear is 1 year old today. I do not have a picture of him today so I will post this cool Fun Guy pic:

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...is October. I feel the need to point this out because I'm sure none of you realized this. But rest assured, I'm here to let you know all about dates. Also, it is Friday.

I painted some of the deck of the porch today in what is a very late effort to get as much of this done before it gets too cold to continue on. I did this late morning because I was well over my billable hours for the week and it was time to take something back. And that would be paint on wood. How exciting.

After lunch I decided to head over to CR to ride blue in all directions and further absorb all the things I want to do over there. I stopped to do 2 or 3 things but without tools and time, it was just minor tweak to things. Some of the stuff we drained yesterday was so-so today. The muddy turn is terrible and I'm just not sure what to do with it yet. The feature is totally rideable so kudos to Simon for putting that together. I did the outer loop in reverse to end the ride which never happens on the group rides and it's actually a pretty fun roll in that direction. I have more ideas. This park needs more log rides.

Lifted weights after dinner, 17,700 pounds. While I was doing that, 5 teenagers showed up at the house which sounded a bit like several elephants playing volleyball upstairs.

We took the dog for a walk in the dark but it did not burn up enough time until the 11:00 limit we put on this nonsense. In truth, we're happy they are both hanging out with real humans and not staring at their phones all night. But teenagers are idiots, so you know how that goes. I looked out the front door and 3 of the boys were jumping up & down shirtless in the middle of the street. Not real sure what to make of that but shortly after, Simon came back in the house with a puzzled look on his face.

"I don't know what to make of them either," I said. He smiled.

I stole this from D:

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...we started our day by bringing Bear to the vet because he has been scratching up a storm since I took him out to CR Tuesday. I think he may have gotten stung but it's hard to say, and of course the vet said the same thing. About $275 later we had 2 shots, some antibiotics, and a topical to put on the areas he has scratched himself raw. He had a better day with things so hopefully this takes care of it.

D and I finished out the morning doing a ride at CR. We did ball fields, yellow, black, orange, and then a little slice of white to get back to the car in an hour. The trails are doing pretty well and the work we have done since Ida (merely a month gone) is riding really well. We had 3 people interactions of note today:

1. A guy holding a running race that flagged us down to thanks us for the trail work (he knows MTBNJ)
2. A rider who stopped us to thank us for the work we're doing out there and to introduce himself
3. An old hiker who yelled at some woman to keep her dog on the leash

We are hikers too but this is not a good look, Incidentally, the dog in question is probably less potentially harmful than a chickadee.

After lunch we went back to CR with Simon & the Bear (a throwback sit-com?) to do more work. Recap of that on the Ida thread here. We also rebuilt the thing that someone wiped out.

Then...

Chinese market
Home to paint porch
Udon noodle soup for dinner
D made some awesome butter tarts
I set a bunch of wood on fire
6 teenagers currently in house

As a contrast to the vet bill today, we found out that my FIL paid exactly $0 for all of his medical bills while in the hospital. Somewhat hard to comprehend, isn't it? He is also now walking around just with a cane, no walker anymore.

Oh and a few print copies of these came in the mail today:

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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...I rode CR for the 3rd day in a row. Each day I add a new person, today was Kirt. D & I met up with him at 8:30 for an early spin. We basically spent 90 minutes talking about every single minor detail that we want to fix 1 day. Doing more TM makes it really hard to fully enjoy yourself some days. We did the lower orange loop, dam-to-upstream direction and it's riding pretty well right now. Overall a nice way to start the day. Bonus of the day: The ball field loop now seems to have 2 separate dead animals stinking up the place. Winter can't come fast enough in this specific regard.

Following this we went home and had 15 minutes to turn the ship around to make it to Simon's soccer game in time. We walked the dog while he warmed up then watched them take a 2-1 win which was not as close as the score indicates. The other team scored in injury time and after they did, the ref stopped the game.

At 2:00 we met up with some neighbors in the school lot for a public stoning, or rather a locals discussion about the school across the street that is applying for some variances for x-y-z to improve the place...or something. Right now it is being used as a junk yard so I would welcome anything happening in there. I think some of the neighbors are in the NIMBY ballpark but they won't say that out loud. I am not sure much came of this meeting other than figuring out more of the people who live on the street. Kinda.

I then mowed half the lawn.

And as usual, I will now be disappointed that the weekend is over and I have done about 1/10 of what I intended to do. But I rode the MTB 3 times and I think everyone had a pretty good weekend, all-in-all.

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stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Today

...I rode CR for the 3rd day in a row. Each day I add a new person, today was Kirt. D & I met up with him at 8:30 for an early spin. We basically spent 90 minutes talking about every single minor detail that we want to fix 1 day. Doing more TM makes it really hard to fully enjoy yourself some days. We did the lower orange loop, dam-to-upstream direction and it's riding pretty well right now. Overall a nice way to start the day. Bonus of the day: The ball field loop now seems to have 2 separate dead animals stinking up the place. Winter can't come fast enough in this specific regard.

Following this we went home and had 15 minutes to turn the ship around to make it to Simon's soccer game in time. We walked the dog while he warmed up then watched them take a 2-1 win which was not as close as the score indicates. The other team scored in injury time and after they did, the ref stopped the game.

At 2:00 we met up with some neighbors in the school lot for a public stoning, or rather a locals discussion about the school across the street that is applying for some variances for x-y-z to improve the place...or something. Right now it is being used as a junk yard so I would welcome anything happening in there. I think some of the neighbors are in the NIMBY ballpark but they won't say that out loud. I am not sure much came of this meeting other than figuring out more of the people who live on the street. Kinda.

I then mowed half the lawn.

And as usual, I will now be disappointed that the weekend is over and I have done about 1/10 of what I intended to do. But I rode the MTB 3 times and I think everyone had a pretty good weekend, all-in-all.

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Doing TM is a curse, I do something at all my local parks, which means any where I ride, I see something that should be addressed. In the full on growing season it is super annoying because something always needs to be trimmed.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today

...is our anniversary. 3 years ago today we had a big party in the back yard with a bunch of our closest friends. I can say that if we had the same party today, the guest list would more or less be the same. Surprisingly, Julia remembered it was our anniversary though she is good at this stuff. We have deferred this day to Friday, when we have reservations that D made today for dinner. Today is more or less just another annoying work day and crazy kid taxi reality.

I went for a road ride at 2:00 because there was a window and I took it while I could. My right knee has been bothering me so I tried to keep it lighter & steady. Had no issues today. Before today the last 4 rides had been at CR and I think I need to move my cleats back. I should probably be doing that instead of sitting here writing this but you know, here we are.

Roof guy confirmed our date today, 11/3 to have the roof replaced. You know Covid has actually been kind to our bank account but FFS this stuff is not cheap.

Julia was home sick from school today and the nurse called to ask about her symptoms, and so now she needs to have a negative Covid test to go back to school. This is awesome and why I will now lie to the nurse if she calls again because her & all her friends have had this same cold for a week now. But due to the fact that 40% of you douchebags will not get vaccinated, we had to run around the county looking for a rapid test, which was not to be found after 5:00. So she will not be going to school tomorrow morning. Instead we will be going to the MedEmerge to get a test done.

Yes I am irritated. Work has been off the hook so I have been lax posting here.

Booked my room for my work trip next week. Going into Boston for this one, though I kept the room close to the office for the bike riding options. Plan still formulating.

I looked for a pic of us but Facebook is all sorts of screwy right now. This was about 2 years ago and I wish we could go back up this weekend.
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clarkenstein

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
Both of my kids have had to have Covid tests and were out of school (from a cold which I now have, and it sucks).

If you can’t find a spot, Amwell pharmacy here in Hillsborough does both rapid and PCR tests with lots of availability.
 
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