I dreamed about Pap-pa the other night

It was a good dream.  I was in Portageville, MO. and my Aunt Kathy asked for my help with a large walk-in shower in her basement whose water was running rust colored.  She showed me her new faucets that had multiple fancy electronic components poking out of the back that plugged into the shower wall.  She laid down on her side in the bottom of the shower and peered up at her problem spouts.  After looking at the replacement hardware I declared that I couldn't fix the problem but Pap-pa probably could.  At one point (IRL) Pap-pa owned a whole city block of Downtown Portageville and earlier in the day in my dream his fictional General Store Mgr asked for my help conducting a Store Inventory.  In my dream this was the kind of General Store that carried every thing you might need on a farm or in your house, a little of this and a little of that.  Some of the merchandise had set on the shelf unsold since the 50's in it's original boxes.  Lots of old Point of Purchase signage that nowadays is considered 'collectible'.  I'm pretty good at running Inventories so I volunteered to do the count and had completed it prior in my dream.  After speaking with my Aunt Kathy I entered the General Store through a door 3/4 up the wall on the right side of the store towards the back.  You can see the entire length of the General Store from that vantage point and as I entered the store and stood at the top of the stairs Pap-pa entered the store through the front door.  I distinctly remember the feeling of Pap-pa entering the room as I stood on the landing of the stairs.  In my dream it was like a roar.  Not a brash loud uncouth roar, but as a laughing positive presence that filled the room.  Pap-pa walks down the aisle joking with everyone he passes because he knows everyone in town, and everyone in his General Store knows and likes him.  His Store Mgr walks up to him and Pap-pa asks how the Inventory went and the Store Mgr reports that I did a good job and the Inventory number came in at pretty much what she thought it would.  Pap-pa turns and looks up at me and says something like "Of course David did a good job, he's my grandson isn't he?"  I smiled down at him and wiggled my fingers hello at him.  It was like Pap-pa was still alive and I was in the room with him.  It was so real.  Talking about the dream the next day brought tears to my eyes because I could so easily recall what it was like being around Pap-pa.  It was a good dream.

ALEC Legislation, Citizen's United, The newest Republican JIM CROW Laws, Mass Shootings...

America is taking a beating folks...

The War On Christmas...

The HATE & IGNORANCE you hear the most this time of year 

is usually shouted by people that claim to be "Christians" 

but have clearly never even read the Bible...

Finally...

I biked 6 miles today.  1/3 of the Greenway is impassable due to flooding.  I'm happy to report that my butt doesn't hurt...

It's a CONSPIRACY I say, a CONSPIRACY!

Between my sore butt, waiting around for my delinquent Sony repairman, and the rainy spring weather I haven't been biking since last week.  At this very moment I am sitting on my sore butt in my apartment clubhouse waiting for the Sony repairman while watching the pouring rain come down.  It has been over two weeks since they finally admitted they had to fix the broken 'select' button on my laptop (cause it's under warranty).  The Sony repairman has failed to call me on two different days after he promised he would.  He called three times to cancel a repair appointment when I was sitting there waiting for him.  I cancelled one rescheduled repair appointment after he cancelled a morning one, he doesn't do mornings it seems.  I'll be damned if I dance to his darn schedule.  The odds are he won't call me back or show up for the scheduled repair today.  I'm on to his tricks.  "Hello Sony!"

David<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NOT biking!

The Reasons I Love Riding My Bike

1. It makes me happy
2. Fashion (winks)
3. Exercise
4. Social Contact (a head nod counts)
5. Weight Loss
6. Nature (turtles on floating logs)
7. Time to think
8. Music appreciation (cell phone playlist)
9. Bragging Rights
10. Showing off RAMBLER (::honks my tank horn::)

Bad Weather, so no biking for me...

 

 

 

It's raining, it's pouring,

The old man is boring.

He went to bed,

his legs felt like lead,

and his butt was sore in the morning.

(think I might have overdone it a bit yesterday)

ADVENTURES IN BIKING!

This is what I see every time I load RAMBLER on the back of DEERSLAYER

For me biking is more than exercise.  I pick out my outfit for my bike ride.  I fill up my water bottle.  I carry my bike up to my car.  I load my bike on the back of DEERSLAYER.  I drive past Dairy Queen, Fritz's Custard, and my favorite house in Valley Park.  I drive down an original brick paved road and underneath a railroad bridge built in 1930 to The Meramec Greenway parking lot that I favor.  I select the play list I'll be listening to while I ride.  I pick the leg that I'll be staring on and...

I push off.

 

 

Today I pretty much rambled.  No land speed records set by yours truly.  I rode the Simpson Lake leg.  I rode the leg that reminds me of Ft. Riley.  As I finish the first half of the Valley Park leg I ride past the entrance to the Levee bike trail.  I wonder what it's like to ride the bike trail way up there.  As I turn around for the second half of the leg I decide to pedal UP the entrance to the Levee bike trail.  It's steep.  I turn left and coast down the bike trail off of the Levee to discover that the bike trail starts about 100 ft from where I got on.  Now I have to pedal back UP to the Levee bike trail.  It's steep.  I follow this new trail (new to me anyway) as it parallels the Valley Park leg of the Meramec Greenway.  It ghosts along between Valley Park and the Meramec Greenway and I've seen snippets of it as I drive thru town and when I'm riding on the Greenway.  It's high up, and the wind is really ripping across the top of the Levee.  I pedal along and discover what Valley Park looks like from the other side of things.  Not all that pretty really.  Following the bike trial I end up crossing the road that I usually drive on to get to the Greenway parking lot on top of the Levee Gate.  I'm not sure if that's the correct name for it.  It's where a road pierces the Levee and there is a huge cement gate you drive through and there are metal tracks that cross the road where you can lock in big cement doors to seal off the Levee in times of flood.  ::shrugs::  Riding on top of the Levee there is a big change in perspective.  I was used to seeing the Levee Gates from ground level as I drive thru them not from the top as you ride over them.  Here is a picture of what I am talking about...

 

My Keister cries "Uncle"

 

 

As you approach the Levee Gate the paved bike path turns right and descends to street level where sensible people can then cross the road and ascend back up the paved bike path to the other side of the Levee Gate.  I think you can see where this is going.  Straight ahead of me the bike path degrades to a loose gravel trail that goes right up to the cement bridge on top of the Levee Gate.  Not an exactly bike friendly approach.  I of course do the UN sensible thing and pick up speed on the sketchy gravel path and barrel my way to the Levee Gate bridge.  RAMBLER has a front Springer Fork and my new RavX saddle has lots of trail bump reducing features.  It is not enough, not nearly enough.  I hit the cement slope.  Hard.  I make it up to the top owing to momentum and dumb luck only to realize that the exact same incline is waiting for me on the other side of the Levee Gate.  In for a penny, my tailbone gets a pounding!  ::whee, BUMP, ouch::  I ride the bike path on top of the Levee until it starts to veer left away from the Water Treatment Plant next to Simpson Lake.  Uncharted Territory.  I don't know where this path goes or how far.  I know, let's text Tiffany and ask her!  Me, "I'm on the Levee Trail that runs next to the GREENWAY.  I'm on the leg that veers left at the Water Treatment Plant next to Simpson Lake.  Where does this Levee Trail go?"  Tif, "I dunno."  Thanks Sweetie.  So all full of the Lewis & Clark spirit I follow the trail to see where it leads.  It's really windy on top of the Levee.  As I pedal along I get to admire all the small dark ducks floating in the settlement ponds next to the Water Treatment Plant.  I have no idea what species.  Pedal.  Pedal.  Pedal.  I get to see the back side of the other side of Valley Park.  Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.  The bike trail dead ends about two blocks from the large Catholic Church next to the levee near a railroad bridge trestle.  It looks like this...

 

Pay no attention to all the Canadian Geese poop I had to dodge on the bike trail

 

That's RAMBLER in the corner.  I love my bike.  It's a 1995 copy of a 1955 Schwinn Cruiser and it weights over 60lbs.  I'm bragging.  Twice.  Once for how cool my bike is and the second time for how much it weighs.  Here's another picture so you can appreciate just how pretty my bike is...

 

::swoons::

Since I've stopped to take some pictures I get out my water bottle for a drink and no sooner do I have the screw lid off than the wind blows across the top of the water bottle and it sounds like I'm on a HEE-HAW rerun.  Gloom Despair and Agony on me...  Saddle up and pedal back the way I came, take the bike trail off ramp besides the Levee Gate Bridge and link back up to the Greenway at Simpson Lake.  All in all I'm guessing I biked somewhere between 14 and 15 miles today.  I'm tired.  Here's a pretty picture...

 

Flowering tree at my apartment complex

 



BIKING UPDATE!

Every April I put up my patriotic bunting and I take it down on July 4th

Saturday March 30th Tiffany and I headed out to the Meramec Greenway.  She to walk a part of the trail and me to ride RAMBLER.  I ended up stopping three times to adjust my new saddle.  Did I mention that IT'S HUGE!  The first time I had to level the saddle.  The second time I moved it as far back as I could on the seat post.  I finally figured out that I had it set too high and needed to lower the seat post about an inch or so.  Come to find out, the wrench that came with my bike tool kit DID NOT fit the nut on my seat post so I couldn't lower my saddle.  So I ended my ride sooner than expected.  That and I was really wore out.  I had not biked any since the end of last summer (or so) when my Serfas saddle bit the dust.  So Tiffany is surprised to see me behind DEERSLAYER loading my bike when she is done walking.  At this point I'm a little worried that it's not the height of the saddle that's slowing me down and making biking difficult, it's that I haven't biked in a long time and I have to start all over again just to get where I was when I stopped biking last year.  Depressing.  So a whole week goes by and I don't bike. I don't lower my saddle.  I just stew. 

.oObubbleOo.  .oObubbleOo.  .oObubbleOo. 

Sunday morning and Tif's at Church so I'm like, LET'S BIKE!  I lower my saddle.  Fill my water bottle.  Head out to the Greenway, and...

BIKING HEAVEN!

 

I haven't lost my biking skills.  It WAS the height of the saddle and I pedal my way across 12 miles of the Meramec Greenway.  Did I mention that I voted for PROPOSITION P?  I did!  Yay more Greenway!  So the weather was beautiful yesterday.  Lots of people on the trail.  Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Bluebirds, the whole works!  The trees are still bare but they will be budding out soon.  I'm biking around Simpson Lake and I think to myself, it's still too early for turtles to be out sunning themselves on floating logs and then I come to the floating log that has the turtles sunning themselves on it.  Great Day for Biking!  After I'm done I wait for Tiffany to get home and we end up going out to MOBO GARDENS and walking around. 

Magnolia Tree in bloom at The Missouri Botanical Gardens

We love to walk around the lake in the Japanese Gardens.  Everything is blooming and budding and the smell of the flowers is intoxicating.  So a couple of  quick stops on the way home.  As we walk the grocery store I realize my legs are weak and my back is a bit sore.  I am 47 you know.  The harsh reality is 12 miles on the bike and walking the entire length of the Missouri Botanical Gardens is a bit too much exercise for a guy that hasn't biked since last year.  Carrying my groceries home in the rain from Tiffany's apartment to my place I step on a big dirt clod on the sidewalk that is actually a mud clod (rain does that to dirt).  Long skid short.  David goes down.  Hard.  The harsh reality is 12 miles on the bike, walking the entire length of the Missouri Botanical Gardens and carrying heavy groceries home in the rain is WAY TOO MUCH EXERCISE for a guy that hasn't biked since last year.  The most important question is...

Did anyone see me slip on the mud and fall down?

 

Luckily everyone else has more sense than me and are already in their apartments.  Cause, it's raining.  Set my groceries down on the kitchen floor and carefully walk to my bathroom.  I do not want to get blood on my new Dickie's Shorts.  Prop my leg up on the toilet and wash the dirt and mud from my skinned knee.  Apply over-sized band aid to my knee cap and sleep like the dead.  Monday morning.  Wake up.  Remove bandage to allow my wounded knee to breath and heal properly.  Pack up RAMBLER and head out to the Meramec Greenway and bike 9 miles (I'm a glutton for punishment.  My legs were tired but I know that will go away as soon as I bike past the 3rd mile.  The trees are still bare but after last night's rain the entire understory has greened up overnight.  There were some people walking on the trail and I got to see 6 pelicans on Simpson Lake.  I tried to get a picture but they were too far away for the zoom on my camera phone.  So instead please enjoy a picture of RAMBLER on the back of DEERSLAYER parked in Micky Dee's lot where I am sitting in a booth using their free Internet to post on my blog...

I had the small McChicken Extra Value Meal (don't judge me)

 

I drove my bike route...

GOOD NEWS!  The snow is melting on the Meramec Greenway...

BAD NEWS!  The melting snow has flooded the Meramec Greenway...


I'm hoping to get to bike on Saturday.  I'm pretty sure it will be too wet on the bike trail tomorrow on Thursday.  Friday I'm spending the day with Tiffany and her nieces at SIX FLAGS (tough assignment, I know).  So hopefully Saturday is the day that I am...

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!

This is a picture of my new bicycle saddle.  I had a large Serfas saddle that I thought was 14" across.  I discovered the RavX saddle and it had all the features of my original saddle and was much cheaper.  Because of my weight I am hard on my bicycle and on my saddles.  My Serfas saddle had come loose by the nose and I can longer use it or ride RAMBLER.  I picked up my new RavX on ebay and got a really good deal on it.  It arrived the other day and...

OhMyGod! 

 

It is HUGE!  My new saddle hangs 2" off of each side of my old saddle.  My Serfas was only 10" across.  Luckily I have a big butt and no one will notice how over sized my new saddle is while I am riding (except when it's loaded on the back of DEERSLAYER).  We just got 12" of snow here in STL and as soon as it all melts I will be flying down the bike trails.  For Christmas my brother got me a video camera mount for my handle bars and gave me his old video camera.  Expect the video asap...

 

14" Baby!



About sums it all up...

 

DEAR GOD by XTC

(Songwriters: PARTRIDGE, ANDY)

 

 

Dear God, hope you got the letter, and...
I pray you can make it better down here.
I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer.
But all the people that you made in your image,
see them starving on their feet,
'cause they don't get enough to eat,
from God,
I can't believe in you

Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but...
I feel that I should be heard loud and clear.
We all need a big reduction in amount of tears.
And all the people that you made in your image,
see them fighting in the street
'cause they can't make opinions meet
about God,
I can't believe in you

Did you make disease, and the diamond blue?
Did you make Mankind after we made you?
And the Devil too!

Dear God, don't know if you noticed, but...
your name is on a lot of quotes in this book,
and us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look,
and all the people that you made in your image
still believing that junk is true.
Well I know it ain't, and so do you,
dear God,
I can't believe in
I don't believe in

I won't believe in heaven and hell.
No saints, no sinners, no Devil as well.
No pearly gates, no thorny crown.
You're always letting us humans down.
The wars you bring, the babes you drown.
Those lost at sea and never found,
and it's the same the whole world 'round.
The hurt I see helps to compound
that Father, Son and Holy Ghost
is just somebody's unholy hoax,
And if you're up there you'd perceive
that my heart's here upon my sleeve.
If there's one thing I don't believe in

It's you....

Dear God.

 

Proud to be an American!

A disgrace to the sport of cycling...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

I have Search Images that run continuously in my head, they help me spot things that I am interested in.  I have a life-long interest in animals and I'm pretty good at spotting different species as I drive down the road (even when other people miss them).  So let's talk about what I saw today while sitting on my balcony.  I don't get good Internet reception inside my apartment so as today's latest thunderstorm was ending I packed up my PC and hauled it outside.  The rain had just finished and I'm seated in my MIZZOU folding chair and staring over the top of my laptop screen out across the common area of the apartment complex .  In my immediate field of vision is the crest of a little hill to the left of the asphalt pathway that winds thru the Apartment Complex.  I catch a glimpse of something grey moving from right to left (downhill) just past the crest of the hill.  It's longer than it is wide, thick bodied and as it moves the back is hunched and undulates.  I had the good fortune to observe wild animals while on vacation in Florida and my very first thought is...OTTER!  It was not moving like a cat and it was larger than a squirrel.  I'm staring at the spot where it disappeared and I can see squirrels further away and this animal was way bigger than a squirrel.  I have been around and handled ferrets and this animal was heavier than a ferret.  So I'm sitting there chuckling to myself and have just about convinced myself that I mistook a squirrel for an otter when the second one moves into my view from right to left on the same track as the first.  Here is where it gets weird.  The second animal was just as thick at the first one, just as long and moved the same way.  The coat was different though.  The only way I can describe it is...CALICO.  Not kidding.  I have never seen an otter with a coat anything like this.  So there are three choices:

1. I am crazy and dreamed the whole thing up
2. I saw a squirrel/ferret being followed by a cat
3. I saw two otters out on a romp after a thunderstorm

As soon as the second one disappeared below the crest of the hill I jumped up and set my PC down on the footstool in my apartment and grabbed my umbrella and went outside to see if I could get a better look.  As I'm walking up the asphalt path towards the crest of the hill I'm thinking "have they bred Calico Ferrets yet?"  I get to the spot where the two animals disappeared and NOTHING.  I completely circle the apartment  building where they were headed downhill towards and nothing.  No clue, no sighting, nothing.  As I near the woods on the edge of the apartment complex, several squirrels are giving their alarm calls.  Maybe they are upset at something that made it into the woods before I got there.  Maybe they are upset at me.  As I'm walking back to my place I'm doubting myself and thinking, some one's pets have gotten loose.  Maybe they are in the same family as ferrets and that is what I saw.  As I pass the fenced pond on the apartment property I'm thinking there is nothing here that otters would be interested in, no habitat...

#3

 

 

 

Smile...

Who killed KB Toys?

For those people that think Mitt Romney is a job creator, you have been lied to. Mitt Romney ran Bain Capital when it purchased KB Toys in 2000. Bain removed 85 MILLION DOLLARS from the company and effectivly killed KB Toys. Mitt Romney directly caused the closure of 605 stores and all those people lost their jobs, including me. I loved working for KB Toys. Job Creator my ass...

The only true statement...

I ALWAYS LIE

Old women and loose dogs

At this point I can pop out 9 miles without even thinking about the distance I just biked.  Take today for instance, I can't remember if I biked 9 or 12 miles.  Today three interesting things happened:

1. When I pulled into the parking lot I scared a 5-Lined Ground Squirrel and he took off running across the whole parking lot.  He needs his Chipmunk card pulled, that is NOT how you survive a dive bombing hawk.  Just saying...
2. As I was finishing a leg of my ride I was coasting downhill and approaching the blind corner to the next leg of my ride.  As usual I reached with my left thumb for my bike bell arm to sound an alarm before I roar around the corner.  I missed the little toggle arm and looked down to more accurately place my thumb on my bike bell arm.  As my thumb squarely hits the bell arm something colorful swims into my immediate field of vision.   SHOVE on the bell, no sound comes out.  It's an elderly woman wearing a cute sun hat on her bike coming from the opposite direction.  "Sorry" she wobbles out and stops smack dab in the middle of my side of the bike trail.  I react out of instinct to miss her and end up swinging wide and crossing onto the actual roadbed next to the trail.  Luckily there were no cars about or I'd have been toast.  As I pass her my hands are shaking and I look down to see what is wrong with my bell and why it didn't sound.  The toggle arm is bent 90 degrees straight down hugging the bell's side.  I RANG THAT BELL!  I unbend the toggle arm and continue my bike ride (it works fine now).
3. On the same leg of my ride I'm approaching another bend so I sound my bike bell.  Ding Dong, DAVID IS COMING!  When I ride around the turn past the obscuring vegetation I almost run over two pure-bred Boxers.  They are smelling the base of the metal bar that pokes out of the middle of the asphalt to keep cars from driving down the bike trail.  I have scared them.  First thought:  "I'm going to get bit!"  Second thought:  "They are loose, catch them!"  I immediately brake and begin the soft high pitched "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii, come here, good boy..."  which sets one dog off running away and the other gets excited because someone is playing the "Chase me game" and he gallops around in a circle.  Beautiful dogs, one fawn and one dark chocolate.  Both have collars and tags and both are heading towards the busy road.  I about have a heart attack when the darker one runs straight onto the road while looking backwards at me.  I can't see if any cars are coming or not (there were none).  The other Boxer follows the first across the road with that goofy "You have to catch me" face that dogs that like to run away sometimes have.  Across the road is a golf course and in a matter of seconds they have crossed the quarter mile distance and are now scattering a flock of geese.  Two tiny little specks in the distance weaving in and out of the trees barking wildly sending the geese flying.  I cannot catch these two Boxers.  I resume my bike ride.  This sucks, I hate the idea that someones dog may get hit by a car.  After a while I see a young boy on the bike path walking towards me.  He's swinging a leather lead.  Then I notice the shirtless tattooed Dad about 20 feet behind him.  "Are you looking for two Boxers?"  Of course they are.  I tell them the last place I saw them.  I resume my bike ride.  I hit the end of this leg and turn around to head back to the parking lot.  Biking through the woods I come across the boy by himself and I stop and repeat all the information about the dog's location to him.  I resume my bike ride.  As I reach the space where I first saw the dogs I notice the Dad coming back dogless from across the golf course.  I turn and ride on the road a bit and bike towards him.  When I reach him I repeat all the information about the dog's location to him.  He tells me that some kid opened the door and let the dogs out to run and they got away.  He thanks me and heads back down the bike trail.  I suspect he needs his car to continue looking for his Boxers.  I finish my ride.  Load Rambler on the back of Deerslayer and pull out onto the road.  Instead of turning left towards home I turn right towards the golf course.  I pull into every drive and road starting at the dog park and finishing in the industrial area behind the golf course.  After about 10 minutes and no luck I quit and head back home.  This sucks, I hate the idea that someones dog may get hit by a car.  I cannot solve this problem.  I hope someone catches them and calls the Dad to come pick up his Boxers.  They were really beautiful dogs...

::sigh:;

David<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~got passed by a retiree on a 10-speeder

Today while riding my bike I noticed a doe crossing the bike path up ahead of me.  She crossed cautiously and paused in the middle of the asphalt and looked all around.  I'm thinking what is she doing?  I should take some video of her crossing the trail, but I didn't.  About a minute after she entered the woods on the other side she was followed by her twin spotted fawns.  Wish I had gotten my camera out after all...

258 lbs!

Today I biked 24 miles and this is what I was listening to...

255 lbs!

Notes on this week's bike rides

 258 lbs

(Momma Turtle burying her eggs right next to the bike trail)

(It had rained the night before so she decided it was a good day to lay her eggs)

(Good job Momma Turtle, I'll keep an eye on your nest for you!)

• I have biked every single day since last Monday (Friday July 6th doesn't count)
• My appetite has increased w/ exercise and my weight has decreased w/ exercise (current weight posted above)
• Found a Momma Turtle covering up her nest while out biking (various pictures posted above)
• No one has passed me on the bike trail while I've been biking for over a year now (there were a couple of close calls though:

            gangs of 10-speeders in slick suits and a retiree moving flat out in a Recumbent Bicycle)

• At the end of my ride I discovered one of my fingerless bike gloves sitting on the ground behind my car (*)
• Driving home I noticed in my rear view mirror that the top flap of my bike bag was flapping in the wind (*)
• Last night's storm lowered the temperature by 15 degrees (and made a huge mess on the bike trail)
• I like that the Valley Park PD patrols the bike trails (even if it is inconvenient dodging cop cars on the trail)
• When I work out it is a combination of Weightlifting and Bicycling (Rambler weighs over 75 lbs)
• I think of myself as a Cruiser (bicycling as a way of life and as a fashion statement, David is stylin')
• I dropped my MP3 handlebar Speaker Bag and it no longer works (but it may just need new batteries)
• I may actually prefer biking with only 1 ear bud (listening to music AND maintaining situational awareness)

* actually the same bike ride

A Great Day For America!

::dances with Bjork::