A funny thing happened on my way to Hardware Ranch. I was riding toward Blacksmith Fork Canyon on Hollow Road when I startled a robin who was deeply engrossed in something I'm sure it thought was fascinating in the middle of the road. That by itself wasn't the funny part. Nor was it particularly funny when the robin leaped from the road in a rather startled fashion. The funny part came when it realized what exactly had caused it so much excitement. It was so upset that it started chittering wildly at me. I'm sure if I could understand the speech of birds I would have heard enough obscenities and references to my genealogy to make even me blush.

So, I startled a bird, that reacted in a not completely unexpected way, so far. Nothing really funny yet. The funny part came when the robin really got himself (I'm assuming here, I've no idea how to tell the difference) so worked up that he decided to dive bomb my helmet, three times in a row! The entire time he was screaming at me. After I ducked under his assault the third time he relented and settled for following me, flying from tree to tree to make sure I was really retreating. That was the funny part :)

Today was my first ride on my new bike. Yesterday I finally caved in and bought a "real" road bike. For the last couple of months I've been making due with my mountain bike equipped with slicks, along with some cycling shorts to help reduce the saddle soreness. Even with my new gear I was always left behind in group rides. Now I'm hoping I at least have a chance to keep up.

The bike I settled on is the '05 Raleigh Super Course. I got a good discount because it's last year's model, but it's fairly well equipped with Shimano shifters and derailuers. It's as much of a sweet ride as I could afford, well probably a bit more than I should have afforded.

Anyway, for my ride today I started from home, went about one mile to the rendevous point where there were supposed to be two other guys from work, but I was the only one who showed up. I finally gave up waiting and took off by myself. From there I rode 21 miles to Hardware Ranch, gaining roughly 1000 feet in elevation. For those of you familiar with the area you know that almost every morning has a stiff breeze flowing out of the canyon, then somewhere around 10:00 am, the wind switches directions and goes into the canyon. Sooo, yeah, I get headwinds both ways. I guess that's what I get for starting so early. :)

Anyway, 3 hours and 43 miles after starting I made it home, tired and hot. I'm hoping that these rides help get me in shape well enough so I can survive the MS 150 this year. I will only be doing the first 75 mile day, but that's still nearly twice as far as I've ever been in a single day. I hope it doesn't kill me!

There are a few unavoidable universal truths in this world. There are some that seem universal, but when looked at a little harder aren't. The one that is the topic of today's post is this: Every R/C helicopter owner who actually flies his heli will crash at some time. There just aren't any exceptions. It's not at all a matter of if, but when. The severity of the crash can vary quite a bit. The good news for me is that since my heli is so small and (relatively) inexpensive, the crashes don't really seem all that dramatic. The bad news is that my budget is too tight to allow for constant repairs. "Life... Don't talk to me about life."

Now that my evenings are not consumed by World of Warcraft, I'm starting to pick up some of my older hobbies. I'm doing electronics again with a buddy and even getting back into R/C. Who knows, after a few months of this my wife might want me to pick up WoW again to save money!

In one of my early posts, I went into some detail about one of my R/C models. It was fun to go back and read that one. It leads me into the topic for this post which is my latest R/C toy. For Christmas my wife surprised me with a Blade CP micro electric helicopter. I've semi-successfully hovered around a bit, and I'm already thinking about upgrades. The good news is that parts for this heli are really quite affordable. The bad news is that the batteries recommended for the upgrade aren't exactly cheap. The upgraded motor/heat sinks/rotor combination package only costs about $30, but each of the battery packs recommended for that setup are over $50 each.

Of course I'm going to do it at the first opportunity that presents itself. The upgraded motor/rotors will allow for full aerobatic flight and I've read that the heli hovers a bit smoother with the symmetrical rotors. The new batteries would increase run time from 8-10 minutes up to around 25 minutes, which would be nice.

My hope is to be able to get enough stick time to progress from a tail-in hover to nose-in hover then forward flight. After that I'll have to put a lot of stick time in on the simulator before I try any of the aerobatics. Parts are cheap, but not THAT cheap!

Well, the title of this blog says it all. I've gone and done it AGAIN! Years ago, a friend sucked me into the fantasy world of Asheron's Call. I lived in that world for a long time. I put countless hours into many different characters, explored the land, was slain repeatedly and generally had a good time.

Time passed. A LOT of time passed. The game and I finally went our seperate ways. That was hard. I've had twinges of remorse ever since. It is hard to drop something you've put so much time, money and effort into.

Well, since I'm a slow learner I had to go back to square one and try it all over again with World of Warcraft. Every bit as immersive and addicting. I've never been addicted to drugs, but I have a hunch that I know how it feels. Today is a somewhat momentus day for me. I finally gave up World of Warcraft. It just takes too much time. It hurts. I deleted my highest character and I almost felt like crying.

I'm going to miss the friends I made there more than anything else. I hope to keep in touch with them because they truly are Awesome.