And there was much rejoicing!

I decided to look back at some of my earlier blog entries.  I didn't realize it was over four years ago that I started this blog.  The sad part is that I've only done about 16 posts all together, or an average of one every 3-4 months.  That's pretty sad.  The good thing is that it made me smile to read some of my earlier posts.  Sometimes I think I get so wrapped up in the present that I forget how much fun I've had in the past.  I am definitely going to start posting more to my blog.  I strongly doubt that anyone else cares, so I'll do it for purely selfish reasons. :)

In my last post I mentioned that I had just registered for the 2008 MS-150 bike tour.  The second time was actually more fun for me than the first, but I did chicken out at just 40 miles.  I was able to ride with my sister-in-law and some co-workers.  I hadn't really trained at all for it so even the 40 miles left me pretty tired, but I took it a bit slower and had a great time.  It was fun crossing the finish line and having my family there to congratulate me.  I definitely hope to continue participating in the MS-150 because it is so much fun, and I hope to be helping at least a little bit in the fight against MS.

Tonight I officially registered to participate in the MS 150 bike tour again. I blogged a few times two years ago as I was training, but I never did mention how it all turned out, and since I think late is just a little better than never I might as well mention it now.

So I get up really early on the morning of the tour, gather all my gear and head for the Fairgrounds. I get there early enough to find a parking spot that isn't miles away, which is good because I'm getting kinda close to the cutoff time for check-in. I leave all my stuff in my car and walk to the fairgrounds to get registered. That goes relatively quickly and I walk back to the car to attach my official number to the bike and get ready for the tour.

After I get everything situated I go back into the Fairgrounds looking for the rest of my team. After a few minutes of searching I finally find them. We get our picture taken then we line up behind the biggest mass of bikes and people I've ever seen in my, admittedly sheltered, life.

The tour organizers let the masses out in waves, attempting to give traffic some small chance of getting through all the bikes and, presumably, to keep bike congestion down a bit. I think I made it out in the third wave. It all starts off really slow because it's not a race, and it seems that most people just wanted to fill the entire width of the road to block any cars or bikes from getting by.

The first few miles the tour were definitely the scariest. There were so many bikes in a small area that accidents could very easily happen. I nearly plowed into the people in front of me a few times when they made some sudden unexpected maneuver. By the time we got out to the airport traffic started to thin out a bit as we left the slower people behind and the faster people pulled ahead of us.

I was really surprised when we got to our first rest stop in Amalga. I wasn't even winded because we'd been taking a pretty easy pace up to that point. We stopped anyway and grabbed a bite to eat. None of us really w♦anted to stay long there so we pushed on pretty quickly. Soon we got to the decision point on the 40 mile loop and I was feeling good. Only one of our team opted for the shorter loop. The rest of us pushed on toward the next stop in Richmond.

Now that we were in the open and have passed most of the slower riders from the first couple of waves we were able to pick up the pace. We pushed on pretty quickly into Richmond, stopped again for a snack then pushed on again heading for Franklin. The ride through Richmond and Cove was really scenic, but a little more hilly than the ride up to that point.

By the time we reached Franklin I was starting to get tired. I'm just not used to long rides, and I'd only had two or three rides that were even as long as the ride into Franklin. After our snack in Franklin, two (or was it three) of our team decided they wanted to go for the century loop and headed off into Idaho, while the rest of us turned back toward Utah. Now the pace really started picking up, and where I started to take a little punishment. I was always was the weakest rider in the team and it really started to show. I spent most of my time in the back of the pack just trying to keep up, and eventually I had to fall back because I couldn't keep up the pace.

Our lunch break was in either Newton or Trenton, I don't recall which. I was pretty tired by then, but I felt good about making it that far. I was happy to spend some time sitting on the grass rather than on the hatchet-like saddle. I grabbed a sandwich and a banana and settled in for a pleasant lunch. I also took off my glasses because they were getting uncomfortable while I wasn't riding. Unfortunately I completely forgot to pick them up again after I finished lunch and I never saw them again.

After lunch things got really bad for me. I was already tired and it was even harder for me to keep up. I made the mistake of pushing really hard to keep up with the pack on a hill, and totally wore myself out. I fell behind the team and tried to hook up with a few of the passing packs, but I wasn't able to keep up so I ended up going almost solo until Benson.

The team was waiting for me in Benson, but they'd been there a while and I was pooped. They were kind enough to wait a few minutes while I cooled off, but since it was so hot and getting later we all wanted to get back as soon as possible. We took off heading toward the airport road. I was able to keep up with their brisk pace until we were just getting to the airport, then I totally bonked. I felt as though I had completely run out of steam. It was all I could do to stay on my bike. I got to 10th west and actually stopped on the side of the road for a few minutes, drinking some Cytomax and trying to get enough energy to limp the last few miles back to the Fairgrounds.

I took the rest of the ride really slow, but to me it was anything but easy. Even the slightest grade felt like I was climbing a mountain. The last 2 miles felt more like 10 to me. It was such a relief to finally cross the finish line and collapse on the grass.

As I was laying on the grass I get a call from my wife wondering where I am. She and my parents had come to see me cross the finish line, but I completely spaced it out and forgot to call them when I was getting close. I blame my lack of blood sugar on that particular oversight and I'm sure my wife won't let me get away with that again.

I finally get rested enough to drive home without killing myself or someone else. I take a shower and crash.

So, that's how it happened, and now I'm doing it all over again! I'm excited! Hopefully I'll manage to do better this time.

If any of you are reading this and want to contribute, you can go to the official web site and donate there. I really do believe that this is a good cause. I'm glad I can help in some small way to make life better for all the people who struggle with MS. I hope a day will come when we won't have the MS 150 because a cure has been found. Until that time comes I will keep doing my small part to help.

Given the title of my blog, I thought it would be appropriate to take this chance to mention that I'm going to be moving... again. My wife and I have decided to go back to school, she to finish her bachelors degree, me for a masters degree. So, yeah. 3-5 years more school... Here we go again!

[EDIT: This never happened for a number of reasons... :) ]

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.

Being a complete sucker for new technology is really a curse. Every time I see a brand-spankin', shiny new product I start thinking to myself "hmm... I wonder how I can justify getting this". Sometimes I can manage to yank myself violently out of that train of thought, which hurts a little but is by far the best solution in the long run. When I either fail to yank hard enough, or forget to yank at all I move into the next phase: obsession.

In the obsession phase I get stuck thinking about something, and not just late at night while I'm browsing webcomics and news sites, but all the time! I wake up dreaming about that new shiny toy that I'm convinced will solve all my problems. I go to work, only to be interrupted with images dancing around in my head. When I get to this point it becomes very hard to turn back. The only two possible routes to take are to either try to bury the whole idea in the back of my mind somewhere and get on with life, or succumb and buy the toy. Since I'm perpetually broke, I keep my mental shovel handy.

The whole reason I'm even writing this is to blow off a little steam. Recently I bought a new computer. I looked online quite a bit, researched my options, checked pricing, evaluated my budget with my special obsession-induced financial myopia, then took the plunge. I've put together an embarasingly large number of computers in the past, and have very seldom been dissapointed in how things turned out. Unfortunately, this time I am very disapointed. I'm about ready to ebay half the internals and try again, but I know I'll only want to get "upgraded" parts when I do, which I can't really afford anyway... *sigh*

So, now I'm trying to find that mental shovel I usually keep handy. I wonder where it went...