Bike Week

This week is bike week in the U.S. No, not THIS bike week. But This one.
Today I did my, now standard, Yarmouth to Portland pedal in to work.

Useless commuting statistics:
Distance: 13.92 miles
Time: 46mins 39 secs.
Average Speed: 17.8 mph

All while carrying about 8 pounds of lunch, work clothes, shoes, and other small stuff that lives in my panniers.

So, not too bad really. and its nice to get 45 mins. of cardio. before work and 45 after too. I should be ripped and ready for the Trek in no time. There is still time to donate. HERE.

Who's the Boss?

Well that was a bit weird.

What does it mean when your boss comes in and says to you "I was thinking of taking tomorrow morning or the day off tomorrow. Will that be o.k. ?"
I started to answer and I say 'ah, yeah well the Concord site is smoothed out and..' then thought dawned on me...why is the boss/owner asking if he can have a day off to work on his boat.
Of course you can. You own the company man.
Obviously, he was asking what the work load and schedule was like for tomorrow and if I would need his input on things but it was a bit weird.

Day Trippin'

Plans can change quickly some days. It was Sunday and my brother had just pulled into the driveway. We were planning on going out for a bike ride, get some exercise, work up a sweat, strain the muscles, burn the lungs and rest our minds. It can be a religious experience.

*ring ring*

'Hi Ma.'
'Oh your going to Phippsburg today?'
'Yeah sure we'll come down.'

Phippsburg is a small coastal town south of Bath. It's only about 40 minutes from our house and it is a beautiful place to hang out for the day. The riding could wait. Plus, LilGuns will get to see his Gram, Grand Aunt/Uncle and Great-Grandma. And of course they want to see him even more.
I ended up taking the longest possible way down, because I hadn't been there in years and I just couldn't remember any other way to get there. But the drive down was really nice. Long two lane roads. Tree covered. Hilly and winding. Rock outcrops just inches from leaving a big 'ol scratch down the side of the car. Drive carefully.
The camp is on Winnegance Bay in Phippsburg. The water is 30 feet off the dock. Stripper and blue fishing is awesome here. The year my brother caught the big bass, he got a 23 pound blue fish. Fought it for nearly an hour before landing it into the 12 foot aluminum row boat. The fish fight of his life.
The picture is looking northeast from the camp yard. The foreground shows a shell midden that contains lots of Quahog clam shells. We suspect the origin of the midden is from a local indian tribe. But that is speculating some.
The rocks are devonian age granites intruded into schists of the Cape Elizabeth formation.

ChopSticks, Fire and Bikes

Mid-week, last week, sushi take out ended up on the menu. LilGun's enjoyed the chopsticks. Thou, holding them like drum sticks will do little to get the food into his mouth. But then again the maki rolls are bigger than he could handle anyway. So, bang away my son.

Saturday morning I got up at 6am while LG and Momma slept in (to 9 i might add). By 7:30 i was, out of my mind bored, and creeping around the house like a silent mouse was driving me nuts. So I went to the fire department and got a burn permit. With two loan matches (no gasoline this time) I got the pile going really good right away. I took the photo shortly after I put on our 2008 christmas tree for maximum flame effect. After about 4 hours I had burned all that I wanted and I doused it out with the garden hose. It turned out to be a good controlled fire and didn't have that initial huge flame up like usual.
Sunday my brother came up and we did a training ride. I got the Trek Across Maine coming up and I need to get in my miles. If you haven't yet donated to my ride and would like to you can do it HERE.
I took him past the blueberry fields on Blinn Hill. Ride-wise it is a 1-2 mile climb at about 4% grade. On the backside I have documented a top speed of 51 mph. Yesterday I only topped out at about 46mph. Gusty winds kept me on the conservative side. Our trip time was 2 hours and 12 minutes for 34 miles. Not bad. I definitely need to crank it up from there. The pic is of me, sheesh my gut looks horrible. :( Oh well, nothing more miles can't fix.

Have a good week.

OSHA Training

Yesterday was my OSHA 8-hour annual refresher training class and test. It is a requirement to keep my hazardous waste emergency operations ( HAZWOPER ) knowledge up to date.

Among items we discussed were new shipping documents, the hazard classification system, blood borne pathogens, a little time with our emergency response guidebooks and the part I was waiting for PPE (personal protective equipment). Masks, suits, boots all that stuff.

'Who wants to volunteer?"...

and seeing a perfectly good opportunity to develop a blog post with interesting photos, I stepped up.
Picture 1 (upper left): I am wearing a powered supplied air hood. It is battery operated and has filter cartridges. The hood has two flaps, an inner that goes under your outer wear and the outer flap. It was quite cool and did not fog up.
Picture 2 (right) : I have on rubber boots, a new style of tyvec suit (which is some new material i forgot the name), and double glove protection. Here we were just demonstrating the correct way to tape off the legs and wrists.
So. Yep. I'm good for another year of hazardous waste cleanup. But do not fear for my safety. When the shit gets really bad...or even just a little bad. I step WAY the fuck back and call in Clean Harbors. This is probably one of the few situations were I will say

"why do it yourself when some other guy can it for you'?"

And, Yes I did pass the test.

Pirates

A quick post today. I have been super busy lately.

Today I wanted to give my opinion on this whole Somali pirate thing (Story here and here).
Fuck these guys. Their age does not matter to me in this case. Pirates of the 1600's were of the same age....right up to their 40's. If they lived that long.
Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse will be tried of piracy [U.S. v. Muse, 09-mg-1012, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)] . If found guilty, I say the same fate of William Kidd should be bestowed upon him. Hanging in chains dock side.

Yeah, gotta run. I got dirty soil to move.

Peace and Love. Peace and Love.

Peanut Butter

I was fooling around with LilGuns and thought I had detected the sweet sweet aroma of a nice full diaper. I called in Wife for a poopypants ruling. I heard a shout from the bathroom.

Holding the boy now at arms length, I tracked down Mommy for the second opinion. Secretly hoping for an All Clear, but really knowing where the outcome would end, On the changing table.
Let me back this story up a little bit. L.G. is just over 6 months old now. Growing right along like a little beansprout. He's got some good hair coming in, sitting up playing, interacting, knows his name and recently two sharp little teeth (lower center) poked through.
Now that there are teeth we started to introduce foods. Some beats here...let him gnaw on Mommys apple there. The last couple of days he has been eating carrots like no ones business. Last night he sucked up about 3 ounces, give or take.
Jumping back to this morning, I pull off his pants and open up the diaper.

Oh! Hey! Who put peanut butter in here?

*w00t* *w00t* Yep. So, to be anti-climatic I wiped him up and re-dressed the boy for school.

Bring on the fudge brownies.

p.s. I hope this story makes my aunt gag a little bit

Dog walkin'

If you dont know how to do it Ill show you how to walk the dog.

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More Music

Slingshot-ing off of my previous post I dug up a picture of myself when I was about...mmmm 16. Same basement, now with much more equipment.
The Eddie Van Halen Honer and sunburst 12 string are still there. The banjo body is just visible in the lower right. As is a cymbal for the drum kit, thou not pictured. But now there are two more electric guitars, one in a modified flying 'V ' even . I'm sure there is other equipment not pictured.
I (in my neon glory, lol, oh the late 80's) am sitting on my Fender Bassman 10 with 4x10" speakers. Ohhh its a sweet tube amp. Best sounding amp ever. Next to it is my brothers Fender guitar amp. It also is a 4x10. This fucker could CRANK. That amp has since gone to amp heaven. The bassman lives on. I don't play much anymore, but i will never give it up. Hell, LilGuns may need an amp one day.
So to wrap this shit up...here is a song in about 2002 by my brothers band Here to Be Human.

Its even an MP3. I got a converter, so please let me know if it works or is all FUBARed. Also please leave some feedback. Thanks.