It’s back!! (No it’s
not) Why, sure it is. See, a new post. (But I wouldn’t say “back”) Well, why not? (That indicates some sort of consistency to
come…be real) It could be back. (It could,
but it won’t be) We’ll see about
that. (Yeah, we’ll see)
Alright, inner monologue over. Bottom line is I have no idea what to expect
going forward. I’ve almost posted again
dozens of times over the last three years (holy cow, has it really been that
long??) I even sat down and re-designed
and re-named the site months ago (we’ll get to that in a bit). Myriads of topics have very nearly flowed
from my fingertips to the keys, but alas, nearly
is the key word there. So why now?
The simple answer? A
request from a friend. A request from
someone who said that they actually miss my mindless ramblings (my words, not
theirs). And to be honest, I miss it as
well. Sometimes you just need that
little push I guess. The more complex
answer? Well, there isn’t one. That actually summed it up pretty well. So, to my friend, thank you. We’ll see what happens.
Now, onto the business at hand. What’s new, what isn’t and what’s up with
this new site?
THE NEW
I said it above and I’ll say it again – I CAN NOT believe it
has been nearly three years since my last post.
And thinking about that time has been a bit mind blowing. At the time of my last post I was living in
Ontario, OH with my wife and daughter. I
was working for a tooling company based out of Cleveland but was actively
searching for new employment as it appeared my company was on the fast track to
closure. And, I had just purchased a
$100 Mongoose hybrid bike from Wal Mart.
Fast forward nearly three years. Sure enough, my branch closed on September
24th, 2009 (the company as a whole made it only until about April of
the next year). Fortunately for me (and
I count my blessings for this every day), my early job searching paid off. I helped load the last piece of office furniture
onto the moving truck on Thursday, and I started my new job on Monday. In Columbus.
That’s right, moved to the big city.
Three years, two jobs, two cities.
My wife and I (and a couple of brothers-in-law gracious
enough to help at the last minute) loaded up in late October and headed to
Southeast Columbus. We’ve since moved up
to the North side and are fully enjoying everything the city has to offer. Oh, and that daughter I mentioned? Well she has a sister now. Yup, I am seriously outnumbered. Three women in the house, all beautiful, and
even the youngest fully enthralled with clothes, shoes and make-up. I. am. So. Screwed. Three years, two jobs, two cites, three
houses and another child.
Now about that
bike. I had practically lived on a bike
until about Jr High. Always riding
around the neighborhood, jumping my Schwinn 10-speed off of dirt mounds that it
had no business attempting, and even racing a little BMX. But I probably didn’t get back on a bike
again until that Mongoose. And I quickly
remembered how much I loved to ride. I
also quickly realized that this bike was inadequate for the amount of riding I
would be doing. I mentioned above
enjoying what the city had to offer, and that included bike trails. Miles upon miles of bike trails. And consequently, bike shops. Real
bike shops.
I agonized over what kind of bike to get. Mountain?
Definitely the coolest looking, but would I like being hunched over and
would the fat tires be slow? Road? Fast, but I couldn’t wrap my head around
those skinny tires being able to support my big bonedness. Or hybrid?
Comfortable position, slightly wider tires than a road bike but still
fast. So, I forked over more cash than I
ever figured I’d spend for a bike (little did I know…) and the Giant Cypress DX
was mine. I put a lot of miles on that
bike in just a few months, but then I decided to by myself a little birthday
present – A used 2006 Giant Warp full suspension mountain bike. Hooked.
I quickly realized the inadequacy of that bike for me and before I knew
it, I had sold the Warp and Cypress and shelled out nearly three times what I
paid for that Cypress on a Hardtail 29er, the Giant XTC that I still ride
(though heavily upgraded since then). Add to that the cruiser that I just bought to
pull the kiddos and I think it could be said that I have a small problem. Three years, two jobs, two cities, three houses,
another daughter and five bikes (and counting).
The last of the newness (especially relevant here)? Social Networking explosion. At the time of my last post I was still using
MySpace (Daddy, what’s MySpace?) and had maybe 100 contacts. I had just discovered Facebook, and Twitter
was barely on the radar. Fast forward to
today and I don’t even remember my MySpace password (though I’m pretty sure I
still have an account) and I have a shade over 400 “friends” on Facebook, all
with the ability to link, share, like, tweet and re-tweet ad infinitum. Why is that at all relevant? Exposure.
The potential audience now is mind bending. Not that I ever expect to write anything
nearly that interesting, but still. It’s
a little crazy.
THE NOT NEW
I promise this will be shorter. MUCH shorter.
The bottom line is that some things never change. I still love my family more than anything,
and you’ll likely hear a lot about them in the future. I still love to read, though I don’t get to
do it as much I like. I still get
irritated by religion and a good majority of Christians and finding a Church
has not gotten any easier. Politics and
politicians still (to borrow a line from the ever wise Peter Griffin) grind my
gears to no end. And mix Religion and
Politics together…well…
THE BLOG
…You get the new Blog.
As I said in the beginning, I actually did the majority of the re-design
and re-naming months ago. Cleaner,
simpler, clearer. I knew I wanted to
write again but didn’t necessarily know what about. I didn’t want to abandon the old path of
topics, but I wanted it to be more than that.
I wanted more flexibility. The new
name is a bit of a ridiculous play on an old Sammy Kershaw song and is subject
to change at any time, though for now I kind of like it.
Now, assuming I decide to sit down with any amount of
consistency at all, and assuming that you, dear reader, are at all inclined to
follow along with this ridiculousness, what can you expect? Honestly, I have no friggin clue! If I were you I wouldn’t expect anything at
all. Basically just whatever strikes me
hard enough to get me to sit down in front of this blasted keyboard and pound
away. Likely a lot of rants about
Politics and Religion (duh), and with election season upon us, there should be
no shortage of subject matter. Probably
some stories about the fam, hopefully some book reviews, and likely many trail
reviews and anecdotes from the singletrack.
As for features, most are the same. There are links to different sites that I
like or find relevant to the blog in some way.
I still have the C.S. Lewis quotes and running links to news from the
Middle East and I added a running list of Mountain Biking headlines. If you should desire to interact, you can
subscribe to the feed, comment on posts (anonymously if you so desire), and
link to a post on any number of social media outlets. I encourage and appreciate interaction,
though I don’t expect it. Truth be told,
this may very well be the last entry for another three years so it might not
even matter. Hopefully not but...we’ll
see. (Yeah, we’ll see)
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