Early Morning
I had to get up at 2:45 this morning so I decided to start the day with a fire. I’m glad it’s cold enough for this.
I’ve Been Slacking
It feels sorta lazy to take a photograph of flowers sitting on the table, but it’s better than nothing. I haven’t done much with my camera lately. Not really in the last year, sadly.
Balsam Grove Part II, Thanksgiving Part I
Bubba was pretty excited I came up to visit.
Beau
My family’s dog, Beau, died yesterday. He was a sweet, cute, fun dog and I love him and miss him a lot.
Assault on the Carolinas, Bike Commuting, Banff Film Festival
I’ve mentioned I’m going to be riding the Assault on the Carolinas previously, but I figured I’d let you all know what it is. It’s a 100 kilometer bike ride beginning in Brevard, looping around down into South Carolina and then back up to Brevard. Here’s what their website says about the 100k ride:
The 100K has everything from: flats, rolling hills, the Walnut Hollow climb (hello, it’s me, Hall. I’ll just tell you that this is a hell of a hill. It’s like 14% grade for way, way, way too long), fast descents, and a grueling 6-mile climb up Caesar’s Head near the North Carolina-South Carolina border. This ride will take you through the river valleys of Transylvania County, up Walnut Hollow, and up and over Hwy 178. Hwy 178 offers some amazing descents, with miles of curves, that will be enjoyed by all who ride the course. Once riders cross Hwy 11 in SC they will ride rolling hills and some flat sections where many pace lines of varying abilities form. When riders reach the bottom of Caesar’s Head they begin a challenging 6 mile climb to the top. Once over Caesar’s head it’s @ 15 miles back to Brevard High School with more descents, flats, and a ride back through the river valley. This ride has 5 rest stops.
It is a lot of fun, and a lot of work. I’m excited about riding it this year, because I’m in a lot better shape than last year, when it wiped me out. I am a little disappointed that none of my friends are riding in it this year. Hey Evan, fly our here and ride it with me!
Today was the second day I’ve commuted to work by bike. It was freezing cold this morning, but it really is better than driving. Yesterday I took my mountain bike, but it’s frustratingly inefficient, so I cleaned up the touring bike and took that this morning. I ride a gravel road part of the way, so the bigger tires really help with that, plus I can put my panniers on and don’t have to mess with my messenger bag which kinda sucks loaded down. The trip is about 5 miles one way. It’s a great way to wake up in the morning.
This weekend (Friday and Saturday) Brevard College is hosting the Banff Mountain Film Festival world tour, and I’m pretty excited. I’ve been going for the last few years, and it’s consistently pretty good. I looked over the list of films they’re showing this year, and it seems like there are a lot on skiing. I swear, someday when I actually go on my long tour, I’m going to film it and it’ll get in this thing.
Oh, and I told you all I’d have a picture of the stray dog I found, so I’ll have to do that this evening. I forgot yesterday.
Cycling, Housework, and a Visitor
A few new things are going on here. It’s starting to warm up a bit in Brevard, and that means I’m transitioning from running to cycling. I’ve really enjoyed running, but at the same time I’m getting a little bored with it, and I’m excited to have the chance to get on my bike outside and not freeze.
My first ride of the season was a 20 mile ride on back roads around Brevard. Except for one incident, I really enjoyed the ride and really noticed the strength that my legs had from past months of running. Looping around a small valley out towards Crab Creek Road, I came up on a section of road that takes an almost 90 degree turn.
As I was nearing the turn I saw a car coming the opposite way. It wasn’t moving exceptionally fast, but I kept an eye on it just in case. Coming toward the corner (I was on the green arrow side in the image), I moved out towards the yellow lines, and then started turning out towards the white line (in my lane) so I would hit the apex of the corner and would be able to keep my speed. As I was at the edge of the white line, I see that the driver of the car decided he would shave off .15 seconds from his drive and cut into my lane. As he was coming over, I noticed he didn’t see me at all. I hit the brakes and my bike was almost completely sideways, my tires skidding and leaving black marks on the asphalt. At the very last moment, for some reason the driver decided to look up, possibly he heard me yelling “WHAT THE FUCK ASSHOLE?!” at the top of my lungs, or saw me skidding towards a head on collision with his Honda, and jerked the car out of my way.
I’ve said this before: I think I handle situations like this very well. Some people freeze up and react by doing nothing, some people panic and cause more damage, but when I’ve been in situations that are like this, I have control over myself and generally act to fix the situation as fast as my brain can function. I also tend to react with some anger.
It was odd to see the car coming straight at me. For those few seconds I was calculating how to get out of the situation, where to turn, how much to pull on the brakes, what would happen if the car hit me, how I should possibly turn my body to roll over the car’s roof, because that’s what I had decided would happen if I didn’t go through the windshield. It was interesting, afterward, to go over what I had thought about in such a short time.
Luckily, I was fine, and there was no collision. The car did slow down and almost stop right after, and I saw that it was a newer gold/champagne Honda with a Brevard College Faculty parking sticker on the back window. After a second of staring at it, I decided I would go tell them to watch the hell out next time, and then they split. The car sped off, and I tried to chase it, but even with the adrenaline and my strong legs, there was no way I was catching it. Oh well.
My second ride of the season was last Thursday. I rode 276 up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was an hour and 20 minutes of almost constant climbing. Riding 276 sure does hurt sometimes, but it’s amazing fun and I always get a huge sense of accomplishment when I finish. My third ride was yesterday. I went on a 30 mile ride out towards Hendersonville, through DuPont Forrest and then down 276 into town. There is a good bit of climbing on that ride as well. It’s fun to get back out on the bike, and I’m hoping I’ll be in a lot better shape for the Assault on the Carolinas this year.
In other news, Scott and I installed the range hood over the stove. I had to run new wiring to the hood. It looks nice. Now it’s time to finish mudding and sanding the office so we can move stuff in there and have less clutter in the rest of the house.
Scott and I have had a visitor since Saturday. He’s an orphan dog that I found in our neighbor’s yard. He has a shock collar on, but no tags. I put a notice up on Craigslist, a classified ad in the Transylvania Times, and called Animal Control. So far there haven’t been any emails from Craigslist, the newspaper said the ad wouldn’t get put in until Thursday, and the Animal Control people start their week on Wednesday apparently, so he’s just been hanging out at the house with us. I hope that his owners come get him soon, because he’s a really sweet dog and I’m sure they’re missing him.
I’ll post a picture of him tonight. For now I’m running around trying to figure out what happened to the server at work.
Oh, also, I finished the design for my portfolio site.
Sad Things
The other day, my sister and brother in law’s bassett hound Duncan was hit by a car and killed. He was an awesome dog. He was super sweet, goofy and playful. I didn’t get to spend much time with him because they live out in Wyoming, but I miss him nonetheless. Evan has more pictures and videos of Duncan on his blog.
I’m famous, and other news
A few things for you today.
Evan and I went to a Teenage Bottlerocket show in Laramie while I was out there for Christmas with the family. During the show, they filmed part of their new music video for In The Basement off of their new album, Warning Device. When they show the crowd shots, I’m on the far left and Evan is behind me (he has a beard and glasses).
In other news, I’ve finished the artwork for the new Jerks CD EP. I really like it and think it’s some of the best album artwork I’ve done. I tried to keep it really simple, and I think it worked.
We’re having them printed professionally, and we should also have our t-shirts made by the end of the week. We’ll have stuff to sell at our show in Georgia on the 16th. Also, there’s a chance (which I’ve been told is about 98% confirmed) that we’re going to play a show with Teenage Bottlerocket and the Copyrights. They’re two amazing bands and basically what I’ve been listening to nonstop for the last few months.
It’s supposed to get up to 70 degrees here today. I can’t wait to go on a run.
Last of all, I’m capturing all of the video from my drive last Tuesday. I should hopefully have this edited and up for you to watch by this weekend.
Teenage Bottlerocket – Warning Device
A long time ago (and by that I mean a few years ago) my brother in law told me about this band in Laramie, Wyoming that he thought I might like. I’d never heard of them and thought their name was interesting enough to warrant a listen. Since that day I’ve loved Teenage Bottlerocket’s music. When I got Another Way, I played it over and over and over. It had these super stripped down, but still rocking songs. Then Total came out and with it brought Kody from the Lillingtons to the mix. It didn’t leave my cd player for months.
Just recently Teenage Bottlerocket put out their third full length record, Warning Device, and with it, they’ve topped their other albums. Now, I don’t mean to say that I don’t love every song off of Another Way or Total, but this new album is just done so damn well that I have to say it’s their best effort yet.
“Bottlerocket” starts the album off with a loud, fast, simple in-your-face 51 seconds of awesome, and I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but it could definitely be a one song description of their live shows; light the fuse and watch the bottle rocket go.
This album is about as strong an album as could be made. I had trouble deciding which songs stood out from the rest because there really aren’t any disappointing songs. It’s one whole, solid piece of work. There are so many standout songs.
“Pacemaker” is possibly my favorite on the album. It’s a little break from the normal Teenage Bottlerocket song. It’s a little easy going at first and you really notice the bass line and how it bounces it’s way around behind the vocals. Then the guitars really kick in and it slaps you in the face. Instead of just being another song about another ex girlfriend, but it’s a fucking great song about an ex girlfriend, and I have to say I think the lyrics are really really well written.
Another standout is “Social Life” with Kody singing. Another great song, and with references to First Blood part 2, it’s got a nice side of humor as well.
On My Own and In the Nuthouse are also great songs. Really though, it’s tough to just pick a few and say they’re better than the rest because this whole album is so solid. And speaking of solid, Red Scare made another song available for digital download only: I Know You Know. It’s from the same recording session as Warning Device, and I think it really speaks to the quality of the album that a song as good as I Know You Know gets left off.
Go buy this album. You’re going to love it. And if you don’t, then fuck, what are you doing reading this review?
Bah humbug!
Cross country skiing was great. Evan guessed we went about 6.5k or so. It didn’t really seem too long, but we didn’t really know all of the trails so maybe we’ll go for a little longer next time. I really enjoyed the running/gliding technique, and it took a while for me to get used to going downhill where they hadn’t groomed the trail with tracks, but I finally started to get the hang of it. I fell a few times early on, and twisted my knee a little bit. It reaffirmed my fear of downhill skiing (I think I’d screw up my knees).
I had wanted to go out again last night, but I was exhausted. I don’t know why but I think it’s the combination of sitting around not doing much all evening and the traveling/altitude but I’ve been exhausted around 8 each night. Tonight I’m going to try to find something to do, but then again, it’s Sunday, so who knows what will be open in Laramie.
It’s supposed to be warmer today, but that means it’ll be in the 20’s. I’m going to walk around on the pond in the park across from Amanda and Evan’s house. I’ve never walked on a frozen pond or lake, so it’s another thing I feel like I need to do in my life. I’ve seen some preview for a movie about the things you’d do before you die, and though I hope I’m not anywhere close to dying, there are a bunch of little things that I want to do, just to experience them or to be able to say I did them. They’re not necessarily huge events like skydiving, though I’ve done that, but I think little things like walking on ponds can be a lot of fun.
I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday. Now I have to wrap all of it. I’m a terrible present wrapper and I think I might end up doing it as badly as possible on purpose. It’s more fun that way. Also, I think next year I’m sending out Scrooge cards in place of Christmas cards. Our family friend Marc used to send Christmas cards and on the inside wrote “Bah Humbug!” and I’m going to take it another step. I think I’ll end up making my own and having them printed, but it’ll be fun. Either that or getting a portrait taken at the local Sears or something with a terrible Christmas sweater on and sending that out to people. I’ve got a year to think about it.
I’m rambling now, so I’ll end this. Today we are all going sledding up at Happy Jack after having french toast. It sounds like a very wholesome family thing, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
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