Lesson Learned

Ok so lesson learned.. always have the right sized spare tube with you.. in this case I had the wrong valve length on the spare tube I had with me. oops. I got a flat on my way home from work.. couldnt figure out what it was.. it was like a hollow pygmy dart shot from the grass pygmy's blow gun.. who knows. but here I am about 15 miles from home in south Tampa, flat tire, wrong tube, shit. I start thinking to myself, im not going to walk home..damnit. all I had was the old tube, the new tube, a co2 cartridge, and this.. thing.. in my tire. im thinking to myself.. I need a valve extender.. well, that old valve looks a lot like a valve extender, hmm.. so. i bit off the old valve and shoved it into the co2 inflator.. pressed it into the rim onto the new valve, let co2 fly and voila full tire. WOO HOO! so theres my story. :) i made it home and learned how to make a valve extender on the fly.

Blackle

You've probobly noticed that I changed my background color back to black... Well I did some reading recently on Blackle.com about how it takes more energy to run a monitor with a white or light background color than one with a black or dark color. I found this very interesting so i decided to keep my background on my computer at home on black, change my blog back to black, as well as using blackle instead of google. So im saving you some energy while reading my blog. I've also noticed it really makes the photos pop! check it out.

http://www.blackle.com/about/

Garden Update

Egg plant, brocolli, tomatos, and peppers are now in the ground. The corn is growing very rapidly, and the spinich is finally starting to sprout up. The hump there is where the water mellon seeds are planted. Now its just weeding and waiting.. though i need to research organic pest control as well. but its lookin good.

Play Group

I have been throwing around the idea of joining a play group for a few years now but I just couldnt find anyone I was willing to go to. Well.. this time one found me, and kind of by accident. I met a girl the other day who has kids and we got to chatting about getting together for the purpose of interaction... on both levels.. kids and parents. Well tonight thegroup met at Keneth City Community Park and My friend invited me to come. Caleb made some friends, and I did as well... great combination.. and most importantly it gave this bored, lonely soul some thing to do. And most importantly it gave me some new friends I took some pictures here they are run on sentence. Caleb actually took the shoes picture.. which i thought was a great shot.

Green Horn Gardener

Ok so its an obsession... but one that will yeild good fruit... or veges in this case. we dug a new plot today and we will be planting the seedlings soon. they are getting big! Water mellons to go into the new plot.. and other undecided... Getting advice on growing from friends and new friends. Oh and I moved the herdb out of the garden and into their own planter box.. they were starting to wilt and needed help. so.. trying.. learning. The corn is growing REALLY fast.. let me know if you want some becuase this is supposed to yeild a LOT of corn. pics...

The Touring Bug Bites

so.. ive been thinking about touring a lot lately. If you recall my last set of Arkel panniers and all my camping gear was stolen several months ago from my car while it rest on the side of the highway. Building a collection of panniers and gear may be a daunting task... I do have the beginings of the green bags that I started and gave up on months ago( i need a sewing machine). But i do need to purchase cook ware, a tent, sleeping bag, and other necessities. Im not giving up, I will be back on the open road again one day.
Im thinking of planning a trip for a week that I may have time off of school. going up to DC or the Carolinas and then back by another route... its an idea in concept form as of now.. but im really thining about planning and prepping for this. If you are interested and think you have what it takes get in touch with me and let me know if youd be willing to join me four a big trip. for your pleasure here is a pic of my Long Haul Trucker and my bros cannondale from the last trip we did around Florida. I sure miss those bags.. they were great.

Garden coming along

Ok so the garden is coming along nicely enough. As of now we have sewn sweet corn and spinach, we have broccoli, eggplant, bell peppers, and tomatoes germinating in pots, and we have planted basil, thyme and oregano. The germinated pots are all sprouting up nicely and i can wait till they starting getting big enough to plant. Corn and spinach have not started sprouting yet. Margaret and I actually ate some of the basil in some delicious tomato, basil and fresh mozeralla omletts. mmm. good stuff. Anywho.. stay tuned for updates.

July 4th Celebration Ride!

Margaret and I went for a ride out at Alafia on July 4th. I know I posted Carter Road but I couldnt justify the gas money to make it out there. It wasa my first time riding with Margaret and I was pleasantly suprised at how well she rides. She kept up with me on Roller Coaster, a "black diamond" (harder) trail. It was a fun trip and we spent some time shopping for produce in Lithia, and seeing the sites of the old home town in Plant City. I would love to move back out there again. well heres some pictures we took out there.. enjoy :)

(gone, happy?)

Election '08

"Not talking about it because it is "uncomfortable" doesnt mean you have to ignore it altogether... educate yourself. " Random Scholar(bursting my own buble ;))

Ok so its been a while since I've dived into the political realm here on the Blog... We are in a leap year, and most of us know what that means. This november we go to the polls... but hopefully we go more prepared than with what the media is force feeding us. If you havent done any research into who is potentially going to running our country than you can count yourself blissfully ignorant. however blissful you may be, you ARE ignorant. If at the very least take a look at all the issues important to you and find out where our candidates line up with those issues, and learn about those issues. Here is a list of sugested web links to get some ideas:

http://www.politifact.com/

http://uspolitics.america.gov/uspolitics/elections/index.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1102

http://www.votesmartflorida.org/mx/hm.asp?id=home

http://www.vote411.org/

and please people... if you dont find the info you want to know on any of these sites dont stop there... search for it. Dont show up at the polling computer and christmas tree your ballot!! A lot of people wonder why nothing ever gets done to make this country a better place.. this is what you can do.

Can you believe it!? Nader is still alive!

Independence Day Ride

This Friday 9:30 am.. Loyce Harpe Park(formerly known as Carter Road Park), Lakeland. Ill be there on the Karate Monkey. Im sure Ted will be on the Chester, and Jeff will be there with hot dogs and mayonaise. What better way to celebrate our nations independance than to utilize one of our many freedoms.. Getting dirty. Wanna go? lemme know!

Humanitarian Award of the Week..

Sunday at the Fish.. A poor hispanic imigrant came into the shop with serious repair needs. His bike really needed to just be thrown away.. but this was his only source of transportation.. what else could he do? Normally he would have been turned away, seriously what can a bike shop do about it? Well, my manager Joel remembered that we had taken in a donation bike to be given to Mike from Gods Pedal Power later in the week.. Joel took it upon himself to get the donation bike and get it into working condition and gave it to this man. I was awe struck. The look on this mans face said everything that his language could not explain. It was an amazing thing Joel did for this man. Its this kind of dedication and love for the community that makes a bike shop stand out.. on top of that, in the week that I have been there I have seen other forms of community involvement, such as donating old parts to the Tampa Bike Co-op, and hiring poor unemployed bicycle mechanics :). My humanitarian award of the week goes to Joel and the Flying Fish.