theworldeffect.com

While I was battling snow and big rigs on ice, check out what my bro and Meg have been up to:

www.theworldeffect.com

Looks mighty warm there....

Not a good sign...

Last Wednesday I knew karma was going to bite me in the ass hard later. I made it to SLC in just over 7 hours (yes I was mildly speeding). That's good time on I-80 through Wyoming for all of you that are not familiar with that stretch of road. This is what Karma did to me on the way back:

Good times. The total travel time on the way back was just about double (12.5 hours). Nothing like wind, snow and glaze ice to make you feel alive!

Let me back up for a minute. Why was I in the lovely city of SLC?? Outdoor Retailer. This is where all of the biggest outdoor brands show off their new gear for next year. Normally I would be busting my hump in the (name omitted, not worth mentioning) booth. This time around, I joined hundreds of other outdoor folks looking for a job. This trade show felt more like a job fair than a place where retailers buy new product for next season. A couple brands (Chaco and Ahnu) were bought by big conglomerate companies. The atmosphere was strange, to say the least.

Even with the strange atmosphere, it was still nice to be there. I saw a TON of people that I haven't seen in ages. I had a lot of offers to go snowboarding after the show. Unfortunately, I had to head back because the fam was sick... now I have the illness too. Lucky me.

All in all, it was a good trip. I even landed a position with a local Boulder company that makes tents. I'll have more on that when all of the I's are dotted and T's crossed...

One for the weekend...

Picture Perfect Picture Rock

I snuck away from my office to enjoy some of the mild weather we're having. It was about 45 degrees and sunny, perfect for getting a ride in at one of the local trails. The Blue Beast was calling me from the garage to get out and ride... and ride we did. The trail conditions were just about perfect. Where there wasn't snow, the dirt was tacky:
In the shade there was about an inch of snow but it was pretty crusty and still offered quite a bit of traction:

I made it up to "The Great Wall of Heil" before turning back. When the sun went behind the hill, it cooled off a lot. There was only one other set of bike tracks on the trail:

I ripped down on the super flowy single track and enjoyed what was left of the sun. I couldn't get my tires to break free from the dirt. Sooooo tacky and sweet! Check out this view, I think it's one of the best around and the reason why I live close to Lyons:

So now I'm back at my desk looking outside and wondering if I should sneak out again! The weather is supposed to be good through the weekend. I imagine I won't have the trail to myself on Saturday.

There's lots of good bike stuff going on right now in the area. Boulder county is pushing forward with the Lyons to Boulder (Certain Death) trail. Check out Dave's synopsis of the plan and timeline here. This would be an AWESOME commuter bike trail to Boulder and eventually Longmont too. I also got an update on the Valmont Bike Park this morning: Local cyclist funds children’s cycling education at Valmont City Park. If you haven't heard of Valmont Bike Park, check it out here. This is going to be the absolute mecca of all things bike! Having a large donation like this is a BIG deal. I've already bought a brick with my sons' names on it.... have you?!

Well - back to the grind. Get to work already!

-Edit- Click on the pics above to get them in full. For whatever reason they turned out EXTRA Large.

Night Ridin' is fun...

I rode with the Redstone crew last night. That makes two weeks in a row that I've been able to get out on my bike on Tuesdays. Check out the vid that Dave made of the ride here: Redstone Underground. The slow guy with the yellow gloves is me.

It's was a great ride that we almost didn't go on. Thanks to "Cool Factor Keith", we motivated and went to Left Hand Canyon OHV and rode through the snow. Here's a GPS shot of the ride: Of course it was all snow covered and not bare ground as above. I also tested my new light setup: one on the bars and one on the helmet. It made a world of difference and gave me more confidence to go faster. Something that Ab is never excited about!

Hopefully I'll be able to get out again before I have to go away on business again...

Hmmmm...

I saw this posted on a bulletin board in a gas station on our way back from the mountains last weekend:
Either the guy is desperate for a tent trailer or frustrated that he can't find "the treasure". I left the number up just in case any of you are interested in contacting the guy....

One for the weekend...

The weekend is here and although we're just through the holidays and had a bunch of time off, a couple more days off sounds mighty fine! Check this out:



Yeah, yeah it starts off slow. But trust me, it really starts to rock about here:



That's the first part of Pink Floyd: Live in Pompeii. Quite possibly one of the greatest rock movies ever made. My buddies Erich and Chad turned me on to it back in my Boulder days. The copy we had back then was on a VHS tape that was really poorly dubbed but we didn't seem to mind turning it up to "11" anyway and disturb our neighbors at 3:00 in the morning. Good stuff and good memories.

Anyway, I've been busy working on my new biz and have a couple other exciting opportunities on deck. One of these opportunities could be huge change... we'll see. I'll know more about them next week. In the meantime, I'm finally going to get on my snowboard for the first time this season. Pathetic! I gotta get my snow legs going for a cat trip Jevan and I have planned for my bro's bachelor party in Feb. I think it's really going to kick ass!

I'll post some snowboard pics next week. Have a good weekend y'all....

Noooo!!!! Melo out for 3 weeks minimum...

With a seven game home stand coming up, this really sucks...

Hopefully JR and Kleiza can pick up their games!!