tired.

::yawns:: thats all for now.

okay, so, whatever, umm

so, the day was cold in columbus georgia. brrrr. brrr. it was a chilly ride to and from work. and i was able to ride three times so far this week. i think i'll stay off the bike tomorrow. and we're talking about riding phenix city on sunday. hmm. but i'm tired soo... a few pictures from flat rock monday. gosh it was muddy. muddy. muddy. did i mention the mud. i'm getting my "base miles." i'm gonna do this for a few weeks, then start really "training."

that will be good. i'll have an HRM by then. anyways. a few random pictures.

whatever, ya know?

so i recovered from new year's eve and went back to work. it was nice having two days off in a row, but now i have to face the fact that i am back to working 6 days a week. it sucks. i've said something before only to be told we'll do that later. not, oh sure, you're mentally burned out from working 6 day weeks for 6 months straight? yeah. whatever ya know?

i've been sending my resume to a few bike shops in the asheville area. i don't know if they're really even interested. same thing goes for specialized. i sent it off, recently got a postcard saying "thanks for applying." but nothing else.

apathy.

life in columbus has been sorta slow the past few days. i have managed to fit in some good riding. i went monday to flat rock park with mike greathouse. we rode for an hour together, then i added in about thirty minutes of quicker riding. wednesday i went with paul hein and jose mendez. we did a two hour night ride. with lots of random sprints. i kept up for the most part. but i can tell i'm in need of serious training. which is what i plan on doing. i'm gonna ride for a few weeks of "base miles." thats just riding at an easy medium intensity. i want a heart rate monitor but we'll see when that happens.

i'm tired of typing knowing nobody reads this.

happy stuff. new year. january.

so, jimbo and i left town around 5 on saturday. while we were driving near pine mountain we saw reynolds bickerstaff. his wife was making faces at us, so i was like, peace out. and dropped it into 4th and we hit 115mph and were like maybe we should slow down. so like, ten minutes later we were in lawrenceville. ha. and we picked up two of my friends. john zarley and raiford storey. we drove to athens.

we started at ryan lingo's house. 2 rum/cokes. then to caroline's house. whiskey sour. rum/coke. then to some girl named veggie c's house. 2 shots of jager. plastic cup of keg beer. then to downtown. walking from the parking deck to the bars. jack and coke. watching the ball drop, not having anyone to kiss. then getting our shots for midnight at like 12:07. shot of "liquid cocaine." (jager, goldschlager, something else.) then a grateful dead. then a beer. jack/coke. walk to some other bar. there's like two million people at this bar. no drinks there. just a scandelous photo. (see below) we leave there and walk back to veggie c's. in the process leaving sean's truck at the parking deck. bad move. bad. move.

back at veggie c's. what a wierd name. 4 glasses of cham-pag-ne. two plasic cups of beer. that put the total for the night at...

17. yep, 17 drinks in about four hours. the next morning. i officially thought i was gonna die. and at one point i would have preferred it to what i was going through. throwing up bile (stomach fluid) is not fun. and it bleaches the sidewalk. yep. the spot previously covered with mildewy sidewalk stuff was bright white a few minutes later. gross

so back in ctown. this morning i bled my brakes and finally got a huge air bubble to come out. sweet. that means i have braking power. so i ate lunch with my dad, then went over to mike greathouse's to watch, well, wait for a football game to finish so we could go ride. we went to flat rock. it was muddy. muddy. did i mention muddy. i will have a picture up soon of my bike post ride and my face and my legs post ride. all covered in. you guessed it. mud. but my brakes worked. really well. it was so nice to have brakes for once. i don't know how the vbrakers of the world ride with vrbakes. at least in mud. vbrakes + mud = 0 * fun. my math for the day.

so then i hung out with my buddies and we went to loco's to watch the georgia game. after it got to be 28-0 in the first hour we decided to leave. and here i am. typing. have a good night.

thursday bursday.

happy christma-kwanza-hannukah

so. people everywhere had their christmas celebrations. i had a good one, to say the least. i must say though, i think the day was good for reasons other than most would. i spent it with my family. we went to conyers, ga. to see my dad's sister (my aunt). they had the usual amount of cooking struggle that women seem to have. then some food. then some gift swapping game. then regular gifts, then we headed home. then the day continued. i went to ryan lingo's house. bobby was over there, as well as ryan's hot cousin. we sat around watching the chapelle show season two. i'm rick james bitch. cocaine is a hell of a drug.

so yeah. we had some mudslides, then followed it with a vodka and redbull. between my two drinks i left and picked up melissa bellemare. she's one of our favorites. so quiet, and always uncertain what she is going to say. it can be funny. we got back there and continued to watch chappelle show. oil? who said something about cooking. ::knocks over water pitcher::

then today i had our "i love you party" or non-christmas-gift-giving-party as i've grown to call it in past years. its to accomodate my mother and grandmother who are jehovah's witnesses and don't believe in christmas otherwise. but we had our thing, and it was good. i took my camera and got lots of pictures. and it died. i need to invest in a battery pack or something. yeah... so i got some hayes el camino brakes for my epic. that should be nice. i'm going to put them on tomorrow before work. it will be so nice to get rid of the vbrakes.

then i went to loco's. the place on 13th st. not to be confuddled with loco's amigos not to be confuddled with los amigos. yeah columbus go figure. but anyways. had a gobbler on rye with no mayo. and baked lays chips. it was pretty good. and now i'm home. tired.

happy holidays part deux

okay, so days have been better since my last post. work is going good. i got a two hundred dollar gift card to best buy from my bosses. i used it to get a kodak easyshare c 340 digital camera. and we put it to good use last night...

mandy and jd have a tendency to disappear from friendly functions, like dinner last night. so the boys decide to get them back. bobby picks the lock, ethan opens the door, jimbo pushes it open, ::flash:: i get the picture. we all run our respective ways out of their hallway. i go out to the backyard. i didn't think it took, but yep. there is was, mandy on top, back facing us, black thong, jd...somewhere. ha. they were mad. as they should have been. but it was still funny. the picture got deleted though. so ethan and i re-enacted it. we'll have that picture up soon.

went to the tap last night. got there around midnight. closed it down. home at 3:30. sleep at 4:00. awake at 8 for work. at least today at the bike shop is only going to be 10-3pm. we're closing early since it's christmas eve. speaking of work... later.

happy holidays

i hate this time of year so damn much.

that crazy biological clock.

race face deus xc 110mm x 25.4

heck yeah. i got my stem for my epic yesterday. i put it on this morning. and put my thomson stem back on my surly.

aside from that... i went to the cycling club party at the loft tuesday night. i didn't know that many people there, just glenn, barry, annette, gabe, mike, eddie..., jose, john lapierre, and sheila. i opted not to talk to sheila. jose bought me a really strong drink. it was running loon. a neat wine. i went to work the next day and well, work was work.

i left work, who by now was not feeling weel, then went to tutor frank's little sister. that was pretty much my night. i came home and read my "the art of wheelbuilding" book and went to sleep.

today started out well. i went to cafe 222 to get breakfast. went to work. it was a slowish day. mike greathouse came in and paid for his sx trail frame. byron put mike's new bike together today. i did random stuff to pass the time.

that movie was great.

then i took it back. it was due at midnight. so i got it back in time.

now i'm sitting at home. typing, so that puts me ready to stop typing.

holiday party

i got a bottle of wine as my donation to the potluck style party. its a merlot. which is pronounced mer-low. yeah.

today at the bike shop was cool. i wrapped up our stocking stuffer things, with clear wrappy paper and ribbon. i told brian i think i need hazard pay or overtime or something for having to work with ribbons and scissors. yes, i know how to make the ribbon curly with scissors. pretty cool huh?

aside from that, i ordered a sx trail frame for mike greathouse. that will be the third in town. starting to become overkill-ish. paul luker got one, and if any more come to columbus, he may just ebay his. whatever though. its a cool frame.

thats all. i'll have an update either tonight or tomorrow about the party and how it went. thats all for now.

so. what is up. or rather, what has been up.

i rode my bike sunday at buddy's land. and i walked some of the old trail, moving branches and logs out of the way. i might go back this weekend and mark off some lines with orange tape. then get the guys to start riding them.

today was a wierd day. i woke up. went to my parents to get a shelf. brought it home. cleaned up my room. wrote a check for my car payment. mailed it. worked. ate lunch. worked some more. and bam. 5 o clock. it was nice how fast the day went by. i rode home. then walked back up to picasso's. ate some pizza. walked home. and that was my night. i wish i could have seen some friends or something, but sitting at home isn't all bad. i found some good bike porn. www.nsmb.com oh yeah.

sunday afternoon jimbo and i ate at texas roadhouse again. we tried to sit in this girl erin's section. a girl my parents set me up on a date with like two years ago. she wasn't there. but this other girl was cool. jimbo tried to get her to come with us to picasso's that night. she was "working." we need to find him a girl.

that puts me unchronologically here. typing. so i'm out of things to say.

trail x. again.

work has been good. winter time has slowed us down a little, but we've had some rockin days lately. i did a wheel project a little while back. i put every wheel the shop can get in a chart, along with the weights in grams, and the price. now, i'm working on a list of every stem, seatpost, and handlebars. road and mtn. this will take a while.

i rode trail x again today. its nice. i only rode for like 45 minutes or so, but it was nice. and it was 27 degrees when i left the house. i saw mike greathouse on the way there. and on my way home i saw glenn, he was going to barry's house. they're headed down to reddick fl to do the last race of the season. i wanted to talk longer, but was already late for work.

that was that. i'm looking foward to the cycling club party coming up this week. it should be fun. i am done now.

oh golly gosh

so today i woke up really early considering i got home a little late last night, and set my alarm for 9am. i woke around 7:30 this morning. oh well. worked for me. i took my old messenger bag to the UPS store. i'm sending it in for a credit towards a new bag. www.TIMBUK2.com go there, see their stuff. these guys are going to credit me full price i think, then, since i work at a bike shop, let me get another bag for wholesale. the one i had was a medium. i think i'll get either a large or a x-large to replace it. oh, and i can get custom colors. sweeeeeet.

so i went to work. it was chilly today. it was a good day at work. we had paul luker and james woodling's specialized sx trail frames show up. this frame is sweet. but i dont really NEED one. so.

i left work, rode to the new public library via wyntonn road on my trusty epic. complete with blinky light and helmet light. rode back to downtown. went to the loft for a while. we sat with some friends for a bit. then i left and bounced around the other bars for a little while. i came home early. 11:30 ish. i want to try to ride at flat rock in the morning. speaking of which. i should get off the computer.

scruffy

so i was scruffy until i shaved yesterday. and this morning i went to get my hair cut. mmm. good.

went to work today. it was work. good times. went to tutor after that. then swung by my parents house. then downtown. ate at picasso's. then to scruffy's. sat with alec from judybug's. he was drinking wine. i had an irish coffee. then coca cola. lots of coca cola. then buddy bought me a drink. i chose jager bomb. then the bartender bought me a crown and coke. it was strong. took like 30 minutes to drink. riley yielding and down town adam brown (from flipside) were playing. they were good. then i came home. and here i am. 1:20 am. not too late. days like today i love going to work at 11am. yeah.

i think its broke.

hello. server. work.

weekend

my weekend was okay. work was good.

hung out with anna beck saturday night. we had dinner and watched a mountain bike dvd.

sunday. rode my bike. a friend took a bad fall. we were worried he broke his arm. i talked to him later on. he's alright.

james and i rode around and ended up at picasso's pizza for 1.50 coronas. and trivia. anna beck joined us, as well as jd. we had a good time. that was that.

going to work shortly. mondays suck.

jg

trail...umm...x yeah

so lets call it trail x. a sweet, short, tough, technical, steep, slippery, rooty, phenix city-ish, trail. located somewhere in muscogee county. is it official? of course not. is it trespassing? probably. is it a great ride? hell yeah.

a friend tells me about it last night, for the second time. he tells me originally about a year ago about it, but not how to find it. so i wake up early, like 7 oclock. load up the car not knowing if i'll even find it. get there. ride around. see a "trailhead." turn in, go fast, twisty. drop to my small chainring. a 22t. i go uphill a bit. and turn. its nice. turn again. speed down a hill, then after scrubbing off way too much speed, walk up the other side. the second time i ride this part, i haul ass down, then all the way up the other side. i finish this wooded section. i remember some of his directions... and see something that looks promising.

i enter the woods. the trail is solely located on a steep hillside. very similar to phenix city near the dam. i ride some of the network. this part is not a loop. trails criss-cross like a spiderweb. i finally figure out the planned direction. i ride out of the woods to notice the connector between the first wooded section and the second. sweet.

so i go back. ride the first section. use the connector to the second section. ride it like 4 times. still in the 22t. shit. wussy.

then i start wondering... how could i ride mountain bikes for years in this town, and not know it was there. then i remember hearing of phenix city. i lived in columbus my whole life without hearing of the 'trail of tears.' so... i wonder: how many other trails are around town that nobody knows about?

pedal hard
jg

more pics

so these are random pics from my "joseph bike pics" folder.
thanks for looking. pedal harder.
jg

more pics