1995-2005

i'm listening to phish and les claypool singing gin and juice. its a different version than the one popularly known as "dave matthews and john popper." which i heard is actually phish and the o.a.r. guys. but who knows.

i've been re-arranging my place since matt sand is moving in. i moved my stuff into what was my living room. so i have a couch a bed a dresser a two bike stand a workbench a coffee table and clothes in piles in this room.

well i think you're crazy, or at least gnarls barkley does...

i rode up on sugar mountain the other evening. daniel sapp and i did two shuttle runs on it. we drove up to "3/4" a spot about 3/4 up the mountain, then pushed up to the tip top: 5300 feet elevation. the entire run is about a 1200 foot drop. pretty sweet. from there we rode the newly made DH course that runs parallel to the left side of the ski slope, then at the end, cuts across and lines up for a monster table top jump. i did two runs on it. the second one i just started at the 3/4 height. it was too dark and i was too tired to push up the last bit. i feel like i can maybe podium at the race in a few weeks. i want to get a few more practice runs in, and borrow a set of 26" wheels, and well, see how it goes.

so since i've last written anything on here, i've ridden a bunch. i am mostly riding road, but did a great 4 hour ride in the pisgah forest this past sunday. i took a tough fall right at the start, none of the damn log crossings have anything piled on the far side, and i keep digging chainrings into the logs and eating dirt. oh well.

i'm still loving work. its really easy going with my boss. he rode on the four hour ride in the forest the other day. and last week he took me on a semi- mountain bike ride in town. showed me some neat-o singletrack. and he still makes us leave early on days that we ride. oh, and our shop is really into bike polo: www.boonebike.com/gallery check out the carnage!! the world champion bicycle polo player is coming to town on monday, they want me to play but i have retired. my wrists hurt all week after playing. okay, i admit, i'm a softie. oh well.

so its a friday night at 10:00pm. i'm sitting on my couch. well, at least i have a couch. i would like to be out somewhere, but going alone seems to suck more than sitting at home. so at home i sit. i am talking to my dad on AIM. that's sort of cool. i'm glad they got online so we can keep in touch. yep. i have a friend coming up next week. i guess she'll be coming to town saturday sometime. then leaving late sunday or early monday. it will be good to see someone from home. yep.

going to fontana village tomorrow after work. the SERC #6 event. it should be fun. i raced there back in february at the icycle race. it was raining and snowing on us though. i thought i had frostbite after we finished. i got 18th of like 35 people or so, maybe i can get top ten. that is sort of a goal of mine i guess. my real goal for every serc is to finish in the top half of the field. i pulled it off at dauset. and hopefully can this weekend. i should be able to partake in all the following serc races, and maybe finish top 20 or so for the series. i'd like to do better next year, but for my first year racing, i'm okay with it. plus i'm getting faster and fitter is that a word every day up here in the high country. i'm hoping to kick some columbus ass in august at the flat rock race. it would be cool to do well at a course i helped build. i can't wait for the race to come to town and people see that mountain biking and cycling in general is such a good thing. at least hopefully a few people will see that.

so i've been back and forth on asking this girl out, like to dinner. i've hinted at maybe hanging out after a bike ride sometime or something, and we did the other day with a group of five or so. it was fun. i just don't want to get completely turned down or laughed at or anything. i feel like i did in high school. hahaha. what a loser!!! i was thinking about going to her work, a coffee shop/bakery that i go to every day anyways, and getting my usual coffee and bread, and leaving a rose or something for her. i dont know if i should be so direct though. oh well. any suggestions??

give up?? yeah thats what i was thinking.

alright, i'll stop typing in case anyone is reading this and is tired of reading it but continued because you thought at some point it might get interesting or good or both but well no nope youre wrong it was boring the whole time so thats it for now email me if you want to know more or less even if you want to know less then just tell me i'm up for suggestions. later!!

packing list enclosed

so whats it going to be then eh?

i've detemined the road to becoming a great cyclist is moving to a town where you have no friends. and once you get there, managing to not make friends is also key. this way you can continue to ride your bike after work. when you don't have anything to look forward to except sitting in your apartment or the occassional rented dvd from grapevine, you can really push yourself on the bike, staying out longer and doing tougher routes. its pretty easy to go do a two hour ride, go home shower, eat something, and then think about how much better of a cyclist you are since you don't have anything to do.

i also believe the key involves not meeting girls. and as good as i am at not meeting girls, i should become a great cyclist very soon.

i'm loving boone.

in case you didnt notice, that rhymed.

tabletop charcoal grill

so i've been a slacker and not posted anything. oh well.

i have gotten much more used to boone and the people here. i'm definitely glad i moved, i'm just wishing i would have gotten here earlier in the year, when people were still around. all the students (pretty much) have gone home so i'm left to sit at a random bar on my own, or the coffee shop, which is currently closing early since everyone is gone, or sit at home and well, stare at the wall. or ceiling. or tabletop charcoal grill. but its all good. i'm riding a lot now. i've been putting in 8-12 hours weeks each week on the bike. i'm feeling fit, i'm climbing a little bit better, and i did better at my most recent race.

i went down to georgia to visit friday night, raced sunday and came home sunday night. i really enjoyed seeing my parents. and i got in a short ride at flat rock park. and hung out with frank and jimbo. it was a good time. sunday i raced at the dauset trails near macon, ga. i am currently racing sport category, and got 14th of 34 sunday. i was happy with that. my goal for this season is to finish in the top half of the field. i've had a couple events that i liked. a few more though i was unhappy with. but its not too bad.

so since my last post... the following sunday i rode 86 miles around boone. we went down the parkway (blue ridge), then up a really flat road (at about 25mph, dual pace line...), then the group split. about 20 people went the 11 miles back to boone. 6 of us went for another 40 miles. it was a long day, much colder than the week before, but a very good long ride. it was probably another 7000 feet of climbing type of day.

the following sunday i rode my mountain bike for 4 hours in wilkesboro. its just off the mountain. i got close to 30 miles in. i was going for a long ride with that one, and it fit the bill. i was sort of slow, but my heart rate was good. so thats all that matters to me. although it did sound good the following week when people asked "what'd you do sunday?" they'd say "oh we rode 30 or 40 miles. how bout you?" i'd say "oh, well i only rode 30 miles... on my mountain bike." that felt good to say.

then the following weekend was the georgia race. other than the weekends, i've been riding tuesday nights, some wednesdays, and most thursdays. i've ridden a little bit on fridays (my day off) but not every week. monday night is bike polo night. that is a blast. we're ordering custom bike polo mallets soon, from the world champion bike polo guys at brookwood bicycle polo company. check them out!!

aside from the riding... i've been meeting more people, they're all cyclists though, i'm still trying to get out of the bubble. there are a few cute ones though, but they're super fast. we have a few national champions living in boone. the college team is at nationals right now!! but i think i'm going to try bouldering, like rock climbing but lower, for a crossover sport. i think it looks fun, and i am certain i can meet some different people through it. plus i can get some stronger arms. should be nice.

well, i don't have much else to say, well, actually one more thing... NORBA NATIONALS. my boss told me today i can have that saturday off work... so i'll be racing sport DH and sport XC at the NORBA NATIONALS. did i mention NORBA NATIONALS??? sorry, i'm just actually excited about something and well, there it is. NORBA NATIONALS!! okay, thats all.

my first real ride

so today we rode at 10:00am. we did what the locals call the lake loop. it started off with about a four mile long hill, then a screaming downhill, another three mile long hill, a screaming downhill, and then started rolling. after fifteen miles they were like okay most of the hills are done. but to them hills are what we call mountains. they call hills "rollers." the hill into ft. benning would be called a bump. yeah, its insane. i heard some estimate of elevation gain per 10 miles. i think they said the average here is about a thousand feet for 10 miles. not sure if that's right or not, but its something ridiculous nonetheless.

so back to the actual ride... my ride data shows:
total time (total time gone) 4:53:26
actual saddle time 4:39:28
average speed 15.4 mph
total distance 71.90 miles
maximum speed 47.8 mph
avg. HR 150 bpm
max HR 186 bpm
cal. burned 4578 kcal

basically all that translates into pain. not to mention i only applied sunscreen to my arms and not the tops of my legs... i came home and took a nap and well, woke up with great pain in the top of my legs. then i noticed they were as red as could be. oh well. i was proud of myself for stepping up and doing the ride. i didn't mind being off the back of the group all day. i was the guy that'd roll up to the group at the stop sign and then they'd end their break. i guess that sorta translates into the closeness of the total time and actual ride time. haha. it was a great day though. i figure a few more like today and i'll be ready for clemson. i'm excited about seeing some of the columbus race team crowd at clemson and then the following weekend at dauset trails in jackson, ga. okay, with all that said... time for a movie. i hope all is well for my friends and family in columbus. i miss you all.

jg

blah

okay i think it happened today. i realized i moved. far away from columbus. i started to doubt my finances, found a $100 error in my checkbook. and in general started to miss some of my friends and family from c-town. not many people, but a few for sure.

on the flipside. i had a good time today. rode my mountain bike down in wilkes county with Kent and his neighbor Greg. its about a 30 minute drive from Boone. worth every minute and every penny in gas. the trail was like a combo of pleasant hill trail, tsali, and phenix city. yep. i put those together. ssschweeeet. and there was a DH course. it only dropped a few hundred feet for sure, but it switched back and forth very mountain cross-y down this good hill and had a bunch of log jumps and rollers and what-not. i decided i'm going down there next sunday with my DH bike.

we came back to the bike shop and i finished running cables and stuff on my newly improved road bike. andy helped my tape up the bars with some white bar tape. why does this bike look so PIMP?!? okay. thats the phrase up here. why is... so pimp?!?

i'll put a picture of it up soon.

going to tsali sunday morning to race SERC #3. hopefully it will be fun and i'll do well. my goal is going to be finish in the top half of the field. all season. if there's ten riders, i want to finish top five. if there's a hundred riders, i want to finish top fifty. i think thats a fair goal. alrighty then. going to eat some ramen noodles...

settling in. missing home. sort of.

so boone is really growing on me. or i'm growing on it. one or the other.

i've been to work three days now, and i'm enjoying it. it's not super busy yet here, as it's cold, windy and still snowy. i had snow on my car monday morning. wow!! the first day in my life i wake up to actual snow on my car.

i'm meeting people really quickly. the shop has a close knit group, of which i know a few so far. but they all ride road. gosh. mountains like this and they ride road. although the roads are cool here too. we went for a ride tuesday for just over an hour and climbed almost two thousand feet. yes, almost two thousand feet. the climbs go for miles. its neat-o.

i rode my mountain bike today. it was great. the trail here they refer to as a joke or whatever is really great. it's comprised of some fire road climb, and then super tech singletrack and a few high speed sections. i liked it, and the few mtb-ers here think its a joke. can't wait to go to the forest as the call it. thats pisgah forest. oh, and tsali this weekend. i'm going to race the serc #3 event and hang out with barry and glenn.

i'm really excited about the supermarket in town. its called earthshare "the healty supermarket." its the size of publix, but everything is the quality food you'd get at country life natural food store in columbus. sweeeeet!!!! oh and people here are into recycling and that is super cool.

me and bobby at my going away festival okay party okay dramafest, whatever you want to call it. it was cool having my friends come together to send me off.

new home

so we drove up to boone north carolina today. it was a really long drive. i came up a few weeks ago for my interview and it took 5.5 hours. today took more like 7.5 hours. ugh. the past few weeks at home were pretty good. i just worked and rode my bike a little. i've re-developed an interest in my road bike which will surely help my speed/intensity on the mountain bike. speaking of which... i found a climb tonight that is probably at least a few miles long and few hundred feet elevation. its on campus, so i don't know if i can get in trouble or not, but it should be fun. there is no real way back down though, just grabbing the brakes. anyways.

the commute to work will be a non-stop downhill. but well then, clearly, the ride home will not be fun. although, i can detour around and it will be less of a climb. anyways. still no idea about the in-town mountain biking. i've read some reviews, but none were very definitive. and speaking of all this riding... i should mention i'll be headed down to tsali this coming weekend to stay with some of the CBR team. barry, glen and ursula are coming up on friday i think. i'll be headed down saturday evening. then race on sunday. i need to ride some this week or tsali is going to be a joke. i mean, it is going to be for me anyways, i haven't gotten to ride much. packing stuff away, working extra hours last week, and eating too much fast food all sort of screwed up the progress i'd made on my bike. oh well.

i will post some pictures when i get a chance. until then. arve wah. or however the french say it.

counting the days down...

so the days are going by quick. and i'm realizing i'm about to embrace a new life. or at least "add a chapter" to it, or some other stupid cliche. moving from my hometown of columbus, ga to a new job in boone, nc should be fun. i keep telling myself that, everybody does really, but i am worried about it. what if i hate it there? what if i'm not cool enough and just sit at home and work, and don't make any new friends?? what if i have to start working the streets to make ends meet?? what if... okay the picture has been displayed, if you don't get it, well...

i can tell its going to be a rather enduring process, moving my stuff, with my parent's help. i mean, i'm grateful for it. but i know my mom wants to take a zillion pieces of furniture and pots and pans and stuff. but really, i need two plates, two bowls, a few forks, spoons, and knives, and a couple of plastic cups and i'll be good. i don't forsee having anyone over for dinner anytime soon, and by having two of each, i can have one in the sink for washing while using the other. and i got my microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. all i need is a pan to do stir-fry and stuff in, and a spatula. i mean, what else is there?!?

going to work then ride tomorrow. looking forward to it. peace

riding, racing, random other stuff

so since my last post, we did a race in athens. the we being tony valenzano and paul hein. and me too. we had a blast. made some friends, paul told some girl there "my buddy would like to call you sometime." and well, somehow or another, i now have her phone number.

so some random pictures...






yep. going to the race team meeting tonight. later!!

race #2 of the year

so i went to reddick saturday, rode, then proceeded to go to orlando to meet up with jd and mandy. we went to a restaraunt called kahuna's. the first thing i could think about was i wonder if they have a big kahuna burger. like from pulp fiction. and then i saw it on the menu and asked the bartender "is this where they got the idea for big kahuna burger?" and he laughed.

so i raced sunday. it was fun. fast. duh. but fun. i finished a little lower than i would have liked. but i'm racing up a category. its like if you raced cat 4 on the road instead of cat 5, when you should be racing cat 5. sort of.

i came in 15th out of 18 in sport senior men. 19-29. years that is. it was a pretty stacked class, if you saw the top five or so guys, you'd wonder why they weren't racing expert. although, i think a lot of people tried to race down because it was so hot, and each lap was almost 10 miles. so a report... i did 19.20 miles. in two hours and some change. not much change though. like 2:05:00 or so. my HRM read 2:10:00 after my 5 minute recovery period. as far as HRM goes... my avg was 177, my max was 200. i was in my 40-60% zone for 0% of the time. was in 60-70% zone for 4% of the time, and in my 70-80% zone for 94% of the time. so at least i was pushing myself. i hurt really bad right off the bat, which reminds me i gotta learn to start off sprinting for two minutes. and learn how to warm up better. alrighty then. i dropped a gu on the first lap. by the second lap, i stopped to pick it up. still unopened, un-run-over. man it was good. i was running on two 32 oz. nalgene bottles of cytomax, a 24 oz bottle of water, 100oz of camelback water, and a 20oz cytomax on the bike. early into the second lap i started feeling better, it could have had something to do with the 2 gu's, 4 enervit chews, and 3 hammer endurolyte pills. i pushed a bit harder through the second half of the second lap than i think i did the first time around, but my second lap time was longer still. oh well. if anyone wishes to see the results they're at http://www.goneriding.com/2006/SERC/1-Reddick/results/06-SERC-1-YELLOW.htm

thanks for reading this!! unless of course, no one reads this... then thanks for nothing. hahaha. pictures will be posted soon.

rollin rollin rollin

rolling down to reddick florida for SERC #1. this will be my second race of the year. i'm hoping for a top ten finish, but with the lack of riding i've been doing, i just want to have fun. results will be posted when i get back. have fun at the wheels o fire ride. see you monday at the space science center 6:00.

jg

drumroll please!!!

okay, its official. i'm leaving the wonderful town of columbus at the end of the month. i found a job, and an apartment in boone, NC. its so cool there!!! i've never moved before (cities i mean), but i guess i will be soon. the bike shop is cool, they sell trek specialized cannondale, and occasionally indy fab!!! thats independent fabrications for those who don't know... and mountains. oh my gosh, there are so many mountains. its just super pretty and the people were all nice but very culturally diverse. people with tattoos and purple hair, people with dreads, people in hippy-esque outfits, "regular people" and more. i went to a coffee shop in their downtown. it was a really cool place, right next to an outfitter store and a rock climbing wall. and there are two ski slopes or three. three i guess. within ten miles. sugar mountain is hosting a NORBA event this summer. and two of my xc buddies are going to come up for that. isn't that right guys!!!! plus, ski lifts open soon on the weekends for downhill bikes... sjfgkldjhgkwejhjekgj wow!!!

thats all for now.

lately.

so i have been riding. working. sleeping. riding. sleeping. looking for new jobs. sleeping. riding. you get the idea. or if you don't well... in the words of carlos mencia. duh-tuh-ta. if you haven't seen the show, you wont get that either. if you have. well. yeah.

and the one wildebeast is like ::nods its head to the back:: and then in the back of the herd...

we rode in auburn on sunday instead of athens. the trail in athens was closed. but we wanted to get out of town. we rode roughly 19 mi. i haven't ridden my DH bike since last friday morning, with mike greathouse at phenix city. i decided that is the back-burner bike for now. i want to ride road and SS. then after the SS race start riding long road rides. trying to do a 100 miler on april 22. yeah i dont know why either.

on the job front... i'm hoping to go up to boone, NC soon to meet the owner of a bike shop. i've been reading about the town and it looks super cool. Appalachian state is there. the average age is like 20 or 21. rent for 1 bedroom places is right around $400. and there is a ski resort about 10 miles away. can we say shuttle runs?!? or better yet. ski lifts!!!

okay. thats it for now. peace.

anonymous

in response to whoever posted as anonymous, and started their comment with "dude" and said blame myself... i work six days a week. thats six. monday through saturday. they used to close on mondays, but started opening a year or so ago from 12-5. and i don't mind the amount of hours at all, i just don't like the fact i have one day off.

in other news... i rode my road bike today. it was interesting, time off of it and it feels rather twitchy, compared to the mountain bikes at least. we only rode like 22 miles or so, but it was fun. had a decent average nearly 17mph, considering we had so many slow spots to "walk" through the construction. anyways, it was a good day overall.

so clarifying the work situation, and talking about a road ride. that's enough of a post for me. later.

no purpose

days go by and i wonder what am i doing. i know thats a profound statement, but i dont really think about it all that often. i work at a bike shop, and a bar, and have one day off per week, and not really even a whole day. i dont want to be in this town anymore, but somehow i'm stuck here. i apply for jobs elsewhere and nothing. i dont want to leave without a place to go, but that seems like a better option. im scared to leave and not know anyone, but i dont really have too many good friends here. but i know people. at least i could (probably) meet people through mountain biking wherever i went, but some mountain bikers are wierd. i've never moved anywhere before, except different parts of town, but that doesnt count. and i dont really even know how to. but i want to get out.

boring one day off.

so i've been thinking a lot about how working six days a week affects my life. i'm almost positive its a bad thing to continue with. but seeing the guys at the bike shop want me to keep working six days a week, i figure i'd better move along. they told me the other day they'd heard a rumor that i was leaving and they wanted 90 days notice. i tried not to laugh. i think i'll give them like a month notice. but there is no way in hell i'm waiting around three months so they can find someone to replace me, something they should have started doing a while ago. anyways. on the possible job front, my top two picks are King Cycle Group, the guys that make Chris King headsets and hubs, or the Hawley Co. A parts distributor in South Carolina. KCG is in Portland Oregon, which while being far away, is most definitely a cool possible place to live.

i'm excited about racing this year. i got the results from icycle. the race i did last week. i got 18th out of 33 in sport class. at first i was disappointed. but for my third xc race, especially racing sport, i didn't mind it. the next event i'm planning on going to is in athens, ga. its the ga singlespeed championship. march 19th. we put a suspension fork on my surly saturday, so thats cool. it won't kick my ass as much as before. anyways. thats all i really have to say for now. not that i really ever SAY anything.

jg

2006 icycle race and frozen toes.

for the first time in my life, i thought i would have to have some toes on my left foot amputated. that is a scary thought.

it was raining when i woke up saturday morning. i drove to the inn at the top of the hill and had breakfast. went to the fontana bike shop and changed my tires. kenda nevegal 2.1's. i liked them. they hooked up really well in super nasty stuff. so i changed and for some reason went out for a pre-ride. brr. it was raining still. the race starts, my parents roll up. i say hi and toss my keys to my mom, sweet, lost another 75 grams or so. ha. there is a lemans start, we run for our bikes. and ride up an incredibly steep muddy hill. i walk the second half. we ride through the parking lot, turn onto some dirt, the pile-up begins. people are all walking. we turn the first switchback and people start riding. more switchbacks. then i notice, its stopped raining. yeah, now its snowing. great. ride some. ride some. then we get to the fun stuff. a long downhill. people are pulling their bikes off the trail as they hear me coming. ha. so i'm a downhiller at heart. i pass like 6 people. they pass me shortly after on the next climb. some mucky stuff. through the softball field. second lap. i push up the hill again, eating a gu this time. ride everything, wishing i had a camera to take pictures. the snow is settling on both sides of the singletrack. lots of white now. long downhill again. okay, so i went a little slower, for some reason my front brake stopped working. but i still passed people. some climbing, but this time i passed people. sweet. through the mucky stuff, pass a girl, she stays on my wheel. our times don't really matter to each other, but we were still racing each other. through the softball field. pedaling hard. lactic acid. burn. super low gear. tires spinning. not really moving. start the final climb. i made it. the girl didn't. hahaha. i have no idea what place i got. but i finished. quite unlike half the field, and this guy, with a broken fork.








so that was my experience at the first race of the year. results should be up soon at: www.jandwevents.com
thanks for looking.
jg

bikes races latex etc

so things have been good lately. i ordered the demo 8 yesterday. it's predicted arrival date is monday. believe there will be a picture up as soon as i get it. schweet!!!! i got the 2005 demo 8 pro. there were only 7 left nationwide. its got a manitou 4way with a ti spring. heck yeah.


and i rode a couple weeks ago at phenix city then buddy's land with some friends. john and taylor came down from tuscaloosa and we met randomly up with patrick and ben near the log rides. we went up to the road gap and little gap, hit a good rock drop, then headed out. we ate taco bell, then headed to buddy's land. i re-grew my balls and decided to jump some stuff. got a pretty sweet pic of me doing the creek gap, and one of taylor off the specialized banner drop. enjoy.

i put latex tubes in my epic too. they weigh roughly an ounce less a piece than regular butyl tubes. and they are supposed to be more flat resistant. we'll see. they better do something, they cost about 10 times a regular tube. and i put crank bros. egg beater sl pedals on the bike. it lost about 5 ounces in the past couple days. i'll pull the waterbottle cage soon too. that's another two ounces. and i am losing some myself too, which is nice.

i'm going tomorrow to fontana dam north carolina to race saturday. it should be fun. weather.com is currently predicting snow. hahahaha. we'll see. so pics...

ugh its late

howdy folks.

just got done working. i rode my bike friday morning. it was fun. and i signed up today for icycle. its coming up this weekend. i think i'll leave c-town around 1 o clock. yep and beat atlanta traffic. or try to. anyways. i am tired. i had an okay week. this night was better at the big city than last week. i made 58 last week and like 76 this time. sweet. and i am tired. worked 10 to 6 tdoay. and 9 to 4:30am at big city. i fell asleep just now. its 11am now. thats it for me.

new bike

so i don't remember anything really interesting happening lately. just had coffee the other night. and trying to figure out my taxes. hmm. i think i messed up cause it only had me getting back like 1/3 of what i paid. anyways. thats all. i tutored a girl tonight in calculus 3. $30. sweet. i have some stuff coming in soon to lighten my bike up.

i'm also considering selling my bigHit. and replacing it with either a sx trail, a chapparel or a demo 8. i'm currently leaning towards a demo 8. anyways.

thats all for now.

lately.

i haven't posted anything in a bit. i haven't been riding. i haven't been doing much. just working and hanging out downtown a bit. i went to scruffy's wednesday night, then the loft and the tap thursday night, then a friends house and then the tap and picasso's then home at 4:00am then work on saturday from 10 to 6 then a 30 minute nap then worked at the big city club from 9 until 4:15. then woke up to go ride. i rode in phenix city and jumped off some stuff, then went to buddy's land. two guys came down from tuscaloosa and we showed them all the new stuff at buddy's. i did the creek gap. its big, like 20 feet across. so i'm done writing now. time for wine.

random pics.

clarification

just in case there was any doubt about my last post, i was talking about a bike i got rid of recently. i don't know if there was any confusion. now that thats out of the way.

i can't believe how bad its been lately.

i had those flats last week at blankets creek, and i had a crappy weekend. i had another flat at "flat" rock park. whose idea was it to name it that? haha. first time i ever noticed it. so yeah i was all psyched up about riding three laps out there and then it got cold and i had my flat. so i just rode back to the car. ugh.

today was okay. work flew by. i left my keys at home though, so when i got to work i just stood around waiting for brian. yep.

and then i went to picasso's. and we watched "team america: world police." it was funny. that was about the extent of my evening.

"goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend..." -james blunt.

today

today ultimately sucked. :(

monday

so i started the day off at trail x. to those of you who don't know, trail x is a secret. and gee is it fun. one 'lap' seems to be about 1.6 miles or so. but doing repeated laps can wear you out. fo sho. i'm trying to get some good riding in as the first race on my calendar is in a month. icycle. its at fontana, nc. the xc race is on saturday. day. then there's time for DH practice, then at dark the DH race starts. i am not sure if i'll do the DH race or not, i did it last year. it was fun. and its at night. if you didn't figure that out yet. a couple pics from this morning.




then i went grocery shopping. i got some cool veggie stir fry stuff. i hope its good.

then work. blah. it went by quick, then some guy came in at 4:55pm and i had to put on a computer and put cleats on his shoes. then at 5:55pm (we close at 5pm on mondays) i left. went over to picasso's pizza. ate with abby and some teacher named adam. then home briefly.

oh yeah, how could i forget!!!!!! my timbuk2 bag came in today. its green. and big. and green. and light green and lime green. sweet! i'll put a picture of it up soon. peace homies.

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

more pics

thanks for looking.

jg

more tsali pics

work work work

days have been going by. i took sunday off from riding my bike. and monday. but tuesday i rode in phenix city. just for an hour or so. i had a flat. and got my bike incredibly dirty. then work.

we went to picasso sunday night, monday night, and tuesday night. i spent too much. mandy is working this week again. she quit a few weeks ago. but is back. she gave us a few free drinks. that was that.

so work again today. it was good. tomorrow will be good too. i leave around 5pm. i'm going to flat rock to ride my bike. it should be good and cold. can't wait.

i think i'm going to elijay to ride on december 11th. if anybody wants to go, let me know. thats all for now.

later.

jg

new bike/tsali trip

woooooo hooooooo

i got my new bike ordered last monday, it showed up thursday. i put it together thursday night. oh yeah. took the bars, headset, shifters, cassette, stem, chain, saddle, grips, and rear derailleur off first thing. i set it up with

chris king pink "pretty and strong" headset
easton ec70 carbon flat bars
thomson stem
fizik gobi saddle
esi silicon grips
sram x.0 gripshift
sram x.9 rear der
sram 990 chain and cassette

oh yeah. its still a little on the heavy side. the wheels, seatpost, and seatpost clamp are all gonna eventually go in favor of lighter parts. plus, i'm going to lose some weight in the mean time. i'd say its mid upper twenties weight wise. i'm also going to pull the tubes out and go stan's noTubes. it might get some hayes hfx mag plus ti/carbon disc brakes as soon as i can figure out how to route the brake hose.

thats it. tsali rocks by the way. we rode 3 miles to the trail from our cabin, then 14 miles at tsali, then 3 back to the cabin, then drove to fontana and rode 13 miles. so 33 on saturday. then sunday rode the right loop, the left loop backwards, then the left loop the correct direction, then county line road back to the parking lot. 28 miles. hell yeah.

thats it. now some pictures.

at the shop. roughly 1:30 am friday morning.

at tsali, on the left/right loop overlook trail. about 500 feet above the lake in the background.

me passing some guy (who wasn't in my age group) at the finish line in gainesville, ga

chris king pretty and strong headset and sticker. pink baby. $2 of my purchase price went to a breast cancer research foundation. heck yeah. this is one of only two in columbus, georgia.

athens and bars

i have gone to the bars a couple times now since being 21. went to scruffy murphy's in columbus and drove up to athens last night to hang out with ryan lingo, brian nalley. we went to a place called last call. it was my second time going there. i went about three years ago to this date... and sat at the same booth and tore my jeans on the same nail that bobby tore his jeans on some three years ago.

and on my way home i decided to stop in atlanta to hang out with bobby at georgia tech. we just walked up to a diner. i had soup. and lots of crackers. and water with lemons. so now i'm waiting for bobby to get upstairs and say peace out homey, or later man, or some other cliche'd goodbye. then drive home.

i sold my specialized enduro on ebay last night. to a guy i know. hmm. and hopefully i'll get my new bike on the way tomorrow. thats all for now. peace.
jg

21

tomorrow i turn 21. hell yeah.

blibbity blobbity glam

i dont know. stuff has been cool. i got my second item on ebay now. i'm going to do a race in a couple weeks. thats all for now. nobody reads this anyways. joseph

i want to ride my bicycle...

so i got my surly put all the way together. heck yeah. the white one is the surly. the newest one. the white and black one is my specialized allez road bike. it is an allez comp frame with a campagnolo chorus 8 speed gruppo.

i rode tonight at flat rock park. it was fun. i had my lightset, the helmet mount one, and a blinky for a tail light. i had a flat. thank goodness it was up front, or i'd been fooling with a 15mm wrench in addition to my pump, and tire lever. note the single lever. i used my allen wrench set as another tire lever. dont recommend it though. i enjoyed it. i rode the first loop, the loop across the rocks, the kiddie loop, and the middle size loop. i found out the kiddie loop is .31 miles. the medium loop is .66 miles. the larger loop didn't get clocked because my chain slipped, i got flung foward, and my left ankle met up with the end of my pedal. needless to say, it hurt a bit. so that was it. later.

goodbye weekend 2

its sunday. the week went by quick. i had an ebay auction end. started putting my singlespeed together. its not done, but close. its rideable, to and from work... but not off road yet. i'm getting a surly flip flop hub this week. so next weekend, i'll be ready to roll. work has been okay. brian and i set it up so i leave at 5 on thursdays. work 12-5 on monday, and 11-7 tues, wed, and friday. then like 10-6 on saturday. i wish we could either close or open a full day on mondays. its just so tough saying our hours. "12-5 monday, 11-7 tues through friday, 9-6 on saturday."

i rode my road bike wednesday. only about 32 miles. with a 16.7 mph average or something. slow-ish. i would have ridden friday morning, but i slept in or something.

today i'm going to get jazz for the first time in a few months. it sucks that its been so long since we've hung out. i've just been busy.

i worked at flat rock this morning. sprayed round up type stuff where the trail will go. we just need people to ride it now. bye

ebay rules

what up

just got back from picasso pizza. sat outside and watched tons of drunk, and some soon to be drunk, people walk by. we called it a night as some army guys began arguing with marines, and wanted to fight simply because one was army and one was marine. i started thinking... marine has more letters than army, so we win... but what about coast gaurd?

so my instigator frame was on ebay for all of 12 hours and i got two bids. the second one met my reserve of $100. now, it has 6 days left and could go up more. that rocks. i think ebay will charge me like 8 bucks at most to sell it. but still $120 minus 8 is still more than i got now.

i might try to ride tomorrow morning before work if i can muster up some awakeness. we'll see. thats all for tonight. peace.

jg

buy my bike!!!

i have entered the ranks of ebay-ers. i am trying to sell my surly instigator. i put my reserve at 100 bucks. we'll see if it goes. work has been okay. i'm going to try to sell my enduro in a few months too. we'll see how that goes...

ahhhh!!!!! im going crazy.

so joey's funeral is tomorrow. i'm going to try to go to that. then work. then, ahh, the weekend. later. jg

r.i.p. joey

a friend of mine shot himself recently. it sucks to get news like that. oh well. if anyone who reads this is the prayer type, please pray for him.

joey kopiness 1983 (?) - 2005

later.

i suck

i just got home from a ride that was supposed to last 50 miles or so... i was riding with cat. 4 and 3 racers though, and after a few hills, i was toast. these guys are like muscle, lungs, and legs. and i am not. i'm hoping to plan and follow a training routine for the next few weeks. i want to try to go back out with them and surprise people. of course, that will probably not happen, but... its worth a shot. anyways. i'm just delaying going to the bike shop. saturdays we open at 9 but it is usually slow for the first couple hours, hence, 9:55am and i'm listening to g n r sweet child o mine. drinking the remaining cytomax in my water bottle, planning a comeback.

i got the kanye west album last night. so far i've only listened to about three or four songs really. i heard the first eight or nine, but only really listened to a few of them. i like it. and whether or not an individual agrees with him, i think it took some balls to say " george bush hates black people."

on another note, i have adopted a section of trail at flat rock to be my own, i will mark it, maintain (?) it, and make it. and barry said it may be called the joseph grimes section. that'd be cool. hopefully people wont hate it. hmm...

well, i need to go to work so... ::thinking:: ...i guess this is it for today. maybe someone will read this. or not.

lately

things have been sorta "ssdd." same s'tuff' different day. wake up, waste time for the first few hours of the morning. go to work around 15 til 11. work until 6 or 7. count the drawer if i'm closing. etc. leave.

lately i've been making a solid trip to picasso's pizza. leave work. go there. drink cream soda. was going to go last night but didn't.

at least i've been riding my bike some more. when i was living over near chs, i was driving too much. i was parking in the free lot off front ave. i moved all my stuff out of my temporary housing last weekend. i still don't have a bed. that sort of adds to the process of leave work, go somewhere, wake up early, go to my place, shower, eat, make lunch, watch cnn, check my email, ride my bike to work, get there early, get coffee at judybugs, sit (as i'm doing now), then actually go to work.

i've been riding flat rock a lot. tom and i want to ride in the 24 hours at conyers race. don't know how the finances will go for that though. my car tags are due. $264. damn it. should have kept the jeep. but anyways, flat rock has been a quicker pace trail than phenix city. and similar to bartram's trail, but a lot closer. i have adopted a bit of trail out there (at flat rock). i need to go out there and work on that. hmm.

thats about it for today. later.

jg

p.s. i miss my singlespeed so much. i'm trying to sell my surly insigator frame so i can finance the new one. argh.

bars, drunk guys, bikes

thursday night. rode at flat rock with rick powell. 9 miles. thursday night.it was fun. my friend bobby justgot his student loan and was buying lots of people drinks. and gave me (Indirectly) $150 for my singlespeed. so now i have a hundred dollar bill hidden under a bicycle chain box in my room. i need/want to sell my surly frame to a kid in alabama. then comes the surly karate monkey.

so last night we went to picasso's pizza and this guy passed out in the bathroom. the security for the tap came over and dragged him out to the curb. they set him in a chair. about an hour later, still hadn't moved, the EMS showed up. it was a scene. we left there and went to the big city club. a friend of ours gotus in, and was bartending. awhile later, we noticed another friend was dj-ing. so we hung out for a while. and left. went home. had some coffee. talked some. went to sleep.

going to ride shortly in phenix cit y with rachel and the usual guys. should be fun. blah blah blah. so, anybody reading this? no? i didnt think so. figures.

jg

night rides rule.

i rode at flat rock last night. started at 8:30 or something. it was fun. i rode the first wooded section, then crossed into the second loop section. i rode the kiddie loop about three or four times. rode the larger slickrock style section for a lap too. the trail is coming along real well. i will hopefully be able to work on it some this evening. may try to night ride again.

i have solved all my bike problems. i NEED a karate monkey. i'm gonna sell my SS and already want another. but i wanted a fixed gear bike too. answer = 29" mountain bike rigid fork v brakes flip flop rear hub two sets of tires. waBAM. a SS commuter and mtn bike. now i just need another $200.

just don't drive for two or three weeks. there's the money. just to mention it, gas here is 2.89 a gallon. works well for me because i sell bikes. so people are buying bikes to not have to drive to work. it rules. except for the fact this is america. and people wouldnt start riding their bikes when environmentalism was the issue. they wouldn't ride when everyone was overweight. but when gas prices threatened their dollars, hell yeah let's commute says our average money hungry american. oh well.

jg

pedaling along

days go by

tom and i are planning to race at conyers for 24 hours of adrenaline. i've been riding my bike as much as possible. i am going to sell my singlespeed to bobby. he's at georgia tech. he's gonna give me $125 for it. my surly frame is for sale too. i think i'm getting $100 from a kid in tuscaloosa for it. that'll give me some dough to either rebuild a singlespeed for me or to build a fixed gear road bike.

work is good. i'm salary now with health insurance. but 6 day weeks are killing me. thats going to change, or i'm gonna be working some more 11-5 shifts.

i have a plan... work at the shop until april or may. then move to snowshoe west virginia. i want to work there as bike patrol or mechanic and or sales. then move down to brevard or boone or somewhere north carolina. hows that for a plan? later.

jg

blah blah blah

aside from that, well, i have been working bunches. 48 hours this past week. i've been trying to ride my bikes as much as possible. my current living condition is interesting. im living with three girls that work at fountain city coffee. amanda, andrea and abbie. my current commute to work is a bit further than it used to be. it takes about 15 minutes. but is mostly downhill to get there. i went screaming through a yellow light on the corner of veteran's and 13th st. doing about 28 mph. that was about the most interesting part of the day. i worked. it has been busy at work.

thats it for now. pedal hard.

jg

changes

Come on come on
I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself,
"Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?"
I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black.
My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch.
Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero.
Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.
First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers.
Give 'em guns, step back, and watch 'em kill each other.
"It's time to fight back", that's what Huey said.
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead.
I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other. We gotta start makin' changes.
Learn to see me as a brother 'stead of 2 distant strangers.
And that's how it's supposed to be.
How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids,
but things change, and that's the way it is.

[Bridge w/ changing ad libs]

(Come on, come on) That's just the way it is. Things'll never be the same.
That's just the way it is. aww yeah...
[Repeat]

I see no changes. All I see is racist faces.
Misplaced hate makes disgrace for races we under.
I wonder what it takes to make this one better place...
let's erase the wasted.
Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right.
'Cause mo' black than white is smokin' crack tonight.
And only time we chill is when we kill each other.
It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.
And although it seems heaven sent,
we ain't ready to see a black President, uhh.
It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact...
the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks.
But some things will never change.
Try to show another way, but they stayin' in the dope game.
Now tell me what's a mother to do?
Bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you.
You gotta operate the easy way.
"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way.
Sellin' crack to the kids. "I gotta get paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is.

[Bridge]
[Talking:]

We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

And still I see no changes. Can't a brother get a little peace?
There's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East.
Instead of war on poverty,
they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.
And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do.
But now I'm back with the facts givin' 'em back to you.
Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, crack you up and pimp smack you up.
You gotta learn to hold ya own.
They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone.
But tell the cops they can't touch this.
I don't trust this, when they try to rush I bust this.
That's the sound of my tune. You say it ain't cool, but mama didn't raise no fool.
And as long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped & I never get to lay back.
'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs.
Some buck that I roughed up way back... comin' back after all these years.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat. That's the way it is. uhh

[Bridge 'til fade]
Some things never change.

blah. me

critical mass

today we did our first critical mass ride in columbus ga. it was a success in some regard. we rode from the bike shop on broadway, up 11th st. we turned left on veteran's parkway. we turned left on talbotton road. then we turned left on 2nd ave. the hill up 2nd ave. was a bit of a tough time. i had to help adam weibaum's son up the hill. we continued down to 10th st. we turned right on 10th st. then right on broadway. while on the ride, annette wanted to ride single-file. wade (and myself) wanted to ride two abreast. a lot of the other people kept swerving around the road. my boss (buddy) was swerving around, slaloming the lines between the lanes. i don't know what to do about that.

if we do this again, i want to have a talk before we roll. i need to stand up on a chair or something and read off some rules. i'll have to remind people to not get out of our lane. i'll have to remind people (buddy) not to swerve around the lanes. we'll have to come up with a solution for getting split up at red lights. it happened three times today, and was tough to get back together. i think, as well as (who just suggested it), that me or tom should ride in the front, brian should ride in the middle, and me or tom should ride in the back. i think we should decide to ride two abreast and not worry. because people were trying to pass us and that wasn't going well. and kids. they need to listen (better) to everyone, especially tom and i (and their dad), because they have a tough time riding a straight line. so we'll work on that. but all in all it was fun. and the tv channels and two people from the paper should have a great influence on spreading the word in town.

thats all from me now. except to say that last sunday i rode 102 miles. that was fun. peace. and keep the round side down.

jg

just another monday

yo to all,

its been rainy as hell as of late. some hurricane just passed by us.

johnathan had a party at his house saturday night, which we attended. i was d.d. though and my sprite remix didn't give me enough courage to take to the dance floor, so we went home a little early. the party kept going and ended in a small brawl. guess we got out in time. then went to see bewitched. it wasn't as bad as war of the worlds, but not too much better. then we sat at jz's. watched robot chicken. then went to hamilton station for poker. i got off to a bad start, then had a winning streak. i started losing again. we were supposed to go play halo and i was trying to go big enough to either start winning, or go broke and be able to leave. i finally went out with trip fours to a full house. oh well.

today i went to the bike shop early, placed an order, checked on another, and came home. we closed today because of the supposedly bad weather. but its been pretty sunny all day. hopefully i wont get in trouble for closing the store and it being sunny after all. i just hope i can get forty hours in this week.

in other good news. i think having a diploma got me better insurance rates. my geico car insurance quote was like 300 per month. it went down to 181 a month. but my parents plan is a mere 143 per month. i think i'm gonna stay on it. and go get some food right about now.

snowshoe. road bikes. fireworks.

since the last entry i've gone to snowshoe, west virginia. i've been riding my road bike.

work has been fun. we've got the tour de france going. so lot's of people have been coming in and time goes quicker when there's tons of stuff to do. on the same subject as the tour... my road bike is fun. i've got in about 125 miles since i built it. i would ride more, but was out of town.

anyways. its time for dinner.

sunny all weekend.

i'm so boring.

the path of the righteous man...

is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you. -jules

the missing rock

our rock radio station in town has a contest going on... they took their rock (their logo) and hid it somewhere in town. i haven't found it yet. the first (and only) prize is a sea doo and 1000$ in furniture from somewhere in town.

i'd like to win. i'd sell the sea doo and donate the furniture to a needy family. then buy a bike with the sea doo money.

i found out what memorial day was for. and i knew what july 4th is. speaking of holidays... i go to snowshoe on june 24. that should be considered a holiday.

going to work now. jsg

halo it is...

we've had some good few nights of halo at 106 b 7th st lately. and a three day weekend. go to work tomorrow though. but thats okay. cleaned our whole place up yesterday. then slept until noon today. memorial day. another holiday that i dont know why exists. is that the same as july 4th? but a good excuse for people to drink beer and have barbecue. for some reason my credit card shows i have negative credit. but i've made a couple $100 payments in the past week. it should be okay. hmmm. my car payment is due in two weeks. i got to go get more checks, then send one in to citizens bank. wherever they are.

i want a road bike. i hate my figure. back when i had a road bike i was good looking. hmm. i think im gonna get a langster after i get back from snowshoe, if finances are good. peace to all. or to none.

j.s.g.

chapter 6

so then the train came whistling into town, with it came dan and jen, the two craziest people this small town had ever seen. they got off around 9:22am and went into howard's bed and breakfast. there they met alison. she wasn't her usual self, tired and grumpy. she cheered up enough to say hello and start telling them her life story. dan and jen listened because they didnt want to hurt her feelings by telling her to shut up. dan had eggs and ham; jen had hashbrowns. jen likes hashbrowns.

After checking in and putting away their things, they were ready to explore what wetumpka had to offer. the strip of three stores downtown, the office depot, and the strip clubs. if there is always one thing in a small town on a big highway, its strip clubs. there has to be something keeping the truckers from getting off at other exits. the most popular trucker in these there parts was bob. bob was a big guy, wore a scruffly beard, and had a little yorkie along for almost every haul. bob went, unusually, to the antique store and ran into dan and jen. he said, "i haven't seen y'all around these here parts." this scared dan and jen because they hadn't met any huge truckers with scruffly beards before.

so dan says, "we aren't from this area, sir. we're from the city, on vacation." well, bob liked them right away and introduced them to the other folks in weumpka and took them to big birthday party at the jones' house. that's where it got interesting.

chapter 7

blah

howdy folks who aren't reading this.

i graduated a couple weeks ago. it was boring. took three and a half hours. i ate a big late lunch/early dinner. steak. mmmm.

over the past few weeks i've been working nearly every day and riding every day to work. i've been able to ride a good bit too. like really ride. went to flat rock saturday, cause i stayed out too late. lol. then sunday we went to conyers. this army guy that was on his first mountain bike ride took a nasty, nasty fall and slid down the rock. the bike toppled a bit further. we got paramedics out there. we had to help them carry the guy back up to the ambulance. then we finished riding the second half of the trail. it was tough. nothing like conyers to start up the summer riding season.

i'm done. work, bill paying, halo-ing, sleeping, waking up, eating, riding to work, and repeating to go take care of.

joseph

cane creek direct pull

oh well. no spare parts for the singlespeed. got some cane creek brakes coming. they look nice.

i ended up riding at flat rock. and today worked from 9 until 7:30. long day.

i got my wireless router set up. ha. im going bed.

i walk on saturday. fun.

jsg

blibbity blobbity bloo

i dont know.

i worked today. had to fix something tom screwed up on. didnt getg out of work until 6:20. we close at 5pm. anyways. i rode to work again. rode home. my car didn't move today. saving gasoline feels so good. my dad and mom brought my bike work bench down today. its in the corner of our living room. that inspired me to mess with my singlespeed. i wanted to take a link out of the chain to tension it up some, but had to put that link back. It was too short. so i put it back, then went to adjust the brakes and the screw i needed fell out. it was stripped. oh well. ill try to find a replacement tomorrow in our spare parts bin.

i think i am going to go ride after work tomorrow. phenix city. that should be fun.

last night i saw "sin city." It is really one of the coolest movies i've ever seen. its definitely got that tarantino feel too. i have a hunch he did more that just guest direct. plus its this really cool black and white with random splotches of color sort of thing too. for example, dwight's converses were red, but everything else was black and white. or goldie's hair was gold. plus, its got the girl from gilmore girls in it. as a prostitute. she doesnt get naked, but she is definitely hot. so is marv's (i think) parol officer. anyways. go see the movie before it gets nominated for a boatload of awards.

joseph.s.grimes

new apartment

its been a little while since i posted. i am officially done with school. forever. i took my final in renaissance art history at 1 o clock. i actually did pretty well on it. plus... last week i turned in a 4.5 page paper. it was supposed to be 10 pages. he gave me a A-. i was really happy with that. i should have got less, but dr. brown sort of likes me.

i got a $625 surprise when i got home... my final installment of a scholarship check showed up. i get to pay down my credit card a good bit. and maybe get a new pair of mtn shoes. hmm...

oh. just to brag. i have 3.0 Mbps internet. if you dont know, thats fast. hehe.

Its currently cinco de mayo, and 18 minutes after i started typing this post. so im gonna stop, and go pop the top. that rhymes. i dont know. anyways. joseph.s.grimes

summer is coming.

nobody is going to read this, so i feel like i am wasting my time. but anyways. i got a new email address. its josephgrimes@gmail.com. its neat. it has POP and i can use that through the apple mail program on my computer. anyways. i also just got Tiger 10.4. its the newest OS for mac. it comes out in two weeks. hmm. arghh we be pirates.

school is wrapping up. i have a speech tuesday about my final math paper. it should be fun. not. anyways. work is going well. i forgot to order a shifter, but other than that things have gone really well since i assumed the role as store manager. i gotta give reggie credit though cause she is the one that really set it all up.

on the more personal side for updates... i am coming along well with my collection of tools for my bike workbench. rachel be jealous. i just got a Park p-handle allen wrench set. a few weeks ago i added some cone wrenches to the collection. i have a pedro's screwdriver set coming in this week. i should be able to do all repairs soon from my new apartment. i also built a rear wheel for my DH bike last week. its a perfect match for the monster front wheel. hadley DH disc hub. Sun doublewide 24" rim. DT spokes. black everything. its stealthy. i like it. it sounds good. tickticktickticktickticktick. thats how it sounds. yeah.

i am about to clean our back yard at my parents house. then go to flatrock park to try to help with the new trail.

joseph.s.grimes

icycle dh results

Thought i'd put this up. i dont know if i am much of a downhill racer or if ill just do better jumping off stuff... but here are some results from the race i did back in february. brr.. it was cold.

Beg. Men DH
Nick Kerr 3:08

Joshua Hennessey 3:11

Leif Kruse 3:19

Joseph Grimes 3:30

Frederick Livingston 3:46

Wesly Miller 3:57

Chris Ward 4:05

Eddie McElyea 4:07

Owen Simpson 4:08

Ben Bryan 4:10

Tim Wilkie 4:17

Tim Beeching 4:19

Steve Barker 4:27

Tony Ledbertter 4:31

Darrin Tinsley 4:43

Cory Weldon 4:55

Richard Beytagh 5:35

and if youd like to compare(http://www.sycamorecycles.com/icycleresults.html) my time (on the same course as) to the sport and expert racers times you can see for yourself. 4th beginner...would be 9th sport, or 13th in expert. hmm... i could have gotten 1st in expert women. yeah. thanks for actually reading this if anyone gets this far. joseph.s.grimes

cold coffee is gross.

stuff has been okay. trying to get a house its not going so good. or well. if youre an english person. been riding the collection of bikes a bit. mainly my enduro. rode it to work, and in p.c. recently. rode the bighit once lately. rode the singlespeed a few weeks ago. broke that chainring. sucks. getting new ones currently. waiting on my hadley rear hub. will be a sweet ass wheel. black spokes, hub, nipples, and rim. yeah. i got my final math paper back yesterday. it is all marked up. whatever. like i am supposed to fix it all by thursday. ha. tuesday night here i come. i need to see jazz. and take him camping this coming weekend. looking at hawley usa as a possible place to work. its over in lexington sc. probably move somewhere in 2008 or 2009. i need to pay my car down before i go anywhere. or sell it.

jg

it sure doesnt feel like 12:15 am.

maybe cause its really 11:15 pm the previous day, and we're just being tricked into thinking today is today. last week was busy. i decided to not post anymore since nobody cares enough to read this page. or at least nobody wants to comment. but thats okay too. "...i awoke, and faintly bouncing round the room, a never ending coral maze..." phish. i rode my bike today. skipped breakfast. tried to convince myself that a granola bar was enough. it wasnt. and i was reminded by the hydration gods that youre supposed to drink water before youre hungry, cause your head will hurt for the rest of the day. speaking of which... i just got home from johnathan zarley's. we played halo for the last few hours. i wanted to get jazz today. i havent seen him in a while, but his mom was like he's grounded. oh well. i am currently typing aimlessly for whatever reason in a sort of stream of consciousness style. whatever comes to mind. astronaut. get the idea. also been thinking about a song thats close to my heart.

Crazy how it feels tonight
Crazy how you make it all alright love
Crush me with the things you do
And I do for you anything too
Sitting smoking feeling high
And in this moment it feels so right

Lovely lady
I am at your feet
God I want you so badly
And I wonder this
Could tomorrow be
So wondrous as you there sleeping
Let's go drive 'till morning comes
And watch the sunrise and fill our souls up
Drink some wine 'till we get drunk

It's crazy I'm thinking
Just knowing that the world is round
And here I'm dancing on the ground
Am I right side up or upside down
And is this real or am I dreaming

Lovely lady
Let me drink you please
Won't spill a drop, no, I promise you
Lying under this spell you cast on me
Each moment
The more I love you
Crush me
Come on, oh yeah

It's crazy I'm thinking
Just knowing that the world is round
And here I'm dancing on the ground
Am I right side up or upside down
Is this real or am I dreaming

Lovely lady
I will treat you sweetly
Adore you I mean you crush me
And it's times like these
When my faith I feel
And I know how I love you
Come on, Come on
Baby

It's crazy I'm thinking
just as long as you're around
And here I'll be dancing on the ground
Am I right side up or upside down
To each other we'll be facing
My love
By love
We'll beat back the pain we've found
You know
I mean to tell you all the things I've been thinking deep inside
My friend
Each moment the more I love you

Crush me
Come on
Baby
So much you have given love
That I would give you back again and again
Oh my love
Meaning I'll hold you
But please please let me always

yeah. im going to bed now. peace to all, or none.

spring break

all in all this was a good spring break. went to fla. came back and found a bad ass house on 18th ave. gonna move in may 1. cant wait. got a easter basket. going to a non-easter dinner today. worked my three days. my feet hurt. not anymore, but they did hurt. i got a thermos. its neat. so i can ride with coffee and not spill it. gonna stop typing. i feel like mark. nobody cares about me. tear...

all good things must end.

i guess thats a cheesy cliche, but its true. we got to west palm beach sunday night, and tomorrow morning around 9am, it will end. we're hopefully gonna hit the turnpike around 9 something and begin our nine plus hour drive home. and then i work three consecutive open to closes. woo hoo. i hope to go ride in thomaston sunday. but i am gonna have coffee then go to sleep. goodnight to all. jg

a birthday and a sad day

rachel turned 23 or something like that... hence a birthday

and the u.s. senate approved drilling for oil in alaska.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/16/arctic.drilling.ap/index.html
sort of depressing.

i worked today. well yesterday, since its thursday now. also st. patricks day. wear green.

i need to go to bed.

today is the day my life changed forever...

i finally got my computer. it seems like years, okay 10 days, since i ordered it, but it was def. worth the wait. i'm gonna go back to playing with it some more.
powerbook g4
80GB
512MB
DVD-r
it goes on...

:)

me trying to look cool 

::cough:: ::sniffle:: ::ah-choo::

being sick sucks. my throat hurts, and i had a raging fever. my head hurts too, but thats the least of my concerns. i searched the house for advil. none. tylenol. none. cough syrup. none. seeing the trend here? but yesterday had its high points too.

1. worked on a habitat house.
2. took a three hour nap on a saturday.
3. had a saturday away from work. woo-hoo.
4. my iPod shuffle shipped from suzhou, china.

for anyone concerned...click here...or here...i dont know if these links will work or not.

5. i watched american beauty for the first time. i liked it a lot.
6. had a huge steak for dinner.

but oh yeah. i was sick. if anyone actually reads this i'm sure you'll be thinking what a douche or deutsh or doosh or however its spelled, but i hate feeling shi++y. and when you feel shitty and complain, just remember me. i think feeling sick, especially when you didnt bring it on yourself, is a reasonable time to complain. i mean if you go out and roll around in the snow naked, thats probably your own fault if you get a cold. but whatever.

i rode my bike friday night in phenix city. i rode the enduro with newly installed fox vanilla rc coil shock. i also had to zip-tie my headlight on the handlebars. forgot my mount, oh well. it was a good time. i rode for about an hour and fiteen (yes i know its fiteen) minutes. and i did a bunch of climbs. dont ask me why. it seemed like a good idea at the time. and as i was ready to leave my shock started making noise. i probably should have put a small layer of grease on the bolt that the shock bushings sit on. hmm. anyways. i was gonna leave out the cool trail, but didnt want to put up with an extra twenty mintues of schquweek-schquweek (you get the idea?) so i wussed out.

today may have so far been the laziest day of my life. i woke up around 8am, still feeling like ass, in a cold sweat of fever and my moms crazy thermostat antics and fleece pants, chawing on cough drops and trying to hock (haugh?) up a big wad of snotty stuff from the back of my throat. sorry for the details, but its imperative to knowing how shitty this morning was. i kept alternating sides, laying on my left, then rolling over to the right, trying to figure out which way was better. neither was. i managed to go through about twenty cough drops, and only remember opening and popping about five, guess i got good at it in sleep. i finally got up to get some oatmeal and drank some vanilla soy drink i found at publix. i went back to sleep. i finally got up when i realized i was drooling and well, thought to myself, this is enough. so i crawled into the shower and was comforted by really really hot water. i dont even remember if i actually soaped up and got clean or if i just enjoyed the really hot water equalizing the temperature of my fevered skin. but i managed to stay in bed until about 12:45. thats probably the most wasted time of my life considering i went to sleep around ten thirty last night. oh well.

i think its karma.

mmm. whiskey

had to change that song. my powerbook is on its way. yippee

jg

coffee. mmm. good.

i bought a powerbook last night. :) its 11:11pm. make a wish.

i rode my bike today. jumped off dangerously tall stuff.

i have to work tomorrow. ugh.

double space.

later.

joseph

update for nobody

tonight i did a night ride in phenix city. i rode with patrick. he finally got his rmx. i did the black ladder drop twice. we did the rock ladder drop by the river. we both rode the logs a couple times. i rode the tall ladder by the logs. we both did the jump into the valley up by the construction. i did the ladder near the rocks on the exit trail. i was proud of that. fo sheezie.
thats it

make like a tree and leaf.

ha.