RIP my good friend

After a long day of worry and some tears of pain we had to put Max to sleep today. A very hard decision after his long life. It was something I never really thought about as he just kept going no matter what his age was but after this weekend all the signs were there.
For those of you who never met him you missed a very loving dog, never a bite or a nip(unless you were a dog and tried to take his bone) and he loved kids almost to a fault.
A better dog you could have never asked for.
All of you that have pets and have ever had to do this you know how it feels, as I sit here I look around for him to see if he need to go out not realizing he's gone, now comes the hard part with putting all his stuff away.

My friend when it is my time to go I hope you are waiting for me at the gates with a ball to play and a leash for a walk.

You will be missed by us all.

A weekend up north

Got to the parents place around 3 AM and it was right to bed cause thats a long ride in the dark.
Got up the next morning and it was 8:30, wow I don't remember the last time I slept till 8:30. Got the motor going and decided it was time for a ride, off I go not knowing where I'm going but figured I'd fine my way. Out HWY 47 and figured I'd head towards Lake Tomahawk and before I knew it the computer was reading 24 MPH and I was feeling better then I have in a while.
Got to the lake and just kept going, 4 miles past and I figure its time to get home, hit the u-turn and WHAM the head wind is brutal, from 24 down to 14 and I'm giving it all I got to get the speed up, get it cranking and I'm sitting around 15.5 and a average of 230 watts. Make the turn back towards Woodruff and I am feeling the burn but it felt good to get out.
Got back and all the girls went to town so I figured I could get in a shower before they get back.
The thing with the shower is there is not a huge hot water tank so you have to have a plan to shower and stick with it or your in a cold shower. I don't know what it is but I think the shower right after a good ride it the best, you feel brand new and clean clean clean.
So after all that I make a phone call to find out where the girls are and find out what were doing today, Erica says, were going to Eagle River, want to go, and away we go. Its a fun time to walk around and look at all the crap thats for sale and it all the same stuff in every shop but Erica got some stuff for Tess and we had a good time.
Got back and my nieces wanted to go swimming so we hit up the beach. The water was cold at first but then got better. Tess was like a fish to water, she wanted to jump right in, hopefully she will be a better swimmer then her father a I sink like a rock.
After that we hit up the play ground and played on all the slides and tee-ter-toters and thats where I thought it was going to end. My niece and I were on the teter and all of a sudden she was on the ground, its not really clear what happened but she says I tried to kill her but I plead the 5th. In the end she was just fine and we all had a good laugh and something we will never forget.
Sunday we hit the road around 10am after some good donuts from Paul's next store. We made some stops on the way and the the best of them all "Union Star Cheese" if you've never stopped you must. Their curds are the best and cheap. So from there it was a straight drive home.
On the way I call the SUG to see how the race went and he asked if we wanted to meet them and go to the Whitefish Bay race, well what the hell, home for like a hour and a half and right back out the door. It was a good race and Tess had a blast watching all the bikes go by.
All in all it was a good weekend and I wish we could do them a lot more. I put in some pictures of the weekend, sorry for the color,there form my phone as the batteries in the camera were dead.

On a sad note it looks like my long time friend and companion Max (our dog) is going down hill fast. at the age of 12 the rear legs are going out and the weekend was hard on him, as much fun as he had I think it may be his last trip. I was in hopes he would make it though the year but I guess thats all up in the air now. The worst part of this is Tess and him are like best friends and she loves him so much. He has had a long life but I just didn't figure it would be so soon. Well I'll know more after I get home and see how he's doing. The Vet says there not much to do just let him have fun and keep a eye on him. I just hope he turns around and makes it a while longer.

Got to go
See Yaa

No Wednesday No Sunday

As the title says I'm out for the racing at the ridge Wednesday and the Sunday WORS race.
Works is ball to the walls as of late and I will be in early and out late the next couple of day as I will be showing one of the office guys how to do one off my jobs they took off my plate. But as you know if your job gets easier it won't be for long, well one day to be exact and I got more stuff added to my title, not much but about another 5 to 10 hours a week of field time to keep my eye on things.
At first I was not very happy about this but after a couple of days its taken hold and rolled in my everyday list of things to do.
For Sunday it looks like we will be up north at my folks place for the weekend, we have been trying to get up there for the last two months but we just couldn't find the time until this weekend. Its a hard choice but Erica really wants to go and after this week with work I think I need some time away and the folks place is just the ticket.
As a added side note, anyone that reads this think looking for a job? My company is looking for a installers. Do you have experience installing cctv ,alarm or access control system or are you good with tools and have some electronics background? We could be looking for you.
Ok back to everything else.... Had a great weekend really doing nothing. Went for dinner with the Sug's and got my sushi fix, caught up with all the tour stages

Ridge Racin

Had fun at the ridge last night, finished two of the three laps of the course as the shoulder couldn't take any more pounding. Most of the course is in good shape but there is still standing water at the bottom of the start hill and sections of peanut butter mud in like four spots.
We ran the WEMS race course last night and I have to say it really felt like a long lap and I wasn't the only one who thought that. We ran a lot of the south west side of the single track backwards and for me it sucked, I can never get any flow in that section anyways but then do it backwards and it twice as bad.
We heard the Ty is thinking about running the downhill switchbacks in reverse, YES more climbing. It would be nice if the course is set by next Wed. night for the race as I would bet the turn out will be big with people who want to ride the lap early.
The bad part is rain is in the forecast for this weekend and next, lets keep our fingers crossed that that changes.
Got some great news from my Mom the other day about my Dad, the first eye surgery was success and the doctor moved up the other surgery to the first of the month, thats great as it was unforeseen how it was going to go. Now their telling him if the second one goes as good as the first he my not even need his glasses anymore, wow, who would of thunk it.
Got a update on my niece too, the surgery took about two hours longer then they said as there was a lot more damage then they figured, it all went well but she had trouble dealing the the meds. so she had to spend the night in the hospital. The next day they had her up and walking with crutches but she said the foot just didn't feel right but they just figured it was from the swelling so she got to home. The next day she ended back it the doctors office because she couldn't stand the pain, off comes the cast to find out it was to tight, so a new cast hand she feels a ton better.
So this weekend will be fun as Erica and I are off, a fun weekend with Tess will be had.
See Yaa..................

Its a TREK thing

I have been thinking about this post for awhile but wanted to do some research before I posted.
I have been hearing people bitch and moan about their products for years but what I found is really funny. Look at all bikes you have in your collection, I will bet at least one of those bikes have something from the Trek bike company.(about 80% of the time)
Its funny but look. Tires,saddle,bars,post,stem,fork,frame all the way down to bar end plugs.
I heard people say "I will never buy a Trek product" but then you look at there bike and low and behold Bontrager componets, "but thats Bontrager not Trek" ya OK...........
Its just a funny little thing to think about.

Great weekend

Even know I wasn't able to get any riding in it was a good weekend. Spent a ton of time with Tess, its hard to believe shes almost two years old, wow has that time gone fast.
We were going to go down to see Candy and Lynn do their Tri but were not sure if we would make it back in time for Erica to get to work but it sounds like all the girls did well, Congrats.
Looks like the week is going to be another full one, jobs are backing up so it time to do some interviewing again. Its not that I hate doing them they just take time that I don't have right know but we need a couple more people to fill our gaps.
Last night was a great night..... NOT....I spent my night in the office till nine trying to play catch up with paperwork since I've been in the field a bunch. The fun part was Erica and Tess came with, it always funny to watch Tess run around the shop like she owns the place. Erica was in shock that she knew right where my office was and how she loves the stock room, it was funny.
Now to the bike stuff, I will try to race on Wed. at the ridge as my fat ass really needs it, I plan on bringing the road bike back to the office so I can stat to ride at lunch again but I haven't even got the tire and cassette back on from when Russ worked on it, so i will plan on doing that tonight after Tess falls asleep.
Looking ahead the weekend looks good, Erica and I are both off so maybe I can get some riding in. Sundays shop ride is a for sure and well have to see about Saturday as I know we really need to clean the garage and basement but who knows. Oh plus we have to get together with the Hoffmans as we haven't seen them in ever and a year.

well got to go
See Yaa.........

Crazy week

The week went by quick with not working Monday so it was like putting 20lbs of sh*t in a five lbs bag but I got most of it done. This is the busy time of the year for our company so all my field guys are now going onto five day weeks. Normally they work four tens but as the work load gets bigger so the days get longer. What that mean for riding, well it means the bike gets put in the work truck with a change of riding stuff and I will get on it when I can.
I got a call from my Mom last week saying my Dad is going to have eye surgery because the found cateracks in both his eye, so Tuesday he went in and got the first on done and all is well, talked to Mom and him yesterday and I guess he can now see better out of the eye they just did so thats good.
Then I find out my niece goes in got surgery today to have her ankle fixed. Shes a baseball player and she slid into a base and screwed up her ankle up, the doctor they went to said its OK just some tendon damage just let it heal for six weeks well not so much. There going in to break her tib/fib add like three screws and re attach the tendons "IF" they can. So shes heart broken because shes out for the rest of the season but shes taking pretty good. So I hope all goes well with that.
Dropped the power tap off at Russ's last night to get it re laced THANKS RUSS. It keeps popping
spokes and its driving me crazy to have to keep re truing it.
Other then that I think Tess has hit the terrible twos early, the last week she has got into everything along with putting a scratch in the plasma t.v. and just about killing one of the cats, and were talking about another one?????? All in all shes pretty good and the words are coming fast and loud (what would you expect she is mine). The best one so far is the statement OHHH NOOO with such conviction, its had not to laugh its so funny.
So my weekend is set a Erica has to work all weekend so I will be playing Mister Mom, got to figure out some stuff to do so we not in the house all day, maybe the museum... the Zoo out since its going to be like 95 tomorrow. We will see.
Well go to get some stuff done.
See Yaa.............

Downgraded

It sits like a pit in the stomach but it was all for the best.
The race went well, all but the start as I ended up in the back but with a little work I started to work my way up from there. The trail was in great shape and all was going well till we got to the pines, way to fast and not enough control, BAM I hit what I think was the only stump in the hole trail. Jacked the shit out of my shoulder but stayed upright. The rest of it was a race and I finished OK, still 2 min down from the leader but in much better shape then other races. The time and distance fits me much better right now and that's what I was hopping for. I figured I would take some shit for it and I was right but in the long run I know it was the right thing to do.
All in all it was a good weekend, I think the best part was the ride home, yes it took forever but Erica and I got time to talk about thing that we have just been taking for granted lately. With my work load we don't have much time together right know and then when I am home she's at work so it ended up to be a good drive in the end.
Yesterday got to do the recovery ride with Tool,Coop(the shit giver),Bubba and Megatron. It was a good 27 miles in around two hours. That's the kind of riding I need but just can't seen to fit in my time line right now, well we'll see what happens in the upcoming weeks.
See Ya.

a sour pill to swallow

Well as I sit here after pre-ride I feel like I kind of took a shot to the ego today. After all that has happened in the last year I made a decision to take a step down in racing classes. After the crash in fall(shoulder still not right) and the lack of training in the off season my racing has turned into a shit pile. So after the week on vacation and really seeing what my fitness level is I made the decision to go to citizen and start over.
Its a hard step but it will be for the best, after finishing most of my races more then 30 min behind the leader its really is the right answer.
So Sunday will be the first race as a Cit. Clyd.
I think the biggest change will be the start time and trying to get ready. As much as it will be a change I know its for the best.
So we will see how tomorrow goes,lets hope I don't take to much shit for it.
See ya at the race.

Vacation

Well we left Tuesday morning to head up to Eau Claire. we figured Erica's family lives up there so we'll make a week of it. The drive was great, a couple of stops to`shop at the outlet malls and the next thing I knew we where here. The weather up here has been great, mid 70's and a nice wind to make it feel great. Hit up the race trail yesterday and the trail is great. There are a couple of places of some wicked sand that will grab the front wheel but the rest of it is dry and fast.
I spent some time today changing the fork out on the bike back to my shock, after last week at the ridge the shoulder has had be still hurting so................... the shock goes back on.
I not quite sure I rode the total right trail as its not marked yet but I know I got to ride a lot of it.
I don't remember there being so many log crossing in the race last year but just another reason for the fork change.
Today we went to a really cool museum about logging in the local are and another museum about Indians from the area. It was fun Tess had a good time until nap time caught up with her.
Well thats about all for now, I just sitting here watching the Blue Collarcomedy tour and eating sour patch extreme candy, now I feel like Jay, you know you just can't have one.