Remember me?

Hello again.

As is now quite obvious to all (and by 'all' I mean both of you who still come into the Asylum occasionally), I have utterly failed in my one New Years Resolution (which was something along the lines of NOT going a month at a time without posting). Sheesh, I just don't know where the time has gone! Suddenly it's FEBRUARY! Punxatawny Phil has already made his forecast for the coming spring (or lack there-of) for crying out loud!

All I really have is a lame bag of excuses, so I won't even bother to bore you with them. They would sound pathetic. I know work has been quite busy. QUITE. BUSY. But that isn't it. Somehow my home-hours have disappeared without my consent or knowledge. It's like I come home from work and wake up in time to get ready for work. My weekends seem to go by even faster. And I don't really feel like I'm getting anything done. Well, that's not entirely true. This past weekend I did put in a new hot water heater. Turned out to bea MUCH larger job than anticipated. About 2 weeks ago I noticed the wall behind my heater was dark (it's in our finished garage, sitting on a nicely finished pedestal in a corner-nook by the door going into the house). Closer inspection revealed it was mold growing up the wall. And on the other wall too. And below where it was sort-of standing. The constant dripping and the weight of a full 40 gallon unit had melted it's way thru the finished sheetrock like a hot-knife thru butter. Moldy butter. Under the goopy moldy sheetrock was wet plywood. I invented a little catch-basin for the leak, with a piece of tubing (from an old camelback hydration unit) funneling the water into a coffee can. The area mostly dried up in the week and a half that it had with no dripping water until the moment I was ready to replace it.

I knew removing the unit was probably the easiest part of the job. I was right. Shut off and removed the gas line, hooked a hose to the drain valve and drained it (took longer than I thought),  torched the pressure relief valve copper tubing to unsolder it, and then unscrewed the incoming and outgoing water pipes from the top. Then I just loosened the two retaining straps screwed into wall studs, and it was free. Lifted the leaky beast off the pedestal and that was that. NOW I had a good view of the damage a leaking water heater with no drip pan can cause. Ripped apart the pedestal, both layers of plywood had to go (wet and stinky). Scraped the mold off the walls, realized that the mold appeared to go deeper than the top layer and into the sheetrock itsself, so modified my plan and cut out some fairly decent pieces to totally eliminate the cancer. Another trip to Home Depot (I think I had 3 trips on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, and this doesn't count the trip or two I took before hand buying the new unit and everything I THOUGHT I needed at that point. I have a theory on "how many trips to Home Depot" any particular DIY job will take me: "one more trip" is the answer to that question. After I made that trip, I ask the question and it's still the same answer. It's almost like I'm locked into my own little bizzare "Ground Hogs Day"/Bill Murray time warp thing were I keep going back, buying different stuff each time, yet never quite getting everything I need (in my defense, in each phase of the overall big-picture project is when I find what I should have gotten for that phase).

In the end I'll say that I think I saved us a lot of dough by doing all this myself. A hired plumber would have taken out the unit and then gone away until a carpenter did all the work ripping out and replacing damaged wood and sheetrock. And then taped the joints, slathered on the 'mud', let it dry and sand it down, spraying orange-peel texture to match the rest of the walls, and finally paint the entire area so the plumber could now finally install the new unit. And of course, the new unit had different locations for ALL the fittings. The new unit was taller, bigger around (not a lot), but required me to re-work the gas line, pressure relief line, exhaust vent ducting, and the intake/outgoing water lines. And then after all that there was the NEW drain line for the drip pan (1" PVC, which is a pretty large line). That had to be routed outside (so I had to core-drill a hole thru the wall/stucco) as I have no drain inside my garage. And quite honestly I'm still not quite done. There is more spackling on the sides of my pedestal that needs to be done, and sanded/textured and painted. But I'm somehow in no hurry to finish that particular part...I have hot water again and we're happy. I was SUPPOSED to be up in Sunnyvale on travel for the last 2 weeks, and boy am I glad I didn't end up going. Jeannie most likely wouldn't have noticed the leak for many more days after I did, so the mold/water damaged area would have likely been far more substantial. And she (we) would have paid a fortune for other to come in and do all this. Canceling my trip saved us a BUNCH of cash for sure.

OK. Enough on that...(I'm sure you have been thinking that to yourself for like 10 minutes now). What else is going on? LOTS, that's what. The top of the list is that CHRIS HORNER HAS A TEAM FINALLY! Isn't that great news? He likely won't race le Tour, but it sounds like he will be at the Giro, AND if he stays healthy he will get to defend his Vuelta title! I'm sure he's somewhat disappointed at his new salary, being a Grand Tour winner last year, but it's better than early retirement! And hey...what if he does real well in either/both Grand Tours this year? Wouldn't THAT be exciting! What else...the Super Bowl...sadly (or not) I missed most of it working in my garage. But turns out I didn't miss much...I was rooting for Denver...no, strike that..I was rooting for Peyton Manning (as a Raider fan I HATE the Broncos...but I do like Peyton). I sure hope he comes back for another year,  because having THAT as your last game before retirement would be a horrificly sad way to end such an amazing football career (note: the Raider fan in me just did a double-take at my saying "I hope he comes back next year"...now the same inner Raider fan is slapping me silly wondering how that sentence escaped my brain/fingers). Back during the playoffs I reveled when Denver went on and Indy was out (again more inner slapping my face)...I hate it when teams have NO loyalty to guys who have done SO MUCH for the team/city and then trade them away for the newer younger cheaper (or not?) guy. Such as when Indy let Peyton go and picked up Andrew Luck (I'm not saying I don't understand it, but I still HATE it when they do that). Or when San Fran let Montana go to KC so they could play Steve Young. And Jerry Rice too. And when my Raiders let Marcus Allen go to KC also. I think the teams OWE these players who were the heart and soul of their teams for so many years, that they should suck it up and let them play until they say they are done. Yeah yeah...if I was the owner I probably wouldn't do that either, but I WISH they would.

And HEY HEY HEY!! Bum bum...ba-BUM Bum...ba BUM Bum (always have a hard time putting the Olympic theme into words)....yes, it's THAT time again! The WINTER OLYMPICS! So sad that Lindsay Vonn won't be defending her title...she is so amazing! But we have such a plethora of AWESOME winter athletes...and the winter Olympics are just SO much more exciting than the summer Olympics in general! It's like most of the events are right out of the extreme sports category! Downhill skiing (hitting nearly 700 miles per hour on SKI's!), bobsled, luge, skeleton, half-pipe, sprint skating, it goes on and on! And what about those guys flinging those uber-heavy "Rocks" down the ice with little sweeper-dudes steering/clearing the run? DANGER DANGER DANGER! Oh my gosh...that sport is RIFE with potential for disaster! (aren't those sweeper guys going BACKWARDS?) Figure skating...mens, womens, ice dancing, it's pretty much gymnastics on razor blades! And then my personal fav: Ski Jumping! OMG!!! That ramp is so long and steep...the guts to jump into those two little tracks and fling yourself off the end of that ramp at just under light-speed is so far beyond me that I get goose-bumps every time they go! I remember Eddie the Eagle from the UK a number of Olympics ago...they had never had a jumper before...he was their first. In the big scheme of ski jumpers he wasn't very good (as compared to pretty much everybody else doing it), but he DID IT! Over and over again he went off that jump and lived! He was a hero and I can't watch that event without thinking of him (WAY TO GO EDDIE!!!!!) Or the year Jamaica finally had a bobsled team! That is a VERY dangerous sport...a lot is riding on your captain NOT killing you all with less than stellar steering.

What other events...biathlon! Cross Country Skiing at world-class pace, and then shooting TINY TINY little targets with your heart beating out of your chest! I shoot, and I can attest how hard shooting is under the BEST of circumstances...doing it over and over again in the middle of an endurance ski race is plain CRAZY! Crazy FUN that is! Those guys and gal's are just amazing! Gosh...I'm just giddy that they start TOMORROW!!! I am a bit worried though...they are a huge worldwide event, which is a wonderful target for BAD people. I sure hope and pray for all the athletes that the bad people don't use the games as their 15 minutes of fame to the world. I sure hope the Soviet security is and has been on it's "A" game! We'll know soon enough.

I've been riding as much as I reasonably can...we did have almost two weeks of SUMMER back when the rest of the country was getting hammered with storm after storm! I think my little town of Santa Maria actually had the national high one day in that run...we were at 87F! And now that our 'normal' winter temps have returned (actually we've been below our average the last week or so, rats!) it's very difficult for me to coax myself out on the bike in the wind and cold (by cold I mean 40's and 50's...not cold like MOST of you know..but for us that's QUITE cold I'm sad to say). We do need rain in a desperate WE WILL ALL PAY DEARLY FOR PRODUCE AND SUCH IN THE COMING YEAR IF WE DON'T GET RAIN AND LOTS OF IT VERY SOON sort of way. California is one of the largest produce growing states, and we are in trouble. Our reservoirs are at or near record lows, the groundwater is at or near record lows...bad times are ahead if we don't get SOME rain. We're probably about half-way thru our 'rainy season' and I heard the news last week that here in Santa Maria we are 12" behind our annual average. I think we've had like .3" of rain in almost a year. Not good. VERY not good.

OK...I'll wrap up this veritable smorgasbord of topics blathered into a single post wishing for the rest of you that Ol' Phil the groundhog was WRONG, and you all have an early spring coming. In the meantime, it's OLYMPICS! Woo-HOO!!!

GAMES ON!!

And Awaaaaaaaaay we go!

Here we go into the brand spanking new year! Only 2 days at work last week and it felt like 5! BUSY BUSY BUSY is the order of the day for me. I traveled almost 2000 miles in my car over the first 10 days of the break (visited Arizona and Nevada....Jeannie had to work)...got home last Sunday, on Monday I drove down to Ventura to meet my brother Greg and his friends for a nice 75 mile road bike ride, and then he last 2 days of 2013 I spent mostly working on the kitchen tile (the travertine backsplash)...that is SO much work...those 4" tiles cover the wall OH so slowly...I'm about 95% done now...about a quarter of the way on the final two rows (the top)...and being a diagonal lay every tile in those last 2 rows needs to be cut. Measure measure measure cut check-fit bond into place, there's 2" that's covered, do it again, all while bending over as I'm working JUST under the cabinets....too low to stand and too high to go on my knees on the floor and reach. And if that wasn't enough we just had new carpet put into the master bedroom on Friday...meaning on Weds and Thurs eves I got to take all the shelving units and such out of the walk-in closet, THEN take all the furniture including the super-duper-one-of-a-kind hybrid sleep-number/memory foam king size bed AND the uber-strong frame I built for it (you could park a truck on it if it was big enough). THEN I got to rip all the carpet and padding out, and scrape the floor and vacuum vacuum vacuum so it was totally ready for carpet-guy on Friday morning. Sheesh...I'm tired all over again just READING about it. Then after work on Fri I got to start rebuilding...put the bed back in/together again, and move back in Jeannies marble-slab dresser (with large size mirror) AND marbles-slab night-stand (the slabs come off and are moved separately...the dresser slab is a BEAST). And then this morning (after my Saturday club bike ride) I find that her sleep-number bed air bladder leaked all its air out sometime this morning....she woke up pretty much lying on 2 pads of memory foam and a piece of plywood (that is the firm bottom for the air bladder). So AFTER I finished talking down all the Christmas lights outside (quite a job in itsself) I pulled the footboard off again, unzipped half the mattress cover so I could get to the air bladder, and couldn't find any problem...so I removed the quick-disconnect hose and re-connected it...hoping it just got tugged too hard during the mattress removal/reinstallation (quite a job also for the 2 of us...it weighs a TON).

Needless to say, I'm TIRED. My back is sore (from the hunched over tile work for 2 days, not to mention all the lifting I've done for the carpet job).  Hopefully things ease off soon....I need to finish rebuilding the closet, then do whatever I can to the tiles before Jan 13th, when I once again head up to Sunnyvale to work at our Space Systems plant for 6 weeks. I'll be working the graveyard shift (11pm to 6am) so will bring both my road and mt bikes like I did last trip I worked that shift. Get off work and catch breakfast at the hotel, hit the sack for a few hours while traffic dies down, then get up and go for a ride for a few hours, get home before traffic picks up again, catch dinner and then snooze for a few more hours...get-up and go to work, repeat for 6 weeks. This will severely impact my viewing enjoyment of the upcoming Winter Olympics though....which saddens me greatly. We have SUCH an awesome crop of athletes ready to kick some SERIOUS hiney this year....it should be awesome. Maybe on days I don't ride I can sleep all day and get up to watch some of the prime time events before going to work...that's probably my best option. I hope to get a LOT of riding time in though....I'm doing ok at the moment...not as strong as I'd like to be, but I'm probably in better shape than I have been in past January's (the holiday period always kills my riding).

One thing about the Holidays is that it's College Football bowl-season!  Lots and LOTS of games, most of them top-notch! I've been happy to see the Big Ten doing a bit better this year than in the past...loved the Rose Bowl! GO Michigan State!! I like to see some of the SEC teams get beat, as so many people seem to be on the "the SEC is the only REAL division, everybody else is just a poser" kick. And how about the University of Central Florida! (WHO you say?) Boy were THEY a pleasant surprise! As I've said...LOTS and lots of bowl games to enjoy. And we've still got the BCS championship to go...which SHOULD be a real great game! Florida State vs Auburn...GO AUBURN!!! (I was sad to see Bama get beat the other night...but it was qutie a game none-the-less).  I was stunned (as were most college football viewers) when Auburn beat Bama in the division championship....but Auburn is for real and earned it...so I'm rooting for them to win it all! (especially considering they were pretty horrible last year).

And then we have Cycling season starting VERY soon also! The Tour Down Under is in like 2 weeks! And Horner doesn't have a ride yet! THAT is CRIMINAL!!!! I see he's been training in a black kit...(and he looks VERY thin and fit). Hopefully SOMEBODY will free up some cash and he will take it I'd imagine...better a low paying job than NO job...especially in the twilight of his career. What a sad bit of luck to be a Grand Tour winner when suddenly multiple teams fold and there is a plethora of World Tour points floating around for the grabbing...most any other year he'd have been snapped up by a team trying to score a slot in the World Tour. I'm rooting for him though, wherever he ends up. I'd love to see him do it again to prove it wasn't a fluke.

Lets see...what else is going on...oh, over at Fattys he/we wrapped up a HUGE World Bicycle Relief fundraiser on Dec 31st...we raised over $173.000, which is a LOT of money! And then there is some anonymous donor who matched dollar for dollar the entire month of Dec, so we technically raised TWICE that! There are 5 awesome bikes yet to be given away (and a cycling trip to Italy in April for a week)...I have a REALLY good feeling on this one....SRAM has stepped up and is providing all the components (top line stuff) for all the bikes....there's an Ibis Ripley carbon 29'er full suspension mtb, a Trek Madone project one road bike, either a Specialized Tarmac or Roubaix road bike, a Cannoncale CAAD10 road bike, and finally a Boom carbon hard-tail mtb. And the trip to Italy. Katie at WBR is doing the drawings and starting to notify the winners on the 7th (they draw a name, and don't draw another until that person has been reached to decide which gift he/she wants)...this goes on until all 6 GRAND Prizes are gone. As I said...I have a REALLY good feeling on this! I could really use a wicked awesome new road bike...or an Ibis Ripley, or even the Boom...(rather have a road bike though...as I do WAY more road riding than mtb'ing). The trip would be nice, but I'd rather have a bike. So we shall see. I'm keeping all my fingers (and toes) crossed. Pretty much my best shot ever at getting an 8-10 thousand dollar bike.

OK. I"ll wrap this up and go get some dinner....tomorrow is closet and tile day for me...ugh. My back hurts just thinking about it. But the carpet is wonderful, and the tile is really looking great too. When I FINALLY finish I'll grout the kitchen and both bathrooms, and that will be that. Oh, then I need to replace the lighting fixtures in both bathrooms....we hate the ones we currently have. But that takes MORE money...and I'm broke...which is why I'm going on travel. Obviously I'd rather stay home with Jeannie and the babies...however being as this trip is so long they'll pay her gas to come up and visit for a weekend about week 3 or 4...so we're planning on that which will be nice. We've been meaning to get up to the Bay area ever since we moved here back in 02...but it's been one thing after another and it just hasn't happened.

With that I'll bid you goodnight, hoping that you have begun what will be a VERY Happy New Year!

Party on!
Cheers!