a home bar...

is a funny thing, but at the same time it can be really cool. I started mine about seven years ago (holy shit! time flies) when we decided to redo our basement. that's a whole other thing, but focusing on the bar for now. I knew what I wanted. first, I wanted a keg. that was the first thing. I also had two mini fridges to make work. I needed to make a place to make drinks. I also needed a place to keep all the bottles. oh...and can we do a sink?

these were my building blocks. so with a lot of input from my dad. a lot of framing. a lot of discussion. a lot of planning as we went on...I have my bar.

it was an awesome project. it still is, cause I don't feel like it's ever complete. with the keg in place. the other fridges in place, we built around that. we built the cabinets that would store the liquor & other bottles & glasses. we built the back of the bar that would keep the glasses & mixers. built the bar top; which has gone through a change. the glasses. the bottles. the things. where does it all go? what makes sense? I can go through every piece of this bar.

the lights inside where the bottles are. do I want bright white lights. maybe the colored changing lights? depends on mood. how to organize the bottles. oh shit...some bottles are bigger than others. where I display my tap handles. the bottle top collection. the cork collection. the Blanton's top collection. so much is going on that it reflects who I am as a drinker. as someone that enjoys the art. the aesthetics. the mood. the craft.

the knick nacks. the bits you pick up along the way. the art. the display. what to display? I pick up a sticker at every brewery I go to, & that gets put on the kegerator door. I have a collection of growlers that i've picked up along the way. all my books. somehow, recently, have become the center piece to the back bar.

to how I want to present that concept. that philosophy. the presentation. old & reclaimed, with a sense of new & straight. the concrete & pipe along side the reclaimed wood. the used & oddball bits. the nuts & bolts. that all come together in a cohesive pattern of involvement that makes sense with each other. that play well together. that keeps changing. evolving. as does everything.

namaste...

teach them young...

 & hopefully they'll get it. my daughter has been riding with me for quite awhile now. she has come to a point in her riding where she just wants to ride. 'let's go on a ride.' before this it was to go somewhere. lunch. a destination. a thing. however; now it is riding for riding sake. which was the turning point i've been waiting for. and she is enjoying the hell out of it.

we were out the other day and the realization hit her...'you sure can see the city in a whole different way on a bike.' she started to get to know where we were. where we were going. she started to connect the dots very rapidly. I told her that when I went to CSU, that is how I really got to know downtown. I rode my bike to class & then then rode around downtown & got to know all the different streets. all the different alleys. is there a faster way? is there a safer way? is there a more scenic way? 

as you ride around more in different ways, you can sure put the city together in a different way as well. this street will take you here, which will drop you here & then you're at this whole new place; which maybe right next to this other place. a puzzle comes together in a whole new & different way.

then the other day, I came across this post by Padraig from the Cycling Independent:

goldilocks & her bike

so true & what a nice happenstance. you do understand more of what is going on around you. in the city...you understand more of how the streets move. where they take you. where you can go. 'oh what does this alley do?' what are the 'short cuts'. you see more. pedal a little slower & you can take in the architecture of the city. it's style.

even the traffic flow for when you are driving. 'oh, they drive like manics over here.' or maybe these streets are less crowded. my wife & I went to grab some concert tickets the other day, & we took 'the back way'; which is a way I put together all from riding my bike. it was completely different than what I was used to doing & rather nice. 

i'm hoping this idea stays with my daughter as she gets older, & maybe moves away for college or career. get out on your bike & explore the city & your surroundings. you'll get a whole new & different feeling, perspective of the puzzle that you're in & apart of.

namaste...

the love of riding

cobbled streets is something unique. something beautiful. something challenging. the way that they flow. the way that they are worn in & not worn out. that's part of the beauty...they wear in. they become this mirror of the traffic that drives on them. a reflection of auto traffic. 

cobbled roads are often built upon sand that stabilizes the base of the street. then the bricks are laid with either a machine or by hand. then more sand to fill the gaps between the bricks. with this "base" there becomes this movement. the bricks have room to move not only with the traffic, but also with nature. the sand may shift, or (my favorite) is when grass grows mid-summer in between the bricks. there's something tranquil about it. now ride your bike down these streets at speed. you don't know what the next fifty feet are going to bring. how the road will be. will it dip unexpectedly? will it rise? maybe both.

asphalt roads do not do this. not even close. they decay. they fall apart. they create potholes. when they are filled, or if; they become bulbus bumps. jarring if you're not paying attention. possible car wheel swallowing impediments. forget about cars...i've seen some destroy bikes & cause serious injury to people. don't get me wrong...I love a fresh brand new asphalt road on my bike. the smooth feeling of speed.

if I may...brick roads (& excuse my tangent here) last considerable longer than asphalt. cleveland cobbles is riding on roads that are hundred years old. that require minimal repair over their lifespan & at a lesser cost long term. versus asphalt roads that require full repair every 10-15 years (if we're lucky) at greater cost & effort over time. brick roads obviously require repair from time to time. a brick brakes. cracks. becomes 'missing'. replace the brick. replace an area of bricks. much easier & less time consuming. 

i'm even buying into the fact that more roads should be stripped of their asphalt where brick roads are underneath. turning them into brick roads exclusively. this will assist with controlling speed on side streets. because of the nature of brick roads, vehciles are not going at speed or speeding down these roads. they're taking their time. they're slowing down. natural speed bumps if you will. but I digress...

just as you can never step in the same river twice; you never ride the same cobbled road twice. depending on weather conditions. direction. speed. incline. decline. all these are factors at the same time, to provide a different experience of the same road you've been on time and time again.

namaste...

where am I going

with this...one of my struggles these last few years is not to be attached to work. I was attached to teaching. to the shop. in a way that was (& in some sense still is) my identity. who I was/am. but now, it's not. not even in the slightest. I do my work & leave. I care about my work, but it stays there. I now get a mid day break where I get to do house stuff, workout, bike ride...it took me a long time to get there. in most ways i'm still working on it.

and this maybe one of my reasons for not working for some billion dollar company. I couldn't care about the work. I couldn't care if company x made more money because of something that I was doing or needed to do. I see these parents (i'm a soccer dad by the way) in the parking lots of practices, of games, at tournaments that have these management/email gigs; & they're always working. meetings. emails. I just can't see myself doing that. that kind of work.

my current situation may not be intellectually fulfilling, but I have time to work on me & the most important thing is that I am here for my family. I have a gig now where I can take off a few days for soccer (which sometimes becomes a lot) or to get my daughter somewhere she needs to be without question.

during time at my last gig, my dad had open heart surgery & I had to get time off for the surgery & any follow up appointments. when this was going on, they weren't too happy about it & suddenly asking me family questions out of nowhere. made me feel uncomfortable & hr didn't do a damn thing. not to mention I had 4 managers telling me what to do. me. leave me alone. my work gets done & it gets done well. very well in fact. doesn't help when I storm out of the office & say (very loudly) "i'm smarter than all of you." 

and I think that's where another of my issues come up. people don't want thinkers working for them for fear that they will be smarter. i've had interviews that didn't well because of this. ego. I also had an interview that went great & would've been an awesome fit for me, but I was passed over because the 'big boss' hired someone that they knew. so not based on merit; which goes back to something that linkedin said once...'it's who you know'. damn man. that one hit hard. real hard. I was depressed for weeks cause I was really excited for the gig & knew that who would've been my direct manager liked me.

I still keep an eye out if anything comes up, but i'm not really going after anything. so here I sit. thinking about my late morning workout. happy to be here & available for my people & their needs. 

namaste...

my struggle for

the last four to five years has been the thing that pays my bills. that keeps food on the table. that keeps a roof over my family's head. that keeps my daughter playing the game she loves. simple...work.

"how's work going?"

fine

"do you like it?"

not really

"are you looking for something else?"

meh

I know & understand that your work should not define who you are as an individual. I know this all too much. however; my past existence was pretty awesome. I taught philosophy at local colleges for a little over ten years. I was paid to think, talk, & discuss philosophy! ethics. logic. critical thinking. religion. epistemology. metaphysics. how freaking cool is that?!?! take my word for it...very cool. how cool was it being an adjunct...not very. I received high marks from students & the other instructors. I thought I was doing well. then one day I was called into my dean's office & he told me that unless I get my phd & full time position became available he would have to hire any phd over me. I said "but I have this proven track record..."; doesn't matter. fuck. being an adjunct was always difficult because you had to string over 5 classes in one semester together at more than one institution to make what full times guys did with just 3 in one place.

the other part of my major existence was bike shops. managing. wrenching. sales. & if you know anything about bike shops...I did it all, & you know what that means. it was great. getting people to ride bikes. helping people to ride bikes. helping people find joy & happiness by riding bikes. & I took this responsibility very seriously. I mean; life gets complicated & when you have time to ride, you don't want anything messing that up. so that's the way I looked at it. I am here to make sure your happiness goes according to plan.

I am kind of glad about being out of shops (I do help out my friend once & awhile) with all the beeps, boops & motors. I maybe becoming a retro grouch. but the teaching I do miss. tremendously. not going to lie here. however; even though I have my master's, if I were to get into teaching grade school, i'd have to go back for another degree. not a big fan of that idea right now. 

as of now, I have my cdl & drive a school bus. is it great? not really. but as stated before, it's fine. I did put forth an effort to get a different gig; however, in today's age, your resume has to have so many certain words for the algorithm to allow an actual human being to see it. I could be the best human candidate for the gig, but you'd never know. not to toot my own horn, but i'm a pretty likable person. i'm also a very smart person to where I know I could do pretty much any gig or challenge you present to me. my fault though...is that I don't speak bullshit & I can see through yours. I found out people don't like that, cause then that calls them out on theirs. people don't like their egos hurt. another thing I found out is that with what i've done in life, i've actually cared. I cared a lot (cue Faith No More). I cared about teaching. I cared about the bike shop.

to be continued...

the cobbled roads of cleveland...

 or cleveland cobbles if you will. 

I have been putting on this ride for; do the math, my daughter is x years old, minus the pandemic...12 years now. it started off as a good friend of mine were riding and we noticed a few brick roads near my house & as discussions go during rides "wouldn't it be cool to have a cobbled ride in cleveland?" but there couldn't be that many brick roads in cleveland...or could there be? so I g
ot to looking via google maps, & as I started scanning the area; I started to find more & more brick roads. I found questionable alleys to ride. then brick questionable alleys as well. I started to string together these roads, these alleys, & then throw in some quick hill climbs and a route was starting to come together. 

I then hit up a few good riding buddies & said "hey i've got this route..." & they were in. thus was the first official "cleveland cobbles" ride. so I kept looking for brick roads in cleveland, & linking them together in a way that made "sense". going the wrong way on a one way, made sense. overlapping roads & sometimes riding in circles, made sense. one of my all time favorite quotes from one of the early years was "who made this route? a 12 year old?!?! I LOVE IT!!!"

the ride continues to grow in popularity. I try every year to change up the route. to move to different areas of cleveland. so far, i've been pretty happy with my attempts. as this has gone on, I have found that there is enough in cleveland to keep it fresh & interesting. this is one of the reasons, I believe, that people keep coming back (& newbies come). what's the point of a ride if the course is always the same?

I always have the ride during the spring. usually the sunday after Paris-Roubaix. as everyone has the spring classics on their mind, lets keep that spirit going. that has proven to be very interesting here in cleveland with the weather. the 2023 edition was probably the worst weather we've had. just down right cold & rainy. a few people got flats that took forever to change, & that took the wind right out of everybody's sails. so cleveland can run the gambit from gorgeous sunny day (like this year) to snow (that was a fun year). with a beer stop near the end.

like I said before, the ride took a break during the pandemic (for obvious reasons) & when the time lifted to get back to socializing; I didn't know if i was going to bring it back. I thought time passed & everyone forgot about it. but holy cow was I wrong. I started getting messages. people asking me...when's the cobbles ride? so I brought it back. and holy shit did that ride open my eyes to how much people actually love it & look forward to it.

as I lead the ride, people come up to the front to chat; which is always cool, but that first ride after the pandemic...I got a whole new appreciation for what this ride means. the shit that some people went through & to just hang out with people & ride their bikes (this isn't a race) with other people meant the world to them. "hey man, thank you so much..." & then the stories would start. to be able to put on this ride where people could come together. hang. ride a crazy route through cleveland & have a good time doing it is cool. i've always been humbled by the turn out. I joke that maybe five people will show. but after that ride, I was truly humbled by what this ride means to people & what it does for people.

so to this end...I want to say thank you. thank you for coming out year after year. thank you for coming out for the first time. thank you for believing in me that i'll put together a "good" route. 

namaste...

what's the point?

 my wife asks me one day when I was telling her about one of my recent workout sessions. of course my reply was 'what do you mean?'

but it was a question that stuck with me for a few weeks. what is the point of me working out with weights like I do? i'm an old man. i'm not here to do 10 strick pull ups, or a bunch of muscle ups. i'm not seeking out a community. I work out alone in my garage. 

a quick back story...one of my good lifetime friends got me into working out in high school. it stuck with me through out my life. I was never massively into it to get a crazy big body, but I have always enjoyed it. so it has been something constant in my life. sometime ago I did crossfit. I loved it. I had a really good time there. the people were amazing. everyone was very supportive of each other. it was a community that I never experienced. everyone supported and cheered the newbies achieving their new goals and accomplishments. to the veterans getting a new pr. however; there was one problem for me, I couldn't ride my bike. I would work out early in the morning, and then I wanted to ride to the shop I worked at. it was difficult. I was cooked after my workout, and riding a bike just killed me. so my time there changed, but it was better for me to achieve some riding goals. fitness for life if you will. the box closed down and I sought a new avenue as I built up my garage space which was coming along nicely. however, I lacked direction. so I found a coach through my daughter's soccer club. he knew how important riding my bike is to me, and developed a strength plan around that.

from this strength plan, I have noticed some things changing. first, and obvious, is my lifting has gotten better. i'm moving more weights; which in and of itself, feels great. i felt more complete in my workouts. that is true progress that you are able to see. to feel the numbers go up. this is really what my wife was asking...haha. why lift so heavy?

i've then have done some reading on this aspect. there are some studies out that lifting may help with alzheimer's. this is one "point". I want to be an old man, and have my faculties. 

second, I have noticed improvements in my riding. last season I was getting pr's on some strava segments without even trying. so that was really uplifting. to 'see' progress without putting forth a major effort. now, truth be told, there are a few segments out there that I do want & will need a major effort...haha. another cycling related note, is that the other week I noticed that I was stronger climbing some hills. not faster, but stronger. I wasn't wearing out as quick. I felt different muscles in my legs doing some work; which was really cool to experience.

third, I believe that I am "fit". not crossfit fit. not strongman fit. no way in hell am I GQ fit. my wife calls me the "fittest fat guy" she knows. hahaha. but I can throw the weight around. I can ride my bike for long distances. hell...I can even go on a 5k run if I wanted to. once and awhile that happens, but not often. a friend of mine once called me "unassumingly fit". as you couldn't tell actually how fit I was. he knew what kind of work I was putting in and what I was lifting. however; to be clear, I spend from 3-5 hours a week in the garage. the rest of the time I try to get out on my bike. this is the balance i'm looking for. this is what is right for me. a "normal" (whatever the hell that means) functional fitness.

so what's the point? I want to be fit for life. what do you want to do? i'm in. i can do it. I want to move. I want to be able to move. now. tomorrow. when i'm 80. i want to walk up steps. bend over. pick up the remote (if that even exists when i'm 80) and that's the most important. 

take care of yourself for yourself and your loved ones.

amitabha...