Craptastic.

That's oil. The expensive kind. The kind that you find in your driveway underneath your vehicle. You know the one- it's the one that has distinctive smell of oil and small metal shavings.

The rear differential blew on the truck coming home from Norwell. Fortunately, when I bought the truck I also bought the extended warranty. Unfortunately that warranty expired two weeks ago. And that's the way things go here at Pioneer...

Tired.

I'm tired.

Been pretty busy these past few weeks, both with race results and ebay stuff, as well as a teeny tiny bit of real life thrown in for good measure.

Last week I picked up some stuff to sell online- to help me get through the end of road season/beginning of cross season. Not surprisingly, when I blithely said "sure I'll take it all" I got in over my head. I figured that I could fit it all in my truck. I mean it's a 3/4 ton pickup with a full size bed *and* a cap right? Right. The photo on the left shows load number two. In the 16 foot box truck.

And wouldn't you know it, there was not one Dugast in that pile. Think Cyclocrossworld.com takes trades?

Playing for Par

So it occurred to me that I haven't related any 'equipment failure' stories lately. That's not because Mr. Myrphy's Law hasn't been in effect- it's just because I'm a slacker when it comes to blogging. And a whole bunch else too, but that's another story.

Here's the hit list:
Video cable failure- just before the finish. Got it fixed with 100m to go.
Printer failure at a crit with 3 races left in the day.
Ripped up a tent sidewall trying to pack up in a hurry
Fax machine at home blew up.
Overloaded bookshelf above the desk fell down. Onto my 23 inch Apple Cinema Display.

Oh, and I got a wicked case of Poison Ivy after the Monson race. From now on I'm charging extra if I have to set up the tent in a PI patch. That's reasonable, right?

On the bright side, I didn't get run over at Attleboro this year. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for my generators. They took the hit at Stafford.

Oh well.

Ebayland

I'm asked pretty often if bike race results and equipment rental is a full time job, and while the answer is yes, it's not one that pays like a full time job. So like a lot of bike racers I do the ebay thing as an income supplement. Of course with auctioneering being the family business, ebay is somewhat familiar territory.

This spring we finally got around to buttoning up the attic so I could move the piles of ebay stuff I had strewn around the house into one spot. The people who owned the house before us added a nice bump out to the attic so there's a ton of room up there, we just needed to reinsulate and clean up a bit. 3 years after moving in... it's done. It's kind of nice to have a space, and it's nice for Mega to have her desk back. And her dining room, and living room, and kitchen....

This is the photo section. Chris Milliman eat your heart out. The sign on the left was from a thrift shop my parents ran in the early 70's- like I said, selling is the family business...










The "on deck" spot. The table buried in all that stuff is the registration table from the first 10 years of the Cycle-Smart International. It's still got the race categories written on it in sharpie. And of course the bottom is stenciled with the original race sponsors name..... Campus Services, UMass....







More storage. Somehow once your friends know you sell stuff online at a reasonable rate boxes of stuff just appear on the porch from time to time. It gets tough when they bring the cool stuff though- like a beautiful IF frame in my size...









Of course we still use the attic for regular storage too. And yeah, we know we're geeks.

Moving on.

Sometimes dreams don't come true.

But it was worth a shot.

Time to move on.

Cool.

A nice little video from the BBC about Chris Burdens's latest:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7447636.stm

Put together with screwdrivers.

Awesome.

Day Trip

1st attempt at kind of sort of photoblogging- the 2008 Lake Auburn Road Race in Auburn Maine. With the crit course under construction this year it would be just a day trip this year. A very long day trip..
Blast off. That's 4:42 am- wake up was 4...
Yet more MassPike miles... sunrises are cool, sunrise over 495 not so much.
No Garmin/GPS needed- John Grenier is a promoter who actually puts out signs to the bike race. Imagine that!!
Tent is up- rains coming down. Spring in New England means life in the bubble.
Game on...Day's over, truck is packed and of course I'm the last one out of the parking lot. BTW for those not familiar with "New England Bike Racing Rules"- if the race finishes at an apple orchard it's hilly. Same goes for anything called "Orchard Road" "Apple Valley" "Cider Lane" etc.
Home at last. Now all that's left is to format/send out results to BikeReg/USAC/NEBRA.
So about 16 hours, 500 miles and 3 thermos of coffee. All in a days work...