SHATTERED WILL..........................

I wouldn't be surprised if Cooooop and Holcomb bought the franchise and put it 6 blocks from my house just to keep a brother down. If so, I'm sure Hauser is in on it too. Now I know how all the Starbucks junkies feel.
I'll show em.....I think I'm gonna try for a corporate sponsorship.

SIRIUS.......LY???????.........

Julie got me satellite radio for a Christmas gift. Pretty cool I must say. Well....pretty cool now that it's installed and actually playing music. When I opened the box to find no less than 20 parts and 4 instruction manuals, I almost had a meltdown. Now... I would consider myself much more intelligent than most of my friends, but when it comes to electronics my brain is just not wired to figure that shit out. I can't even get past the"Congratulations, you have just purchased the finest blah...blah....blah" without turning into a babbling moron. They might as well be written in Chinese.

So...I enlisted the help of one of my more intelligent- less intelligent friends to take care of the installation. Mission accomplished......

Now that I have complimented him so eloquently, I wonder when he's going to get his ass over and figure out the MP3 player part of it as well as the heart rate moniter I've had for almost a month.

C'mon Cooooooop......you want to stay on the payroll?????

*Who needs to update regularly when you are getting this kind of press?

RUSSELL DITCHED ME.....................................................

and headed out west somewhere, so I grabbed a bike in the color of the day and decided to do a short urban ride before heading to my in-laws for Christmas. In an attempt to help better appreciate the really important things in life, I decided to head down Wisconsin Ave. to the lake. Sure enough....just as I expected, the absence of shoppers and the working folks made it seem like everyone out on the Avenue was either homeless or just plain had nowhere to go. I proceeded to extend holiday greetings to each and every one of them. Most returned my well wishes.....some told me to pound sand........whatever. Hell ....I even put the pressure on a couple of Endeavor jokers. Then they dropped me.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE BUBBAS..................................








I will spare you all of the nasty details, but it's safe to say whatever bug is going around has had me unmotivated to say the least. This Dreadmoccus would explain the incredibly lame nature of this blog over the last 10 days or so. It would NOT, however explain the lame nature of this blog from it's beginning up until 10 days ago. I have no excuse for that but hey....I can't come up with em' as fast as this guy.


Speaking of Randy , I finally got over to see Tess.....The one who will call Randy dad.....GOODNESS GRACIOUS!!! hard to believe she's related to Randy and she's not even this big.
I visited for about an hour and Tess ignored me the entire time, but trust me I'm used to it.

I THINK I PICKED THE WRONG WEEK TO QUIT SNIFFING GLUE...........

Well.....I think I picked the wrong month to attempt a daily post and even come close to being interesting. Sorry.

Could be worse.....................

DEAD......................

I'M GONNA SNAP..............................

Getting dragged to the mall for some Christmas shopping. I guess my wife figures if the gay music at the "Y" hasn't sent me over the edge yet, then a trip to Mayfair should do the trick.

BODY PUMP

Since Coop turned me on to the body pump classes at the "Y" I've been doing a couple of them a week. The classes are an hour long and are designed to be many reps of lighter weight done in tempo to some of the worst music known to man....I mean heck....They have turned Coop into quite the picture of fitness, so I thought I'd give it a go. What I originally thought was going to be a joke has turned out to be a real ass-kicker for yours truly. I cant believe how many muscles you DON'T use for cycling, I do fine on some of the exercises like the one pictured above and the clean and press stuff, but the squats?? are you kidding me....There is a 70 yr old lady who puts on more weight than me and my back is still scareeeemin' at me during that one. That damn smirk on her face is really starting to bug me too. I don't know if you can tell by looking at me, but my lower back and abs are really out of shape. So as long as the music doesn't cause me to commit a violent crime, I will stick with the body pump class in my attempt to start some sort of cross training plan. I could think of some pretty good tunes to kill an hour in the body pump class. Same goes for the spin classes, but I don't think they're taking requests.

WORKING DaSUGS CORNER

What do you get the dog that has everything??

FAILURE!!!

I failed miserably in my pledge to post daily by missing yesterday. I will try to redeem myself, but may have fallen into a hole too deep to climb out of.

TECH ????

I installed the rear derailleur on my new bike today. I wasn't 100% sure how, but figured it couldn't be that tough. I might have done something wrong because there is a little bit of play when screwed in tightly. Is that normal or is there a washer I'm missing or what??

SANTA SCORES BIG TIME....................................

Whoo-hoo....................so I wake up at 5:30am to hit BS at BS (Boston store at Brookfield square) by 6 in an attempt to get some Christmas shopping done and avoid the crowd. They had this sale going on where they give you a Godiva chocolate bar when you enter the store( that alone is enough to get me out of bed). The candy bar has a peel off sticker on it that when removed reveals your prize. Stuff like free gift wrap, FTD flowers, coupons for larger savings, etc. And then 1 in 3,000,000,000 people win the grand prize of a $500.00 shopping spree at BS. Well....I was that 1 guy.....500 clams baby...five hundy...jackpot....Merry Christmas Bubba. I had to restrain myself from doing the money dance right in the middle of the store.
Yes sir......Bubba was ridin' high until this clown reminds me that as long as I am saddled with the three headed money magnet, I'll be lucky if I net a pair of socks for myself out of my new found fortune (talk about peeing in my punch bowl). Then he goes out and drops my sorry ass on a ride to boot. I think dude is leaving for Montana soon. Maybe he'll stay there.

AFTER YEARS OF SUFFERING......................

Pictured above is Meg and her girlfriend Sam from the Wauwatosa West High School orchestra's Christmas concert Wednesday night. Meg has a couple girlfriends named Sam and a girlfriend named Mel....What's up with that??.... Kinda makes me feel bad I didn't name her Ed or sumthin' like that.
So, after years of suffering through the squeeking and screeching of these concerts in grade school and jr high, they have finally gotten to the point where they are relaxing and enjoyable. Well...enjoyable except for all the flashes going off in my eyes from my wife and all the other camera-happy parents.
A feeling of pride rather than torture.....yep...they're gettin' pretty good.

O.K.........................................NOW WHAT?

I just got a ups delivery of a few items I ordered from one of those bike catalogs. I bought the above HRM in an attempt to do some beneficial excercise at the Y. Problem is I don't have a clue how to use the damn thing. I think I want to work out in the "burn fat and increase endurance zone" but don't know what that number would be.?.? Is there an easy answer or am I gonna have to read the manual?

I did manage to turn it on and so far I've learned that my blogging HR is 70-73.

PUTTING THE FINISHING TOUCHES ON MY LIST.

ULETIDE RECOMMENDATIONS

A christmas classic from the hardest working man in show business


I highly recommend getting your Rev on for the holidays.

I'm not a real big Jimmy Buffet fan, but this has some pretty rockin' X-mas stuff on it.


I recommend saving the cover, throwing away the disc inside immediately, and replacing it with something from The Stooges or The cramps.

SCREW THIS........I JOINED THE "Y"

Actually I like to ride in the snow and cold of winter and do a few rides a week this time of year. I, however do not ski or have a whole lot of other winter activities( I have been considering figure skating and ice dancing), but I the meantime we joined the YMCA. It's pretty cool. I had a much different idea in my head about the Y. They have alot more stuff to do than I ever thought. I've done some spinning, running, body pump class, and free weights. I'm gonna try some swimming and basketball soon too. I figure if i can get 3 solid workouts a week in or so to compliment a few decent rides, I should be able to retain my slender frame.

SEASON'S BEATINGS

Trying to kick a nasty cold.
May start X-mas shopping for the trio of checkbook descimation.
House looks like Beriut, and holiday decorations only make more of a mess.

Holiday spirit......I'm really startin' to feel it.........BEAT.

THE LIGHTS ARE ON, BUT NOBODY'S HOME

Christmas at The Rusty Tool Shed.

12-1-06..............HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Remember those stupid christmas calenders you got when you were a kid? You know....the ones that have you open a different door every day in December.

Well...To help ease you through this festive time of the year, I will attempt to post daily holiday cheer for the entire month. Kind of like those calenders, but I've got some babes, bikes, chimps....all kinds of nifty stuff.

It's a tall order as you all know to post daily for a month....but I think I'm up to the task.

ROUGH DAY AT THE OFFICE

I'm sorry Glen...........your shipment won't be arriving today because.............blah,blah,blah.

Work crap has blogging taking a back seat. I should have this mix-up in priorities straightened out ASAP. It's not even busy around here, but somtimes in this business everything you do turns into a giant goatf--k....
I know this guy knows exactly what I'm talking about.

11-26-63
For you history buffs...I was born 4 days after this. I went and scored myself a nice bike from Gunnar for my birthday. I mean hell...you're only 43 once, right?? Coop will be the new pilot of the Sugar and will continue to stress its welds in the clydesdale class next year.

Well I'm gonna go see if there is any hope of salvaging my rotten soul, and then take a ride with this rotten soul at noon. I think I'm even going to drag her along. After all she owes me....It's my birfday.

RUSSELL WENT TO THE ICEMAN AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT
Oh and a menu too. So I ordered some take-out under Russell's name.
Thanks Russell by the way.

The now abandoned ELF line.

My blind......The deer would have had to have been blind not to see me.

Shoot it!!!!!!!!!!!

Nature lover Bubba..........


Sponsored by nobody.

I DON'T EAT VENISON ANYWAY..........

But..........If anybody has a nice recipe for porcupine, please shoot me an e-mail.

So another deer hunting trip is in the books and I did not even get to see a buck. I did see lots of other pretty cool game including a bear, grouse, porcupines, and an otter. Saturday morning before first light, I heard something in the woods behind me that sounded like two tigers fighting over a fresh kill. Scared the shit out of me. That night when I immitated the sound for my neighbor Scott, he said " That's a fisher....I used to trap them and they made the same sound" Sounded pretty bad-ass for something so small and relatively harmless looking(reminded me of someone I know, but I won't mention any names MG)......"I used to trap them"......can you say HICK?

We stayed at Scott's summer home on the east fork of the Chippewa river just north of Winter, Wisconsin. It's a geat place with all the comforts of home. Scott is an interesting guy. He makes hand-made violins and violas for a living. Many professionals are playing his violins in symphony orchestras throughout the country. You would think someone with that type of career would be a pretty refined guy, but he is a total Clampet. He does, however get liquored up on red wine like there is no tomorrow........if that's refined???

I hunt on an ELF line (interesting article) on the southern most part of the Chequamegon national forest with Scott's brother Steve. The ELF line is wide open and provides for long range shooting..(or napping in my case). Steve has killed deer from over 250 yards while hunting on the ELF line. He has taken over 35 deer, and 2 bear from that exact spot over the last 22 years. Steve is even a bigger Clampet than Scott. Two years ago while driving to a tavern to watch the Packer game, Steve decided to do a little grouse hunting with the grill of his pick up. He swerved, hit the grouse, flipped down the tailgate, cleaned it, threw it in a freezer bag and still got served his Old Milwaukee Lite before kick-off. Now that's a hillbilly...I don't care who you are.

In between naps, I was able to read up on my wife's digital camera and experiment a little bit. I will post some pics. later.

HI-HO-DA-MERRY-O...

As pathetic as my blog entries have been lately, I'm sure y'all can get by without me for a few days. My apologies....
I'll be back by Tuesday and looking for a local night ride....weather permitting.

RANDY.....................................

Was the first thing that entered my mind when I saw this picture too. You?????

WORD ASSOCIATION.................HAULIN'

OOOOHHHHH....THE PRESSURE...

I have not up-dated in a while and now I'm feeling the pressure to post something good. Truth is I really got nuthin'. Bloggin' these days is tougher than a steak at Ponderosa.

I will be racing a new bike next year. Some guys say they are "working on a new project", but I can't say that with any credibility. Fact is, I'm a really lame bike mechanic. I'm pretty good at the very basic stuff and keep my bikes clean and lubed, but far,far from what one would call "a wrench". Soooo...I beg guys like Russell and Randy when I get to the advanced stuff. This is the main reason I am going away from full suspension. The fact that I am having an absoulute blast on my now full rigid Fisher Rig is another reason I feel confident a hardtail is the bike for me. Let me go on record and say those rigid carbon forks are really sweet. I would say they are in between rigid and suspension. I shall post some pics. of my project soon.