Bill's Blog (Web Log)
Boobs and Tubeless
Submitted by Bill on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 1:18pm
It is 4 days until the 24 Hours of Rapelje mountain bike race. Yesterday was a tubeless party and today I plan on a relaxed day at home preparing lists, and instructions for my new crew mom and dad. Time to structure the entire weekend starting with Thursday and ending with noon on Saturday. From there it is destiny.
The 2010 Tubeless Party this year was at Ed and Laurie's house since Ed had just upgraded his air compressor from a cigarette lighter style to a almost full blown tank model. It was all we needed to gather, shoot the shit, trade parts, and liquid latex wisdom. My word of advice is DONT DO IT. Yea, I have a real bad relationship with Stans System.
Before my stop at the party I had a couple loads of laundry to do before the big race. I had my loads in the washers and decided to get online to blog. I looked up to see a beautiful woman approaching the door with a basket that was not quite loaded down with clothes. Suddenly I realized that all the clothes she had been assumedly wearing were in that basket. She had nothing on. For about 3 hours I had no clue as to what I just saw. She appeared to be pissed so I didn't offer any kind of constructive remark. I just switched my load to the dryer and went to the party.
At halftime between tires I went back to get my laundry and she returned. This time with a new set of this bra/panty combination. I was relieved because not only did she look sexier but also I didn't have any visual overload. I mean where do you look, down yonder or upstate?
All the dudes were very helpful to her as she retrieved her clothes from the dryer. Just to give thanks
Between Storms
Submitted by Bill on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 6:40pm
Billings gets hit by a tornado. All while I was up in Pattee Canyon getting in a ride and miraculously between huge storms. At one time I got to the edge of a hail storm on Mount Sentinel and turned around a bombed back to town where it was still nice and dry. Today however we did not escape the daily deluge.
So while I was up in Pattee I ran into my friend Ed who said that he was just out on Sentinel hiking. A dog with a orange collar who obviously belongs to some idiot ran down a fawn deer and mauled it. Ed said it died in his arms gasping for air. When he told me my thought is instantly went to a couple years ago when Marcy lay in my arms dying. It was hard to swallow. All I could think of is going out to find who ever was letting their dog run rouge and kick their ever loving ASS.
It angered me in ways that I cant describe. I am all for natural selection and agree that we as humans are a part of this planet not owners. But this dog was domestic which means that instead of being mauled and eaten years ago by a bigger predator it was harbored in some jack asses house. Since this human decides to harbor such a aggressive dog it is their responsibility. Now some cougar will go hungry because some jack ass let their dog run free. Damn I wish I could meet this jack ass.
So back to my blog with pretty pictures and comforting scenery. Um, storms. Yea, so I made it home without incident while Billings was being hit by a tiny twistersourus.
I got home and plopped down on the couch. Then my phone rang. "Bill are you all right". Screamed mom. I was like, "What?"
"Oh, sorry wrong Bill". My brother by marriage is also Bill, we called him Big Bill. He is thee dude coming out to the 24 Hours of Rapelje this upcoming weekend. Mom was calling to see if he was ok since he lived near the incident which took out the big stadium and some businesses.
So I twittered that mom just called and there was a tornado in Billings. Ho hum
24 Hours of Rapelje
Submitted by Bill on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 6:50am
Links
- Info Links
- Stockman Cafe
- Posts
- 2pedal.com
- YVCC Post
- MBPost.Com is the site that has been keeping us up to snuff. I made a tiny URL for you to use in emails. http://tinyurl.com/rapleje24
- Rich Shattuck has posted some photos of the 2009 version. http://teammuleterro.com/Rapelje2009/
- My 24 Hour Exploits
News
2010 : The Stockman Cafe has updated their web page and posted some 2009 photos with the race only a week away.
Directions
Take exit 408 off I-90 at Columbus and go past Town Pump, McDonald
Thursday Rain Hike
Submitted by Bill on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 11:00am
The call came in mid day that our fearless Missoula Thursday Night Ride leader had made a decision to ditch the night ride at Blue Mountain in favor of a hike up Mount Jumbo.
I stopped in to see if Mr Cymbals wanted to car pool but didn't get a answer to my knocking of the door. It was an opportunity I thought. It seemed as though no one was answering calls, knocks at the door, or emails. Everyone was hiding. hiding from the outdoors where it has been relentlessly raining freezing cold saturating droplets of hell juice. Opportunity?
Yes, to get a Vanilla Black Tea from City Brew. While I was at it I grabbed a blue berry scone. I then went to wait at the foot of Mount Jumbo for my TNR friends with my warm liquid happiness and its sidekick pastry of the heavens. I curled up with NPR spewing bad news and sipped the vanilla goodness. After a while, one by one, everyone started to come out of the woodwork. We were off.
Even as we started it seemed no one wanted to be outdoors as they escaped to conversations on their cell phones. As if they were trying to reach out to the warmth of "indoors". But soon the trail made us realize that we were not going to get comfort. Instead the land or mother earth turned bitchy and tried to crush our souls. All the wet grass leaned in and eventually fell into the trail where we had to push through like a continuous car wash. My feet were drenched and when we finally had the respect of the land and it opened up to us by giving forth a trail void of cold wet weeds I was walking with a consistent sound. Squish, squash, squish, squash.
Then, "baaaaaa baaaaaa baaaaaaa". We encountered sheep. It was a diverse flock. Some were not even sheep at all but goats. Each had a distinctive sound. Some cute, "baaaaaaa". Some pathetic, "uggggggggg". Some elders, "ring ring ring ring". Then, "Woof woof woof". Wait! Woof?
It was the flock guardians. At first I stopped wondering if we were to interrupt their most important duty of the day, driving the flock into the night holding pin atop Jumbo. So we took it easy and when we were interfering the guardians let us know. One came to me and sniffed my hand as if to say, "don't be messing with any of my peeps, do you have a piece of bacon?".
Once past the herd we summated Jumbo and took the family portrait. We had been out for an hour and many started to look forward to the food and ale. They continued up and over to Alden's house for festivities while I turned and high tailed it home.
So I guess even though it was "not so good" conditions, it was a good time. The worst of times and the best of times I guess is what comes to mind again.
Rain
Submitted by Bill on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 6:25am
Sitting here, warm now, wondering if I made a bad decision to Move to Missoula Montana. We have not had summer yet. We do get sunny days but they last a couple days at the most. Last night as I returned from my ride I was drenched again and that in itself is only part of the frustration. It has been so cold out that our bodies are starting to act like its winter.
The water I have boiling for my tea is just about boiled away but I am not concerned because I already fixed myself up with a Bengal Spice with almond milk. I left the remainder water to boil so as to give off some heat in the form of steam. My apartment tends to remain cold and with winter raging outside I am feeling cold and in need of a warm cocoon.
I think to tonight and the Missoula Thursday Night Ride. Will it be worth going out to Blue Mountain at 6? Is it going to continue to rain? How cold will it be? Should I prepare for hypothermia?
My new shoes and many clothing items remain wet as they have for the entire spring/winter/spring/winter. Everything is molding and the sun refuses to remain out long enough to dry us out.
My thoughts flee to another frustration, being without money. I missed last weekends race in Boise a 8 Hour Endurance Event. Its one thing to miss cross country races but to start skipping what I love to do, endurance racing; is a heart and soul breaking shame. It is tough to think that I only have three races left this year (ones that have been paid for) and it is not even summer yet. Not liking this situation and pushing my thoughts to making some changes after this season.
I will probably go out to Blue tonight but my attitude has been left behind in the memories of better times when the sun used to shine and the trails used to be dry. Then there is working on the equipment all night
Monday Shorty
Submitted by Bill on Mon, 06/14/2010 - 3:19pmI dont have to tell anyone it is Monday and what a day it can be. I am in the same boat. So instead of a blog how-a-bouts I publish a tiny vid I had hanging around on my computer. My friend Sten and I camped out and rode our asses off about a month ago out at Pipestone. I snapped a couple photos and shot a couple vids.