Date: Dec. 12Mileage: 18.0
December mileage: 165.1
Temperature upon departure: 34
I spend a lot of time blogging, but nearly as much as I'd like (And I realize that's as ridiculous as saying "I don't watch as much TV as I should.") So usually I miss out when people "tag" me. ("Tagging" happens when bloggers ply each other with requests for inane information in a joint effort to fill up the slower days). Since I had a fairly uneventful ride this morning, I'm going to indulge in my first "tag:" Six random and mildly interesting things you may not already know about me:
1. My favorite (solid) food is cold cereal. Any kind. It’s true.
2. I am a job hopper. Since 1995, I have worked as a piano tutor, a Wendy’s front line slave (we were sandwich artists before sandwich artists were cool), a grocery bagger, a bagel baker, a 1-hour photo processor, a retail lackey, a custom framer, a reporter, an editorial cartoonist, a graphic artist, a community news editor, a prepress operator, a copy editor, a freelance writer, a production editor, a Webmaster, an ad designer, and finally, my current job - the person the Juneau Empire conned into working weekends. Oh, and I’ve been unemployed a bunch of times in there, too.
3. With the exception of one ill-fated rental ride on the Slickrock Trail, I did not mountain bike (or ride a bicycle at all, for that matter) until Summer 2002.
4. I have walked on the Arctic Ocean. It was frozen at the time.
5. When I was a kid, I did not want to grow up to be a journalist. I wanted to be an engineer.
6. In June 1996, my friend and I were at a radio promo event when a strange guy wearing a spiked dog collar challenged us to race him and his "friends" on the Slick Track (you know, where you drive tiny cars around a tire-lined course.) The guy turned out to be the drummer for Everclear. The "friends" were the rest of the band. And I won.
And now, since I'm a sucker for comments, I'm just going to ask you. Tell me something interesting.
I can tell you one thing..........
ReplyDeleteWhen you're 17........it's possible to get 4 flat tires on your parents car all at the same time.
this is julie, i raced in the 24 hours of kincaid this past summer and you passed me a few times. i stumbled across your blog when searching for pictures from the event, and i've been following it ever since. Your pictures are AMAZING. I have no better way to do this since I can't find an email address to you, but I wondered if you would mind me linking your blog to my personal website? I'm still in college (from PA, but worked in AK for the summer) and am setting up an eportfolio, but will have fun links. Secondly, I used to be to be obsessed with Everclear. Not the guys themselves, but their music. That's AWESOME you raced them and beat them. Haha. Let me know about linking your website via email, my junk email is everclear429@yahoo.com so I don't mind posting that here. Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteI want Bill O'Reilly to read me a story. I really like his voice and speech patterns, but I can't drag myself to listen to his show because I disagree with everything he says. I think a perfect compromise is he could read me a story.
ReplyDeleteThat would be "webmistress."
ReplyDeleteA train engineer?
My favorite solid food is natto, which is a sticky, gooey, smelly rotten soybean concoction but I really really like it!
Oh, my first mountain bike ride was about three years ago. I'm still a confirmed roadie, though I like to hit the singletrack on occasion too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager I almost had to have my ears amputated from frostbite because I went out to a friend's cabin at -20F---I had LOTS of earrings and a mohawk, so I was too cool to wear a hat. To this day, my ears ache with even the slightest chill, but I am damn glad just to have them.
ReplyDeleteI fell out of the top bunk of a bunk bed when I was 6 months old and fractured my skull. I haven't been normal since.
ReplyDeleteI first rode my 150 miles in a day when I was 15.
I grew up hiking and climbing mountains for fun. My bike was mainly for transportation and I'd often ride 50 miles a day during the summers in high school to get between lawn mowing jobs and other yard jobs.
hi jill my name is troy live in pa
ReplyDeleteyours is the first site i visit each day.i'm a roadie for almost 20years now.you have inspired me to ride through the winter thanks
oh i love your photos.my wife & i spent a month driving & hiking around ak in 93
one time, after having been married to my wife for about two years, her mom kissed me on the mouth. and i didn't even see it coming.
ReplyDeleteI've sung for two presidents, once in a choir for Jimmy Carter at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1980 and once for Ronald Reagan when I was in a barbershop quartet after his state of the union address in 1981. I was part of the hired entertainment for the republican caucus that night. Strom Thurmond introduced himself to me 3 times. I was one of four guys wearing bowlers and armbands. He had lost it even then.
ReplyDeleteWoodog
I'm riding Tour de Cure in July!
ReplyDeleteI'm a 47 year old college student.
I've lost more weight than a NFL lineman weighs!
wow!
ReplyDeletepeace out, yo!
oops! i almost forgot!
ReplyDeleteonly 2 more days to register for trans iowa....
peace out, yo!
I'm going to teach myself to play the trombone, starting next week.
ReplyDeleteI was born in Romania in the year 1593. At age 23 I was engaged to a woman, but the relationship ended when I found out she was a vampire. Upon ending our engagement I was bitten in anger, and have been a vampire ever since. That old chestnut... So yeah, I've had a lot of jobs too. I once worked in a Tavern where J.S. Bach used to perform before he got his 1st big break. He played organ in a band called the Frescobaldi Four. Personally I think they sucked, but that Bach kid really stood out...the band was holding him back. Anyway, enough about me...
ReplyDeleteif you asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up, i'd tell you a garbage man and the president. right now i wouldn't want to be the president but a garbage man sure sounds like more fun.
ReplyDeletei was one of those "cruise people" this past summer. Juneau wasn't what I expected for being the state capital but it was still a beautiful lil town.
i do envy where you live but I don't envy the winters there. 53 and partly sunny for a december in new jersey, crazy but i'll take it.
My Uncle by Marriage is younger than me & reads your blog while he's supposed to be working.
ReplyDeletemy first job out of college was as the operations director of a community radio station in charlottesville, va. this was around the time of everclear's singles "wonderful" and "a.m. radio". there were lots of concerts, bleary overnight dj shifts, callers scolding me for playing stuff like 'open the door' (that's a suicide song! how dare you play that!), musical snobbery was not only tolerated but actually encouraged, and best of all, each on-air shift was my own private dance party. how cool was that.
ReplyDeletenow i sit at an investment firm in san francisco crunching numbers in silence for 25-30 hours a week. hmm. but afterwards i get to go outside and ride my bike!
i love your blog. it should be essential reading for us norcal pansies, especially now that the winter rains have come and few of us can bear riding in the (gasp!) 50 degree wet weather.
These are great comments! Some of my best yet. Thank you everyone for sharing.
ReplyDelete