DropGearMaster

In Time

2009-11-10T16:04:00.001-06:00

On Hisatus for the next couple of days....the parents are in town visiting!

The Follow Up/Recap.

2009-11-04T22:45:00.011-06:00

Here is the deal, if you read the last entry before this one it describes my poorish posting abilities and theories as to why. The sad thing is I posted that tonight when in actuality I wrote it well over a week and a half ago. So here are the pics from what should have been the last couple post over the past two weeks.....enjoy!

(LEFT) The Taurine built and now finally ready for action!
(RIGHT) The second of the two bikes back home..the Cross bike, not so ready for action. Need some tires, somehow those didn't make the trip to Cali, oh well. Ill get it going for winter, turns out the desert has thousands of miles of sandy dirt trails and fire roads perfect for this here whip.

Ok so we don't quite have those engagement photos from Santa Barbara yet but here is a photo of Josh drunk trying to get over a curb in Santa Barbara, just as good! No better!

And Finally Kim's B-day present:

That's the quick recap of the last two weeks. Trust me it's getting better. First it took a year to re-post, then a couple months...this time it was only 2weeks so stay tuned.

Point and Case

2009-11-04T22:32:00.002-06:00

I finally figured out why I never post.... every time I am about too post I think to myself ill do it tomorrow when I have a picture because that will make this post oh so more exciting for the two people that actually occasionally read this. The problem is I don't have easy access to any sort of camera. If the camera I happen to have has battery power Ill use it but even then I don't carry it around in my back pocket, and my conscious efforts to take a camera along with me somewhere seem to be non-existent. My solution MONEY..... see this is how it works if I had one of those fancy do it all phones (like the rest of the world), the ones with the camera and internet I would probably be posting all the time because I can take a picture any time and have it loaded on the internet in even less time. And the only way to obtain one of these is to not only have the money to buy the phone but the money to pay for the outrageous monthly bill of internet in your hand. Two things I do not posses = money and money. So this will not be happening for a while and until then I will submit to well under par blogging.

Here we go with the latest update, last week the "in-laws" came for a visit, we headed to Santa Barbara for a day at the beach and took some engagement photos, (again to be poster "tomm"). Did a lot of eating as is always done when people come to visit, and Josh and I were planning on an 4hour epic CA ride only to be disappointed by the UUUUps man, who showed up at 5pm Tue rather than the MON he was suppose to, so this caused an insufficient number of road bikes to do this ride. On the plus side I got two more of my bikes back, One beauty that has yet to be rode (pic for "tomm"). After everyone left I was finally able to get back into a routine and get some riding in after a week and a half off. Did the high desert flats ride 3 and 2 days ago and then hit up a couple mountains yesterday as the weather has been 70-85, no wind lately ..i.e PERFECT.
Gotta get prepared for the festivities in May. Hittin up the last four stages of the Tour of CA, all are invited and all are welcome, all four stages are a semi close drive from my house.

Good Eats!

2009-10-04T19:24:00.003-05:00

So my entries may be a few days apart, but it is better than a few months. Just give me a bit and I'll get the hold of this thing.

Haven't been riding the last few days as work and going out has made a slug of me, Ive been just wiped. Friday morning just got away from me so I didn't get to hop on the bike , had to go to work at 1:30, got off at 9:30 so Kim and I went down a couple blocks from our Grand Apartment to "Fresco II", a lil' Italian joint. Our neighbor's band had a gig there. Not knowing what to expect we walked in and the little two room restaurant was hopping, the band did mostly covers but they were tight as shit. More importantly BEER! Finally I have found a bar that serves more than Bud, Fat Tire, and Tecate. They actually had some I never heard of.....something that is starting to get hard these days. I tried a couple out and really enjoyed "Xingu" try it if you can find it and the jury is still out on the other I had " Unibroue, La fin du monde" (The end of the world). This was really yeasty and I am still pondering whether it was really disgusting or so interesting that I like it....guess I will have to go back to test more ($6/25oz bottle)...just a heads up thats really cheap out in these parts. It turns out living in Cali is quite expensive.

Onward, I had to be to work at 7:30 the next morning...sucks going to work swing shit Friday to day shift Saturday, especially with beer and bands in-between. Either way as soon as I got down with work Kim and I took a nice little hour drive across the desert to Hesperia for one of my new buddies/co-worker's sons B-day. He turned 2 and you never turn down an invitation from his family....the food.... always phenomenal. Ok so I have only eating with them twice but let me tell the first time his father deep fried some fish and made the best fish tacos I have ever had, actually correction..The BEST TACOS PERIOD I have ever had. Pssst he's Mexican, they know what they're doing.

Lastly today I was in at work at 6:30 and got home and was wiped from the past days festivities so I took a nap. Turns out I slept to long and no onger have enough daylight for a proper ride soooo if I can't ride what do we do, EAT! I'm currently waiting for the coals on the grill to heat up and we're gonna through some salmon on cedar plank with some garlic potatoes. The eating is good in the desert. The October training is off to a slow start. ON the plus side the weather is now cooperating, 60's today. Evenings in the 50's/40's good thing I kept them Revo Arm warmers.

For you Ben

2009-09-30T12:30:00.003-05:00

Alright, Ill try this one more time now that I am what you would call "settled" in a home. As I asked Ben yesterday to ship the last few of my bikes to me he gave me shit about my blogging or lack there of. So this is for you Ben.
Since I haven't blogged in so long I could write pages bringing you all up to speed but I will try and just bring you back over the next few posts. For now, all you need to know is I'm in Cali working as a Air Traffic Controller, living in a desert and finally starting to get some great riding in...(pictures to come). After a few months of slacking and searching for roads I have a few good set Cty Rd 8 type routes established. Today I took the standard shortest of the them. I like to refer to it as my slick route. This was ride designed for Schlicht. Let me tell you how it goes. First you ride across 10miles of flat desert, similar to ND tundra flat and windier than the JETBLAsT from the Stealth Fighters flying over head. I'm talking a constant 25mph with some nasty gusts. But after that you wish you were as light as slick cause the climbing begins, several thousand feet. Even though it is higher it doesn't matter it will still be 100degrees. On the plus side throughout this ride the roads fair quite well, can't complain on that end. After your first long climb you get to turn with the wind to your back and hit some Minnesota type rollers with Mn scenery, i.e. (for slick remind you) Horses, LLamas, goats, Ponies, Donkeys. Even today I saw two Donkeys doing the hippity dippidy. After all the fun of ponies and what not we get into a couple more thousand feet of climbing followed by a beautiful descent back into the city, where speeds of 50mph come without pedaling and you wish cars could corner as well as you so you wouldn't have to slow down for them. Except for of course the occasionally Ferrari or Porsche that comes whizzing by. Once you get into the city you are greeted by biker friendly roads that have bikes lanes 3-10ft wide all the time. A nice 15min spin down through the city and your back home to your luxurious 1bedroom apartment that cost as much as a mortgage in MN.
Doing the ride backwards is actually almost better, it is what I did today and froze my ass off. This morning it was only in th mid 40's. Which I know makes me sound like a wussy but when it has been 90-100 for the last few months it was quite a shock at 7am. Felt like I was back in Sota, actually quite refreshing. I had on my revo kit of course and I passed 3 other riders.... all of whom had long sleeve wind breakers or arm warmers on, California Bitches!!!

OK thats to much for 1 post
Later

TEST..TEST..TEST...TEST

2009-03-04T19:56:00.002-06:00

Hello again,
Sorry there are now more pictures yet, it is evening making me think this blog is lame, but I just never get around to it. Next time I promise I will get some pics up. Anyway I am finally learning how to study. It is now week two and Friday I have test two, I am starting to pick up on a pattern here. Every week there is a test on information that came from a book about the size of the QBP accessories catalog. To clarify that is a new book that size each week. I couldn't be more excited though because lil miss Kim is arriving Thur night for a weekend stay.

Riding....well I haven't done a whole lot yet, I have tried and mentioned that routes and roouds...make that roads, suck around here. So I went and stopped at a couple local bike shops downtown OKC to see what the scene was like.
First shop, Holy Shit!!! They stocked everything from a kids trike to a size run of the high-end Cannondale Slice. There were orbea and cervelo frames/completes hanging everywhere. a rack of full carbon TTbars (Zipp,Pro,Profile etc..) Blackwell Wheel sets, full run of MAVIC,SHIMANO,and ZIPP wheel sets...needless to say it was ridiculous. The shop was cool and they have been around forever but to be honest I was more impressed with the second shop I went too and here is why.
The second shop was smaller but well layed-out. They didn't carry the array of high caliber equipment but the important thing was the employees. They new there shit, were totally cool with helping me find routes and find out about the riding/racing scene, and couldn't have been more inviting. Plus they offered me a part time job and I didn't even say shit. People know it when they see it. Anyway, the point being maybe it is because I have worked in a shop for some time now or maybe not but I just hope the average consumer could see the difference between the two. The service they would get at the second shop would far exceed the quality of help they would get at the first. The funny thing was that it was fairly new, 2 years, hmmmm seems like some other shop I know of. (Insert Shameless plug here) Revolution Cycle and Ski

Thats all for now
Gooday

Insurance Baby!!!!

2009-03-01T09:41:00.000-06:00

Hey boys and girls, I am slowly getting some time to start writing this blog again. I finally was able to sleep in today, which was glorious. 5am mornings are hurting bad. We can get shit canned for looking like we are tired, being 15seconds late, having a cellphone on grounds, or letting the tongue slip "shit" (which is difficult coming from a shop environment). I can't complain though, pretty much just don't be a dumb ass and I should be able to keep my job. Well that is if I can memorize and execute about 6,000 pages of rules, regulations, procedures, and concepts in the next few weeks. On the plus side this process here in OKC is geared towards having us succeed, it is when I get to CA that all the washout happens. At least I now have insurance!!!! Who wants to go do something risky??? I actually was going to go skydiving with my instructor this weekend but didn't want to drop $200 for it. Instead the roommates and I hopped into the car and checked out OK city as we are actually residing in a lil' suburb called Mustang. Despite previous assumptions the city is actually pretty cool, only exception being is not one single Oklahoman knows how to drive. The weather got crazy windy and cold this weekend so I did not ride today...maybe tomm. Either way we should be back up into the 70s this week. Thus far road conditions down here blow! No shoulders, tons of traffic, old pavement, potholes for babies and small dogs, and no good routes that don't make you turn around for the same 5mi stretch. I might try and ride with a couple of guys from a shop in OKC if I can swing the time after work before it gets dark.
Gotta go Study
Later

Update

2009-02-23T19:08:00.007-06:00

Well hello again boys and girls, ladies and gents. We begin again. As all 4 of you whom read my blog know I made the big move this weekend down to OKC. The drive absolutely blew ass. I woke up to several inches of snow on the ground to begin my commute. Nothing like slowing down the start of a 15hour drive. This was a picture of my starting road.
Ok so it is a state hwy in WI maybe it shouldn't have been plowed yet but I sure as hell expected to see the next road below to be plowed, an interstate,

Where are all my federal taxes going? because I sure as hell haven't received my paycheck yet.

Needless to say it did get better, eventually, somewhere in Iowa, and by the time I got to Kansas it was BROWN!

(Sorry for the bad pics. Bad Camera, Driving, horrible photographer.)

I finally got somewhere deep in Kansas and was planning on calling it a night until I realized I was only like 2hours away. I decided to push on and ended up meeting the crew downtown OKC at a pretty kickass Cigar-bar. Ok it sucked because people were smoking in the bar and I forgot how much it suck to have a stench of smoke on you. But they had one hell of a jazzy blues band and my land lord bought me a beer that wasnt pisswater.

After the bar I finally got to the house, not to shabby, it is pretty much brand new. they furnished the entire thing including a 60in highdef TV, full fridge, and stocked pantry. Cant beat that.

SORRY FOR THE LONG POST...THEY WILL GET BETTER.....

Sunday-
I got some needed sleep, ate a huge breakfast(which someone else cooked for me, bonus) played some football with all the residents in a random field with a pick-up truck and country music blaring, which unfortunately is just impossible to escape down here. Ate some burgers and dogs off the grill (again which I did not have to cook or pay for) went home and settled in.

Today-
First day of work. Wake up balls early to make it to the facility and get cleared by security, issued badges and all that great stuff. Went to my assigned room and sat, and sat, and sat. Basically I sat through 8hours of telling me not to wink at the girls, dont be late, and I am getting benefits. Pretty sure all stuff I already knew, not to mention again filling out 6 of the exact same forms I already filled out 23times. Gov't.

Got home ate and rocked some Halo on the Highdef for a while then headed out to the streets to test the ol' cycling legs. More on that to come, I am tired of typing and I am sure you are tired of this breakdown. Just wanted to let you know it has begun and I will be back soon.

laters

Sad Day...things are changing

2009-02-17T08:46:00.003-06:00

Things are changing
Blogs,
Bikes,
Life.

Even though the official return to the blogging world is not until next week..(stay tuned) I felt that today deserved an entry. For today is my last day at the shop, Revolution Cycle and Ski I will miss it dearly and all that associate with her.

Rock on!

This guy got HUGE!

2009-02-11T16:17:00.003-06:00

I just wanted to start getting things warmed up for my inevitable comeback to the blogging world in the next 2 weeks. Here is a couple of pictures of Slick's Seceret winter training plan in Fargo. From the photos he sent us it looks like it is working.
Enjoy!

I'm a Skiiler

2007-12-12T10:40:00.000-06:00

That's right, I have finally caved. After two outings on a pair of Evo rentals with Sir Josh and Sir Mike out at the Quarries, I have decided to put my already debted collge life deeper in the hole. Last night I bought myself some Atomic Vasa G2 Classic Skiis and accomadating get-up. Right now I am waiting for the second to last layer of wax to dry so I can get out on these bad boys.

Time to go scrape my planks.
Later

Im going Looney

2007-12-09T20:42:00.000-06:00

I am not sure why, maybe it is because I had a week off, but time on the rollers never seemed to pass faster. I got another two hours in before I had to head to work, feels great. It is possible that it was because of the movie which was pretty good, shoot'em up movie are always good trainer movies. I watched "The Professional". Basically you have this Italian Hit Man, shoots alot of people, saves some little girl and starts to train her to be a Hit Man..Women. I mean what guy doesnt like think while watching a brilliant, clever, fast, guy kill people with skill, I want to be that guy. Everyone wants to be able to go into an apartment undetected strangle some dude without the other 6 mobs thugs not even noticing before they get cleaned as well, like a Ninja, I love Ninjas!. Ok maybe no one wants that because we would all be so F#*#** -up in the head from killing people. Seriously how the hell do you deal with something like that. Which brings me to my second concern of the night Death.
Does anyone find it creepy that in the past two weeks I have now had 4dreams in which I have been in a car accident. I told a couple people after the third, which I thought maybe it would cease to happen then, but unfortunely it happened again. The tally thus far is I Lived 1 time and Died 3 times. I am almost hoping for more dreams of this nature just so I can even out the score. The worst thing about it all is that in a couple of the dreams after the accident I see myself laying there, somtimes dead somtimes alive, often times friends are around me trying to help. As though it were a movie, it was not as though I am looking through my own eyes but instead from the view of some camera man. Dont you usually wake up right before you die? Like when you have that dream that everyone has.... were you are falling and just before you impact you damn near jump out of your bed sweating like a pig. It is like that except I dont jump up and wake up, I watch the accident/crash and it continues on. What the hell is this all about, I usually dont even remember my dreams.
If someone has the name of a good shrink help me out.

Only two more days of offical class time this semester:)! Then finals :(
Time to go do some night skiing at the Quarries and forget all this.
Later.

I'm Back!!!

2007-12-08T13:00:00.000-06:00

Most importantly i just want to speak my joyous feelings, I am finally oficially back on the bike! I know it is the rollers and all but it seriously felt amazing after a week-long reprieve...DAMN SCHOOL.

On another note the first annual Revolution Cycle and Ski NWD8 Movie Premeire/Black Tie Party went down last night.

(Note My lack of Tie)

After the movie a few remaining folk wondered downtown to the Martini Lounge, figured why not we gots all our swagger on. Oddly enough some of us had to be responsible adults while all the children went down to the Boom-Boom Room to get their bump and grind on. I do beleive all had a great night, and I am absolutely excited for the second annual. You boys at Revo sure throw a hell of a party.

time for a PB&J I think.
Peace

Tick...Tock...Tick...Tock!

2007-12-04T05:31:00.000-06:00

I just want everyone to look at the post time of this entry. For any normal semi-intelligent human being being up at 5:30am is no big deal, yes possibly an early morning, but duable. Unfortunetly for me it is 5:30am and I have yet to go to bed, I am taking a 5min brake from my homework and then Ill be back it, since it is due at 9:30am and we still have about 5 pages to write, indexing, referencing, and a 40min powerpoint presentation to whip together.

No I am not seeking your empathy, nor am I asking you say "shit that must be alot of work" but rather please slap me up side the head and say "dumbass"
Because unfortunetly this has been eating into my Darren/Bicicletta time.

Sorry in pics for you storybook readers but I really gots to get back to work.

Peace

HAha! Religion Right?!?

2007-11-30T08:32:00.000-06:00

Finally today after several bloody battles with these think boxes I have been able to defeat this PC (Piece of Crap) computer. Yes today the link to post pictures works and you shall be amazed. Maybe it was a miracle, an act of god, maybe the techies finally fixed the computers, or maybe I just got lucky today. Well at least I know it wasn't religion, because as I was leaving the library last night at about 1:30 I saw somthing along the lines of this. (picture on left).

Now let's zoom in a little closer and see what she is looking at on the computer screen...at 1:30a.m. in the Library. (Below Picture)

NEED I SAY MORE??
p.s. for those of you who don't know, World of Warcraft is a online role playing game where you control a clan, army, or cult if you will and you travel around with them battaling other cults with swords and magic.
NEED I SAY MORE??? Nun-World of Warcraft...Religion

Catch Up

2007-11-29T11:37:00.000-06:00

So I have come to the conclusion that yes even I suck at blogging, which was pointed out to me by the comment of a fellow ex-blogger. Unfortunetly this ex-blogger is most likely the only one who reads this anyway, so unfortunelty for you Ben regardless of how bad this is you're still going to have to read this.

On the plus side I spent a little extra time on the blog today, to make up for the lack of effort in the past week, and created a poll. Check it out and vote. It is pretty simple, I just need to decide what I want to ride on my new Easton Tempest II's. I would show you all a picture but I am not yet that blog savy. http://www.starbike.com/images/Easton/2006/wheels_tempest_ii_carbon.jpg Also starring on one of these two bikes will be a Sram Force Groupo.

To update you for the last week, basically it was the same as everyone else's, ate a shit ton (which is alot) of Turkey and all the fixins. Watched god i.e. Brett Farve lead the Packers to yet another win, and hopefully the same will occur tonight over Dallas. And got some nice cold weather riding done on the beautiful roads of Wisconsin (man I wish I had a camera and knew how to blog pics) Then I could show you all how much nicer WI is over MN. But regardless back home at the ol' shop a fellow employee started on kickass apparel company call Urban Sherpa so stay tuned for some sweet clothing and bags for all your urban sherpaing needs. Other than coming back to Cloud for work, which I actually enjoy, a lack of riding, and a sudden influx of homework/group meetings in mass proportions the forecast seems to be unfortunetly the same. Expect blogging to be scarce as I have meetings until 12 or 2am every night from now until tuesday. Supposedly desiging a airport is extrememly involved and one should not put it off until the week before it is due. But dont worry this will only fuel my bloggers apetite as I will have much to complain about, after all this is why I created this,... to complain.

Get the F^(# OUT!!

2007-11-15T12:33:00.000-06:00

Yea thats all I heard last night at 2am. No I was not at the bar ( I wish, I could have used a drink) but rather I was still in the library. Yes I was working on that inferno project I ranted about earlier, and here I am bitchin about it again. But Hey IM DONE!! So I felt I deserved a blog entry. Even though I had to miss two classes today to finish it. I don't think my prof can get to mad, I mean we did sell him the best bike he has ever owned (Cann. Six13!!)/ he loves it and subsequently me, I'm in the clear.
And speaking of bikes, all this blasted homework has severly been cutting into my training time, I only rode 1.5hrs monday + MTB night ride where my damn battery fell off, nothing on tuesday and a mere 1.5hrs yesterday ON ROLLERS. If you can't tell Im a bit frustrated right now, hence the caps and !!!!!!!. I won't even get to ride today and I'll miss the Atomic Ski clinic tonight, whats happening with me??
I swear if this library steals anymore of my life....at least I know how Ben feels. By the way thanks for the first comment, even though you probably are the only one who has read this. But I have stole some of your life now that you have to read this babble. It seems a bit ironic that what turned him away from blogging is what started me. The reading of other's blogs, he lost time, I just got pissed I didn't have a place to write about useless shit, and where others for some percurious reason like listening to it. I apoplogize to you Ben for taking another 30secs of your life each time I post. Ill try to make it good. But I don't regret starting this. Think of it this way the next time one of you sees me, maybe I won't complain as much because I was able to vent on here.

Just Hope I wrote already for the day.
Peace

One More Thing

2007-11-13T20:35:00.000-06:00

Ok so now that this blog has officially been started and I have wasted a significant portion of my life using this blog to procrastinate doing homework whats a couple more minutes.

I simply wanted to state that the URL dropgearmaster was not intended to project my uncanny skills on a bicicleta, well maybe a little, or future skills, but rather maybe refers to my inherent ability to drop my chain in several races and every group ride known to man. Also if this damn internet thing would have allowed the first letter of each word to be capitalized it would have made sense, think about it......DGM....... Clever huh? Well regardless I have just come to the conclusion that I think to much.

Peace!

Explanation

2007-11-13T20:23:00.000-06:00

Just for your info, if you can think of a better name for me, I am all ears. I only put Munchie because I needed to think fast and type something. I chose this because it was the only nickname that has stuck with me for an extended period of time.......2hrs. Nothing cool like Doc, MeanDawg, Jeffro, Lunatic Biker or anything of the sorts.

It Begins

2007-11-13T20:01:00.001-06:00

So I never thought that I would be one to blog, for one I am simply too lazy, not to mention un-organized and a huge procrasinator. Although I usually will try to hide all this. At least I like to argue and babble on about completey usless and stupid shit, that might help.But I simply could not resist that idea of doing something other than my homework.
I have been sitting in the library of SCSU for about two hours now and just getting more and more pissed off. I am here becuase supposedly for this wonderful $5000 dollar a semester education I am to write a 6-page paper and 30min powerpoint presentation (due thursday, i have yet to begin) on Sir Richard Branson. Which has nothing to do with the topic and subject matter of the class which it is for, Air Carrier Operations. This has pissed me off because it has no relativity ( is that a word?) to the class whatsoever. For those of you who don't know who Branson is, he is a brilliant entrepeneuer who majority owns Virgin Group. Which owns 51% of Vrigin Atlantic Airways. And did the Commercial Space Travel thing. By the way you just read the extent of my 6-page paper thus far. So he owns part of an airline BIG WOOP!! I wish I was a pirate, but that has nothing to do with this blog just as Sir Richard Branson has nothing to do with how an Part 121 or 135 airline operates. Which is what I am suppose to learn in the class. I think this has only really upset me becuase this is not the first time this professor has pulled something like this, last semester I was in his Advanced Aerodynamics class and I had to do the same type of project, except on Hot Air Balloons, yea those are highly advanced in their aerodynamic function they have only been using them since Genghis Kahn's time. BULLSHIT!

Well sorry for the language and the disgust with our education system but at least you get to hear me rant on this sweet new blog. Well it will be sweet if I actually put things on it and keep it up. You see it is only because of this damn homework that I started the blog, becuase what do you do when your sitting in the library and looking for somthing to do other than your homework. That's right....read blogs of those people who are involved in your local cycling community, is there anything more important than biking? I thought everyone else is doing it why not jump off of the bridge, at least it will give you an excuse to bitch about the assignment you are procrastinating on. So here I am.

But for now I need to get out of this dreaded low lit silent cell-phone interrupting house of books.
Cheers,
Darren