get the cigars ready. I'm a daddy again...

Well, our stray cat that won't leave that has now become our permanent cat has now given birth to five little sweeties.

Mom and babies all seem to be doing well. We even have a handfull of very kind building contractors that have been keeping a close eye on them while working on our house.

We'll keep you posted with new and pictures.

Captain.

finally taking shape

Well, after a long winter of waiting this spring has brought progress in our house addition. As you can see we are adding a new garage. The existing garage will be converted to living space. I get a room just for me for riding rollers and the treadmill and climber will also be house in my new area. We will be having a new master bedroom with walk-in closet. There will be two rooms for storage as well which is greatly needed since we are pack rats. Two hallways will be added. One to the laundry/bathroom and one to the new garage. Should be done by the end of July.

Stay tuned for weekly updates.

Captain

colors

Sometimes the color of the sky just leaves me speechless. Tonight was one of those nights. The image is facing West and slightly North. Of course the picture just doesn't do it justice. Close though.

Captain

darn internet

Well, it's been a few days without internet and it's driving me crazy. I have www now but still no email. I bet there will be over 150 emails when it comes back up and that doesn't count the junk.

So, the crank arm blog. Yes, Jackal won. I reached the 7 mile from home mark the other night and noticed something loose coming from the drive side of my bike. Then, the whole crankarm came off.....still clipped in though. Made a quick stop and decided that I had better head home. Put the crank arm back on and began the journey home pedaling with only my left foot. Thank goodness for clipless pedals. About every three or four pedal stokes a slight tap on the right crankarm was needed (with my right foot heel) to keep it from falling off. I was able to make the trip home with only having to walk up the steeper climbs. The ride home was double the time of the ride out.

Forgot to mention that while limping home I thought, "What if the other arm is loose? Crap!" So, I took a quick peek. Oh my! There's not even a bolt there! Then it hit me, I took the bolts out to put on my temporary TT bike. Hmm...now what? Luckily the left arm never came loose.
I did learn a valuable lesson in the midst of my worry.......never borrow bolts for another bike.

Captain

something missing?

New car.

Finally broke down and bought a slightly used 2008 Saturn Aura. Nice too. Made them kill a cow just to get the seats covered.

Too nice for me to drive. I will keep driving the clunkers and let my sweetie ride in style.....after I get the mud flaps on. Gravel will kill the paint.

Captain.

don't ya come round here no more........

this picture shouldn't require too much explaining. The little pain in the rump is still warm. That's right folks.....I killed this little guy with on what could have been strike three but I connected and put him over the fence. Bases weren't loaded but who cares. One hit put him out of my misery.

So, ever feeling like flying round my house scaring the wife.....might want to think twice about it. I am a tennis pro!

This was our second bat tonight and fourth one in two weeks. I think we found where they have been coming in and I have installed an electric fence. 220 volt of course. No, I haven't taken a leak on it yet and don't plan to.

The upside of having bats in you house? No misquito's!

Captain

rub a dub dub....fun in the tub.

Finally have been getting some time to enjoy Pam's most recent purchase from a craig's list ad. She found this little two person hot tub a few weeks ago for $300. It's almost new too. Works very good and is very relaxing. Good therapy for a long day at the office, or after a good bike ride.

I couldn't help but think of those folks who are trying to get away from water due to the rising creeks, rivers and lakes. I really am keeping those folks in my prayers. And especially the folks that are still dealing with the change in their lives since the tornados. I feel so thankful for not having suffered any damage. Here I am should deep in water in this nice hot tub and there are folks just miles away that have should deep water in the living rooms and that's not in a tub either.

Here is a picture of the southern part of Sweets Marsh. It's across the road from a private owned park where I am a member. It's called tots Lake and it is owned by the Wapsie Sportsmans Club. It has a couple good fishing holes that my little ladies and I frequent a quite often. At this time it appears we won't be fishing for a while. Could be worse though.

Captain

hill climbing.

Saturday was a stay at home day for me. Pam was on call so the only way i could get a ride in was to stay within shouting distance of the homestead. So, at the end of my driveway starts a nice little gravel road hill. I works pretty well for some sprinting/climbing training. Two types of training was what I focused on Saturday while riding my new Vassago Jabberwocky single speed. Seated climbing and out of the saddle climbing. On a single speed I prefer the out of the saddle workout. Overall, it seems to work more of my entire body since I have to use my arms and waist more. Even seems to give the tits a tone session. Feeling it a little today so I know I worked hard enough to make it count. I have not made enough time lately to ride so when I do I have to really make it count.

Today we are dealing with crappy weather again and sure enough I have water in the basement again. This time only it some corners though and it has been trickling into the floor drain so no problems yet. Hopefully the little breaks in the showers will be enough to hold off any major flooding for me. I hope everyone reading this knows that I am thinking of them too and hope they are all staying safe and dry. I did get a few miles of riding in today around the house. I went flood water damage spotting and didn't see too much around our place. That's good cause our gravel roads have really been taking a beating this season.

Hope you all stay flood free and have a chance to ride your bikes.

Captain

Night at the ball park

My 7 year old daughter Madelyn started t-ball this year. She is getting better. Some attention span issues still roaming but getting better. Not many of the 2-3 graders are using the tee any longer. The coach is a good pitcher and the kids really do hit pretty well. Madee connected all three times up to bat tonight. All three base hits too. Nice work sweetie! She also took a turn at 3rd base and really impressed me. There was a hit to the short stop and she took off after it but turned back to 3rd base to wait like she was suppose to. Good job. the also had a line drive to her while at 3rd and stopped the ball, picked it up and ran to third and tied with the runner. Made me happy to see she is having lots of fun too.

Here are a couple of pics. One is when she connected for a hit that launched the ball into the outfield. the other pick is her rounding 1st a little.

Captain

I'm back! For a while I hope.........

It's been a while since my last post. I mainly took the time off to see if I still wanted to have my own blog. I always seem to have difficulty finding the time to generate a good quality post these lately. I have decided to give it another shot. Hopefully I still have some readers. I know my family will still be reading it so that is worth my time too.

Well.... I have been riding while not posting and have raced a couple of times. One DNF and one 2nd place. The DNF was at the Decorah Time Trials. Had a good start but then some shifting issues caused me to (for some reason) take off my chain and then I lost one piece of the Sram quick link. The link is not much good without both parts. Oh well.

The second race was the UpsideDownDu. It is a Bike Run Bike. I asked our friends 14yr daughter to do the team event with me. She was happy to help. I did the two bike laps. She did the two run laps and then me again for the final bike lap. So, mechanicals again this time? Not really. But, I did have a stinking flat. Not patch kit or tubes with me so.......that meant I have to hike the last 1.5 miles of my first bike lap. That put me about 8 minutes back from the first place team rider. Then, I had to run to the truck to get a tube. By the time I started my second lap I was another 8 minutes down. Jenna had a smoking fast first run lap. It was just a tad over 18 minutes which was about 2 minutes behind Sara Gall. Pretty darn fast for a young girl who doesn't train. My last bike lap was around 22 minutes which was pretty good for me. Jenna ran the whole event with running shoes that weren't made for trails. The were somewhat slick on the bottom. Good job though. I did the even on my single speed 29er. It's a Vassago Jabberwocki, which performed quite well.

That leaves me to my family. Lately, we have been still working on our house remodel. So and steady. Mostly just slow. The girls have been well. Madee is in T-Ball and doing pretty good. Ella is just hanging out. She is well too.

That's all for today. Thanks to you all that have been waiting patiently for another post.

Captain Bob