Photoshop Friday

Well, another week has gone by which brings us to the 2nd edition of Photoshop Friday.

As you all know, I think about bikes A LOT! You know, so does my buddy Gravelo. He's heeling up too, so when you are done reading here send him some good vibes. I think he collects about as many bikes as he thinks about. Just the other day I was flying over his place with my chopper and saw him standing out on his deck. I snapped a quick picture before heading for home. Dude, I never knew you had a pool.


Captain.
close-up of the Gravelo.........

Don't put it in your mouth!

Wed was a pretty eventful day. We woke up to an ill child. Walked into the girls room and found a strange smell of chicken. Hmm, that's wierd, chicken. We had chicken the night before so I didn't think too much of it until I arrived at Ella's bed. She woke up, sat up in bed, and said, "What's that smell dad?" I looked at her bed and realized that she lost her lunch from Tues and her dinner as well. There was even a shiny looking something that appeared to be a rock. I said what's that Ella? She grabbed it and said it was the rock that Lexi made her put in her mouth at school Tues. I guess that little rock plugged a pipe or something. I made mention to her that she can't be putting things in her mouth, let alone swallow them. She told me that Lexi did it and she couldn't stop her. Ella said it slipped down her trote (that's how she says throat) before she could stop it.

Well, I sure hope she learned a lesson from this. The picture is the rock that we found. It's about the size of a dime.

Good news here though, I got the cast off Wed morning. Oh my, this arm is almost more useless than with the cast on.

Ok, got to run. Talk to you tomorrow on Photoshop Friday!

Captain

I am so proud

Monday night was parent/teacher night. We walked around the school and looked at the many displays that the students worked so hard on. There were some pretty interesting devices, concoctions, things, pottery and some other things. Wait, there were even some other "things." No, we weren't able to identify what everything was but regardless, they were cool.

Just a few weeks ago, about 20 minutes before the bus was to arrive at our house, Madelyn said, "Hey, dad. I need to bring some things to school that I can build something abstract with." I said, "Really. Today?" "Yup, today dad," she said. So I headed to the garage. Then I went straight to the "old parts" bin. I asked myself, "Why do I keep all this crap." Now I know. Pam, headed for the old desk in the office. As you can see by the pictures she was able to use quite a variety of items.

I love what she created. She is very proud of it as well. She was telling me about a "part" but couldn't remember the name of the part. She said, "You'll know what it's called dad." I did too. It was a chain ring. Granny gear to be exact. She thought the name "granny gear" was funny. I agree. That's why I don't use one.

Have a great day folks. If you have kids, take some time to go out and build something with them. Who cares if you don't know what to call it when it is done. It will still be fun. I know after seeing how excited she is about it we will be making some things of our own together.

Have a great day!

Captain

Macro Mondays

Ok. Since Photoshop Friday was so much fun I have decided to not wait any longer before rolling out Macro Mondays. This day will feature a close up photo of something. You can even try to guess what you are seeing if it's not obvious.

So today is the begining. You may have to guess at this one or you may not. You decide.

Captain

my other girl.....

I told you the other day that I would post a picture of my other girl. I guess today is the day. Here is Madelyn. She is my 8 year old. This was taken last summer during a Tripoli Days event at the park. Boy, I sure wish it was this nice outside today. I have two nicknames for her. Pipsqueak and Monkey. She prefers Pipsqueak best.

Captain

Photoshop Friday

Wow! It was fun while it lasted. Lance's bike is SOOO fast. I guess I should have known that someone would turn me in eventually. Lucky for me though I was able to keep the wheels. Can't wait to get this darn cast off. The blue doesn't match the bike at all.

For the birds

Man, this weather is for the birds. I sure can't wait for the warmer weather to come here and stay.

Stay tuned for something new here at Captain Bob Inc. It will be called "Photoshop Friday." This will be a picture of something that I have photoshopped. It will most likely be cycling related and hopefully stay right along with current events. Tomorrows post will be a good one and I think you will enjoy it. It cracked me up while making it. There might even be days where you might not even be able to see what was changed in the photo.

So come back and take a look. Feel free to post a comment on whether or not you like it.

Captain

Brunch anyone?

Come on over to the Tripoli City Hall on Feb 22 from 9am to 1pm. The Park and Rec board is serving an omelet and pancake brunch. All you can eat. Cost is free will donation. There will be muffins and fresh fruit served as well.

I will be there making omelets or pancakes for everyone. Here is your chance to get served by the Captain.

Hope to see you. HERE is a link to last years blog picture. I can't find the original picture. Hmm

Captain Bob

Hot Single Mama

This post is to give, those that want to know, a little insight on what drives my desire to lust after the ellusive Salsa Selma. Again, for those of you that want to know, please, read on. For those that don't care, well, then just read it anyway. I have installed a virus that will be downloaded onto your hard drive if you exit this blog without reading it. Skimming through the blog is good enough. Just retain some of what you skimmed.

Ok. Back in 2007 Salsa introduced the Mamasita. It is a 29er race frame. Flattened carbon seatstays and flattened scandium chainstays. The rest of the frame is made from scandium. Scandium is an aluminum variety. My first Mamasita felt like a springy super lightweight, steel frame. Very lively ride. In fact, more lively than most steel frames I had ridden. I have owned a few very nice steel frames too. A nice Bontrager Race Lite was one of them. This Mama out performed them all I think and it came in much light than those steel frames. I do still ove steel so don't get me wrong. For many years now I have been a single speeder so this desire to get back on a single speed was aways on my mind. As soon as I threw a leg over that Mama I knew I needed to get a SS Mama. So, after years of bugging the crap out of the Salsa crew they decided to make one. Ok, make more than one and I am sure it wasn't just me that wanted one. But, this time I take pride on being the most annoying caller Salsa has ever hear from. Sorry Bobby! I know you took a lot of flak from me but I know you have thick skin. Really white, but thick none the less. Reminds me of the guy in the movie Powder. No, I'm kidding. Powder was more of a shade of blue.

Ok. Back the the subject at hand. So, I started hearing rumors a while back about a conversation that took place at Interbike or Sea Otter about this dude from MTBR, G-Ted, a Salsa big wig and some other fella. Not sure who that was. The "SS Mama" was brought up. I hear there was one sentence that referred to the bike and I guess that was enough. So, this brings me to the bike of my dreams. I should mention this too but I have a problem with bikes. I love them all and everything new is pretty cool to me. But, this Selma is one frame I have loved before I even laid my eyes on one.

Selma. Selma is the name chosen by Salsa to be laid underneath the clear coat on my SS Mama. Love the name. I wanted the color to be the silver to pearl white fade like the Campeon but I received a real treat when I found out that the chosen color was a metallic gray with a blue hue. Then, the bright bold blue decals that lay ontop of that gray. Yes! Salsa did it. Suprised me and made me even more excited about this bike.

So, what sets the Selma apart from the Mamasita? Not much really. An eccentric bottom bracket for chain tensioning. Lack of cable stops for running gears. That's about it. They left ever rider the nice subtle option of adding a rear derailier hanger for running gears. You could very easily run a 1xsomething. You would just need to run full cable housing. Pretty cool. I heard that the Selma will have a bit stiffer tubing to handle the extra stress that many will be inflicting on the frame when mashing up the climbs. So, not much else to say except see you on the trail when I get mine.

Thanks for reading. Here is a direct link to the Salsa Selma. I just realized that there is a referrence to someone named Bob in Salsa's description of the Selma. I am betting that they are referring to Bob Barker though. Ha!

Here is another link.

Ok, if there are mistakes I will correct them later. I am late for work.

Captain

Mondays.......

Well, the doc says I need one more week before I can get another x-ray. I suppose that's not too bad of a deal. I still want this cast off right now though.

On to better news. I hear that the Raleigh Rainier single speed cross framesets will soon be available. Well, that is if you are lucky. I might be one of the lucky ones. I hope. Here are pictures of a completed one. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICS

Captain.

Happy Valentines Day

This shot of the sun setting on an old wheel gives me a warm feeling. Same thing my heart feels when I think about my three girls. Mom, of course, is the best wife a guy could ask for. My other two girls are Madelyn and Ella. They make me smile (most of the time) and that feels good and keeps me healthy I think.

Enjoy your family and friends.

Captain

fond memories

I often think about the trip up north that G-Ted and I took this last fall. We rode Fargo's all day long with the Salsa Crew. Thanks again Salsa. Check out the mtbr link and you will see that folks are finally getting their new Fargo's built up. Pretty cool. You can see more pics here too.

Make sure you go far on your next ride. I will be thinking of you.

Captain

I want the warm back....

Just yesterday I was able to enjoy a little jog during my lunch hour. Today I froze my butt off.

Yikes! I want the warm back and I want it to stay forever.

Captain

Love big wheels? Me too!

Although, this video is a big wheel but not the kind I have been riding lately. Check it out!

Captain

Don't leave without me dad.......

Too funny! The other day I was looking for Ella and sure enough, she was in her favorite hiding place. My closet. For some reason she likes this place best. This time she decided to try on some of dads cold weather gear.

Makes me laugh every time I think about it.

I promise to post a picture of my other girl this week.

Captain

Which one are you?

Are you the big grape that everyone wants?
Are you the big grape that always gets noticed first?
Are you the big one that gets picked to be on the team and leaves the little ones out?
I would rather be the little grape. Besides, my sweet little girls loved this little grape more than the big ones. So much that they even had a little fight over it. It's sort of funny but the bigger girl won.

I challenge you today to try to go un-noticed. For those of you that know me might say that this is almost impossible for me to do. Maybe, but I have challenged myself. It is tough for me to not try to be the big grape. But there are rewards. I hear more of what others are saying and I really am learning a lot about my peers. Some good and some bad. I want to be the person in a conversation that is listening, not the person that is just waiting for my turn to talk.

Have a great day! Tomorrow will be warmer I hear.

Captain

Meet my Selma!

Well, no the bike but just as sweet. A friend of ours is out of town for a week and needed a place to keep his only remaining pup that is for sale. She is 10 weeks old and is sooo cute. I love the way puppies smell. Weird? Maybe, but I don't care. Madee, Ella (my girls) and Pam, my sweet wife, agreed that I could name her Selma for this week.

So, now I am really out numbered here at the house. Fours girls against me.

Captain.

Selma

Well, not much going on today. Some pain but less than before the cast. Showering is a bit more difficult than before. It's all good though. I still plan to race cirrem but it will most likely be a training ride vs a race for me.

A huge thank you to all that have wished me well. Greatly appreciated.

I will leave you tonight with what I spend most of my time thinking about these days. My new love affair with Selma.

Captain

now what?

photo credit to: Madelyn Walters (my 8 yr old)

So much for getting in some good miles in prep for CIRREM. I would love to say that I was riding along about 30mph and out jumped a mountain lion. Then, I went on to kick his a$@ and before I snapped his neck he bit me but that would be a bit of a stretch.

Ok. Here's what happened. I took off from a resting point and after one or two pedal strokes my front tire washed out on a small patch of ice. Down went me in super (elderly style) slow motion. My hand planted on the gravel which wasn't the problem. My fat left leg hits my elbow and hyperextends my arm and pop goes my elbow. One of the bones that runs through my arm fractured right where it meets the elbow. So, three weeks with no pressure on the arm at all which means no riding. Then, it could be four more weeks without the cast and possibly still no riding. Another xray in three weeks so we'll see.

Captain.