lack of direction

torn ligaments.

2007-03-22T13:39:00.000-05:00

so yesterday i decided to fall off of a box in freeway directly to my shoulder. the result is a seperated shoulder and possibly the end of my season.

on a brighter note, found out yesterday that erin and i are going to live in Madison, WI this summer.

oh yeah, lack of posts...life isn't too exciting, just snowboarding every day :) (up until the recent injury)

What you know about that?

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Fun photos

2007-01-18T00:03:00.000-06:00

this photo makes snowboarding look like lots of fun cause it is. pictured here is roo grabbing method. check out some more photos of mine here.

busy

2007-01-11T21:58:00.000-06:00

picture credit is brian. good times have been had here in breck. snow is on the way. so, that is it for the update, sorry for the lack there of. lots of work has equaled a lack of snowboard progression. a new video should be coming soon featuring the iowa kids. for now here is a video that is a bit older...

blizzard.

2006-12-21T08:43:00.000-06:00

so, colorado is getting a lot of snow right now. which means it is time for lots of fun on the slopes. yesterday john, foot and I rode until we caught last chair and enjoyed fresh snow all day. good times. here's hoping that there will be no lesson for me today (i am an instructor) and can ride to my heart's content.

the only downside about all of this snow is it kept erin from visiting. i miss that girl.

weekly posting.

2006-12-12T23:01:00.000-06:00

we rode today at vail. Dave (above) had the great idea to hike into the backcountry. the result of our hour long hike/traverse was seriously amazing snow. we jumped off a cliff and it was lots of fun. however, the excitement did not end when we left vail. on the way home john managed to put his Blazer in a ditch. luckily, Coloradorans are super helpful and drive suburbans equipped with these.

sometimes not smart is fun

2006-12-07T21:11:00.000-06:00

so we (dave, brian, bean, roo, geraldo and me) went to ride loveland for the first time a couple of nights ago during a full moon. given that good times were bound to be had no matter what, the lack of preparation made it super fun. after our one run we found a bump on the side of the road and ten minutes later it was a kicker. showing his usual approach, geraldo hit the jump at least 20x more than everyone else.

more good snow.

2006-12-02T21:32:00.000-06:00

The number of powder days I have been able to ride seems to be increasing at an amazing rate. Today was a short day due to crashes, illness and crowds. However, it wasn't without some fresh tracks. Brian and I hiked off of chair six at Breck where we were able to ride some very good snow. Above is a picture of Brian enjoying some fresh turns.

Great Snow.

2006-11-29T23:32:00.000-06:00

Above is a group photo from a great Tuesday at Beaver Creek. The folks in the picture (left to right, back row first) are John, Me, Roo, Dave, Levi, Foot, Mark. The trip didn't start out too well, with Foot's car breaking down on the Avon exit ramp. However, we turned lemons into lemonade by deciding to ride in the great snow and worry about his car later. All is well, Foot returned to Avon and fixed his car the next day, it was merely a clogged/broken fuel filter.

The photo above is a group shot from Wednesday at Vail. Another great day of riding with some other great friends. The group was (left to right, back row first) Bean, Drew, Me, Erin, Jon, Kalin and Nick (not pictured). The the snow was amazing and Vail is fun.

Colorado

2006-11-27T18:41:00.000-06:00

we finally got some wireless internet at the place in breck. this is either a really good or a really bad thing. for now, we will call it good.

anyway, breck is great. lots of riding (snowboards) and lots of sleep. like roo is saying above, "oh sh$#, breck is tight."

Zion/Vegas trip

2006-10-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

this fall has been great for me thus far. nothing to really worry about and great trips. i just got back from a week long trip to Zion National Park/ Vegas with Erin. Zion is amazing. I would like to go back. To summarize the whole trip I would say this: Zion was well worth it and vegas is really good at taking people's money, even when you only lose $2 gambling.

lovin' life

2006-10-06T19:41:00.000-05:00

Returned from the gettin-a-job-mountainbike trip to CO with Brian about a week ago. 'twas a very good time and successful too. Brian got a job driving bus and i got a job instructing some snowboard. now all we have to do is figure out housing....

the trip was lots of fun. we met some interesting people and had good times camping. if you ever have a chance to reach fruita, don't pass it up.

next on the list: going to Vegas/Zion with Erin. can't wait for that one. life is good.

tandemening

2006-09-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

or is it simply tandeming? or did i make up a word? who cares, riding a tandem with a great person is a good time. wish i had some pictures to prove it, but yesterday Keith and Pat took Erin and me out for our first tandem ride. we (erin and i) suspected we wanted one before, but now i think we will have to get one.

getting ready for the job-hunt-vacation-mountain extravaganza...can't wait.

Off to Afreeka

2006-09-07T09:30:00.000-05:00

Cynthia is off to Africa. she will be missed. She is a great girl, not to mention photogenic. The peace corps and Africa will be better at life when Cynthia arrives. John hosted a great get together last night to celebrate Cynthia's stay in Iowa City.

gravy train

2006-08-27T19:52:00.000-05:00

life is gravy right now--living at home, enjoying the parents (their company and delightful cooking), and best of all getting to see the niece, Sophia. I think the best part about Sophia is that she has brought our family closer by giving everyone a great reason to gather. having a baby in the family rules, especially since she is my brother's and i am not a father yet.

other items on the gravy train that is my life: 'rado departure scheduled for Nov. 1st with some great friends in brian and josh . the only bad thing about the 'rado vacation experience is erin can't join :(

Sophia

2006-08-10T23:10:00.001-05:00

i am an uncle today. my brother and amy had their daughter, Sophia. she was born at 8:19 am and weighed 7 lbs 9 oz. Mom and daughter are healthy. Amy was a trooper through the delivery from the sound of things.

She is the most precious little girl, i was struck with emotion when i saw her eyes open and look around. i can't overstate how special it was to hold her in my arms. i suspect all of our family and friends will feel the same way when they get to see her.

point well taken

2006-08-08T21:48:00.000-05:00

It was a lovely evening, so i decided to go on my normal 24 mile tour of cedar rapids. 80% of the route is nature trail and most of the remaining 20% consists of low traffic roads. wouldn't you know it, on the one short section of a busy road i ended up almost getting hit by a guy on his phone in a brand new ford f-150. as he went by, he indicated that he thought i should move farther to the right (i was riding to the right already). so, i went through the normal motions of cursing (he couldn't hear me) and indicating my displeasure with hand movements.

here is where the story is different though. i motioned for him to come and talk to me, really i wanted to just talk and explain to him why i have a right to ride there. i pulled off almost immediately after he passed me (this is my normal route)--so he saved a total of 3 seconds by passing me too closely--and expected to see him just down the road i was now riding. as expected, we had a meeting.

it was a little heated at first, with him telling me i should be farther right and that the law said i should. after calling his bluff and asking if he knew the law several times, he calmed down as i explained where a person on a bicycle should be. though he never acknowledged i was right, his language and motions seemed to indicate he had conceeded. however, through our 5-10 minute talk i conceeded to his points as well.

he was driving a huge f-150, brand new and shiny. through our talk he pointed out some obvious things, his truck is huge and weighs 3000+ pounds and in comparison i am tiny and insignificant. this is completely known to me and therefor not too scary. but, almost in passing he mentioned some very scary things about his driving. 1) his vehicle has several blind spots...why would you drive this thing? 2) he talks on the phone all the time while driving...always a great idea. 3) he thought if he ran me over it would be no big deal to himself, i was the one at fault...we all know the answer to this. 4) never did he think about hitting the brakes, when i mentioned the brakes as an option to avoid rearending a cyclist, he was more worried about the car behind him not paying attention and hitting his truck...could be true, the driver behind him may be as bad at driving as him 5) maybe the most entertaining was him saying that if he still drove his hummer he may have hit me...thank god he stepped down to the huge 4wd ford. 6) he mentioned the fact that he was all about widening the roads...why not drive a smaller car? 7) "why not ride the sidewalk?"...we need some sort of education on cyclists' rights in drivers education courses.

so, thank you sir. you opened my eyes. your terrible ability to focus on driving and telling me about it may save my life in the future. i thought most people were terrible drivers before talking to you, now i know many are especially terrible and drive huge unmanueverable vehicles. i should mention that this driver was very nice and not in my face and things like that and i thanked him for this. i should also mention that i remained relatively calm and didn't make any remarks about how i hope gas prices go up to $5 a gallon and how he was an idiot for talking on the phone and driving, though i wanted to very much.

so that was an interesting way to end a ride.

Yay!

2006-07-27T22:57:00.000-05:00

Yay! Erin came back to Iowa on Saturday. Seems I have been late on all posts, that was nearly a week ago. Anyway it is great to have her back and hang out again. I like having a nice girlfriend.

sweet marie

2006-07-13T11:04:00.001-05:00

joined the local motion boys last night for a road ride. good times, had a hard time keeping up with this guy above. rode until the sun went down. in other news, bike riding is really fun. riding tonight w/ the work crew on the nature trail. i think the single speed will be appropriate.

night rides around the slough

2006-07-06T21:53:00.000-05:00

OE 800 gets all up in your eye, see the above evidence. this happened a few days ago, late posting (a test of sorts). but, servey and i celebrated hearing Mr. Roboto live (by an original member of Styx and a band) wt style. which meant enjoying some malt liquor by the river on the ride home.