Matty’s New Ride

Ever since I bought my Jamis Dakar from bike swap in 2000 and plowed down my first hill (saying that I rode that first hill would probably bea bit of a stretch. When I was done, you could not tell the mud from the dirt from the blood from my skin, legs or arms) I was hooked. That bike became untrail worthy and so I didnt ride for awhile. That and the wife, job(s) and kid(s) made it more difficult.

Last year when I decided to participate in May is Bike Month, I got that itch again and decided to drop using a car as my primary mode of transportation. This included pulling the boys in a trailer to practice or school. After several years of wanting, yearning and waiting, the funds have finally been released for a new bike. Can a bratha get a woot!!! woot!!! How bout one from the cheap seats…WOOT!!! WOOT!!!

May IS bike month

Here in the Sacramento Region, May is Bike Month (though for me every month is bike month). where riders of all different styles and riding ability pledge to ride their bikes. Whether it be to work, for errands or simply to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather that Sacramento has to offer this time of year. Last year I was just beginning to ride and decided to pledge 200 miles. I did the math and commuting back and forth to work each day it worked to be 50 miles a week, for four weeks.

Not the brightest of ideas, I know, but thats how I roll.

Bode Has Hit the Bigtime

Bode has officially entered big boy realm. As he reminds me often, he is no longer a baby. He is five now. He is a big boy. Tuesday solidified that as he has officially graduated preschool. Im not exactly sure what that means. I mean seriously, how do you graduate preschool? I guess its the times in which we live. We all get trophies, no one loses and we now graduate preschool. Fun times! He actually wasnt that excited about it but he is well excited that he now gets to attend school with his big brother come August.

As lame as the thought of graduating preschool is, I have to admit the proceedings were cute. They all walked down the aisle single file to the sounds of Pomp and Circumstance, then we were christened with a song. I was there live, watched the videos mutliple times and frankly, still have no idea what the hell they sang. The kids are all singing at the top of their lungs, to their own beat and clearly will not be outdone by their classmate.

My Little Pipper-doo

I realize the blog has been a bit dark as of late. Baseball Season has been a bit busy with the boys and with me riding 200 miles or more per month, my body has decided it needs sleep now. I am not exactly sure when I got old, I mean, hell, I’m in my 30′s now. Gone are the days sleeping 3-5 hours a night. When I was my oldest son’s age, I thought I’d be dead now, so  I guess I’ll take the receding hairlines, the six pack in my hand in lui of the one that used to be in my gut as it sure as hell beats the alternative. Summer is here and I plan to catch up on the blogging here over the next few weeks, Easter, Boys’ birthday, a new ride, a new addition to the family as well as a deduction. Don’t get excited as the deduction has nothing to with the addition to the family and my taxes.

Good to be Home

I got into the airport about 6.30 and Deb and the boys picked me up. The boys were quite excited to see me, I think. I am not sure sure if they were more excited to see what I brought them or if it was me. Either way, I at least got a ‘Hey…Daddddyy’, promptly followed by, ‘What did you bring us?!’ So you decide, my ego says me, however, reality says, gifts.

Fantastic Ride Blown Tires aside

Sean and  I rode into Downtown from Burnaby. Round trip it was a little over 21 miles. The weather could not have been more spectacular. It was beautiful, sunny day, slightly overcast (wouldnt be Vancouver if wasn’t) when we left it was in the upper forties. Sean rolls up in shorts, a light long sleeve shirt and a jacket. Cali Boy over here is wearing riding shorts, leggings, arm covers, light jacket and wishing I had my biking beanie. Yeah, he was smirking. I was a bit nervous for the ride, since I only ride in 12-15 mile intervals, though I am pulling tub of goo, I call a child. I am not used to riding 20 + miles in a day let alone, within a few hours.

Video: Ride into Work (bike route)

I was finally able to get the video synced up with my computer tonight for my ride into work. Its about 2.5 miles from the hotel to the Burnaby office, most of which is all downhill. I use Runkeeper to track all my outdoor activities, whether I am running, walking, biking or skating. Since I only have the iPhone 3g, my video choices are limited. I was using cycorder, but its a pain to get the videos off. Now that there are native apps for iPhone in the App Store, most allow for easy sharing. Which I have found to NOT be very easy at all!  Its not important, ill get the details worked out…

Back in Van City

Had to come back up to Vancouver for another business trip this week. I got in yesterday evening. Caught the sky train, which is their local light rail here, for the Olympics they built it out to the airport. It takes about an hour to get from the airport to metro town, where I stay in Burnaby. Checked into the hotel and hooked up with my buddy Sean, who is gracious enough to lend me his bike for the week while I am here. Yep, even on business trips I ride, more on that in a bit.

The fleshy streets of Vancouver

It’s been awhile since I last posted. Things have been crazy lately. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Ethan has finished up the soccer season and Xmas season is ramping up. I am not going to touch on any if that today, though I am sure I will get to it here in another post. Presently, I am sitting in pizza joint in Vancouver, doing my best impersonation of a Canadian.

I am sitting here at a table, drinking a Alexander Keiths (it was the only thing not named Molson and I am not doing Molson, sorry) blogging on my phone, snickering to myself while I listen to all the people reacting to the Canucks (Vancouvers NHL team) on all 8 TVs. Seriously, there are 8 flat screens and ALL of them have the stupid hockey game, including sound. Hockey sucks…so does the pizza and the beer for that matter, but I digress.

Maybe I will grab a little sushi on the walk home, that has yet been a dissapointment. I ate Oyamas last night and we are going for sushi tomorrow (I’ll most likely eat it on thursday as well) so I thought I would venture off the beaten path, but again, I disgress.

If San Francisco and Seattle ever were to have a love child, I believe they would name it Vancouver. This place is bah-yoo-tee-ful! The bay, the mountains, the sun…just checking to see if are actually still paying attention, but yes, the sun. There Is no rain this week. I got here between storms. Good for me but bad for my legs. With the weather expected to be sunny and in the low thirties (for the high) I got the ingenious idea to bring my skates as my mode of transportation to and from work. The unfortunate thing is (besides leaving half my hide on the local sidewalk, but I will get to that in a minute) I left my commuting skates at my sisters in San Diego in September. No matter, I have a back up pair. Admittedly, they are set up for when I was 17 and stupid and liked to jump. Since I am no longer 17 and have no desire to voluntarily have my wheels leave the ground, I decided to bring my extra set of wheels and bearings to make them a kittle more condusive to skating distances.

I soon discovered that the wheel wells are designed for wheels no bigger then 77mm, the wheels I am switching them to are 86. Snap. (Red flag). I am one is not easily deterred. I should back up here.

As I exited immigration at the airport last night, I went to the information booth to ask about the best way to get to the hotel. After I got directions on the new light rail, I asked about the streets here. If I have to worry about ice on the sidewalks in the morning when it’s 20 degrees in the morning. Both looked at me funny but assured it wouldn’t be an issue, but they both wanted to know why. I told them I planned to skate the 5.5 miles (or 2.75 km I discovered it really was. I mean really, who uses the metric system anyhow? Oh, right….everyone in the FREAKING world but us! Idiot). The lady then proceeds to tell me that it’s a bit hilly. I have a brake, so no worries really. (red flag). Lateryhay night I was IM’ing my product manager, Karin, who lives in Burnaby and she also proceeds to tell me that there are several hills between my hotel and the site (Big Red Flag). She even sends me a picture of the street that I am going to skating on via google street view (Huge RED FLAG). Frankly liking at the g
Flag only sells me on the idea. I mean really, if I can’t skate into work on these narrow, exposed aggragate laid sidewalks and steel hills, what kind of an idiot am I? Apparently, a rather large one. At what point did I finally decide to walk you ask? Well about a mile and a half into the trip, after I determined that my rubber brake had turned into my plastic brake frame and I had skated to the top of the next hill. Looking back I should have stopped on the down hill part when I heard the unfortunate sound of scraping plastic against the sidewalk with about a quarter mile of the steep down hill with a stop light coming up.

Actually, I did stop. At fifteen mph, it only takes about 15 feet on the side of your leg and hand to get you to stop. I now have five inch by two inch raspberry down right my calf and 2 inch diameter raspberry on my ass. Frankly it could have been worse. The road rash could have far deeper and longer if wasn’t for my forged pants, leggings and bike shorts. All of which have far more impressive gashes and rips than do my legs. Hopefully, the weather stays nice or I could be in a heap of trouble. Though nothing a little duct tape can’t cure in a pinch.

Turns out I was only about mile from work, but since my stupid American self thought I had to go 5 miles and not 5km, I got the pleasure of walking an extra two miles in my crocs. Candian Way just dead ended to another street, WTF, I don’t remeber that on the map. (Red Flag) So I decided to call Karin. In between laughs she let me know that I walked right past the site and to turn around and turn left at the BCAA. Snap, I think to myself, I passed that like 15 minutes ago. Ah well. My 2 and half mile skate, turned into a five mile skate and walk. Frank Sinatra caroons that he left his heart in SF, I apparently have propensity to leave my flesh in CA, HI and now in the beautiful streets of BC.

I am sure my parents are proud.

Bode Sleeps while I post

Bode fell asleep on the couch this evening. He sometimes waits for Ethan to fall asleep in his bed, before he will come out. He likes to be in the living room with us. My guess is its the next best thing to having us sleep with him, while he knows we typically wont sleep with him in his bed. Regardless, while I am sitting at the table catching up on the blog(s), Bode came stumbling out of his room,