Tag Archive for mmba

nick | June 7, 2009
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couple of crazy weekends

Today, we got a chance to wind down, which was well deserved after our last few weeks.

Last weekend, we were in Grand Rapids for the MMBA Wester Chapter hosting of the Midwest MTB Summit.  We were there from Thurday afternoon to Sunday, and got the meet some great people, learn some great stuff about MTB advocacy and trail building, and ride some awesome trails.  We were able to hit Fort Custer on the way out on Saturday, rode Cannonsburt Ski Area and Luton Park on Saturday, and Cannonsburt SGA on Sunday.  Also had a chance to have dinner with our friends, Lisa and Darrel, who we only see once in a great while when we’re in Grand Rapids.  Oh, and drank a LOT of beer.

This weekend was more of a condensed adventrue.  We left home @ 3:30PM on Friday, and headed to Cleveland for the Disco Biscuits concert.  We had dinner on the turnpike, and arrived a little after 8PM at the House of Blues.  Concert (which was GREAT, btw) ended about 1:15.  We headed out of town, with plans on stopping somewhere on the turnpike to grab a room.  We stopped in Avery, and got to sleep about 3AM.

Saturday, we were up by 7:30, and on the road by 8AM.  We arrived in Grand Rapids @ Founders Brewery for lunch at Noon.  We headed over the the hotel for the MMBA State Board meeting, which started at 2PM.  At ~4:30, we all headed over to Cannonsburg SGA, road a lap together, and then headed home, pulling in about 9:30PM.

Today has been pretty mellow.  We got the bugs washed off the Tahoe, picked up a trailer hitch, and dropped the chapter trailer off at Pete’s to be outfitted.  Grabbed some steaks on the way home, and fired up the grill.  After a shower, now it’s time to just chill out with some Coronas.

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nick | November 7, 2008
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what a feaking week

I’m not going to be upset to see this week end.  I mean, it’s hard enough to get back to work after a two week vacation, but it to have it be one of ‘those’ week is just not cool.

I’ve had a project at work that has been under a deadline, but have been unable to get the assistance I need from the SME in this paticular area.  I finally got him nailed down, RIGHT before I went on vacation, so I had the completion of the work hanging over my head when I returned.  But, I immeditaly ran into problems when I got back, and it turned back into a matter of trying to track down the right guy AGAIN, for I can get more questions answered.  It’s now Friday, and I’m still in the middle of trying to get this work done and the project off the ground.  The simpler this project gets, the longer it seems to drag out.  I’m hoping that I’ll finally be able to get this wrapped up early next week now.

I was hoping to get some major progess done yesterday on this project (involving work offsite) but then yesterday, my brakes failed during the commute to work.  I was about 1-2 miles away, stopping at a traffic light.  The brakes felt soft, so I have them a extra ‘squeeze’ and the pedal went to the floor and the brake light came on.  GREAT!  So, I limped to work, with the little bit of bakes I had left.  I checked under the truck when I got to work and parked, and sure enough, brake fluid leaking out.  I left work early to limp the truck home with minimal brakes (thanks GOD for driving a manual) and dropped at off at the shop.  It’s being worked on as we speak, at $300 for the repair (and now I’m getting the lower ball joints replaced, at the additional cost of $400)  On top of it all, Marty got stuck in traffic coming home, so I had a nice mile walk home from the shop.

Iceman is also this weekend, and since neither of us were able to get today off, we had to find someone else to take care of MMBA merchandise for the Iceman Expo.  As it looks, we may end up not having to deal with the tent at all this weekend, which is nice.  We’re both rather burned out for a slew of MMBA related activities over the past few months, and the break is nice.  Marty and I are both considering scaling down our amount of MMBA volunteerism, before we both lose our minds (which could result in a homicidal ‘snap’ for either of us..<G>)  So, tonight, we will have to complete the task of getting our shit together and heading up (on top of picking up the truck before we leave), so after work will be a bit of a frantic rush.  But, at least we don’t have to deal with the merchandise stuff this year (YIPEE!!!!!)

So, on top of just being strung/stressed out due to the amount of crap we’ve had to deal with over the past 2-3 months, things are FINALLY slowing down.  We actually decided to skip the Thanksgiving trip to the UP this year, just so we can stay at home and relax a bit.  A vacation from travelling.  I’m hoping we can plan a nice longish trip to the UP on Jan, but I think our major goal for November and December is to not go ANYWHERE.  THAT’LL be a nice vacation.

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nick | September 22, 2008
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LONG day finally over

Today, today was a very long day.

We starting out leaving the house a ~6:30AM to head to Addison Oaks for the CPS XC race that the Metro North chapter was holding.  Thanks to a bit of luck, great timing company and land manager, and a LOT of help from a ton of great volunteers, the race was a success, and we had 333 racers.  The chapter should do VERY well off this race, and should set a precident for great races in the coming years.

Then, at 5:00PM, pretty much as soon as the race was finished, and we started cleanup, Marty and I got int he truck and headed to Metro Airport to catch a plane to Vegas.  Couple of beers in the terminal, and we caught our flight.  A little over 4 hour flight, picking up the rental car, and heading to where we were staying, and we finally got in ~11PM (2AM Eastern Time).  So, now we’ve had a bite to each, and are winding down watching a little TV before we totall crash, as it’s heading toward 3AM.  21 hour day, not to shabby.

And not something I want to do very often, even as well as everything worked out.

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