The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[caseydog]

Looks like I killed the thread. I get a t-shirt for that, don't I? Or, is that another thread?

CD

[Fenlason]

Looks like I killed the thread. I get a t-shirt for that, don't I? Or, is that another thread?

CD

That's a different thread. I hope you didn't let the campfire go out

[Fenlason]

I had a long photoshoot today. It is October, and it was 90-degrees! I am toast -- almost literally.

Psycho poodle spent almost 12 hours at home alone, and didn't pee or poo in the house. I felt bad, but I didn't expect the job to go that long, or I would have made arrangements for him to go outside.

I did get to drive a car I've been wanting to drive for a long time, but haven't -- until today. A Sunbeam Tiger. Red and black, just like the one Maxwell Smart drove. Imagine an MG with a Ford V8. It should have been a beast to drive, but it was actually pretty refined. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I drove a few Porsches and a Ferrari Testarossa, too, but I've driven dozens of those, so no big deal. Although, the Porsche 993 Turbo had really cold AC, and it was hot today, so that was nice.

The auction company that hired me is a new customer, but the owner of the cars and I go way back, so hopefully this will become another long-term customer. I also love working with this car owner, because he knows me well enough to hand me the keys to a million-plus-dollar car to photograph, and bring it back when I'm done. He doesn't let me fly his private jet -- which is a really good thing.

CD

That sounds like a good day. Hopefully you will get more work out of it.

[Fenlason]

We have a party / get together here today. My birthday was yesterday, and I wanted some people to ride with here today. Laurie invited others over [I am not sure that many riders are actually coming though]

Anyways we have been doing some prep for that. We have done some trail work also. We love trail work and while it's not a rest physically, it is a wonderful break otherwise.

It seems as if the hurricane is going to pass by us out to sea. We still might get some rain tonight / tomorrow from a seperate cold front coming through. We are supposed to be considerably colder next week.

[caseydog]

Happy Birthday Glenn!

We had a pretty nice day. Sunny, and around 80-degrees -- but lower humidity, which made it a lot more comfortable.

I'm just getting some charcoal burning to cook up some chicken wings for dinner.

Other than that, pretty uneventful... well, other than surfing the news websites.

CD

[Fenlason]

Thank you CD.

We had a good day yesterday. I was kind of migrainey so semi out of it, but I managed. Our weather was good. It started out gorgeous, it did cloud in later, but no rain and the temps were pretty good.

Laurie surprised me with a new bike!! Of course she gave it to me after the ride. Those that were riding showed up earlier.. then later on the others showed up.. and she wanted to present it to me when the others were there.

We do have some showers this morning.. and I am still tired and still not feeling the best.. so maybe a lazy day today.

[caseydog]

Glenn, Sundays are always "lazy days" for me. I'm not religious, but I do like the "day of rest" philosophy. I stay in bed late, even if I'm not asleep. I check email once, or at the most twice. I let calls go to voicemail. I dress like a hobo. I cook and eat whatever I want to cook and eat.

I can't help but wonder... just how many bicycles do you have?

CD

[Fenlason]

I can appreciate the day of rest thing.
We are busy enough here that I don't often take one. Building and re-building a house we have a lot to do. Yet working [and playing] hard, day after day after day, takes it's toll. So while we generally don't take a full day off, we will have lazier days.

I dress like a hobo most days... If I am home and working on stuff.. I wear work clothes. I myself will often let the phone go to the machine, unless I am expecting a call, most of our calls are bs calls. I understand your situation is different. I can't say we eat differently any particular day.

I was in need of some rest yesterday. We took it easy for a bit.. then I realized I was waiting for a rainy day to do some work inside the porch, and some of it I could use the extra set of hands. So we did insulate and sheath a wall.

Bikes? We have too many. Laurie has wanted to buy me bikes before.. but never knew what to get me. That might be like someone else purchasing a camera for you. In this case I had purchased a bike for her earlier .. a month or 2 ago. Specialized had them on sale. It is a mountain bike, and a new wheel size.. and something that would be interesting to check out. Yet I didn't NEED it. She keep reminding me of that.. but only because she wanted to surprise me with it. She knew the exact model and color [they only had one color left in my size]

I don't really know how many bikes we have, 30 or so. There are a few we could sell. We have road bikes, mountain bikes, snow bikes… hmm even ice bikes. We do some ice racing in the winter [on a hockey rink]. My ice bike is a mountain bike I purchased in the early 90's. This was prior to suspension, and it is dated in other ways [technologically]. It is a beautiful bike, but I doubt I could get $100.00 for it trying to sell it. It does make a great ice bike. So it has been set up for ice racing, and is left ready to go.

There are some we will actually look at selling. I think we have 3 that are sellable. 3 others I would.. or could sell, but there aren't that sellable. I know at least one of them is worth to me in parts.. more than I could get out of it selling it. So I will start robbing parts off.

We have what are called sloppy weather bikes. One has a road bike.. and when one upgrades their road bike, they keep the old one for when there is salt and sand on the road. Salt and sand mix is hard on a bike. I have a few bikes, depending on how sloppy it is… or how snowy it is. We have some of these set up with studded tires.

[caseydog]

Sounds like bikes are like cameras. My primary camera is a Nikon D4. I paid almost 6-grand for it, and I could get about $2,700 for it on eBay. My lenses are holding there value better. I used to own a big bunch of cameras and lenses. Now, I own just the stuff I use all the time, and if I need a special lens, I rent it, and bill my customer for the rental. I'm guessing that isn't a viable option for bicycles.

I used to make fun of my dad for the clothes he wears, especially since he is a retired Fortune 500 executive. But, I find myself more-and-more dressing equally badly. A few months ago, Richard Rawlings gave me some chit about my attire, and all I could say was, "I get more and more like my dad every day."

On that topic, I stopped getting my hair cut about three months ago. I don't 100-percent know why. It seems to be more of a "why not" thing than a "why" thing, if that makes any sense. My barber moved to San Antonio, and I don't want to break in a new one, and can't see a reason to cut my hair at this point in time.

Life is an ever changing adventure.

CD

[Fenlason]

CD how old is your camera?
The bikes I am talking about are fairly old, 20 -25 years old. The technology has changed greatly in that time, especially in mountain bikes. Unlike cars there don't seem to be many that have collectable. As a bike shop geek.. there are some old bikes that come in.. that are cool, some are remembered more fondly than others. Bridgestone for example really cared about making bikes for riders.. and not just a marketing commodity. I have a Bridgestone MB-1. It is a 1987 model. I think there were only 600 made [maybe 800.. I don't recall right now]. It was dramatically different compared to what else was available at the time. It's a pretty cool bike… but not many people would even realize that.

Are cameras changing much now year to year?

The guys I work with turn over their bikes every couple of years… and doing so they get their money back out of them. I tend to keep them.

So how far away is your ponytail? I have not paid for a haircut since 1975. I did cut my own for a while… then just stopped cutting it altogether. I didn't do it for money, but like to think about what I have saved in all that time.

[Fenlason]

Monday it was pretty windy here. I chose not to try and put the ice and water shield on the new roof/ wall. I ended up heading into the shop to do some work on the new bike. I have done other little projects. I had a dentist appointment in the middle of the day yesterday. Today we will put on the ice and water. Laurie is taking the afternoon off. I am not sure how long this will take. If that doesn't take long, we can then start strapping for the roofing and siding.

[caseydog]

Glenn, cameras lose value faster than cars, and almost as fast as boats. At least I can depreciate my work cameras on my taxes. Cameras are also so good now, that it takes a pretty big step in improvement for me to upgrade. Nikon's top camera is the D5, and it is pretty awesome, but I can make just as much money with my D4 as I could with a D5, so I'm staying put. I only upgrade when I am convinced that the new camera will help me "up my game" enough to justify the cost. I get about five years out of a camera these days. As for resale, you never get your money back -- as a pro, you have to look at it as, how much money did I make off of this camera? How much work do I need to do to pay for the new on?

As for the hair. I have no real reason for growing mine out. I'm just doing it. My mom is going to hate it -- which is kind of a plus, even though I'll have to listen to her complain about it.

CD

[Fenlason]

I am not sure my mother likes my long hair.. although she has said she likes it better than my Marine Corp hair cut. My grandparents hated it, yet they never said anything. I only heard later from others, after they had passed. My mother's mother was outspoken enough [especially as she got older] that she would have said something.. except she didn't really care.

An easier day today. I am at a spot on my building project, things would be a LOT easier with help. Laurie is taking tomorrow afternoon off, and we have the weekend, so I waited. I didn't do any staining on the barn, for we were expecting rain. Soooo I did other things. I did pick up more lumber. I then stopped by the shop to work on my bike. I then did some work on Laurie's bike here at home.

I then decided to head out and do some trail work.

I have not been all that good about drinking water today.. so ended up pretty tired feeling and headachy. I took it easy for a bit.. then when Laurie got home, we did go out and do a little work. Then down to the gym for a little weight training. My first since last winter.

I learned today that a friend was just diagnosed with ALS.

[toypusher]

WOW! Did not realize that I have not been on here for that long. Had some network problems and was not used the computer, just tablet when I could link through my phone.

Glenn, sorry to hear about your friend.

I stopped getting my hair cut a month ago and started cutting it myself now. Due to cut it again today i guess, because we have an engagement party to attend this evening.

[Fenlason]

[color=#FF0000]WOW! Did not realize that I have not been on here for that long.[/color] Had some network problems and was not used the computer, just tablet when I could link through my phone.

Glenn, sorry to hear about your friend.

I stopped getting my hair cut a month ago and started cutting it myself now. Due to cut it again today i guess, because we have an engagement party to attend this evening.

What's it been? 3 years now?