n_maher

If anyone in this group ends up with a Verizon iPhone 4S or 5 that they want to part with, post-update I'd likely jump all over it for the wife.

I use a cannondale under seat bag, cause its what they had when I bought the bike. It's big enough to hold my phone, a tube and tire levers.

Brent, You've got a lot on your plate right now so don't stress over the temporary loss of MTB skills.

Shelly, if you can't hear a difference left to right it's good enough to sell as "stock" with a disclaimer about them being cheap, get you started tubes.

Happy Birthday old man. You're about to get the best birthday present a dad could ask for.

This! Awesome work, Kerry.

Way to go, Dan! Me: snuck out for a little 25mi jaunt around East Kingston. Felt good to be back on the bike but I'm sure the 4 rabies shots yesterday (both arms and legs) probably didn't help. Still, felt good but wasn't as fast as I hoped.

Looking forward to details of both rides as I may only get a vicarious experience this weekend.

Yup, the trucker, maybe even the disc long haul trucker would make a solid and very flexible platform.

Home already...because they've had so many bat incidents lately that they ran out of some of the shots. So back I go tomorrow in the late afternoon for 3 more.

I'll be happy if I'm home by 9pm. I think that's irrationally exuberant of me.

Just preventative. If I'd had any actual contact I would have been in last night.

On the advice of counsel I'm at the ER waiting to get the first in a series of rabbits shots instead of going for a nice bike ride. Fuck.

She's single, you're almost there, so a "dew eet" seems in order.

Nice, Todd. I've mostly sated my needs for an HTPC with the PS3 but still waffle occassionally. The problem is that one of my biggest gripes with PS3 (network connectivity) would probably persist with the HTPC given the remoteness of its location and the lack of ability to hard wire it.

Today's lesson kids - Nate did not successfully find and/or close the bat entrance to his bedroom. Results: 1. The NH bat population has been reduced by one assuming another spawn of satan has not already sprung free from the clutches of hell. 2. I will now sleep with a tennis racket under the bed. 3. It's 2:45est and I'm drinking. It's noon somewhere, right? FML

Recent studies (there hadn't really been much prior) show that about 1% of the general bat population carries the disease. Previous estimates were in the 10% range which would be a really uncomfortable # in my book. That said, I have certainly approached any contact with extreme caution and I'm not taking the possibility lightly, especially with two little ones in the house. But I'm not going to go get vaccinated just because there was one flying around the house, ya know?

Brent, I don't think the altimeter would never work on a plane because it has no way of compensating for the arbitrary cabin pressure. Even the altimeter on my Garmin 500 gets thrown for a loop if there is a rapid/sudden atmospheric pressure change. I really need to recalibrate my Core's altimeter and more importantly start wearing it again.

I've been looking at a gravelbike to add to the stable and the Crosscheck is on my short list. But I agree that we need a bit more information about how you intend to use the bike before we can make reasonable recommendations for possible alternatives. Knowing your budget would help too.

The neighbors were supposed to get some work done yesterday but I think the KTR was a no-show. Thankfully I didn't use the same guy so I'm hopeful my luck will be better. A few notes about combat with a bat: 1. A tennis racket is sufficient. Bat #1, which got into the first floor last summer did not provide me with a non-lethal option and thus was taken out by force. 2. Bats are rarely rabid, at least from what my research has shown. They are definitely freaked out when they get inside your house and want nothing other than to GTFO. Sadly, it isn't always an option. I'm a big fan of having them around. OUTSIDE. 3. The gun would be damn near useless, Raf. They are small, fast as hell and you'd just make more holes they could get in through.

Not today but last Wednesday night was a rough night. At 1am we were awoken by the phone ringing, never a good thing. So we launched out of bed and my wife answered the phone only to find that it was a wrong number. Give me a break. At 2am Andrew woke up and needed to be briefly settled before falling back asleep. Ok, ok, it happens and I comforted myself with the idea that I could still get 3hrs + of uniterrupted sleep if I was lucky. Luck was not with me. At 3am I awoke to the sound of a bat in our attic. Shit. It happens and the normal course of action is to put in a set of earplugs and go back to sleep. But I dozed off again quickly but then awoke to a strange noise. Now in order to fully appreciate the following you need to know that our alarm clock is somewhat obnoxiously bright and blue and puts out a pretty eerie glow under good circumstances. Factor in that when I opened my eyes in addition to the normal blue fog I saw a winged spawn of Satan circling my ceiling fan. The FUCK?!?! My wife, for all her wonderful qualities, will launch 10 feet in the air if she sees a mouse. I did not wish to find out what would happen if she woke up to a bat flying at her. So I attempted to calmly wake her up, instructed her to get on the floor and make her way to the door. Once that was accomplished and she was safely shut in with Lily in her room I went about the business of getting rid of the bat. It was thankfully easy. It flew into a window where I was able to pop the screen and set it free. We called a specialist the next day and their coming next week to bat-proof the house. Sleep has been fitful since that night with frequent incidents of additional noise in the attic and we were all feeling like we had life pretty bad until we talked to our next door neighboor last night. He's killed 9, fucking NINE, bats in his house in the last week. I believe that Maura put it best, "We would have moved." I had a stronger reaction, suggesting that torching the place might be in order. Thankfully last night yielded better, noise free sleep.

The issue that I have is that my wrist is narrower just above my ulner styloid so if it fits tight over the bone it just slides up my arm. If I wear it tighter it tends to sit to high up my arm. Bands with a little elasticity work better but even those have been annoying me lately... :sigh: edit - yes, all of my bands have that fine adjustment but even that sometimes isn't enough to find a 'happy spot'.

I don't know about Larry but I struggle with getting bracelets like that to fit well.

So this weekend I rode both my Dad's Salsa Vaya and my brother's CAAD 9, talk about different rides. Anyway, the net result is that I discovered that I've been running my saddle too low. So this weekend I bumped it up a good half inch. The ride into work this morning felt good with no issues. I hammered in pretty good completing the 20.4 miles (thanks to the newly opened bridge) at 19.7. I'm hoping to take a little longer route home since I won't have to catch a shuttle across the river and hopefully the saddle position will remain a positive adjustment.

Happy Birthday, Tyll.