Art O’Connor

-We need a new microwave. It leaves my burrito’s like my old girlfriend. Hot on the outside but a heart as cold as ice.

-If you are calling me to update your e-mail address you don’t need tell me it is an AOL account. I already know Mr. 1999.

- Not eating the free donuts 4 at a time takes no will power. Being 50lbs overweight and taking the elevator up one floor, does. See the connection?

- Anyone that wants to see your kid in person probably already has. There is no need to bring it to work. Can I bring my dog? She won’t cry or shit herself.

- Flush the damn toilet. Seriously.

- Parroting everything a manager says in a meeting does not make you an engaged vital team member, it makes you a douche bag.

- On the rare occassion management can come up with a few bucks for a “team” meal there are other, better places than Cafe Freaking Rio.

- I don’t really mind the dress code (it is stupid given we never ever see customers) but good hell lead by example. I look better and more professional in jeans and a t-shirt than anything from the “polyester primary color pant suit 2nd grade teacher from the midwest in 1976 collection” that our director wears daily.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Benjamin Franklin

At the Democratic National Distraction (where the real owners of this country are having a little puppet show to make the sleeping masses think they live in a democracy), protestors will be kept in fenced off “free speech” zones located no where near those they are protesting against. They are “free” to protest as long as they have a permission slip to do so. I wonder if the irony of protesting in a cage is lost on the protesters? As a courtesy Denver police have been circulating a pamphlets reminding citizens that they can be arrested for simply being in the street, even if they are breaking no law. The Constitution, that will save us right? No.

Bush, Obama, makes no difference. Obama has already caved on the domestic spying saying he approves immunity to the telecoms who knowingly broke the law by releasing our personal information to the Feds with no warrant. Unless you can write him a 7 figure check Obama could care less about you.

Another lap around the sun for me, bell lap? I hope not. Thanks to everyone who came to my surprise party. I am glad the shock did not cause me to fall over and break a hip.

After much fence sitting I am going to go down and race the American Mountain Classic down at Brian Head. Not sure how I will hold up after 3 days of 5 hour stages at altitude. Hopefully it will at least be a good training block for ‘cross. The only goal I have is to beat Ohran which normally is not hard but he has been riding a lot so I have my work cut out for me. Mona Vie is sending a film crew down to make some kind of motivational clip for their annual meeting. I just hope they will not be using me as a before shot.

Oh man this should be fun to watch unwind.

Bigfoot in Georgia

It is hard to feel sorry for anyone who actually believes anything that Cramer says. When he is right it is like a broken clock that right for one second twice a day. The other 86398 seconds in the day? Not so much.

I was going to race the last I See U Pee race in Evanston until I saw the 11am start time and the $40 entry fee. The 4 hours total driving time for 2 hours on the bike was just the icing on the cake. Plus I-80 is closing at 4pm and I don’t want to be anywhere near that cluster f*&#.

The time commitment is the biggest reason I am not going. Yeah $40 may seem pretty steep but they do have food and beer after at this one so they are offering some value there. Anyway, I have at least half a dozen half finished house projects that need to be finished. I can’t belive how ineffective I have been this summer. I really have not accomplished a single thing. I wanted to do an Xterra, go home for a visit, get my online ventures profitable, go fishing more than once, get a different job, unpack from moving in April, race BC7, go to some Gallivan Center concerts, ride the Crest under a full moon, install a ceiling fan, build a patio at the duplex, paint the porch at the duplex, renew my passport (10 years and one stinking stamp), install the trim on the Pergo. Not a single thing on that list has been done. Where the hell did my summer go?

Whew, I feel better now. Maybe I can get the garae organized tomorrow.

As it turns out my planned 6 hour solo ride was not solo after all. I usually dont do a lot of super long rides but since I am planning on doing the American Mountain Classic at the end of the month I thought I better try a big one and see how it went. So I met up with Ohran, The Working Man, and newly crowned National Champ Robbie Squires. Yeah, 2 guys who just finished week long stage race and 24 Hour worlds and a National Champ.. All aboard the pain train!

Actually the pace was pretty good. We rode up Millcreek as tons of cars with bikes on them whizzed past. From the top of Millcreek we went up Big Water then dropped into Park West and got on the Mid Mountain Trail (which I had never ridden before), back up to Scotts Pass onto the Crest. 5:50, 56 miles, 10,000 + feet of climbing and zero driving. Super Duper Crest? Ya, I am greener than a Prius!

Amazingly I felt pretty good and even got out for 3 hours in the dark up on Shoreline last night. Yup, a dirty weekend for the Train. Hopefully I can pull off a good ride down at Brian Head. Word on the street is Tinker is gonna race in the Masters field. The website says Masters riders can not have a current Pro license. Not sure what license Tinker has but when you pay your mortgage riding a bike, you are pro. Whatever, I just wanna race.

Jim Cramer of CNBC announced that the market hit bottom yesterday. Translaton? Look out below! You aint seen nothing yet.

Not a lot of blogging on this site huh? Hmm where to begin. As some of you know I have been doing some running and swimming in anticipation of doing Xterra Ogden. I ran college so the running comes pretty easy. Swimming though, lets just say I have my issues. I have been going to the pool at least once a week since late winter (for the most part). I have been making progress but I am not comfortable at all in the water. I am even less so when people are swimming close to me. I don’t know how to describe it but I really really don’t like it. Anyway despite my fears i rented a wet suit and registered for the Scofield Tri in the Sprint division. Rachel told me to line up on the outside so I would have fewer people around me which was good advice. I was loving how bouyant the wetsuit made me feel. In fact I was pretty confident that I would do a decent swim. The gun went off and there I was in my own little recreation of the opening of “Saving Private Ryan”. 3 seconds in a kick to the face knocked my goggles off. Shit. I kept going, getting kicked a few more times. About 200 yards in I am pretty sure Kimbo Slice connected with a haymaker from Nebraska. My world was rocked! I swallowed my body weight in water and my vision was blurry at best. I floated on my back for a few minutes until my vision cleared and finally started the slow humiliating swim back to shore. I did find my goggles though so that was pretty sweet. Is the Universe trying to tell me that Tri’s are not for me or is it a test of character?

It has been almost 2 weeks and I have not been back to the pool. I will but not really sure when. With 100 degree days on the horizon that may nudge me back soon. A mile swim for Xterra? Not this year.

On Wed I road my bike to pick my car up from the dealership where they were replacing something on the Cray Supercomputer that runs the damn thing. So anyway I pick it up and head downtown to do some work on my duplex. After laying some paver stones I left to go home and get ready to sell my soul at the cube farm. Since I was in the ‘hood I figured I would stop by the Whole Check in Sugarhouse to get the Yerba Mate Tea that I like that the downtown location is always out of. I pull in to the up uncovered parking and the single worst sound I had ever heard came from my roof rack. F@&*! I ran my custom Six13 into the inexplicable iron bar they have over the entrance to the UNCOVERED parking lot. I was in shock. The only road bike that ever fit me was now in 2 pieces. F@&*! How could I be so stupid. I have seen half a dozen people do the exact same thing in that parking lot over the years and I always wondered how they could be so stupid. Well I guess I don’t need to wonder anymore.