roofing, good family fun.

WHAT! ROOFING! FUN! yes it can be with the right people & the right outlook on life.
think of when neighbors helped neighbors do large projects. raise barns , build houses, dig dams.
the american frontier mentality still lives on in some people. fun it is!!!!!

michelle made a feast for us on sunday. potato salad , pasta salad, marinated chicken & hot dogs ( kosher of course) hoy vey you have to have a rabbi watching your hot dogs being made.yeh buddy. i started early sunday morning. pounding the nails into the 1 by 6s form the torn off roof. i’m smart i missed the tear off .prepping for decking the roof was on our agenda. a realitive of james was already on the roof he didn’t speak english & i suck at spanish so we grinned & gave the thumbs up & started hammering nails.justin showed up around 1 pm in time for lunch. GOOD EATS , thanks michelle.

then justin showed us how a pro does it. we were running to keep up.decking a roof looks easy but there are two large obstacles . geometry & heights they can both get you down. one hurts more thou.
so i was cutting ply for justing to lay . running plywood across roofs & up ladders ,not something that makes me comfortable. we were 3/4ths done then we started to feel the raindrops. the sky got really dark & the rain let loose we ran around laying large tarps over the roof . got all the tools in & let out a sigh that we did not get zorched by lightning.

justin showing us how to move your butt.

serious rain , something like 3 inches in 2 hours.

the next morning with tarp.

the next morning before finishing decking & tar papering the roof. justin & james hamming it up for the camera.
that kind of thing makes me tick. i love to get in the barn raising mode. we are making his house better & our neighborhood better. LOVE IT!

dream beautiful dreams……joel grin dyke

dirty kanza & comutting with hail

last weekend the crew put on dirty kanza. jim & craig in one truck marking 1/2 of the course . michelle & i marking the other half. this year jim got the flat. those gravel roads are hard on tires we get one flat marking the course every year.67 brave souls started the race this year. 5 women ,& 14 singlespeeders.

at the start we had to make a quick decision if we were going to start or hold off a few hours for a huge storm that was brewing southwest of witchata. craig & jim called it perfect . we started on time. the local police led us out of town. about 1 hour in the fireworks started camron .cornbread, & dan hughes led the soul crushing pace. the lead 6 came thru the first checkpoint with a 18 mph average. then groups of 3 & 4 came thru every 20 or 30 minutes.

here is my partner in crime our course guru jim c. on his way to a 5th place finish. i think he was more surprised at his finish than us.

this is the half & 3/4 check point check out the sweet blue & red soulcraft kit.holy rat droppings that gets your attention.

cornbread or better known as cory . fixing one of his 7 flats. this dude is so strong & no complaints about the flats . a great attitude .

david pals the iowa gravel guru. this dude is always having a great time . the first race he got hit by a car & rolls in smiling. wow.

camron chambers our winner . buying the race food caseys breakfast pizza & a colt 40.
that man can ride.

the whole weekend i did not get to ride. everyone ejoying the sweet gravel & no fun for joel. so it was back to my roots for a epic commute ride home on tuesday. it started out overcast with a storm moving in from the west.riding up antioch it let loose about 95th street. there was lightning a little too close for 5 miles or so then the hail started . going along the mission hills creek it was flooding so no dice for my usual way home. i wound my way thru fairway to connect up with my usual route. the rain was hard , i was totaly drenched. i stopped on the hill overlooking the west bottoms because there was a large fire on the horizon. it looked like a plane caught fire at the old downtown airport.

the backside of the storm

part of the storm
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more of the storm panorama

more of my storm

the gas fire in the fairfax district
rolling to my secret trails i realized that i would have no such luck today. i wanted to check on how close the flood watters were to my trails & possibly move my tools. too many people watching the fire.

not bad for a 25 mile ride. hail , floods ,& fires.

dream beautiful dreams

joel grin dyke

nothin hotter than four women flippin you off

so you are probably wondering how i have so much  good luck with women. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. well keep guessing. just ask for what you want. generally you will get what you ask for. if you ask nice. so go up to four beautiful women & ask will you flip me off. shazam ! presto magico! i got one of my dreams. or at least four women with the little bird  flying my direction.

time has been too busy to write lately. but i’m back at it now. more steaming piles of nonsense soon.

dirty kanza

woh ,hey what the horse hockey . dirty kanza is 4 weeks away. i just looked at the calendar and surprise ,surprise . 4 weeks to find volenteers get 2 new tires for the car , 1 new rim ( also a right rear view mirror whups). the list of other things is long. every year i get a flat tire or ruin one tire. doing my half of marking the course. .jim is the course guru & detail man. i am the art school freak who provides inspiration & some perspiration.

putting on a race in the middle of chase county kansas is not easy. daunting gravel , trying to get volenteers. sweeping the course to make sure nobody gets left behind.all the dirty details that make a good race.

time to get workin….big grin

dream beautiful dreams ……joel grin dyke

steaming piles of nonsense

have you ever read the typical racer blog. it generally is about a interesting as stale bologna & seriously self serving(sorry all you racers). SO WITH THAT LEAD IN. here is another boring ride write-up. oh yeah i don’t consider myself a racer since i gave up my cat 2 liscence in 1998. i race or should i say i ride the joker class - singlespeed. oh one more thing. if i say “I ” more that 20 times send me a mail bomb. just read greg lemond’s book he writes “I” in it about 2 million times. that boy needs a egoectomy.

michelle & i are getting her ready for the dirty kanza . she needs some long hard rides in her legs NOW!!! sunday was perfect to start.so we rolled out towards the north there being a northwest wind.
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just after parkville this train was sitting on the tracks waiting. look at the sweet snow or whatever at the top of the boxcar. we rode the river road up towards leavenworth. just before this train we saw a wudchuk trying to hide from us .then peek his head up to see if we wanted him for lunch. not today we had some miles to ride before lunch. the sun came out in the afternoon as we made our way north into a fierce 20 mph headwind. then in wadron we saw the biggest group of roosters.

man i’m glad i don’t live next to this guy 20 roosters make serious noise.

mainstreet waldron ,mo.

the corner of this building says july 27, 1993. you want to live in this town again??? damn some people just don’t learn. the day just kept getting better we got to leavenworth stopped for a minute to eat a little.

here is our scenic lunch spot on main street leavenworth. then came the fun,TAILWIND!!!! yeah woo-hoo.as we left town we saw this

this seems such a waste. if leaders had to do the dirty work these guys would be still alive. not every military person is perfect .but the ones i have met have been extraordinary people. a damn waste of good lives. my father who was in two wars with 3 bullet holes in him to prove it. told me once he is glad i have never had to go to war & kill another man. there are no better words for it.

oh yes riding our bikes. one of the best roads in this area is wolcott road or hwy 5 form leavenworth to kansas city ,ks . 20 plus miles of windy twisty hilly sexy roads. on one hill we were passed by 3 Ferrari’s,1porche , & a wrx going 100+ mph. holy sh@t that is fast. then we made our way home. near the end michelle needed to shed a layer.

one car stopped .i’m not sure what they were thinking, but it wasn’t good.we got home just in time for dinner with mom . michelle cooked her spinach pesto pasta, with a large salad. good company & good food, great ride.GREAT DAY!

dream beautiful dreams…. joel grin dyke

ferrets ate my homework

global warming

here is a little youtube clip on global warming. i’m probably preaching to the choir ,but this is a great argument for action. to do your little bit try & drive to work one less day this week . please.

dream beautiful dreams…..jorl grin dyke

whoh nellie

$ 150 YES ,$ 150 DOLLARS, GREENBACKS, GAS MONEY.this is almost as much as winning the cat 3 89 stage race in 1991.but i don’t have to split is it with teammates.this is the second place payout for ouachita 80 mile race. finaly a race that rewards being too hardheaded to give up.

there was record rains for a week before ouachita. all the streams & rivers were flooded. the promoters had to do a few reroutes. but this weekend was the first time i had to wear sunscreen this year. beautiful 75 degrees cloudy start turning to sunny & clear. this little range of mountians are some of the best trails in America. if you want to ride singletrack good singletrack. this is where to go. between the womble & ouachita trails there is plenty to enjoy for days. think vacation in spring or fall. rent a cabin go ride all day. then go to mt ida cafe for chicken fried steak. their gravy makes you fast, a wudchuk secret. don’t tell any one. shhhhhhhh. that is a great vacation.

what a great there were a few times i was done. if there would have been a short cut anywhere i would have taken it. my arms started cramping in one long downhill. riding on a unsuspended singlespeed( a matt chester ti 29er with a badger fork) is a lot of work on long rocky down hills. then the v brakes are a limiting factor also. i guess its time to build a full on ss with disc brakes & a suspension fork.but i digress or regress. the route got better for me after 50 miles the big shake up in the ss division happened on the climb up suk mountian. guys were not metering out their legs. & once you give too much on a single speed you are done .you are cramping up in the fetal position waiting for the vultures to pick your bones clean. i reverted to hiking the steep stuff & the 20 rpm slow ride up the rest. it works you push really slow ,no quick accelerations or you are done. i caught the second place guy hiking up the last mountian, he was done. thank the gods of the revolving wheels. i didn’t have much to try & beat him with. after that it was a nice gravel ride into town & a cold beverage.

looks like my last time there. but there will be other adventures.

dream beautiful dreams…joel grin dyke

grizzley & ouachita a great combo

this weekend michelle & i are getting the hell out of dodge. arkansas is the destination beautiful arkansas. the ouachita mountians are calling. 80 miles of sweet singletrack , 1 gear & all day to ride. sounds like dying & going to valhalla. that is where us tall blonde people go after our trip on this earth. for the last 3 years i have done the 60 mile version of the ouachita challange. this last year michelle went down with me & did her own ride during the race. wow, you should see her photos she had a way better ride. when you are riding fast thru the forest. you don’t see anything but the trail.

it is time to outfit the bike building shop. grizzley mini mill is one of the first things that will be in it. on the way down  i will be picking up a mill. damn one job just got easier.the building is going to start in may so look for construction pics soon.

i don’t want to worry if i’m getting enough sleep of saturday night before a race , or did i eat the best food for the race. shit my pro contract still hasn’t happened yet. so it is fun rides for me only. lots of commuting , i hate to have to drive to save my legs for a race.a stoke monkey is in the future for me. the commute to bike source is 22 miles one way. some days that is just too much.think of a bike with 30 mph top speed you could tote a bike on the back & charge with a solar panel. no fossil fuels used except in the making of the bike. that makes too much sense . so back to commuting 4-5 days a week & fun rides all the time. sounds like a beautiful life.

now on another note fueling the body takes food. yes food! so the garden is getting expanded this year. michelle is a super gardener to team up with. the median in front of the house is turning into a garden space. half the back yard is also. sweet ,less lawn to mow. hot damn , i hate grass . it takes loads of work with no pay off. i’ll take basil, tomatoes , carrots, lettuce, green beans, etc… any day over grass.

super secret trails next time. oh yeah & a cool coffee place in the hood.

dream beautiful dreams…..joel grin dyke

time

time, well that is one big shit idea to wrap your head around. also a great pink floyd song.it took me 5 hours to put in a brick walk in my backyard. i ran out of day light so the car headlights worked . i ran out of time.

there are all kind of great ideas but so little time.so many great friends but so little time. countless beautiful places to ride but so little time. all kind of inventions rolling around my mind but so little time to make them a reality.so much music, art, food…etc to see & enjoy but so little time.

WELL. THE IDEA IS TO GET UP OFF YOUR ASS & GET MOVING.

oh yeah, mabey show up for work also .

dream beautiful dreams…joel grin dyke

working , riding , playing kissy face

working

  it is time for a shameless plug for BIKE SOURCE. the best bike shop in the western hemisphere . i love working with people who work hard & well. there is nothing worse than working with slackers. a slacker attitude is the worst thing for me . it’s like poision, makes me mad. the mechanics are on it at the source. travis ,dave,craig( the ringleader),dale (obi wan),& alex are a bunch of bad ass funky boys! i left out the sales guys  they are swell too! they cuddle real good. & smell nice.

  riding is the same, no slackers. i went on one wudchuk ride this winter & saw jesus again. there is nothing better than riding with a bunch of guys who understand flow. riding is flow, forward momentum & keeping it going that way. with a good exploration hike in the middle. it’s not a good ride if you don’t hike some. those are the words of the apostle of dirt wade. a good wudchuk.

  i will leave the playing kissy face up to you.  DO IT ! & DO IT OFTEN!!!

it’s good for your complection. and feels good too. enjoy!

dream beautiful dreams….joel grin dyke