Bike Tour Book Review IV

Today brings us the fourth installment of the bike tour book review.

Vietnam - An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975

Everyone thinks of Vietnam as a late 1960's war but for 30 years the Vietnamese fought to make a country for their own. I was hoping to get some additional insight as to why the U.S. got involved but the book failed to supply that. It told the truth.  There was no threat of this small, beautiful country invading our homeland. They wanted a communist regime, have at it.  It wasn't hurting our side of the world. Yet our American egos thought we could take anyone down, anywhere.  We had no idea how jungle war would play out and that the north was not going to quit; ever. Mix that with the south Vietnamese having a government they had no faith in fighting for. It was a no win situation. Yet we still continued to send individuals over to fight. 

I love my country but if I was 18 in 1960-whatever and you sat me down with the information noted above, I would find whatever means to avoid fighting someone who is no threat to my homeland. The government would tire after the 10,000th time of me asking "Why?"

Great read.

Hillbilly Elegy

A non-fiction account of one person's view growing up in more or less, the sticks, and working his ass off to get out of said sticks.  People from his area weren't supposed to go to college, let alone an Ivy League school. He was the less than one percent that made it; with a few bumps along the way.

Relating to my grade school time, I'll put money there were some of my classmates that had some form of hillbilly upbringing and went home to something different than what I had. I wasn't richy rich but never thought twice about missing meals or having the heat off at home; they were constants for me and not sure others had the same. I never thought twice about it at the time as if you could play kickball worth anything, talk about meals or lack of heat never came up. 

Striking Back - The 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response

It's never over. That pretty much sums up the book. Those that were behind the terror paid, even if it took the locals their entire lives to do it. A more fact-based account (a shi* load of research) of the massacre versus the Hollywood puffed up version, 'Munich'. 

Greg Giraldo - A Comedian's Story

The story similar to many other comedians on the road.  Searching for the next bit, drugs/booze, loneliness, repeat.  

Then death unfortunately in his case. He was one of the best roast comedians. Always prepared.  Do a search on the person and you'll find some of the funniest roast lines. 

Feeling Well

Next year will be my 30th with my employer and I'm here to tell you things have changed since the 1990 work experience.  

Case in point of my recent discovery of a 'wellness' room on my floor. As we don't have any nursing mothers on the floor, it's a room for stress relief or nursing a post thirsty Thursday dehydration bout.  Pictured below is the room. I think it needs a couch versus a chair. Walking back out on the floor with pillow hair wouldn't be a good look though so the chair will do. We have been in our current building since 2015 and if it wasn't for a recent e-mail from one of the assistants advising that the room needed to be reserved for use (as too many were abusing their privileges), I would think nothing of that room by the color copier even serving a purpose. I didn't know it existed. I'm too busy making color copies of mountain bike maps to worry about being well I guess.

All kidding aside, it's a great idea as when I started working here in 1990, the wellness room consisted of the lunchroom where inside smoking was still allowed so the second hand smoke made you feel....well. 

Trail Head 

the 'lounge'

wellness fridge - don't even think about
putting your tuna salad in there

Global Fat Bike Day (and who is the 'Oz' making up these days?)

A perfect environment for early December mountain bike riding in Michigan as while the temperature was below freezing, there was no wind so the Global Fat Bike Day locally at Island Lake Recreation Area was a treat this morning. Nephew Jackson rode along and respected his elders in waiting up for me along the trail. 

My quandary is who is the person behind the curtain making up these 'days'?  Global Fat Bike day. National cookie day. National burger day. National taco day. National spaghetti day. National milk day is January 11th if you need to set the reminder on your idiot phone.

No mas.

Trail Head

urban rider Jackson 

Good Dog

Jimmy cracked corn and I don't care but the attached video will draw a few hold backs on the tears for those that dare to tease me. I ragged on the attached player (and team) quite a bit over the past couple of years but losing both mom and dad while going to school over a thousand miles away from home and not quitting is quite an accomplishment in perseverance. It makes the crappy play of my alma mater a little less important. Love those dogs.

Trail Head

Hall of Famer

A shout out today to my sister for reaching the mountain top of her profession this past Tuesday evening, the Public Relations Society of America's Hall of Fame. I always kid her for what she has to put up with daily and her innate ability to laugh at very bad jokes during her thankless job tasks.  But damn, she is quite good at what she does. She has the gift of gab; a trait yours truly does not possess. You can say this and that about how Detroit got out of bankruptcy because of X and Y but I have reason to believe my sister's efforts bringing past and present Detroiters (Detroiters with clout) together in joining as one helped the city recover.  

Proud to say I'm her bro.

Trail Head

Feeling 52

In celebration of my 52nd year on earth, the bike tour headed south out of the Michigan November snow....to the Ohio November snow, but not as much. The destination, Mohican State Park in Loudonville, Ohio, a little east between Toledo and Columbus. The park maintains a 23 mile mountain bike loop (largest in Ohio) that this large headed rider had yet to experience. I wish I had experienced it when I was turning 40 as opposed to 52 as it was a bear. The first couple miles are a climb up to the ridge and then you level off somewhat with smaller hills. You think of Ohio as flat but the Mohican State Forest has some serious hills. I would compare it to a larger Pinckney Recreation Area with more rock gardens that this rider cares to see. I didn't plan on making the full 23 miles but even the abbreviated ride had me dragging ass more times than not. One of the drawbacks of riding solo is you don't have the other rider(s) to feed off of to get you past your ass drag (then again, maybe that is a positive - ha). I attached a short video of my ass dragging along with a cool view of the gorge within the park. 

gorge view 

The trip was not restricted to bike riding as I put the tourist hat on Thursday and took the Shawshank Redemption tour at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield where a portion of the picture was filmed. The tour took you to the warden's office where Andy played the opera music and the warden blew his brains out, the parole board room where Red got reviewed a few times and the post prison room where Brooks and Red stayed. Cool tour.

Nightlife in Mansfield Thursday had me experiencing what I was expecting with the local Cleveland Browns on television that evening. I knew the Brown faithful were VERY passionate based on the handful of Lion-Brown games I have experienced over the years. My conflict was that Michigan State had a basketball game at the same time Thursday evening. I could watch it in the hotel but being cooped up in a hotel room is no fun. I wanted to see some Mansfield-iens. A few blocks from the hotel was a sports bar and I left towards there thinking maybe a 10% chance that I could get a secondary tv to show the hoops game. My 10% turned to 0 upon entering the bar as pretty much every patron had some form of Brown merchandise on. I didn't even bother asking and just took it all in while these passionate son of a guns were cheering on their 3-6 team (soon to be 4-6). They were even doing group cheers. One guy bought a round for the entire bar so....go Browns. Fun experience.
Trail Head

Ohio State Reformatory

warden office

chapel

some seriously close quarters

Free At Last

I left one of the social media sites today. As my last post advised, I hope I don't end up like the characters in the movie "The Firm" after clicking the 'remove me' button. It was a good decade run on the site seeing people via the information superhighway you hadn't seen in awhile. 

On with the sarcasm. I will miss seeing friends that have 1,000 friends on there but none when the computer is off.  The bumper sticker senders; and who is making up these bumper stickers and their sayings? The helicopter parents; stop hovering. The attention starved ones who send a picture of themselves with the text, "caption my photo." "I need attention" is the caption that comes to most minds but don't dare send that and get publicly flogged on the Internet. The ever-so-popular changing of the profile picture every other week person. The political pushers. It's all there. 

In all seriousness, I will miss the many dog pictures and the mountain bike trail information. If it could only be that.  

So sorry Russia, you have one less voter to manipulate for the next election.

Trail Head        

color ride and got shi* on (literally)

Under perfect riding conditions and autumn colors at pretty much their peak, yesterday I got shi* on at Brighton Recreation Area. I was about a mile in, climbing a hill with large trees surrounding me and...splat! On my left thigh was a large brown turd, looking like whatever sent it my way had White Castle the night before because it was a wet one. I pulled out my water bottle, sprayed it off and went on my way but that was a first. 

Turds aside, attached is my reaction to being shi* on and some color views.

Trail Head

Bad Football in Cheese Country

The bike tour headed to cheese country this weekend to witness what was expected to be, at least in my old pea brain, a competitive football game between two evenly rated foes. But it was not to be as the Badgers brought reality to the Spartans. Co-worker friend Kevin also was there for the game with his wife and other Spartan slappies. His last text reply below pretty much sums up the game.

Shi**y football aside, thank you Madison.

Trail Head

graduate of the Jim M photobomber club 

my section 

view of the beat down 

life as a largemelon - one size does NOT fit all

My e-mail address confirms it. I am 'the' largemelon. I was a dial up internet user back when I created that address; no extra numbers or funky characters needed. I am the largemelon. 

With the attached proof from my youth to confirm it.  My mom used to sew extended velcro strips on the back of my baseball hat in high school as the 'normal' size was not even close. It made me look faster as well as the hat rarely stayed on my head even with the extra support. 

With the craving for the lazy to sue anything and everything, I'm surprised someone in the big head community hasn't sued the hat world for the 'one size fits all' label as I'm here to confirm that one size does NOT fit all. Not even close. 

Queue the way back machine to 7th grade with the first more or less formal football practice for yours truly. It took a helmet from what I am guessing the 1950's for one to fit me but what the heck. Large helmet and all, we ruled the gridiron back in 1978. Probably one of my favorite seasons of football. One stinky helmet from I am guessing 20 or so users of said helmet before I stunk it up some more. 

Fast forward to my junior year in high school. Another helmet conflict. This time they manually painted an extra large helmet available (it was white) to resemble the school colors. It was close but I stood out for the better or worse with the color mismatch. 

Thankfully the district got a few more bucks my senior year so I got to match my teammates on the football field. We still sucked.

Trail Head

7th grade - yours truly in front with the Tom Harmon look -
Jim M. photobombing even before there was photobombing 

Junior year. 1983. My helmet is a bit brighter than my teammates as they
manually spray painted a larger helmet to fit my melon

shout out to my large headed posse

He-Shed - Life Lessons

The mechanically DEclined one conquered a project this week with the construction of a "He-Shed" in my back yard, albeit with a few aches and bruises. The building of the shed wasn't that difficult, however, prepping the foundation was a bitch. Similar to painting, if you don't prep (which also sucks), the final product will pay. My foundation consisted of 16 concrete blocks, 2 feet x 2 feet per block weighing about 85 pounds per. Queue the wambulance but that is 16 times lifting the 85 pound blocks from the pile in the store onto a cart. From the cart to the back of my truck. From the back of my truck to my back yard (via wheelbarrow). And one last lift from my back yard to the foundation. Good thing I have a strong back.... (insert sarcasm). The back is hanging in there I'm happy to report, however, during the 64 times of lifting the blocks, one slipped out of my hands and caught my left leg pretty well. So well it left the attached bruise. I guess that is why you never see Bob Vila wearing shorts, eh? Yet another lesson learned but one would think I would have learned my lesson roughly 10 years ago when I used a chainsaw with shorts on and ended up getting worse than a bruise that day. But no. 

Trail Head 

MSU '89 Gathering

In celebration of 30 years since finishing their further education (barely), a pack of '89 MSU grads took to East Lansing yesterday to raise a glass to the past, compare physical therapy stories (most everyone had one) and watch some offensively challenged football by our alma mater. The latter portion being about four hours when you include TV timeouts. A grueling spectacle to watch in person even on such a beautiful blue sky day.

Sparty on '89.

Trail Head

All-in-One Down

The all-in-one store, small town America's answer to one stop shopping. And we're not talking about the corporate big box store with people shopping in their overstretched, crusty pajamas. We are talking about the corner store, the ONLY store in the town of one blinking light where you can get that paint for the spare bedroom, fishing bait for tomorrow's outing, ammo for the upcoming turkey hunt, steaks for dinner and a refill to your daughter's allergy medication. These stores usually have one niche item to bring people off the beaten path to their oasis in the middle of the woods. One such store in northwest Michigan met it's demise over the weekend via a fire. The store's niche being some damn good beef/turkey jerky; while also supplying paint for the spare bedroom, fishing bait for tomorrow's outing, ammo for the upcoming turkey hunt, steaks for dinner and a refill to your daughter's allergy medication. It had it all and there is literally one blinking light in town. The store was the place to be. Rebuild I'm sure they will as my local party store with the best chicken anywhere burned down four years ago this week (looked it up) and were rebuilt in about a year. Here is hoping the same for Dublin.

Trail Head

store had it all

Summer of Pain Reward

It has been the summer of pain. It all started innocently with some physical therapy in June to get my long suffering back and hips back to somewhat normal....so I can proceed to do activities that will put me back in therapy. All was going great until a mid July morning brought me neck pain beyond all neck pain. A neck kink I thought from one of the thousand sleeping positions I go through each night and would go away in a day. A day turned into a week, then two weeks with the therapists pinching, prodding and doing everything in their power to rid the force pushing down my left arm with a particular neck movement.  X-rays showed no spine issues (I'm not spineless!) and am going to a sports doctor on Friday for some more prodding to release that darn nerve. To add to the fun, I was recently diagnosed with moderate gum disease so with a numb arm, I had a periodontist do some aggressive gum cleaning (read: gum ripping) a few weeks ago. Mouth stitches afterwards with a repeat performance on the left side coming in three weeks. Cry me a river.    

With all of this going on and my back issue making a comeback recently from some left arm overcompensation while getting out of bed, I had a mountain bike race this past weekend in Bellaire that I signed up for long before this perfect storm of pain made it's appearance. I would not be denied, made the race and took first in the old man riding class. I'm glad there was no drug testing afterwards as I think I had every over-the-counter pain reliever in me. They all didn't do crap as adrenaline alone made me go but it reminded me of the Saturday Night Live skit on the "All Drug Olympics." (link below) 

AARP victor, out

Trail Head

Ode to Bacon

Bacon. It's pretty much #1B behind chicken in terms of this scribe's favorite meats. As comic Jim Gaffigan says about it, "it's almost like its cheering when you cook it" and "to improve other foods, they wrap it in bacon." 

And it's little or no carbs for those of you wanting those stats. Granted those numbers might rise a bit when you view the menu offering below I had last night at a local establishment. The referenced maple syrup and chocolate just might kick those numbers up. I went with the Bacon Board modification (shocker); just pure bacon for me. And it was delicious.  

Yay bacon!

Trail Head

Bald Mountain (west) Music Festival

After months (some weeks) of practice, a group of bands came together yesterday in Howell for a day of peace, love and music.  All categories were met as there were no A-holes in attendance and the music was filled with more love than the Bunny Ranch.   The highlight of the evening for me was witnessing the duo of Tommy M. and his Dad singing "I want my dog back," captured in the attached video along with a handful of performances before my camera battery died.

Good day.

Trail Head


Song list in the attached:
- 3LD - Going Down
- Melton & Son - I want my dog back
- Skinny Hippos  - Jean Jeanie
- Duff - Driving my life away
- GOB - Waiting on a friend
- 3LD - Jolene
- Skinny Hippos - Johnny B. Good
- 3LD - Blue on Black
- Duff & Friends - Handle with care

 
  

food truck