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