Inspiration is a funny thing.  But sometimes events unfold themselves in such a way that it gives one inspiration.  Take this blog.  The reason you are reading this has to do with decisions that a number of folks have made.  Doug (bike shop owner) apparently needing to fill an order from Specialized, decided last spring to “round things out” with a pair of stark white cycling shoes.  After all, it was Spring, flowers were in bloom, bird, bees, you know, all that stuff.  And it was after Easter, so it stood to reason that the choice to stock white cycling shoes would be a good decision.  Not so much.  They rode the store for quite a while and never found a home.

Fast forward to Saturday April 25^th 2009.

Our ride was a good one.  A dozen or so folks came out and met in the McAllister’s parking lot on 378 and off we went.  Brad showed up and was partaking in his normal sand bagging, trash talking and general complaining about putting on weight.  He tips the scale at a buck 50 fresh from a shower.  So the ride proceeded in normal fashion.  OSP™ was there also talking about the toils of overeating over the winter and wanting to lose a few lb’s.
Then it happened.  My inspiration blindsided me and I nearly fell off the bike.  The shear glow was enough to warrant sunglasses.  The aforementioned White Specialized Cycling shoes that had been the center piece to the Spring “08 fashion line up at BTN, only it’s Spring “09.  After a steal of a deal, my good friend BigLegDave™  had donned the shoes.  Filled with pride and GU, and grinning from ear to ear he told me of his purchase.  To that I told him that he was no longer BigLegDave™, but from then on he’d be known to all as DavieWhiteShoes™.  A joyous shriek soon followed and off into the morning we road.
The ride finished relatively normal save for Brad running numerous red lights through downtown Lexington and pissing off several motorists.  Pretty odd that was, must have been in a hurry.  At any rate, my small bout with writers block seems to have come to an end with the oddest bits of inspiration that I can remember.

Until next time.  Share the road.

I always look forward to this time of year because my sister’s husband’s family butchers pork.  This year to count was 4 hogs.  More importantly, I enjoy the early morning drive out through Calhoun County to the community of Lone Star.  Today the sky was overcast and a slight drizzle kept a mist on the windshield.  Took me about an hour to get there which meant I got to listen to Mofro uninterrupted (thanks again Dan!).  It made for a very soulful drive through the countryside.
St. Matthews is always like driving through a time warp.  It’s literally the way I remember it when I was a kid.  Nothings really changed there.
So the day wore on and I got to see almost all of my family.  I brought home a box of fresh meat.  We’ll eat most of it while it’s fresh this week and save a few select pieces for later use.  In all the job of butchering can be kind of gross which conjured up the idea of inviting Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs to next years event.  Who knows, maybe the guy will show and do all the grunt work.

That's me.  I'll explain.  The mad events of this week, which was a 4 day week by the way, left me running pretty low last night.  I got home and decompressed a little.  My beautiful wife had prepared a tapas meal that included smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers, stuffed sol, crackers and cheese, vine.  You know, the normal tapas stuff.  It was wonderful.  My sister and B-i-L stopped by and partook in the festivities.  Everything was going great until Mr. Firefly appeared out of the freezer.  One of those turned into three and I found myself on the sofa watching Ice Road Truckers.  Here's where the  sorry host part come in.  I woke up on the sofa to a dark house and a very quiet house.  Disoriented, I fumbled to the bathroom to brush teeth and have a visit to the latrine.  I collapsed in the bed and woke up feeling half drugged at 7AM.  I had to ask the wife what had happened.  She said I passed out at 8:30.  "Must have been the Firefly" I said and she answered with silence.

So I checked the weather channel and it looked like the day was going to shape up to be a nice'n.  I hopped on the Felt and took off to the store.  Three of us showed to brave the breeze from Hanna but other than that it was a great day to ride.  We clicked off 47 miles and I was home before 10:30.  Legs were a might bit tired today as I haven't given them a break since Monday.

As for this host, I'll try to stay awake for the next Tapas event.  Sorry I crapped out on you guys.

Don't forget, TomFoolery will be Foolerizing Hudson's Smokehouse on Friday the 12^th.  Come out for some Q-n-Brew.

I can't believe I made it through this mornings ride without puking my guts out.  I felt it with every pedal stroke.

The Good:  Firefly Vodka (on the rocks with a splash of water) is very dangerous vodka.  A buddy of mine at work has been telling me about this stuff for a couple of weeks.  I was at the shop o spirits yesterday picking up a bottle of vino for the warden and I remembered the name of it.  Firefly! I said.  I got the counter and the cashier asked if I was sharing my liter.  "Yes, it's likely that I'll share with someone" She answered, "Well, that's not enough".  Puzzled, I thought there's no way that I could consume the entire bottle in one night.  I hadn't pulled a night like that since…well….the Allman Brothers concert back in '03 in Charlotte.  More good news is that I didn't finish the bottle entirely but over half of it is gone.  Yes folks, it's that good and just as your thinking how good it is, it hits you.  Those folks in Wadmalaw SC make some of the meanest spirits around.

The Bad:  You guessed it, my head felt like somebody beat it with some flatboard this morning, but I did manage to eat a bowl of Life (fitting) and drag my haggard and half hung over behind to the ride.  Not pretty, gangly in fact.

The Gangly:  Oh dear, where do I start.  Not feeling spirited would be an understatement.  I had been on the rollers a couple of times this week so my legs were already at a deficit.  That, coupled with the gravity of last nights foolery made it feel like I was pedaling up hill and in a head wind on under inflated tires for the entire ride.

Onward and Upward as they say.

The GCocks won Thursday night.  They didn't look great but they won convincingly and they beat a D1 team in NC State.  That should slip them into the top 25.  Vandy is next!