May was going to be challenging — working in an office again (3 days per week), new house, trying to get back on the bike, etc. I had some goals (listed below), most of which didn’t get done, but I did blast through a bunch of my other stuff. So the month wasn’t a total loss.
- Get the Scoutreads scrapers built.
- Finish unpacking.
- Survive the Heywood gravel ride.
Scoutreads Web Scrapers
Hah. Hah! Hahahahaha. Yeah, right. Fail.
Finish Unpacking
Yeah, we’re a lot closer, but we’re not done. Fail.
The Heywood
This was a win. Sort of. I mean, I finished, but goddamn that ride sucked. And my prep for getting to the starting line wasn’t the best. But I got there, and I finished, despite the last 12-15 miles being straight into a motherfucker of a headwind. I nearly quit with six miles to go, that’s how bad it was. But I finished. And I’m pleased with myself. WIN.
Minor/Other Accomplishments
- Got the deck shored-up on the first day of the Memorial Day weekend. While starting in on the grill build, we noticed that it was a bit wobbly, so I looked around and noticed a few things — no blocking on the joists, and where the the joists sat atop the main beam, each was only secured by what looked like a single nail. Clearly some half-assed shit. So we went out, bought a miter saw (which was on the agenda anyway), got some pressure-treated cedar 2x8s, and I blocked the joists, and put hurricane brackets up to keep the joists on the beam, secured with decking screws. It does the job, the deck has a much more sturdy feel, but it’s going to need to be torn down and rebuilt eventually. That’s a problem for future Dan.
- Got the grill build finished (finally). This was overdue and kept getting pushed back due to other stuff related to getting the house unpacked. We celebrated with steaks, and other assorted gems from Von Hanson’s.
- Blasted through a bunch of reading — I was behind schedule for the year on this because all the work leading up to the move and afterwards.
- More time on the bike. Always good.
Reading
Holy crap, I dropped the hammer on the reading list this month, and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of myself. Been a mix of audiobooks and print, and I’ve been slaying. My brain is so busy and so full of ideas!
Blockers
- I added another goddamned project bike — this time, it was a 1995 Specialized Stumpjumper FS. Shown above. Back when some Specialized models were still built in Japan. Tange tubing. Early days of mountain biking. I still haven’t made a definitive decision on what to make out of it — lightweight singlespeed? cool x-bike gravel beast? — but it’s going to become something awesome.
- Still getting into the flow of having to be in the office three days per week. The commute has been great for getting through my reading list, though — and I did rediscover audiobooks for the days that I’m driving in.
Lessons Learned
- House projects will always require a minimum of two trips to Home Depot to get one thing done.