Join me wishing my fellow Teufel Hunden’s a Happy Birthday.

(The black Marine at the end is the Sergent Major of the Marine Corps he is the highest ranking enlisted Marine. The stripes on his forearms represent how many years he has been in the Corps. Each gold strips represents 4 years. The other Marine is The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen James T. Conway)

                          

So Saturday I took the bike out of the garage and gave it the once over, resulting in the conclusion that I had 2 flat tires. This was after 5 p.m. I looked up some bike shops and found a couple in my ‘hood. But the one I wanted to go to was closed on Sundays. So I went with the second choice.

Sunday, I went to a bike shop I had never been to that was even closer than my first choice. So I get to the shop and ask the dude for 2 inner-tubes. He asked me what kind of bike I had and in a split second I think OHH GREAT! This dude is thinking since he works in a bike shop and I’m buying inner-tubes for a bike we must have something in common so he’s going to want us to be friends.

The following actually occurred:

Clerk: So what kind of bike do you have?

The D: Umm, Bridgestone

C: Bridgestone? I’ve never heard of that. Is it new?

The D: I don’t think so, but it cost me $150,000 dollars*.

C: $150,000 DOLLARS!! HOLY SHIT!! Is it made out of gold?

The D: Nope, came with a free house.

C: <staring… blinking… blinking…>

The D: <thinking to myself>  Wait for it…. Wait for it…

The D : The house I bought, the owners left it in the garage.

C: OOOHHH, hahaha good one.

The D: <thinking again> BOO-YAH! Nailed it!!

And scene…

That friends, is a classic joke my step-dad gave me when he and my mother bought me a microwave when I was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1994.  The microwave came with a big ass plastic coffee mug. I do not have either the microwave nor the coffee mug today.

So I get back to the house and swap put the old flat inner-tubes with the new ones and took a quick spin around the neighborhood making sure all the gears shifted correctly and smoothly, and checking to make sure the brakes worked and all that jazz. I was drenched with sweat about 5 min later.

So Im going to add mountain biking to my list of workout which now just consist of running and yoga once a week. the good thing is that I will be able to recover from the runs faster and I wont have to run every day.

But the bad news is that I am 100% sure I’m going to have a violent wipe-out resulting horrific injuries to my person. Some of the injuries that I’m looking forward to the most are the concussion, the broken/dislocated shoulder (s) and the always popular death from getting hit by a car.

One of these is going to happen but I’m going to be riding in parks so the chances of getting hit by a car and dieing are lower but the chances of getting paralyzed is much greater at least I think so. Another kick-ass occurrence is that, I’ll have my cell phone with me so when I am flying down a hill and hit the wrong brake too hard and go flying over the handle bars, landing on my head/face/shoulder, I’ll be able to take pics of my collarbone sticking though my ear. IT’S GONNA BE SWEET!!

With all this talk about deadly injuries it occurs to me that I might be rendered unconscious during one of these scenarios so I better take an “in case of emergency” card with me. The thing is I don’t have any. Better put my I.D in with my iphone arm band.

To start easy I’m going to hit the unpaved trails of local parks so I can get a hold of what I can do and plan out my goals for that aspect of my fitness.

It looks like It’s going to rain everyday until Wednesday or Thursday so it might not be until next weekend that I get on it.

If you know of any good places to ride let me know in the comments, and be a friend and give up the links to good local maps of bike trails.

Almost forgot I have a weight-in on Thursday.

Y’all keep hangin and bangin!

*house value is estimate

                          

The least you could do is give them a minute of your time.

Friends, we are the only country in the world with 100% volunteer Armed Forces. We all chose to serve and defend freedom where ever the people wanted it.

Today is not the day for thanking us. Today is the day to remember those that have given their lives in the name of Freedom.

See this page for a count of the total number of deaths in all of our countries conflicts and wars.