WTF?

Those of you that know me also know that I’m cynical, sarcastic and a full-time smart ass. Somehow, my loving wife finds this endearing. Lucky me!

In spite of these disabilities (my maladies not the love of my wife) there’s a couple of things that people here in Germany (doesn’t seem to happen other places) do that completely befuddle me. At the top of this list is the helmet over the handlebar habit. For some unknown reason, more often than not, you’ll see people riding along with their helmets securely clasped to their stem and handlebars. Who knew that handlebars and stems needed the protection?

Check out this video… at about 35 seconds, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

My opinion…. if you’re going to bother taking it off of the shelf…. WEAR THE DAMN THING!!! I actually understand not wearing a helmet far more than I do taking it along for a ride and not wearing it.

Breath Cleveland… breath. Ahhhhhh, need to relax now.

So, Kera and I have figured out what our next brief adventure after next weeks will be.

Does it get more beautiful than this?

Of rocks and huts

One of the places we would stay

The Dachsteinwanderweg… it’s theoretically an 8 day hike around the Dachstein (where Reinhold Messner got his start) with our nights spent in mountain top huts. I’m looking forward to it…. a lot!

Lap just before sunrise

This coming weekends and next weeks adventures start Finale Ligure at the 24 Hours of Finale (pics from last year) in Finale Ligure, Italy site of one of my all time favorite 24 hour races. Part of it is that we get to see many of our European friends and because of the amazing views from the course.  The course it self is also great. After the race we aren’t sure where we’re going. Could be Arels, France back to the site of one of our favorite meals ever (when we met many of said friends) or St. Moritz, Switzerland. We’ll decide as we go.

Last thing… really cool video from Iceland of the volcano.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Sometimes things just don’t work out

So, the job that I’d really been expecting to get, I didn’t. Seems I didn’t sell myself well enough or they didn’t read my resume well enough. Maybe it was a combination of both. The apparent reason that I didn’t get the job was not having enough quality control experience. What did I do onsite with a multi-million dollar project? Anyway. As you can see, I’m not too thrilled about the result. The woman that won the position is fantastic, I just felt that I was the best candidate for the job.

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On to other, happier, things. Here are a couple of good photos from SS Italy where we had a fantastic time as I’d previously mentioned.

Kera made and gave away a bag to the winner of the Pixie Cross. Notice the colors.

Some cool and interesting costumes. That mustache is real.

Master of ceremonies Stefano looking happy in a chair. The smile is genuine. He’s a fantastic guy!

Our friend Ed scored Kera one of those cool cycling hats from Stefano as well.

Friend and teammate Ed looking a little too….something.

Kera made me suffer up this hill for this photo. So appreciate it!

Subbaqqui Rules!

A great photo of Chris another Ami.

The male and female winners admiring their new jerseys.

A charming photo of me.

Lot’s of the nutty folks.

The Gay Fisher

A good one of Kera taking many of the above shots.

Unfortunately, we won’t be going to Zurich for SS Switzerland this weekend. So, if the weather cooperates, we might just have to do our own ride around here.

Munich is absolutely nuts right now as Oktoberfest is going on and there are people here from around the world. Everywhere you go it feels like rush hour. It’s rather strange. Kera’s been once and will go at least once more with work. I’m not sure whether I’ll end up going this year or not. Due to a FUBAR situation, I ended up selling my ticket to go tonight.

Till later.

Decisions galore

I took the above pic of myself (gotta love timers) riding close to home the other day. It’s roughly 10-15′ down from the top of this. This was a really frustrating day for me for many reasons, so I ‘attacked’ the trail like an enemy. It felt good to work off all that anger and frustration. Things are quite a bit better now.

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It’s the middle of the week and I’m getting ready to take off to teach a class and then go get the next tattoo at least started. The design is a surprise, of sorts. I’ll wait till it’s done to post picks of it (unless we only do part tonight), then I’ll post what gets finished.

Other decisions to be made, the most important one at this point is whether to run singlespeed, 9 speed or 27 speed at Garda in about 4 weeks. I’d really like to ride the Black Sheep as it’s the bike that I’d expected to have for the race last year and it’s light and handles really well.

My major hang-up is whether to hang derailluers on it and maybe put the Reba back on for  Garda. I can’t get last years first climb out of my mind (something like 500 meters in not too long of a run). In short… UGH! The other thing that I think of is the first year that I did it on a singlespeed. It took me just over three hours to complete the first climb. Do I really want to repeat that?

Lastly, I’d really like to do the long course and I’m guessing that I won’t be fast enough without gears to make the time cut-off (especially if there’s a bike traffic jam again this year). That thought alone might help make my decision.

Other things on my tiny brain slate:

Where are we staying for SS World’s in Napa?

Where are we staying for Garda (this might need to be first)?

Am I getting enough training in to do well this year?

When will I get the resume/CV in for the job my buddy Clark told me about?

There’s more….. I told you it was a small slate.

Ah… should I do the City Race going on in town in two weeks? My thought is yes as it will help me gauge whether or not I’m going to die at Garda or not.

Last but not least, thanks a lot to my in-laws for taking possession of the crazy amount of stuff that we had in storage. We appreciate it very much. Thanks!

New BWR post

If you’re interested… there’s a new post over on the BWR Europe site.