Author: bhayes952

June 13, 2022 – Baseball, Graduation and Better Weather?

June 13, 2022 /

I was looking back on the years and I wax poetically about graduation at some point every year. This of course is the time that it happens. High school graduation was last Friday and the local university graduation was last Saturday. I love the hope that graduation represents. I love the party atmosphere, people seem to genuinely be in a good mood around town.

High school is really a stage gate. We went to some of the recent end of year awards ceremonies where seniors were recognized. Some of them put in a huge amount of time over the years, 1100 hours dedicated to one discipline. There was real emotion about the tenure ending. However, the exuberance about graduating is really like a caged animals getting released.

College graduation has a quite different feel. I would say it is more of a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. Because everyone has taken a different walk to get there, there is a different level for each person. Some have their parents, some have their kids, some are with friends because the family is far away and some are alone because that is the the way they wanted it. Each person knows that they have put in the work to meet the requirements to graduate. And so a new life begins.

Graduation is the transition between the school year and summer. When I was a kid, summer was the time to play baseball. I would say that it is was my favorite sport at that point, even though I really wasn’t good enough to make the ‘A’ team or the high school team. So, my participation in baseball waned as I got into high school. But, it doesn’t mean that I lost my appreciation for the game.

When I was younger and seemingly had all the time in the world. I would follow baseball. Later, I made attempts at some points but I guess I just couldn’t dedicate all the time. For a year or two we went to five or so minor league games before kids. The local team was a San Francisco Giants Single A team that was chocked full of future major leaguers like Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval. They tore up the Northwest Summer League. Unfortunately, that league was shut down in 2020 and never to return.

College baseball is somewhat big here as well. The Oregon State Beavers have won three national titles since 2006. I was listening to the Beavers play Vanderbilt last week and between the two schools they had five national titles this century. That is nearly a quarter of all the titles in that time frame.

Amazingly, they got in two games over the weekend (best two of three). Other events were not so lucky. There was an absolute deluge of rain Friday night which forced high school graduation inside. I have sat in the seats when it was raining before. It rained off and on all Saturday making college graduation hit an miss. And, baseball managed to miss it all. Last weekend, they played in rain that I thought for sure would postpone things.

This seems to be one of those years that maybe things will turn around July 4th. In the ten day forecast, I don’t see any highs above 73 degrees with more rain predicted. Yesterday, the high temperature was only 58 degrees. It feels more like Alaska than what we have been used to in the last five years. That being said, I remember a year in the 1990s that we didn’t get a temperature in the 80s until mid August.

End Your Programming Routine: In Oregon, you can’t stop for the rain. You just have to work around it. I guess what I can say is 20-30 years down the road you will remember bits and pieces about the graduation ceremony but not necessarily the weather. So, congratulations grads enjoy your moment and go Beavers.

June 10, 2022 – Just Do It

June 10, 2022 /

It was 1988 when this slogan came out. Athletes like Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan were in their prime and leading the charge. I was in middle school and of course, it was the coolest thing to emulate or wear certain marketing slogans (like this one). We had no idea what it really implied and we were not the target audience, but it did leave an impression didn’t it?

Truthfully, I haven’t given it much thought in years. I did some quick research on current marketing slogans and I don’t see much that I actually recognize. ‘Just Do It’ is credited with turning Nike into a global apparel juggernaut. I am a little biased I suppose because I grew up in Oregon and it always seemed that way to me, but that is what the experts says. I think that there is something to that motivation. Stop thinking about everything and just try.

Well, I did it. I stopped putting excuses like researching the right host for scalability and just created a free account on castbox.fm. There may be some consequences in the future, but I think I will treat it like I did my earlier WordPress transition. I will build a beta library of podcasts that I will probably divert later. But, if I never get started, I will never get it done.

This podcast was inspired by some real stuff going on. I wanted to speak up, but I didn’t feel like it was going to make a change in the outcome. Plus, my thoughts were not truly organized. I had more to say so I did this podcast.

I am not promising that this is the end all or that I will switch formats but I think that I want to start adding at least a podcast a week. Maybe Fridays are the days to do that? Maybe this will change, but it actually took more work to make this podcast. Just writing the outline probably took as much time as actually writing a post. For now, I am going to just try to get familiar with the technical aspects and see how it goes.

There are still things to do to make this fly and I don’t even know what they all are. There is adding the RSS feed to the popular podcast vendors like Apple, iHeartRadio and Spotify. I should find some bumper music, learn more about editing, etc. But, I am not going to worry about problems that I don’t really have either. I would like to have a small catalog of podcasts before I really look into the distribution.

As an avid listener to podcasts, I am aware of some of the gotchas, especially free services. Maximum posts per month, maximum post size and total catalog limits. Then there is bandwidth throttling and random ad placement. So far, I have seen none of this but we will see what kind of problems come up with this arrangement. I am not opposed to paying, but I want to make sure that it is a business expense, not a personal expense.

End Your Programming Routine: It feels real. It is what I started this endeavor to do in the first place. Honestly, I think writing every day has helped me eliminate some of my fears but it also gave me a crutch not to move forward. I am happy that I finally broke that barrier. Looking forward to podcasting again.

June 9, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 9, 2022 /

It has been described as golf with a shotgun. This is the game called Sporting Clays. Every year, after the trap season is over, we do a fun shoot at a local facility.

Pretty good shooting from one of the coaches. At each station, there are two possibilities. One is called a report pair. The shooter says pull, the launcher fires one target and after the shooter shoots, the second target is launched and the shooter tries to shoot the second target. The second type is called a true pair. With that, two birds are launched at the same time.

The targets are different at each station. Sometimes they even come in behind you. It is a game that more closely mimics bird hunting where you don’t know where the target is going to come in. We shot fifty shots. That is like the nine hole golf equivalent. Official events would be 100.

It still took us three hours to finish. That was with five shooters and walking the whole time. So, you do have to allow some time, plus one hour there and back each. It is a commitment.

Most of us team members are not members at this particular range. I say this because 50 targets cost $26. Members get a better deal, but you do have to shoot quite a bit to break even because the membership is $125/year. One particular thing about this range is a pretty nice pro-shop. If you ever wanted to see a $20,000 shotgun they got them. You can rent shotguns too. I think if I was going to spend $3000 on a shotgun, I would want to see how it goes first. Rentals are $20-30 per session.

I shot very poorly. I did not get a good sight picture. Possibly something is going on with my eyes. I am right eye dominant and that doesn’t seem to be a problem with rifles. But, when I get a proper mount and open my left eye, I am no longer looking down the barrel, but the side of it. I need to do some experimentation with one eye. Or, it could be that I don’t have proper cheek relief.

I say this because I shoot my air rifle almost every day. And, I shoot with both eyes open. But, it does have a scope, so maybe that helps. I was trying to figure out what was going wrong as I was cleaning my shotgun yesterday and I figured out my sight picture was not what it is supposed to be. On Saturday, I thought that maybe my earmuffs were preventing my gun mount properly, but now I think something is not quite right with my eyesight. I will talk more about determining eye dominance next week.

End Your Programming Routine: I shot 5/50. That is pretty bad, My kids shot 15/50 ish and the best in our group shot around 25. I think last time I did this, I shot around 15 and I didn’t notice this problem. I had a lot of fun despite that and it is something to work on. So, looking forward to trying again. I think I will suggest it for a belated father’s day.

June 8, 2022 – The Calm Before the Storm

June 8, 2022 /

I am not sure when this changed exactly, maybe when I went back to work last year. But, it seems like our house is in a state of constant evolution. This job was originally scheduled late summer last year, then my father-in-law died and we have had a year of unplanned activities.

This week, we begin the journey of new countertops and replacing the faux brick paneling with subway tile. Since I am not doing the work, I guess what I think doesn’t really matter. Despite all of that, we will be inconvenienced without having a proper kitchen (as long as the job takes).

What bothers me about the process is what seems like the constant piling of cast-off housewares and furnishings and boxes or stacks of things sitting around. Ultimately, even though I am not doing the work, I end up having to deal with the job waste. Trips to the dump and donation centers, listing items for sale, etc. It seems like the ultimate wasteful, consumerism type behavior that is actually beginning to bother me.

We have shifted from the buy-once, cry-once mentality of furnishings to an evolving cycle of cheap(er) decor. Beds last five years, couches are three, chairs and rugs are replaced annually. The items don’t come in a truck anymore, they arrive in boxes that require assembly. This means that they are less durable. Then the old ones have to be moved out to the garage to become my problem. It seems so wasteful to me.

As an example, our first bar stools we bought were by IM David. Looking them up for writing this, I see that they are retailing for nearly $1500 a piece. We replaced them with $150 chairs a couple months ago. One of the two chairs didn’t swivel properly, so now we have three chairs. Our old chairs are dirty and worn by they are still very nice pieces that we could have invested the $300 into restoration. I am debating whether to sell them, restore them or donate them.

I am not against engineered furniture. Some of it can be very nice and there is a place for it. For one, they provide good value. For instance, my kids will likely be out of the house in less than three years. So furniture that doesn’t have to last a lifetime is probably a better deal. It also appears to scale properly. It seems like a lot of today’s furniture is so grotesquely sized. I am not a fan of wood/metal/glass integrated pieces either. I don’t like the ascetic.

I think this will be nice when it is done. It was my idea in the first place. But, was it necessary? No. is it really worth it? I guess we will see.

End Your Programming Routine: Where this is all going is that I am sure that once that work is done, there will be a whole bunch of other changes that will happen as a result. We were discussing hardware changes, our range is ailing, the cabinet finish is worn, my wife hates the lighting and false cealing and things like that. Expect more changes to come.

June 7, 2022 – Is it Good? Check

June 7, 2022 /

So, I mentioned my Adirondack chair idea recently. Before I fully committed, I wanted to see if the wood was even viable. I pried a couple representative boards off the fence to see what they would look like if I cleaned them up.

The fence is made from Western Red Cedar. I don’t know how long it has been up, but I would guess 30 years at least. While that is a familiar wood, it is not something I have done any kind of ‘fine(r) woodworking’ with. What I mean is as rough as the boards were, I wasn’t sure how good of chair they would make.

I think the nominal fence picket is 5/8″ thick. Once I surfaced the boards, they were more like 3/8″. Laminating three boards together, gave me approximately one inch of thickness. That means for the structure of the chairs, I will probably need two or three boards per piece. That is time to surface more boards, glue and clamp and waiting for them to dry.

Doing things in this way, means that the overall construction process will be much longer than the half day I was talking about when I introduced my thoughts. So, the initial idea was inspired by having the materials and the time investment is low. This gives me pause in actually committing to this. I really want to do it, but honestly, I cant invest the time (this summer).

There is a secondary concern as well. Since I am paying someone to dismantle the fence, I will only be able to get the boards if I am available when the work is done. I could ask to have them save panels, but I don’t want to end up with a bunch of extra waste either. Based on those factors, the go ahead with this project is still to be determined.

End Your Programming Routine: If this were strictly a business decision, the answer would be no. Time is too valuable and the timing is wrong. All things being equal, If I had a stack of lumber I would make time later. It is going to boil down to whether I am around to get the boards in the first place and then it will happen some time after I finish the siding this summer.

June 6, 2022 – Symphony for the Masses

June 6, 2022 /

My kids are into music. I understand, I was once a high schooler in band. I suppose that it did build some appreciation for classical music as well. I definitely enjoyed playing music rather than listening to it anyway. We had a family outing over Memorial Weekend and it was a night at the Oregon Symphony.

I’m sure when you think of symphony, you think of fancy, expensive, a little bougie. I do, so I wouldn’t blame you. This was something different as a more approachable and quite smart way to draw in a new audience. This was the Oregon Symphony playing the score of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

This event drew in the Harry Potter fans, symphony goers, kids and the like. The audience was encouraged to interact with the movie by cheering or jeering however we saw fit. There were definitely people that had their Harry Potter garb on as well as people that appeared to be on dates. It was quite the mix.

The movie plays on the screen while the symphony plays the soundtrack to go along with it. At $50/ticket, it was the most expensive movie I have ever watched. I do have to say, since I have never seen the movie (I did read 75% of the book), I found myself focusing primarily on the screen and not the sound. I guess I would say, if you prefer the music then this experience may not be for you.

It seems like they have been doing this for some time, I just recently became aware of it. There will be another one in two months that is the music from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. We are already talking about whether we want to buy tickets or not.

Looking at other upcoming performances, it does seem like this is not the symphony of 30 years ago. In addition to what you might expect, the next performance is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony there is also a Beatle’s tribute as well as a Star Wars vs Star Trek concert. So, it does seem like they are trying to reach a broader audience.

End Your Programming Routine: We did get dressed up. We had to go to Portland and pay for parking. With that came a midnight stop at a 24 hour diner as well as a friend a piece for each of my boys. So, this was not an inexpensive outing. I couldn’t think of a more unique scenario to enjoy a holiday weekend.

June 3, 2022 – 500

June 3, 2022 /

This is the 500th post at Altf4. I have to say, I don’t think all of them were great and to some degree not all of them were (technically) real topics. There have been some occasions where I was having technical problems and just posted an update rather than a real topic. But, technically, this is the 500th blog entry.

My favorite things I have done so far are the series posts. I think number one was documenting the remodeling of my apartment in the spring and summer of 2020. I do look back at those posts sometimes when I want to check on some aspect or find a picture of the project. Number two was the analysis of 1984 followed by the analysis of the American Dream I completed earlier this year.

Individual posts that stand out to me as favorites are Lessons Delivering for Amazon, Memories of my Grandfather and teens and grief. There are lots of runner ups, particularly ones that I think have great pictures like my fishing, crabbing ones. I suppose the reason that all of those appeal to me is that they hold memories versus the opinion pieces. There is no real connection to the content.

What are the top questions I get asked? The truth is none. But, let’s pretend that I had fans I was being interviewed?

  1. How do you come up with topics every day? I think it is helpful to have a bit of a formula. For instance, a series is useful in filling at least a day a week. Tacticool Thursday is a set placeholder and so I only need three days worth of topics at this point. I use projects on the weekend to generate content for the remaining days. When I get ideas, I stub them out to be filled in later as well.
  2. What is your favorite part of writing AltF4? I like the creative outlet but it also helps me solidify my thoughts. When I was in a funk six weeks ago, writing about it helped me figure out what was going wrong. It also gives me pause
  3. What is your least favorite part? I think because I do this on my own time, the quality and scale of what I do is less than what I want it to be. When I am writing heavy opinion pieces, I will often let them set a day or so before re-reading and publishing. Usually I don’t change much but I often see places where I wander or could streamline the argument. Because of time, I usually let them go. I would like to do larger and more intricate projects but time is usually a constraint.
  4. Is there anything that you wish you hadn’t written about? No. But I do wonder sometimes if I come off too strong at times. I do give some thought to opinion pieces and wonder how this is going to come back to harm me in the future. I often take a second look at my initial stance before I write about it or at least publish it.
  5. If you could make one change, what would it be? I wish that AltF4 was my career. There are lots of things I would like to do that I don’t feel like I have the luxury of doing without sacrificing all of my free time. I would like to build some other avenues of interaction, maybe some e-commerce store with stickers, I would like to refresh some of the sticky pages and organize some additional resources and links.
  6. Any plans for the future? As of right now, nothing new is planned. This doesn’t mean that I won’t change my mind or find an easier way to make the changes I would like to see happen occur. As I have stated recently, doing things the way that I have been doing them has satisfied me to the point that it is comfortable.
  7. Is there anything that you have learned doing this? Actually, I have learned quite a bit. I think I have the discipline to write a book if I wanted to, and I actually enjoy it. I have learned a little about PHP, SSL and web technology as well. I learned that I like having an open forum to do whatever I want to do.
  8. Is there anything else that you want to add? I would like to thank my fans for submitting the questions and letting me answer them. Honestly, I know that this is a passé medium just like reading books or preparing family dinner every night. I guess that I am an old soul. Thanks for giving me your time not just today but every time you read.

I know that growth requires change. In my head at least, I thought I was practicing what I thought was a proper business practice. And that is, keep generating content while the conversion to the new thing is going on. I suppose the reality is that I don’t have the bandwidth to really do both. I get kind of irritated when somewhere closes down temporarily to make a change. My thinking was, I don’t see anything wrong with the way it is. This is the reality of a one man show.

As a result of trying to do something extra for post 500, I have spent some time over the last couple weeks to revamp the static pages. I have consolidated the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Book Club to one page instead of a yearly page. I repurposed the other pages for umbrella subjects of media and influences. Hopefully, those pages will be a little more evergreen and useful and less temporal than they were in the past.

So, with that, I am not going to make any additional promises on the future at this point. I am going to keep writing until I decide to do something different. That something could be that I just don’t want to spend my time doing this anymore. But, I don’t really foresee that at this point.

End Your Programming Routine: It is no secret that I am a routine listener to The Survival Podcast. In one of Jack’s many business building routines, the advice is to do things routinely. Very few are going to show up to something that has five entries or episodes and post randomly. I took that advice to heart, so that part I have down. What I still need lots of help on is the marketing and monetization components.

June 2, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 2, 2022 /

This came up in Trap a few weeks ago, that is the color of shooting glass lenses and the environmental conditions. This is helpful for shooting but it is also helpful in fishing as well. Different color of lenses can give you a tiny advantage with different light conditions.

When I first got my range membership, I thought I would treat myself to some new shooting glasses. I bought a multi lens pack that contained a range of different colors. On the package, there is a guide that helps select the right conditions for the right lens.

I personally like clear for indoors, yellow for overcast or low light and grey/black for sunny days. I think that gives a lot of versatility. But there are many more variations. Not being a professional or a competitor, I could see how maybe any slight advantage might be helpful but I can get by with the three.

Since my son adopted my shooting glasses during trap season, I decided to see what was out there and upgrade. I recently bought a pair of WileyX WX Saints. You might say they are safety glasses or sunglasses but they have interchangeable lenses. The truth is, many sunglasses can also work as safety glasses. The important thing is that they are tested to ANSI Z87.1 standards. That is the impact test for worthwhile safety glasses.

For fishing, polarized glass is important. Not only do glasses protect your eyes for rays bouncing off the water but they also help you see fish. If you are a sight fisherman, then seeing fish is an advantage to catching them. And, the better you can match the color, the better you can see fish.

Another thing about sunglasses and safety, many sunglasses are more fashion accessories than safety gear. That is to say, the need to have full, wrap around capability to provide the best protection. Many of the blade styles (from Oakley) or the thick temple bands (like Costa and Oakley) provide full protection. I would definitely prefer plastic lenses for safety purposes as well.

One thing I find a pain is wearing glasses and muffs at the same time. After prolonged use, the muffs press the glasses into the head. The glasses also interfere with the muff seal and are less effective at stopping noise. I don’t think this conundrum can be avoided but it has got me thinking of investigating the earbud style hearing protection. Generally speaking, I don’t think they provide as good of protection as the muffs, but they would eliminate the headache of the glasses/muff squeeze. Maybe that is my next purchase.

End Your Programming Routine: As far as safety gear goes, to me glasses are the most important safety gear at the range. The reason being is that hearing protection is definitely a requirement at the line or inside but if you get 20 feet away (as long as you are behind the shooters) sound starts to dissipate. You never know when shrapnel can come back at you, even from other shooters on different bays. I have been shooting in one bay and heard stuff hit the roof from another shooter somewhere unknown. I don’t think it is worth the risk.

June 1, 2022 – Mark Twain

June 1, 2022 /

“We build a fire in a powder magazine, then double the fire department to put it out. We inflame wild beasts with the smell of blood, and then innocently wonder at the wave of brutal appetite that sweeps the land as a consequence.” Mark Twain Speech, between October 5 and October 17, 1907

I probably should do more research on this character. He seems like someone that we share a lot of views in common. I have to say that I ran across this quote when I was scrolling through one of the groups I watch on MeWe. When I tried to find the source, I found a lot of quotes that were interesting.

“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot”, “I was educated once – it took me years to get over it” and “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” These are a handful of quotes that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Mark Twain, was the pen name of Samuel Clemmons. Every time you read about him, he is described as a ‘humorist‘. As far as I am concerned, I see him as a man that was intelligent and had a platform to deliver his views in a way that was palatable to many, like Shakespeare or Benjamin Franklin. In some ways, I think this is what Rush Limbaugh did. You may not have liked his views or even thought he was funny, but there were many times he was attempting to use humor as a way to make a point.

Of course, I have read Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And, you should know by now, I am not convinced of the innuendo between Twain and his writings in terms of a social platform. I will not deny that his views outside of his writing were pretty clear and direct. All that being said, you cannot necessarily separate Twain’s opinion and the subject matter of his writings. At the very least, his writing built his speaking platform.

I ran across this over the weekend…

I think irony is an important aspect of humor. Isn’t it ironic that someone would want to organize some sort of anti-violence demonstration while simultaneously promoting violence at the same time.

I am going to speculate about what I think Bob is saying. No country should invade another country and kill it’s citizens and try to take it’s territory, therefore I side with Ukraine. After thinking about this, I have to say that even self defense is violence. I have to imagine that if Ukraine was not resisting, there would be significantly less death and destruction. That is not a conviction of right and wrong, but educated conjecture.

I skimmed through most of the replies and I am confused about the intent of this. This is organized as a response to the Uvalde shooting last week. I think orange was a bridge between hunter orange i.e. gun owners and people wanting to protest bun violence (?). I have no doubt that a large contingent of people do not fully understand the second amendment but there is no connection between that and hunting other that guns are mostly used to participate.

I think Twain would do his research on the subject before commenting. Which side is really the good/bad guys here? Is it the Ukrainians who denied regional succession to become Russians after an overwhelming vote to do so or is it Russians seizing foreign territory? And, how can you be against violence yet support it at the same time?

We have got some issues here. Unfortunately, people are not looking deep enough into something before adding a no thought given emoji to their signature. I am giving Bob the benefit of the doubt here, I am assuming he is ignorant and really means well. I sure hope that it is not the other way.

End Your Programming Routine: “Just because you’re taught that something’s right and everyone believes it’s right, it don’t make it right.” I don’t know the exact context of this quote, but Twain was an unapologetic abolitionist. Think about the context of the day versus today’s view of slavery. Now, use that same discipline for everything else in life.

May 31, 2022 – She’s All Mine

May 31, 2022 /

I got my bicycle back last week from the shop. This time, it wasn’t just a tune up but changes that I have been wanting to make for the last 30 years. I started researching bicycles in 1993. I wanted to get involved in a new-ish phenomenon called mountain biking. I was a high school athlete that fancied myself an outdoors enthusiast. This seemed like a perfect combination for me. I did quite a bit of research actually and talked to all of the local bike shops before I made my decision.

My first bicycle I bought in April 1993. I had it until it was stolen in the first of May 1994 (it was fully locked in front of the dorm). I had done a little bit of mountain biking through the year, so I decided to upgrade to a better model. This is still the bike I have now.

At this time, there were very few bikes with suspension. Front suspension had just been invented and there were only a handful of full suspension bikes. The arms race was not all the things you could add to your bike but how well built it was. So, for instance, this is a steel bike that weighs in at 24lbs. There were a few Aluminum frame bikes and there were also a couple Titanium frame bikes as well. Believe or not, I saw a couple carbon fiber frames even.

I think now, most of the performance bikes are Aluminum, not steel. Thoughts on that type of metallurgy is that it is more prone to stress cracking because it is more rigid than steel. I would say that is much more likely when you are riding over bumps and causing additional unintended force. I think if you add suspension, then some of that potential damage is mitigated.

It was always my intent to buy the best bike I could, then upgrade it as time went on. Interest and use had waned over the years. There was a time when I got my bike ready to ride as my kids were of the age of but after using it a couple of times it sat for another season and stopped working again. Another way of saying it was I couldn’t use it when I wanted to without another trip to the bike shop.

One of the things that I wanted to change were the pedals. Mine originally came with what are called toe clips. They were supposed to partially lock your feet into the pedals and give the rider the ability to get power on the pull and the push stroke. The problem with the casual rider is that you needed to wear full shoes, so a casual ride with sandals wasn’t possible. You could flip the clips upside down, but then the clips were frequently dragging, It was annoying and therefore, I replaced them.

I would call my bike ‘higher end’ at the time. Being so, it was intended for more rugged use. This also meant that the rider geometry was aggressive. Conventional wisdom at the time was that a rider would get used to the position. I definitely never got used to it and it wasn’t comfortable to ride over longer distances, even when I was young. I changed the rider positioning with the neck and new handle bar so that I was sitting more upright. Lest be honest, I will be lucky to ride the bike, let alone race it.

I have always enjoyed riding my bike. It needs to work in order for me to do so. My kids are of the age that they will be driving soon so it was worth it to me to spend some money on it.

I am considering possibly making some additional changes (but not this year). I always wanted to upgrade the front forks to a suspension setup. I am also waffling on having a bike that I can use around town to pick-up a few items at the grocery store, rather than driving. That would mean the ability to carry things and probably have some rain protection and less aggressive tires.

To me, the question would be buying a separate bike to setup for town use or modify this one some more. I am leaning toward buying a cheaper second bike and setting it up for around town use. I like the idea of riding my bike to the store rather than driving. It is not about the effort, but the time even though the store is only a 1/4 mile away and a bike would go along way to eliminating the time factor. However, let’s not put the cart before the horse and see how this year goes.

End Your Programming Routine: There is no doubt that this was an expensive job. I spent $350 on the total project. My wife thought that I should have bought a new bike instead of spending the money on all this. In my mind, the changes were worth it considering the quality of the bike ($800 in 1994) to begin with and at least in my mind, a $400 bike is probably a two year bike. Most of the labor cost needed to be done anyway, I added $100 in parts. I hope to get some use out of it this year.