and the darkness consumes me...

Well hello there...

Midweek action is on in full blast mode and its not much to discuss.

K.A.W and I have been chillen out at Greenview Manor since returning from our whirlwind weekend. Monday, chores and whatnot got taken care of and I sat around pickin' banjo while K.A.W hit the gym to work on her fitness. 

Speaking of fitness... I have made the determination that I will NOT let the damp, dark winter get me down both emotionally but also fitnessly. Winter is hard on outside folks like us. Short days and cold temps lead to apathy about getting rad in the forest. You kinda gotta force yourself to "suck it up and hammer down!". 

I dont understand Day Light Savings. I mean, I know why we have it or at least why it was implemented but to me it really sucks. And for crying out loud, Arizona and Hawaii dont recognize it! What do people driving across the border into AZ have to do? Change their clocks every time they enter "The Copper State". Crazy. Although Arizonians also voted not to celebrate MLK day... I mean if your racist then thats your problem but to give up a free day off work!? C'mon AZ... get it together.

The only plus side of DLS time is that now my bleek, dreary, drive into work that is normally void of all light is now tinged with the orange glow of dawn. Its pretty swell seeing the sun come up over my beloved mountains every morning...

"Just give me a Mountain and nothing to Dew"

The flip side of that is it is pretty much dark by the time I get home. Bummer.

However, my goal of emotional and fitness-al positivity will not die this winter. Im planning some big things come next spring and I need my mind and body to be on a level never before obtained.

First step is getting the stoke level going strong with some fun night rides. 

Yesterday I hit Bent Creek for a mellow solo ride on my backup mountaincycle affectionately called Charlene Darlene. Charlene (Santa Cruz Nomad for you bike nerds) is 31 lbs. of mountain crushing, gnar shredding, soul crushing on the climbs... beast. Believe me, I feel every ounce of that 31 lbs. on climbs. Ever since I switched to a hardtail back in the spring, Charlene has been neglected. But now thanks to a lack of tires on my HT, which hopefully will be coming soon, Charlene is back in rotation. Its actually good for me to pedal a chunky gal like her up the mountain. It does nothing but expedite my fitness goals and plus, she has 6" of mountain shredding travel. This makes for super fun times going down hill. 

non-driveside photo...at night... on a hill.
pro as shit.

Plus, again, thanks to my current work situation, Charlene comes equipped with the best in mountaincycle suspension technology...

DB Inline... go buy one now... Do It!!

The ride was great and I'm starting to get used to night rides again. Its always a little sketchy hauling ass down a mountain on a bicycle at night. I might to need to upgrade my light source soon...

Anyway,

You've all wasted too much time screwing around on the interwebs. Back to work! All of you'ns!!

Happy Wednesday.