.:: DonnieNix.net ::.

Identical hardware, same brand and model, I just can’t decide on a color…

I think the black one with gold hardware is the classiest. The blue and the green just look so funky (in a good way). The classic Les Paul coloring is just friggin’ cool.

I was leaning towards the black with gold hardware, but looking at the others made me think I wanted one with a little more flair, something a little more eye catching…

I don’t know…I’m ordering one of these babies this week. I might just hang an image of each one on the wall and throw a dart.

Been riding this week. Trying to regain the passion. I’ve had two decent rides this week. Sorba Woodstock finished the new Van Michael Trail at Blankets. It’s an advanced trail, so I am avoiding it until July. I think we all know why. The new reroutes on the Mosquito Bite trail are really nice.

I’m ordering a new guitar tomorrow. Either an Ibanez GAX70 or an Agile AL-2000 Les Paul copy. See the picture in the post below for the Ibanez. Whichever I get, it will be a nice upgrade and should hold me over for a while, at least until I can afford a new Gibson ES335 Alex Lifeson Signature model for $3000. I played the Ibanez at Guitar Center yesterday and it had good action, a nice tone and felt really comfortable. The Agile gets rave reviews online though and is a very credible Les Paul copy. Decisions, descisions…

Me and Jake saw The Incredible Hulk yesterday. Huge huge improvement over the first Hulk movie. This Hulk was much more badass and not quite as emo. The fight scenes were great.

I’m looking forward to:

1. Vacation in Savannah over the July 4th holiday.
2. Rush at the Alpharetta Amphitheater July 22. Last show on their Snakes and Arrows tour. Oh hell yeah.
3. Getting my Digitech RP50 multi-effects processor delivered. I won this in an eBay auction. Basically, it will let me sound like David Gilmour, the Edge, or Billy Duffy even though I can’t play like them.
4. Riding Dupont in July

A small upgrade….

Coming soon….

In June 2005, I was riding at Hall Ranch in Lyons, CO, and came around a corner, lost my focus, and crash. I broke ribs on my right side and still wear scars on my leg from where the brush and rocks ripped it to shreds.

In June 2006, I was riding at Big Creek in Roswell, GA, and came around a corner, snagged my bar end on a briar which then proceeded to rip the handlebars out of my hand and sent me flying over the bars. This resulted in a broken hand and major reconstructive surgery on the bones. I still feel pain in that hand and have limited mobility.

In June 2007, I crashed in a rock garden at Blankets Creek and sliced my elbow open. I dumped about a pint of blood on the trail and received 8 stitches for it. I also had numerous bruises, bumps, and scraps that took forever to heal.

June 2008 rolls around. I have to break the curse.

On the 4th, I am at Blankets Creek. I didn’t feel good as it was and thought about staying home, but felt I needed the work.

About 3 miles in I rolled over a boulder and got out of line and ended up on a rock step down that was not something I wanted to be on. There’s an easy line around this mess to the left, but I missed it because I was so focused on rolling the boulder. The step down is a series of three ~1-2 foot drops that are so close togther, they could almost be considered one big ass drop. The landing spot is on a downhill curve, so if you go straight off the drops, you wind up in the bushes on the side of a hill. It’s tricky to say the least.

I landed the first drop by going off at an angle, but in trying to go around the second I ended up hitting a 3 footer that I was not in position to drop from. I panicked, hit too much brake, went straight off the drop, buried my front wheel in the landing and flew over the bar. I landed on my right side and smashed my head into a tree. It compressed my neck a bit, which hurt, and cracked my helmet. I assessed the damage and found that my ribs hurt (dammit!), my neck felt like shit, and both legs were scraped and banged up. The seat also caught me in a sensitive area, so I just sat down on a rock for about 15 minutes and caught up with myself. I was worried about a concussion for a second, but since I could remember everything about the wreck, I figured I was okay.

I’m not one of those people that wreck and the first thing they say is “is the bike okay?” Screw that. My bike doesn’t feel pain. The first thing I worry about is whether I’m okay. After assessing and cataloging all my damage, I checked the bike. The wheels still seemed to be true and the fork was okay, but I could see it had bottom out. Everything looked fine, so I rode out. Slowly.

Now I need a new helmet. Everything feels better now so I’ll probably start riding again this week with my spare helmet. My neck took the longest to feel better but I don’t think I did any permanent damage.
I think I need to stick to the Dwelling Loop in June from now on. Or maybe just ride an exercise bike in June.

The scariest part is that I was there a good 15 minutes before the next rider came through. If I’d really damaged myself……well, it’s not worth thinking about…

I bought “Teach Yourself Classic Rock Guitar” from Amazon before I went to Austin and I’ve really had fun with this book. It teaches you 6 different classic rock songs step by step, or measure by measure. Each song that was selected for this book shows you something new to learn. For example, Love to Change the World shows you arpeggios, Green River works with the pentatonic scale, Long Train Runnin works on rhythm guitar, and so on. It’s a really cool book.

I’ve been working my way through the lessons and I learned the Green River lesson this past weekend. What a cool song. John Fogerty and CCR recorded this in 1969 and I’ve always liked the raw badass guitar sound that he puts together.

There’s one more lesson in the book, and it’s learning to play lead guitar and solos for a song called Green Onions. It’s an old Booker T and the MGs song that you might have heard in American Graffiti or any other nostalgia movie or TV show.

First I am going to work this week perfecting Green River. I have all the parts down, I just need to put them together.

I got up Sunday morning at about 6:30 and dressed quietly in the closet. Grabbing my wallet, phone and keys, I slipped out the door a few minutes later. I loaded up the bike, stashed my Rubbermaid carton containing my helmet, shoes and bike gear in the hatch and headed out to Blankets Creek for an early ride. I didn’t really check the sky until I was on the road. I knew it was supposed to rain, but wasn’t sure when it was hitting. The sky looked fine for now, so I didn’t worry too much and quickly put it all out of my mind.

I started my first lap on the South Loop and rode pretty quickly. I felt strong so I cranked up the intensity. About midway through the lap I noticed that it had gotten pretty dark. I was wearing amber lenses so I think that was why I didn’t notice the abrupt change in the weather.

I stopped for a second and listened, and I heard a rumble of thunder way off in the distance. Eh, I still have time. I stowed my glasses and took off, thinking to myself that I still need to hammer this out and finish as quickly as possible in case the storm rolled in quicker than expected.

I completed the lap feeling very strong so I contemplated a lap of the Dwelling Loop. I can normally churn out a lap on this trail in a little over 20 minutes so I figured the storm was at least 30 minutes away, since I had not heard any thunder since I was on the South Loop.

I started down the trail, made a few climbs and assumed I was fully committed and then I saw the light just completely disappear . It looked like dusk and I thought to myself, “oh crap, I made a mistake here.”

Just as those thoughts formed in my head, a huge boom shook the trees and caused a few squirrels to scramble through the leaves. The storm was here, and it was closing on my position like a Navy warship hunting an Iranian gunboat.

I knew the trail had a few ATV cut-throughs (illegal, but still there) and so I pedaled a few hundred yards to the first ATV trail I came to. I lifted my bike over the logs blocking the trail and started down the hill. I didn’t ride because the ‘trail’ was pretty steep and covered with debris and leaves. I didn’t want to hit a rock and take a header. It only took about 5 minutes and then I was back on the trail. I made the last two climbs and then raced back to trail junction. I didn’t pause there, but shifted to a smaller cog and stood on the pedals. the storm was close. I could smell the rain in the air and feel the cool breeze kicking up.

I felt a drop and waited for the deluge but it didn’t come. Not yet. I made it back to the car, racked the bike, and then it came. Big, fat, heavy raindrops that smacked against my head and shoulders. In a matter of seconds, the time it took me to kick off my shoes, put on my sandles and stumble to the driver’s side door, I was drenched. I rolled out of the parking lot and headed home.

A mile down the rode, the rain stopped. It didn’t rain on me anymore on the way home. I got home and looked at the weather and saw the funniest thing.

The storm was tracking on a distinct path that would have taken it north of Blankets Creek. The time stamp on the radar images showed 5am, 5:30am, 6am, etc…When it got to 7am (the time I arrived at Blankets), you can see a definite off-shoot of the storm begin to dip down towards Holly Springs and Sixes Road (where BC is). As the images tick by, the little “appendage” of the storm cell turns red right on top of Blankets Creek.

Mother Nature is out to get me.

I’ve been learning some 70’s Tom Johnston era Doobie Brothers songs. One song that I always liked, going back to my preteen years, was China Grove. The guitar was just so hot in that song it was one of my favorite air-guitar songs. One of the first things I learned on guitar was the opening riff for China Grove.

While I was in Austin last week, I made it my mission to learn Long Train Runnin’ by the Doobie Bros. I first heard this song on a 45RPM record when my sister bought it back in ‘73 or ‘74. Both China Grove and Long Train Runnin were off the album “The Captain and Me”, which is an all-timer for me simply for those two songs.

Anyway, I used a guitar tab and worked on sections of the song, trying to memorize each different section before moving on. There are basically 4 different parts to this song, and they just repeat through the whole thing, so it was actually pretty easy. Last night I played the whole song along with the actual recording of Long Train Runnin’ and I have to admit, I did pretty well. My timing was a bit off in spots (too slow here, too fast there…) and I missed a chord change in the middle, but I liked the end result. Maybe I’ll youtube a video of me rocking out to some Doobs.

Next up is Listen to the Music and maybe some AC/DC so Jake and I can jam. He’s learning drums now (birthday present) and I think he’s a natural.

Rock on.

I got an electric guitar for Christmas and I’ve been practicing a lot. I still have a ways to go but it’s really fun and keeps me busy. The full songs I’m currently working on Big Log by Robert Plant, Hysteria by Def Leppard, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. I’ve also learned little bits and pieces from a bunch of other songs:

• * main riff of DayTripper (Beatles)
• * main riff of Jessica (Allman Bros)
• * China Grove (Doobie Bros)
• * opening of Lola (Kinks)
• * All of Ah Leah! by Donnie Iris (Power Chords!!!!! Really easy…)
• * a bunch of other riffs and licks…..

I can pretty much play anything with a guitar tab now. It might not sound right at first and be really slow, but I can run through the tab a few times and present some semblance of the original tune…

But, like I said, I still have a ways to go.

Went for a ride yesterday. It was nice. I had to keep it in the small chainring all the way but it worked.

While I was riding, Melanie adopted a 3 month old Boxer puppy. She’s cute. I’ll post pictures later. Boo is kind of freaked out, especially when she lays in his spot and tries to eat his food. He’s a good dog though, so he’ll get used to her and everything will be cool. We haven’t named her yet, but we’re working on that.

Well, after my little accident in the leaves at Dauset, I replaced my rear dérailleur with a new Shimano XT Shadow dérailleur and it worked great for a while.

I was at Blankets Creek one day in early Feb and broke my chain going up the first big hill on the South Loop. I repaired it and finished the ride, but while I was riding the next day it broke again.

I ordered a new chain and a new cassette and it took almost 2 weeks to get it! I don’t know why it was so slow coming from JensenUSA. Usually they are much quicker shipping things. Anyway, I got the chain and cassette installed and took it for a test ride around my neighborhood. Something was wrong.

The rear dérailleur was kind of jumping around and chattering. The chain wasn’t slipping on the cogs, but it was acting real funky. I took the bike to Outspokin Bikes and had it checked out. After about 30 minutes of messing with the bike, the wrench came to the conclusion that the rear hanger was bent. He hooked up some tool to it and showed me that it was bent in a few millimeters which was throwing everything off.

Okay, fine. I ordered a new hanger from Santa Cruz and it got here about 8 days later.

I put the hanger on, and it didn’t fix the problem. Alright, must be the dérailleur. I figured that when the chain broke, it must have done something to the dérailleur. I pulled it off and sent it back to Performance Bike for an exchange.

About 10 days later, I had a new dérailleur. I put it on, and took it back to Outspokin for adjustments. $10 later, I took it for a test spin around the parking lot. No change….it still chattered and jumped!!!

Well, I wasn’t going to take it back to Outspokin. I think that everything they did was wrong, and cost me more money than I needed to spend. I figured I’d try and figure it out on my own or take it someplace else.

After I got home I started messing around with the adjustments but couldn’t get anywhere. One thing that hit me like a bolt of lightning: I had not tried it on the small chainring. As soon as I shifted, the problem went away.

So…I come to the conclusion that my crankset is the culprit, specifically the 32T chainring. So, no I am waiting for the 32T chainring to arrive from Performance. Hopefully this will fix the problem and I can stop worrying about it.

I’ve been trying to ride the SS, but with the weather and other things, I haven’t been able to get out much. Plus, my level of fitness has fallen way off so riding the SS is really really hard right now. It’s been probably 1.5 months since I’ve ridden, so I’m looking forward to getting back out there.