Test For Echo

2011 is here? Already?

thelastbard — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 05:41:24 +0000

I’m embarrassed to say/type this, but it’s been nearly four months since I last posted. What surprises me the most is that I have a lot to share, and never seemed to find a quiet moment to sit down, collect my thoughts, and hash our a good post to sum up the end of the year. The end of my year was quite busy, so that was a contributing factor. But I digress.

I had an epic holiday week, filled with visitors and travel and terrible road conditions and freezing temps and a special visitor and beautiful sunsets and… Well, there are so many details it seems trivial to catalog them here. But it was a good year all over: lots of goals were achieved, which, of course, led to more goal setting come the end of the year. I achieved a goal to be more discerning with my musical tastes and explore as much as I could and I feel very accomplished in that regard.

But as I write this, I’m listening to samples from the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, so suddenly I don’t feel so expansive musically. In my defense, I had never been a huge fan of RS before, so there’s that.

So here’s part of my pledge that happens to be a left over goal from 2010 – there will be more writing. I’m hoping that writing related to work will help keep the wheels rolling into writing related to my life/travels/cycling/assorted opinions about the world.

Writing. Might be doing a bit of writing for the newspaper. I think I write that in this blog every other year or so, but it actually might come true this year. We shall see.

Summer will be over in six days.

thelastbard — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:43:45 +0000

It’s sad, really. Not that it’s been a bad summer. Far from it. But summer still seems to be here and I have no desire to have it stop. The aspen leaves are yellowing, though, the days are shorter, and my thoughts turn to mountain biking and hiking and sleeping better in cooler weather. But I miss my fitness, I miss always being outside. The transistion is always hard for about a month. But this soon will change.

I have a new job, and a new place to live, so change is really the big theme going into the new season. But I really don’t see many downsides in all the change swirling around me. I’m looking forward to the fall for the first time in a very long time.

On Hiatus…

thelastbard — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:47:10 +0000

It’s summer. I’m outside. A lot. So the posts will be scant for the next few months. Once the cooler weather returns, the posts should pick up a bit.

Thanks for hanging in there.

Riding Brian’s teeny tiny bike.

thelastbard — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:54:16 +0000

Riding Brian’s teeny tiny bike., originally uploaded by thelastbard.

Goofing off before a long ride in Albuquerque. I ride a lot in Albuquerque a lot. There are many flat options there – much more than in Santa Fe. Plus, the food selection is better…

Allergies are conquered. Various body-on-the-bike complaints are addressed. Weight is dropping. The stars begin to align.

Now if I could blog more and eat less.

Snow in Spring, a blue mustang.

thelastbard — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:22:01 +0000

Winter storm.

Chickadees surprised by

flakes in the wind.

Two take cover under

the rear axle of a blue

mustang.

Donuts. Lots of donuts.

thelastbard — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:56:05 +0000

Well. It would seem that posting pictures of Krispy Kreme dounuts on a blog increases page views. Interesting. I wonder what other photos would draw in more page views. (Besides the obvious puppies/attractive women/free small electronics trifecta.) I’m sure there are people at Google that spend all day thinking/pouring over data sets trying to determine the same thing…

In lieu of a wordy blog post last Saturday, I went with the photos and the long bike ride in Albuquerque. I broke out a bit in my usual Saturday routine and headed directly to the Bosque paved trail to take advantage of the fantastic early spring weather. To my dismay, the same will not hold true for this coming Saturday. Spring is here, but the unpredictable weather of New Mexico spring is here as well. What does that mean? Mid-sixty degree and sunny weather two days, followed by three days of winter storm warnings and snow and indoor trainer time. The silver lining here is that the storms should wash the local atmosphere and give a bit of respite for me and my fellow spring allergy sufferers. (Chamisa and oak airborne pollen counts spiked this week in the warm, calm three day stretch of wonderful weather.)

Perhaps a meandering blog post this Saturday is in order…

52 miles later, and I get my just reward…

thelastbard — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:44:06 +0000

52 miles later, and I get my just reward…, originally uploaded by thelastbard.

Well – it’s a celebration of 52 miles AND the return of Krispy Kreme to the Albuquerque area. Good donuts are powerful motivators…

Sun! Short sleeves and Shorts! Windburn!

thelastbard — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:58:47 +0000

Blinding white appendages., originally uploaded by thelastbard.

Lots of white. I’m pretty sure there were a few joggers blinded by the near supernova glare from the tops of my legs. My guess is that they were dazed at the very least. I didn’t see any unfortunate souls on my return trip marooned in the sage and river sand on the bosque. I was relieved.

Yardsticks.

thelastbard — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:24:06 +0000

There’s a moment in time when listening to music when you get a sense that, as a performer, you would enjoy playing the music you’re listening to at this moment – would you feel fulfilled if you could play this song, or songs from this performer? If you came close, as a musician, to making songs like this artist, or that band, would you feel like a true musician yourself? Would it give you the same amount of pleasure to perform their music as you get when you listen to the music on your mp3 player, big ear cans of headphones making an intimate case for an artist?

I think this is the best yardstick to determine who are your favorite bands and artists.

Here are a few of my artists that satisfy the requirements listed above:

D’Angelo, Prince, Emmylou Harris, Jimi Hendrix, Grizzly Bear, Damien Rice, The New Pornographers, Neko Case, Wilco, Son Volt, Led Zeppelin.

(There are surely more, but those are the first to spring to mind. What about you? Do you have a different yardstick in which you judge bands/artists?)

Rainy little children.

thelastbard — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:12:12 +0000

I often remark to out-of-town friends who wonder why it snows in the “desert” of New Mexico that rain will freeze above 7000 feet no matter where you are. I then remark that New Mexico typically only has two seasons: winter and summer. Spring and fall are often two to three week affairs, spring the more violent atmospheric even compared to the long, slow burnout of fall. Fall is my favorite – it’s what spring should be, lacks all the militaristic pollen counts and temperature swings from cold nights to dry days in the 70s with bluebird skies and fantastic sunsets.

All the wonderful attributes of winter in New Mexico are launched out the window, however, when El Nino comes to town.

The petulant little kid enters the scene mid-winter and wreaks havoc until mid-spring. While it makes the skiers and snowboarders happy with consistent snowfall in the high mountains, it utterly destroys one of the single best things about winter in Santa Fe: the consistent blue skies and mild temps from the middle of January to the first part of March. It’s great bike riding weather too. Granted, there is more clothing involved, and it’s not quite as wonderful as the winter weather in Phoenix and Tucson. But it’s a great weather in which to get in those slow, steady hours of training to be ready for the big miles and intensity of the early summer festivities.

And I miss it.

Spring-like weather teased us this past week. Temps in the 60s, blue skies, calm winds. Then the bottom fell out Friday night, and I woke up to mid 20s and a cold wind out of the southwest. There’s another storm coming in tonight. It’s sad. I’ll make do – the work I do now will make the summer more enjoyable. I really try not to gripe about it, as road riding in early summer in central New Mexico is one of life’s great pleasures… But I can’t help myself.

Someone take this child back home, please. Anywhere but here.

(Alright, a small but important caveat: I tend to write more when it snows. It’s something I’ve discussed in the past. I will also say that I think I’ve written more this winter than any other in quite some time. It’s been years, frankly. I shouldn’t complain too much when the volume of writing is factored into the weather situation. But my outdoor ride lust is peaking just in time to be frustrated by the weather.)