The Versatile Blogger

So there is a little award thing going around that has found it way to me. Its called The Versatile Blogger and as far back as I have traced it I don't see too many other dudes who have received it so consider me flattered two times.  I have made two friends that started with brief in-person interaction and carried on ten fold by way of writing.  A pen pal you could say.  My Kiwi friend Susie whose emails brought me to England and New Zealand to visit.  I was also able to show her Chicago a few times.  The other keeps the blog Existimatio which I link to off to the side of this site.  Her comments are always welcome surprises and they encourage me to write more often.  She has tossed the nomination to Medio-Core Chicago.  Apparently there are rules involved such as 7 things about me and nomination to other blogs.  Its a little like those "forward this to a million people" things but Ill bite.

Thanks Theresa.

These are the rules:

1. Nominate 15 bloggers for the award.  
2.  In the same post, add the award.
3. Thank the blogger that nominated you, and give the link back to their blog.
4. Share 7 random things about yourself.
5. Include the rules in the post.
6. Inform every blogger that you nominated of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. At nine years old I flew over my bicycle handle bars and chipped my two front teeth.
2. I still want to be an Astronaut.
3. Airport bars are my favorite. 
4. I pinned a microphone on George Lucas.
5. In the summer of 2004 I was in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, by way of land, within 7 days.
6. I love a good junk yard.
7. I used to drive a John Deere Tractor for a living.

The whole 15 blogs thing aint gonna happen. My variation:  These are the newest blogs I'm paying attention to.

Biking in Tandem 
Schwartzography
Semi-Rad.com

Snow Shoe Action at LaBagh Froest Preserve.

The snow started falling Friday morning and there was about a 8-10 inches by the time it was all done with about 6 of that on the streets by the time I got out of work.  My bike ride to the happy hour at the Empty Bottle was quite the journey.  Milwaukee Ave which is one of main routes to the north western neighborhoods was jam packed with cars and my bike was fishtailing like crazy.  Once I got to the intersection of Ogden and Milwaukee the cars were gridlocked.  I maneuvered my bike through and it was a beautiful sight.  For a mile and a half to Augusta st. not one car came up behind me I had the road all to myself.  Quite the experience.  The night ended at the California Clipper which was a nice respite from the Alberta Clipper which gave us the snow and biting cold.

With a bit of a late start and a gift certificate to REI burning a hole in my pocket I headed out to purchase some snow shoes to have some fun in the powder that had fallen.  I had rented the MSR EVOs a year or two back to hike the Indiana Dunes and had a blast.  However I ended up going with the Atlas Snowfall.   The EVOs have some really heavy duty crampons and serrated edges which make them more suited for glacier summits.  Well I don't know if you noticed but the glaciers left the Midwest at the end of the Ice Age.  I'm a big fan of buying gear for what you do not what you want to do.  These Atlas shoes are light and ridiculously simple.  There is no hinge just a piece of thick vinyl that flexes with your foot.  K2 is the parent company and not over engineering the shoe let them drop money on a great binding system.  Any how they are cheap and light and perfect for what you can get into on the occasional snow dump in the flat-lands.


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I tried them out at LaBagh Forest Preserve. I took my mountain bike out there this summer and it lends itself to snowshoeing and cross country skiing perfectly.  By the time I got there the sun was setting and the snow was still fluffy.  It made for some great pictures of the Chicago River.  I rode the bike there with the shoes hanging out of my panniers.  I love the fact that I was able to do the whole day on two wheels.  Enjoy the pics.

This whole family was CC Skiing.  I got to get in on that next time.

 

Of Beer and Bikes

A few years back when my brother was getting hitched I phoned up a local brewery, Half Acre Beer Co., to give us and his buddies a tour.  They had just opened up in the neighborhood of North Center and didn't even have an official tour but they were happy to pour us some brews and give us a spiel.  Having been on a number of brew tours this one stands out as one of the best.  One of the owners led the tour and it was mostly about how they run a small business.  It was a nice break from the old standby of ingredients and process talk.  The beer was great and the dudes working there were super cool.   Immediately I knew that I wanted to live within walking distance and that this was going to be my new neighborhood.  When my lease was up later that year that's exactly what happened.  Breweries and churches used to be town anchors in fact North Center was originally called St. Ben's due to the huge church in town.  Prohibition put a stop to the brewery and it seems that only now the local brewery is coming back to communities.  I mean it when I say communities too.  When I fill up my growler I ride my bike though the bay door and rest it against a wall of the inside of the brewery and I might hang out for a while before pedaling off.  Much to my excitement I found out they sponsor a bicycle team.  With my bicycle crew no longer in Chicago I was in dyer need for people to ride with, so when my friend Laurie from work said she joined Half Acre Cycling, I asked her to put in a good word for me.  Much to my surprise she sponsored me to join.   Within a month I became a member.  I have raced in exactly one criterium and that is the extent of my competitive cycling.  I have now committed myself to 7 races this year.  I figured a few road, mountain, and possibly cyclo-cross too should make for a fun year.   Hitching my wagon to this brewery has been coming up aces for sure. 

Cascade Mountain Dec 31-Jan 1

Jenny, Me, Colleen, Rachelle, Steve.  Taking some turns at Cascade.

Seven of the last ten years I have brought in the new year by skiing.  It started as my first introduction to my career as a ski bum when I rang in the new century.  Since resort life meant work would be mandatory on the 1st, getting blotto drunk was out of the question.  This has led to a sober start to the upcoming 365 as a byproduct.  Now I can't imagine a better way to start the year.  I get the holiday off now and I commit myself to something physical as a celebration of the new year, to start things off right so to say.  I figure I'd rather look forward to the new year instead of hating life nursing a hangover all day.  The years that I couldn't get out to the mountains I dragged out the mountain bike and got in some single track.  Some years, just as this year, I drove up to Wisconsin to enjoy the Midwest's down hill skiing.  The crew this time around were my friends Steve and Rachelle. Rachelle was learning to ski for their upcoming Colorado ski trip (which makes me infinitely jealous).  Along with two other gals, Colleen and Jenny.  We chose Cascade Mountain which is in Portage, WI. within 3hrs of driving its the best skiing option in my opinion.  They had plenty of man made snow.  Talking to some of the folks on the chairlift they said it is the best snow of all the Wisconsin resorts.  Cascade had fireworks at 8pm on New Years Eve so we stuck around to see them, then headed into town for dinner and drinks.  The bar we chose to countdown to midnight was a local hang out for sure, it was clear that none of us graduated from the local high school.  The night was spent at a Super 8 off the highway and they had a gangbusters continental breakfast for getting us ready to ski a second day.  My buddy's wife really picked up the two sticks on her feet by the end of the second day and we hit the road early enough to get back to Chicago by 7pm.       

Rachelle, Steve and Me

I took the opportunity to see how the helmet cam works in the snow. Enjoy!

Timothy H. O'Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs

Currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago is the exhibit of Timothy H. O'Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs.  O'Sullivan cut his teeth in photography by documenting the civil war for Mathew Brady.  After the war his field photography skills led him to succeed outside the studio and naturally he became a Survey Photographer.  Never again will the intersection of adventure, science, art, and naturalist meet so symbiotically.  Such is the life of of the westward expansion era survey photographer.  These photographs were taken at the same time as John Muir's first visit to the Sierra Nevada. Some even predate Muir's exit from the Midwest.  O'Sullivan was brought to the Fortieth Parallel by Clarence King to survey the area for industrial development.  Gritty views of Mono Lake, Donner Pass, Pyramid Lake, and the Wasatch Mountains hang on the gallery walls alongside images of the mining and railroad industry and geothermal formations.  These photographs captivate the eye as much as the imagination.

 

 

The exhibit is on view until Jan, 15 2012.