Super Bike

I rode a super bike today. A 2007 Rocky Mountain Vertex Team. A friend, Barry, a true Rocky Mountain-phile, is upgrading his stable of RMs and making room for the newest generation Vertex which is full carbonfiber , so he put this one for sale. Since I didn't really need (I always want) a new bike, I passed this info to my friend Jack who was in the market for a new Rocky Mountain bike.

The bike is a 2007 prototype, build for the Rocky Mountain race team for evaluation. Only 6 were built. It is a hybrid of technologies; scandium alloy making up the front triangle, and carbonfiber making the rear part of the bike. The resulting combination is incredible!

Here is an evaluation that I wrote up and e-mailed to Barry:

I am kicking myself now for letting Jack have the deal of the century. All I can say about the 2007 Vertex Team is that I am very impressed. I gave it a pretty good test this morning on our limited trails.

Climbing: The first climb was the entry trail. On the Litespeed I usually approach this trial in the small ring and probably the 2nd or 3rd cog down. 30 or 28 (or whatever it is...its a 34-11cogset). I approached on Vertex the granny ring, and biggest cog in back (don't know what Jack has on there). What was most noticeable climbing this steep incline was the bike's balance. It is nearly perfect. I shifted forward on the saddle maybe a cm, but no more. You can see in the pics I am leaning forward a bit but I don't think its terribly exaggerated. The shock was on about a medium setting, no bobbing problems whats so ever. The rear end of that bike is somewhat perplexing. It feels plenty stiff at the BB, no noodley lateral feel at all, but you can feel it flexing somewhat and hooking up. Excellent traction! Smooth! I cleaned the entry trail on my first attempt with ease. I was surprised and very pleased.

The second climb is "La Falla", its a more gradual climb, doable on my single speed with great effort. On the Litespeed I approach this hill in the middle ring and somewhere in the middle of the cogset. My first approach on the Vertex was with the fork fully locked out, middle ring, probably 3 cog down from the top. I climbed it easily. I forgot to give the camera to Jack so we did it again. This time we opened the fork to full-squish mode. I rode up, got hung up the gravel at the bottom and had to turn around and restart. On my second try with the shock full open, I cruise up the hill. You can see the pics of my body position, etc You can see, again I am leaning forward a little but only moved up on the saddle a few millimeters. Minimal shifting of weight.

Descending: I rode down the Fausto Trail which has a technical, cambered/rutted 180 switchback, I ended up kind of dragging my right foot as an outrigger after the switchback mainly because I am not used to the grabby-ness of disc brakes. I was skidding the rear tire more than I would have liked, therefore the rear end was swinging around back and forth. It was not the fault of the bike, more of a pilot error.

After the Fausto, I blasted down The Rails. These are some steep concrete two-track. What can I say, I almost hit a curb at the bottom of the first section because I was going way too fast. The Vertex is extremely stable! Continuing on the second part, it gets even more steep for about 200 meters or so. Super stable...I blasted through some broken concrete, over a "rubble bridge" and to the bottom. I was about half-way down this section when this popped into my head..."Boy howdy...ever cyclist needs to ride a bike as good as this one."

Bikes are fun!

The Italian Club

Fellow teachers, Daniel and Matthew, and myself, have started going to the Italian Club which is just down the street from the school. They have a full-sized soccer field with a (crude) track, an aerobics dance floor/gym, a weight room, and a great swimming pool.

We've been walking over after school, run/walk a few miles, then lift weights for about an hour, then go for a cooling swim. I might bring my bicycle after the Christmas break because they also have a large open space area behind the soccer field that might be okay for some riding...the director of the place thinks it would be. Sorry, no pics as of yet. We hope to make this a routine of about 3 times per week.

Ready for the Winter Break.

Love is Purple

It was good to be home for the weekend. Tania put the purple sheets on the bed. We like those sheets. We have a phrase about them, "Love is purple!"

An ExPat Thanksgiving

We had our staff Thanksgiving last night and it turned out pretty good. We had lots of great food including turkey. We had all the usual stuff, like stuffing, but there were other typical foods such as mash potatoes, corn, various salads, etc. My chile rellenos turned out okay. They were a hit with everyone. Not quite New Mexico rellenos, but they were good. I liked them. Today we had another Thanksgiving dinner at school. I helped serve which is an interesting experience, seeing what other people like to eat. When I finally had chance to eat, I described I eat my Thanksgiving plate like a miner approaches ore. I start at one end of the plate and work my way to the opposite end. Kind of weird, but that's how I eat my Thanksgiving food.

Chile Rellenos!!!!

I am trying to make one of my favorite New Mexican dishes for tomorrow night's Thanksgiving dinner at Aaron and Ada's (my boss and his wife). I am making chile rellenos! These are long green chiles stuffed with cheese, then battered and fried! Very tasty! The chiles here are not like NM big jims or anaheims. They look similar but are not hot at all. They are very mild but have a good flavor. Tonight I roasted the chiles on the stove top, let them sweat in a plastic bag, then peeled the skin off. I have them in the fridge now. Tomorrow I will stuff them and bread them and deep fry them! I hope they turn out. More news tomorrow.

Quiet Election Night and Experimental Photos

Yesterday was election day and last night was expecting some kind of celebratory reaction from either side, but nothing happened. Its still not clear to me what has exactly happened but it looks like Chavez's party lost most of the major positions he needed. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Last night I was messing around with my camera's shutter speed. Here are a few pics. I like the color in them.

Then there are a couple of astronomy pics. One pic is of Jupiter and Venus, and the other is a long exposure of the stars. Click on the star pic to open and enlarge it. You'll see lots of little stars. I couldn't even see these...neat little light bucket my Canon is!

Election Weekend

I don't like political posts, but this weekend are regional and governor elections in Venezuela. This could be critical to the future of the country. Because of travel restrictions in place, I am stuck in El Tigre. I won't get back to Lecheria until next Friday. I will try to get some pics of happenings this weekend. More later...

Anzoategui Day Weekend

We had a 3-day weekend which is always nice! Unfortunately I had a fight Thursday night (after a stressful 3-hour drive) with Tania and she was really pissed. To piss her off even more, I went to KE Cool (a small sushi bar) downstairs and met Daniel and Matt for a couple of beers (I had 4). This really pissed her off. I never know what to do in this situation. She can get very stubborn, but so can I. I can be a real idiot!

I posted a pic above that pretty much describes that I was in the dog house. I was the dawg supreme.

On Friday, I woke up fairly early and rode the Merlin SS solo around El Morro. I went up the "Falla" (Failure) trail for the first time in a while. I cleaned it! It took some effort but I did it. I rode around for a couple of hours and when I got back, Tania was gone. Gone to Anaco...Ugggh!

Oh well. She needed to cool down and so did I. I took Oscar to lunch at Anna Julia for pizza, then spent the rest of the day vegging, napping, and being Internet guy.

On Saturday Oscar and I rode a lap (backwards...meaning climbing the Falla again...easier that time) of El Morro together, then we hooked up with the group. We rode a second lap in the usual direction which meant to ride up "the Rails". I can clean the rails with the SS but it is a major effort! The slope is right at the limit of what is doable with my strength and conditioning these days.

I took this vid of Oscar.

Tania showed up Saturday afternoon after I called her. I apologized. I was a jerk...BIG TIME.

Sunday no riding, just vegging and getting ready to head back to El Tigre. I took Tania and Oscar out for breakfast, though Venezuelans do not do breakfast too well. Breakfast is always disappointing here...its not like a big breakfast you'd find in a typical restaurant in the USA. or even something regional like huevos rancheros in New Mexico. Anyway, the restaurant we ended up at was on the Paseo Colon, so I got to watch boat traffic move about. Saw a ship approach from the horizon which was interesting to watch.

On a completely different topic...

Since being back in El Tigre, I've rediscovered streaming Internet Radio. Right now I am into KCRW from Santa Monica, CA. I used to listen to this station back in the Mimbres Man days when doing business in Los Angeles...actually made the 405 freeway fun to drive.

Night Photos

I was home in Lecheria over the weekend. I didn't ride or do much, I just stayed put. I seemed to have had an inner-ear infection and because it it, I have been experiencing some weird vertigo. I think I have it under control now, but still have these crazy dizzy sensations from time-to-time.

Saturday, the electricity went out for about 5 hours. The sun set and it got dark. Took my camera down to the swimming pool just to have some fun with the shutter options. I had the shutter open for 4 seconds in these pics. Can actually see stars and the bright object near the crane is the planet Venus.

Feeling Pretty Good Again, and a Good Weekend

I had a good weekend in Lecheria with my wife Tania. I am feeling pretty much 100% again. No coughing up gook or phlegm in the last couple of days. Nice!

On Friday night, I seasoned a chicken for roasting Saturday.

Saturday morning I got out on my Merlin for a couple of hours. I missed the usual group, so I rode alone which is okay with me. I zone out a bit. I stopped and took a few pics. It was all good.

When I got home, we ran some errands. I tried to get my hair cut but there was too long of wait. I hate waiting, so we decided we should go home and cook the chicken.

I set the chicken up on the rotisserie rod. I am still learning the best method in doing this since I have only done it twice. Now I am glad we bought the oven with the rotisserie because its a better way of cooking chicken. Its less greasy for sure. It took about 2 hours to cook the bird, but it was worth it. We chowed that thing! Oscar, Tania, and myself ate the whole thing in one sitting. Crazy!

Saturday night, Oscar and I went to the movies. We saw "Journey to the Center of the Earth" dubbing in Spanish. The sound quality was rotten, but the story was very predictable and I was able to understand about 90% of the dialog. Simple stuff.

This morning, Sunday, I woke up early enough to ride with the group. We did the usual ride around El Morro. I was able to climb The Rails without stopping. It was hard, but its always hard on the single speed. I also cleaned the Fausto Trail to the steep part. Rode back home, ate a couple of empanadas for breakfast, then we went downtown. Tania needed to buy something for Oscar, and I still wanted a haircut.

After downtown, I slept for about an hour or so, then had to get ready to come back to El Tigre (arrrgh!).

Overall, it was a good weekend!

Getting Better

I've been sick. So sick that I was thinking about my "bucket list". It was bad.

Well I am getting better, but decided I won't return to work until next Monday.

Here is what I did today.

- I woke up early enough to enjoy the sunrise and catch a quick glimpse of Mercury. The planet was very faint and lasted only a few minutes. It was cool. BTW, it visible in the pic if you open the pic by clicking on it. Look at the "saddle" to the right of the left-most peak and about halfway up to the clouds. There is a faint dot. That is Mercury.

- I was Internet-guy for while and wrote a draft for a friend's writers blog site.

- I went to Lucy's for a full-hour massage. It was great!

- Tania picked me up and we home for lunch after getting Oscar from school. Zenaily (Tania's sister) made killer smoked pork chops!

- Vegged with Tania, and wrote another version of my story.

- Went downtown with Tania and bought an air purifier for the El Tigre apartment. Hopefully it will help keep me from coughing getting more lung problems.

Tomorrow I will see the doctor once again. He wants to evaluate my progress.

Light Fixtures Installed

I hauled these light fixtures down from the USA in August. Ironically, I gave up the Litespeed for these things.
The bedroom lights are nice. They are halogen bulbs hooked into dimmer switches.
The bathroom lights are simple, but elegant. I like them them.
The hanging lamp in the entry way is a bit weird right now, but I think when we get rid of the cheap bookshelf there and paint the entry, it will look good.
I love my little apartment.

Oscar Races and Wins!

This past weekend was a 3-day weekend, so I had an extra day to veg-out with Tania and Oscar. Saturday, Oscar and I rode around. We avoided the mud and rode primarily on pavement. Sunday, we hooked up with some locals we knew and rode offroad a bit and discovered a small local mtn bike race. I had money in my pocket and asked Oscar if he wanted to enter. He did, so we signed him in as a Juvenile (15 - 18). He completed four laps (8 km with 100 m climbing each lap) and won his category. He was happy and totally jazzed. We rode back to the apartment with his trophy.

Normal

Back to the routine of working and relaxing. Spent a great weekend. Did some mountain biking with Monkey Boy, then my wife, MB, and myself went to the new Tony Roma's to have lunch with my former boss, Miss Sally, and her son Daniel (who I went fishing with last week and who I work with). Lunch was good but expensive. Tania nearly had a heart attack when the bill came.

After lunch, I dropped Tania off at home, and MB and I went to the hardware store to buy new voltage surge protectors for the refrigerator and the microwave oven. We've been having a lot of short little power outages and its blown out our old voltage surge protectors. Daniel came over later and installed a wireless Internet card into MB's computer, so now he can be Internet Guy without using my computer. I paid Daniel with scotch. We had a few drinks before he had leave.

I did a solo bike ride on Sunday. Nothing really great. Just rode up El Morro, around, back up, then over to the Amerigo Vespucci marina and back. I rode the Merlin single speed about 13.5 miles.
This might sound like a boring post, but it is how I really like spending my weekends now. Just kind of dinking around on the bike, hanging out with my wife, and friends,

Above is a pic I took of myself yesterday on top of El Morro. I've been wanting to make a stencil of my face so I can tag walls and stuff. I don't know why, but I've always thought it was interesting in Latin America that politicians have their face in stencil form on walls all over the city. This pic is my first attempt at doing a total black & white. I find it interesting.

Fishing

Went fishing on the Orinoco this past weekend. We went to the small town of Mapire. Not much going on there except life on the river.

We left El Tigre early Saturday morning and saw these crazy vultures sunning themselves on the fence posts. Had to stop for a few pics. My camera was set on ISO 1600 (for low-light conditions) so the pics are somewhat grainy. Anyway, it was a trippy sight indeed seeing all these birds posing like they did.

Got to Mapire and the Orinoco is HUGE! It is about 1 mile across at Mapire. A few weeks ago, it was even higher, but the water has receeded some.

We went to several places on Saturday on the Orinoco, but had no luck. On Sunday we motored 1 hour west, up river, about 16.5 miles to the confluence of the Rio Caura. The Caura is a black river, full of tannins from the vegitation upstream.

We started trolling on the Caura. I was trolling a white and purple diving lure and got a hit almost immediately. I landed a "sardinata" in the boat, got it in the cooler, decided it was time for a beer. Even before I was halfway down with my beer, I had another hit.

I decided to give Oscar the purple lure, and I put on a silver lure with red spots. Our guide decided he found a good spot and turned off the motor and we started casting. On my third cast, I got a big hit! I landed a 8 lbs sardinata! Killer!

Total I got 9 fish, Daniel had 2, Oscar 1, and Matthew 1. It was great fun!

Also there is a life on the river like nowhere else. I bought cheese from a river lady. And saw some guys bring in a couple of young bulls by boat. Wild country!

101 Orbits!

Wow! Grandmother has completed 101 orbits of the sun! Happy Birthday Grandmother!

Reading Week

Having reading week this week. The students decorated the doors with their favorite book titles. My secondary students did the "Cat in the Hat". The winning door was "The Giving Tree". My favorite was "Dinosaurs" because it went beyond the door...kind of cool.

The Mini-Tiendas at C.C. Plaza Mayor

Bumper Cars at the "Parque Mechanical"

The "Ranger"

Ranger Danger!!

This weekend our teaching staff participated in a weekend professional development workshop. I gave a presentation on my science teaching ideas, inventions, and techniques that I have made over the years, and received a good reception from all those who attended.

Saturday's session was okay too. I enjoyed the math and the technology sessions I attended in the morning. The afternoon session wasn't as fun. During the "Job Alike" lunch, when I told the other teachers I taught 8 preps, their jaws dropped. They were teaching only 5 or 6 science only classes. I am not complaining. Its a challenge for sure, but I know I can do it. No sweat!

Saturday night, Tania wanted to go to Plaza Mayor for something to do. I had my camera (Canon SD1000) and took a few pics to keep myself entertained.

Arbol para Vivir

C.C. Plaza Mayor

Oscar

C.C. Plaza Mayor

Took some photos today. I love my latest Canon ELPH, the SD1000. Small, easy to carry, but lots of neat options to play with. Today I shot mostly in black and white. Here are my favorite shots taken today.

An Interesting 15 hours

Thursday afternoon/evening into early Friday morning...

3:00 – 4:00 PM: Played a practice volley ball game, teachers vs. students. It rained so it was like swamp ball.

4:00 – 4:50 PM: Go to apt. shower, get ready to go to Lecheria for Grand Opening party at the new Tony Roma’s.

5:00 – 8:15 PM: Epic 200 km drive in rain, dark, a water crossing with water over my axles. The most sever and dangerous driving conditions in Venezuela. Pick up wife for party.

8:30 – 12:00 midnight: Party at the Tony Roma’s. Open bar…scotch or red wine, free ribs, cesar salad, hot wings, and those onion things. The first person I see is Peter, and he tells me about the Chavez announcement of kicking the ambassador out and calling us Americans, “Shitty Yankees.” This is the big topic over whiskys and ribs. Every one is excited. We decide we better head out about 12:00. I drop Tania back home, and we head out because we need to go to work.

12:00 – 1:50 AM: Rocket back 200 km to El Tigre. Very light traffic, road is dry. Hit speeds of more than 140 kph (~90 mph) from time to time, but mostly cruised at 130 kph (~81 mph).

1:50 AM: As I am getting into my apt. I get a cell phone call that my boss, Aaron has a flat tire.

2:30 AM: No new word on Aaron’s status, so I go to bed. Need to be at work at 7:30.

2:31 AM: Cell phone rings, Aaron wants me to bring my spare, his is bad.

2:40 AM: Head out with two other teachers me in my Kia, the others in a Ford Fiesta. We are hoping one of our spares will work on a Chevy Corsa.

3:00 AM: Arrive at Aaron’s car.

3:00 – 4:00 AM: Neither spare, Kia or Ford, will fit the Chevy. We try all sorts of things. Finally getting worried that our odds are increasing for potential danger from bad guys in the night. Aaron is reluctant to leave the car because Corsas are the 2nd most stolen cars in Venezuela. We abandon the car on the side of the road, collect the tires to look for a 24 hour tire repair place. The teachers in the Ford go home.

4:00 – 4:10 AM: Drive back into town looking for a 24 hour tire repair place.

4:10 AM: Pull over at a 24 hour tire repair place, but it is dark. Oscar and Aaron get out to see if anybody is in there. Security gate is closed, but they look through the gate to see if there is a phone number on the wall or anything.

4:10 – 4:30 AM: A pimped out Fiat Uno drives past, then back up. The window comes down and the woman in the passenger seat starts asking Aaron and Oscar where they are from. Oscar tries to explain the situation. The driver starts arguing with Oscar. Aaron and Oscar get back in the car, Oscar says “Let’s go! That guy want to fight us!” The guy cuts me off, so I put it in reverse and pull away. The driver gets out of the car. He has a dark blue police uniform (dirty) on. He pulls a BIG FUCKING nickel-plated revolver (probably a .357), looked like a cannon, from under his tunic. Oscar yells, “Oh shit, he’s got a gun! Let’s go! Let’s go!" The guy points it at the car and stays, “Para! Policia! Para!” Like a deer in the headlights, I stop and freeze. My heart is raising.

The guy is obviously high on something. I think he was smoking crack! He won’t listen to reason. He uses his cell phone and more Police Anzoategui come screaming in sirens wailing.

Those guys take over the situation. Oscar gets us off, but has an interesting conversion with these putas that call themselves police. Oscar let it be known that the driver of the Uno never identified himself as a police officer until he pulled the gun. The guy was a genuine malandro and lunatic.

4:30 – 5:00: We look for another tire repair place, but decide we should wait till daylight. The sky is already getting light.

5:00 AM: I get to my apartment.

6:15 AM: Alarm goes off to wake up.

Paddling and Snorkelling

I am back in Venezuela (arrived Aug 23). I've been working for about two weeks now. I took my Klepper out for a paddle this past Sunday. In the front seat was Matt, the new teacher at school. I figured I would show him another part of Venezuela besides El Tigre.

I like paddling the Klepper. It is a stable, forgiving boat, but still fairly fast across the water. We paddled to the "Hemmingway House" at La Piscina, and paddled around Isla Arapo. Here are a few pics.