The Aldrich Avenue Weekly

Warning: The first portion of this post may bore you if you are not of the bicycle ilk. This past week I got to go out west to Colorado Springs for some training through work. We went to SRAM. Producers of RockShox,Avid,Truvativ, and of course SRAM bicycle products. It was a weeklong techncal seminar they call STU(Sram Technical University). It was pretty damn cool. We took apart their new road shifters(which are by FAR the easiest road shifter/lever to overhaul). Briefly on hydraulic brakes, and 3 full days of suspension. Basically overhauled every kind of damper/spring/fork assembly they offer. All in all it was a good trip. The new RockShox product is pretty badass and is definatley going to put them back on the map. Impressive. It was a class of about 16 "wrench’s" from all over the country. One guy hadn’t been on a mt. bike in over 8 years yet he was there to work on forks!! Needless to say, I learned real quick he dosen’t like mt. biking. WTF?  When we weren’t in class there were some cool things to check out. However, thanks to good old Karma I missed out on some of that. My body decided it wanted to shut down for about 36 hours and make me feel like crap. I was in bed Tuesday night by 4pm and didn’t get up until the next morning at 7:30. I missed some things. Cripes. The Garden of the Gods park was pretty badass. Some wicked rock formations, and Brad circling around one a few times too made it pretty sweet. We only went out and really tore one on Thursday night. We went to this microbrew that had 11 of their own beers. We tried the sampler pack which gives us 3 oz. of each kind. Not bad barleywine. The Irish pub afterwards was much better. A roudier crowd with lots of emotion inside. This one crazy lady was singing to "drunken sailor" drinking a beer in one hand, and holding onto her infant baby who was bawling. I couldn’t believe it. Flew back last night. A really turbulant ride, but the view of the Twin Cities at night was worth it. Spectacular. Good to be home though. Here’s some of the trips highlights.
-getting to airport to leave too early, decide to drink beers
-plane has something wrong with the "strut" wait another two hours. did not drink beers
-first sight of Pikes Peak the next morning
-toy with all sorts of cool bicycle goodies. greasy hands, forks, and coffee. yea buddy
-mark buys little elephant at some weird store
-buy New Belgium Sunshine Ale
-drink that tasty Ale
-Brian’s Bicycle Repair
-mark giving brad shit the whole trip. absolutely hilarious
-thursday nights drunken shenanigans
-seeing a bar that had "Hot Mom Contest" on Wednesday nights
-Garden of the Gods park
-trying to drink our beer late thursday night before we leave and bbqing brats at midnight ouside the hotel.
-car ride back to Denver to fly home. Last of beer is downed.
-crazy old guy back up to Denver in old "hooptee" driving with a Fosters Oil Can in his right hand.
-drunk guy at bar thursday night telling me "I can’t get too drunk, I have to be able to talk to the taxi driver to bring me home".
-saw that crazy guy yesterday at the Denver Airport.

Good Times

weekly quote - "Actually
it only takes me one drink to get drunk. The trouble is I can’t remember if it’s
the thirteenth or fourteenth."
George Burns

Fear……..We all know what it means. I have had this growing sense of fear over the past couple months and it doesn’t seem to be going away. We all know about global warming and the way it is affecting our way of life and future. If we(by we I mean the human race)  keep consuming at the rate we are now, by the year 2050 we will need so many resources that Earth will not be able to provide them. By the year 2050 the Ocean might be completely out of the marine life we love to enjoy. By that year, the polar ice caps may have melted so much that the ocean’s could rise 40-50 feet. That may not seem like much, but think of how far inland cities are AT sea level. Species are becoming extinct at a staggering rate. The Alps haven’t had this warm of a winter in 1300 YEARS!!!! The list goes on and on. The sad part is, we are not doing enough to stop it, or at least slow it down. Yes we are doing some things. The Kyoto Protocol is a good step. The U.S. turned it down because they said it would be an "impact against the economy". However, most States have joined in on this at their own will. But its not enough. Instead we opt to fight over stupid and meaningless shit for years and years. Point fingers at who is to blame. Its almost like people are doing everything they can to say they are not a part of this, or to blame. Listent to this. Last week the Supreme Court had a hearing over global warming. A justice by the name of Scalia was quoted "I told you before, I’m not a scientist. That’s why I don’t want to have to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth." This was followed by laughter. Laughter…What the hell? Its not speculation or theroies anymore. They are cold hard facts, and they wanna shrug it off. I think the problem is the whole fuggin’ government is run my fossils that don’t care other then getting their paycheck and avoiding the hard issues. Its a damn shame. Maybe I need to get into the game. Shake things up a bit. Who knows. But something has to be done in a quick way. The sad reality is, at the rate we are going, there will be NO earth to inhabit for our future generations. The human race will slowly die out. Die away from our own neglect. Extinction of Dinosaurs? How about the Human race.

weekly quote - "The warnings about global warming have
been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate
crisis. It is deepening. We are entering a period of consequences." former Vice President Al Gore

You ever get that feeling like you were put on this Earth to do something glorious? Yea, me neither. Ha. Well sometimes. I was driving home tonight listening to the System Of A Down album "Mezmerize" and it got me thinking. The last time I listened to this album was this time last year. The holiday’s. It brought back old feelings. The same kind that I had when I was listening to this album before. They all come back. I thought about this for awhile and came up with some others. In not particular order mind you. The Foo Fighters very first album was the first CD I purchased. It brought me into the world that is Rock and Roll. Muse’s "Black Holes and Revelations" will always come back to me as the first person I met who liked Muse as much if not more then I do. =w=eezer’s self titled "blue" album. Ah yes, this one is a goodie. I had a mad crush on a girl when I was really into this album. I called this album the home of the best 8 minute song on earth. "Only in Dreams". Every time I hear that song it brings me back. When I hear Cake’s "Fashion Nugget" it brings me back to bus rides up to Giants Ridge and lawnmowing. Colplay’s "Parachutes" album was the album that was with me the first time I fell in love. Silverchair’s "Frogstomp" album brings me back to younger days raising hell around the neighborhood with my brothers and Matt and Mike. Ok, I got a little off course. Most of these just bring back those feelings of old. Not neccesarilly again. A lot of those feelings bring a sense of comfort to me. Deja Vu? Maybe. All I know is listening to some of those albums, those classic albums bring ya back. WOW. How cool is that? The CC Club beckons and I must leave. Here’s to music. Cheers

weekly quote. "It’s a little known fact that the tan became popular in what is known as the Bronze Age." -Cliff Claving of the Sitcom "Cheers"