He Split it in Twain!

So - yet again I decided to do firewood instead of biking. Mind you, this tends to happen when I'm back in the ol' homestead; since the 'rents need firewood, it's actually rather fun, and ... my bike is still up in Burlington so I would have to ride the old Schwinn. A good touring bike actually - but not nearly as well geared - and we have something peculiar here that apparently they don't have on 'tours' ... hills. and lots of them. You can ride approximately 2 miles left from our house, or 1/2 mile right, on a relatively flat route ... making a 5 mile loop total if you were to overlap both pieces. kind of boring to loop the same 5 miles over and over. kind of a pain in the arse to go up an 8-12 grade 'hill'... even if you do get to fly back down the other side like a tightly garbed gladiator on a fiery aluminum chariot.

firewood. good times. went through about four tanks of gas in the chainsaws, didn't even dent the huge logpile left from the loggers. Split most of the wood that I cut as small lengths for Gram's stove. nearly four hours and a half gallon of sweat later, I decided that I could take the day off from biking.

the sudden obsession, compulsion, or modest interest in bicycling? Well - it began as a way to justify having brought my mountain bike around to every new apartment since college - but not ever really riding it! A few times to work, once or twice down to North Beach ... mostly to save money on parking. So, inspired in no small part by a friend of mine from childhood who does triathlons, and having peaked at the highest body weight that I never want to read off of a scale again, I decided to get back on the road - two wheel style.

I started at 5 miles a day. Upgraded to 10 miles in an stretch. a couple of 15's later, I did the waterfront tour with at roommate of mine - and we heroically sprinted out the 500 ft elevation gain during the last 4 miles on our return loop. considering that it was 90 degrees out, I hadn't had anything to eat, only brought a half liter of water, and didn't drink any of it, I should have expected to overheat! But it was fun none-the-less! Made me realize that I could really do some nice loops and not even feel it the next day.

A couple of days later - I got a message from my dear cousin, telling of her plans for the upcoming summer. A bike tour running from east coast to west coast, building houses for communities along the way - and the cut-off age is 25. I had just gone home for a week to query what to do with my life ... did I need a bigger sign? Immediately, I started filling out the paperwork, making calls, getting motivated for this cross country adventure!

The organization is bike and build - and since I have to raise $4000 dollars total by next summer, I will be shamelessly asking for any small amount of tax deductible, charitable, good natured, character building donation that you may be able to part with. A biking jersey alone costs $50 ... two small donations of $25 even would make it so that I could get up in the morning and put on a new shirt, instead of wringing the sweat out from the 70-100 mile ride across the arid plains of Nebraska the day before, and squeezing into the salt stained pungent polymer packaging. Needless to say, I will be singing your praises for days on end. My travel mates will as well, I am sure. Checks can be made payable to Eli Schwartz, with 'Bike and Build Donation' in the memo line - or, when I have the full material from them (publishing/mailing dates are mid September) I should be able to have the option of checks sent to B&B direct deposited into my account ... either way - October is the end of the government fiscal year ... maybe someone you know needs another deductible?

In preparation for this undertaking - I have endeavored to get in a good 10+ miles every day; working on flat stretches, gradual hills (which actually kill you more than the quick steep ones because you lose all you momentum, motivation, and have to pull out reserve energy to keep going), and a few big-trucks-and-fire-engines-go-around-because-they-are-so-steep-and-curvy routes ... because this is training for a cross country trip. gotta be ready for anything! Of course, I am using a 35 pound mountain bike, with disc breaks, steel pedals, bar handles, and shocks. Needless to say - when I raise enough money, I will immediately get the new road bike to start training with! Before I leave for the real thing, I want to be able to do a Burlington - Jamaica run, in one day; along route 7, without needing to be picked up by emergency vehicles, and feel confident that I could manage a return trip within the next few days. 120 miles each way. VT hills. I just may be entirely crazy.

makes four hours of cutting and splitting firewood seem not at all that bad.

I have some artsy wood chopping pics ... that I have been trying for the past hour to upload ... but this is dial-up ... I was going to set the camera up to show me chopping with our enormous maul, possibly flexing without a shirt, muscles bulging and body gleaming in the harsh streaks of sunlight as the wedge of steel whistles through the late summer heat ... but realized how narcissistic that would be, so decided against it. Plus by the time I had it all set up, the perfect light was gone, and I was covered in birch chips. tawdry woodsman glamour shoot = sawdust yeti scruff documentary. not quite the same.

If you take the first D in Dunkin Donuts and put it with the second D you get Unkind Donuts ...