Barb and I always find fun ways to make each other laugh, but this morning she has completely outdone me. She was eating breakfast at the dining room table, and while I was making my breakfast the local newspaper was open and laying on the kitchen counter. I glanced over and saw this in an advertisement:

So I cut it out, walked over to the dining room table, and slipped it in her pocket. Without a second though, she got up, walked over to the newspaper, cut this out, and proceeded to stick it in my pocket.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard and for so long. The gauntlet has been thrown down, but I’m fairly sure I’ll never be able to top this one!

A few minutes ago I was walking around the house doing some stuff and I thought I heard a car in the driveway.  I walked over to the window, looked out, didn’t see any cars, but I did see this:

(click to enlarge photo)

There was no note on it, naturally – I mean, if I left something like this for someone I would NEVER consider admitting to it!  I have a couple of ideas of who may have done it, but my first thought is that is was our neighbors across the street who said last year that they were going to think of a way to continue the “Christmas Hoover” tradition…

No, I didn’t turn 100 years old, but the odometer on the unicycle clicked over to 100 miles. Looking at the weather forecast this morning I figured it might be the last really warm Fall day of the year, so I threw the uni in the car and headed for the rail trail. The odometer was at 94 and I knew I was in for an extra long ride if I was actually going to hit the century mark. I’ve been riding the rail trail to the end and back for the last couple of weeks, and that’s just a tick over 5 miles, so I added a couple of little “side trips” to nudge the mileage up. As I came back into the parking lot at the trail head the odo displayed those magical three digits.

I really wasn’t sure I would get to 100 this year, and it wasn’t really even that much of a goal – yeah, I thought it would be cool and it was something to motivate me to keep me pedaling into the colder weather, but for some reason it felt like it might be a little anti-climatic.  Hitting 50 was like “did I really just do that?”.  Hitting 75 was like “wow, I really did that, didn’t I?”.  I figured if I hit 100, it would be like “meh, so I did it – time for a beer”. Then I saw those numbers on the bike computer – the fist pumping, the happy dance, and the “WOO HOO’s” got me some pretty weird looks from the walkers and the bike riders…

Wow, poor unloved little blog…. it’s really been over half a year since anything has been posted?  Pathetic.  This probably mean two things – random posts now end up on Facebook and… well… I guess I just don’t think about posting here anymore.  Facebook really has replaced this blog for the kinds of things I tend to post – mostly because I didn’t really use Facebook much in the past and I tended to use the blog for just kind of talking to myself.  I know – that sounds odd – but sometimes writing is like having a conversation with myself and it helps to think things through.  And Facebook doesn’t seem to work for that kind of lunacy.

And thinking about the talking-to-myself thing, it’s been nice realizing that I’ve been in a really good place lately – and it’s mostly due to getting back into unicycling.  And it was dog poop that got me back into it.  Um, what??  We were walking the dog recently, he stopped to “do his business”, and we quickly realized that we didn’t have a poop bag in the little poop bag carrier thingy that’s on the end of his leash.  Even though it was only about two tenths of a mile from the house, I didn’t feel like getting a bag and walking back – and getting in the car to drive that short distance would have just been lame.  Then it hit me – put some air in the unicycle and see if it was still possible to ride the bloody thing!

Well, I found out pretty quickly that I could still ride – and it was quite fun.  Since then I’ve been riding almost every day and slowly building up leg strength, stamina, and balance.  Each day I go a little farther and some days I work on things like riding up hills, riding backwards, and teetering.  I also decided it was finally time to finish the restoration of my Schwinn Giraffe six footer that I took apart ten years ago.  I had bought new parts and sourced some original Schwinn components on Ebay, so it was really just a matter of cleaning and repacking the wheel bearings and crank bearing, cleaning and polishing, and putting everything back together.  With some step ladder assistance in the driveway and a very nervous Barb watching, I got on and rode about thirty feet.  Did that a couple of times then decided it was time for a real road test.

The next step was to put the tall one in the back of Barb’s SUV and head over to the local high school.  Chain link fence next to a smooth asphalt parking lot seemed to make sense – ain’t no way I was ready for free-mounting.  First death grip release from the fence felt tentative at first, but I quickly got the feel for it and had a good ride around the parking lot.  Came back to the fence and dismounted a little less gracefully than I hoped, but I got on again and rode off with this ride feeling even better.  The third ride was very smooth but I quickly realized that having ridden the standard uni in the morning and then three rides on this thing in the afternoon had left me a little too tired to continue.  I rode back towards the fence, did a very well controlled dismount, and when I landed on the pavement my knees and legs didn’t absorb the shock very well – one knee screamed at me and it really did not feel very good at all.  Needless to say (or is that knee-less??) it gave me some pause and I have not been as excited to get back on the tall one.  I plan to get back into it, but it’s going to be slowly – and with shorter distances – and no knee-crunching dismounts until I talk to a PT or sports doc and make sure nothing is trashed…

This has been one of the greatest holidays ever. Starting with Barb’s birthday and the two “deer-mensional” lawn deer, decorating the “Christmas Hoover” (and getting lots of fun reactions), two very nice days with a close friend I don’t get to see often enough, some shop time and hanging out time with my brother, and having Barb off work for the rest of the year has made it quite fun. And, thankfully, we decided early on that we weren’t going to do much of anything for presents – that reduced a lot of usual holiday pressure and last minute racing around. It was pretty bare under the tree, but the tree itself is a beautifully decorated ten foot monster that fits perfectly in the family room. It was nice to focus on the tree and the ornaments instead of a bunch of boxes underneath.

I had to be reminded a couple of times this year that the most important part of Christmas is being with friends and family, and this year ended up being just that. I hate to admit that I needed those reminders – of course I know that is what’s important, and that’s what it has always been for me, but it was hard making the decision not to do presents. Maybe it’s the start of a new tradition. That, and the Christmas Hoover…

(click image to enlarge)

Our neighbors left a broken vacuum cleaner out by the street on trash day.  Not surprisingly, it wasn’t picked up – and it’s been sitting there for almost a week now – so we decided that it needed to be decorated.

(click image to enlarge)

Our friend Karen takes care of our house and pet sits when we’re away, and we’ve gotten into this thing of posing the various penguins and other critters around the house.  It’s even gotten into a friendly competition to see who can out-pose who, and setting things up to see how long it takes to be noticed.  Well, she totally outdid herself last time – witness The Flightless Seabird Book Club!  It’s just so perfect – down to the penguin book!  We came home, went upstairs, opened the door, and just about fell over laughing.  In fact, this was so incredibly well done that I have decided to retire from the competition – there is just no way this can be outdone.

(click images to enlarge)

Then the cat came up and was clearly displeased that his bed had been taken over.

(click image to enlarge)

I actually got to see my old Mini panel van this weekend.  It’s so unusual to sell a car and then have it move back to the area.  The person I sold it to in 2009 decided he had too many toys and too little time (gee, that sounds familiar…), so he advertised it on the Mini Mania web site.  The guy that bought it saw the ad the day the car was listed and immediately committed to buying it.  He had been looking for a panel van, and after seeing the ad he knew this one was for him.

So where do I come in?  I had been browsing Facebook when I saw a picture of the van that the buyer purchased – and of course I knew right away it was mine.  I messaged him and it turns out he lives in the next town over – about fifteen minutes from my house.  So I got to go over to meet him and see the van – my only concern was major seller’s remorse.

Well, it looks great – the exterior looks pretty much the way it did when I sold it, except that the previous owner put on plastic fender flares and gawd-awful modern 12″ wheels and tires.  Thankfully, the new owner has already taken them off and put the Minilites back on.  The interior also held a surprise – the previous owner had put in insulation and wood paneling – wood paneling?  What, is this the seventies all over again?  It may be quieter, but it’s truly ugly and now it had dozens of holes from the sheet metal screws used to install that mess.

The new owner absolutely loves it, and the first day it was registered he put 150 miles on it!  And we’ve agreed to go for a cruise with him in the van and me in the Sprite.  That will be a new experience – my current classic British car and my previous classic British car cruising around together.

No tears were shed, but the love for that car was still there.  It’s funny how some cars just grab you and don’t let go.  I never should have let it go, but it’s so cool that it’s around again.  From now on, I’ll be thinking long and hard before selling any vehicle that I get that attached to.

MINI Takes The States 2014 is over.  The excitement of travelling with so many MINIs and partying with so many wonderful people is now just a head full of memories, but they’re memories that will last for a very long time.  I keep going on about what an incredible group of people the MINI community is, but clearly that’s what leaves such a lasting impression every time we do a MINI event.  And along with the warmth and openess we’ve felt from so many of them, there is the sense of fun and adventure.  I have never met so many people that are willing to jump in their cars and drive so many miles for the pure enjoyment of driving and connecting with other like-minded enthusiasts. MTTS went from San Francisco to Boston in sixteen days, but many people drove from quite far to get to SF and then drive all the way across the country.  It was not uncommon to hear about people driving 7000, 8000, or more miles over the course of many weeks.

Having never done an MTTS before, we decided to keep it short – and it’s a good thing we did.  We were wiped after three days and only 675 miles!  We drove to Bethlehem on Friday in a small Massachusetts caravan of blue MINIs – Barb and I in the Clubman, Art and Joyce in their Cooper S, and Ian and David Hamilton in their Roadster.

(click any image to enlarge)

Once in Bethlehem we checked in to our hotel, gawked at the MINI tour bus and all the other MINIs in the parking lot, dumped our stuff in our room, had a quick glass of wine with Joyce and Art, then headed over to SteelStacks for the evening event.  SteelStacks is on the site of the former Bethlehem Steel plant, and it was really an experience going there.  Having succumbed because of the much cheaper (price and quality) raw materials and products from Japan, Bethlehem Steel started to decline in the early eighties and finally shut down steel production completely in 1995.  The derelict buildings remain along with the massive blast furnace towers and associated structures.  Those towers are quite a sight to see – especially when lit up at night.

The property now houses an arts center, educational facilities, multiple concert stages, a casino, and the usual array of shops and restaurants.  The big event of the year is Musikfest, which is a ten day event with somewhere around 500 concerts – and MTTS happened to be rolling through during the event.  When we arrived we were guided to a large parking lot reserved just for the MINIs, and once parked we wandered around checking out all the cars and talking to various people that were hanging out and waiting for the party to start.

What was so striking about the whole thing, and a number of people commented on it, was seeing the massive buildings and the blast furnace towers standing silently hundreds of feet in the air as a background to what is a very different city today.  The death of the American steel industry felt so much more dramatic when thinking about the scale of the whole thing and what it must have been like with all the noise and smells that must have been so overwhelming when Bethlehem was the world leader in steel production.

We wandered around, ate, drank (and surprisingly, I now have a real taste for Yuengling!), listened to music, and hung out with friends until going back to the hotel and collapsing.  And after only a few hours of sleep we were back at SteelStacks for the morning party and rally send-off.

The drive to Boston was long and grueling, and there were quite a few wrong turns, rough roads, and traffic tie-ups (Thank you, Waterbury CT – we will hate you forever), but there were also some really great parts – traveling in caravans with lots of other MINIs, enjoying a few twisties on some very nice side roads, and seeing the reactions from others when they came up on gangs of very unique little cars.

Arriving in Boston was a similar drill – dropping off our stuff at the B&B before heading over to the evening event in the Seaport District.  We hung out and had a few beers with friends at the Atlantic Brewing Company before heading over to the Institute of Contemporary Art.  Again, another fantastic evening event with food, drink, music, and hundreds of MINI friends.  The next morning was the farewell event on Pier 4 with lots of smiles, laughter, tears, and even a marriage proposal – a guy who is very well known in the MINI community and had done the entire coast to coast run with his girlfriend brought her up on stage, and as he was taking about her and leading into the proposal, a bunch of people snuck up behind them holding up signs to clue in everybody in the crowd.  Stephanie had no idea what was going on behind her, but we all did.  She accepted Mike’s proposal and not a single eye was dry.

During the closing proceedings, David Duncan, Regional VP of MINI USA, was talking about the event and some of the things that made MINI Takes The States so special.  One thing that really resonated with me was that he said when you buy a MINI you aren’t just buying a car.  You are also getting a family.  It’s really true.

After all the goodbyes we headed for home happy, exhausted, and looking forward to seeing a wildly wagging dog tail.  And not driving anywhere for a couple of days…

Yup, we’ll do it again in 2016…