Stay Brutal.

Another sweet sunrise by bike.

      Commuting to work continues to be a blast. The weather has become quite a bit colder, but it's still great to leave home in the dark, see the sun come up just before I get to work, then watch it set on the ride home and return to the house in the dark. I've been enjoying every ounce of daylight that my pale white skin sees outside of work.

     Several nights have seen a nice fire in the backyard after the ride home. It's fun for Shannon and I to relax by the fire in our new comfy chairs, just soaking up the heat. We have roasted turkey dogs and marshmallows on a coat hanger several times.

Another sunset riding home to a backyard fire.

The comfy chairs in the glow of the fire.

     We have a new friend at the house. This little groundhog has moved into our barn. He doesn't come out much, but I did get to watch him for a while one day. He was loading up on acorns. Kind of looked like me at the China King buffet.

     I was out riding the other day and stopped for a minute in a parking lot. I noticed that some kids had been writing with sidewalk chalk. Most of the writing said things like "You are the sunshine of my life," and "You are beautiful." It was cool to see that kids were writing something other than gang symbols and derogatory things. Then I noticed one off to the side. It simply said, "Stay brutal." It was a little different than the others, but not written in a mean way. More like a nice, hardcore kind of way, reminding you to not be a total sissy this winter. It was just the spark I needed to finish the ride hard! When you are trying to decide between the couch or the bike on a cold day, just think about what this kid wrote. Stay brutal you freak!

      Shannon has been trying some new recipes lately. She kept with the season and made a vegetable stew in a pumpkin. It was really good! That says a lot coming from a guy who despises all vegetables.

Pumpkin stew, baked  in the pumpkin

Chef gets the first taste

Mmmm! Pumpkin stew from a pumpkin!

     Thanksgiving was great for us. We stayed here in town and had dinner with my family. The weather was great. We got in an early morning ride in the sunshine. I even saw a dead beaver on a backroad. You don't see too many beavers here in middle Tennessee. After the morning ride, we drove to my grandparents' house for dinner. We got back around dark, strapped on our lights, and went riding again. It was a great day! I am so blessed to have Shannon as my wife. I mean, how many ladies out there are willing to ride twice on Thanksgiving?!!

Hitting some backroads on our Thanksgiving ride.

We caught a tractor hauling a huge barbecue grill during the ride. Never know what you will see on the roads around here.

     We had to work on Black Friday. It didn't bother me. I don't get into the crazy shopping. It amazes me how saving a few dollars can make people lose their mind. One lady maced people! I was more than happy to be working and making money while people were out blowing theirs. I got to commute that day too. Having lockers at work makes it easy for me to have more clothes, food and water available for my rides. That means I can ride farther on the way home!

My locker is on the left. My coworker Blake has the one on the right for his workout clothes. He has a slight ice cream eating problem, hence the name on his locker.

Black Friday sunset by bike

     Shannon and I have been working hard to restore my old trail at my parents' house. I have ridden it maybe three times this year. Last year I didn't do much better. All the storms wreaked havoc in the woods and the trail got away from me. Between work, racing and getting married, the trail took a backseat with so much maintenance needed. We have spent a few afternoons out there clearing fallen trees, raking leaves and rerouting sections of the trail. Some of the sections are washed out and needing to be moved. Others are just slow and have no flow. We are rebuilding the trail along the way, adding in some speed and flow and changing up the layout. The trail has been the same for 10 years. It's time for some change.

A new reroute. Can't wait to put some tire tracks on it.

Snoop the tree climbing dog.

My pets are so backwards. The cat gets in the tree after the dog gets out of it.

Snoop after digging in a tree.

Snoop looking straight-up crazy.

     I had the morning off two days ago and got to take the long way into work. It was a cold morning, but I had a great time cruising through some gravel and chip-and-tar backroads on the singlespeed. The temp was 28 when I left. My water bottle froze before I got to work. The silver, frosty farm fields made it all worth it though. Not to mention it felt good to see some sunshine after so much rain the past few weeks.

    We ran the Rudolph's Red Nose Run in Nashville last night. I'll post a blog about that soon. Tomorrow is the final race of the Cross the Way Series. I'm icing the legs tonight in hopes of being able to turn my big gear to a Singlespeed series win tomorrow afternoon.