I took a liitle ride up north. I made it about a mile past Oakland. We'll call it a 16 mile round trip. There was construction in Oakland on the way up but they were done when I came back. I had to ride around it, but it was worth it because the road is resurfaced.


DARN BIRDS!!!!!
The same bird in the same place attempted an assult. I think the other birds are in on it too though. Some of them lined up in attack formation but they didn't send anyone down on me. That one bird though... On the way back he/she came up behind me in my blind spot. I star'ed duckin and a weavin and I stepped on it and was able to evade the attack. I don't know what he has against me.

Wow!! My summer is really starting to get away from me. I have gotten much busier than I would like to be. But there is just so much to do! It is like my grandfather said, "The labor is great, but the workers are few." (He didn't make that up by the way. It is a common saying.)

I did ride today though. I went to Hooper and back. That is eleven miles each way. It took me 47 minutes there and 40 minutes back. To make it to Hastings I would have to ride for 12 hours at that pace. I don't know if I can do it. But I am not giving up..

I rode to Hooper and back tonight. The round trip is 22 miles. It was a strong ride, but I am exhausted now. I have had too many late nights and too much work.

I don't know if the 180 mile trip to Hastings is possible. Tonights ride had calm wind and I think I only averaged 14 miles per hour. I was pushing it too. I don't know if I can keep that up for 12 hours.

18 miles

48 miles

19 miles

7 miles

I got home early from work today. I was exhausted, but if I want to reach the goal, I have to pay the price, so I went on a ride. I left my house at 4:45. Mother said supper would be late so I decided to try and be back by 7pm. The wind was out of the Northwest at 14mph so I went North. I like that road better than the South anyway.

I was riding well into the wind in 8th and 9th gears. It was cool and I was feeling good.
And then it happened. A bird flew down and hit me on the head. I am not kidding you. I was two miles from Oakland and I felt a bird hit me on the back of the head. I quickly turned around and saw a black bird with red shoulders following me. I will have to admit that it scared me and so I rode faster. I was actually able to outride the bird due to the wind that was holding it back. I did follow me for a good 100 yards or so.

I don't know if it was attacking me or not. That was me initial reaction. After I thought about it I gave the bird some credit, not wanting to condem him/her to quickly. Maybe it thought my head was a tree to land on. I didn't think I was moving that slow though and I have never before heard of such a thing. Or maybe it wanted my hair to make a nest. I don't know but I do know that it attacked/hit me/tried to land on my head.

I made it through Oakland. Ironically, tommorow, the Bike Riders Across Nebraska will be there. But today it was just me and I didn't stop.

Then about three miles North of Oakland, someone threw a can of Dr. Thunder at me, from a moving vehicle. I don't know why they would do such a thing. I could have been killed had it hit me square on the head. Luckily it hit the ground and slip past me two feet in front of my front tire. It did anger me quite a bit though. Punks.

I made it to Lyons Nebraska by 6pm. I stopped to refill my water. Then at 6:05, I headed back. The wind was bad at times on the way up and so I thought it would help a lot on the way back. It only helped some. The cross wind was still a bother. I hate wind, but I have to deal with it.

Then just as I was leaving Lyons, a tractor pulled onto the road, and a minivan followed. The minivan was following the tractor. Her licence plate read BETTE. Well, BETTE was all over the road. She couldn't decide between the shoulder, where the tractor was driving, or the road, where the speeding traffic was. I was going fast enough to pass them both, but couldn't because of BETTE's driving. I found the situation humorous. Luckily they turned off at the first mile country road. I continued home with out further incident except for the dog that thought he would race me. I won.

Round trip: 28 miles.
I was tired by the end, but feeling good.

I had 14 mile ride the other day. I forgot to blog it.

I apologize for the lack of recent blogs. I am going to try to be more prompt about this. Fortunately, my riding has still been going on. On Tuesday I made the 6 mile journey to Oakland. I didn't actually go into Oakland and that is why it was only six miles. It was a cool ride. The wind was out of the North at 14mph, thus my going north to Oakland. The ride felt good and took me an hour round trip. I didin't stop at all.

Then on Thursday, I made another trip south on 77. I went past Logan View this time and down Stecher Hill. It is a fairly large hill. I had to stop when I got to the bottome because my load had shifted and was about to fall off. I did not dismount the bike though. It was a hot trip. The wind was blowing too. Going out I rode in 2nd gear most of the time because of the wind. Down some of the hills I used 3rd gear. On the way back I was able to ride in 11th and 12the gears. The wind really pushed me. The ride felt really good. I could have ridden further if I had the time.

I need to get my rear wheel balanced. It is very out of round.

Attention, Attention. I have officially begun my training for the Uehling-Hastings bicycle trip. Over the last two days I have cleaned and oiled my bike. Today at 5:01 pm I set out, going south from Uehling on Hyway (I don't know how to spell that. That is terrible) 77. I decided to go south due to weather conditions. The wind was blowing in from the south at massive rates of speed. This wind was made of 90+ degree air so it felt like I was riding behind a jet engine. I rode six miles into that seering gale until I reached Logan View High School. I then refilled my water and headed back. It took me 45 minutes to get to Logan View and it took 20 minutes to get back. I rode there in first, second, and third gears and rode back in tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. It was a short ride but it was a good start. The shoulders on that road are not that good though and there are a lot of cracks that make big bumps. The bike rolled well though and my body felt OK. It is the beginning of a long, much longer, journey. More to come later.

WOW. My summer job is really getting exciting now. You see, this railroad that I am working for is kinda small. It is an historical kinda deal. But anyway...
For the last couple of days me and the guy I work with have been cutting trees along the ride of way. That is along the tracks. Many of them are too close to the train and so they need to be cut. They let us drive this little motor car out there and they gave us a new chainsaw. So I spend my day in the 80-90 degree heat cutting brush. Doesn't sound too fun, but if you consider that I have spent the last nine months under flouresent lights reading and writing, then it is refreshing. It is a good summer job, and it pays money.

Jeff, do you have a blog yet? Do you have DSL yet?

Sidenote: I have a brother named Henry who is wierd.

Whew... Its been a busy weekend. I went to Grand Island on Friday for a wedding rehearsal. Our trombone quartet played. I was there by 4pm, like I was told, and waited until 4:30, when everyone else got there, to rehearse. The rehearsal went Ok. Then I drove down to Hastings to stay with Mike and Jeff. They were home and hospitable. They let me sleep in a bed and use a towel. It was like staying at a five star hotel, only there was no bell boy, no continental breakfast, no mints on the pillow, no morning newspaper, no cable, and nobody to make my bed. Other than that though it was like staying at a five star hotel.

Friday night I went to the Olive Saloon with Mike and Jeff and Lando, who also lives with Mike and Jeff. I had a Dr. Pepper that cost me a dollar. It really tasted like fifty cent Dr. Pepper but it must have been better because it cost a dollar. Then I drove the gang over to the green house where Laura and Melanie and gang live. We sat around and talked about God for about 2 hours. It was an interesting conversation. Then Jeff and I took Lando's car back and went to bed. We picked him up in the morining.

Saturday I slept until 11:30, had some over micro-waved burritos for lunch, and went to the wedding. The wedding was good except for my bloody nose right after the prelude. I took care of it though and the rest of the wedding went off without a hitch, except for the bride and groom that is. (Get it, they got HITCHED, thats the hitch, ha, ha, ha.) Then I drove back here to Uehling to sleep.

Today I had the wonderful job of selling concessions on the Fremont and Elkorhn Valley excursion train. They had a bunch of boy scouts riding. It was fun and a very sunny and nice day for it. Now that I am home, it looks like it might rain.

The bike is still in the garage where I left it. I need to get going on that.

My summer job is going well. Today I cleaned some bathrooms, removed some forms from a concrete pour, and loaded half a semi-trailer with boxes that were all different sizes. I then destroyed some vegatation with a weed eater, in an attempt to beautify a railyard. It appeared to work. This evening I hoed some weeds out of our garden. I hope to plant some useful things in there soon. I also spent some time with my trombone. The lip feels good.

My bicycle has left the pickup and is in the garage safetly out of the weather. That is all for it.

Today did bring me some of my most favorite thing in the whole world...
WIND
Yes, it blew like it was trying to blow away my soul. I dealt with it fairly well though. It did blow a storm window off our house though and broke it. Another reason why wind is bad. Very bad.

I wish I had something exciting to say. People read these for entertainment. Unfortunately I am one of the most boring people I know. And that is not self-proclaimed. Ask anyone who has spent a Saturday night with me. You'll fall asleep in five minutes. Sorry. I will work on having some drama for the next entry.

YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is now officially and fully over. I have somehow gotten through that horrible semester and find myself safely in my summer vacation. I checked out of the Anti-Society Chamber, Weyer 117, Saturday afternoon. I am now at home in Uehling.

I arrived home last night to find my father cleaning windows. I mean really cleaning windows. He had them all apart and was scraping them with a razor blade and scrubbing them to within an inch of their life. I helped him do this until 3am.

My brother, Henry, graduated from the big LV, High School. He took it very stoicly. We had a great party with friends and family. It was sunny and great. We just finished cleaning up.

My bicycle is currently still in my pickup where Jeff and I loaded it. In fact almost everything is still in my pickup. Unpacking is tomorrow's job.

It is good to be home. Its good to be summer. Its just good.

Well, it is over. I handed in the kindling of a paper. It was painful, but it had to be done. And it is done. I am relieved to have it done, but ashamed to have done it so badly.

Well, the work of the paper has been grueling. It is near completion and I am convinced that it is the most worthless pile of cow manure that I have ever produced.
It had the potential to be a really good paper. I had the information I needed, I knew how to organize it, and I have the necessary writing skills to put it down. The problem is that I didn't have the time. A good paper takes many hours. And, yes, I had those hours this week. The problem is that they cannot be consecutive hours. I don't have the stamina to create good work hour after hour. Or even day after day. It needs to be stretched out. The other problem is that I have put my self under so much pressure that the quality of my work is affected. At this point it doesn't really matter though.
I am hoping for a C-. I don't know if this will happen though. I don't think the paper deserves anything more than a laugh and match. But that is from my perspective and I have been staring at this thing for days now. I also know how good it could have been and it is nowhere near that good.
From this experience I have learned some things:
1. Staying up late to work on something is a bad idea and should only be done in extreme circumstances and then only when the next two days do not require and quality work. Since nearly every day requires quality work, this should almost never be done. I stayed up way late working on this paper and then the next day I was fried. I wasn't so much physically tired as mentally tired. I am still not recovered. Life is much better on sleep.

2. Do not drink coffee. I have learned this lesson too many times to learn it again. I drank the coffee to stay up late. This was good at that time, but like #1, it affected me later. When I did try to sleep I couldn't and then not well. It also fried my brain that I am now just getting over.

3. Do not do too many things. This one seems obvious, but I have realized that I am not able to live a life with as busy a calender as other people. They can go 100mph for days on end. I cannot. I can be productive but not constantly. There is no reason to try to do everything anyway. I will follow this rule next year.

Now these rules are not universal. They are simple rules that I need for me. I know many people who can try to do nine hundred things, and stay up late drinking coffee to accomplish them and be successful.(They probably spell things right too.) Good for them. It just doesn't work for me.

This will all work out well in the future. Unfortunately the past is gone and so I still have this crappy paper to hand in.
It is academic suicide.

Well, this self-proclaimed student genius has once again procrastinated himself into a corner. It happens to me often; at least at the end of every semester. This semester is no exception. You see, I had a recital this semester. I practiced a lot for it. By the way I am a trombone player so it was a trombone recital. Anyway... I played the recital in April. It went OK. Not great, but good work for a man of my meager talent. However, with this recital comes a paper. This paper is called a Recital Literature or Recital Lit paper. This paper is it's own class. MU 470j. It is worth two credit hours. You would think that this being it's own class that a person should work on the thing over the course of the entire semester. Well I did... sort of... but not at a pace that would finish it by the end. Now I have to have it finished by Friday. I have been working on it but I also have THE final in History and LIterature of Music tomorrow. I thought I should study for that, so I did. Now it is one thirty in the morning, I only have 2 pages of the paper done and I still don't know all of music history since Beethoven. I am hoping that like every other time in my life that I have been in one of these jams, I get through it. A true testiment to the grace of God. But now I am going to spend my typing energy on that paper, instead of on this blogger. Because I know that at least one person will read that paper, as opposed to this blogger that is just another piece of internet information trash.

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Well, Whitehead and unashamedly awful had a jam session tonight in the crib of Mr. Rob Lackey. We recorded "The Confession Progression" on his equipment. It was a good track but a little too rehearsed I think. The rest of the time we just did what we do. It was good, bad, awful. I don't know. I am just really tired. This may become more exciting later on. Like when I actually have something worth saying. Next week is finals. That will be exciting. A little but not really. Goodnight.

This is fun and all but I need to go get Frosties from Wendy's or something.
I don't know.

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