The weekend was a flash...

Parenting duties called this weekend, as my son was in a Divisional Swim meet and my daughter qualified for the Chautauqua Winter games in New York State. As Christi is a swimming official, I was off to NY with Em.

So, Friday started at 0400 with an attempt to fit in as much as I could before we left for NY after school let out. I pushed on and finished up some more Luvs...I've now got enough for the February run, the show, and the March responsibilities. That being said, I'm gonna try to get them all sprayed up so they can all ship in February...on time for most, early for some :)


Here's the last bar off the table at 1300 Friday...


I was in the groove right to the end, with all the welding flowing pretty nicely. Here's some close up weld porn for ya...

Part of the Luv run, there's more on another table as they were threatening to slide off of each other.

By 1400 I was locking up and heading home to pack. The weather is typically terrible for this weekend competition, as Jamestown is directly in the Lake Erie snow belt. We were blessed with warm temps and clear roads for the trip, thank goodness!


Saturday started early, getting to the rink at 0800 for the beginning of the day's competition. Em was skating in 4 different events; Preliminary compulsory, Preliminary B Freeskate, Preliminary Maneuver team, and Preliminary Jumps. Here's a shot of the girls with their opening ceremony poster they made...




And a pic of Emmy in the ballet room warming up for here jump competition...here she's throwing down a double something or other, I can't keep them all straight ;) Note the cool builder's shirt she wore...not a Groovy, but that's all right. Em did well, grabbing a fist full of medals, including a gold, silver, and a bronze. We finished her last event at 2145, then it was back to the hotel for pizza, ice cream and a sleep over with the team...loooong day!


Sunday we drove, and drove, and drove. It was not a long road trip, but I was beginning to feel sick and honestly, it felt like it took forever to get home. I stumbled into the shop in the late afternoon and cleaned up a bit but really was not very productive.


I started this morning sick. Got a hacking cough, green gobbies, and feel a bit like Mr. Hankey. Unfortunately, the calendar is an unforgiving mistress, as there are no days for missed work right now.


I powder coated bars in the am, packed and shipped off Eric's bike (finally!), and got to work on the Ti luvs.


The longer the day went on, the worse I felt. Finally, after blowing up a piece of Ti in the lathe and breaking my parting tip at the same time, I decided I was doing more harm than good and came home to work on correspondence and the blog.


Here's a line of Ti grips I got turned down...

and the one that ended the day for me. Fuzzy in the head and talking to Zach who stopped by, I forgot to tighten the lathe down and sent this one to the dumpster... I hate making mistakes :(

CONTEST RESULTS!

So, with the day moving past me, it's time to announce the winner of the "What cycling means to me" contest.

I had the family narrow it down to their favorites and then the winner was selected by Mike Sherrick, the photographer. Our finalists were Roy, StevieD, PKBinder, and Darren Ling.

Congrats go out to Darren, you're the deserving recipient of one of the Groovy shop prints, matted and delivered to your door by USPS. Thanks to everyone who threw down some thoughts. It's nice to get a feel for what makes this sport so special for each of us. I could see elements of my own reasons in every post...no wonder this is such a special activity.

cheers,

rody