Dude.....what month is this?

Leaving the mid-80's behind on Friday, I drove north until I could see the frosted peaks on the horizon.  Meeting JMoney up at PnT for happy hour, I proceeded to have a few beers....and then some of the best Pizza to be found in all of Flagstaff.  Waking the next morning at a respectable hour, we ate our breakfast burritos in anticipation of the 4-8 inches we expected.....rumors of knee deep in bounds the day before buoyed our spirits.  Upon reaching Dutchmans...we found 3 inches of blower.....well....AZ blower for that matter....but it was close.  Below that was a solid mass of melt freeze that was not going anywhere, anytime soon.  Thoughts of skiing on my birthday 2 days before the solstice are really starting to seem possible....

Topping out on the ridge to the south of Allison Clay, the wind picked up on que with sustained winds estimated in the 40's, gusts in the 60's....with a constant snow-blast from the graupel that was being stripped off of the north ridge of Allison Clay and being shot at us like a shotgun blast of ice.  Moving south out of the wind and under the protection of the southern ridge, we found a nice place to peer out into the Inner Basin and dig a pit.

It was obvious from digging that the new snow was bonded fairly well to the underlying melt-freeze crust, yet I performed an ECT getting an ECTN6 Q2 down 6cm, and then an ECTN18 Q3 down 54cm at the new snow -melt freeze interface.

Results from the pit are found in this profile posted via Snow Pilot.

JMoney and his special lady friend dropped in while I shot pics and waited for them to bootpack back out of the shot while I played with grain types under the lens.

The rest of the day saw us descending back down the route we came, enjoying rooster tail turns up high on chalky and forgiving wind blown....transitioning rapidly to mashed potatoes down low making for a trying traverse out to the car.  We all agreed over PBR's in the parking lot that given our lack of skiing pow this late in April on the peaks....ever....the existing paradigm of a late start to let the corn snow develop in the sun was misplaced for this particular snowpack....an earlier start time will benefit us greatly in the future.....which is looking to be late next week for the next storm!  I'm currently in the 5th month of the ski season...May will be the 6th month.....my bike is starting to suspect I'm having an affair.....

Bust It Big

Yesterday was dreadful; with colors of black and grey painting the inside of the office belonging to the HR representative.  After 13 years with the company, I was no longer....with the company.  Waking today, I felt a sense of renewal I have not felt in a long time....the path before me was barren, the horizon was open and the course to plot was mine and mine alone to choose.  This is the feeling I've always felt before riding something I have not ridden before.  The type of commitment one makes to ride a long distance, solo, in uncharted territory is invigorating to me; focusing my abilites into a precision laser that pierces through the little stuff and seeks the true goal.

Pulling away from home on LaFawnduh, I cranked up the volume on my iPod and started listening to some Widespread Panic - 6/27/08, Red Rocks...I was there, and yet here I was again.  The sounds of JB singing into the mic on 'Old Neighborhood' brought me back to the soft pastel hues of the red sandstone forming the amphitheater at Red Rocks.

The climb up mudflaps lately has been gitting a bit grittier and a bit chunkier.  The dry season starting to take it's toll, I noticed a few more speed bumps to negotiate.  Bumps that rob my speed as I'm trying to maintain momentum and traction...similar to the feelings of negotiating the current job market in search of a paycheck.  As 'Who Do You Belong To' blasted through my ears, I found myself screaming out in unison with JB as flashes of yellow flew by.

Continuing up the climb on Twisted Sister, I looked up and saw the green sticking out of Big Rock....."I can't ever remember seeing Big Rock with so much green growing out of it" I muttered to myself as 'North' began to play out on the iPod.  Very similar to my 1st impression of Red Rocks the first time I saw a show there years ago....."I've never seen so much green......"

The lyrics of 'North' have always resonated with me.....

"I go north, the sun it hurts my eyes

But I don't really care, they're all drowning down here

So I will disappear, I will disappear"

I've always gone north to escape the suffocating conformity of the megalopolis, and today once again; I was heading north into the Tonto on my bike.  Starting the descent onto Wild Horse, 'Vampire Blues' played and was followed by 'Makes Sense To Me'.  Today started with a feeling in my soul....this ride was starting to turn into an epiphany on wheels.  It DID make sense to me.....everything.

Stopping to shoot some of the hot pink Hedgehog cactus blooms, I noticed the clouds moving in and obscuring the previously brilliant blue of the sky....and like that....the 1st set of the show I was listening to ended....the curtain was closing.  Starting up the 2nd set of the evenings show, I cranked out the miles on Wild Horse....and then 'Bust It Big' came on....I've always loved this song.  My legs responded in kind by upping the power as I shifted into a bigger gear....and that's what I've felt the rest of the day.....I'm going to bust it big.

Proud + Disturbing = ?

I've been staring at the following picture of me (how vain), taken by Chollaball after the squealer last sunday.  

Disturbing.....huh?!  I'm not sure what to make of it...I'm aghast, yet intrigued....some of the words and terms that come to mind are:

vain

fugly

freak flag

arrogant (blame the jersey)

proud

disturbing

confused

lost

confident

dehydrated

intoxicated (on stoke)

in pain

....in otherwords.....distinctly maadjurguer.  But in my research to find a word that combined the concepts of proud and disturbing which signify the median of the above terms....I struck out.  Hubris presents itself with the correct intent...but aiming in the wrong direction.  Perhaps, in this case, "intentional hubris" would be somewhat appropriate.  However....it still does not get to the root of what it means to be "proud" that I'm "disturbed" by this.  I dug deeper.  

Supercilious is closer.......a cool and haughty patronizing attitude......however I'm certain the word is, again like hubris, intended to convey a superciliousness towards someone else, in otherwords; not self inflicted.  Self-Inflicted-Superciliousness is as good as it gets with this one.....so I dig deeper.

A google search under "term for pride in being silly" leads to the following top results:

1)  Non-Racist words for white pride.....hrmmm....not really looking for some neo-nazi definition here....but I could see maadjurger pride creping in here

2)  A super silly activity pack.......strike two.....I'm certain that a twitter site hosted by Nickelodeon, the kids network, with the central theme of "Dora the Explorer" is not taking me where I want to go.

3)  Hater get's silly stringed at Gay Pride Parade in S.F.......ok...this is getting me closer...but still not on target....not that there's anything wrong with that...but I do look like whacked out/Village People/Crack Whore (I am, after-all, drinking Black Ice Malt Liquor at a piss warm temperature while eating a chocolate chip cookie the size of a pancake)

My search is taking me further and further away from the original intent....to find a singular term that encompasses being Proud and Disturbed.....a term that defines being stoked on being silly.  If you happen to know of a 16th century usage, now since out of favor....please let me know.  Perhaps there is some obscure law reference tucked away in a Mississippi statute that describes this.  I mention Mississippi because a good friend who practices law in Mississippi once described a gentleman who was charged with "General Thievery"....I asked him if that was really a legal definition and his response was, "Down here it is".  So, if you do know of a singular term, please respond and let me know.  Because until then....all I can come up with is maadjurguer.

Sick Pigs, Color and Hair

I'm not going to bother with an artsy post, a thoughtful post or a smarmy one.....just a few photo updates with comments from the scene which is my life:

The desert these days is insanely beautiful....this was taken during a flower-sniffer hike with Mrs. Maadjurguer about a week ago....riding through this scene has been awesome with hip high flowers and green bushes in many spots rendering the wide singletrack very narrow in spots.....awesome.

In preparation for the Squealer, I decided to trim my beard up a little since I was being mistaken for a Flagstrafican.  So I trimmed some of the old growth back which dated to the 1st week of November, and then added some style strips to give me the much sought after Mutton Chops with a big soul patch for extra measure.....although, I'm thinking of getting rid of the soul patch and just rocking the Mutton Chops since I will be looking for a job soon and I hear that the 'English Barkeep' look is really in demand right now.

And lastly, the Squealer.  Where do I start.....well, I only took one pic, and that was afterwords.  For starters....I am not a speed man.  So, I approached this time trial with this in mind (meaning I lollygagged), however disorder took over the night before in the form of food poisoning?  Nevertheless....I puked a few times and spent even more sessions on the toilet.  I thought of not showing up for the race...but I hate backing out of stuff like this (camaraderie, malt liquor and Bevinator cookies), so with 1.5 hrs of miserable sleep, I showed up at Chongo's house and pedaled off at 5am to reach my start location and time start at 5:59am.....I finished...and was not last....but clearly, I am not a speed man with a time of 2:42.  Aside for the excuses I've listed above in a not too subtle manner...I also think bringing less water because I wanted to make room for the 48 ounces of malt liquor I was carrying also somehow contributed to the time....but it also contributed to a good time!