Come on Irene

Blow me away...

kinda reminds me when we used to live in Charleston when Hugo hit.  We had to come up to Greenville to stay at Sonya's parents home....  That was on a Friday, and we got a late start out of town....  The state troopers had both South-bound and North-bound lanes of I-26 running north to evacuate Charleston, and it was bumper to bumper to the south side of Columbia.  Took 8.5 hours to make what was normally a 3 hour road trip.  When Hugo hit that Friday night, it didn't hug the Coast it went inland, Charlotte had 75mph winds.

What's going on here lately...

I did a couple of Swamp Rabbit greenway rides with the fam this week,  and my lung is freakin killing me... hope this damn thing heals up quick, because this is gettin' old, plus i don't wanna go back to the doc, just can't afford more medical bills right now...

Did One 22 mile from the casa to Furman U, back to around the Y and back home.  

 Furman University bell tower with Paris Mountain in the background

More shots along the trail

Shakespeare in the Park,  someone's gonna die

old train car

The other was on the south end of town, checking out Lake Conestee and the southern stretch of the Swamp Rabbit.

What no Bikes?

Wild Turkey

There is so much potential for some cool trails out and around Conestee...  can't wait

Art Stuff in the works: 

Todd's Pisgah Stage Race billboards a printed posters

TTR Bikes... logo, signs and posters:

Bunch of G'ville Rec stuff to fill these Kiosks...

which i can't show because it's actually another agency's work; though i am making all the necessary changes, updates to existing signage, and doing all of the new signage... I am pretty sure the other Agency is doing all of the Rec stuff,  i'm just doing the Greenway's stuff....Thanks Ty... i really hate stealin' a client from someone, but a whore's gotta do what a whore's gotta do.

Up next Red House Inn pages, logo for Mulestar,  Sycamore Cycles (having to start over) due to loss of artfiles when hard drive crashed, and no backup to be found. all i have are proof snapshots i had sent Wes for him to proof...  yeah that's sucks.... but a hard lesson in "Back your shit up..."  More TTR stuff in work as well.

found this gem at Lucky Bike...



sadly it belongs to someone else...

What's Playing: Change (In the House of Flies) - Deftones

Breaking bRad

yeah, i'm doing all right, just not very inspired to blog...

i've been pretty down about losing a close friend and about this never ending stretch of no full-time employment.... Seems there not much going on in the aircraft art consulting business which is totally dead by the way..... and so is the job market for over 45 non-college grad, overweight, graphic designers.

Having a computer down for over three weeks has pretty much killed my freelance business.  plus there was never enough time or money to work strictly freelance. The Gulfstream work was great while it lasted,  but it has been humbling & sobering experience going from over $100k a year to less than $20k a year.     The little bit of freelance art i get isn't paying the bills,  last week had to cash in my 401k savings to pay bills and back taxes from last year.   losing 45% of the total 401k to taxes (State, Fed and penalties for early withdraw) .      I've beeb sending out resumes left and right not even getting a call back  or an email for posted jobs on the web i've responded. yeah, kind of depressing.

Lost a good friend a couple of weeks ago, and at his memorial service at Paris Mt.  two fridays ago.... i had a nice big yard sale crash on the bike, dabbed on a root ball > to bridge  > tangled mess coming down Sulphur Springs trail down to the service.   Endo'd and landed on my side really hard,  luckily i missed the wooden bridge.... because that really would've hurt....  any ways  laid there for a sec while trying to collect myself and catch my breath....  got up and rode down to the service....

yeah nothing like take a digger and getting injured  at a Memorial Ride & Service for a friend who died mountain biking.   The reception was great turn out of friends and family.  Very sad day.  Took a couple pics without being disrespectful at the service.

After the service rode 4 miles back up the mountain to my car...  i knew i was hurt,  Had Liz behind me just chattin' up a storm while climbing up Mountain Creek tr.  and my chest was killing me ....up under my right breast rib cage...  i've busted ribs before,  and both colar bones... so i knew what to expect, and didn't think i had broken anything.... made it back to the car no problem.  got the bike loaded, all little tender... that weekend was sore  , but nothing too terrible....

I 've come to the realization that i am Paris Mountain's "bitch".  On the simplest of trails i will fuck myself up with out a doubt.

Monday my buddy Chip had some grunt labor work for me to do...  cleaning out his Electrical Co.  warehouse  loading up a dumpster. Thanks brother for throwing me some work, greatly appreciated.

Monday i was really sore,  especially picking up stuff and throwing stuff into the dumpster, I felt it under the right titty.  but i figured it was the physical labor more than anything,   next day i couldn't breathe,  lungs full of fluid,  felt like someone standing on my chest.   to cough or sneeze was like a burning ripping sensation the curled every nerve ending in my body.... had to go to the doc....  X rays  nothing broken,  MRI  should some brusing  of the lung, but no puncture,  and the fluid was a mild pulmonary edema due to the slam to my side,  swelling of the the chest and inflamation of the lung.  

2 weeks later and i'm still sore as motherfugger,  not as bad now though....rode for the first time last Thursday  night during the short track race ,  chest is still tender and lung hurts but,  seems to be getting better.  still can't bear to cough or sneeze...

photos HERE

 The Short Track Race was a small turn out,  i don't know if people didn't think there would be the final race or not because of Jeff's (the Organizer) untimely death,  or if it was the bad weather in the area?  It looked like it was gonna storm hard, but it didn't do squat where we were at; the trail were dry as hell.

We had a Silent Lap in his honor.   after the Kids and Sport Class races.

Yeah my son started High School last week, wow. how crazy is that?   time flies whether you're having have or not.  He's diggin' it.

Talking with a friend Ryan at the trail work project yesterday at Issaqueena,  he said "man you've got the worst  damn luck."    Yeah  and i'm tired of writing about it.

Well back to the Job hunting....  working on my best "You want fries with that?

 i'm like Lionel Ritchey....Easy...

 and Lost.

What's Playing: Born Of A Broken Man - Rage

Sunday's Dupont Ride.

Sunday i went up to DuPont Forest, NC to get in a much needed long ride to free my mind of all of the shit that's happened here lately.  it was a good day for a ride aside from being caught in a huge thunderstorm  as i approached Guion Farm mid way through the ride.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

i am still learning this MyTracks Ap, so i don't know why it keeps breaking my track into multiple plots on a map.

View Dupont  Ride 7/31/11 in a larger map

View Dupont  Ride 7/31/11 in a larger map

What's Playing: Happy Alone - Kings of Leon

Beside Myself with Grief

The local cycling community lost a great person this past Saturday. Jeff Papenfus (Greenville SC) was riding down Curtis Creek road near Old Fort, NC on a training day with Derek Zimmerman (from Greenville) and Elizabeth Morse (from Charlotte.) Derek was downhill of the incident. Somehow Jeff fell face forward into the embankment. Elizabeth was the first to respond. Despite being stung by over 50 yellow jackets, she provided CPR and called 911. But Jeff did not speak.

Derek said "I was there with Jeff and Elizabeth yesterday. We had gone up Curtis Creek to the Parkway over to Heartbreak and were descending through Star Gap to the car. We stopped for a picture shortly before the road really starts the descent. They started back before me, I kept messing with my phone and checking messages, nature break, etc. I finally got back on the bike and caught up to Elizabeth, told her we were almost out and would be having beers soon enough. Further on up I caught up to Jeff, he was going to wait for E to catch up. I was covered in poison ivy so was itchin, no pun, to get in the river and wash up. Just one more steep part and it's all smiles to the car he says.... So off I go, my last memory of him is with a smile on his face, our only concern was where to get those beers. From what EMS told me, he slid off on the descent into the trees, hitting a tree, possible neck injury, cause of death?, but there were hundreds of stings. No amount of CPR or epi pen use would have helped. Cause of death should be determined today. Please keep Lisa in your thoughts and prayers. Rebuilding her life is going to be a long hard road.  Thank you to everyone for your kind words. Jeff was an amazing person and touched a helluva lot of people. We had a great ride that day, we were done, on the way to the car. *** tragic is an understatement!
A big thanks goes to the McDowell County Search and Rescue, EMS and the Sheriff's Dept. Incredibly quick response and very supportive throughout. Can't imagine how tough it is to do their job.
Be careful out there! This sucks bad, but we all know the risk. We lost a wonderful human being yesterday!"."

Many of you have already commented on Jeff's facebook page. He is survived by his wife Lisa. One of his teammates, Jim Kelleher, was one of the first family friends to comfort Lisa. I encourage you to keep her in your prayers in the months ahead.

Personally, I am very sad and filled with fine memories of Jeff.   I  met Jeff 5+ years ago up in North Carolina on Squirrel Gap trail.  He mentioned something about meeting at PMBAR one year, and how i had taken a photo of him.  It was cool & weird meeting someone from Greenville; out in the middle of no where, deep in the heart of Pisgah Forest, and we've been friends ever since.

His commitment to the bicycling community in Greenville was unwavering, and was the kind of person that made things happen, he never waited for someone else to take charge.  He has been an integral part of our SORBA Chapter with the Greenville Short Track Series, Greenville Alley Cat Races, the upcoming Downhill Race at Paris Mt., He was working on bringing another Short Track Series together for 2012 as well as a Cyclocross Series for this Fall with the Spinners, and working on a plan to organize a Pisgah 100mi MTB Race.

for those who didn't know Jeff was an adventure racer, was a member of Team GLR Adventure Racing ( Go Long Racing) he was owner of www.Go-GreenEvents.com an online registration company

Jeff was a great friend and he will be dearly missed. 

Yesterday i did a big DuPont loop in memory of Jeff, and he was there, in spirit.

Godspeed Jeff Papenfus, may you rest in peace, and have a beer ready for me on the other side!

What's Playing: Friends - Led Zeppelin