My first house

I’m finally back to civilization. Well, at least the electronic side that is. Internet and cable finally hooked up in the house, and I think I’ll start writing again. 

Before I put a bid in on the house I bought a friend of my said it best. “Buying a house is exciting and terrifying all at the same time”. Boy was he right. Its funny how quickly life can change for someone. This time a year ago, I wasn’t even thinking about buying a house. I think I was out in Wisconsin on a weekend mounting biking trip on epic trails, worrying about how I’m going to get through the weekend before I completely drain my bank account. It was close, I needed an abundance of beer but had to go on the cheap. Mmmm Budweiser. Life was pretty good. Living in Uptown enjoying the scenery. Thats when things started changing. We got word that our landlord is gonna move into our apt. in the house that he owns and we had 6 months. Of course we procrastinated and waited probably until a couple months left to start looking. We had a 3rd person in with us at this point and our search efforts were pretty half assed. It got to the point where we all were like “Welp, looks like I’m moving back home with the rents for awhile”. My dad started throwing out the “house” word. At first I was like, yea right. Not a chance. At that time I had no idea about the first time homebuyers credit.  After discussing that and how he’d help out with some finances initially I went to a Loan Officer. After finding out I was approved by myself I was getting pretty stoked about this whole thing. The hunt was on.

Lets get one thing straight, I was approved for a small sum. I was looking at foreclosed houses. For the majority of the houses one word. Sad. Houses that could have been very nice destroyed on the inside. This one house had like 5 pay phones in the garage. I didn’t look at a lot, actually my house was one I looked at on the first day. Probably just over a dozen homes. Some should have been condemned. I kept coming back to the same house. Looked at it 3 times. I remember sitting on the couch crunching numbers over and over again. Sweaty palms right before I made the call to my agent to put in the bid. I made the call, and the next day I started the process of signing my life away. Talk about a mountain of paperwork. I can’t stand signing documents. I loathe it. I remember starting that and my real estate agent looked at me funny. “Thats your signature?” I felt like an idiot. Since then I’ve gotten a little better at it, but still hate it. The offer was put in and the waiting game began.It was probably 3 weeks before I heard from the seller. Final price was settled and sale was approved. Locked in my interest rate a couple weeks later and headed to closing. Now, I’ve heard horror stories at closing including my parents first home. Thanks mom for that lovely story right before my closing. But, all in all it went very smooth. 45 minutes and the keys were mine. I like to think I had an awesome team working for me, and they made the experience very smooth. 

I spent about 2 months working on the house before I moved in. Every free moment of my life was here. Mt. biking? Whats that? I think I forgot how to pedal two wheels. New windows, paint on every wall and ceiling, re-finished hardwood floors, new cabinet hardware, tiling. And thats just the upstairs!! It was a lot of work, but well worth it. Buying a house has been the best thing I’ve done with my life to date. Throw on Unce Sam basically giving me free money, why not? There were moments of uncertainty and fear. I think that goes for most people that buy their first home. But for the most part, its been great. I love my house, and love Menards. I can’t wait to expand the brewing project even more.

 

Back at it!!

I had this urge tonight while at work to start writing on this page again. I didn’t really think I would, but I can’t stay away. This thing is fun. Now that the home buying process is done, major repairs on my house are finished, and I’ve moved in I’ll be back soon. So for the 4-5 of you that actually read this dribble, stay tuned. Cheers!!

 

Apologies to all you hosers out there

I haven’t forgotten about my site peeps. I am still without the every day use of a computer. It will be sometime before I get my new Mac. Apologies to those who read this blog. I hope to have access to a “confuser” more often fairly soon. 

 

A bit of a hiatus

The Black Panther crashed….Again. With that said, writing will be at a shortage for awhile. With money being spent on Christmas, brewing gear, fuggin’ teeth, and New Years, it will be some time until I get a new computer. I will write when I can, but its gonna be a solid month before I start looking for a new computer. I’m thinking a laptop this time. A Mac not a PC. Until then. Cheers

 

Congratulations?

Congratulations…..I think. By this time tommorrow our good old U.S.of A will officially have 300 million Citizens. Wait hold on, those are Legal citizens. It is estimated that the U.S. has roughly 12 million illegal immingrants. Be that it is, its quite large number to take in. Better yet, the projected population in 2050 will be 420 million citizens. From these numbers on Garage Logic today Soucheray determined this was our problem with rising commute’s and the spike in traffic. Is there another undesovered part of this country that I don’t know about yet? Magically going to pop up to make space for all of these people? If so, please, someone tell the Big Guy. What this comes down to is that our cities are going to grow,grow, and grow(obviouslly). Slowing expanding and taking up more land. At that rate we won’t be able to grow enough crops, and recources to take care of ourselves. Is it an Immigration Control problem? Is it the higher life expectancy? Is it another baby boomer phase? I think its a little of all three. How is it possible to let that many illegal immigrants into our country? The life expectancy for the American citizen is 77 years compared to 71 in 1965. More and more younger people are getting married and creating families.  I just get worried thinking about how we are going to manage to live our lives  if  our space to roam, get away, relax  is getting smaller by the day.  Its a vicious cycle.  The citizens keep piling and piling up,  space needed for those people, therefore spacing keeps condensing. Now I am not saying to everyone that lives outside of this country "You’re not welcome", I’m simply saying that there needs to be some changes from those "experts" out on the East Coast that make all that money to slow this down a bit. Damage Control people.  Have they done the research to see if this country is capable of handling this many people. I hope so, because wether you like it or not, its coming up in our rearview mirror way closer then it appears.

 

“Smell em”

Pandemonium…… Thats what was going on at the Metrodome yesterday afternoon around 5pmish. A season that started with people predicting the Twins would at least win the Wild Card if not the divison, only to have those critics write them off after a 25-33 start. As the Common Man likes to say "Look at me now". On the final out of the final day of the regular season our beloved Twins were in first place with a Division title. After 160 some odd games they were in first place for the first time on the final day of the season. Wow!! Only 3 days ago nobody was even thinking this really would happen. The Tigers hosted the Royals for 3 games. Folks, the Tigers were 14-1 against the Royals this year. The Twins were hosting the high powered White Sox with Santana not pitching to rest up for who we thought would be a match up agains the Yankees. Each game this past weekend we saw the Royals come from behind and win two games only to see us lose two as well. Then came that magical and unforgetablle Sunday downtown Minneapolis. Just as Joe Mauer was coming up to bat after he pretty much punched his ticket in baseball history as the first catcher in American League HISTORY to win the batting title the Metrodome erupted into a frenzy as the scoreboard showed the Royals had just taken the lead from the Tigers. Fitting that Joe would slice a double down the left field line. Then came after the game, Some 35,000 remaining fans of the 45,000+ stayed with the Twins to watch the rest of the Royals game. Then the Royals made that final out of the game.  So there it was. Pandemonium. A fitting ending to what has been a magical and unforgetable season for the Twins and the fans. I was riding my bike downtown right next to the Dome when it happened. Where were you? I guarantee you won’t forget where you were when you were either watching that, listening to it, or heard about it. Moments like these in sports don’t happen very often. You gotta grasp onto them and let it soak in. It really is surreal. So there I will leave it, with a quote from the late and great Mr. Puckett "don’t take life for granted, because tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us". Well said Kirby. GO TWINS.

 

so much to tell so little time

It has been quite some time since my last post. The main reason is I have been busy busy moving and getting settled into my new place in Uptown. Also the fact that we don’t have cable and internet yet. Hopefully within the next week that will be up and running. I absolutely love it in my new digs. I already feel more at home at my new place within 3 weeks then I did at my last two places I lived in. I think the layout of the whole place had a huge influence on that. I wish I had some pics of the place to put up but alas, not at this time. Since my last post I also turned the ripe age of 24 this past Wednesday. It was a blast. Being around good company always makes for a fun night. Lets just say I remember only the first couple of hours, and the last few hours nothing. I woke up in my big comfy chair downstairs with coasters all over myself and a bloody toe. I was told our “15 minute” walk home took and hour as well. YEA BUDDY!!! My racing has been pretty much non-existent lately. Something has come up the last 4 races. Bummer. I have been riding a lot and my first attemp at doing a solo 24 hour mt. bike race is in just two weeks. Exciting stuff. I’ve been thinking lately to go back to skool to be come a writer. More like a freelance writer of such. I think it would be fun. I dunno, we shall see what happens. My warm up race is next weekend up at Spirit Mt. in Duluth. I also have two days off after that so I think I’m gonna call some old friends who live up there and see if I can kick it for a few days up north. I think some R&R up in good ol’ Duluth will be good for me. A good way to say goodbye to the hectic and stresfull year at the bike shop. Well, being that I am at work and I suppose I should do some work, I must go. Pizza Luce’ block party tonight. Riding bikes and drinking backpack style. Until next time, I’ll see y’all on the flip side. Word Up. Ciao.

 

“…..and I’m out. Destination? UPTOWN!!!”

my last two blog titles are quotes from Atmosphere… Intersting. well folks, a lot has happened since i last wrote. most notablly I am moving out of Kubacki’s Iron works and Forging household and am moving down into Uptown. I have wanted to move here since I first moved outta my parents crib, and not it has become a reality. I am moving in with my buddy and maybe your friend too Matt Clancey. We haven’t found and exact location as of yet but there are options. One is just two blocks from the CC Club. I love Uptown. I can’t wait to get my ass down there. I mean there is so much to do. Not to mention the women down there are beautiful. Good lord. It makes sense though. I spend so much time down there why not? I’m gonna miss living with Chris and Joe. Good times here. I cried, laughed, sighed, yelled, and everything in between here. So many drunken nights of stupid shenanigans and debauchery, yet hilarious. Alotta feelings in this house. Some good and some bad. But its a fresh start I’d like to think. Ya catch my drift? I think we’ll have to have one big party before I leave. Ya know what? I think I’m gonna miss Sampson too. I never thought I would ever get attached to a dog, but Sampson is one cool dog. I never thought I could have a worse week of work then what I went through about a month ago, then this week came. One of my mechanic’s is out for the week and we had to play catch-up. I think I’m working 60 some odd hours this week. I think I wanted to punch at least 3 customers on Monday. Do american’s have no fucking patience anymore. I swear to god. Its like I’m busting my ass and I ask them to leave something for just a few hours and they throw a hissy-fit. Fuck that. I bet those Canadians wouldn’t be like that. Piss me off. So my finger isn’t much better. WTF? 3 weeks later, and its still not entierly healed and can only bend it halfway? fuck it. I’m racing on sunday no matter what. Its Afton Alps(arguabley the toughest course in the MNSCS) but I gotta feed the need man. Tomorrow I’m finally back on the bike after over a week off, and the mt. bike which hasn’t seen action in over 2 weeks. YEA BUDDY. I’m off, back to the Amber Bock and a movie. Love. Peace. and Bicycle grease.

 

“Live life tipsy, Still if it don’t fit right with me”

I probablly stared at my computer screen for at least 5 minutes before i started typing away. Funny thing is, i’ve probablly got a million things running through my mind. Maybe i just had to finish off my glass of wine. So last weekend i cut my finger pretty badly at work. cutting a kickstand with a hack saw. one hour later i come back to work with a laceration, 3 stiches and a bum finger outta comission. it made me miss my last race which would have been yesterday. damn. I got the stiches taken out today. I still can only bend my finger about halfway. i didn’t realize it takes so long for nerve endings to heal. lets just hope i can squeeze a mt. bike handlebar by this weekend. this past weekend was quite eventful. i saw a few old friends that i haven’t seen in over a year. it was quite nice to see them again, and the stories went on all night. it was kinda funny though. their crowd is now either having kids, getting married, or living the "real life". my crowd is still stuck in drunken, stupid lala land with not a care in the world. which is all fine and dandy. but hey, we’re not getting any younger. all the more reason for my thoughts lately. the drinking must be cut back. its getting outta hand, and outta control. but hey, maybe Slug is right. "Live life tipsy." My bro nate turned 21 this past saturday. Job well done guys. nate preceded to vomit on the car ride home, as well at home. his last 3 shots were a shot of Beam, a shot of Cuervo, and the house shot, which was blue caracao and 151. that last shot followed by nate saying "that tasted like the worst day of my life". good times. it was fun to throw back a few with the middle brother. next time though we’ll be able to have a civilized conversation belly up. just a couple more years and its Pats turn. i have now decided that all of my vacation time will be spent in the majority of November for prolly about 3 weeks. I will be attending the Barnett’s Bicycle Institute(you could say its the MIT of bicycle skools) to take a few classes on wheel building and suspension. then i will be traveling throughout colorado and southern Utah to visit my aunt and uncle in Ridgeway CO, ride, and think about where i wanna live when i come back. Its been on my mind a lot lately. I need a change of scenery. new surroundings. I’ve been a "buburbian" all my life. I’ve been itching to get closer to the city. I have decided that I will be living in Uptown towards the end of the year. YEA BUDDY!!!! well, tomorrow should be a good day for riding. i’ve got the next two days off from work and hope to get in at least 8 hours of riding those two days. good pasta and wine tonight. lovin’ it. time to watch some stanley cup action and sip some ice water. see you all on the flip side. Love. Peace. and Bicycle grease.