A line from a Pomegranates song that I heard today on WOXY, the worlds greatest radio station.  Made me want to lay down a few words.  It’s a damp, post-snowstorm afternoon, a pre-New-Years-Eve-party free afternoon.  Winston snuck up onto the sofa next to me, giving me that sideways glance that says “Hey, I’m just going to push my luck and see whether you kick me off or not.” He’ll be snoring dog snores in a moment.
One of the things I love about the quiet that settles over the bike business after Christmas is that suddenly I have time to read.  Sort of.  I have a dozen or more things that I should be doing, including several training plans for clients.  Or sitting on the trainer, cranking myself up to another level of fitness, less sloth-like but still midwinter slow.  For Christmas Dad gave me a copy of Colum McCann’s amazing novel, Let the Great World Spin.  I’m only a few chapters into it, already immersed, and knowing why it won a National Book Award.

“I should have known that the sea was written in him, that there would be some sort of leaving”.  The book is full of gorgeously crafted sentences, lyrical and rhythmic, pulling you along.  Read it.

Reading great prose and poetry fills me with the urge to write, and that’s an urge I wish I had more often.  Writing can be tough work.  Sometimes it’s pretty hard to say something unique, interesting, or meaningful.  I’m grateful to those of you who follow this blog and keep checking in, even though my entries come along rather sporadically.

A writer I admire is Bill Strickland, whose blog is always throwing me inspiring pieces of poetry and images projected from his creative imagination.  He’s a kindred spirit, a guy who knows of the love of two wheels and finds eloquent words for that elegant universe.  I’ll read one of his postings, a tidbit like this one, and my head will spin into a world of ideas and energy, and I end up staying up all night trying to craft it all into verbal sculpture.

It’s easy to get into a thoughtful mood as daylight fades into the last night of a decade.  It has been an interesting year, crazy, sad, exhausting, gorgeous, victorious, titillating, monumental, exhilarating . . . and another twenty adjectives that represent one hundred more stories, more than can be told here.  I’m sure 2010 will bring more; that’s called living.

I’ll just try to keep it all worth reading about.  I hope your New Year is amazing.

-Geoff

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The first big snowstorm of the season just arrived, and it looks like it’s going to be messy.  Jenn and I took Winston out for a run earlier, finishing up just ahead of the first snowflakes.  I felt pretty miserable - my fingers were frozen, my throat felt raw, and the wind chill was biting into me like a thousand X-acto knives.  Winston and I peeled off after 4 measly miles, while Jenn went on to have one of her best runs in a long time.  (That usually happens to her the morning after drinking beer, for some reason.  After the Philly Beer Fest she cruised through a fast 15-miler in Fairmount Park).

We spent last evening with Jeff and Craige at their apartment in Jersey City, enjoying an excellent meal and some great beers.  We started with a bottle of the Woodcut cask-aged ale, which is sweet and spicy and complex and delicious.  We opened a bottle from a small brewer in Wevelgem, Belgium that was extremely good, and then a bottle of stout that had been aged in bourbon barrels - very tasty.  Paired with some delicious aged cheeses, it was all quite amazing.  It was great to catch up with Jeff and Craige, whose recent travels have taken them to Singapore and Japan.  It’s always cool enjoying good brew with good friends.

This storm looks like it’s going to bury us, so I don’t expect to be putting any miles on the bike this week.  Thank god for spin class - our buddy Manny now teaches back to back classes at Lifetime Fitness, and I can get there in time to catch 1.5 of them.  I did my first one of the winter just last week, and felt great.  I expected to be dying, but cruised through it pretty easily.  Even though I hate winter training, I am excited about this coming year.  My new tri bike is on order, and I have most of what I need to build up a new road bike.  SRAM Red, 3T bars and stem, Roval Rapide 45sl wheels, and a Specialized Romin SL saddle.   I cleared out the garage in the last couple of months, selling both my Roubaix Pro and Tarmac Pro on eBay, and I’ll be selling my old Transition soon, too, and another set of wheels.  For now I’m logging miles on my cx bike.  But I’m looking forward to the coming year, and I feel like finally I’m injury free, have a good base of endurance, and I have the means to stay in decent condition for the next few snowy months.  That’s a good feeling.

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Two years ago last month I was finishing up my cross-country ride.  I can’t quite explain the transformative powers of 3 weeks on the road.  But 3,000 miles in 21 days was more than just a minor blip on the radar.  It was an existentialist experience that has helped define who I am.

It’s funny, when I was in college studying literature, art, philosophy, and theology, I was continually engaging in existentialist criticism and analysis.  Existentialism asks us of our living experience:  WHY?  The idea of it all is that action defines identity; “to do is to be”.  But really humans are not so simple.  Why did I ride across the country?  I still can’t give you a clear reason for that.  I had a huge wanderlust that needed to be worked out.  In the process, I gained a clearer picture of who I am.  Isn’t that what adventures are all about?

Lately I’ve been following the blog of my new friend Victoria Merriman as she rides across the USA from Boston to Santa Monica.  Right now she’s on the roads I traveled in 2007, albeit heading the opposite direction.  Still, the pavement is no better, and the wind is in her face too.  The views are pretty much the same.  She writes very eloquently about her adventure, and she has a beautiful humility and appreciation for the experience.  Take some time and read back through her blog, and you’ll get a dose of the subtle side of adventure.

Keep those pedals turning, Victoria.  The west coast is just a few days away.

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Something pretty cool happened today.  I saw an e-mail promotion from Canyon Cyclesports, a new distributor in Ashland, Oregon, for some closeout Vuelta carbon wheels.  I needed some wheels for my tri bike, so I called up to place an order.  The guy who answered simply said “Hi, this is Ron”.  I had to ask him to make sure I had called the right place.  But immediately his voice sounded familiar.  After a few seconds of conversation, it clicked.

The voice belonged to Ron Blocher, my boss at Diamondback, a dozen years ago.  Ron is simply the best manager I’ve ever had.  He’s been in the bike industry for 30+ years, and knows virtually everyone.  He was a fantastic mentor, helping me as a new sales rep find innovative ways to resurrect a fading territory (Ohio and Northern Kentucky).  He always had creative ways of making sales, and he really taught me well.  Over the 2-1/2 years I worked under him, up until the point where Diamondback was purchased by Derby (Raleigh) and subsequently dismantled, we rebuilt a ragged and miserable territory into the strongest piece of the Diamondback pie, producing 12% of sales for the brand.  To put that into perspective, there were 31 other territories.  It was a lot of fun, and a very busy and exciting time.

One thing that I always respected about Ron is that he operates without ego.  It’s a difficult thing to do.  When you’re trying to help a customer and make a sale, the focus is on them, not you.  You can’t get emotional, and you can’t take offense when it doesn’t go smoothly.  You have to have empathy, have to achieve understanding of your customer’s point of view.  Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes not.  I try to do that every day, and I teach that to our staff.  I think that philosophy is a huge part of the success of Jay’s Cycle in the last few years.

It was great to re-connect.  Ron, best of luck to you with the new venture!

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