Musings of June

Anybody need bikes? My reign as the king of too many bikes needs to end. I am moving into a Houston apartment with Ally. She has graciously allowed me to keep one bike inside, but the other ones need to go! The problem is that they will not sell! I had planned to sell my former race bike for at least $2000. Yes, its worth that much. I know there are people out there that need race bikes, but I am having trouble getting the word out. Craiglist used to be an amazing outlet to sell bikes at, but there are over 100 listings a day, which means that your lowly small posting will have problems being seen. An alternative is eBay, which is daunting because of the hefty price of shipping involved with bikes. I just don't want to deal with the extra processes that go with it. I might end up having to do this though.

My mountain bike is another issue all together. Being the first bike I ever bought with my own money, it is really old. Most of the parts have been replaced. I have probably put about $1000 into the bike over the last 2 years, but I would guess that I would not be able to sell it for more than $200. It just has no market. People looking for mountain bikes are either looking for a Walmart bike for under $100, or they are looking for a sweet, awesome, bodacious mountain bike and are willing to pay for it. The bike I have is somewhere in the doldrums in between these two categories. It has some great parts, but others are complete crap. It needs work.

If I don't get my bikes sold, it will be an interesting rest of the summer until I start my job. I honestly thought that whenever I started to run out of money, I would just sell my old race bike and then everything would be hunky-dory. It has been a lot harder to sell it than I thought. Hopefully my luck will turn!

Engagement

ALLY AND I ARE ENGAGED!!!!

After many months of her worrying whether it would ever happen, I finally popped the question at the Arboretum last Thursday. I found a secluded area where it was just us and got down on one knee. I tricked her into thinking I was taking a picture, when I was really taking a video! That can be found on facebook. It might be a little mean, but Ally said it was okay for me to post it. Needless to say I am pretty excited.

Our website that Ally made for our engagement can be found here.

We have set a date for Sept 11. It is a perfect date, except for the fact that everyone I will tell will be saying, "OOOOOH Sept 11?" Seriously, I don't think that the day is that bad. I mean yes, one of the biggest tragedies in our nation's history happened on this date, but I don't think that means that we can't get married then. Actually, if we don't, George Bush would say that the terrorists won. I just don't want the terrorists to win. :~)

We are living in Houston near the Galleria in a place called Broadstone Apartments.

In other news, I have been off and on the bike for a little while right now. My drive for riding is not completely there, and it is extremely hot and muggy in Austin right now. I am still racing twice a week though, but not really training. This means that sooner or later my fitness will begin to wane, but for right now I am just enjoying the fact that I put in all those mile earlier in the year. I have also been golfing a couple of times a week in preparation for the business world. I shoot around a 100, which is really good for me! I think if I could do that consistently then I should be able to hang with a boss or two in the oil and gas industry.

I find it funny how life changes constantly, but the speed at which it changes is never constant. There has been a lot of good change in my life the last couple of weeks, and I am excited to see what is next.