Tom the Mt. Biker Dude

It’s finally Friday! HoooRaaaaaay!!! To celebrate I decided to go exploring on the old Pinarello. I really should name it. Some pretty Italian name would fit nicely. Any suggestions please shoot them my way. The bike is a little heavy but super snappy. It accelerates like a rocket and pretty much climbs mountains all by itself. A name like Isabella or Alessandra sounds pretty sexy. Anyway I’m getting away from the point. Back to the ride. Instead of going to the out and back part of my ride I took a turn into a housing development. I was expecting a dead end but the road took a glorious turn directly towards the Organ Mountains. After a brutal week my mind and body was free at last.

On and on the road continued through the desert. Each mile the road got progressively steeper as it approached the base of the Organs. Around Las Cruces there is a definite lack of serious hills but this sucker was punishing. The last mile was probably around 5 or 6%, not super steep but enough to work those quads and turn me into a rain cloud. At the top I took a nice pause to enjoy the beautiful evening before the big decent back into Las Cruces.

At the bottom of the decent I passed a Mt. biker parked on the side of the road. Looked like a flat tire. Slowing to a stop I asked if he had everything he needed. Nope, he was stranded, and his wife was not answering the phone. Haha, that sucks. Not to worry old biker dude, I am your savior, which was until I checked my front tire. OH COME ON! Now I have a flat too. Damn those Goat heads. I hoped I had 2 CO2 cartrages but I didn’t. Tom, the Mt. biker dude, said that was okay and wished me luck as he started walking into the sunset like they do in old western movies. For the next 15 minutes I fought and cursed with my tire but finally got it fixed.

Continuing on down I found Tom again, still walking. I said I wished there was something I could do to help but I was out of ideas. Slowly I rode on, still thinking hard. Oh yeah, there was still a little air left in my cartrage. I quickly turned around and offered the last of my air to Tom. He accepted and it worked! Well sort of. Tom’s tire was still pretty squishy but it was ride able. He thanked me as we shook hands and then we parted ways.

The rest of ride back I was just glowing. All week long people and things had proceeded to dump their shit on me. I was tired of screwing up and feeling worthless. Giving Tom the hand he needed to get home was just what I needed after one of the worst weeks. Thank you Tom.

Hey More Lightning!

Once again lightning storms rolled through Las Cruces last night. And once again I, being the nerd I am, traded my Saturday night to go take pictures of clouds. I hate to say it but hopefully these lightning storms mellow out soon because if they're there and firing, there's not much I can do to restrain myself. The desert is also getting its fair share of water too. Almost all the arroyos are running and the surrounding scrub is taking on a nice new vibrant green.

If you look closely you can see 2 or 3 small bolts coming up from the ground. I bet the spectators at the Aggie football game liked this one.


I didn't see this bolt but I saw the blue flash of the exploding transformer it hit. Again, I bet the football players were soaking up all the fun down there.

New Camera!

So the other day I was computer shopping and, wouldn't you know it, Best buy was sold out of all their laptop computers. While I was there I noticed their nice digital cameras. I had been thinking about buying a new camera for some time too. Hmmm... I didn't want to leave empty handed and I really wanted one so what the heck. Why not? I'll use it. A lot of money later, I had a brand new Canon Rebel XS. It was actually one of the least expensive cameras there so I was skeptical being a rookie photographer and all but let me tell you it kicks serious ass!

The first few days I just wandered around the desert here taking pictures of the cacti and rocks (two of some of my favorite things). The quality is amazing. Much better than my old 3.4 megapixel camera. I was enjoying it so much I went back to Best buy and got a tripod. That night I got lucky as huge supercell thunderstorms erupted 50 miles south of Las Cruces. I hoped I would get to see my first supercell storm but they stayed south of the US border. However, the other little local storms did not disappoint. The very first picture I took was the first picture below. Beginners luck I guess. The rest of the shots were more hit and miss. After 45 minutes, it began to rain so I packed it up. It was a pretty good Thursday night for me. Beats the heck out of sitting in meetings and seminars all day.

Now with my new toy I decided to start this blog thing so I could share all of my favorite things with everyone else. As you could guess from my title, my favorite things are clouds, plants, and triathlons. But anything that happens outside, really, I am a huge fan of. So here it is: my life, my interests, good and bad (but hopefully not too bad). Thanks for reading, I hope you find it interesting.


This was the first lightning picture I took. Total luck right here.