Greetings fellow bastids!
I haven’t checked on availability yet, but I’m going to tentatively say that I’m going to rent the Dance Hall for September 11th, with a rain-date of the 18th. For those of you who have been here before, you know that the Dance Hall is right across from the beach, and pretty much adjacent to the parking area… Making it the best place to hold this event, as Chez GearMan is a couple hundred feet away from the beach, and less convenient.
While I haven’t even begun to put together the details for this, I can guarantee you that if we do it on September 11th, there will be some sort of moment of silence, or something fitting for the date.
I’m going to check on the date in the next couple days, and get back to you all ASAP.
Stay tuned!
GearMan

Hiya Kids!
Well, You’re safely back in your own world by now, and you know me… Always one to mess with the status quo…
With that in mind, I’m thinking about expanding on an idea I had a few years ago, that didn’t work out too awful great- A POST NEC BBQ and Swim, that maybe even features a roughly 25 mile fun ride, perhaps even a 9 hole golf tourney at a local Par 3…
I tried this idea a few years ago, (Less the ride and golf) and got volunteers to attend, but not too many riders… SO this is where your opinion matters- If I were to put together a fun ride, BBQ and Swim in roughly mid-September, Would you be interested in joining us?
I welcome feedback, and am open to ideas… But with all the new friends we make annually on the NEC, WHY should the fun have to end on Day 7? Or even at the end of a calendar year? Once a veteran, always a veteran!
I will build it if you will come!
Gearman

3:55AM Monday, July 19th, Chez GearMan
Hiya kids,
As I mentioned in an earlier post, noted columnist, radio host, correspondent to ABC News and Fox 25, and author Michele Mcphee donated some autographed copies of her latest book for raffle prizes on the NEC.
Well due to the quality employees of everyone’s favorite quasi-government agency, The US Postal Service, the first batch was lost in the mail. When I arrived home Friday night, there was a package from her, that even though sent priority mail, didn’t arrive before I left.
She sent us autographed copies of three of her latest True Crime books, for a total of eight…
Four copies of A Mob Story, Two copies of Heartless, and two copies of A Date with Death.
She was more generous than I expected, and now, I need to figure out how to give them all away… I’ve already figured out “Largest fundraiser, and “Captain of the largest team”, but now I’m stuck… This is where you come in.
Over on the Facebook page, I want you to nominate someone to receive one, (Not yourself, you greedy bastids) and you have to tell us WHY that person should get one… Then we will vote- All democratic like…

Ready?
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!
GearMan

1:15AM Monday, July 19th, Chez GearMan
Hiya Kids,
Well, I got home from work around 4PM and decided to take a little nap- And woke up 7 hours later… I wonder if what they say about “Not being able to catch up on a sleep debt” is true, or just a ploy to get more Government funding… Either way, my body tends to disagree with their findings.
I can’t tell you how nice it is to be back at work, where I can relax, but I already miss all you bastids with your over-packed suitcases and thirst for all things carbonated- whether fermented or not.
Some fun, but useless facts: The water coolers (The tall ones) hold 20 pounds of ice, the Gatorade coolers (The shorter ones) hold 35 pounds of ice, and the small ice chests hold 50 pounds- With this in mind, I estimate that we used between 3,500 and 4,000 pounds of ice last week. We also went through roughly 500 gallons of water, 40 cases of soda, (Mostly diet coke) and about 60 cases of beer… When you consider that we didn’t really do much drinking the last couple days, that’s not bad! The beer fund topped out at around $1,600, and once I tally up how much was left over and came home with me, I’ll figure out how much $ was left in the beer fund and donate that back to the ADA along with the $40 from my training ride BBQ this June.
We ended up with four cases of oranges and a couple watermelons left over, and I have to drop them by the local church’s food pantry later this AM- It’s not often they get fresh fruit because they don’t have the storage for perishables, but Pastor Paul manages to make sure it gets to those who need it.
Well, this got long quick… I’m going to go rustle up a sammich, and see if I can get some more of my computer pieced back together… It’d be GREAT if I could remember what I have for a sound card- Videos aren’t much fun with no audio…
More to come as I think of it!
Keep the wind at your back, and the downhills in front of you,
GearMan

Hiya Gang,
While I had every intention of doing a post last night, my C: drive had different ideas…
“Windows setup has determined that drive C: is corrupt and cannot be repaired”.
That was the message I received when trying to boot from the windows CD ROM. The good news is, I have a set of recovery disks, the bad news is, I haven’t updated them in about a year- So I’m going to have to see if I can find someone that can save all my files and photos from binary purgatory.
Last night was about 5 hours of reinstalling to the H: drive, rebuilding my network connections, finding drivers, and hunting for CD’s for other hardware still MIA in my machine.
The hard part is remembering which sound card, which NIC card, which adapters… This is going to take a while.
But I’m back up and running on duct tape and bubble gum, so if I don’t get something up this AM, it’ll be later today, when I get home from work.
Keep the wind at your back, and the downhills in front of you,
GearMan

Friday, Day 7, 7:17 PM Chez GearMan
Hiya gang!
Sorry for no post this AM, but I tried to log onto the guest network four times in vain, before I had to beat feet, as all the riders were already on the route-
I’ll be updating the page over the weekend, (I have to work on Saturday and Sunday for a total of about 10 hours, and also drop off the remaining oranges and watermelons to the local food pantry, as well as the typical “Home from an 8 day vacation” stuff.Time will be tight, but I’ll be doing it here and there- So keep checking back, and tell your friends, family and sponsors to keep checking back too!
Right now, there’s a big lake and a cold six-pack (Of diet coke until I’m off the antibiotics… ((More in one of those updates)) calling my name…
Followed by a soft pillow in my own bed.
Keep the wind at your back, and the downhills in front of you,
GearMan

Thursday, Day 6, Franklin Pierce University, Ridge, NH 11:15 PM
Hiya sports fans!
We had our final awards ceremony tonight, as it’s our last night together as a group. Personal prizes for the volunteers (Including Dunkin Dounuts Gift cards from an anonymous rider), prizes for the riders from the volunteers, prizes from riders to riders- Lots of fun and prizes for all!
Then, we headed to the truck for the final raffle of the year, as well as a cash raffle of a much coveted “Hub Bicycle Co” T-shirt that was donated by Emily, the owner of Hub, for a fundraiser- some prizes including t-shirts from sponsors, or bought by riders, some $20 scratch tickets, a great gift bag donated by John Pisketti, and all kinds of promotional stuff.
It’s sad… In roughly 18 hours it will all be over for another 51 weeks. The best vacation a cyclist (Or volunteer) could hope for… Finished. “Summer Camp for Adults”… Closed. “A caravan of crazies”… Disbanded. Your new favorite riding buddy… Not sitting with you at breakfast.
Why does it have to end?
GearMan

Thursday, day 6 Franklin Pierce University, 2:45 PM
Greetings sports fans,
We’ve got about half the riders in, and the rest are coming strong. They enjoyed a shopping break at Rest Stop 2, Vermont Country store for unique food and gift items, and then again at Rest stop 3, Norm’s ski and bike. Spouses, you should expect a discussion about getting a new bke at some point.The college is hosting a hand-made canoe show that is open to the public with live demo’s, and people actually building wooden canoes as we speak. Pretty cool toi watch. We’re going to have our annual awards ceremony after dinner, then then the final rffle of the year, which will a big one.
I’m going to take a shower now, I smell worse than the shoe-bucket.
Stay tuned!
GearMan