Gear Review.........Hand Held

The bottle on the left is a Nathan hand held bottle that I have run with for a little over a year. I haven't used it that much because I generally don't run with water. Usually I only use it if the temperature is over 100 degrees. The bottle on the right is an Ultimate Direction. I bought it  to replace the Nathan, and not just because the Ironman has an Ultimate Direction pack.



Why did I replace the Nathan you ask? It was horrible. It leaked from day one, and shortly after I started using it the elastic that holds the bottle secure got really stretched out. It made the bottle really hard to deal with. So far I  like the Ultimate Direction bottle. It doesn't leak, and the holder works great. I don't have to hold on to it. It just stays on my hand. The only issue that I have had with it so far is that when I squeeze the the bottle I have to overcome the pressure of the nozzle which keeps the bottle from leaking. It is a pretty stiff nozzle, and I routinely choke myself by spraying water down my  throat. Just a learning curve I suppose.

Let me run this by you guys. I have had this idea for a while. I am going to gather up and save all of the gear that I have used that didn't work like it should have. I'm going to put it all in a big pile and take a picture of it. I plan on making it a regular part of Broken, Beat & Scarred. I'm going to call it the "Gear Graveyard". I'd love to hear if you have any ideas, or reviews of gear that has let you down. I'm throwing the Nathan bottle on the  pile now.

House Rules

 The other day I walked in the house after work, and saw this laying on the counter. I thought "Wow! apparently the rules of the house have changed, and nobody informed me."

Turns out that we just have a new spice store in town, and my wife has been stocking up. That's a little disappointing don't you think?



If you get a chance please leave a comment. I am still trying to figure out why some of you can comment and others of you cannot. Thanks.

The Bretles

This is my favorite local band. They do some great covers, and their shows are fun. Mike is playing the guitar and singing, and Terry is playing bass. I hope to catch them live again soon.

Check.....Check,Check, One Two, One Two.............

I posted last night that I was having trouble with Broken, Beat & Scarred. Nothing was working, and you guys couldn't leave comments. I tried to fix it, and it didn't work. I did some more searching, and found that I was using an old version of blogger. I have updated, and now it seems to be working. Give it a try. Hopefully it is fixed now. It would be nice if at least spell check is working.

Edit: Spell check was working all along. It used to say that there were "no misspellings found", and they must have changed something so it no longer says that. Who knew I spelled anything correctly.

Unscientific Results

I've been doing a little unscientific research while running lately. I try to wave and maybe say "hi" to everyone I pass. If I'm on the trails I might even stop and talk about their cool 'niner, or pet their dog. I noticed that everytime I greeted someone running got a little easier. I started checking my pace on my Garmin just before I got to someone, and then again shortly after passing them. Turns out that I gained from five to ten seconds per mile. If I get a friendly response it goes to ten to fifteen seconds. Who would have thought being friendly would make you faster? (Your mileage may vary, results not typical, the same results may be obtained by just smiling and thinking "happy" thoughts.)

Comments

I have been hearing that you guys are having trouble posting comments to my blog. I really do enjoy reading your comments. They make me feel important and stoke my already over inflated ego. I have been having trouble with several things on the blog, but hope I have the comment problem sorted out. Comment away, good, bad, or indifferent. (OK, just figured out that spell check is still not working.)

This Is What You Get....................

............when your wife pretty much lets you do whatever you want. Whether it's climbing trips, buying new gear, or some other crazy idea. Amy has been wanting chickens for a while now, and finally decided to pull the trigger.

That meant I got to build a pen/coop. I thought I would have a little more time, but the chicks were getting big quickly so I had to expedite the building process. Here is the basic framing, and painting.



After the initial painting there was still more work to do.

The roof made it nicer to work on it inside the pen.



We had six chicks, but two ended up being roosters. We had to take them back to the feed store. We ended up with ten chicks. Try doing that math in your head.


We moved the chicks into the pen yesterday. I still have to finish the coop (which they won't need until probably October), and finish painting the door. Everyone seems pretty happy with the pen, and maybe now I will have time to post on Broken, Beat & Scarred a little more often.

Song of the Week

Thought this was a funny mash up of Brett's favoirte singer, and a good hard core metal band.