Merry Christmas!

N.Y. Roll's home decorated for Christmas by Morgan. 

Merry Christmas! 

  From : Guitar Ted Productions

To: You! 

I hope everyone has a safe, peaceful, enjoyable Christmas day today! 

I am grateful for you, the reader of this blog. May your bicycles be clean and quiet, your trails and roads be interesting and challenging, and may you have the health to pedal over it all anyway. 

Thank you! 

 

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas!

From Guitar Ted Productions.

I hope that you all have a blessed and satisfying Christmas, if you celebrate this holiday. If you do not observe this holiday, then my prayers are for Blessings and Peace to be yours today and throughout the coming year.  

Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions. It is a true gift to me to be able to write for you all. 

Thank you and I'll be back tomorrow with more end-of-year posts and more. 

All The Best!

Guitar Ted 

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas

from

Guitar Ted Productions!

Here's hoping that you are having a safe, joyous Christmas Day wherever you are!

Guitar Ted Productions wishes you all the best and the blog will be back in swing again tomorrow. 

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas!

I hope that you all enjoy the day in Peace!

Be Blessed!

Guitar Ted

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas!

I hope that you all enjoy the day in Peace!

Be Blessed!

Guitar Ted

A Little Catching Up

A Christmas Day ride

With all the looking back on things, you may be wondering what is up in current terms with me here. Well, this post is aimed at catching you up on happenings around Guitar Ted Headquarters. 

So, I need to go back a bit here to help this make sense. When Fall was coming on, I was prepared for not working much through the Winter, and to prepare for that, I had been saving money to pay bills and whatnot. However; I wasn't quite where I felt comfortable. So, through speaking with a friend of mine, I found out there was a very part time, hit or miss chance that I could pick up some extra cash by helping at a moving company. I said I was interested, since every little bit helps, and I can pick things up and set them down again. (This isn't to belittle what movers do, I just had no idea what I was in for)

Of course, then Andy announced that he was going out of business. I put a bug in this person's ear that I was out of work. Then at about this time a miracle happened, (literally) that made it so that I wasn't going to have any financial stress over the Winter. But I had made a pledge to help at this moving company, so in order to uphold my word, I went to work a couple of weeks ago as a mover. 

The first day on the job I whacked my knee against something while using a two-wheeler cart which was loaded with boxes. I didn't think much of it at the time, but the next day my knee was stiff and sore. The moving bit- very hard work. So, my whole body was a bit 'angry' with me anyway, and it took about three days before my knee got to feeling 'okay'. Of course, no riding happened, so I wouldn't do any further damage. I didn't have to go in again until after those three days and then it was two days in a row which pretty much kicked my knee to the curb. It gets better every day, but I'm only doing short spins near the house and I'm doing some icing, stretching, and self-massage to get the swelling down. Walking helps. Spinning fast on a bike really helps, and so those are the things I've been doing. 

 

This weather is crazy for late December.

Meanwhile the weather has been insane. 47°F in Iowa on Christmas Day? Unheard of! I mean, we've had 'no-snow' Christmas Days before, but never this warm, to my recollection anyway. I'm sure January will somehow manage to balance the ledger, so I'm not at all thinking that we're going to get an easy time of it. Nope! But every day it is like this is one less day Winter can be brutal, cold, and snowy. The way I have it figured, we only can have two and maybe a half months of real Wintry weather before the Sun starts to win and Spring does its thing here again. 

I'm doing some rearranging in the shop, I have a project or two in mind, and I expect that I may be doing a bit 'more moving of things' with that moving company for a bit. We'll see. If this knee doesn't improve I may have to 'retire' from that experience. And let me tell ya- this is quite an experience! Meanwhile, I am probing my outlook for a different job, but I won't get real intent on that until the New Year is by.

I've got a few more "Rear View"things happening and then the "State Of The Gravel Scene" posts will kick off the New Year with a "Trans Iowa Stories" post sandwiched in there. After Tuesday next week I'll be back to regular blogging again. So, things will be 'back to normal' here soon.

Thanks for reading!

A Little Catching Up

A Christmas Day ride

With all the looking back on things, you may be wondering what is up in current terms with me here. Well, this post is aimed at catching you up on happenings around Guitar Ted Headquarters. 

So, I need to go back a bit here to help this make sense. When Fall was coming on, I was prepared for not working much through the Winter, and to prepare for that, I had been saving money to pay bills and whatnot. However; I wasn't quite where I felt comfortable. So, through speaking with a friend of mine, I found out there was a very part time, hit or miss chance that I could pick up some extra cash by helping at a moving company. I said I was interested, since every little bit helps, and I can pick things up and set them down again. (This isn't to belittle what movers do, I just had no idea what I was in for)

Of course, then Andy announced that he was going out of business. I put a bug in this person's ear that I was out of work. Then at about this time a miracle happened, (literally) that made it so that I wasn't going to have any financial stress over the Winter. But I had made a pledge to help at this moving company, so in order to uphold my word, I went to work a couple of weeks ago as a mover. 

The first day on the job I whacked my knee against something while using a two-wheeler cart which was loaded with boxes. I didn't think much of it at the time, but the next day my knee was stiff and sore. The moving bit- very hard work. So, my whole body was a bit 'angry' with me anyway, and it took about three days before my knee got to feeling 'okay'. Of course, no riding happened, so I wouldn't do any further damage. I didn't have to go in again until after those three days and then it was two days in a row which pretty much kicked my knee to the curb. It gets better every day, but I'm only doing short spins near the house and I'm doing some icing, stretching, and self-massage to get the swelling down. Walking helps. Spinning fast on a bike really helps, and so those are the things I've been doing. 

 

This weather is crazy for late December.

Meanwhile the weather has been insane. 47°F in Iowa on Christmas Day? Unheard of! I mean, we've had 'no-snow' Christmas Days before, but never this warm, to my recollection anyway. I'm sure January will somehow manage to balance the ledger, so I'm not at all thinking that we're going to get an easy time of it. Nope! But every day it is like this is one less day Winter can be brutal, cold, and snowy. The way I have it figured, we only can have two and maybe a half months of real Wintry weather before the Sun starts to win and Spring does its thing here again. 

I'm doing some rearranging in the shop, I have a project or two in mind, and I expect that I may be doing a bit 'more moving of things' with that moving company for a bit. We'll see. If this knee doesn't improve I may have to 'retire' from that experience. And let me tell ya- this is quite an experience! Meanwhile, I am probing my outlook for a different job, but I won't get real intent on that until the New Year is by.

I've got a few more "Rear View"things happening and then the "State Of The Gravel Scene" posts will kick off the New Year with a "Trans Iowa Stories" post sandwiched in there. After Tuesday next week I'll be back to regular blogging again. So, things will be 'back to normal' here soon.

Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Guitar Ted Productions!

With all the best to you and yours this Holiday Season! 

Thank you all for checking in and reading the blog. I appreciate each and every one of you. Here's hoping you all are having a safe, enjoyable, and memorable Christmas or that you are doing something fun today if you don't celebrate this holiday. 

Regular posting will continue tomorrow. See ya then! 

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Guitar Ted Productions!

With all the best to you and yours this Holiday Season! 

Thank you all for checking in and reading the blog. I appreciate each and every one of you. Here's hoping you all are having a safe, enjoyable, and memorable Christmas or that you are doing something fun today if you don't celebrate this holiday. 

Regular posting will continue tomorrow. See ya then! 

 

Winter Views: An Unusual Christmas

Nearly 60°F and Sunny on Christmas day?!! WHAT?!!

Okay, I couldn't let this slip away without documenting it on the blog, because many years from now I probably won't be able to convince people this happened. I know, well, I'm pretty sure, this has never happened in my lifetime.

Anyway.....

SIXTY degrees on Christmas! WooHoo!

That was my gift I received, and I know many of you folks out there got this gift as well. How could you pass that up? Well.....to be fair, this happened on a day when many had massive plans with friends and family that, frankly, you just do not skip out on. That I understand completely.

However; I don't have that in my life anymore. We had planned on a quiet time at home, just hanging out with the immediate family members. No big hoopla, no tree, no gifts, none of that usual Christmas stuff. I'm not against that sort of thing, but Mrs. Guitar Ted and my daughter's birthdays are within a week or so from Christmas and I never liked putting up a tree or decorating before that. Added to this is our focus on staying away from the consumerism aspects of the season for various reasons, and well, anyway...... Enough about that. Point is that I had free time to get out and take advantage of that weather. So, I did.

Now, I had been out on Christmas Eve on my fat bike as well. That was the first ride I had done in well over a week, maybe closer to two weeks, because I have been battling a head cold since the first of the month. It has finally relented on its assault of my body to the point on Christmas Eve I finally felt up to doing a short ride doing an easy pace. Then on Christmas day I felt as good, maybe stiff though, and decided I just had to hit up some gravel. How could I not do that on such a historic day? I cannot remember ever in my life it being like this on Christmas Day. A good bike ride to soak it all in was in order then.

With the lower angle of light, (the lowest, I suppose), the skies looked more ominous than they were.

Sage Road looking North. The sky changed constantly during the ride.

Mt. Hope United Methodist Church on Mount Vernon Road.

And of course, no ride North of Waterloo is complete without a visit to the Big Rock of Big Rock Road.

It was glorious outside. A little Southeasterly wind, but it was just an awesome chance to get out and ride. I saw a big Bald Eagle not long into my ride that set the tone for the rest of my time out. I tried not to ride too hard, but to just go steady and take a few breaks. I need to be careful not to over-do things after being sick. I have also lost a great deal of my fitness as well. So, that needs to be built back up again. You can lose that fitness fast! Especially when you are sick and cannot really be all that active.

But I was so happy to get out again. It is good for the soul, and I miss the country. I cannot say that I have ridden gravel right around the Winter solstice, as it is usually not all that wise to be out in the whipping winds and sub-freezing temperatures during this time of the year in the country. It isn't pleasant, and it doesn't do much for your fitness or your soul. But this was a complete opposite of that. Really, really nice out there, despite everything being brown, dead, and rather quiet on the wildlife side, despite seeing the big eagle. This was so unprecedented that I needed to document it.

So, despite having all the rest of the year pre-planned on the blog, as far as posts go, I had to slip one more post in. I hope that you don't mind. And, I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was extra special this year.

Winter Views: An Unusual Christmas

Nearly 60°F and Sunny on Christmas day?!! WHAT?!!

Okay, I couldn't let this slip away without documenting it on the blog, because many years from now I probably won't be able to convince people this happened. I know, well, I'm pretty sure, this has never happened in my lifetime.

Anyway.....

SIXTY degrees on Christmas! WooHoo!

That was my gift I received, and I know many of you folks out there got this gift as well. How could you pass that up? Well.....to be fair, this happened on a day when many had massive plans with friends and family that, frankly, you just do not skip out on. That I understand completely.

However; I don't have that in my life anymore. We had planned on a quiet time at home, just hanging out with the immediate family members. No big hoopla, no tree, no gifts, none of that usual Christmas stuff. I'm not against that sort of thing, but Mrs. Guitar Ted and my daughter's birthdays are within a week or so from Christmas and I never liked putting up a tree or decorating before that. Added to this is our focus on staying away from the consumerism aspects of the season for various reasons, and well, anyway...... Enough about that. Point is that I had free time to get out and take advantage of that weather. So, I did.

Now, I had been out on Christmas Eve on my fat bike as well. That was the first ride I had done in well over a week, maybe closer to two weeks, because I have been battling a head cold since the first of the month. It has finally relented on its assault of my body to the point on Christmas Eve I finally felt up to doing a short ride doing an easy pace. Then on Christmas day I felt as good, maybe stiff though, and decided I just had to hit up some gravel. How could I not do that on such a historic day? I cannot remember ever in my life it being like this on Christmas Day. A good bike ride to soak it all in was in order then.

With the lower angle of light, (the lowest, I suppose), the skies looked more ominous than they were.

Sage Road looking North. The sky changed constantly during the ride.

Mt. Hope United Methodist Church on Mount Vernon Road.

And of course, no ride North of Waterloo is complete without a visit to the Big Rock of Big Rock Road.

It was glorious outside. A little Southeasterly wind, but it was just an awesome chance to get out and ride. I saw a big Bald Eagle not long into my ride that set the tone for the rest of my time out. I tried not to ride too hard, but to just go steady and take a few breaks. I need to be careful not to over-do things after being sick. I have also lost a great deal of my fitness as well. So, that needs to be built back up again. You can lose that fitness fast! Especially when you are sick and cannot really be all that active.

But I was so happy to get out again. It is good for the soul, and I miss the country. I cannot say that I have ridden gravel right around the Winter solstice, as it is usually not all that wise to be out in the whipping winds and sub-freezing temperatures during this time of the year in the country. It isn't pleasant, and it doesn't do much for your fitness or your soul. But this was a complete opposite of that. Really, really nice out there, despite everything being brown, dead, and rather quiet on the wildlife side, despite seeing the big eagle. This was so unprecedented that I needed to document it.

So, despite having all the rest of the year pre-planned on the blog, as far as posts go, I had to slip one more post in. I hope that you don't mind. And, I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was extra special this year.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and joyous holidays spent with family, friends, or doing whatever it is that brings you happiness this time of the season.  May you have safe travels and the best of times.

I'll be back tomorrow with a regularly scheduled dose of Guitar Ted musings for y'all.

All The Best From Guitar Ted Productions!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and joyous holidays spent with family, friends, or doing whatever it is that brings you happiness this time of the season.  May you have safe travels and the best of times.

I'll be back tomorrow with a regularly scheduled dose of Guitar Ted musings for y'all.

All The Best From Guitar Ted Productions!

Merry Christmas!

From brown and barren Waterloo, Iowa

Merry Christmas From Guitar Ted Productions!

Wishing you and your loved ones all the best!

Thank you for reading the blog!

Regular posting will resume tomorrow.  

Merry Christmas!

From brown and barren Waterloo, Iowa

Merry Christmas From Guitar Ted Productions!

Wishing you and your loved ones all the best!

Thank you for reading the blog!

Regular posting will resume tomorrow.  

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and joyous holidays spent with family, friends, or doing whatever it is that brings you happiness this time of the season.  May you have safe travels and the best of times.

I'll be back tomorrow with a regularly scheduled dose of Guitar Ted musings for y'all.

All The Best From Guitar Ted Productions!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and joyous holidays spent with family, friends, or doing whatever it is that brings you happiness this time of the season.  May you have safe travels and the best of times.

I'll be back tomorrow with a regularly scheduled dose of Guitar Ted musings for y'all.

All The Best From Guitar Ted Productions!

Christmas Views '17

I have been on a walking kick for fitness for well over a year now. I walk around the neighborhoods a lot and see lots of things, obviously. The Christmas lights are something I look forward to enjoying now on my walks and I figured maybe all of you might like seeing some of the humble displays we have here.

Unfortunately it didn't snow until Christmas Eve morning so I don't have any shots to share with the fresh snow. But be that as it may, here are a few humble shots, all taken with the new Tough TG-5, by the way.

And the grand finale'!