Winter finally got here. We had snow on the ground this morning, and it turned to rain here in town. I heard there was upwards of a foot up on the peaks, and Jeremy sent me a picture of about 5 inches up in schultz pass this morning (and probably more by the end of the day). I even got an email about the “nordic center”:http://www.flagstaffnordiccenter.com opening up tomorrow for sledding and members-only skiing. Unless we get a few more inches I think I’ll head down to Sedona instead tomorrow. Should be just about perfect down there with a little moisture to keep the dust down.

My rollers finally arrived on friday as well. There was a series of unfortunate mix-ups at the bike shop (a.k.a. they forgot to order them the first time) and so it took a bit longer than I thought to get here, but they seemed to have arrived just in time.

I went out for a few beers yesterday with a couple work folks after picking them up, and then headed home for dinner. A few more beers with dinner, and I felt that I was ready to put the rollers together.

Of course, once they were together, I decided to try them out, ya know, just to see how hard they were.

That wasn’t such a good idea when I was half-cocked from a solid 8 beers down the gut. I set them up in the hallway and for the next 15 minutes played pinball with my shoulders and the walls. By that point, I was sweating like a pig and I think had started to sober up enough to have a chance. After a few good spins (I still couldn’t get started very well yet) I moved them into the living room.

I rode for another 20-25 minutes and I only wrecked into the lay-z-boy once. It was impressive.

I still gotta learn to get started consistantly, but today went much smoother. I got to the point today where I was drinking from my water bottle, standing up occasionally and even riding without hands for short periods at a time.

The rollers will soon be my bitch, which is good, because I’m going to be spending a lot of time with them this winter. . . . .