Eric Smash**

Well, I've been on quite a tear recently as far as disabling personal electronics goes. On the morning of day 1 of my trip to Oregon, I watched as my camera bounced off of a series of lava rocks after it fell off of a sign while taking a picture. Unfortunately the fall seems to have been fatal, although I should still be able to recover the few pictures I had already taken to that point.

Then yesterday, while schlepping logs around my backyard, I totally smashed the screen on my cell phone. It still works, but i can't see what I'm doing and text messages are done for awhile. Fortunately my contract is up soon and I'm going to be switching carriers and getting some new fangle-dangle fancy phone.

**The title from this is a reference to a funny story that you don't know about. But don't worry, I'll be writing about it soon.

Update - Could today be the day?!?

It was! No rain!!!

Could today be the day?!?

It's mostly clear outside right now, with no rain reported since midnight and a forecast of partly sunny skies with patchy morning fog. Could today be the first day since July 17 with no rain? I hope so!

Eric's big-ass ride

I'm leaving Anchorage tomorrow morning and flying down to Oregon for my friend Garry's wedding which conveniently doesn't happen until over a week later. In the meantime I'll be meeting up with my dad in Redmond and biking with him on the last few days of his cross-country ride. I kind of feel like its poor form to show up at the end of this epic journey as they cruise towards the coast, but that is outweighed by the fact that it sounds pretty cool to me that after crossing the Cascades on my first day we'll be on flats or downhills for virtually all of the remaining 175 miles or so. Also, I plan to be on hand as a photographer for all the riders once they reach the ocean, so that has to carry some value.

Anyway, it might not be too much of a ride compared to my dad's trek, but I've been looking forward to this trip for awhile and can't wait to get started.