My Interests....

I've always wondered what it would be like to blog. So, I decided to give it a try. Why blog? Well, because it'll give me a chance to talk about what I like. My hobbies and adventures at least. I always seem to get new hobbies. My wife says that I tend to become obsessed with my latest hobby but I claim that I'm just passionate. As a teenager I was all about sports. Football in particular. Later I fell in love with music. Not just listening, but playing it as well. I learned guitar and joined a band and had a lot of fun. I still love to play with the band every chance I get (which seems to not be near enough).

About 7 years ago I discovered skiing. It blew my mind that here I lived in Utah and only went once when I was a kid. Now I tend to dream about it often and when I'm not dreaming about it I'm actually there on the mountain.

A few years ago my wife gave me as a birthday present a telescope. I've always enjoyed astronomy and I did really well in my college astronomy classes but it wasn't until I first saw Saturn with my own eye(s) in this telescope that I realized, "holy crap, I've got to show people how amazing this is." Since then I've loved learning and looking at the universe.

The latest thing I've discovered is a passion for is cycling. Road cycling in particular. Last year, as a way to save money, maybe lose some unwanted pounds and perhaps save the earth, I bought a townie bike to ride to work on. I road about every other day on my upright cruiser to work and back (about 10 miles each way) but I suffered most of the time. It was hot, the bike was heavy, and traffic was scary. Plus, to top it off I actually got a ticket while riding this bike. (long story.) This past May, while debating if I wanted to ride to work or not I decided I wanted to get a real road bike. Maybe I would not suffer as much on my way to work.

It was all a spur of the moment thing. I came home, told my wife what I wanted to do and by that weekend we had both bought entry level road bikes. She thought I was crazy, but she thought that if I was going to get one then she should get one too. It turned out to be a good thing because I quickly became addicted. I wanted to go for longer and longer rides and soon it became all about the journey and less about the destination. I even stopped riding to work (which was the original purpose of the bike) because it was too short of a ride and I enjoyed getting up early and riding the roads I wanted to ride. The amount of time we spent on the bike became more and more but I am very grateful that it was something we did together, much like skiing. The only down side is that when I began looking at getting a much better road bike, I knew I would have to get her one too. But I was more than happy to do it if it meant that she would still ride with me. This time was different though. We spent much more time researching and comparing before we finally decided to buy. Also, buying at the end of the season made things a little bit more affordable. Maybe I'll do a post about what I learned in searching for a good road bike. It deserves it's own post.

So anyway, this is what I've decided to make my blog about. My hobbies. I'm sure I'll inject my opinions on other things too but mostly my hobbies. We'll see how it goes.....