Our friend, Eric, took us on a nice bike ride yesterday.  It was a perfectly clear day for a ride with long distance views.  Which we had lots of, but none of the pics I took did it any justice.  What you don’t see in this picture is Mat changing his 3rd flat in 2 days.  He’s back behind me.  Eric went off this jump while I tried to capture it.  (Mat had two flats on his ride the day before with Eric, so he’s now a pro at fixing a flat.)

We’ve been enjoying some wintery weather out here to get us acclimated to our trip out to Utah!  It’s been chilly w/ a tad bit of snow…just enough to cancel work Friday morning until noon.

The leaves are turning right now, so it’s a bit more colorful!  As you can see in the below pictures.

Mat is riding the log…he has a much better sense of balance than I!  It was a fun day with beautiful weather and mellow riding, except for the last half hour of downhill.

On Tuesday, we went for a lovely walk up along the Blue Ridge Parkway where we thought we might encounter some snow.  We did.   It was a beautiful day romping around in it and Maddy had a blast running everywhere and rolling around in it.

We went on a beautiful ride out in Bent Creek.  It is amazing that the fall colors are still going on and it is still so vibrant!  This is the nice mellow road ride to the beginning of the trail.

Mat at the start of the trail…about the only time I can get to the front of him in order to take a picture!  We had a great ride even though the temperature high was only 42 degrees.  At the end of the ride, Maddy still cooled herself off by sitting in every creek and pond she came across!

The picture is a little blurry…but it is a fine piano for $35!!!  We had a piano tuner come out who had been doing it for 40 years.  I was at work, but Mat said that Mr. Lindsay was extremely knowledgeable and really took some time to repair the felt underneath the keys and then to tune the piano.  It’s been great to get to play again!

]]> http://scovilleclan.com/thelevines/2008/10/15/fall-is-here/feed/ http://scovilleclan.com/thelevines/2008/10/05/barack-to-the-future/ http://scovilleclan.com/thelevines/2008/10/05/barack-to-the-future/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:49:06 +0000 Mat & Amie http://scovilleclan.com/thelevines/?p=96 On Friday we found out that Barack Obama would actually be holding a rally in Asheville, NC just a few miles from our house. This morning, we woke up and went down at 8 a.m. in the morning to stand in line. We thought we would be one of a few there that early as they had been recommending people arrive at 10 a.m. We are so glad we got there when we did.

It paid off. Look how close we are to see him speak. He talked a lot about the health care system and what he plans for the future. He wants people to be able to continue on their current plans and give them lower premiums. And for those like us that do not have insurance to give us affordable options. Yay! And yes, he will have to pay for it somehow. He’s going to do this by taxing those who make over $250,000 and bringing the taxation back to what Bill Clinton had (and not even as much as the Reagan era). For the rest of us making less than $250,000 our taxes will not go up.

Honestly, for me, I don’t mind paying taxes if it goes to help those less fortunate than I to be able to be on the Medicaid/Medicare/WIC program so that they can be healthy and their children can be healthy. I don’t mind paying taxes to pay for infrastructure and for schools, police, firemen and libraries, etc.

It was exciting to be with the over 28,000 people who were from all walks of life. We were impressed at how everybody we talked to and heard in the crowd were supporting Barack Obama for his stance on issues that were important to them.

I was a little disappointed in Thursday’s debate to find that the Obama/Biden ticket is supporting just separate but equal rights for same sex couples. Why not give them equal rights?

My largest concern this election year, is that McCain has picked Palin who is willing and eager (i.e. drill, baby, drill) to give up the beauty of Alaska just for oil. Oil that won’t be available to us for 10 years and that it would last at the most 30 years, many think less. Why can’t we spend all that money that we would be spending on the extraction of oil (that is non-renewable) on renewable energy sources that would last indefinitely? And would also bring about jobs. Of course, I’m biased. I worked in a very beautiful national park that wouldn’t have been there if there hadn’t been someone who had the forethought to preserve and protect the area.

It was phenomenal to be within 30 feet of a man who is well-spoken and intelligent and listens to the people. We are excited for this election year and the opportunity for people to choose someone who is willing to use diplomacy first instead of just going to war.

As we started going down I felt like it was awesome!  Out in this area, the trails are so smooth and this did not disappoint.  It was so smooth and it had woop-di-dos and berms and it was really easy to get alot of speed.  I was enjoying myself so much that I went over some woop-di-dos and was getting a wee bit of air and kind of liking it.  So I let myself get more on each one and then realized I had ALOT of air and braked and landed.  I think I tried to ride it out because I recall thinking “oh, it’s gonna be okay, just straighten your tire” and wobbling and then going over the handlebars and rolling.  After sitting still a moment and realizing nothing was broken, I got up and looked down and saw I was bleeding.  I’m a wimp so really I just wanted to sit down and cry, but that wouldn’t help me.  So, I got my shaky self on the bike and rode down to where Mat was riding.  He asked if everything was okay since I was smiling brightly with tears in my eyes.  So I told him about my crash which amazingly enough didn’t crush the sunglasses in my pocket!

I regrouped for a minute and then we finished the trail.  Which was awesome.  We got out and it seemed like such a short ride that we decided to ride back up to 5 points, which we had passed by earlier on the way to the Greens Lick trailhead.  We rode our bikes back up for another 45 minutes or an hour and then rode down another sweet trail.  It is so smooth out there.  I love it.  Maddy was pretty exhausted by the end of the day.  She was getting to the point where she was even letting me go in front of her!  Mat had a good time, too!

Senator McCain also didn’t endear us when he lambasted the grizzly bear project up in Montana…obviously, we don’t feel the same as he does about wildlife research.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the debates go.  I can’t wait to actually get to see Governor Palin interact during a debate, since at this point we have only gotten the opportunity to hear her give speeches and 2 interviews.  No coming up with answers on the fly.  Next Thursday I’ll be watching Debate # 2.