DClog

2004 Comes To A Close

Some stats for the past year (no particular rhyme or reason):

232 paid gigs (guitar performances)
10 different medical procedures - 7 different doctors
25th wedding anniversary
1 daughter graduates high school and leaves for college
1 funeral
1 rediscovered childhood friend
1 serious bike crash
150 bike rides - 4553 miles - 259 hours
5 sanctioned bike races (cyclocross)
4 days and 2 nights camping in the mountains
Some new stuff: 1 puppy, 2 bicycles, 1 computer
Business/Hobbies:
Development of my own bicycle racing team.
Phasing out website work.
Refining coaching business.

In the overall scheme of things, it's been mostly smooth roads and tailwinds - with maybe a couple of little potholes.

Bev & Ruth Return

Mother and eldest daughter return from the panhandle of Florida where they spent some Christmas vacation with Mother/Grandmother Marie.

Second Day of Christmas

AM: Nine tough riders met in Auburn for the 45-mile GTC ride this morning. The weather was not nearly as inhospitable as Friday, but this particular route features some challenging terrain and several sections of what we like to call Georgia pavé, so the attendance was a bit more selective.

GTC is known for it's pavé rides, in the tradition of classic bike races like Paris-Roubaix, where the route leaves the tarmac and travels over the rough or ancient cobbled roads. In Georgia there are no ancient Greek cobblestones so we use the old dirt and gravel roads; Georgia pavé. Riders who treat their bikes like fine art or jewelry, or do not possess the bike handling skills will not ride the pavé. These roads seperate the posers from the truly strong and skilled riders.

Christmas

Breakfast and presents with my girls. Sweaters, calendars, camera, shoes, purses, ornaments, sweets, and more. Among other things I got a really high-tech new shaver and some new Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars - the same kind of shoes I've been wearing since the 60's.

Ruth and Bev loaded up Ruth's new Pathfinder and headed to the panhandle of Florida to spend the rest of the holiday with Bev's mom, who is now a bit too frail to make the drive up here.

Christmas Eve

AM: This morning was a GTC ride starting and ending in Bethlehem (Georgia). About 16 riders gathered for the 50 mile jaunt around Walton county. The weather was a cool 30°F to 38°F and mostly cloudy skies but the mood was bright and the ride was fun.

Riders included Mike, Bob, Wojtek, Marshall, Ming, Shari, David A, Jay, Cathy and Jaymes H, Jason, Bill and Charlie B, and a couple others whom I can't think of at this moment.

Bob offered a bit of bike swag for the winner of the county line sprint near the end of the ride. I rallied the two teenage boys into a forward position hoping for an early lead-out, but ended up launching my sprint first from the back. It was slightly downhill so I slammed it into my 53x11 motoring about 300 meters, at speeds near 40 mph while holding off the contenders.

PM: Bev, Ruth and I went to the mall for a coffee (it's been a while since I've been in a coffee shop) and some last minute shopping. It was a good time together and we found a couple good deals.

The entire Coy clan gathered at Doug and Hillary's house for dinner and presents. The Coys included my four brothers, three sisters-in-laws, four nephews, three nieces, father, wife and two daughters *and* Hillary's entire family for a total of 32 people gathered for the festivities.

Eighteenth Birthday

My little clan, Dan, Bev, Ruth and Rachel, gathered at Bahama Breeze last evening for a little birthday celebration dinner. Rachel is 18 years old as of December 18, 2004. She can buy lottery tickets, which she did, and vote in the elections (neither of which I've ever done).

Rachel is doing very well at college in Athens, and is enjoying working at REI again during this holiday break. I am so proud of my little babies.

GTC Racing Team

L to R: Marshall Millard, Wojtek Wysocki, Stephen Simpson, Gerard Remery, Shey Lindner, Matt Coy, Bob Kuhn, James Campbell, Tracy Hambrick, Dan Coy

This morning we met for the "Harbins Winter Ride", a well-established 50-mile route that goes every other week throughout the winter season. This was the first time I had all the team riders together in one place so we got a photo of the gang. The ride was challenging due to the quality of riders present but highlighted by beautiful weather. Joining the GTC team were other GTC club regulars, Tracy S (John Deere), Cathy C (RBM), Carlos, Mike O, Dirk, Kerry, Mitch (Roswell Velo), and Ming.

Harbins Winter Ride Photo Gallery

Tracy S. and Mitch were dominant on the longest hardest climbs. Gerard was not far off their pace and James put in a surprising performance. I was not willing to go 100% but rode among the front guys and felt strong on the long pavé sections. The two women seemed to be sizing each other up early in the ride, but I sensed a camaraderie forming near the end as they were off the front and riding smoothly with the top 5 men. It's a great bunch of folks, excellent riders and I'm proud to be riding among them.

Jazz in Murphy NC

Last night's job at the Gwinnett Center was interesting alright. The band was OK, well I really liked the horn players and one of the new singers, but the halftime entertainment was... well different. This was an employee holiday party for a big car dealer in the Atlanta area and Lou, the owner of the dealership, flew in a troupe of exotic dancers on his private Lear jet. I mean that's OK and everything, but all the employees had their wives or girlfriends with them, and it was clearly uncomfortable for most of them to have these nearly naked professional exotic dancers getting up close and personal. Maybe I'm just being old fashioned, but do that at a Las Vegas convention not a company Christmas party for goodness sake. Oh well, whatever!

This afternoon I met Mack and a local sax player in Murphy NC for a jazzy Christmas concert. The sax player is a ex-pro who recently retired to the Murphy area, and this dude can play! There is a thriving community of jazz fans in this mountain resort area and they have invited Mack and I to come and perform several times this past year. They're really nice folks that appreciate good live music, occasionally bringing in well-known jazz artist and providing a quality concert atmosphere. This job was far more rewarding than the standard party/dance crap we had to play last night for car salesmen, but there were no dancing girls.

The Show Must Go On

Wednesday: I hired Susan and Marshall to perform with Mack and I at Carbo's Cafe for Freeman Decorating company employee holiday party. Carbo's is a nice place to play, but the job was nothing special.

Thursday: Mack and I performed at King Plow Arts Center and we were joined on stage by the lovely and talented Tina Catalanatto on drums as well as the most awesome tenor sax player in the region, Sam Skelton. The band was smokin' and the crowd was hip enough to "get it".

Tina is a 24 year old red-headed native of New Orleans. She is a trained and skilled classical percussionist and has a degree in Jazz Studies from The University of New Orleans, where she studied with Jason Marsalis, Ricky Sebastian, and John Vidacovich. She's my current favorite drummer in the city.

Friday: A reunion of sorts, as George Miller called me play with his trio, Suburban Knights, filling in for the absent piano player. It was a corporate holiday party in the Suntrust Plaza.

George's Dad, Al, was very influential on my development as a musician. Back in 1971 or so we used to hang out in George's basement listening to records and learning to jam. Al, who used to be a big band drummer, would come down and offer us cigarettes and a cocktail then start playing his old 78's. He liked the big bands, but not just Glen Miller and Benny Goodman, he also had Fats Waller, Fletcher Henderson, Bob Haggart, etc. He told us stories about the musicians and explained the music and arrangements, luring us into his world, and before George and I knew it we were jazz fans.

Saturday: Tonight I will be performing with Susan's band at the Gwinnett Civic Center for a largely Hispanic crowd. She has assembled a fantastic band with many of the top horn players in the South, several drummers, multiple vocalists and at the core of the band will be Mack and myself. This should be interesting.

Alex Grey

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio in the mid 1960's I knew him as Alex Velzy. I remember I often walked with him to his home on Olde Settler Place after school to be greeted by his Mom and a Coke on crushed ice. Alex's Dad, Walt, was a good artist and was a big influence on Alex.

The last time we saw each other was probably 1969, when I borrowed my aunt's VW bug and drove from Dayton to Columbus for a brief visit -- that was quite a leap of faith for my aunt because I was just 16 and had just learned to drive. Alex is 4 days older than me.

Surf around Alex's website(s) and see some of what this amazing man has done.
www.alexgrey.com

Weekend Recap

Friday Dec 3rd: It was my 51st birthday, Ruthie gave me some cool new earrings, chocolate covered cherries and baked a cake. Bev & Rachel picked out a book and some new bath towels. I celebrated with my dogs because no one else was at home that day.

Friday night I played music with Susan at the Childkind Holiday House again this year. Glenridge Hall, a 1920's mansion regarded as one of the finest Edwardian-style residences in the South. The house and grounds are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Proceeds from the Childkind Holiday House benefit Childkind, an Atlanta-based non-profit organization dedicated to providing loving homes and daycare for HIV-plus and other medically fragile children.

Saturday Dec 4th: The day began with a couple cyclist, whom I coach, gathering here to go perform a field test -- the infamous Cedars Road 3-mile time trial course. The weather was perfect and it was a good day for the test. Much lactate was tasted by all.

Saturday night I performed with my jazz trio (Dan, Mack & Keith Runfola) at the Carlos museum on the Emory campus for a private event. We had a nice 7-foot Steinway, great room, appreciative audience and more than a few magical, inspired musical moments. This was one my best performances in many years as the music seemed to be coming from a higher source and just flowing through me. I live for these moments.

Sunday Dec 5th: the CoyBoy ride with Doug and Dean. A busy gig schedule and time constraints denied me the chance to go to Athens and race my cyclocross bike in the AM, but I did some decent pedaling at the front pulling the brothers around the 35-mile Blackjack loop. They were hanging tough and pushed each other to their full potential. This is competition at it's finest, when one honors and respects their competitor by performing at the very top of one's ability and they do the same for you.

Sunday night I drove out to Lake Oconee for a duo performance in the Presidential House at the Ritz Carlton Lodge for a small gathering of about 20 people. The mood was festive and we ended up with all of them dancing and singing Christmas songs and party favorites... they were a pretty entertaining group.

Maysville Dirt Videos

11/28/2004
Videos

GP1601.AVI 5.5MB

IMGP1602.AVI 0.6MB

IMGP1604.AVI 9.5MB

New Age

Well this is the final few hours before I officially become another year older. Maybe it's time to start counting decades instead of years. When you ask a young mother how old their child is and they say 26 months, it makes me wonder, when do you stop counting months and start counting years? I will say my new age is 5.1 decades.

Sister-in-law, Hillary, provided a guitar shaped cake mold, Bev has my favorite lemon cake recipe and Ruth put them together to make a birthday cake - sweet!

There won't be any celebration because I will be working 12-16 hour days for the next three days and nights, and then my schedule gets intense after that right up until the actual holidays. It's like this every year. Like squirrels, we musicians must gather up the nuts now so we can survive through the winter.