Sugary nostalgia

August 24, 2015

Well hello.  Fancy that, a time when we are both available!  Well, wait!  Before you go let me just say this – I’ve been thinking about nostalgia. 

Here in the Midwestern part of our USiness I oftimes find it easy to drift back into the days of my early childhood and even further, back into an idealized Leave it to Beaver-esque world I never actually experienced, and will not until I perfect my bye-bye-to-now-cycle (not sure about the name).  This machine will allow me to pedal my way into various other thymes and dimensions and may or may not involve riding rapidly towards a large, solid object and achieving a moderate impact to the cranial capacitor (just a go-to idea if when I can’t come up with anything else).  

Butt I digress.  I think this whole thing started when I began expounding upon the joys of the safety bicycle.

Here is a classic safety bicycle that was made here in the US. 

http://luxlow.com/bicycles/oldbike/1894-antique-sterling-safety-bicycle-built-like-a-watch-2600/

Pretty sweet, eh?  Not your cup of tea?  How about this modern version of a safety bicycle that I encountered at a recent musical event?

http://civiacycles.com/bikes/  I think...

Reminiscing about never-experienced days of yore can take many forms. 

Here is a version of Sixto Rodriguez's classic Sugar Man that I recently enjoyed during our fair city’s Jazz on the Green summer concert series.

Courtesy of Sonny Knight and the Lakers.

It is easy to be nostalgic in late summer, as we consider the fun times we had playing around in water with our friends.  Here is a photo of a friend I made just before we had a fun water fight in the backyard.

He turned the faucet and sprayed me with the hose a few times, but then I realized he wasn't very fast and so I ran over to the hammock and fell asleep.  I woke up dry, so I guess he never made it that far...

Now it is starting to cool down and we can all think about what we did or didn’t do during the fun outsidey-friendly time of year.  This coolness will be a boon for the upcoming Heatstroke 100 ride that I am contemplating participating in, due to my uncle’s contagious enthusiasm.  In addition to my uncle, it may also be due to my friend Rich’s persistent invitations to various bicycling activities which has made me feel more enthusiastic than usual.  As a moderately active person, sometimes I focus more on the moderate part of the equation, but the active part still counts too!  Why just yesterday Rich and I went out on the Jim Johnston Memorial Ride.  It was great.  Jim Johnston was killed by a motorist while bicycling.  His family initiated the ride to raise funds for scholarships for Millard West High School students and to grant Jim’s wish to organize a bicycle ride.  Jim was a science teacher and an athletic trainer at Millard West High School for many years, but also found the time and energy to enjoy plenty of bicycling adventures in his 56 years here on Earth.  

The ride was beautiful.  An impatient pick-up truck driver leaned on the horn while driving through a gauntlet of 4 bicyclers riding along near the shoulders on either side a peaceful and uncrowded highway, which was something I probably could have griped about with Jim were he still with us.  Instead I enjoyed some Chocolate Outrage and kept spinning.

Alright.  Let’s meet up at a cool Heatstroke 100 this Sunday!  We’ll reminisce!  Huzzah!

Good gear pedaling!

August 4, 2015

Hello goodlings and goodwinkers.  Well, the month of July has sailed and ‘tis onwards towards August waves of golden splendour.  It is now national immunization awareness month.  I am celebrating by enjoying some chilled Merlot avec accente, merci boucoup with something gritty, probably playground sand.

Here is an exciting video clip of the most fascinating moments of my last July commute of oh so long ago. 

It was also back in sweet July that I received my last issue of Outside magazine, which was one of 12 issues that I had won by flying on airplanes for enough miles to get a magazine, but not a free flight. 

It is the Encyclopedia of Gear issue.  If I participated in an outdoory activity besides bicycling, I might be enthusiastic.  However, I don’t and I wasn’t.  Gear seems so impersonal.  If I want gear I can look at my Campmor catalogue, through which I recently purchased some delightful mesh briefs, to make sure my package is delivered intact and fully fairly functional.  Or I could talk to a gear-oriented bicycle technology enthusiast.  One who spends many hours reading about new-fangled fancy options like pink slime tyres, one-forked-up suspension forks, compact disc brakes, and wireless shifting.  Well, let me tell you fancy smarty pantsies this – a little less conversation, a little more action!

While you were reading about the new X.0 short shifter, I was out pedaling laboriously up a hill on a heavy bike with a Sette avec accente chain tensioner.  It’s not that I don’t care.  Safety bicycles were pretty damn good when they started out shortly after the invention of the locomotive back in the 1880s and they were perfect by 1990.  The rest of the stuff is just bells and whistles and access to dangerous speeds.  Why some of these machines are hardly worthy of the name safety bicycle!  Harrumph!  John Kemp Starley would roll safely over in his grave if he were to see some of these modern speedy diamond frames of death!

So what else is happening in the modern worlds?  Music and lots of it!  

Hey, let’s all bicycle around and find some music to listen to once we get somewhere where we hear some music!