Umbrage for hire!

Many people enjoy utilizing the utilitarian machine we refer to as a bicycle for utilitarian purposes.  Here are some fellow bicyclers who have picked up some much-needed supplies to stock their larders with some sundries.

I, too, have brought supplies from here to there and back fairly often.  Often enough that I noticed my tyre tube had sprung a leak as I arrived at my hacienda following my day's travelling and hauling of sundries.  It turned out to be related to the condition of the tyre itself, as shown here.

Cause of flat - fingered!

Did you know that here in the Uof SAssiness it is Bike to Work Week this upcoming week?  Well I, for one, am not participating as I have recently been promoted to unemployment due to various schemes and ploys.  And  I also, for the first time, now take a small amount of umbrage (maybe one or two umbos, is that the right unit of measurement for umbrage?) at the title of this week.  What about a more inclusive title such as Bike Places Week?  What is this constant overvaluation of work?  Sure you might be able to get paid doing it, but you can also get paid for being born rich, so why not try that?  What?!  Maybe get adopted?

Next Saturday is the lovable Wear Yellow Ride which begins at the Strategic Air Command Museum near Ashland, Nebraska.  I hope to see you there.  I may even be in way better shape than you because I will have plenty of time to bike more exciting places than to work!  Hah!  Yeah, that's not likely.  Bicycle on, workers, et al!

Hey Quacker!  Maybe if you were biking to work you wouldn't have such a big bill to pay!  Yuck, yuck.  (I do mean "yuck" as in that's more awful than the usual drivel that passes for duck humour in this blog!)

In Training!

May 18, 2011

Well now there's no retreating, as I have become a wheel on the tricycle known as Team Wheezy. Yes, my friends Rich, Nick and I have dedicated ourselves towards finding, killing, cleaning, combining, possibly cooking somewhat, and eating the three components of a gooduckit - (aka the Urban Omaha - the Ultimate Adventure Race). I am excited about this goal, because now I am "in training," which is a nice break from riding my bicycle. It is somewhat similar to the popular notion of breaking up the rainy weather by getting outside to water our lawns. Although a big goal can be daunting and impressive to others, I find that the smaller goals are really the most important ingredients in implementing a recipe for delicious success, which (when half baked) might taste similar to a gooduckit stew. So with this notion in mind, I set out to kill two birds (and as you may have guessed, those two birds would be a duck and a goose) with one high velocity, sling-shot propelled stone. The first metaphoric bird (the goose) was returning my movies to Blockbuster, while the second bird (the duck) was going for a run, since the Great Gooduckit Chase will most assuredly involve some transporting of oneself by foot in a speedy manner. I am quite fond of combining activities like this in a spontaneous paeon to efficient planning. Here goes!

I snapped photos of various trees on my way to Blockbuster,

and I plan to identify them using my handy-dandy Trees of North America: A Field Guide to the Major Native and Introduced Species North of Mexico (A Golden Field Guide) . If you have not perused this treasure trove of arboreal lore, then you may as well just go climb a tree, because I just don't know what you've been thinking!

My tree identification skills are rusty (kind of like the Hawthorne tree in our front yard was last spring), so I will have to get back to you on the tree types shown here. Please feel free to inform me if you can identify these shady customers. I also noticed a large washed-out portion of the soil supporting this tree. I wondered if this might serve as some type of creature's den.

Which of course led me to thinking about snaring a rabbit with a trap of some sort, rather than the traditional compound bow favored by most Neonderthal hunters.

I trotted over hill and over dale and dropped off my movies, browsed and left. Quite a small success, if I do say so myself (and if I don't, then no one else will)!

It has also come to my attention that this week is Bike to Work week. I hope that you have been enjoying it. I had a nice chat with a fellow bicyclist concerning the possibility of rain later in the week at a local traffic crossing I will henceforth refer to as Chatty Corner (since this is the location where I have been fortunate enough to be able to exchange a few words [of the non-cursing variety] with my fellow travellers).

Although I am wildly enthusiastic (to nearly unsafe proportions, whoa there pardner) about Bike to Work week, I actually prefer to think of it as Bike the Hell Away from Work week (BHAWW Ya!). So ride the hell safely outta there and enjoy some tree viewing!