Circle of the Tacos

July 22, 2017

Good eventide to you, feckless sojourner.  How are you and your friends, families, bicycles, etc.?  What?  How nice/dare they!  Please send a post card to elucidate at your earliest convenience.  

One unusual event that I experienced recently was going out on the Thursday night taco ride this past week.  This was the second time I went this year, but it was the #1 best taco ride of the year so far!  My friend Jim Bob was in town.  He was looking sleek and speedy, so I hopped aboard my fairly sleek and speedy new road bike that I won, fair and square, from the wonderful folks at Wear Yellow Nebraska.  I have recently made a few additional minor adjustments to the WYR bike - flipping the stem for a bit higher handlebar, and tilting the handlebar back towards me for a higher grip when I grab the bull by the middle part of the horns.  I also added a well-worn, comfy ol' saddle.  

So we hopped aboard our speedy steeds 

and sped off towards Margie-ville.  We speedily arrived.  As has happened a few times previously, I did not have a bottle opener of any sort, so I had to pop the cap off using a handy metal post, which did not work perfectly, but did allow me to drink my delicious and fulfilling beer with no noticeable glass shards or slivers.  

JB and I made it all the way to Tobey Jack’s place for some tacos and a pitcher of Fat Tire.  There was also a real live musician who introduced himself as Mike By-the-way.  

He also plays in a band called Cirkle of Fifths, which may have one or more members from the infamous band called the Circle of Jerks.  Mike was great.  He did some loops, hot solos, Bob Marley, and Neil Young.  Great stuff Mike!  Thanks for cycling with me Jim Bob.  Hope to see you again real soon.

August 5, 2017

Well what is new with you?  Yes.  Yes!  I know!  Here are some things that I’ve been experiencing that are quite similar to what you have been doing:  

I had to do some actual work the other day.  It was hot and muggy so I bought and quickly guzzled 2 bottles of Powerade (they were 2 for the price of 1 and I was thirsty!).  I felt a kind of semi-caffeinated buzz the rest of the day as well as a heightened sense of memory and self-satisfaction with my guitar playing.  I was temporarily very enthusiastic about getting a few gigs as a folk singer.  It might have been all the high fructose corn syrup or the medium-chain triglycerides, or maybe just a kind of natural high from working outside during the day, but it was kind of exciting and a bit scary.

Also, my Wear Yellow Ride has been transporting me faithfully to and from my day job.  It’s kind of fun because it is fast and quick around the corners.  Although these are things I mistrust due to the fact that I think my slow predictability helps drivers see me and react appropriately, I find it hard to resist their persistent seductiveness.  

It's been worn in a bit and feels a bit less strange.  

I know it's hard to tell due to my inept photography, but the sticker/ WYR lettering's now a bit jumbled.

It is also now great weather for mountain bicycling.  Maybe I'll get Shifty out for some trail riding soon.  Here are some fun things coming up -  

1. Mode Shift Omaha is great and they are now accepting memberships to get some funds and get even more shit done (August 23).
2. The Corporate Cycling Challenge is also rapidly approaching (August 20).
3. One of those Pint-a-gon rides would be great, if you can find the time (August 19).

If you do all 3 I will applaud your audacity and, if you send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and signed proof of your attendance, make/send you a neat cap or shirt, but not both.

Best wishes to you and your mother.  Keep the circle of faith.

Your faithishly circular servant,

BSO

Hogging the yogurt

May 4, 2015

Hello and welcome.  What have you been up to?  I see, I see.  Please send me an e-mail so I won't forget!  I would like to apprise you of my latest and fairly late activities if you don’t mind:

1.  Taco ride – My dear ol’ Da and I made it out to the plush limestone chip of the Wabash Trace Nature Trail Thursday last.  It was a hoot!  

I got to the steakhouse and ordered the salad bar and a Fat Tyre bier, which was not available last time I recall.  I was informed that this event is not called “The Salad Bar Ride.”  Touche! avec accente mon frer, avec accente, silvous plais.  Nevertheless, I procured the sustenance I needed including the following:  potato salad, pasta salad, bean salad, creamy pea salad, crispy iceberg lettuce salad, pudding with Oreo salad x 2 trips!  Yum!

2.  Despite the hourly forcast with 15-minute details showing rain and thunder this evening, I ventured out to bicycle to the grocery store without my raincoat!  Exhilarating!   It didn’t’ actually rain, so it wasn’t that exhilarating!  I purchased some Greek yogurt, which I have been informed is no longer a popular purchase.  That seems appropriate, since I like to wait for clearance prices whenever possible.  

3.  It is now NationalBike Month!  Huzzah!  Let’s all bicycle even more than usual! 

4.  The National BikeChallenge is now occurring and you can sign up to participate at your leisure.   You can use Strava to help you get credit for your bicycling deeds of heroic prowess.  Strava is, I believe, a familiar of sorts that will perch upon the body part of your choice as you swoop and soar precipitously upon your chosen venture!  Strava will exhort you, praise you, inflate your ego to pressures that will rival your tyre tubes.  Ware, however, the mischievous nature of this spritely prankster as it may turn from its light-hearted prancing into dangerous tunneling through the depths of your psyche only to emerge eventually into dimly-lit subterranean caverns wroght by creatures long forgot!  It might also eat all of your Greek yogurt if you’re not careful!

5.  Here in Omaha, we have a Live Well Omaha Challenge that allows you to enjoy keeping track of your active commuting accomplishments and to pulverize the competition into a mushy, sweet Greek-yogurt-like substance to be flavored to taste!

5.  It is still spring, and my unwitting familiar and guide, the elusive groundhog has been prancing about and good-naturedly posing for the camera.  

I feel this is a good omen for a strong bicycling season for those of us who revere the stately clumsiness of the hog and her ilk. 

6.  It is too rainy to mow, so we might as well ride on!  To soggy glory and groundhogs! 

Hello? Who am I? Where am I?

May 26, 2014

I bet you thought I quit!  Well, I did, but that was temporary.  I may not have been haranguing you with inanities as much as you were used to, but I’m sure you found something else to do.  Maybe bought some bike stuff?  Really!?  Me too!  I have also been working hard to earn an advanced degree in rock ‘n’ roll history.  But now this is the end of this long and winding road towards peace sells but who’s buying the stairway to heaven.  That’s right, they’ve finally ejected me from my course of study due to gross incompatibility as a result of my recent penchant for listening only to One Direction, international teen groups, and related solo acts.  That is fine, because my students at the School of Rock where I was student teaching were beginning to weary of my insistence upon synchronized dance moves and bulk purchasing of hair products.  It was grueling.  And by grueling I mean that I ate gruel the whole parsley, sage, rosemary and time because I didn’t make a single green back dollar.  Or sense, as far as that goes.  Now I am unemployed and even slightly more bitter than usual.  Alright, so there is some venting.  

How do you feel about bicycling?  I have not been bicycling as much as usual because of my studies, but I did make it out to a taco ride a month or so ago.  There was a tornado watch, but the animals didn’t seem to be concerned, so neither was I.  

Much like our ancestral forbears I seek guidance and wisdom from animals in place of this slippery notion of “rational thinking” which seems like a big crap shoot to me. 

I made it out on the trail where a deeps sense of ease, pastoralness, and right-ness permeated my being.  Then I started pedaling my bicycle and I started whining and bitching about how grueling things were.  Then that first stuff again.  I saw a sign advertising some hay bales.  

I got to Margaritaville where it was kind of cool.  I stayed there until a fine young gentleman blessed many of us with complimentary rummy bears which were f-ing feenomenol!  

I stayed for a while and then decided I would head back home instead of proceeding onwards towards Mineola.  Maybe next time.   

Then I also went on the 11^th annual Wear YellowRide a couple weeks ago, which started off briskly 

at 7:00 and ended warmly with pancakes and prizes for many.  The route was very smooth and conditions were nearly optimal.  We went past two steakhouses (Round the Bend and Parker's) 

and two racetracks (Eagle Raceway and White Sands Raceway).  Since then I have been pedaling around with Baby Toddler Snot in a new bicycle trailer that I am pretty happy with.  I will also plan on attempting but failing to figure out what is happening in the bicycling world these days.  I have heard that Brooks came out with a new rubber saddle that is very popular amongst long distance endurance bicyclers.  Well if it’s good enough for them it’s probably good enough for me the next time I decide it’s a good idea to ride more than I really should (generally a few tens of miles). 

I have been writing lots of papers about rock ‘n’ roll, so you can expect some slight improvements in writing mechanics as I return to my insistent e-journaling antics.  Also as you probably did not notice my photos are even worse than usual since I am out of practice and I've never been very good at photographing anyway.  To summarize, I am back in the saddle where I may ring my bell angrily at volumes that are louder than love.

Bicycle + style?

April 28, 2012

I have noticed that bicycles and accessories have become more fashion-oriented in recent times, although this is not saying much, since prior to current times bicycling was afashionable (i.e., without style). One place to observe this new trend is at the enjoyable Thursday night Taco Ride on the Wabash Trace Trail. Some friends and I got our taco posse together and rolled out for a bracing romp through the countryside. Here are some striking bicycles, accessories, and a couple of their owners.



Flasks and flask holders available at Greenstreet Cycles



When I mentioned the pink tyres on the above bike to the owner of the following bicycle,

she took it as a challenge and vowed to obtain some pink fenders for her classic ride.

The newly classy back room of Tobey Jack's Mineola Steakhouse wasn't quite full,

so we kicked back for some tacos and fish sandwiches. I proceeded to mash them together for what I like to call the fish taco salad grandissimo! Ole! Just in time for Cinco de Mayo! con upside down excalamacion y accento bastardoes! Que noche bueno!

This weekend I went to the free admission/Arbor Day celebration at Lauritzen Gardens (more on this later).  Then I made it down to 13th Street Coffee and their fairly recently-opened used bookstore, where I witnessed some bicycle/art window dressing.

Enjoyable excursions are beginning to occur with more frequency since the weather has begun to nicen up nicely. Hey, I hear it's almost May Day. And everyone is talking about the exciting Hey Day on May Day. It is exciting as it is vaguely defined. I think the idea is to turn up to show that we bicyclists are many in number and are hoping for safe routes round and about town. I think that many of us bicyclers will bicycle over to 25th and Harney where they will have a section of the street set up like the soon eventually to be built separated bicycle lane. Instead of reenactments pre-enactments of this possible future will be enjoyed and envisioned. In order to aid my envisioning, I am planning on eating some garden-variety plants that I learned about while attending the Lauritzen Gardens current exhibit Wicked Plants (certain varieties of morning glories [Ipomoea tricolor and Turbina corymbosa for example] have hallucinogenic properties). Wicked Plants is a darkly intriguing voyage to the grey areas of morality and horticulture. For example did you know that white snakeroot is oftimes eaten by cattle. Cows are unharmed, but their milk becomes poisonous to humans. Drinking snakeroot-laced milk apparently killed Abe Lincoln's mother at the age of 34. I felt slightly smarter after attending this exhibit. This is probably good, because in my free time I have been watching lots of bad comedies, which make me feel slightly stupider. The last three movies I've seen have been Anchorman, Semi-pro and I'm about to watch Hot Tub Time Machine. (See, I'm pretty sure those aren't even the last three movies I've seen, since I haven't actually viewed HTTM yet, but I can't remember what I saw before Anchorman....huh?)  First I need to get in my own tub to wash off the slight, stingy itchiness I've been experiencing since I went to that dangerous Wicked Plants show.  Ugh, I should've stayed on the path and instituted a "no-licking policy".  Doh!