Details

I mentioned yesterday that the new bike is ordered. (that's not it, just a refrence)
That is the case. The parts should arrive tomorrow. Mine will be green rather than the slate blue on both of these. I'm getting a Surly Long Haul Trucker, and I'm really excited! It has wound up being slightly cheaper than I expected, but I haven't cut corners on parts. I've left some room for upgrading in the future depending on how I use it, but I think that the initial build will be rock solid. This is not the bike, but it is the same model. Note, I've put the geeeking out after the pictures, so skip it if you like. You've been warned.



I think I'm most excited on the wheels. They're going to be nothing particularly special, LX hubs with the alex rims that I really like. I'm going with 36 spokes, since I want to do touring. I'm also doing something funky with the shifters. I really hope I'll like it. I'm putting a STI lever on the right, but a bar end on the left. I'm a little afraid that the mis-matched levers will look goofy, but I think I'm really going to like the friction shifter for the front. I mostly use the rear, and STI levers are super-expensive. Even the Tiagra which I went with for the 9 speed. I've got a 9 sp mountain drivetrain right now, but I might switch the crank-set out for a road triple. I really wanted the super-low granny gear for now. it remains to be seen how much I'm going to be commuting and how much I'll be touring on this bike. (also, the difference between 48t and 53t on the big ring is not that huge)

Banner Day!

Today has been notable in many respects!
Details to follow, suffice to say that my new bike has been ordered (well, the parts) and I may have a chance to ride it soon!

bad drivers

Something somewhat refreshing happened to me today.
Some jerk yelled stupid things at me from his car. I don't really mind, I hope that he recovers from his road rage and feels bad. Maybe even that he grows up a little. Jerks yelling from their cars has never bothered me much when I'm on my bike. I dunno why, but they don't.

He was not even the jerkiest person to yell at me ever, or the most random. That goes to the guy in the old T-bird who yelled "get on the sidewalk you faggot!" at me one day as I was heading up a hill. I wasn't in his way or anything. I mean, top that.

Okay, I've dwelled on this jerk long enough. I'm done.

If you've got anything choice that someone has yelled, I'd like to hear about it.

misanthropy

It's official.
I hate people.
Sort of surprising the number of persons I like individually. They fail to outweigh the sheer numbers of people ripe for my hatred.

Really, I should probably get out of retail.
I'm not sure if I'm just an introvert who works in retail, and I've been driven to misanthropy, or if my experience in retail has shown me the ugly underbelly of humanity. Currently, I'm leaning towards the latter.

Also, I haven't posted in a while. It's been a super-busy summer, I sold one of my bikes, and I hope to buy a new one soon.

This is so good. also an update.

More Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip




This stuff is So good.

Seriously.

Also, I'm back from Canada. Many photos and stories to post. I would say that I'll do it in the next couple days, but I probably won't. I'll try to do it sometime before I die.
in the meantime, watch the damn video.
Also, you can download their album from Itunes. I did, you should too.

bike to work day=Fail.

:(
I totally failed to ride in to work today. I saw a few commuters, but not me.

"why, oh, why didn't you ride your bike to work today, of all days?" you may ask. Well, I say, I had a decent excuse.
My commuting bike was at work already, so I couldn't very well ride it in.

Anne and I had the day off yesterday, so we went to Columbia to visit some friends Wednesday night, and spent some time wandering our old stomping grounds yesterday. I rode in to work Wednesday, then Anne picked me up so we could fly straight to "college town, USA" asap.
The original plan had been to spend a couple days bike touring and camping in the Columbia region, but it transpired that I would have to work on Friday. So, the plan morphed into taking a ride around Columbia on Thursday. Then it was going to be cold and rain on Thursday, so we wound up at the last minute not even taking our bikes with us to spare them the sitting out in the rain and not being ridden they would have been subjected to.

So, in the end, Stupid.

Hopefully, you managed to bike to work today, doing a better job of it than I.

Promised camping pictures

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get around to posting anything here, I've been busy.
Anyway, Anne and I went to Marble Creek a couple weeks ago. It's part of the National Forest system. The National Forests are a Fantastic place to camp! Less built up than State Parks, and less crowded!
On the way there, we stopped at Fort Davidson, which was apparently an important battlefield in the Civil War.

Here's a picture of the walls of the fort. Really, it's just a redoubt, but even after 150 years, it wouldn't be a good time to try to storm it.


On to our actual destination, The Marble Head camping area!

There was a stream (the marble head creek) right next to our camping site, it was great!
We could hear it all weekend. We tried to go hiking, but the section of Ozark trail that is at Marble Head was too soupy. We wound up leaving a little early and stopping at Elephant Rocks state park. That was fun. It started raining just as we got back to the car.