News! News!

Monday’s club ride revealed that the nastiest piece of horribly patched pavement around, that stretch of road (“old route 10″ I think, parallel to the INterstate and what you get to if you ride Kirby and keep on going towards Whiteheath)…

HAS BEEN PAVED.

Your intestines will stay place.

This has been many, many, MANY years.

My bathroom said to thank you. I sprinted home to clean it because if it wasn’t raining, you would need to change so we could ride. The Slob’s Priority List says remove cobwebs and evidence of infestation… then scrub porcelain. THen dirty dishes and clothing from public places. So now the toilet has been scrubbed, and there are no spiders living between it and the sink, and laundry happened with shocking efficiency. Sorry, arachnids.
By the time the backhoe had cleared a path, the skies had established that whilst they had held the rains back from 5:00- 5:30for most of my commute home, they must needs ooze further, despite my proclaimed desire to ride with you.
I was sort of almost inspired by then, though, and even swept the cruddiest dust hares from behind a few doors, stuffed the wild metal objects into the closet and managed to close the door, and opened that Budweiser… and celebrated that, in fact, I had a reason to clean my toilet but that, in fact, nobody was going to see the other 98 layers of crud. Oscar Madison has not been exorcised… but I may get him sent to his room by the end of the weekend.
Then I hopped on the Gazelle to head over here… but the Gazelle said, “I hve no lights and you will want to ride extra on the way home!” So I went back and switched for the Xtra. It didn’t say a word. It just turned South and kept going. It stopped raining. The grey skies were alive in layers and texture; the corn was singing its praises and filling its lil’ cell walls with turgidity. For a moment I almost understood how visual art could communicate to the soul. Grey speaks a rich and vivid language!
Blue skies are overrated.

“Around C-U” – 41 mile route (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1090123 )

46 mile option (which lends itself to cruising through Lake of the Woods, too) http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1090144

“…a quiet revolution afoot…”

I am rather reluctant to get excited about this, but it’s still good to read: this columnist thinks that in the UK the hassle of cars is so much greater than the benefit that it’s hit a tipping point and people are making changes.

Okay, and another link from the Xtracycle forum:

Knife-sharpening bicycle. Not for novelty… for real.

I get to join the ranks of Howard of “old people who get amazing compliments.” (see his blog June 14, 2007). Those guys in the car with the assorted horn-tootings musta been blinded by the legs and didn’t see the spare tire It’s another advantage of cycling – you’re moving, so imperfections are blurred.
After riding in more populous areas on GITAP I’m ever so much more so appreciative of our low percentage of Nasty Busy Roads.
My poor chain is grinding away. Sunday I had a pretty good excuse – armed and dangerous man at large in the neighborhood, so I figured trips back and forth to the garage weren’t a good idea (even if by the time I got home – in a car ’cause sometimes a cage is a good thing – he’d swiped that car and was on his way to Champaign… but I had no way of knowing). Last night I just couldn’t find the stuff to clean it… a trip to the hardware or bike store is in order. Bike shop will also tell me where else to put the stuff so I’ll pay extra for a different label and get the knowledge, too…

I am back!
I have learned a few things.
I got rained on on Saturday – the last day, so we didn’t have to deal with wet things in camp. I learned that a generator light is an excellent thing for when you are in a short-sleeve jersey in a damp cool rain and aren’t quite pumping out the calories you want to – turn that thing on and the same speed that keeps you with your buddies and happy on the slimy, twisty, hilly trail also keeps you warm.
And sometimes space is good, I think.
I learned how sweeeet disk/drum brakes feel on a slimy, twisty steep trail when you are a Complete Weenie (I still walked down one of those hills). Yea, other people walk up hills, I know – I did that for one of ‘em.
I learned a long wheel base will keep you up whne you slide out on a square wooden dowelly thing.
I learned that you can just power on up a hill if you didn’t mind breathing hard for a while — oops, I already knew that, but hadn’t been reminded in a while.
This guy was there on a Waterford similarly accoutrementified and had similar reasons for choosing it for the tour. It is a nifty bike.
There were neat people from Iowa who shared the Sunrise cafe with us in Wisconsin and gave me another nifty light; there were oh, the usual irregulars as well. Karma worked – I told Frank to take the map when I decided to head back to camp earlier on the layover day, and yes, around thea corner were three folks also heading back who had a map but hadn’t (as I had) come in that route which wasn’t *really* described on the map.
I didn’t get tired. I got my picture in the Rockford Register Star in color in psychedelic rainbows and circles and my pig eared helmet. Silly reporter wanted us to ignore her since gosh, I was just smiling right at her that first picture. Snork. She don’t get endorphins, do she? I made a point of being *in* the road and not on the shoulder but the caption nonetheless describes us as “along route ___,” not on it.
I decided that _The Road_ really isn’t a good book that I didn’t “get.” It really is an absurd, disconnected story with HOllywood schmaltz that Oprah finds moving. Hey, I find lots of schmaltzy stuff moving, too but generally stuff with other endearing qualities. He could have put that whole story into 1/7 of the space and made the “no matter how horrible it is, you can still love your son” point. The plot was predictable and contrived. I mean, (SPOILER) at the end of the survival story and death scene, voila! the kid meets a nice family. What if they’d met that family (and hadn’t been afraid to talk to anybody before then) before? Gosh, the stupid story could have ended a lot sooner.

Sometimes a person puts more time into something than it deserves. So it’s not worth another email to send this but I kinda liked it so I am posting it. It’s my backside, so to speak. Choose joy!

Now it really *is* time to finish packing and take a nap and then head to GITAP. Maybe this will be the year of Carbon Fibre Man…

I will be riding on GITAP all next week so unless we land at a college or something I’ll be AWAY from the INTERNET…

half an hour early also works for Green Street, which seems to be a tiny bit faster than the north route even though I didn’t hit the lights too well. I think it’s psychological – I want to keep up with the traffic even if it’s hypothetical, or perhaps it’s seeing the light up there and knowing how fast I have to go to make it. At any rate, the average hovered above 13 even with traffic lights and carrying the cooler and blender and ingredients and … and… (Tonight’s a smoothie ride night!)

… have wallet!! cashed a check!! (ATM card doesn’t work, tho’.) That stupid song Dr. Demento would feature is my current earworm… something about “Gotta have my baby back…”