Xtracycle clone

http://www.cicle.org/cicle_content/pivot/entry.php?id=2248

It isn’t even that hard… I dare anybody.  Hacksaw and wrenches; not even welding.

xtracycle clone

Billboards

http://www.newbelgium.com/blog/post/things-are-looking -

New Belgium Brewery (yes, I’ve joined “team wonderbike”) has these billboards in Colorado.  I love the context of this one, too.

psa for biking on billboard in Colorado, feb 2009

biking prevents cancer ;)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7908675.stm

At least that’s what these guys are saying.  I was cheering until the little cynic voice speculated that this could be a response to public alarm over rising cancer rates to avoid dealing with all and sundry other toxic causes of cancer.  It’s not the poisons being pumped into our food, air and water… it’s our sloth.

The foggy, foggy dew

“dense fog warning” this morning, and the guys at WILL talked about not seeing past their hoods this a.m., so I put on lights and put that hi-viz jacket that’s too small to go on over the winter layers in the backpack with the sleeves flapping.  Fortunately, things had eased up so that even on the stretch of Mattis to get to Panera (it’s “crock pot day” at the office and as a reasonable accommodation for my domestic disabilities and others’ Fear of the Cooking of People with a Desk as Sloppy as Mine – it’s in the DSM-IV manual, I swear! – I am bringing bread ), I was visible enough for drivers to work around me into the left lane without surprises. Yes, the 21-LED amber flasher in the rear helps, too.

Gore-tex top and Smart-tex bottom ’cause the forecast is for storms later.

The pithy paragraph from the Lenten article (but read it anyway):

“We are coming upon a new Lenten season, a time when the guilt of my failed spiritual disciplines will once again be edging in on my psyche. If you feel the same way, this season, when we prepare our hearts for the great mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, you might try on a different hat. Instead of ditching sweets, maybe try riding the bus, though it might tack 30 minutes onto your daily commute. That time can be used for prayer and reflection. Feeling ambitious? Think about setting your coffee money aside every day to invest in biodiesel or straight vegetable oil conversion. You might commit to 40 days of bicycle commuting, walking to the grocery store, or not driving all together.”

I am feeling very impatient.  Probably it’s a good thing it’s Lent ’cause I’m more likely to consider it unjustifiable and work harder to temper it.  I would just like to Not Suffer Fools Gladly for about 24 hours, as foolish and fundamentally useless as that *usually* is.

Ash Wednesday!

… the day to re-read and re-flect on “Bicycling as a Lenten Practice,” which I passionately wish applied less now than it did when first composed (link to the right).

I was grammar police on a blog in New Zealand, and the teacher author (else I wouldn’t have policed) apologized and then followed up with a post using “epically” instead of “especially” … and then apologized when I commented on that, for his “grammatical” error.  Welp, actually, the grammar was fine. He has yet to answer my initial musing over whether or not his school was a “whole language” school.  I rather strongly suspect so. I do not like whole language, Sam I Am…

Fat Tuesday!

WILL kept saying that “Mardi Gras is Tuesday,” which annoyed me a little ’cause, of course, Mardi Gras isn’t just Tuesday, but I didn’t remember “Fat Tuesday.”  When I wore the six-pointed green and purple and yellow bacardi-gras hat that I fouind on the road on the way to church this morning, though, the student worker said “Oh, yes! It’s Fat Tuesday!”

Tailwinds made for a faster ride in. Skin desiccated.

Chilly again ;)

I shall (or, at least I’ll think about it) get my haircut.  When it was below zero, even though I’m getting past the Jackson Browne stage, I wasn’t going to remove any insulation from the carapace.  However, a little bird tells me spring is around the corner.  (Didn’t say exaclty *which* corner.)

Today it’s about 20 degrees, though, iwth 20 mph winds.  Put on the last of the Clean Layers (laundry happening as I type).  Will ride to Meijer, *perhaps* with an extra loop, depending.  Will try to have gotten enough Domestic Drudgery done (moved bed from living room to bedroom?)  to merit dropping in at Bike Project meeting this evening.

when it’s this windy the house gets colder.

Wednesday is Ash Wednesday.

*this* makes me want a boyfriend :)

… one who would do this for me    No unnecessary generalizations, please… it’s a skill I lack and boy, somebody’d prob’ly have to be partner level relationship to do that for me… and boy, would it be fun to watch   THe mass produced ones are for sale today and tomorrow … sale being a hundred bucks… the other reason I’d want homemade. I’m just not a boutique shopper and recycling handlebars woudl be awesome

Snow forecast tomorrow, followed by Return of The Chill.  (Not, however, the Cold as … pushups in the snow.)

Time to do the lunchtime whittling at the To Do list…

Lincoln Square

This was on Parkland’s online bulletin board:

Great place for bargains on very nice women’s & children’s
clothing is TRANSITIONS, a re-sale store located at Lincoln
Square Village, near Art Mart. Store is run by Center for Women
in Transition.  Sales benefit the homeless women & children, and
the store also serves as a work experience for some of the
residents of the Center.

In the DI

The media in general’s gotten better at portraying cycling (tho’ I’m remembering that WILL-AM  statement in the not-distant-enough past about cyclists having to, as a *last resort,* ride on the streets!) … but no, I’m not surprised that I get the final quote in teh DI article about cycling (as I close the popups that go with it): “”There’s a lot more to cycling than sitting on a bike and moving the pedals around,” Jones said, “People should know what they are doing so that they annoy the drivers as little as possible and don’t put themselves in any danger.”

Of course, kind readers, be aware that I do *not* think it my *primary* duty to annoy drivers as little as possible, or that I think that somehow there isn’t any danger in riding a bicycle (or that annoying drivers is a special kind of danger). I believe that was in the context of trying to appreciate my part of sharing the road… somehow, the quote makes me think of hunkering into the gutter, lest I “annoy” somebody… it’s about proactive peacemaking, rather, and making viable, honest diplomatic accommodations for each other to keep us alive.