fatboybiking

Rugged Toughness

2009-11-03T17:40:00.000-06:00

Yup, that's you, tough ruggedness. I see you in there on that rich leather throne with your toughness ruggedly showing. Standing above traffic like the rugged cowboy tough-guy that you are, drink holders and GPS at the ready. Ruggedly staring into the brunt of traffic, the scowl of Ram-Tough on your lips. I see you astride your massive $60,000 throne to tough that you have, whilst I, lowly little pussy fag biker guy passes you in the rain.

The ads say you're a tough rugged toughie with a Ford Tough truck, all manly with its DVD player and digital stereo and remote starter (cuz only tough guys sit in already-warmed rugged trucks) and in-seat heating. Little faggy pussy biker fags like me ride in the rain and the cold. Rugged Chevy men ride with their heaters and radio blasting like six-guns in the parking lot you call a road.

Wimpy puss fags like me only bike, but you're probably on your way to a tough work out -- maybe even a spinning class. You scowl at the temerity I have to actually befoul the tough traffic you ruggedly sit in, to actually pass you. You'd show me if only the light would change, you'd let me know just how ruggedly toughly rugged and manly you are.

Maybe next time, Marlboro Man.

Footwear question

2009-10-23T12:37:00.000-05:00

It's been cool and rainy here and I have my clothing pretty much dialed in except for the footwear. Currently I'm using Merrill hiking shoes which are water-resistentish and wool socks. They soak through fairly quickly, but it's not a big deal with the socks, at least above 40F (4C). Now it's below that and my feet are getting cold.

What to y'all use to cover your feet in this weather?

Hike a Bike

2009-10-20T08:17:00.000-05:00

My normal route has been cut off by a fallen bridge, but not to worry, this one was brought down on purpose. By a badly worded sign and an invalid assumption on my part, I was forced to detour. There is a walkway over the highway that required me to push my bike up the steps and keep hold of it on the way down.

"No big deal." you say, "cross racers do it all the time."

With a fully loaded Big Dummy? I happened to be carrying breakfasts and lunches for the week and my bag in the back. Wrestling 70 plus pounds of ponderous [searches in vain for words to continue the alliteration], uh, bike isn't really the way I like to start my morning. Pushing it up is one thing, but the trip down was the tricky part. A bike this heavily laden tends to take even the smallest suggestion from gravity and run with it...

Anyway, put on yer woolens and ride (or push) yer damn bike -- this is the best time of the year to ride.

Time flies...

2009-10-13T08:24:00.000-05:00

...and so does the snow. It's already November here in Minnesota with the attending wet snow and damp cold.

Excuse me.

... What? ... It's not? ... Still October, huh? ... I haven't been temporally shifted to Greenland, right? ... Lighten up, I'm kidding. ... Yeah, yeah, whatever. Still October? ... Tell my tomatoes, pally. ... Okay.

I've been corrected. It's still October. I thought I missed Halloween. I mean sometimes I miss it, but I was there. I can't remember, but I can remember why I can't remember. I'll have to put the turkey back now.

Winter looks like it's gonna come early and probably leave late. Eat before you ride and wear your woolens, folks. I just hope there's snow. Winter is fine with snow, you can go out and play in snow. Frozen grass isn't much fun to snowshoe on, trust me and -20F (-29C) and no snow just feels wrong. This year I plan to fish out my Cross Country skis and start doing that again, so it damn well better snow.

Time for my hot cereal...

Well, it's cold and rainy...

2009-10-01T09:19:00.001-05:00

...but it's windy. Bleah.

If you're still out in this, Costco has Merino wool sweaters for sale at $19.99. I've picked up a couple and they'll be my base layer (underwear for you normal folks) for the next 5-6 months. They also have wool socks that are just like Smartwool's for $10 for 4 pair.

Steel is real, but wool is realer...

Autumn has arrived...

2009-09-28T09:06:00.000-05:00

...on mighty winds from the Northwest. A wind like this will separate the true commuter from the rest. 30mph (48 kph) wind gusts and 50F (10C) temps should start clearing out the bike lanes Really Soon Now.

A post where I squeal like a little girl

2009-09-23T23:13:00.000-05:00

I got to shake Brian Eno's hand and he complemented me on my beard.

Sticky

2009-09-10T09:12:00.000-05:00

All in all, it has been a pretty cool and dry summer. I couldn't have ordered a better one, but the past couple of days have just been heavy -- thick, wet air is just awful to bike in.

Also, I can feel that I'm starting to grow gills...

Another reason to bike

2009-09-04T23:27:00.000-05:00

I had a checkup last week and my weight was down, my cholesterol level was in the normal range (without drugs!) and my triglycerides were cut in half.

Eat your oatmeal and ride yer damn bike. Take this from a fat guy...

New blog

2009-09-04T23:00:00.003-05:00

I've added a new blog to my links should anyone care. I plan to add recipes and more thoughts about cooking, food and drink to my latest vanity project. If you are in the biz (Lanny, hello!) or are a dedicated foodie and are interested in joining me, I'd love to have you post there with thoughts, reviews or recipes.

Comment if interested, thanks

[Added: Ray, you, of course, are welcome to join me. But, if any of your suggestions come from here, I'll have to ask you to leave. Don't argue, I have some serious Bouncer-Fu...]

Subversive...

2009-08-31T23:05:00.004-05:00

...or so it feels.

Why does canning my own tomato sauce feel like an act of rebellion? Can I not just buy canned tomato sauce (or paste, or diced, or whole or whatever) more quickly and cheaply than spending hours cutting and peeling and standing over boiling water? Why in the world would I want to do this?

That's a good question...

Why do I fix my own bikes? Why do I cook my own meals? Make my own computers? Grow my own vegetables? Ride my bike in all weather?

Why do I want to live my life? Do for myself? Continue learning -- and by learning, I mean learning by doing and not learning by watching TV and "learning" about some subject. I want to do for myself. To fail as I did when I first started canning these tomatoes -- I forgot the lemon juice. I had to pour all the jars back into the cooking pot, add the lemon juice and start all over again after cleaning out the jars. Do I need the lemon juice? Intellectually, I think I don't, but I've never canned tomatoes before, so I follow the directions, pour out the canned tomatoes and start again. I don't know. Maybe next year I'll know, but right now I don't. I follow the directions, I learn the basics and subsume my ego, myself. I try to find Beginner's Mind.

I learn, I listen (or read) from those who know. I've never canned. I have ideas, but I've never canned and My Ideas Don't Count.

I learn. I fail. I succeed.

I have 7 quarts of tomato sauce. At what cost? I could have purchased tomato sauce for much less than the canning jars, tomatoes, lids, water, gas and pots needed. I would still be ignorant, I wouldn't have failed. I wouldn't have forgotten the lemon juice. I wouldn't have spent the time feeling the tomatoes, cutting the stems and bad bits away, smelling the scent as they collapse in the pan, sweated over the boiling tomatoes and jars. I wouldn't have forgotten the lemon juice. I would just have cans of tomatoes. An ingredient, nothing more.

I wouldn't have learned anything.

Now I know about lemon juice and hot jars and stirring and smells and sweat and I appreciate my sauce. It now has more meaning than just something that you pour over noodles. Something in which meatballs swim -- there's a lesson, some life's meaning.

Easy doesn't mean much, you don't learn, you never care, you don't remember.

Tomato sauce, jams and pickles and mustards. Living life with what is vibrant now and capturing it and the smells and sights while still vital and fresh.

Biking.

Not the safe, comfortable, easy way.

Living.

Processing

2009-08-16T18:17:00.000-05:00

Me darlin' Mrs and I have been experimenting with canning as of the past couple of months and we've met with the usual combination of failure and success that comes with new ventures. For the past couple of years, we've gathered fresh things from the Farmer's Market and blanch, peel and freeze them for the year. We then added a vacuum bagger to seal things better in the freezer; typically we'll find a good deal on fresh fish in bulk and we'll separate it into single serving sizes for the freezer or bag up sauerkraut or Kim Chi.

Now we are expanding our preservation activities to include canning. We've met with success in canning pickles and beets and we've had mixed results with making jam. There are a large number of variables that can dictate the outcome of your preserves and getting them all under control is something that only comes with either being taught by someone who has done it for a while or, alternatively, through your own failures and introspection. As I am of the generation whose family didn't can (why? we have grocery stores...), we are learning from trial and error and from whatever books we can find on the subject.

Canning is a fairly specific form of cooking that doesn't lend itself to improvisation as the amounts of sugar, acid and (possibly) pectin are to be followed along with cooking times to ensure that you are able to meet with success. Even if you follow the recipe, you are not guaranteed that success as we've found out last night. We were in Door County, Wisconsin last weekend and we found an orchard that had pick-your-own cherries. Mrs and I easily picked two buckets that weighed in about twelve or thirteen pounds total. We immediately froze half of them upon returning home (quick aside -- freezing berries consists of putting them in a single layer in the freezer and then bagging them when frozen), while we waited to process the remaining fresh ones. We probably waited too long as one of the cardinal rules of canning is to use the absolute freshest fruit, possibly even a little under ripe. We now have jars of lovely sour cherry sauce instead of the jams we had hoped to give as holiday gifts.

As I say, we are learning the hard way.

But we have made jam from strawberries and the batch me darlin' Mrs. made was the best I've ever had. We duplicated the recipe from less ripe fruit and we ended up with a batch didn't set (turn into jam). Blueberries jammed well as did the raspberries.

But not all canning was jams, other experiments are different recipes for pickles. Mrs Yam likes the vinegary dill and I like the Kosher sours without vinegar. I've found a great book on fermenting that has a pickle I really like: Sandor Katz's cookbook entitled Wild Fermentation. I had first heard of this book last year at a demonstration of Sauerkraut preparation in Wisconsin. We have been making things from the book ever since.

As tomatoes are coming into season (as an aside, mine are finally ripening), we will be canning them into sauces and different preparations of plain ol' tomatoes: diced, chopped, whole, etc. I'll be making salsa and storing it as I've gotten kinda tired of paying 5 bucks for it and I can make better stuff anyway. I'll also be doing roasted peppers (both Poblanos and Sweet Red Bells) and various onion recipes like Chow Chow and Sweet Onion jam. Since the summer was so cool and that slowed the ripening of my tomatoes, I can expect that come late September there will be a lot of green tomatoes to turn into relish. Ah, well, no rest for the wicked...

We'll eventually be expanding our repertoire to include meat sauces and other low acid food preserving, but that will have to come when we feel confident enough to get a pressure canner. In the mean time, I will happily content my self by standing over large pots of boiling water and fruits during the August heat and humidity with my sweetie and dream of cooler days when this will a welcome reminder of summer.

My Little Pony

2009-08-14T14:15:00.002-05:00

Road find:

I found it while bikin' to da bar Wednesday. Dumvee the pony is now safely secured to the stem as my mascot.

A bee in my bonnet

2009-08-13T10:42:00.002-05:00

I think I need to rethink this whole wearing a helmet thing. A stinging insect became caught in my bucket and did what stinging insects to best. Not really a recommended way to start your day.

After the Fall

2009-08-02T11:32:00.002-05:00

Went mountain biking Friday with Man-Cub and my perfect record still stands: I've been knocked from my bike each time I've been out. This time we were at Salem Hills in Inver Grove Heights and I didn't make it 20 meters into the trail when I biffed it on a berm during a turn. Sent me straight on my back and knocked the wind out of me.

Not having the sense God gave gravel, I perched my aching posterior back on the bike and continued through without incident. This is a beautiful trail and the mix of woods and prairie are really pretty.

I just hope I can get good enough at this that I don't have to stare at the trail the whole damn time...

Two days after and the pain is greater than either of the two previous days, but this isn't unexpected -- it should be better from here on out. It's hard to sleep, stand or sit, but I still look forward to going out again. Perhaps the river bottoms are next.

One car anniversary

2009-07-30T20:00:00.001-05:00

I was going to write an entry on the first anniversary of my venture into one-carredness over the coming weekend, but when I looked at the entry, I actually sold the car at the beginning of July, not the beginning of August as I had thought. Well, happy belated freedom to me...

What have I learned over the last year?

biking isn't the easiest way to get around - let's be honest

biking can be the fastest way to get around

I'm less fat when I bike regularly

motivation is still a problem (see Snak's post), especially in the winter

I've saved a bunch of money

I'm buoyed by a sense of self-righteousness (or, I could be less fat and in better shape)

a bus, or a bike/bus multimodal method of movement is a good way to get around in an urban area

I don't regret purchasing the Big Dummy one bit. An Xtracycle is really a useful option if you want to go carless or less-car.

a Big Dummy doesn't fit on a bus' bike rack

The biggest gains have been in my overall conditioning, big surprise that, and the money we've saved with only one car. Mrs. Yam has been without steady employment for many months now, so the loss of the extra expense of a second car has been a welcome relief from the financial pressure on the Yam household. Licenses, fuel, insurance and general upkeep are, or were, an unnoticed though steady drain of cash and the loss of the second car gained us some badly needed breathing room. Between the bikes and the rechargeable bus card, there are few places I can't go if I haven't access to a car.

Summer is here and this one has been quite a bit cooler than our normal summers and this is quite a relief to your humble narrator. I'm still a winter guy, but with days reaching into the mid 80's and nights pleasantly cool, I can live -- and bike -- with this. I just fear that the other shoe will drop and that shoe will be very cold indeed. I have a winter bike and I've been able to get the clothing mostly right, so our second winter with a single car will be possible.

So, now into my second year of single cardom, what do I expect to see? Hopefully more of the same and perhaps even more time on the bike during the deepest, darkest days of winter. Motivation is difficult to attain when you're biking in the dark most of the time, temps that freeze the water out of the air or snow so thick that walking is faster, but wrapped in my blanket of self-righteousness and donning my cone of smugness, I hope to survive the winter.

Don't consider this an exhortation to drop a car, but see this missive as an example that you can (possibly) get by better than you think and the benefits, though initially well hidden, are there. I'm not anti-car, I still have one after all, but cutting down is completely possible and you may even improve your life a little without the vehicle.

Empty (in a good way)

2009-07-17T18:19:00.002-05:00

Part of my employment requires me to be On Call -- at the ready should something happen. I have to wear a pager and respond to whatever notifications I receive. That little pager is the heaviest four ounces anyone could ever carry. I swapped on-call shifts with a coworker the week prior to July 4th and that week was similar to the several previous on call weeks I've had (one weekend was destroyed by a non-stop 17 hour shift when one of our data center's power outages borked a sensitive network device) in that again, I was paged on a data center failure. These shifts tend to become a bit nerve-wracking but there was an added annoyance in that our group was short-handed besides.

All whining aside, dropping of the pager on Friday, July 3 was one of the most glorious feelings of relief I've felt in years. My friends from Chicago were on their way to visit for the weekend and then there was the promise of a week off, all of it spent in Northern Minnesota. My friends arrived, we delved into the the sights and flavors of Saint Paul (they had never seen it), we drank good beer and wine, we cooked and laughed and argued and had a marvelous time.

Seeing our friends off on Sunday with home made scones (I still can make 'em), we then packed the car and headed up to Cohasset for a short stay with my in-laws in a lake cabin. We played with nieces and nephews, we shared fine meals and cocktails, and generally enjoyed their company.

But I was still anxious. I was still under my obligations to others. I wanted MY vacation to start.

Tuesday, we finally made our escape. Mrs Yam and I headed north to hike, camp, do some 'cacheing and generally be away from phones and noise and, most of all, people. I am a people person -- sort of. I was a waiter and bartender, generally difficult employment for the terminally shy and reclusive, so I can handle crowds. But there are times when I need my quiet time. The goal was to hide from everyone at Franz Jevne State Park. It was as advertised, "secluded and peaceful."

No one was there, save The Intern. The DNR hired a student to live in a trailer there to look after the park and to help with jobs in the area, so he was away most of the time. He was like a roommate that lived with his girlfriend, leaving the place to yourself. We camped in a spot that was next to the sault (where water flows over rocks, a rapids) and the only sound was that set of rapids and the birds. It was precisely what I had hoped it would be.

We set up camp, fixed dinner and an exhausted Mrs. Yam curled up in the tent and dropped off in no time, leaving me with the fireflies, the river and the eternally setting sun. "Don't just do something, sit there!" was my mantra and I stared out at the water, I stared up at the sky, I followed the flies. I emptied my head and rinsed it in the rushing waters of the Rainy River. This is one evening will be one that will stay with me for a long, long time. I was At Peace.

It's funny how you can feel tension leave, the way it slowly, almost imperceptively starts like the sands in an hourglass, only to finally rush away down the bottom, leaving nothing.

I felt the quiet and peace soak into me. I had found A Happy Place.

A marvelous weekend

2009-06-23T09:04:00.002-05:00

Me Darlin' Mrs and I spent the weekend camping in Beaver Creek Valley State Park. This is an absolutely gorgeous park in the very Southeastern corner of Minnesota. It is geologically different from most of the other parks as it was formed not by glaciers, but indirectly by their meltwater runoff. It is a valley about 100 feet below the surface of the surrounding rolling farmlands and the park's creek is fed by a spring that flows from the rocks that form the eastern side.

There is a single road that runs the length of the valley and sit on either side along it. This is an advantage that you don't normally get in state park campgrounds; you aren't crowded together with neighbors mere meters from you in all directions. BCV campsites are spread apart and afford you some quiet and solitude, something I dearly needed after the previous nasty week at work. I don't need to go into the details, but when you receive and email stating "No service interruptions are expected," this doesn't necessarily mean good things will happen...

As we have already hiked all the Hiking Club trails, we have now taken up the Geocache Challenge the parks are hosting. So we are on our second go around in visiting all the parks and we'll be looking for the little ammo boxes via GPS (thanks again, Matilda!) Our typical State Park venture consists of getting to a park, setting up camp and then hiking or geocaching before dinner, eat, sleep, get up and either break camp for another park or run off to nearby park or parks to participate in whatever activity we're currently up for and to scratch them off the list. A lot of driving around, no time spent looking into the parks, just a quick run through and collect the stamp, thank you.

This weekend was different. We stayed put and just hung out, moved slow, took naps and walked around the beautiful scenery enjoying the fine summer weather. I took my technologically beaten soul and wrapped it in ash leaves and soaked it in the cool, clear spring water of the park. This is one of my favorite parks and it is highly recommended. I'm much better now, thank you.

Just in time as I'm on call again this weekend and I just received another email that has the line "No service interruptions are expected."

Oh Goody...

Today is a good day to die...

2009-06-10T08:36:00.003-05:00

...burger.

The best line from a totally fascinating post from a Thai restaurant owner.

I've changed the way I eat, and I've lost weight because of it. The real change isn't from the reduction in calorie consumption, but from the way I look at what I eat. That Crapplebee's monstrosity doesn't look the least bit enticing -- to me it is as appetizing as three day old road kill on a plate.

(h/t Norwegianity)

Gah

2009-06-07T01:21:00.002-05:00

So a server died on reboot while patching and the Mrs. had the car. I biked in the misty rain (for which I and the garden are duly grateful) to the remote data center to fix flaky server. Not the way I wanted to spend my Saturday night, but I liked the bike ride since it burned off all the grumpiness before I got to the server room and I was able to calmly work on the machine and slowly ride back in the rain.

I like biking in the rain at night. The streets are abandoned after 23:00 in Richfield so I can use as much of the road as I like. I just wish there was a decent place to get a beer around here after an emergency run like this. You know, something to take the chill off...

Murphy was mean to me...

2009-06-04T21:33:00.004-05:00

...but I sorta deserved it.

I took the new (old) mountain bike I bought from KM out to Murphy-Hanrehan's MTB trails with a co-worker of mine on Thursday evening. Now, I've never done single-track before, and my trail riding really consisted of fire roads and very little of that.

All right, I'm really a freakin' newbie MTB'er, happy?

Anyway, I went and hit the Beginner and Intermediate trails whilst following Jeff. I was lucky in that Jeff is experienced enough to know how to treat a rookie (but forgetting to bring his shoes with cleats helped a bit too). Riding a MTB on single-track is a quite a different experience after riding rigid commuters and straight, paved streets (no, duh!). The Boingy Factor is something that I needed to take into account when attempting to apply power to the bike while climbing, for example. A fat guy on a sprung bike loses power when he stands up to pedal and the front shock absorbs most of the energy, though of course standing up in a fully wooded single-track isn't such a great idea in the first place and your humble narrator figured that out in rather short order...

I wanted to start this sport to improve my bicycle handling in general and I can see that I was correct in my assumption -- now I need to apply this in practice. Quick downhills to right angle turns to short, steep climbs while avoiding roots and rocks and the increasingly encroaching trees does make one pay close attention to what one is doing. I was able to follow through the first round without incident and that brought my demeanor from cautious and alert to straight up cocky. After completing the first lap of the Beginner/Intermediate, I was ready for a second go.

Only emotionally -- mentally I was tired (patching this week has meant some late nights) and physically I was balancing on the onset of bonk as my lunch was long gone and the aforementioned lack of sleep, but I didn't notice. Endorphins and adrenaline is heady cocktail for the tyro, and I was set for another go. I wasn't so stupid to think that I could take on the advanced, but I wasn't afraid of what I knew (or thought I knew).

The second time through was going well, but I was going faster and I was slipping through turns that I hadn't missed before. Cockiness and bonk is a toxic mix indeed and I knew that I should slow down, but I didn't care -- I was doing just freaking fine! Hell, I was ready to pass Jeff! We made to the halfway point where the Intermediate meets the Advanced and we stopped for a breather and I believed that I was doing better than Jeff in that I wasn't nearly as tired (cue ominous music). We started out again and I started noticing the pit in my stomach wasn't necessarily just excitement. Since we're only a mile and a half from the entrance, I didn't care and I would push through regardless.

This is when thing got stupid (things, of course, meaning me). I pushed too hard on downslope and started losing it on a turn, panicked a bit on the recovery and then fogged on brake/shift move and clipped a tree with a handlebar, which gently sent me into the woods.

Ow.

I picked myself up and grabbed the bike, both being serviceable and continued on. My (over)confidence now rightly shattered, my bonk started to force me too far in the other direction and I became too cautious. I was more worried about the condition of my shifting when I missed a turn, overcompensated and then had another tree snagged the other handlebar, sending me sprawling once again.

Ow.

This time the rear brake was a bit wonky, but we were close enough to the finish to not be too concerned and I limped, figuratively and literally, to the parking lot and back to Jeff's truck where he I was gently schooled about bonking and trail riding. Lesson learned, my friend, as I have the scrapes (nothing horrible) to prove it and the endorphins from the ride to ignore any pain. Crikey, it's like other stupid things I've done (hockey and rugby), I can't wait to go again...

Wow

2009-06-03T14:05:00.003-05:00

Jet Cyclist Hits 73 MPH and Lives to Tell the Tale

Motor madman Bob Maddox is back with a twin-engine jet bike that makes the raucous rocket he rode last year look tame.

He recently bolted a dual-exhaust pulse jet engine to the side of an ordinary bicycle, donned a leather jacket and helmet and then held on tight as he peeled off a 73-mph run down a deserted back road. And we thought he was crazy when he hit 50 mph on one of his single-engine contraptions last year.

“When you get up to 60 or so, you’re thinking ‘I really don’t want to know how fast it will go,’” he told Wired.com.

I could strap the jets to the Dumvee...

Please Look When Turning

2009-06-03T07:55:00.000-05:00

I just might be biking by...

Jeeze Louise people, pay attention. Damn near bit it three times this morning.

Matilda's castoff

2009-06-01T11:11:00.002-05:00

Matilda contacted me about a trade after hearing of my little buddy's demise. She offered to trade a GPS that lie unused for a ride to pick up a bike. "That sounds fair," thinks I and then I look at what they are picking up and my curiosity gets the best of me. I'd never seen a recumbent tandem bike before and happily took up her offer.

We meet at their house early Saturday morning and get to Calhoun Cycle to pick up their new baby. Wow, what a neat bike. Now what I know about 'bents you could put in the back seat of the thing and still have room for my prodigious posterior, but that's a funky set o'wheels. Matilda's sweetie is the captain and they roll the bike out the back for the test drive -- the rear brake is spongy. They notice that the housing is not in the braze-on in the back so the cable is re-run. Still, no go so the verdict is to stay until 11:00 when the mechanic comes in to do a tune-up.

So we pass the time looking at the "weird" bikes; 'bents of all types and sizes, Big Dummys, Hammertrucks (a sorta hybrid 'bent with a Longtail) and folders from Dahon and Brompton. We oohed and aahed over the salesman's Pugsley. I even test rode a 'bent trike. Coffee was drunk and bike routes ridden and wished were discussed until the wrench had tuned the bike and they were ready to go.

Matilda's sweetie had never ridden one and took his first wobbly pedal strokes to get the feel of the thing (pictures are on Matilda's site), then both were loaded on to get the feel and the grin on Matilda's face after the initial ride around the block had me seriously considering getting one of these fer the Mrs and me...

I wished them luck and sped off on their way; I later received an email saying they made it and there were no scrapes and that they were still speaking. I'm sure that they were elated: the weather was perfect, the trails good and they've a new bike.

What could be better?

Thanks again, Matilda. Thank you for the GPS, the coffee and a chance to watch you two grinnin' fools and your new toy. I'm sure you'll smoke the Tour de Tonka now.

Kevin's Kastoff

2009-05-28T09:45:00.002-05:00

becomes another addition to my stable...

Kevin was selling a mountain bike at HCHQ for a reasonable amount. Since I don't have one and have wanted to start trail riding, I thought that this could be a nice way to enter into the sport. I was also a good boy and donated a bunch of bikes and frames to Mr. Michael in an attempt to clear up the veloclutter that had become unmanageable. The combination of clearing of the clutter, the low price and my incessant whining convinced the ever-loving, patient and beautiful Mrs. Yam to allow me to purchase the bike.

Of course now I need a new helmet, shoes, cleats, pedals, wardrobe, SUV, plane tickets to Moab, etc...

Maybe I'll just pop down to SD and visit Snakebite's project when that comes to fruition instead.