Post a Comment On: A Nod to Nothing

At least I'm not seizing up and everything, so I guess I won't have some repeat of Ole' Yeller, even if I did trade a horny toad for my wrist nipping dog.

Blew a chain today on the way home. Well, not so much a chain as a half of a link. But without a chain breaker, that's enough to take me out of commission. It makes a seriously horrible noise rolling a broken link through the gears. Fortunately it only costs something like $150 an hour to fix it at the local cycle shop. But it takes 10 minutes, so it was $23 and some daddy-daughter time test driving all the tricycles and bikes she doesn't have at home.

And speaking of cyclists, I found a fellow employee who cycles while engaging in a defense of my current lifestyle as basically as urban as you can get without being urban. In reality, it's not - it's a rough haul without a car - I'd have to ride a bus up to the Mall in the winter or in the rain, and I'd miss my rides downtown (though I can go just several miles to the Mall using a car and ride public transportation from there). But I do come close on my better days, when the chain on my bike isn't dropping links.

Examining my housing history, however, I appear to be the typical white middle class move-away from downtown as you get wealthier poster child. First apartment - Cedar Riverside, low income, twenty-eighth story, walk to downtown across the tracks. Second apartment - little further from downtown, little more upscale in the U of M neighborhood. Third apartment - first tier suburb in St. Louis Park, the end closest to Minneapolis - dead shot to downtown on the bike trail, just off the lakes, plenty of bus access to everywhere. Fourth residence - duplex in Richfield, also a first tier suburb, but further out, on the edge of the loop, have to drive a bit to get downtown, but still a straight shot up 35W. However, Edina and Bloomington pull you south. Fifth place - single family home in Eagan. Still close to major roads and work, but now I'm more likely to go to St. Paul if I hit a big city. It'd be nice to reverse that whole trend, but only if it doesn't mean moving back into a duplex.

And finally, back to a biking theme, while I was on the 2006 Ironman, I discovered $10 in my pocket (the one on my bike bag - don't go trying to picture where I'd put $10 in my bike shorts...hey, hey! I said don't picture it - I know you're trying TallBrad, I've seen that calendar you keep at your house and I've heard the rumors about life sized cutouts of me) and scored Eryn a new t-shirt...um...nightgown. It's very cool that they change the language to Ironwoman based on the shirt.
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