hah!! cheaper bikes!!

Posted on by April 18, 2015

If you weren’t into bicycles, this would be horribly boring to watch.

If you were into bicycles, this might be….kind of boring to you, too.

This is a great video, though.

I can’t remember the exact quote….but at the beginning of this video the guy doing it says something about seeing the sport of bicycling move from a fitness based activity to an equipment based activity.

The rest of the video, he talks about how you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a really high-end bike….especially if you’re what he calls a “recreational cyclist”….and describes all the characteristics of the very expensive and the “high value” bikes that’s he’s had experience with.

If your bike is maintained and fits your frame, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get a high-end bike that won’t really improve your biking performance all that much.

Right now, we all have thrift store bikes that we’ve picked up as we find good deals.

You don’t have a lot of help from the sales floor when you buy a thrift store bike.

You don’t have one of the cashiers come back to make sure the frame and components are set up to suit your body and riding style.

Thrift stores, from what I’ve noticed, are pretty far from being a full-service bike shop.

And….thrift stores don’t smell as good as a bike shop, either.

You can buy some good bikes “cheap” if you keep your eyes open, though.

I appreciate videos like this.

This guy lays it all out…real expense….real value.

YouTube….what can’t I learn watching YouTube?

Pretty cool.

all these bikes

Posted on by April 17, 2015

All these bikes….

Here’s another documentary about people riding….or fixing….or enjoying bikes.

This one is in two parts….about a bike shop.

Did you ever notice how great bike shops SMELL? It must be the TriFlow or something.

They smell great.

Today’s my sister’s birthday.

We used to ride bikes a lot….before we knew we were supposed to wear helmets all the time.

Did you ever think that helmets are just a reminder of all the horrible things that can happen to us when we’re riding a bike?

I never thought about stuff like that before I started wearing a helmet.

That doesn’t sound like something that has anything to do with my sister’s birthday, though.

This is my “little” sister I’m talking about.

She’s three years younger than me….so no matter how mature she gets, she’s always going to be my little sister.

Funny how that works.

Now….here’s another thing that doesn’t have anything to do with my sister’s birthday…..

Ask me how often I take my bike out for a ride.

Ask me.

I’d tell you…..”just about never.”

But….I want to.

I got my Jeep back last night…..new used transmission….throwing some codes that it wasn’t throwing before….shifting OK.

A bike would be simpler….cheaper.

I need to go into a bike shop soon and just smell the good smell soon.

Happy birthday to my sister!!

good enough to stay

Posted on by April 16, 2015

P1040753

My Jeep is still in the shop.

Mannnnnnnn.

When you don’t have something, you realize how much it means to you.

It’s easy driving the Jeep.

It’s hard driving the old truck….with its left hand drive and its fogged up camper cover windows.

It’s the little things….like not having to stretch across a bench seat to reach the steering wheel and being able to see what’s outside the car and hurtling towards you….that can make or break your day.

I’ll be glad when if I ever get my Mail Jeep back.

I’ll be ecstatic if I get it back and it works.

I’ll be happy if the “pig in a poke”, used transmission I bought really shifts and helps me get down the road.

That will be cool.

You know, though? I’m lucky we have the little truck.

I hate eating up all my vacation days waiting on “the parts” or “the rusted bolts” or “the wiring harness” or anything else that’s delayed the repair job….so it was good to have another vehicle to run the route in.

I’m glad that I didn’t do this repair job out in the gravel.

If it was this hard to do it up on a lift, imagine me laying on my back….stuck under a heavy transmission or transfer case.

I don’t even want to think about it.

It’s taking a while to finish the job….but I’m glad someone else is doing it.

My job is good.

It’s good to go into work, get my mail ready, and then get out on the road by myself to bring it to the folks that need it most.

It’s good to do something that, for the most part, is appreciated.

Of course, it’s easier when it’s not pouring down rain….but even then, it’s pretty good.

I don’t have anybody with a clipboard wandering down the line to see if I torqued my bolt to the right specs.

I don’t have any supervisor staring over my shoulder.

That’s good.

Sometimes though, I wonder if this job isn’t one of those “good enough to stay” situations.

Sometimes I wonder what’s out there in the world….what grand purpose….what exciting adventure.

I guess that everybody wonders about things like that.

It’s kind of a luxury to be able to sit back in comfort and wonder about things like that, too.

If I didn’t have a job, I wouldn’t be so cavalier and thinking that something better might be just around the corner.

If I didn’t have a job, my current job, the one I take for granted….sometimes, might be the “something better just around the corner”.

Everybody wants something a little bit different.

Maybe dissatisfaction spins the world?

Nah….it moves on its own.

Maybe I just need to take a good road trip somewhere….get out and gas up and go….see something flat and dry….something different?

Maybe that’s what I need?

One thing that I’ve noticed, though….I’m always glad to put my key in my door when I finally get home.

No matter where I go….I’m always glad to get back home.

I should remember that better.

 

“what will” Jose Gonzalez

Why’d I get our passports? We could have just watched this…..

Posted on by April 15, 2015

“Just talking” about anything is a lot less than actually doing it.

Watching a video and never taking it any further is even less than just talking about it.

We all have our passports now.

Let’s see if we do anything with them.

Here’s a video of a train ride through Norway.

I get the impression it’s a ride that’s in real time.

It’s a long video.

I didn’t take the whole ride.

Maybe it’s a video that’s supposed to be like a real train ride…..something you take and just look out the window every now and then.

Maybe you aren’t supposed to stare out the window the whole trip.

Jenny told me last night that I wasn’t all that adventurous before we had our kids and things got a little more difficult to just take off for places strange and wild.

That’s too true.

What a crummy thing to look back on….unexamined or missed opportunities….

It’s crummy to reminisce like that.

There’s not much that feels like I have any control over the outcome….and the past?!

Man….I sure don’t have any power over the outcome of things that have already happened.

I don’t have that mysterious power.

And I don’t think I’m all that braver, now, either.

Maybe I was just scared of what I thought might happen?

I think all this talk in the blog about chafing at the bit or needing a little adventure bugged her.

I think that it was a “s**t or get off the pot” situation….

Maybe she was just goading me a little….helping me feel the necessity of figuring out how to get to the beach more often….or the mountains….or Canada(!!)….or India…or Norway…or…

It’s like that saying about the great men having a great woman behind them….pushing them somewhere….

Maybe not….I can’t speak for what anyone else is plotting.

“Plotting”!!

That’s a funny word….

My Jeep is still in the shop.

What is that going to cost when all is said and done?

Holy Smokes….I hope it all works out.

cold rolling

Posted on by April 14, 2015

I knew a couple of seconds after I stepped on it that it wasn’t a misplaced pile of chewed gummi bears.

STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID FREAKING STUPID CAT!!!!!!

Jenny told me last night….when my blog disappeared….”DON’T SWEAR!!!”

I’m trying.

I’m the first one up most mornings….not counting Sparrow, who is sporadically up all night….so I’m the first one to go downstairs.

Lilly, the cat, hears me on the squeaky top step and jumps up to grab the lip of the door and peer in….yowling….looking at me through the glass in the door….waiting for the food I give her every morning.

This morning, I checked to make sure there wasn’t any fresh meat to step on when I went out on the porch (she leaves mice parts….bird chunks…other things that I’m not sure of….on the mat I have to cross to get to her food….so I try to be careful in my bare feet not to step on anything).

It was dark and I didn’t think that I needed to worry about surprises this morning.

I realized by the time I gave her the can of cat food that there was something stuck to the bottom of my foot….something soft and wet.

That is probably the creepiest way to fully wake up that I know of.

No amount of coffee will take away the sting of waking up to a mouse head stuck to your bare foot.

But….enough about me.

Check this guy out….cycling up in the frozen North.

I have adventures….just not solitary ones like riding a fully loaded bicycle through a blizzard.

I don’t know how I’d explain that to my family.

It wouldn’t be good to have to say, “Take it easy!! Dad’s going to be gone for a couple of months.”

Which is not to say that I don’t make my own sort of adventures.

I introduced Sparrow to an old acquaintance yesterday, and he said, “How old are you going to be when the last one is out of the house?”

I thought for a second and told him, “75….I guess I better stay healthy.”

That’s an adventure….to have little ones late.

That’s quite the adventure.

And….it’s an adventure that doesn’t leave you saddle sore.

That’s my spin on a wheel-less adventure this morning.

Did I tell you about that thing that stuck to my foot?

I wonder what that was?

You can find more about the fellow who made these videos, Iohan Gueorguiev , at his website…..www.bikewanderer.com

where’s the post?

Posted on by April 13, 2015

I spent a half hour typing my latest post….about being tired and waiting for my Jeep to be finished and rusted exhaust bolts and delays and how it might be easier to just ride and repair a bike than it is to keep a heavy automobile on the road….and when I finished the post…and hit “save” one final time….just to “be sure”…..the whole thing completely disappeared.

I said “shucks”.

No….that’s a lie.

I said something else…something stronger.

Jenny said, “Don’t swear“.

Dangit.

It’s hard when something that took some time just disappears like that.

That’s what makes computers fun….right?

My Jeep is still in the shop.

Apparently, the mechanic had a really hard time getting the exhaust system off….so when I called this afternoon to see how it was going with the repair job, they told me that they almost had the old transmission out.

That’s not what you want to hear when the Jeep has been with the mechanics for a couple of days.

But….if the new/old used transmission I bought is any good, with any good fortune/divine providence the Jeep should be back on the road at some point in the future.

Oh well….posts disappear, Jeeps break down.

That’s life.

And Jenny will tell me, “Don’t Swear!!” if I let it get the best of me.

Probably good advice…..don’t swear.

Freaking Jeep.

It would be nice to just oil the chain and GO.

Easy is nice….

simple is nice….

wind on my face is nice….

I need to get on a bike.

the other road

Posted on by April 12, 2015

P1030324

Sometimes the road you take changes….and you’d never know unless you traveled it again…

We took a walk yesterday.

Not a long walk….but a walk that felt long….with all the carrying and switching of “jog stroller riders”….that felt long with all the running around and talk of “I’M TIRED”.

I’d met the road crew down at the start of our road earlier in the year….and when they told me that they’d been working on the road up to the old Wheeler place, it made me curious.

We’d driven up there before any work had been done on the road….and it was a real white knuckle adventure.

There were sections of that road that were pretty bad.

I couldn’t imagine anyone living up there and driving that road.

It was a bad road.

When we walked it yesterday, I kept waiting to hit the “bad part” again….but we never found it.

I couldn’t even figure out where it had been.

The road crew had changed it in a way that made a hard road into an easy road.

The road was still steep….still steep….. up and down, coming and going….but it was wide and well graveled….beautiful.

It’s funny how much more attention you can pay to what’s around you when you aren’t worried about sliding off the mountain.

It was beautiful up there….up high with all the new Spring life.

I’m glad that we walked it again…to see how much different it is now.

It’s Spring here…..(ONLY HERE!!! HAH!!!)….it’s Spring and everything feels new and hopeful.

I love Winter…love snow and cold and all that the season brings…but it feels good to make it through the Winter and see the green again.

It feels good to look in the woodshed and see that there’s still some dry wood, cut and split, left.

It’s nice to be able to leave windows open again.

That road is so much nicer now.

What a good thing to discover.

A good road makes it a lot easier to go back.

 

“a way to you again” Peter Bradley Adams

it starts with a gentle pop

Posted on by April 11, 2015

cheech

This is the wrong kind of smoking car.

My experience may be different than yours.

My car is still in the shop….having a used transmission put in it….slowly and surely.

I was finishing up the mail route on Wednesday…..right at the end of a day of moseying around the 71.25 miles….never pushing anything, just trying to make it home.

I was getting on the highway….and this STUPID WOMAN in a new red Volvo station wagon was tailgating the heck out of me.

I was going 5 miles over the speed limit….and this crazy was right on my tail.

I get tailgated all day long….and I hate it.

If anything gets my blood boiling, it’s IDIOTS who can’t read my signs or see my flashing light.

I STOP AT EVERY MAILBOX, FOOL!!! BACK THE FREAK OFF, GOOB!!!!! DON’T TAILGATE MEEEEEEEEE!!!

Anyway….I don’t like being tailgated.

So this WOMAN….this SMUG LOOKING WOMAN IN A SHINY NEW RED CAR….was tailgating the heck out of me….and it was bugging me.

It was bugging me….like crazy….so I GOOSED IT a little….something I never do in the old Jeep….I goosed it and pulled away….and when I pulled away, I heard a little “POP” sound….and that lady backed way off in her shiny new car.

Hah!! That’s the way to do it!! She got the message…..”Don’t mess with Peter….he’ll smoke you in a heartbeat!!”

That’s when I looked behind me and noticed something that I can use the word “copious” to describe.

(I don’t get to use the word “copious” very often…)

My car was pouring out all this greasy smoke….big clouds of smelly, greasy smoke.

That’s why she backed off.

She didn’t have a moment of renewed kindness…..no new awareness that tailgating wasn’t very neighborly.

She was worried about getting her car all dirty in the greasy cloud that I was trailing.

When I looked under the car….when I was off the highway and could stop….the car was pouring out transmission fluid all over the hot exhaust.

Smoky.

Smoky and kind of dangerous….trans fluid is pretty flammable.

And…you know….now that I think about it….after a couple of days of writing posts about riding a bicycle….if you keep your chain lubed….and everything that needs grease….greased….you are going to have a hard time making a bicycle smoke or burst into flame.

A bicycle is so much gentler somehow than a big heavy box on wheels that carries mail and one reasonably light person.

These cars….these cars that sometime pop seals and blow fluid….that motorvate because of a constant cycle of small and contained explosions…..that use powerful hydraulics to come screeching to a sometimes violent stop….that must be maintained and inspected and taxed and repaired…that suck up oil that must be pulled up from below the ground and refined…..that pollute and make the air less than what it should be…..that carry less weight than their heft would support….these cars…..

These cars….it’s a pretty crazy habit we have….driving all these big cars.

Driving all these big cars that make it just a little bit terrifying to get out on the roads on a gentle piece of two-wheeled locomotion.

My car may run again….I’m spending some money on it, so I hope it recovers OK.

I hope I can use my “mail tool” again soon.

And….to the woman in the shiny red Volvo who wouldn’t back off….to the pushy woman without any kindness or sense…..

“I HOPE YOU GOT GREASED GOOD”.

I hope you had a hard time cleaning off that crud.

Maybe you’ll back off next time.

“the longer i run” Peter Bradley Adams

riding the fatty

Posted on by April 10, 2015

Another bicycling video.

Check out the tires on this bike….pretty HUGE!!

Those are some huge tires on that bike…for sure.

I don’t know what this guys situation is….that he can travel for a couple of years like this….but it looks appealing.

Of course, my interest in all of these bicycle touring videos raises some important questions.

Jenny asked me if I was thinking about bicycle touring.

When I told her “sure!!” she said “not by yourself, right?”

No….not by myself.

That’s a real trick….to figure out how to do this with a big family….but I’ll bet that… somehow…it’s doable.

Besides….if I took off on my bike, by myself, cruising around slowly somewhere out in the world, I suspect that I’d be easy to catch up to.

You can’t hide on a fully loaded, slow-moving bicycle.

No worries, Jenny….I’m here…for good….WITH YOU!!!

( I flatter myself….I hope that’s a good thing that I keep sticking around….)

All these videos are pretty interesting to me….all these stories of people trying out something a little bit different….or a lot different….from the normal experience.

“Normal”….whatever that means.

You can find out a bit more about this guy, Mike Potter, at his website….. RelaxedChaos.com

my motor doesn’t blow seals

Posted on by April 9, 2015

My motor doesn’t blow seals.

Yesterday’s post was titled “I’m the Motor”.

It was about bicycles.

Today, I am going to drive a mail jeep that blows white smoke and keeps the tailgaters off my rear end….if they don’t want to be covered with oily residue.

So….my “motor” doesn’t blow seals.

Jenny might disagree.

My car’s transmission….on the other hand….does blow seals.

It blows seals that let transmission fluid drip down onto the hot exhaust.

That makes a bunch of white smoke.

A BUNCH OF WHITE SMOKE.

It’s going to be an embarrassing day….driving around in a cloud of smoke.

So….because there are a couple of other problems with the transmission already…before the blown seal happened….I’m going to go buy a used transmission this morning…and the shop is going to install it in the next couple of days.

I never blow white smoke when I’m pedaling my bike.

No gas that I know of comes out of me while I’m riding my bike.

My bike doesn’t cost much money to operate or repair.

Too bad I can’t deliver mail on a bike.

I don’t know how I’d do that, though.

I’d need a big trailer or something.

Anyway….my Jeep is my main “tool” for dragging all that mail around….so I better get it fixed.

Back to the bicycle thoughts.

Jenny said that she’d probably be more prone to enjoying touring out West….and I guess that I’d have to agree.

People don’t know how to act around a bicyclist around here….or around a pedestrian even.

It might be a horror show to ride around some of the kooks behind a wheel out this direction.

People do it, though….maybe I’m just looking for excuses.

It would be weird to ride with kids with all the cars and curves around here.

 

Check out this guy….cycling around Australia.

I don’t see any white smoke anywhere.

Cool.