October Recap

Man, what a month! Pretty much the usual commute thing, not much other riding. A little bit of driving to take care of some bizarre errands here and there that just couldn't be accomplished any other way.

Today, we turned the keys in for our old apartment. It seems like I've spent the last 3 weeks doing nothing but busting my ass at work, only to come home and bust my ass packing things into boxes, cleaning the old place up, moving boxes between apartments, unpacking those same boxes, organizing things and deciding what's going to remain boxed up for now. I'm a bit of a packrat. I gave away or discarded literally half a ton of random kipple that's been crowding my closets during the process of moving this time.

A lot of what's left had no rhyme or reason to how it was stored, with half a dozen large plastic bins all full of random computer, photography and bike stuff. Most of last week was spent finding a place for every thing, or a thing for every place, but I'm finally satisfied with how stuff is organized. Audio/Visual cables and hardware is finally stored in one thing. Networking stuff in another. Wall Warts and Power Bricks together. Bike parts together. I even have a 5 gallon pail completely full of ethernet patch cables. At least now I have a bunch of small messes of related items rather than one big mess sprawled across many different containers. I can't help but think I need to jettison some more of it, but you never know when you'll need an AUI to UTP transceiver balun or a NuBus Ethernet Card. Oh, wait. I needed one of each last week. Yes, really.

My plan for completing the 100 Pushups program fell completely apart as I encountered nights where I averaged 4 hours of sleep after an eight hour day working and an equal amount of time spent on moving tasks. The balance of my day was taken up by everyday boring stuff and a bike commute to keep me sane.

I'd imagine I have another week or so of getting settled in.

Putting additional stress on things, I barely listened to any music in October. Music gets me through things, and there just wasn't time to put the headphones on and get into the zone at work. And at home... you already know.

At any rate, I'm stoked for what November will bring. Stresses at work and at home are settling down. The temperature's falling, and we're going into one of my favorite times of the year to ride.

In Today's News

Stocking caps are making headlines.


I had to be in to work really early today, and temperatures dropped into the mid-30s overnight. That means it's time to start breaking out the real winter commuting gear. I was still dressed pretty lightly, but this is the first time this season I've needed a stocking cap.

The early commute also gave me the perfect opportunity to do a totally dark ride with the Light & Motion Vis 360 (shown left) that I'm testing out for BikeCommuters.com. At an advertized 115 Lumens, I was figuring that this light would end up being most useful as a "to be seen" light, but it actually casts a really good beam that's totally suitable for night-time riding at speeds of 15 MPH or so. The fact that it's helmet-mounted makes it good for Pothole Patrol. The side markers are brilliant and eye-catching, and the rear light is suitably luminous as well. I expect a full review to be done in the next week or so.

To test it, I took it out with a few other headlights I own, and took pictures of beam patterns. Its competition:

• A Bell Orion I found on the roadside back in early 2009, loaded with a pair of fresh CR2032 batteries. This embodies the ubiquitous cheapo front headlight from discount stores. It's usually helmet mounted. I made a handlebar mount for it when I found it (missing the helmet mount)
  
• Blackburn Flea
  
• NiteRider Evolution Halogen (15W Bulb)

I'll save the beam comparisons for the full review, but here are some teaser images.







And the beam shot from the Vis 360. This was the darkest spot I could find at my apartment complex this morning, far from the best place to do this sort of thing, but gives you a good idea of the beam pattern. I can say it's not nearly as bright as my halogen, but it knocks the socks off of my Blackburn Flea. It had better, for the price!


And off topic, we're finally getting settled in at our new apartment. We had a lot of help moving, but the tedious process of organizing and unpacking has seemingly only just begun. Oh, and the Brown Recluse spider infestation that we were dealing with at our old place won't likely be a problem for much longer, even if some of them did move with us. I found this friendly guy on our first day at the new apartment. It's a Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinensis, specifically) sitting atop a 50-cent piece (Diameter: roughly 1.2")


I really like large spiders such as Silk Spiders, Orb Weavers, Wolf Spiders, Tarantulas and Nursery Web Spiders. They are typically very gentle, but eat most smaller spiders and any other bugs nearby. I'm pretty sure the days are numbered for any Recluses that happened to stow away in our belongings.

Wearing Thin

I finally got around to throwing a new set of SPD cleats onto my shoes. I got these shoes (and my SPD pedals) on May 1st, 2007 when I bought The Twelve, and these were the cleats that came with the pedals, some 15,000 miles ago. The cleats don't wear thin like this from riding, though. They wear thin from walking on them. It's not like I did any epic hikes in these MTB shoes. I just walked a few hundred yards in them, 5 days a week, every week, in all weather conditions. I don't usually wear these shoes for anything other than riding my bike and walking from my bike parking spot up to my cubicle.



The nose of the old cleat is thinner than a butter knife, but it was still holding up okay, without complaining or breaking. I did notice that the new cleats have a lot less play in them. I had a heck of a time removing the old cleats, because the heads had become deformed enough that inserting the 4mm Allen wrench wasn't quite as straight-forward an affair as it should have been.

Oh, yeah. I'm finally back on the 100 Pushups program again for the third time, and I'm tracking my progress with a friend, so we can nag each other and make sure we both stay motivated. Maybe this time I won't booger my shoulder up like I did the last two times I tried this. My left shoulder is still on the mend from the Deer Crash, but pushups seem to be helping it.

I'm on my second week (or is it the second weak?) and I'm already noticing more positive changes in my upper body and core. My initial assessment was higher than it was the previous two times I tried starting this program. I hope to keep pushups a part of my weekly routine once I am done with the six-week program.

Random Tunage:
Rob Dougan - Clubbed To Death 2
B-Movie - Nowhere Girl (Adam Freeland Remix)

Commuting by streetlight

Mornings like this make me miss parts of my old early morning commute.


Baz (non-bikey chaos):
It's been a busy few weeks. Last week, I took a few days off work to participate in Cyber-RAID and Security B-Sides Kansas City. Yes, I know, "cyber-" stopped being a cool prefix way back in the nineteen hundreds.

Cyber-RAID was a digital warfare exercise where four teams of eight people were tasked with defending their lab networks from thirty hackers, penetration testers and information security researchers. I was on the winning defensive team, which included Eric, another information security-savvy bicycle commuter. The people on my team were top-notch. I've never played a "game" quite like this before. While it was immensely stressful, it was also the most fun I've had in years.

Security B-Sides KC was an information security conference held alongside Cyber-RAID, and included several speakers giving presentations on a wide variety of information security topics. Among them was a presentation I gave on how broken the current state of WiFi is, with a harrowing live demonstration of the types of things you open yourself up to by using it. Of course, I also had talking points on defending yourself, your home network and your enterprise wireless installation from these sorts of attacks. I spoke with an interactive audience of around 70 people, literally an order of magnitude larger than any group I've addressed before.

Random Tunage:
Schodt feat. Aida Fenhel - White Tiger (Mango Remix)
Mike Foyle - Shipwrecked(John OCallaghan vs Mike Foyle Club)

Getting ready to camp, August Recap

I usually prepare for camping or backpacking a few days early. We're doing the S24O Sunday into Monday and right now it looks like a relatively small turn-out. That's fine with me either way.

I don't know if I ever wrote about it here, but a while ago, Planet Bike sent me their "Keep On Keeping On" rack, a lightweight, strong utilitarian bike rack weighing in at just over a pound but being rated to carry 55 pounds. I've been using it since June, but never have gotten around to really loading it up. It doesn't have a spring-clip (sad panda) but otherwise, it's got the features I like. You know, like rear supports that don't turn my panniers into spoke-food?

I figured I'd load up my stuff (click to see an annotated version of what everything is)


And make sure things were all good:


Looks like all systems are go. Then, I found out that my wife would like to spend all weekend camping. So we'll be heavy camping (propane, coolers, etc) Friday and Saturday, too.

I found out cDude was planning on cooking over campfire. That's not a bad plan, but the wood you can buy at Hillsdale lake is usually green, uncured wood that's nearly impossible to start. I told him I'd rig up a penny stove to see how he likes it. Just in case. The end result was one that uses the jets coming out the side so that the pot can simply rest directly on top of the can for support.



Crappy composite, I know... but it shows how it works.


It brought 2 cups of water to a boil in about 4 minutes. It's certainly not a world record, but it's faster than the one I made last year.


The thing I love about these soda can stoves is that you just need 2 cans, a razor or pair of scissors and a finishing nail or small drill to make them. Well, and a penny or some other round metal object to act as a pressure valve over the filler hole. The fuel is really the most expensive part. Mark my words: knowing how to make these things will make you a hot commodity during the zombie apocalypse. Or something.

As for August... it was awesome and crappy all at once. I logged 275 miles commuting, and more for errands. I didn't have a cyclometer the entire time. I'm pretty sure I got more than 300 miles total this month. I'm not too worried about counting them this year, though. The mornings have been stellar:



The afternoons have been everywhere between the 70s and over 100 degrees, with one day sporting a heat index near 120! Multiple traffic closures and detours have slowed I-35 down to a slog. In the mornings when I'm riding along I-35 and with the direction of traffic, I'm often riding faster than the cars on the highway are moving, for extended periods of time. This has, of course, resulted in a lot of motorists rat-running the highway and opting for the side-streets such as the ones I use to get around.

Also, some old guy on a $2,800 Serotta Colorado keeps passing me every morning. At least he's friendly, but yep, I'm still slow.

August Tunage on heavy rotation:
First State - As You Were
Gravity Kills - Guilty
Barlow Girl - Enough
Golan Globus - Blazer (2005 Radio Edit)
Burn In Noise - Raca
God Lives Underwater - Rearrange
Stabbing Westward - Save Yourself
Duran Duran - Ordinary World
Grand National - Talk Amongst Yourselves (Sasha Involver Remix)
Madonna - The Power Of Goodbye
First State - Reverie

More than half.

The first three motorists to pass me this afternoon on my homeward trip were either talking on their phones or looking down and frobbing something, almost assuredly dialing or texting. The fourth motorist that passed me had one hand on the wheel, the other hand out the window and seemed to actually be paying attention to the road. Coasting down the hill toward Deluxe Check Company, I realized that today's commuting game would be "count the texters" and I'd already counted one seemingly undistracted motorist. I might as well count those, too.

This highly unscientific survey didn't count cars that had windows too tinted for me to see the driver, or cars that were simply too close to one another for me to get a good look inside. The grand total, though: 59 people on the phone. 47 people not on the phone. More than half.

There's a lot of commercial traffic on my route. Semi tractors, commercial vans, delivery trucks and motorcycle riders made up the lion's share of motorists who were not on the phone. In fact, not a single commercial driver appeared to be on a phone, period. There are probably company rules about this, so it's not that much of a surprise.

Granted, there are hands-free speakerphones, bluetooth headsets and many other variables to consider. I was just keeping count. I'm frankly a little bit disturbed by my findings.

Then, there was my friend Andy, who -- for some inexplicable reason -- decided to wave at me by holding a 20" recumbent bicycle wheel out his driver's side window as we crossed paths... Yes, really.

Ah, weekend.

I had my (great) 90-day review at work and it totally doesn't feel like I've been at my new job for three whole months!

From mid-2006 to the first week of 2010, I was a tiny cog in a mega-corporation and my primary job responsibility was to make the red piece of a pie graph look smaller for some guys in big, cushy offices. I was told four times per year that I was exceeding management's expectations and was rarely ever given much more feedback than that. These days, I love what I do and who I work with. I'm constantly challenged with new aspects of the things I'm passionate about: security, systems administration and helping people understand technology in their own terms. I genuinely feel appreciated, too. My team is efficient and forthcoming with very short feedback cycles. That makes all the difference in the world.

Last week was one of the hottest weeks on record. It makes me really glad I live so close to work these days. The weekend brought sweet relief. Many of my pals put in a lot of bike miles today. It feels really strange to say that 89 degrees with 45% relative humidity feels mild, but it really was a nice break from the heat. After church, my wife and I met some friends at a local fishing lake, where I finally got to test out my new baitcasting reel. It took a few casts to get the hang of it, but now I can see why this style of reel is so popular. It casts far if you want it to, very precisely and operates much smoother than my other closed-face and spin-casting reels. My wife and friends caught a few bluegill. I ended up feeding the fish.


Argiope Aurantia (So-called "Garden Spiders") have always been my favorite spiders. When I was growing up in Nebraska, they were everywhere. They're very tame, don't bite and make zig-zag silk inserts into their webs. They're also some of the biggest spiders you'll find native to this part of the country. This female specimen has a leg-span of nearly four inches!


Random Tunage:
Barlow Girl - Enough (excellent Chris Tomlin cover)
Burn In Noise - ERT

Cart rage in aisle three

I typically ambulate at a fairly good pace as far as plain old walking is concerned. The highly scientific and precise measurement as performed on a cheap home-gym dreadmill says I walk at 3.6 MPH, which, from what I can tell, is a bit faster than average.

I don't particularly care for walking. I avoid walking for transportation for all but the closest of destinations. If it's more than a few blocks and it's at all possible to ride a bike, I'll take the bike. Until such time as it becomes socially acceptable to ride one's bicycle through the aisles of the supermarket, that's at least one place I'll be forced to use my own two feet.

Despite my relatively quick gait, I actually had a lady behind me on my way out of the store this evening muttering "Come on. Move!" just loud enough for me to hear.

Related: I happened across a minivan with the license plate "KEWLGMA" that, according to another highly scientific instrument bolted to my handlebars, was incapable of exceeding 20 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. She was certainly a grandma. No, I didn't pass her. I drafted that thing! Thanks for the pull, granny. Perhaps that's how she earned the "kewl" label. I know she didn't earn it by holding up traffic.

* Title roughly based on a facebook comment from Bill Burns.

Random Tunage:
First State ft. Sarah Howells - Reverie
Alpha 9 - Come Home

Oontz.

It's no secret that I really like electronic music. Last night, The Crystal Method came to town to throw down a 5-hour-long DJ set at Lucky Strike Lanes. I had to go, and I dragged commuterDude with me. We carpooled.





Even though Lucky Strike Lanes is a bit of an upscale venue, it didn't stop the ravers from coming out to play.





And maybe cDude got into it a little, too...


It was a great show and of course they threw down some TCM originals mixed in with a lot of other stuff, like only they could.

Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride

The Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride changed its route again. It's coming up this Saturday night.

There are rumors (started by me, of course) that there will be an alternative to this ride that promises to be more fun for experienced cyclists who like riding at night. This is the official Dark Side Ride for July. This is the closest I'm going to get to announcing it publicly. Contact me via email for details. I will not respond to in-blog comments about this ride.

Weather Rage

Back in late July 2008, I rode home from downtown KC to Lenexa with an ambient temperature of 101°F, relative humidity of 37% and a heat index of 108*F. That was my hottest day on the bike of all time.

Today's ambient temperature wasn't nearly as hot, but at nearly 60% relative humidity, the heat index blew my previous record out of the water.

Let's ask Rage Guy what he has to say about this.

Rage Guy?


Yeah. That's about how I feel, too.

Random Tunage:
Orbital - Desert Storm
Libra - Anomaly

Behold, the watt.

"In terms of Classical mechanics, one watt is the rate at which work is done when an object's velocity is held constant at one meter per second against constant opposing force of one newton."

Blah, blah, blah. What the hell is a newton anyway?

Just kidding. I'm a nerd. I know what all of this means. Basically, a watt is a way to express the rate at which work is being done. When you're dealing with electricity, volts x amperes = watts. I actually think that transposes to mechanics easier than the crazy jibberish above.

The weight you apply to the pedals is like Volts. The speed you're cranking on them is like amperes. The combined work being done can, in fact, be expressed in watts.

I mentioned this a few days ago: fixed gear doesn't seem to have slowed me down at all. When I first hopped on the Wabi Special, I gave myself twice the time to get to work, just in case. I figured that I'd have a hard time climbing hills. I also figured I'd have to take it slow going downhill. To me, this whole thing sounded like a recipe for a slower commute. I got to work as fast as usual. Maybe faster. I didn't have a cyclometer, but total elapsed time with stops was 25 minutes, which is par for the course. This has been puzzling me for a few days. I keep leaving a little early. I keep thinking maybe I'm just hammering it harder than usual to make up for the time. I keep getting to work in 25 minutes. The return trip home is also about the same. What's going on?

When I'm riding on my own, I tend to fall into this pace. It's not particularly fast, but it's not very slow, either. I always thought this had something to do with my pedaling cadence. I'd adjust my gearing to keep my cadence somewhat stable.

Riding fixed gear, though, I've found out that I have settled into roughly the same pace, even though my cadence is all over the place. I'm now starting to understand how this all works. It's not about cadence, it's about watts. Without being able to trade-off effort for crank revolutions with dozens of gearing combinations, I still exert roughly the same amount of energy per minute regardless which bike I'm on. I just push harder on the uphills than I normally would, and spin faster than usual on flat land. The same amount of energy exerted moves the bike roughly the same speed on average.

Bonus: the fixed-gear drivetrain is actually more efficient and feels more connected to the road. You'd have to try it to know what I mean. The end-result is a remarkably simple, efficient and fun way to get around, so long as you don't have many steep hills around.

Mystery solved.

The Trains of Santa Fe Trail Drive

I go over six distinct railroad crossings each way on my commute. That's twelve per day. Lenexa doesn't really know how to maintain these crossings, as most of them are rough to ride across. This is amplified by the fact that these are local spurs with a very odd angle-of-attack, leading off the siding next to the mainline and into small yards where only a few cars at a time get dropped off to local businesses across the street.

Some people believe these crossings are vestigial rails, no longer used. Two of the six crossings have derails off the siding track. They are smooth and easy to cross because asphalt is butted up directly against the rails. Every so often, though, I see something like this on one of the remaining four spurs:

Hey, look! A caboose!

Cabooses are still often used on local deliveries such as this one, frequently book-ending the train with the engine somewhere in the middle. A conductor acts as the eyes and ears for the engineer. The caboose also contains a gauge showing brake line air pressure and enables the conductor to initiate emergency braking for the entire train.

In case you wondered, the little blinking red light (FRED, or Flashing Rear End Device) at the trailing end of most freight trains is a computerized device that provides roughly the same function as a conductor in a caboose. It monitors brake pressure through to the back of the train and has a blow-off valve to allow the engineer to expedite emergency braking from both ends of the air hose.

At any rate, I really wish someone would do something about these horrible crossings. The angle of these crossings plus the general blighted condition of the roadway near them often makes it uncomfortable for everyone. Cyclists have to find (and memorize) a safe line through each crossing, and motorists have to be patient, as it's one big no-passing zone. Santa Fe Trail Drive isn't terribly wide, but motorists and cyclists get along quite well. I've only been honked at one time and it was friendly (meep meep!) The right part of the road is in great shape with ample room for the Kansas-mandated 4-foot passing law, except at these crossings. There, I just take the whole darn lane as needed, but many cyclists are far too sheepish to do that.

Lenexa keeps piling asphalt into these crossings, but the locomotives keep rolling through, crushing and distorting it. I'm pretty sure Lenexa's doing it wrong, and I don't think it's anyone else's responsibility (e.g., land owners, railroad companies, etc...)

On a side note, today was my first commute on the fixie. I went on a little 3-mile jaunt last night, making a mock trip to the grocery store using small residential roads and mostly-empty parking lots to get myself familiarized with fixed-gear riding. Once I broke myself of my coasting habit, everything else fell neatly into place. It was an enjoyable ride to work this morning, and it didn't really take me any longer to get here.

Update: dvicci just linked me to this gem on Dave Moulton's blog via Google Reader. How timely!

A few rides later, feeling alright.

Most of the road rash is healing nicely, but a huge football-sized bruise manifested itself on my left thigh on Thursday. I'd call it a Mystery Bruise, but its origin is no mystery. Again, I'll spare you the photos of that mess. I'm still a bit sore, especially on my deeper scrapes, but they will go away soon... I hope.

A good friend of mine donated a helmet to the cause. It's a typical recreation helmet, but every bit as comfy as the Bell Solar I had before. Anything with a CPSC sticker is fine in my book! It has a detachable visor. I'm usually not a fan of those, but it holds my Take-A-Look mirror better than the helmet tab I was using before, so it may stick around.

I actually got back on the bike on Friday with a round-trip commute. I got about 20 miles in over the weekend, and had a nice ride to work this morning as well.

As far as the bike goes, everything looks to be in good shape. I found a few deer hairs in the steerer crown and fender when I removed the fork to examine it closely. The carbon fork appears to be un-damaged. I'm not sure I trust it, though. When carbon fails, it fails spectacularly!

So, I'm on the prowl for a caliper-compatible steel or aluminum road touring fork with front-rack eyelets. It would pretty much complete my bike as a do-all tourer/commuter. It looks like Surly's Long Haul Trucker fork would work. I wonder if those Cantilever bosses are removable...

Grinder at Grinders!

Jon Grinder comes through Kansas City a few times per year when he visits his family out east. Usually, he blazes through KC and stops in one of the eastern suburbs for the night before pressing onward for the rest of the trip in the morning.

A few months ago, we'd arranged to meet up next time he came through town. That was today. He jokes that all of his pictures look the same, so here he strikes his usual pose.


I decided it would be cool to meet at Grinder's. Not only because it's Jon's last name, but because it's not too far off his route, and the food is good. If you like dive bars with art culture and good music, Grinder's is your spot. Last time I was here, I had their "insane" wings, and they were kind of weak, but tasty. They're billed as "effing HOT!" so I was a bit disappointed. This time, though, they delivered a mainline of pain!


We shot the breeze for an hour or so while my wife tried not to get too bored listening to gearhead-speak. I've been reading Jon's stuff longer than I've been posting here... almost as long as I've been bike commuting. It was cool to finally catch up with him in person!

Jon's Suzuki is great for touring. Boy, was it loaded!

Weekend

No bikey stuff this weekend, aside from some errands.

I'm slowly but surely getting back into nerdy things outside of work again. A friend of mine brought a pair of these systems to CCCKC last week. AT&T marketed a few different computers in the 1980s. This particular model, the 3B1/7300, was designed and manufactured by Convergent Technologies in 1985. It runs genuine AT&T System Five (SysV) UNIX, one of the operating systems I cut my teeth on as a kid. I haven't used it in well over a decade, but I love its descendands (Solaris, AIX, Linux and other "unix" variants) and still use them on a daily basis.


Today: Fishing.


And not 10 minutes after casting, I got my first catch of the season, a nice-looking if somewhat young channel catfish.


I caught more, too. In fact, enough to feed my wife and I, my sister-in-law and her two daughters. My niece was using the compact fishing rig I built almost exactly a year ago. It would have been nice to see how it held up against the fish I caught today. I was using a hand-me-down rod and spinning reel that my dad gave me ages ago.

I usually catch-and-release, or simply end up feeding the fish as they steal bait from me. My wife has this awesome recipe for fried catfish, though. I much prefer bass, trout, or, if I can catch it in significant quantity, panfish such as bluegill. I'm not a huge fan of catfish, but this stuff was fresh... and goooooood!

Everyone!

This morning, I ran across almost every cyclist I've seen to date on my new route, except for Terry. Brian was rolling out of my apartment complex at the same time as me. Coming up to 95th St, The Silent Roadie and I were stopped next to one another. I didn't have time to catch his name, but we talked for a second. He rides from 75th and Metcalf down to 151st St. That's a decent ride. Then, I got passed by someone I haven't seen before, commuting on a triathlon bike and apparently trying to catch up with the roadie. We exchanged "good mornings" and little else. Finally, I saw the daily northbound guy south of 95th.

And how could I blame them? It was a beautiful morning for a ride!

I got tired of staring at the eight un-labeled and functionless buttons on my office phone. Over lunch, I added some new labels to them. Tip of the hat to my friend Ben, who kind of inspired me to do this by sending me a link to a photo where someone had done something similar. I wish I could claim it was original. It is, however, fun to look at.

Deluge!

When I got out today, it was still raining hard as ever -- in fact, probably harder than anything I've ridden in before. I rode to my sister-in-law's place to meet my wife. Once again, I was totally drenched, but the stuff in my waterproof backpack was dry as a bone. In fact, the water droplets I've noticed before (which I attributed to opening the bag in the rain) weren't present.

Here are some cameraphone pics of my nieces at Chatlain Park a few weeks ago. I just stumbled across them when clearing out my memory card. My sister in law and her daughters stayed with us for a couple of weeks in May while they transitioned to her new apartment (which I'm writing this from)

Isaac

Meet Isaac. He's a retired LifeFlight paramedic riding from Chicago to Texas. Where in Texas? He doesn't even know. Sorry for the crappy pics, all I had on me this evening was my phone.



I came across Isaac on my way home from the hospital tonight (my wife is back in, getting some medications adjusted) and he was wrenching on his trailer and Mongoose mountain bike. I offered to true his rear wheel up. It was really, really bad. I couldn't get it perfect, but he'll have a lot better luck getting around now that his brakes aren't scraping the rim for half a wheel rotation.



He was intrigued by the reflective SMV sign hanging from my cargo rack.


In exchange for my SMV sign and the repair work, he offered in trade a perfectly new spray bottle fan. I would have let him have the sign for free, but he insisted on a barter. It's also odd that my wife just yesterday said that she really wanted to get one of these. I couldn't say no, really. It was an even trade. We both had something the other one wanted. I love the barter system. It was a big part of how I survived while I was laid off.


I hung out with Isaac for about an hour, shooting the breeze and getting his story. I gave him some pointers on route and accommodations for the next leg of his journey, then made my way home. I seem to run into one or two cheerful wanderers like Isaac every year. I have a lot of admiration for them, and try to get to know them for a brief moment when I have the chance.

Posting will still be light for a bit...

We had to kind of pick and choose what would get paid for while I was out of work. Obviously, rent came first. Without breaking out into some sappy sob story, I'll put it frankly: Flickr Pro is expiring in a few days, so many of the photos won't load. Not that I am really able to upload much of anything from home anyway. Our Cable TV and Internet was cut on Friday. That means I have to tether via my mobile phone for Internet access at home. It's slow and disconnects often. Basically, it's more trouble than it's worth.

I figure things will probably return to normal in mid-to-late June.

Look for another S24O announcement soon, a-la One Ton Paceline. I've got the camping itch BAD, but we really dodged a bullet doing the trip in August. I'm thinking June might be better.

Also: I just realized I bought The Twelve 3 years (plus a few days) ago. It has logged more than 10,000 miles, believe it or not. In fact, I have had the same front tire on that bike since late 2007 when I got sick of the OEM tires and switched to Bontrager Hard-Case. The front tire has about 8,500 miles on it, without a single flat.