Back from Nowhere

Where have I been? Here. I just haven't taken a few minutes to write. Nothing especially exciting has been going on. The Seattle Bike Expo was last weekend. Nothing much new there. It was good to see so many of my friends. In the last few years that seems to be my biggest motivation for going, aside from work requirements. I skipped the Swap entirely. First time in 10 years I've missed it. From what I heard, I didn't miss a whole lot. I'm sure there were some deals to be had and discoveries made. I guess I've gotten to the enviable point where I don't really need much stuff. Just the things that need replacing once in a while. I truly feel Ebay has wrecked the Swap. Just like it wrecked Recycled Cycles. So that's where I usually look for rare stuff anymore. Things I'm interested in show up pretty regularly. Ahh, the Global Marketplace! I still get out-bid most of the time. So, back to the show.... We at TiCycles try hard to have products you don't see in every bike shop in town. For example, we had the Independent Fabrication XS on display in our booth. Retail value approximately $10,000. The bike belongs to the CFO of IF. Really nice of him to loan it to us. We also had some interesting parts. There is a company called PowerCordz out of the Salt Lake City area. They make shift and brake cables that are amazingly light. One steel brake cable weighs as much as all four cables from PowerCordz. I know this smacks of weight weenieism but, it's the cumulative effect that we're shooting for here. Cost is around $160.00, yowza! We also had a set of Lightweight wheels. Yes, the name is Lightweight. Incredibly light, the rear was 900 grams! Incredibly expensive as well, at $5500.00 per set. There doesn't seem to be an end in sight when it comes to performance applications for carbon fiber. A pretty high wow factor for sure. So, consumerism seems to be alive and well here in Seattle Bicycle Land. You can see it at the shop. People coming in looking for their new bike or getting their old one tuned up. Today was quite busy. I'm glad we had 3 guys on. I'm also glad Spring is almost here. Winter is getting to be a real drag. Our recent cold and damp weather makes my back hurt. An Arizona vacation sounds nice to me. Maybe next year.

A Nice Bike Ride

It was a beautiful day here in Seattle. Sunny, 60 degrees. I was off. It couldn't be better. I rode about 45 miles in one of my favorite loops. Saw a few friends along the way, stopped in and visited Kent Peterson at his new gig, generally had a nice ride. Seattle on a nice day is really hard to beat. Even in February. I got home around 4:30 and my wife suggested we try to hit Happy Hour at one of our favorite pubs. By the time we got there the place was packed. So we tried another place. Also packed. By this time I was bonking, having skipped lunch. We finally found a place to go and had a nice dinner. But, I'll tell ya, driving around here at 6PM on a Friday night is an exercise in futility. Places I can ride to in minutes suddenly become unreachable. I hate driving in town. The cartoon above very effectively expresses my feelings on this subject. It's by an artist named Andy Singer. He does a lot of great cartoons , mostly of the social commentary variety. Here is a link if you want to know more:

www.andysinger.com

Check it out.

Seattle is considered one of the places where cyclists and pedestrians are accorded some degree of respect. Maybe I just wasn't seeing it tonight.

Super Blow

Well, the Rolling Stones were good. I think the Seahawks were taken down by a couple of bad calls. Spring Training starts in a couple of weeks.
Woo Hoo! Go Mariners!

Windy Day

Boy, it was incredibly windy here today. Wind gusts of up to 60 miles an hour! We walked around in our neighborhood and generally enjoyed the wind. Got coffee, browsed in book and antique stores, lunch and a beer at a local pub. I also won $24.00 at Lotto. Pretty cool. Then on the way home, Karla finds $5.00! Talk about luck! After we were done with our neighborhood walk, we went down to Golden Gardens and walked on the beach.
The wind was ever fiercer at the beach. You could lean way into it. A little more velocity and I could've gotten some air, I know it! With the high wind there was no recreational activity on the water. I've never seen that before. The only marine traffic we saw was the Edmonds ferry and a tug boat probably headed to a job. It was almost like the lack of air traffic after 9/11. Kinda strange. The spray in the air gave the opposite shores a really distant look. I tried to get pictues but, I don't think our camera is up to the job. Maybe with a telephoto lens. The picture above is one of the nicer ones I did get. The sun and clouds were quite spectacular. Next time we get winds like this I'm going to spend more time at the beach. With any luck, I'll have developed a little more technique with the camera.
We didn't see one cyclist all day long. I think that's another first. The street in front of my house has a bike lane. If there were riders I would have seen them.
Well, I'm riding to work tomorrow. The winds are supposed to calm by morning. We'll be closing the shop at 3 tomorrow. I should get home in time to see the Stones at halftime. According to an ESPN poll, only the States of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska are picking the Seahawks to win. Talk about no national identity. I predict a 'Hawks win. Today's wind felt like it had good news on it. All in all, a really fun day with my wife.

Bike Content

I've noticed a lack of bicycle content the last few weeks. Here is a quickie.

Another Slap at Big Cults

So, I've been seeing this around lately. I'm not big on religion. Mostly, I think the Big 3 are just causing a lot of trouble for the rest of us. The recent Muslim outrage over Danish editorial cartoons is an excellent example. Freedom of speech is a human right. We are here, we exist. God, on the other hand, is unproven. There is not one piece of empirical, incontrovertible evidence, that any deity exists. NONE. And yet, untold millions have fought and died, to this very day, for an invisible being in the sky. In Islam you are not allowed to portray God in any form. This is blasphemy in their eyes. So the Danish cartoons have sparked riots and threats by outraged Muslims. My take on this? Hey Muslim extremists, get over yourselves! You are not in charge here! A lot of people don't believe in any sort of God, let alone your version. Lest you think I am anti-Islam, I feel the same way regarding Christianity, Judaism, and any other cult that espouses their right to rule over others by divine right. I do think of all religions, big and little, as cults. We will never have peace as long as there are conflicting religions. In the film "Kundun" there was a scene in which the Dalai Lama and Mao Zedong were meeting. During their conversation, Mao leans into the Dalai Lama's ear and hisses "Religion is poison." I couldn't agree more. You can call me an agnostic treehugger. Just don't call me late for dinner.

GW Bush is a Christian puppet moron.

GO SEAHAWKS!