Post Thanksgiving Thoughts

Well, another Turkey Day come and gone. The weather was mostly unsettled here. Rain, wind, snow and even a mostly dry day on Friday. I rode 65 miles on Friday. Ran into pal Steve Hampsten on the B-G on the way out of town. I usually ride alone so this was an unexpected pleasure. Steve joined me for a flat, yet briskly paced spin out to Redhook and back. He was riding his beautiful blue Tournesol. 650B wheels, hammertone Honjos, Berthoud Handlebar bag. Yep, beautiful. This bike just oozes hand-built sexiness. The Ram is not an ugly bike by any stretch of the imagination. The Tournesols just turn it up a notch.
Hit this link for more info:
http://www.hampsten.com/Tournesol/words.html

Karla and I had dinner at my Mom's place on Thanksgiving. My brother Steve, his son Alex and our youngest sister, Jennifer, were there too. We had a lovely time together, no fighting, plenty of Stella Artois to drink, lots of food. Mom is turning 70 next month. She tries hard but, her cooking is slipping a bit. Next year we may have to step up. Jennifer really wants to unseat me as family Trivial Pursuit Champion. She failed again this year. I never lose at stuff like that.

I wish there was a way to turn my head full of trivia into a living. I get phone calls, emails and, face to face questions about arcane bits of info all of the time. It's like I'm a flesh and blood Google. Music, bikes, history, geography, spelling. They're all here. Other bits of minutiae as well. It's Clavin-esque.

It snowed here yesterday. Very pretty. Not so bad in Seattle, really bad up north. I was 10 minutes late for work, although that may have more to do with butt-dragging than meteorilogical conditions. Karla reports the Element is more than capable in light snow. Good.

I've repaired the link to my Presidential Campaign. I don't know how it became disabled. I haven't added anything new to it lately. The time is coming when I will. Feel free to send suggestions.

The news of the weekend was full of shopper-mania stories. I guess one thing I'm thankful for is the internet. I really hate shopping malls any time of the year but, this time of year they become even more odious. Ebay and Amazon, that's where I shop. But, always go to your local bike shop for your cycling needs.

Business is pretty slow here at the shop. Crappy weather has something to do with it. This is our slow season anyway. We've ordered in more of that gifty, knick-knack sort of stuff this year. Every Christmas season we get lost looking people in here looking for presents for the cyclist in their lives. They almost never have any details about the sort of cyclist they are shopping for. So this year we have a few more books than usual. Lots of multi-tools and stuff like that, too. Good thing the slow season is short here. It's hard to make a living selling little stuff. In fact, come buy a bike from us today!

Have a nice Solstice. That's the real holiday if you ask me. Up here in the north, sundown at 4:20 makes longer days something to really look forward to.

A Light Mount

This is the light mount a friend and I have been working on. As you can see, it takes the place of the nut on your skewer. I've been using it for the last 3 weeks or so, and can say it works very well. It's made of 6061 aluminum and weighs 25 grams. I've stuck a Velox handlebar plug into the end which adds another 13 grams. I've been getting a lot of inquiries about the Nitto Light Mount I showed here a while back. That mount is no longer being produced. My mount is a response to that. If you're interested please let me know. I know there is a market for this thing. I'm currently looking for a machine shop to do a small batch of them. Then I'll know how much they cost. Right now I have no idea.

The Week That Was

Are you an extremely happy Democrat? I sure am. I haven't been this light-hearted in a long, long time. So long, Santorum. So long, Pombo. So long, DeLay. So long, Hastert. So long, Duke. Good bye, criminal Republicans! Good bye and good riddance! I know it won't be perfect but, it probably won't get worse now. Single party rule isn't good no matter what side of the aisle you prefer. Now we'll get compromise that will work for America. Checks and balances, just the way it's supposed to be.

And now, for the local news. You may have noticed we've had some rain up here in the PNW. It's pretty unrelenting. We're already ahead of the monthly norm with more on the way. November is typically the rainiest month of the year here. A whole lot of people have been washed out of their homes and jobs. I feel kind of selfish complaining that it's been raining too much to ride. So I won't.