Cocktail of the month

True to my last minute form, I present you with this month's cocktail of the month (although I'm probably a couple of months behind as it is):



Local product. Good. And, there's something about popping a can of beer that takes me back about 20 years. Ahhhh...

New informal bike path sociability poll results

The Platte River Trail is definitely more friendly (ie. wave responsive) than the Cherry Creek Trail. I'll be doing more recon later this week.

And I wish people would take those goddamn iPod buds out of their ears.

Le Tour

I've had a good time watching this year's Tour de France. My mornings will be dull without it! I've gotten into the habit of turning on the tv early in the morning to watch coverage of the Tour. It brings a bit of excitement to the month, for sure, and I'll be a little lost without it for the next few days as I transition back to post-Tour life.

While I'm ambivalent about Lance, I must say that his presence in the Tour has increased my interest in watching. Every time I see an interview with him, he seems curt and terse, which causes me to make assumptions about him that may or may not be true. He could well be a tool, but it's hard to say from the fleeting glimpses provided by the media. Still, I can't deny that I was less interested in the Tour in the years Lance was absent. I really enjoyed watching this year, and it has been fun to watch the old guy battle it out with the young guys. I gotta pull for the old guy, given my own chronological status.

Much as I complain about the technology used in modern bike racing, I can't deny the enormous physical achievement of riding in the Tour. Three weeks of 100+ mile days. Hills--not just hills, but mountains. Heat. The mental stress of wanting to give up but pedaling through it. And the average speed of these guys (even factoring in the climbs) is faster than I go on a downhill. Cripe. So, even with the radios, the team cars, the heart rate monitors, the bike swaps and whatever other advantages these guys have, I gotta give them props. If it were up to me, they'd be riding steel 12-speeds, carrying extra tubes around their bodies and drinking wine the whole time. Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me. It is a tour, after all...




Still, I raise a glass to another year of the Tour. I'm having cosmo tonight, made with vodka from--you guessed it--France. Vive le Tour!

When carbon goes bad

I was riding on the Platte River Trail on Friday morning and was headed home at about 10:00 a.m. I was one of the first to happen upon a bike-on-bike crash. I wasn't sure what was going on, but as I slowed, I noticed that it was a couple of guys who had passed me a couple miles back (and they politely called out "on your left" as they went by and I appreciated it). One of the guys was still on the ground and may have been unconscious when I got there. His buddy was holding his left side and had some scrapes on his elbow. Another guy on a mountain bike was bleeding but said he was okay and left. Turns out he was the one who caused the crash.

Apparently, the guy on the mountain bike was riding down the middle of the path, looking behind him, and the two guys approaching couldn't avoid him. The guy on the mountain bike and the (now) unconscious guy hit pretty much head-on.

A woman walking her dogs called for help on a cell phone. The paramedics arrived pretty quickly. The guy on the ground had since woken up and looked really dazed. The paramedics asked him what year it was and he couldn't answer. At that point, they put him in a neck brace and on to the backboard he went. He was wearing a helmet, and the outcome would have been much worse if he hadn't.

As we were waiting for the paramedics, I noticed that the fork on one of the bikes (the unconscious guy's bike--I hate referring to him as such but I don't know his name) had snapped in half. The voyeur in me couldn't resist snapping a few pics for posterity:




Now, I have virtually no knowledge of physics (I changed majors to avoid it), and thus have no idea when the fork failed or what the effects of it might have been, but can it ever be good for a fork to snap in half? This is why I'll never ride carbon anything. Steel is real, man--it can be repaired. The same cannot be said for that fork. Can you imagine what happens when a carbon frame fails? When carbon fails, it fails miserably.

Anyway, I hope all crash victims are recovering well.

Lovely bike quote

“When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day’s sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay’s call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else’s heart.” —Diane Ackerman

Pet peeve

Please, people, educate yourselves on the proper use of the word "myself." You sound like an idiot, not the high class person that you think you are.

What's with the attitude?

I've been trying to take some longer bike rides lately, trying to avoid the embarrassment of bringing up the back yet again at the Fixed Gear Symposium in a couple of weeks. I fear that my efforts may not be adequate, but that's beside the point. Any miles are good miles, in my opinion.

It's generally against my blogging policy to whine about motorist and/or bicyclist behavior. We all have our encounters. But I've been conducting my own informal social experiment on my recent rides. I've been waving at riders going in the opposite direction, just to see what will happen. Anyone who is familiar with bicyclist behavior will not be surprised to learn that approximately 2 people returned my wave today. "Returning my wave" consists of a (duh) wave, smile, nod, or even a glance in my direction. I might even consider an obscene finger gesture as acknowledgment.

Cripe, what's with the attitude, people? Did my lack of lycra offend you? With that snide comment, I will tell you that I was one of the FEW riders out there not wearing lycra--that's a social experiment for another day, since I can't count unreturned waves and simultaneously note a person's wardrobe. Anyway, given the grimaces on most of the faces I saw today, I'd think that these folks aren't having much fun on their bikes. Isn't that the point?

Either way, it provided me with miles of amusement.

And that's the way it was

I spent a good portion of the day today sniveling over the coverage and tributes to Walter Cronkite. I tell you, they don't make them like that anymore and I'm sure that we'll never see the likes of him again in my lifetime. No doubt that's a product of the plethora of news outlets these days. When you have 320 tv channels to choose from, there simply isn't enough critical mass for one person to have an impact like that anymore.

Watching today's coverage, it made me long for a rotary phone. That probably sounds odd, and I'm not going to say that "life was simpler back then" when Cronkite was on the air--because I don't really think it was. Maybe it just felt like we were a little more unified because we all knew that our friends and neighbors were also sitting down to the evening news with Walter Cronkite.

It's ironic that his death so closely corresponds with the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Until today's coverage, I didn't realize that Cronkite was such an enthusiastic fan of the space program. I loved the coverage of him taking off his glasses and saying, "Whoo boy" when reporting the story.

And, even though it's unrelated, my cousin shares her birth day and year with the moon landing. So, she has been especially on my mind as I've watched all of this coverage. Makes me a little jealous that my birthday is so dull. Oh, I think Sophia Loren and I have the same birthday. While that's nice, it's no moon landing. So, happy 40th, dear cousin! And welcome to the club. The view is actually pretty good from here.

And, farewell, Mr. Cronkite. The world is a better place because you were in it.

First Harvest

I harvested the first basil this week! I made a wonderful batch of pesto that we promptly enjoyed on pizza. The pictures didn't turn out, though--not that my food pictures ever turn out that well...

But, so as not to disappoint, here's a picture of a Swiss chard fritatta with a tater tot crust. Yum! That's all I need is another excuse to eat tater tots.

Yes, please

Super Commuter by Independent Fabrications

Ain't that the truth?

I swiped this from a friend's blog--I hope she doesn't mind. If so, she can tweet me to express her disapproval. Or flame me on her blog. And then tweet me to let me know she did that. Just so we're all in the know.

Frazz

New vocabulary word

Twit-tard

"A mass produced frame does not have soul"

Anima D'Acciaio Trailer Ver5.1 from Cinecycle on Vimeo.

Don't malign my bike...Ever.

Lime coconut cupcakes

2nd time making these and they are REALLY good. From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.