Excuses

This, updating the blog, is my (david’s) last excuse. After this, I have no more reasons to put off finishing my capstone paper. So I’d better pack this entry full of details. Or I could be nice and spare you the details. Thanksgiving dinner, family, chores and errands. That was pretty much the whole 4-day weekend. Last night was my second band practice; I’m learning. Also, you can look forward to me being the default blogger again for December. Heather noticed yesterday that she has booked herself with obligations every weekday for the next three weeks. I’ll be busy for one or two of those weeks too, but once this paper is done I won’t feel guilty about making the most of whatever else I’ve booked myself for. I suppose another month of David-blog means more bike related entries. But I only see a couple of bike things on the horizon, so unless I’m complaining about the salt on the roads, those will probably be at a minimum.

Be prepared

Well the Mounds Park Saturday night ride was a success. Taking the time to set out wood at the fire pit before hand made it easy to convince the crew to head east. Unfortunately, I (David) wasn’t expecting 23 people to show up to the ride. Though only 20 of them made it all the way to the fire pit, it quickly became obvious that we needed more wood. The last fire ride I went on, I recall there only being 5 or 6 people. Fortunately, Jeremy brought his hatchet, so we were able to collect additional wood.

The ride itself was great. It was nice to know I could do whatever I want on the ride without having to worry about a ten or more mile commute home afterward. I was able to take liberties like drinking a variety of beverages (rum, beer, whisky, and wine). The headache when I woke up this morning was even manageable.

It was nice to go so far into St. Paul. When we got to the top of the hill at Mounds Park, I suspect people developed a better understanding of what it entails for me to go on these rides. Ironically, Tim led a group of early departers. Tim was the one who would give me grief for leaving early (1:00 am) when we would go to North Minneapolis or Hopkins. When I did finally leave last night, at 2:05, I was home before 2:10, and in bed by 2:20. I think I’m going to have to start looking around for additional secluded fire pits on the East Side. Though next time I may have to promise even more fire wood and a case of beer to ensure folks head this way.

That’s all for now. It’s time to go watch Mark Martin win the Nextel Cup!

Beaten to the punch

It being a slow week (apart from school work), I was going to mention a bb gun shooting from the former mayor's car into/at the intermedia arts building; a story that is appearing in the news. Then I was going to go on about how I shouldn't competitively mention how I blogged the story before my brother did because then inaccurate stories of my involvement in criminal bb gun acts would surface on the WWW. However, it would appear that the story hasn't even made it to a linkable source yet. I guess television is still the fastest means of reporting sensationalized news. And for the record, just in case a bb gun story about me does appear, "shooter" does not = me, and "cop's car" does not = cop car.

Ska frenzy

With my (David’s) academic career coming to an end, I have begun to realize that soon I will permanently have many free hours per week that are no longer dedicated to the world of academia. Realizing this has given me a fear that between work, chores, fixing up the house, The MN-BPA board of directors responsibility, organizing a block club, regularly participating in weekly social rides, next years Nascar season (there is still one race left for this year, and Mark Martin still has a chance of taking the cup), and spending time with the wife, I just might not have enough to do. So I thought, perhaps I should play in a Ska band or two. Actually, I had been considering this for some months. But on Sunday, I actually placed a call to confirm an open invitation to attend rehearsal for one newly forming Ska band. Then this morning, I found an e-mail from a former Suspect Bill member who has also invited me to a rehearsal for a new band (that consists mainly of old members). I’m looking forward to dusting off the old amplifier. But I’m still wondering what I’m going to do with the rest of my free time.

Heather has actually decided to take the opposite approach. She is planning to leave one of her three jobs. Of course, once she realizes the abundance of free time this will give her, then perhaps she will take up the clarinet again. Soon we’ll all be calling her Ms. Goodman (not to be confused with Amy).

Window dressing

It had been over 4 months since Microsoft’s Hotmail sent me (David) a message stating “you can also look forward to an upgrade in your storage capacity. In fact, you'll receive 125 times your current email storage”. Yesterday they finally made the upgrade. For awhile there I thought I was going to have to switch permanent e-mail addresses yet again because I was having trouble deleting e-mail on a daily basis to prevent my box from getting full. Now I can finally find my own time to read all those list-serve messages that are sent to all of the MN-BPA board members.

Speaking of the board. I have spent the last week or so testing the waters on a bicycle culture fashion show idea. I got the impression that one of my contacts in the bicycle culture thought the idea was laughable. However, potential helpers as well as responding board members all seemed to be thrilled with the idea. The final inspiration that pushed my idea into action was the Strib article featuring Tim from a few posts ago. I’m not sure how reliable help from St. Kates’ home economics students would be, but I’m still interested in pushing this to fruition. Not only would it be fun to see if it actually works as an advocacy project targeting those outside of the choir we typically preach to, but it would also mean that I finally did something constructive as a board member.

Goal for the weekend: getting the rest of the disassembled windows finished to the point where they can be put back in their casings (it is getting cold in our house).

Experimental winter bike # 7

Yeah, I know... more bike stuff.

On Friday, all the parts for this bike came together. I (David) had already traded for the frame, I picked up a rim and spokes from One-on-one on Thursday, and went to the Depot on Friday to find a crank set and chain. The tires are left over from experimental winter bike # 5, but due to Greentyres’ odd size measurements, they didn’t fit that bike. So on Friday, I threw the thing together at the Depot, and I was so anxious to ride it that I drove home and took the bus back to the Depot just so that I could ride it home.

The maiden voyage went poorly. The perfectly true wheel came untrue before I even made it up the hill. So the next day I trued the wheel on the bike and then tightened each nipple an extra ½ turn. That evening I gave the bike another test ride. I decided to take the Swede Hallow trail. However, this trail abruptly ended in a pile of dirt, so I just biked around the old neighborhood instead. By the time I got home, the wheel was again a bit wobbly. After such a through tightening, I just knew that the tires had to be the cause. Which was part true. The actual cause was that the spokes had too much room to move up and down since I was running a double-layered rim with a solid tire. So after some digging around in my pile of old wheels, I found a suitable single layer rim, and spent part of Sunday rebuilding the wheel (while Heather and I watched Nascar – actually, Heather slept through most of the race; she woke up at 4:00 AM).

Sunday evening, I took the bike out on the first actual commute. This time, everything stayed true. Thus, I was finally able to pay attention to how the solid tires actually perform. They were definitely not awful. They are substantially heavier than pneumatic tires. However, since I was riding such a light bike, it was hardly an issue. Rolling resistance on the other hand, made a huge difference. Changing between my various bikes usually makes a difference of 1 to 2 MPH in my cruising speed. But this bike, with these tires put me down at least 5 MPH. On the plus side, though, What time I loss in speed I likely made up for by taking the most direct route to work, which is coated with a thick layer of broken glass. Plus, on the ride home from work Monday morning, I stopped at the Spot to drink a few with Andy, and this gave me the opportunity to impress folks by lodging darts into my tire. Nevertheless, it is looking like I will be switching back to normal winter tires at some point. The other downside to these is their stiffness. They allow you to feel everything on the road that is bigger than a grain of sand. Had I chosen a thinner model with a higher PSI equivalent, I probably could have solved the rolling resistance problem, but the stiffness would probably have given me calluses. All in all I would say these tires are ideal for a light weight commuter bike that has lots of suspension; I would highly recommend them if that is what you are going to put them on.

careful! comments...

At first I (David) thought that joining www.bikeforums.net was going to be a consuming and wasteful use of my time. Well it turns out that I was right. But at least now I have been exposed to great things like this (more) and these: 1,2,3.

Also, for those who may have tried commenting before, the problems have been fixed, and comments can now be used.

Sooper-Dooper Rookie

Little timmy made it into the newspaper!

Those pesky grass roots.

There was a lot of pedestrian traffic around the house yesterday. That is what happens when you live next to a polling place. I (David) voted early in the day (Heather voted Saturday as she spent 16+ hours as an election judge on Tuesday). As it turns out, quite a few of the pedestrians around the house were from various organizations that were attempting to get people to the polls to vote. I found myself stopping just shy of grabbing a broom to swat these people away from the front steps. Nevertheless, I found their presence to be a delightful sign.

This election has brought a lot of people out of the woodwork of their otherwise less public lives, and energized them to the point where they would be willing to voluntarily dedicate their time to tedious tasks (such as door knocking) that in the end (at least for most of the people who knocked on doors around here) may not have an effect on the greater outcome of the electoral college. Despite the broom in my hand, dedication like that festinates me. It causes me to wonder what would happen if the potential for dedication like that were portable enough to where it could be used in local matters that truly matter to the neighborhood. If all of the people who came to my door in the last few weeks were to volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, or spend a day pulling buckthorn in the parks' wooded areas, or spend a few hour per month mentoring a neighborhood kid, or... or... or... etc. then I think that the neighborhood could collectively combat any and all of the woes it might face if the winning candidate is the one that these door knockers do not want to see win.

Granted, this election puts a lot more at stake in the world than what might be plaguing my neighborhood, but after seeing the potential of these human, fiscal, and social resources, I just have to wonder what happens to them after the election is decided. I know some of these people dip their thumbs in a variety of other (and/or the same) worthy pies, but I have the impression that most do not; or at least not to the same degree. But for those who do, I have much respect. Perhaps someday, I will have an ability and willingness to spend my precious time as a mentor, buckthorn puller, and turkey server (or 16 hours as an election judge).

But until then, I need my sleep.


In other news, I snapped this photo on my ride home from work on Monday. It would appear that they have successfully turned the old shantytown into a park-like area with curvy pathways. Unfortunately, even if these trails weren't laid out by a drunk survey crew, it would still take me a lot longer to commute along the bottom of the bluff that it would to take the monster Kellogg/3rd street hill. Biking down towards Battle Creek and back adds a lot of distance, and though less pronounced, the hill is still there. Hopefully someone will manage to find use of the park area though. I'm guessing there are a few displaced hobos that could utilize park benches and such.