Greentyre review # 2

Update: If you googled "greentyre review" to get here, then please redirect yourself to the updated version of this post here.


Cycling adventures and another reason to dislike Starbucks:

Last weekend I (David) took a ride out to Woodbury to visit Tamarack Village again. Years ago I had developed a theory that Mall roadways (Such as Rosedale or Maplewood) would make great racecourses for cyclists. Perhaps because of the Nascar style layout of these malls, I never had much desire to test the theory on my own. But with Tamarack resembling a European Formula 1 course, I thought I might find it more entertaining as a solo adventure. As it turns out, after a few spins on the roundabout, the novelty wore off. I still suspect however, that the element of competition would add significantly to the experience.

Fortunately I came to Tamarack prepared for disappointment. I had brought the laptop so as to do some real-time blogging about the trip. I was more than certain that in a development this new and shiny, and in a suburb where I am older than 99.9% of the buildings, there had to be wireless access just waiting to be tapped (I'm new to this technology, and unlike roundabouts, the novelty hasn't worn off yet). So I pulled up to one of the Starbucks, made a connection, and typed in the old blogspot. The only page I was ever able to access though was a Starbucks website that demanded money for their services. I can't imagine that they'll have much success with that.

Since I'm on the subjects of disappointments and cycling, it only seems proper to make a second review of Greentyres. I had put the tires on my bike last night so that I could test them again on my commute to work. I wanted to see if the needless worry and tool-packing associate with pneumatic tires could outweigh all the downsides of Greentyres. If the tires worked out this time around, I'd use them all weekend for my trips to the 7th annual Nordic Roots Festival. In my first review, I suggested that they were “ideal for a light weight commuter bike that has lots of suspension”. However, now that I've gotten used to normal tires on the bike that they were initially tested on, things have changed. Not only do the tires perform far worse than I remember, but they also don't last. As I was mounting them, I noticed that one of the few, if not the only skids I had made in the short time I used them, had left a bald spot so deep that there was no trace of tread left. On my ride into work I could feel the bump of the bald spot on every revolution. So yeah, I no longer recommend them for suspension commuter bikes. Instead, I'd say that these tires are well suited for those content to ride department store brand bikes, but who don't have the time/tools/expertise to maintain their tires. As soon as I get home from work this morning, the pneumatics are going back on. If I take a lens or two out of my camera bag, I should have plenty of room to store tubes and tools in case I get a flat on the way to see Garmarna.

Write in

Personally, I (david) would rather vote for “Bill the Cat” than for some corporate-owned icon.

Crunchy numbers

I'm sure I (David) could have dialed up some local news agency to get percentages without using my pocket calculator, but then to truly understand the numbers, it is often helpful for one to discover them one's self.

From the county I was able to determine that Dickinson received 19.5%, Kelly 26.5%, and Coleman 52%. One would think that if the biggest wiener in a primary get over half the votes, and the other big wieners are within 5% to 7% of each other, that all the wieners should be allowed on the ballot for the general election. But then again, if we had an electoral system that made sense, we would probably end up becoming a communist republic, and the last thing I want is my government telling me that my Tai Chi exercises are a terroristic threat to the government.

A Retiree No More?!

On Friday I (Heather) arrived to work and opened the sports section of the paper to look for news about this weekend's final race to the chase. I learned that Martin won the IROC race in Richmond on Thursday and after hearing weeks of rumors that he was going to race again next year, there was finally something in print; "Martin... said after the race that it appears he will be back in Jack Roush's No. 6 Ford next season after all."

Although Martin had clenched a spot in the chase before last night's race, it was still unnerving to see him cut a tire and fall all the way to the back of the pack - 43rd and 2 laps down! Quickly he found himself needing to play catch up all night long. That made for a very long race. He played his cards right narrowly avoiding a pile up and he ended up finishing 13th and is 6th going into the cup race. Four other Roush cars are in the top ten along with Martin. Only ten more races to go!

Are tamaracks hard to find?

Well one's ease in finding a tamarack all depends on one's city planner. Back at my (David's) first home away from home, Tamarack Hall at Bemidji State University, finding the place was simple. One would just go to Bemidji, or climb a hill near Bemidji, and look for “the tallest building within 100 miles.” Piece of cake.

Finding the Office Max in Woodbury, on the other hand, is a completely different story. I had some errands I had to run Tuesday evening, and Office Max was a stop on the list. The first stop was Cub Foods, a newer grocery store located in the Sun Ray shopping center. Sun Ray is an antiquated shopping center, so it follows the time tested design standards of the classic L shape. At some point when I was a child they had changed it to a C in order to accommodate a Panencooken house, but it has since returned to an L.

Knowing that I'd be heading East to get to Sun Ray, I checked online to find the nearest Office Max, so that I wouldn't have to go to Midway (another classic L shaped shopping center). Well the internet suggested that I go to the Tamarack Village Shopping Center in Woodbury. Admittedly I had no idea where this was, but I was able to take a well educated guess. Having made multiple trips to Woodbury's shopping district in decades past, I knew from experience that the only 'center' of sorts that resembles an L shape, and which has multiple big box retailers, was the one just East of 494 on Valley Creek Road. So I went there. And I drove around looking at all the store names. I even went to check names of the few stores that lay scattered outside of the L.

Since Cub Foods didn't have the brand of Ice Cream I was planning to pick up (which was a good thing, because it probably would have started melting by this point), I stopped at the Starbucks in that shopping center and asked about their ice cream and about directions to Tamarack Village. It turned out that I had the wrong shopping center. No one at Starbucks knew the name of where I was, but they all knew that Tamarack was a couple of shopping centers further down the road.

So now I knew where I was going... or did I? I arrived at the center, and drove around on 3 of it's perimeter streets looking inside for a glimpse of the Office Max sign. I wasn't able to see it, so I had to venture into the consumerist's village blindly. Even before I had entered the center, I could tell that something was wrong. This place was far from any variation of the letter L. Not even Harmar Mall's predictable Z was at work here. Instead, this place was designed by some freak who was obviously so inspired by the potentials of an “attractive” shopping center, the s/he threw all concerns for function out the window. Now I'll be the first to admit that the aesthetics of the classic L leave a lot to be desired. No one likes to be greeted by a giant parking lot. But if you're going to design a commercial “center” where no other varieties of 'center' exist, the only way one can expect people to show up is by car. This designer ran with the village theme, forgetting that there was no resident populace for the village. A tree lined parkway, windy roads, randomly clustered buildings, and a roundabout only serve to interfere with commuting consumers. Hey I know, let's put a fountain in the middle of the main through-fair. The worst part though, is that you can't find the store you're looking for until you're about to crash through their front door after completing 4 or 5 laps around the place. As bad as it is, I'd be curious to see the confused faces of first time visitors after all of the trees have matured. And, of course, none of the trees are Tamaracks.

Heather Brier Skelton RID CI/CT, B.I., EIEIO

I recently realized that my goal in life is to try to get as many letters after my name as possible! Last Saturday I was able to add the newest (CT) to my name after waiting 9 months and 11 days to receive my test results from RID! I wanted to say a special thanks to all of you that supported me along the way!

Summer vacation (epilogue)

Pies

The last few photos have finally been allowed to upload at Flickr. They capture the last few events of our time away from work. Included are these lovely shots of some of the pastries that were baked during the vacation. And of course what reference to pies would be complete without the complementary link(s) to Weebl & Bob [rhetorical]? Here are a couple of my (David’s) favorite episodes (the music ones are the best): One Two

In other news, last Saturday brought yet another SHSK gig. None of you (except fellow band members) showed up. Perhaps this means it is time to sign up for the mailing list. Once we make it big though, you can simply find us on the cover of your city’s alternative weekly. By that point we’ll be too busy contracting cartoonist to create a mocumentary of our early years to worry about mailing lists.