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Good morning, everybody! Spring has shaded into summer here in the Not-So-Frozen-For-The-Moment North, with a week of rain followed by a week of ninety-degree temperatures. But that’s not keeping me off my bike. (By the way: The bike shown in the MS Paint sketch here is not my bike; it’s actually my spouse’s bike. You can tell it is because it has a Brooks B-17 saddle. I haven’t graduated to Brooks yet. Maybe when my butt toughens up a bit…)
We’re both getting back into cycling after a lapse of several years, and dang, it is fun. Especially with both the new innovations (front shocks) and the rediscovery of some old tried-and-true methods (cantilever brakes, steel frames). I find I feel at my best when I’m out pedaling around, and that feeling stays with me the rest of the day. Plus, it’s a good way to pick up goodies from any place that’s only a mile or two away; rather than waste gas in the car, or time doing it on foot, my bike (especially with my nice new rack and panniers) allows me to carry more stuff than I ever dreamed was possible, and faster than I knew was possible. Yeah, keeping it secure is slightly more of a challenge than is locking your car door, but then again I can’t take a car into a building (well, not without reenacting a scene from The Blues Brothers).
I know I’m never going to be as studly a cyclist as the people of Peace Coffee — they transport their products using either bikes with special trailers or biodiesel-powered vans — but at least I’m doing something that’s good for me and for the place where I live. (And it means I can feel a little less guilty about having a big breakfast on the weekends. Scrambled eggs with onions, anyone?)
So how’s your morning been so far? Got any plans for the weekend?
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morning, phoenix woman! my sweetie & I are heading out on bikes too as it happens. we’re in austin – glorious thunderstorm last night, so the temps this a.m. are perfect for a hilly ride.
have fun!
Hey phoenix woman! Thanks for this, I’m thinking about getting a bicycle for going thru the local forest.
jolie @ 1
You better look at dopplar before you go…somethings heading your way…
Blues Brothers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea9mV9EhPvE
I too have rediscovered the bike after many years away. As a kid I rode a bike everywhere- I never got a driver’s license until I was 18. Since I lived for 16 years where biking was life threatening I got rid of my old 10 speed. But last summer I moved into the city, and this spring I bought myself a hybrid. I love it, and am now at work having gotten here on my own steam. It is so much fun and I can’t believe I spent so many years chained to the car!
Mmmm, biking! Last year, Mr. BuggyQ and I made the trade up to road bikes. He’s got a Specialized Roubaix (carbon fiber is aMAZing!) and I’ve got a Trek 2.1 WSD. I never could have imagined paying that much for a bike till I test-rode one. Mmmmmmm. Closest you can get to flying without leaving the ground.
Now I just have to get back into using the thing. Did 8 miles yesterday, and felt really good. So hopefully I’ll be working my way back up to the 30s soon, which is where I got last year.
When I grow up, I’m gonna do a century.
Good Morning PW… Lets see… did my 2 mile walk at sunrise and hung out at FDL swilling coffee.
Now I get to put all my glassware away after having my new roof. First wash it and then… clean the shelves.
My goal this summer is to only use the bike (and trailer for my 2 boys) when we need to run errands on our side of town. I’m a little nervous pulling the trailer across busier streets as I’ve seen how CA drivers treat bikes. I saw a guy nearly get crunched against the curb just yesterday.
For those who need a refresher: HIPPIES
The Hippie movement was the most controversial and influential of modern times. See how the vibrations from that era are still resonating today in almost every aspect of American life, from the clothes we wear, to the Personal Computer and the Internet.
So glad you love to bike…
Me and my husband ride…
Note to everyone I love my bike and it didn’t break the bank…
It’s called “Giant” light (aluminum) and strong as anything, had pretty good reviews…
I can go up those hills no problems…
There’s something that is good for your soul to have the sun in your face, the wind at your back, and a great trail with vistas that reach out past the horizon…
DFH:http://www.hippiemuseum.org/today.html
egregious @ 2
Nice! If you plan to do lots of serious dirt riding, 1.95-inch or bigger tires are good; the problem is that they slow you down on pavement. But if you can get a nice compromise — say, a 1-inch tire with some gnarliness on the sides but a slick center strip — that might be just the ticket for mixed forest/paved riding.
Lou Costello @ 9
Thanks for this Lou. Checked it out in the last thread. I assume the 12:00 time is Eastern?
Loo Hoo. @ 13
1PM edt, 12 cdt.
bg, wow! That’s psychadelic!
Loo Hoo. @ 13
Saturday, June 16
12:00 AM (Lou ~ AM is midnight as in last night)
Saturday, June 16
01:00 PM (This afternoon EDT)
PW—
Thanks for the dirt bike info. How did you know that was going to be the next question?
Lea-no uh @ 8
Yeah. I myself prefer bike trails, but they’re just not an option much of the time.
Lou Costello @ 9
Them hippies was right!
Borked again?
I sent this to the Globule Letter to Editor…
Chances are very slim for pub, but here she
goes…
I found it ironic that Robert Bork has come to the aid of Scooter Libby (”Law scholars appeal to judge for Libby “, June 12). Didn’t he fire independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, after Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelhaus both refused? Twenty four years after the Watergate scandal, his fingerprints are all over an attempt to discredit the integrity of another Special Prosecutor. The presiding Judge was not impressed.
“I would not accept this brief from a first year law student,” Judge Walton said.
Has Robert Bork been “borked” again
I’ve commuted to and from work on a bike since 1991. There’s something about the exertion and the many lungsful of fresh air that puts one in a better frame of mind. I recommend it for any healthy person whose work place is a reasonable distance from home.
Good morning, PW. It’s “let’s do the work thing” for me today to make up for time off to attend a graduation last week, but will be hiking on Sun. in the Santa Inez Mtns. near Santa Barbara. So beautiful & relaxing in early summer. Probably hike 6-7 hrs, more if my calves hold out…
Bike on!
LoudounLib @ 19
THEY STILL ARE…and don’t let anybody tell ya different. PEACE!
We started out with mountain bikes with semi-slick tires. It was a great introduction to biking. But I soon found that I was doing a lot more road riding than off-road. So I first switched to really slick tires, which was nice (it added about 1 mph to my riding). But a friend who does heavy duty road biking suggested a lighter frame. That’s how I ended up with the Trek. The WSD (women’s-specific design) was worlds more comfortable for my 5′2″ body.
There are lots of much less expensive alternatives, but I found that when I was getting up into the hour or more distances riding, my shoulders would really start to hurt. The WSD helped that a lot. The shorter distance between saddle and handlebars made all the difference.
There’d be no sense in spending that much if you’re not likely to do long distances. Mr. BuggyQ is looking at a Giant to use for his 1 mile commute to his soon-to-open fine art photography gallery (see the Retirement thread below ;-). He doesn’t want to have to gear up for just a short ride.
BTW, if you want to see some *really* extreme cycling, check this out: Mountain Unicycling
Those people are insane.
egregious @ 17
Been there, done that. :-) Just recently rediscoverered it again when the spouse took off the 2.125-inch tires from my bike and put on 1.50-inch ones. Not only did my bike get a couple of pounds lighter, but the slicker (though not totally slick) tread makes for less rolling resistance; I can actually climb certain hills now!
Bay State Librul @ 20
Excellent!
Bikes, yes!
I was late to driving and then only drove for awhile. Buses work when you live downtown. I have never actually owned a car myself. About 10 years ago I lost the car access and was living where walking was too far for groceries for the first time in my life. I took out my beloved now-30-plus year old touring bike and started doing my shopping by bike.
Moved downtown and now I *always* bike to most shopping, doctor, and library visits as well as occasional lectures and meetings. Global warming means there are even winter days when it’s not too cold/stormy to bike. I keep my bike just inside the front door. It’s a huge financial benefit too!
I only walk if it’s raining heavy or to the bus for work. I say the only thing I need a car for are vet visits and drives in the country. So I can afford the occasional taxi or rental.
I love my bike.
Bikes, yes!
BuggyQ @ 24
What BuggyQ Said. Mountain bikes (especially fixed (no shocks) or hardtail (front shock only) bikes) are a good way to get into riding — they’re very forgiving of even the clumsiest riders — but if you plan on doing lots of pavement riding and you’re not going to be riding up or down stairs the way bike cops do, you’ll probably want to go with a hybrid frame when starting out.
Yup.
Marie Roget @ 22
Hope work treats you nicely today, and enjoy the hike tomorrow!
Phoenix Woman @ 26
Beautiful BSL! Please report back if they print it. ;->
jolie @ 1
You too, Jolie!
I drove a Huffy during college, and decided to check them out again. Thanks, PW.
http://www.huffybikes.com/
I was devoted to my bike from the bike co-op in Madison. Maintenance, the whole thing. Rode it everywhere.
It was back in the day when we had the curved handlebars, and we were low over the bike.
In Europe now, the older the bike, the cooler, or at least in Amsterdam, where the bike garage by the train station is like a garage for cars (that big), but full of bikes. And the dredging for bikes in the canals. A sight to behold.
So now we are all riding upright, like the Euros. Is there a reason the racing bike is over now? Because we are to old to bend over like that or what?
My work is a 5 mile ride each way, and my goal this summer was to ride 50% of the time. Lately I’ve been riding most of the time, ’cause it’s just fun.
The maddening thing about our energy situation: I’ve got to think we could reduce our energy use by 25% and hardly even notice. We could reduce even further by getting folks on public transit and on bikes, and get healthier in the bargain.
But……. as a nation, we won’t even try.
Back in the 80s I worked with a guy who lived for his bike. He lived with his folks, made a decent salary, scavenged soda bottles for the return on deposit and spent most of his money on bikes. Through a winter in MA, he biked daily from Wellesley to Burlington (approx 20 miles each way). The only times he didn’t bike (twice iirc), were when he was on a second shift and it was a large snow storm (in the rain he wore hefty garbage bags for protection – he also had dental mirrors on his helmet as rear-view mirrors). Otherwise, it was all bikes all the time. And on weekends he led century runs on Saturdays and Sundays out in the Berkshires.
can’t resist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..mp;search=
happy riding everyone!
Bay State Librul @ 20
Wikipedia says:
Adie @ 30
Thanks Adie and Phoenix.
montysano @ 34
Jimmy Carter tried back in the 1970s and was mocked for it by The Powers That Be even though most of us were on his side.
But yeah, just swapping out a few of your incandescents (not even all of them) helps (in fact, it helps on your A/C bills as CFLs don’t heat up a room the way incandescents do), as does the following:
– Wash clothes in warm or cold water, not hot. That saves a ton of energy right there.
– Dry clothes on a line, if it’s possible (some places don’t allow it); or run your dryer on a low-heat setting. (The newer front-loading washers spin clothes practically dry anyway, so you don’t need to bake ‘em in the dryer. It’s better for your clothes, too.) If you want to make sure your clothes are germ-free, use a soap like Kookaburra, which has tea tree oil (known for its antiseptic properties); you can mix a little of it in with your regular laundry soap.
– Avoid using the (electric) oven if you can, and use it to make lots of dishes when you can’t. This is where my pizza-on-a-stovetop idea comes into play: Cooks up like a regular pizza, but with less time, less electricity, and less heating of the house!
bg @ 33
Mainly it’s because of back issues. Though drop bars are generally better for your hands/wrists than flat bars such as what are seen on most mountain bikes. (However, Rivendell is pushing the “mustache bar” which is a hybrid of drop and flat bar ideas.)
There’s also recumbents, for those that like ‘em.
Do not have a bike; also in Austin. But this week I had a great outing on local buses. Since I am a “sr.”, I even get to ride free. No car worries, see the sights, mix with humanity. I’ve taken this sort of see the sights excursions occasionally when traveling, but now I’m going to take it up for local outings…free and I was carded!!
B. Hatten @ 41
Buses are good. I live near a bus route and use it all the time to get to and from work (most of the time I carpool with spouse).
Question for FDL legal eagles:
The Presidential Pardon authority is apparently without Constitutional or procedural limit (with the sole exception of impeachment), based on stuff I’ve just been reading. e.g., the pardon process requirements set forth in 28CFR et seq are noted as explicitly “advisory” and do not restrain a President’s authority in any way (begging the question of ‘why bother?’).
Apparently a pardon can even be issued pre-emptively for offenses not yet charged.
So, Bush can ostensibly pardon Libby — or any of the Bush/Cheney Criminal Conspiracy — for any and all offenses known and proven, pending, or as yet unknown, the only recourse being political, i.e., impeachment of Bush himself for doing so.
Do I have that right?
B. Hatten, I’m dying to see our tri-city area develop an integrated bus system. Even if I could just get halfway to work on bus or light rail, I could do the bike thing the rest of the way. It’d be cheaper than my car commute (even with a car getting 32 mpg average).
But a 30 ride one way just doesn’t work. When I can, I carpool in and ride home, but that’s kind of hard during a good portion of the year where I live (blizzards not conducive to safe riding).
So this is one more area where activism on a local level can be very helpful. I’m lobbying the various city council people in our town to buy into a regional transportation district. I’m not optimistic, but we keep trying.
I should ride my bicycle more than I do. I’ve got arthritis in my feet and it isn’t getting better. Hiking, which I love immensely, can get painful, but bicycling and swimming are real easy on my feet and on my right hip. I’ve got a pretty nice Rainier Giant with big, gnarly mountain tires, and should ride it every week. The distances between points around here are rather large, though – three miles to the nearest store, eleven miles to town.
The coolest bikes I’ve seen are made by Glenn Erickson in Seattle. He made a custom windsurf board bike trailer for my youngest brother.
If I didn’t have to write music and build a new dock over the weekend, I’d think of cycling the Eklutna Lake bike trail. We’re having the nicest mid-June weather in three years. Everybody but ET is out hiking, rock climbing or doing this new thing where you download GPS info texted to your phone, find a buried box, move it somewhere else, bury it again and then text info on it to other people. That’s what ETette is going to be doing today on her first full day home from college. Weird, huh…?
This bike to public transit database was created by my cousin Steve Spindler, a cartographer in Phila, bikemap.com
I love biking. Along with starting to ride horses after losing the 180 lbs, I now ride bikes a bit. I wanted to buy an inexpensive bike that a ‘grandma’ could ride and went to the store and thought I was buying a simple 6 speed. NOOOO, I bought an 18 speed with shifters on both handles and now when I ride I try to sort out ‘this hand goes this way, and that hand goes that way’. Half the time I overshoot the correct gear and the pedals go spinning.
But I am riding in the country watching horses in pastures and farmers cutting the hay. Wonderful.
Oh, and I rode my granddaughters horse twice last week. Hurrayyyyy.
Now, if I could ride the horse to the dairy queen ….
Next year Phoenix will join the rest of the world with their very own light rail. Right now the city is one BIG mess, they are building all the lines at one time.
In the 9 years since I moved back, I am seeing more and more on bikes. Cities are putting in bike lanes on the surface streets and there are now riding clubs who meetup at ungodly hours on the weekend for rids to avoid the heat of the day.
My Peugeot touring bike was my only transportation when I lived in Greece besides public transportation. Bought the thing for $25 and put on the upright handlebars off an old bike we found in a junk yard.
Just added the following
to Bork’s Wikipedia page
realworld—
Outstanding.
Shocks are for sissy’s; Brooks are for hardass bikers.
Wanna see my callouses?
:P
I’m just popping in for a few minutes before going back to slaving away on wallpaper stripping in the bathroom, to finish up after the five hours of work yesterday. Ms. Redshift gets worked up to do these home improvement jobs that we’ve been talking about for a while, but she didn’t do that stuff growing up, so she’s always surprised at now long they take. And she can’t do most of the manual labor, so guess who does? (Though we did have some friends over to help yesterday.)
Then tomorrow we’re hopping a train to New York for the Duran Duran concert. So that’s my weekend.
I haven’t been on a bike since I was a teenager. I’m into Pedestrian Option instead. But I’ll be standing on the sidewalk cheering for all the bicyclists of FDL — especially GrandmaJ!
Some places don’t allow it……… sheesh. We’ve got a bunch of those places around here. Unbelievable.
One high-end housing development near here doesn’t allow sycamore trees. Sycamores! The state tree of Indiana, my place of birth, and to my mind, a lovely tree.
This weekend, the Almighty Billable Hour rules my world. Hopefully I will make it to the gym both days, and get to watch some of the Subway Series.
Spouse and Man-Cub are agitating for new beach cruisers, so I am likely to end up in a bike store sometime this weekend.
I don’t need a new bike; I bought two what were then high-end bikes — a Klein Performance road bike and a Trek 700 mountain bike — in the late 80s when I was riding 150-200 miles per week. In those days, when I was unattached, I would get to the office at 7:00 a.m., work until 5:00 p.m., go home and ride for a couple of hours, grab dinner and head back to the office for a couple of hours in the evening. Those were the days …
Now, my commute is 40 miles on SoCal freeways, and I rarely get home before 8:00 p.m. Not conducive to piling up the miles.
Just a quick drive by posting:
As noted yesterday by CHS, chimpy used the “loophole” USA appointment procedure one more time, appointing George Cardona for another term of uncertain length but clearly bypassing the Senate. Then el chimperino signed the bill, apparently because a) it had veto proof margins in both houses and b) it would have become law without his signature anyway. (Wiki Link.)
But the burning question is Why? Why take the inevitable flak for doing it?
Answer: Jerry Lewis, of course! It still all comes down to him in this part of PurgeGate.
The D Day blog has the details.
It turns out that the replacement nominee is a hard hitting, militantly apolitical prosecutor named Thomas O’Brien. He is as bad or worse than Carol Lam. So, Cardona gets shoved back in. QED.
Only problem is, NO ONE TOLD HIM! So now he’s answering media questions with a perfect LOLcat “Whut?”.
The question is, is Leahy going to accept this or will he fight it. Time will tell.
(For the light of heart, here is a fuller LOLcatting of the situation to date. stand by for more segments as the story unfolds…)
LOLUSA1
LOLUSA2
No sycamores allowed? Time to move.
Oh, and we have a new story to add to the list for the previous owners of our home, who we’ve come to understand were enthusiastic but not very competent at home improvement. (Our first clues were that both bathrooms have floral wallpaper, and if you look closely, in both, the flowers grow downwards.)
We made a new discovery while stripping wallpaper. From the condition of the walls underneath, it’s clear that there used to be a larger bathroom sink console which they replaced. This meant that there was a gap in the row of black tiles at the base of the wall. But instead of getting some matching tile to fill the gap, they cut the wallpaper to go all the way down to the floor in that spot and then painted that part of the wallpaper black!
Just amazing. I’m just glad they didn’t try to work on anything critical or structural.
realworld @49: Brilliant!
Redshift @ 58
How do you know they didn’t? Maybe you just haven’t reached their attempts at doing something to the structure yet in your efforts…
Alfred K. @56: Gonzales LOLcat!
70707!
dakine01 @ 60
We’ve been in the house ten years; with their skill level, I’m pretty sure anything structural would have collapsed by now. *g*
And for everyone who has been saying that Blackwater militia are going to “take over”, there’s this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02602.html
They won’t take over because THEY WILL ALL BE KILLED IN IRAQ!!!!
We are told the body count is @3500. In fact, it is easily double, triple, quadruple or you-name-it-uple of that. Because Private Security Contractor’s deaths are treated as proprietary business data and never released. The suit by the families of 4 Blackwater contractors killed and burned in Iraq hss been forced behind closed doors with massive gag orders partly on this basis, and on the basis that the Pentagon knows about them and APPROVES of it, because it allows them to maintain the fiction that the war’s casualty count is relatively low.
“With your shield or on it” was the maxim of republican roman troops. After the roman middle class got tired of dying for the upper class with little or no benefit to themselves, they arranged to allow “replacements” to be hired if the soldier was “desperately needed at home”. Drawn at first from the subura lower classes (non-landowners who lived in apartments in cities, the ones dependent on “bread and circuses”), eventually the replacements came from “Tributary States” like Gaul and Spain. In time, most of the roman military was composed of this sort of troop. One day, they woke up to the fact that they were the power in rome, and started to use it.
We appear to be following the same path…
Long time reader, very infrequent commenter.
Funny you should mention biking, as I’m currently in Amsterdam for a conference and watching the bikers is fascinating. Everyday people biking everywhere, carrying the kids, women in high-heels, carrying an umbrella as necessary, friends and lovers sometimes catching a ride.
But what strikes me most is that in the U.S. a good percentage of riders would be wearing helmets, but not here. I can only believe that it’s because of the fear that American’s live with and in.
I predict, that before I die, Americans will routinely be wearing helmets into showers because of the obvious danger.
To steal a phrase recently attributed in print to TRex’s brother, Patrick, why are we such “a nation of picky eaters and bed-wetters”? I suppose Michael Moore’s animated history of the U.S. in Bowling For Columbine made it clear. But it sure is embarrassing to be a part of such a society.
hb—
I worked in the neurosurgery department at Mass General and saw the results of accidents where people didn’t wear helmets. Not good.
Also I personally knew a 15 year old who died in a bike accident and she might have made it if she had worn a helmet.
My public health roots showing?
egregious @ 65
So, then, you would no doubt advocate the wearing of helmets in showers?
hb—
Only hail showers ;)
No helmet, no speed, not too many worries, here.
I used to love to bike. I have fond memories of 3-4 hour trips. Always nice to see the subtle changes on my routes. Then my body decided to attack itself with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I know the claim that biking is good for people with arthritis, but not for me.
I’d like to try it again. I’ve been off my meds for over a year now, so maybe it’s time to start again. I gave my bike away to a neighbor who had his only means of transportation stolen, which was his bike. He turned out to be a psycho religious wingnut of the highest order, which is a whole ‘nother story.
I took the joints out for a test last night and spent almost 4 hours dancing at concert, they held up suprisingly well. Perhaps I’ll go rent a bike and see what happens. Thanks PW.
Saturday mornings are an excellent time at the lake. Biking is a great topic, and I haven’t taken the time to do the retirement thread justice.
I’m riding my bike more these days too. Just not doing as much running, is a part of it, but my kids are riding around a fair amount now that it’s summer.
I recently stumbled on a good bookblog, “Of Books and Bikes,” a young teacher who is riding competitively, in a pretty regular gal sort of way, while reading Don Quixote and Boswell’s Life of Johnson and lots of good books. Recommended. She wrote somewhere “every time I ride my bike I feel good,” which I’ve been using as a mantra/tagline lately, saying it to mszhiv with an ironic smile just to bug her and get a laugh. But I’m hoping that if I keep doing it and saying it that it’ll turn out to be a universal truth.
With the Prius now I feel better about taking short trips these days, but I’m inspired by the Lake right now, so I’ll take the bike to the Farmers Market right now.
OT
I know this would be better for one of Pach’s or David N’s threads, or late night, but I have to share now
http://www.whitehouse.org/espanol_eng.asp
Oh,
And I think I may have found someone to service our old British folding Dawes and Raleigh bikes
In the mean time, Mrs Mack and I will get new Schwinn Cruisers this weekend
Blue America upstairs…
Attn KAtymine For the cough associated with kennel cough give childrens B & T (Boerick and Tafel)cough medicine. There are many kinds of kennel cough and the vaccine only immunizes against a very few.
Fresh in from 60 feet of chain-link fence…… no time for my Raleigh Speedster with Sturmey-Archer 3 speed hub gears, spring clip luggage rack and a basket which someone in Belmont had put out as rubbish…..
No peace for the wicked, it is said: all should read Charley Reese today at
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=11144
This is one of the stronger paras:
“Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has refused to sign it. Iran admits international inspectors. Israel flatly refuses to allow international inspectors. The only country in today’s Middle East with weapons of mass destruction and a history of invading and occupying other people’s countries is Israel.”
Constant vigilence is necessary and constant pressure must be applied.
After which Pollyanna-ing I shall sit down and watch the mayhem at Oakmont.
Tira.
Angie Paccione in Blue America upstairs as we speak!
I’m watching “Hippies” on the History channel. I am a little appalled at the way they are threading this….blanket statements, according to them:
The Beatles “loved” Alastair Crowley (devil worshipper)- because he was on the cover of an album.
Neil Young thought Charles Manson was great.
Hippies went from acid taking, flower children to devil worshippers.
Then, the hippies went on to “carrying guns”…
This is super exaggerated propoganda…I expect it to end up with now they are all Dems or something like that.
Peter Coyote – what are you thinking!
LS @ 77
I think you have to take it with a grain of salt, a longer historical view and personal knowledge of events. It seems to me, the hippies and their mindset, were needed to stop the Vietnam war. Kinda used them up, but we wound up here. Haight and Ashbury today.
Well, epu’d again – hard to pop in on time at work.
But thanks, PW and everyone -I need a little push. I’ve been looking longingly at the bike I bought late last summer – just in time for discouraging humidity and 100 degree heat, so didn’t go as much as I should’ve.
After 40 years not on a bike, and never having used real brakes(byond pedal backward and put down a foot)or any gears, it’s taken some effort to manage the thing. Also, I hadn’t realized how hilly my neighborhood is till I got on the bike!
But once I’m going, it’s wonderful. You’re right; hope it isn’t storming tomorrow so maybe I will get up and get out on the bike. Thanks, all.
LS @ 77
Whut? Obviously, not someone who was there. But, wait, I thought Peter Coyote was…
Oh well, it’s par for HIstory Channel course – when it began I expected a far better level of quality. Learned pretty quickly not to expect much more than fiction from them.
Hi, I just have to pop in to say that Angie Paccione (democrat running for congress in Colorado’s 4th district) is one of the most KICK ASS candidates in Blue America’s HISTORY. If you are missing her, you’re missing a lot!
Come and see what she has to say to right-wing nutballs! (watch the video)
For the last few years before moving to Oregon, I cycled in the Bay Area. I was a pretty late comer at this, but got into some endurance events (not races: centuries and such) and commuting. Maybe not economical, but fun and fitness-making. For being a sprawling, polluted metropolis, it had some of the most beautiful bike riding, I could imagine. Lived there all those years before learning the joys of Peninsula and East Bay Hills riding!
Here, logging trucks seem to far outnumber the riders, but am scheming to get back on the road here as I get settled in.
O/T, but important (and done here to keep Angie’s thread for Angie) –
Karl Rove is now a target of the special probe:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…..tch-probe/
Nifong broke conduct rules, committee finds
District attorney who led Duke rape case could be stripped of law license
The committee must now decide if the longtime prosecutor in Durham County, who has already pledged to resign his post as district attorney, should be stripped of his law license.
I saw that, PW. Who will be investigating that? Will it stay with Waxman
Do you trust that the OSC will examine it fully? What punishments can they deliver, and will they work together with Congress?
I guess I’m just suspicious of OSC. Valid?
Thanks, PW!
I’m just listening to the Doan hearing and that’s what I keep thinking. The problem started with Rove going out to the agencies with the coordinated effort to influence party appointees to support political efforts. So I’m sitting here saying shouldn’t this be Rove’s problem?
Yes.
The quote in the thinkprogress link from Mehlman that these things should be political (damn the Hatch, full speed ahead) is really eye-opening in terms of the attitude behind all this.
Rove is no lawyer, not even an intellectual. I keep thinking this will be his downfall.
Loo Hoo ~ same hearing … Waxman is using the OSC report against Doan and it’s loaded. So, if OSC cannot be trusted it should at least be a showdown.
A good day for us.
Lou Costello, 78,
They go on to make that point at the end, sort of (by attributing the birth of the PC and the internet as an outgrowth of the movement), however, they really painted a generally much “blacker” picture of the hearts of the hippies. I was one, and I know it wasn’t like that.
They said, for example, that the Chicago incident showed how violent the hippies/yippies were, rather than how violent the police were toward the protesters. They did not show what happened at Kent State either.
One rather interesting thing they pointed out was that:
1. Nixon wanted all out squelching of the counterculture.
2. LSD started with the CIA – and the so-called Manchurian project.
3. While Woodstock was occurring and getting a lot of media attention for the hippies, Manson (who they described as a hippie) was simultaneously murdering – which proved to the public that hippies could be demonic and violent.
Now, that made me sit up and take notice!!
Does that mean W was a hippie? I guess he is the right age to have been a flower child, yet, somehow it had never occurred to me that we have a bunch of hippies running the WH…only the violent ones, I guess. I’ve never heard much about what W was doing, except drugs, maybe, while all the flower kids were protesting the war.
W was protesting the war in his own special way. Joining the National Guard and then not showing up.
To: 90 Yes, true. Thank you for making me laugh out loud,,,real serious and personal protest, I guess.
I hear you LS. They don’t really tell a very good story and the interviews and facts were skewed, to say the least. I like the actual footage added with timeline type information (Manson/Tate 8-09 : Woodstock 8/15-17) is most interesting. You can see the trajectory of the culture that became acceptance of today’s lifestyles and attempts at peaceful solutions all around.
I’m watching the Klan and you can see where KKKarl gets his ideas. Intimidate black voters / DoJ scandal…all part of the same
Kplan.Lou Costello @ 92
Exactly. Fascinating stuff. The timing of the Manson thing is interesting (I’m not sure it was coincidence), since he was very racist, but the population (the so-called Moral Majority) bought lock, stock, and barrel what the media told them. He was a hippie, and hippies were antiwar, hated the troops, and were dirty and bad, and immoral; and because of their drugs were capable of heinous crimes. They still do to a great degree. Take for example the swiftboating of Kerry.
New thread from Jane Hamsher, posted after BlueAmerica.
Saturday Block Party: Help, I’m Being Held Hostage At The Watergate
OT More Madness, Madness, Madness
IAEA states any attack on Iran to stop the program for enrichment of uranium for use in nuclear reacters would be an act of madness. (International law allows for enrichment to a level for reactor fuel uses) Only Israel has not signed the non-proliferation treaty and refused international inspectors into their facilities. Iran has signed the non-proliferation treaty and DOES allow international inspection to occur at their facilities.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6753017.stm
Wow! I’m so stoked to hear how many of you are into bikes. Just as I suspected, good people ride bikes. We just hosted Mountain
Bike Madness III: The Threemaddening at our place today. It’s a mellow mountain bike ride on Mount Neversink above the Pretzel City, Reading, PA. Barbeque after and then a race up the famous Col de 38th St. Polka dot jersey for the winner (Hanes T, Sharpie, spraypaint). Fun!
Evening folks, missed it this morning.
I’m on a forced biking hyatus, started in July 2002, when a raging driver decided I was the cyclist who was going to pay for all the other fcuks who are always in his way. I ended up with a foot that was hanging only by it’s carnal enveloppe. The docs told me I was going to be in pain most probably for the rest of my life, and that walking was going to be a really limited activity. A year and a half later, I was walking three hours a day, in inimaginable pain, mind you, but, I was mobile.
The reason why I’m still not cycling is emotional, I try to get back on the bike, but, I just can’t. I’m still traumatized from the agression, but, I can say I’m doing a bit better.
I’m more of an athlete than an intellectual. Before my accident, I was cycling about 7000 miles a year. From march to november, I was sweating on my bike. The weekend rides were mostly a solitary thing, I was a fast cyclist who could average more than 18 miles an hour on a “fun” 100 miler.
I miss it so much, I had a smile plastered on my face that would not disappear, even when climbing for two hours.
I was smiling even more, when going down the hill, leading to the ferry in Tadoussac, sixty-four miles an hour. Good times.
Well, in the meantime, I went up the Mont-Royal this morning, Montreal was glorious.
Quebecois @ 97
(((Quebecois)))
Yeah, jerks like the guy who hit you are why I don’t like riding busy city streets — and why I ALWAYS wear a helmet.
Are there bike trails near your place? Would you be willing to go off-road and avoid the cars entirely?
I have my own bike-related phobias, most of them involving heights and speed (yeah, I grab handfuls of brake on all but the wimpiest downhills). But hearing your story makes me see again how silly they are. You have good reason for your fears!