as arlo guthrie once said . . .

"i'm not proud"

this is what a 24 tooth endless cog looks like. i expect i will be seeing a lot more of it this weekend, as i walk along uphill with my sorry ass breathing the breath of ten thousand lungs, draped across my top tube. yee ha !!

tranquilo

with all that school stuff outta the way - and work easing into it's new system - time to ride !! only 3-4 months behind the Plan, but seein' as we made the Plan up to begin with . . . . . . we'll just go ahead and say starting riding in June is exactly what we had in mind.

easy miles thru the cherry blossoms. yeah we both are woefully outta shape, but with average scenery like this it could be worse.

"all you haters suck my balls"

i attended my first ever hi-skool graduation yesterday. i did not go to my own graduation - truth be told i am not sure they even gave us one. i sure wouldn't have, had i been them !! in my day ( and at my school ) the situation would have just as likely ended in somebody setting fire to place as anything. i suppose you could say that am not of the "kids of today are such a problem" school of thinking - the band of fook-ups, gypsies, criminals and worthless punks that made up any random group of youths i knew in the 1970's were indeed a greater threat to Society than the kids i know nowadays - as evidenced by the horrid mash-up of the world as we know it today. it alsways amuses me that the same people who will go on and on about "kids these days" are invariably the very same ones who gave us the screwed up world we live in . . . . . . as if the kids had anything to do with it !!

as it happens, i know quite a few Youth of Today, and at this particular gathering of them, my own daughter MK was throwing down hard. sitting there in the packed gymnasium, i sincerely doubt any other guy was in as sweet a spot as i found myself. MK was not only valedictorian, but also absolutely slayed the House as featured vocal soloist during the procedings ( far lower left ).




and indeed no other dad in the place had the experience of watching his kid stand up from the front spot in the class, stroll back to the choir, make people cry with her beautiful soulful singing, and then stride back up to the stage center with poise like michelle obama, to lay down a charming, humble, all inclusive and classy address to her peers ( no, she did not tell them to suck her balls . . . . ) anyway as for the other dads, it must suck to be them, because it flat out kicked ass to be me.

getting into their heads

there was a race last weekend, and it occurs to me that i am beholden to enter it into the blog. i sat it out, while antibiotics swirled amongst my unmentionable bits, ridding me of dis-ease. but, it is not as if i wasn't on the job !! as the defending comp SSer at this fine venue, i took it upon myself to strike fear and intimidation into my fellow competitor's souls. amy D captured me laying down a most viscious Vibe in the photo above. "fear this", indeed.

speaking of whom ( comp/open SSers ), the 09 season most-improved award has got to go to the raging mark burkholtz. holy fright that guy is flying. for god's sake even i beat him a time or two last year. but he is ripping legs off guys half his age and stuffing them down their throats this year. nice !!

also worthy of award at rhinelander was a guy i spiied along with rick W and russell. dude finishes his citizen race - rolls thru the chute - immediately wheels to a abrupt halt - vaults off his bike - and slams the KICKSTAND down with authority as if he is spiking the ball in the end zone during a superbowl. that guy ruled.

MK raced, but her lack of miles is catching up with her. she suffered and underwent a savage beatdown, which is what bike racing is all about.

if anybody has a right to be pissed at God, it's the loons

so, MK and i are lying in a fine state of Tranquilo on the pier at camp tesomas, before pre-riding the WORS race. we are watching a loon. it floats, takes a big ass breath, and disappears under the water for a minute or so, travelling 30 yards before popping back up to the surface. it does not appear to have caught any fish to eat, so it does it again, and again, etc. presumably, this is the loon's life. it seemed like a rather poor life, or perhaps a very sad Cosmic Joke on the poor loon - here he is, full of feathers, no fins, no gills, no hands to grasp with or anything and he has to try and eek out a life for himself from what he can out-swim on the bottom of a goddam lake . . . . how is bird supposed to outswim a fish, anyway . . . WTF ?? it would be like trying to catch fish while tarred&feathered with yer hands tied behind yer back.

if i were a loon, i would have to ask:

"tell me God, why exactly couldn't you have Created me in such a way that i could just eat fooking pinecones - like the ones i see sitting plain as day by the zillion on the ( dry ) shoreline over there ??"

kidney

this is not my kidney, but rather the greatest kidney of all time, the original dogbowl where much of sports/lifestyle culture was born. without this place, there would be no snowboarding, no surf-related clothing/style, and alternative music would have ended with the beach boys.

my own kidneys are a different story. many years back, i was a vegetarian for 10-15 years or so. when you are a vegetarian, your pee is often basic, as opposed to acidic. thus, you are prone to urinary tract infections at times - which i indeed contracted. once you get one, or several - you are more likely to repeat. i am repeating. it hurts like all fooking hell, too. no wonder i have been dragging ass so bad !! the rhinelander WORS race is questionable - looks like i'll be doing hand-ups. we'll see.

what are we, animals ??

'kay then - i reckon ihave been riding and enjoying the sort of bike that doesn't have a kickstand for 30-sumthin years or so. and yet, up until gretchen nabbed this most Righteous bike rack this very week, i have been leaning those bikes on stuff over all those decades like a barbarian.

no more !!

the girl and i enjoyed a fine memorial day weekend ride today, and parked our weapons thusly like civilized aristocrats before and after. nice !!