Baristas

Perhaps one of my favorite words. Very similar to bikes in a weird way. No two are the same. You appreciate the good ones. Some are art. Some are rough but precise. Some are worthless. Some you long for when you find yourself stuck with one that doesn't measure up. Especially when you're trapped in Seattle.

I look forward to Monday nights at Espresso Royale. Emma knows Sephie gets a 12oz Cocoa with a pinch of cinnamon and I get a 3 shot breve in a 16oz cup. Today was a 4 shot/20oz day just to keep her on her toes. 

While waiting for Sephie to come out of class I spotted a pair of old friends. Tommy and Ann were having dinner at Rick's Cafe before seeing a great movie at the Orpheum. Tommy's made another movie and we're lucky enough to have tickets to the premier. "Darkness" should be interesting... not "the Darkness." I wonder if Marco has considered copywriting his alter ego.

Hey! I get to dress-up for the event! 

The 48f is finished. Weighing in at 24.38lbs with Russell's wheels and Rick's Nanoraptors, it should see some trail time on pre-ride days as well as just goofing around. I won't race it. I decided that yesterday. After hearing about all the bad mojo trapped in the frame, I don't want to risk having a second frame break during a race. I trust the Fe2+ implicitly. 

The Bontrager 26" Switchblade Race fork up front puts the head tube angle at roughly 72 degrees and the seat tube angle at roughly 74 degrees. That compares to the Fe2+'s 72.6HT/73.5ST angles. 

In light of my weekly visits to State Street I've decided to have a "feature"... Single Speeds of State Street. Last week was the guy on the fixie pulling a trailer. In retrospect it should have been a sled or a toboggan. This week is a well appointed fixie with Campy pista cranks. This bike is loved and it works hard for a living.

Tomorrow is a school day... I expect the usual.

Getting it done?

I shoveled myself out of the house earlier this week and now it is getting warmer. -4f at 6 in the morning is refreshing, but it has been warming to the low 20's by the afternoon.

I ordered an FSA headset from Village Pedaler the other day and it came today. Gary popped it in and had it waiting when I showed up after work.

After combing the interweb I have come to the conclusion that the 48f is a decent bike, but perhaps poorly designed. It's like a high school drafting class project that was forwarded to a factory in China. While it looks pretty it does have a few flaws. It is my humble opinion an 18" 29er frame should have two sets of water bottle braze-ons. The 48f only has one set. A seatpost mount might take care of that for now. If not, I'll look into having Cannondale rivet-style bosses popped into the seat tube.

Another flaw is the down tube. The hydroformed tubing looks massive and strong, but the way everything meets behind the head tube leaves little room for the fork crown if the bars get spun in a crash. But then who plans on crashing?

Other who have had Rebas on the front have said it hits the down tube. I doubt I'll be putting my Reba on it after looking at the clearance it has with the Bontrager Race. Before taking it home I put it on the scale at VP. With the cranks, BB, fork, HS, pedals, seatpost, seat and stem it weighed in at 11#. 

It's difficult to tell what it weighs now, but it feels scary light. With the Origin 8 Space Bars to give my hands the same familiar points of contact as the Fe2+ and the wheels from Russell, it feels nice. As for the blue chain, Sephie picked it out at YJ on Monday so I'll be proudly wearing the paint off it all season.

The Fe2+ is sitting by the liquor cabinet, waiting for me to put Stan's in the tires and get the multi speed bits off and quickly. 

Mi mi mi mi mi...

Clear your throat and sing it with me...

"Happy birthday to me. happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me-e... Happy Birthday to me"

Well, substitute the "me" for "you" and it should sound better. 

Yup. Today's my birthday. Older, but not more mature. 

During Sephie's theater class I jogged down to the Nitty Gritty for a free bottomless mug of Capital Maibock. I cut myself off after two and jogged back for Sephie. Then we strolled down State Street to Yellow Jersey to pick up a few odds & ends for the 48.2F.   Andy was pretty cheerful, so Seph and I picked up a chain, grips, Planet Bike H2O cages and some gloves for her. 

Oh yeah, the 9c. I picked up the Flyte Celsius 9 (48.2F if you do the conversion) last week from the seller. $130 for a NIB frame for use as a spare bike is a pretty good deal. I should be able to keep the total spent under $250 and have another reliable bike. The frame with EBB tipped the scale at 4.8# so it might end up somewhere around 23# like the Fe2+.

If you've noticed the image quality has improved you'd be correct. Yesterday we unplugged the ice dams in the storm drains and the water level at our intersection dropped a few inches. Oh yeah, water, it was warm enough it was raining all morning. As we went to Circuit City it turned to snow, again. We went to get my birthday gift of the camera I'd hoped to get at Christmas. I'm digging it. 

It will significantly improve race and training images. As well as recording Sephie's antics.

"Just keep swimming"

After a pretty good weekend, tonight was better still. After dropping Sephie off at theater class I ordered a 4 shot breve and relaxed while surfing the interweb. I didn't accomplish much but after class we went to dinner at Jolly Bob's Jerk Joint. I felt like having catfish and thought Seph would would want shrimp or chicken. Nope. She wanted the steamed muscles with a sweet curry sauce and the walnut breaded catfish. 

Okay then.

Meanwhile I had this feeling I was being watched. I looked over my shoulder and saw an eel giving me the stink eye. Then he backed into his hole. Sephie laughed and thought it was cute. I thought it'd look good wrapped in rice and nori. He kept playing peek-a-boo all though dinner but the waitress insisted it wasn't on the menu.

Midway through dinner a familiar face joined us for a chat. Otto and his wife were there for a friend's party. It was nice to be recognized but Madison is a small town when it comes down to it so I'm not surprised. I felt guilty drinking a Capital Maibock but they only had Hopalicious so I took the heat.

Tomorrow is a school day so I'll be bored with that all day. I think I'll go for a run at lunch. I should be able to start getting out on the Vitus with the cross tires on the bike path... or insanity could be just around the corner.

Now what was that number?

I've been doing 1st Aid/CPR recertification since 1984. In the beginning it was 'cuz the Army made me. It's come in handy over the years. Like on a Thanksgiving morning when a pickup flipped on a Dallas highway and 5 people were all over the place. My brother even helped with that even if he would have passed out from the sight of the blood. 

So this morning I was doing the usual Sunday morning routine. Sitting with a warm laptop and a cup of coffee when there's a pounding at the door. It's our neighbor Holly in her Sunday best and she's in a bit of a panic. "Is Tim home?" Her husband, Rich, has passed out behind the wheel of their car. Still in my slippers and PJ's I went out the door into the -5 F degree winter as I turn to Karen and say "Call 9-1-1." Sure enough, Rich is out cold, still behind the wheel, engine running, Nellie (7) and Kallie(5) in the back seat. He starts to come to as I turn the ignition off. He's been working on his final draft of his dissertation in theology. Long hours, poor diet and a slip on the ice has taken a toll. Even bundled in his coat and wool hat he's dripping sweat, but his pulse is strong and ~60bpm and he knows where, when and who he is. 

I had Holly take the girls back to their house. They didn't need to see their dad if things go pear-shaped. Karen brings me the phone so I can give the low-down to the operator as EMS is on their way. Rich was doing better, but I could use a hat and coat. Karen brought that out next. 

EMS gets there and they grill me. I give them the info and they begin it all over again with Rich and Holly. I told Holly if they need to take Rich in we'll look after the girls if she needs to go to the hospital and I head back into the house. After a while Rich is taken into the back of the ambulance and they give him a good going over.

He's released and they escort him back to his house as Holly gets the car out of the intersection. They'll be spending this morning at home instead of church. Hopefully having a good breakfast and staying warm.

Getting a schedule working

Tomorrow my day will be lop-sided. I've got 1st Aid/CPR recertification from 8 to 4 but I'll get on the skis early for an hour or two before.

A couple of weeks ago I found out the BKB will have Twin Six supplying jerseys. I went to the Twin Six site but was unable to find a link for the order. So I emailed their customer service link asking about what I needed to do, and I included my results from last season on a lark. They like it enough to send me an application for Team Twin Six. So I've filled it out, emailed one part and stuck a stamp on the other. As they said in their email, "Your credentials are splendid. Team info attached (below and pdf). No, not losing allegiance to BKB, just joining the T6 army as well. Would love to post your race reports as well."

I'm not delusional either. It's nice to have additional motivation and people to look good for other than myself.

12" or so

A few inches shouldn't bring the world to a grinding halt, but it did. It was coming down pretty good yesterday to the extent school was cancelled for Sephie. When I pulled into the driveway with the 4Runner, a BMW 318ti tried making the corner above and ended up finding the storm drain under all the snow. I pulled the tow rope out of the gear box and pulled him back onto the street. This morning I extracted the 4Runner from a fair sized drift and gave the sidewalk a shovel-width clearing before going to work. I cleared out everything after work and couldn't help but think of my great-uncle Sisto. 11 or so years ago Sisto had finished clearing his sidewalks of lake effect snow in Kenosha. He took off his boots and gloves before sitting down in his living room chair. The coroner's report said he had an MI after all that shoveling. Sisto had emigrated here with my great-grandparents in 1912 and was a typical Itailian. In his old age he was still a warm man with a great sense of humor. But he had a typical old Roman physique, maybe 100lbs overweight and not fit. I'm not too worried about sitting down after shoveling. I'm in better shape and I'm 35 years younger. 

The up-side of all this snow is the potential for cross country skiing. If it doesn't get into the 70's in the next week or so, Monona Golf Course should be groomed and the trails should hold. 

I did some eBaying the other day. I picked up a Flyte Celcius 9 frame pretty cheap. It has an EBB and deraileur hanger so it will be as flexible as the Fe2+ for setting up. I might put the Reba on it, or another Bontrager fork. We'll see.

More snow falling

It is winter after all.

Remember back around Thanksgiving when we got a new cat? The last few days Aries has been more social. I took this moments ago. I sat down to blog and she came up and settled in on the couch next to me. She's still grooming.

She's sort of a "miniature norwegian forest cat." Norwegian Forest Cats are big, like beagle sized. Aries is maybe 4 pounds. She just needs more tuna.

Fridays have shifted from pool at Ale Asylum to shuffleboard at Jade Monkey. I can still get an AA Nutbrown but they do a killer Shirley Temple for Sephie. I'd played shuffleboard in high school with buddies at a local bar where at 17 we'd get a few pitchers and get hammered the night before track or cross country meets. It was hard running 16:00 5k's with a hangover. Obviously I didn't learn a thing other than to play shuffleboard.

Anyway, Sephie has mastered the "hanger" as well as the nuances of spin and blocking. Here's evidence she can play for beer and win. I was red. Final score 23:13, and we only play to 15.

I'm beginning to feel like I should be readying for an indoor meet. The weather has stimulated the memories of preparing for the indoor track season. Qualifying for the mile at the 1980 Camp Randall meet was overshadowed by qualifying for the Southwest Conference (now the Big 12) indoor meet mile in 1983. They'd had qualifying heats for the previous weeks and they only took the 10 fastest. I was seeded 3rd but finished 6th (4:35 I think). I swear I got dizzy running on a 200m plywood track. 

It must be the daylight after work, or lack of light, that's making me feel antsy.  I should've bought a light system like Rick for night riding.