Happy Friday

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A few long time readers have written me and lamented the loss of my daily wandering, state of consciousness updates.

Well, this Buds’ for you.

The rain just came back to Flagstaff in these last few weeks. The day the skies opened, I walked out of the office building I’ve been working in and stood out front as water actually fell out of the sky.

We’re in a 12 year drought here in Arizona, and we need rain like nobody’s business. My lawn greened up, the flowers are blooming, and the trails are tacky once again. All after three days of rain.

I’ll take it.

About that office job, I’ve been working on webpages for Northern Arizona University since the end of March. It’s a temp position (what isn’t these days?) and it’s wrapping up at the end of the month. What’s next for the old boy? I don’t know yet. But I’m poised for greatness.

Just like always.

I’ve been sitting near the Gnome for the past 145 days or so, banging out lines of html and web optimizing images like a pro. Making the world better one webpage at a time. He’s been offered a job down in Tucson and decided to take it.

I’m riding to work yesterday and I see a pair of knee pads on the side of the road. One is up on the sidewalk, one on the pavement, as if they fell of the same truck together earlier in the morning.

So I stopped, turned around and picked up the knee pads.

I presented them to Our Dear Gnome in Grand Fashion (I threw them on his desk) and said, “I thought you might need these for your new job.”

He doesn’t even stop typing as he says, “Where’s the fucking chapstick?”

God Bless the Gnome. I’m really going to miss that guy.

Sometimes you see a photo of a bike, and you think to yourself, now that looks like a good one. We all have different tastes, expectations, wants and needs. I myself seem to drift towards steel road bikes that are simple and clean.

And this one fits the bill: A recently built up Ebisu Road bike

It’s offered by the fine folks at jitensha.com. From their site:

The bicycle market has come to be dominated by high performance racing-style frames. Using high tech materials, they offer superior functionality for pure racing applications. But very few of us would describe our primary cycling activity as racing, Nevertheless it has become very hard to find a bicycle that provides versatile, lively and relaxing riding, that is well crafted and moderately priced.

They are speaking my language.

I’ve got, at last count, six steel road bikes in my garage. One each from such notable cycling Big Names as Bottecchia, Fondriest, Surly, Ciocc, Merckx and Moser. The first three are fixed, the latter three have gears.

And I’d buy another without a moment of hesitation. Because I am a very sick man.

Link dump:

[where I live] webcam
[sad] dailymail.co.uk
[obama the brand name] politico.com
[and get yours here] store.barackobama.com
[brooklyn critical mass] streetfilms.org

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