Wednesdays are Wednesdays

Its a beautiful fall day. I went running in the park.

Mahalo

Other People's Oxygen

For reasons that have never been adequately explained, this university is run like anarchy, on meth. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays classes are 53 minutes long and start at 7 minutes after the hour (don't ask, I don't know why) and on Tuesdays and Thursdays classes are 90 minutes long and start on the hour or the half-hour. This means that the cafeteria complex on the main part of campus is mobbed with students at different times of the day on different days of the week. As a full-time researcher and profligate user of ether I tend to just wander out of the lab whenever I am hungry and go acquire food. Mostly tacos. I often find myself in an empty cafeteria, which is just great, faster taco kinetics. Today, by virtue of the Byzantine class schedule I managed to find myself in the midst of a large number of our undergraduates. I forgot my iPod, which I regretted almost immediately as a girl in front of me and another behind me started off on some high speed vapid sagas involving copious usage of "and like, then I was like...". I was quite tempted to ask 'how does it feel to know you are using other people's oxygen?'. Intelligence, however, intervened and I decided that it would be less of a hassle to just think about thermal gravimetric analysis while I waited to get over the activation barrier and order my tacos. mmmmm, tacos.

The Fall Offensive

Yesterday was the last day on the KM. I was tired and really hungover (2 pitchers of PBR) so I was moving slow, and was able to really enjoy the view of the golf course shrouded in fog as I coasted down the hill. One of those magical mornings, not too much traffic, and fresh charge for the Ipod and Sufjan Stevens' Illinois. Another long day at work, punctuated by hosting Departmental Happy Hour. I selected the Schlafly Brewery's Lindsay's 80 Schilling for our drinking pleasure. Fine day for it on our little plaza, 80 degrees and sunny, no humidity to speak of and I managed to recover my 45 dollar investment. Today I walked because I had to pick up the red Trek. The Big Shark crue did the usual outstanding work. The wheels are actually straight and the front brakes actually work, they even re-taped the bars even though I didn't ask them too. I jumped on her and... I know that I had said that car ownership was inevitable and that I was going to have to surrender, but that was a lie. I see no reason to own a car when I could stand to lose another 20 pounds, and if I lose that much extra weight I'll be so fast I won't need a car except in extreme circumstances. Next month I will buy a new cyclocross bike, slap on some slicks and fenders and ride my ass off all winter. The Trek is looking a little tired so I'll have to strip off the paint, give her a new paint job. Red will be the dominant colour but I may paint the fork a nice creamy white . I think I will rebuild her as a single speed/fixed gear, with a Surly flipflop rear hub, just cause. I discovered these fine folks during some soul searching on the web: www.1lesscar.com I know I am buying a shirt or two.

I Surrendered (Almost)

It pains me to admit this publicly, but I actually attempted to buy a car today. Fortunately, fate intervened and the car had already been sold. Thank God, now I can return to a state of blissful ignorance about insurance rates and the price of a new water pump for a 1988 VW Fox. Unfortunately my bliss will only last until my housemate sees an advertisement for a cheap car and gets me all worked up again, the bastard. I know that weeknight trips to the climbing gym, the lumber yard, or the grocery store would be less of an operation if I owned a car, and that car ownership would not negate my ability to ride or walk to work on a daily basis, but car ownership is not something I feel really ready for. Cars seem to exist for the purpose of making people upset and for generating money for a lot of people who are not me. Purchasing a car in St. Louis includes 4% state and 4% city sales tax, in addition to a road worthiness inspection (please give money to the mechanic), emissions testing (and fee), licensing fee, property tax (how is that justified?) and state mandated insurance. Due to the high rate of felony car theft in St. Louis, it would have cost almost as much to insure the Fox for a year as its Kelly Blue Book value. I got a headache trying to understand the economics of that and just said forget it and returned my excess thoughts to conducting polymers and excess time to unleashing my orbital sander on an old chair. My housemate returned from travels and asked me if I had at least made an offer on the Fox, which spurred me to today's fruitless action.

My resistance is probably futile, and I am going to have to surrender to the process of car ownership at same point soon, attendant costs and all. The battle is finding an auto in reasonably good condition, that gets decent mileage and doesn't require a computer to repair. The Fox was probably ideal, and I am an idiot for not jumping on it like graduate students on free food. I suck at these sorts of big decisions, and as usual failed to act when presented with the opportunity for a good deal. Then again, I am sure another car that meets my needs, standards and budget is available, I just have to continue to look, and enjoy every blissful day of life without slavery to some vessel powered by infernal combustion. Like today. Mahalo.

Karate Monkey

The Red Trek is in the shop for its annual wheel truing and brake adjustment. I have never been good at either activity, even when I did my own bike maintenance on a regular basis. For 35 dollars and a week of time without my roadie I am happy to leave her with trained professionals at Big Shark Bicycles, and look forward to being able to stop with confidence, and I am sure the neighbors will be happy to not have me squealing down the hill at 7 am. Being without my trusty road bike has left me with a tough choice. Do I ride the Easton mountain bike or my housemate's Surly cruiser, the Karate Monkey? Since I am not Landon, with superhuman abilities, and the constant desire, to jump off, over and on to just about anything, the mtb just isn't practical in town, so the KM it is. With only one speed (32x20), a long wheel-base, 700cm wheels, and a very relaxed seat-tube angle I feel like I am riding the Cadillac ElDorado of bicycles. Despite her lack of tall gearing and its non-aerodynamic riding position I have enjoyed myself quite a bit on her. She's not bad for the run to the washateria and she is far superior to driving a car to work, and to be honest, its kind of fun to just relax and enjoy a more sedate pace on the daily rides. I have noticed more details in the gardens and houses along my route than I have in the past, well worth the extra 5 or 10 minutes it takes to get to work, or to get home. Sometimes, slow is good. Bicycles Uber Alles.

The Unintended Cute Butt Consequence

I try and extol as many people (especially women) as I can talk to about the virtues of commuting by bicycle. For the most part, I have altruistic motivations for this. Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, reduction in oil-consumption (and thereby reduction of the cost of feedstock chemicals, gas, diesel and heating oil, and therefore reduction in money for awful regimes in awful parts of the world), reduction of wear on the roads (reduction of money spent on road maintenance), reduction of traffic, and the list goes on. More bicycle commuters also means that more places will take cyclists needs seriously and have more incentive to install bike lockers and showers (not to mention bike racks). More cyclists means more people demanding dedicated bike lanes, and also an improved car-to-cyclist ratio (safety in numbers). There is an unintended consequence here as well, Butt Cuteness. As a non-attached, traditional male I have a vested interest in both maintaining a cute butt and having women around me with cute butts. You may judge me crass for saying this, but cute butts are attractive and butt maintenance takes time. In the busy world in which we inhabit, being able to commute to work, reduce stress by exercise, improve the environment and maintain a cute butt, all at the same time, is multitasking at its best. That cycling also improves the calves, waist, back and the all important cardiovascular system makes it hard to justify not cycling to work.