To the Bikes! (S-Works Venge with Enve Wheels)

After you get done reading the previous post about desperately lonely girls and their hobbyhorses in Finland (or not), you can cleanse your palate with a photo of this glorious bicycle, which has found a loving home with me.

Adoption can be expensive, so I will maybe miss the kidney I had to sell to pay for it, but it rides like a dream. I am very slightly less slow now. And I look good.

If you are curious, this is a custom-built S-Works Venge frame / Aerofly cockpit / Power saddle /  Ultegra di2 groupset / Enve SES AR4.5 Disc wheels laced to Chris King hubs.

Tubeless Hutchinson Sector 28 tires, which I will likely use again, as they have performed well for me. Geared 52/36 in the front, and 11-28 in the rear. The bike is very fast. Not with me on it, but in general, it is fast. And it is a lot of fun to ride.

What the fuck is this?

I couldn't get much past the headline, but if you can, and it makes any kind of sense, then please let me know. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/world/europe/finland-hobbyhorse-girls.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

I Do Not Have a Car Right Now

For the first time in many years I do not have a car. I returned the car that I had leased, and the car that I wanted was not available with an automatic transmission in a color that I liked. So I had to order it, and that takes a long time (ETA is the first week of June, and I put the order in six weeks ago). So here we are.

I did the math and the best financial option was to return the lease and to rent / rideshare / bike / walk until the new car is available. There are a few things about this that make it easier for me than for most people:
- I do not have a commute to work. The only place I commute every day is to the gym, and it is about 4 miles away. Not the easiest bike ride because of city streets and rush hour, but it is workable.
- You can get almost anything delivered to your house these days, including groceries.
- I live a 5 minute bike ride from a grocery store.
- The weather this time of year tends to be bike friendly, although I could do with less wind. A LOT less wind.
- I have a nice bike, and I can afford all the tools, and can do most of my own maintenance. (Adjusted the real derailleur this week, thank you very much.) So I am not grinding it out on a beach cruiser.
- It is very easy to get an uber or to rent a car if I need a ride or to drive somewhere.

You will notice that I did not mention anything about public transportation. That is because the public transportation system where I live is trash, because Orange County wants to do as little as possible for people that do not or cannot drive. This is why south Orange County in particular sucks: it's not bike or pedestrian friendly, there is no public transport, and everything is strip malls.

That's my big update for the week. My friend asked me how it was going and so far it's fine. I will revisit this in a few weeks after the overall inconvenience has had a chance to sink in. We will see. I will probably rent a car for a few days at a time to do stuff like big shopping at the grocery or if I have a meeting that requires I drive. Now excuse me while I get ready for my gym bike ride.

Work Travel Sucks the Life Out of You

Hi! In the past three weeks I have been to Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City (one trip per week). It was exhausting. I will say more about all that when I have something interesting to say about it.

In the meantime here is a video about an octopus that is funny. The narration is kind of lame, and the music is dumb, so maybe just watch this baby genius with the sound off and have a nice chuckle while it 'walks' across the sea floor.

Yikes - a month?

I have been very busy the past couple weeks, and also not done anything worth posting about.
People remain dumb, but here is some online dating video goodness from the 80s. I'm sorry.

More later.