Chain Ring Cowboy

Capitalism: Take your profits and live with your losses. I get down on one knee to beg you, "Please don't pass the bailout". It's gonna hurt but it's not as bad as they make it out to be. Let the Free Market work this out. Hey, I may lose my cushy job, but I can do something. I bet there will still be bicycles to ride and gasoline to buy and cell phones for the kids to fondle all day and the rich will still be rich.

The experienced cyclist has learned, usually the hard way that risky behavior can lead to certain danger, like a crash. Going down a hill too fast to negotiate a sharp curve or not slowing down while heading into an intersection not checking for cross traffic until the last second is what I call risky behavior. If the cyclist’s hands are not close to the brake levers, the cyclist’s reaction time determines how quickly he/she can stop. Even if the hands are on the levers and at the ready, it may be too late to prevent a crash. At that certain moment when a crash is imminent, there is little to do but experience the crash and hope for the best while maintaining awareness so as to mitigate any major bodily harm. Usually harm is done, and usually it stays with the cyclist for life, like a scar or a tender joint when the barometric pressure changes. The point is the experience, once lived through is better for the cyclist in making decisions in the future as to how he/she will navigate arou...

When the sun rose this morning you could see that the place it made its first glimmer of appearance at your part of the world it was coming from due east. Assuming that you were up this morning and looking for the sun to peek over the horizon to kick off your new day, it may not be so terribly important to know just where due east is anyway. Equally, the sun will set at due west this evening as well, because today is the September Equinox, the first day of autumn. Yep, the sun's traverse today will cross the equator to the south at solar noon today. I would like to call that high noon, but don't think i am qualified to do that. For me the ride, I can now expect to experience cooler mornings, see more tractors and harvest activities. And that brings more aromas like cut alfalfa and chilies. Welcome Autumn 2008.

Austin Texas is a cool place to live and ride a bicycle. If you know Austin, you would think there are a lot more cool things about it than the riding tolerance. Culturally, it is one of the more progressive cities in the country. The public radio surpasses all the rest, especially around here in West Texas and South east New Mexico. BUT......... There is more to savor in life in this wide world. As the days get shorter, I find myself riding to work in darkness, something I am long accustomed to. When I would begin my ride in darkness in Austin, somewhere along the way it would all of a sudden be light. Dark, dawn, daylight, quickly transposed into another day. I ALWAYS welcome a new day! Here in El Paso I start my day in the car by pulling out of the garage which was already backed into the night before, it's good and dark. Dark that is except for like today a waning moon shines bright. The stars can still be seen through the residual moonlight, more so than can be seen in Austin ...

Saturday, we went for a walk for heart health awareness and had these fine officers controlling the traffic for us. The bicycle/walk path was way too narrow to accommodate all the walkers which caused the crowd to spill over into the street. There wasn't much traffic at that time of day, so I don't think it was a hindrance to automobiles. It was a fun time that set the tone for a day of volleyball and chores. On my way home from work Friday I was "squeezed by this truck. In my mind, I am certain that this driver was intentionally intimidating me by creeping into the bike lane just after his cab passed me. That is, the trailer was moving ever closer to me. By the time the rear tires were beside me, they were so close that I had no choice but to stop. The driver then eased back into his entire lane. This took place in Old Message, New Mexico, a small village-like town, where the traffic is fairly slow partially because of traffic lights and partially because it was rush hou...

You Can Ride Yes We Can Drill Baby Drill Now here’s what I would like for you to do. When I finish this sentence and every other sentence, before reading the following sentence, say You Can Ride; or any of the other three word mantras listed above. You Can Ride. It seems that the folks that gave speeches in both political conventions ended sentences with their chosen mantra. You Can Ride. It didn’t take long for the conventioneers to get the hang of it. You Can Ride. It reminded me of some sort of brain washing You Can Ride. Maybe it gets the crowd in some kind of frenzied trance. (Don’t forget to say it, You Can Ride). Then those of us watching go into a sedentary trance. (Keep going, You Can Ride). It may all have started long ago when television began piping in laughter letting us know what was supposed to be funny and queue our chuckles. It may be that today’s song lyrics contain three or four words sung over and over for maybe five minutes. Perhaps we have always been susceptible...

Rain in the west. I can't see the mountain, don't want to ride in the rain today. This ride, the 14 miler from Mesquite NM, to Las Cruces NM is a good ride in many ways, however there isn't much to write about. To report that I got a flat tire the other day and fell behind on schedule for 10 minutes just isn't going to get it in journaling. Oops, it just got there. 911 today, with reverence, the day will be remembered that the world was changed forever in many ways. Our man, who will soon be 37 has come out of retirement. Old news I know, but what bicycle blog site would go without mentioning Lance Armstrong and his bid to win 8 Tour De France titles. I really hope he can pull this off, I mean get in shape and be there for the competition. It doesn't matter yet to me if he wins or not. Lance is good for the sport and the cause for cancer awareness. He is going to be under the magnifying glass for doping and he is going to need to curtail his womanizing if he wants t...

The place where I park my car at around 6:20AM most mornings is 14 miles from the office. On that two lane road the traffic is anywhere from about 45 miles per hour to as high as 65. keep in mind this is a country road, so two lanes are pretty narrow. It is nice that the great majority of traffic gives a wide berth when overtaking me. Stern Road in a north westerly direction comes to and end, or tees with Union Avenue, which obviously presents a situation to where one has to either turn right or left. I go left, at least up to now because I don't know the town that well to risk getting to work late by exploring. Today as I negotiated getting into the left only lane and come to a stop at the red light, a guy in a car in the right turn only lane rolls down his window and asked me if I make this trip everyday. I told him yes, I try to. So we had a short conversation about distance and the like. He gave me a vote of encouragement. He said he noticed me everyday, that he passed me on hi...

Two Holidays In One Marcy and I celebrated our First Anniversary on Labor Day. Last year the wedding was on the Saturday before which made it to where I could stay another day in El Paso before going back to work in Austin. We still have our honeymoon to do. Now that I think about it, getting married on or around Labor Day may have been a great idea because we have long weekends. This particular Labor Day was spent as a pun, being that we did a lot of work around the house. We did get some great fun in also with my mom, dad, and aunt over to eat steaks on Sunday. We went to a festival as well, allowing us to enjoy some good food, music, and people watching. When the time came for Marcy and I to present anniversary gifts the decision was made for her to open her card first. Just as she was taking hers, the one I gave her out of the envelope, I could see a look of surprise on her face. I immediately figured it out that each of us had chosen the exact same card. That seemed to make the oc...

She emerged from the thaw of what used to be called permafrost. Hissing charm, forked tongue precedes the asp-esque slithering search for prey. Besetting with trance to feed of its own first before stalking the enemy