a quality of life issue

Bill Brady photo

RAGBRAI 2014 is rolling as we speak
the pilderwasser collective is having a great time
wish I was there

looking to the future through the framework of the past
not really looking back but being aware of what's behind
looking over shoulder without plowing into parked car
fucking it up and taking notes as to never do it again
looking in the cheesy little rearview mirror
that is distorted by memory
feeling phantom
n o s t a l g i a
syndrome

Red Rooster Bicycle   142 NW Canal Street   is for sale 

the current owner is looking to sell the shop in the next couple months as he prepares for a round-the-world bike tour.  the buyer can take over the location and inventory. Seriously for real. Really.

If you've ever worked in a bike shop or spent some time around bikes you gotta admit the thought has at least crossed your mind. Then you do some math and the thought goes away.

The idea has come up in my mind more than a few times over the past 12 years or so. 

 Rainier Beach is the new Central District 

AFP photo from Velonews  

Although I've never been a Contador fan I do not mean to discount the terrible nature of his crash, the severity of his injuries and his long road to recovery. Going from the peak of racing form and conditioning to a hospital bed sucks.

Contador dropped out of the Tour, has a broken leg and needs surgery but his broken bike frame seems to be getting way more attention.  Which kind of makes sense to me because I'm giving the busted bike way more of my attention.

Bike racing has been around as long as bikes have been around. People that make bikes want people to buy their bikes and one of the best ways to get consumers to see those bikes is to put the bikes under really fast riders in really big races.

The theories and speculation on how and why Contador's bike frame broke are amusing to me and the evolving "official" stories from Specialized are even more amusing.  

this is Neil's new pilderwasser T-shirt released into the wild yesterday and a photo of it in situ may follow someday but for now there's a photo of it drying on a lawnchair in the sun. simple and understated yet profound and meaningful.

still waters run deep. 

choose the blue
free refills on your prescription
as long as you don't ask questions

choose the red
and you're on your own
to push the river of question without answer 

kickstand #19 Fall 2004       $37.00

this handy piece of bike messenger history comes with a one-of-a-kind gently used real deal retro made in Canada Windsor Wear short sleeve base layer (90% wool 10% nylon) mens small snuggly and wicked warm featuring the kickstand #8 cover design silkscreened by hand on the front. this base layer will look good in the rain after a cross race in November under your jersey. it's much like something Mike Neel might have worn on a chilly autumn fixed gear training ride as seen on the cover of kickstand #19.

 kickstand #11 Spring 2000     $39.00

this heaping helping of Seattle messenger history, the dickstank issue, from the salad days of zine production chock full of photos of your friends that are now attorneys and doctors. it's one of two original notarized copies known to still exist in captivity and comes with a one-of-a-kind dickstank T-shirt featuring the understated one word design silkscreened by hand front & center on a mens medium slim fit Hanes comfort blend tagless T-shirt 60-40 cotton-poly blend. this shirt will look good at a summer wedding reception under a bowling shirt as seen at Matt & Clair's wedding. 

 I am ready to sell out.

prices include shipping in the USA or hand delivery via bicycle if you live on my habitrails

PayPal is OK but please make sure they're not sold before you send payment. My cutting edge inventory tracking system is highly sophisticated but has a considerable lag time.

There is only one of each set available.

email me maybe

pilderwasser at msn dot com

sometimes the bike commute is the best part of the work day

and that's OK

220 221      whatever it takes

 ...These events play out not on the grand stage of history but the small rooms of his workplace and home. The deepest lesson of “Stoner” is this: What makes a life heroic is the quality of attention paid to it.

...there is something distinct and thrillingly subversive in the resurgence of “Stoner.” I am no doubt overstating the case, as fanatics do, but I find it tremendously hopeful that “Stoner” is thriving in a world in which capitalist energies are so hellbent on distracting us from the necessary anguish of our inner lives. “Stoner” argues that we are measured ultimately by our capacity to face the truth of who we are in private moments, not by the burnishing of our public selves. It is, in other words, a searing condemnation of our current cultural moment — one that happens to have been written nearly 50 years ago.

New York Times Magazine ---you should read this book

approaching it from another angle
arriving at the same conclusion
take my hypotenuse              please

queue Morgan Freeman voice-over wikipedia quote here:

"By combining multiple observers, theories, methods, and empirical materials, researchers can hope to overcome the weakness or intrinsic biases and the problems that come from single method, single-observer and single-theory studies."

the dream usually takes a variation on the theme of riding to work still groggy and all the street names have changed but the signs look the same and I don't notice because I pay no attention to street names I just follow patterns and lines and cut through parks and then I'm at work and things look the same but the smell is slightly off in an amusing way and  nothing seems too challenging until I go to true a wheel and the spoke wrenches don't fit although they appear to be the same old sizes red green & black just like the day before only none of them do the trick except the rounding-off-strip-the-nipple trick and then and then and then I realize it's not a dream    

what day is it?

the street names haven't changed but all the houses have been torn down and each one replaced with 4 three-story town houses and several multi-family mixed-use street-level retail off-street parking buildings near the light rail stations 

today I rode an urban utility bike to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. I have no high resolution photos or slow motion video or diagrams to document the trip but I'm pretty sure it actually happened.

They say cleaning your bike is like cleaning your toilet is like cleaning your teeth --- if you stay on top of it, it's no big deal but if you let 7 years slide by, it kinda sucks.