Archive for October, 2007
The only items i purchase in austin on a regular basis are groceries and vinyl. Other necessities, like clothing, toiletries, cleaning products and most bicycle components, are purchased from stores in fort worth.
Why do i do this? Why don’t i just swing by the local super target in austin and pick up what i need instead of waiting for my (almost) weekly visit to fort worth to buy what i need? traffic. i have an aversion to crowds, and all of the affordable stores seems to be located in extremely difficult to reach places. it seems that fort worth is really even more difficult to reach because it is 3 driving hours away, but since i’m going there anyway on days where i usually don’t have to work, then why not just run some errands?
i can’t true my own wheels, so i dropped my purple bianchi off at panther city bicycles, my favorite fort worth bike shop, and am missing it horribly. since my geared road bike (2001 bianchi veloce) has not yet been repaired, i’ve been riding mostly fixed or single speed at a ratio of 42/16. when i was sick, i felt tired so easily that it was discouraging to ride (especially since i should have been resting), but now that i’m feeling better, i’ve been feeling a lot stronger and have become more addicted than ever to riding daily. cycling is extremely addictive, and addicts love to talk about cycling.
while in west texas in january, i bumped into this retired fellow, george, who was in the middle of a cross country bicycle tour from mississippi to california. he was setting up camp at davis mountains state park when he saw me testing out the single speed mountain bike i had just finished building. i was tuning it up in preparation to its virgin ride when he yelled out to me “do you need some help? i have some tools.” when i looked up, i noticed that he didn’t have a car, and walked over to his site. he rode my bike and i oogled at his, a 30 year old lugged steel specialized expedition. after spending the evening at the macdonald observatory’s star party, we exchanged email addresses and have been keeping in touch ever since.
anyway, the experience piqued my interest in bicycle touring, so, in my mind, i’ve been building up a steel touring frame of my dreams… and i’m starting to considering creating this dream into a reality, one component at a time. where to start? i’ll need a frame, which i figured a surly long haul trucker would more than suffice… then i’ll need to choose a brand of components… and since i already have campy hubs, it seems that i might want to do campy… but what of the new sram stuff? then i’ll have to decided upon a pannier set… and a way to transport the bicycle on an airplane… a big travel bag? all of these things… get expensive… but i keep having dreams about riding this bike across europe and australia and new zealand that don’t seem to leave my mind.
loudubose.com is live and ready for action.
10.15.07
“growl”
my dog, ravine, is asleep below my chair. her back legs are twitching and her eyes are moving while closed. she yelped a bit a moment ago, and i wonder, what is she experiencing right now in her sleep? is she processing the day’s events like i do when i’m dreaming? is she thinking about the cat that scratched her face this morning? she’s awake and stretching now, like i wake when i have bad dreams.
i woke up this morning around 7 am to the sound of a guitar string settling on the guitar that hangs from the wall by my bed. it seemed a bit too warm, but the temperature read 76, so i figured the humidity causing the guitar’s shape to shift.
10.16.7
i’m sick, wah, so i’m at ben’s house taking it easy. i just put on the ryan adam’s heartbreaker vinyl… i should pick this up tonight from vinyl happy hour at waterloo… i love this record, one would think i should already own it.
last night, at the height of my fever, i decided i wanted to go snowboarding before i die. i’ve barely spent much time in the snow at all, really, just one winter trek in new mexico and another in yosemite. it doesn’t snow here any significant amount, which is why my dad moved to texas after his childhood in st. louis.
10.17.07
tuesdays night vinyl happy hour at waterloo records is becoming a staple to my austin diet. i’m currently listening to rogue wave’s new record “asleep at heaven’s gate” and am loving it. as long as my old technics turntable keeps on ticking, i’ll be frequenting the local records stores for the new releases. backspin records is right down the street from my house, but its moving to a new location on the east side. i’m glad that those guys are able to grow into a lager space, but i’m sad that i won’t be able to walk down the hill and search through their records when i’m in the mood. i picked up pinback’s new record last night as well, and i’m quite pleased with it. i’ve not given it as much airplay as the rogue wave album because it better fits my mood.
i’m feeling much better now. i’ve been resting and trying to drink a lot of liquids, but i get so ansy when i’m sick. i keep wanting to get out on my bike or take on projects around the house when i’m really still very exhausted. i work tomorrow, though, so that will get me out of the house. for the first time in my life, i don’t have health insurance. i suppose this is what i get for quitting my fancy full-time adult job to work at a coffee shop. i would go to the doctor, but i don’t think i feel like spending that much money to find out that i need to take a decongestant. if it doesn’t go away after a while to taking care of myself, then i suppose i’ll consider my options, but until then, i’m just going to pamper the hell out of myself and not be too active until i feel my energy come back to normal level.
my roommate left to for florida, so i have the house all to myself and Ravine the dog. it would be quiet except for the chugging train sound the air conditioner makes these days. i was going to come home from work, pack, and leave for ftw, but its so nice and quiet here and i’m so tired from work and bicycle riding that i’ve decided to sit down for a bit and relax.
today, i rode into work from 4th and congress. it was lunchtime, so everyone was going somewhere, but not somewhere very far, so the roads were pretty congested. riding downtown is always fun, but really stressful. with all the condos going up, there were a lot of big trucks kicking up particulates into my face where they get stuck in my eyelashes and sucked into my lungs.
i’m always worried that people can’t see me when i’m on my bike. drivers are weird about bikes sometimes. they don’t seem to know what to do. sometimes someone will just pace behind me at 20 mph even though they really could just go around. at first i think they need to turn and don’t want to cut me off, but then i realize they just don’t know what to do so they don’t do anything. they just pace behind me and ride the brake. other times, people will yell things while passing like the “i love to ride bikes” i heard come from a car on Lake Austin Blvd today. sometimes guys will whistle and / or make other kinds of “cat calls” as i pedal past. i’ve heard stories of cyclists that have had bottles or other things thrown at them, so, i suppose getting yelled at is nothing to really complain about. At least they can see me and try not to kill me with their bigger vehicles. its the people that can’t see me that i worry about. when trying to turn left at night on a two way street, i heard tires screech and turned just in time to see an SUV swerve into the right lane so as to not kill me. i have lights and reflectors and stuff, but those tiny patches of light aren’t what drivers are looking for. its not even what i’m looking for when i’m in my car, and i should know better. i’ve gotten close a couple of times to hitting cyclists (although one guy didn’t have lights or reflectors and was wearing all black) and its horrifying to think of hitting a person into traffic. i should know better because i’m a cyclist and i still get caught off guard by the tiny blinking lights at night. how should i expect any more from other drivers, most of whom aren’t city cyclists? really, all i can do is be smart and safe.
i’m going to try to plan a trip to chicago for the beginning of next year. its been a years since my last visit and i’m getting to miss the place. i miss a lot of places like that. this past winter, i really wanted to be in san francisco hanging out of haight in the cold. in the spring, i tend to miss santa fe. this summer, i missed hawaii a whole bunch although that trip was a nightmare. around christmas, i miss london and those crazy british accents that didn’t stop surprising me every morning.
my dog is chomping away at her raw hide and making lots of smacking and licking sounds right at my feet. when there are more people in the house, she tries to keep us all in the same room. she herds us together and wanders from one person to the other in order to get the most attention possible. she’s what we were looking for, really, when we agreed to get a dog. she sits with us like a part of the family and has more than enough energy to play. she has a godmother and a godfather who are good to watch and help out when needed. me and my roommate’s funny little family seems to be working out.
i was just going through some images leftover on my camera from my new mexico trip with my parents and came across this one. i spent a lot of time and digital memory on this dog. he was laying there amongst a crowd of people, squinting up every now and then, but overall seemingly disinterested in the commotion around him.
i’m so tired i don’t feel that i’ve got too much to say, but i wanted to write. i’ve really not had a chance at all to write and i think about things to say all the time, but now that i’m finally in front of my computer, i’m just spacing out and typing it all down.