Cranksgiving

Considering Thanksgiving that has gained notoriety for being surrounded by familey that you dont nesesarilly know, or have even the most remote desire to be around I gues it shouldnt come as a suprise that 70% of the people I have talked to about their "holiday" have had the same things to say. "fucking terrible, awful, boring, shitty, and catastophic failure" being among some of my favorite adjectives. My plan going into thanksgiving was simple. 1. Get tanked 2. Eat food 3. Ride bikes 4.Repeat 1 and 4 as nessecary. Nothing ever goes according to plan. 45 minutes into thanksgiving I began to get nervous and clam up. I suppose part of that has to do with no feeling like I can relate to 85% of my familey. It was an interesting portrate though. I got to hear midwestern living room politics, people talking about shooting deer and sharing the meat, I got asked the same questions inumerable times, my families trip to Peru was the hot ticket item of the afternoon, and I did get to gorge myself on all kinds of tasty food and desserts. Regardless, by the time we left I was elated to see the car again and hear its wheels turn towards my house.
When I got home I did everything within my power to make the best of a shitty holiday and geared up for a bike ride. It was really really good and I rode all over town. I found my new favorite place where you can see the lights of the whole city, and cars snaking their ways in and out of it. I just wish I could have had a better camera, phones are not good cameras. North side, west side, south side, bike crash, and back home. All in all a good 4 hours or so on my bike. It was really really good. I got home around a little after 9 and got bored fast. Fortunetly for me and a good portion of the population who are as disenchanted with thanksgiving as me bars were open. I met up with syd and amanda and a handful of other people at clancys and sat down for a pitcher. We all left for the GI and I found a hat sitting on a bench by my bike. I took it and put it on my head. The thought crossed my mind that it could have been soaked with urine or vomit and I wouldnt have know because I was wearing mittens. I lucked out and didn't even get head lice. Some times you win.

Holidays are strange. The city goes quiet and only a few select places are open. So while some people stay home the rest of us sneak into the places that we can to try to find something outside of the normal holiday stuff. Its kind of curious to see the garbage sit on the curb for an extra day, and letters sit in mailboxes waiting to be sent out. Every car you see is given a persona. It is taking someone somewhere special. Even if it is only to the gas sation, it is the gas station of Thanksgiving miracles. And when you dont have that direction or that presumed sense of magical holiday purpose it is wierd to sit around waiting for time to pass so you can get back into a "real" situation again. Something that is much more familar and comfortable than your aunts
house eating pumpkin pie, and dinner rolls from a bag. Thus I find myself sitting in a booth in a bar that I usually don't go to. Buying drinks with someone elses money, wondering just how it is that one person can be so mind numbingly awful. Luckily for me I was also there with very good people as well, and the night ended with a good conversation with Julia and a quick ride home to a bed I had made earlier when I thought the evening would end short.

So thats it. I suppose it was nothing to painful, but I just think that thanksgiving is a very strange holiday and I'm not sure how much I enjoy it anymore. And Im not sure how much anyone can really enjoy it when they have enough other things on their mind. Maybe this saterday when I visit the other half of my familey (2 people) it will be a little less painful. I know we will order Chinese food, have a pumpkin pie, and my granma will as me about who I am seeing these days, am I on drugs, and what I plan to do after college. I will weasle my way through all of these questions, and make my move for the fortune cookies.

speak well

You: Saturday, better?





Everyone else: I want to ride bikes all day Thursday after stuffing myself and drinking a bunch. So if you are in town and want to tear it up tell me via telephone. We can go on a long ride to somewhere outside of town, or around town, whatever.

ride the frightning

Seen outside of the library this morning. The reason I hate geared bikes. Anyway, whats new. Things have been going very slowly recently. Still havn't been to a Thursday night ride or a critical mass in months due to work and stuff. The year is closing in fast which means lots of work and change. The other night i was riding home when it began to snow, and I decided that it would be a better idea to just ride my bike around town for a few hours instead. Its really fun to ride around on warmer winter nights with fresh snowfall. Light reflects off the snow and its really really quiet because everyone is hiding in their houses. I love it.

I dont have much else to say other than I am very hungry and I hope everyone is still planning on riding on thursday, aka thanksgobbin. I will be drunk on food and booze all day. do it.

intro

Ride bikes ride bikes ride bikes.
because it is
cold cold cold
and riding bikes late at night makes you
warm warm warm
inside and out.



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97024808 thanks corey
http://fixedgeargallery.com/2008/nov/3/OlliErkkila.htm yes yes yes



I finally have very little on my plate to do other than work and a few more small projects. i fee like a lot of

search

I wrote this last night and am copy and pasting it, so take that into conetext. "tonight" is now last night.

There are a few things that have been on my mind. So I will list them in the order in which I thought about them.

First off thank you to all the people that showed up on Saturday. I know it was kind of last minute but we got a lot of ground work done. I’m sorry that I had to leave early, but it was my grandma’s birthday, and there was free cake. A lot of people asked me about it post-facto so here are some of the basics of what we are trying to do.

We have a bunch of bikes that we have had donated or found that have been piling up. The idea is to begin a bike co-op that will supply bikes to those who need them as a means of transportation, but also teach people how to do basic maintenance and give them a chance to learn more and help out. One of the ideas we’ve thrown around is basically an “earn a bike” program where you would put in X amount of hours of helping work on bikes and learning to do maintenance in exchange for a bike. This way people who get bikes not only get them, but are much more likely to be able to fix them up on there own instead of abandoning them, or needing to pay to get them fixed. Other bikes may be fixed and sold at low cost to help buy parts that we can’t salvage.

Needless to say this is a kind of big project that will probably take a little time, and require a lot of help from volunteers. Keep in mind that things are just getting started, but we would love to hear your ideas, and have you hang out and work on projects. We will be meeting again next Saturday at noon for anyone interested. If you have any other questions feel free to contact me and I will try to get you back ASAP.

I would also like to give props to Dan and Zack and the other main organizers for inviting me this Saturday and working hard to get this ball rolling. It is a really cool little community in the bike circle, and I love the fact that people are supportive of each other. There isn’t a single person in the cycling community that I can think of that hasn’t put in as much time and effort or at least interest and kind words as they could. And there isn’t a single person I think feels like they have “something to prove” to any one else. Having a relatively drama free supportive environment is something that I don’t think a lot of communities have. And I hope we can have it for a long time.

Tonight after work I rode my bike to Nates Dungeon to catch a show. I feel bad because I don’t have enough money to feed myself let alone to pay, but it was really fun anyway. I realized that I still like hardcore. Sometimes I forget that I actually really like listening to Icons of Filth, Dystopia, Dystrophy, To What End?, etc. etc. Granted I don’t play it as much as I used to I still love it and it shaped a huge part of my life and who I am. No I don’t know if I could listen to hardcore non-stop like I used to, but I don’t think I could ever stop likening it to. It’s another one of those cool things to go to look back at and think about the first time I drove to Eau Claire for a basement show and wished that I didn’t need to leave, or at least lived closer. Riding home I realized once again how lucky I am to have that scene a 10 minute bike ride away. I guess it makes me an interloper, but it is fun to be able to go to hardcore shows and see people who still love hardcore like the first time they heard it. Come home listen to Bolt Thrower for 15 minutes, and then drink tea and listen to American Football. I don’t really know what I am getting at other than I like going to shows, even when they are kind of empty and it’s the same bands I’ve seen 10 times before. There is something special in it, and I hope it never goes away. O yea, there is another show next Sunday, go to it.

On my ride home I also realized how cold it was. It was 18 degrees according to the sign at the bank. I forget that part of the challenge of riding bike in the winter is the obscene cold coming out of no where. It is the less glamorous part I suppose. There is something fun about riding your bike in the shittiest conditions, through rain or snow. That gets lost on calm nights with starry skies and sub-zero temperatures. When all you can think about is being cold. There is no snow to fight, or tire tracks to stay in, just you and the sky and the cold. Then it is fun to realize that as shitty as it is you can always factor some things out of the equation. Yes, my mittens are a little to big, and a lot to thin, but the street lights are pretty and it is a long hill with no stop lights. Yes, my zipper is broken and I can feel wind through my coat, but it is dead quiet except for the sound of tires on pavement and the occasional car driving by. It’s a bit of a trade off, but it is also really empowering. “Braving the elements” simply to be with the elements, and to feel the elements, and exist within them. We are not meant to hide inside all winter, we are not meant to never be cold or come inside and sweat, or be tired. And it feels good to feel those things and then get to where you are going and know that you got there on your own terms.

Yes this is also suppose to be a metaphor that can be taken out of context, and yes it is also suppose to be an insightful look at how I’m feeling right now. I am still in a really hectic, kind of confusing, but really exciting time. And I am looking at the things that I feel and see going on around me and wondering why a lot of them feel the way they do. And realizing that after a while its easy to get caught up in wondering, and wondering can take priority over being and feeling. That said I am so excited about the days and weeks to come for a plethora of reasons, and no matter what happens next I am happy to have it.


Finally I found a abandoned bike off of the bike trail the other day. It is a blue Team Miyata. If you believe that this may be yours I have it locked up at my house right now safe and sound, and I encourage you to contact me.

That’s all.

white stuff

It is snowing outside. That is exciting, and a little nerve wracking. It is awesome because I love winter, and I am looking forward to sweaters, days under the covers, riding bikes into snow banks, falling over, getting wet, getting dry, hot coco, hot cider, movies, people saying "kind of cold out to be doing that isn't it?", snow balls, snow forts, boots, mittens, hats, and all kinds of other stuff. But it is also a pain in the ass. it is cold and wet, and a constant reminder that thinhs need to get done. The semester is "winding down" and projects galore must be done, in the snow and cold. In any case I am excited for this weekend because it is much much needed. Hopefully it will be snowy and cold and we can ride bikes and play outside and get wet and shitty, then go inside, make lots of food, and drink, and be warm together. Show up Saturday for the bike repair thing. I can't stress how good of an opportunity i think this might be for us to organize a bunch of stuff, and just play with bikes and teach/learn from eachother. Agains contact me (715)703-0775 with any questions.

Have a good day and ride safe, its scary out there.

hey you

This Saterday there will be abunch of us getting together to work on bikes to give away to people who have no way to get around town. It will be happening from probobly 2-4pm at banbury place. Door 17, go to the basement. This is going to be really really fun for a bunch of reasons.

1. We get to hang out and work on bikes.
2. You can scrounge around for parts /bikes that you want to repair or ride for the winter
3. You get to work on your own projects if you want.
4. you get to feel good about yourself for doing something nice.
5. It shows the city that we are doing something other than breaking traffic laws, and riding with wreckless abandon.

Needless to say I think this will be really fun. Contact me or Zach barnes if you have any questions. Or just show up and work/play on Saterday. DO IT!