Super Late August BLAHG
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The BLAHG probably needs some tightening. It I shouldn't use it to vent. Ye shall see changes.
Here's how I see it:
If a topic or a thought on a topic or observation is below the pink line, it's too boring and normal for the BLAHG. That's how it has been and is with most things in my life. Only the intense stuff makes it here. I have enough intensity, I wish I had less, I really want to get to that point.
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Astrid:
I'm really sorry I have to be a d*ck about this, so controlling, so pushy, so obnoxiously confident about ME, who doesn't know YOU, thinking I know what you'll LIKE to watch on ye old telly or computer and getting a charge out of turning you onto it. I try to not do that because I don't love (but also don't hate) being on the receiving end of it, and yet here I am unable to stop myself. But for the love of G-D, try an episode of Astrid. There's a free trial. period, after which they ding you $6 a month (unsubscribe any time, I think is the deal). This is the last time I'll bring it up, promise. Just...
It is intensely good.
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BIKE STUFF
We're getting a seven-speed cassette, 13 x 42. It has 7-speed spacing. It will work with a 7-sp chain and we'll have those, too; and it'll also work with an 8sp chain. Maybe a 9sp chain. We'll have at least the sevens and nines..and we have tens, which work with 9s and probably 8s, and if the tens work with the 8s, I'd bet the 9s'd work with the 7s.
It will fit on a 9sp hub, you just need a 4mm spacer, and we'll have those. I'll try it out before we sell them, but nothing I think I understand about any of this suggests it won't work, and I am super thrilled about this. It pulls the chain away from a quite fat tire, helpful under rare circumstance. It offers all the gears you need, maybe still more.
It's NOT life-changing, but it's good, and its a stick in the nose of those who think more is better, and the more they give you, gearswise, the more there is to have to skip over or just not use. But, I or we will try it and see how it goes. Dear G_d, let it go well.
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MORE BIKE STUFF
Those Jim's G.O.A.T. gloves should be here by late September. The L size seems to fit 90 percent of adult males, and yet...we're going to have xs, s, m. L, xl, 2x. We'll have a sizing chart, but I think anybody will be able to fit three sizes.
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BIKE STUFF STILL
We're getting more Captain Hook Nets in. And I made my own alternative, shown in the last BLAHG. It's not competition. You don't have to love or lock in to only one way to keep your load in a bouncing basket. The net is more "visually/theoretically secure." The V-V strap is a hair quicker and allows better access to your load, like if it's in a ShopSack and you don't zip it and want to get at it two seconds faster or while you're riding, which I am not recommending you do, even though I do it every day of my life.
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BIKEWEAR STUFF:
We're so used to not having knickers in -- it's been three or four years -- that another five or six months doesn't seem so bad. We're getting them again, in new hues. They will be, to steal a hokey phrase from L.L. Bean, "built tough to go the distance." They should last you seven years of daily wear, and they're light enough and wonderful for riding.
Pants too, shorts too. I'm thinking this: If I were not me but I liked riding a bike anyway, and I was getting away from spandex and wanted bottoms that my partner didn't necessarily love but were tolerable and he/she would get used to, I'd have a few variants of these lying around in a heap, ready to grab & don at the drop of a hat. Just watch for them, is all.
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I'm assuming the team working on our rear derailer is chipping away at it, but I don't want to bug either of them. Neither is the buggable type, if I may be frank.
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They never have been, never will be. We should all be not buggable, but I am regretfully not.
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Bike content, by the skin of its teeth, and even that's stretching it:
Here are the lyrics to a traditional (author not known) English song,
Oranges and Lemons
Oranges and lemons
Say the bells of St Clement's
You owe me five farthings
Say the bells of St Martin's
When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey
When I grow rich
Say the bells of Shoreditch
And when will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney
Oh I do not know
Say the great bells of Bow
Here comes a candle
To light you to bed
And here comes a chopper
To chop off your head
Say the bells of St Clement's
You owe me five farthings
Say the bells of St Martin's
When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey
When I grow rich
Say the bells of Shoreditch
And when will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney
Oh I do not know
Say the great bells of Bow
Here comes a candle
To light you to bed
And here comes a chopper
To chop off your head
It was sung as part of a children's game, and they acted out the lines. There are lots of different versions, and it goes back at least to 1657, which, in America before it was America, was when the Spanish were taking over and bringing horses, which the Comanche got into and stole and traded for, then bred their own, and without horses there would be no tipis (or teepees, or tepees--all those spellings are correct)--since horses allow them to follow buffalo migrations, and that meant they needed packable shelter-tents.
Record albums used to sometimes have "liner notes" — just random stuff not made into a song. In a 1963 album liner notes, Bob Dylan does his own version, which must have been inspired by Oranges and Lemons, I would guess:
the underground's gone deeper
says the old chimney sweeper
the underground's outa work
sing the the bells of New York
the underground's more dangerous
ring the bells of Los Angeles
the underground's gone
cry the bells of San Juan
but where has it gone to
ring the bells of Toronto
Speaking of chimney sweepers, I read once, back in 1979 or so, that Greg LeMond once was one. Can anybody verify that? Greg, if you're reading this, PM me. Seriously.
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The Peace Wheel shirts are still going fast, our most popular shirt ever, and what a nice message, these days especially. Bikes and Peace. You can look gruff and slobbish like I generally (always) do, and still send a message to the world that everybody likes...nobody's going to think you're a bad person or unfriendly in the least when you sport one of these.
The Grocery Guy link is there on that page, too. Four days left for it, and we match your contribution x 1.5. You give $10, he gets $15. You buy ten of them for $100, he gets $150. It'll all be good no matter, and thanks for your help, and isn't it kind of fun?
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One more thing. Charlie and Jacquie are still looking for help, the need will continue probably indefinitely, and they appreciate every dollar. When you donate thru Sept 17 we'll credit your account half that. To make sure you get credit, sign your name RBW First Name/Last Name Zip Code, and we'll credit your account by September 28, latest.
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Did you read Will's email update? It's always good, and he's writing more, which is also good.
OK!
Next Blahg might have some interesting stuff. I'm on a 2-per-month schedule, it seems.
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