Support something entirely unrelated to me or bicycling

Now that I have your attention, I am donating 4 loaves of bread to support the SolstiCelebration. The loaves are going as a set, no bidding on individual loaves but you can bid as a group for the lot and then divvy up the spoils amongst yourselves.

The auction runs until 12/13 and you can only get delivery local to me, because there are no preservatives in this bread so anything short of Santa’s Sleigh^tm isn’t going to be fast enough to prevent spoilage, you have 5 days or so to eat this from the time I bake it before it goes bad, unlike store-bought bread that may take 5 days to get to the store before you buy it. This bread will be baked by me the day of delivery and either you come pick it up at my church, or I deliver it in Garland, or the third alternative is to pick it up at the SolstiCelebration at the Cathedral of Hope. If you choose that option the bread will be on the red bicycle ridden by a penguin, make sure you get the bike with the penguin

PSA Opus

More shameless begging

OK I am in serious need of some charity here.

Part the first is my computer, which is dying. The CD-ROM drive is dead and fails to recognize a disk in the drive which makes fixing the OS problematic, which is another problem I have with my computer. I can’t access my MySpace page or talk to any of my friends there until I upgrade my browser, which requires I upgrade my OS which requires I have a computer that can reboot and also a working CD-ROM drive. The rebooting issue is a problem because I can’t shut down the computer because of a flaky power supply that works for as long as it isn’t turned off, but sometimes doesn’t want to restart after being shut down. What that boils down to is the ‘puter is on its last legs.

Part the second, I need to get some fenders for Gigi. I’m getting tired of shoes full of water when the wet stuff is on the streets or falling from the skies and then on the streets. Also Gigi would stay a lot cleaner and would look better if mud and clag would stay confined in the area of the tires instead of getting sprayed all over the bike. And safety would be enhanced if the front tire wasn’t throwing water and road grime in my face when my speed exceeds 13 MPH. If I wasn’t wearing glasses it would be different but after a few minutes of road gunk getting sprayed in my face my outward visibility is drastically impaired.

Third is this:

I have been asking about getting it made into a tattoo, but I have zero budget and I have been quoted prices ranging from $250 to $2000 to get it made beautiful. It’s not just the ugly scar that is the problem, there is also what the scar represents in my mind. Every day I get up with huge scars, both on my body and in my mind and psyche, while the guy that tried to kill me gets up with no consequences for his actions whatsoever, except whatever karma has placed on him in this life. I’m tired of the ugly reminder that someone tried to kill me because I was there doing something that had absolutely no negative impact on his life whatsoever, and he gets to live his life while I’m scarred physically and mentally and unable to work. So, what I’m asking for here is either a tattoo to make it beautiful, or plastic surgery to make it go away. I’ll still be physically and mentally scarred, but at least I won’t have that monster reminding about it me every day. And it will then remind me that there are people that care.

PSA, Opus

More stuff I need

I’m laying out the pattern for a Coro-gami pannier set trying to make it big enough to take Gigi out camping with me, and I realize that to make this work for both groceries and camping stuff I’m going to need… more stuff!

Specifically I need 2 4′X8′ sheets of 10mm Coroplast to make this work. Color is not a big thing, red or yellow either one will work fine, white will not look as good but will also work fine (Gigi voted for red BTW to go with her orange-red frame paint). When I was doodling this originally I figured I could do the thing with one sheet of 10mm and still somehow manage to get 2 layers of cross grain laminations, but after doing the layout for just the outer layer and having to juggle the numbers several times to get it to fit on a 4′x8′ sheet (it can be done but I had to severely squish my 1970s vintage Dutch Army sleeping bag to make sure it would go) and only having a small bit left over to make a fender from or something. The inner layer would have to be done on a separate sheet of Coroplast.

Now as to why I’m using not just Coroplast but 2 layers of 10 mm Coroplast? Well it’s complicated. This is a project to let me expand my grocery shopping radius, but in order to do that I needed some way of getting ice cream home before it melted, or milk before it went bad. In other words I needed an insulated cooler on my bike. I also found a web site (since taken down) that describe how a man in either England or Australia made an ice chest from 2 layers of Coroplast laminated cross grain with a piece of aluminum foil between to act as a radiant barrier, and it worked as well as the store bought version for less than half the price. Then I saw where someone had built a house from Coroplast that was self-supporting just from the 4 walls and floor made from 12mm Coroplast, and I put 2 and 2 together and got pi so I went back and worked on it until I got 4 The guy that made the cooler used 3M 77 contact adhesive on the foil and the coro to get a sturdy lamination.

Edit: I just checked the Coroplast web site and they don’t make the red or yellow 10 mm any more, just white black and bright blue. Gigi says no blue.

PSA, Opus

I need some help here

I need some assistance. My church is having our annual Patron Auction, where we chose the deity, abstraction, or person who best embodies our goals and aspirations for the coming fiscal year.

I am representing Hermes, and I need some help with my costume. I have the white tunic, form-fitting of course, but I need some help finding a white kilt or short skirt that could be worn as a kilt. I have a 36″ waist and no hips/butt to hold things up unless there is sufficient friction from a tight waistband. I would prefer something non-scratchy, but for the couple of hours I would have to wear this costume scratchy could be tolerated. This could be either a loan or a gift as you prefer. I’m having to do a lot of research on this, and the white tunic/kilt combination is the safest outfit I could find (from the classical statues and pictures on urns and vases, it appears Hermes wasn’t real fond of wearing clothing, the kilt and tunic seem to be the most clothes he wore at any one time).

If you can help me with this by this Saturday leave me a comment and I will get back with you ASAP.

Begging nicely, Opus

Yes I know I’m Old School

But I would rather be Old School than No Class.

Where is all this leading, well my bike gloves finally fell to pieces right before Father’s Day so I was given a small amount of cash to purchase new ones. all I could find were these spandex backed things that while they are comfortable and all just lack the, wait I’ll remember, je ne se quois, of crochet back bike gloves. And I’m losing my checkerboard tan lines with these things. And truth be told that’s half the reason I wear bike gloves, the other half being I like keeping the skin on my palms if the front tire washes out and I go pavement surfing. I ride recumbent, I don’t need fancy padded bike gloves to keep my hands from hurting.

My favorites, the ones that just fell to pieces, were a set of Planet Bike gloves with a Kevlar reinforced palm that really did the job keeping the skin intact the one time I went pavement surfing with them. I got up and my hands were fine and you could hardly even tell I had been sliding on my palms. They make a cosmetically similar glove, but it lacks the Kevlar palm of my favorites. Generally a pair of gloves will last 2 years, but I think these lasted 3 because of the limited amount of riding I did when the Stratus blew up in 2007. That is another blog post entirely.

So, Planet Bike or any bike glove manufacturer, I still need a pair of Old School crochet back gloves with a heavy leather (or Kevlar reinforced) palm and minimal padding. Color is of minimal concern, just no World Champion stripes, I haven’t earned them and around here they can be misinterpreted and get a guy beaten up. There are already enough homophobes that think I’m gay just because I ride a “funny” bike, I don’t need rainbow stripes to confirm it in their eyes.

Billed @$.02, Opus

You aren’t clicking my button

Hey, just a reminder I need as many of you as possible to click the button for the cargo bicycles so I can get me a bike for hauling my groceries around. I’m getting tired of the backpack, and the ice cream melts before I can get it back in the freezer. So click that button and go to the Madsen company and maybe buy one of their bikes. I want the Bucket in Cream. I figure if I start with a color that is already close to white it will last a bit longer with all the UV and ozone out here, but I want that bin over the rack only bike, more options in loading.

Opus

My new button, get me a new bike

In the sidebar to the right you will see a new button with a logo. If you click that enough you will provide me with a new bicycle, suitable for hauling things around like mass quantities of groceries. Trust me on this one, it’s a cute bike, if you like the long, husky look on a bike. I don’t get bikes for their looks, I get them because they can move me, or in this case a couple weeks worth of groceries including the frozen foods and the big bags of cat food and kitty litter. With that kind of cargo capacity it could look like Quasimodo in drag and I would still ride it.

And if you click this link MADSEN Cargo Bikes I’ll get another chance at the bike. While you are there take a look at the bike(s) and check out the cargo capacity of one

Pastafarians need a cycling jersey

I was looking up my stats like I do every day, and I found a search term that has been right near the top of the list for over a month now, with an average of 2 hits a day using this string: “flying spaghetti monster cycling jersey”.

To which I say, “Hell yes!” What better deity for cyclists than sentient pasta? We live and die by complex carbohydrates and I can’t think of a better masculine deity than the FSM. For those not informed we already have a pre-roman mountain goddess to act as our feminine deity, the Lady Ghisallo.

For those who say the FSM is a made-up deity with no basis in the “real” world I say, “Yeah, so?” The existence/non-existence of a deity is unprovable as a matter of scientific fact, so why not believe? As theologies go the FSM has one of the least objectionable ones in existence with a complete ban on proselytizing and other rude practices. That’s because it was created by an engineer, a person who deals in logic. Where any faith is required it also requires compassion and comes right out and says there will be no further “enlightenment” forthcoming so if you hear voices telling you the FSM wants you to do something it’s either mental illness or advanced technology. That’s so cool, “I have already said everything I need to tell you, so if anyone tells you they got the word directly from Me they are nuts and can be ignored.”

So if anyone decides to make a FSM cycling jersey, send me one and a link to where others can buy it, and I’ll help promote it.

PSA, Opus

I still need a job

I’m still unsuccessful at finding gainful employment. Hell I’m unsuccessful at finding people that would let me work for free.

To quote “Kim Possible” here’s the sitch:

I have brain damage. This means that I have difficulty communicating verbally which gets worse as I get stressed. It also means that my response to situations is not always logical, or even makes much sense. I sometimes come away from an encounter wondering what the hell happened. Interestingly this seems to only affect my interactions that require verbal communications, written and e-mail communications are not affected, and if I start to get stressed I can go get a cup of coffee or something.

Second part is I also have nerve, muscle, and circulatory damage to my left leg, which means I can’t stand, sit, or lay down for long periods of time IOW I have to be able to get up and move around as needed to keep my leg from becoming an overstuffed sausage skin. Sitting or laying down I’m good for about 2 hours before I have to take a break, standing about a hour max, with a 15 minute break for a brisk walk or bike ride. Sitting 2 hours I can get by with a 5 minute brisk walk to get the circulation back in my leg, but I do better with 5 minutes every hour. That also works out well with the “getting a cup of coffee” thing in the previous paragraph. Also ladders are right out, imagine how you would feel if you got halfway up a ladder or on top of one and all of a sudden you lose the sensation in your left foot, including the sense where it is in relation to the rest of your body. Yeah, I get scared and I’ve been scarred.

Third thing is I wasn’t very social before I was hit with a truck, and brain damage didn’t help that any at all. I can interact via e-mail and written communications but actually talking to people is very uncomfortable for me now, and not just because of the verbal communications issues. This is a pre-brain damage issue which made me more comfortable with machines than people.

So, there you have it. I only need part-time employment if that helps any, totaling about $7k/annum. I also need unlimited access to free coffee, a full pot or 2 a day. I used to drink 10 to 12 12 oz cups of espresso a day, actually they were lattes with triple to quintuple shots of espresso but you get the idea. I do have skills as a computer operator, I can weld and braze ferrous metals, I have a good working knowledge of electronics, I can do some Remove&Replace style auto mechanics, and I can build up a bicycle from a pile of tubing and parts, including building the wheels from a hub and a bare rim. I also have some skills that don’t get much call for any more like making explosives from common materials (I don’t like that, it makes loud noises and I don’t like loud noises). If you know of any jobs around Garland or Dallas that I could do, or even a job in DC (I’m still waiting to hear back from Obama’s people, the first message said to hang on until they get to me) but I would have to make a lot more working in DC as I would have to relocate and pay for an apartment.

PSA, Opus

Baby needs a new set of wheels

Well I think I found out why the rear derailler went through the back wheel about this time last year, the hub bearings are shot and there is enough play to wiggle the rim almost a half inch (1 cm) from left to right.

I haven’t taken the hub apart yet to inspect the bearings and their races, but if I’m lucky it’s just the bearings that need replacing, and not the cones and cups. If the cones need replacing I can still do that, but if the cups are shot I would be ahead just to buy a new hub and lace it to the old rim (which is still in great shape if a bit ugly with a capital UGH).

Or someone could go to Fat Cyclist, Join Team Fatty today and donate $5 repeatedly in my name at the link so that I could win the Dura Ace wheel set. Right off the bat you will be helping people live with cancer, people who are dying from cancer, and finding a cure for cancer, and also help Fatty and Susan. And if I win the wheels you will be helping me and my situation, since I’m like the barefoot shoemaker. I build bikes but I put all the best parts on my customers’ bikes, so at the moment the only 700c wheels I have are the ones installed on the bike.

You don’t have to let me have the wheels, of course. You could keep them for yourself, after all I am a bicycle mechanic (this career), and I could repair the wheel I have now.

Billed @$.02, Opus