Taking over public parks

I guess the APD can flex it's muscle.

Every year the Police Athletic League takes over the main park.
Not for a night,
or a week,
or even a month.

At 5:30 it's all blocked off,
except for one road through the park.

Huge billboard light displays go up,
power cords slither across the grass,
waiting to be covered by the snow.

Then they come.
From distant suburbs,
making the yearly trek to the 'inner city'.

"Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes"

At $15 a car,
they lineup in double file,
eager to slowly drive past the tackiness
and blatant overcommercialization of the season.

"It's for a good cause"

Oh the Holidays!

A time to reflect,
or is that inflection?

Not one to fall into the tradition of doing 'things'
that everyone else is...
but I do find myself looking back at the end of each year.
Why?
Set goals = being productive.
Will I do nothing if I have nothing as a goal?

This season I find myself looking around at others,
and making mental promises
NOT to be like 'them'.

As good as this season was/is
it also showed the ugly face of humanity.

Happy Holidays!

A time to reflect on what is most
important. A chance for increased
awareness and empathy. And of
course, some giving and recieving
of bike love!

new Times Union post.

Go HERE!

Pokey the puppy

I am not that good.
It's not me that pushes to rescue
or foster dogs, it's the better half.
Suppose I could take some credit
with all the 'stuff' I clean up, and
the craziness they bring to the
house.

But ultimately it's not my idea.
Four puppies right before the
Holidays? Not my idea. But we
survived. And they are all getting
homes this week. One yesterday,
one today, and one Saturday. Oh!
The last one? I MAY keep him.
Maybe change his name from Pokey
to Opie.

Sometimes you can't look for the
ending, it makes the effort required
seem to great. Sometimes you just
maintain a steady cadence, and
enjoy the ride. Because it's about
the ride, not the destination.

Lazy Days

Cold days bring out the lazy days.

Riding bikes with the Dutch

Wow, haven't even finished off the year, and there's things coming
together for next year..... more, later.

ARTributes

Three works made the show! Which will be my largest in size and cost.
For being in the usual Holiday grump
mood, this was a pleasant surprise.
Now I have one week to get it ready!

New Year & New Shows

As always it was a rush-to-the-last-minute for the latest submissions.
My interpretation for the call for art.
Not sure if I'm on point,
but I felt really good about that went into it.
So we shall see....

post ride talk

casual rides

the way it is

I commute daily.
Six miles each way.
Early in the morning,
late at night.
Rain.
Snow.
Everyday.

There's always so much talk in the driver vs. cyclist,
the 'rules of the road',
nothing worse than a cyclist citing 'rules of the road'
to an everyday commuter.

There's a point where it's simply about survival.
BECAUSE the driver's are SOOOOOOOO bad.

And this is why I pull up along side of you at a red light.

Yes, it's annoying for that guy three cars back to overtake me AGAIN.
But I'm gonna use you as a barrier,
against other bad drivers.

Could you imagine what I would look like if the car hit me
instead of this car? The driver was totally fine.
The car? Obviously not.

I'll follow 'your' rules AFTER you follow them,
til' then, it's just survival.

molester vans and 'cross racers

consistant what?

lately I've just packed all my clothes in the bag.
rain jacket & pants,
winter booties,
three gloves: spring, liners, and lobster mitts,
headband,
thermal cap,
thermal top and bottom,
and of course extra socks,
and may as well put on the fender(s).

The first wintery ride,
it was cold when I rolled out.
So I only had the man-pri knickers with thin thermals.
I packed the jacket - well, in case.
As work wrapped up, I noticed the bitter 30 degrees,
was now still 30, but also windy AND snowing.
Still a kid at heart - it was the first snow ride!
Didn't matter what I did or didn't have for gear -
I was gonna ride!

I made about a mile before the realization hit,
it may be snowing, but the ground was still 'warm',
so it's WET out.
NO: booties, or shell pants, or fenders, or winter gloves,
was a bitter, soggy ride home.
And I still had an evening ride planned,
with soaked shoes,
so I resorted to the gallon freezer bags between
new socks and soaked frozen shoes.


The local pond I pass is now frozen.
BUT today it will hit 40.
Then tomorrow night it'll be in the teens,
and 20's in the day for the rest of the week.
Thinking I'll finally mount up the studded tires.

elite cyclocross racers

great xtranormal from steevo.

if you overheard two racers

it would sound like this,
which isn't funny to those that don't ride,
to the rest,
it is.

Can't shake the mags.

It's a nasty habit no one really thinks about. You have a hobby, a
sport you follow, an interest in something. Or maybe you have a full
blown hard core facination with anything and everything cycling
related. And there's a magazine
for everthing out there.

After some serious attempts to make room, I've realized the old
magazines need to go. But then, with everything available online, why
even buy a magazine in the first place? With that, I've quit buying
magazines. Well, for the last two months. Until today. ROAD has
awesome photography on ridiculously priced bikes, places I'll never go
to, and pros I'll probably never see in real life. So I broke down,
this month. Think my problem would be solved if thier online presence
was even half of the print version.

and in comes the snow

I never believe the weather guys,
6-8" ends up being a light dusting,
'no rain' means a wet ride home since I didn't pack wet weather gear.
but I shold have taken this as a sign,
a sign of what's around the corner.
As I thought to myself,
"I should mount up the studded tires,
and dig out the twenty degree gear".
When I said 'no' to myself, grabbed the remote
and flopped onto the couch.
THAT'S when it decided to snow.

Feeding time...

Can't even believe this trainwreck.

New dog...

Every dog has a bad story
This one isn't any different.

hipsters......

found here!

The Evolution of the Hipster 2000-2009 :: Culture :: Features :: Paste

The Evolution of the Hipster 2000-2009 :: Culture :: Features :: Paste

Small Works show

Friday was the new show 'Small Works' at the gallery.
For a cold night, there was a great turnout.
A packed gallery and busy streets.
I picked up two works, one from Tommy Watkins,
someone I've been waiting to add. He had four paintings,
all very reasonably priced, so one has a new home.
Unfortunately I don't think I sold anything that night.
I had the idea, but at completion, I think it fell short.
Submissions for the next show are in three days,
so it leaves little time to dwell, just move on for now.

Foster dogs and dogs and dogs

The house is filled with dogs,
or puppies to be exact.
And there's another one for today.
As much time as puppies take,
at least they all get along.....

So, last night was kind of a last minute event.
We, the family unit, plus three puppies,
were invited to attend/assist a presentation for Out of the Pits
at the Hudson Valley Community College.
For a new Animal Law class for the Justice/Law degree program.

Well,
who doesn't love puppies.
The better part is the understanding people may gain about
breeders, dog fighting, and all the other nasty stuff people
really don't want to aknowledge exists.
Plus, we may have gained a few more foster people,
which is always needed.

It also helped me realise that a little more patience,
has a greater payout.
One or two dogs is easily tolerable.
But when you're at four or five,
and they're puppies,
and it's during the Holidays which are already stressful.
Well, it adds up.
This was a nice little validation of why you volunteer,
why you give without being asked.

Livestrong is on (again)!

Rode it in 2006, and then in 2009.
The Philly leg of the Livestrong Challenge is one of a couple
fundraisers I do. The 2010 is up and running. If you want some
good karma this next year - donate now! There's a tab up top,
or you can click here!

*Karma not guaranteed, only loosely implied.

new Times Union post!

Well,
I'll have to create a spot to link into the posts.
I have a schedule (schedules REALLY help me keep it together).
There's a post every other Monday.
That gives me Sunday night to work on some idea that just popped
into my head, leaving all those other ideas cultivated for two weeks,
laying somewhere in the back of my cluttered mind.

The last minute thing leaves me up until 2am.
Which makes Monday morning A LITTLE rough.
Need to replan this posting thing.

Well, The Bike Blog features some other writers, noted that all of them write ALOT better than I. So paste it into your things to check out.

dog pile

Just what it says. A pile o' dogs.

UAG bike ride & movie night

They won't let us ride bikes through the park to see the lights -
that's an issue.

It's snowing and everyone has an excuse not to show up.

It's hard to have culture in a vacuum of
apathy.

well, everyone has a blog....

guess it's what you do with it.....