Category Archives: Uncategorized

Something startling appeared in my Facebook news feed yesterday (9/21): Shimano recalls 760,000 Hollowtech road cranks after receiving 4,500 incident reports. Shimano says 760,000 11-speed Hollowtech road cranksets will need to be inspected for signs of delamination. The affected cranks — Dura-Ace and Ultegra models manufactured prior to July 2019 — can separate and break;Continue reading “Crank It Up”

I have never liked riding my bike on bike paths. I think that they are actually more dangerous than riding on the road. Most paths are used by a variety of walkers, dog walkers, skateboarders, roller skaters, people on scooters, little kids wobbling on trikes or children’s bikes, or casual adult cyclists wobbling on theirContinue reading “Belgian Waffles”

That is what we used to say back in high school when we were assigned reading material. “Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ was banned at our high school, so of course we went out and bought paperback copies to see what all the fuss was about. ‘The Godfather‘ wasn’t on any English Class reading lists, but weContinue reading “Show Me the Good Parts”

You recall the old adage about how a conservative is a former liberal who got mugged? Case in point… Shivanthi Sathanandan, the 2nd Vice Chairwoman for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, posted on Facebook Wednesday that she was “violently carjacked” by “four very young men, all carrying guns.” At the height of the George Floyd riotsContinue reading “Crime and Punishment (?)”

On Saturday I met with 5 friends for a flat 55 mile ride from Lodi to Thornton to Lockeford and back to Lodi. It was really an incredible day to ride after all the hot weather of the summer; cloudy with temperatures in the 60’s and almost no wind. There were even a few showersContinue reading “Power Outage”

If you read my blog, you will remember that I began this year staying off of the bike because of my flap and subsequent complications. I went over one month without riding at all and almost 6 weeks without getting out on the road. Obviously I lost quite a bit of fitness. All through theContinue reading “Cycling Interrupted”

When Diane’s mom passed away last year I wrote a blog about her. People must have liked it, or at least read it. WordPress keeps stats and my blog Remembering Doris really bumped up the page view count. You can find it here if you missed it: Last month Doris’s family gathered to lay herContinue reading “Ashes to Ashes”

The first time I recall seeing ‘trigger warnings’ was for special effect strobe lighting that might potentially cause epileptic seizures. But now such advisements are everywhere. For movies or books with violence or sex, which is pretty much all of them made now, warnings tell us there is potentially disturbing material and susceptible people shouldContinue reading “Pulling the Trigger”

Many years ago Stoker and I were walking down Michigan Avenue in Chicago at Christmas time. It was a cold but sunny day and the famous Windy City was enjoying calm conditions. The street was filled with festive shoppers and the stores were all decked out in holiday finery. Not a homeless person in sightContinue reading “Keeping My Head Down”

LGBTQ activists at New York City’s annual drag queen parade chanted, “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children,” in Manhattan on Friday. I had a hard time believing this actually happened. But YouTube has video. And sure enough that is what these marchers are chanting. I am a tolerant man. I really don’tContinue reading “Hubris Month”