NEW BIKE DAY! WOO WOO WOO!

I picked up my new bike yesterday, and am totally in love with it. I actually sat on the floor last night and admired it. Yes, I'm a big ol' bike geek. Here's my new Surly Long Haul Trucker:

Not a fantastic picture, but many, many more will follow. I took some pictures for insurance purposes, before I start to put all sorts of crap on it. Now today I need to put all sorts of crap on it. It's a 62cm frame, with 700c tires, a beautiful Tubus Cargo rear rack, and just all around nice.

And in honor of New Bike Day, you should go check out this Dinosaur Comic. It's just a damn shame that "Sexual Intercourse: The Bike" is already taken.

And now, I need to fund the military industrial complex. Oops, I meant to say, do our taxes.

Poop: another great Dinosaur Comic

At the end of a very productive day, a lovely end to the evening with some Dinosaur Comics.

Dinosaur comics does trial lawyer. Oh, goodness.

I can't do any more justice to this beautiful comic. Check it out, and be sure to roll your cursor over it for the comment.

Dinosaur Comics makes me happy

As readers of my blog know, I just love Dinosaur Comics. I read a couple days, and then clicked on the send you to some other comic link at the top, and got to: a rare proposition! i propose a journey to the moon!:

new year

Still cold up here, though today is the first day that the thermometer outside my window hasn't been bottomed out (it only goes to minus ten fahrenheit...)

Gonna change bike tires, book some travel, and clean the garage. Big times.

Confidential to TGS: you never called.

#2 Confidential to TGS: one pair of rain boots about to be posted on freecycle.

A fantastic comic today from Dinosaur Comics reminds me of my civ pro professor's admonition: "You must be crisp with your language, crisp!

Another Dinosaur Comic about cycling

Another great comic from Dinosaur Comics at qwantz.com :















Yesterday I was nearly hit three times while riding my bike to work. Two were my favorite type of motorist: the kind who nearly nails you, and then glares or screams at you, like it's your fault.

I then had a very nice shift, and came outside to twenty degree temperatures and a missing valve stem in my front tire. Yes, that's right: the tip that threads down into the valve stem was missing. (Don't ask why I had a European style, two piece presta valve on my winter commuting bike in Alaska.)

Now, the presta valve started out the day intact and got me the ten miles to work, with stops at the post office and REI on the way. And this is the type of thing that, when the stem tip goes missing, it won't be a slow leak: it'll be a loud, gushing and rapid release of air. So when I showed up at work and locked up the bike, and it was riding fine, it basically had to still have an intact valve stem tip, properly threaded in. Leading me to the conclusion that [you fill in the blank...]

Fortunately, I carry an extra tube with me, and work was still open, so I didn't have to change the tire in the cold and semi-dark. Side note: despite their other virtues, the Nokian studded tires, for all their other virtues, are a serious pain in the ass to get the bead seated in the rim.

It took me getting older:

to learn to appreciate comics all over again. My brother B never stopped appreciating comics. He turned me on to Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis at http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/, which I like a lot, especially when it involves Utah. Tragically, the very commcerical operation of comics.com doesn't let you search by keyword without paying them $34.95. Un-uh. As a grand and righteous protest, I've decided to not hyperlink their pages. SO THERE!

Speaking of protest, recently I've been immensely enjoying xkcd by Randall Munroe:

And today I bumped in to Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North at qwantz.com, and immediately started laughing out loud. Here is the comic I first found, and just about peed myself:



There are good links on both of these to other comics the artists enjoy, which I'm slowly working my way through, and have very high hopes for.