I'm in the library presently. I really should be finishing the ten page paper that I haven't researched for and have only written two bad pages for. But I'm not going to. It'll get done, and reflection is good for the soul. I know this isn't really bicycle related. There's not much going on there at the moment, what with finals and my procrastination. I'm very much looking forward to getting home and being able to spend all my weekends and as much of my weekdays as possible in the saddle.
It's hard to believe that in a few short weeks, I'll be heading up to Providence. Thinking about it makes me realize how much work I still need to do. There's my fundraising to top off, my presentation to prepare, and all the odds and ends with the bicycle and gear like re-instaling my cyclocomputer and buying biking socks. It's somehow exactly how I envisioned the last few weeks being and not at all what I'd hoped for. The stress is still motivating, however, and that's a comfort. The second it gets to be more hindrance than help is when I start freaking out. Stress seems to be the order of the week though, with the end of the year at my front door. The sobering fact that I'm coming up on my last year of university life makes the prospect of biking monotony and sublime scenery and fellowship with young people all the sweeter. Reflecting on how the summers following this one will be indelibly different from all the summers I've experienced in my life so far also makes it special. Bike and Build is, really, the death knell of my young, carefree summertimes. But what a glorious end it will be.
Peace Out Hombres!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Obligatory Rant Post: Helmets
I'm afraid I don't have any real spectacular news to report of late, but I did want to update. For anyone out there that might get some sort of amusement from my sardonic humor, you might do better to wait for another post, because this one is mostly housekeeping, and then a dash of indignation. We'll start with the housekeeping.
I'm pretty much there, on all fronts. That's pretty cool to be able to say. At the moment I have about four hundred dollars left to raise for the trip. I still have a few people that I need to solicit, and I chose the word solicit intentionally, from like Jake and his parents and my Brother and possibly his girlfriend. And I have at least two donations that're heading towards the mail as I write this. That said, with those donations, I'll either be all the way to four thousand dollars or so close that I don't mind dipping into my own wallet to close the deal. So that's pretty cool, although it'd be wicked cooler to be able to say that I was done with fundraising.
I also scheduled a physical for the fourteenth of May, probably the last time I'll see my family physician before he moves his practice out west. I'll miss you Dr. Mugol! The only thing left besides buying a few more necesities is to get crackalacking on my presentation for the trip, which is on government housing. I know next to nothing about them, except that they haven't really worked. Now onto the long part of the post... the angry.
I don't understand why people don't wear helmets. Not only on my college campus, but in the world at large. My cyclist roommate doesn't even wear his helmet unless he's out on the road. A lot of girls tell me that they don't want to ruin their hair. I get the feeling that people feel... ehh, dorky, unfashionable, etc. wearing helmets. Well, I can tell you, there's nothing uglier than a head split open on the pavement. I've seen it. For me the trade-off isn't worth it.
I started really thinking about this whole issue when I went on a ride with Jamie out onto 33, and she had no helmet on. We were going like thirty miles an hour down a hill. I'm no physicist, but I get the feeling that your skull would break if it hit concrete at that speed. She told me later that she doesn't wear a helmet because that way I won't ride too far ahead of her when we go on rides. It's true, I don't. Because I don't want to have to call 911 while I'm out on the road. The fact of the matter is, helmet or not, I'll probably have to make that call or have that call made for me at least once if I continue road cycling.
Cycling is inherently dangerous. Most sports are. Then again, most sports don't involve cars. The argument that wearing a helmet still doesn't guarantee you'll survive a wreck is a valid one. There are plenty of other things that can kill you during a bicycle wreck than just head trauma. But it's the exact same thing to say that even if you wear a seatbelt you could still die in an automobile accident. Yet everyone I know wears a seatbelt in the car, but I almost never see a bicyclist wearing a helmet. So where's the disconnect? I'll chance a guess and say that it's because there's a law in Virginia against not wearing a seatbelt. It took me seeing a neighbor hospitalized for spilling his brains out on my pipestem to keep me in a helmet every time I got on a bike.
So, long story short, seeing a cyclist without a helmet on really grinds my gears. Cause you're pretty much asking for brain damage. If that's what it takes, that's what it takes.
Peace out Hombres!
I'm pretty much there, on all fronts. That's pretty cool to be able to say. At the moment I have about four hundred dollars left to raise for the trip. I still have a few people that I need to solicit, and I chose the word solicit intentionally, from like Jake and his parents and my Brother and possibly his girlfriend. And I have at least two donations that're heading towards the mail as I write this. That said, with those donations, I'll either be all the way to four thousand dollars or so close that I don't mind dipping into my own wallet to close the deal. So that's pretty cool, although it'd be wicked cooler to be able to say that I was done with fundraising.
I also scheduled a physical for the fourteenth of May, probably the last time I'll see my family physician before he moves his practice out west. I'll miss you Dr. Mugol! The only thing left besides buying a few more necesities is to get crackalacking on my presentation for the trip, which is on government housing. I know next to nothing about them, except that they haven't really worked. Now onto the long part of the post... the angry.
I don't understand why people don't wear helmets. Not only on my college campus, but in the world at large. My cyclist roommate doesn't even wear his helmet unless he's out on the road. A lot of girls tell me that they don't want to ruin their hair. I get the feeling that people feel... ehh, dorky, unfashionable, etc. wearing helmets. Well, I can tell you, there's nothing uglier than a head split open on the pavement. I've seen it. For me the trade-off isn't worth it.
I started really thinking about this whole issue when I went on a ride with Jamie out onto 33, and she had no helmet on. We were going like thirty miles an hour down a hill. I'm no physicist, but I get the feeling that your skull would break if it hit concrete at that speed. She told me later that she doesn't wear a helmet because that way I won't ride too far ahead of her when we go on rides. It's true, I don't. Because I don't want to have to call 911 while I'm out on the road. The fact of the matter is, helmet or not, I'll probably have to make that call or have that call made for me at least once if I continue road cycling.
Cycling is inherently dangerous. Most sports are. Then again, most sports don't involve cars. The argument that wearing a helmet still doesn't guarantee you'll survive a wreck is a valid one. There are plenty of other things that can kill you during a bicycle wreck than just head trauma. But it's the exact same thing to say that even if you wear a seatbelt you could still die in an automobile accident. Yet everyone I know wears a seatbelt in the car, but I almost never see a bicyclist wearing a helmet. So where's the disconnect? I'll chance a guess and say that it's because there's a law in Virginia against not wearing a seatbelt. It took me seeing a neighbor hospitalized for spilling his brains out on my pipestem to keep me in a helmet every time I got on a bike.
So, long story short, seeing a cyclist without a helmet on really grinds my gears. Cause you're pretty much asking for brain damage. If that's what it takes, that's what it takes.
Peace out Hombres!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Parts Paranoia
While I was climbing a hill today I noticed something disquieting. My bike's making weird noises. At least when I steer it does, and sometimes when I pedal. It's probably not a bad sound; no gears grinding, not the sound of something breaking. At least not yet. Right now it's just sort of squeaking with an eerie musical quality when I turn my handlebars and when I pedal. But like any new parent, I worry often, even over the small stuff.
I've been meaning to have the biked tuned up because at the very least the wheels need to be trued by now. You can tell that I've done most of my bike riding on a mountain bike by the way that I hop down curbs and hit bumps without even trying to dodge; sorry Jonas, for probably killing your wheels slowly! Somehow I haven't gotten a flat on this bike yet... but with my luck, I'll get one on the way home from class today. But on the tuneup, it's a great time for it. It seems like all of the local bike shops are doing cheap tune-ups for the Spring, and that's exactly what I want. Might as well, since the trip's only *gasp* less than two months away. Ohhh, and on the bye and bye, an old childhood friend donated today and told me that she'd sent the website to her mom so she might donate as well. Turns out her friend John's on the Northern Route and when she went to donate to him, she noticed I was on the trip and donated to me too! So thanks Laura for your donation, and thanks John as well. Because if you hadn't been on the trip, I might not have gotten any money either!
I've been meaning to have the biked tuned up because at the very least the wheels need to be trued by now. You can tell that I've done most of my bike riding on a mountain bike by the way that I hop down curbs and hit bumps without even trying to dodge; sorry Jonas, for probably killing your wheels slowly! Somehow I haven't gotten a flat on this bike yet... but with my luck, I'll get one on the way home from class today. But on the tuneup, it's a great time for it. It seems like all of the local bike shops are doing cheap tune-ups for the Spring, and that's exactly what I want. Might as well, since the trip's only *gasp* less than two months away. Ohhh, and on the bye and bye, an old childhood friend donated today and told me that she'd sent the website to her mom so she might donate as well. Turns out her friend John's on the Northern Route and when she went to donate to him, she noticed I was on the trip and donated to me too! So thanks Laura for your donation, and thanks John as well. Because if you hadn't been on the trip, I might not have gotten any money either!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Mono Scare!
No, I didn't think that I had it. But when one of my roommates had a fever and a sore throat and achiness and lethargy, and the health center thought it might have been infectious mononucleosis... I flipped. "Sure," I told myself, "it's probably strep. I shouldn't even worry about it because our health center is dumb." But then I got into the what-if thinking. What if it is mono? What if I catch it? What if, after raising four thousand dollars and putting in the training and doing all the freaking work... I don't get to bike across the country? I turned into a germ nazi for twenty four-ish hours. I wouldn't breathe near him, I wouldn't touch half the stuff in the apartment because I knew that he might have touched it or coughed on it or thought sick thoughts on it or something. It was probably a little extreme, and he probably wanted to kill me since he was sick and all I really cared about was not getting sick myself.
So I'm selfish. Any strangers reading this blog now know this to be a fact. At least my selfishness was completely unfounded, because he has strep. And I can handle strep. Strep doesn't put you out of commision for like a year. I think I've got some apologizing in the form of chicken soup and roommately concern to do for my roommate Will. But at least this cloud has a silver lining. Which is more than I can say for the rainclouds outside.
Peace Out, Hombres!
So I'm selfish. Any strangers reading this blog now know this to be a fact. At least my selfishness was completely unfounded, because he has strep. And I can handle strep. Strep doesn't put you out of commision for like a year. I think I've got some apologizing in the form of chicken soup and roommately concern to do for my roommate Will. But at least this cloud has a silver lining. Which is more than I can say for the rainclouds outside.
Peace Out, Hombres!
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