(just found this in an archive - wish I'd sent it then. In the meantime I've been riding the Pondersa a great deal, have accepted (nay, EMBRACED) tubeless and have yet to ride Golder)
So I finally upgraded and have moved Old Blue to the role of hack. I now have a Novarra Pond 29er and I must say: they've come a long way in 25 years.
My issue is this: while Tucson has never been known for the safety of it's streets or the awareness of it's drivers (at least not in any positive light that I can ascertain) the city and county have been working on making the bikelanes more defined and extensive, setting up the 'Urban Loop' etc. Somehow, I'm still not comfy with taking CaeliBug or Zoo or both out on the road - too many stories of hit-and-runs (notably on Silverbell), still WAAAY too many impaired drivers rushing from one chaotic lifestyle choice to another.
23.11.12
For Nerdist
@nerdist had a birthday today. I've never met you, Mr Hardwick, but happy-trip-around-Sol to you and may you enjoy many more.
You laid out a challenge, so I'm going to try and pick up the bits from here. See, I've been thinking a lot about what to put in this blog -seems obvious on the face of it, but with Tucson Weekly doing it in print and all the relevant Twitter reports, it seems hard to imagine that my spin would be anything worth, well, re-reading. So I'll try this.
The whole of my experience of Tucson. The fact that I have become a real fan of mountain bikes (and my Ponderosa hasn't (really) let me down yet, nor have I broken it irreparably) and am blessed to live so close to so many great rides. That I have gotten so far away from the riding my motorcycle for fun continuum that it is beginning to make me think that Tucson drivers scare me. That I have been without a consistent gaming group for going on a year now with no real hope in sight, even though I have discovered that some gaming opportunities exist in relatively easy reach. That while I have happy memories of good food in Tucson, I have not really partaken of any recently....no, wait: Casa Vicente for our anniversary. That place is fantastic.
And as an update, I'm not only no longer working for a solar-panel accessory manufacturer, but I have job-wise moved to the extreme opposite end of that pendular swing: I work at a test site doing engineering validation on heavy mining equipment. How the worm turns indeed.
Going to see if I can do updates via Twitter as well, though I don't know the extent to which Blogger is so integrated.
23.6.11
Yes yes yes, long time.
And now the reason I really started this little sporadic thang is back on my 'dar.
Looks like the former Muse lot is actually (gasp) being worked on! They're in there with trucksm and loaders, and AMG they're making the hole biiger and more uniform just in time for monsoons!
I can hear the little mosquitoes buzzing with demented glee!
In other news, though I don't get what exactly isafoot in the 'Rio Nuevo' (but not really) site west of I-10, i will say that the tacquiera there is pretty satisfactory, and if yo uget a table in the breezeway then, heck, breeze on - survivable even at triple digits.
There was a bunch of other stuff that since I've been released from my duties at Schletter I've been thinking I wanted to put here, having had the time to ruminate. Alas, they're not on tap at the moment or not relevant to the topic at hand (our Fair Pueblo). Suffice it to say, though: I do love living here. I do not love the summers.
Looks like the former Muse lot is actually (gasp) being worked on! They're in there with trucksm and loaders, and AMG they're making the hole biiger and more uniform just in time for monsoons!
I can hear the little mosquitoes buzzing with demented glee!
In other news, though I don't get what exactly isafoot in the 'Rio Nuevo' (but not really) site west of I-10, i will say that the tacquiera there is pretty satisfactory, and if yo uget a table in the breezeway then, heck, breeze on - survivable even at triple digits.
There was a bunch of other stuff that since I've been released from my duties at Schletter I've been thinking I wanted to put here, having had the time to ruminate. Alas, they're not on tap at the moment or not relevant to the topic at hand (our Fair Pueblo). Suffice it to say, though: I do love living here. I do not love the summers.
8.1.11
Sen Giffords (D/AZ) Shot, reported killed with at least 6 others
So. This is how politics are done in US now?
And it started in AZ.
We should all be ashamed that it has ever been allowed to go this far. Civility apparently is no longer a standard to aspire to.
And it started in AZ.
We should all be ashamed that it has ever been allowed to go this far. Civility apparently is no longer a standard to aspire to.
11.8.10
(Blogspot is not updating?) My lack of input has been noted.
i'vebeen more than a little remiss.
It has been months and much has happened that has occurred to me would go well here. Stuff in my life, stuff in the life of Arizona, stuff in the way of Tucson...lots of stuff. This is like that moment when you realise that the house REALLY needs a top to bottom cleaning, but the "OMGWTF This is too much for one mortal I'll go check my email instead!" demon drags you off. Willingly, yes, but dragging can be implied.
A pivotal point: The Hole is still there. Muse That Was is still just a forlorn hole in the ground, the mosquitoes that rise up from it a reminder that sometimes the 'annoyances and eyesores' that don't bite you and spread disease are very good eyesores indeed.
Also: The Family moved, AND we got a new member. Zachary Dawson was a noisy arrival back in November and has been charming the pants off of people ever since. He's still short on the full-night-sleep ethic, but this will come. He just learned to crawl with a purpose, can pull himself up and stand and cannot for the life of him understand why his feet won't do that magic thing that everyone but his can, namely catch him from falling so that he does that subtle thing we call 'walking'. In very short time, I suspect, he'll be charging through the house with all-fours a distant memory but still a useful tool in his repertoire.
We Moved,a s I said. The West Side of Tucson still has the most to offer us and we are still rollin the '45. I got a freakin' awesome patch of dez to call my own, a garage for my shizzle and a dedicated room (with a/c, canyoubeleiveit). I am a happy piglet in very choice poo.
Also, Arizona got a really petulant law. SB1070 has all the trappings of a typically ill-considered rant-made-law that the AZ legislatuture has made into an art form. Don't get me wrong: rule of law is a fine thing, when it applies to all. That includes the people who see fit to hire people who are here illegally but when they need something to lash out at target those same people with laws and protests. I'm far from saying I have a solution. I'm even further from saying I can come completely down on one side of the issue or another (being a fairly poor absolutist, as it turns out). I am saying that making what amounts to racial profiling the gold standard is so few hues away from something that was broadly called Jim Crow as makes little difference, at least to me, is bad policy. But don't take my word for it - the currently conservative Supreme Court seems to be in my camp as well. We'll see how they play their cards and to whom when it finally gets as far as that, assuming it does.
I got a new job. Yep, proof positive that there is actually a Green Economy and by the way, the Europeans have been at it for decades. I work for a German company that moved an arm here a couple years back to set up shop and see if the US needed a mature technological base to help it move into the 1990s. Turns out that we apparently did, that the competition seems to be spurring actual innovation and clever solutions in the US marketplace. Lets see if the domestic market can lobby those silly Euros back to the continent where they belong. Oh wait, minus the name, we're 99.4% Made in the USA as far as product goes. In other words: Suck It, faux-free-marketers. Man Up and compete.
Awright. The love of my life just got home from work & I need to go get some sleep. Be good to each other.
It has been months and much has happened that has occurred to me would go well here. Stuff in my life, stuff in the life of Arizona, stuff in the way of Tucson...lots of stuff. This is like that moment when you realise that the house REALLY needs a top to bottom cleaning, but the "OMGWTF This is too much for one mortal I'll go check my email instead!" demon drags you off. Willingly, yes, but dragging can be implied.
A pivotal point: The Hole is still there. Muse That Was is still just a forlorn hole in the ground, the mosquitoes that rise up from it a reminder that sometimes the 'annoyances and eyesores' that don't bite you and spread disease are very good eyesores indeed.
Also: The Family moved, AND we got a new member. Zachary Dawson was a noisy arrival back in November and has been charming the pants off of people ever since. He's still short on the full-night-sleep ethic, but this will come. He just learned to crawl with a purpose, can pull himself up and stand and cannot for the life of him understand why his feet won't do that magic thing that everyone but his can, namely catch him from falling so that he does that subtle thing we call 'walking'. In very short time, I suspect, he'll be charging through the house with all-fours a distant memory but still a useful tool in his repertoire.
We Moved,a s I said. The West Side of Tucson still has the most to offer us and we are still rollin the '45. I got a freakin' awesome patch of dez to call my own, a garage for my shizzle and a dedicated room (with a/c, canyoubeleiveit). I am a happy piglet in very choice poo.
Also, Arizona got a really petulant law. SB1070 has all the trappings of a typically ill-considered rant-made-law that the AZ legislatuture has made into an art form. Don't get me wrong: rule of law is a fine thing, when it applies to all. That includes the people who see fit to hire people who are here illegally but when they need something to lash out at target those same people with laws and protests. I'm far from saying I have a solution. I'm even further from saying I can come completely down on one side of the issue or another (being a fairly poor absolutist, as it turns out). I am saying that making what amounts to racial profiling the gold standard is so few hues away from something that was broadly called Jim Crow as makes little difference, at least to me, is bad policy. But don't take my word for it - the currently conservative Supreme Court seems to be in my camp as well. We'll see how they play their cards and to whom when it finally gets as far as that, assuming it does.
I got a new job. Yep, proof positive that there is actually a Green Economy and by the way, the Europeans have been at it for decades. I work for a German company that moved an arm here a couple years back to set up shop and see if the US needed a mature technological base to help it move into the 1990s. Turns out that we apparently did, that the competition seems to be spurring actual innovation and clever solutions in the US marketplace. Lets see if the domestic market can lobby those silly Euros back to the continent where they belong. Oh wait, minus the name, we're 99.4% Made in the USA as far as product goes. In other words: Suck It, faux-free-marketers. Man Up and compete.
Awright. The love of my life just got home from work & I need to go get some sleep. Be good to each other.
30.10.09
I did it. I finally did it.
I rode the bicycle to work today.
To look at the raw numbers, it's nothing. Piddle. The anxiety about route, would I be up for it, would I get smoked by some hotshots...anyway, i did it.
And it wasn't half bad. The throat is hella dry still but the temp, for as cold as it was, was actually nice. Need to suss out a quicker, legal route through campus once I'm up there so I can ride all the way to the lockup for the vehicles, but yeah, was good.
Going home may be a different matter, what with the traffic and the looking-into-the-sun, but we'll see. Speedway under the tracks is still a grinder, though I'm of a mind to say frak the signs and ride on the sidewalk under there: road is too narrow on first blush.
But Thank You Dept of Transport for having widened under I-10: that used to scare me on the motorcycle, nevermind on a pedalbike. Now, not so much.
anyway, my plan is Tues/Thurs and Fri as a possible, depending on schedule. Gotta spool up the metabolism somehow ;-)
To look at the raw numbers, it's nothing. Piddle. The anxiety about route, would I be up for it, would I get smoked by some hotshots...anyway, i did it.
And it wasn't half bad. The throat is hella dry still but the temp, for as cold as it was, was actually nice. Need to suss out a quicker, legal route through campus once I'm up there so I can ride all the way to the lockup for the vehicles, but yeah, was good.
Going home may be a different matter, what with the traffic and the looking-into-the-sun, but we'll see. Speedway under the tracks is still a grinder, though I'm of a mind to say frak the signs and ride on the sidewalk under there: road is too narrow on first blush.
But Thank You Dept of Transport for having widened under I-10: that used to scare me on the motorcycle, nevermind on a pedalbike. Now, not so much.
anyway, my plan is Tues/Thurs and Fri as a possible, depending on schedule. Gotta spool up the metabolism somehow ;-)
21.10.09
The Gift that keeps on giving
Tucson is officially flu central this week. At least one (and possibly three) of my co-workers have been knocked down by the wonder that is this flu season, and I am NOT looking forward to sharing in their experience.
The janitor accuses me of giving him his illness (though I never had a fever), then he gave it to The Man Plague. Somehow Tirebiter got it (and he actually has a confirmed case) and now its all my psychosomatic self can do to not be convinced I have it too.
No temperature, anyway. Crossing my fingers.
Fall, after fits and starts, is here. It is chilly at night (for us) so the urge to get out and play paintball/go on longer bikerides/camp out with The Grrrls is strong. Of course, Mystery Man is arriving on or about the 16th of next month and we have all but one weekend jammed to the jugular between now and then, but hey: was a nice thought.
For those of you thinking of moving to Tucson: Phoenix is nice this time of year and they have waaay more freeways to careen around on. Go there. Even better? They have an Ikea. Run along. Visit if you must, but just know that Tucson is a dirty little dirt town (without an Ikea! The nerve!) full of liberals and some REALLY crazy right-wingers (but they all want to move to Phoenix) to even it all out.
I only bring this up because the number of interesting almost-accidents I had with out-of-state-plates on the 4 mile drive home tonight was beyond compare. Seriously: go to Phoenix.
The janitor accuses me of giving him his illness (though I never had a fever), then he gave it to The Man Plague. Somehow Tirebiter got it (and he actually has a confirmed case) and now its all my psychosomatic self can do to not be convinced I have it too.
No temperature, anyway. Crossing my fingers.
Fall, after fits and starts, is here. It is chilly at night (for us) so the urge to get out and play paintball/go on longer bikerides/camp out with The Grrrls is strong. Of course, Mystery Man is arriving on or about the 16th of next month and we have all but one weekend jammed to the jugular between now and then, but hey: was a nice thought.
For those of you thinking of moving to Tucson: Phoenix is nice this time of year and they have waaay more freeways to careen around on. Go there. Even better? They have an Ikea. Run along. Visit if you must, but just know that Tucson is a dirty little dirt town (without an Ikea! The nerve!) full of liberals and some REALLY crazy right-wingers (but they all want to move to Phoenix) to even it all out.
I only bring this up because the number of interesting almost-accidents I had with out-of-state-plates on the 4 mile drive home tonight was beyond compare. Seriously: go to Phoenix.
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