Framebuilding and Latin

I wear fancy Rapha cycling jerseys (always purchased on clearance, btw). It all started last year when I got tired of stinky lycra and tried wearing merino wool jerseys. That 100% wool experiment didn't go over so well, especially in the summer. However, smartwool has proven to be very comfortable year round. And Rapha is known for making some of the finest smartwool bling. Anyway, Rapha also sponsors a bunch of riders who ride around the UK and USA - kinda as ambassadors of high dollar cycling clothes. Rapha commissions a bunch of indy builders to outfit their riders, which leads to the meat of this post...

I was reading some of the interviews with the frame builders and was really drawn to two of them, Richard Sachs and Matt Bracken. The rest of their interviews can be found here.

Richard Sachs:

You want be a frame builder? You don’t have a freaking clue. You don’t ride a bike, or if you do, you don’t ride fast. Or a lot. Because if you do, you realize you’ve only made 2 frames. First of all, a bike is a freaking vehicle. And you’re going make one and sell it to somebody and hope that it stays together in traffic, next year, next decade, we’re not talking about macramé or glass blowing here. This is something you put out on the road.

[snip]

You can’t be a doctor after taking a surgery crash course or by reading ‘Doctors for Dummies’. These people get some tubes and a jig and they think they’re instantly a frame builder. Well, they’re not. Not until they make 500 frames and show, after a decade or two, that they hold up. Frame building, in a way, is like Latin. Nobody speaks Latin, nobody likes Latin, except for scholars.

Matt Bracken (Independent Fabrication):

When people tell me about how much ‘soul’ or ‘love’ their bike has it makes me, as a frame builder, want to puke. I don’t care if you’re old or young, fat or skinny, experienced or pro, a fixed-gear commuter with fenders or bad-ass Record 10-speed guy on a Ti-carbon flame painted bike, its all good. People want to carry flags, the passion flag, or the technology flag, or the geek flag, but why not just a bike Flag.

Gourmet or gourmand?

Stopped by Target on my way home tonight to pick up some allergy meds. Lo and behold - look what stopped me in my tracks. Yes, baked Cheetos in sexy new packaging. Unlike baked Lays, these look and taste like regular Cheetos. Mind you, they're only marginally less bad for you than the fried version. And they still turn your fingers orange.

No mas...

OK, I'm way outta my league here. Cindy and her mom think that I do not have a Oxblood lily. Instead, they (yes, I'm lumping you and your mom together) believe, based on the bloom cycle and leaf structure, that it's an amaryllis of some sort. I did a little digging (no pun intended), and it does look like the red amaryllis that is mentioned in this Houston Chronicle blog by Molly Glentzer.


I still stand by my red flower plant assessment.

The first day of the MS150 was canceled today due to weather. Sorry Dustin and Ron. Guess you'll have to find a way to La Grange to make the 2nd day. What a logistical nightmare for the MS150 organizers.

Off to Houston tomorrow to see my Mom and to make an insulin run. That means I can't make bowling. Apologies in advance.

Correction y taxes

OK, so I was wrong. Based on my description, Kate tells me that although it may look amazingly like the red flower plant, what I really have is an oxblood lily. Otherwise known as Rhodophiala bifida. Wow, that's a mouthful. Apparently, they're hearty and tolerate abuse - much like folks who live in trailers during tornado season.

I spent last night preparing my taxes. Which meant finding all my receipts and bank statements and such. Mind you, I didn't actually do my taxes - that's a task for tonight. I drove around at lunch yesterday looking to buy a copy of Turbo Tax. I couldn't believe how many places were sold out. Thankfully, Costco wasn't one of them. And they even had them on sale - $38 bucks. And people question why I spend $50 a year for the privilege to shop there. Sheesh - if you buy the 5-pak of Turbo Tax, you'd have saved more than the membership fee right there.

Btw, the 71 gallon Eco Composter is on sale this week. It kinda looks like the Death Star of organic waste.

Neglected

I was surprised to find the following in my back yard this morning. I had moved the plant to a temporary container a couple of years back when I was hardscaping my front yard. It's been cycling through life and death in my back yard ever since. Never watered it, never covered it. Never even moved it until now. I think it's called a red flower plant, but I could be wrong.

Vacation

First of all - Pipe Stress Engineering will be available next week. You can order your copy directly from ASME or at any number of book sites, including Amazon. Odd to see your name as a hyperlink.

My doctor told me on my last visit that he wouldn't clear me to go back to the office until this week. That meant I had to take last week off as vacation to avoid going on long term disability.

The first part of the week was pretty uneventful. Later, I spent a long weekend at Port Aransas. Sun and seafood should be a part of all recovery plans.

Sunday night I went to the Springsteen concert. I sat in the handicap section, so I had plenty of elbow room. Lots of parents with their kids; made me laugh. I've seen every one of his tours since the River tour in '81, including his stop in Houston last year. So this trip was more for completeness than anything else. He's not bad for an old fart. A man, a goatee, and a guitar. This is Seeds from the Austin show:



Because the Night is still my personal fave. He played it in town, but no one has uploaded it to YouTube yet. In the meantime, here's a good version of that song from the 2004 Rock the Vote spectacle: