I seem to be falling into a once a week blogging habit. I am okay with that. I have been attempting to limit my volunteer commitments and enjoy more personal time and that has been working well and I am having a heck of a summer so far. Here is a short report and a few unrelated photos from the last few weeks.
I have been doing lots of bike riding and a fair share of spectating, too. I have been following the tdf and I think it has been a great race so far, it is good to see the next generation take over. Cavendish, Ricco, Valverde and Sanchez, it is good stuff going on over there. I am sad to read today that Beltran has tested positive and will now enter the shadowlands of cycling for quite a while. I am guessing that if the B sample confirms the A he will retire and what a sad way to end a career.
In other bike riding/racing news, the tour divide and gdr are both rolling and the reports have been exhilarating. As far as I know this is the first time the word exhilarating has appeared on this weblog. Anywho, no positive drug tests and some incredible riding going on out there! Mary Collier has been my sentimental favorite. This event has captured my imagination and I had hoped to give it a shot next summer but there are some things coming up that will likely make this impossible. I am developing a healthy respect for the event as more information comes out but jeesh, it may just be the ultimate expedition for me. Someday…
I have some touring initiatives fast approaching and I am looking forward to rolling a real honest to goodness loaded day on the touring townie with a front basket. I am going to get two or three overnights in conjunction with ragbray and then Cody and I are cleared for take-off to sunny Antioch! Sadly we are going to take the northern route so no Ari.
Here I am ready to be done writing and linking and italicizing and such and not yet any mention of yoga or cargo. I am losing it! I have now taken 2 yoga classes and have 3 to go. I am practicing at home or whatever you call it and I hope this is the start of a long relationship. I have too many cycling friends with back issues to ignore my own creeping and lingering aches and pains. I ain’t getting any younger over here. In cargo news, the cargo bike is back on the road! Look for photos and stories of scrounged materials from all over town soon!
Last thing, I have started reading Infinite Jest again. If you don’t know, this book is a monster and after many failed attempts I finally managed to read the whole durned thing plus end notes in the summer of 2001. This second full read is seeing me skip some end notes that describe weird drug use stuff and even some whole chapters of the book. It is an amazing world Wallace created and I am enjoying another drift through it. Check it out if you need another challenge in your life and enjoy run on sentences!
Stay out of trees! 
Sean said,
July 12, 2008 @ 10:00 am
I too have failed to read Infinite Jest multiple times. My copy currently live atop my living room bookshelf and regularly taunts me as I flip through various anthologies and short works of fiction.
kim said,
July 13, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
yes, i remember reading infinite jest vicariously through you back in the day (2001). i miss you, steve!
Tarik said,
July 14, 2008 @ 3:41 pm
Ugggghhh. I refuse to read anything longer than a DFW short story after attempting to read this allegedly brilliant book. Where was the editor? He should be fired if he existed at all…
ira ryan said,
July 14, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
dude! who’s the chump doing all the advertising for veloshop?
ari said,
July 14, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
Sorry I will miss you guys. I am sure that at some point we are going to run into each
other. Enjoy your trip and be safe.
Ari
bikeiowa said,
July 17, 2008 @ 7:51 am
Okay, I knew I was going out on a limb lumping Ricco into the riders I was enjoying following at this years tour and now he goes and tests positive and his whole team withdraws and there is a whole hubba-bubba about how the drug testing at the tour is actually targeting riders and maybe the french teams are not getting tested at all and jeesh, just like that its back to a circus and while I am still watching I just think the whole durnded mess stinks.
reverend dick said,
August 8, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
At times I thought Wallace was just _ucking with me. I vaguely recall one joke that was set up, only to have the punchline some 300 pages later. A great read.
Recap « Stay out of trees! said,
May 29, 2009 @ 9:33 pm
[…] yeah, if you can believe it (and if you are still reading this I imagine you can) I am now, almost a year after beginning, still reading Infinite Jest, and I am almost done with it for a second […]