in no particular order here are some of the pictures that did not appear in the previous post.

this post is broken

So on sunday we took to the streets and started biking for Minnehaha Park.  The falls were going great guns but the Army Corps of Engineers had everything blocked off. So we took pictures through the trees.  We met up with our friends Chester and April, and April's brother David.  And we rode out from there to The Triple Rock for breakfast.  I had french toast and we split an order of the diced potatoes with the cheese ad such.  

When we were leaving I noticed a cool looking rack.

We went back to the river but continued north to Gold Medal Park, stopping to snap a picture of the museum. I was taking it into the sun so it in general sucked.

April and David wouldn't ride to the top of the hill, but Shannon and Chester did.  The weather was so nice and clear, we could see downtown. 

From Gold Medal we went the little bit further to the Stone Arch Bridge.  

The water wasn't actually this green but playing with curves in Photoshop gave it such a color I couldn't help but save it.

St Anthony falls made Minnehaha look like a drippy faucet

From there we headed up to an eccentric island with chickens and purple houses and almost took this trail.

there is an old bridge with no cautionary signs, or railings (ha ha), so we walked out on it. 

The gaps were just the right size for a bike wheel.

or a bike.

by the time we were at Boom Island we were gettin

g silly and rode in the river a bit.

I decided that before I strip Guy down I should get a picture of the Offenders 2.0.

We took the west bank back to Gold medal park, discussing the lack of cedar lake trail on the kiosk sign when the blaze was not thirty feet away.  We met a nice prancing  New Foundland 

about the same. 

  

I heard a disturbing sound!

My boss has been in a weird mood far the last week or so.  

We've all done our best to keep our heads low and stay out of trouble, but eventually we found out what the anxiety was about.  Our insurance, Health and Dental, was going up by 18% for the third consecutive year.  

?

SPEAKING OF A RACKET!

So we've been driving with a valet key.  You buy a used car you buy other people's problems ya ya ya. We finally bit the bullet and took the car in for a second key.

and because, you see, car manufacturers in their infinite wisdom have decided that keys aren't good enough: they need computer chips!  So you have to buy the fucking key from the dealership for 50 dollars, and then it needs to be programmed so that the car will start for 60 dollars plus taxes.

But when you bring a car to the dealership and say "I have an appointment to have a key made for my '01 Jetta," service department man says "That's funny, your appointment doesn't seem to be in the computer." And then after fifteen minutes of tedious data entry, we stroll around the car counting the tires. And then instead of making the key as per our request they take the god damned wheels off. 

I know the car has mismatched tires in the back.  This pains me but I deal with it.  Not a word.  The prognosis is that the Timing belt is 15,000 miles past scheduled replacement, my spark plugs need replacement same with a tie rod and both tie rod ends.

But dammit the car has brand spanking new iridium plugs in it already. And our belts were checked by our regular mechanic just 1,000 miles ago. And 400 dollars for tie rod ends seemed a lot excessive. And we should replace the perfectly functional waterpump.

This is not the kicker though.

Matters of money service man spoke to me, mentions of safety to my wife.  We stopped going to Eriks because of shit like that, why would it be tolerated now. Finally after an hour and a half Schmelz Volkswagen returned our car to us and asked for some money in exchange for the now two keys. What a waste of an otherwise nice morning. 

On a more positive note: we drove 150 miles on a quarter tank of gas during the weekend.

Poison

I think I might have tried to poison myself.

It's okay, I got rid of it.  But this is the second time something like this has happened.

This time I made oatmeal and put it in a travel mug and didn't clean it out for a "while." 

Last time I left coffee and grounds in a percolator for three months.

Both times it was ol' weazy my gas mask that saved me. [pictures to follow, damn battery died]

I really need to be more careful.

Phil the gap

A while back my boss had a new wheelchair made with Phil Wood hubs.  And they are amazing.  I've never seen him so happy with a set of wheels.

And I was poking around on craigslist, and found a tandem hub from Phil Wood for 45 dollars...

So now I have a hub without a bike.  I'm not even sure if this counts as strategic reserve since it has no rim...  to say this was bought half cocked is only the beginning.  Who the hell puts drum brakes on bike anyway?  I don't even need another hub right now, I've already got a spare wheel running around that doesn't fit any tire I own let alone a bike.  

What I am currently lusting after is the 48 hole tandem rear hub with a disk brake attachment.  I think the combination of drum and disk is sufficiently bizarre. Then again the hub did not come with the brake, so I might not pursue the drum.  It might just be too weird.

I need to learn how to lace wheels.