Turning 29...

No, not me, that was last year (ha ha). Talking about DT (new, improved blog here), though not biologically, not yet, that's later this year.

Seems that since he's been riding my fixed Karate Monkey while his rear hub undergoes some open-cartridge surgery, he's been riding harder and climbing faster than before. This with a lower bottom bracket and more weight than he's used to, along with a frame that's probably a wee bit big on him. He won't admit it, though; I guess it's hard to face the fact that you're a 29 rider when you don't own one and happen to have a nice custom 26er IF sitting at home. Or maybe it's just me.

No matter either way, the riding's been great all the same. We hit Accotink midday today so that a rare 85 degree early March afternoon wouldn't slip away without some dirt passing under our wheels. It was good to get back to that sister-sytem to Wakefield; since it's closed to night riding and none of us has felt up to poaching it during the evenings this winter, it's been quite a while since I've ridden there. Similar to Wakefield, yes, but the climbs/downhills are a bit steeper and the terrain requires a bit more concentration in parts. A nice change, if you have to stay local.

Got in a little over ten miles before it was all said and done, busted back on the fire trail to the cars at Wakefield. Racked up the bikes, then drove to a pretty cool new homebrew place in Arlington called myLHBS. Seems DT had picked out a nice little gift for my recent birthday, which turned out to be a sweet homebrew starter kit—thanks, man, that was a cool idea. Now all I need is a dedicated 20 quart stock pot and a propane cooker and I'm set. Well, that and to empty and sterlize the old glass carboy I have that's currently holding a ton of pennies.

Anyway, if you live in the DC Metro area and need just about any homebrewing product or ingredient, check out myLHBS. Derek Terrell, the owner, is a knowledgeable guy (and former commercial brewer) who can set you up nicely and make some useful suggestions to get you on your way.

On my way back home, I happened to end up at a stoplight behind a lady driving the SUV in the picture below. Although it wasn't the first time I've seen this unsettling and wholly incongruous pairing of personal-preference advertisement (disregard the vanity plate), it was the first time it made me think of Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell's famous masterpiece about the horrors of an out of control and highly invasive State (sound familiar?). In it, the author introduced the term doublethink, defining it as "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." I've seen this display before—usually on vehicles whose drivers seem to have little regard for the safety of the pedestrians and cyclists they motor blithely past—but I never had a camera ready to capture the insanity. Of course, it could just be that this lady is covering both bets in the event that she doesn't evaporate from behind the wheel as expected come Armaggedon.

Either way, I guess Jefferson's much lauded concept of separation of church and state in this instance amounts to only about four feet of glass and steel. If I had been on my bike, I might have been tempted to go fishin', so to speak, just to help set the world right. Ah, well, maybe next time.



Hope you broke out and enjoyed the nice day.