right smack dab on the head....

is where this is... read it (if you want)

got this ready for the Homie....
coming up in a couple weeks {unofficial flier}

been busy riding, doing this, that, another thing (more pix *not mine), and this...

and this (pix *j & i are in there 3 times, can you find waldo?)

try and stay dry this week.

goggles....

... wish i had worn them today. it may only be mid-october, but it looks like late november.

thinking i may get a whistle, had one truck and one car pull out in front of me on my way in this morning.

2 months?!

After two months of 'nada', I'm hoping there aren't any grand expectations for what might be spouted on this here 'webloggery'.

summer's flying, but my cohorts and i have managed to do a decent job of avoiding the bummer life, if i may borrow the term.

there are a bunch of photos in the following...the climbing pics were stolen from Patty, the Bergman's, and Mrs Austin.
all the good photos from the Chippewa triathlon came from my buddy Tony.

enjoy!

Kelly demonstrating "how its done"

Steph laying it back

andrea (above) steve (below) - this ceiling/balcony/whatever gave us all trouble

Patricia not seeming terribly convinced

Kelly playing in the fire

Jared stomping it out

The next few are from the Chippewa Triathlon. Now, i'm no 'triathlete' by any stretch of the word, but a co-worker asked me if i'd like to do the bike portion as part of a relay. It sounded like a good time so I said "Sure!"

It turned out to be an awesome time, and we managed to take 3rd in our division (competitive relay). The "mountain bike" course had a bit of everything, which made for an exciting and challenging 28 mile ride. What made it even more challening was the rain we had gotten the night before, and sporadically during the race. Tons of mud, sand, some single track, about 9 miles of paved trail, most of which ran through the Chippewa National Forest.

Am hoping we get the same team back again next year.

i'll let the photos talk now....

This is the switch-off point between the canoe and bike portion of the race.
It was cool out, about 50, but that was for the best. I was so anxious i was taking a piss
about every 5 minutes.

The first canoers in

me coming into the bike finish... i dont think i was smiling.... the last 4 miles i had been chasing a dude i couldn't catch. my comp said i was going ~26 mph, and i wasn't gaining any ground. but after riding that hard through that gnarly of terrain for two hours, i shouldn't be too suprised.

this dude came in shortly after i did

washing off the 'check and her new wheels. rick was a bit nervous about me running
new parts for a race, but i told him we had nothing to worry about. Thanks Jim!

Tony taking off for the run

Tony finishing the 7 mile run in 46 minutes. it was the farthest he had ever run.

Rick enjoying the northern minnesota sun

gathering wood after the potluck

team Uncanny

And a random photo, just to remind you how awesome cargo bikes are.

this is what...

$130 worth of groceries looks like on an xtracycle......

this is what it looks like on the ground.....
not REALLY my bad, when i lifted the bags out of the right freeloader, the kickstand sunk straight into ground.

do yourself a favor and read the next post

http://twincities.indymedia.org

Where there's smoke....
Anarchism after the RNC

I.
We've got the numbers, they've got the guns..
Our chants reverberated under the St. Paul skyway. The 2008 RNC protests were underway, the culmination of two years of anarchist/anti-authoritarian organizing materializing before our eyes. For once, we were many, and they were few... or maybe not. With 3500 cops and an uncounted number of National Guardsmen and Secret Service agents on the streets, this time they had both the guns and the numbers.

Overwhelming force was only one element of the state's repression strategy. The main hub of direct action coordination– the RNC Welcoming Committee– had been infiltrated by at least one undercover cop and two paid informants almost a year prior. On Friday night, the hammer came down with a raid on the St. Paul Convergence Center. Cops busted in the doors with guns drawn, forcing about 100 people to the ground, zip-tying them, and then photographing everyone and taking IDs. What a start to the weekend...

The next morning, I got a call from a friend alerting me that the cops were raiding anarchist houses across south Minneapolis. Eventually, four houses had been raided, and eight members of the Welcoming Committee jailed.

Over the next week, over 800 people would be arrested in conjunction with the protests. Many would be injured by rubber bullets, concussion grenades, tear gas, pepper spray, and other weaponry. The state imposed a high cost on expressing dissent....

rest HERE....

The People's Bailout: A May Day Speech*

By Paul Street

I'd like to thank Wild Rose Rebellion and others who participated in planing this May Day event for inviting me to speak on this day that so few Americans have been allowed to know as the original labor day, born right here in the United States in connection with the struggle for the Eight Hour Day - for a human work day.

TIME, DEMOCRACY, AND CAPITALISM

You know, if you go back and look at the original arguments that working people and their organizations - unions - made for shorter hours, you find something very interesting. They didn't just talk about the physical and psychological and family problems that came with constant overwork under the control of their bosses. They didn't just talk about the fact that the bosses cheated them out of extra hours and minutes every day. They didn't just talk about how shorter hours would mean spreading out the work which would mean more jobs and thus less unemployment and poverty for working people.

They talked about all of that but that also said two others things that are worth remember and reflecting upon today. First, they argued that you can't have a democracy if people don't have the time to participate in it. They said that the democratic promises of the American Revolution didn't mean anything for people who are denied the free time and the energy to study and discuss and organize and form associations about the great issues of the day.

Second, the Haymarket Martyrs and other Eight Hour leaders said that when you have and use the time to study history and current events and the society in which you live you often come to see that democracy can't really be reconciled with the capitalist profits system. You find, they said, that the glorious democratic ideal of popular self-rule doesn't mix very well with the class system of bosses and workers of rich and poor, and of order givers and order-takers. It doesn't blend with an economic system that concentrates ever more wealth and power in the hands of the privileged and corporate Few.
..... {rest HERE}

Why Ride?

This is why....

the 'check on her first off-road excursion
@ Battle Creek


'roller on the bridge at sunset
minneapplenuts in the background


Rachel's spoke card


days like those more than make up for the shitty stuff....
bikes are freedom, get some ;)