Fat Lad's Meme

I swore-off memes, really I did. But can I deny Fat Lad? when I'm the only one tagged?! This is way worse than a chain letter...after all, if one breaks a chain letter there are still four more people knitting it together. If I drop the ball on this one

it
dies whichmaynotbeabadthing.

aarrrghh!

The responsibility.

From somewhere west of Huddersfield in the UK, the call came out. It went like this:

When I was a young lad, we used to play a word and memory game called: “My old mother went to market” it went a little something like this:

Little Bobby: “My old mother went to market and all she bought was: Tomatoes”

Little Jimmy: “My old mother went to market and all she bought was tomatoes… and some potatoes” until it had traversed the circle of children to me:

Little Fat Lad: “My old mother went to market and all she bought was tomatoes and some potatoes and some carrots and some lettuce and … ” already the witty one ” a rocket powered cyber ninja weasel”

So the meme proceeds as follows:

You nominate a blogger who you know will respond and ask them to add to the list of things they have bought only in June that are cycling related. Come the end of June Fat Lad is going to try and track it’s course and see what we’ve all purchased in June

1. Fat Lad went to the bike shop in June and all he bought was: A new PC971 Sram Chain and a Cassete Spanner and a chain wear tool.

2. TOB went to the bike shop in June and all she bought was: a new pair of ruby red Sidis and some X-Series Cleats (but it's only the 4th!).

Hey Mike J, in honor of your soon FIRST blogiversary -- you get to carry the meme forward.

Blame Fat Lad.

- Baggie

Tag

It's amazing how quickly this meme has traveled. Fatty whelped it a mere week ago and already it's made its way to the East Coast, Seattle and Alaska, and now it's hovering somewhere over the midwest. He'd grown tired of the tagging games that ask non-relevant questions of bicycle bloggers, so he started his own bicycle-related meme.

This one is ever so much more relevant to my life.

But, if BSNY sees fit to answer it, then I suppose I'll take to the keyboard as well, pushed to the overhang by Tim by the way Tim, which child DO you love the most?? , Snakebite and Vito.

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?
It would be the one bicycle that gets me there -- wherever THERE may be -- with a few good friends and a few good beers and a few good burgers afterward.

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?
Given my criteria above, I guess I've got about a dozen of them. But a cyclist's existence revolves around the constant perusal of materials and geometries and frame techniques. The dream changes as all these aspects change.

So, basically I'm working toward my dream bike in the same vein as is my friend who is into everything automobile but who drives a used Caravan because it's cheap and hauls a lot...not that I'm cheap...but I can haul....I look at quite a bit of bling, but am pretty content with what I've got.

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?
All this woods-and-knobbies hoo-ha is a barrel of fun, but after growing up on the prairie looking across the expanse imagining everything that's out there and beyond, I've got to be able to see off into the distance. Trees are beautiful and all, but they're so in your face. My favorite route would be on the road.

Believe it or not, I might choose my commute -- it's got trails, busy streets, quiet roads, hills, a funky coffee shop, Frosties, shopping, misty morning lakes, and even a vista overlooking a park-reserve. AND, home is at the other end.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride for the rest of her / his life?
Yeah well, not everyone gets it.

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded?
I ride both, and which I prefer depends upon where THERE is (see #1).

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.
Yup. Parking lot test ride. As long as there's garage space there will be room for one...when my back goes or when I lose my sense of balance: a recumbent trike!

Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss?
Hmmm, which would be more fun...can't decide....dental floss....

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?
No decision there -- ice cream goes. Cholesterol, sugar, carbs, fat, chocolaty goodness, a cool bit of heaven on a hot riding day, stirred up with a bit of malt powder...bleck, hate the stuff.

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.
Why is TOB such a babe? Born that way. Can't help it.

You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do?
Considering the bear is far enough away to be a dot on the horizon, and the mile-wide river between us provides no hope of crossing, I think to myself you know, it's too bad I'll never get to see one of those things close up and I turn for home.

Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.
Brother Yam
Fat Lad - who owes me
Pete
KM
Jeff

- OB so I cheated on the numbers a bit....

My Favourite Bit of Trail

Fat Lad Wants to Know

For the past few days, our temps here in Minneapolis have hovered around 50. I’m contemplating my annual spring trip south to the desert. The Sweetie and I walked into the LBS last weekend, blinking and peering at all the sparklies hanging from the ceiling. And now Fat Lad has called me out.

It’s all converging, forcing me out of mourning.

I suppose.

I have to think bicycling.

There are more important and timely issues to contemplate than the passing of the snow, specifically:

What's your favourite bit of trail? Not ride, but your one, two or three hundred yard stretch of dirtly nirvana that you would put into every ride if you could.

My favourite bit of trail...


it’s that one section where equipment and weather and fitness and challenge are all in agreement...

the spot on the edge of the woods that explodes into the prairie-covered meadow...

it’s the place where buddies converge after the ride to drink a beer around the fire barrel...

you know that mud pit that stops you dead in your tracks? and you have to put your foot down? it's that part...

it’s that two hundred yard stretch that’s far enough away from the work week that, when I look behind me, I can’t see my way back...

it’s the theatre of bullshit, the passage to agony, the challenge for the soul, and the playground of the enchanted...

it’s just around the curve from inspiration

in the vicinity of grace.


- ob

Five Things

George tagged a few of us for this current meme: Five Things.

Five things....

...big couple of words,
fIve
tHingS.

But, he didn't say Five WHAT-KIND-OF Things.

• Five Things I'd talk to my mother about if she were alive
• Five Things that I'd trade to make it as a writer
• Five Things I'd start up if I were into startups...if educational startups paid the rent
• Five Things I'd love to paint and no, not with Glidden
• Five Things I'd undertake if I had infinite patience and big lottery winnings

A bit later in his post he did say: before pushing up daisies. I suppose. Like Ptelea, my thoughts change with the season and again with the year SO on this day, within my current state of mind, Five Things I'd like to do Before I Die are:

1. Bicycle, hike or rail through whatever country has cheap airfare at the time.

2. Retire and have enough healthy years to enjoy doing whatever it is that I do.

3. Live in a small house, on a small lot, drive a beater car and have just enough stuff to make living enjoyable...wait... that sounds familiar somehow.

4. Make a living off my avocation...whatever that may be.

5. Own a kitchen that doesn't date from 1948.

Simple, attainable...everything else is frosting.

- tob with sprinkles


Consider yourself tagged if you care to join in: Matt, Emma, Snakebite, Sue, and the kids over at Facility

Tagged

So, Lunatic, Pete and Shawn passed the baton or maybe I've been hit with it, not sure yet and I get to tell you five things about myself that you may not know.

1. My baloney has a first name
2. My hairdresser really doesn't know
3. I'm obsequious, purple and clairvoyant
4. People hate me because I'm beautiful
5. I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today

And if you recognize all five of those, you're at least as old as I am.

Alright...five things.

1. I used to paint. Not walls, but on canvas. I drew also...and chalked and sewed and played the flute and built stage sets and ran track and played basketball and wrote -- some of those things up until just a few years ago, a couple still. And, by a stroke of luck I was halfway decent at it, not great by any means, but decent. I was one of those kids who could've been great at something if I'd have applied myself heard that before? It took until I was in my 30s for me to realize the thing I'm really good at is trying small bits of everything. There's always something more out there to understand. AND, it serves me well in my profession -- I get the computer geek, the jock, the art nerd, the musician because I've been there.

2. I don't want to be a teacher anymore. I like what I do. I'd just rather not have to be somewhere every day.

3. I believe the Brady Bunch lied. I know. We tried putting together two families and it just wasn't all smiles and Alice.

4. My latest nickname was Weezie, but I'm only called that by buds from back home...other nicknames have been Bean, Ruby, Umbie, and Jeanne-Weenie in her Teeny Bikini damn you Markey Odegard!

5. Joey Peterka's crying was music to my ears. I was five. It was Kindergarten. We got four-pronged TB tests in school. I'll never forget lining up, rolling up sleeves, and one-by-one holding out our arms, squeezing our eyes shut, and getting the four-pronged prick. The class bully, Joey Peterka, couldn't or wouldn't? move his sleeve up very far so he got the stick on his inner wrist. I cringed as I watched the poke. There was a split second of silence, then my eyes got big as Joey howled and cried real tears. Looks of amazement crossed the room as he went to the teacher for comfort. No one else cried. Joey lost his power that day.

Sending the tag along to the four corners and across the sea: Tim, XBunny, George, Juancho, Alberto

- TOB being triple-tagged, does it mean I need to write 15 things?!