because i know how y'all love spam.
So, I've gotten more than 3 requests for a notification list, so I'm trying
something out here. My friend Jan has an egroups list for her
online journal and I
like how it works, and so I'm trying one out, too. It's called
"bluepoofbikes" and you can get to the egroups page about it
here.
By subscribing to the list, you'll get a short email whenever I update these
pages. Also, if you're subscribed, you can send email to
bluepoofbikes@egroups.com and we can have a wee little mailing list chat
thing going. I'm too lazy for a forum, but I'd love to interact more with
you, my fine readers (all like five of you). :) So, yeah. Go subscribe
if you're interested. I'll also put a little graphical sign-up doohickie
on the main adventures page.
I'm all selllin' out to da man, yo.
actual bike news.
Sadly, still not much new. I rode to work today, despite my lingering flu,
since I had to take my car in at 7am (!) to get the oil changed and some
wiring replaced. Doing this supported my conviction to become a mechanic,
as I'm pretty sure alll they did was change the oil and replace the sparkplugs,
and it cost me over $200. Yeesh. Anyway, since the car was getting its
gold-plated sparkplugs or whatever, I rode the bike to work. I felt pretty
badly for about 30 seconds, since I had to repeatedly lean on the starter
to get it going (it's been sitting forlornly out in the cold since before
Thanksgiving) and it was like 8:30am, but no one stuck their head out of their
apartment to yell at me, so that was nice. My bike's pretty loud to start
(not as bad as Peter's, though, we don't know what's up with his starter.
Makes a noise like a cat in a blender).
So I bundled up in my t-shirt, long-sleeved t-shirt, scarf, armored jacket, jeans (feh), and winter gloves for the long 9 miles to work. My thumbs were both in pretty bad shape by the time I got to work; the left one because it's probably still sprained (it still hurts to push on it a little), and the right one because, well, because my right hand just cramps up when I ride. Especially when it's cold and I'm wearing my big poofy gloves. Dunno why. I basically manipulate the throttle with only my thumb and index finger of my right hand -- again, dunno why -- so that's probably really bad for my hand. Whenever I try to use all four fingers on the throttle, I feel like I can't get to the brake quickly enough (probably since the damn lever is still bent way out from the last time the bike went down), so I just do this weird thumb-finger combo. Peter claims that I should be able to do this zen thing where I just rest my hand over the throttle and use The Force or something to twist it, but I chalk this up to Peter having hands that are like the size of my head, and can therefore do mystical and magical things that mine can't. ;) I want to try one of those Throttle Rocker things that wrap around your handlebar and apparently prevent fatigue. Maybe it would help.
OK, that's about it. I updated the books page, so maybe that'll keep you busy until I'm done coughing over here. :)