I really like this cover. Grim, catchy, well done.

Wow, helluva ride in this morning. Cold, partly cloudy and blowing 20-30ish. For significant segments of the ride I was averaging 7-9 mph, but my airspeed was probably around 35, I figure if you add back in the vector of distance lost to drift, there’s probably a lost mile in there somewhere. 4 blocks from work I started feeling stingy sensations from the first few flurries, the cloud ceiling dropped down to about the 5th floor, and suddenly it was snowing sideways for 5 minutes. That was pretty fun.

Here’s something else I observed and appreciated on the way in: I finally adjusted the seat height on Cledus the last couple millimeters to dialed. Doesn’t sound like much to celebrate, I realize. Gross seat adjustments happen quickly, finer adjustments require some time to get to know them, and I find that I get as much of that feeling of “oh… oh man that’s way better” out of finding the last half-centimeter as I did getting it pretty close from 2 inches down. Little joys like this rekindle my love affair with that bike all the time. Quit lookin’ at me like that.

So here we are, you and I, at the end of the year, the end of the first American administration of the 21st Century, the end of investment banking as we’ve come to know it (thankfully), and perhaps the beginning of the end of the era of Happy Motoring as Mr. Kunstler likes to put it. Predictions for what’s in store seem as complex and fruitless as predicting the path of a tornado. All we know is that whatever path it takes to get there, it’s headed for the trailer park. Hey, perhaps we are too! I’m still optimistic, I’m hoping for an Airstream.

I think this is a fitting moment to look back to a visionary, even prescient movie that can teach us a lot about what this new world will look like. Enjoy this gleefully dystopian scene from Americathon, in which Meatloaf fights a car.

Bet ya thought I was gonna show a clip from Idiocracy, didn’t ya? Like I said, I have higher hopes than that.

For whatever woes we may reap down the line from seeds sown through the Age of Dubya, I can’t complain about a thing. My family is a busted water main of love and happiness, my kids delight me endlessly, and my wife is the love of my life. The seas are not always smooth, nor the weather always fair, but I couldn’t be any more blessed than I am.

We pulled the trigger on the cargo bikes we’ve been talking about for years, and the results have been even better than our already high expectations. The kids love the bikes, and are growing up loving bikes generally. Rebbie and I are both stronger, fitter, happier, (more productive) than we were a year ago. And I think we’ve put about 2-3 thousand miles on the Subaru this year, most of those were trips to Baltimore and New York to visit friends and family, so it’s been more like our personal airplane than a car, which is how we imagined it ought to be. Thank you to all who helped, counseled, encouraged, laughed, jeered, and even participated in our transition to car-liteness, and here’s to more of the same in the coming year.

America turned out to be not quite as frightened, paranoid and ignorant as this period in our history would suggest. We voted for an intelligent, rational, even-tempered statesperson instead of the candidate who promised to lash out more violently and irrationally than his predecessors and his adorable moose-killa sidekick. Better still, the show was awesome from this row and seat, partly because Obama’s campaign was a study in focus and reasonability, but also due to the GOP’s performance. McCain’s campaign might very well have been the Blues Brothers Grand Finale Car Chase of campaigns, I can’t think of another one in my lifetime that’s been such a stunning spectacle of fiery wreckage. I’m gonna miss the McCain folks, but I’m eagerly anticipating 2012’s lineup. I’m hoping that Romney, Huckabee, and Palin all make it to the final rounds and provide America with some provocative theopolitical discussions. Bless their hearts, each and every one of ‘em. Don’t ever give up, guys!

I promised something like a bicycling game, and this morning at about 6:30 a.m. the game had enough basic minimum functionality make sense. If you’re interested, check it out here. The general idea is that you record the rides you do, which lead to points, which leads to leveling up. Anyone who’s played video games growing up will tell you that leveling up is a powerful motivator, I know that in years past I’ve been up at 4 a.m., long past the hour when the game was still “fun”, compelled to advance a level. There’s also cash and prizes, which is to say that you can use your own cash to buy your own prizes. Who can pass that up?

There’s no help or FAQ yet, and there’s undoubtedly a slew of bugs to kill and features to implement. But now that it’s mostly somewhat barely working, I’ll be less cavalier about wiping the database and starting from scratch, so feel free to make an account. If you’re interested in how the scoring works, I posted my ponderings on it under “Bike Game Specs” over on the right, feel free to peruse, make suggestions, ridicule as necessary, what have you. I’ll set up a post or forum or something like that for information and discussion if there’s enough interest, a place where people can inform me about things that don’t work, things that work badly, graphics they find loathsome, or features that I’m a complete idiot to have not implemented yet. More to come on that, have fun!

And that’s about it for the year. If you’re reading this, I want to thank you for making this blog a little part of your life. We at It’s Just A Ride know that you have practically infinite choices when it comes to wasting time on the internet, and we appreciate that you waste even a little of the your time with us. We’re committed to providing you with almost useful, marginally entertaining blawgerations, and we hope that you’ll continue to consume some unrecoverable moments of your life with us. You’re soaking in it!

I hope 2008 was good to you. Here’s to hunkering down and enduring, here’s to simple pleasures, family, friends, and community, here’s to “Change We Can Believe In” (as well as the coming “Change I Can’t Fucking Believe Is Happening To Me”), and here’s to us all. Long may we wave!

As we assume the ready-stance and prepare to tackle 2009, always remember:

• you are the driver
• you own the road
• you are the fire

With that in mind, go on explode.