I need a little boost to hit the holiday with a running start. You can have some too.

Have a great holiday!

[UPDATE] I need some more.

KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW! KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW!

Ever wonder what it would look like if God rode to work on a bike?

(h/t to the Sweeney to the Stevil)

I repacked both wheels last night, gave the freehub a little love, put some new pads on the brakes, and gave the chain some Rock and Roll*. The bottom bracket could probably use an inspection before next weekend, and I’d still like to get the wheels up on the truing stand for a look. But coming in to work this lovely morning, Cledus was gracefully gliding quiet and smooth on the streets of DC, stopping on dimes and making everything feel easy. I love that feeling.

*Which, by the way, I’m loving. I highly recommend** it.

**Not that my recommendations should carry much weight, I’m just some guy on the Internet with a couple bikes and some baseless opinions. Ask your doctor or local bike shop proprietor if Rock and Roll is right for you.

So, a little more tuning, an easy 40-50 miles tomorrow or Sunday, some light riding next week, and then it’s off to Philly where we will be joined by none other than Fatty his own self, fresh from riding Leadville this weekend. I hope I get to meet him before the ride, because I’m pretty sure that I, in shoes and toeclips, riding my very first century on a what-me-worry-about-weight Long Haul Trucker, will not be setting the pace. Nevertheless, I’m really excited to do the ride.

I’ve mostly stopped doing the Friday Entertaining Interlude thing, for no good reason, but what the hell. It’s Friday, enjoy a lovely tune by Bonnie “Prince” Billy from Master and Everyone, which I’ve been playing in a loop for several days. Helluvan album, really.

Enjoy your weekends, ever’buddy, especially if you find yourself on a bike in Leadville, CO on a 100 mile ride.

[UPDATE]: It would be remiss of me not to mention: there’s still some time left to make a contribution to the Livestrong Foundation, which supports prevention, research, and support for cancer survivors and their families. You may conveniently do so here at my fundraising page, if you’re so inclined. I’m certainly excited about the ride itself and doing something I’ve never done before. But the effort’s about coming together, and fighting cancer on behalf of our families and friends. So if you’ve been thinking about supporting our effort, now would be a great time to pitch in.

And thank you to everyone that’s made a contribution so far, to support me, the team, the Nelson family, and to fight cancer. I’m grateful, and we’ll do our best to make you proud. Cheers.

Picked up 3 last night, I like him a lot. Here’s one from The Letting Go.

Bonus points for speculations about the story going on in the video.

From Biking Bis, read about these enterprising Angelinos who got tired of waiting for the city to create bike lanes that had been approved 15 years ago, and did it themselves. Enjoy this Bicycling Magazine article about Los Angeles’s Dept. of DIY.

Smudgemo posted this awesome film, telling the other side of the story. Enjoy this short documentary from StreetsFilms, Veronica Moss, A.U.T.O. Lobbyist. If loving her Navigator is wrong, she doesn’t wanna be right.

And finally, someone over at Eschaton posted this, and I gotta say, this might just knock Red Fang out of my top spot for greatest video of all time. Might. I haven’t decided yet. But if I was stuck on the proverbial desert island with only two music videos, Red Fang and this one would probably be the two.

Happy Thursday!

[UPDATE]: So before I saw that video, I knew I’d heard of Zach Galifianakis, but I had no idea who Bonnie “Prince” Billy was. This is who he is, wow. He’s really, really good.

[UPDATE AGAIN]: Jesus. This is beautiful.

[UPDATE ONCE MORE]: This is wonderful too. Okay, I’ll be visiting a brick-and-mortar record store tonight… I wonder if there are any left?

You are all my centers when I spin away. Centers everywhere, without circumference.

No matter what happens now, you won’t be afraid, because you know today has been the most perfect day you’ve ever seen. Have a good weekend.

What a glorious, beautiful day it is! Spring has its chest puffed out and is positively strutting around D.C. like a proud poppa. There were a couple soakings earlier this week, but it’s as perfect a day today as it can be: sunny and seventy with just enough breeze to get the leaves lightly fluttering.

The fine weather brings about a generally pleasant demeanor in Washingtonians (at least the ones I saw and greeted on bikes and sidewalks, the motorists are still angry, but I understand). Besides the ambient happiness, this has been a pretty knock-out week. Allow me to report, in no particular chronological order, all the goodness.

There are no disc golf courses in D.C. proper, and one would think that living in a dense metropolitan region would make it difficult to find a good field to practice airing out one’s plastic. Unless, of course, you live in Northeast. You see, our neighborhood is home not only to Catholic University of America, but also to a couple handfuls of abbeys, monasteries, convents, and other religious institutions. Many of them have large, lovely grounds, but most are inaccessible to the public.

Howard University’s Divinity School, however, has great big beautiful publicly accessible estate right at the corner of Taylor and 14th St NE, just a couple blocks from my house. Here’s a look from the hill top down at 14th, a gentle but narrow slope about 600 feet down to the lamp post by the street, with 3 big beautiful trees spaced evenly right down the middle. About a par 4 I’d say.

This is one part of the front grounds. The other side of the driveway is another 600 foot strip going uphill with scrub and thorns on the left, and there’s another flatter meadow beyond that. It’s beautifully taken care of, has lots of targets, some rough, and just enough well-placed concrete to provide some OB. As far as practice fields go, it really doesn’t get much better than this.

Last night, after I got home from work, I grabbed a bag of drivers and headed up the street to practice. I’d been wanting to work on an aspect of my throwing based on a tip I’d picked up (I won’t bother going into it, ask me in comments if you’re interested), and almost from the get-go I felt like my throw had clicked and gone up another level and a half. Everything I threw went straighter and farther than I’m used to, and with less effort.

It seems like a stupid thing to include in a list of wonderful things from the week gone by, I realize, but it really felt that much better, the way I’ve been trying to get it to feel for almost 4 years. Pennsylvania State Championships at Codorus State Park in two weeks, woo!

This morning’s commute was a practically perfect ride on Nigel to drop the girl at school, then across Mt. Pleasant to Rock Creek Park, then up Virginia Ave. to downtown. I had a grin plastered on my face the whole way. It was sad pulling into my building’s garage, it felt like a descent into the underworld, dark cool and echoing the screeches of SUV’s trying to negotiate the tight corkscrews that take them to the deeper levels. But I picked up 9ish miles of the sweetest, loveliest part of the morning, and upon logging the ride realized that I crossed the thousand mile mark for the year!

(For BikeGame! fans keeping track at home, I’ve got 26 points, two points shy of Level 5. Woo!)

So far this year, I’ve only ridden Clovis twice for a little under 19 miles, which is a shame, but trails just haven’t been a priority thus far. It’s not a totally sad story, as our roommate has taken a shine to him (and will probably end up becoming his proud owner), and she takes him down some muddy trails on the way to and from work. I’m always happy to come home and find fresh mud and grass stuck to his downtube.

Sylvie’s been my ride ten times for a little under 90 miles, mostly on weekends since she has the double-kid seat and Mrs. Higgins prefers the springy Brooks city-bike saddle. Cledus, my thoroughbred, my poor Long Haul Trucker, dreams of touring the continent while he performs the chores of a city bike with dignity and aplomb. Cledus got out 48 times for a little over 370 miles, every one of them a delight.

But no one else in the stable is within reach of Nigel’s 81 rides for almost 530 miles. Over half the miles I’ve consumed this year have been chewed up by Nigel’s creamy Fat Franks, often carrying Ruby on his sheepskin-covered snapdeck, or filled on both sides with anything from a piece of stump to a whole butchered lamb. I’m an incredibly lucky man, woo!

Finally, after two months, the last of the lovely and charming spouse’s birthday presents came to fruition. Monday night we dropped the kids with friends for a children’s movie festival, took advantage of a rare opportunity to hop the Red Line downtown, and walked hand-in-hand to Constitution Hall to see these guys, and they were really, really funny.

Lord-uh-mighty, I could get used to spending time with my wife, sans kids, checking out music and theater and comedy, live performances, motion pictures, lectures, cultural events that don’t involve puppets or cartoons. Unless they’re dirty cartoons and puppets. I’d go out for that.

Oh, umm right… woo!

This weekend, we’re gonna pile a bunch of gear on the longtails, head up the C&O Canal a ways with the kids, and see if we can spend a night out on the trail. Granted, it’s a flat, beautifully manicured trail, but at this point I see that as a big plus. We’re a long, long way from lightweight touring, but fat tires, Albatross bars, and big huge bags have been really good to me this year. At least so far. I’ll bring back pictures, I think it’s gonna be pretty fun.

Here’s hopin’ your week was good, your weekend will be better, and you’re sprangin’ out of the snow and mud and rain and into some good times. Have a great weekend!

As you may have noticed from the fact that this Friday Afternoon Interlude stands on the shoulders of last week’s, with nary a post between them, I haven’t had much to say this week. It’s not because I haven’t been busy, in fact it’s because I’ve been very busy. Work’s kept my nose to the grindstone, we’ve had guests from out of town, I’ve been biking and throwing plastic at metal whenever I can, and of course those children aren’t going to alternately nurture and humiliate themselves.

So what have I got for you. Well, to start off, here’s some highlights from the finals of the 2005 European Disc Golf Championship. In a major tournament like this one, the top 4 players in the major divisions often play a final nine holes to determine the champion. In 2005, Jesper Lundmark (Europe’s top player and the PDGA’s highest rated player) trailed Markus Kallstrom by 4 strokes, followed closely by Timo Pursio of Finland and Matthias Nilsson of Sweden.

The course is beautiful, the weather’s gorgeous, the galleries are filled with enthusiastic fans, the players throw farther and more accurately than should be possible, and the finish is inspiring. The camera work is as good as any I’ve seen for disc golf, HyzerTV did an outstanding job of covering the event. I also really enjoy the commentary from Greg Catch and Johnny Balls. Some gems:

“Oh! Whaht’s he thinkin’ about dare?”
“Perfect style with the socks and he elevates…”
“There’s three birdies as we wanna see them, and Timo with a… par shot.”
“…he serves it! Look at the elbow like… like a waiter, serving the basket.”
“Ooooooo… biiig arrrrm.”

It’s a good time, enjoy it if you’re so inclined.

And what could be better than that? I’ll tell you what, bein’ on a boat, motherscratcher!

(This is not audibly safe for work, be warned.)

I only have one thing to say to those of you that are saying to yourselves, “he really phoned it in this week.” That’s an insult to the people that phone it in, day in, day out. Phoning it in implies some effort, at least enough to pick up a phone and submit something that barely clears the bar. Honestly, I didn’t even do that much.

I’ll post again when I have something that needs sayin’, otherwise I’m gonna go outside, throw some plastic, ride some bike. Take a good hard look at the muthafuckin’ bike, and have a great weekend.