Everyone, meet Salome. She's a Bridgestone X04, from the last year Bridgestone sold bikes in the States. I bought her then from someone who clearly understood my needs, priorities, and limitations better than I did; something solid that could handle both road and trail, and would last. Last week, when I took her in to the bike shop to be rehabilitated after years in storage, the gearheads were thrilled with her (the checklist I got when I retrieved her reads, fantastic bike!!!) Anyway, there's a whole lot of story about me and bikes (mostly about me falling off them, and being afraid of them, and so on), but I shan't tell it now as this week has been crazy busy and will continue in that vein until Monday morning, when I plan to sit still and do nothing for ten minutes and see how that feels. But I just wanted to mention that this beautiful sunny week was exactly the right time for me to have a working bike again; she extends my range and my freedom in a way I couldn't have comprehended back when I owned a car. We've been seeing, as they say, quite a lot of each other.
Until I do have time to tell that story, and some other ones, let me point you at some interesting things:
Odius and Peculiar have had a particularly splendid run of fascinating science and science history tidbits lately, including references to a fuzzy Tyrannosaur; if you haven't been over there lately, I encourage a visit.
Through them of course I met Writhing in Apathy, who explains why one should always carry a handkerchief, among other things, in a veritable burst of activity after too long an absence that also includes a funny-if-gross story about her erstwhile roommate.
Were you French-kissing seven or more people a week as a teen? Apparently that's dangerous. I don't know what to think about this, as I haven't had time to think in days, preferring instead to run on raw animal instinct and Clif bars. But it feels a little like the usual sex panic adults ladle out to teenagers. By all means, make sure the scamps know about meningococcal bacteria, but let's not get too whacked out about it, shall we?
You know they found another Pharonic tomb, yes? Just five kilometers away from old Uncle Tut's place. I love this because they thought the Valley of the Kings was all tapped out, but no. Makes me yearn for the golden era of exploration, when they probably didn't first go in with all sorts of electronic imaging gear and rebreathers and whatnot.
