Holiday Social

Yesterday.   Riverside.  9 Fats, 1 Skinny.

It was great to see some friends and properly welcome the first snowfall of the season.

Revisiting Core Values

I've been forward thinking about bikepacking lately. Heavily. Gear planning and the like. Not that I will ever do anything this awesome, but this vid nails the root desire/emotion. I posted up this link a coupla years ago, and it's time to hit the refresh button.

Christmas Day Senior Pictures

Christmas has always been really magical for me.  It continues to be, even at my advanced age.  I think, no, I KNOW, that I owe my parents for this.  They always made Christmas SO special.  And that set the bar for me to work on making it special for the people within my sphere of Christmas influence/interaction.  Same for Patty.  She is especially awesome in this regard and I think we pretty much killed it this year in terms of hosting a couple of pretty rad larger family gatherings at our house and also in terms of the way we respected and honored the magicality of the eve and the day within our quite small "immediate" family.  It has all been really awesome.

With that said, there is this certain rad new bike in the house that did obviously not belong amongst the main floor Christmas decor and that therefore was relegated to the basement.  Sure was part of this boy's Christmas magic though, and when the boy spotted a small gap in his Christmas schedule, he bolted to the park with his new steed and his old camera, on this dry and sunny winter day.

Christmas rocks.

The Next Step

I pay fairly close attention to the fatbike evolutionary process and last Spring, it became apparent to me that things were progressing in a fairly significant and dramatic way.  It was kind of alarming, actually.

As a result, I sold my beloved and storied 9:Zero:7 to seed the development of the necessary transitional funds.  My dalliance with the BikesDirect fatbike has been just that; an affordable interim dalliance.  But in all honesty, I find that I am ashamed by my association with it, and that therefore it's days in my stable are seriously numbered.  It will be replaced by two purpose-specific, higher-zoot fatbikes.  I don't really consider myself a snob, because compared to my friends, I am happy with just about any coffee or beer or culinary or haircut experience, not to mention that I admittedly have no taste in clothes.  But in this one, limited case, well, I guess yeah, I'm a snob.  This bike has been really hard on my "image".

Today, Christmas came a little early when things finally got real with the first of the two serious, badass bikes that comprise the "plan".  Given what I have gone through to get this bike in my possession, I will *never* sell it.  You can have it when you pry it from my dead, cold hand.

If you place zero value on your time, you can read more about my sordid process of acquiring this bike here.

Gracie

My niece.  Posted up by her super proud uncle.  Word.

How I Really Feel

Facebook sucks, blows, wads, heaves, head dives.

I do not wish to be coerced or handled or immersed or assimilated.  Nor do I wish to join and cautiously manage my interaction for "the better good".  The mindlessness that I am being asked to embrace is appalling and insulting.

Unfortunately, not everyone sees it the way I do.

FB has dialed superbly in on the human-connection emotional response.  Ping! Ping! Ping!  A thousand million times during every second of every day.  Their professional execution and our sheep-like response is the formula for a perfect storm.

In the absence of our real resistance, there is no real resistance.  In their awesome power grab, they are ratcheting up the pressure for folks like me, and alienating us from not only the the FB universe, but from our own friends, and families.  The power is extraordinary and is being exploited and majorly abused.  Support it if you want.

As for me, I will NEVER join FB, and I resent that I am being forced to put an increasing amount of energy into managing my relationships with my wife and daughter, and a majority of my other family members, due to the divide.

Am I a curmudgeon? Obviously. But I will NEVER, EVER, join FB, and my conviction has never been stronger. This shit is double-66 evil.  I am certain that as things evolve, I will be one of the many tortured, squealing pigs that FB will delight in butchering to feed the masses.   Middle finger in your face as you devour me, FB!!!

Sure will be interesting to see what future historians write about these current days and the influence of FB and how we, as a society, responded, or did not, to the threat of this hyper-greedy, power-ravenous entity.  Heaven help us that this massive power gets captured or bought by foreign hands, but OTOH, maybe the worse scenario is that it stays "American".

Super Proud Of My Wife

Happy GFBD!

Based on the weather report, we were in for a super sucky, obligational, grind of an outing. As luck would have it, the rain mostly held off and the trail conditions were unexpectedly favorable and we had a great ride.

As the look on my face clearly shows, I am too old for this classic pose.  Damn near did me in.  First and last time.

Ready

For GFBD (global fat bike day).  After way too much preparation.  But what had to be done.