Sidewalk Guard Rails

3rd & Oak St at the 3rd Ave Cafe, evidently a semi-truck couldn’t make his turn

Perhaps Louisville should have put up ornamental guard rails instead of such nice trash cans to keep these menaces (i.e. motorists) on the road and not on our sidewalks. Don’t get me wrong, I like these trash cans, which are specific to neighborhood, they’re elegant in a way—I’m glad they’re there. But if they keep getting knocked down and damaged by motorists, what will be left to keep them from plowing down pedestrians on their sidewalks? Are they really enough to keep the cars on the road themselves?

Just a minor blow to this one, next accident will take it out for sure.

I’m pretty sure there used to be a can here in the foreground, but am certain there was an car crashed into the opposite corner’s sidewalk

USGP

This oughta be cool. 

Considering the rain we’re getting today and expected tomorrow, the course should be nice and ready for them. Me, I’ll be merely spectating, hopefully on a dry Sunday.

http://www.usgpcyclocross.com/

Check back later for the photos I’ll be sure to take.

Moving Again

Only this time online. Data is moving over here for a while. Not to say there’ll be much action, but that’s where any action will be if any action happens.

Yep, http://crankedmag.wordpress.com Keeping it simple.

Louisville, by the way, is still a great town. Glad to be here.

As of Late

I’ve been working like a dog. It’s been good though. Bike Couriers is a good shop, I’m really glad to be there. I’m glad to be here in Louisville, the change for me personally was necessary, and this geographic change has been good.

Louisville is an interesting town. I’m not sure if it’s the town, the new settings, the new bike shop, the general inability to stay in front of a computer for more than an hour or so at a stretch, or what, but I just really haven’t been wanting to post to this site. I’ve taken a few photos here and there, but I just haven’t been in the mood to write exactly.

My time writing this blog may be coming to a close. Perhaps I’ll generate another elsewhere, or redo this one. I’m not sure whether or not I want this site to be a part of my identity any longer. Things have changed; we’ll see how they progress.

In the meantime, who is this guy?

Post Arrival

We’ve made it to Louisville, Kentucky. It was a quick trip across, we’ve been here just over a week, and we’re just about settled. Old Louisville: cool, eclectic, part of town (loving this place, where I’m at right now). Bike Couriers: very cool bike shop, really Louisville’s only urban, inner-city shop (website updating soon); very Magna-rific at times.

I don’t have the internet at my leisure just yet, so this is an extremely brief post.

Bike racks here look like this:

sometimes like this:

and more commonly, like this:

Shredding

I’ve been busy lately, always the theme, just the reason I’ve not posted in some time. The move doesn’t start when the keys turn the ignition, it starts when you begin packing. And this process has started seemingly months early. Yep, we’re still moving to Kentucky. Looking forward to the change—I have heard nothing bad about the city of Louisville, actually quite the opposite. All positive reviews—great to hear, it’ll make leaving Seattle easier.

The process of packing to me really entails getting rid of stuff. This is sometimes what I really look forward to when moving. Call it stuff, call it shit, garbage, detritus, or kipple. I’m always happy to part with it. For the first time in twelve or fifteen years I actually went through my file drawer. I don’t need to keep these old bills and paystubs, do I? No. I feel like I’ve been in some government scandal recently, shredding documents! “Quick before Feds get here!” I’m sure I’ve got nothing of importance, but better safe than sorry, I’d hate to see some old bill of mine go flying by on the street with my social and other “secure” account numbers on it.

In a sense it’s sort of fun going through it all. The old stuff is yellowing and mostly unnecessary to spend any time looking at, but some of the more recent papers and memorabilia is exciting and nostalgic in a way. Some of the old papers I wrote in school was fun to look at, read again, and then shred. (Not that they needed to be shredded per se, but the shredder is fun itself to use!) Science or Faith: Choices to Be Made in ‘Oedipus the King’ is one title that stands out right now, mainly because I’m reading Carl Sagan’s Contact again. The two writings aren’t a lot alike. There are lots of other papers too: culinary arts, stuff on James Joyce, the Psi phenomena, and material sciences and mechanical engineering papers. I enjoyed school, the writing was fun. All through the shredder.

However, I continually question the “to-keep pile”. I have still kept a bit of stuff. A lot of photos; which I whittled down to a quarter or so of the volume. Thank goodness for digital photography, now my computer is cluttered. A small stack of comics, (hopefully getting a good price for the others), a small section of my wardrobe, and a small box of bike parts (all my tools though), and now, three bikes. Just two weeks ago, I was only keeping two bikes, but I just acquired another that I just can’t seem to part with. A Specialized P.2, maybe a little more aggressive than I need, but I can’t rightly take my Coppi off-road in Kentucky, can I?

Anyway, I’m still wrenching at Wright Bros for a several more weeks and am happily getting rid of the majority of my burden of possessions. That’s what they all become, all the things we own, they become burdens; especially when they’re so copious. One can’t possibly enjoy or even make use of everything we have, so why have it? We’re planning a yard sale at the end of June. What was once mine might become yours. I guess that’s the other side of possessions, while they can be a burden to some, they can also be a boon to others. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, right? (There’ll be lots of books, bits of furniture, some bike stuff, etc etc etc).

Kan-tuck!

I received an encouraging bit of news I was forwarded by Jack whom I met at UBI, I’m not sure if he knew or not, but I rarely pick up Bicycling magazine, either way it was a good article to read. Bicycling has rated Louisville Kentucky the most improved city for cycling. I’ve read about some of what they mention in the article, it seems the city government there is pretty into it.

This is encouraging because my wife and I are planning on moving to Louisville. The question of bikeabilty is always a factor when moving to a new city, we’re both adamantly car-free and intend on remaining so. But still, why Louisville? Well, she’s been accepted to a Master’s program at the University of Louisville and frankly, we’re both excited for the change of scenery.

Photo compliments of mrquick

Kentucky, I haven’t hardly a clue of what to expect; it has never been a place I ever considered moving to. The only two things that it meant to me was bourbon—mmmmm, and a remembrance from the movie Last of the Mohicans, just by the way it’s name was mentioned. However, from what I’ve read here and through other internet research, we’re really looking forward to it; it sounds like things might be happening there, and maybe some things are actually getting done.

There’s some time before our departure, but either way, I’ll continue the Cranked blog.