Well if you are curious about the bike in the picture listen up. It is called a Zoo Python, that is like Chevy Camaro: Marque and Model.
Some background: Observed Trials is a judged competition where competitors use bicycles to navigate a course over VERY uneven ground, rocks etc. The object is not to finish in the least amount of time but to 'clean' all the obstacles on the course. To 'clean' something you must ride over it without touching down with feet or hands and staying in the confines of the marked course. You would not believe the stuff that the really good trials riders can ride over. Crazy.
So in trials there are different types of bikes: like in auto racing there are different types of cars. The bike in the picture is a 'Modified' trials bike. There are also 'Stock' trials bikes that look like mountain bikes. A modified looks like a bmx bike but there are some marked differences. Modified trials bikes have 19" wheels and relatively small frames compared to the stock class which use 26" wheels.
Trials has been around for years but it has gained popularity in European cities and much more recently in some US cities. Cities have all sorts of 'terrain' that provide a challenge for trials riding. Trials, like any sport, evolves and trials has evolved in the last twenty years. Hans Rey, who rides for GT Bicycles has done a lot to make the sport known but there are many riders that are 'pushing the envelope' as far as what is possible on a trials bike. BMX and BMX trick riding both have evolved and now there are some very talented riders that are using techniques and styles from both in urban trials. Check out the videos to see what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F7z4HxpWfA Ryan Leech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjJkiF-xVNk Ben Travis
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Things that beep.
I am a nurse in a hospital. There are a lot of things that beep. Call lights, IV pumps, tube feed pumps, ... even the refrigerator beeps when someone leaves the door open. Since I have become a nurse I have become 'sensitized' to things that beep to the point where I get really annoyed in my car when I leave the door open with the keys in the ignition. I want to disable all the alarms. Somehow a bird chirping repetitively outside the window is fine but a very similar and not necessarily shrill or loud beep from something electronic is maddening. Go figure.
In the eighties I had a girlfriend Heather Drewes who's grandmother had a convertible K-car that talked. I was in my twenties but in spite of my open minded age the car drove me bonkers. If the keys were in the ignition and the door was open a mild (and therefore maddening) voice said 'Your door is ajar.' I always heard it as 'Your door is a jar' which makes no sense ... I don't like cars telling me what to do. I always wear my seatbelt except when I don't and when I don't I have a good reason and hate the dinging reminder that the seatbelt is not fastened.
Another erstwhile friend of mine: Laurel Saville, had a great line that fit this sort of thing; 'It's like being beaten to death by moths.' Perfect.
In the eighties I had a girlfriend Heather Drewes who's grandmother had a convertible K-car that talked. I was in my twenties but in spite of my open minded age the car drove me bonkers. If the keys were in the ignition and the door was open a mild (and therefore maddening) voice said 'Your door is ajar.' I always heard it as 'Your door is a jar' which makes no sense ... I don't like cars telling me what to do. I always wear my seatbelt except when I don't and when I don't I have a good reason and hate the dinging reminder that the seatbelt is not fastened.
Another erstwhile friend of mine: Laurel Saville, had a great line that fit this sort of thing; 'It's like being beaten to death by moths.' Perfect.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The ripple effect
OK, yesterday we got a Certificate of Live Birth from the state of Vermont for our 3 week old daughter. Both her first and last name were wrong AND they spelled my name wrong. Normally you might give a little benefit of the doubt but ... I do not wonder if I spelled my daughter's name wrong, I did not spell my name wrong. Which means that someone else looked at the form that we filled out CLEARLY at the hospital and made 3, three! errors applying for a legal document. So we call and are told that we need to go to Town Hall to fix it. I do this and while I am there wearing my ski helmet with goggles (I rode my bike) I am told that I might have to go to Probate Court to get the name changed. I am pleasant and understanding but looming inside is the subtext body language "there is no way that I am going to go to Probate Court cuz some lazy desk jockey in the hospital can't read." Everyone is pleasant, everyone fortunately gets it: that we didn't cause this and we have to now deal with it. I was ready to start asking questions about the process "so who sent you this information?" etc. so I could track it back to the source. The invisible trail. Noone wants to own up with a stupid little error like this. Noone. Not a big deal as deals go BUT life is full of these goddamn picayune little details and after a while you wish that people just did their jobs like you do yours. So as it turns out the City Clerks office dealt with and the next day we got a corrected Certificate of Live Birth. Whew. This tale reminds me of a story:
Couple on vacation in Coastal Georgia are walking down the beach. This beach is not easy to reach so noone has picked the beach clean of all the shells etc. There had been a small storm and hundreds of live sand dollars had been washed up past the high tide line. Couples not getting along well for various reasons one of which is she won't let him collect the live sand dollars and there are not many dead sand dollars to collect on this beach. (live sand dollars are a very pale green and have many small hairs on the underside, dead sand dollars are smooth and typically white from being bleached in the sun) So he is a little pissed that he can't just fill up on sand dollars. So as they walk down the beach she is picking up the live sand dollars and tossing them like a frisbee toward the water do they don't dry out and die in the hot Georgia sun. The beach is long and he is not helping. He says in a frustrated tone "Jesus Mary and Joseph honey there are hundreds of them along this beach your throwing a few back in the water isn't going to make a difference." She looks at the sand dollar in her right hand before zinging it back into the surf "Made a difference to that one."
I love that story.
Anyway, today we got our 3 week old daughter's Social Security Card and guess what? ... That's right! First and last name are both wrong. Not a big deal right? Didn't have to go to Probate Court after all. Social Security card name change should be easy right. Don't count on it. What a pain in the ass. So now I have made a special trip into Burlington to get the Birth Certificate fixed and her mother has made a trip to Social Security in Burlington because some joker in the hospital didn't pay enough attention to details. So what might have taken them 30 seconds of proofreading requires hours of fix-it time on our end. GRRRRRRR. Nuf Said.
Couple on vacation in Coastal Georgia are walking down the beach. This beach is not easy to reach so noone has picked the beach clean of all the shells etc. There had been a small storm and hundreds of live sand dollars had been washed up past the high tide line. Couples not getting along well for various reasons one of which is she won't let him collect the live sand dollars and there are not many dead sand dollars to collect on this beach. (live sand dollars are a very pale green and have many small hairs on the underside, dead sand dollars are smooth and typically white from being bleached in the sun) So he is a little pissed that he can't just fill up on sand dollars. So as they walk down the beach she is picking up the live sand dollars and tossing them like a frisbee toward the water do they don't dry out and die in the hot Georgia sun. The beach is long and he is not helping. He says in a frustrated tone "Jesus Mary and Joseph honey there are hundreds of them along this beach your throwing a few back in the water isn't going to make a difference." She looks at the sand dollar in her right hand before zinging it back into the surf "Made a difference to that one."
I love that story.
Anyway, today we got our 3 week old daughter's Social Security Card and guess what? ... That's right! First and last name are both wrong. Not a big deal right? Didn't have to go to Probate Court after all. Social Security card name change should be easy right. Don't count on it. What a pain in the ass. So now I have made a special trip into Burlington to get the Birth Certificate fixed and her mother has made a trip to Social Security in Burlington because some joker in the hospital didn't pay enough attention to details. So what might have taken them 30 seconds of proofreading requires hours of fix-it time on our end. GRRRRRRR. Nuf Said.
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