Oh.. Sweet. It’s raining again.

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For all of those random posts over the winter where I boasted about the stellar weather I was experiencing, I’m finally getting payback. Over the course of the last month, more water has fallen from the sky than through the entirety of 2010, and I have moss growing on the mold on the moss on my back. This isn’t constant mild drizzle, or light rain fall mind you. This has been biblical.
Of course the upside is that I can regularly stand out in it, with my shirt blowing open, and my arms spread wide as I let it wash over me, in a dramatic and artistic way.
It beats the hell out of riding rollers anyway.
I just have to remind myself that while winter is sometimes soggy, it doesn’t last forever, and only really kicks in about the time it starts getting nicer everywhere else.
If there is an upside, naturally there will be a downside, which as near as I can tell, in the Bay Area anyway, is that the often times sunny onset of the winter season causes 83% of everyone who rides cross bikes to completely loose all ability to do so;

Then again, maybe winter has nothing to do with that at all.
Considering the fact that I have been living the life of the boy in the bubble these last many days, my own exploits have been limited to walking around my house, trying different ways of wearing underwear, and building pillow forts. Luckily I have a mainline to the outside world, what with the internets and all, and occasionally will get correspondences from people, some of which I will post now for your edification.
In a heartbreaking turn of event’s back East, it would appear as though we’ve lost one of the good guys, as explained by Ghostship Matt;
“Hey dude,
CT lost a great human being / bike mechanic / musician last night.
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Could you please post the link to this article to help keep the memory of Mitch alive and to remind people to say “I love you” to all of their friends and family as often as possible, as you never know what the next day will bring you. That would be very rad of you.
Thank you,
Gship Matt”

Matt’s point is reminiscent of a conversation I had recently with new father, and all around man about town, Rob Reedy, in which we were discussing the general state of the world, the projected end of it, and how each day he sees life entirely differently through the eyes of his daughter than he did before she had made the scene. He mentioned that at least for her sake, he was a little wigged out by recent global catastrophes, and we were both wondering if they might be the start of something much bigger to come somewhere down the line. I’d like to note that Rob and I have worked together on projects for his PR firm, Mission Workshop, DZR shoes, as well as a few others, and conversations like this always follow up a hard day’s work.
Anyway, the point that I was making, and one that Ferrentino made years ago in a long lost ‘Grimy Handshake’ article is that while it’s not necessarily possible to live each day like it’s your last, it is entirely possible to keep in mind that it always might be. Make sure that people who you love know this fact. Take some time out of every day and do something exclusively for yourself and for your own pleasure. Remember that while taxes, or your boss, or your divorce, or your mounting bills or whatever are a very real pain in your ass, if you happen to find yourself in such an extraordinarily unfortunate position as Mitch, that any of those things are not among your last thoughts.
I realize that this is easier said than done, and has taken me a decade to maintain as a regular mantra, but I have finally succeeded, and if someone like me can do it, anyone can.
On a lighter note, and back to the usual jackassery that people might typically come here for, Bunnyhawk Robert turned me onto a site that is like a perfect reflection of my own personality with the genius that is White Whine(dot)com.
Though upon further perusal of this site, I became so dismayed, I began writing an angry email to the site’s moderator when I spilled my double macchiato half cap half decaf late on my new Diesel jeans, and got sidetracked.
They can bet they will be contacted by my lawyer and sued for defamation of character on behalf of everyone who complains needlessly about the banal.
In other news, you might remember Jon as being the Black Market supporter who has been higher than anyone else while wearing the colors. (Literally, not figuratively. That honor might go to this guy.)
Well, he’s stepped up the game and done me the ultimate honor of emblazoning his new whip with the goods;
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It’s things like that, that make me very proud, as well as want one of my own.
Speaking of which, kinda, Corndog from Dank Bags has got the wheels of his own empire turning with the previously mentioned cüzie of the month club, the newest sampling of which recently darkened my own door;
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I say ‘speaking of which’ due to the fact that I have sent him off a sampling of Black Market patches to use on some randoms that if you subscribe, you might actually take delivery of yourself.
I might make a request for one of my own.
How many stars would a Dank cüzie get in the patented AHTBM, and world famous rating system, you ask?
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Five out of five, natch.
Rolling right along, you might have noticed that I have changed up the look of the site a bit with the new banner up there on the top. A couple of months ago I had a discussion with art and design wiz Zoltron regarding polishing the look of this site up a bit. I was honored to receive an email the other night with an assortment of changes that I have since forwarded off to Cobra Commander to implement.
I can safely say that it looks better than this;
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Considering the fact that he is a busy man, what with his ongoing attempts at world domination and all, we’ll see when they actually get installed, but I’m fairly well excited about it. You might be familiar with Zoltron’s efforts via not only Sticker Robot, but my old blurg HTATBL, as well as the Swobo site itself.
In a funny turn of how small the world sometimes is, and to make a really long story less so, in a conversation Zoltron and I were having a year ago, I came to the conclusion that years before I made his acquaintance, or even knew of his existence, back in our Lord’s year of 1991, I happened to be housemates with his sister.
Thus once again proving that no matter where you go, there you are.
Finally, from Super Pirata Campionissimo El Grandé I got this video that seems to appropriately sum up today’s post perfectly;

“But I’m still learning, and I always will be. That’s just how it is. That’s what makes you good at what you do.. You wanna learn more.. How to be better at it, or quicker. When you don’t learn, you got a problem. That’s when you’re through.”
I would conclude with an observation about the fact that I’m still learning how to dramatically stand with an open shirt, arms outreached in the driving rain, but for the sake of properly honoring Mr. Youngberg and his words of wisdom, I’m going to refrain.
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Leave a Reply

15 Responses to “Oh.. Sweet. It’s raining again.”

  1. G. March 28, 2011 at 7:15 am #

    Dam sweet post Stevil! Metal, yea I love it!

  2. newtron March 28, 2011 at 7:20 am #

    thanks man…. I needed that

  3. hans March 28, 2011 at 8:38 am #

    More CX carnage from that day:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UEF3Rw6Rmc

  4. JP March 28, 2011 at 8:55 am #

    Awesome film.

  5. pablopicnostril March 28, 2011 at 9:02 am #

    To be fair, that descent was about eight inches of dusty duff over a network of ruts and tree branches.
    (I, of course, cleaned it every time).

  6. tippycup March 28, 2011 at 11:18 am #

    Cobra Comander, now that made me spit some coffee..gonna go ride in the seattle rain now.

  7. MM March 28, 2011 at 2:18 pm #

    There’s always work for people willing to get their hands dirty. There will be a day, possibly within a generation or two, when Lawyers make $40k and guys who know how to run a backhoe, or weld, or turn wrenches make $150k. That day will be grand…

  8. sarah March 28, 2011 at 4:34 pm #

    wow. i remember that race and the hill of carnage asada. (thanks for linking to your video too, hans; it’s always cool to see the same thing from different angles!)

  9. Brij March 28, 2011 at 9:23 pm #

    What an awesome short film. I love what he says about learning from mistakes–being your education. As opposed to insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” (Einstein).
    So many fabricators would be great engineers. This guy would be a good teacher too–he can really reflect on his work.

  10. Loudass, Esq. March 29, 2011 at 9:47 am #

    MM, that already exists: it’s called being a State of California employee.

  11. Jacob March 29, 2011 at 10:13 am #

    That short film hits a bit close to home. Thank you.

  12. Scooper March 29, 2011 at 10:51 pm #

    I think im the dude in the film….

  13. Col March 30, 2011 at 3:04 am #

    Damn nice post dude, seeing the world through the eyes of your children does change your thought process.s

  14. Paul March 30, 2011 at 10:09 am #

    I deftly avoided the carnage at that BASP race on every lap in front of friends, family, and hordes of drunken, shouting cyclocross fans and that video is proof. Still makes me proud *tear*.

  15. Dave March 30, 2011 at 2:31 pm #

    The look on the guys face after he mentions wishing he would have had more of a family life is devastating. In his honor I’ll let my two year old add his touch: ooooooooooyyrttt4dddddddddddddddddddr