Excitement and dread all at the same time.

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Since I’ve pulled the trigger on the kits in my on-line store, I’ve periodically been consumed with alternating feelings of heart bursting pride and crawl-out-of-my-skin terror.
You see on one hand, when this blog launched six or so months ago, I was only about two weeks departed from what at this point seems like a different lifetime entirely.
Just weeks before I was let go from Swobo, I thought to myself that in a year or so, I would perhaps like to launch my own project.
At the Black Market’s inception I fancied the production of a kit to be a marker of its own success, and while I truly look forward to their arrival, the nagging little voice is asking me if perhaps I bit off more than I can chew.
This coupled with the fact that I’m in charge of someone else’s money, and that despite the old adage- I really am trying to make all of the people happy all of the time, leaves me regularly waking up at night with butterflies the size of bowling balls.
But make no mistake. I am most certainly up to the challenge, and when the dust settles from this little experiment, I will be that much smarter, and we will all be that much better looking.
Both of which I could use by the truck load.
Anyway, with all of that being said, forgive me if I seem a little preoccupied for the next eleven days, and not that I need to say it again, but why don’t you just go ahead and place your order now;
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The minimums have been met for the bibs and jerseys, but we are still just a stone’s throw away from meeting the minimum on the skinsuits.
I should also reiterate that after the 18th of March.. Eleven days from today, the order window for the kits closes, and your chance to get in on it is over. The clock, she is a’tickin’.
In other news, Colin took time out of his busy schedule hanging out with Rick, T.C. and Magnum to bring us up to speed on the happenings around paradise;
“Stevil,
Thanks for posting the photos, etc. from the ‘cross race. As I’m sure you heard, we were on tsunami watch today… All was fine on Oahu, but the whole island is sold out of bottled water and regular gas. Costco was putting strict limits on Spam purchases… I decided to go to work today anyway, where we sat around all morning before deciding to put a sign up on the door letting potential customers know we’d be back in 10min. Then we took to the streets on the loudest Electra cruisers we had in the shop. It was all for advertising, I assure you. We made it back to shop just in time to take possession of the Guinesses that a preferred customer, Randy, had brought by. Then Lindsey Bode and a few others stopped by to have a little fixed gear session in the middle of the empty streets;
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The fun came to an end when the boys in blue came across the street to give us a talking to. Shortly after, we called it a day and when the Guinness ran out, we headed out of a 35mile road ride on the east side of the island…
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that all is well out here… unless you want to buy Spam.
Aloha,
Colin
p.s. I put a few photos of the day on my Flickr stream..

On this day in particular, or what I like to call California’s ‘Tsunamigeddon’, I actually rode over to meet 6’7″ at his house. To get there I happened along the coast for a brief time, and it occurred to me that for the moment anyway, the most dangerous part of the tsunami was almost repeatedly getting run over by people rushing to watch it.
Now then, moving on.. In the realm of email correspondences, I am in the exceptionally fortunate position to receive bits and pieces of the very most important information from all over the world.
For example images like these of the very most cutting edge of bicycle technology from folks like Josh;
“Stevil.
Driving around the streets of the Vegasville, I saw this. If that does not belong in Virginia right about now, I don’t know what does.
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Very Appreciative of AHTBM,
Josh”

Or this one that was of such great importance that I emailed it to myself;
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The title for this photo has been narrowed down to the two following finalists.
Choice A) “Hey bro, see you at the next Handmade show”
Or, if you will;
Choice B) “just because it can be made, doesn’t mean it should be
Sometimes I might get something that’s not about bicycles at all. Maybe I’ll get a correspondence from the heart, chronicling the thoughts about a private exchange between father and son.
Like this email I received from Tanner;
“So I had my boys at swim lessons the other day and afterwards we were changing in the men’s locker room. Since it is acceptable to take your little one’s into the bathroom/changing room regardless of their gender you are bound to run into some wondering eyes… especially if they are a Moffit’s.
We were getting the wet shorts off when Presley (4) became heavily focused on this little girl next to us who was also changing with her dad, she was probably 3 or 4. Presley’s mouth was wide open and after about a minute and a half of staring he turned to me and said “Dad, her wiener fell off.” My reply was “That’s what happens when you drink pool water.”
Now Presley has previously been told the difference between girl and boy parts but now he has seen the difference and also learned why there is a difference.”

This story of course reminded me of a somewhat similar dialog I had with my own father at the ripe age of six. For my first ever visit to San Francisco’s Chinatown, I was dressed to the nines in a little powder blue pantsuit with random American Indian graphics embroidered all over it and a Superman t-shirt.
Before this day, never had I seen so many people of Asian descent. Two of my best friends were black, one was Iñupiat and my parents were friends with a woman who was a Pacific Islander, but aside from those people, I had very little experience with any other ethnicity than my own, which is cracker..
Standing among the throngs I remember very vividly asking my dad why Asian people looked the way they did. Instead of engaging in the loosing battle that would be an attempt to explain racial differences, genetics, and other varying genealogical specificities, he simply told me that it was because they drank too much Coke.
Though this was entirely incorrect, it was an answer, and that was all I was looking for.
Plus it totally stumped me, thereby shutting me up, so my dad and I both got what we wanted.
While we’re on the topic of quality parenting practices, I now present to you photographic evidence of Loudass’ own particular brand;
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“A chip off the old block” only begins to describe it.
It’s been a while since I featured any art that doesn’t suck. This is partially because there is so much of it that absolutely does.
Every once in a while though, I come across something that stops me in my tracks and almost makes all of the crappy art tolerable.
The discovery of Thomas Doyle certainly counts as one of those times;
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Now for no reason at all, here’s an image that just makes me feel good;
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It’s like digital Valium.
Now, let’s talk about some other stuff. Of all the possible locations one might pick when discussing hotbeds of cyclocross, most certainly Chicago wouldn’t be the first to spring to mind. There is the Bay Area, Providence, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and of course Boulder.. The list goes on, but Chicago? Not so much.
At least I felt that way until Newt sent me this;

It might very well end up as a must on my list of places to travel, if not simply to pick up tactics from these two folks who I affectionately have dubbed ‘Flound and Flounderer.”;
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Cross is over for the year, and this clip got me all hot and bothered thinking about it again.
On that note, Monday has once again reared its ugly head. Keep your body in the week, but your mind in the weekend.
It’s your only salvation.
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14 Responses to “Excitement and dread all at the same time.”

  1. H@Faction March 8, 2010 at 7:31 am #

    Chicago does a little bit of everything. Even rapping football teams.

  2. YATE March 8, 2010 at 7:36 am #

    That dog is a total champ.

  3. guy March 8, 2010 at 7:51 am #

    cross is never over. only the part where you have to pay to race.

  4. Jim March 8, 2010 at 8:47 am #

    That last paragraph illustrates the axiomatic advice I give to rec riders looking to start racing.
    1) Do not take up roadracing if you have a problem with being humiliated regularly; the shorts that broadcast your religious preferences are merely the beginning of your shame, not the end of it.
    2) Do not take up mountain biking if you have a strong aversion to crashing. If you aren’t crashing regularly, you are doing it wrong.
    3) If you’re thinking about cross, you are about to eat shit in ways that defy the laws of Newtonian, Quantum and Astro- physics. If you are the kind of person who feel like they could die after a slight stumble (where everybody looks), we’d need to put you on suicide watch. Cross makes roadracing look like the Coastal Carolina League of self-inflicted humillation.

  5. Andy Reimer March 8, 2010 at 9:19 am #

    I just got a little dog similar to that two weeks ago. I totally plan on training her to sit on my front rack like that. First I have to get her to like me though (rescue dogs come with a bit of baggage labeled ‘trust issues’).

  6. C March 8, 2010 at 9:30 am #

    even though i was at every one of those races, i still keep watching that video over and over

  7. Michael Young March 8, 2010 at 4:21 pm #

    Do come to Chicago for one of the ChiCrossCup races. http://chicrosscup.com/ Put the Jackson Park Cyclcross race in the September 19th box on your calender. Hosted by xXx Racing – AtheletiCo its bound to be a hootinany. …and Stevil, if you promise to be nice to Titus ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicagomichael/4091572506/ ) and dont mind deliciously fresh beer from our sponsor Goose Island you and your bike have a place to stay. I leave you with this ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicagomichael/4045130065/ ) and a grandma like smooch on the cheek.

  8. Stevil March 8, 2010 at 4:27 pm #

    You drive a hard bargain Michael, and though I can’t promise anything, the calendar is marked.
    I turn 40 that day and can’t (see refuse to be) held responsible for my actions.

  9. pedalman March 8, 2010 at 5:51 pm #

    I’d like to file a protest. Gumby was clearly ‘juiced up’, not to mention getting illegal hand ups from his pony pal Pokey.

  10. Bluenoser March 8, 2010 at 5:55 pm #

    So Stevil,
    Now you’re about to go off to Chigargo… as we here call it, and ruin the race for everyone are you?
    I’m with Jim and his wrecked L5 on the definitions. Maybe we three should meet up there some day for a shootout?
    -B

  11. Ric Smith March 8, 2010 at 6:57 pm #

    Great story on the pool water. When my son was four he said

  12. Tiny Hands March 9, 2010 at 1:12 am #

    I was once taking a shower with my daughter when she pointed very specifically to my nether regions and said, “Daddy, why do you have fur right there?”
    The next day she told her teachers in preschool that her daddy had a lot of fur.
    4 then became the age limit on that type of family activity.

  13. East Bay Ed March 9, 2010 at 4:59 pm #

    Heather Jurewicz is the Frank Coppola of cross video.

  14. Levi Johnston March 9, 2010 at 9:51 pm #

    I question whether a six pack and a blowjob from your girlfriend is worth a pair of your new bibs.