Hanging on.

Admittedly, last week has a bit of an ass kicker, and I sincerely thank folks who reached out for their support and perspective. I will address one point, (that I’ve discussed here previously)- I make a habit of never comparing (for example) the thing I’m experiencing to that of another.

Yes, I agree and understand that it could always be worse, and that many before me have had it much harder. I also understand that in the grand scheme of things, I’ve got it pretty good right now. I’m not forced out on the street, and I have a little room to breathe and recollect myself after being on the road for the last bunch of months, neither of which I take for granted.

I feel like I covered it pretty concisely here;

While I do think it’s a good thing to have perspective and embrace all of the gifts and advantages one’s life has extended to them, by comparing your own plight to that of anyone else doesn’t honor that which you happen to be going through.

That is of course unless you’re down in the mouth about (for example) a Black Lives Matter protest screwing up your commute, the underpaid laborers making too much racket while they do maintenance on your million dollar condo, or accidentally dropping your favorite Cartier watch into your gold toilet, then you get no sympathy from me.

Maybe you remember that post. I almost do.

Anyway, the meat of my point is that I do appreciate people reaching out and offering me some insight. I know it isn’t the first time I’ve used this venue to air my feelings on a matter, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Going forward I should launch a secondary website where I just bellyache about feelings, and keep this one a good time bike dork party. Feel free me to sue me otherwise.

Which reminds me- It wasn’t too long ago that I stumbled across an article detailing a current suit in which a vegan man was suing Burger King for cooking their Impossible burgers on the same grill as the meat.

Ok, I’m gonna break this down real quick- People like this are why vegans are looked at as insufferable twits. I have no issue with being vegan, in fact, I wholly support it, but when I hear people say things like ‘as a vegan, I’m excited to finally be able to eat at Burger King’, I think you’re a goddamned hypocrite. While you’re not eating meat, you’re still supporting industrialized meat production by giving a company like Burger King your money in the first place, so get out of here with your holier-than-thou nonsense, and if you’re that desperate for food, find a grocery store and buy some fruit.

In a perfect world, we could find this on every corner.

The bottom line is I’m probably the least resourceful person to walk the earth, and if I can somehow avoid setting foot in a Burger King, anyone can, and as far as I’m concerned, Phillip Williams can go ahead and eat a bowl of dicks.

Though they’re not vegan, I’d hope for them to at least be free range.

Moving on from those matters, to other entirely regarding me trying to make a living- Since my return, I’ve wrung the absolutely last little bit of life blood out of my credit card in an attempt at rounding out my store’s stock of various AHTBM bits. If you wouldn’t mind, I’ll go down the list, not in a ‘Holiday Gift Guide’ kind of way, but more in a ‘Trying Not To Resort To Selling Plasma To Survive’ kind of way.

Firstly, we have them WSRW patches back in stock;

They’re perfect to cover the holes on your jeans, jacket, jean jacket, or soul.

I speak from experience, as I have holes in them all.

Next, I only have a short stack of the apparently pretty popular Steer Gear key keepers left in stock;



I wear mine as a sorta bracelet accessory, because I tend to prefer keeping my key on one of the mildly popular KVLT key leashes;

And I’ll say, I still love these as much as the first day I slung one around my wrist back in 1996. One issue I’ve experienced with continued use is that sometimes the elastic gives up the ghost where it’s bound by the metal binder. To remedy this, I just preemptively (or in a pinch, post-emptively) shoot a bit of hot glue around the spot, and bingo bango, it’ll last longer than all of us;

Moving right along- After wearing the same pair of socks for months since June, as soon as I came back to Oakland I had to promptly place an order for a new batch, so if you happened to be waiting on the arrival of the L/XL wool blend ‘Black Sole’ socks, wait no more;

Every time a box of these arrives from Sock Guy I promptly grab a few pairs and pull some on. I’m not lying when I say it’s one of my top twenty-five favorite feelings in the world.

In a much anticipated turn of events (or at least in response to a number of emails I’ve received over the last several months), I just brought home an order of both the gold, and white WSRW t-shirts.

If only they made everyone has happy as they do Todd;

A rock and roll life style will wipe out anyone’s smile.

I don’t have many, but I have enough to afford an eventual bigger run (I believe that’s what they call making a dime out of a dollar). I don’t know when it might happen however, so if you want one, don’t get caught sleeping.

And kinda relating to those, I have those snazzy little Baphomet pins;

They’re good for lapels, or ties, or drinking vests, or if you stand to make five bucks on the deal, one’s own flesh.

Now I’d like to segue from seamless self promotion to a thing I’ve gotten a great deal of enjoyment from. It was about a year and change ago that I discovered a YouTube show called ‘Two Minutes To Late Night‘ During my travels, I shared it with legions of people who I was positive would already be familiar, though repeatedly, to my surprise were not.

There are bunches of videos I would like to share, but I think the following might be the best possible introduction to the brilliance that is the only talk show I’ve ever cared about;

And Gwarsenio Hall? I would very much enjoy to be his friend;

Circling back to the meat and potatoes of today’s post, it’s been requested by my Shimano overlords that I share a short bit of information detailing their own guide for gifts;

They’ve got shoes and saddles, and groups and all kinds of goodies no one I know has the money for to spend on anyone but themselves.

So to that end, maybe shine all the other folks on your list and treat the person in the mirror.

The overlords have also done a solid for the people by having a live feed of the upcoming National Cyclocrossings that can be found here.

Say what you will about Shimano, but they at least put their money where their mouths are.

Having now said all of that, and closing out today’s effort, have yinzers peeped this new Wibmer clip that’s been making the rounds?

I don’t think an exaggeration to say that while he might be feeling tip top now, it’s just a matter of time before his back, ankles, and wrists are themselves all just barely hanging on.