Things are getting weird around here.


Besides in the obvious ways I mean. I’ll just narrow my focus on the right here and now.

So did y’all peep the story about the curiously meandering coincidences with that fella from my home town that I posted in our last visit?

Well, being the sort can’t ever leave well enough alone, I did some sleuthing, and was able to track him down. My investigation found him happily still living on the Front Range enjoying a career as a successful sculptor, still having a love affair with skateboarding, with this in his backyard;

And still with no idea how his magazines could have wound up in my possession.

He did say his sister ‘loaned’ some of her stuff to a boyfriend at sone point, so perhaps the boyfriend was a reader of this site and sent those on to me? Any this stage, that’s the best I could figure. If the boyfriend is reading these words, send up a smoke signal so I can complete this circle.

I do adore how the universe works sometimes, and have been thrilled to watch how this exchange has so quickly developed.

Going on from one happy tale to another, the other day I wrote a short story on the Instagrams regarding a neighbor I had when I was young, which read kinda like this;

I grew up near this hessian kid named Billy;
*Not Billy.

He lived in a broken down shack, outside of which we built an assortment of dirt jumps. His grandma lived in a small outbuilding, and if we were being too noisy, would bang on the window with a hairbrush. That’s all I ever saw of her. Just that creepy hand in the window.

Anyway, Billy was a super talented bike rider, his pride and joy being a spotless chrome Torker;

*Not Billy’s Torker.

Often times when he rode, under his breath he’d make motorcycle noises. I drove past his house this summer and his rusty ‘55 Willys Jeep wagon was still out front, being consumed by weeds. I would assume his grandma’s dead. Sometimes when I ride my bike, I too make motorcycle noises. I certainly did yesterday;


Then, a few days later I got a real nice message relating to this very topic from Jen;

As it happens, I was out riding my mountain bikecycle today, alone, as I have been every Thursday. We have a whole trade-off system to limit driving, watch the kids, and still get out for rides.
So there is this one trail. I’m sure lots of better riders would make fun, as it is pretty smooth and silky, and has not many big rocks or roots. But it is a one-way downhill that lasts 9 minutes, and even on a day when I’m not in a good flow I can rip. So that’s how you know it isn’t very technical. But I digress.

That thing you said the other day popped into my head, about how the anxious people are actually doing ok right now. It’s true for me — I am very anxious and I feel like it prepared me so well for the current state of things. Well, that and meds, and perhaps some other recreational activities. But through it all, there has always been…the bike. Through different mates, friends, states, through everything, for like 34 years, there has always been a bike. And many rides have been all alone.

So I’m careening down this flow trail without a care in the world at that moment. Ear-to-ear grin. The temperature was just about that perfect 71 degrees, dry, hot sun, cool air. In and out of the trees, berms, even some little jumps that I now do (just started jumping at the ripe young age of almost-47). And for just a second, since nobody was around for once, I made some motorcycle noises with my mouth.

If I ever build a trail I’m gonna name it ‘Motorcycle Noises’, but as it stands, that’s all I ever call any of them anyway.

In other news, We’re now only five weeks away from the tenth annual Wizard Staffs Across The Universe celebration.

Obviously, this year will be considerably different than years past, unless we happen to live with all of our friends, which from my perspective would be pretty cool.

So in light of everything continuing to be bananas for the foreseeable future, I’m proposing 2020’s own flavor;

Zip yourself up tight, and make Odin proud.

If you do have to go out into the world, perhaps you’d like to protect your face part with some goods from the Soulrun sweatshop;

Hey Stevil!

I hope you’re doing very well through these crazy times. As a professional hermit I feel like I’ve been preparing for this my whole life. I’ve switched gears in the sweatshop this last month and have been making masks;


I was super psyched to be able to give away over 150 masks to folks who have been so good to me over the years and am so grateful for their support. I have masks available for sale now in my shop for those who would like more.
Besides working hard to get masks made I’ve been riding a lot which is always a good thing:);

When we’re all out of isolation come visit us! Our guest room is always open for you❤️ Ok, thanks and take good care.

Love always,
Laura, Zeus , Summer, Bandit and Harle

Not that any of us want to cover up our money makers, but if we do, it might as well be with something prettier than what’s underneath.

In final AHTBM business news, I have three items to offer.

Firstly, I don’t know if it’s because of the lockdown, or perhaps people are just suddenly getting up to speed with what’s awesome, but the coffee that Doma Roasting and I partnered on is flying out of their Post Falls, Idaho facility faster than they can bag it;

The details, (if you didn’t click that link), is that it’s a dark roasted, fair trade, four bean blend from Mexico, Honduras, Peru and Brazil they roast in their own eco-friendly roaster, and tucked into a handsome bag printed by hand with vegetable based inks.

How dope is that? Oh, and a shipping charge is included in the price of the coffee.

Also, for those who’ve currently got boost of spontaneous sweating/bleeding, after a week of being out, the Thrøw Rägh is back in stock;

Get one or don’t. It’s cool either way.

Finally, after like, a year of backs and forth with the artist Matt Loomis, I’m super excited to present the fifth fourth skateboard in the collection of AHTBM planks;

For the last week, I thought this was the fifth, but apparently I’ve lost the ability to count. Numbers have never really been my thing;

I detailed a bit of a conundrum I was up against with a new shape in this post, but for this one I stuck with the tried and true W6. The one following this one will be a custom shape, but we’ll cross that bridge whenever we happen to get there.

After all of the starts and stops, I’m pretty stoked on this. If you want to get in on it, get the dims, or whatever, all the details are here.

While I’ve seen some weird things in my day, I suppose can’t say a bike blog (doubebag same diff) that releases crap like records, cüzies, slip mat covers, coffee, and skateboards is chief among them.

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3 Responses to “Things are getting weird around here.”

  1. Devin Curran May 12, 2020 at 5:42 am #

    Need to find me that back yard…

  2. Mr MA May 12, 2020 at 10:37 pm #

    That Torker…

  3. John Hulkoff May 22, 2020 at 6:44 pm #

    I am in. Best graphic yet…