Around here, every day is vacation.

You know, traditions come and go, and I’ve been reasonably happy with the one I do on the 25th these last few years (a deep dish pizza, a mountain bike ride, and the Tired Skateboards video premiere). However now that I exist in a place where deep dish pizza does not, and it was raining, I figured at least I have that golden final third.

Alas, when I went to take a watch, there was nothing. “What to do?” I wondered aloud. Go back to bed? Eat some almonds? Air whittle? Dammit.

But then, just as I was about to throw in the towel on the whole stupid affair, what should land in my inbox but the aforementioned clip;

The silhouettes and the weird, ‘film of a film’ thing I coulda done without, but all in all, it was a throughly enjoyable romp.

While I enjoy watching the antics of the Silvas, Cardiels, and/or the Shecklers of the world, seeing no named nobodies do their worst at non-iconic spots fills me with a wonder I’ve not known since I was a kid. Tired might be tired in both name as well as aesthetic, but they are running the show with their video series, which if you’ve not watched, I encourage you to do so.

So hey, riddle me this… Have any of yinzers kept up to speed on the comings and goings of the Scale Builders Guild? Periodically I’ll poke around in the forum in awe of all the amazingness in there, but I do quite like checking in on the YouTube channel, however most of all at the end of the year when the site’s star presents the year’s best, and this year was better than ever;

That scorcher absolutely floors me.

Speaking of unparalleled attention to detail, around these parts, my adoration of Bobby Fingers is no secret, but one of mt newest most favorite things are restoration videos.

The following being my new favorite;

I adore watching a perfect mastery of a medium.

I’m entranced.

And the host of soundtrackless ones satisfy every bit of my ASMR leanings.

Now then, and speaking of restoration, only kinda the reverse of that, it’s with a slight tinge of dismay that I note on the evening of the second I tested positive for the ‘Vid. After three weeks of absolutely pinning it, exhaustion finally caught up with me, and life forced me to rest. This was fine because in the middle of my quarantine, what should arrive but my very own custom rust-painted (‘Tweaker Camo’™®©)Squid SO-EZ;

Fortunately, the SO-EZ comes with a standard threaded BB shell just like in the olden days. Unfortunately, any cartridge BB I own is in Oakland, as are additional sets of cranks, so I waded through the myriad of industry standards to conclude that a BSA30 BB, (not a 29, or Isis, or Dub, or boost, or PF30, or, or, or) was going to do the trick, so after drying the frustrated tears on my face, I nabbed one, and will be back to happily neglecting my town whip soon, which looks much shittier now than it does in the glam shot;

I’m a big fan of the fork that came with it, which I will throw on as soon as I get hands on some Problem Solver clamps for my bitchin Ratking Rip Rack.

Remember the old days when you could just swap things from one bike to another? This was almost like that.

Of course I’d like to thank Squid for their commitment in keeping a solid town bike beneath me. I couldn’t guess how many hundreds of thousands of miles I had in my All City, but we had a good run together, and I thank it for its service.

Also, if anybody wants it, all you gotta do is get new dropouts thrown on, (or wrap it up again in more zipties and beer cans) and it might be good as new.

Now then, it’s with a very heavy heart that I announce the passing of Cindy Morgan, who famously played Caddyshack’s Lacey Underall, and kickstarted at least as many pubescent journeys as Phoebe Kates, has passed away at 69 (nice) years old;

News reports cite her passing being done to natural causes. I thank Ms. Morgan for her efforts in keeping my heart light during the dark days of adolescence, and my young mind squarely in the gutter.

Finally, as I do week in and week out, here is the 109th episode of Revolting;

We cover the highlights and lowlights of 2023 is as complete detail as we can recall, which likely was not much.

It might not be a vacation, but nearly anything beats another day at work.