Blog-O-Versary; Also, Hg Update (Again)

Edit: I just realized I missed my own blog-o-versary.  Funny.  I've now been writing this blog for over a year.

Funny, also, how over the past year my life has stabilized (sort of, anyway).  I have been going to the same church for a year.  I started hanging out with DD almost a year ago (though we didn't start dating, officially, 'til May).  In a couple of months, I will have completed a year at IUS.  I have been reading the same blogs for a year and more.

I've also left a lot behind.  My old bank job is a thing of the past.  I don't move in the same circles as my old roommate any more.  I miss his cats, which were also my cats, and his turtles.  I no longer see myself as someone who will never race, nor as someone who is not a real cyclist (though I may not, perhaps, be a Real Cyclist (tm) just yet).  My Little Voice no longer sounds like an angry Frenchman.  At least, not at the moment.

I have no idea when it happened, but at some point between the beginning of this blog and now, I went to sleep a guy who just rides bikes and woke up a cyclist, or something like that.  Bikes got under my skin, under my nails, and into my blood. 

At some point, without even realizing it, I made a commitment.  At some point, I decided that bikes were a big deal in my life, and that was good.  I blew up my leg, then kept riding.  I got a proper road bike.  I got a bike shop job.  I got some clipless pedals.  I decided -- without really deciding -- that it might not be so bad to hang out in Louisville a bit longer, after all.  I joined the LBC's Touring Committee, though I continue to fail to make group rides due to scheduling problems.

Writing this kind of puts things into perspective.  In some ways, I think of myself as a shiftless, wandering kind of person; someone who just goes where the wind blows.  I've never thought of myself as a particularly committed anything.  Looking back over this blog, it looks like I'm a lot of things -- silly, goofy, sometimes stupid, sometimes arrogant, sometimes ignorant, even brilliant once in a while -- and one of those things is committed.

I feel pretty good about that.

* * * * *

Recently, I wrote a post semi-mourning the possible potential loss of the use of my much-beloved road bike, Quicksilver, to Stuck Seatpost Syndrome (yes, I do mean possible potential loss, since as yet QS is still rolling along well enough).

This strikes me as a bit ironic, considering that, lately, I've been trying to convince myself to loose my fevered grip on some of my attachments (I was never a very good Buddhist, when I was a Buddhist) -- but my feelings on the matter remain quite unchanged.  I hope that QS will be with me -- and usable -- for the rest of my life.

That being said, just in time to torpedo my attempts to dial back my obsession with Bike Shinies in a Lent-inspired attempt to kickstart a slightly simpler life than the one I already had, Hg has sprouted a front brake lever, a pair of brifters (we ultimately opted against the barcons), an 11-25t (or is it 11-28t???) 9-speed cluster (yeay!), some brake cables, and some bar tape.  Oh, and also tires, which make the wheels look much more complete, somehow ;)

By 'sprouted,' of course, I mean that our awesome mechanic, BW, used his mad wrenching skillz during a down period to apply said appendages to Hg's personage.  He was still fiddling with the bar tape when I headed out to school today, so I didn't get a new weight yet.  Also, I am trying hard not to become too much of a weight weenie.

We're now one bottom bracket, one crankset, two pedals, one derailleur hanger, a chain, and a couple of derailleurs away from Bikeness.  Plus maybe a couple of lockrings.  Oh, and some derailleur cables would probably help, too, I suppose.

So, of course, just in time for Lent, I am now unintentionally committing the sin of Bike Lust, which is to say, I am itching to ride the new bike.  With each new component, the itch grows more violent -- just as a previously-unnoticed nose-bridge itch does the moment your hands are full.

BW is turning Hg into one fierce-looking little bike.  I'm actually kind of surprised how much I like the look -- by which I mean 'I absolutely love it' -- considering that, historically, I've been much more of a 'classic steel' kind of guy.  In particular, the black-silver-black-black-black color scheme is pretty rad on this bike, and the anodized purple brake calipers give it just a little kick.  I never would've imagined one of my bikes having anodized purple calipers, but there you go.  They look pretty awesome.  Especially with the black wheels.  It all looks very clean, which probably just means I'll spend a lot of time obsessively washing this bike when I'm not riding it, or something like that.

Anyway, I'll try to get a new picture up on Wednesday.  I'm not sure why I'm even writing about this now, except that I have a wicked headache (didn't get too much sleep last night -- partly due to dry, dry, dry, drydrydry air, and partly due to staying up way too late like a grand-champion moron) and thus can't think of much of anything else to write about.

I'm looking forward to riding my would-be winter bike all spring and summer and on into the fall ... and then probably finding a 'cross bike to ride all winter, because I don't think Hg is going to turn out to be much of a winter bike after all.  Um, you know.  Not enough clearance for fenders-plus-studs, and all :)