Thursday Canadian Bike Filler

Oh man. I tried and I tried and I tried to get AstroWeek Part 3 up by this morning, but I crashed last night- busy week.

Tangent: The thing is, Orion is such a cool constellation, and has so much going on, it’s just totally unreal. It’s a tough one to blog about because it’s got like a thousand weird details and quirks and tangents to suck you in. Anyway, I’ll get it posted by tomorrow. Promise.

Side Note: BTW, This morning just after 6AM I spotted 47 Ursae Majoris, the star I blogged about Tuesday with the cool, similar-to-our-own, multiplanet solar system with a pair of 10 x 42 binoculars, right here in light-polluted Salt Lake Valley. If you live away from city lights, you should be able to find it no problem, maybe even with naked eye. Use the diagram I included from that astro-site; it's spot on.

But Thursday’s always a big reader day so I thought I’d better post some filler, and fortunately I’ve got great filler this morning. One of yesterday’s Watchersticker-winners- let’s call her maggie- told me where she’s putting her sticker. And in fact it’s a place I hadn’t considered- her bike.

Even better, maggie was kind enough to send me a photo of her bike. You know how they always say people’s dogs look like them? I have this hunch that people’s bikes look like them. Not like their bodies, but like their minds. You know what I mean. Some bikes are quick and nimble, some a bit slower but reliable and steady. Some are rigid and inflexible*, others smooth and forgiving. Some are maintained with care and attention, others neglected and creaking. And some are just… different. Here’s maggie’s bike.

*Sorry, could not resist the dig at rigid singlespeeds.

I don’t know maggie, but I can tell by her bike that she is Way Cool*. I like to think that the best minds are those that continue to grow and develop over a lifetime, that always keep learning and expanding their perspective of the world. maggie was kind enough to send me a link to this gallery detailing the evolution and development of her bike.

*Although I can also tell that she’s a secret alien visitor from another planet. All fixie-riders are from another planet, sent to observe us and report to the Home Planet.

Tangent: maggie also gets coolness points for being Canadian. Like most Americans, I secretly wish I were Canadian. Whenever I go up there (usually for work) after a day or two I find myself thinking, “Hey this place is really cool. It’s like America* except the people are nice and the country has its shit together**…” But like most Americans, I’m way too much of a Cold-Pussy to actually emigrate.

*And, equally importantly, it is like America in that they like stickers. Unlike, say, Australia, as I was informed yesterday. (Crikey!)

**I suspect that’s Canada’s National Slogan- “We’re like America, but we have our shit together”- but that they’re too polite to actually say it to our faces or put it on buildings or such places where we might see it when visiting.

Nested Tangent: Clean Colin is Canadian*. One time on a Gooseberry weekend, around the campfire after several beers, OCRick, Coryalis, Rainbow-Spirit-Paul, Fast Jimmy and I cajoled him into teaching us the words to Oh Canada. Alas we’ve all forgotten the words, except I remember that in one part “thee” rhymes with “free.”

*And now that I think about it, he really is like my nicest friend…

Maggie’s panda-bike is about to get even cooler. She plans to place the Watchsersticker on the downtube, between the phasmid and the dragonfly. Keep an eye out for it next time you’re in Toronto.