"Hey guys, watch this."

PRO mountain biking tip: Never cancel your blood donation because you're too busy at work. The universe will find a way to get the blood it feels it's owed.

Ray's is a cruel mistress, friends. I was in the street park, showing off my new found skillz of dropping the inside shoulder and pumping through the corners (skillz lessons courtesy of Jon Wells: The Man, The Myth, The Legend) and I started cutting across the bottom of the bowl and - -

on the floor, knees first then in an instant laid out on my chin. I don't even know exactly what happened, but I know my tires slipped out from underneath me. Looking out across the floor, I could see all the dust from the pump track construction, and looking back at my bike, all the dust on my tires. Well, that was settled.

I stayed down for a moment, sussing things out. Knees, sore but not bad. Left hand, sore. Luckily I hadn't bitten my lips or tongue, and my teeth felt fine. My chin was... stunned. I couldn't feel much but I knew my head had snapped down on the floor. I touched the back of my hand to my chin to check for bleeding. Sho'nuff. A moment later I started dripping on the floor. I stayed put and bled a little puddle while Cale ran and grabbed some napkins. It didn't really hurt, and I never got that sick sinking feeling in my stomach- a pretty tame injury. Not to mention, I now got to get stitches- a first for me!



We tried to go to the urgent care center, but it was 8:30 at night, and it was closed. But then! I remembered I had a doctor friend who had mentioned stitching people up. Perfect! What's that? You wish you had been there to see it? Well, let us show you.



And here I am, all stitched up. Thanks, Doc!



It was actually a pretty pleasant evening.

Chinjury

OH NOOOOOO!



More later, friends.

The Bad Bike

This is The Bad Bike. The bike is just wrong somehow... the steering is awful, even after a fork change (pictured below). We don't really know what frame it is, but the geometry just doesn't make any sense. I took it to Ray's to ride it and, well, I hated it. I set it aside and rented a Trek Ticket instead. I left it there while trying to decide what to do with it. Cale was at Ray's one night without me, and asked me if I wanted him to bring the bad bike home to work on. Thus, the name came about.



That was The Bad Bike. We took it apart, threw the weirdo frame aside, and built up The Good Bike.



The Good Bike still features some things that are going to get replaced soon (bars, stem), but it's a start. Even riding it down the hall, things felt better. We'll see soon enough when I take it to Ray's, which will maybe be tomorrow or the night after.

It does have some cool features, though. Purple nipples and decals I did at Hayes:


I think I might take the decals off, though, and cut some of my own out of lavender vinyl. That would really bring the wheelset and frame together.

A note on Ray's:
It's hard to tell these days if my muscles are sore from use, or if they're sore from the many bruises populating my limbs. My only hint is whether or not the ache is symmetrical.

Fish Tank

Those of you who've seen the fish tank in the past few months will no doubt be relieved that Cale cleaned it out and fixed it up a few weekends ago. I should have taken a before picture, but it might have broken the camera. Fuzzy green junk had taken over the entire thing to the point that it looked like the miniature of a landscape where Orson Wells would have set the death of the protagonist's love. Beautiful, yet terrible and otherworldly. Our protagonist falling to his knees in the unnatural silence, the water's surface once again smooth, belying the heartbreak and horror beneath...

But I digress. Here's a picture of the tank, replanted. (The tank always looks a little sad at first, before the plants get a chance to grow in.) We're going to add some more fish soon.

Santa Rampage

Ok, I'm way behind the times. What are you gonna do about it?

The Santa Rampage was fun. Like it always is... and probably always will be. I didn't grab too many photos this time, opting instead to just hang out without a camera in front of my face. I fixed up the horse bike (the rear legs and tail had fallen off during the Halloween XC race), repainted it, and added some wreaths from materials I had bought at the local thrift store and Michael's. The most difficult and awkward task of the whole horse bike project? Tying the big gold bows. I actually had to go online and look up a video of someone tying ribbon bows.

Repairs:


Said bows:


Enjoying some quality time with the horse bike on its last outing:


These last two photos by Tom Martin. Thanks again!

I didn't keep track of how many people asked why I didn't modify the horse to a reindeer or at least put antlers on it... but it was A LOT. Sorry everyone, child obsessions with horses don't go away just because it's Christmas :)