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I’m trying something new this Christmas: I’m not going to work. Today’s the last day, in fact, that I’m working this year. And then I’m going to hang out with my family for two solid weeks.
I’m also going to do some snowshoeing. I’ll post when, and anyone local is welcome to join in. I’ll bake some Matisse & Jacks energy bars for the occasion, even.
Anyway, since this is my last day of work for the year, I can’t exactly afford to use my lunch hour for writing, like usual. Instead, I’d like to call your attention to a few cycling-related blogs I really like, some of which you may not have heard of.
Up in Alaska
I admit, I fantasize about the life Jill Homer leads. She’s a journalist, living in Alaska. She fears nothing, evidently. And she’s an excellent photographer.
As of late, though, I have grown to fear Jill, for she is doing what I would never dare do: racing the Iditarod. See, I’ve flirted with the idea — I like the notion of a monster, multi-day ride in the wilderness — but any time I actually go do a snow ride, I realize an important truth: I am a fair-weather cyclist. And as such, I have no business even thinking about something like the Iditarod.
Jill, on the other hand, seems really excited about the idea of self-sufficiently riding/pushing her Pugsley for multiple days across the Alaskan wilderness.
That’s not merely interesting, that’s freakin’ compelling.
The thing is, Jill’s not crazily rich, and this race is expensive. So if you have a few bucks, I recommend that when you go to Up In Alaska, you click the “Make a Donation” link to help Jill defray some of her race costs.
Bob’s Web Log
Bob (a member of the core team) is what you might call a Serial Blogger. For a while he wrote a blog as if he were President Bush’s (the current one, not the first one) gardener (sadly, I cannot find the URL right now). Then he wrote Bob’s Top 5. He was a contributor in the ill-fated Random Reviewer project. And now he writes Bob’s Web Log, which is sometimes about biking, and sometimes not.
Bob and I both like writing absurd, self-aware comedy. The key difference between us (apart from our hair — he has lots of red hair, I have no hair whatsoever) is that he can write in other ways, too.
That said, my blog is much more popular than Bob’s blog.
Brad Keyes
Brad Keyes (a member of the core team) is an incredibly interesting guy. He’s recently bought a bunch of land on Gooseberry Mesa, and he’s going to build and rent yurts out there soon. It’ll be the most awesome cycling destination in the world, and Brad promises me he’ll let me give away some free visits there, maybe even guided by him. I guarantee this will be the most awesome giveaway ever.
Brad has also developed his own energy drink for cyclists. It is the best energy drink I have ever used. Soon he’s going to start selling it, and I think you might want to try it.
Brad makes his own beer. Everyone tells me it’s great. He’s just a full-on I’ll-try-anything kind of guy.
And now Brad’s got a blog. I would never have guessed that Brad would be a good writer, but it turns out he is. (Except those weird pop-out ad links he’s got all over the place are incredibly annoying.)
Rick Sunderlage (Not His Real Name)
Rick (a member of the core team) is the person I most want to stay ahead of in any given race. He is also the only member of DNA Cycling who still talks to me, since I trashed their ugly jerseys on my blog.
Right now, if Rick and I were to race in a velodrome, he could lap me by the third lap.
Unholy Roleur
I’ve never met Jim — the Unholy Roleur — in person, and for that I’m grateful, because I get the sense that he could (and probably would) crush me like a bug. He’s got this crazy, stream-of-cycling consciousness thing going on that cracks me up.
So Very Alone
OK, so this one doesn’t have anything to do with bikes. But I can’t help reading poor Harlan’s blog. I think if he rode a bike, his life might improve immeasurably.
Comment by Dan K | 12.14.2007 | 12:09 pm
Elden,
Long time reader and lurker, occasional commenter who can’t stick with a handle over here. Anyway, when I first read what you were doing with today’s post, I was disappointed. Then I realized Bob was still writing, and Rick & Brad had blogs, and I was happy. Somehow, however, it was Harlan’s blog that kept my attention. I just read it start to finish, including comments. Intense. I’ll likely comment over there, but need to think of what I’ll say as there seems to be a decent chance he’ll really take it to heart.
Anyway, what caught me is your comment about riding. Turns out he does ride a bike, as evidenced by this post: http://soveryalone.com/2007/11/19/no-more-mister-nice-guy/. I think what he needs is a riding buddy. I wonder where he’s at?
Comment by cheapie | 12.14.2007 | 12:22 pm
jill’s recent tales of riding out in the sleet scares me. i’m hoping something serious doesn’t happen to her. i’m in the national ski patrol and know how quickly hypothermia can set in. you go downhill quickly. especially when fatigue, sweat, and precipitation are involved.
Comment by Eufemiano Fuentes | 12.14.2007 | 12:27 pm
Oh my please, pretty please find and post the link for Bob’s presidential gardening blog.
Comment by Anonymous | 12.14.2007 | 12:35 pm
What no love for me Fatty? Or do I just creep you out a bit?
Enjoy the probably much needed time off!
Comment by Caloi Rider | 12.14.2007 | 12:36 pm
My snowshoeing partner just called and canceled our Saturday plans. So I’m replacing that much-anticipated event with sulking, riding the trainer and possibly eating lots of junk food.
Remember to take your camera snowshoeing, eh? Some of us need the vicarious experience.
Comment by Rick S. | 12.14.2007 | 12:49 pm
Elden,
If you want to experience the closest thing to mountain biking but on snow, you need to come out with us in the backcountry. I have an extra set of skis, skins, beacon, pack, shovel, etc…
You will love it. Brutal climb followed by a fast downhill.
I’ll pick you up tomorrow. Please have lunch ready.
Comment by Don (cyclingphun.blogspot.com) | 12.14.2007 | 12:54 pm
Sorry,
“What no love for me Fatty? Or do I just creep you out a bit?
Enjoy the probably much needed time off!”
Was me… yurts…a fun word, a cool place to stay
Comment by BotchedExperiment | 12.14.2007 | 1:20 pm
I’ve read Jill intermittently for a long time. Typically, after reading Jill’s blog, I get down on my knees and have a long prayer, wherein I THANK GOD that Jill has cycling.
If Jill, for instance, were interested in politics or world domination, it’s quite possible that we’d all be speaking Jillish right now. It may be that she’d be a benevolent dictator, but I don’t think any of us “underachievers†would enjoy our time at the “rehabilitation camps†she’d establish in some arctic wasteland. And who would she see as underachievers? Everyone.
The national/world wide slogan likely be something like, “HORRIBLE SUFFERING IS FUN,†or maybe, “IF YOU’RE HAVING FUN, YOU’RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH.â€
Comment by fatty | 12.14.2007 | 1:37 pm
Eufemiano: I got Bob to send me the URL for the Lenny the Gardner blog. It is: http://lennygardner.blogspot.com/
Also, updated in the text of the entry itself.
Al Maviva will take issue with some of the things Bob implies in this blog.
Comment by CLBlood | 12.14.2007 | 1:39 pm
I agree with your comment about So Very Alone. A few rides and he will be blabbering about favorite trails, worse wrecks and dream bikes. That would be a big improvement in his life. I think.
Comment by Rachel | 12.14.2007 | 2:25 pm
Random Reviewer doesn’t have to be ill-fated…you can still change that. Oh, how I miss those days!
Comment by JimB | 12.14.2007 | 2:46 pm
Fatty, I hope you know how great you have life………….a wonderful understanding wife, beautiful children, many usefull bikes…..and you have a “core team”. Just to write that is cool. “Let me check with my core team before I attempt the impossible”. “my coreteam is ready to take me to the top” Very cool
Comment by bradk | 12.14.2007 | 3:27 pm
thanks for love! i promise i’ll remember you when i’m rich and famous. your name isn’t really fatty is it?
Comment by eunicesara | 12.14.2007 | 5:07 pm
I’ll miss you over your Holiday break. But I’ll manage.
(tried the jill thing. she’s too city girl. Prairie life – wood heat, constant maintenance, chores in all weather, watering the livestock when the power is out or the temperatures are sub-freezing is my reality)
Meanwhile, enjoy your two solid weeks with Susan and the kids. I hope you can dance under the mistletoe on New Years while listening to the New Year’s concert from Vienna (Straus waltzes) on your local PBS station.
Blessings and best of health now and in the New Year.
Happy Solstice
Comment by Bluenoser | 12.14.2007 | 5:21 pm
Ah, Fatty. So many blogs so little time.
Team. Team? I don’t need no stinking team…
-B
Comment by Judi | 12.14.2007 | 6:35 pm
Fatty how did you find that poor All Alone guy? Man, you read his blog and you wanna go kill yourself or something – he is depressing as hell. He needs a bike.
Comment by Al Maviva | 12.14.2007 | 7:48 pm
Good blogs all. Contra to Fatty’s comments, I enjoyed Bob’s blog particularly because it reminded me of my own poli-blogging, just from the opposite side of the political aisle. I don’t blog much with my co-bloggers any longer because, working in D.C., I find it impossible to take either political party seriously, to think either party acts in good faith and in the public interest, and to waste my time on politics when I know that about 95% of it is about gaining temporary partisan advantage in order to better steal money and enrich friends by tapping into the taxpayers’s pockets. If you think your guy, whatever party he/she is in is going to make things better, and if the revelations this week that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid knew about waterboarding as early as 2002/2003 and were just fine with it until recently doesn’t clue you in on the caliber of much of our elected leadership… well, then you probably ought to be an angry political blogger yourself.
As for everybody else I’d strongly advise you to love your family and friends, ride your bike as much as possible, vote or give money if you feel like it but try to ignore people’s politics, insofar as politics consists of telling everybody else how they should live their lives. I’m not so into that these days. Sorry to pollute this fine blog with any mention of politics, but consider it a warning not to waste your time caring about something that, 90% of the time, is counterproductive to care about.
Comment by ibisss | 12.14.2007 | 9:53 pm
So that Brad guy makes his own beer, and we are expected to believe that his ‘energy drink for cyclists’ is something different than beer?
mb
Comment by fatty | 12.14.2007 | 10:10 pm
al – i have to admit, i wrote the last comment in spite of not having checked cold fury in a while. didn’t realize you weren’t heavy into that anymore, though i agree with the sentiment.
ibisss – i’ll bet that brad latches on to that beer-flavored energy drink idea. meanwhile, the flavor of carborocket — brad’s working title for his drink — i’ve tasted is mango, and it’s a light, fairly non-sweet drink. i’m a fan.
judi – i found http://www.soveryalone.com because harlan posted a comment a while back with a link back to his blog. i’ve been reading it ever since. i’m not too sure that he’ll appreciate me calling so much attention to him, though.
eunicesara – i’m only taking a break from work, not from blogging. i actually intend to do some EXTRA blogging, launch my new site design, and unveil the 2008 version of the fat cyclist jersey during this next couple weeks. i may also do a poll on whether i should start writing a serial novel, one blog entry at a time, in blog format. i love burying major announcements in my comments section.
cyclingphun – your turn will come.
Comment by SpikeBlue | 12.15.2007 | 7:27 am
Excellent – more blogs to spend time that I don’t have on.
Botched – I agree on Jill. I’m so very afraid.
Fatty – new jerseys – yeah! Make sure there is a women’s version! How bout an update on how Susan is doing? I hope her recovery is going well.
Comment by Denise | 12.15.2007 | 7:37 am
Cool, glad you aren’t really leaving us for the next two weeks. Even though I plan to check out the other blogs I cannot imagine enjoying them anywhere near as much as I enjoy yours.
I hope Susan is feeling much better and making major strides in her recovery. Love, prayers and good karma to you and your family!!
Comment by Earl | 12.15.2007 | 11:13 am
I miss Dug, his story (random reviewer) about falling on his butt onto jacks in the dark had me in hysterics. I bought a Scrubbing Bubble Shower Cleaner just because of him…… I used to follow all you guys from your different blog links off of Bob’s 5.
Comment by Born 4 Lycra | 12.15.2007 | 5:56 pm
New Jersey’s – I’m in!
Just re-read the comment – novel not so sure but it will be better than poetry.
Comment by Little1 | 12.15.2007 | 8:58 pm
howzit everyone… happy christmas. Fatty, here in SA we have a public holiday on 16th Dec and most of SA takes that as the start of the holidays through untill about 16 Jan… yup that’s four weeks! so take the time from the work and hang out with the family for a good period of time over christmas it’s the best thing you’ll do all year! (of course here hanging out means sun and fun so plentysix riding time!)
to all the fatty clan enjoy the time together, may peace and joy fill your house after a rollercaoster year. we are all pulling for you!
Comment by Weean | 12.16.2007 | 12:31 am
So Brad is going to combine brewing with energy drinks, eh? Was he inspired by this http://www.bionade.com/bionade.php/20_en/20_product ?
Comment by cyclingphun.blogspot.com | 12.16.2007 | 8:19 am
I think that:
http://www.budextra.com
Is what Brad was inspired by. OH! And its really good stuff too!, right…
Comment by Craigaroonie | 12.16.2007 | 5:37 pm
Fatty,
Thanks for all the ups and downs of 2007.
I hope the next 12 months treat you and yours kindly.
Thank you for the links.
It is a brave person who can risk the attention span of your readers.
I trust your regulars will see that.
Thanks for Twin Six, I’ve got two new shirts and they are excellent.
Best wishes,
Craig
Comment by buckythedonkey | 12.17.2007 | 2:30 am
Great links – I’m a fan of Unholy Roleur although I think my squirrels would work out a way of turning the Squirrel Relocator to their own benefit.
Mate, that’s me for 2007 – I’m off to spend Christmas with my family on the beach at my sister’s place.
Elden, Susan and your family: our love to you all. It has been a privilege to be part of this particular, amazing peleton. We wish you all a fantastic Christmas and a winning New Year.
To Team FC, may I wish you Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo!
HUZZAH!
Comment by I_don't_have_a_name | 12.17.2007 | 9:30 am
Dude, that loner blog is sort of freaky. Can’t lie, I read the whole damn thing too. I even posted a comment but Judas livin’ Priest that guy freaks me out ha ha!
Comment by Azriel | 12.17.2007 | 11:32 am
the uncertainity principal… once you publish a blog… it’s hits rise for the simple reason of you posting it… so… you’re up on top, but for how long?!
A’z
Comment by I_don't_have_a_name | 12.19.2007 | 9:09 am
Look’s like Harlan is mad………………….
Comment by The Historian | 12.20.2007 | 7:20 am
Harlan, thinks he’s been mocked. He also thinks the Internet is a place to keep a “private journal.” Go figure.
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