Helper/Bike

I'm growing a bike gang here in Suburban Ohio.

Insta-photographer

Remember that time we took a bunch of photos in the 70s? Here's the proof. I joined Instagram after C (and everyonr else) started pulling amazing looking pics out of their butts, I mean camera phones. I'll post up a link to my page later. Woop!

Back to School: Shit Just Got Real

Today I registered as a new student in a post-Bachelors teaching degree program. It's not undergrad, it's not graduate school level. It's between that. I'm a meta-grad student. I've had this on my radar for months but this morning I was freaking out.

I like people to tell me what to do. When left to my own devices I go do something unproductive like ride my bike or whatever. But if C asks me to do something I'm on it. Or if, in high school, somebody was like, "Go to college and do this," I probably would have. But no. People were all, "What do you like? Do what you like." And since at the time skateboarding wasn't too promising, I picked the next best thing: Biology, the study of life. How cool is that? Life is great. Life is animals and crazy ass insects, and blood and guts, and plants that do crazy shit, and so on. It was great. Then I had to do something with it. Ecology. Awesome. Graduation came and then I had to do something with this degree. Environmental Consulting? Sure. It fell in my lap. Well, five years, one baby, and a growing fetus later, I finally realized it was time to quit a job that really chewed up and spit out my spirit. And it didn't pay well or provide any sort of benefits whatsoever.

A couple years down the road and you find me, today, registering for classes to become a teacher. I keep suppressing the anger (or disappointment) that is sloshing around inside of me for having not figured this out sooner. But here I am, ready to move forward. This summation totally ignores the time I've spent at home with our girls as the stay-at-home parent, which has been the coolest, most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life. That reason alone reconciles the problem of quitting a bad job and needing to find another career path. These issues have afforded me a chance to bond with my daughters in a way I never imagined. I'm not saying I'm good at what I'm doing now, but it is teaching me a ton.

But this morning I really started freaking out; about tuition costs and the stress that will be placed on my family over the next three years. I know we'll make it work but it's a stress I can't avoid any longer.

Keep posted--but don't hold your breath. We're in for the long haul

Holidays, Excitement

This video is a tiny excerpt from our conversation with Ellie last night before "bedtime," just after watching our town's firework display from the end of our driveway. It's a long one but I'm glad we caught a bit of Ellie's hilarious ranting which is something I want to look back on forever. The volume is low, so crank it up. You can hear me say "I love you, El" a couple times, at around 02:30 and 02:50, which was my weak attempt at shutting down the conversation and wrapping up the video, but Ellie keeps on trucking. So we kept rolling.

How To: Bookstore

Rivendell - good reminders about riding bikes

It's been a while since I looked up the Rivendell Bicycle Works website, but recently I did and it made me happy. This shop seems to be built around a philosophy that riding a bike is not complicated, can be done by anyone in anyway, and is fun. Or should be. The stuff sold by Rivendell has a very old school, classic, almost European style. Leather and tweed and steel are the materials of choice and harken back to a simpler time. There are a lot of articles posted up with tips and thoughts about a wide variety of things and one that stood out was "How to Make the Rest of Your Family Hate Riding." Included in the bullet-ed list were these tips:

• Buy them upscale bikes, and remind them how expensive they are. The guilt they’ll feel for not appreciating them is a fantastic motivator.
• Make sure they know that expensive bikes make hard hills easy, so when they’re struggling, they’ll think it’s them, and work harder to improve.
• Force them to wear lycra shorts and jerseys. This will reinforce how easy and natural it is to just hop on a bike and ride somewhere.

I showed C those first two and she smiled because she realized, as I did, that I've been trying to convince her she needs an upscale bike. (That's not necessarily true, I just believe she needs a better bike than the heavy, poor-fitting, abused bike she currently owns.) It's true, however, that I've been pushing an upscale bike largely because of my employee discount; and it's true that she doesn't need an expensive bike considering she has very little enthusiasm about riding, at least relative to my own obsession. 

Anyway, I find myself around young guys without their own families and a shit-ton of disposable income and free time. What that allows is big stable of expensive bikes with carbon fiber this and lightweight that. And I'm constantly comparing myself to them. It sucks. It's hard to remove myself from it. It's also hard to be surrounded by "nice" (expensive) bikes all the time and not yearn to have one for myself. It's also hard to not feel that having a certain bike would allow me to do all sort of cool things (i.e. tour across America, or win a road race, or become some sort of amazing, fast, balls-y mountain biker), because the reality is I ride my road bike 0.2 miles to work or to the grocery or to pull the bike trailer and I ride my mountain bike pretty slowly and timidly on nearby trails. That's not to sound too self deprecating, because I always enjoy the riding I do, but it's to point out that I don't need an aggressive road racing bike or a crazy spec'd-out mountain rig. I just need the right tool for the job. Something to pick up a couple pizzas when it's time; to haul our girls to the library, pool, or park; and something that won't break when I misjudge an obstacle on the local singletrack trail.

Jessica Love Photography

I've been pretty pumped to have a sister who is an amazing photographer, who can document special events or moments in our lives--but now that we have kids, this talent has become invaluable and has provided us with some killer photos of memories we will cherish forever. Check out the latest post on Jessica Love Photography's blog, and while you're there stay a while and look around. Awesomeness. Thanks Jess!

This just happened

At the breakfast table