3/18/2009

Juniper pollen plagues moscaline

Despite tiny armies of juniper pollen infesting my entire respitory system, I have still been busy. Here is a brief update of recent activities:

1. I have been doing a fair bit of ski racing. I am three race reports behind. If I don't get on it, I will be 4 race reports behind by saturday night.

2. In betwixt ski waxing I have been desperately trying to get more than one bike running simultaneously. I think I had 6 or 7 down with flats or mechanicals as of last saturday. I am a lazy mechanic of late, but it is hard to predict things like oddly broken chains and bizarrely defective tubes:

There is a leak in that tube somewhere, but only that one bulbous section will pressurize, so I can't find it.

3. I have put about 50 miles on the 24" Hunter BMX bike this week in commuting and messing around. This is mostly due to the fact that is was my only functioning bike without studded tires. I suck at jumping still, but it is fun to ride. Cats are nonplussed:


4. I have discovered new ways of working out using only body weight resistance. Aida loves it:


5. Team baby blue bicycle dropped in for a visit as I was waylaid by the persistent pollens. They seemed to want practice babyholding, chad photographs as oddly as usual:


6. Between this and all the damn unicycle kids in town, I have some hope for the future:


7. Patch kits are confounding. I don't think I have ever had one that was useful at the time I needed it on the road. This was a new and unique failure, usually the glue just deliquesces, leaving behind a useless tube carcass:



8. The bees, they are kaput. I will report back with details, but they did not come out when the neighbor bees did, and they did not seem to be cleaning their stoop as they usually do. Our bee keepers took the hive away today, hopefully I will get some answers tomorrow. Our neighbors bees are going gangbusters, maybe a interbee war, or maybe just bad luck...

3 comments:

John Speare said...

"deliquesces" holy shit man! what a word. That makes the whole post shine like gold.

Anonymous said...

White House bees (and kale)!

"We're going to try to make our own honey here as well," Mrs. Obama told the students from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington. The school has its own community garden.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_garden

Tarik Saleh said...

John,
Thanks, all those words up in my head get restless if I don't use em.

Anonymous.
Hey cool, go Obamabees! It turns out that half our bees may have swarmed right before the winter leaving the rest to be frozen by inadequate numbers to stay warm. It was not an obvious colony collapse thing. It was a strong hive that may have been too successful too quickly. We may get some new bees soon, as our keepers are splitting some other hives at home...