The Sandias, as captured by my “new” iPhone SE.
O sweet irony, that the first day of winter should be the warmest we’ve had all week.
Your Humble Narrator has been doing more running than riding lately, so once the temperature inched past 45 I scooted out the door with a Steelman Eurocross and logged a refreshing 90 minutes on mixed terrain.
I didn’t want to ride a bunch of road, because all the drivers are drunk and texting relatives about what size orthopedic socks to buy Uncle Junior for Christmas and will they fit under his ankle monitor. And I didn’t want to ride a bunch of trails because all the cyclists are using them to hide from the drunk, texting drivers. Thus, “mixed terrain.” Keep the fuckers guessing.
I took my “new” iPhone SE with me, but didn’t think to take any snaps until I got home. The transition from iPhone 5 to iPhone SE was surprisingly simple — swap SIM cards, charge and boot the SE, load it with an iTunes backup of the 5, zip and zip and zip. Mere minutes only. And everything seems to be working. Even the old Tech 21 case fits like a glove.
It goes without saying that my first two calls on the “new” phone came from bots. But I’m saying it anyway.
And I’m also saying, “A happy solstice to thee and thine.” Grianstad Sona Daoibh!
Tags: iPhone 5, iPhone SE, Steelman Eurocross, winter solstice
Mad Blog Media 
December 21, 2019 at 4:40 pm |
Happy Solstice to everyone. Just got off the Long Haul Trucker after competing the Tour de Need to Buy Coffee Beans and Get Some 26×1 Inner Tubes. I expected to get in a few more miles but ended up shooting the shit for a good long while with Charlie, the owner of Rob and Charlie’s. Was a slow afternoon in the store so I think I now know a fair amount of Charlie’s life history. He is an amazing fellow!
December 21, 2019 at 4:49 pm |
Happy Solstice to all. Looking forward to more light in our life. Celebrated the day with a nice 52-mile ride… a bit cool, but sunny.
December 21, 2019 at 5:32 pm |
Sharon: You rock!!
Khal: 26×1 inner Tubes? They sound like ice-skating blades to me! Hope we’ll hear more about Charlie … sounds like a good fellow. 🙂
Happy Solstice (9:19PM Mountain time) to all! And here’s some Solstice info to keep you on top the intellectual solstice pyramid.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/did-you-know/15-chilling-facts-you-never-knew-about-the-winter-solstice/ss-AAI67as?li=BBnb7Kz#image=12
Stay safe … ride on … Happy Holidays to all!
December 21, 2019 at 8:51 pm |
I bought a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Plus 26×1.35 tires for the Long Haul Trucker. They are a bear to mount (I am being polite) so I wanted the smallest possible inner tube to lessen the amount of stuff inside the tire when mounting it.
December 21, 2019 at 7:44 pm |
Probably Russian bots. Good on ya getting on the bike. I think I might sneak a ride in tomorrow and Monday before the weather goes sidewise here again. First ride in two weeks. Boo. They are talking snow and shit on next Saturday!
December 21, 2019 at 10:59 pm |
Happy Solstice to all,given NZ’s position to the International date line, we’ll see it first but all the best to you & yours.
Just really bummed out with what’s happening to the west in OZ.
December 22, 2019 at 4:08 pm |
Wow. Just looked at the news from down under. The whole friggin’ continent looks like it’s burning.
December 22, 2019 at 12:36 am |
Happy Solstice to all! I’ve come full Sicilian now – today it’s kind of clear, kind of cool and kind of windy…not the best day for cycling. How quickly I’ve become spoiled.
December 22, 2019 at 6:15 am |
Lots of Local Bike Shops will close as owners age out. How come? Math for one thing. You can typically make more by liquidation than dicking around trying to sell. Everyone will offer you less than your inventory cost you and nuttin fer Blue Sky or goodwill (your customer base). Here in Michigan I see one old shop close but another fresh face open in the same general market over time. Sometimes the old shops stay in parts of town people don’t wish to frequent anymore so there is that. IMO there will be a good number of LBS but an increasing scarcity of mechanics who can FIX things. Most just replace parts without any attempt to recycle/repair telling you “it would cost more in labor to rebuild than just replacing”. Sound familiar? Welcome to the country of infinite landfills and a failed recycling system.
December 22, 2019 at 7:04 am |
The PBMA (probma.org) is working to provide mechanics who CAN fix things by advocating for decent wages among other things. The old “Minimum Wage and all ya can steal” LBS idea needs to go away, though of course Di2, EPS and E-Tap are making it ever more a throw-away situation.
Governments need to force the makers of pretty much everything to include the costs of recycling in the price of their products and actually spend ’em on recycling efforts instead of handing them to stockholders.
December 22, 2019 at 7:20 am |
If we are ever going to get the climate issue by the throat, it means that both energy and “stuff we make” has to include cradle to grave environmental costs and solutions to the recycling or rebuilding problem. I agree with both of you guys–we have become the Land of Infinite Landfills and bicycles have joined that club.
I recently rebuilt a damaged old XTR derailleur by going to one of our LBS (Broken Spoke) where they boxes of old mashed derailleurs and other spares they keep for spare parts. Nice system. For the price of a six pack in a donation, I cannibalized another old and really mashed XT and have a perfectly working XTR on my CAAD5. But I suspect that is increasingly difficult to do with modern stuff.
December 22, 2019 at 9:28 am |
Goethe’s final words: “More light.” Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that’s been our unifying cry: “More light.”
Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlight. Neon. Incandescent. Lights that banish the darkness from our caves, to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators.
Big floods for the night games at Soldier’s Field. Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we’re supposed to be asleep.
Light is more than watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.” “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” “Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom — Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home — Lead Thou me on!” “Arise, shine, for thy light has come.”
Light is knowledge. Light is life. Light is light.
December 22, 2019 at 11:01 am |
No miles for me today, but we did bake around 144 cookies from 4 different recipes, so there’s that.