Month: December 2020

Mustn’t-see TV

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 6 Comments
Miss Mia Sopaipilla will watch a lot of things — birds at the feeder, cat toys, her litter box being emptied — but even she has her limits.

“Will we be following the live broadcast of the 2020 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships Dec. 9, available worldwide, with details of where to watch coming shortly?” asks Miss Mia Sopaipilla.

“No,” I reply. “Not even in a pandemic, with Netflix, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime on the fritz, all of my bicycles and hiking boots stolen, and me in an iron lung with someone who hates me in charge of my other entertainment options.”

“I hear you,” she says, switching her tail. “I’d rather watch the litter box. At least some real shit happens there.”

• In other news: Parkour in the Olympics? Purists say “Nah.”

Voodoo x 2

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 17 Comments
The Nakisi gets its closeup at Trail 366.

With the holiday in the rear view it seemed a fine time to do the Voodoo that I do … mmm, not so well sometimes.

On Monday I took the Voodoo Nakisi out for an airing on the Elena Gallegos trails and promptly stuffed it in a rocky section that a drunk monkey could ride on a unicycle.

The Wazoo takes five against a wall back at the Chuckle Hut.

No harm, no foul — there was a nice big round rock within reach of my left hand and so I never actually went down.

But still, damn.

Today it was the Voodoo Wazoo’s turn. We covered much of the same territory but without incident.

Well, almost without incident.

In the last 20 minutes of the ride I somehow managed to pick up a tiny cactus spine in the left bird finger, and it stung like a bee whenever I squeezed the brake lever. Probably a souvenir of yesterday’s miscue that hitched a ride on my glove. I didn’t have any tweezers on me, but I couldn’t see the tiny sonafabitch to grab it anyway.

At times like this a smart fella might question the viability of the rigid steel bike and the 42mm “fatties.”  But what the hell? They’ve gotten me this far. And anyway, you know what I say about the chances of me ever being smart.