O, the weather outside is far from frightful. And the fires are mostly prescriptive. And since we’ve no place to go … even so, let’s just hold off on the snow for a while, if you don’t mind.
Fall rides are my favorite rides. While I occasionally miss aspects of Interbike — the paydays, the feasting and roistering on various publishers’ credit cards, the simply Getting Out of Dodge — I do not long to waste another week of prime cycling weather motoring to and from Sin City in a clattering Nipponese four-banger, with long miles of trudging from casino to expo and back again through the low-hanging clouds of Marlboro exhaust and Bud Light sweat.
On Friday I was muscling the Co-Motion Divide Rohloff around the Elena Gallegos Open Space when I came up on a couple mountain bikers standing about where I saw a good-sized rattler in the grass on Tuesday. So I stopped to see what was what.
They’d seen a tarantula hairy-legging it across the trail and stopped for a peek, so I had one too. Didn’t take a pic, because I always feel like some sort of half-assed journalist — or worse, a tourist — when I’m doing that sort of thing where people can catch me at it. But it’s always educational to see one of the critters who actually belong here in the Upper Chihuahuan Desert.
Speaking of things that go bump in the desert, thanks to everyone who lent an ear (sorry, no returns) to the revival of my long-dormant Radio Free Dogpatch podcast. I have no idea what’s next — I mean, shit, do any of us 10 days away from the pestilential erection? — but as soon as I do, you’ll hear all about it. Oyez, oyez, etc., et al., and so on and so forth.
Mad Blog Media 
Nice picture. Kinda a yin and yang photo. Beautiful cottonwoods changing color surrounded by the infernal cholla. They give me the fear, especially next to a trail I’m riding. Crashing into a cholla is the stuff of nightmares.
I enjoyed the podcast!
Pestilential erection is a classic; I request permission to steal, please.
Steal away, m’boy. All property is theft, as we know.
And the cholla are not your friend, not an itty-bitty bit. The foothills trails have started closing in and narrowing up, and in spots have gotten nearly too fenced-in by cholla for running, much less riding. No wonder the deer travel cross country.
Fall is lovely. My favorite season around these parts.
My knees were feeling well enough that I did a moderate cruise down the Rail Trail towards Eldorado yesterday. Similar topography as your picture above and just a little on the cool side for the kit I left the house with, but all was well and when I got home, my knees still didn’t hurt.
Life in the city continues to be…interesting. I was riding back through town and noticed a whole lotta cop cars at the St. Francis Drive/Cordova Road intersection. Someone managed to get their SUV not only totally battered to hell, but lying upside down in the intersection. Nice reason to stay on the trails with the pedalbike.
Jeezo. How do you get that rig upside down at that intersection? What’s the speed limi … oh, who am I kidding?
Some drivers think the speed limit is the lower allowable limit.
Or, like stop signs, red lights, and double yellow lines, strictly optional.
Or looking down to see what text or facebutt post just came in. Those drivers give me the fear.
I listened and enjoyed hearing Herself too.
Funny, I kept one other of your Dogpatch dispatches in a folder because I enjoyed it so much and sure enough it’s the same one
Make It a Great Day,
Michael Porter
麥可波特
+1-971-570-1960
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw
Yeah, after I hit “publish” I noticed I had the URL for the April 2023 RFD, not the new one. Oopsie.
I fixed it in mere seconds, but the damage was done. For some reason, now that I’m using the WeirdPress Block Editor, I can no longer preview a post before I publish it. So anyone who subscribes to posts instead of just popping round to the ol’ cracker barrel to see what’s what is liable to get some unfinished bidness. Sorry ’bout that. …
Oho. A little research unearthed a way to preview a post before publication. Goes without saying that it’s not exactly intuitive.
Still, winning, amirite? Going forward all mistakes will be deliberate.