Unplugged

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 2 Comments
The Blizzard of 2022 has yet to eventuate.

Looks like the deer were carboloading for a reason. Snow started falling overnight, and it continues as we speak at midmorning Duck! City time.

No accumulation to speak of. But the power and the Innertubes have crashed once apiece.

This is a good thing, as it curbs the Zoom meetings and the doomscrolling. Russians invading? Omicron subvariant spreading? “Freedom Convoy” and Canadian coppers doing it hand to hand?

Whoops, we’re back up. As you were. …

Deer me

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments
“Three for the buffet, please.”

They’re baaaaaaaaaaack. …

They’ve always been here, of course. They leave evidence all over the yard. But it’s rare to catch them eating our foliage in broad daylight.

With aridification at a level not seen since mule deer and Native A’s had the run of the ranch around here, plus a mountain lion said to be working the Elena Gallegos Open Space, it’s no surprise a deer or two or three decides to take five here in the Compound, munch a bit of lawn with a side of birdseed.

I was exploring a bit myself yesterday. There’s an arroyo slicing through Bobcat Boulevard NE that I’ve been meaning to check out, and since I was aboard the Co-Motion Divide Rohloff with its 50mm tires and 19-inch low I dove into it on a whim.

A brief diversion.

It started out as your typical sandy wash, then quickly narrowed to some nice twisty hardpack. A friend had told me it was possible to ride it to Foothills Trail 365, but with fauxdobe haciendas on either side I was wondering if I might wind up on someone’s patio, having a pointed property-rights debate with their Rottweiler.

Nope. My friend was right. After negotiating a few rocky bits and some old snow and ice, I found myself on 365, near Trail 230, an part of EG’s open space that I know well. So I cut over to the ranger station, dove down Simms, and retraced my route to the arroyo to ride it in the other direction, toward Tramway.

This section of the wash stays broad and loose until reaching a concrete apron that leads past Little Cloud Park and under Tramway. Hang a right just before the dropoff and you can ride another diversion channel back under Tramway and pick up the north-south bike path near Paseo del Norte.

It goes without saying that if you like riding diversion channels you want to indulge your whim in dry weather, unless you also enjoy flume rides to the Rio Grande. It seems we have plenty of dry in the long-range forecast.

R.I.P., P.J. O’Rourke

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 12 Comments
One of the many P.J. O’Rourke books in the Mad Dog library.

P.J. O’Rourke, The Last Funny Republican, has shoved off, stage right. He was 74.

I first read P.J. in the National Lampoon, where he was frequently hysterical. If you never read “How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink,” you have not lived. You can can find that 1979 gem in his collection “Republican Party Reptile.”

His book “Parliament of Whores” is a must-read, if, like P.J., you often wonder: “Our Government: What the Fuck Do They Do All Day, and Why Does It Cost So Goddamned Much Money?” (An actual section header.)

He got his knife into just about everyone, including cyclists (“A Cool and Logical Analysis of the Bicycle Menace”). The dipshit fools who excrete their own feeble takes on this original every spring should hang their heads in shame, or simply hang.

There wil never be another P.J. O’Rourke, which is a tremendous pity. The right needs to learn how to laugh at itself, if only so the rest of us can catch our breath.