no excuse...

I have been a tad... well, slack, lately in posting. I am coming to the realization that work gets in the way of life. I've got more on my plate than a trucker at a buffet. By the way, speaking of truckers, you may have noticed that I got a good crop of facial hair over the winter. It surprised me how bushy my beard got (and how gray), but now that the weather is warming up, the face warmer had to go. However, I couldn't let such an outstanding crop of facial hair go completely without being a little creative, so I pared it down to a really sweet trucker 'stache (see photo).



Jeff thought I looked like a gay trucker and Golden thought I looked like Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap.



My students didn't really react one way or the other. Now that I'm completely shaved, they seem to miss the 'stache. Oh, well.

On other fronts (literally), Double Down Dave Brown, Luna Cycles Afghan correspondent, sent this photo of his new job as a used Humvee salesman. If you can provide grid coordinates, he delivers!



In other news, Steve Garro of Coconino Cycles was awarded framebuilder of the year at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. Garro is won of the toughest guys I know. He took me for some of the longest, gnarliest mtn. bike rides I've ever been on when I moved to AZ. My lasting memories of Garro are of him trying to push me outside of the Monte V bar to beat me up when he found out Golden and I were engaged. The other memory is of Steve catching me at a stoplight as we were both riding downtown. He asked me if I wanted to go for a mtn. bike ride that weekend and I said sure. Then he added, "Yeah, nobody wants to do 9 hour mtn. bike rides anymore." I replied with, "I don't think I can ride this weekend..." Big congratulations to Steve!

Finally, Bob Giduz has sent me a great route map of the Rotary Cycle to Serve metric century to be held in May. Email me with "Ride map" in the subject line and I'll send the map PDF along with the cue sheet!