I sold my bike

Or one of them, anyway. Before I sold my bike, I sold my house, which made it necessary for me to sell this beauty. I have never moved when it didn't cost me money, and it seems like the more home you have, the more money it costs to move. So, knowing I'll have to pay for carpet cleaning, septic tank checks, home repairs, moving vans, deposits on utilities, and a whole host of other shit, and knowing I don't ever really have lots of disposable cash, I had to find something of value to sell.

I sold this bike.

Rivendell Atlantis, 58cm. I really loved this bike, even though I didn't ride it a whole lot. I bought the frame in 2003 and built it up myself. The frame was a little tall for me, but I wanted 700c wheels and those frames started at 58. That's probably why I didn't ride it as much as I thought I would. Most of the time I was just tooling around on it, doing errands, commuting to work, or playing.

It had several combinations of parts. At one time it had moustache handlebars, which I hated. Some people swear by them, but I just found them awkward. It had drop bars and bar end shifters once. Finally I landed on the priest style bars you see here with cork grips. That bar gave me a very upright and comfortable position, but I always felt very slow.

In this photo, which was the last one I took of it and is the one on the ebay listing that helped sell the bike, it has 35x700c tires. It orignially kept 700x28s on it until two summers ago I rode it to the bike shop I worked at. That day a man from New Zealand came in the shop needing a new tire. He was riding across the United States raising money for some thing or another. The shop didn't have any 28s in stock, so I pryed mine off and gave them to him. I hope that helped him make it the rest of the way. I checked his blog webpage or whatever and he mentioned his experience.

The Atlantis origninally had a honey brown Brooks B17. I rode it for a while but I could never really get into that thing. I always felt like I was sliding off the seat. I took it off and replaced it with the black SelleMarco that came with my Trek 470. That was always a comfy seat.

I had my Nitto Cro-Mo steel rear rack on it, with old cordura panniers that I carried groceries and clothes and stuff in when I commuted to the Fire Department. Several of those trips drew Pee-wee Herman comments from the guys.

I bought a sidecar from Chariot and installed it on this bike. I would put my son in there when he really needed a nap and it worked like a charm. By the time I got down Basham Lane he would already be fast asleep. Once we made it to Dunbar Cave road, on the part above Basham, and he was still awake. There were several deer by the side of the road and he and I got to get very close to them and watch for a while. For a three year-old he was pretty impressed. I used to get off work when I was a teacher, go home, get the Atlantis and the sidecar and go pick my son up from his daycare in it. Strange looks again from folks at the daycare, but I must have made it look pretty good, cause thats where I met my wife. She said all the girls there called me "the Bicycle Man." Eh.

So anyway, I opened a bike shop and I have even more bikes now. I haven't gotten to ride nearly as much and so having this beautiful thing just haning in my garage wasn't making sense. I took some pictures, uploaded on ebay, and seven days later the bike was sold. I knew I was doing the right thing; I needed the money, the bike deserved to be ridden. But damn, when the time came to pack the bike up, it was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I had no idea of the emotional attachment I had to the bike.

I took it to my shop and got out a box and all the packing material for the bike. It was difficult to fit the bike in the box I wanted to ship in, but after some struggles and frustrations and emotions, I got it in there and off to UPS. I had a hard time with it . . . I know there was so much more going on with me and with the act of packing the bike, but I'm having a really tough time finding words for it. Dad came in and saw me struggling and asked what the problem was. When he did all this stuff just came out about my not wanting to sell the bike and not feeling like it was worth it when I knew where the money was going and about how I'll never have another bike like this one and that I had lots of memories and blah, blah, blah.

At any rate, the bike has by now met its new owner and I hope he's very happy. I have already spent about $300 in our moving experience. It certainly has made my last few weeks a lot easier, but every time I pull out some cash from my wallet, I can't help but think about the times I rode that bike with my stuff strapped on it, or my son cradled in it, or my problems figured out on it.

I'll miss my bike.

It's time for my yearly (or so) post

I'm really only doing this so Willie Bailey can follow my blog if I follow his.

Anyway, like the dreaded family Christmas Letter, here is the brief update on the goings on in my life. I can't remember everything, so I'll just try to hit the high points (or low ones). I'll try to keep it in some kind of chronological order . . . maybe I'll expand on some of these things in later posts.

Ok, December 2009 came and went without event really. I finally got my bike shop open and we did ok for opening in the off-season. You can find out more about that over at http://riversidebicycle.weebly.com

January brought the new love of my life, baby Emery James, and she brought snow with her. We had a scheduled delivery. I was with Tearza, holding her hand when our daughter was born; I held baby Em briefly and watched the nurses take care of her; I went with her to the nursery and cried a little while I held her up to the glass so everyone in the waiting room could see. She is beautiful and she's a year old now, with little teeth, long hair, and a sassy personality. I love her so. This is the ZENITH of the year.

February . . . Eh, another birthday for me, Tearza, and my Mom.

March: "You are my child / you came like the winds of March / with all the love in your eyes" A little Journey for ya, can't remember anything awesome happening about this time. I think this is when we put the Webb Rd. house up for sale. Kurt tried . . .

April: I moved from Station 8 to Station 10. New crew. Different life.

May: Flood. My bike shop became part of the Cumberland River. You can read about that at http://riversidebicycle.weebly.com/ too. This is probably the NADIR.

June: Bought Jax a bike for his birthday, we rode around quite a bit. Three year wedding aniversary.

July: Bike shop reopens finally.

August: Had to put EmJ in daycare . . . that is always difficult for the parents, emotionally and fiscally. OUCH.

September, October, November: Typically uneventful. Halloween, Thanksgiving.

December: Em's first Christmas. House full of people. Jax stayed for a week. It snowed on Christmas Day.

January: House finally sold. This is good and scary.

So anyway, here we are in February. I really don't know how the blog thing works. I guess I can get really personal here and only let certain folks read . . . I need to check out other blogs and see how others do it.

It's been a while.

and since nobody really follows this thing yet.. I can post some things here in relative privacy..



My beloved Governors lost tonight to the Tennessee Vols. Just like every year, they give a ray of hope and then break your heart. It might be a long season for me.



I've been working really hard trying to get my bike shop open... . . so many hoops to jump thru..



Lease agreements, partnership agreements, bank accounts, vendor relationships, city and county and federal and state licences and tax numbers, changing over utilities, ordering inventory, storing the inventory, doing necessary renovation type stuff to the rental space so that it looks more like a functional bike shop and less like a nicotine stained, neglected loan office; building a facebook page, trying to figure out the twitter thing, building bikes, moving all my tools and stuff, cleaning, painting, washing floor, building things, paying fees. . .. ugh!



Ok just to go into a little detail. . . It costs $50 just to ask if you can put up a sign for your buisness. Whether or not it is approved is irrelevant. $50. Thanks.



To get electricty from CDE costs $986. You read that right. $986. Just to turn that shit on. That fee was avoided by my partner (dad) signing a note that said if we didn't pay the electric bill for the shop, not only would they cut the power off there, but at his home as well. They couldn't get me that way; I'm on CEMC.



I've had bicycle stuff piled up in my garage for about the last month.



The tennant in the shop before me said they would be out by nov. 1. They weren't. That was a setback.

Things are moving slower than I want, but that's the way it is. I've really been so focused on the bike shop thing that I haven't really had brain space to stop and think and relax and all that.



In better news . . . I've got an awesome little girl coming in January. I can't wait. All three people who follow my blog already know this, but I'm super excited. I don't know how it's all going to work out smoothly . . . work, bike shop, wife, baby daughter, awesome 6 year old son, bills, dad as business partner, lame ass basketball season that I would normally look forward to but now I dread, etc . . . but somehow I know it all will. I've got help from people who care . . . and that goes a long way sometimes. It's all exciting and scary at the same time.

I'd like to have the time to blog more, but like I said.. . .

Going to bed. New mattress at for me at station 8. sweet.

Grammar Lesson 2

On my days off I substitute teach. It is usually easy money, but sometimes I go to middle school and then it's not-so-easy money.

Anyway, I was at a middle school the other day in a Read 180 class. For those who don't know, Read 180 is designed to help older kids read better. It is basically an elementary school design, where there is a large group instruction, then kids break into smaller groups were one group takes a quiz on a computer, one group goes to the reading carpet, and the last group gets small group instruction from the teacher over the day's lesson. I don't know if it really helps them or not, because you still kind of have to want to read better in order to learn to read better.

First period was my planning period, but I stayed in the room to watch another teacher do this Read 180 system. I guess it went ok, but the guy did something that really bothered me.

In the story they read the word whom was used. One of the kids in the first small group asked the teacher what whom meant. He responded with a pretty good answer for these kids: "Whom is sort of like another word for who, so when you see that, just think who and you'll be alright." 

Eh, not correct, but what the hell, huh? They don't need to be confused with all the grammar stuff if they don't know how to read, right? 

So I was fine with that until the next small group came over and the teacher starts trying to make himself sound smarter than he is (see grammar lesson 1). He volunteers his wisdom of pronouns and their usage by telling this group and the next one that the word whom is plural, y'all . . . PLURAL for the word who. He goes on to say, "In this story there is more than one person, so instead of saying who, the author says whom because it is the plural form of who." 

I didn't say anything at that moment, because like I said, the students didn't need to be confused, and I didn't say anything to the teacher later because I didn't really want this guy teaching kids something he didn't fully understand anyway. But for those of you who would like to know, here is the correct way to use who and whom:

First of all, whom is more formal and is often simply not used in American English. But, if used, it must be used correctly, please. And, as with many cases of poor grammar, one must really know the parts of speech and their form, function, and position usages. Most people don't, which is why people often screw this up.

Who is always in the subjective case. It functions as the subject of a sentence or clause, or as a predicate noun. Consider these sentences:

Who is going to the game tonight? (Who is the subject verb phrase is going)

I don't care who goes. (Who is the subject of the verb goes)

I am the one who's driving. (Who is the subject of the verb is driving)

I am who I am. (Who is a predicate nominative, that is a noun in the predicate of a sentence that names the subject.)

All of the above are sentences in which the word who is used correctly.

Whom, on the other hand, is an objective case pronoun. It is used as the object of a preposition, a direct object, or indirect object.

Consider these sentences:

For whom was this letter written? (object of the preposition for)

With whom will you be going? (object of the preposition with)

You drove whom to the game? (stuffy sounding I know, but correctly used as the direct object of the verb drove)

I will give whom the tickets? (clunky sounding and not used often, but correctly used as the indirect object of the verb will give)

Again, I realize the last two sentences there are strange sounding, which is why Americans really don't talk like that. But no where, NO WHERE is whom used to represent plurality as in more than one person! The teacher was just trying to sound smart in front of dumb kids and a dumb substitute teacher, not knowing that he was sounding really dumb in front of someone who really knows English grammar. 

If you don't know which words to use, please just use the one that sounds normal. Do not try to make yourself sound formal if you are going to misuse our language. 

Thanks again.

Grammar Lesson 1

Dear friends, please take the time to read this.

Use of proper grammar has become so lax by people who are educated and those who are in positon to be heard, like TV anchors, news reporters, athletes, actors, musicians, etc. The mistake that has really been getting on my nerves for the last few years is the misuse of prounouns in an effort to try to sound "educated".

It is maddening.

Listen.

The pronoun I is always in the subjective case. It should always be used as the subject of a sentence. Please stop using it in objective position as the object of a verb or object of a preposition.

The pronoun me is always in the objective case. It is used as the object of a verb or preposition.

Consider these common statements for example.

1) "Brad went to the game with Joe and I."

2) "Brad went to the game with Joe and me."

The first statement is grammatically incorrect and makes the speaker sound like he's trying to sound educated. In the first sentence, the pronoun I is functioning as the object of the preposition with. It is incorrect because I is a subjective case pronoun . . . it should not be used in the objective position. You would never say, "Brad went to the game with I," would you?

The second sentence is correct because the pronoun me is an objective case pronoun used in the objective position and functioning correctly as the object of the preposition with. You might normally say, "Brad went to the game with me."

So, when do I say . . . "Joe and I" you ask?

Use it as the subject of the sentence. Always.

For example:

"Joe and I are going to the game with Brad."

Not, "Joe and me are going to the game with Brad."

That second sentence sounds silly and five-year-oldish, doesn't it? That's because me is meant to be the object not the subject in a sentence. You would never say, "Me am going to the game tonight," would you? Of course not.

Make yourself sound better educated by using pronouns correctly.

Thanks.