2009's To-Do List

I won't call these "resolutions" (which would only make me feel guilty when I didn't do them), just some things I'd like to try next year inspired by my "stuff I liked in '08" musings.

LIMPSTRONG 3.0: I've managed to pull off two self-contained centuries since snapping my femur in 2007 and creating the fictional LimpStrong Foundation for the Femorally-Challenged. LimpStrong 1 and LimpStrong 2 were both successful enough that I feel almost obligated to make this an annual event. So, I will get another century in for 2009. Note that I'm not making any promises that LimpStrong 3 will be on the fixed gear like I did last year, since that didn't quite work out. However, one of my '09 goals will be...

MORE DISTANCE RIDES ON THE FIXED: I like fixed-gear riding. Simple as that -- no cliched "Zen connectedness with the bike" crap, it's just something I enjoy. I'm a relentless bike futzer, unable to leave well enough alone, so a simple bike that denies futzitude is a good mental exercise for me. But for the most part, I'm a short-distance fixter, getting my mental exercise in commutes and around-town errands. I'd like to stretch that a little in 2009 and do some of my longer rides on one non-coasting gear. A key element in that goal will be...

ACQUIRING A BIKE THAT'S OLDER THAN ME: My current fixie, wonderful though it may be as a commute bike/adult BMX toy, is not the most comfortable thing to put between my tuchus and the road for more than about an hour. Thus, I'm saving my pennies to (hopefully) liberate a classic Raleigh International frameset from pal Steve K's stable. Methinks it will be a much more pleasant fixed for extended jaunts. Heck, maybe its skinny steel tubes will let me experience the mythical "planing" that Jan Heine and the Bicycle Quarterly crew are pursuing like an elusive cycling Sasquatch.

(Vintage Raleigh with Nonplussed Cat, courtesy of Steve K.)

MORE TANDEM RIDES: Maybe I'm just imagining this, but 2008 seemed like an off-year for two-seater cycling. The floods in the Spring wiped out a lot of the local trails that Carla and I usually haunt, which probably had a lot to do with it. Bummer. I really enjoy spinning the miles with my spouse, and there's no better way to do it than on the tandem, whether we're hammering to catch someone or just tootling downtown to the Farmers' Market. I promise, Carla, we'll take the long bike out a lot more in 2009.

MORE TIME WITH THE WORLD'S COOLEST NEPHEWS: I've said it before, I'll say it again. Being an uncle rocks. And I'm even more stoked now that there's going to be Nephew 2 to complement Wonderful, Wacky Wilson, the redheaded eating machine. I can't wait to tow that cute little goofball around in his bike trailer, just like my late-Dad used to tow me around when I was that age.
MORE BLOG VOLUME, HIGHER BLOG QUALITY: As much as I've tried to deny it, I do have an itch to write, and it's a good salve for my sometimes-scattered sanity. So, dear reader(s), my promise to you is that I'll try to have more to say next year, and it will be (more) interesting to read. It might be here, it might be next door on Veloquent, it might be as a guest star on a pal's blog (anybody? Bueller? Bueller?), it might be on that old-fashioned paper stuff, or it might be somewhere else entirely, but I'll keep slapping words together to see if they stick.