I'm Back, Baby!

Sheesh, that was an unintentional hiatus.

In my defense, I was hard at work on resumes, cover letters, portfolios, getting suits dry-cleaned, interviews, and all the other un-fun stuff that goes with (almost) getting one's walking papers. The upside? It paid off, and I will be officially plugging into a different Borg-cube (one that -- hopefully -- doesn't have the Scimitar of Unemployment hanging over it) within the same corporate collective starting Monday. Bike-wise (since that's why you're here, right?) it means a commute of 10 miles each way instead of my "hardly worth pumping up the tires" 3-mile round trip. Woo hoo, more bike time!

You may have noticed that my Amazon ads went bye-bye in the hiatus. It sort of dawned on me that the Amazon program was all backwards... I was giving away space in the hopes of maybe being paid someday (which wasn't happening). So, from here on out, the real estate is still for sale (will give out ads for schwag), but I don't accept IOUs. And, as always, dear reader, I'll fully disclose any nefarious connection when I review stuff.

And speaking of reviews... checked out a new local bike shop yesterday, Beaverdale Bicycles in (you guessed it) the Beaverdale neighborhood of Des Moines. Nefarious Connection Alert: The proprietor Ed did throw in a shop t-shirt with my Planet Bike Blaze 2w purchase (review forthcoming... of the light, not the shirt), but he didn't know I was a representative of The Cycle and a World-Famous Blog Celebrity at the time. Anyway, BB specializes in consignments and seemed to have some cool old stuff on the hooks and piled in the back (which I only caught glimpses of, since Ed was just using the dark warehouse space to show me the difference in brightness between the different Planet Bike lights). My fear is that they're another "little shop that might", heavy on passion for bikes but swimming against the current. Still, as the big shops in town keep getting bigger (and more akin to the Starbucks "you can buy the exact same crap everywhere you go" model), I'm happy to see another little one finding a niche and going for it. Plus, our staff graphic designer here at The Cycle (who is not, repeat NOT responsible for the travesty that currently passes for photos and layout on these pages) gives their logo two thumbnails up:

Domes of Des Moines, Part 2

We have a diptych. I repeat, we have a diptych. (Or in this case, maybe a dipstick.)

Behind that homely unshaven mug is the geodesic goodness known as the Des Moines Botanical Center. Thank you, R. Buckminster "Any Relation To Steve?" Fuller.

Des Moines: Home Of Giant, Shiny Domes

Captured on my homeward commute via the wacky front-facing camera on my (apparently defective, if you read Consumer Reports) iPhone 4.

Now that I see this photo big, I think I look kinda like a young, squinty, angry Bob Roll. So I guess that makes it a photo of "Day Moyne."

Ask Not For Whom The Recession Tolls

This one definitely earns the "things that suck" blog-search keyword.

I learned last week that it's highly likely (as in, almost certain) I'll be without a job by the end of the year. I make it a policy to keep my employer out of my blog (because, ironically enough, I didn't want to get fired), but If you watch the news, you can probably figure out where I work and/or worked. If you deduce it, I'd ask that you not mention it in the comments section -- even though they can't downsize me any more than they already intend to, I still have some things left to lose before I take the walk of shame with my stuff in a box.

I'm not whining, and I'm not desperate (yet) -- I did some good work, got some good experience, and at least I have some amorphous amount of time before the axe actually comes down. But the whole thing just leaves me kind of deflated.

Being me, my immediate reaction was to go for a ride, which was a good call. I swear, the sound of my good bike on smooth pavement at 18-20 mph would make an amazing white noise machine. That hum triggers the happy place in some reptilian corner of my brain, even when the higher functions are in four-alarm freakout.

So, dear readers, if you just happen to know someone who needs a freelance sentence-assembler (preferably in the bike industry, as that would pretty much be my dream gig), you know where to find me.


Now that I've had my vent, I'll keep the buzzkill off the blog, promise.