“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived… I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put it to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world….”

Henry David Thoreau,Walden; or, Life in the Woods  (1854)

Opinel No. 6 Folding Pocket Knife

My grandfather's pocket knife has been cleaned, oiled, and retired to my bedside drawer, and this has become my new utility/pocket/everyday knife. Opinel is famous for good quality, affordable knives of all sorts, and the locking mechanism on their folding series is especially well-regarded. I've had my eye on one of these off and on for years and I finally decided to go for it. I've only had a it a few days, and haven't had much chance to give it any use, but I love the simple aesthetic and functionality. I hope it will be with me through many adventures.

This New Year

Woodie Guthrie's "New Years Rulin's" for 1942
{click to see larger}
via BoingBoing

I've developed a greater appreciation for New Year's resolutions in the last couple of years than I had previously. I once questioned the value of good intentions proclaimed once and then forgotten or even flouted, but I now see a great deal of potential value in the chance to genuinely reflect on the passing year and assemble a list of things you would like to do better in the new one.

Even the old chestnuts "lose weight" and "stop smoking" when pondered during an annual time-out represent a degree of concern and engagement with one's lifestyle and choices that we may not be able to muster during the humdrum of our daily routines during the rest of the year.

Although our culture seems to grow increasingly narcissistic, this is perhaps one moment in which we can productively turn inward and compose a new (or renewed) vision of ourselves that accomplishes something more worthwhile than Facebook or Twitter status updates or new profile photos. In refashioning what we expect of ourselves, we can perhaps also re-imagine what we might contribute to our shared cultures and communities, and how we might, through many small actions, be the agents of larger and greater things.

I have two big ones this year: 1) simplify and 2) slow down.

Here we are again...

Here we are, well into yet another month, and no new posts have been forthcoming.  It has indeed been a strange autumn. My instincts have been telling me to stay close to home, hunker down, pull back, and focus on simple things. This has meant renewed attention to work more than anything. My work is my work, not work done for someone else, so to be immersed in work in healthy and productive ways does a great deal to create a good state of mind. It has been a long time since I have found myself in such a positive relationship with my work, and it feels good. 

The Bianchi project is finished, I'll do a post on that before too long, once I get a chance to take some good photos. I bit more diligent online research and finally deciphering the remnants of the decals has identified the bike with 99% certainty as a 1973 Bianchi Strada. From what I can tell, a good quality road bike for the American market from the beginning of the 1970s bike boom.

I'll keep posting here as often as I can, maybe I'll try again to use this space for writing. Here's hoping that my handful of readers is doing well and staying warm as we approach the winter solstice.  

Happy Halloween from a Pineapple Guava

It's the Middle of October?

Yeesh. Where does the time go? I've been thinking that it hasn't been that long since my last post, but it has been a few weeks. I've been alternating between working hard and hardly working. It's a weird time of year for me. Being a Northwesterner living in Southern California, I expect fall weather, but really we just get hot and dry. Add to that my 20 + years of conditioning that fall is "back to school" time, yet I am not back to school, and the months of September through November just end up being a muddle of contradictions.

My research trip to Louisville went well, and I've got a lot of information to sort through, plus more research to do as I get started on the article/chapter that will be the result. I really enjoyed my time in Louisville, which from what little I saw of it, seems like a great city. The Root Cellar was on my walk from the hotel to the archives, so I stopped a couple of times to buy some fresh local produce and chat with the owner, who was an extraordinarily nice man. Also, I think I saw more bricks in Louisville in a week than I've seen in Southern California in four years. It was nice, I like brick buildings. 

Here's the current status of the Bianchi project, which I'm still going to keep quiet about until it's finished. Yes, that's an IKEA flowerpot it's sitting on. The cranks and chainring are original, as is the front brake. The Brooks B66 came off another bike, the brake lever is from my parts bin, and the handlebars are Nitto Promenade B617.

In other news: I saw the largest spider I have ever seen "in the wild" and I ate my first pineapple guava. I would like to repeat the second, but not the first.

Fig Heart

Unripe green fig I found on the ground.

Sapote, Sapota

Picked up a dozen of these exotic fruits from a friend who has a tree. I'm looking forward to finding some tasty things to do with sapote/sapota. So far, I mashed one up (they are also nicknamed "custard apple") with a few strawberries for a little mushy fruit salad. Something with peaches will be next. They're kind of like a mildly sweet avocado, which is a little off-putting without another flavor involved. They should be good as a smoothie ingredient.

Richman Lighting Portable Lamp

We bought this lamp at a neighborhood curio shop this weekend. The handwritten receipt the lady gave us said "industrial lamp," which I don't think does it justice. Can't find anything (didn't try too hard) about the company, but they were (are?) located in Los Angeles. I'm no good at dating stuff like this: maybe 1960s? 1970s? Anyway, it's our new desk lamp.

Charmed, I'm Sure

via Fuck Yeah 1920s!

What you control @ Root Simple

The Internet, Brought to You By This Horse

This is brilliant. Via BoingBoing:

Fred, a Belgian draft horse, working with line crews to attach a fiber optic cable to a utility pole in East Burke, Vermont, on June 24, 2011. Fairpoint Communication hires Claude Desmarais and his horse Fred to pull fiber optic cable through difficult terrain in a effort to bring high speed internet to all of Vermont by 2013. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

Sheds, Shacks, and Tiny Houses

I'm a little late to the party with this; the advent of the tiny house and "shackitecture" fad (at least in its current form) was a few years ago, but it still seems to be around, and I'm always a little slow on the uptake.

My wife and I recently spent a night in a rather large cabin out in the woods, but it got us thinking about small, simple, retreat-style cabins, sheds, or shacks.

I've been casually scouting what's on the Interwebs, and found a few sites of interest:

I can't figure out the name of this site. It it might be We Heart Sheds, and it might be Reader Sheds. The site has a fractured and annoying interface, but skip through to the gallery of reader submissions.

Of course, there's the venerable Tiny House Blog.

And also check out Dinosaurs & Robots entries tagged shackitecture.

What's Up Louisville?

So here's a long shot. Any readers from and/or been to Louisville, Kentucky? I'll be spending some time in "The Possibility City" probably in late summer/early fall. I'll be there for a week, and although I'll be busy with research in the archives during the day, and likely drained of all ambition or energy in the evening, I'd like to know what's worth doing, where's a good place to eat -- you know, the usual stuff. I'm always in favor of weird, artsy, unusual, historical, or bike-related stuff. Whatcha got, Louisville?

Stylin' Cop Steals Spotlight from Killer

Okay, that's not what the headline really says, but check out the sheriff's deputy (?) escorting convicted Chicago family-killer Patricia Columbo into court back in 1976. That man has got some serious style. Damn!

via Chicago Tribune

Let's Try This Again

My last post was about how I was going to start using DRFN to write more. And I followed that up with a week of nothing. So, let's try this again. It's beginning to dawn on me that I don't care much for the short essay format of much blog writing. I'm an academic, so I'm used to writing a lot about a little, not a little about a lot. But I'm going to try to work through it. Brevity and forthrightness are virtues that more academics need to embrace, myself included. As a friend of mine says, "it would have been shorter if I'd had more time."

That being said, I don't have anything in particular to write about today. I'm finishing Ted Conover, The Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and How We Live Today, and I'm starting Peter Norton, Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. I've been thinking a lot about streets and vehicles for two projects I'm working on.

I've also been combing Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper from the 1860s for cover art options for my book out this fall. I'll have some fun random tidbits to post from them pretty soon. I've also been reviewing and working on addressing issues from the copyeditor's draft of the book, which is making me neurotic.

Plus, a bunch of other stuff, including bike advocacy, which I'll probably write about soon.

I've been listening to Sun Kil Moon for a couple of weeks now, and my wife and I have been going on more bike rides since we bought her a nice light(er) 1980s Univega mixte to replace her 400-pound 1970s Schwinn Suburban.

So anyway, that's it. Good times!

JJJJound

The excellent image blog JJJJound has recently posted another huge batch of images. The site is an homage to aesthetics, emphasizing design, architecture, fashion, and the small or grand beauties we see around us every day. I look forward to browsing each new batch, as there is always something inspiring or interesting. Be fairly warned, though, some of the images on the site are not safe for work or mixed company. But if you have a mature sense of beauty and can handle the occasional nekkid lady or dude, you'll be fine. The only frustrating thing is that the images are unattributed and carry no explanations. For instance, I would love to know where the photo above was taken and what's going on there.

Happy Holidays!

Whichever one(s) you celebrate, from Bikesgiving to Bikesmas, Bikezaa to New Bikes Eve.

A Moving Experience

Things have been very busy of late, so the blog slowed down a bit. Not least of the items on my long list was moving house. We are now mostly settled in our new place, where we intend to stay for a very long time, god-willing-and-the-creek-don't-rise. I'll have more to say about the space (and perhaps some photos) as we really get settled.

I've also been working on the final draft of my book and preparing an exhibit for the library at San Diego State University for the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, both of which have also kept me quite busy. The manuscript was finished last week, and the exhibit will be mostly prepped before I leave for my holiday vacation in a couple of weeks.

In the short term, I'm excited about the 2nd Annual San Diego Tweed Ride, which we will be attending with gusto next Saturday. I will definitely take and post photos.

I'll Show You

Hilariously snarky counterpoint to this more positive early 20th c. postcard. For those times when you want to send a nasty note, but can't be bothered to compose a whole letter.