Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Le Chateau CycleDog

What you are about to read is actually true, except for those parts that were simply made up. Names, places, and facts have been changed just for the hell of it.

Steve over on DFW P2P opined that perhaps I was re-locating Chateau CycleDog further south, like south of the Red River into Texican territory. I'm sorry if any of you were confused by that scurrilous rumor. Nothing could be further from the truth. Given the CycleDog clan's long and storied history here in Oklahoma, we would be loathe to leave the ancestral lands and journey to new ones, especially in Texas.



This is the familial manse originally erected by Clan CycleDog in the early days, just after we'd arrived here in the New World about 900 years ago. Oh, you thought it was Columbus who discovered America! Wrong. It was us. We traveled here from parts of northern and eastern Europe in an effort to escape the marauding Huns and Vikings. It was only partly successful. The bloody Vikings followed us here as can be seen from the rune stones they left behind.

Rune stone near Heavener, Oklahoma. Really.

It was tough in the early days, but my ancestors adapted to the harsh life by inventing hot tubs and air condidtioning. Almost immediately afterward, they discovered iced alcoholic beverages with chunks of fruit and little umbrellas on top. Their's was a hard scrabble existence.

But then all these other people showed up. First, Native Americans arrived, followed by waves of palefaces, including Yankees, refugees from Arkansas, and the odd alien from outer space, though in all honesty, the latter are more greenish than pale.

Naturally enough, like all conquerers they wanted to change the names of everything. Rustic but original place names, like Rocky Flat or Dead Horse Creek, gave way to frou-frou names as the invaders plunked down endless expanses of subdivisions. Prairie Village became Stonebridge Mansions. Buckingham Limited grew atop the old Cow Flop Flats. Stinky Creek became Nouveau Esprit. The list gets longer, more pretentious, and more depressing every year. I can't wait to see what they do next to the Superfund site up by Collinsville. That'll take some imagination.

Still, it can be fun to mess with these new names and the kind of people who like them. I was walking down the street a few days ago when a woman in a car stopped and asked, "Excuse me, sir, but how do I get to Nottingham Woods?"

"Oh, that's easy," I replied. "You just stay on this road until you reach Ye Olde Sexe Shoppe, and then turn right. But if you reach the Marquis de Sade Book Store and Smut Emporium, you've gone too far...or maybe not." I grinned.

Her jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide. Tires squealed as she did a u-turn and headed out of town at double the speed limit.

Damn foreigners.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Just don't call me Stumpy...

(Image from HorrorMovies.com)

The wind swung around to the north and daytime temperatures dropped nearly 20 degrees. Welcome to fall in Oklahoma.

Our lawn is growing again due to the weekend rain. Before I could mow, I needed to rake up the pine needles otherwise they'd just clog the mower. In another month, the maple tree will shed its leaves too, so I'll be out in the yard raking every week. The oak leaves won't drop until spring, giving our winter bird population a nicely protected roost through the winter. I almost like raking up pine needles and leaves on a cool fall day. It offers some quiet time for contemplation and the cooler temperatures make the work seem easier. Perhaps it's not surprising that I enjoy cycling in cooler weather too. Besides, the dogs like a pile of fresh pine needles as bedding in their dog house once it gets cold. The tree gives us an ample supply. This works out well for all of us. They get bedding. I get exercise and some time to think.

Every time I do this, I run into another 'while you're at it' job, and last night was no exception. Once the pine needles were finished, I went to the back yard to collect a fallen branch from a neighbor's willow tree. One of our shrubs dropped a branch too. I needed the pole saw to cut them. And I remembered that the last time I mowed, I had to duck under some of the willow's branches, so I used the pole saw to remove them. I dragged the branches to the front yard, and then set to work cutting them small enough to fit in the lawn waste can. The city collects the lawn waste for composting and mulching, saving on landfill space.

Loppers cut through the small branches easily, but the bigger stuff required a chainsaw. I have a great deal of respect for chainsaws or any other tool capable of removing an arm or a leg in a moment of inattention. Mary makes fun of me, saying that I'm halfway afraid of it. She's right. I am. Chainsaws do not discriminate between tree limbs and our limbs. And while she makes fun of me, she's still careful to stay well away when I'm using it.

All that bending, lifting, and dragging made me hurt. All too quickly I was dog tired, even though it wasn't all that much work. I'd been at it for only an hour but it was time to quit. The mowing could wait.

I went inside and had a glass of water, two ibuprofen, and a shower. Then we went to the grocery for dinner supplies and we collected Jordan from football practice. From long experience, I had the foresight to stop at the liquor store on the way home. A shot or two of vodka is nature's own muscle relaxant. The bottle went directly into the freezer when we got home.

I read for a while as my legs slowly stiffened. By bedtime I was getting up and down with some difficulty. My shoulder and neck were painful, so I had that shot of vodka and rubbed on a generous layer of Icy Hot. Mary says it's a good indicator that I'm hurting when she opens the bedroom door and walks into an all-but-solid cloud of menthol fumes. By morning, I had wooden legs. The alarm went off and I hobbled across the room like an elderly version of Frankenstein's monster. My knees and back would not straighten out, so I shuffled along stiff-legged while being bent over like a little old man.

The question was – could I ride to work? Did I even want to try?

I postponed answering that one until after breakfast. The cats clamored for their's first, as usual. I checked the overnight email, read the news, and got a weather report. For the first hour in the morning, I'm on autopilot, so it wasn't too surprising when I found myself changing into cycling clothes. Yep, looked like I was gonna ride!

The commute was uneventful with calm winds and a temperature in the high 50s. Sure, I was stiff at first, but a few miles of gentle spinning helped sort out the kinks. By mid-day, some aches and pains had crept back into my muscles, but overall I felt good. A bicycle as therapy? Who would have thought?

Tonight I'll mow the lawn. That'll be easy compared to last night. However, I may have to invent a few sore muscles in order to have some of that vodka again.

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Michael Wallis, Route 66, and Stephen Colbert!


Image from JimForeman.com

This could be fun. Michael Wallis had done much to popularize Route 66, and since Oklahoma still retains more existing miles of the original road than any other state, it would seem a natural draw for tourists whether they're traveling on two wheels or four. I've bicycled on portions of the road between Tulsa and Claremore, and I've driven on it as far west as Edmond. Honestly, it's like stepping back in time.

There's another Oklahoma author, Jim Ross, whose Oklahoma Route 66 covers the road and its various alignments in great detail. For a bicycle tourist, this book is a treasure trove of imformation.

And finally, there's Jim Foreman's Riding the Joad Road that I've written about previously. It's an account of riding the old Route 40 as the Joad family did in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Oh, go read Steinbeck too. Literature is good for you.




Tulsa author to appear on ‘Colbert’

(Link to full article)


By JAMES D. WATTS, JR. World Scene Writer
8/14/2007

Tulsa author Michael Wallis will explain the “truthiness” of old roads Wednesday, when he appears on “The Colbert Report,” airing at 10:30 p.m. on the Comedy Channel (Cox Cable channel 61).

Wallis recently published “The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate,” a history of the cross-country highway dubbed “The Father Road.”

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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

100 ideas

For those of you in Oklahoma, please be aware that the state is soliciting ideas. I've seen one that recommended lengthening the school day, one to make I-44 into a 6 lane highway across the state, and some truly goofy ones. Here's the website:

http://100ideasok.blogspot.com/

But if the state can do it, why can't we copy the idea and come up with a list of things to improve cycling? Better bikes? Better roads? What ideas do we have?

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