esausto

It has been a long week.

I think that's the Italian word that works the best. I never know if the connotation is properly used for most non-english words. Often getting them wrong. But in a way they seem to harbor more power and emotion than the native spoken word can. Even if mis used.

Beautifully depressing. That is the photographer's web page. I found it from a link Lee posted. Amazing stuff there gone to ruin. The time page has more annotation to go with the images. But really the images speak for themselves as to the sad decline of the state's once strong and vibrant city. Really the only city in the State. Lansing and Jackson and Kalamazoo and even Grand Rapids aren't big cities. Flint is big but it isn't a major city, from my point of view. Sure they 'are' cities, but not like Boston, New York, Phili, Chicago, Indy... even Providence. My wife came home with printouts of the google street views of our old house in Lansing last night. The person who bought it is still there. She's done lots of work to the landscape. She took out a gorgeous birch tree in the front yard and put some beds in and took out the wooden fence on the side of the house screening the back yard.

Ah memories.

I sniffed a bunch of burning flux last night. Put the wire wraps on the spokes wed night and last nights i soldered them all up. Got a bit carried away with the solder the first handful of them. even used some old 60/40 Sn/Pb stuff *gasp* oh the horror! Can I tell the difference? Well the wheel I had on before was purpose built with straight 2.0 pulling spokes and a radial non-drive side, so no. Can't tell. But in that I couldn't tell is likely a good thing because this wheel is build with some 2.0/1.7 spokes - or maybe 1.8, with the old rim it was a squishy mess. Soft, sure. That's always nice. But not very durable. That could be the rim our the initial build or the fact that it was the primary trailer towing wheel for a long time. The spokes themselves definitely are different with the tying and soldering than before. Almost makes me want to do it to all my wheels that have crossing spokes, weight be damned, being a ripe fat bastard puts different stresses on stuff than those featherweights like skinny and g-ride. Will it help? Will the wheel last any longer? Who knows. It is a different rim and I'm not towing a trailer much anymore. Hopefully though it will at least stay in better true than any other butted spoked road wheel I have. I have always wanted to tie and solder a wheel and having done it, well it was pretty cool. Time consuming but hey, sit down and watch a mind numbing tv show while you're doing it and well it is finished long before the show is over. I didn't have a burnz-o torch (movers saw it and refused to pack it in the truck, so either it is over at the farm or i gave it to a neighbor back in MI, either way it wasn't at the hose, so i resorted to a 42w Craftsmen #777 handle with a #1237 tip. Oh and after it had warmed up for a while and I started using it I noticed the tip was pretty loose. So being a brain dead dumbass I grabbed the ceramic insulator to try and twist it back in tight. That thing gets pretty GD hot. Nothing like grabbing something tight only to realize it is wicked hot. No blisters, just a slightly slick bit of skin on my thumb and index finger on my left hand. Thank goodness for wicked thick inherited epidermal finger pads. I was expecting burns as hot as it was. nope. just slightly cracked skin on my finger in the smooth harder section that hit the iron. I then grabbed the needle-nose pliers sitting there to tighten the insert back up (it screws in to the base like a lightbulb).

This wheel is also my first with a wear indicator track (it was a cross over build, choices were limited)). It will be interesting dealing with the funky brake pad wear, but more interesting to see how it holds up wear wise. So far i haven't yet worn through a brake track on a rim. Got pretty close at Great Glen when the V-brake pads wore down to the metal 1/2 way through a lap... but nothing through yet.

Both Yash and Tall(er) freak are complaining about boring blog-o-sphere. There are plenty of places with good content. But then I will have to admit there has been quieter. But I'm not complaining. I've got way less time to read stuff so it has been nice not having loads of pages to read instead of just a few good ones like:
http://smithersmpls.com/
http://thebestbikeblogever.blogspot.com/
http://www.erikv.com/blog/
http://wellonabigbikeya.blogspot.com/

And Stewart really does have a knockout. Good watching (listening really).

Oh and I'm REALLY sick of it being below 25°F out there in the mornings. Enough already. On the plus side there were a bunch of new waterfowl along the path. Even saw a few of my favorites, the Brants. They were hanging out with the tag end of a massive raft of Scaups.

At least is was sunny this morning and not nearly as windy as it was yesterday, even though the wind is still blowing from the N-NW range (ie headwind). I had really planned on getting out yesterday for a nice tower hill/river road loop, but I can't swing the schedule this year. Too much stuff going on. that and probably for the better, as tired as I am, and as close to the edge of getting as sick as everyone around here as i am, it would be counter productive. Hopefully I can at the least get a decent hill session in this weekend to make up for it.

it will be what it will be adn I'll be as fast as I can be when the time comes... which really isn't that fast...

heddwch
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