The Icing on the Icing on the Cake (or suitable equivalent)!

Like all cyclists, I have a deep love of fresh, smooth asphalt. In terms of public investment, I personally value it above all the bike infra in the world. I am in a minority on that one, but that's OK. I like bike infra too. This post is about both.

I have not been riding as much as I would like, being limited by several factors. As such I had not ridden as far as I could go on the Thames Valley Parkway (an extensive and wonderful London Ontario Multi Use Pathway) in quite some time. I knew they City was working on the South branch, but wow, is it ever nice now!

There is beautiful smooth path all the way from Adelaide St to Meadowlily bridge, a ten minute ride for a slowpoke like me. This smoothness replaces all kinds of bumps and problems with many joyjoys. This, my friends, represents the Cake referred to in my title.

If you take the paved surface of the South branch of the TVP as far as you can, you come to a dead end. This dead end has had a sign in place for YEARS promising an extension that would overcome the obstacle of a rail line and connect it to the paths of Kiwanis Park in the east end of the city. It was beginning to look like it would never happen, but now there are new signs and honest to god shovels in the ground! Icing.

When I leave the dead end path and make my way to work on the streets, there was one bit of Hale Street that was in terrible repair. Again, it was that way for years. Now it has been repaired; nothing but sweet smooth asphalt in place of that ugliness. Icing on my Icing! Or, since I have no picture, let's revise that to Breadcrumbs on Juice! 

You may recall that this is not the first time I have reported

an Embarrassment of Riches...

Thank you, oh multiple layers of government that contributed to the best ride to work in a long while! Thank you, London planners who sometimes come through big time! Cake! Icing! Icing! (Or, if you like, Cake! Breadcrumbs! Juice! Hurrah!)

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

I Am A Blogging King!

You know, people start blogging for all kinds of reasons. Some people find it theraputic. Some have some sort of agenda or message they're trying to promote. Some just enjoy writing so much that they just do it for fun. All of those reasons apply to me to some degree, but my real reason for blogging for over three years now has been something else entirely. FREE STUFF.

I hadn't been reading BSNYC and Fat Cyclist for very long before I noticed that bicycle companies were sending them FREE STUFF to review or whatever. I wanted FREE STUFF for myself and so began writing this blog. It has been a long road, but I Have Arrived.

At first I thought it was too good to be true when I received an email from a VP of a company who has had its products written about here on Rantwick.

From his email:

Thanks for the post on ___ _____ ______! Always interesting to get a new pairs of eyes looking at our product.

Would like to send you off a couple of samples...  

That was on May 2. Yes, those words shone like gold on my computer screen. I was pumped, but suspicious. Would they REALLY send me FREE STUFF, or were they just getting my address so they could send me the legal papers necessary to sue me? Or, worse, send hired goons?

The tone of the email was friendly and I was confident that all would be well. Still, I resolved not to write of it until the FREE STUFF had actually arrived just in case. Brothers and Sisters, that time has come!

I've had a really bad cold the past few days and was at home when the package arrived; nice because normally we have to drive out to a pickup place.

Medium sized box. Whatever might it contain?

Some of you may recall a post from a couple of months ago about Maple Syrup and Bread Crumbs. That's right, the good people from SunPac Foods sent me 6 (6!) tubs of Bread Crumbs and a dozen bottles of various Juices! Suck on that, BikeSnobNYC. Eat my dust, Fat Cyclist. You enjoy all your free bike stuff (italicized with a sneering tone) and I'll discover a great many ideal uses for bread crumbs while enjoying chilled juice that may help with my cold.

Please brace yourself for a bit of content shift here on Rantwick... I'm thinking that now it will be mostly about beer and Maseratis. If you're thinking "Maseratis? Why not uber-racing-bikes?", I get you, but I also know I have at least some chance of making a Maserati perform at its best, if you get my drift (pant, pant, wheeze).

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - Steve A left a comment on the first Bread Crumb post which read "Are bread crumbs merely uncooked croutons or are they something more?" The dude who emailed me had this to say in his email: "And….Crumb is very different than croutons!" So there you have it, Steve. Ball is in your court. Learn what those differences are, man.

PPS - If you have some sort of recipe in which bread crumbs play a large part, please send it my way. I just might make it and post about making it here on the blog. Now that I'm a BIG DEAL in the bread crumb world, you would be made famous by association!

PPPS - I wasn't being honest at the beginning of this post. I didn't start writing this blog in order to get free stuff. Am I insane, or does the fact that when I do get free stuff it turns out to be bread crumbs seem kind of fitting somehow? I mean, the way this blog is and everything? Bread crumbs are perfect, don't you think?

PPPPS - I don't really have a PPPPS. Just looking to set a new record.

PPPPPS - Smashed it.