Sadness and Filth

My new winter bike was ready! Ugly tub? Check. New front fender / splash guard kludge? Check. Awesome new studded tires? Check. Lights transferred from Summer bike? Check. Test ride. Uncheck awesome new studded tires... deep sadness.

 

I got about half a block from home before the tube squirted through this hole and popped in a nice loud way. I thought I must have mounted the tire poorly and suffered a pinch flat at first, but discovered the problem once I had the wheel off. On the up side, I will be able to report / review on chainreactioncycles.com's warranty handling and response time, I guess. I just emailed a warranty form and photo to them today.

Just in case you thought maybe you could blame me for this, you suspicious bastards, I opened the box this tire arrived in with my keys, not a sharp knife, so it weren't not me done this badness.

Now for the filth! I work with computers. I see (as I am sure many of you have seen) computers full of dust bunnies all the time. The following pictures, however, are of the filthiest computer I have ever opened up. Compressed air barely moved some of this stuff. It was gross. So, of course, I thought I would share!

I think the King will be revealed as TARATS first entry this evening... stay tuned for his glorious 2012 debut!

 

 

 

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Encounters with Rantwick, episode Twenty One: Rocket Raccoon

To be honest, I don't really like the video I'm about to post. There's a kind of lameness about it that I can't quite put my finger on. Last night when I made that same observation Mrs. Rantwick said, "well, you worked on it for a couple of hours; you should just post it anyway. It's cute." Mrs. Rantwick being someone who is very seldom wrong, here we are.

 

I had never seen a raccoon 1) sprint or 2) on open ground in the daytime until one morning last August. Here he (or she) is:

 

 

 

Hey, who knows? Given my often poor understanding of what people like, this may turn out to be my most popular video ever! Which will be great! And sad.

 

 



Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K