On the course profile of the calendar yr, summer season is a sweeping descent, and autumn is the beginning of an extended, twisty climb. As we close to the underside of that descent we sit up, stretch out, take a drink, and perhaps rummage round within the jersey pockets for slightly snack earlier than the leaves change, the brisk winds start to blow, we zip up our jerseys, and we drop again into the little ring for the grind forward. All of that is to say that I too will likely be sitting up for a bit and will likely be largely absent from this weblog till after the cherished vacation referred to as the “Labor Day Gross sales Occasion,” at which level I’ll resume my Sisyphean existence in earnest:
Please observe I mentioned largely absent, and that you just shouldn’t get too comfy lest I burst again in unannounced to flog some new Outdoors column (professional tip: you possibly can learn all my columns right here) or announce some kind of “pillow” sale:
Why is “pillow” in “quotes?” It’s very disconcerting.
Anyway, barring any situation alongside these traces I’ll principally be in a state of utmost deflation throughout which I’ll retreat into myself like a valve stem into an aero rim, so should you saunter alongside throughout that point don’t be shocked to seek out it eerily quiet.
In different information, additional to my latest put up about Biden’s wild seaside experience, “Leroy”–a cherished reader who has been commenting on this weblog for so long as I’ve been writing it, which is each flattering and regarding–shared with me this letter to the New York Occasions:
Sure, helmetless driving (on sand!), if it continues unchecked, might spell the tip of this nice nation. Happily Tom Goodman of New York, horrified by the graphic picture of a ball-capped Biden on a motorbike in his morning paper, has taken it upon himself to put in writing a sternly-worded missive. I guess he even known as his household to the breakfast desk so they might see for themselves this wanton act of recklessness. On this sense I need to admit I can relate to him, since I too get outraged over shit no person else cares about and topic my family to it on a regular basis. I ponder if Tom Goodman’s household roll their eyes at him the identical method mine do after I go off on rants about how there’s nothing notably new or attention-grabbing about gravel bikes.
After all there’s just one factor that imperils our future greater than helmetless bicycling, and that’s local weather change:
As everyone knows, because of the “local weather emergency” there will likely be no tennis on the planet Earth in 10 years. Now, I’d actually by no means query the dogma that we’re all doomed, however perhaps this whimsical GPS artwork will purchase us a while:
Confronted by the specter of the local weather emergency, some individuals recycle extra, or flip down the central heating thermostat a notch. Daniel Rayneau-Kirkhope and Arianna Casiraghi drew a 600-mile extensive GPS bicycle throughout Europe. Whereas accompanied by their canine.
I do know what you’re questioning, and the reply is sure, they did give up their jobs for this:
The couple gave up their jobs as physics researchers to undertake the 4,500-mile cycle journey via seven international locations, a route painstakingly deliberate to plot the define of an enormous bicycle over the continent.
Based on scary-looking graphics on the Web (they’re utilizing extra pink on the climate maps now, I love that!), the scenario is basically fairly dire. So how will this assist? Nicely, individuals would possibly bear in mind they’ve bikes or one thing:
“If individuals see the picture, the message we need to put throughout is: please do do not forget that you most likely have a bicycle someplace, and it will be good should you might use it slightly bit extra, fairly than a automobile, for brief journeys,” mentioned Casiraghi, who met her husband once they have been each doing PhDs in Nottingham. “Not less than consider using a motorbike – it’s satisfying, and it’s nice – cheaper and more healthy.”
I dunno, looks like they might have simply tweeted that, however I suppose I’ve provide you with flimsier excuses to fuck off for a motorbike experience.
And with that, off I fuck! Thanks very a lot for studying, experience secure, and if I don’t see you earlier than Labor Day benefit from the final scraps of summer season!
Yours and so forth,
Tan Tenovo
