the Biker

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Learned to ride on a little hard-tired monstrosity, frame broke underneath me when I jumped a curb. Later, after a move, my brothers pitched in and built a bike for me, mostly from spare parts.

The frame may or may not have been from a (20") Schwinn Stingray. The handlebars were 'ape-hangers', and the fork was from a 26". The only new parts were innertubes and a striped banana seat. The older sissy bar eventually failed, at which point I had to bolt on a conventional saddle.

They had painted it flat black, and that used saddle was powder blue. Sure I missed my black banana seat with its offset stripes in 2 shades of orange, but its replacement gave me better control, and was lighter. Riding on my paper route, with the bag resting on the top tube when it was heavy, wore down the paint in one spot to show the frame's previous colours...


When I was 12 (and 5'10"), I used my paper route money to buy a new 27" Raleigh Rampar. $140 was a lot to spend on a bicycle in 1979, but I still have it, and would still be riding it today if it didn't have too many broken spokes on the front wheel. Should really get that taken care of...

As a teenager living far outside of town in the 1980s, I found nothing more entertaining than riding my bicycles. Plural, because as nice as my metallic red British ten-speed was, that old 20" junkyard special was still loads of fun. With the high handlebars and the long fork, and a loose front hub that gave a vibration over 10mph, the thing felt like a Harley to me...

And hey, there's something to be said for single-speed, coaster-brake riding.

I gave that bike to my oldest nephew eventually, and his dad (my brother Dave) at some point had to clear his basement of old bike parts, so it's gone.


Speaking of Dave, recently he's been gifting my family with bikes. Last year he gave us a generic Chinese-built mountain bike, has a quick-release on the seatpost so everyone in the family can ride, no problem. About a week ago he came by with a women's Huffy Saratoga and a Schwinn Suburban...

Never mind the Saratoga, for now. Its front innertube wouldn't inflate, got the wheel off today but darkness intervened... We haven't ridden it yet. The Suburban's front tube failed the day after we got it, but not before I got a serious taste...

Today I got to ride the Schwinn Suburban again. Man, I can't tell you how many hours I spent on the Raleigh, until it was an extension of my being, as natural as walking, but this Suburban is a different trip altogether. I probably rode something similar in 2 previous lives...

While I haven't had the pleasure, in this life, of riding this type of bicycle, it feels incredibly natural -- as natural as it felt to swing up into the saddle on the one and only opportunity I've had in this life to ride a horse.


On a bicycle you are completely in control. You're not prompting an animal, or an engine. You pedal, and it goes. It's a very simple device that you can largely maintain and repair on your own -- and yet it can take you places, or simply give you a ride for the sake of riding. Meanwhile, you're getting exercise.

My new-to-me old Schwinn has full fenders, so if I ride when it's wet I won't be damp all up my back.


Don't even mention fuel prices. If it's at all convenient for you to ride a bicycle instead of driving, why would you choose a motorized vehicle? And hey, if it's nice out why would you play video games or putz around on the computer when you could be riding?


If you don't have a bike, get one.



Stay crunchy.




Phil Smith
May 31st, 2008

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2Nite

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Tonight I'd like to be inspired to write something ground-shaking, or to text-conference with friends I've made online. These things are not happening.

No, I'm just sitting here listening to surf music, from my own files and from MySpace, as my buzz increases...

Here is the image currently on my desktop:

I keep looking at it... Horrified as I am by the process -- and political conditions -- that allowed this space to be created, I'd like to be the person in charge of what happens to it next.

In the center is a prime spot for a flying saucer landing pad. Elsewhere there is plenty of room for a fully functional and self-sustaining 'intentional community'...


Just imagine, if you will, life in such a community. Though the landscape was altered by coal mining, all your electricity is provided by solar panels and windmills. Greenhouses provide much of your food, while many other needs are met through on-site production facilities. You know your neighbours, and are friends with them. You work side-by-side with them, producing the things your community needs and those things that will be traded with other communities.

Utopia? Yes, that is what this image helps me imagine. I'm one lottery win away from beginning to make it happen...



Phil Smith
May 10, 2008

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The Cellphone Number of the Beast

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~~~This is a rant I started on the 3rd...~~~

WHY?


Why do you suppose cellphones have become so popular?

If you have to think about that for a moment, you might say that it's because it's very convenient to be able to make calls and receive them, no matter where you are. You might also mention texting, and GPS, and whatever else -- but those things are ancillary.


It just may be that there is something about cellphones that is like a drug.

Look it up for yourselves, for that is the best way to be informed. Haven't looked into it myself, to verify my suspicions, but there has been a lot of work with electromagnetic frequencies -- and I suspect that cellphone companies have tapped into that research.

There is a natural frequency that the Earth herself emits, and that keeps us on an even keel. Other frequencies can agitate us, or make us feel very loving, or anything in between. There are resonant frequencies, as scientists in secret government programs established decades ago, that are capable of inducing just about any emotional state you can name.

Music, just with its tempo, can effect our mood. Is it such a stretch to consider that electromagnetic frequencies might do the same?

Seriously, there were scientists who spent many years studying the various effects of different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation on human subjects, staring in the 1950s.


Now, I'll readily admit that I absolutely hate cellphones. It would be reason enough, if the extreme rudeness of users was my only gripe -- or that as a driver I see the worst infractions being made by other drivers who happen to have one arm dedicated to holding a cellie, seemingly oblivious to the rules of the road. Another issue, though, for me at least, is the radiation those things emit. I'm particularly sensitive to such things, and on one occasion experienced a very painful and sudden headache in a grocery store, only to examine my surroundings and find a woman out of my previous sightline, answering a call.

The one time I myself used a cellphone while driving, I was in an unfamiliar vehicle, and in answering the call experienced a level of disorientation hardly consummate with that particular combination of piloting a strange conveyance while, odd as it may have been, answering a phone. The disorientation I experienced was very much like being on some kind of mind-altering drug -- and then and there I vowed never to attempt to combine vehicle operation with cellphone usage.

I was more or less forced to put one of those things up to my head since then, a couple of times...

~~~and, break~~~

Should I even go back and read that before going on? Okay, I skimmed it...


Anyway, my point is that I seriously suspect cellphones, by the carefully selected frequencies with which they operate, act like a drug -- and a quite addictive drug, at that. There is no need, for most of those who carry them, to own these things. For the most part, their use is frivolous.

Yes, there are plenty of people who get legitimate use out of them, just as there are plenty who would never think of walking around a grocery store -- or driving -- while on the phone. I'm not saying these things can't be useful, and used responsibly and politely...

What I'm saying is that cellphones have turned into a craze, the level of which can't be explained by how 'cool' it may be perceived to be to have them.


Their minds already dulled by fluoride, their education artificially diluted, today's sheep carry devices that, at the touch of a button, subtly alter their brainwaves -- and (as always), they have no clue. They're being fleeced in a way that (almost) no one saw coming.


I just wish they had the sense not to drive under the influence of microwaves.




Phil Smith
May 6, 2008

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