Wordless Wednesday :: Schooldaze ~ First Grade

Dontcha just love the hairdo? What was my mother thinking?

Strange Setting on Camera

My new camera has a setting I have never seen on a camera before. It takes photos that make the subject look like pencil drawings. Here are some I took. The camera is a G.E. brand that I got from WalMart.

Skiing la Grave is a bit different...

The Rewards of a Closer Look

There are bicycles that strike you as unique from the first glance, and then there are those that sneak up on you. When Ed showed me the rando bike he'd put together from a refurbished Miyata frameset, it seemed like a nice enough classic build. Fenders, racks, leather, twine. But on closer inspection,all sorts of curious features emerged.






First I noticed the unusual front rack mount. A small DIY bracket at the front curled under and bolted onto the fender.






Initially I assumed this was to add extra stability to the rack. But then I realised the real function of this bracket - in addition to another one extending from the fork crown - was to hold up the fender. Or, more accurately, the front part of the fender.






I had seen split fenders before, but what struck me about these was how subtle they were, how utterly integrated into the overall design of the bike. The split was something I noticed only after my eye led me to it as it moved from one end of the rack to the other.






The tires are 700Cx28mm Gran Compe ENE Ciclo (brown, with tan sidewalls) and Ed was determined to make them fit along with the fenders. The split accomplishes this despite the lack of sufficient clearances under the brake bridge and fork crown.






Both the front and rear racks were recycled from older bikes, and I noticed that the rear one was stamped "Jim Blackburn." This prompted me to look into the history of Blackburn Racks, and indeed they were once called by the name of the founder. The vintage racks - now quite sought after - used a single bracket design to connect to the brake bridge, whereas the Blackburns in current production use a two bracket design to connect to seat stay braze-ons. I also found an interesting article describing Jim Blackburn's contributions to research in weight distribution for loaded touring.






The components seemed like a random mix, until Ed explained that he was going for a Suntour-inspired build: mostly vintage Japanese (but no Shimano), with some modern VO and Dia Compe sprinkled in. While such a thing would never have occurred to me, gathering components that made sense within this paradigm had been an important part of putting the bike together, a game he'd enjoyed playing.






The more we talked about the bike, the more of these things I discovered. Subtle details, hidden meanings. What looked like "just" a nice bicycle at first glance became fascinatingly personal.And that's the thing about bikes. We don't really know what they mean, or represent to the owner. We don't know what the story behind each one is, until we ask. Maybe that's why I still can't seem to walk past a bicycle without a closer look, or at least a second glance.

Day Two~Coco Cay

I am not a morning person. Nathan is a morning person. When we vacation we tend to live on Nathan's schedule which makes him very happy and me somewhat cranky at times. This morning however, I am the one that begged to get up extra early. I am the one that set the alarm for 6 am. Because I am the one that did the research and read if you take the first tender over to Coco Cay you will not only not have to wait for the tender, you will have the island to yourself for a bit. It turns out that the recommendations were spot on!



Coco Cay is Royal Caribbean's private island. It was much bigger than we thought it would be.





There is no dock there so the ship is anchored and then you ride small boats over to the island.



When you first get onto the island it is a bit commercial looking. Shops and restaurants and places to pay money to do day activities. We were there so early that none of these were open to begin with.



There are tons of beach chairs and many hammocks to hang out in.



I figured out which hammock would be under shade for most of the day and grabbed it right away. I was thrilled that I got to spend most of my day there, reading books and drinking fruity drinks. I didn't even have to get out of the hammock to eat lunch. It was my idea of a great day! I even had a buddy that kept me company most of the day.



Nathan joined me after he did some snorkeling and we snuggled together while swinging in the hammock. We decided we need a hammock right away. Hammocks are wonderful.



Beyond that, we walked around the island and enjoyed the very warm water and soaked up the beauty of all that was there. The water was just incredible. So clear and such a pretty color.







As you can see, we had this section of the island to ourselves for the most part. This part of the island was Barefoot Beach and for some reason, most people just didn't walk that far to know it was there. Which was fine with us! The time on Coco Cay alone made the cruise worth every penny.









We spent the whole day here, taking the second to last tender back to the ship. That night we had more night time fun and more great food. We headed to bed fairly early so we would be ready for Nassau the next day. We had a wonderful day today too. We slept well with lots of dreams about island living.

Towers

One of the first things you see when you get to the top of Sandia Crest is all the TV and Radio towers that tower over the Crest. Many of them have been there more than 40 years, and others are newer. It seems to be the best place to have these communication towers. You frequently see men working on them. This day there were several trucks from Qwest Telephone Company which supplies all the landline phones in Albuquerque and most of NM and some other places.

Ultraviolet 25 Coolum Cave Queensland Australia

Big long moves to good holds and exposure to burn. Nothing too technical, just keep hanging on untill the top.





Photo: Phil Box