Dear life, Stop giving the lemons. I'm tired of lemonade.

Firstly, I did a quick interview with Jordan at Bike Rumor about my 32" single speed Vassago.  It is now essentially a prototype for the new Vassago Maximus Ti (and prolly a steel version too). I give up a lot of thinky thoughts that I was going to write about here on 32" wheels and their future, but now it's over there.  Consider this the worst unplanned bike launch in "industry" history, because it all started with "do you really want a 32" single speed?" and ended up with Tom saying "I guess I gotta start making these for everyone else."  No embargos.  No launch dates.  Zero marketing.  Just skipping right to the good part.

There was no Winter Shart Tarck Race this past Sunday.  Parks and Rec shut everything down at 3:00pm on Saturday, and we woke up to streets covered in shitty Charlotte "snow" that only covered the roads and apparently also trails.

I kinda made a vow to myself that I would keep some sorta fitness over the winter despite the conditions presented to me.  That weird '22/'23 winter (I'm still trying to figure out if that was a long or short time ago) when I broke out a "borrowed" trainer and saw what Zwift was all about taught me everything that I wanted to know; that I didn't just want to exercise, and I wanted to ride a bike.  Thanks to current sponsor HandUp, former sponsor GORE Bike Wear (R.I.P.), and... jeebus, thirty plus years of commuting and messenger work that had me collecting other pieces/parts of gear, I have plenty of clothing options to get outside and ride in almost any condition.  I'm prepared for just about anything.  It just comes down to how bad I want it.

So... I forgot a few things.  Mebbe tuck that hair in.  Also mebbe wipe the snot more frequently.  Also, when you allow a breathable waterproof jacket the opportunity to ice over (as opposed to stopping once in a while to break up the exterior ice layer), the moisture inside the jacket will create some kinda internal snow storm.

Which makes you cold.  Duh.

I considered myself blessed that I got out at just the right time.  The snow that I had the opportunity to crunch out twenty plus miles on turned into a literal sheet of ice a couple hours later.  The Pie and I were gonna walk up the street for a beer, but we didn't make it ten feet up the road.  Everything had glazed over into an ice skating rink.

No power loss overnight.  

That was bueno.

And then work shut down on Monday, which allowed me to straighten up my work bench, do drivetrain/hub work on my tarck bike, organize my Cholula lid collection, address some mold in the hall closet, fix a zipper, fiddle with the kitchen sink faucet, ride over to the store to collect all the groceries we didn't buy before the storm hit...

I like being productive.  What can I say?

And now it looks like Winter Shart Tarck is being threatened again with more weather, so here goes another week of hand-wringing, battery charging, and prepping for something or nothing. 

At the very least, hopefully no rides resulting in more internal snow storms.