You all might remember this small slice of the fashion world from my recent trip to Minneapolis.
Now if youre anything like me, youre wondering why Meghan just didnt put those shorts out of their misery, and set them on fire like any reasonable person might have done, but luckily for the wall, she didnt and until she returns to her senses, on the wall they will safely stay.

At least until another occasion comes along at which I can proudly don them again...

Anyhow- did everyone have a suitably relaxing weekend vacation? Life in these parts was just fine. As Id mentioned on Friday, we attempted to unload some of our wares in a parking lot sale. I shirked duty big time and went on a bike ride, but eventually fell into the parking lot to find Erin holding the fort down, and selling what previously might have thought to have been unsellable.
Thats why shes the sales maven, and not.. say, the sales jar-of-pickles.

The really cool part of the sale is that we still had back stock from the old days, and in a phone conversation with El Corpo Friday afternoon, he said we could use some of the dough generated by the sale to procure airsoft guns for lunch time battles. There was only one condition however and that was that we get him one as well.
"No problem" I said. "Ill get you one of these, while The Skipper and I will both be getting one of these."

Or maybe, one of these;

Our lunch breaks are going to be absolute blood baths.

When including April, our incredibly understanding human resources person in on our plan, we asked her if we could get a safety glasses dispenser by the front door for any hapless visitors, which, (shaking her head in dismay) she immediately agreed would be a good idea.

Check out this list. Each of those bikes represent one broken heart. Mine included.
Goodbye Retrotec.... I hardly knew you.

In other news, I got an email from old school one speed hero, Robert Ives in which he regaled us with an experience he recently had while on his ride home;

"On my ride home today I saw a tweeker.... shocking I know.. whacking the shit out of his front wheel with a broken broom handle while riding it down the the street. No sooner than the thought "that doesn't seem like a good idea" raced through my mind, the stick caught and tossed him over the bars into a ball faster than I have ever seen a bike endo- so fuckin' hard that the front wheel came off the ground about a foot when it locked up. Completely undaunted, he picked up his bike and started riding down the street again whacking his front wheel with the now shorter broomstick.
Moral: life is beautiful, even when its 100 degrees. I love Sacramento..."

You dont suppose that was Chad Gerlach do you?

If it was, Id imagine that given the opportunity, he might have put the hammer down and whooped up on Robert for the preme, just for old times sake.

JWG wrote in;

"I saw this the other day when I was drinking on my day off. I almost got backed into and risked life and limb to get this for you. Signs of the SUV apocalypse."

Yeah, thats alright, but as I told John, if the plate had said '6664U', I would most assuredly have crapped a ninja.

Weve had a couple other random sightings that have been sent in recently for our edification. The first being from Conrad;

Ill bet that guy really got behind the whole 'freedom frys' thing from a few years ago.
God bless Amerikuh indeed, Captain Douchebag.

The second random sighting comes in the form of an email from Sean;

"Stevil - thought you might like this one.

So I'm riding along this morning on my inbound commute, enjoying the views along the Animas River Trail in Durango, CO (Pic 1).

We are currently in a beautiful weather pattern here - early season monsoonal activity - trails are October-tacky - road-riding is sublime....I cross the bridge to where my office awaits and I see this (pic 2).

I gather from the evidence he drove to the adjacent parking lot and lugged his gear out on to the trail to get some work in. Now I hate to bag on anyone who is avoiding the....couch - but isn't this like bringing sand to the beach?

Sean M."

"Bringing sand to the beach"? Dammit Sean, Im the one who is supposed to come up with the funny lines like that.

However, this does vaguely remind me of a fellow I used to work with. Now it should be understood that Im fairly tolerant of just about anybody, and especially if I have to work in a close proximity with them, Ill make concessions for their lameness until the cows come home, but this guy in particular, I absolutely loathed. Before he was eventually 'invited to quit', Id completely given up on all aspects of maintaining a relationship with him aside from the regular heckling I would dish out.

He was hands down the most ignorant, yet astonishingly arrogant individual Ive ever met in my life. It was his first job in the bike industry, and though he had no clue how any aspect of the industry worked, because he had a helmet mirror, and baggy lycra tights, he was utterly certain that he had it all figured out and would ultimately reinvent the wheel, despite the several hundred years of collective experience those around him whom he regularly disagreed with had.

Anyway, one sunny day he got busted in his full kit, pulling his bike from his vehicle a few blocks from work in an attempt to appear as though he rode in, like any self respecting person might.

You can be sure that he was never allowed to forget it either.

For those who might care, Jeff forwarded on this KEXP blog featuring that band who has gotten all kinds of glowing press on The Bummer Life lately.

Oh yeah, and even though it has nothing to do with the rock and/or roll, or driving your bike to work, lest any of ye forget, the NACCC is right around the corner.

This weekend I was discussing what prevented me from making it to last years, and though I couldnt remember, the bruises that I obtained from kicking myself from doing so are still visible.
Dont make the same mistake I did.

Heres a story that makes a suitable companion for the piece I posted last week about the barbeque sauce.

Lick a cop- go to jail, proving perhaps that the snozberries really do taste like snozberries.

And now finally, in regards to this weeks header photo, Ben from The Alt writes;

"Stevil,
This isn't exactly avoiding the bummer life, but I am in the process of launching a new bike company called Handsome Cycles. The first model being The Handsome Devil.

Here is a link to some of our photos, that I thought you might dig. Also we will be at interbike somewhere, with a give away that I know you will appreciate."

Damn. Just as I feel like Im getting on top of my bike collection, another one comes down the pipe that I would happily include.
It looks like Ill once again have to go against my better judgement and make the trip to Vegas this year.

Oh, as a footnote, ifin any of yall are still searching round for Pentabike socks, all you have to do is go right here.

Brown and blue is how we do...

Thats all weve got this time around. Like clockwork, Mondays reared its ugly head, but if we dont look at it in the eye, itll ignore us and be gone before we know it.