Let us not forget one and all that in just a few very short days, the long anticipated Joe-and-Bob-both-have-nice-hair-recognition-and-also-Joe-wrote-a-book commemorative ride is going to take place.

I can't neglect to also mention and offer thanks to the individual who initially sparked this idea, The Little Jewford.

If anybody has taken note of what's going on outside in this here neck of the woods, then you know it's been raining buckets. It is supposed to clear up towards the end of the week, so we're looking good, but if it doesn't, then were looking like Belgium, and that's ok too.

Remember, if the ride is awesome, then I'll take all of the credit.
If the ride sucks balls (in the bad way), then The Jewford gets all the blame.

It's a win-win.

But anyway, it wouldnt be a bad idea to come prepared for a deluge just the same. Fast people will ride fast, and then stand around and wait in the cold, so that means the fast people will get drunk and be uncomfortable, and the slow people will maintain a comfortable level of body warmth, and probably get drunk too.

It makes sense for everyone to ride in one big huddled mass.

Like the Belgish people do.

As I stated previously, Mr. Roll has made contact and while he's not necessarily displeased with the use of his likeness, he was curious why Joe's body was so much nicer than his.
It's with great regret however that Bob cannot make the ride this year, due to previous obligations with The Tour of California.

That is to say he doesn't trust Phil with his stash of wine and horse tranquilizers.

And speaking of horse tranquilizers, The Tour came through the Swobo warehousing world headquarters of Santa Cruz, and not to blow my own horn, but if you were to have caught any of the live feed, you may have seen a certain yellow slickered individual in an all out sprint just ahead of Quick Step's Carlos Barredo moments before Leipenheimer passed him on the spirit crushing Bonny Doon climb..

Well, they say that everybody has 15 seconds of fame, and Im not ashamed to say that that guy had about 18, and I watched it on the computer as well.
It was awesome.

You didn't think I was going to say that was me, did you?
No way man. I had to work.

But homie of Swobo, and brother of another homie of Swobo, Andy Jacques-Maynes got tangled up in a crash, and last I heard was transported to the hospital. The man has taken a serious beating these last few years, and as always, we're keeping a candle lit for his safe return to the peloton.

That Lance guy was out there somewhere as well, but you'll have to watch any of the major news channels to find out where he ended up placing.

Hey, did you hear he got his bike swiped?
Maybe it was taken by a crackhead.
Or a former teammate..

Or both.

However in a truly serendipitous turn of events, moments after typing that, I then came across this article on BSNYC, which makes me reassess my initial stance a bit..

So back to Lance for a second.. He lives in Austin, you know...

"Austin- If Texas were a sundae, then Austin is the cherry."
(Texas board of tourism- I'm still waiting....)

Anyway, James also lives there, and recently while out and about on his bicycle, he came across a sight that he chose to let us in on;

"I spotted the elusive critter while out on a ride.

Them eyes are of the fire spewing variety.

-James"

Definitely not the sort of beast you would want to get too cuddly with.

Now then, on Tuesday we were slammed with a container chock-full of the Dixon bikes, Del Norte bikes, and Sanchez bikes, as well as a whole smattering of various hard parts.

Spanky bits.. Every last one of them.

The box once was full, but now it's not.

And you know, as far as the bikes go, as instructed by the Swobo powers that be, they are for folks to configure and dress up, down or sideways, anyway they like.

Andy from Fyxomatosis just sent us a shot of Dan's Sanchez, to which he did just that.
Chopped, dropped, slammed, jammed, smothered and covered, all the way to Killerville.

That my friends is the Danchez..

Hells yeah.

This next event that The Salt City Sprints has got cooking is still a piece away, but the flyer is too good not to post now;

They have brought the art of the event flyer to new heights.

And now in closing, I'll include a correspondence from Casey;

"Yo Stevil,

Long time reader, first time writer to HTATBL. My name is Casey and I live in Carrboro, North Cackalack...not Snake Hawk Casey, but keepin the name real nonetheless. Anyway, I have been meaning to write for a while but me and the wifey moved and I got lazy and blah, blah, blah.

Getting to the point, I went to NYC in late 2008 to visit a friend. Thought you would enjoy his decor...

We cruised around the city and took in the sites and sounds. Saw some cool rides...

Took in some liquid refreshment with friends...

and then found ourselves in a random art gallery that was highly entertaining...

Also got in some quality time with Bike Snob NYC...

Anyway, wanted to share the good times with you and any HTATBL faithful. Appreciate all that you do to make the 40 hours tick by a little faster.

Good lookin out,
Casey"

Bless your dark heart, Casey. I would have included the standard black bar of anonymity® across your eyes, but that's well below me now as my abilities with Photoshop and I have recently obtained new heights;

My skills are outgrowing my position here at Swobo in leaps and bounds.

It's good to see that you got to spend some time with The Snob as well, and that he's since moved into nicer digs than when I was there..

The author of the article I printed Monday, Harmon Leon, finally got back with me and besides thankfully giving me his blessing to use the article, he asked me to blow up his new book called The American Dream.

I've not yet read it, but you can bet that it's a keeper.

As we part ways on this Wednesday, we have to offer this clip that Tina B sent, proving once again that folks haven't gotten any smarter since the the Ohio incident.

"..after a device was found that was believed to be a pipe bomb", indeed.

Have a happy hump day folks.

That's what it's there for.