On Living Without Oil

Monday I skated to work, and skated home.

Tuesday I skated to work, skated home, then skated to my parents, picked up my old Coppi 12 speed road bike (I'll post some pictures one of these days, the bike, I bought used in 1994 and it is still a sweet ride) and rode home.

Wednesday I rode the Coppi to work and as predicted, it rained that evening on the ride home (hence the older bike and not the skates.)

Thursday I rode my Roubaix to work, then after work rode it to the bike store for routine maintenance, then I skated home. (In the interests of full disclosure, I then drove back downtown to pickup Lesley and we went out to dinner not far away from home.)

Friday I skated to work, at three I went to the bike store picked up my Roubaix, bought a guard for the chain stay, a larger under saddle pouch and an inner tube - still not at all confident about my tube changing abilities but at least I have a spare tube now. Then I biked home.

I have to work late tonight (Friday), so I skated back to the office. (I am going to take a Taxi home, but given that I don't expect to be going home before midnight, I think that the Taxi ride can't be all that bad can it?)

When last I checked the weather for the long weekend ahead it was supposed to rain on Saturday and Sunday. Therefore I will spend Saturday cleaning the house and Sunday cleaning my skates, Monday I am going to go ride to Burlington and back, one thing I should add, Wednesday I gave blood so that bike ride to Burlington could be difficult. Lesley is out with her girlfriends in Quebec - all my good work, not driving lost in one road trip. Sigh. I have not yet achieved my goal of an oil free existence, but I am getting closer.

In other news, the father of a friend of mine recently passed away. I am sorry about that. I was going to make a modest donation, however I spent my donation money on the Chinese Earthquake Victims. I am not sure how long that link will last, but I urge my readers to please consider giving, I would have rather donated through MSF but they don't have the option of 'give all my donation to the people in China' and while events in Burma (I won't call that country by the name the Junta want it called) are probably far worse, the fact that at the moment all aid going there is sitting on a tarmac in Ragoon is disgusting, and wasteful. At least my modest help will, I hope, go to someone in China who so desperately needs it.

I was asked recently who I thought would win the election, so here it is in writing, (assuming no assassination). I give Obama a 95% odds of winning, I'll give Clinton 4% and the remaining 1% is that a hundred million Americans loose their mind and vote for a continuation of Bush politics under an angry white guy from Arizona. Six months from now you get to laugh at me or I get to say, I told you so! But in all my talking to Americans, people from Atlanta GA to Rochester NY, the anger and disgust at and with the current administration is, justifiably, huge. Their country -the greatest country in the World! - was stolen and all they have left is a lot of bad debts, lost retirement savings, an impossible war in a far away country, rampant unemployment and no health care. Americans, please, for your own good, as well as everyone else's vote for Obama, he's your last, best chance to breath new life into those beautiful ideals of Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison and Jay.