Westside Invite 8 pt. 2 "The BummyCat"

The first day of the Westside is in the books. Another good turnout this year. I expected it to be much smaller than previous years but there seem to be a lot of out of towners around.

The opening alleycat was a lot of fun. The finishing order looked like this:
1. Chas (SF)
2. Austin (NYC)
3. me
4. George
I lost track after that. Fox, Sharky, Boston and Matt were all right there near the end but Sharky got a flat and the others made routing errors. After some consultation between the organizers Chas was given a time penalty and bumped to 4th so technically I ended up in 2nd. I guess he was rude to Tad at a checkpoint. That kind of seems like bullshit but I learned the official theme of this year's Invite is "Be Nice". C. Murder delivered to me a 10 minute soliloquy on this topic but I only pretended to listen, I'm always nice!


Oh, and to all the grumpy oldsters who either tried to help me cheat or tried to delay my younger rivals : Stop it.
A. I don't cheat and I don't need your help to win.
B. It makes us all look bad.


I didn't manage to take any pictures but will make up for it at the Coffee Cat.

Westside Invite 8

I almost forgot that the Westside Invite is this weekend.I thought I'd be out of town but here I am so I'll be racing to win.

from PUMA as dictated by benevolent comrade C. Murder:
Schedule:
Fri: (4ish)Registration at Ash St. Saloon (It's $25)
(6ish)Opening Alleycat put on by Peaches and Gideon.
(after race)Socializing mixer party at B-Side

Sat: (10ish)The Coffee Cat! (Yay Tod!)
At the finish of the Coffee Cat we will rally up and group ride out to Alpenrose!
(Noonish)Track racing at Alpenrose (weather permitting)
(after racing)Partying and shenanigans at the park across the street from the track
(Heads up on changes in this day as if there is any rain we won't be going out to the track!!!)
(9ish)Party at a Plan B with whatever side events we can pull off and Goldsprints! (big thanks to Seattle Rob!)

Sun: (noonish)Main race, grueling, all day and all-city starting at Col. Sumners Park. Back to the classics
(8ish) Awards at Bar XV.

Mon: (noonish) Single elimination West Side Polo Tourney and BBQ at Alberta Park

Any offers of help and/or money/sponsorship can be sent to C. Murder.

Dome building on Mount St. Helens

Team WRECK trail ride - summer edition

Meet at the polo haus (NE 14th and Killingsworth) Saturday at 9am for a 9:30 departure. I'm tired of Scapoose, let's go to Bingen or 3 corner rock.

Scenes from the fire escape.

It took a few months but I now have a fervent crowd of finches feasting on my seeds.

DeathSail 2008

On the weekend of my birthday I sailed out to Government Island with Spence and Beefa. It took about 4 hours going upstream and 3 coming back.

I thought about pushing Beefa overboard several times, this was one of them. It would have been funny, right? Spence was for it in principle but was afraid of the aftermath.



Under the 205.


Spence was steady at the helm.

Beefa throwing a ball in the upper meadow. We camped up here and played some great rounds of extreme bocce ball.


A tricky lie





We instituted a new rule that if your ball (or the white ball) gets wet you lose a point. It made for some interesting strategies, if you're behind you can throw near the water and hope for a wake.


Coconuts looked lonely after the daysailers had left.

Leaving Government Island.

SPAND AND DELIVER!

"bike messengers" VS. "bike racers"
sunday, april 27th
ash street saloon
5pm 5 bux
bring a bag or jersey pockets
PUMA or OBRA membership not required.

I still hate you, Kobe Bryant.

This must be fake, but it's still kind of cool in a really stupid way.

Cowboy Mike's retirement speech

spring fever

Trail ride tomorrow. Meet at the polo haus at 9:30 for a 10:00 departure.

Snuggle Pony put out to pasture pt. 2

Update : Here are some pictures from Ellen.

I bailed early from Cowboy's retirement party. It was a great crowd and lots of fun. Nerf took a bunch of video so maybe we'll see some of that in the future. There was an impromptu alleycat that took us to Ankeny's, the Yamhill, 200 Market, the Hell House and the Pine St. House, then back to the XV. I rode hard and came in with my arms raised, somewhat sure of victory, only to see the smiling face of Tad the Champ. Zak was next, then Drew(on a cruiser) and Cory the Kid. I think, there may have been someone else in there. When everyone had finished Cowboy announced awards in the other room. When everyone was gathered he declared that we were all losers for being couriers and he was keeping the money. This was extra funny when he tried to pay for a round of drinks later and found his girlfriend had taken the money home. Ha ha.
I'll miss seeing Cowboy during the work day but I have high hopes that his love of (mountain) biking will be reinvigorated and he will be an integral part of Team WRECK this season as we attempt some epic cross country rides.

Snuggle Pony put out to pasture!

Living courier legend Mike "Cowboy" Kreps announced his impending retirement today. Uttering such time worn phrases as "it's time to move on", "chance for promotion", "I want bikes to be fun again" and even "401K". He hinted broadly that he would like a retirement party so here it is : This Friday, April 4, 5 pm at the XV. We'll roll out from there, maybe for a beach party with bonfire depending on the weather. There may even be an alleycat but knowing Cowboy it'll probably be $1 if you're a working messenger and $10 if not. So fakengers are welcome but bring some extra cash.

"once you go tarck, you never go barck".

Reading some bikeportland comments (mistake) a few weeks ago I typed some notes:

Tarck Bike

lolcat



snowclone



"On a side note, I just replied to an email from Beefa (a professional messenger). A few weeks ago he asked me to join him on an all-day ride along and I accepted. We're working on a date and I'll plan to do a story after it's done." -Jonathon, bikeportland.org







and Pharsal Template would be a good name for a band.

A few pictures from the Spring Break! road trip

Spring Break!

Well, this is it. Jaden, Natty and I are leaving this morning on a 18 day road trip. Day one takes us (and Claire and Pirate) to Sonoma. Then we might tour Death Valley on the way to Tucson to meet Mary Jane and Lucky. From there it's on to Mexico, the Copper Canyon and Santa Semana. Adventures ensue, and we play it by ear until the 27th when we're scheduled to meet Loretta and Dean Rock in Joshua Tree. Then it's back to Portland, perhaps via Yosemite or San Francisco. Expect eleventy million pictures of dogs and rocks when we return.

Acronym Contest!

The other day around the lunch table at the Plaza it was decided that PUMA should change it's name to NUTRIA. Or maybe that there should be a splinter group, or some sort of velvet revolution, I'm not totally sure, but the point is that we like the name and image of the nutria but lack a clever acronym. This is where you come in. Please submit as many acronyms for NUTRIA as you want. The best (possibly decided by vote sometime in the future) wins a t-shirt when we make them.

Beefa's entry :

the

New

Underground

Trendsetting

Rouge

Instigators and

Agitators

This is my best so far :

New
Urban
Theocrats
Reciting
Imbecilic
Acronyms

I'm sure you can do better so please leave your entry in the comments.

Dead Deer Walking

Mary Jane forwarded this picture from her sister in Montana who got it from a neighbor with a motion activated camera on their ranch.

Greetings from Flagstaff pt. 2

I was in Flagstaff again a few weeks ago. I left my camera there and just got it in the mail so here are a few pics.


Old Man Lucky.

Mary Jane and Lucky at some scenic viewpoint.


We stopped at a really great cactus nursery outside the ghost/tourist town of Jerome, Arizona.

So many choices.

It must have been 110 degrees in the greenhouse, this cat was loving it.

And that is what cats are good for.

This is what I look like when I'm really, really happy.