God bless the East Muskoka Volunteer Fire Department Ladies' Auxiliary

So as I relax here, filled with reheated lentil-potato curry, Easter jellybeans, and a few bottles of Pabst, I recommend to you the story I heard today on my bus rides to Target and the Greasepit.

"Craphound," by Cory Doctorow; audio version released by Escape Pod under a Creative Commons license. ( Parenthetically... )

If you've never read any of Doctorow's work aside from his posts on BoingBoing, this is a decent place to start. It's short, it's smart, it's heartfelt, it's topical (THE SUN IS OUT! GARAGE SALE SEASON!), and it's free and sitting right over there. There's also a text version available if you're spending more time in front of the computer than you are stuck on the bus with an iPod. But if you've got the bandwidth, and you have some cleaning to do, or a bike to strip, or a walk to take, or some weed to smoke, or something, I recommend the audio version, because it's pretty fantastic.

Mom, I'm recommending this story especially for you. You'll understand why as soon as you hear it.

(no subject)

As projected, I needed less than a hundred bucks worth of parts, which included two nice new commuter tires. That should be all the purchasing that needs to be done, and we're probably about 80% of the way to roadworthiness. Unfortunately, the 'Pit's hours overlap perfectly with the Annual Fund's M-Th hours, so I'm going to need to get access to the Mac Bike workshop if I want to get on the road before Friday.

Also, that was a freewheel and not a cassette? All kinds of misconceptions going on with the kit on this thing. Well, now I know the difference.

Wait, actually, I may need new brake shoes. Oh well.