Posts from — July 2007

Our beloved cat Emma is just not herself lately. She’s eating less, and as a result, activity at the other end has dropped off sharply as well. She’s lost weight, quite a bit. She’s also broken her last remaining fang, and at 17 years old the vet doesn’t want to operate to remove the root because they’re afraid she won’t survive the surgery (she broke her other fang about ten years ago, and that one’s remains were extracted; she was born without her upper ones — swear to god).

Being totally in love with Emma, we’ve decided to take Emma to see another vet in Longmont for a second opinion and really just a second set of eyes on the old gal. She’s our kid. As I type this, she’s sitting on the floor, sort-of listing to one side, half asleep. This is not good.

Yeah so last week I wrote a post that purported to be about a cool cruiser bike, but was really a platform for me to bitch about a local bike ride that I felt had fallen into a sad display of Boulder elitism. I railed against these people and their policy of requiring costumes and cruisers on the ride. Since that time, some of the people I was complaining about found my little rant, and posted some seemingly witty retorts; what they really did was show their true colors. Meanwhile, several other bastions of the true spirit of the ride emailed me off-line and showed me the seamy underbelly of the Boulder bikeride/cruiser/chill/hangout groove, and as you might expect, it ain’t pretty.

In the process, I got my shit straightened out. The good news is, the cruiser ride is dead. The better news is, the ride(s) live on.

Here’s the thing: The so-called “Boulder Cruiser Ride”, or “Happy Thursday Ride”, or whatever you want to call it, had exploded in popularity last year and a lot of the people who showed up were wasted college- and high school-kids who were only there to get fucked up (just like the rest of us). But there were too many of them and they kinda sucked at riding and they kinda had no appreciation for bikes, so they sorta sucked and had to go. I agree. But it became the opinion of some of the regulars that anyone showing up for the ride without a cruiser bike, or not in costume — a silly, silly habit of some of the regulars — should not be allowed to ride. Which I disagreed with. I said as much on the happy_thursday Yahoo list — that purported to be the mouthpiece for the ride but is in fact an odd collection of people that I have long since unsubscribed to — and got slammed for saying so. So I quietly bailed from the whole sad thing.

And then last week I saw a cool cruiser on a website while surfing one night and blogged about it, and I guess my little post devolved into a rant about the shitty attitude of what I perceived to be the consensus of the “Boulder Cruiser Ride” attendants. Turns out the ride was ruined by a bunch of hypocritical assholes who drive their SUVs in to Boulder from outlying towns to ride, and have taken over the long-standing ride tradition to serve their own egos and idiotic goals, ultimately leading to the ride being published in the local newspaper and the attendant rise in attendance which led to the problems that led to its demise. And I got flamed for complaining about that.

The best thing about all of that is that some of the very best people involved in the old Boulder Cruiser Ride have contacted me off-list and explained how my off-the-handle rant was out of line; it’s a good reason to have a website and an opinion. I’ve learned that with regard to the so-called “Happy Thursday Ride”, a few bad apples have fucked the entire batch.

The Boulder Cruiser Ride is no longer, but it’s all good, as we say. There are now several factions of people riding bikes around Boulder on Thursday nights; some of them are into bikes and bike culture, and some of them are egomaniacs with agendas — and there are loads of people in between. So I plan on venturing out this week and enjoying the benefits of evolution. I already know where the cool ride leaves from.

Begbie was my friends’ dog. Wait, no, he was a SuperDog. And he was their kid, in much the same way Emma is Brenda’s and mine. Unfortunately, Begbie had cancer, and despite battling it like the SuperDog he was, he ultimately decided it was time to concede defeat. Last week, my friends Bill and Lauren had to make that painful decision to euthanize their kid. Lauren sent me some words and some links to pictures, a fond remembrance of their dear departed Begbie. And I just posted it to my site. It was my honor. Go have a look; if you didn’t like Scotties before, you will after this:

Begbie