Barton Sutter

A quick bio: Barton Sutter lives in Duluth. He has won the Minnesota Book Award in three different categories: Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Non-fiction. It's guys like this that keep me from trying to be a writer. From
My Father’s War: Stories of Midwestern Men

My Granddad Hackbart was a big old bastard, six feet tall and heavyset, with a chest like an overstuffed suitcase. He was fat, but he didn’t look fat. His hair was thick, and he brushed it back in a silver pompadour. His forehead was high, his cheeks were pink, and his eyes were a scary blue. He was a handsome man, but it didn’t do him any good, because everybody in Bessemer knew he was cranky and drank like a large-mouthed bass. When my Grandma Hackbart died, there wasn’t a widow in town who would even consider him. He couldn’t take care of himself, he wasn’t ready for the nursing home, and he only had a small pension, so the son of a bitch moved in with us. He took my room. I was eight years old when Granddad came to live with us, and he was still in the house when I left for college. I grew up with him. Granddad was family, and I hated his guts.

--from “Very Truly Ours"

Linda Hargrove

What do they all have in common? She's gone too. This one is a little eerie. I was digging through the old LPs and she was there. I went looking for something to post on YouTube. The first one that popped up was this. Reading the comments I realized she had just died. On Sunday. Two days ago! The song was written by Linda and Susan Hargrove. I have no idea what's going on with the video. I'm certain it's personal for someone.

Mem'ries I think I've got enough to leave a few behind
Oh mem'ries they used to make me warm but now I find
Mem'ries only make me feel old before my time



A sign of old age; I enjoy seeing the kids in the video with clear, clean bodies unsullied by tattoos. And besides, how often in a lifetime does one get a chance to use the word "unsullied"? And it seems there are fewer and fewer unsullied things as popular culture marches us onward.

Any Thoughts?... Now Paint Colors

On the Future of Bicycling posting below there are 32 comments. And counting.  On Facebook, Barin's buddy Bruce Hodson asked for recommendations for a derailleur with 28 tooth capacity. So far there have been 22 comments. People have opinions.

When I mentioned I might paint my potential future bike black, resident wag, Jack made a quip about black paint and Henry Ford. Nay, not Ford, Motobecane Grand Record. I like the black and red, but the seat tube would have a single red panel, not two small ones, and sans (french word) the gold lug lining. I think a black or near black accentuates the bling factor of the aluminum components and fenders. The one pictured here belongs to David Barnblatt (thanks Dave).

My Kvalebecane would have a black seat and bars because I already have the seat. Also the wheelset I've set aside is a red rimmed Mavic with Campy Tippo hubs. So, squint hard and picture it with a French chainguard over a single crank-ring, smaller front rack mounted off the canti brakes and minus the rear rack. Maybe the bars up an inch. And of course a larger frame would also change the dynamics, the visual feel,  some. Oh.............and of course, one Suntour bar-end shifter on the right side. Or ....maybe dark blue?

Bachelors

Taking a codger break to get our bearings.

Home Bud, find the way home!

Home? What's home? Now where'd I put that?

If we can hang on until Sunday evening when Lorna returns from her latest West Coast adventure, Bud and I will again prove that two old dogs can survive for a few days with neither a car for transportation nor a woman for guidance. It's been rough and rocky traveling, but I think we're over the hump and it should be a downhill run now. Bud has been generally worthless. Lassie he ain't. He's blind, deaf, stupid and he has no thumbs. I have to say, he has not pulled his weight through this, neither in leaf removal, house cleaning, nor food preparation. But what he can do - wagging, woofing, eating and sun napping, he does well, and with good humor. Overall he's been good company, during this, our time in the domestic wilderness.

The Future of Bicycling - Mine

My bespoke bicycle fitting with Chris Kvale was a real stunner. I'm 2 1/2" shorter than I thought I was. That changes the rules some doesn't it? It wasn't a measuring error either. My younger brother and I stood back to back and he is now noticeably taller than I am. I am no longer 6' 3". Suddenly I feel sooooo short. It helps explain why I can no longer dunk a basketball. It does not explain why I can no long hit a set shot though. Nor a layup for that matter. It also means I am even more overweight than I thought ;-)

Later I told Mark Stonich I was having a bike built to take me into old age and we reviewed the specs. He told me I wasn't building it for the future. He said I was having a bike built for the way I am right now. For instance he is of the opinion, based on his own body, that it isn't just spinal compression, that all of our bones shrink with age. It affects our seat tube length, too!  And he says I will continue to shrink ?!? and in my heart I know this to be true. And eventually I will need a more upright posture, probably even foregoing drop bars and the downtube shifter will be waaaay down there. 

Now I am trying to more realistically imagine myself at 75 and hopefully still on a bike. When this hit me, visualizing the bike with upright bars, a shifter on the downtube no longer makes sense. It would be a long way down. A shifter on the top tube with the cable running back and down the seat stay? I ran this by Kvale. He is a conservative traditionalist and didn't warm up to the thought for aesthetic reasons. He will do it, but really doesn't like it. While my name would be on the check, it's his name on the downtube. I'm trying to reach a compromise that will work for both of us. I even considered Paul Thumbies, but if the top tube shifter is ugly, they take it to a whole nother level. (No offense, thumb shifters.) I think at this point I'm looking at a Suntour bar-end shifter with the cable routed internally through the bars so that it clears the front bag. I wouldn't do this with indexed shifting, but I done it with friction in the past and it works fine.

Any thoughts?

Home Alone

Addy left for Bangkok this morning, and Lorna and her two younger sisters flew out to L.A. to see the oldest sister. Add was up late into the night, pacing off nervous cat energy. She left a set of additional pictures in my camera, a series from our deck of the moon slowly setting over South Edgewater Bay.

Moonset - the Yard Light

As we only have one vehicle now I'm biking it 'til Lorna returns. Not today though. The wind is blowing out of the Dakotas at 30 mph, gusting to 45. It's still 68 degrees but it's not good bikin' weather. Calm tomorrow.

Lee's Summer 2010

The Dakota Badlands, from Lee, Margadant's No.2 son: Weathered rock, horn and bone. Why do they call them "Badlands", when the colors are so subtly wonderful?

Addendum: Jim has entered the Facebook Age!, the 20th Century, possibly even the 21st, and has more pictures posted here. More nice shots from Lee.

Rory Block

"My baby left me for the bottle and the lure of the nightlife,
Good times and crazy women and another glass of Tangueray"

This is Rory's song. It has been covered by a number of singers, particularly a pop-rock flash Dutch blond named Anouk Teeuwe.       phfffteeuwe.    

My Lorna's Late Again

Recycling

The Interstate Power brick smokestack

Addy took the garden picture last week. I love the old bricks. The path is the very heart of my perennial garden. The late Joe Koevnig used to live next door. He was a supervisor at Interstate Power. When the stack was knocked down he used some of the bricks for a walkway down to his house. Lorna's sister and her husband eventually bought the house for a weekend retreat. I came into possession of the bricks when they "upgraded" their walkway. They have more bricks paving an unused patio. They don't seem ready to part with them, but I covet them. I'm going to expand the garden down to the lake next year and I'll be forced to have a grass pathway. How many bricks were in that tower? Thousands, hundreds of thousands? A million bricks? I suppose the rest of them are in a landfill somewhere. Couldn't I make some paths and steps with that many bricks? I could lay down the damned Appian Way of garden paths with a million bricks! 

The brick garden path at 1410 Oakwood

Neolithic Immigration

"New research has revealed that agriculture came to Europe amid a wave of immigration from the Middle East during the Neolithic period. The newcomers won out over the locals because of their sophisticated culture, mastery of agriculture -- and their miracle food, milk."  Fascinating, if you are interested in this sort of thing.

Tour Divide

Thanks to Barin on Facebook.