Ornoth

I know it’s tedious to read about everyone’s end-of-year natterings, so I’ll keep mine brief.

Having just gone through a very difficult period, I’m naturally inclined to write 2005 off as just a series of very painful events. However, when I went to make a list of the good and the bad, I discovered a very surprising and substantial imbalance toward the good. This year in particular this list seems to really help keep things in perspective.

So here’s my lists:

So that’s the scoop. As you can see, the positives far outweigh the negatives, even if there were a couple really, really terrible things that happened this year.

Funny that just as I’m putting so much time and energy into being someone else’s pillar of strength, so many bad things are happening to me.

Yesterday it was the bike. I took my bike to the shop for an unrelated fix, and they say they need to replace the headset, which they installed brand new just five weeks earlier.

As if that wasn’t enough gross incompetence, they don’t have the parts, and the guy who took my bike apart isn’t capable of putting it back together again using the old parts, so I have to survive the next ten or more days without my primary mode of transportation to my job or to the hospital to support my best friend in her time of need, and without any ability to continue training for my charity ride.

On top of the existing issues with the ceiling leak, falling behind in class, and being behind schedule in the fundraising for the charity ride, this is really getting discouraging. June (and perhaps now July?) seems to have been officially declared “National Kick Orny in the Teeth Month”. What crisis am I gonna have to endure next?

Yah! Not only a cool series of questions, but note the completely appropriate use of the term “vehicle”. Yah!

What vehicle do you drive?

I drive a blue and white hybrid bicycle, a 2000 Monaco from Quebecois manufacturer Cycles Devinci.
 

How long have you had it?

I purchased the Monaco on October 15th, 2000. In the three years I’ve had it, I’ve put 8,400 miles on it.
 

What is the coolest feature on your vehicle?

Well, right now there’s nothing particularly cool about the vehicle itself, but some of my cycling accessories are kind of unique. In the summer, I always ride with a pair of Shimano sandals with clipless SPD cleats, which are truly wonderful, although they leave the equivalent of a very bad “Teva tan”. I also have a Garmin Etrex GPS which mounts to my handlebars, which I often ride with. The thing I’m most looking forward to purchasing in the near future is a Ciclosport cyclometer/altimeter/inclinometer, which would be very useful on the hill climbs I’ve been doing lately.
 

What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle?

Unquestionably, the weight. While a heavy bike is fine for tooling around the city or on major self-supported expeditions, it’s really not the greatest thing for club and charity rides or hill climbs, which are the majority of my riding. A heavy bike is like an SUV: appropriate for some uses, but ugly and slow and thoroughly unsuited to road use.
 

If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now?

That’s an interesting question, since I will be buying myself a new bike soon after I get a new job. Certainly I’ll get a road bike, but I plan on taking a long time in deciding what model to get and how I’d like to customize it. I need to learn about the differences between Campagnolo and Shimano componentry, and I want to experiment with longer and shorter crank arm lengths, different clipless pedal types, and frame materials and geometries. In the end, if money were no object, I’m sure I’d wind up with half a dozen or so bikes for different places, conditions, and purposes. That would be fun!