It seems like I haven't been writing about much other than the bikes and Bennington lately, but those are the two things keeping me sane at the moment.

I just dumped close to 30 bucks on tools this afternoon, but it's stuff I'm really going to need if I'm going to be serious about fixing bikes. I've finally worked up the gumption to start working on swapping the parts from one of my parts bikes to a really nice frame I found on the side of the raod a few weeks back, and even with today's purchases, I'm going to have to do some improvising most likely. That's alright though, I enjoy a good challenge.

As far as Bennington goes, I'm going to have a lot of forms to fill out over the next couple of days. They emailed me a link for the housing and preregistration forms a while back, but it must have found it's way into my spam box...

When I sat down, I had a few things I wanted to write about. However, my stomach seems to be interfering with brain function at the moment. That's been the only downside to riding my bike everywhere: I can never seem to get enough food. There are days that I'll come home, polish off all the readily accessible edibles, and find myself wandering around the kitchen an hour later looking for something else to eat.

Riding the bike has been doing me a lot of good, however. It gives me a chance to think about things undisturbed or clear my mind of all the clutter, whatever I happen to need at the time. I have more energy on days that I ride, and I find that riding is better than coffee when it comes to waking me up in the morning.

Speaking of mornings, this morning I was thinking about why a bike is better than a girlfriend. First of all, you get to decide whether they're cheap or expensive and how much maintnence you want to put into them. They'll treat you well with very little maintnence as well. They don't get jealous. you can have more than one, lend one out, borrow one, and they won't get mad at you. They don't care if you drool over someone else's. you can not touch them for years and they'll still be there when you need them. They're quiet. They can give you one helluva rush.

However, I still wouldn't want to curl up with a bicycle.

Taught myself to solder today.  I finally got tired of the duct tape mess that I had holding the batteries to my bike light, so I made myself a tube.  the easiest and cheapest way would have been to make it out of pvc and solvent weld everything.  However, it's not every day that you get the opportunity to pick up a new skill, so I went with a copper pipe for the tube and end cap, and a pvc screw on cap.  I soldered all the copper bits together, along with most of the wires.  Now I don't have to worry about my light going out when things get bumpy.

Oh, I also made it to Rocky's and back using only the higher gears.  T'was pretty sweet.