Living For The City

Ottawa
We opted out of Snowmageddon to visit Steph’s friends and family in Ottawa and got pitted, so pitted in the beautiful Wakefield area of Quebec.

We sure ‘Skiid The Difference” and the primary difference between Vorlage and other hills in the area is that it sucks eggs.

We had a great time regardless; the reasonable weather and the nearly empty runs were a welcome contrast to the 7 hour white knuckle drive home the next day.

Toronto
This is what I returned home to; I’m not sure that it was quite the Snowpocalypse that Environment Canada was calling for but make no mistake, there was a buttload of snow to clear upon my return.

Fortunately, I have fantastic snow tires (thanks again, Ben) and we have a somewhat more sensible mayor in office than we did a few years ago so the Army wasn’t called back from Afghanistan to shovel us out.

Rob, Tami, & I met up for a little holiday Roti – we’re a very traditional bunch.

Nacho Spark showed up a short while later, again, with traditional holiday fare.

Some of you may remember the summer when Spark & I were working on a little home reno project, well, payday finally came so if you need to borrow money, give Sparkles a call.

The cheque may not rival some of the booty he’s acquired as a wildly successful male model but I think it’ll suffice. He worked tirelessly, essentially putting his life on hold for the bulk of the summer and it’s nice to see him finally reap some rewards; congratulations homie, I know it was a long hard summer for you but in my view it was well worth it.

Guelph
We spent a few days in Guelph visiting with Steph’s sister (and the rest of the family who traveled from near and far) and I consumed more sports via ‘The Man Cave’ in 72 hours than I probably have in the last 30 years of my life.

Aylmer
My nephew and brother in law were both horribly sick over the holidays and weren’t going to be able to make it out to my folk’s place so we packed up the whole clan and headed to west for xmas day.

Mississauga
On the way back to my parent’s place we made the mistake of visiting both the Brick, where we witnessed ‘running man’ dancing salesmen, and Square One where we witnessed… well… everything I hate about the suburbs but we did have the pleasure of spotting this little gem in the wild. Tell us how you really feel.

Basically, my mom’s iPod rules.

Toronto
I was very fortunate this year, as I usually am, and made out pretty well in terms of prezzies but the grand prize really belongs to Sir Robert Blyth who scored this beautiful Stump inspired headpiece which has already improved his bangability by 34.2%.

It’s been a big year and I’ve been doing the pearson shuffle waltz more than usual, trotting the globe with my trusty LX2 doing my darndest to capture the moments that really make you go hmmmm.

The folks at The Big Picture were kind enough to select some of my best snaps and put together a little three part series titled The Rennick; lover, fighter, really good looking dude – A Year In Review.

Check them out here: Part 01 | Part 02 | Part 03

A short while ago I posted about a little DIY project that my special lady friend and I started and we’ve been slowly chipping away at it ever since. Ok, not really, in truth we haven’t done anything at all but last night we finally decided to install the framework for the desk which will hopefully give me the motivation to do some of the fine finishing work, find some cabinets for under the desk and get started on my little art project for the wall.

Here’s a little update for the few people that read this blog that are more likely to read Apartment Therapy than Trackosaurus Rex.

We picked up some 2x2s and gave them a quick coat of paint to match the cabinets – mitering the edges on the side rails just to make them a little bit less visually clunky from the front.

Pre-drilled, leveled and fastened the rails to the sides of the cabinets.

Fastened a nice, long 2×2 rail to the wall – putting the stud finder to good use.

Laid down a 3/4″ pine plank, also primed and painted to match the cabinets.

I’m still deciding what to do in terms of putting some fancy little details on the desk corners which will help integrate the desk with the cabinets and give me an excuse to lay down some coin at Lee Valley but at least now, after almost 3 years in this place, I have somewhere to sit and look at porno do some work that isn’t my couch.

The other day on my way out for my afternoon coffee I found these old Grain Edit worthy polish childrens books in a bus shelter and snatched them up but quick. I hope the little tyke didn’t return for them but hey, finders keepers, flathead.

Despite not understanding anything other than Prosze & Nie from years of hearing my neighbor, Ziggy, beg his mother for things and having her flatly deny him (not like it stopped him from doing anything he liked) I thought they looked pretty rad but I opened them up, checked out the illustrations, and all of a sudden Ziggy made so much sense. I mean, patterned hobo pigs, rams fighting wolves, mice attacking cats with scissors, wolves running off with babies? Bananas!

It got me thinking about Ziggy and what a classic character he was – let’s talk about some of the things that Ziggy did when we were growing up that were amazing:

• Loved Extreme, Blues Saraceno, and Yngwie Malmsteen and all kinds of wild shit
• Drove through construction zones with one hand on the wheel and the other holding the door open knocking over construction cones
• Drove his car into a porta potty that my friend Rayron was using at the time
• Got a wicked tribal sun tattoo on his thigh in Poland and did it with a girl
• Always came back from Poland with explosives that we’d use to blow up… well… anything
• Wore a wicked American flag bandana
• Could do flawless kickflips wearing cowboy boots
• Became a doctor

Hands down; my favorite thing to do with Ziggy was go down to the local ice rink in the spring / summer and load up a garbage bag with snow and then drive around the neighborhood throwing snowballs at wanna be gangsters. Hell, it was the suburbs… we were teenagers… what else would you expect?

Speaking of classic dudes, I know this is old but it’s like a fine wine and it get’s better with age. It’s really boqueting nicely.

PS Sorry mom & dad… and the residents of Mississauga.

A while ago, I thought I’d come up with a decent solution to my Saddle Shredâ„¢ problem but it proved to be futile in brokering a peace agreement between my saddle and my tuckus. The actual solution ended up being to replace the jeans and replace the saddle and hope that new a combination of denim and leather would yield better results.

The pants were holding up well until my good buds talked me into riding my bike into a concrete and ice filled pit of doom at which point they were horribly scarred for life.

As much as I’m a proponent of all things DIY, I find that sometimes it’s better to just leave things to the professionals and I had a local tailor do the best she could with my favorite pantaloons and she did a pretty good job – the camera picked up a lot more here than the eye tends to, the coverup is barely noticeable in real life.

When I got them back I spotted a small nick in the crotch which, in a short while, would probably have developed into full scale Saddle Shredâ„¢ so I took ‘em back and had her fix up the nick so it wouldn’t get worse.

Kim, being a true professional, noted that the crotch on my jeans wears away as a result of cycling friction so she re-enforced the entire crotch to hopefully give them a little bit more life.

I’ll report back once I’ve let her have a go at some of my previously shredded pants to see if she can breathe some new life into them.

Issue #2 of Fixed Mag out of the UK has been printed and is now making it’s way to outlets around the world. I’m not sure whether or not anyone is carrying it in Toronto (waiting to hear back) but if magazines like this tickle your fancy and you don’t want to wait for it to make it’s way across the pond you can download the PDF of the full magazine here and if you’re interested in Issue 01 – snag it here.

Speaking of bike stuff, Lyndsey at Adrift hit me up last week to let me know that they’d just received a shipment the Vans ‘Cog Pack’ Authentics and said I should roll by to check them out.

I’m always pretty weary of things like ‘fixed gear shoes’ that actually have very few functional improvements to warrant the designation. For example, I’d much rather have seen a shoe that had a much stiffer sole and perhaps a reinforced toe cap to hold up better to the clips.

With that said; they’re vegan, nice enough lookin’, fairly inexpensive and have 3M reflective piping along the top of the shoe which is a nice little touch. The cog & chain graphics are a little cheesey but I like being more visible on the road but don’t particularly like looking like a christmas tree so little reflective accents are always welcomed.

I spent the day on Saturday in Haliburton for my Aunt Maureen & Uncle Randy’s 60th birthdays and on the way up there we had the pleasure of checking out another building that Steph designed – an amazing cottage on Soyers Lake.

As I was the last time I had the opportunity to check out one of Steph’s bigger projects, I am amazed by her talent and her vision and am so happy that the builder was able to bring it to life and make it look every bit as beautiful as it was intended to be.

On the way home, we happened upon this little antique shop just outside Coboconk that was packed to the rafters with all sorts of rad little bits and bobs.

Fortunately, unlike most antique shops we step into, the prices here were pretty reasonable. Left to my own devices, I’d have spent all day in there picking through all the little treasures but it was cold, we were getting tired and hangry so we opted to get back on the road but I can’t wait to go back. We both made out like bandits I walked away with a cool old patch kit, an old glass insulator (reminds me of my momma), and old ammunition box side and an assortment of old frames for an upcoming art project.

Quote of the day goes to my Uncle Randy who, after waving his hand in front of Steph’s face said “Well, so you’re not blind or retarded, so what are you doing with this guy?”

Update: When we got home from Hali we hit up Rob & Spark’s legendary annual xmas bash. Killer Killen was the official photog. of the night but I did manage to snag this little video of Rob tearing up the dance floor.

…and the boys and I getting ready for the party on Friday.

Oh Igor, when will you learn? One thing that they fail to mention in this article is that one of the people he was swinging a pipe at was a pregnant woman. All class, this fella.

A 50-year-old Toronto man faces three charges after he swung a metal pipe at two people this afternoon.

The suspect was trying to remove property from a home on Dufferin St. and Wallace Ave. when the homeowners tried to stop him.

“He says it was his (property), and the owners are saying it was theirs,” said Det. Hoffmeyer of Toronto police.

The suspect swung a metal pipe at the homeowners. No injuries were reported. The suspect drove away after the confrontation.

Police say the victims and suspect are not related.

An hour later, Igor Kenk was arrested and charged with assault with a weapon and two counts of assault.

He will appear in court on Dec. 15 at 10 a.m.

He is the owner of The Bicycle Clinic at 927 Queen St. W.

Since his arrest, police have recovered some 2,700 bikes found in 12 locations, mostly in downtown garages rented by Kenk, and 1.5 ounces of marijuana.

Kenk was out on bail set at $250,000 for provincial charges related to bike theft, $10,000 for federal charges including 21 drug offences, and $15,000 surety bail to be split collectively by three supporters. While under house arrest, he wasn’t supposed to step outside unless accompanied by one of his three sureties.

Source

So, this afternoon I’m listening to Voodoo at work and this girl comes over to my desk and asks “who’s music is this?” to which I reply “mine, why?” to which she replies “well, it’s not really my kind of music, but I heard it and I couldn’t resist coming over to check it out” which further supports my theory; D’Angelo = Business Time. The ladies, they just can’t resist.

That’s right, I said it. FREDDIE MERCURY – white jumper with sequins, open V neck to the pelvis, chest hair exploding out like a chia-pet and an overbite that made my 10-year old buck-toothed self know things ain’t so bad. Would he be serenading us come December?

As we kicked off the Dirtballs Fall 2008 season, there were many questions to be answered. Summer 08 season saw us finish the season without one single win. That is not a typo. NO WINS. Our worst season ever. EVER. boo. We are notorious for the famous “championship hangover”. We had won the Spring/Summer 08 season in top form, destroying our opposition in the finals 12-3. They never had a prayer. They had a genie, but no prayer.

Fall ’08 season started with the news that two of our top players, Chris “Rocketman” Earp and Carie “I am better than 99% of the guys in this league” McNaughton officially would be sitting out the season. A terrible blow considering we had them in our “OH FOR” season. It would be tough for Sparkie “Pops” Clarkie to rally the troops and give them the confidence to know that if we band together and play as a unit, we cannot be beaten! Looking up and down the schedule, there appeared to be only a few tough matches – it seemed as though the toughest teams were in pool 2 this season – so as far as Pops was concerned, the championship was in our grasp, it was just a matter of how bad we wanted it.

The season started off in fine form, as we destroyed many teams who had never set foot on a dodgeball court before. This could be seen as our “pre-season” as we quickly got to 4-0 before we met one of our arch-nemesisesies’ (wtf!?) THE PAWN SQUAD aka Mixed Nuts. In the spirit of being a good guy I won’t go into details but let’s just say we’ve had some heated exchanges back and forth and each match-up is met with a dash of tension and pinch of anxiety (ok … make that handful and 2 cups … 2 buckets and a troft?). This match was no different with plenty of shouting, time-outs and overcelebrating. Unfortunately we weren’t doing the celebrating in a 20-10 drubbing. This self destruction was followed up with another loss to give us a major setback in our aspirations to lift the cup (AKA a brown TCSSC t-shirt). It was gut check time. There were a few more tough games, games that if we didn’t get it together we would not even make it to the finals. But in true Dirtballs fashion, the boys and girls knew what we needed to do to win games and the next four games were secured, giving us an 8-2 record and #2 seeding in the playoffs. Destiny was within our grasp. The first playoff game we were confident, and handily beat, in my opinion a much better team then reflected a 14-4 massacre. Who would we play in the finals? Would we get redemption against the PAWN SQUAD?

We had to wait literally until the afternoon of game day as their match was “Disputed”. Rumours flew – did they get in a fistfight? Possibly kill an opponent?!!?! No they tipped a live ball when in possession of another ball to their player who made the game winning out. You can’t touch a live ball when in possession of another ball!!! The league saw differently. It was DIrtballs v. Pawn Squad for the championship.

I kid you not when I say the entire afternoon anxiety was tearing me up. If we lost this game we would never live it down. We had to win. It was good vs. evil. The coalition of freedom vs. axis of terror. Dion/Layton/Duceppe vs. Harper. 49 spirit points vs. 39.25. But I also will not lie when I say that the fear of losing was very real, and a victory was not a sure thing. Would we have what it takes to overcome this team? I will tell you this – it was determined before we even stepped on the court. Walking into the school and seeing Pawn Squad warm up – the first thing said to Spark and Fish was – “So are you guys READY TO LOSE? HAHAHAHA!” Dumbfounded by the overconfidence it was followed up with “What?! You guys have never beaten us you might as well just hand over the championship!!” Wow. Arrogance killed the … uh, dickhead? So obviously Spark went straight to the rest of the team, told them of how we are being thought of as pushovers and the switch officially was hit. There was no way in hell we were losing this game. I kid you not (yes, I said that already but I am a kidder and it must be disclaimed) it could seen in each of our players that this would be victory and we would rather DIE (YES DIE PLAYING DODGEBALL!) than lose! And by the end of the 55 minutes, victory WAS ours. As we banded together in celebration of another fine season and another championship, off in the distance you could see a man and his piano, playing the song (and the MAN *wink*) we had been dreaming of since September …

My friends, yes, we are the champions.

Downside of birthdays – getting old. Plus side of birthdays – getting stuff.

A bunch of us got together on Saturday night for Matias’ and I’s birthday (pics to come, maybe) but it was also the night of the Bikes On Wheels / Curbside xmas party so all the boys (and girl) rolled through and brought all the gifts that no one else wanted with them… that’s fine by me! Plus my folks kicked in a whole new base layer so I’m all set on bike softgoods for a while… won’t stop me from getting stuff, I’m sure.

I’ll be the first to admit that I clowned this Obey Jewelry when it showed up at the shop a few months ago but when Eric laid it on me Saturday night, it grew on me at least a little bit. Thanks, buds.

On top of some killer PJs (I said PEE JAYS) my lady gave me so that I don’t have to walk around home in tattered underwear any longer, she made me these lovely Brooks inspired prints – I can’t wait to get them matted and framed.

I was a little very jealous of the hand painted sign that my good buddy Aner made for our friend Alex on her birthday (I wish I’d taken a photo, it’s unreal) but I needn’t be any longer because tonight he laced me with this sign to mount above my desk to remind me that gittin’ ‘er done and makin’ ‘er go is the only way to really nail ‘er shut. Y’dig?

For all the complaining I do about, well, everything, but specifically about getting older I know that I’m so fortunate to have a family that supports me, a girlfriend that loves me, coworkers that put up with me and friends that I can count on in the good times and the bad. I’m surrounded by people that both inspire and ground me – I’m humbled, consistently, by the people I’ve been lucky enough to surround myself with low these many years. I may like things… a lot… but every now and then it’s nice to take stock of the things that really matter.

Then again, like Colin says; “who ever made that doesn’t have a sram group on their bike.”

Like any self respecting bikester (or total loser) I spent the bulk of my 30th birthday up at the shop trying to get my winter bike completely dialed in.

As I’ve mentioned a few times in the past, I’m mounting a basic set of Planet Bike road fenders on a bike that wasn’t really intended to take them and using the maximum tire size that these fenders have been rated for which has proved to be a bit of a challenge.

I think I’ve finally got them set up the way I want them so I thought I’d share my progress in case any one else out there is in a similar spot.

The rear mounting bracket has proved to be troublesome for me in that it rubs the tire at the point in which the fender is passed through the bracket. In the past I’ve tried to file down the bracket itself to give me the precious millimeters needed to clear 28mm tires.

At Robbie’s suggestion, I decided to forego the bracket altogether and drill some holes in the fender itself so that I can mount the fender directly to the brake bridge using a zip tie.

The larger, rougher hole in between the two zip holes was made to better seat the brake bridge – worked like a charm.

Threw some more zips down at the BB to snug it up

One of the problems I faced when mounting these originally using p-clamps, due to lack of fender eyelets, was that I only had enough room at the base of the seat stays to get one of the mounting rods on the fenders. It worked ok, but it was less than ideal.

One of the biggest plus sides of bumming around bike shops is the vast amount of take off items that end up unused in the back of the shop. Fortunately for me, there was a perfectly good set of unused single point, dual rod fender mounts sitting around that magically made their way onto my bike, giving the rear the stability it needed.

I replaced the two front zip ties with a proper mounting system and called it a day.

Everything got set up just in time for the snow to start coming down…

…and the hard partying to start. Yeah, we party hard.

I think it’s going to be a long and snowy winter so let’s all do our best to keep the rubber side down.

Thanks everybody for a great weekend and a wonderful welcome to my 30′s.

A short while ago I caught a glimpse of the soon to be released Trixie tool from Pedro’s and knew right away that I needed to get my greasy little paws on one.

The fine folks at Pedro’s were more than kind enough to send one over for me to fool around with right away – thanks again, Jason. My first impression of the Trixie; it’s small enough to fit into your pocket, a small bag, or the pen pocket of a larger bag but weighty enough to give you some confidence in it’s ability to withstand abuse.

15mm box wrench, lock ring wrench, 5mm hex head, 8,9,10mm box wrenches, pin hole to make your own chain whip and most importantly… a bottle opener. Booya!

As a little bit of back story; I’ve been very happy with my Dura Ace Chain Whip / Lockring combo but it’s just a little bit too large to carry around with me on a regular basis. In fact, when the fellas and I headed across the pond for a little cycling adventure last spring I had Under The Weather stitch me up an extra large tool pouch just to take it with me. Had the Trixie been in production then, well, I probably still would have wanted a new tool pouch, because I like stuff, but it wouldn’t have needed to be so large.

In terms of size; something a little bit longer would help greatly in terms of gaining the right amount of leverage to really wrench on over-tightened track nuts and lockrings but increased size would obviously mean decreased portability so I think it’s a fair trade when discussing a tool that is presumably intended for fixed gear riders – not necessarily shop mechanics.

The lack of leveraging length isn’t what I’d call a deal breaker for a tool at this price point; the fact of the matter is that the Trixie is a fairly inexpensive, useful and highly portable tool that doesn’t really have a market rival as far as I can tell (unless you count the $122 EAI Super Track) and I applaud Pedro’s for working to develop very specific types of products geared towards very specific types of riders. Say what you will about the fixed gear bicycle boom, but for every piece of garbage that has come out as a result there have been quite a few gems that perhaps wouldn’t have seen the light of day otherwise.

From a corporate perspective; In the literature that accompanied the Trixie, Pedro’s used at least as much space promoting the bicycle as a viable and positive means of transportation as they do promoting their products. Their commitment to the environment (especially for a company that makes as many cleaning / care products as they do) and their attention to the changing needs of a wide variety of cyclists makes them a company that I’m proud to support.

My overall impression of the Trixie; if you’re at home and / or have access to shop tools you may be better off using them but if you’re on the road, traveling or otherwise and you need a quick fix the Trixie is a great little friend to have on your side and I’ve happily placed mine in my ReLoad Roll-Up along side all my other portable favorites.

Concept: 4.5/5
I think that Pedro’s has used the limited space they have on the Trixie well and have included several useful features in one small package. Opening up the 15mm box might be nice to allow for pedal wrenching but I find closed boxes tend to work better when you have limited leverage so I guess it’s a fair trade.

Usability: 4/5
I found it easy to use and just thick enough to not feel like it was slicing through my hand under pressure. A longer handle would provide more leverage for serious wrenching but again, at the cost of portability I think it’s a fair trade.

Durability: tba
Time will tell, of course; the sample that I was sent hadn’t yet been heat treated (as production models will be) and I was able to put a little bend in it while reefing on an overly tight lockring (I am much man, after all) but I’d estimate that the beefy little tool made of heat treated steel will hold up to just about anything most of us will throw at it. The steel still felt very hard and I don’t get the impression that the purchase points will get “mushy” as some cheaper quality tools tend to under repeated use.

Edit: In conversation with Dan, Curbside’s head mechanic earlier today, he mentioned that Pedro’s tools are extremely, extremely tough and will stand up to a great deal of abuse. Some say that their hardening process is superior even to that of Park Tools which have a reputation for being pretty tough sumanabitches!

My dear old friend Scotty Hammell (escape artist, magician, speaker, hypnotherapist, world record holder & all around great guy) has got it into his head that he’s going to hurl himself from an airplane at 18,000 feet with his hands shackled to his waist… Now, I’m aware that there’ll be a parachute along for the ride but he’s going to have to escape from the cuffs as he plummets towards the earth in order to use it.

I’m obviously at least a little bit concerned because Scotty is my boy and I wouldn’t want to see him get hurt but his momma didn’t raise no fool and I trust that he’ll do the necessary research, practice and preparation to make this stunt a success but he’s going to need our support in this endeavor and one of the ways you can support Scott is buy purchasing on of these Alex Snelgrove designed t-shirts for $25. Remember that part of this pays for the shirt but a good portion of it goes towards making sure that Scott has enough cash to properly fund (read: not kill himself) this stunt.

Email Scott to find out where to get one and please, help a brother out!

–

On a somewhat unrelated note; these shirts are printed with love by Astro Screenprinting which is now proudly owned by two of Toronto’s favorite East Coast transplants; JD & Mike. Congrats, fellas.