if someone points their finger at me i'm intimidated.

Shooting is great fun, fun as it is it wouldn't bother me if the rest of the shooting I ever do is video game related.

Actually, at a range is one of the few situations I've had a weapon pointed at me, was scary too. The guy was very experienced off-duty or ex lawman ex military or something I wasn't in any danger unless I was stupid, which thank god I wasn't that day. Me and my bestest bud were there target shooting with his 9mm, a .45 & the most fun an uzi pistol converted to .45

So we're shooting & the bell rings w/the PA announcing weapons down, that's after an initial bell so you know it's almost time. Anyway my buddy heard the announcement & ceased fire, but forgot protocol. He tried to make the gun safe, took a few steps to the table in our booth & went to clear the chamber & remove the clip. But guns down means guns down, before he could get the clip out & set it down the range guy had had time to yell at him once, then take a step forward, draw & take aim. demanding compliance of both of us (I had put mine down on time, but since he felt the need to draw on my friend he wanted me to know he knew he was drawing on my friend!) My buddy complied too of course! It all worked out & we bought more ammo & stayed awhile

Totally our gaff, & we understood why the guy behaved as he did in gun nut texas, we were only 16ish & dressed like 1980s 16 year old clubbers that sold drugs, the next booth over was a group of vietnamese about our age having just a hoot of a time teaching their girlfriends to fire the tiny pocket .32s & slim 9mm they seemd to favour, down from them on the short range was a group of western dressed latin american gentlemen testing out a few sawed off double barrels with brand new pistol grips installed & a couple of corn fed white dudes on the longer range working out with a 30.06 next to the tiawanese fella teaching his kid to handle the ar-15. It was busy like that everytime we went. On Fridays they had special times to fire your fully automatic weapons. Crazy

and yeah no matter how familiar they scare the crap out of me, or knowing what they are and not knowwing what it is holding them scares the crap out of me

not scared of guns...just the peeps that carry them that knows not what to do with it.
Sounds like you won't be needing anymore coffee this morning Shizy...glad you made it ok.

to get away from all this gun talk, i'll throw some bike talk out there: what are the widest tires you have run on your fixie? i'm putting a winter bike together and i've got 700x35 on there now. would like wider but can't fit fenders otherwise!

is that a cross tyre?

shotguns are sweet but I love a long bow... nothing scarier than someone shooting arrows at ya

not as such. it's a michelin "city" tire, inverted tread design. i was thinking about getting some cross tires for snow though...

AWESOME day for a bike ride ! ,, I get to go ride around and enjoy before work,,,,,,,,,,,,,

23c :D

nice and sunny this morning. clouding over a bit now but i'm still going to enjoy riding to school. last exam today, thank jebus.

ha. ha. ha. nice one fatty.

Whats that cool saying all the kids use?...23c FTW? I gave up on knobby tires for snow about 10 years ago. That is unless there is dirt under the snow. I still enjoy a good jaunt on the mountain bike in the fresh snow tho.

I'm famous :P

http://bikelanediary.blogspot.com/20...and-grass.html

thought i'd ask. i'm going to try the wider tires as an experiment.

I should add also that the condition of the actual road surface has become worse than its ever been since I started cycling in the city seriously. I have given some thought to perhaps a 28c for the winter. All those little lips in the road from construction become rim killers in the winter when you misjudge the depth because its hidden by snow.
Whats with that anyway? Dig a big hole for water mains. gas, whatever. Then, when you fill and pave it, there is an inch and a half lip. They used to overfill these holes so that immediately after construction was finished, there would actually be a little hump in the road vs a depression. Laziness? Budget constraints? End Rant.

I think the city stopped doing most of the work and are hiring contractors instead. The problem is, nobody is checking their work- and they're doing a craptastic job. Ridden North on Beverly/St George lately? The "bike lane" is pretty much unrideable unless you're on a mountain bike. :(

Its because the decision makers drive SUV's with big wheels that are deisgned to drive over road construction and the like (I saw the commercial about why you need an SUV to deal with urban grocery getting)

PS. St george/beverly is a joke. I cruel joke. I ride right up the centre yellow line if I take that street and deal with the cars divebombing me. I rode over a fat peice of twisted rebar in the 'bike path' recently.

Then again, Bloor is a joke. So is Front. And Bathurst. And Richmond. And Adelaide.

Cars don't drive in bike lanes some of the time so why bother repairing them?

Bloor from Markham to Christie is the same way now. I gave Adam Vaughn hell about it recently he said he'd send out inspectors to see if the work was sub-par and bring back the contractors if it was. I'll see what happens when I continue to harrass him

on a brighter note, have you guys noticed they're repaving Bloor, west of Bathurst? Yah, smooth as butter.

They need freakin' inspectors to see that that road has been destroyed? Tax dollars at work boys.

Figures...right after I move from that hood.

and St. George is repaved now. It's also pretty smooth.

I'm pretty sure that beverly south of college is still terrible though, and the pattern they cobbled st george with is annoying as you're constantly transitioning between brick and concrete. In a few years its going to be REALLY BAD. I can guaruntee it.

Yikes that sounds worse than what I did! Yeah I find that biking on and off like I have been on some of my days off is fine, but every time I attempt a half day of work it just acts up again. I think I am going to have to accept that I won't be messin' through the Christmas rush dammit. I have been doing the 15 min ice thing it does seem to help. It might be time to go to someone who really knows knees specifically. I want to know what to do excercise wise to maximize recovery. I have had other muscle injuries in other places before but the knee is a real *****.

True. I should clarify that I'm only refering to St. George b/w Bloor and College. Don't know what's going on north of Bloor- god know that's a very choppy stretch, too.

The same contractors that get hired to do the complete paving jobs as well no doubt.
Do a sub-standard job on the patchwork. Wait for inevitable complaints. Score contract for entire paving job. JACKPOT!

Actually that is a different place than I went to. If the guy is an avid cyclist I'm sold :D Thanks for the recommendation, actually I am going to check that out. The place I went was drop-in only, so the second time I went I couldn't guarantee that I saw the same doctor which was pretty annoying. At that point I was (naively) hoping for a fast recovery, but now that it looks like that is not in the cards I should see someone who specializes in this stuff. Thanks again!

Actually I kind of like that, simply b/c everytime I ride over it, I feel I'm getting a taste of the european spring classics

Unethical contract awarding is still one of the most corrupt aspects of our muncipal, provincial and federal governance. Its just hard to track because everyone knows everyone else.