I once had the distinct displeasure of hitting a swarm of bees at 25 mph. Mostly, they didn't get their asses aligned opposite my direction of travel, but one or two did. I ended up picking out a stinger once I'd passed through.

Another time, Rango and I once encountered a similar swarm, directly across our path. I heard the buzzing first, then noticed all the little flying thingummies. As we stood there, I noticed the swarm was moving slowly to our right, so we just waited till they were out of our way.

There's a house around the block that we always walk past on dog walks. Years ago, they had a cat who sat in the window, and when we'd pass, Rango would growl/bark at it. Then I suspect went to Cat Heaven, and they replaced the real cat with a cardboard picture of a cat. Rango still grown/barked at it. Every single time!



So far, Sheila hasn't noticed it.

Note: I took this pic surreptitiously, from the street. Nobody accosted me.

datlas: you have the unbelievable, once in a millenium privilege of having access to a Winchell's donuts shop in the same complex as a HoneyBaked Ham store. You've accidentally hit the Queen of all "Bi-Fectas." If I were in your shoes - and I hope I am not sounding too presumptuous - I would buy two glazed donuts from Winchell's and throw several slices delicious honey baked ham in between said Donuts. Like a sandwich. That's the very type of fuel that you'll need to win the big races. It's an honor to even write you about this.

We pick that 'knowledge' (of syntactical rules) up instinctively during language acquisition, in the same way that we 'learn' that in English determiners (e.g. definite and indefinite articles) precede their nouns, hence 'the dog' is 'English', 'dog the' is not. We don't need to know consciously that English has that syntactical rule, but it does and we -- especially if English is our first language -- do 'know' it and simply follow it. We can't say 'why' 'dog the' is wrong, necessarily, but we know that it is. The nerdish among us find it interesting to understand 'why'!

So, the order of adjectives when two or more precede a noun? Basically, 'general to particular'; 'opinion to fact', etc. It is much more complex*, but that's in essence why we hear -- or should hear -- 'her amazing new black bike' as ok, but 'her black new amazing bike' as somehow 'wrong' or 'awkward' -- again, especially if English is our first language. As with your examples: 'black big dog' or 'suede old coat' would just sound 'off'.

In large part 'learning grammar' just is bringing those syntactical rules that govern the use and order of words in a language (any language) to consciousness, so to speak.

*If further interested in adjective order in English, here's a useful chart from Cambridge: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/gra...oogle_vignette

It's a car town for real. But when you step off that curb they better screech to a halt.

I'm a naturally suspicious native New Yorker. The first time I approached the curb in LA and the traffic screeched to a stop, all I could think of was that they were trying to set me up. It was terrifying.

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I'll have a blueberry muffin, please. A bag won't be necessary.

Thanks.

I appreciate the suggestion, but as a committed vegetarian of over 40 years’ duration, I will have to skip the ham.

Thanks for the info. I expect similar reason explains when/why we use articles (both definite and indefinite) and when we skip them. My wife’s native language does not use any articles. Her English is VERY good (with a slight and very cute accent), but even after living here speaking English for 40+ years, she still sometimes misuses (or skips) an article. When she asks me to explain why, I usually shrug and say “that’s how we do it.”

Here's Gaimon on Latigo cyn. datlas knows this climb.

One of my favorites!

Is datlas becoming a west coaster?

He’s at least a wannabe.

I still have nothing to offer on the donut subject, but I do have an excellent description of the Jefferson City Metro area and the awesome Marigold jacket.

Oh? Let's hear it. Paint a word picture of the land, the people, the culture.

That jacket is simply stunning. Too bad it's not chartruse.

If Garmin says your training is Unproductive, here is an explanation of how that metric is measured

Prior to my ride today, noticed the rear wheel was out of true and rubbing a rear pad. Whipped out my trusty spoke wrench and gave the nipple a turn, and another and another and no bite. It just kept spinning. Argh. Don’t know if the threads on the nipple or spoke are stripped - but will leave that to my lbs. So, got out an old wheel and began the process of removing the rear gear set from the fubar wheel to the new/old wheel. It went fine except the high and low set screws for the rear mech had to be adjusted - no biggie. Got it set and a quick test ride to confirm all was good. Loaded the bike on the back of the car and drove a few miles to the starting point. When there, I realized I hadn’t aired the front tire and decided to try the mini pump I have been packing around for 3 years but never used it. Worked it like a teenage boy’s first love and the pressure was underwhelming. So got out a CO2 and valves head, which I had never used and it worked great. OK, now finally rolling.

Started off, hit a bump and heard metal rattling Hmmm. Maybe the saddle bag was hitting the seat post - nope. Hit another bump, checked the skewers and they were tight. Rode a bit further and more metal jangling. Reached down and the rear cogs were loose - but you already knew that. So ride back to the car, head home, remove wheel to see about 1mm of gap - eventhough the locking nut was tight. Since it’s been three years since I swapped the gears between wheels, I forgot that this wheel required an additional spacer - which I had. Whipped out the chain whip - again - added the spacer and the bugles of heaven sounded. So had to adjust the set screws, put the bike away and called it a day.

Ride stats - 2.5 miles and 49’ climbing. Max watts - 518 until things blew up. I logged the ride as a race and was rewarded with this:

Not after today. It’s travel day.

Next stop, PHL.

rsbob's post above is the most recent post until datlas' in all of road cycling? No FF yesterday? The donut talk was crowding out the quality content and scaring people off.

Here's a tune with a classification i don't know.

Chartreuse. I'm aghast.

I do eat some junk food and much less since shedding weight is no longer easy.- My preference is home made chocolate chip cookies, but draw the line at donuts - so no contribution on that un-holy topic. Used to love bear claws, but back then, I could skip a meal and drop two pounds.

Heading out this AM for a club ride with 10 or so people for 50ish miles and 3K of climbing. Weather should be in the mid to high 60s which is ideal. Am NOT bringing the troublesome bike (Orbea)) because it needs a time out to think about the grief it/me caused yesterday, so am taking the disc/k bike instead. The only brake rub I should hear there is a ting, ting until it sorts itself.

When i retired, I think I was about 215 lbs, +/- 5 lbs any given day. I was afraid I'd gain weight since snacks would be constantly available. Instead, I've lost 8 - 10 lbs, and currently find myself around 205 or so. I'm not riding much farther, but I've added a daily walk of between 1.5 - 2.5 miles, and I think I used to starve myself during the day and binge at night, and I'm doing less of that.