Sventopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea

Sven is wearing the family crest of Cristoforo Colombo (1451-1506) with the added phrase "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" -- the title the endlessly arrogant explorer requested from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.

Sven's hat is inspired by the Ridolfo Ghirlandaio portrait (Google it!) -- but we don't know what C.C. actually looked like, much less what hats he wore. Since no contemporary portraits exist, I say Sven is as good a model for C.C. as anyone!

At his elbow is a copy of the 1490 map possibly created by C.C. and his brother in Lisbon -- the point being that there was nothing better to guide him on his voyage a couple years later (www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/LMwebpages/257.html). There's also a translation of his journal entry for the day he and his crew landed in the New World, though they didn't know where they actually were...

Yes, the little globe in a ball-and-chain in front of Sven is a political statement. Deal with it. See www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-kasum/columbus-day-a-bad-idea_b_742708.html or if you have the stomach for it, read more horrific detail at the bottom portion of www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/Hero-making_LMTTM.html.

"Columbus's claim to fame isn't that he got there first, it's that he stayed." --historian Martin Dugard

   --Andre

Weekend Snapshot

More details when I get a bigger moment!



The moment apaprently isn't happening. Dora learned to ride a bike last weekend! And Owen got a new bike! Everyone had fun! It was great!

Mushrooms!

DISCLAIMER! If you use anything I post here as a guideline to go find mushrooms, you're not thinking it through. Go buy books, talk to someone who knows something about mushrooms, and be really freaking careful. If in doubt, chuck it out. I don't want to hear about you eating some awesome looking mushroom after briefly seeing it here and getting sick. You are responsible for your own actions. I'm still learning and in no way am I any kind of authority on this stuff.

As they say in Mall Rats:
"You're going to listen to me? To something I said? Jesus, man, haven't I made it abundantly clear during the tenure of our friendship that I don't know sh**? I mean, half the time I'm just talking out of my ass . . ."

Anyway, on to the fun stuff...

We've become interested in the world of wild mushrooms this year after attending a presentation at Greenwood Furnace SP in July. We knew about chicken mushrooms, which are quite tasty, and shaggy manes that my dad introduced us to, but the rest, not so much. That is changing ever since we started getting rain again. The woods are rife with a riot of mushrooms and we've been searching out some edible ones.

The first success was in our own driveway when we found and identified meadow mushrooms--quite tasty!

Of course, we needed to know the bad ones, too, and I'm pretty confident I can pick out the destroying angel with no problems now. This is good because it'll dissolve your liver and kill you within a week.

We've been pretty cautious about identifying what we find and if there's doubt, we throw them out. False chanterelles and uncertain puffballs have gone this route.

But this week? Jackpot! Been looking for these for a bit now and stumbled upon them quite by accident.

Horn of Plenty/Black Trumpets/Trumpets/Black Chanterelles!





We tried a couple last night, felt fine all night and so they went in the eggs this morning!



These have a great smoky flavor--very good. And we've read that they can be put in dry white wine to flavor it. We intend to try this. Great mushroom--hard to see against the forest floor, though.

And even better, on the way to pick the trumpets, nearly tripped over some true Chanterelles! Spore print matches, description matches...might have to try a bit tonight...



Once again, don't use anything here to identify a mushroom with no other checks!

Functional But Not Finished

As of 8-30-11, functional but not finished. Plan is to swap the bar and stem and post for silver, the seat collar for blue, the rear skewer for blue, and eventually rebuild the front wheel with a blue hub. The pink bottle cage will stay, natch. Fork: Reba RLT Ti 120mm 20mm TA. Rear Shock: Fox RP23 w/ Boost valve and Kashima. And try to control yourselves, but I moved to 9 speed with this build finally. Currently 2x9, might become 1x9 depending on the use the little ring sees. Trying to dial it in this week for Shenandoah.

I didn't do it.

Anyone else ever know of this happening?

I've never heard of it before. And my petite wife is the one who did it. After getting it out of the frame, I noticed the crack around the collar. And I pulled it apart with my bare hands. This is one King headset that has not outlasted several frames.

That's right, she's tougher than you.

First frackin', now the State Parks?

Corbett seems to have the best ideas. Best thing business ever got in PA...

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/harrisburg_politics/Corbett-mulls-privatizing-state-parks.html

It's a real shame that everyone disliked Rendell so much that the gubernatorial race was a done deal before it ever started just because of voter backlash against the idea of another Democrat Guvnuh.

Public lands in a commonwealth should remain managed by the people for the people, not managed by business for profit. Methinks Corbett has forgotten the meaning of the word "commonwealth."

First give away the environment and public lands to the gas companies and now consider letting them make money off more "public" lands?

Parts and Pieces

Most of the parts and pieces for the third iteration of the Kona Hei Hei are here. Would that be a Hei Hei Hei? Perhaps I could be mistaken for Fat Albert, dunno. The process is definitely going in fits and starts but I am trying to remain patient and put this together correct.

To prepare for parts cleaning, I attempted to pull the old cassette off the rear hub yesterday morning. Wasn't happening. The cassette and aluminum freehub body seem to be permanently entwined in a loving embrace. Ain't movin'. So, I'm ordering a replacement steel freehub body. Steel is real, right?

And of course a new cassette will be required.

I started cleaning drive train bits last night to prepare for installation in the new frame. And in the process realized I just needed to replace most of my drive train. New front rings, new rear derailleur, new front derailleur. Now on order, too.

So, I thought, hey, at least I can press the new Cane Creek headset into the new frame. I have a headset press, cool beans. Again, no go. I have to order the 1.5 headset press adapter.

I still have one more bit I can work on--installing the travel spacer in the Reba to knock it down to 120mm. I hope it goes well!

Now that I have the frame, shock, and fork in hand, of course I'm itching to build this thing and I'm finding all the little things that'll slow it down. Not that I should be upset about it. These are mostly items that I could have and should have taken care of in the month or so I was waiting for the new frame to show up. All the time in the world. All the time in the world to spare...and I spent it doing other things! My choice.

But I'm pretty stoked about how I want it to come together! And pretty stoked that Kona has replaced the frame a second time now with no hassle. And pretty stoked that I moved into the realm of tapered forks. And more rear travel. And more front travel.

I'll try to get off my duff this weekend and take a few pics. The new Fox RP23 shock with Kashima coat is pretty awesome. The Cane Creek 110 headset is a work of art. The redesigned Hei Hei frame has some nice touches--like a better aligned cable stop for the front derailleur and asymmetrical chainstays. The seat stays are beefier than the old frame as well.

As long as I can ride this thing at the Shenandoah 100, it'll be good!