Entries this day: Bike_co-op Karina_anti_war_email Leaving Oberlin_summary_for_Sally Pulled_over Quotes

Bike co op

5:29pm EDT Thursday 10 October 2002

Wow. For only $6 per semester, people can join the bike co-op, have full access to all their tools and get parts at cost. My bike had a warp in the big front chain ring, and a broken spoke, so I visited the co-op to get it fixed.

The warp in the chain ring was trivial to fix. block of wood, mallet, bang, it was fixed.

The spokes took a bit longer. Turns out that two spokes were broken on my back wheel, and they were broken on the right hand side, so I had to remove the freewheel (set of gears in the back) to replace the spokes. Once I got the freewheel off, I discovered that of the 8 spokes on that side, 2 were broken, and 6 were ready to break. The culprit was that the chain would sometimes go off the freewheel, past first gear. I would still force it to pedal until it got back into place, but that wore through the spokes pretty effectively.

It would have taken some time to find eight spokes the correct length, but with a volunteer working on sorting the spokes they had, it was simple for me to get them the correct length.

Replaced the spokes (a first for me), trued the wheel (made it straight) (a first for me), replaced the freewheel (a first for me (not that I had removed one before)), replaced the wheel. Totally totally awesome for only six bucks.

Thank you, Bike Co-op!!

Karina anti war email

From: Karina Montgomery Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 11:24 AM To: 'susan.davis@mail.house.gov'; 'lloyd.doggett@mail.house.gov' Subject: Dear Representatives,

Greetings!

As one currently represented by one of you, and formerly represented by the other (ex-Austin, now San Diego) I beseech you both to help stop the madness happening in our government. I don't know if it will mean whispering in the bathroom like junior high conspirators or standing in defiance of the Speaker's gavel proclaiming a readjustment of priorities, but what is happening is so blatantly wrong so clearly and horrifyingly foolish, and yet it seems like no one is even trying to stop it. I am not saying you are inactive, far from it!

But it's no secret that what Bush wants Congress to approve defies the whole structure of the three levels of government that we all learn in what, 6th grade, that he has been tearing little pieces from the Constitution, and being loud and pushy about this at election time and to distract from his equally horrifying CEO/economic situations and healh care and Social Security and stem cell research and all the things he has swept under the rug. It is so obvious that he is not just wagging the dog, but has it gripped by the tail and it swinging at anyone who comes near him, stomping his indignant, draft-dodging little feet and saying "Because I'm President, that's why!" but the American people are too easily suckered. We are soft, complacent, lazy, self-involved, too busy, too poor, too whatever to be able to stand up and demand better. We didn't even elect him for Pete's sake!

Sorry. Listening to the news is like being in the back seat of a car being drive wildly, recklessly, by a drunk teenager with a deathwish (one of the Bush girls comes to mind) and all I can do is scream "don't go over that cliff" but I am powerless to prevent it.

Please tell your fellow representatives and the candidates who might replace some of you that they need to listen to the terror, read CounterPunch and the NY Times and listen to NPR, hear what is happening out in their constituencies, and stand up, in defiance of the Speaker, and stop the madness. I apologize for taking up so much of your valuable time, but I cannot do more than spread the word.

Best regards,

Karina Montgomery

Leaving

5:35pm EDT Thursday 10 October 2002

I'm leaving Oberlin now. Just gotta get my shiznit packed and go. I've already given Abbey a hug; she's in a meeting now with some peeps about a wack situation where The Man is trying to shut down Abbey's Peeps' operation if it doesn't conform to blablablah.

Good luck to Abbey et. al. on that.

Oberlin summary for Sally

From: Rob Nugen Date: Tue Oct 15, 2002 10:16:59 PM US/Central To: Sally Subj: Beautiful Sally

Oberlin was great.

I basically just made myself melt into the co-op culture, though I didn't really break into many conversations with people that I didn't meet through Abbey, my peep there. I had my backpack on most of the time as a disguise to make me look like a student.

Asia house seemed big and awesome. That's the meal that featured a big hugemongous chocolate brownie thing that was decadent for vegan! Maybe it wasn't vegan, but a surprising amount of food there was vegan. At that meal, I helped by clearing all the dishes from Abbey's clique of peeps with whom I was chillin'.

On the second day, I rode randomly down main street, laughed my ass off (inside my head) when I discovered that was downtown, on the sidewalks of which they did not want me to ride my bike. So I turned left and soon found the bike trail and arbitrarily turned right. I was pleased and impressed that this relatively small city put so much effort into their bike trail. Guard rails, for goodness sakes! Awesome. And well kept asphalt all the way through, not some crappy crap to ride on. All the way past the golf course and past a dogleg onto some real streets and then discovered the tressels above the trail.

What a great challenge to get my bike up through the brush! I almost fell back once, as I lost my balance when a plant grabbed my bike pretty effectively. But persevered and got up to the tracks. Rode along the tracks toward the tressel first, and even road across it. Its surface was iron plate metal (solid surface, not like railroad ties between which I could see) that reminded me of the outer hull of an old large ship. I guessed and hoped it would be strong enough for me not to fall through; I didn't know what held up this surface. Made it across no problem and rode lumpily across the next section of railroad ties to the next tressel that was built in 1906 according to the diecast plate on one end.

I needed to start getting back by that point, so I rode back across both tressels and then decided to clambor down the other side of the tracks, just for a change. It was far far far more overgrown and way more difficult for me to get through. Lots of briars poked at me and I basically had to push my bike up and over and through all sorts of branches and brambles to get out. Awesome fun.

Rode back, at one point pacing behind a guy on a racing bike (he wasn't working really hard to go fast) until he turned off the trail.

Once I was on campus, on North Professor street, a guy yelled at me from a car driving on the street! It took me so by surprise.. He yelled something like this, "you think you're tough? yeah I'm talking to you! Do you think you're tough??" and I wasn't saying anything, just totally surprised, trying to figure out what the fuck was up with this cat. He continued, "I'll tell you who's tough! I'M tough! That's why I'm driving away in this car!! We'll meet back here at 3pm tomorrow! I'll be here, I swear it! I swear I will!!!" and he kept yelling some more, but by that time was pretty much out of my hearing range. How bizarre!!

(I did not return to that location the next day at 3pm, so I don't know if he made good on his word..)

Back at the blue house two doors north of Keep, Abbey and I watched a video called _Tough Guise_ for one of her classes. It described how this culture reinforces/encourages/assumes violence/strength/power among boys and men as opposed to women. It had a lot of good points.

• - - -

I paid $6 to the Bike Co-op and fixed eight spokes on my bike! Two were broken and six were in need of replacing. What an inexpensive great experience that was! I'm quite thankful for that awesomeness. That process took about 3 hours, and made me later leaving for Kalamazoo than I had planned.. But, it kept me there past 6:00pm, so that's when I rode my bike to the post office in downtown Oberlin and found it to be closed. I rode back up the street to Drug Mart and bought some stamps there, and then rode back to campus and it was well after 6:20 so I grabbed one more dinner from Keep. The front door was closed, and I was all "eek" cause I don't have a card, but the two doors behind-ish the porch swing were open, so I just walked in like I was supposed to be there. Ate my dinner and gave mental blessing to Keep and the campus and Abbey and the college world in general as I collected all my stuff and drove away.

Then I was all, "AHHHH!!" as I almost forgot to drop off your letter in Oberlin! I didn't want to send you a letter from Kalamazoo!!!!

Oberlin.

I love you Sally. Really Really Really a lot.

Hugs and Kisses XO OX XO OX XO OX

• Rob

Pulled over

6:58pm EDT Thursday 10 October 2002

I got lost in Michigan; I was driving north on 23, then at an intersection with another highway, I literally couldn't tell that my road kept going forward (there were no street lights), so I turned quickly and attracted the attention of a Sherrif, and then when I U turned across the highway maybe that doubly got his attention, and then he says he pulled me over cause my bicycle is covering my license plate.

I can't find proof of insurance that isn't expired... might have thought that one through a bit better before leaving, eh (haha I'm in Michigan, eh?)?

Um, he didn't worry about my lack of insurance, since the car is registered in my name (found the registration and expired insurance). Anyway, he let me go without a problem.

Nice.

Whew!

Quotes

12:20am EDT Friday 11 October 2002

quotes.html what is your current date of birth? go run some errands and I'll call you bakc. (wende) me: and you do mean run