In an email from Peter ;

"Got this one while training for Beijing on Mt. Tam... Did I say Beijing...I meant Downieville."

Seriously, in recent days the air here has taken a turn for the South. Id actually heard rumors of athletes preparing for the Olympics by cross training behind busses in an attempt to get their bodies accustomed to the poor air. It turns out that they can now just go running on the coast and accomplish the same thing.

I fancy myself as a fairly fit individual, and Im even feeling slight repercussions from just sleeping with the windows open. And dont get me wrong.. I like picking my nose as much as the next person, but the soot thats constantly clogging my sinuses is just getting ridiculous.

As a matter of fact, during the middle of a leisurely ride on Sunday, the sky suddenly became the most brilliant shade of orange Ive ever seen. And it wasnt just a slight orange tint.. It was more along the lines of what the world looks like when you wear orange lenses in your glasses... Like Haloween orange.
Everywhere.
If I was a Native American 200 years ago or so, I would have immediately taken it to mean that one of the gods was fairly pissed about something.
And for that matter.. maybe they are...

However in an attempt at sparing the air, as it were, our friends at Doma Coffee who just keep on sending the goods our way (and who will soon be wheeling around the Doma compound on a small fleet of Swobo bikes, dontchaknow) included a cool bit of info in the latest shipment concerning their new roaster, suavely named 'Lucky 13';

"We are now roasting our coffee using a new eco-friendly coffee roaster. The Kestrel S35 Loring Smart Roast uses 80% less natural gas and greatly reduces the amount of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere."
This will allow them to cut back on their carbon emissions by 39,000 pounds this year... Getting jacked up on caffeine never felt so good.

I know Ive said it before, but their coffee is really, really good stuff, and if youve got a jones for the bean, give em a shot. You shant be sorry.
And for crying out load, they have the same Vonnegut quote on their site that we do.. How could you go wrong?

Anyhow, now well take a trip from the coffee to the crazy in a recent email from Slappy;

"Hay you know what's a bummer, that being a bike dork, as I am, at age 26, most of the bike dorks who actually want to go ride, like more that 4 hrs in the saddle, you know a real nice ride, most of the people who want to do that are YER AGe probably or old or somethin', or they're married or kidded, or they're just not not middle aged and white or on the way. WTF!?!. It took a long time to get young. .whatever, i hte people and i never wanted to Be one.. anyway Here's a flyer you might like, we were supposed to do our STompa Century back in may, from Carbondale up the schweet bike path to asspen and then up to the top of Independence Pass, 6,181' - 12,420' (fifty leisurely miles up, (except for the last 23 or so).

130 ish round trip mileage from the Gear Exchange in Glenwood And so with the full shuttle we're hoping to get some of the less depraved involved and they can ride whatever part they want, like back down. And the excitingest part is we're gonna do it on the fourth of july and get some friendlies to shuttle all our gear up there for cookin' dogs, building a kicker for our snowboards, and probably rollerbladin' just cuz.. SO yeah, if you ever get some 'young' people who want to hang out on their bike all day, tell 'em there's nothin' like 50 mi of up while trying to keep a bunch of 40 yr olds in line, to make you feel, you know, yung. .
seeee ya- slappy"

You had me at "I hate people and I never wanted to be one."
Well obviously the Stomparillaz have a trick and two up their sleeves, so if you find yourself treading around in their neck of the woods, maybe it might not be such a bad idea getting on board from time to time.
I should also mention that while Im not yet in my 40s, having true blue derelicts like Willie, Geno, Elmes, Hurl, JMac, DaveO and the like paving the way before me proves that age truly is nothin' but a number.

And while Im bringing up numbers, our buddy Josh from the Urban Assault Ride got ahold of us on Friday;

"If you ever wanted to know what a 1300 person bicycle scavenger hunt looks like..

Here it is....

An absolutely a crazy event....

Thanks for watching,
Josh"

That looks like an positively terrible experience. I can finally see why those sour pusses in Denver had such a miserable time.... A crap ton of people on bikes, drinking beer and going bananas. Yech.. Who in their right mind would want to do that?

Heres a bit of news from Colorado way courtesy of The Cat;

"Hi Stevil,

I'm sure your Colorado Correspondents have already served this up, but just in case.

Remember that cycling awareness video of people throwing basketballs and then they ask "Did you see the Bear doing the Moon Walk". Well, seeing the bear is one thing, missing him is another.

Read about the whole shibang here.
El Gato"

That makes Burghardts collision with the dog last year seem like childs play.

Nick sent on another video thats kind of a must see. Be forewarned though.. If you dont care to hear a bunch of drunken rednecks screaming profanities at the top of their Pall Mall addled lungs, then just turn the sound down.

Take note however, you dont want to miss two key sound bites at the very end of the clip.
One has to do with the king of beers, and one has to do with a fourth grade drop out.

Amerikuh. God bless it.

If youve spent any time lurking around here on the Bummer Life, youre probably well aware that I tend to steer clear of the 'extreme' aspect of mountain biking. Its just not my cup of tea.. However, I have to showcase Sam Hills unbelievable run in Trentino Italys World Cup last weekend.
Ive seen many a World Cup downhill in the flesh, and while I cant possibly dismiss the abilities of the participants, Id be lying if I said Ive ever seen anything like this;

And that announcer just takes the cake..

Now then- you all might be familiar with Clifbars 2 Mile Challenge. If not, all of the info is right here.

Weve been lucky enough to get a couple of our bikes on the tour, and our boy Steve sent us some shots of the caravan. I fruitlessly attempted to find out some more info on the bus, as I assume that its been converted to Bio-Diesel or some such hippiness, but my contact was unavailable for comment, so for now, Ill just have to rely on the readership to let me know that its in plain view on their website and once again, my reporting skills will prove themselves to be shite.

Sean sent on a shot from a recent job he did in Sacramento.

See, our friend Sean lays tile for a living and this here project shows up annually as the depicted beasts owner drains it through the winter, gets rad, and then when it gets hot again, calls Sean to fix it up, fills it with water, and then gets a different kind of rad.
Like Sean said, "who knew you could swim in pools too!"

Lordy, lordy.. If only coping could talk....

And while were on the subject of dry, Im afraid Ive now scraped the bottom of the barrel and Im all out of the good stuff. I will leave you with this though.. Its a little known fact that today is National Bail-Out-Of-Work-Early-Day.
You know... as good, God fearing patriots its your duty..

Our forefathers would have wanted it that way.