What Tha?!

Today, while riding down 7th Avenue I busted Alley Bulka, the notorious Wackee Nanny of Birmingham, with a giant sack of starbucks riding shotgun. For shame Alley, for shame......

Recycle America

This is where your recycling ends up if you live in Birmingham. I used to have a theory that Birmingham had stopped recycling and they were just collecting our recyclables and dumping them in the landfill. I defended this theory by pointing out that Birmingham had gotten rid of the recyclable sorting trucks and had begun collecting with the classic garbage compacting trucks seen here. My thinking was that they were avoiding the negative publicity of ending a recycling program by continuing to pick up, even if they were just dumping them. As long as people got to separate their garbage, and as long as they saw it get picked up, they would assume the city was taking them to be recycled.Well, I was wrong, another conspiracy theory shot full of holes. I've actually seen the trucks lining up to enter Recycle America every Wednesday. Usually there are a lot more of them, lined up all the way down the street. This just happened to be the day my camera battery wasn't dead. Incidentally this is also the spot where, if you take a picture of the garbage trucks, the giant in the first truck leans out and says you don't have his permission to take his picture.

uhhghhh

I must be close to some record on flat tires. It seems like once a week I'm getting a flat. It's effecting me to the point that it causes me to second guess getting on my bike at all. Mornings where I'm running late I find myself wondering if today is gonna be flat tire day and if I want to deal with the hassle. Since it's dark these days (and cold) when I'm riding home, I'm really not looking forward to the inevitable tire change in the dark and cold. I've received a bit of advice about avoiding flats. Such as, making sure your tires are properly inflated. I don't think it could make a whole lot of difference when you are picking up nails left and right. I've thought about trying to take the bigger, busy roads, hoping it might be better. My thinking is that with more traffic, it is less likely that there will be debris, ie nails, in the street. I've also thought about those Slime inner tubes that self seal when you get a flat. However, I have my doubts how they would perform against a three inch nail. Alternately, I figure at this rate I will pick up all the nails, and the problem will eventually go away.

Super Tuesday

dia de los Muertos

Here's a shot of my tall bike and my cruiser getting dressed up for day of the dead this year. I just gave the tall bike a quick spray with some festive colors , pimped 'em with some fringe and found some drunk esqueletos to ride them.