Recordings

I have an idea for making a sound recording of a Pepsi can after opening it and leaving it in my backyard overnight. One of those nice blue cans made of aluminum with the red, white and blue logo in a circle. I think I will orient the microphone at the side of the can with the "Nutrition Facts." No, no, strike that, it will a stereo recording. Oh, the can will have to be about half empty for best effect.

I am thinking that about 20 minutes of high-quality analog recording will capture the idea quite nicely.

Slow Nose

Riding in the Chicago fall and winter is a challenge.

In these parts, (Illinois) we call that syndrome when your face becomes frozen by the cold, “slow nose,” because it is diagnosed by wrinkling up your nose and then counting the minutes it takes to slide, like frozen maple syrup, back into a normal position in proximity to your upper lip. When you realize you have no idea where it is on your face and not obviously in home position, it’s time to turn back.

I am not going to try to do any kind of all-encompassing treatment of cold weather riding, except to say that one thing is clear: it gets harder as one gets older, and I am not talking about my nose.

Excellence

”Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” --Aristotle