Rock Squirrel

this is a few photos of the rock squirrel that has decided to live under our small metal, junk shed. I first saw him earlier this week when he made this trip to get food out of the compost ben that I have. He decided that orange peels where the best I had at the time. I took the first two photos through a window and the last one out the back door that is a sliding glass door. After his forage into the compost he came and looked in the door at us. We have also seen him behind the shed where we discovered there was a hole where he could come and go.

Truth is....

I'm a simple guy. For some reason something struck a cord this morning and reminded me, then or now, few things give me as much personal pleasureas:



earning your turns (my first here btw)







deep snow



warm alpine granite



moderateice on a big objective







Or may be it was no reminder at all......







Solitaire Trailer Japan from Sweetgrass Productions on Vimeo.

Wordless Wednesday :: Frosty Morning

Albion, Indiana ~ January 20, ..
Copyright © .. by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

Elegant place to have a drink on Plaza de Armas - Havana, Cuba

During our morning DIY walking tour on Calle Obispo – Plaza Armas – Plaza Vieja – Plaza de la Catedral – Plaza de San Francisco, we came across Hotel Santa Isabel. In my previous entry I’ve mentioned about this hotel as my first choice in Old Havana. The hotel was fully booked on the dates we are staying in the city so that’s how we ended up at Florida Hotel instead.

Our table at the portico restaurant facing the plaza at the Hotel Santa Isabel.

Very curious now on what we have missed, Blondine and I went inside to check out the premises. We came out of the hotel’s doors concluding that we are much better off at Florida Hotel because of its impressive atrium courtyard.

However, Hotel Santa Isabel does not disappoint. It has a gorgeous restaurant terrace portico facing Plaza de Armas. Probably the best and most elegant place to sit down, have a drink and watch Cuban daily life in this part of Havana. The hotel has another restaurant on top as well called Condado that offers a better viewing point of the plaza.

Plaza de Armas is the main (touristy) plaza in Old Havana.

The Hotel Santa Isabel restaurant.

On Plaza de Armas there is a daily book market as well. Cubans are like the Spaniards who are crazy about books. Many may have migrated to reading books electronically but not in Cuba. They even sell hard leather bound books.

For the literature fanatic, and if you speak and read Spanish, a stop at Plaza de Armas will for sure be a delight. Locals bring their guitars here as well and serenade passers-by.

My love affair with books have ceased, unfortunately. Not sure if this is just a temporary thing or the relationship has already grown a grave with an epitaph. I just do not have the time and desire anymore.

When I was a kid, I was a fanatic though. I read the Nancy Drew series in bed late at night under the comforts of my blanket and with a flash light in hand so that my mother will not find out, haha. And I even read our ancient Colliers Encyclopaedia and randomly chose topics to feast on.

Those were the days.

Re-Trying the Moustache Handlebar

Iconic of the Bridgestone XO era and later championed by Rivendell, the Moustache handlebar is perhaps more popular today than ever. The dramatic forward sweep, the sideways-mounted road levers and the bar-end shifters make for avisually distinct and intriguing presence. The design is easiest to understand if you think of it as a flattened out drop bar, with the brake levers installed on what would have been the hooks. Grant Petersen designed the Moustache in the early 1990s specifically for the Bridgestone XO bicycles, as a kind of a hybrid between upright and drop bars. Today several manufacturers produce their own versions (including Soma and Origin8), though likely the Nitto/ Rivendell model remains closest to the original.






I first tried Moustache handlebars three years ago, and I remember being surprised by the leaned-forward position they put me in. Unlike the handlebars you see on city bikes, the Moustache is swept forward, rather than swept back - putting the rider's hands way out there, forward of the stem. Depending on stem length and handlebar height, this can be quite an aggressive lean. Recently I tried the bars again: I've been getting questions about them from readers and wanted to refresh my memory.




Riding with Moustache bars again was fun; my riding style has changed so much since the last time. These bars are unique and remind me of no other handlebars I've ever tried, so it's hard to find a point of reference. The forward sweep is vaguely North-Roadish, with two notable exception: All the hand positions are forward of the stem, and the brake levers are in the forwardmost points of the sweep, rather than in what we are accustomed to thinking of as the gripping areas.






The shape of the handlebars feels pretty good, and I have no trouble squeezing the levers from their location (here is anillustrated guideto the hand positions). However, I find the setup counterintuitive. Squeezing the brake levers puts me in a forward-leaning position, whereas using the bar-end shifters puts me in a leaned-back position: the exact opposite of what I am used to. After all, when I squeeze the brake levers I am trying to reduce speed - and the aggressive posture counteracts that - especially when coming to a complete stop. It was interesting to experience the discrepancy between what my body wanted to do when stopping and what the bars wanted me to do. On my own bikes, I prefer for the brake levers to be in a location that allows my posture to be more relaxed.






A friend who rides with Moustache bars explains them as a variant of riding with vintage, non-aero drop bars (where you brake mainly from the hooks). He believes those who are used to that will find braking with the Moustache intuitive, whereas the likes of me who mostly brake from the hoods of modern drop bars - or from the edgemost gripping areas of swept-back handlebars - may have trouble with the setup. He could be right. Either way, it's a handsome handlebar that I enjoy seeing on others' bikes.

They're Gone!

This morning when we got to The Family History Library all of the pretty flowers had been removed. My guess is they will be planting something soon, but it was such a shock to see nothing but brown dirt in the flower beds. They were so colorful...

Seat Stays, Who Needs Them?

Meet my latest long-term review visitor: the Paper Bicycle! Hailing from Scotland, this unusual city bike has recently become available in the US via Adeline Adeline in New York City.



TIG-welded in cro-moly steel, the Paper Bicycle has a number of unusual features - the most striking of which is perhaps the seat stay-free construction.



When I first saw pictures of this, I found it visually unsettling and intriguing in equal measure. How can such a frame design be stable?

Apparently, by reinforcing the seat tube with a hardy "ghost chaincase" structure on the non-drivetrain side. This is certainly one of the more unique frame designs I have seen. I daresay it officially beats the Urbana?

The Ride Studio Cafe received and prepared the bike for me, and I took the bus to Lexington, intending to cycle the 10 miles home on what I thought would be a geared, albeit clunky bike. Upon arrival I was alarmed to discover that the bike was a single speed. I braced myself for a tedious trip home.

But contrary to my expectations, the ride was terrific. Though hard to believe judging by the pictures, this thing really "flies" for me. It is also not as heavy as it looks - well under 40lb. Of the bikes I've tried so far, the handling reminds me of the Pilen and the Urbana in terms of stability (does this mean mountain bike geometry?), while also possessing an unexpected lightness and swiftness.

As usual, I will be riding this bicycle for a few weeks, then posting a review - after which it will be returned to Adeline Adeline. I will refrain from saying much more until I gain some additional experience with the Paper Bicycle, but I confess that I really like it so far, both the looks and the performance.

What do you think? I am too far gone into design appreciation la-la-land to tell whether my readers will find a given bicycle attractive or not, but to me this one looks downright beautiful. And now I leave you with a picture of Danny MacAskill... "jumping" a Paper Bicycle. Can you do that on your city bike?

Anastasia State Park

I didn't quite make it down to the beach for the sunrise, but the sun was playing hide and seek through the clouds when I got there.

It was a chilly morning, but that is sand, not snow.

Surf and Sea Foam.

Sand and Sea Shells.

Wind-blown patterns in the sand.

More FOTR Rally

We are still enjoying the interaction with our fellow road warriors. We have plenty of planned activities to participate in and much down time to get to know each other better.





One of the families brought a big huge screen which made movies and Guitar Hero even more fun. We enjoyed watching a movie that the Evan's family made of all of our families. So far so good! The only thing I managed to snap pictures of was when we went to the beach to do relay races. And someone else graciously snapped these for me so I could play. I'm glad I at least remembered the camera here.





We also figured out how to get brownies today. It seems if you are simply willing to answer a few simple questions about what life on the road is about and let them look inside your house (RV), you can reap the benefits of a plate full of brownies. Who knew?!? And I don't mean brownies like Nathan made which didn't look so good, but really yummy brownies. Thank you to our future FOTR couple that gave us the treat. I won't identify you here unless you give me permission, but we really enjoyed our time with you and we have already polished off the brownies.



Oh, and if the relay race looks like fun, it is. However, finding it hard to catch your breath after your turn-not so fun. If you want to know how out of shape you are, running on the beach is a great test!