Second lifecycle

I've been in Sweden exactly six months as of today. I've seen quite a bit and learned more than I can verbalize here. I'm gaining a second language, meeting people that will most likely be life-long comrades of mine, etc...And also, I've learned that when the drunkards spill out of the student nations and toss bikes over the railing into the Fyris River that some of them do actually come back and live to ride again.

Bloob

The menu: penne with asparagus, tomato and mozzarella and basil (insalata caprese), Ritter Sport chocolate, coffee and then, surpisingly enough, Sunday Night Muffins. That's right.

For inspiration I'd recommend dagensmuffin.se

2 wheels and rolls

First,
mike-downey.com/blog turned one year old over the weekend. Thanks to those of you who've been following along.

Two:

One of the many wonderful images from Therapeutic Pictionary


The sea of parked/abandoned bicycles in front of Uppsala's train/bus station


No, I can't watch baseball on television here but yes, from time to time I get a rare glimpse of televised track racing. Over the weekend was the Men's Keirin Finals (among other track events) from Bordeaux, France. This was my first time actually seeing track racing. I'd read about it based on the fact that this sport is the reason that brakeless fixed gear bikes even exist. I was hoping/assuming I'd see all of the racers doing trackstands at the beginning of the race but to my dismay they either hook into a sort of bike stand (for time trials) or are simply held up by another person (races). Does anyone know when trackstands are actually used in this sport?

TV on the Radio - Bicycles are Red Hot - mp3

Sudden Bright Suns

I've always lived in places that have four distinct seasons. I love how the year can be drastically segmented, killed and reborn. There's obvious beauty in seeing nature seemingly wake up and bloom. But never have I waited so long for this bloom or experienced a dragged-out winter such as the one I just received here in these Nordic parts. This came as no surprise. If you check out a map or globe and trace your finger west from Uppsala, Sweden you'll pass through Canada and then just south of Anchorage, Alaska. At such a northern latitude one wouldn't expect anything different than what we got here: a snow that came late last year and never melted until just the other day, almost mid-April. Now, the crispness in the air is coupled with cloudless skies and a renewed attitude. Call it spring fever if you want, but I'm feeling something more like the end of cabin fever. Getting out and experiencing a day hasn't felt like this in too long.

Common reactions to such a weatherly change promote new love, physical activity, creativity and whatever other positive words you can come up with. Birds sing looping tunes and peoples' steps find those lost springs. And we're all in a loop. We're skipping in a circle that'll again come upon wonderful puddles, soft earth, hot sands, fresh-cut lawns, busted leaves and then again across slippery ponds. It's that circle of life that keeps it all beyond interesting to me. When that orange sun drops down and its warmth goes with it I feel that chill and it wakes me up just how the spring morning did. I'm jumping into cold water on a July afternoon because the opposite sensation from sweat to hydration is perfection. I'm walking through Joliet, Illinois only to walk through Braintree, Massachusetts only to walk through Norrköping, Sweden only to walk through Chicago only to be able to live out these differences. Can't forget where I've been. Can't forget what everyone has said to me on roads or in clubs or lecture halls. Can't (couldn't even if I tried) confuse this spring with last. Don't forget that it'll all come around again.

Sudden Bright Suns: Mike Downey's Spring Birth and Burnout

1. Here Come the Warm Jets - Brian Eno
2. And then it Begins - Bobby Birdman
3. The Flower Called Nowhere - Stereolab
4. Spring - Resplendent
5. The Rain, the Park and Other Things - Cowsills
6. Run into Flowers - M83
7. White Car Creek - Airport 5
8. A Bit of Wind - Fruit Bats
9. Surprise Ice - Kings of Convenience
10. Reality Check - Schneider TM
11. Merge - Grizzly Bear
12. The Fairest of the Seasons - Nico

Download this mix in its entirety as a zip file (50.6 MB)

Support your local systembolaget

I knew I had something to do tonight

Project this and project that

Project Acquire a Good Bike that's Not Insanely Overpriced is complete. My legs, bum, arms (wtf?) and back haven't been this sore since I took that summer job building a stone wall through a friend of the family's yard, but that's another story for another time. And the weather here is starting to break (knocking on a big hunk of wood right about now) so my rides around town have been feeling quite nice; crisp, yet enjoyable. I'm getting lost daily, which I like. But if I am in a decent proximity to central Uppsala I only have to look up and let cathedral towers guide me in like a sort of air traffic control.


For those of you keeping track or who care, the bike is not fixed just yet. I'm riding singlespeed with all sorts of brakes, safety first, until I can conquer Project Acquire a Track Cog. The hills here are a new and tiring experience for me. Ah glorious flat Chicago, how I miss thee. Uppsala is relatively flat but the hills that do linger around are killers, long and tall. All for the better though; I've been physically dormant for the winter and could use the exercise. Ouch, my leg just did that aching thing it now likes to do. Bikes!

Lovely

For the sake of bringing to attention a certain something that just might go unnoticed due to the grand scale of our internet, and if you don't mind, I'd like to direct your attention to an mp3 I just posted over on mike-downey.com. What we've got here is a (drastically) alternate version of 'You've Your Spymap Out.' Alternate versions, remixes and the like have always interested me. And I'm no slouch. So what you are seeing/hearing are results; action taken.