Lyanda and I posted a 2012 Gift Guide over on her blog The Tangled Nest. As she writes,

One of the most lamentable things about the corporate takeover of the winter holidays is the co-optation of gift-giving. Presents under the tree have become synonymous with obscene mobs at Walgreens and Best Buy. In an effort to separate ourselves from that scene, many of us seeking a simple, authentic season have declared “no gift” holidays. But here at the Tangled Nest we believe in a middle way. For hundreds of years before Christmas was on the calendar, Europeans celebrated the return of light at the Solstice by sharing gifts–an expression of the beautifully human realization that simple gifts freely given can lift the spirit, and that in the long dark of winter, a little spirit-lifting is essential. We want to re-claim the “sanctity of giving,” and follow our natural heart’s impulse this season by sharing gifts that are simple, beautiful, useful. Here are some of our favorites.

You can read the whole gift guide on her blog, or you can just help fill my innertube fund by buying her book Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom From The Urban Wilderness. (“A completely charming and informative book on the pleasures of keeping one’s eyes open.” – David Sedaris)

(If you buy one of Lyanda’s books as a gift, send her an email with a snail mail address before December 19 and she is happy to send out a personalized, signed bookmark).

I was working on adding some bling to the tallbike for Burning Man and I looked down and noticed something interesting.

I’d never really registered before that my old Crescent Wrench was an actual, made-in-the-USA wrench by Crescent Tool of Jamestown, NY.

It’s pretty different from the Chinese knockoff I’ve been using and calling a “Crescent Wrench” since forever. I think I must have inherited this real Crescent Wrench from my grandfather – I got a bunch of tools from him when he passed away. I love the patina and the history of this tool, which has to be one of the most versatile hand tools to have been designed in the 20th century. So I dug up a little more history.

The Crescent Tool Company, was officially incorporated in 1907 by Swedish emigrant Karl Peterson in Jamestown, NY. Although several companies marketed similar tools, the Crescent wrench was very popular and held significant market share.

There’s a whole history of the Crescent Tool Company here.

Because Crescent was acquired by the Crestaloy Company in 1930, my wrench may in fact be a pre-1930 original!

For a few months I’ve been faced with the disconcerting experience of having Lyanda geek out on bicycles, seemingly out of the blue. This winter we’d be going about our business and suddenly she would say something like, “Do you know what Sheldon Brown has to say about proper seat height?” Or “Have you read Velouria’s latest post?”

The root of this unsettling collision of worlds lay in her quest last fall to find the perfect city bicycle for herself, a quest which, after many test rides, and lots of discussion, ended decisively with the Linus Mixte. Problem was, she settled on her perfect bike just as the rains set in and rumors began to swirl that there would be an even better Linus Mixte in March. An eight speed internal hub instead of three. Nicer components. New for Spring! And in the interim, I think she obsessed a bit, sitting home in her office dreaming of her mixte. Well, March finally came, and so did the mixte. The very first one the Dutch Bike Company received from Linus got built up promptly, and raced out of their door and in through ours.

It’s a beautiful bike, and Lyanda’s over the moon. (Though she did not think it was funny when my first comment was, “Too bad they sold you that scuffed one.” Repeated ribbings of, “Did you find the scuff?” were met with withering glares.)

Problem is, we hang my beat-up commuter bike outside in a small garden shed at the top of the driveway, a shed that is otherwise crammed with garden tools, a lawnmower, and a wheelbarrow. And it’s been raining, not the ideal weather for re-sorting the shed. So until we can figure out a better plan for a non-scuffing storage space, the Linus is in our living room.

I kind of like it there. It is an elegant bike, with nice lines and well chosen components, and it makes a modern counterpoint to our otherwise decidedly non-modern decor. And–other than the scuff– I think the Linus Mixte 8-speed is just perfect for Lyanda. Perfect to get her riding more often, to remind her why our neighborhood is called High Point, and to train her not to care!

•   •   •

PS: Speaking of things I like, Kent is posting every day in April and his little meditation this morning, about how cycling occupies a special place that’s not-driving-not-walking, resonated with me. Click on over there.

If you read about bikes online (and you probably do, because you’re reading this) then you know that when the topic is car-bike accidents, the comments often turn toxic. No matter how fresh the accident, how serious the injuries, or how clear-cut the fault, anonymous commenters all too frequently take the opportunity to get truly vicious. I was recently talking about the vitriol of anonymous comments with a friend who is a longtime reporter for the Seattle Times. She rolled her eyes and said “The paper thinks the comments create dialog with readers.”

CC-licensed photo by Flickr user Doviende

On September 12, a cyclist was killed in St Petersburg, Florida. Neil Alan Smith was riding home from his job, as he had done every night for years, when he was killed in a hit-and-run. The driver has not been found. Sadly, this would have merited just an inch or two of space in his local paper, if the comments had not turned immediately, and viciously, toxic. At which point, the paper decided to go a little deeper.

ST. PETERSBURG — About 11 p.m. Sept. 12, a car struck Neil Alan Smith and threw him off his bicycle on Fourth Street N. The car didn’t stop.

Mr. Smith, who was pedaling home from his job as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack, struck his head on a light post.

He was taken to Bayfront Medical Center. He died there six days later. He was 48.

Police have not located the hit-and-run driver.

Shortly after the St. Petersburg Times announced Mr. Smith’s death on its website, a reader posted a comment stating the following: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead.

Web editors removed the comment, deeming it an offensive and insensitive insult to a dead man’s friends and family. Though hardly unusual — check out the comments beneath stories about any recent tragedy — this one spurred the Times to make Mr. Smith the subject of this story, as a reminder that every life matters.

This much is certain about Mr. Smith: A number of people miss him.

He had a small but loyal network of co-workers and friends who are planning soon to celebrate his life.

They all describe Mr. Smith as steady and dependable. He rode his bicycle nearly 4 miles each way from the Hollywood Trailer Park on Fourth Street N to the Crab Shack on Gandy Boulevard, where he had worked for the past 10 years. In a business known for turnover, that is considered a long time.

“I’ll probably go through another 10 people to find somebody like him,” said Tyrone Dayhoff, 53, the Crab Shack’s manager.

He started out busing tables and was very fast, but preferred the shelter of his dishwashing station in the back of the kitchen. He could listen to sports talk radio there.

(Read the full obituary here)

And the comments on this longer obituary? They stayed pretty darned civil.

More stories about everyday cyclists on Bikejuju.

One of the best things about blogging is joining the community of other bloggers, finding people with shared quirks and interests, and following along as other people unfold their narrative, whatever it is. Today I though I’d introduce a handful of blogs I follow pretty religiously, especially blogs whose connection to cycling is less obvious than, say, the good folks at Ecovelo, Cycleicious, or Bikes and The City. Click through and enjoy.

Homegrown Evolution
Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne write Homegrown Evolution, an LA-based blog that explores a fast-growing new movement: urbanites are becoming gardeners and farmers. Kelly and Erik are the authors of The Urban Homestead. Here’s a quick link to their bike-focused entries.

Gurldoggie
A Seattle-based blog, Gurldoggie is like a baker of perfect little blog-entry treats about an artist, musician, or writer, always just the right length, posted almost daily. I can’t say enough good things about Gurldoggie’s rhythm of little tidbits. Daily inspiration on multiple levels.

Fat of The Land
Our friend Langdon is always out foraging, and has made quite a name for himself since the publication of his book Fat of The Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager. He’s opened my eyes to the bounty around me as I cycle the city and the countryside, and now I regularly stop to fill my panniers with urban-foraged fruit, berries, even mushrooms. His posts generally feature delicious recipes, and often seem to begin with a jealousy inducing phrase like “I’m just back from several days of backpacking,” or “When I was recently camping for a week…”

Northwest Cheapsleeps
For northwesterners in search of an inexpensive getaway, this is the place to start. Lauren hand-picks destinations in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia that are friendly, clean, cozy and under $100 a night. Her blog provides fresh ideas on a regular basis, while the Cheapsleeps Finder collects the bargains in a handy database.

The Tangled Nest
And finally, you know that my wife is the real writer and blogger in the family, right? In addition to writing book after book after book, she blogs at The Tangled Nest (and I post there from time to time as well), about “the urban-earthen home,” the twining of home, garden, food, craft, and co-existence with the wild, natural world.

Also regularly perused: ZeFrank, Kottke, Strobist, Notcot, White African, Koelle Art, Humanosphere, Poppy Gall, and Afrigadget.

Have you got other non-bike blog suggestions?

There’s big news in our house: the careful selection and late afternoon arrival of two much-anticipated gerbils as a back-to-school indulgence for my daughter Claire, who starts sixth grade on Monday. Precilla and Blossom are busily exploring the cardboard tubes and big yellow wheel of their new habitat, and as I write this Claire is supposedly asleep in the bed across the room from them, though it would not surprise me a bit if she were secretly peeking at them one more time.

Normally this rodent invasion would not be bike blog news, except for the coincidence that I ran across another rodent item today that is bike-related, one that unlocked a rush of childhood memories from some quarter of my brain sealed off at about age five and rarely accessed since.

If the image above clangs a bell in your memory as loudly as it does in mine, then you know I’m talking about the pig family, setting off in their orange convertible on a trip to the beach, in Richard Scarry’s 1975 classic Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. And it’s only a few pages into the book that the family encounters Officer Flossy on her classy red bike, chasing after all manner of traffic scofflaws.

While I absolutely love the idea of foxy Officer Flossy on her bicycle, tooting her whistle as she chases down the dangerous driving dingo, it may surprise you to learn that Flossy is not the subject of today’s post. No, today’s post is about rodents, remember? And the memorable rodent in Cars and Trucks and Things that Go is this little lady:

Mistress Mouse, up on the truck engine, is a tow truck driver who can “fix almost anything.” And she drives a super cute little pink tow truck (see it on the cover image, above?), which finally brings us to the visual punchline of today’s post, this amazing little eight second Vimeo glimpse of a girl whose loving father turned her trike into Mistress Mouse’s Tow Truck. It’s almost as cute as our new gerbils! (We want to see more of the Mistress Mouse Trike!)

Mistress Mouse from jeff hamada on Vimeo.

Officer Flossy is still chasing Dingo Dog, though! Can you spot him? Do you think she’ll ever catch him to give him that ticket? Faster, Flossy, faster!

All illustrations © Richard Scarry. Video found via booooooom.com

It’s been a bikey couple of weeks: Tour de Fat last weekend, and Dead Baby Downhill this weekend. Dead Baby Downhill is, as Gurldoggie put it, Seattle’s “annual race/party/ choose-your-own-adventure – billed with only gentle hyperbole as “The Greatest Bike Race the World has Ever Known.”

The Sprockettes were just one of many diversions at the after party in Georgetown, which also included something like 60 kegs of beer, bands on several stages, rides from Cyclecide, and tallbike jousting.

I was partly there as a roadie for my friend Shawn, who was debuting the new flame effect on his outrageous bike “The Bomb.” I’d say it was a success.

Meanwhile… I’ve been piling up links and notes to myself and Bikejuju to-dos like there’s no tomorrow.

For example: I keep meaning to tell you that the Rat Rod Build-Off is finished and it’s time to go vote for a winner from among the 65 bikes (!) that got built.

I can tell Burning Man must be coming up, because my Bikes of Burning Man 2009 post is suddenly getting traffic.

And there’s good news in that regard – I’ll actually be there, on the playa, for the first time this year. Will you? Let’s connect!

But enough about the freak bikes… I’d be remiss if I didn’t plug a few more great bike events coming up in Seattle:

• August 15 – Fiets of Parenthood, next Sunday in Wallingford – put your kid on that bike and show us your stuff!
• August 28 – NWFF Bike-In Movie at Cal Anderson Park
• September 11 – Seattle Bicycle Music Festival
• Check out the Seattle cycling calendar at GoMeansGo.org for more events

Keep riding! Take a lane!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the next steps for Bikejuju, and am about to make some changes to sharpen the overall focus and direction of this site. Please take the 60-second, 4-question Bikejuju reader survey! (It’s totally anonymous). I’ll be wrapping up the survey in the next couple of weeks and rolling out some changes in September.

Here’s a quick interpretation of some of the results, with 83 respondents so far. Bear in mind respondents could select multiple answers, and this is me reading trends not crunching numbers perfectly.

As always, I also welcome your comments below, or by email.

Also, remember that you can follow Bikejuju on Facebook, subscribe to get posts by email, and be alerted to new posts (and very occasional other random thoughts and links) on Twitter.

I’m on vacation and offline. A few posts will appear magically on Bikejuju while I am gone, but in the meantime, why don’t you peruse some of these little gems from the archives?

• Cyclist: Adimire Tuma, Ice-cream Seller in Gaborone, Botswana
• China: Moving Goods by Bicycle
• Pic of the day: Blue Phoenix, Axum, Ethiopia
• India: An Amazing Multimedia Site Dedicated To Velowalas
• Dark Days Photo Contest Winners (Exactly six months ago! Remember how dark it was?)
• Cycling Around Lake Baikal In Winter (On The Ice): Gear Choices
• Craptastic “Hery Poter” Chinese Children’s Bike

Or watch this fun little video I made a few months ago:

Hi.

Thanks for reading Bikejuju. This blog started out on something of a whim, but readership has grown steadily, and it’s become more and more of a pleasure to create the site as more readers find it.

I have plans this summer to put more effort into the site, and into some Bikejuju spin-off activities.

To focus those efforts, I’d like a little more information about your interests.

Would you be so kind as to take an anonymous, four-question, sixty second survey?

I’d be very grateful. And I’ll post the results. Thanks.