Monday Morning...

Before I go upstairs and emerse myself in the legal aspects of U.S. Forest Service antigun policies, a couple of quick thoughts:

• My Sweetie and I did the 65-mile road leg of the annual Elephant Rock Century bicycle ride Sunday, each of us beta-testing new bikes. She picked up her brand spanking new Cannondale R1000 Feminine bike (see it here) Saturday at Big Ring Cycles in Golden, and — not surprisingly — it ran like a champ. We've both been riding Cannondales for more than a dozen years, so that's not a big surprise. I, on the other hand, broke from tradition and rode an older Trek 5200 I'd just had refitted with a Shimano STI Ultegra triple-ring gearset at Excel Sports in Boulder (here's the current version...mine is much older). I just threw my old saddle on it, adjusted the height and away I went...let me speak here in favor taking that few extra minutes to do the fore-and-aft saddle fitting! After a couple of hours I decided that evil leprechauns were driving self-tapping metal screws into my lower hips! Ouch! We finished in about 4 1/2 hours, which is not too bad for recreational riders on a hilly course...especially this early in the season...I think this was our third ride longer than 1 hour this whole year!

BTW, the carbon fiber Trek rode well. It's a little twitchier in cornering than my ancient aluminum Cannondale, which I attribute to the Trek's 10-year-old carbon fork. Carbon forks are a lot stiffer these days, and I'll probably replace the Trek's fork when the bucks float in. I love the way the carbon fiber soaks up the hits on a high-speed downhill...I'm probably good for an additional 5 mph on the Trek over the Cannondale.

BBTTWW, whenever I hear about "focus" and "being in the moment," I always think about bike pelotons. Yesterday, there were times I was in a group of maybe 25 riders, separatede by a few inches at most, sweeping downhill at more than 35 miles per hour. You have a choice of being either "in the moment" or "on the ground bleeding." Think about that when you start watching news reports from the Tour next month!

• Later today I also want to post a little on master gunsmith Hamilton Bowen's book on the custom revolver, which I've been reading the last few days., and the Tyranny of Why which seems to have effected Gun World at a terrible level.

Now, however, I've got to get back to the war...