TIME Machine and Are You Being Lied To?

Tammy continues to make nice progress more than 3 weeks out from hip replacement surgery. She's replaced her "Herschel walker" with her "John Mc-cane". (Sorry, I can't help myself. 🤷🏽‍♂️) It's nice to have these first few weeks of her recovery behind us. 

My quest to find a new road bike moved at record pace since my last update here. I stopped by Flanders Bros Cycles in South Minneapolis to chat with Adrian about a new bike build. We put together a package that was a little dizzying in price but long on quality and checked off all of my wants and then some. 

I no sooner returned home from meeting with Adrian when a friend texted me about a (blemish-free) demo bike TIME had on their website—a TIME ADH 01 with Campagnolo Record 11-speed EPS (Electronic Power Shift) components and Boyd carbon fiber wheels and hubs (set up tubeless) for a little more than half the price of the package I had just put together with Adrian. I immediately shot Adrian a text: "What do you make of this deal? Am I a fool for passing this up?" He replied, "Hold tight, sounds like a scam." And a few minutes later (after verifying it was indeed on TIME's website) with, "It's legit."

We were able to work out a sale where I purchased the bike through Flanders at the price TIME was asking which allowed Flanders to get something for their efforts. They're good people and I can't recommend them highly enough. This was my 3rd major bike purchase through them going back to 1999. 

One week after my search began I got a text from Adrian informing me that my bike was ready! I was a little stunned by how quickly this all came together. I made arrangements to have Scott do a fitting for me before wheeling it out the door and hoisting it up on my car's bike rack for the trip home. 

I've ridden it a number of times in the 10 days since bringing it home and I'm completely sold on it with zero buyer's remorse. The bike's responsiveness and light weight (16.6 lbs or 7.5 kg) along with the Campy electronic shifting make it a pleasure to ride. The only thing it's lacking (some might say) are disc brakes. Carl (who alerted me to the bike in the first place) assured me that for the kind of road riding we do out here, disc brakes aren't necessary. Additionally, rim brakes are lighter than disc brakes and there's no messing with bleeding the hydraulics of disc brakes—something I'm not set up to do in my garage. Plus, I think it's rather cool to have a touch of old-school on my new state-of-the-art bike!

Thanks, Carl! I really appreciate your help in finding this bike for me, and to Adrian and Flanders Bros Cycles for making it happen!

We're just a few days out from the midterm elections—elections that should give us a good idea as to the path we're going to take as a nation: do we continue to support democracy or will we continue to play footsy with fascism and authoritarianism as so many on the right, whether they realize it or not, seem very comfortable with?

Saying something like that just a few years ago would've come across as hyperbolic. Not so today. There is so much disinformation being pumped into our social media and regular media outlets—disinformation that has radicalized many who align themselves with Trump and his MAGA millions. And no, this isn't a "both sides do it" issue. This is clearly a problem for those on the right who are being lied to again and again and again but are foolishly placing their trust in these voices because they tend to loudly proclaim their Christianity or that they're pro-life or pro-police or pro-states' rights or pro-individual freedom or even pro-America when actually, they're none of that.

One side is clearly being lied to.

Are you placing your trust in voices that support the Big Lie that Trump won the last election? Are you planning on voting for any candidate who supports such divisive nonsense or who shows support for the January 6th insurrection? I hope you'll ask yourself some serious questions about the integrity of those you're supporting because integrity is the bedrock of our democracy. 

Are you supporting candidates who tell you they're going to tackle inflation, a global problem, but have yet to offer a plan other than more tax cuts for the wealthy and that their first order of business if they regain control of Congress is not to push back on inflation, but to instead, investigate Dr. Fauci, Hunter Biden, Merrick Garland, and to impeach Presiden Biden? 

For what?

Are you supporting candidates who are intent on a national abortion ban when just a few months ago they were saying it's a states' rights issue? As someone who once claimed to be pro-life, my feelings about this very personal subject have changed over the years. In all those years of judging people for having abortions, I never once tried to put myself in the shoes of someone facing desperate circumstances. I finally came to realize that it's none of my business what someone chooses to do. Also, if I'm being honest, I was actually just pro-birth. Please, if you would, take less than 3 minutes to watch Leigh Mcgowan, aka Politics Girl talk about this important subject. 

Republicans want you to believe that they're the party of law and order. It's shameful that they continue to say this in light of what happened on January 6th, 2021 at our nation's Capitol and how they're intent on shutting down and obstructing the congressional investigation focused on it. I have to ask: have you ever seen a man or a political party work so hard to obstruct an investigation(s) that would surely prove their innocence? Why is that? Are they fearful of what those investigations may yield? If you're still a conservative, does that not cause you to rethink your support for such snollygosters? 

As I write this, the polls aren't looking so well for Democrats, but what is looking up for them is the number of people who are waiting in hours-long lines to cast their ballots. I came across this video on Twitter last night of a ridiculously long line of young voters waiting in line in Texas to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting there. Millennials are now a larger voting block than Baby Boomers, giving them the numbers to inject some new blood into our body politic and kick to the curb those who stand in the way of change, or worse yet, those who are trying to take us back to a less tolerant society. I'm placing my hope in the younger generation—those who have the most at stake in the decades to come.

That's all I've got.