Mailboxes

So the other day, as I was walking around downtown Princeton, I happened upon a post office box that was a little different from what I'm used to. You know what I'm talking about, right? Those blue metal boxes you can drop your USPS mail into that are about 4 feet high? Well, this one wasn't blue. It was painted to look like R2-D2. That's right, this mailbox looked exactly like that little robot from Star Wars we al love and adore. At the time, I figured I was just going crazy (normal thought process), but today I learned that, in about 200 select cities, USPS mailboxes are being painted to look like Rs-D2. And they have done a really good job of it, too. It looks pretty darn cool (I love Star Wars, and that probably makes me some sort of nerd). They even have a website about it: http://www.uspsjedimaster.com. How cool is that? Or ridiculous? I was happy with them sponsoring a pro cycling team, but this'll work, too.

In other news, I think, with the new bike and the beginning of Spring, it's time to start shaving the legs again. There is something to be said for smooth legs, although I confess, it takes forever.

The new bike

So I finally bought my new bike at Halter's Cycles today, as my insurance money was guaranteed . It is a sweet, sweet bike. However, because it's red, I can't name it anything having to do with blue this time (last two bikes were "Blue" and "Blue, Too"). If anyone wants to propose a name, I'm all ears. One thought is Leonidas, from 300 / the battle of Thermopylae.

Anyways, I thought I would do a few pictures cyclingnews.com style.

This season Paul will be riding a red Cannondale Six13 - a deal since Cannondale is now heavily promoting the SystemSix.

He has opted to go with a compact 50/34 crankset, which should give him more options in the hills. We'll have to see as the season progresses if he runs out of gears in the group sprints.

In an effort to balance out the compact crankset, Paul will be using a 11/26 in the back. This will give him a wide range of options, but could lead to some rough, jumpy shifting. Although the majority of the bike is Shimano, he has opted for a SRAM rear cassette, both because of availability and because of the wide gear range.

A view from a day at the office for Paul (he wishes). He has customized the bike with Easton carbon fiber handlebars for added shock absorption and an FSA 110 stem. His mechanic added grey handlebar tape, which goes great with the grey carbon fiber of the handlebars, fork and tubes.

Paul also upgraded the wheels to Ksyrium SL3s. These have been heavily relied upon in the pro peloton for years. While the Ksyrium ESs would have been 5o grams lighter, such a small weight improvement is not worth the extra cost. Notice also the stylish profile design water bottle cages that were acquired at an unbelievable price.

Don't forget to send in your name ideas!

Seinfeld's Practical Life Lessons

You can really learn a lot from Seinfeld. I'm talking really meaty, profound life lessons. I would know - I have all 7 of the released seasons on DVD. Tonight I learned about the "dating loophole." This is brilliant stuff. Basically, you make a bet over something that you know you will lose (like betting Richard M. Nixon's middle name is Moe). Just don't bet that the first bicycles were called hobby horses. They were - my Snapple told me so (courtesy of real facts; what makes them more real than all the other facts?). Anyways, as a wager you bet over dinner. You lose your ridiculous bet, and bang, you are taking a lady out for dinner. What I don't get is, if once you've gotten her to agree to the bet and terms, why not win the bet? Now you are going on a date and not even paying!

300

I saw 300 Saturday night - great flick. The whole "graphic novel" concept didn't really appeal too much to me at first, but the movie was actually pretty amazing. Yes, it was exceptionally gory, and I would not recommend it to some people, especially many of the fairer sex, but it was fantastic. The battle scenes were terrific, and there was actually some meat to the story. The king's wife was a great character. She just reminded me that not only are we attempting to emasculate men these days, but women, too!

Along these lines, I was reminded of a favorite C.S. Lewis quote: "From considering how the cruelty of our ancestors looks to us, you may get some inkling how our softness, worldliness, and timidity would have looked to them, and hence how both must look to God." I also read a quote recently from a soldier who is or was serving in Iraq: "It's a war. People are going to die, and the American public needs to get over that. They need to get over that and let us do our job." I'm not arguing for or against the campaign in Iraq, but we really do seem to be becoming a soft, timid culture. At least soldiers have experienced pieces of the real world, with its wide array of problems, many horrible and quite terrifying. I'm thinking Darfur, or Iraq, or North Korea, among many others. We (the royal persuasion) live in our world of iPods, bottled water, and HDTV and forget or worse, never realize, how brutish the world really is.

Runner's High...Literally

Runner's World reports that the "[runner's high] has been attributed to endocannibinoids -- substances released with exercise that produce an effect similar to a marijuana high." Wow, pretty interesting stuff -- the legal high. And if you've ever had a really good runner's high, it's tremendous. All those lazy Americans are missing out (or just getting high the unhealthy way). Doesn't this make the government's position on marijuana look even more ridiculous?

Brrr...

I went running tonight in possibly the coldest weather I have ever run in at night (which makes it even colder, without the solar heat). Weather.com says it dropped from 18 to 16 degrees during my run, and the windchill dropped from 7 to 4 (9 mph wind). Now that's pretty cold! Still, it was a pretty good run, although my shin splint is acting up again. The first 20 minutes were painful - my fingers were burning intensely from the cold, but by the end I felt fine. It's weird, you warm up more and more throughout the run. Half-way through, I couldn't feel my chin, but by the end I could at least tell that it was there. I'm convinced if I had kept going, I would have gotten even warmer.