Thursday, March 1, 2012

Rantwick Down!

I had a nice little wipeout a week ago on Thursday morning. I was barely moving and not even on the street at the time. Here's a helmet cam view of this stupid event:





As one might expect, the cam doesn't show much of what happened. I don't know where my mind was, but it wasn't on riding my bike or the big patch of ice I rode on to just as I was turning. I mean, it looks like I was aiming for it, but honestly my mind was just elsewhere, I guess.


Unlike a previous almost-stopped fall I wrote about on this blog, I did get a foot disengaged and on the ground, but my winter cycling boots have hard plastic soles that are less than useless on ice. I fell straight backward and landed hard, the back of my helmeted head smacking the pavement real good...









It hurt, but my helmet prevented any real brain damage. It hurt, but my helmet prevented any real brain damage. It hurt, but my helmet prevented any real brain damage.


I was kind of wanting a new helmet anyway. I hit one of my elbows super hard, but no bone damage. Did you know that the loose skin part of your elbow is called the "wenis" by some people? After I heard somebody call it that I had to look it up. Turns out it is popular slang, but not a "real" word as of yet. I had a badly bruised and and sensitive wenis. My neck was very sore and the next morning I hurt pretty much everywhere. It took three or four days for most of that to go away, but I'm right as rain again now. Except for the wenis. Still bruised and sensitive. In any case, it would seem that my preference for crashing at very low speeds is good for my health.

Stay Upright If You Can,
R A N T W I C K

Monday, February 27, 2012

SARATS Finale!

Well, the votes are in and I've made a video to sum them up. Thanks again to everyone who entered... I hope you'll be back next year.




JAT, email me with a mailing address and 500 mL of Jakeman's Canada #1 Extra Light maple syrup (the best I've ever had) will be yours!

With any luck I'll get back to writing about cycling now. I love it even more than trees, believe it or not.



Yer Pal,
R A N T W I C K

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

SARATS Flip Flop - Let's End This Thing

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean collecting "video votes" to decide the SARATS winner. The thing is, I don't have the time to get out there and do it, and I don't want this contest to drag on forever. So here's what I wanna do instead: Let the entrants decide.

I will be sending an email to every entrant asking them to visit this page and vote for any two trees other than their own in the comments. I made it two trees because I couldn't decide between my top two and figured others might be in the same boat. I kind of like this format and may well use it next year as well depending on how it goes... it seems kind of fitting to let those who bothered to enter decide the winner.

So, without further ado, here are the 2011 SARATS entries for your consideration!




Huge thanks to all who entered and additional thanks for helping me wrap this up. Once again, if you have entered one of the trees showcased above, I want you to vote for 2 OTHER trees in the comments. I will wait until Sunday Feb 26 for votes to come in, and announce the winner of 500mL of freakishly good tree juice on Monday, Feb 27.

Yer Pal,
R A N T W I C K

PS - If you check the comments you'll see that I already got the voting started!

PPS - If you didn't enter a tree and want to vote anyway, knock yourself out. I will only use your vote in the event of a tie, but hey, you never know!