Pay ‘n Take ~9pm:

gnome: “Hey, how’s it going?”
me: “Pretty good, you?”
gnome: “Not bad. It’s pretty crazy how we know each other, isn’t it?”
me: “Most definitely. Crazy for sure…....”

6 degrees of seperation Interesting concept, i think it’s too many degrees in a lot of cases, especially with blogging nowadays…...

I move here the end of last january, I unicycle on campus for about a month, and I meet Kai. Within another month I’ve met scott, randy, and frank. That about sums up the unicyclers in this town.

I convert 3dmobility.com over to handlebarsandwich.com and begin the blog anew with the bi-coastal views from arizona and new york. Within another month or so, I’ve created some online connections with The gnome, Big Johnny, Dan, and Troy and Dara here in flagstaff, and numerous others elsewhere (including Weasel and a dude down in tempe by the name of Scott Mackey). Somehow this all adds up to somewhere around 9000 page views for the month of november (and almost 20,000 hits which includes search engines and such). Damn.

But, the wierdest thing has to be when you meet somebody from one community who crosses over to the other. What are you to think? We all say we try not to judge people, and I think that most of us sincerely try, but when you’ve been reading what goes on in somebody’s life, or their thoughts, rants, raves, exciting events, and everything else they care to make public, how can you not make some sort of judgement?

Example: I read Big Johnny’s site on a pretty regular basis, if for nothing else, to find out what the hell is going on around here, in it’s own cynical way. I met the guy at interbike, when he was sitting at the voodoo cycles booth, pouring shots of JD at 1pm. Seems to fit, doesn’t it? But then again, he calls himself fat, lazy and drunk, and he dropped me like a bad habit after the 60 mile aid station at the soul ride. And no matter what he comes off as, he’s a pretty cool guy, at least from what I’ve talked with him (he probably didn’t even know it was me, it’s that two worlds thing…..)

Then there’s the latest uni rider I just met. I had the pleasure of riding yesterday and today with Eugene, who is the owner of Dirt Uni. Super-cool guy, great rider, and a flagstaff local who ended up in Bend, OR a little while back. There are still a lot of people riding his Unis here in town (Kai, Frank, and Randy to name a few), and his name always comes up when I talk to people who are part of the bicycling community who know a bit here and there about unicycling. I just checked out his site, and apparently he has a blog as well. I guess everyone has got one these days. I know I’ll now be checking in on him to see how everything is going in Oregon.

You know how I found out about Scott Mackey’s Blog? I was checking out the usage statistics from November, and kept seeing his site name come up. Lo and behold, there’s a link from his homepage to here. Thanks Scott.

Then again, there are also the people who have no idea I even know how to use a computer, much less make a website. I go to the climbing gym last night and all of a sudden “Hey, you’re that guy who rides a unicycle up on elden and on campus all the time, that’s awesome dude!”. Sweet. Who knows, maybe that dude will find this site someday and be jazzed to find out where I was riding that day. Maybe not….....

We’ve all got things we enjoy doing, but now the secret’s out. I’m a nerd with a nasty habit of going outside. It’s not a bad thing, but I can’t be in the closet anymore. Yeah, I know how to program a website, as well as a couple different computer languages to varying degrees; Yeah, I’m an engineer, by nature and by trade; Yeah, I have a habit of building over-engineered crazy unicycling shit in my garage just because I like building shit; Yeah, I ride a unicycle on mountain bike trails; Yeah, I rode my singlespeed 100 miles; Yeah, I’m gonna sharpen up my ice climbing gear here pretty soon; Yeah, my new telemark skis should be here any time. It’s all these things coming together that makes it fun and exciting to meet all these different people. It’s even crazier when you can read about it first…..

I guess I don’t really know where I’m going with this except that I think living here in Flag has been awesome thus far, and I’ve been having a lot of fun meeting people online and offline. Community is big here in flag, and community is big here in the blogosphere. They’re different communities, but somehow they can also be one in the same.

Bottom line: If you read my blog, and you see me on a unicycle, a mountain bike, at the climbing gym, on a pair of skis, at the bar, or anywhere else, be sure to come over and say hi. I’d love to meet you.
If you meet me in person, and then found my blog, I hope you find it interesting, feel free to leave me a comment and tell me how it’s going.
If you fall into one of those groups that don’t cross over, I’m glad to know you in either capacity. It’s all good, no matter how you slice it.

I’m out.

p.s. speaking of community, don’t forget about the steve garro benefit on saturday night if you’re in flag or somewhere close.