Fixed Gear & Freezing, and Murder Most Foul

 Well, I took my first fixed-gear ride offroad.  For those of you not following this death wish/ folly, a fixed gear means that when the back wheel is turning, it moves the pedals.  Direct drive, no ratcheting mechanism.  The ultimate simplicity.

I've had a rear wheel capable of doing this for years, so I've finally got the pieces necessary to try it out.  I've gotta say- so far, not very impressed.  You can read my first post about this little adventure to get a feel for what happens.

Today, though, I set my mind on taking it offroad.  And I found the same things at play.  No time to set up for anything.  Gotta hit it like a freight train.  Which is not ideal.  And also, now my wrists hurt.  A good bit.  Probably because there's no standing up and using one's body for suspension. Hmm.


But the ride itself paled in comparison to the extreme cold (it's so nice and sunny, though!), which in turn didn't hold a candle to the big news of the day around here:  MURDER!  A double homicide, to be specific.  Now, I was a little more worried until we learned that this house is/was well known (to everyone except us, apparently) as the neighborhood center for drugs and/or gangs.  Nice to hear.  Perhaps then, this could be perceived as a step in the right direction?  I'm not sure how to feel about any of this.  I'm just glad it wasn't a drive-by shooting.  That's not something we want to see start in this neighborhood.  Or anywhere, actually.

But the immediate effect of this was that one of our favorite news personalities, Scott Yount of NECN, was just down the street.  In fact he was taping his segment not 10 feet from me, and it was his cameraman that told me of the homicide initially.

So, does it matter about my fixed gear?  Does it matter that my wrists hurt?  Of course not.  But if we can't obsess over our gearing, then we have to look at bigger things going on around us, don't we?