This weekend marks Resonance’s two year blogiversary. What it may lack in quality and quantity, it’s making up for in longevity!
Thanks for reading.

Seasoned readers of this site have probably gathered that I’ve been getting back into bicycling after a hiatus. I rode quite a bit as a kid, and even into high school. But for whatever reason it took a back seat when I went away to college and then I didn’t ride much for several years. Three summers ago I broke out my old ten speed again, and each successive season I’ve been riding more until I’ve reached the point now where I’m awaiting a sexy new bike.
Last year I started sinking a little money into the sport. When I first started shopping around, I experienced a severe case of sticker shock. Back in the day (1984), I got my bike for $200. Suffice it to say that $200 doesn’t go nearly as far as it used to. Heck, a real good pair of shoes go for more than that.
Since I’ve been shopping for more stuff and another bike, I’ve generally become accustomed to the price level of cycling goods. But I still get surprised from time to time.
Take a look at the price on these babies. Yes, that’s just for a couple bicycle wheels. But they do throw in a pair of free tires. So I guess it’s not so bad after all.

Hope that if you ever have to call 911, that it doesn’t go like this:

“Can you please send someone now!,” said Erica Turner, the victim.
There is no mistaking the urgency in Erica Turner’s voice.
“I have a restraining order. The guy’s at my door. He’s knocking on my door threatening to kill me. Can you please? He got a gun. Can you please hurry up and send somebody? We called here five times already. He’s in my hallway knocking on my door, Please!” said Turner.
It was one of almost a dozen 911 calls she and three of her relatives made to the Irvington police department on April 4th.
But with a raging ex-boyfriend at her door at 49 Maple Avenue, Erica’s initial pleas for help went unanswered.
“I understand that. But right now we really really do not have nobody. And I been trying my best to get a cop car to ya’ll, and we really do not have nobody,” said 911 police aid.

The kids they’ve got answering the phones today–where’s their training? We really do not have anybody. Remember that double negative thing?
Oh yeah, and if someone is being threatened by an armed ex-boyfriend, it’s probably a good idea to find an extra policeman somewhere and check it out.

SayUncle is less than impressed with the Transportation Security Administration’s screening. There’s good reason not to be.
The TSA may be performing poorly at finding weapons, but there is one thing it’s doing quite well: spending money.
I’m shocked by this turn of events.

Missed this story over the weekend. Apparently the oil squeeze is being felt around the globe:

JAPAN and China were due to hold “peace talks” this weekend amid rising tensions over violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and a mounting dispute over oil and gas reserves.
Nobutaka Machimura, the Japanese foreign minister who is due to visit Beijing tomorrow, said he hoped the trip would defuse tensions, but the bitter rivalry between the two countries looked set to intensify after Japan announced plans to drill for oil in a disputed area of the East China sea.
. . .
Protesters in Beijing are threatening a further mass demonstration against Japan this weekend, after a rally last week in which several thousand demonstrators pelted the Japanese embassy with stones and bottles, and smashed the windows of Japanese shops.

Not the same thing, but wasn’t oil a contributing factor in a war way back when? I don’t suspect we’ll go there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see oil strain international relations on a number of fronts in the next 20 years.