#128 - Jag

Scene: My very pregnant (British) wife and I are crossing the madness that is E Carson St at 7:45pm on a weeknight.
"Watch out for that jag" - Me
"Oh, was that a Jaguar?" Wife
"No. Jagoff." - Me

#121 - WHY WOULD YOU LOAN A STRANGER YOUR BICYCLE

I was a little bummed in the midst of a slightly less than stellar (normal) week at work. Hit up The Wheel Mill on my way home for spins and smiles.  The (run what you brung) bike I own is an All-Mountain (now referred to as an Enduro? I can't keep up with bikes); more like a sledgehammer when what you need at an indoor bike park is a surgeons knife. 

"What's it like running clipless pedals here?" - guy on a jumper-ish bike

"Eh, it's what I have.. I keep meaning to buy flats... but run what you brung!"

"Well, try my bike!" - guy

And after a shoe change to my vans a dude I just met let random me take his bike for a quick few loops around the pump track.  Exchanged a little small talk after I rode, work, kids, etc. A typical dude in Pittsburgh you'd probably never meet elsewhere. 

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#120 - Random Acts of Kindness

Stopped at the turnpike to parkway toll booth on my way home from Seven Springs, with a slight need to pee, a car two in front of me spent an inordinate amount of time at the cash only pay booth. My anger rising due to impatience, I watched one, two, maybe three minutes tick by. A small fraction of my day but in these modern times we get frustrated if a website takes longer than 2 seconds to load and expect a Chai Mocha Soy Latte with a double twist and a side car of espresso to be done in under 3 minutes, 3 minutes at a toll booth feels like an eternity.

I watched two people run dollars up to the car and finally it pulled away.  I had my fiver ready to go when I pulled to the toll booth, expecting a frustrated state employee wanting to shuffle the line through. 'Sorry about the wait. That was awesome, two random acts of kindness! That car gave them a buck, and that car gave them a buck!' The transaction occurred; I got my quarter. 'Have a great night!' he said, without a trace of cynicism or irony. Someone who sees the best and the worst the world has to offer still manages to stay positive.

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#119 - Art is Cool (But still doesn't pay)

It seems like everyone is embracing art, from the grizzled veteran bar fly to the tattooed skater dude, to the punk rocker, to the metal head, to the blue collar yinzer. Whether it's doing their own thing or digging what others are doing, artistic endeavors are cool.

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#111 - Seagulls

Seagulls. Ocean Pigeons. Flying Rats. 

They're annoying. And they poop alot.

But guess what? Eagles are back. Seagulls are hanging around.

The rivers are clean(er).

Another resource is being restored for its rightful owners - the citizens of the commonwealth. 

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#110 - Icy Rivers

The second time in my life the mighty Mon has frozen.

Holy shit. All that power, stopped in its tracks.

Stopped by mother nature, and some polar vortex thing (note: Polar Vortex is an actual weather phenomenon; not some off-brand fleece apparel for the sporty minded available at your friendly neighborhood Kohls)

And that is it. We freeze. The river freezes. Time stops, or at least slows down while all we can hear is the crunching of footsteps and the deafening silence of sound soaking ice.

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#109 - BBT

Pittsburgh has so many Bridges and Taverns you have to specify which Bridge Tavern you are going to.

"I'll meet you at BBT"

"Birmingham or Bloomfield?

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#108 - Resilience

Shared a lift with a random Pittsburgher, a former semi-pro hockey player who was out skiing for the first time. An NHL team was showing interest when he had a career ending injury.  "I had a good run" he said, without a hint of regret.

Resilience.

I didn't want to talk to anyone that day, snowboarding alone, but the most interesting person on the bunny lift happened to grab my ear.

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#83 - new shortcuts

Blindly following traffic down unknown roads in blind hope a new shortcut will be discovered.

#80 - metering

Back of the Hard Rock on what would have normally been a droll Thursday night, trying to meter and find a mode on my digital that could reduce or enhance the smurf blue light, I was holding my camera a bit in front and above yours truly; after about two minutes I realized every person walking by courtesy ducked so as to not ruin my (assumed) shot. Thank you.

Le Cachot, American Rock N Roll Band

#77 - the cloverleaf

Post Gazette dot com uses 'north of the cloverleaf on 51' as a specific location to describe an automobile accident.

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#76 - fear of repercussions

Hines Ward being released by the Steelers and Snooki being pregnant were competing news stories on an otherwise slow news day. I almost commented on some sort of interweb thread "Hines Ward is Snooki's baby dady" but then thought twice due to the fear of repercussions both electronic and physical.

#74 - default pronunciation

Even the most educated Pittsburgher defaults to a yinzer accent when trying to say a word they are unsure the pronunciation of. Think 'prosciutto' 'proletariat''hors d'oeuvre' or 'repertoire'

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#73 - commute time

if you tell someone your commute is "cross a river and through a tunnel," they'll have a pretty good idea of the duration of your drive.

#71 - Sticking around

Christmas means seeing three grandparents (thankful theyre still around), both my parents, 8 aunts and uncles (blood and through marriage), and three cousins who all live within an hour drive.


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#69 - pollution

cuz sometimes it makes the sky pretty.*



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*don't get your knickers in a twist. I am not 'pro-pollution.' or anti-environment. I recycle. And use those totes when I go shopping. And buy energy efficient lightbulbs and appliances. I kinda drive like a d!ck, though, so it negates some of mthe aforementioned.

#68 - leaving options

Spoke with my wife's former colleague the other night at a local dive favorite.

He's in retail/fashion buying. Young and and talented. Has had opportunities to move on and up, has moved up within his company, but declined to leave Pittsburgh. Cheap drinks were cited as the main motivation; I knew I could have dug a little deeper and he could find 10,000 of his own reasons he loves Pittsburgh. (Shameless plug!)

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#67 - dipping / part tabby cat

The guy in traffic behind me this morning was steady dipping his shoulders back in forth in perfect sync with his windshield wipers - he was either listening to a song whose rhythm matches that of his wipers or is part tabby cat.

#66 - Yinzer Rocky

I was riding past Heinz Field today, and watched this yinzer decked out head to toe in black and gold crest the trail, and as soon as the stadium came into view he stuck his finger in the air and started jumping up and down, like a yinzer rocky.

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Late addition: He was wearing sweatpants.

#64 - bridges

old bridges re-purposed

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