Hello 2009, It's Nice To See You...

... cease all humming of Conway Twitty related songsmithery! Thank you. That afro-sporting, frizzle-haired buffoon singlehandedly put the country music scene into creative retrograde from which the genre is still trying to extract itself! In addition, his Twitty Burger has stopped many a healthy metabolic process, permanently (including his own). But the Blog digresses, as is the case with years ending in the numeral nine. To celebrate the end of 2008 and the start of 2009, the Blog borrowed a Storck Fascenario for a jaunt around town to stretch the legs and expand the horizons. Oh, how horizons were expanded! Who knew carbon fiber could feel so plush, so forgiving, so stiff and snappy... and unforgiving (but only because the Blog begged for forgiveness because it was enjoying the ride beyond what modesty permits)!

(pictured is a 59 and not the 55 The Blog put through the paces)
Each incline was met with disdain, scoffs and comments of a belittling nature, "You call yourself a hill? I'm seated in my biggest gear reading a local muckraker's attempt at journalism and feel no resistance as each pedal stroke propels me to the apex with considerable aplomb!"

In conclusion, the Storck is a machine for the discerning rider, the lover of fine things with a keen eye for the technical and aesthetic amongst a paved sea of blighted, direction-less drones riding in circles trying to catch up with the wacky German....

Sadly, the Blog lacks photographic evidence of his Storck jaunt (a "Jaunorck") so a Fauvist rendering will suffice:
(The Blog solves The Cube as the Storck's patience runs out)
(The Storck leaves the Earth's orbit, goaded on by an envious sun)
(The Blog looks for a replacement bike at a fancy corporate retailer!)
(The Blog learns there is more than one way through the woods astride his new Soma!)