Newfangled Dad

The nice thing about having your own blog is being Editor In Chief. I started typing out a post about how my kids are currently in love with John Henry (pretending to drive "railroad spikes" with a kitchen spatula), Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Casey Jones. Then I got about two paragraphs in and went *&^% it, I don't feel like writing about that. So there. I'm going to write about searching for a new road bike instead. The Mama has been nice enough to indulge my obsessive, research-based nature by not surprising me with a bike. Heck, I don't think she even wants any part in taking me to pick one out like last time...if she's smart? Instead, she's given me my birthday-Christmas-Father's Day for the year all in one swoop and said, "happy hunting." She knows me too well! For those who don't remember, "my" bike is a hybrid that I use to pull the kids in the bike trailer. The Mama has a very nice carbon fiber road bik...

This is the summer I've become obsessed with bicycles. If you want to know what I've been quietly doing the past few months in my spare time, the answer is learn everything a person can about cycling. Which is funny because I'm not "that" type of guy. I'm not a gearhead, mechanical, or in any way in my past someone who is drawn to pretty, shiny things. But Kelly is tired of me asking if it's a compact crank on her Scott CR1 Team or what the gearing is...I'm not even sure she could have told you that was the make/model. Don't get me wrong, she loves her bike and I've been told not to change anything on it because it's just the way she wants it. I get it now...having advanced in knowledge significantly since the time I innocently wanted to take a water bottle cage. Part of it is that Chicago is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the US. Part of it is my Father's Day present--a sporty little flat-bar road hybrid--that I've ...