Well, boys grow fast, and my son is going through a spurt. We were on a 50 mile ride last weekend, and it was clear that he is outgrowing everything. His bike shoes were hurting his toes and his beloved Peugeot "Leo" is definitely too small. If you know bike fit, you'll see the signs of too-small-a-bike. His heel is lower than the ball of his feet, and his head is well forward of the bars. Bigger bike shoes, that is easy enough, and done. But bigger bike - that takes more work. I built the wheels last Sunday. Started assembling the bike Monday night. Several trips to the bike shop later, we are almost done. His new bike is ridable - I've ridden it to the bike bar tonight, as a matter of fact - and we only have the bar tape and brake hoods to do. The frame is a 1974 Raleigh Gran Sport, which was Raleigh's upper-mid-range sport touring bike of the day. The International was the top-end sport tourer, the Competition was the equivalent race bike. The Gran Sport was made from Reynolds 531 double butted tubing, the best there was, at the Carlton works, where Raleigh's best models were built, save only the very tippy-top Team Professional and the Raleigh race team's Team Pros. So the frame is very nice. But the components were just adequate, even back then. Raleigh, like Peugeot, tended to save money on the boltable bits as they spec'd bikes to meet price points. The mid-1970s were an era of rampant global inflation and deep industrial turmoil in England, and Raleigh was struggling to stay afloat. So we weren't going to keep all the original components. But what just had to stay, lest we lose what makes a Gran Sport a Gran Sport, and what had to go, to make this a magic carpet ride? Gran Sport bikes, which were sometimes also called "Grand Sports", came with the distinctive GB randonneur handlebar, which is upswept on the tops and flared on the hooks. The randonneur bar is practically the signature look for the model, so it had to stay. 40 years ago, manufacturers didn't restyle their products every year at the whim of color consultants and focus groups. A successful model stayed the same for years, long enough to become a classic. So with the Gran Sport. The classic Gran Sport of the 1970s came with white handlebar tape, white brake hoods embossed "Carlton", and a black leather Brooks saddle. That is how my Gran Sport was, and how my son's will be. Today, white tape might look precious, even girly. Back in the day, white handlebar tape said "racer". The top racers rode gleaming white bar tape, which their mechanics replaced with fresh wrap every day. This was before everything turned menacing, thoughtless, paramilitary black. My Gran Sport had the standard Brooks sporty bike saddle, the black B17. My friend gave me a much cooler saddle, a Brooks Professional with copper rivets, the racer's saddle of yesteryear. It looks the same to most people, but to bicycle cognescenti, the copper rivets speak volumes. So the top of the bike - saddle, bars - will stay true to the traditional 1970s Gran Sport look. All the moving bits below, though, will be of a different era. For bike people, Campagnolo is magic. The company may be a fraction the size of the industry gorilla, Japan's Shimano. It may be conservative and slow to innovate. Its components may work no better than the equivalent Shimano group, and be barely lighter. And the "Campagnolo tax" may have you paying two or three times more, for the privilege of having Tullio Campagnolo's signature and "Made In Italy" on your bike components. But you want it anyway. You know you do. I never had a Campy-equipped bike as a kid. Hardly any kids do, unless their dads are made of money, which I'm not. But if you have patience, know your away around eBay and used bike parts, and can do your own work, you can ride Campagnolo without breaking the bank. This bike has a near-complete group - drivetrain, brakes, integrated brake lever-shifters, hubs - of late 1990s Campagnolo Veloce. Veloce is a midrange Campagnolo group, distinguished from the higher-end groups by a slightly less polished finish, slightly thicker forgings with fewer lightening holes, and no titanium bits. It looks great. So here are a few pictures of the bike in progress. The GB stem and bars. The front brakes, including my homemade drop bracket, necessary to adapt short-reach late 1990s racing sidepull brakes to a 1970s frame meant for long-reach touring centerpull brakes and larger diameter rims. Here we are, test fitting the integrated levers on the bars. I'll get the last things done tonight, and tomorrow I'll show the boy himself with his new bike, "Rollie".

Beekeeperswife - I noticed the photo (FABULOUS) before seeing to whom it belonged and when I saw it was you, it made all the sense in the world. I still LOVE the kitchen you did that was featured everywhere - the backsplash is still my dream backsplash. And your use of Wasabi is the reason I have BM Wasabi in my house. I think you moved, though, since I was last on here actively, so I will have to hunt down what you've been doing lately! I showed DH the pic of your Dark Purple bathroom - he loved it and said "You could do that!". Sure....like that's not time-consuming. I would definitely consider doing that in a smaller space. Gorgeous! always1stepbehind - I love that kids don't have the same fears us "oldies" do when it comes to color! Looks like your DD made a great, lively choice! robotropolis - I'm not afraid of color as much as I am afraid of picking the "neon" shade - which has happened during the 1st year we lived in our current house. My sitting room and kitchen are currently painted BM Dark Salmon - which looks fantastic during the day - it's like being nestled in a bowl of ripe tomatoes - but at night? Holy smokes! It's electric dark orange and I HATE it. Same thing happened in our living room. I was trying to bring shades of California into our Texas home (transplants) and went with BM Opal Essence and Blue Seafoam. Toothpaste and aquarium. We felt like we were living in an aquarium. I thought the room could carry it off but even the south/southwest facing family room couldn't handle it. I finally did the family room and entry in BM Rattan and I really like it. My piano studio is in Kendall Charcoal (it was a can that a BM customer never picked up; the sold it to me for 1/2 the price!) and Concord Ivory. I'm planning on re-doing the kitchen (which opens to Rattan) and the sitting area (which opens to entry) in BM Papaya. I'm going for a lot more neutral than I'm use to but I like it. DD's room is Valspar Beet and BM Passion Pink and my son's room is in BM Midnight Navy and Patriot White (space theme). Still up in the air are the kid/guest bathroom and the mastersuite. My inclination for the kids bathroom was towards bright but I don't want to have to re-do a bathroom if it's neon again plus, now that I saw the glass mosaic tile frame around the bathroom, I'm thinking of doing that which probably changes my whole color scheme. Someone asked what was in the kids bathroom; I don't have a picture of it before I started making all the paint samples but it's basically always1stepbehind 's bathroom without the pretty touches: builder grade white tile around the tub, those hideous Hollywood dressing table lights above and builder grade sink/cabinet painted sorta-white (house built in 2000). Painted in Band-Aid pink with old world globe wall paper below imaginary chair rail line. Yes...it's as bad as it sounds. :) Runningplace - thanks! Family is good. Things never seem to go as planned when you (me) are the caretaker to several people in the family. But that's life! Our floor tile is sort of an adobe look which doesn't got with anything at all in the house! The previous owner must have gotten it on clearance before they put the house on the market. You know - thanks for writing about your tile - it made me think about my floor and now I'm wondering if I need to go with what I know best - Spanish Colonial style (we moved from San Diego/Santa Barbara where I learned so much about that style especially when we bought our 1929 Spanish Revival cottage there). Do you have a pic of your deep blue floor tile? AnnieDeighnaugh - your guest room is lovely! It looks like something about of a very high-end, old world hotel. I love the blues with the creamy yellow. nosoccermom - I haven't had a chance to get back to my BM store but will definitely be picking up a swatch of Mellow yellow. Sunflowers and Southern France is definitely a nice visual. JDez - SW Window Pane is such a pretty color! Tomatofreak - I'd love to see your tile surround. It sounds like something you can definitely work with! Well...off to teach. I'll be back!

Cars will last a lot longer than most people will take the time and effort to make them last. It appears that many people have a lot more money to buy new things than they have time to take care of things, or at least they pretend that's the case. As gas prices have spiked up again lately, there is a lot of interest in smaller and more fuel efficient cars, which in itself is a good thing. But if a person trades in a 20 mpg vehicle for a 30 mpg vehicle, and if they drive 15,000 miles a year, that's a savings of 250 gallons of gas a year. Certainly that's worth considering IF you need a new car anyway, but even at $3 a gallon, 250 gallons a year is only $750. The sales tax alone on the new car is likely to take all of the first year's savings, and even much of the second year savings if you live somewhere with a high sales tax. Then there's the interest you pay, higher insurance, etc. The bottom line is, the best way to save the most money is to keep the car you have for a long time and drive it in as efficient a manner as possible. It's amazing how many people are literally "car poor." If you trade yours in for a new one every two or three years, you're always paying interest on loans and always absorbing big depreciation losses. Consider a $20,000 car that's purchased new and kept for three years, and traded in for $9,000 (in many cases that's an optimistic figure): Sales Tax @6%: $1,200 Depreciation: $11,000 Interest: $2,500 Total Cost for Three Years: $14,700, or just under $5,000 a year. Many people go through this with not one but two cars, raising the yearly cost just to have these vehicles parked in the driveway to $10,000. And that's before they pay the first insurance premium, perform the first maintenance service, or buy the first gallon of gas. Even if you go from two new cars to one new and one old one that's paid for, that's $5,000 a year in savings. So if you have an older car that's paid off, there's just no earthly way to save any money by trading it for a new one, even if the new one gets double or even triple the gas mileage of the old one.

Regarding biochar: I did a long thread on biochar last year, after testing it several times before a heavy rain. Very impressed with roses' health enabled by SOLUBLE calcium and potassium in biochar. I have been growing no-spray roses for over 2 decades. One drawback of biochar: it messed up old-rose scent, and The Dark Lady rose reeked like burnt wax .. but after tons of rain, its blooms revert back to fabulous old-rose. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6003039/biochar-and-horse-manure-and-kelp-for-trace-elements#n=58 Below field-study documents biochar's effect on geraniums: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/9/5/260 "The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse while using three different growth media (i.e., solid digestate, biochar, and vermiculite). The results indicated that: (i) the pyrolysis of solid digestate caused a reduction in the bulk density (−52%) and an increase in the pH (+16%) and electrical conductivity (+9.5%) in the derived biochar; (ii) the best crop performances (number of leaves, number of total branches, and plant dry weight) were found using biochar, particularly for plant dry weight (+11.4%) and essential oil content (+9.4%)" Below is The Dark Lady's bloom, very large thanks to SOLUBLE potassium & many petals thanks to SOLUBLE calcium from biochar. Left is W.S. 2000, center pink is Radio Times. My vote for the most drought-tolerant & prickly own-root Austin: The Dark Lady (has Rugosa heritage & drought-tolerant & blooms well in partial shade). Rose Unlimited stops selling Austin roses after this year, and I want a 2nd one. The Dark Lady was the best looking bush at Chicago Botanical garden, besides Buck's "Hi Neighbor" rose. Own-root dark lady blooming in partial shade, below small blooms were before biochar experiment: