I hate it when people steal my stuff!

When we got back from our trip we found that someone stole our canoe while we were gone.

I doubt the "new owners" will enjoy it as much as we have. I imagine it was scrapped for the aluminum, which makes it even sadder to me.

But, since we really can't canoe on the river like we used to, maybe it doesn't matter anyway.

(Next up: more vacation shots.)

Bike thefts

Just a reminder to lock your bike wisely...The best way is with a cable through the wheels, and then a U-lock through the frame onto a sturdy rack like the U-shaped city ones. It's kind of a hassle, but then, so is being stranded because some mofo took your bike.

This was outside where I work. It was there a few days before getting gradually stripped of parts. The bumper sticker on the railing is just the icing, no?

For some reason, the street outside this building is kind of like the Bermuda Triangle. People lock up their bikes and then...seem to disappear. Months later, the last remaining piece of the bicycle disappears, without a trace.

Mayor Barrett: hero.

A while ago I made a conscious decision, after getting sick of negativity, politics, and the like, that I was going to write only about awesome stuff that happens in this city that I love.

Well, at first I thought it was a joke, when I saw some reposted blurb yesterday, that our Mayor Barrett was attacked with a pipe. But it was true. And it is an amazing story. And he is an absolute HERO. It's always the unassuming ones, no?

From the article:

After leaving the State Fair with his family, the Mayor heard a woman cry for help, as she was being attacked by a man. "The mayor stopped and said something (to the man) like, 'Let's all cool down here, I'm going to call 911,'" the mayor's spokesman Patrick Curley said. "He said it one or two times according to him. When he took out his phone, that's when the suspect attacked him."
The suspect hit Barrett in the head and torso with a metal pipe. Barrett apparently fought back, fracturing his hand when he punched the suspect.
"I think he hit the guy," Curley said. "I don't know where, but it was hard enough, whatever he hit, to fracture his hand..."

"...The mayor's only regret about the incident is that his family was there to witness what happened, Curley said.
"He said it was hard because his kids and niece were there at the time of the incident," Curley said. "He knew he had to (intervene). It was the right thing to do."

Blogger Jason Haas had a great idea: send the Mayor a get-well card. I think I need to do that.