There is a passage in The Silence of the Lambs where Thomas Harris describes Buffalo Bill in the lair beneath his house, immersed in his hobbies and his projects, content and patient lost in his obsessions, in “the black basement playing basement games.” Its very empathetic, and he almost seems like a normal guy. Except for the part where he skins the girl and wears her like a dress.

Mostly, I can relate.

“This one is so special, so central to what he is doing, he can’t stand to wait long.”

Deals on CraigsList must be grabbed quickly.   $90, picked up en route to ride National, for $90 off retail.

“the human skin is fiendishly difficult to deal with if your standards are as high.”

A few hours that night of tuning, fiddling, cleaning, testing and its good-enough-as-new.

“There are fundamental structural decisions to make, and the first one is where to put the zipper.”

The Masi needed gifts that could not wait til Xmas if I commute to work 2x a week.   Its now self-contained and single-minded in purpose, some parts new, some handed down as upgrades were made to my mtb camelback.

upgrades roll downhill

my little starling loved the new lights on her bike, fluttering them on and off in the dark.   I love the SOLAS tape, and 3 bikes and several handouts later, I still have about 15 feet of it.

“Starvation takes much of his subjects’ strength and makes them more manageable..At the same time, its necessary to provide a few rations to prevent despair and destructive tantrums that might damage the skin.”

So much time on the Masi led to an equal amount of time on the Heckler, and it always needs more lotion from the basket.

“Gumb feels so good and light inside.   He leans forward, puffs soft air across the moth. ”

Like most of my purchases, I picked it based on the label.