At the beginning of the season I bought a beautiful teal 1988 Trek 1000 and have been riding the hell out of it. Unfortunately all that riding has come at a price, Ive ruined two rear wheels(rims) over the span of a few months.

I know I can tuck my tail and head back into the shop to have them lace me up a new wheel (they got me back on the road for a good price the first time) but I'd like to take a stab at building a wheel myself.

So my question, how hard is it to build a wheel?

• I've watched the park tools wheel building and truing videos and I'm sure they make it look easier than it really is.
• There's a few shops around me that do "open shop" hours a few times a week that i plan on taking advantage of if i actually do this.
• I also looked at just getting a new wheelset but then discovered the freewheel vs cassette change and the old hub width is the old 126mm standard and decided it might be easier if i just learned to lace a wheel and put a new rim on.

(I guess I'm actually just looking for some encouragement, tips)

McSweeney's bringing some hard truths with this one. We could all be doing better.

You forgot to go back in time and tell people that subsidizing the oil industry might be a bad idea.
When the oil and auto industries teamed up to bend public policy to their will, making a system of roads and parking lots that now function as a continuous subsidy and magnificent symbol of the normalization of injury and pollution, you had a lot of options. You could have objected. You could have shifted public opinion. Instead, you weren’t even born yet. And, rather than go back in time, all you’ve been doing is riding to get groceries and occasionally saying, “Please stop killing us.” On the effort scale? 1/10.

Here's Izzy enjoying her little deck garden a few days ago.

When the weathers nice she loves coming out on the porch, munching on some cat grass and cat nip (everyone should try growing both!), and then taking a nap on the love seat (note all the hair).

“After nearly four centuries in existence, we are finally able to leave behind our woeful legacy of discrimination and accept our first student of Caucasian descent,” said Harvard president Lawrence Bacow

Got a late start this season on my little deck garden here in Chicago, but everything is looking great regardless! This is only my second year of deck gardening this year is looking much better than last.

Its amazing what you can still manage to grow in a small space. Things I have growing:

• Sunflower(front center)
• Cat grass (bottom right)
• Orange hat tomatoes (in the pot on the banister to the right )
• String beans (windowsill on the left)
• Cucumbers (vertical)
• Cauliflower(vertical)
• Nasturtiums(vertical)
• A few different tomatoes(vertical)
• Mini bell peppers (vertical)
• Catnip(vertical)