Troy, the Anti-Social Socialist

I find myself on this site where style over substance is the rule, yet I lack style.
I ride a bicycle. A lot. I usually ride twice a week--a short one in the middle of the week and a long one on Sunday morning/afternoon. It's safest on Sunday morning when the church people are all occupied and off the roads, and all you subversive substance abusers are still sleeping off Saturday night, or crawling home. I take a weeklong bike vacation just about every year, and it's gotten me to some neat places (Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin) that are as nice as Arkansas, but get way too cold in winter. So I stay here. I don't look like those other guys on bicycles--I wear mountain bike shorts instead of spandex; I wear cotton t-shirts instead of fluorescent jerseys; my bike weighs a ton because I lug around a lot of shit instead of having a lightweight titanium bike. To the average person it's amazing how much and how far I ride. To the people who are really serious about it, I'm kind of a joke.
I like women. Always have. I'd prefer to hang out with them than men anyday. I don't want to talk about football--I don't care who did what in Sunday's game--I was out riding my bike, not watching a bunch of sweaty guys bump into each other and slap each other on the ass. I don't care about hunting and fishing and you'll never see me working on my car--it just pisses me off and I don't like to be pissed off, so I just own a reliable little Suzuki.
When I was younger I was consumed by music. But I was lucky enough to be there in the 70s and 80s when there was a lot more envelope-pushing going on. There were fewer bands but more big ideas. I know that sounds like an old guy glorifying his youth, but I can read the band lists on the profiles here. I see Talking Heads and REM and Bowie on some lists. I didn't roll over and die and start listening to Classic Rock or switch to country when I got older--I've just found fewer interesting bands, so not as much of my time is taken up by music as it used to be. I like to go out every now and then to hear something live. We don't get all that much in the way of name-brand entertainment in our area (i.e. the boonies). Fortunately, DVD concerts are getting better and there are more of them out there. A lot of my favorites--Tori Amos, Neil Finn, Nick Cave, Roxy Music--have had good shows out in the last few years. It makes living in the sticks a little more enjoyable.
There are other things, too. I take care of the house, have a digital camera, do stuff with my son. I'm fairly political and can't stand the Republicans or the Centrists that are in charge of the Democratic party. My leanings are Socialist, but I don't think there has been a completely successful Socialist model any more than there has been a successful Capitalist one, so maybe we need to find something in the middle, beginning with some good old socialized medicine in this country so people can quit dying just because they're poor.Economically speaking, I consider myself to be upper-lowerclass. Most of my blogging relates to this. My outdoor pictures are a way of sharing how we can enjoy the world even when we're broke. My home projects and cooking blogs aren't so much a "look at me, ma!" thing as they are an encouragement for others to try out some home projects of their own so they can know a little self-satisfaction from it. I'm no expert on any of this stuff, so it's mostly an invitation for you to join me as I stumble through my daily life.