1176.2; 825.9; 38.8
Wow, I grossly overestimated this ride. I gave myself 2-1/2 hours to get to Petaluma, and only took 1:15. I thought it would be close to 50 miles total, but actually was less than 40--my second-longest ride since returning to my biking ways. There are a couple of no-shoulder spots where there's a certain amount of danger, but it's mostly a pretty easy ride in the morning when the temperature and wind aren't too high. I did NOT expect the heat, coming back, but still managed a 1:15 ride.
I was starting to worry about higher readings on my blood sugar (thinking I'd need to go back to full doses of Actos), but that's dropped significantly (78 and 97 the last two days, after 130 130 124, 141), and my average this month is back under 120.
Talking to my friend, I find that I'm not the only one who senses in McCain a reluctance, almost sheepishness, about putting forth the lies his "handlers" have given him... In the local paper today (actually a Washington Post story), there's talk that the repubs might pull back on McCain campaign funding, thinking it better to spend the money on congressional campaigns, where McCain might almost be a lost cause. I am overjoyed at this prospect. In every debate and elsewhere, I have seen in Obama a man with an amazing memory and excellent command of data: a problem solver. He might bore some people with analysis, but he doesn't deliver the empty "I know how to..." lines, and he really did, I feel, minimize the dirtiness of the campaign, even while McCain and PitDog resorted to mudslinging of the worst kind.
President Obama! YES!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Absence
1137.4; 787.1; 31.2
No on 8. The (paper) Chronicle today shows people praying with mouths contorted and arms raised, presumably for God to take his vengeance on the butt-slammers (the ones He presumably created). How is it that people still believe in earthly representatives of a vengeful creator? The idea of a creator is not unreasonable, but the idea that someone like Falwell, or any of that ilk, has a direct line to a creator and is hear to communicate--and enforce--His wishes? That's just stupid. OK, let's play it through. Imagine that a majority of people vote yes. Do you really think all those gay people are going to go away? Leave 'em alone--if you don't like gay marriage, don't gay-marry. If you can't bear to vote No, just skip the question.
Yes on Obama. He's not perfect, but he's good. And the alternative is truly, truly frightening if you have even a tattered shred of intelligence. Just by the examples of the kind of people who are coming out of the woodwork for the repubs lately, you should recognize that you don't want to be on that side. OK, watch the last debate tonight, listen between the lines when they speak, and imagine which would really be "the cool hand on the helm" (an absurd phrase grammatically, like much of what McCain has been fed for regurgitation BY THE SAME PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIRECTED BUSH FOR THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, DUH!).
My friend and ex-co-worker Garrie, I learned, died (**died!**) in August. He'd had meningitis about two years ago and was pretty ill from then on, I guess, but still, he was only three years older than me, and it was a surprise to get an email response from "him" (his sister-in-law) saying he had passed away. It's funny (not ha-ha funny) that I'm reading "Seth Speaks" right now, and am in the middle of chapters about death. One of the things he says--and this was said to my unhearing ears a lot at alternative school in my teens--is "you're as dead now as you'll ever be." I think I never really parsed or understood this phrase before, and it gives an unfortunate negative cast, but reading it in context, it is actually a very positive concept. I'm really enjoying the book, and finding it affirms a lot that I felt/intuited/believed all along. Interesting: the idea of entities repeatedly reincarnating in an illusive physical time and space was making me wonder why there are so many more people now than in the past--and a visitor to a session, in the book, asks that question in conversation whereupon Seth "appears" and addresses the question... I'm remembering more dreams lately--fragmentary, but much more than usual.
Anyway, my warmest regards to you, Garrie, wherever you are now.
No on 8. The (paper) Chronicle today shows people praying with mouths contorted and arms raised, presumably for God to take his vengeance on the butt-slammers (the ones He presumably created). How is it that people still believe in earthly representatives of a vengeful creator? The idea of a creator is not unreasonable, but the idea that someone like Falwell, or any of that ilk, has a direct line to a creator and is hear to communicate--and enforce--His wishes? That's just stupid. OK, let's play it through. Imagine that a majority of people vote yes. Do you really think all those gay people are going to go away? Leave 'em alone--if you don't like gay marriage, don't gay-marry. If you can't bear to vote No, just skip the question.
Yes on Obama. He's not perfect, but he's good. And the alternative is truly, truly frightening if you have even a tattered shred of intelligence. Just by the examples of the kind of people who are coming out of the woodwork for the repubs lately, you should recognize that you don't want to be on that side. OK, watch the last debate tonight, listen between the lines when they speak, and imagine which would really be "the cool hand on the helm" (an absurd phrase grammatically, like much of what McCain has been fed for regurgitation BY THE SAME PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIRECTED BUSH FOR THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, DUH!).
My friend and ex-co-worker Garrie, I learned, died (**died!**) in August. He'd had meningitis about two years ago and was pretty ill from then on, I guess, but still, he was only three years older than me, and it was a surprise to get an email response from "him" (his sister-in-law) saying he had passed away. It's funny (not ha-ha funny) that I'm reading "Seth Speaks" right now, and am in the middle of chapters about death. One of the things he says--and this was said to my unhearing ears a lot at alternative school in my teens--is "you're as dead now as you'll ever be." I think I never really parsed or understood this phrase before, and it gives an unfortunate negative cast, but reading it in context, it is actually a very positive concept. I'm really enjoying the book, and finding it affirms a lot that I felt/intuited/believed all along. Interesting: the idea of entities repeatedly reincarnating in an illusive physical time and space was making me wonder why there are so many more people now than in the past--and a visitor to a session, in the book, asks that question in conversation whereupon Seth "appears" and addresses the question... I'm remembering more dreams lately--fragmentary, but much more than usual.
Anyway, my warmest regards to you, Garrie, wherever you are now.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Warming Up
1106.2; 755.9; 27.5
The first number is total miles since 7/13; second is miles on odometer on the main bike; third number is miles today.
Think I need to do something to warm up before riding, or maybe this morning was just extra cold. At any rate, I never really got going, and the whole ride was slower than usual--although I still rode as far as I wanted to.
If the weather holds, I'll ride to Petaluma on Friday, after a longish ride tomorrow and a day off Thursday.
The first number is total miles since 7/13; second is miles on odometer on the main bike; third number is miles today.
Think I need to do something to warm up before riding, or maybe this morning was just extra cold. At any rate, I never really got going, and the whole ride was slower than usual--although I still rode as far as I wanted to.
If the weather holds, I'll ride to Petaluma on Friday, after a longish ride tomorrow and a day off Thursday.
Monday, October 13, 2008
There's a River Down There
728.4; 21.9
Don't let that mileage fool you--this was a killer! On top of the usual bike-path loop out to Forestville, continued on Mirabel Rd. down to Trenton Rd., which is parallel to and in view of the Russian River. Then back up Laguna to Vine Hill to Green Valley Rd.
Laguna/Vine Hill climbs almost 300 feet in one mile. It's a beautiful ride other than that--not a single car passed as I struggled up the hill, and there's only one slightly scary part where the road curves right while climbing steeply enough to have me crawling in low gears. No wonder the runoff is in such a hurry to get down there!
But I do get the "Green Valley drop" as a little reward, back down to the path.
This brings (keeps?) my daily average for October over 12 and average per riding day over 20. And, I hope, brings my blood sugar down from today's and yesterday's consecutive 130s.
Don't let that mileage fool you--this was a killer! On top of the usual bike-path loop out to Forestville, continued on Mirabel Rd. down to Trenton Rd., which is parallel to and in view of the Russian River. Then back up Laguna to Vine Hill to Green Valley Rd.
Laguna/Vine Hill climbs almost 300 feet in one mile. It's a beautiful ride other than that--not a single car passed as I struggled up the hill, and there's only one slightly scary part where the road curves right while climbing steeply enough to have me crawling in low gears. No wonder the runoff is in such a hurry to get down there!
But I do get the "Green Valley drop" as a little reward, back down to the path.
This brings (keeps?) my daily average for October over 12 and average per riding day over 20. And, I hope, brings my blood sugar down from today's and yesterday's consecutive 130s.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Petaluma Hill
706.5; 25.5
Petaluma Hill Rd. seems mostly flat when you drive it. Like with many things, it's a different story on a bicycle. And the headwind! Be that as it may, I was able to cover the 12.7 mile trip out in 53 minutes--the trip back might have been a bit slower, especially that first part, which seemed to take all my strength to just pedal forward on a seemingly very slight incline. Anyway, bravo: 700 miles on the Marin Novato bike, a bike of which I approve greatly.
Petaluma Hill Rd. seems mostly flat when you drive it. Like with many things, it's a different story on a bicycle. And the headwind! Be that as it may, I was able to cover the 12.7 mile trip out in 53 minutes--the trip back might have been a bit slower, especially that first part, which seemed to take all my strength to just pedal forward on a seemingly very slight incline. Anyway, bravo: 700 miles on the Marin Novato bike, a bike of which I approve greatly.
Friday, October 10, 2008
"Nice Bike"
681.0; 25.3
When one of the loiterers along the less-savory portion of the Joe Rodota trail says "Nice Bike," I want to say, "No! It isn't! It's a piece of crap!" (knowing as I do that people HAVE been mugged on this trail). I have really tried to cultivate an atmosphere of goodwill, courtesy, and friendliness around myself, and I trust that to work for me. My bike is pretty unique, also, and easy to spot, so maybe not as desirable for theft as it might otherwise be. Anyway. Good to get out on another temperate autumn day, and to get more than 20 miles.
You with the headphones? There are MANY more certain and less potentially painful forms of suicide--why don't you try one?
I kid.
My numbers as of today:
Total miles since start (July 13): 1031.2
Calendar days since start: 89
Average miles per day: 11.6
Total riding days: 50
Average miles per riding day: 20.6
October:
Total miles: 113.9
Calendar days: 10
Average miles per day: 11.4
Riding days: 6
Average miles per riding day: 19.0
I keep track of all this on the same spreadsheet where I track my blood sugar, and there is some general correlation between bike-riding and sugar levels day by day (the effect really is more long-term than daily, though). FWIW, then:
Average fasting BG reading July 1-Sept 30: 121.2
Average fasting BG reading October so far: 121.5
No need for panic! These are good numbers. Doc was pleased. 126 and up will get you diagnosed as diabetic. I'm taking a variety of medications that help keep that number down, but the exercise REALLY helps--and more, helps to "normalize": my numbers don't range as widely when I'm riding regularly.
When one of the loiterers along the less-savory portion of the Joe Rodota trail says "Nice Bike," I want to say, "No! It isn't! It's a piece of crap!" (knowing as I do that people HAVE been mugged on this trail). I have really tried to cultivate an atmosphere of goodwill, courtesy, and friendliness around myself, and I trust that to work for me. My bike is pretty unique, also, and easy to spot, so maybe not as desirable for theft as it might otherwise be. Anyway. Good to get out on another temperate autumn day, and to get more than 20 miles.
You with the headphones? There are MANY more certain and less potentially painful forms of suicide--why don't you try one?
I kid.
My numbers as of today:
Total miles since start (July 13): 1031.2
Calendar days since start: 89
Average miles per day: 11.6
Total riding days: 50
Average miles per riding day: 20.6
October:
Total miles: 113.9
Calendar days: 10
Average miles per day: 11.4
Riding days: 6
Average miles per riding day: 19.0
I keep track of all this on the same spreadsheet where I track my blood sugar, and there is some general correlation between bike-riding and sugar levels day by day (the effect really is more long-term than daily, though). FWIW, then:
Average fasting BG reading July 1-Sept 30: 121.2
Average fasting BG reading October so far: 121.5
No need for panic! These are good numbers. Doc was pleased. 126 and up will get you diagnosed as diabetic. I'm taking a variety of medications that help keep that number down, but the exercise REALLY helps--and more, helps to "normalize": my numbers don't range as widely when I'm riding regularly.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Eh?
655.7; 18.5
Hearing aid fitting appointment today.
I have trouble hearing soft sounds, and individual sounds with a lot of background noise, and at work, I was having a LOT of trouble understanding people with heavy accents. Analyzing this last, I felt that it might be the different emphasis on different syllables common to some ESL speakers.
So, I went to get my hearing tested three months ago, while I was still employed and fully insured. These people thought they could do something for me, and they said it would cost $2500, with $500 going to me. I paid the $500, and was laid off the next week. At the point of being laid off, I would have canceled the whole thing except for the fact that it was already paid for, and I was pretty certain there was no way I was gonna get that $500 back.
So I waited.... and waited... How long does it take to prepare a hearing aid for a person? They didn't take a plaster cast of my inner ear or anything! Finally, about a month in, I called them, and they informed me that they were waiting for payment from the insurance company.
So I waited... and waited... FINALLY, last week, they called me to make an appointment for a fitting, and I went in today (1111 Sonoma Ave., Santa Rosa, hence Monday's 1111 blog entry title, and the ride to scout for a bike rack).
After sitting in a tiny room for 20 minutes with nothing to do, hooked up by a wire to a laptop, the doc (or audiologist?) came in and ran a few test wherein I could barely ascertain any difference between the hearing aids' being on or off, and when it was on, there was a tinny reverb-y sound to everything he or I said. Okay fine. It surely would take some getting used to, and they usually try to set it low and move it up gradually, so I was ushered out to make an appointment for a couple of weeks hence.
At that appointment, the woman nonchalantly added, "and eight hundred fifty-three thirty-five" or something to that effect.
Had I not been wearing a hearing aid, I wouldn't have believed my ears! Still I had her repeat it.
Upshot, she will run it by the insurance company again--"sometimes they are wrong"--and get back to me, so at least I get a brief reprieve, but jeeze! Eight Hundred Dollars is not small change, especially for the underemployed. And I don't really even need the damned things anymore, for now--the reasons I originally went are all but absent from my life now!
On the ride home, the wind noise was amplified so much I couldn't hear anything else.
On the lighter side, as of the end of this excursion, I have officially biked 1006 miles, in 87 days. Whoopee.
Hearing aid fitting appointment today.
I have trouble hearing soft sounds, and individual sounds with a lot of background noise, and at work, I was having a LOT of trouble understanding people with heavy accents. Analyzing this last, I felt that it might be the different emphasis on different syllables common to some ESL speakers.
So, I went to get my hearing tested three months ago, while I was still employed and fully insured. These people thought they could do something for me, and they said it would cost $2500, with $500 going to me. I paid the $500, and was laid off the next week. At the point of being laid off, I would have canceled the whole thing except for the fact that it was already paid for, and I was pretty certain there was no way I was gonna get that $500 back.
So I waited.... and waited... How long does it take to prepare a hearing aid for a person? They didn't take a plaster cast of my inner ear or anything! Finally, about a month in, I called them, and they informed me that they were waiting for payment from the insurance company.
So I waited... and waited... FINALLY, last week, they called me to make an appointment for a fitting, and I went in today (1111 Sonoma Ave., Santa Rosa, hence Monday's 1111 blog entry title, and the ride to scout for a bike rack).
After sitting in a tiny room for 20 minutes with nothing to do, hooked up by a wire to a laptop, the doc (or audiologist?) came in and ran a few test wherein I could barely ascertain any difference between the hearing aids' being on or off, and when it was on, there was a tinny reverb-y sound to everything he or I said. Okay fine. It surely would take some getting used to, and they usually try to set it low and move it up gradually, so I was ushered out to make an appointment for a couple of weeks hence.
At that appointment, the woman nonchalantly added, "and eight hundred fifty-three thirty-five" or something to that effect.
Had I not been wearing a hearing aid, I wouldn't have believed my ears! Still I had her repeat it.
Upshot, she will run it by the insurance company again--"sometimes they are wrong"--and get back to me, so at least I get a brief reprieve, but jeeze! Eight Hundred Dollars is not small change, especially for the underemployed. And I don't really even need the damned things anymore, for now--the reasons I originally went are all but absent from my life now!
On the ride home, the wind noise was amplified so much I couldn't hear anything else.
On the lighter side, as of the end of this excursion, I have officially biked 1006 miles, in 87 days. Whoopee.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Fresh Oil
637.2; 16.5
Occidental Road is being repaved and so has a lovely shoulder-to-shoulder coat of oil.
Autumn is definitely here, and it's nice to coast through whirling leaves and cool brisk air (and have perhaps relatively fewer people on the trails).
I think the little nubs on the sides of my tires are almost entirely gone now.
Occidental Road is being repaved and so has a lovely shoulder-to-shoulder coat of oil.
Autumn is definitely here, and it's nice to coast through whirling leaves and cool brisk air (and have perhaps relatively fewer people on the trails).
I think the little nubs on the sides of my tires are almost entirely gone now.
Monday, October 06, 2008
1111
620.7; 18.6
Oh the numbers! I had really hoped to get in the habit of regular "short" (under 25-mile) rides this month, and then got off track with work, rain, and the weekend, so now I'm playing catch-up. I now have my spreadsheet tracking average miles per RIDING day AND per CALENDAR day.
I have an appointment at one of the medical offices in Santa Rosa Wednesday afternoon, and wanted to see if there was a place to lock the bike so I could ride there. No bike rack out front of a medical center! Isn't there something wrong with that? There's a bike rack in back, at the STAFF entrance, where most people won't look, and I might have to walk around the building to actually enter after parking and locking, but...
Oh well, good to get back on the bike.
Oh the numbers! I had really hoped to get in the habit of regular "short" (under 25-mile) rides this month, and then got off track with work, rain, and the weekend, so now I'm playing catch-up. I now have my spreadsheet tracking average miles per RIDING day AND per CALENDAR day.
I have an appointment at one of the medical offices in Santa Rosa Wednesday afternoon, and wanted to see if there was a place to lock the bike so I could ride there. No bike rack out front of a medical center! Isn't there something wrong with that? There's a bike rack in back, at the STAFF entrance, where most people won't look, and I might have to walk around the building to actually enter after parking and locking, but...
Oh well, good to get back on the bike.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
(Generic Title Here)
602.1; 16.5
Quick trip to Forestville and back, probably the fastest I've ever done it. No stops; very few peds and dogs on the trails. Rain is forecast for the weekend, and it seems to be starting now. Though it will put a crimp in my biking style, I welcome it.
Work is going well, I guess. A great deal of uncertainty as to whether or not I am meeting expectations, but I feel like I'm doing good work--I'm catching a lot of errors, cleaning up a lot of poor grammatical and structural choices, making it easier to edit for others, and now, creating a summary for later use. I'm hoping all of this carries weight.
Quick trip to Forestville and back, probably the fastest I've ever done it. No stops; very few peds and dogs on the trails. Rain is forecast for the weekend, and it seems to be starting now. Though it will put a crimp in my biking style, I welcome it.
Work is going well, I guess. A great deal of uncertainty as to whether or not I am meeting expectations, but I feel like I'm doing good work--I'm catching a lot of errors, cleaning up a lot of poor grammatical and structural choices, making it easier to edit for others, and now, creating a summary for later use. I'm hoping all of this carries weight.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Pomo
585.6; 18.5; Short ride to warm up after a week off. The standard Forestville run, but I added about a mile when I stopped to talk to a woman on the path near Occidental Rd. who was looking for her malamute/shepherd mix, and then saw the dog further up the path. I asked a lady there if she would wait with the dog while I went to notify the owner, returned to find the lady and she was gone; returned to the lady who was watching the dog and said, "well, we tried," and then saw the owner on the Graton end of the path, in her car. The dog ("Pomo") was within earshot of there, so dog and owner were reunited and I rode on without waiting for thanks. Would she have had a better chance of finding Pomo on foot? I dunno; seems like it, but she DID find the dog (with no small assistance).
Saw a gray fox on the path near Forestville, and got to within about 10 yards of it before it took off into the brush. Also bunnies, and a large dead gopher snake.
Actually, don't seem to have "lost" too much in terms of being in shape for riding, and felt like I could've gone much farther without undue exhaustion. But it's good to spend more time at home and get some work done.
Saw a gray fox on the path near Forestville, and got to within about 10 yards of it before it took off into the brush. Also bunnies, and a large dead gopher snake.
Actually, don't seem to have "lost" too much in terms of being in shape for riding, and felt like I could've gone much farther without undue exhaustion. But it's good to spend more time at home and get some work done.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Numb3rs
567.1; 22.3
End of a big week (135 miles) and month (428 miles); mom visiting, so won't be riding for the next few days. Good to get a break now and then. With that in mind, in the 80 days since layoff (ending October 1), I've biked 917.4 miles for an average of 11.9 miles per day (damn--I really wanted to stay above 12!).
Interestingly enough, with previous stints of bike riding, I noticed my hands/wrists getting *number* as I logged the mileage *numbers*. I've had some of that this time, but it seems to be more from time spent on the computer than from biking--even though the new bike is much more rigid, with no front or rear suspension, and thinner, harder tires.
I think I need to buckle down and do some work now, as long as there is work to do! Third Java course, coming up.
End of a big week (135 miles) and month (428 miles); mom visiting, so won't be riding for the next few days. Good to get a break now and then. With that in mind, in the 80 days since layoff (ending October 1), I've biked 917.4 miles for an average of 11.9 miles per day (damn--I really wanted to stay above 12!).
Interestingly enough, with previous stints of bike riding, I noticed my hands/wrists getting *number* as I logged the mileage *numbers*. I've had some of that this time, but it seems to be more from time spent on the computer than from biking--even though the new bike is much more rigid, with no front or rear suspension, and thinner, harder tires.
I think I need to buckle down and do some work now, as long as there is work to do! Third Java course, coming up.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Flattery Will Get You Nowhere
544.8; 26.9. Another flat, coincidentally (?) right after pulling off to the side of the unpaved road, in the middle of a bunch of star thistles, to let a work truck go by. I examined the tires before I started to roll again! Less than a mile later, the back wheel is floppin'. Nice to have a spare tube and tools, and to be able to repair it on the spot, but I'm considering the "thorn-proof" tubes the guy showed me today. Otherwise, nice pleasant ride, not too hot or cool.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Five Hundred
517.9; 28.6 (2hrs, 10min)
Entered dates and miles into a Facebook app, Bike City, and wondered the whole time why I was doing that when I have it all in a spreadsheet, in which I can crunch the numbers any way I like. For example, the FB app doesn't track by week, doesn't appear to be able to compare one month to another (or even show the numbers for past months), provide average miles per day (I've been tracking my avg/day and seeing how high I can get it by the end of the month (79 days since I started). Today's ride just bumped the avg up past 12 mpd...
Anyway, bored with the regularity of numbers like 31.3, 26.0, and 16.6, I extended the Forestville route a different way today and so got a different number.
I was prepared to just go to Forestville and back, and instead took off north on High School Road to make an additional loop to the unpaved section of bike path, Fulton Rd., and back.
I'm seriously concerned about my contract job--(deleted possibly incriminating content).
I think some employees just don't require feedback in their work--and some employers just don't think of it as a requirement to GIVE feedback. I, not being one of the former, have trouble dealing with the latter (and probably they with me too). (snip!)
Entered dates and miles into a Facebook app, Bike City, and wondered the whole time why I was doing that when I have it all in a spreadsheet, in which I can crunch the numbers any way I like. For example, the FB app doesn't track by week, doesn't appear to be able to compare one month to another (or even show the numbers for past months), provide average miles per day (I've been tracking my avg/day and seeing how high I can get it by the end of the month (79 days since I started). Today's ride just bumped the avg up past 12 mpd...
Anyway, bored with the regularity of numbers like 31.3, 26.0, and 16.6, I extended the Forestville route a different way today and so got a different number.
I was prepared to just go to Forestville and back, and instead took off north on High School Road to make an additional loop to the unpaved section of bike path, Fulton Rd., and back.
I'm seriously concerned about my contract job--(deleted possibly incriminating content).
I think some employees just don't require feedback in their work--and some employers just don't think of it as a requirement to GIVE feedback. I, not being one of the former, have trouble dealing with the latter (and probably they with me too). (snip!)
Monday, September 22, 2008
Tightening
489.3; 31.3
Lovely morning for grabbing some mileage, hoping to top my biggest week yet (that was 120.9 miles--I'm almost halfway there already). It dawned clear and still, and so it remained, a crisp autumn morning (now that we're officially into autumn). I got new tights that are specifically for biking--if nothing else, they won't catch on the front sprocket. I like 'em, overall...
Returned the clip-in shoes yesterday, and bought toe cages, which I'm already used to on bike 1. Anyone wanna buy a pair of Shimano SPD pedals (PD-M424)? Only about 500 miles on 'em...
People and dogs all over the paths, but I'm really not that bothered by it, and I would like to bothered by it even less. Let it go, move on, etc....
Lovely morning for grabbing some mileage, hoping to top my biggest week yet (that was 120.9 miles--I'm almost halfway there already). It dawned clear and still, and so it remained, a crisp autumn morning (now that we're officially into autumn). I got new tights that are specifically for biking--if nothing else, they won't catch on the front sprocket. I like 'em, overall...
Returned the clip-in shoes yesterday, and bought toe cages, which I'm already used to on bike 1. Anyone wanna buy a pair of Shimano SPD pedals (PD-M424)? Only about 500 miles on 'em...
People and dogs all over the paths, but I'm really not that bothered by it, and I would like to bothered by it even less. Let it go, move on, etc....
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Mister Early
458.0; 26.0
Not THAT early--it was after nine when I left--but seeming early because of the low mist (hence the "Mister" part of the title) hanging around through the first half of the ride, causing poor visibility not only via moisture in the air but also via moisture on my glasses. Also, wearing full-on sweats rather than the usual shorts and t-shirt made everything more muffled.
Tough pedaling early, when it seemed like all I could do to keep up a 15mph pace, then it was easier on the return trip, especially when I got behind a pair of guys on racing bikes who I expected to leave me in their dust, but I actually had to slow down at times to stay behind them until Wright Rd., where I shortcut the corner and left them behind.
The farther portion of this trail, the last segment of the part called the "Santa Rosa Creek Greenway," is about 2-1/2 miles of unpaved road on either side of the creek. At the very end, someone has taken to hanging a sign about how there are plans to pave this segment. Below the sign hangs an open envelope of orange slips of paper with the anti-creek trail web site address printed on them. These slips fall out of the envelope and scatter on the ground around the trailhead, and it's hard to muster much sympathy for a cause that litters the trailhead like that while professing to be in the interest of saving it.
I'm with 'em, sorta, on the need for study before putting in a paved bike path--except, bikes are ALREADY USING that path--it's among other things, a BIKE PATH.
And it's a much safer option than the parallel Hall or Guerneville roads. From my own personal viewpoint, I have no problem at all with the paving of this stretch. The other side will presumably remain unpaved (as it is still on the rest of the Greenway's south side, all the way back to Stony Point).
Since bikes are already using the trail, the arguments they're using pretty much center around the faster speed of the bikes that will ensue, added danger to peds, blah blah blah, but what I see on that trail is almost EVERYONE disregarding the leash law. Then there's a bit of a non-sequitur in the the inclusion of an endangered species list--including trout in the stream. Now, there is just NO WAY faster cycling would have ANY effect on said trout--unless indeed, it scares the illegal fishermen away.
They also don't mention the fact that this paving provides access to wheelchairs--and I DO see people in wheelchairs on the other segments.
Be that as it may, they have succeeded in at least delaying construction.
I can live with it either way, but the protest rather reeks to me of NIMBYism with which I'm not altogether unfamiliar. Something else interests me on that map, and that is all the "proposed" bike paths in the area that would make for much safer biking in a much more extended area, including, apparently, completion of this near-loop that I ride almost daily by extending the trail across Willowside Rd. and past Delta Pond, to Frei Rd (which the reader may remember) where it looks like a bike path is ALSO planned. Honestly, I'd be happy with more unpaved paths than more paving of existing ones... I suspect the thing will be paved eventually, but can't be arsed to attend a meeting about it, for all of these reasons, but mostly: BOTH sides--the NIMBYs and the racing bikers--annoy me no end.
Proud to have passed 800 total miles today, this 70th day since I started biking again.
Not THAT early--it was after nine when I left--but seeming early because of the low mist (hence the "Mister" part of the title) hanging around through the first half of the ride, causing poor visibility not only via moisture in the air but also via moisture on my glasses. Also, wearing full-on sweats rather than the usual shorts and t-shirt made everything more muffled.
Tough pedaling early, when it seemed like all I could do to keep up a 15mph pace, then it was easier on the return trip, especially when I got behind a pair of guys on racing bikes who I expected to leave me in their dust, but I actually had to slow down at times to stay behind them until Wright Rd., where I shortcut the corner and left them behind.
The farther portion of this trail, the last segment of the part called the "Santa Rosa Creek Greenway," is about 2-1/2 miles of unpaved road on either side of the creek. At the very end, someone has taken to hanging a sign about how there are plans to pave this segment. Below the sign hangs an open envelope of orange slips of paper with the anti-creek trail web site address printed on them. These slips fall out of the envelope and scatter on the ground around the trailhead, and it's hard to muster much sympathy for a cause that litters the trailhead like that while professing to be in the interest of saving it.
I'm with 'em, sorta, on the need for study before putting in a paved bike path--except, bikes are ALREADY USING that path--it's among other things, a BIKE PATH.
And it's a much safer option than the parallel Hall or Guerneville roads. From my own personal viewpoint, I have no problem at all with the paving of this stretch. The other side will presumably remain unpaved (as it is still on the rest of the Greenway's south side, all the way back to Stony Point).
Since bikes are already using the trail, the arguments they're using pretty much center around the faster speed of the bikes that will ensue, added danger to peds, blah blah blah, but what I see on that trail is almost EVERYONE disregarding the leash law. Then there's a bit of a non-sequitur in the the inclusion of an endangered species list--including trout in the stream. Now, there is just NO WAY faster cycling would have ANY effect on said trout--unless indeed, it scares the illegal fishermen away.
They also don't mention the fact that this paving provides access to wheelchairs--and I DO see people in wheelchairs on the other segments.
Be that as it may, they have succeeded in at least delaying construction.
I can live with it either way, but the protest rather reeks to me of NIMBYism with which I'm not altogether unfamiliar. Something else interests me on that map, and that is all the "proposed" bike paths in the area that would make for much safer biking in a much more extended area, including, apparently, completion of this near-loop that I ride almost daily by extending the trail across Willowside Rd. and past Delta Pond, to Frei Rd (which the reader may remember) where it looks like a bike path is ALSO planned. Honestly, I'd be happy with more unpaved paths than more paving of existing ones... I suspect the thing will be paved eventually, but can't be arsed to attend a meeting about it, for all of these reasons, but mostly: BOTH sides--the NIMBYs and the racing bikers--annoy me no end.
Proud to have passed 800 total miles today, this 70th day since I started biking again.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Sneakin' Back
432.0; 23.4
Back to sneakers, and I must say, a lot less stressful riding. Perhaps infinitessimally slower than with the clip-ins, but that might be remedied by using "cages" like on my other bike (from which I removed the leather side-straps so I could get out more easily).
Peculiar "ending" to Lost Season 3. Seasons 4 and five pre-added into Netflix queue.
SNL's take on Palin and Clinton, w/Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, was pretty funny. But in two months, Palin will be just be the punchline to a footnote, along with McCrony. How many here remember Geraldine Ferraro? Raise your hand...
Back to sneakers, and I must say, a lot less stressful riding. Perhaps infinitessimally slower than with the clip-ins, but that might be remedied by using "cages" like on my other bike (from which I removed the leather side-straps so I could get out more easily).
Peculiar "ending" to Lost Season 3. Seasons 4 and five pre-added into Netflix queue.
SNL's take on Palin and Clinton, w/Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, was pretty funny. But in two months, Palin will be just be the punchline to a footnote, along with McCrony. How many here remember Geraldine Ferraro? Raise your hand...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Crunch
405.6; 23.0
I gotta start getting out earlier--the headwind is really obnoxious in the afternoon (and practically nonexistent in the morning).
Well, I took that first tumble with the cleats in the pedals. Coming up to a cross street, I saw a lady with a kid stop to wait for me, then I continued up and saw a car coming from the other way. Mixing up the signals from the brain, I hit the brake instead of twisting out, and found myself on the ground quicker than you can think it. Amazingly, I have only a skinned knee and bruised ego to show for it, and was able to get back on and ride the eight miles home from there.
I might try riding with regular shoes again, by way of comparison. I'm not sure the speed and power gain is worth the epidermal loss. Even if this only happens every now and then, I suspect it will NEVER again be as painless as today, and realize I will now need to carry some kind of first aid kit as well as the other stuff I'm packing. (And indeed, I might go for knee and elbow pads if they weren't so inconvenient.) So I might have some SPD pedals and $115 Keenes for sale soon...
I gotta start getting out earlier--the headwind is really obnoxious in the afternoon (and practically nonexistent in the morning).
Well, I took that first tumble with the cleats in the pedals. Coming up to a cross street, I saw a lady with a kid stop to wait for me, then I continued up and saw a car coming from the other way. Mixing up the signals from the brain, I hit the brake instead of twisting out, and found myself on the ground quicker than you can think it. Amazingly, I have only a skinned knee and bruised ego to show for it, and was able to get back on and ride the eight miles home from there.
I might try riding with regular shoes again, by way of comparison. I'm not sure the speed and power gain is worth the epidermal loss. Even if this only happens every now and then, I suspect it will NEVER again be as painless as today, and realize I will now need to carry some kind of first aid kit as well as the other stuff I'm packing. (And indeed, I might go for knee and elbow pads if they weren't so inconvenient.) So I might have some SPD pedals and $115 Keenes for sale soon...
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
biking
382.6; 23.9
Really had to kinda force myself to get out there, and it was later (=windier) in the day when I finally did get out. Still, went farther than what I thought of as "minimum."
Lost, Season 3. Got the last disc today. This series is just so strange... sometimes seeming almost solely for the sake of being strange... like the writers throw in all these additional plot elements and story arcs just to see how many they can throw in and how far out they can get, perhaps not even considering if, when, or how they will wrap it all up at the end. But even while I'm shaking my head in disbelief, I'm laughing and enjoying the ride--not unlike Sawyer and Charley with Hurley in the episode with the microbus. Then too there are Harold Perrineau and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, both excellent in Oz and welcome on my TV screen anytime. Season 4 to be queued up ASAP!
Really had to kinda force myself to get out there, and it was later (=windier) in the day when I finally did get out. Still, went farther than what I thought of as "minimum."
Lost, Season 3. Got the last disc today. This series is just so strange... sometimes seeming almost solely for the sake of being strange... like the writers throw in all these additional plot elements and story arcs just to see how many they can throw in and how far out they can get, perhaps not even considering if, when, or how they will wrap it all up at the end. But even while I'm shaking my head in disbelief, I'm laughing and enjoying the ride--not unlike Sawyer and Charley with Hurley in the episode with the microbus. Then too there are Harold Perrineau and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, both excellent in Oz and welcome on my TV screen anytime. Season 4 to be queued up ASAP!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Foot Bondage (not the Good Kind [If There Is a Good Kind])
Bike 2 (and they'll pretty much all be Bike 2 unless noted from now on I think): 358.7; 18.8.
Continuing with the innuendo titles here. Has anyone else commented on how the word "innuendo" is itself something of an innuendo? At least when used in reference to Italian sodomy...
Today I tried out the new Keen sandals with cleats that firmly affix my feet to the pedals. To get out, with this brand, you have to twist your heel outward. NO OTHER MOTION WILL GET YOU OUT OF THOSE PEDALS, and YOU WILL FALL OVER WITH YOUR FEET STILL FIXED TO THE PEDALS. Initially, the pedals were adjusted so tight that I had to stop, get off the bike, and step out of the shoe and wrench it off the pedal by hand--luckily tried this one foot at a time or I'd still be pedaling, afraid to stop, miles away from here or simply going in circles. Once loosened a bit, they work okay, and I think with a little more practice I'll be very happy with them, but boy it's a real test of faith to clip in and go with both feet! In other words, they require some getting used to--but also I suspect that sooner or later I WILL have an accident with them--not IF, but WHEN. I could be wrong.
On the up side, they add all of that upstroke power to your pedalling (that is, while the right foot is pushing down on the right pedal, the left foot is pulling up on the left pedal), and it did seem like I gained a mph or two, especially on uphills when "spinning" in lowish gears.
"Burn After Reading" was a great, funny, entertaining movie. I can't think of any reason not to give it all five stars. Excellent cast, brilliant story, superb dialogue, and many exquisite other superlatives. Also, this might the first movie I've ever seen without any advance knowledge of what it was about (aside from seeing a brief blurb that said it was the Coen brothers' return to comedy). I'm glad we're getting out and seeing movies sometimes.
I was proud (if that's the right word--one must use such caution!) to attend a ceremony yesterday wherein my wife received the precepts at her Zen Center. I know she worked hard all summer at the classes and the homework, and in learning a little bit about it, I find it an exceedingly admirable thing. Respect, T!
I have such a hard time with religion. Lately the dogma of fundamentalists literally makes me teeth-grindingly angry. It is just unfathomable to me how a person can let something so wispy and ethereal drive such hard-nosed beliefs and activities--and even within that, how they so misinterpret the book that holds all of their tenets! How they can let a fellow human--nothing more and perhaps a good deal less--plant a flag in their town and say, "I am God's interpreter on Earth," and then blindly follow. How they can fly in the face of all logic and reason, all out of the hope of a promised eternity in an improbable (and surely insufferable!) heaven and abject fear of an impossible Hell... These people are going to take this country back to the middle ages.
Buddhism, as I've seen it, is an entirely different thing. It all makes eminent sense, the precepts being a great example. My only problems with it, I guess, are the chanting of words I don't understand, and the bowing and rising, bowing and rising, which gives me head-rushes and threatens to make me pass out, and again, I'm not sure what or who I'm bowing to, and that makes me very uncomfortable. I do feel that I could take some time to learn more about it and I would probably be happy and comfortable with it. What I really like about it, something the preceptor said yesterday, something about committing to peace in the world, being yourself a cause of peace in the world... That is something I would like very much to do, and that is what will probably bring me back to the Zen Center. In Buddhism, too, there is virtually none of the "marketing," that need to convert others, that drives Christians et al to make their kids go door to door with pamphlets etc. It is absolutely true that, in the Christian religion(s), those who are innocent of knowledge of heaven and hell and god and jesus are supposedly not sent to hell when they die, and so these devout practitioners think it their duty to inform the innocents, so they CAN go to hell!
Anyway, wrong place perhaps to go off on a religion rant, when really I just want to mark the occasion of Terrie's moment. So here's to my love Junden, doing something very right.
Continuing with the innuendo titles here. Has anyone else commented on how the word "innuendo" is itself something of an innuendo? At least when used in reference to Italian sodomy...
Today I tried out the new Keen sandals with cleats that firmly affix my feet to the pedals. To get out, with this brand, you have to twist your heel outward. NO OTHER MOTION WILL GET YOU OUT OF THOSE PEDALS, and YOU WILL FALL OVER WITH YOUR FEET STILL FIXED TO THE PEDALS. Initially, the pedals were adjusted so tight that I had to stop, get off the bike, and step out of the shoe and wrench it off the pedal by hand--luckily tried this one foot at a time or I'd still be pedaling, afraid to stop, miles away from here or simply going in circles. Once loosened a bit, they work okay, and I think with a little more practice I'll be very happy with them, but boy it's a real test of faith to clip in and go with both feet! In other words, they require some getting used to--but also I suspect that sooner or later I WILL have an accident with them--not IF, but WHEN. I could be wrong.
On the up side, they add all of that upstroke power to your pedalling (that is, while the right foot is pushing down on the right pedal, the left foot is pulling up on the left pedal), and it did seem like I gained a mph or two, especially on uphills when "spinning" in lowish gears.
"Burn After Reading" was a great, funny, entertaining movie. I can't think of any reason not to give it all five stars. Excellent cast, brilliant story, superb dialogue, and many exquisite other superlatives. Also, this might the first movie I've ever seen without any advance knowledge of what it was about (aside from seeing a brief blurb that said it was the Coen brothers' return to comedy). I'm glad we're getting out and seeing movies sometimes.
I was proud (if that's the right word--one must use such caution!) to attend a ceremony yesterday wherein my wife received the precepts at her Zen Center. I know she worked hard all summer at the classes and the homework, and in learning a little bit about it, I find it an exceedingly admirable thing. Respect, T!
I have such a hard time with religion. Lately the dogma of fundamentalists literally makes me teeth-grindingly angry. It is just unfathomable to me how a person can let something so wispy and ethereal drive such hard-nosed beliefs and activities--and even within that, how they so misinterpret the book that holds all of their tenets! How they can let a fellow human--nothing more and perhaps a good deal less--plant a flag in their town and say, "I am God's interpreter on Earth," and then blindly follow. How they can fly in the face of all logic and reason, all out of the hope of a promised eternity in an improbable (and surely insufferable!) heaven and abject fear of an impossible Hell... These people are going to take this country back to the middle ages.
Buddhism, as I've seen it, is an entirely different thing. It all makes eminent sense, the precepts being a great example. My only problems with it, I guess, are the chanting of words I don't understand, and the bowing and rising, bowing and rising, which gives me head-rushes and threatens to make me pass out, and again, I'm not sure what or who I'm bowing to, and that makes me very uncomfortable. I do feel that I could take some time to learn more about it and I would probably be happy and comfortable with it. What I really like about it, something the preceptor said yesterday, something about committing to peace in the world, being yourself a cause of peace in the world... That is something I would like very much to do, and that is what will probably bring me back to the Zen Center. In Buddhism, too, there is virtually none of the "marketing," that need to convert others, that drives Christians et al to make their kids go door to door with pamphlets etc. It is absolutely true that, in the Christian religion(s), those who are innocent of knowledge of heaven and hell and god and jesus are supposedly not sent to hell when they die, and so these devout practitioners think it their duty to inform the innocents, so they CAN go to hell!
Anyway, wrong place perhaps to go off on a religion rant, when really I just want to mark the occasion of Terrie's moment. So here's to my love Junden, doing something very right.
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