Another Fried-day post

Today is 11 September, 2009. It has been eight years since an event that will be a landmark in our psyche for generations to come--the falling of the World Trade Center towers. Much as my parents' generation can to this day remember where they were when they learned of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I will remember where I was when I learned that hijackers had flown aircraft into the Trade Center Towers.

Indeed, I remember many things in terms of "before" and "soon after" the WTC disaster.


In the last ten days, Jenn and I have ridden more than 125 miles on the tandem. We are preparing to ride the Old Kentucky Home Tour this weekend. Indeed, I should already be in bed asleep. I'm apparently waiting for the sister of my stepdaughters' father to arrive on a social call. It's 2300 hours as I type this, and I was under the impression that she'd arrive some time ago. Oh, well, it's only sleep. My gear is mostly packed, aside from things I need tonight that I must pack tomorrow morning. I've discussed the time line for the morning. We'll see how that goes.

At any rate, over the holiday weekend, we got to log more than a hundred miles on the tandem, in a variety of situations. Saturday evening was "country riding" time--we rode the LBC ride out of Bluegrass Bicycle for 25 or so miles, then rode north out Glenarm Road to Hall's Hill Road for some hill practice of our own (climbing Old Zaring's narrow section is great practice). That was good for a total of about forty miles. On Sunday, we rode the LBC afternoon 25-miler, which gave us some practice at stoplights and some time at steady-state motoring along on River Road. Monday morning, we rode to the Mayor's Hike and Bike event, and got some practice at riding on wet roads in rain. The rain stopped soon enough that the event itself was under clear skies, and a good time was had by almost all. After the ride, we rode home, had lunch, then rode out to Lyndon to help with rider packet preparation for this weekend's Old Kentucky Home Tour.

Our plans for OKHT are to ride the seventy-some mile route, deciding at some point whether we are up to riding the century route, and hoping to do so. I am looking forward to that. It would be Jenn's first century ride, and it's a challenging first century route for anyone. It should be a bit easier for her on the tandem. I don't know whether it will be harder on me or easier. I'm sure my average speed will be down a bit from my average speed on my Strada, but I expect I'll have a great time anyway.

Late in March, Jenn proposed to me. The original plan was for us to marry on 9 September, the day before yesterday. Other events prompted a change of plans, and we married on 17 July. We chose to recognize 9 September in our own way, sitting under a neat tree in George Rogers Clark Park for a while and exchanging rings that are indeed ours, not borrowed from each other or whomever. My ring is a size 14...

And the ride to and from the park was good for another eighteen or twenty miles.

I'm settling into the new job duties--it's sort-of official, now, that I'm the Service Manager at Bluegrass Bicycle! I'm sure things will take all sorts of turns and twists (or is that twists and turns?) as we decide what my responsibilities are and how I will discharge my duties (and delegate stuff).

And, tandem preparation goes on apace. After a thorough drivetrain tuning Sunday morning, Jenn and I took it out to see a bit of the Ironman competition and shake out the bike a bit. We rode something like thirty miles, mostly at a fairly relaxed pace, and had NONE of the shifting problems I'd had Saturday. We even got the front computer calibrated correctly (I think--I'm going to check it at least once more in the next few days). We'll have to see how the rear computer calibration compares to the front one, and adjust it accordingly, of course. I have new brake pads for the bike, as the owner mentioned he'd like for the brakes to be quieter and I've learned of a pad that may be quieter AND have better stopping power (always a good thing to have that latter one), compared to what is on the bike now. The current pads are not terribly noisy at the moment, but I had done some adjusting to their positioning before riding the bike the other day, and I don't know how they were with the owner.

He and I talked of the kickstand that is made for the bike, but we will likely hold off on getting that--it's pricey, and the lack of it doesn't hurt how the bike rides.

I've started riding to work again. Before riding home Tuesday, I spoke with Jenn, and since she was still at her workplace, offered to ride by there and ride home with her. It was a slight detour for me, as opposed to a ride in the opposite direction from home as it had been with my last job, so it was a good thing. I like riding with her, whether we are on singles or on a tandem. Good thing, considering we're married! ;-)

Lots of cycling-related undercurrents afoot, too: I'm now on the city's "E-Team" for bicycle education, and will be working on helping create a Bike Ambassador program in the coming months.

Where's he been?

Not sure why I haven't been posting of late, but it's probably a combination of things, as such things tend to be. My current job doesn't have the dead periods I had at the apartment building, so I don't post from work. I've not had anything dramatic happen on the roads of late, save for some surprising leg cramps on the club ride Saturday afternoon. We as a nation lost a champion the other day, but I never felt a personal connection with Ted Kennedy and aside from a community loss, don't feel as personally deprived.

On the other hand, a couple of cool things have come down the pike. Jenn and I will be riding OKHT on a tandem this year--BOTH DAYS! We borrowed a tandem for the second day last year, so that I could ride the century and she could volunteer at a sag stop. Our volunteer duties are such that we can ride this year, and we have borrowed a different bike for the ride (and some fair bit of riding beforehand).

The bike we're on this year is one of the first RANS Screamers to hit Louisville. I took the order for this bike in March of 2001. When they came to pick it up, Bill brought the family to the bicycle store, and asked me if we had any tandems to rent. I told him that we might be able to work out something on the BikeE E2 on display, and Bill asked if we had something a bit sportier. I suggested that he might want to look at the new bike beside me, mostly hidden from the view of one just entering the store. Bill brought Kate over, and murmured something along the lines of "Happy Anniversary, Honey."

Kate almost hit the floor in shock...

Anyway, we get to use the bike for a few weeks. Jenn is stoked at being the stoker--she really enjoys being back there pedaling away while I manage the bike.

I felt compelled to ride the John Carr tribute/fund-raising ride today. I didn't know John, but as a fellow cyclist, his death by motorist was a terrible event for me.

It was good to see so may riders out there today. I was somewhere near the latter half of the group, and enjoyed seeing the large front groups go by the other way on Northwestern Parkway.

The C-J article said something like "over a hundred" cyclists were on hand. I would say they under-estimated, by more than half, how many were there.

Uh-Oh

A writer to the editor of the Tuesday, 18 August C-J all but named names when referring to a pack of scofflaw cyclists. The letter writer would not have had names to enable public calling out of miscreants, but it will be easy to figure out who was at fault. I wish there was a meaningful enforcement we could do...

‘Safe' bicyclists?

Last Sunday morning while heading to church services around 7:40 a.m., my wife and I encountered a group of bicyclists (which we assumed was some sort of club because several had the name “Mad Dogs” on their jerseys) who were pedaling through downtown La Grange.

Over a four-block stretch, this group of “safe” bicyclists blew through three stop signs, rode four and five abreast and zigged and zagged in and out of the two northbound lanes, which had been reduced to one lane for construction at the railroad tracks at Main Street (where they also failed to stop).

Then, as their final insult to traffic laws, these “special people” continued straight (north) on Highway 53 at the intersection of Highway 146 from the “right turn only” lane, also without stopping at the four-way stop sign.

In this four-block stretch, we did not notice one person driving a motor vehicle ignore the traffic laws or who even gestured to these lunatics about their disregard for traffic laws or about their rudeness. And isn't it curious that we keep hearing from the ultra-loud bicycle community about how motorists who disobey the traffic laws create issues for them.

Some of the riders are among those I call "friends." The ride captain, if who I think it was, is a close friend.

Within the club, there is a "obey the law, wink, wink," mentality. I am not immune to it, but I'm more careful about it than many. Part of my caution has manifested itself in doing fewer club rides and more solo (i.e. commuting) riding.

Oh, well. Off to work for the day.

Fried-day post of the week

Not much happening today at home. I got to have lunch with the Bike Louisville team today, to see what is happening in terms of bike-friendly stuff. Drove out to Crestwood to haul back Jenn's fast bike (we keep it there during the week for demonstration purposes), and a wheel from a repair that has been problematic. I was hoping to remove the freewheel at a shop by the house, but they don't have the right freewheel tool, either. I may have to make a stop at the Big S in Middletown on the way out to the shop tomorrow morning, meaning a drive to work instead of riding.

Yep, I'm doing the bike-fixing thing again as my main employment. It's working out pretty well, although I expect I'll be encouraging a few operational changes over the coming months.

One of my side conversations today at the lunch involved the possibility of turning my skill set into a part-time gig with the city's Bike Louisville team. Could happen, depending on the funding sources they find. We'll see. Anything involving money coming from the city is always a "don't believe it until I get the money" thing.

At least the bikes are behaving.

I took the Raleigh out Tuesday for a jaunt, to get in some miles for the heck of miles. Made the trip take on multiple purposes, though, as I needed to get cat food and cat litter (thus dealing with the ins and outs of having cats in the house, AND justifying pulling the trailer around), and it gave me an excuse to take David his repaired rear wheel for Nermal. On the way home, I stopped at the Kroger on US42 in the Clifton area for a few more groceries (jug of distilled water, some lunch stuff, etc), and had about forty or fifty pounds in the trailer when I left there. As I was leaving, another customer called me to arrange drop-off of a wheel set for rebuilding (new rims for a tandem! YAY!), so I hustled home. For the heck of it, I went up the first cross street I found that I thought would take me to Frankfort Avenue--I think it was Jane Street. Boy, is that a chain-strainer with a trailer attached! I was pulling on the handlebars to make that last bit of climb--I don't know what the grade is, but it's fairly steep--even for walkers!

Rain, rain, go away

We've had too darned much rain this year. Last night's storms added to the woes of many in our area who have to deal with bailing water from last week's flash floods. Local entities, including our public library, have millions of dollars in damages caused by the six-inch deluge we had in about two hours last week.

And other parts of the country are facing droughts--again, or still. I heard somewhere that the entire state of Texas is under an outdoor fire ban, although I've not substantiated the claim.

It's a shame we can't send them some of our rain...

Club picnic

Today was the Louisville Bicycle Club's annual picnic, held at the Farnsley-Moreman grounds in the southwestern part of the county.

Jenn and I opted to ride the "show and go" offered by a couple other club members, meeting at the Yellow Lot for Waterfront Park and riding to the picnic. We used a mixture of surface streets and the River Walk extension and Levee Trail to get there.

We also opted to take some salad and a couple gallons of lemonade to share, best hauled in a cooler, along with some lawn chairs, all of which fit handily in the trailer, so I pulled the trailer all day. The payload probably weighed about fifty pounds, and I was starting to get tired of pulling it. Since the ride was mostly flat, I never really got to coast--always a knock against really flat rides for me anyway--so before returning home, I dumped as much weight as I could.

It was hot, and we had a headwind a good portion of the way there. It was hotter on the way home, although the headwind was not as much of an issue.

Still, we were both glad to get home--it was a long, hot ride home for both of us, even if I'm better able to deal with heat than Jenn is.

Today is her day

Today is the day my ex got married, according to posts her fiance made a few weeks ago.

Better him than me. I'm a much happier person than I was when I was with my now-ex-girlfriend. That happiness allowed me to find Jenn, and we are doing well together.

I briefly entertained the notion of driving down to her folks' house, just to see if the wedding was happening there. Aside from the waste of gas, I figured the other likely outcome would be something involving a shotgun, so I went to work instead.

New toy

Well, maybe toy isn't the right word.

I've been watching places like Craigslist and a few consignment shops for a trailer, to haul more groceries by bike than I had been able to do. I saw a Trek Transit a few weeks ago, but before I could get back to buy it, it was gone.

I wanted something that would connect to the chainstay of the bike rather than to the axle, to better enable moving the trailer from bike to bike (among the three bikes in the garage that get used for utility stuff). I saw one close to home that was in the price range, but it was axle-connect.

There was one on Craigslist that seemed like it would work. It was out in Valley Station, so knowing the main question to ask, I called. As it sounded like it would work, I drove out and had a look.

I now have a cheap bike trailer, and have already done a grocery run with it, hauling home some bulky stuff I would not have hauled as easily with panniers.

My next task will be to drive out to the shop, as Barry's frame has arrived, and I've contracted to assemble it for him. Jenn plans on riding some long-for-her miles tomorrow, so I'll bring her Bacchetta home, too.

I've worked at the shop most of the week so far (all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, most of the day Monday), and it was good to be busy instead of sitting around the house.

This and that

As with other things, I wanted to tell some folks face-to-face first.

Now that that is largely done, and now that it's online anyway (I put up a Facebook page the other day, just to see what the buzz was, and Jenn linked to it from HER Facebook page, and it "told" all her friends that she hadn't yet told, and...)...

Part of the fallout from my job loss is that I was faced with doing the COBRA thing for health insurance. Getting insurance through Jenn's employer would be less expensive and gain better coverage (they are far larger than my prior employer, so got a better group rate), so we sped up our plans a bit. Instead of waiting until the intended 09/09/09, we went ahead and married on 7/17/09. Instead of having the 9/9/9 thing going, Jenn got two primes and a square (no prizes for guessing who is which).

I've been married for a bit more than two weeks, now. Each morning, when I get up, I've set another record for how long I've ever been married (this is my first marriage).

It's all good.

On the employment front: I've been working part-time for Bluegrass Bicycle for some time--about two years--on an "on call" basis, consulting with him to help make his shop more solid, and so on. We've decided to get a bit more in-depth with this, as I have found I really miss the "Bike Biz." I am, as the saying goes, "all about getting people on bikes," and being in a shop again will give me a much-missed venue for feeding that part of my psyche.

I rode the club rides Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Did some errand-running on the Raleigh last night. I'll probably use the Vanguard for the class tonight--the lessons are on rock dodging and quick turns.

Get the torches and pitchforks

A participant in the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Park Triathlon held this morning was hit and killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver. There is an article on it on the Courier-Journal's web site, and I'm sure there are other articles on other local news stations' sites.

The photo of the driver at fault (allegedly) shows a young man whose life has changed dramatically since a month ago. Ten or eleven days ago, he was cited for driving under the influence, and was awaiting a court date on that offense when he and a buddy chose to drink and smoke dope all night (according to quotes in the paper's article), then run over a cyclist on his way home this morning. I have no pity whatsoever for the driver.

Predictably, there are a few posts along the lines of "get the damned bikes off the road this wouldn't happen," all of which ignore (of course) that it happens to passengers in other cars quite often.

Damn.

The Big C misses one

My mother is one step closer to considering herself a breast cancer survivor. This is a good thing!

Her diagnosis was met with the customary, "what now?" and "why me?" feelings, along with some heavy depression. Let's face it: It was scary at best.

On the other hand, her prognosis was always better than that many face. The cancer was low-grade, it was operable, and they could do radiation treatments only rather than the full battery of radiation and chemo. Her last radiation treatment for her program was earlier today.

Still, the radiation treatment program and the accompanying healing has made her extremely tired. All the time. As in, she takes a nap every day, something I never remember my mom doing unless she was very sick.

I'm not as worried now as I was, although there is still that chance that some cancerous cell escaped the wrath of the wroentgens [sic, I know, but alliterative, and no apologies for the pun].

On her way home, she stopped by the house to celebrate for just a moment, and so that she could meet her new grand-cat. Captain Kangaroo Jack Sparrow (the cat) was reluctant to come out, but tolerated the pets from Mom and my sister before going back into hiding for a while.

I'm glad she got the chance to see her grand-kitties again. I'm glad she's going to be a survivor. It goes without saying that I'd much rather have her around than an insurance settlement.

A few more miles

Wow. After a season that has mostly been "ride to work, ride home from work, MAYBE ride an evening club ride for somewhere in the 11-25 mile range," I've had a high-mileage month for a darned change.

I rode the Madison Century on July 4 (actually, I think it was 96 or 98 miles). I rode RAIN (160 miles). And I rode the club century today (112 miles).

For today's ride, I even rode to the ride start point AND home from the start point (rather than breaking off near home and taking that little shortcut of ten miles or so). My total for the day is 125 miles. My rolling average speed was 17.2--not exactly the 20.2 of RAIN, but on a much hillier course.

Today's route was essentially the course used for the Ironman triathlon in August. There was a seminar of some sort in town this weekend, and many riders attending that seminar had planned to ride the course yesterday, but had been rained out. They were out there today. There were a LOT of people on bicycles on those roads today.

Larry, Ed and I rode together again. Toward the end of the ride, Ed was having leg cramp problems. I'm too familiar with leg cramps--I get them from time to time and haven't completely solved the problem, although in my case, they tend to result from under-fueling unless I'm really over-using the muscles (as if riding thirteen mile each way commuting for several months then going to long hard fast miles is not abusing the muscles just a wee bit...). I even had a couple minor cramps today, but nothing I couldn't ride through and work out as I rode. I felt bad for Ed, though, knowing quite well how painful the cramps can be.

Still, the three of us ride well together, sharing pulling/drafting duties.

Oh, and if we hadn't had all those dratted flat tires today, we probably would have been back to the lot forty-five minutes earlier. Ed had a flat early in the ride, after he and I had hit a pot hole on River Road. Right as we get his tire fixed and all the bike bags zipped, I discovered that my own front tire was very soft, so I unpacked my bag again to change my own tube. Between the first store stop and the lunch stop, Larry had his own front tire go down. The p*nt*r* f**ry had it in for us today, pure and simple.

Blah week

As mentioned previously, I'm out of work. It's depressing, but not as bad as the job I had. I really didn't like being there, and being home feels much better.

I've taken some time this week to just veg out a bit. Did some errands, got a few odds and ends done, but haven't worked hard at anything. There is stuff to do, of course--laundry that needs to be done, a job search to organize and begin, computer issues I now have time to address--but little emotional energy to do them.

In short, the job had sucked a lot of my energy away, in ways I hadn't fully recognized. It may take a while to regroup, but I need to do it. I need to feel productive--something I haven't felt for a long time in the work environment. I had a few moments of "oh, this works" when a property manager, but they were too few, and too often offset by the drudgery of trying to convince someone whose income fits in that narrow range required by the set up of the apartment building that this is THE place to live, and oh, by the way, you also have to pay the rent on time each month. The sob story about your car dying, causing you to lose your job four miles away, doesn't go very far with someone who rides a bike thirteen miles to get to work. Your insistence that you keep your word to make up late payments doesn't say much when the signature on your lease is, to put it bluntly, your word that you will pay on time. Going to court to evict you for not paying your rent does NOT make me happy.

Oh, well. That's behind me. I've been saying that, aside from the loss of income, I'm already in a better place than I was two weeks ago. I still have friends and family on whom I can rely for moral and immoral support. I have Jenn. I have my bicycles, so I can get around. I qualify for unemployment compensation, so while the money will be tight for a while, I can still breathe and eat a bit and keep a roof over my head, for a few months, anyway.

I put the car away the other day, and aside from driving to Okolona for a Chiropractic appointment, have not driven it since Monday. I probably could have ridden to Okolona, but it was raining, and I really wasn't in the mood to deal with being soggy all day. For my errands on Tuesday and yesterday, though, I rode. So that I could do my errands wearing a kilt instead of p@nt$, I rode the Raleigh.

One of my errands was a visit to the St Matthews Police Department. During a ride I was captaining a few years ago, I enjoyed striking up a casual friendship with the Assistant Chief of that department, Major Kathy Eigelbach. I've chatted with her from time to time over the last couple years, especially now that I live in St Matthews. There was a blurb in the paper recently informing us that she is retiring soon from that department. I went by to congratulate her on her retirement. While I was there, she made sure I got to say hello to one of their long-standing officers, Debbie Marasa, who I had known in high school. It was good to see them both, and good to have positive interaction with police officers. I doubt I'll need any special favors from them in the future, but their knowing me can't hurt anything.

Weekend RAIN report

I rode RAIN (Ride Across INdiana) over the weekend. If you've not heard of it, it's a one-day, one-way ride from the western edge of Indiana, near Terre Haute, to Earlham College in Richmond, on the eastern edge of the state. This was my sixth time over the last seven years.

My riding partner each year has been Larry Preble. Last year, Ed Scharfenberger joined our team, and returned this year. Each of us rides a Bacchetta--Larry a Corsa, Ed a 2008 Strada, and I my customized 2002 Strada. One of the things we enjoy on this ride is hearing some of the comments from other riders on the course, like, "This guy's in a hurry on that laid-back bike...oh, so is his friend, on HIS laid-back bike...wow, here's a third one!" as we go past a cluster of DF riders. Of course, there are those who get all parochial on us, and have to try to prove to themselves and all around them that THEY won't get passed by some old coot on a 'bent, even if that "old coot" is younger and stronger than they are and on more efficient bicycles to boot...

Our ride was not marred by flats this year (Ed had one last year in downtown Terre Haute, Larry had one a few years ago near Franklin), nor by overly-severe cramps (although both Larry and Ed experienced some painful cramps, they didn't have to get off their bikes for long--I fared better this year than they did). We didn't see any bicycle crashes, although we did see one rider being attended by EMS shortly before lunch.

Our ride pace was good this year, although not a personal best. Any time three guys (including this out of shape guy who has done precisely one century since September of last year) can average 20.2 miles an hour over 162 miles is a good ride.

We did witness a disaster for a motorcyclist, though. We were stopped at a stop sign, waiting for a safe opportunity to cross IN 267 south of I-70 a bit after the second rest stop in Plainfield. A southbound motorist slowed, as if to allow us to cross. A northbound motorcyclist slowed dramatically, for reasons we couldn't decipher. A northbound motorist failed to notice that the motorcycle had slowed, and hit him from behind at high enough a speed that the motorcycle was shunted some hundred feet or more, the rider tossed in the air like a rag doll to land behind the car as it passed under him. The driver apparently froze on the gas pedal, and careened off the road through a fence into a nearby field.

Larry's account, as posted on the KYCYCLIST listserver, includes some links to Google Maps and their surface views of the intersection, albeit at a time far removed from when we were there:

Sixty-Eight miles into the ride, in Plainfield, Indiana, we were stopped
here, waiting for traffic: http://crashscene1.notlong.com Just behind where
you see the white car in the picture, a large motorcycle was coming to a
stop, close to the shoulder of the road, when a small sedan barreled into
him from behind at high speed. The motorcycle was hurled more than a
hundred feet forward, smashing into pieces while the motorcyclist was
catapulted into a back flip straight up in the air about 15 feet. The driver
must have panicked at that point, because as her vehicle passed under the
airborne rider, she hit the accelerator instead of the brake sending her
crashing through the fence and at least 300 feet off into the adjacent
field. The rider completed a half turn in midair and slammed down onto the
pavement striking his shoulder and his head. Unfortunately, the motorcycle
rider was not wearing a helmet. The point of impact was here,
http://crashscene2.notlong.com, just to the right of the medium-sized bush
in the center of the picture. The car continued into the field, here on the
right. http://crashscene3.notlong.com. And here is an overhead view of the
scene: http://crashscene4.notlong.com. We were stopped at the intersection
to the left, travelling West to East. The collision was just South of the
intersection, travelling South to North.

It was harrowing to see the rider flying in the air as he was. It was scary to see his injuries, although there were others more qualified to help on hand soon after, and I stayed out of their way. What really got to me, though, and bothers me still, was witnessing the man's struggle against the aid workers who were trying to get him immobilized in preparation for transport. He was coming to, in immense pain, couldn't really tell what was happening, and despite the efforts of those workers to tell him what was happening, they couldn't get into his consciousness that they were trying to help him. He was yelling and fighting their efforts for some time before we left, and still was when we left him to the care of EMS and fire department folks.

I've not been able to find any news reports on the incident to link here. I wonder whether he survived, or how he's doing. It's going to be a rough row to hoe for him for a long time, if he ever does recover.

The driver who hit him was inconsolable, sobbing over and over, "I didn't even SEE him." None of us wanted to talk to her, each for his own reasons--most were focused on aiding the motorcyclist or keeping cars out of the crash site. I could not have said anything approaching, "there, there, it's going to be okay." It was most certainly NOT okay, nor would it be any time soon. Her inattentiveness had cost someone a lot of time with a family member, and perhaps cost that motorcyclist his life. The car she was driving had a HUGE dent in the front end from the impact with the bike--it was a big heavy cruiser-type motorcycle--and her repair bill on the car would likely be in excess of the car's value. I didn't have to scold her, either, as she will live with what she'd done for the rest of her life, which seems more punishment than I'm authorized to mete out to anyone.

Needless to say, our ride pace was a bit subdued for a while after that.

I'm glad to be alive.

chance meeting

On my way home yesterday, as I neared the bridge, I encountered a couple who were bicycle-touring. They had missed a turn, so I helped them with that. They were excited to see my Ryan with the panniers mounted, initially thinking me also a touring rider. I told them I was commuting, of course, but we got to talk a few moments about their trip before a motorist interrupted our conversation to ask me about my bike.

With the interruption, I didn't get to talk more with them than to find out they had left New York (not sure where in New York, upstate or wherever), ridden to Florida then to California then up toward Washington state before heading home via Jeffersonville IN. They were on their way to Charlestown Indiana via Utica, from what I could tell, but we never got to discuss, "Why Charlestown?" They may have been going to visit David, for all I know, but I had no way to know.

They had been out ten months--what a trip to remember!

As mentioned, a motorist interrupted our visit to ask me about my bicycle. After chatting with him a minute or two more about recumbents and availability of same, I went on home. I wanted to ride the Tuesday evening ride from Burdorf's, as it would be my last opportunity for some hard pushing before RAIN this coming weekend. My average speed for last night's ride was a tick over 19 mph, and the climb up Glenview really slowed me down. I've not been climbing well the last couple seasons, mostly because I haven't been out climbing a lot the last couple of seasons.

Maybe I can work on that a bit in the coming weeks...

Well, phooey

It is with mixed emotions that I type this. I was told this morning that it is clear I have been unhappy doing what I've been doing for employment for the last eleven months, and that because I've been unhappy, my employer fears I have one foot in the door and one foot out. Rather than worry that I'll walk out at any time, they decided that it's time for me to find something else to do for income. I now also have more time to look for a more suitable position.

To be frank about it, aside from the loss of income in this economy, my biggest regret is that they beat me to the punch. I am, and have been, certain that being a property manager in an apartment building is far from the best use of my talents and interests. It's true: I don't like being a property manager. I'm not interested in being a social worker for fifty or sixty of society's misfits, such as are the tenants attracted to this building. I don't like being a bill collector. The paperwork is stultifying.

I had something like two weeks' worth of paid time off accrued, and I get that (of course, I'll probably be taxed at a higher rate since it's coming to me with my next paycheck). I am surprised that I got forty-eight hours' notice of my impending termination--that is out of character. I can't believe the boss would expect a whole lot of productivity today or tomorrow.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts to put down as the day goes on.

With the class on Mondays, I'm tight enough on time that I usually drive to work. Today, though, I got to ride the Vanguard.

I ordered a new rear tire for it the other day, after changing a punctured tube last Monday evening and deciding the tire tread was thin enough that I was going to have trouble soon. I don't know why the tire would be worn out, it's only been on there for seven years or so, and only has six or so thousand miles on it...

The new tire should arrive today or tomorrow.

I got to ride more of the new pavement in N'Awb'ny this morning. Smooth is good. They've painted it, too. I wish repaving wasn't such an ecological disaster!

I will probably ride the club ride this evening, and hit it pretty hard, given that it will be my last chance to ride hard before RAIN this weekend. I've not figured out how to control my conditioning so that I can decide to have an "on" day some time in advance and actually have that on day when the time comes. I'll have to make it happen somehow, though--I'm riding with two guys who are stronger than I am, and keeping up with them will be a challenge. Oh, well. Maybe our fourth guy will slow us down a bit...

New family member

...and I didn't even realize we were expecting!

Even before we had to euthanize Al E Qat a few months ago, Jenn had mentioned that she wanted to eventually have a black cat.

Having "only" three cats, instead of the accustomed four we had for almost a year, seemed out of balance for Jenn. We talked about letting the number decrease over time by attrition, but apparently that got over-ridden as well.

The Feeder's Supply near us has a few cats for adoption, from the KY Humane Society. One cat they had was black, with medium-length fur (well, it all will be when it grows back out--they had to cut out some mats in his fur...). His name was Chance, but he has been renamed to reflect fondness for some fictional characters Jenn and I have both enjoyed over the years. Captain Kangaroo Jack Sparrow now lives with us.

He's a sweet-natured cat--has a nice purr, enjoys pets (to the point that he drools), understands some basic people-to-cat communications ("kitty, kitty" works well with Cap'n, as one casual name might be).

Early attempts at photography with him remind me of the challenge of taking pictures of a black cat in a coal bin with available light.

So far, the only objections have been from Stoker, possibly due to Cap'n's name implying that Stoker will STILL not get to be King Cat in our household (with Al's passing, Stoker felt ascension was his, until I told him he couldn't be King Cat unless he was nicer to Jerry, another of our cats. In the tradition of cats the world over, he ignored me...).

Stoker's objection could have simply been to a strange cat, without any of the anthropomorphizing, for that matter.

He'll have to get over it.

Another Fried-day

especially if one is on some of that new pavement in "N'Awb'ny."

The morning low was 74 or so, but my t-shirt was quite sweaty by the time I got to the office this morning. Glad I brought a spare.

Today is our agency's "dress down" day, meaning that folks get to wear jeans and t-shirts, provided the t-shirt message is in keeping with corporate guidelines (no obnoxious stuff, but Repair Affair shirts or shirts from Big Brothers/Big Sisters, United Way, etc are quite welcome). It is also the day of the week when I get to wear a kilt if I choose (Don't get me started on this one), so I rode the Raleigh, kilted.

My signature line on kilt forums is, "Lovin' the breeze 'tween m'knees" for a reason.

The repaving work in N'Awb'ny is moving along well, from what I can see. What I've ridden of it is quite an improvement from the assortment of patches, potholes, cracks from freeze/thaw cycle heaving and such. Heck, even the chewed-down pavement was an improvement in some places.

I still have qualms about fresh asphalt and its effect on the environment, but smooth roads sure beat what was there.

New Pavement in N'Awb'ny!

On my way to work this morning, I saw some of the new pavement that is being poured on the roads I travel. It's N-i-i-i-ce!

I've not toured all the work zones yet--I was on my way to work, after all. Not all the work is done, anyway. But there is smooth riding on at least some of the streets I frequent, and more on the way.

This is the third day I've ridden the Raleigh to work this week. The Vanguard had a leaky tube in the rear tire, and when I changed that the other night, I noted that the rear tire is about worn out. It will go another several trips, but I want to minimize use for a while, just in case.

On my way home Tuesday, I picked up tickets to the Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan show at Slugger Field. I stopped on the way home from work to enjoy the show. It made for a long day, but the show was quite good. The bike got locked to the bike rack in front of Browning's, and was just as I'd left it when I returned to it after the show. Jenn had used TARC to get her bike downtown, and she and I rode home together--always a good thing.

Tuesday

I rode the Raleigh today. I had a training session at the main office, then pedaled my way to N'Awb'ny. Spring Street, the last end of Providence Way, Silver Street, Beharrel Street and others have had a couple inches of asphalt ground off them in preparation for repaving. As noted, I have mixed feelings about repaving, but I will enjoy the new pavement when riding. The ground-off roads give a buzz through the handlebars and seat, and if the grinding lines aren't straight, they tend to alter my path a bit, which can be disconcerting. I'll be glad when they get done with it.

I thought about going on the 6:30 club ride this evening, but I'm expecting a friend to bring some stuff by the house. I'm to fetch a tandem tomorrow evening for some preventive maintenance work, and I get to use it for RAIN this year--Barry Zalph may be my stoker for the event.

Pavement

Another factor in whether I'll ride to work over the next few days was brought to my attention on my drive home this afternoon. New Albany (or N'Awb'ny, as I am wont to call it) is doing a LOT of repaving right now, much of it along my commute corridor.

I'm always of mixed minds over pavement renewal. Part of me considers all that oil to be something of an ecological disaster--the oil must leach out of the asphalt at some rate, reducing the cohesion of the pavement. It seems that such would be part of the wear cycle. The fumes around new pavement are pretty rough, too. I couldn't imagine working in that industry as a laborer.

Another, albeit short-term, pain in the axles is that they are reclaiming much of the aggregate. This is a good thing, in the long run, but for a couple days the road surface is very irregular, and not a little hazardous on a bicycle. The coarser surface is bad in a fall, too, should that happen.

Of course, being a small city, N'Awb'ny didn't wait until it REALLY needed to be repaved. There were a couple places yet that had not been patched, and a couple places that had not developed holes, even.

I'm sure, however, that many (including myself) will appreciate the new smooth pavement when the work is done.

At least for a week, after which time someone will have to dig under the street for some reason, leaving a metal plate over the hole for a week or two before making an imperfect patch (with the requisite sink-hole in it).

catching up

Lessee...didn't post much last week--not much to say, really (or maybe it was that there was other stuff happening and I didn't take time to post?).

I got home Monday night--tired. Did some errand-running on the Vanguard Tuesday afternoon. Rode the Vanguard to the main office Wednesday morning, changed into street clothes for what I thought would be a training session, found that I was not given the correct schedule, rode to N'Awb'ny, realized I should have stayed at the main office for another hour and a half for a meeting I should have remembered...

Rode to work Thursday, too, and got to go home early, after an afternoon celebration over passing some recent federal inspections. We were off Friday, so I worked in Mom's yard, as I had done Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I helped my stepfather remove some dead trees (having a dead tree fall is inevitable--whether the timing and direction of the fall is controlled is the issue). Jenn was there with me, and she got to learn to replace fence posts (there are several of them rotted off below ground level after eighteen years in place). We have a few more posts to replace, but ran out of posts.

On Saturday, I rode my first century of the season. Most years, I've ridden at least two or three by now, some years I rode four or five by this time (if one counts the stacking of club rides, say riding to a sixty or seventy-five mile ride starting at 8:00 am followed by riding to a twenty-five mile ride in the afternoon then riding home for about a hundred miles, which I've done in the past). The Madison Century is on the schedule for the weekend closest to July 4th, timed to arrive in Madison Indiana during their annual Regatta (We got to hear a couple of the fast hydroplane boats doing qualification laps as we climbed the hill out of town on US421, but I didn't stay for the fun). By the end of the ride, my average speed was still over eighteen miles an hour! This is good, because I plan to do RAIN in two weeks and want to be sure I'll have the legs for it. Apparently, my bike commuting is keeping me from losing whatever strength I have--surprising since my commute is pretty flat and by century-ride standards very short, not to mention that I'm on a different bike than I use for century rides.

From the ride start/end point in Prospect, I drove to Simpsonville for a July 4th party.

Yesterday, my friend Harry and his wife Sherry held a party to celebrate my engagement to Jenn. It was a great chance for some of Jenn's family and friends to meet some of my family and friends. In keeping with human nature, I suppose, there wasn't a huge amount of cross-conversation, but what did happen was good. At some point over the weekend, I discovered that the Vanguard has developed a leak in the rear tire/tube. I installed a new tube as a teaching moment for the class Monday evening, and have decided that I REALLY need to replace that rear tire. I've also found a broken spoke--something this wheel is not supposed to be doing, although it does see rough service with a lot of weight on it.

Since I'm teaching this afternoon, I'm tight for time after work, and drove today. I have meetings at the main office every morning but Friday this week, which may make riding to work problematic, but I'll see what I can do. My legs don't feel bad at all today--didn't feel bad yesterday, either. I can run the stairs in the apartment building with my usual flair today.

Yep, run the stairs. One of the resident children had some friends over a week or two ago. They were using the elevator to get from the main floor up two floors. I watched them get on the elevator, then ran up to their destination floor and was standing by the elevator by the time the door opened, amazing the friends. The things one does for self-amusement...

Home again

Over the weekend, I became an unofficial member of the RAAM Team Type 2 crew. This is no surprise to me, as I had been contributing from afar from time to time during the race--Jenn would call me to get my perspective on this or that problem, figuring that I was not as tired and thus (or so the hope had it) more able to think the problem through clearly. Hey, some of my input actually helped!

After the fun of meeting many of the crew members and racers Friday morning in Bloomington, I flew to Maryland (via Southwest Airlines) to witness the finish of the team's ride and the joy of their accomplishment.

There were folks who didn't think the team would finish the event. Psh! These guys planned on finishing, and did. They didn't plan on being the first team across the line--their companion squad, Team Type 1, had that plan, however, and executed it nicely--they hold the new RAAM record for 8-man team time! Team Type 2 planned to finish. Their finish was better than they planned--they beat another team. Through it all, however, the ethos of the event is that all teams encourage all other teams.

I was at the finish line for the finish of a couple other teams' rides, and in keeping with this ethos, made lots of noise to congratulate them. It's a hell of an accomplishment to ride 3000 miles in one stage, regardless of how many are on the team.

Jenn repeatedly says she wants to crew again for them next year (when she is awake, that is--sleep deprivation is a hallmark of RAAM). She has quite a few stories from the event, and even more pictures. When we get them online, I'll provide a link on this blog as well.

RAAM heats up

Solo RAAM leader board

Team RAAM leader board

Jenn's parents and I drove up to Bloomington to surprise her during the team's squad changeover. We arrived around 0330, and the team RVs were on site, as was the utility van Jenn has been co-driving a good part of the week. Crew members were moving around, doing their thing, save for a few who were getting some much-needed shut-eye. Jenn was part of that last little group.

A few minutes after we arrived, the team rotation van arrived. Five or ten minutes later, the racer of the moment and the chase car arrived, to much applause. His family was gathered on the sidewalk near the entrance to the time station, which had to be a morale booster for him.

The applause woke Jenn, and I was ready. I watched her stirring around, and moved so that I was partly hidden by the front roof pillar of her van. By the time she opened the door, I was almost in the door zone and greeted her with a big hug--a surprise for her, especially since she had just awakened. She introduced her parents and me to everyone on the team and crew--some more than once in her excitement that we were there.

As one would expect, they have become a very tightly-knit crew over the last several days. This is to be expected, given the intensity and duration of the event, but it's still fun to see, even from the outside. It was also fun to watch the coreography in the set-up and break-down of the equipment used for feeding the team, allowing them to shower a bit, and so on (They don't want to use the lavatory in the RV, as they would then have to dump the tank, which takes too much time).

Jenn's teammates and crewmates appreciated our visit. I'm glad we went.

And I'm flying up to watch their finish tomorrow. Their ETA was something like 0400 Sunday at one point, but has moved up to 0100 Sunday, then 2100 Saturday, after a few fast legs of the journey. They may even beat that ETA, although I suspect the mountainous terrain of western Maryland will make that difficult.

Here it is, Thursday!

I rode the Vanguard to work today, after driving yesterday due to time constraints on the after-work side. I rode the Raleigh Monday, took off Tuesday to ride the Strada, and intend to ride the Vanguard again tomorrow.

I felt faster on the Vanguard than I usually do. I'm not sure why, but I'll take it. The bike felt smoother, somehow. Maybe it's simply that much more comfortable than the Raleigh...

Last night was the fourth and final meeting of the Confident Cycling class I've been teaching. The group started out as twelve folks, a couple couldn't make the last two meetings for various reasons, a few simply dropped out without telling us why, and one had some work issues get in the way, with the result that I signed four certificates last night. I enjoy teaching these classes, but it's also good to be done with it for a little while.

I will be out at my folks' house for a while this evening and tomorrow evening, doing some yard work in preparation for the September festivities being held there. I generally dislike yard work--while it's far more natural than working on bikes or cars, it just isn't me. However, it's worth doing sometimes, and this is such a time.
Edit: change of plans...Jenn is going to be at the RAAM time station in Bloomington Indiana about 0400 Friday. I talked to her today, and she said something along the lines of inviting her folks to come up and watch what she's been doing for the last several days as a crew member. When I mentioned that their ETA in Bloomington was 0445 or so, she figured that neither her folks nor I will make it to see them while they are there. Hehehehehe Of course, it means leaving the house at something like 0100 to meet her folks at 0130, drop off my truck at the office, and drive up to Bloomington, visit for a few minutes or a couple hours, then drive back down.

I'm flying up to Annapolis Saturday morning, to watch the arrival of some of the RAAM teams. I can't wait. It will be my first flight since getting my CPAP machine that helps me manage my apnea, and dealing with that ought to be fun.

Played hookey

I have ridden RAIN for five of the last six years, and had been planning to do so again this year. I've been worried about my long mileage legs, though, as it seems all my riding is commuting--lower speed, lower cadence work on fairly flat terrain (my biggest climb in my commute is Payne Street) for few miles (and less than an hour each trip), compared to 160 miles of flat to gently-rolling terrain at high output for nine hours (well, eight and a piece, plus breaks).

In an effort to get some long miles in, to see if I can do RAIN without pain, I took a personal day today and went for a club ride out of Vettiner Park. The schedule showed a sixty mile ride, but the captain opted to shorten it a bit due to the heat. We went fifty miles.

The route had some good rollers, and a couple of medium- to stout climbs (the largest two being on 1633 just north of Taylorsville and on Seatonville Road just southeast of the end of Billtown Road). My usual RAIN ride partner, Larry Preble, was on hand today, on his *gasp* Trek 2000. He rides the Trek on Tuesdays, usually considering Tuesday his recovery ride day--he doesn't plan on riding hard.

Larry and I have ridden together for several years. One thing that always happens when we ride together is that one or both of us will plan and state intention to ride slower than normal, but we get caught up in trying to keep up with each other, and we end up going fast. One wouldn't know that from my average speed, which was something like 16 or 17 miles an hour, unless one were to look at the grade profile and see all the times I was going five or ten miles an hour instead of twenty-five or my maximum speed of 44.

I went in to this ride looking for information on myself. I wanted to see how my "burn" felt--how my fuel is working for me these days, as I haven't used Perpetuem this year (haven't ridden far enough). I wanted to see how my legs would perform. I wanted to see if I remembered how to pace myself.

It's sort of like riding a bike. You don't truly forget. I'm a bit rusty, but things felt quite smooth today. I sometimes express how my body does during a long or hard ride in terms of fuel burn. I feel a clean burn, or a dirty burn, depending on several factors--what I've eaten that day and for a couple days before, how much I'm drinking and of what during the ride, how clogged I feel--it's a sense that I cannot quite quantify. My burn today felt almost clean, but not quite. It was good, given my time off that bike. Riding to work is surely helping, and more than I thought it would.

If I can work it out, I will take off a few more days between now and RAIN to get some long miles on the bike. My riding partners for RAIN this year, Larry Preble and Ed Scharfenburger, are both very strong riders. It's good that we are on closely matched bikes (Larry has a Bacchetta Corsa, Ed a stock Strada).

Last year, we played leapfrog with a group in matching jerseys, and they were clearly upset that we would take longer breaks than they did and pass them out on the road (darned recumbents aren't supposed to be faster than a wedgie pace line!). We had our own pace line going much of the time, and now that Ed has a full year on his bike (he had had it three or four weeks when we rode RAIN last year), we ought to be able to keep tighter formations for better advantage.

I can't wait!

Seasonal milestones again

I noted another seasonal milestone the other night: Monday or Tuesday evening, I saw my first lightning bugs of the season. In the course of walking the dog, I saw probably fifteen or twenty.

Last night, I had to have seen a hundred of them. It was neat to see.

I was reminded of a couple nights one summer ten or fifteen years ago. I was working for UPS, unloading airplanes for the Next Day operation. When I got off work, I would often go wander in one or another of the local parks for a while to unwind before going home to bed.

One such night, I was in George Rogers Clark Park, across Poplar Level Road from Audobon Hospital. The park has some lovely slopes on both sides of a small creek. I was near the top of one slope, and looking across the creek, there was a veritable wall of trees. In front of that wall of trees, from my perspective, was a shimmering curtain of lightning bugs. It was a wonderful sight.

I rode the Vanguard to work Monday, and the Raleigh Tuesday. The rain Monday left the roads wet enough and the parking lot wet enough that I opted out of having the students do the emergency stop parking lot drill and subsequent bike ride. We did talk about the drills a bit, though, so that the students could at least tinker with the ideas at home.

I was watching the weather forecast Tuesday, but not quite well enough. I had in mind to leave the office early, to beat the heavy weather coming our way, but people kept coming by to see me over one thing or another, and it was after four by the time I left. I got out of New Albany before the rain started hitting me. By the time I crossed 131 from Providence Way to N Clark Boulevard, I was hearing thunder, and seeing an occasional lightning flash. By the time I got to Jeffersonville, I was seeing frequent flashes of lightning, closer than I really like (but not so close I felt endangered). The rain was also falling much harder. By the time I got to the bridge, visibility was hampered.

As I crossed the bridge, a motorist (in a small SUV, no less) kindly kept traffic off my back by driving behind me at a good distance with her four-way flashers going. I'm normally a little put-off by this--I feel I'm pretty visible most of the time. However, I also realize that she was doing so because she was not in such a hurry that she couldn't do an extra bit to improve road safety for all of us. I, of course, waved happily with all five fingers in a clear "thank you!" gesture when I neared the traffic light at the Kentucky end of the bridge and she went past me.

I had to stop a couple times on my way home to get the sweaty rainwater out of my eyes. By the time I got to Payne Street, though, the rain had eased off, and I started making better progress.

Of course, by the time I got home, the next band of heavy rain was arriving. It quit raining soon after I got home.

Yesterday, I had to drive to work--I had a bunch of stuff to haul. I also was on a tight time line after work, as I am teaching one of the Confident Cycling classes this month. I'm on a tight time line this evening as well, as I am presenting a session at the Bon Air branch of the Louisville Free Public Library this evening.

As I type this, Jenn is at the airport, getting ready to fly out to Oceanside California. She is on a support crew for RAAM riders (Team Type 2) who are riding to bring attention to the fact that folks with Type 2 Diabetes CAN be active and healthy--indeed, being active helps one be healthy, a truth that seems to escape too many in our society. Anyway, it means that I'll be following their progress with a bit more interest than I have in prior years--I have more friends in the race this time.

Friends and family have been half-jokingly wondering how I'll get along without Jenn at the house. I think I will manage, somehow. =-)

Hardly rode over the weekend

It's getting to be a bad trend. Here it is, well into June, and I haven't done any LONG miles since last year (long miles being bike rides over 50 miles in length).

This past weekend, for example, included a day at the stock car races (and tailgating near the speedway before race time). Jenn's father takes her and her two brothers to the Nationwide Series Meijer 300 at Sparta as a family get-together thing, and I was invited.

It was fun, I suppose. I've not quite caught the bug for the game "Corn Hole," although I tossed a few bags of seed corn at the boards that day. We socialized over a beer or two, or tea, or sodas, depending on the person. We wandered up to the main gate at the track, and the vendor area spread out in front of that. There were a couple booths offering samples of tobacco products, one selling what I presume to be a male-enlargement product (of what I also presume to be spurious value with a bikini model in a cute suit that, even if were not engaged/involved, I probably wouldn't find interesting on a date), various "collectible" trinkets (like anyone is going to buy these things ten years from now? How much for a 1980 Cabbage Patch Doll?).

It was fun to see a big-league race again. The last race of this caliber for me was the Southern 500 at Darlington S.C. on Labor Day weekend of 1978. I don't remember tons of what happened at that race, but I think that somewhere in my various stashes of keepsakes I have a spark plug I picked up in the pit area after the race. "Those were the days," to borrow the title from All in the Family.

While it was fun to see a super-speedway race, when it comes to auto racing, I'm still a short-track guy. Watching cars travel a mile and a half per lap is tough to do--that is a LOT of territory to watch. On the other hand, short tracks present their own challenges--often the track management does not seem as big on safety at smaller tracks, for example.

Before I even learned to ride a bike, I loved cars. By the time I was eight, my father realized the value in taking me to the speedway not far from where we lived at the time for father/son stuff. I knew who the drivers were, and had favorites. I vividly remember one car rolling over in a crash there, and seeing the guy with another similar car the following week. He apparently lived around the corner from us, as the wrecked racer was in front of a house near our subdivision for a couple days later that week (for what it's worth, the cars were 1958 or '59 Chrysler products, probably Plymouths).

When I was a kid, my heroes were race car drivers. Race car drivers wore seat belts. When I was eight or nine, we as a family got a newer car for Mom, to replace the 1956 Chevrolet she had been driving. That car had shoulder belts, relatively new to mainstream cars. There was a tag on the belt that included something along the lines of, "Do NOT use if wearer is less than 4'8" tall."

I couldn't WAIT to grow that last two inches!

I fully realize that there is some sort of double-standard in my fondness for auto racing. I don't get to indulge myself in the enjoyment of watching good short-track racing often, though, as I have so many other interests these days.

Anyway...

Yesterday was time for an early celebration of Jenn's birthday. Her birthday is later this week, but she will be out of town, working on a crew supporting Team Type 2 on Race Across America.

After the celebrations, I had to attend a Club officers' meeting, so I at least rode the few blocks to that from the house. Once that was done, I could then get geared up for another exciting week at the job with no glory.

Hey, at least I rode to work today.

Not enough cycling

It's been tough to really get on the bike of late.

After a month of rarely getting to ride to work, I'm out of the habit of doing so as much. Add to that that I'm teaching two days a week this month, with the time constraints of those schedules, and I've not ridden enough to warrant any kind of good mojo.

I rode to work today, and got to ride to work Tuesday, but drove Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (that last due to oversleeping/having trouble motivating myself to get up and ride in the rain). EDIT: David reminded me that I did, indeed, ride to work Monday. I rode the Vanguard, loaded as it was with teaching stuff, so that I could go directly to the Monday evening class at Waterfront Park after work instead of going home and then back downtown. Note to self: Do my blog entries more often so that I don't forget stupid stuff like this.

The Vanguard is loaded with teaching stuff--a stack of halved tennis balls for parking lot drills, sign-up sheets, clipboards, hand-outs of various sorts, and a small pile of tubes in case students get flats while in class. Rather than switch the load every other day, I rode the Raleigh Tuesday and today.

At this rate, I'm not sure I'll be able to enjoy doing RAIN, which is coming up in four or five weeks. I also need to get with the other folks who want to ride it, and see who is ready or who is unable to go this time.

I finally got to ride again

After three or four weeks of work life being in upheaval over a "must-pass" inspection, life is hopefully returning to normal, meaning I get to ride to work at one work site, with stops at the main office on my way to or from my own office. The main office is a couple blocks off my commute route, so stopping there is not an imposition.

Repair Affair is this weekend and next, though. I'll be part of that tomorrow, helping support volunteer teams that are working on houses for the beneficiaries of the program. Repair Affair is a neat program. Volunteer teams from various places (church groups, clubs, groups of folks who work together, neighborhood associations, and so on) do handyman "neighbor helping neighbor" stuff for low-income elderly or disabled homeowners--paint the house, clear brush from the yard, build ramps, install grab bars or handrails, make other minor repairs to the house with an eye toward "safe, warm and dry." Magnificent things happen for the homeowners.

My part of it this year is to drive a one-ton flat bed truck to haul stuff from place to place. To prepare for this, I'll have to fetch the truck this afternoon, and park it closer to where I can use it tomorrow morning.

To make that easier, I rode my bike to work today (ain't it great that I can say that!). I don't have to get a ride to where the truck is--I can toss my bike in the cargo area of the truck.

Since it was a cool morning, I rode wearing my office clothing--a kilt and a shirt--and I don't have to change clothes in the course of my day.

Jenn's doing the MS Bike the Bluegrass tomorrow and Sunday. If you haven't donated toward this cause, she could use some donations to get her to her fund-raising goal. I didn't do anything with the ride this year (too many other obligations), although I've captained some preparatory rides for it in years past, and worked the ride as a roving bike mechanic a couple years when I was working for one of the ride sponsors. It is a great cause, and a great ride.

Fried-day evening

I haven't much felt like putting any words here this week. Despite the short week, it's felt long. I've felt compelled to drive to work, as my assigned starting point for the day is well west of my usual path and I don't have much time to get from place to place.

It's been an interesting week at work, too. At the end of last week, I learned that a close friend of one of my tenants had been a sex offender, and that he had failed to register as is required of such folks. Knowledge of his past upset other tenants who, like me, learned by way of anonymous "flier under the door" means.

I took my concerns to the police department, of course. I didn't know how to handle such a thing, but figured someone there would help me. I made a phone call, was told to call someone else. Left a message for him, and he called back. After getting some information from me, he quit the call to make other calls.

Long story short, the fellow was led from the building in cuffs.

I don't feel guilty about it at all. He did what he did, was sentenced, and didn't follow the rules given him in his sentencing. I don't know any details regarding his initial offense, other than that he was required to register and inform some office of his whereabouts on a regular basis, and he failed to do so. Had he done his part, there may not have been any problem for him.

In the course of checking the security camera memory bank (hard to not use the word "film," here, as the memory is digitized), I saw images of another tenant walking the halls, about midnight, wearing nothing but his shoes.

I don't get spun up about nudity. It's not a big thing to me. I look at it as a contextual thing, in the main. In some contexts, there is absolutely nothing wrong with what some call "skyclad" as a clothing option. It's not about my personal opinion, though. In an apartment building where one could, at any moment, encounter a neighbor who is not so understanding is not such a place or agreeable context. This fellow is now looking for another place to live, as his actions are a material breach of the lease he signed.

The inspection that has had my organization in such an uproar for the last three weeks is next week. My part of the preparation is basically done, so I might get to ride to work next week.

However, I also start another teaching gig next week. The four Wednesday evenings in June, I will teach a Confident Cycling class through Bicycling for Louisville.

I also have some wedding-related projects that are far behind schedule. Back to them, and more words here at a later time.

property inspections and riding extra work routes

I was out of sorts over not riding to work of late, especially with the nice weather we've had. I finagled a way to ride on Friday of last week, and found ways to ride a few days this week as well.

I drove on Monday and Tuesday, as my 8:00 stop is way out of the way on my usual commute. Tuesday morning, I was reminded that I was to attend a conference at the Galt House that day, Wednesday and Thursday. I drove to the conference on Tuesday, but during the long lunch break found a place I could stow my bike for Wednesday's sessions. I was thus able to ride to work Wednesday--in a kilt no less--on my Raleigh (the place where I locked my bike was not suitable for the Ryan--if I had to ride the Raleigh, I was going to at least be comfortable while in the sessions).

After I got home from work Wednesday, Jenn reminded me that the Ride of Silence was that evening, so we hustled downtown (on bikes, of course) for that ride. After the ride, I wanted to go across the bridge with a group, but realized I wouldn't have time with available daylight (I was on my Strada for the evening, and it doesn't have enough lights for nighttime use), so home we went--again at a good hustle. I had a flat tire a mile from home, and it was a tire failure, so we stopped to fix it. I keep a spare tire in that bike's bag most of the time, and it was a good thing it was there that evening.

Yesterday, I rode to the Galt House again. The conference only went until shortly before lunch, at which time I realized I had left my wallet at home. I rode home to get it, and decided that I didn't really have time to ride to N'Awb'ny, so I drove over.

However, I rode to work again today--again in a kilt, again on the Raleigh. I had to attend a meeting at the Liberty Street office at 8:00, and go from there to Old Louisville to inspect some work being done before heading for N'Awb'ny for the afternoon.

Riding is much more fun than driving...

Tonight, I get to assemble at least one of the new RANS Sequoia Crank-Forward bikes. A friend custom-ordered one, and is one of those folks who prefers to trust me when it comes to finer details of bike final assembly and tuning. He also gets to combine his trip to me with a trip to a favored grocery store. It's nice to be so convenient for my friends.

Sunday riding

I held a session of Bicycling Safely, for Bicycling for Louisville, Saturday afternoon. I had four attendees (not enough to suit me, but better than the Sharing the Road I was supposed to present a few weeks ago, when NOBODY showed), and all were quite interested.

Jenn and I rode to the Louisville Bicycle Club's Ice Cream Ride today. There was a club meeting afterward, and an officers' meeting after that. All told, I got in about thirty-five miles, on the Gasato (my custom-built Bacchetta Strada). Jenn was on her Giro. On the way home, Jenn was hustling along Frankfort Avenue, and was able to get going at twenty miles an hour or better for short periods. David was at the ride, having ridden some with Tim earlier in the day.

I was glad to get out for some longer miles. I felt good at the end of the day, and was able to roll pretty well during my ride, telling me that my commuting miles are indeed helping me on the fast bike.

BIKE TO WORK DAY

Yep, today is Bike to Work Day, as observed in Louisville KY and other places.

I had to drive. I had to be in the west end by 8:00, and in Phoenix Hill by 9:00, with not enough time between commitments to ride.

I've been frustrated about this all week. Having to be at a west-end site at 8:00, then having to go WAY out of my way to get to N'Awb'ny, then having to go way out of my way for a 3:30 commitment before going home each day really stinks.

Heck with it, today, though! I tossed the Raleigh in the back of the truck, figuring I'd at least do SOME of my work-related transit by bike. I left the truck in Phoenix Hill, and once that meeting was done, rode by Fourth Street Live to say hello to Scott Render before riding on to N'Awb'ny.

It felt quite nice to ride across the bridge again. I enjoyed the ride, despite the extra stuff I was hauling (free stuff from Bike to Work celebration, my lunch, my work papers that I need to haul...).

I even got to ride to work wearing a kilt--something I wouldn't try on the Vanguard.

Bike to Work Week

Here it is, Bike to Work Week. There are observances all over the place, including some stuff happening here in Louisville.

I don't get to go to the party.

Last week, I learned that a couple of properties owned by my employer are up for inspection early next month. The properties in question MUST pass muster this time. We are in an "all hands on deck" mode to get any repairs and maintenance bugs out of the way on these properties before inspection time.

One thing coming of this is that I have to be several places during the day, with very little time to get from one to the next. In other words, I need to drive for work this week. And next week. And probably the week after.

YUCK.

I want a real job. One with real pay, real benefits, and real recognition of outside-of-job real life.

That was the week that...sucked

Yeah, I drove to work Tuesday. Wednesday, I rode the Raleigh (in office clothing) to the main office for a meeting, figuring on dealing with a little rain, but in riding clothing, for the trip across the bridge to the usual work site and for the trip home.

Got to the office in time to learn that I had gotten a voice mail telling me to be there almost an hour earlier. Got to the meeting (an hour late) and learned that we have an "all hands on deck" pre-inspection thing happening for two of our properties.

After the meeting, I had to wait for my copy of a key I would need to do my next task--placing notices in tenants' doors alerting them that I would be doing the pre-inspection in a couple days (today). Got the key, had the notices already printed, so I hopped on the bike and headed down the street.

Rain started getting a bit heavier the further I went. By the time I got to the apartment in question, it was starting to reach "shower" levels of rainfall. Naturally, the master key I was given was NOT the right one. I called my supervisor to inform him of such (politely as I could, given my frustration level at the moment), and got back on the bike to head back to the office.

On the way to the office, I changed course to go home and get dry clothing. The rain cape is not much good in heavy showers, frankly, and may be abandoned for hard commuter use. I MAY consider another one, or talking to the makers of the one I have to see if I got one that didn't get coated, for example. It is clearly NOT waterproof as I understand the term.

In any case, I got partway out on Frankfort Avenue and decided to hit a bus shelter for a break from the water pouring down my neck. I looked at the schedule, and thought I might see a bus going my way shortly to make the trip home a bit more tolerable. Sure enough, the bus arrived. I loaded my bike on the rack and got inside the bus.

While I was on the bus, my supervisor called, asking me where I was. I told him I was on my way home to get dry clothing and my car, and he said he didn't blame me. He then told me he had the correct key, that my call had made a few folks scramble a bit, and that my copy of the correct key would be where I could get it shortly afterward.

I've not been on a bike since getting home about noon Wednesday.

Yesterday and today, my travel schedule has been uncertain enough and the weather lousy enough that I felt it best to drive.

With the weird stuff happening at work, I may or may not get to ride next week. If I don't get to ride, I'll be ticked. It is Bike to Work Week, after all.

Bollocks.

Drove today

I drove my truck last night, for the first time in over a week. Jenn drove her car for our travels over the weekend--a Derby party with some friends of hers in Simpsonville on Saturday, and a family gathering at her favorite uncle's house on Sunday.

Last night, though, it was a "drive to haul bikes" situation. I was just about ready to leave the house for the New Rider clinic, and called Jenn to remind her where I'd be and let her know the dog had been for his after-work walk. She asked me if I minded hauling her bike along, so that she could meet me at the class site. As a result, I drove to the class instead of riding there.

I drove to work today, too, ending my streak at fourteen days riding to work (and there was a day in there that I didn't work--Earth Day--but rode the bike to all my activities). I have an excuse, lame though it sounds: I'm getting some tires mounted today, as the ones currently there are worn badly and are also out of balance enough that driving is unpleasant at several common speed ranges. For the times I need to use my truck, it will be a good thing to have balanced, not-so-badly worn tires.

Now I need to clear my schedule to allow fifteen or more days in a row! It will be challenging, as I am teaching on Monday nights for the rest of the summer. We'll see how it goes, though.

Oaks Day

It's almost the end of Derby Week--something of a misnomer, now, since the Derby Festival now begins two weeks before Derby Day with Thunder(ous wretched excess) Over Louisville, and has for the last fifteen or twenty years. Today is the day they hold the Kentucky Oaks, a horse race of slightly smaller stature than the Derby.

I'm old enough to remember it being simply Derby Week, however. Each day of the week had its stable events--the Mini Marathon on Saturday a week before the Derby (and the balloon race the same morning), the Bed Race on Monday, the Boat Race on Wednesday, the Pegasus Parade on Thursday, and so on. Not much business gets done in Louisville during Derby Week, although many folks try to buck the trend.

I've switched bikes every day this week--Monday, Wednesday and today I rode the Vanguard, and the Raleigh on Tuesday and Thursday. I don't know that this is some sort of trend, but who knows (or cares?). The big thing is that I haven't driven to work all week (WOOHOO!). It seems that this is the first five-days on the bike week in a LONG time.

Sadly, it may not continue. I will be teaching on Monday evenings from next week through the summer, and may need to drive just to get where I need to be by the time I need to be there with what I'll need to carry. I may be back down to four days a week on the bikes.

Wet day again

I had a meeting to attend at the main office this morning, and there is rain forecast for much of the day, so I rode the Raleigh. I'm more comfortable wearing office clothes on the Raleigh, for some reason, although I could easily do so on the Vanguard. I'm certainly more comfortable riding the Raleigh if I'm wearing regular shoes, as it has Shimano dual-use pedals (sometimes called campus pedals) that are flat on one side and have the SPD cleat system on the other. I also consider the Raleigh my rain bike, as I have a rain cape (more on that in a moment), and the cape is simply not functional on the Vanguard.

I'm a recumbent guy. I have to justify riding a wedgie bike. I don't have to justify riding a 'bent.

I've mixed feelings about the cape. In cooler weather, I think it's fairly nice to have. On a fairly warm day like today (temperatures in the upper 60s F), it gets quite warm inside that tent.

I brought a change of cycling clothes, but wore office clothing to get to Liberty Street and to N'Awb'ny from that meeting. My shirt was pretty wet, from a combination of sweat and water coming through the cape. Of course, I keep several changes of clothing at the office, so a clean dry shirt was ready at hand. I'll wear a cycling jersey and shorts for my ride home, just to be a bit more comfortable.

About the rain cape: It is billed as being waterproof material. That description is something of a moving target, in my experience. Even fairly waterproof fabrics can allow water to leach through if there is something water-absorbing against the inside of the fabric--in this case, my shirt. The object on the inside of the fabric doesn't even have to really absorb lots of water--skin can do the trick, for example--as much as simply provide a way for water to move by capillary action between it and the fabric, and it will "pull" water through the cape.

That said, my tr*^$er$ were almost totally dry when I got to the apartment building. The cape had kept rain from falling on the legs of my p@nt$. All I had to do was change shirt and footwear when I arrived.

Flat out funny

At least this title made itself.

On my way home from work, at the corner of Market and Johnson (at the main entrance to the Home of the Innocents), I entered the corner and felt my rear tire move sideways. Without falling, I wrenched the bike back upright and got out of the traffic lane, certain that I had a low tire.

Since I had done my ABC Quick Check before leaving the office, I knew that whatever had caused my tire to go down was a new problem. Rather than take the time to repair it on site, I pumped the tire up to an approximation of operating pressure and rode on, figuring I'd get at least halfway home before having to inflate it again.

I got about as far as Clifton Center, and stopped again. As I was pumping it this time, Barry stopped by to chat (saying as he stopped that he clearly didn't need to offer repair help on the level of some cyclists he has encountered). We chatted as I finished pumping my tire, then rode together as our homes are along the same route.

I had to stop again, just before reaching the Water Company's facility on Frankfort Avenue. This leak was larger than I thought, and was perhaps getting bigger.

I got home on that gush of air, though. I put the bike in a repair stand (always a good idea if one is available) and dismantled the rear tire.

Lo and behold! The shard of glass was a quarter-inch from where the last glass shard had punctured the same tube! At first, seeing the hole in the tube so close to the edge of the existing patch, I wondered whether I had, indeed, gotten the old sharp out of the tire. When I looked at the tire, I found a shard of glass in a new hole, and felt a bit better. I patched the tube, and while I had the patching stuff out patched a tube set aside for repairs and stowed it in the bike bag.


When I was at the shop, we simply changed tubes. It isn't worth shop time (at $50/hour) to try to patch tubes and have them not seal well.

When I am working on my own bike, though, I don't see a big reason to throw a tube away if it has a minor hole in it. That is why patch kits are made, after all. If I can do the repair at home, I'll patch the tube. If I have to fix one on the road, I'll usually replace the tube and patch it another time, although there are exceptions to this rule (on the Raleigh, for example, the front wheel is a pain to remove due to Raleigh-specific fork ends, so I'd probably patch it more or less in situ). I generally keep one or two tubes (or one or two for each wheel size on the Vanguard) in the on-bike repair kit along with a patch kit, in case I have a third flat.

As mentioned, the new hole was very close to the last repair I had made to this tube. I'll be interested to see how the new patch holds, given that roughly a quarter of it is on a prior patch.

I'll find out when I do my ABC Quick Check in the morning. The Raleigh is, or should be, ready to go as a back-up option should I be short on time.

Ah, the luxury of having two commuter bikes.

Another shorts to work day

It seems as if my blog is bogged down in "what did I ride to work today" posts--at least, it seems hard to generate a different title for each post. I guess part of the point of doing this blog, for me, was to create something of a diary of riding to work. I envision the ability to look back on posts and figure out how much I'm riding if I want. Or not.


Got some curiosity-based flack from a co-worker today, as I was loading my stuff into my packs. I had to attend what will be a weekly meeting at the main office, and had to change clothes for this meeting (I get fussed at for wearing "bikers' clothes, ect." (sic) to the office for meetings). I had brought some foodstuffs for lunch and snacks, and had put them in the fridge for the duration of the meeting. It took me a couple of trips from the staff break room to the area where I park my bike to get everything ready.

I park my bike in what the staff calls the "butt hutt," or the smoking area. It is outdoors, but under a roof, so the bike is protected from rain (especially helpfull when the bags are open). The co-worker in question was on a smoke break (reminding me once again how glad I am to have quit that nasty habit over twenty years ago), and opined that my trips (and changing clothes twice for a half-hour meeting) seemed a lot of trouble for riding to work. I chose to not be nasty about her colleague (my supervisor) or her manager and their unfortunate views on meeting wear (in a meeting that is not likely to be observed by tenants).

I suppose I could segue into a rant about how people who drive instead of ride for transport just don't "get it" when it comes to the different ways bicycle commuters do things. It is not an imposition for me to change clothes when I get to work, nor to do so when I prepare to leave the office. I am becoming more comfortable for the upcoming stage of my day.

As far as stopping at a grocery for snacks on my way to work being an oddity, well, I just don't know what to say. I suppose I could stock such things at home, and get them the night before (or the weekend before), and I often do just that. It just so happened that we were out of what I wanted, and my timing worked out in such a way that I could stop easily.


My "take-away" from this is that it takes a different sort of planning to ride a bike to work instead of driving. It seems to me that people don't often think about the planning they have invested in driving instead of cycling, so they think in terms of planning for cycling as being an insurmountable task for themselves. Planning for driving to work involves buying the car, insuring the car, paying taxes on the car, fueling the car, finding a place to park the car and so on. Planning for cycling involves acquiring the bike(s) and gear, finding a place to haul and/or store clothes for work, arranging a place to clean up once at (or near) the work place, and so on.

Not harder, not easier, just different. I find the cycling to work much more fun.

Rainy day again

April Showers are here. I got to work just ahead of them.

As I crossed the bridge, I enjoyed the colors in the eastern sky. This is becoming a favorite regular part of my ride to work. The quartering tailwind didn't hurt my feelings, either, although it did bode poorly for my ride home this afternoon--especially given the forecast for rain. Also as I crossed the bridge, I realized I had crossed another seasonal threshold: Today was my first day this season that I rode to work in shorts.

I stopped to grab a snack on my way to work, and while I was away from my bike, it fell over. I went outside to pick it up, and was doing so when I saw a pickup truck heading for the drive-through lane crush my front flasher that had fallen from the bike and rolled into the lane. He could easily have missed it, but I suppose the driver didn't bother to look.

Oh, well, it's an opportunity to upgrade that flasher.

I didn't want to ride the Raleigh today, but my rain gear is set up for it more than for the Vanguard. Of course, I'll get wet no matter which bike I ride, but the cape doesn't work at all on the Vanguard. My hands are still a bit tired from the yard work I did on Sunday, suggesting that my upper body muscles are out of shape. I'll have opportunity to remedy that over the summer, I'm sure.

Unlike some friends, I've not been one to keep tight records of my weight (or miles, or lots of other things). It's simply not my style to do that, although I see the value others find in doing so. I tend instead to make a mental note of the general trend, and if I like the trend, try to do things I know will continue it. It's not a terribly effective weight-loss strategy, but I've never felt strongly enough about my weight to get that serious about changing my habits to that degree.

Still, it's nice to notice a drop in weight that seems to be maintainable. Since I started casually weighing myself a few months ago, I've seen several days when my weight was under 230#, but only for a day or two. Over the last week, however, it has remained about 227#, instead of tending to be about 235#.

As I don't keep fastidious records, I cannot ascribe credit to specific changes in habit. I have reduced the amount of beer I consume by some bit, and have been riding to work more often with the better weather, and have probably eaten fewer candy bars--all of which are certainly contributing factors.

I've not done any long miles, though. I miss them. Life may keep me from riding as many of them as I'd like for a while.

...or not.

Sunday without riding

Despite the warm (hot) weather, I didn't get to ride today. Jenn and I went out to Mom's house to do some yard work.

Our wedding will be happening in my folks' house or yard, and Mom wants to spruce things up a bit (some of which needs to be done anyway, as a maintenance thing). Today's task was to remove some old overgrown shrubs and bushes (sounds like a recent presidential election), and replace them with other species.

The old stuff came out of the ground much more easily than expected--I did NOT have to get the boom on the tractor to lift the stumps out of the ground, as the spade cut enough roots that I could simply lift the stump myself. The new ones look good so far, too.

I'm also back on my own computer! A friend who gets lots of lightly-used boxes brought me one on Friday, mostly to get it out of his house. It has a faster processor than my old one, and a bit more than twice the hard drive space. It seems a bit shy on RAM, but I may have a card or two that will fit--I'll have to look at what it takes and what I have. The sound isn't working yet, but that may be an electronic switch issue. I'll tinker with it over the coming week or three and see what happens. My mother has an IDE adapter that she has allowed me to borrow, so I can go through my old hard drive and move what makes sense to keep into the "new-to-me" box.

It's an opportunity to try some different things. Mark installed Windoze XP on it (as opposed to Vista that so many people dislike), but it doesn't have the Microshaft Office Suite installed yet. I may or may not install that--if I do it would only be because some of the stuff I do frequently works best in that batch of gobbledygook coding.

On Saturday, Jenn and I rode over to Cherokee Triangle for the annual Art Fair there. It was a good time--wandering among the booths, looking at the creative and functional stuff on display. We didn't buy anything, but got a bunch of business cards for future web buying efforts. Cycling to the event got us much closer parking than many folks had to tolerate. That makes sense, since we went to the effort to get there on our own power.

Seasonal milestones

As an indicator that the weather is warming for the season, I rode to work today in short sleeves.

Yesterday morning, I wore my usual Illuminite jacket for the first leg of my ride, the five miles or so to the main office. I had a bright vest with reflective stripes with me for the remainder of the ride, as I was wearing a dark brown shirt and wanted to be more visible (as opposed to risible).

Today, though, I had a peep at the weather forecast site, and saw that the temperature was over sixty (F). That is usually my threshold for short sleeves on the bike, and it was nearing my threshold for shorts instead of tights (I like to keep my knees a bit warmer for some reason). Short-sleeve jersey time!

On a related note, I wore sunglasses the entire morning ride on Thursday, and in doing so left the clear lenses at home. I was wishing I had had them with me on the way home, as it was pretty cloudy (and rainy in spots). Oh, well. I wore the clear lenses most of the way to work this morning, changing to sunglasses when I made a stop for a morning snack shortly before arriving at the office.

As I've noted, the sky colors that I get to see as I cross the bridge are quite pretty. I enjoyed the colors again this morning.

The blossoms of the fruit trees have been replaced by leaves, and the dogwoods have been blooming for several days now.

Spring is truly here.

Engage EnJenn, or in the words of Paul Harvey, "The Rest of the Story"

A few weeks ago, I did some work on a friend's bike. It was an extensive overhaul, but one that didn't fully address all the problems found for budgetary reasons. At any rate, I took it home, as he was going to pick it up there instead of at the shop. I had Jenn ride it, to assure myself that I wasn't sub-consciously compensating for some minor adjustment, and that it was indeed working as I wanted.

She came back from her short test-ride, and exclaimed, "I'm done with the bikeE." A couple days later, we picked out her new bike--a Bacchetta Giro 26. We are gradually adding doo-dads to make it her primary commuter rig (fenders, light mounts, rack, etc.).

As I mentioned in the description of that day at the shop, I was also building a wheel for David. As I was preparing to assemble that wheel, Jenn sidled up to the work bench and told me that she had a question for me, but that I had to promise not to be upset with her for asking it. I replied that I couldn't guarantee such, as I didn't know what the question was going to be.

After a few rounds of "you have to promise to not be upset" and "I don't know what the question is going to be," she asked me to marry her.

I was all but speechless for a bit, and so distracted that I laced David's wheel incorrectly, and didn't recognize my mistake until I got the wheel into the truing stand! I dismantled the wheel, sorting the spokes as I went, and started again. After getting almost all the spokes in the drive side, I realized that my spoke count was off, and that the spokes would have to be resorted yet another time. I told Jenn that since she had gotten me so distracted, she was going to have to help sort spokes this go-round.

Once I finally got the wheel laced to suit my standards, I started tightening the spokes. Jenn had been digging around in the store shelves looking for accessories for her new bike, so I called her over and said, "Sure."

Shortly after, she told me we were even. She didn't feel that it would be appropriate to run and jump around in the store with glee since nobody else in the store was to be informed of the decision (each of us had an order of who we wanted to tell, of course).

The lunch at my folks' place was, in part, to celebrate our engagement. Jenn's folks came to our house that evening for dessert and some socializing, and we told them at that time. We told her daughters the next day (the younger one claimed she already knew, of course--she knew Jenn wanted her to keep a certain date open, and suspected why, but didn't know whether I would agree to the whole thing).

As mentioned parenthetically, I had a list of friends I wanted to tell in person before I went blabbing about it online. I think I've gotten to most of them, but I'm sure I've forgotten one or two. I doubt that they are reading my blog, though, so they may still be surprised when I tell them.

Yes, it is a surprise to anyone who has known me for any length of time. I've never been married before. Indeed, I rarely really thought I would find someone to marry, although I came close a couple of times (and soon after, realized what a mistake at least one of those times would have been).

That last comment was not entirely fair to either of the women involved. Both were good people, and were good to me. I was the one who figured out that at least for me, it would have been a bad choice to get married, and it took time for me to work up the courage to break their hearts. Both have moved on with their lives--one got married about ten years ago, I think, and as far as I know they are still married, the other is dating someone now, and from what I'm hearing through the grapevine they are quite happy with one another. I wish them all the best, of course.

Anyway, there is much planning and deciding to be done over the next few months. We asked my sister to perform the ceremony, and she graciously agreed (perhaps enthusiastically would be a better word). The ceremony will probably be fairly small, but the guest list for the reception or other party could get quite long.

This is what I meant when I responded to David's announcement that he and Kristy are engaged with, "There must be something in the water." Next thing I know, another friend will announce (no bets on who--most of my friends are married or happily divorced).

Now you know, well, you get the picture!