Bike To Work Day 2012 was yesterday...

Things I learned on the commute ride to my BART Station:

1. My haircut does NOT work well with a bike helmet.  Especially after I went to bed with it still damp. I've been wearing a baseball cap all day.  Must come up with a more bike friendly coiffure - that's still sassy.
2. It's still nice and cool at 6am.  If I could only be so lucky at 6pm.
3. Gnats love swarming round my head - had an unexpected second breakfast.  Blech.
4. Trail Maintenance cut the weeds recently.  The wind was blowing.  Very bad combination for someone with allergies.  Not looking forward to that on the ride home.  Ack.
5. Really need to get over my apprehension about wearing spandex compression shorts.  They really are the best thing to wear when riding.  I just hate feeling (and looking) like an overstuffed sausage.  And what if all the seams simultaneously burst?!?
6. My new bra passed the riding-the-bike-down-a-bumpy-trail-and-not-getting-black-eyes test.  Thank you Playtex.
7. Not too many Energizer Stations were open at 6:25am.  I decided to wait a few minutes while the nice ladies and gentlemen set up things at the trail crossroads for their 6:30am opening.  I wasn't the only biker there waiting so didn't feel so bad about it.  The yummies, bike bell/compass, latest trail maps, and other assorted goodies packed in the free tote were worth the 5 minutes I "rested".
8. Clif Bar has a bar aimed at kids - "Kidz Bar".  It's just as nasty as the ones for adults. The smiling REI reps at the BART station assured me they tasted better than the adult ones.  They don't.  Guess it's just me, I never have liked those energy bar things.
9. Even though I forgot my lip balm, the smiling REI reps did have some to give away.  They are forgiven for the Clif Bar thing.

Things I learned on the ride home:

1. Gnats have no time boundaries.  They swarm all day, every day.  Yes, there was also a snack on the way home. Gah.
2. People want to talk about my bike.  It took me 55 min to make a usually 30 min trip.  I had too much fun socializing.
3. Little girls under 5 LOVE. MY. BIKE.
4. The later in the day it gets, the more free stuff you can get.  Yes, Honey, I have a bag each for you and your Mum, and Spencer has lots of snacks and a mini bottle of Gatorade.  I loaded up on "Cuties", and 100 calorie snacks.
5. I have my best ideas while riding along.  Going to cut quite a bit of length off an old broomstick skirt I used to wear to dance class and see how it looks over the compression pants.  In my head it looks very cool and bohemian.  In reality, hmmm...  These things don't usually go very well for me, but I'm always willing to try!
6. It wasn't as hot as I thought it would be - but it was still quite toasty.
7. I need to ride more.  I miss riding my totally awesome bike.  I LOVE my bike.
8. Allergies suck.
9. Not enough of a good thing leads to too much of a good thing.  Someday I will find the happy medium where anti-chafing lotion is concerned.

I sure do hope I sleep well tonight.  I worked HARD, and I definitely need some sleep.  Haven't had a decent night since I ran off to Texas to be with Mom and Sis...

Happy Thursday! ***

***This post is being re-posted because Blogger LOST the original I wrote yesterday. Thank God I have things setup so that EVERY post is emailed to me because there is no way in Hell I could have redone this and been so damn clever a second time round. :)

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Good things today so far:

Bike to Work Day!

It's like my own personal Halloween. My costume is my biking getup (which needs it's own blog post) and I go from Energizing Station to Energizing Station holding open my bag and getting loads of free stuff dumped in... Haul this morning, large size of the official Bike to Work tote bag, tangerines, fig newtons, juice, various maps of trails in the Bay Area (very handy!), reflectors, lip balm, reflective ankle thingy to rein in your pants leg, a recyclable pen, a water bottle, Clif bars, and various coupons to local sports shops. Ooh, and this really cool magnetic blinky light which I still haven't figured out quite how it works. Ms Cow got herself a wee little box of raisins for being a brave bicycle passenger (the trail is rather bumpy lately). All that was only from 2 stations. They LOVE to shower you with stuff - the list of goodies I turned down is even longer.







I hurds it trew da grapesvyn... Kalifornya waisins, nomity nom nom nom...








Paperback Swap

I LOVE this site. I've mailed off lots of books to good homes and just ordered 5 more for myself. Another Terry Pratchett book (Tiffany Aching, bk 3) and the first four books of the Stephen King "Dark Tower" series. Can't wait to get them!


More Energy

This doesn't really need an explanation, does it? Biking two days in a row and I feel great. Really should have started doing this a lot sooner.

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Can't wait to see what the "Energizer Station" sponsors have on the ride home. I'm really hoping for a new dingy-ding bell. The East Bay Park folks were giving them out last year, so I hope to get another this year. The poor thing is all worn out. It dingity-dings on it's own now. Every time I hit a bump. Even a small bump. So I'm pretty much dingity-ding-dinging my way down the trail.

It's like it's saying:

"Look at the awesome outfit this woman is wearing! Here she comes wearing an awesome outfit! Look at her wearing that awesome outfit! She's riding a bike! And wearing an awesome outfit while she rides! Make way for the biking chick with the awesome outfit! You want an outfit like hers, you KNOW you do! Cos it's AWESOME!"

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Update!


I originally wanted to write this update last night, but Blogger has been having some issues, so here it is on Friday. It's also not going to be so clever and funny as it was last night - in my mind.


Final list of "treats" from Bike to Work Day gathered up along the way home: more maps (I'm pretty sure I've got a complete set for the East Bay now), a chocolate chip cookie for Spencer (and yes I did give it to him), Red Vines for Spencer, cheese sticks, various and sundry juice boxes and mini-Gatorade bottles, various and sundry chips and fruit snack bags, mandarin oranges (YUM), Clif bars, Fig Newtons, more raisins for Ms Cow, and lots of bags. About 4 more bags than I really wanted. They were begging us to take extras though, so I did and they will go this weekend to the charity thrift shop with the rest of my donations.


I was very careful this year to only take what Spence and I would use/eat - no need to be greedy. Do I REALLY need more pens when I have a drawerful at home? Didn't think so. There were quite a few snacks because, well, Spencer is 16, quite tall and has entered his "bottomless pit of a stomach with two hollow legs" stage. Any food brought home is DEFINITELY consumed. So no waste there. The extra bags go away tomorrow and the maps I will keep in my "map box".

At the last stop before leaving the trail, I decided now would be a good time to have a drink of some refreshing water since it was quite warm and hauling all those snacks was causing me to break out into a pretty good sweat. Well, being the graceful dove I am, I managed to dribble half the bottle down my shirt. It was actually quite refreshing since I was indeed rather toasty.

Indeed.

Not quite so refreshing was the small swarm of gnats I swallowed on the last leg of the trip.

Updated List: Minus one bottle of Gatorade used to wash out my mouth...

I really need to keep my mouth SHUT when I'm riding.

Sorting thru the Chaos

Today Spence and I used a friend's car to haul a bunch of stuff off to the Thrift Store.

A b.u.n.c.h. of stuff!

We filled up the car...boxes, baskets, little shelves, bags. It felt absolutely wondermos to get rid of it all.

After, we headed off to IKEA to pick up a few things to organize Spencer's closet. We're doing a major rearrange and clear out in his room. We actually just walked out of that place with just a few items - and some hot dogs after at the snack bar. :)

A quick stop at work to pick up some more boxes (for packing up stuff for donation of course) and then it was home.

Last trip of the day was back to my friend's place to drop off the car and here we sit. Tired out, but full on artichoke ravioli.

Tomorrow, we're off on the bikes for a training ride. We're doing this in a few weekends. I've done 5 mile rides and 10 mile rides...I should be able to do this ride. I'll find out soon enough. If I can't make the training rides, I won't push myself to do the full ride. I really want to do it tho and Spence wants to come along too. Maybe even get his riding buddies to come along as well.

It really looks like fun and I hope the weather cooperates. Hope Summer doesn't decide to settle in the valley on that particular weekend. :)

Activity

Hello all,
Well, Spencer has given the thumbs up to the latest attempt at Pumpkin Pie, but we both agree that the crust sucks. So next time we make a pie, we'll use a different crust and see how it goes. At least the filling recipe works - that's the most important bit!

The other day, I was going thru my closet, drawers and container-of-clothes-that used-to-fit-and-will-again. You guys know how that goes...sigh. Anyway, I managed to get several grocery bags (ok 8) of clothes and accessories to give away. Lots of old stuff, stuff I haven't worn in years, clothes that don't fit anymore and clothes that I don't care if they ever fit again.

Again, you know how that goes...

Anyway, I kept running across clothes that still had tags. Pathetic. Chaos hoarder that I am, I still had the receipts and went to Ross (that's where I get 99% of my clothes and accessories) and got a store credit. With that credit, I bought some things for the kitchen.

I also bought a bunch of socks (damn those necessaries like that really add up quickly, don't they - and they always all fall apart at the same time!!!) and a few pairs of gym shoes.

Which is why I'm writing this damn post in the first place. I decided while I was sorting thru clothes and more and more went into the container-of-clothes-that used-to-fit-and-will-again that I was going to have to work a lot harder to get into the damn things. I've got a LOT of REALLY NICE clothes. I've been really down about my weight lately (ok, for pretty much all my life) and thinking I REALLY need to do SOMETHING more than what I'm doing now. Riding my bike is good, but lately, I'm not riding all that often and that's really not going to help in the long run.

I enjoy doing my exercise outdoors. So I decided that when I took all this stuff back, I would get myself some walking socks and running/walking gym shoes. And I did. That was yesterday. I walked for an hour this morning. It was cold. I'm freakin' insane.

I finally did it. I've been thinking about doing something more than just riding my bike for a very long time - 2 weeks or so to be exact - actually a LOT longer, but thinking seriously for about 2 weeks. Sorting thru my clothes on Sunday turned out to be the catalyst I needed to get my ass in gear.

And it walked on the trail for an hour this morning at the ass crack of the day. It was cold. Which made me walk faster, which was good, cos you get more out of walking if you actually put some effort into it. I hurt, but that will go away with time. It's been years since I've distanced walked.

Tomorrow I ride Puff. I don't know how long I'll go for, but I'll be leaving with Spencer when he rides off to BART in the morning - which is when the sun comes up. You know, the ass crack of dawn. Sigh.

And the last reason I'm writing this post is that I need some help. I need a goal to work for...cos apparently, losing weight, being healthy, and living longer aren't good enuf to get me to exercise as much as I need to...sigh.

If anyone knows of any local 5k Walks or walk/runs or bike rides that don't cost much and are easily accessible by public transit...please let me know. I am going to do as many as I can. I need to keep moving. It's the only way I lose weight.

20 years ago, I lost about 50 lbs. The way I did it was thru the Jenny Craig diet program and training for The Mutiple Sclerosis 150 mile bike-a-thon (MS150). I ate JC meals and rode my bike 2 hours a day. I was a lean, mean, riding machine. I kept off the weight until I got pregnant - and I STILL have that "baby weight" - even tho my "baby" is almost 16 years old. Sigh.

OK, so I'm 20 years older and can't afford a fancy pants diet program. So what am I supposed to do?

Easy, drag my ass outside to move every day - for now that is riding or walking - my 20yrs older and 60lbs overweight body can't take much more than that right now. Eat right, get enuf rest and all that sort of stuff. With a hell of a lot of work, and a visible goal on my calendar to work for, I can do it.

If you know of a website or a walk/ride, let me know in the comments. My ass thanks you - really it wants to curse you, but I'm making it mind its manners.

Kevlar Tires 1 Puncture Vine 0

So...Spence and I head out for our test drive. We rode about 6 minutes down the trail to a business park where Spence did some tricks and I just hung out while he did his thing.



Isn't she gorgeous?!?

Why, yes, she is...


On the way home, I picked up this in my front tire...



Son-of-a-bitch...I'm an evil thorn thingy magnet.

Tire held up tho! I'm so very happy. I panicked when I saw it, but I pulled it out, and new tire didn't even notice it. BOOYAH!

This one episode alone is worth the $80 I just spent today getting all this...3 months left of thorn season.... GO KEVLAR TIRES!!!!

Prepare for Battle! *

*Gandalf to the Gondorian Soldiers in LOTR Return of the King...

It begins... Spence and I take a trip to the bike shop.



Let's see what she bought....

Feelin' lucky punk? (from Dirty Harry)



Why, yes...with you on my bike, I do feel a bit luckier than before. Kevlar. Lined. Tires.

What's next...oooh...you need tubes to go in those tires girlfriend...will these do?



Read the box carefully...Thorn Resistant. Why yes, those will do nicely.

Here's what the thorn resistant tubes (left) look like compared to the regular tubes (right).



They are pretty much like a water hose. Why yes, those will be just fine. Thank you very muchly.

They are a bit bigger than my regular tires and Spence had to adjust my fenders. I'm sure glad I waited for his help.

They were also hard to get on and his muscles came in very handy. Here's Sgt Puff all kitted out and ready for battle.



No more wobbly tires - the original tires were very inexpensive tires that totally went wonky after all the on and off of these recent flat tire changing episodes. They did last a good 10 months tho, which is pretty good for the low end of the tire range. Stupid cheap showroom tires. No wonder I couldn't get them to sit right on the rims anymore - which is why they were wobbly and which is also why I haven't been riding my bike. Didn't want to take the chance of doing damage to the rims (expensive and time consuming to fix!) or any other part of my beautiful Bike.

Anyway, I've SOOOO missed riding my pretty blue bike. And I've been paranoid riding Honey's bike. Not only is it too big, but I was so afraid of getting flat tires! But ride it I did, and it was very awesome that we have it for an extra. I love his bike!

Spencer is changing the tire on his - he does a lot of skidding and so on with his fixed gear bike, so his tire issues are about running down the tread, not getting flat tires. BUT...I have convinced him that he needs to keep an extra tube, patch kit, and pump on him...just in case. Soon, we'll be ready for a test ride.

We'll be going off to the bike shop again after our test ride to get him an extra tube and a pump he can strap to his frame.

Punture Vine (tribulus terrestris)? I'm ready.

Just click on the link to read a bit about this non-native weed and to see photos of its thorny bits. Evil looking, aren't they?

If you walk, run, or ride on the trails around here, please be careful of these things, they are very sharp and I'm sure could hurt if they got in your shoes or on the paws of your puppy pals. We all know what they do to tires...sigh.

Rites of Passage...

Today has been a good day.

Spencer and I have entered into new phases of our lives.

He is with his Father in Texas visiting family. I got a mysterious text from Dad this morning to "Check your email. :)"

I open his email and what do I find? A photo of my son shaving. I won't post it here, even tho it is the most adorable photo of him I've seen in a long time. Although that statement alone is probably embarrassing enough. (My work is done.)

I cried when I saw it. And I've got a bit of welling up going on now as I type this too. Can't help it. The "growing up train" is charging full steam ahead. I can either jump on and enjoy the ride or stand by on the platform and watch it pass.

Wow, that was deep.

My friend Antonella was over today. Yes, I had a visitor in the Chaos. I haven't had anyone over to visit since Honey came over the winter Holidays. Spencer has had friends over and stuff, but I haven't had any visitors.

This is a big step for me. The place is still a wreck, but it was clean. As is the usual. I wish I had a magic storage closet. A closet where I could put all this stuff that came out of my old storage unit and the closet itself would just be a small space. Sigh. A Tardis of a closet if you will - "Bigger on the inside."

Anyway, I've accepted my Chaos. Not to say I won't still keep working on it, but I've accepted that I like company, and I really do like having friends over to visit. And that if I ever want friends over to visit before I'm too old to care, I need to accept that the Chaos is there and have friends over 'around' it, so to speak, until it is gone.

So, early this morning, I rode out to Antonella's place, where she was waiting with her shiny new bike, and we pedaled over to my place. I showed her how to navigate the trails, how to bypass the hills (that's important for a rider who needs to get used to her bike) and where to turn off for shops restaurants and what nots.

It was a wonderful ride and when we got to my place, I had my daily chat with Honey, we headed across the road for some groceries and I cooked up some home made turkey burgers.

It was a wonderful ride, visit and meal with my first visitor in too long.

Gah! Ack! Argh! and GRRRRRRRRRRR!

Today was Jewelry Class day. Yay!!!

We seem to have lost quite a few people, which is good because there were WAAYYY too many that first day. I am actually socializing and having a good time sharing tips and tricks with my fellow classmates. It's amazing how there can be just one design and 20 different interpretations! I love it!!! And I was actually able to contribute a tip of my own! Very fun.

I made a pretty necklace using some of the new curved metal beads and flexible wire I got from online - and used some really pretty green glass beads I've had forever. No two of the beads are alike, but they are all the same green. It is awesome...

...except...well...5 min after I finished, I broke the damn clasp. Gah.

...and while I was just inspecting it, I noticed that I left out a few essential spacer beads in the middle of it.

So...even if I hadn't broken the damn clasp, I would have had to redo it anyway. Oh, and I've decided it is a bit on the heavy side (large solid glass beads will do that) so while I have to take it all apart anyways...I'm going to switch out some of the main beads for some a bit smaller (and lighter).

Sigh.

Anyway, sometime this weekend I will redo it and I'll probably redo the bracelet I did in the first class - broke that clasp too. (Don't know what it is with me and breaking clasps!!!)

And I'll head out to the pool for some outdoor drawing. We are supposed to draw a tree for homework...and there is this really cool Weeping Willow just outside the pool area. It is half branches (no leaves) and half graceful (full leaves). Spence and I spotted it last night when we went out for a swim - we decided it is "Cool" and deserves to be drawn. :) It is right outside the covered table area which is perfect. I can go sit in the shade while I artificate.

Even tho I have to redo my jewelry projects, that is not what has me upset.

On the way to class, I got a flat tire!!! I was on the same path that gave me a flat tire on Saturday. Don't think I told you that...

First flat tire story....Spencer and I rode "the back path" all the way to a friends house this past Saturday. I call it the "back path" because it goes along the foothills back behind our complex. Anyway, cue fun and yummy dinner visit with friends, a ride home - in the rain!!!! - and I'm wiping down my bike when we get home and I spot something on my front tire. It looks like a tiny leaf, so I brush my fingers over it and PFFFFFFFFFFFT! Front tire goes flat. Somewhere along the "back path" I picked up some sort of VERY sharp spikey naturally occurring nasty thing. Sunday, Spencer and I are having to stop off at bike shop for repair kit and extra tubes. Tire is fixed Sunday night by yours truly, riding bike all this week, everything is hunky dory.

Good thing I got extras...

Today, I am riding "back path" to Jewelry class...I'm almost to the end of the path and PFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTT!!! Thwumpa thwumpa thwumpa...

ETA: It was the same spikey naturally occurring piece of tire death that got me the first time.

SHITTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!

I slam on brakes and hop off...back tire is flat as a pancake. SIGH! I am almost to the end of path and close to class - thankfully - so I walk rest of way to class. I'm sure I've totally shredded the tube from walking for about 10 min with a flat and then another ten min to the bus stop after class, but I didn't have my repair kit on me and really didn't want to sit in middle of path with no shade and do the whole 'repair and hope it works' thing even if I did. Back tires are not easy to change - especially when you've never done it before. :(

Now I'm sitting here looking at my poor bicycle with the flat back tire. Spencer is at his Dad's today and they are leaving at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow morning to catch their flight to Dallas - gone until the 26th. I've never taken off my back tire before and I'm not sure if I'll be able to do this on my own - all that gear stuff happening back there and all you know. But I will definitely give it a go - not afraid to try! Good thing we have Honey's Bike! If I can't get my wheel back on, I'll be riding that one for the next week until Spencer comes back from Texas. It's a bit big for me and there is no rack for my removable paniers, but I can deal. Will just need to take it easy and use a backpack.

Oh, and there will be no more riding on the 'back path'. I will, however ride back to the path "crossroads" and go to the right into Walnut Creek, but will not ever be going left again into Concord!!!! The trail towards Concord hates me and my pretty blue bike. Stupid trail!

I'll be taking the bus to Jewelry Class from now on. The bus schedule is a lot more agreeable in that direction, so it's no big deal. I'd rather ride my pretty bike, but no way am I taking her that way again. Such abuse she's taken from that trail. Both tires puntured in less than a week.