Frustration

I looked quickly online a while ago to see if there were any gins recommended for making good martinis. I followed the advice of some shlepp and splurged on Hendrick's, and now I have a fifth of this flowery garbage - EXPENSIVE flowery garbage - that I've got to get through before I get back to Beefeater & Bombay Sapphire.

And to make matters far worse, Blogger.com is hanging up in Google Chrome. And this means that I've got to use Firefox to post new stuff to this very blog. I'm sure the hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs just feel terribly for me. Hooray free markets!

But I'm eating catfish tonight and possibly riding tomorrow (to get myself sorta kinda on track). In fact now the catfish is ready . . . and now I'm done eating catfish. And I finished my martini and started a beer with dinner. It's been a while since I've drunk this much and boy I forget what it was I was so frustrated about. So much for on track. G'night.

The Black Cat Overpass

So yesterday I rode out to check out the Black Cat overpass & back.  It's been down & under construction to accommodate the interstate widening project for several months now, and in fact was originally scheduled for completion sometime soon.  But then there was the collapse of the Robinson Rd bridge two miles away a couple months ago and the ensuing investigation, and now that schedule's gone all to heck.  But they've recently restarted work and slated completion for early spring.

And the reason I care is that I usually get to work on my bike via that bridge.  I've had to alter that route to less-desirable routes with more traffic.  And even better, they're widening the bridge from one lane and a crappy shoulder in each direction to one lane, a bike lane, and a breakdown lane in each direction.  So I'm very much looking forward to its completion, although I fear two possibilities:

1. Funding collapsed after I saw the plans and the bike lanes have been torched, or
2. The good ol' boys at ITD designed the bike lanes and breakdown lanes so that they could later remove them to install an extra vehicular lane and once again leave a crappy shoulder. 
   

Anyway I rode there to see what I could see.  And I could see not a whole lot, but I did see that all the girders were in place, which was good.  

Logistical issues will keep me off my bike for most of this week.  I forgot to ferry clothes with me to work this morning, so I'll be carrying a couple changes with me tomorrow.  And I'm a weenie so I can't possibly carry a big backpack with me on my ride.  Sheesh.  But couple that poor excuse with another one: I'm behind on the Raleigh's chain maintenance, and you've got the dynamic duo of schlepptasticness!  The laziness bi-fecta, even!  And I've gotta drive on Thursday to ferry recycling, a table saw, and a coffee urn back & forth between Nampa & Boise.

But I'll get up early on both days and do some yoga & stuff.  I promise.  And I'll re-lube my drivetrain (on both bikes) so I can ride on Friday.

Bike Storage Complete (More or Less)

Tomorrow's supposed to be a bit warmer than today so I put off riding until then and instead concentrated on the garage.  And I finally got through building all the stuff to satisfactorily store our bikes.  Notice that I left space for one more bike.  Speaking of that, let me tell you a story.

This past weekend, our friend Shannon came out to visit.  Shannon does agility stuff too, and her husband makes agility equipment.  She was kind enough to bring a set of weave poles with her for Kate.  That made four sets of weave poles in our house and only three bicycles.  I of course made a big scene - almost as big as Kate's "You want another bike!?" scene.  Kate and Shannon immediately started tag-teaming to explain the subtle differences between each set and rationalize the need for all four.  Does anyone else see a problem with this?  To be fair, one set of poles was actually Mary's, and those are now finally back at her house after several more of my scenes.  So Kate only has three sets of weave poles.  But still!  Kate has three sets of weave poles, a bunch of jumps, and a table.  And I have just two bikes.  PLUS she's got a bike that she doesn't even use!

Also notice the box of Clorox in those pictures - more of Kate's stuff.  Purchased weeks ago to be donated to the Humane Society along with stuff from other BARC members, it's still sitting in my way (like all the agility equipment that; along with an extra dog crate, a food bin, a chair bought specifically for agility trialing, and two seats taken out of Kate's van to fit dog crates; has been dumped in the middle of the garage floor - where Kate said could be my "man space" and where I could keep all my stuff without hers getting in the way).  Anyway the garage is shaping up in spite of all that.

Check out the New Banner!

I rode again on Thursday.  I need more core strength training.  On to more important things...

So hey, since I've got an internet connection I might as well introduce the new banner at the top of my blog.  I got sick of seeing the text up there, so I threw together some interesting (or not) pictures of myself.  From left to right are:

• That's me preparing for a ride this past fall, looking like a muppet
  
• April 2007, drugged up post-sinus-surgery
• On my Raleigh before the 2007 Blue Cruise charity ride in July or August
• Griffin and me standing atop Andrew's practice rock pile north of Pocatello
• Sue napping with her head on my lap whilst on the couch
• On my Look near the end of the 2008 Bob LeBow Bike Tour Metric Century
• My"Polish Post" bike jersey (also seen in other pictures)
• Scope Creep - my Halloween costume last year for a work-related function.  My mustache in the picture is creepy enough that I felt it necessary to cover it up, which brings me to...
• Clutch is, hands down, the illest ventriloquist this side of the Mississippi River

The First Commute of the Year

Rode to the bus today.  This weekend, today's forecast was for clear skies, no rain, and lows near or above freezing.  So I planned to ride today. But last night our internet connection pooped out (editor's note: it's still gone - I typed this in WordPad last night to save it until we return from the Oligocene, and I brought it to work [early] with me on a Pleistocene USB thumb drive so I could post it before I started my day) so I couldn't check the weather online this morning. Instead I flipped on the telly to listen to a local weather guy.  He said, "There'll likely be some patchy fog this morning."

It didn't look too foogy from our place so I determined to go for it. I have to cross Indian Creek on my way to the bus and I figured that'd be the worst of the fog.  But it never let up the whole ride.  "Patchy fog" nothing!  The "patch" was roughly the size and shape of the entire Treasure Valley.

And since it was below freezing, the fog started to freeze to the leading edges of everything: toes, shins, fingers, handlebars, head tube, fork legs, front brake, seat post . . . even my crotch was covered in ice. I always figured that Kate was just being sycophantic when she talked about my manliness but maybe there's really something to what she says if it is indeed a leading edge.

So yeah, fog.  I didn't think the visibility was all that bad, but one of my bus buddies said, "You RODE in this?!  This is the worst fog I've driven through in a long time!"  Hmph.  I guess that's the difference between enjoying 17MPH and being frustrated and stressed by averaging 30MPH. But suboptimal weather notwithstanding, wives and mothers need not fret! I broach the visibility topic because Jean, a gal at the office who lives along that bike route, passed me syndirectionally this morning on her drive (and I don't care that you can't find that word in your dictionary, it should be there because it's a cool word regardless of its origin in my brain).  Unfortunately Jean describes herself as a horrible judge of distance so I have nothing quantitative here, but that's almost beside the point.  She told me that she saw me (lit up like a Christmas tree as usual with three rearward lights and two forward lights) before anything else and at a distance that made it easy for her to comfortably adjust her driving to accomodate my presence alongside her.  This corroborates Tyler's observation a few months ago that he could see me a half mile away from his house as I rode away - until I crested a hill.  But Tyler knew I was there and was watching me.  Jean was driving in fog and wasn't necessarily anticipating a cyclist, but she was still able to see my lights in plenty of time.  So good then.

The Lake Loop

I rode the lake loop today.  It's a great ride, and it's got some significance for me - my first attempt at it was my introduction to Tyler.  It was with a Tuesday night group ride a couple years ago that was advertised at 15-18 MPH but the leader held 20 MPH rolling out of town.  I hung for a couple miles but I knew I was in trouble, and that became clear to everyone on our first hill - about three miles into the ride.  Tyler - riding sweep as he so often does - hung back with me, sped ahead to give the leader crap for exceeding the advertised speed, then came back with me and chatted me up as we watched the rest of the riders speed away from us up the next hill.  At the top of that hill, Tyler sped forward again, caught the others, stopped them, and split the ride up into two groups: a fast group that continued around the lake and a slow one (me & Tyler)  that doddled northerly for a mile or two before turning south, returning to the north shore of the lake, and heading home.

My other significant memory was my first successful completion of the loop.  It was actually a modified lake loop for the 2007 Bob LeBow Bike Tour 35-mile route.  But it's not memorable simply for me having finished it; I'd just completed a 35-mile ride and I had zero excuses left for not bicycle commuting the 25 miles to work.  Roughly one third of my 2648 miles in 2008 were ridden directly to work and fully half were commuting (inculding to/from the bus).  With all that commuting, clearly that 2007 LeBow ride was the single most important factor in the growth of my cycling hobby.  A little off topic, I rode the 2008 LeBow metric century and again pushed my riding envelope.  That seventy-something-mile day (including my ride to the start/finish) remains my longest day to date.  After I made the turn from Riverside onto Orchard for the final leg of the ride, I was overcome with emotion at the prospect of actually finishing 100 kilometers - especially considering the rough go I had earlier into a big headwind on Map Rock Road.  I truly didn't think I was gonna be able to finish down there, but those last ten miles felt absolutely great - I was sailing past everyone as I bawled.  And hey I made that map too.

I'm sure that's plenty of reminiscence for most readers.  Get over it - this is my blog.  Besides, it's been a while since I indulged my long-story-telling side.  Anyway, today's ride was good.  I averaged 16.6 MPH over 31.5 miles, so my stamina isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was.  Lots of neat stuff to see - a red tailed hawk glided along above me for a while.  Presumably I came a little too close to the nest.  A family was playing with their bassett hound along the north shore of Lake Lowell.  Along the south side of the lake, appropriately, is Lake Shore Drive.  Everytime I ride that road, I think of the Dire Straits song, Telegraph Road - "He built a cabin and a winter store, and he plowed up the ground by the cold lake shore."  That's a great song - could be about Pocatello.  Mark Knopfler seems to like singing about the American West.

But the most interesting part of the ride was something that looked equally redneck and ghetto.  Ghedneck?  A super stretch limo made from a 1990s Mercury Sable.  What?!  Yeah.  Exactly.  Making it even worse was that the owners had glued a Mercedes Benz logo on the grill.  Wow.

A Happy New Year Indeed

I rode today!  It wasn't all that impressive - Tyler & Sheree hung back on their tandem with me after being dropped from the all-star lineup of George's riders in the first five miles of 22 ridden with the group today.  They did more than hang back with me; they let me draft them for pretty much the entire ride from that point.

And boy did I overdress!  It was predicted to be rainy today (but near 40 degrees, hence my decision to ride) so I wore my rain gear atop what was probably too much clothing for a dry 40-degree day.  So I was too hot.  What was more, my rain gear isn't bike-specific so it doesn't fit even close to correctly for biking.  Sleeves too short, back too short, front too flappy, pants too short & too flappy . . . couple that with my old Raleigh and BOY did I feel like a noob next to all the people rolling up on carbon fiber libido machines.

Anyway it was an enjoyable ride capped off with a visit to Big City Coffee in Boise's Linen District.  I have a headache so that's enough for tonight.  Happy New Year everyone.