Rided to the Dam today, this very cloudy Sunday Morning.
The Forester Creek Improvement Project in Santee is coming along. These two pics show what they are up to as far as the creek bed. Covering it with stone, it appears.
A little farther west we see the first shopping cart dumped in the Project!
If you are not visiting my zooomr page, you are missing possibly humorous captions and notes!
I went down the dog-walkers path to see where it went. It went, not far...but!!
What's that sitting on the fence post??
It's a boid!
There are a couple REALLY BIG boid pics on the zooomr page. You KNOW how to get there!
A red-tailed hawk, to be precise.
A little hawk movie...
Saw the herd of carts.
Or is that a bunch?
Saw a coyote at the Father Serra Dog-Walking Trail. Oddly, I saw only six adults (w/two small people) on the Trail this morning. And no dogs. Except the coyote.
Since I was riding the Jamis, I was also collecting rocks. So I did not go around the lake, but instead went out Navajo (after climbing Jackson in granny (because last week my hips hurt on Monday)) to avail myself of some prime rock-collecting gutters.
But all I got was another five...
I noticed gas was $2.99/gallon at the local cheap gas place on Lake Murray Blvd. I shall have to take the vehicle over there and fill the sucker UP!
It started getting sunny by the time I got home. Worked out just perfect!
Ride Stats
Trip Mileage 22.42 miles Trip Time 1:52:54 Avg. Speed 11.92 mph Max. Sped 34.69 mph
It's so nice and cool in the morning, and so warm in the afternoon.
What a wonder!
I've been collecting rocks in the road for the home garden. I must look quite the dork , stopping and picking up rocks, not to mention the basket on the Jamis. Little rocks kept falling out of the basket, so I cut out a piece of cardboard and folded the sides rather neatly to form a box in the basket. Works quite well. Quiets the rock racket a bit, too! I picked up five rocks today! It's a better world, one rock at a time.
Coming home today came up behind a civilian on a girl bike who was carrying shopping bags. The light was red. I was going to make a right hand turn, but she was slowing for the light (I thought), so my brillant idea was to come up on her left, stop, then make the right turn in front of her as she waited for the light.
Oh, no, that is NOT what happened!
I came up on her left, but SHE DIDN'T STOP for the light!
Even though there was a TRUCK turning left in front of us!
Did a little Dam Ride this Sunday morning, making it home by nine, just as Mr. Sun was breaking through the June Gloom, as the natives call it. I call it a nice cool ride. Absolutely NOTHING outstanding happened on this ride.
No road rage.
No goofy pedestrians.
No loose headsets.
I was a little cranky at the lack of a bike lane on the newly redone part of Prospect in Santee, but what'cha gonna do?
I DID climb Jackson Dr. in the the 36-24 combination, that is, 36t chainwheel, 24t cog on the back. So that was pretty outstanding!
There were a godawful lot of dog-walkers out today. Especially at LM. I bet I saw 60 of 'em. Good think I didn't start the DWPP today!
Ride Stats:
25.03 miles in 2 hours 3 minutes 16 seconds.
Week Stats:
Schwinn: 25.03 miles Jamis: 30.95 miles
Total 55.98 miles
Year To Date Stats
Schwinn odometer 6/17/07: 6,469 Schwinn odometer start: 6,046 Schwinn year to date: 423
Jamis odometer 6/17/07: 2,904 Jamis odometer start: 2,273 Jamis year to date: 631
Total miles year to date: 1,054
Seems to be an average amount of miles, so far this half-year. Since I will be working this summer (I am full of hope!), and I'll HAVE to drive, I won't have the traditional Summer Mornings to build up the mileage. Alas.
Ran across this little movie on the Fraser Cycles site (by way of the San Diego Fixed blog) which was shot at Lake Murray, I see.
It's been quite warm the last few days, sunny and in the 80s (Fahrenheit) . Nicely cloudy and cool in the morning, the way I like it.
Put in about 30.5 miles this week commuting on the Jamis, since I drove two days.
Saw this bike at work, thought it was Steve the L.'s alternative commute ride, but he claims it is not...
Need to earl up the chains, and TRY to replace those bearings on the Schwinn. That'll be the big project this weekend, if I can bring myself to attempt it.
I rode the Jamis to work yesterday. I felt so bad yesterday afternoon. I ate some little sugarless chocolate pieces around one, and then all of a SUDDEN I had a pimple on my eyelid that totally FREAKED me out, like everything physical does, and I felt kinda light-headed and my stomach felt uneasy, and very emotional. One could say, girl-like. But one wouldn't, of course!
I was eating ok, but I didn't test my blog till after dinner, and it was ok then. But I felt a little better after P.T. I read (It's Not News It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News) and slept for a while, then got up at 8-ish to watch the Monday evening sitcoms I love so much. I had an enjoyable time doing that, then went to bed around 10, read some more, fell asleep.
Around TWO IN THE MORNING my wife come running in yelling that she was defrosting the refrigerator and had punctured the tubing with a knife and GAS WAS LEAKING OUT! I, of course, FREAKED OUT as I had read a book (Raising Demons, by Shirley Jackson. A WONDERFUL book!!) a few years ago in which the mother had her refrigerator leak gas and the repairman said in was DEADLY POISON and to EVACUATE THE HOUSE.
Well, naturally, I didn't evacuate the house, being lazy, but we called poison control and they said it was ok. So the place just stunk a bit.
Well, now we have to get a new fridge, as I don't think the landlord is gonna pay for a stab wound in the freezer compartment. The upside is that now we will have a reefer, as it were, that actually can keep ice cream frozen, and frost-free to boot!
Welcome to the 60s!!!
On to other stuff.
Did not ride the bike today, after all the excitement. May not ride tomorrow.
The weblogmeister at the Bicycling in and around Sioux Falls, South Dakota blog asked me to link to him, and after inspecting his blog I pronounce it link-worthy. So there's a link on the sidebar, and a link in the previous sentence!
I actually got up went for a ride this morning! I woke up at 6:30, ate the flakes, suited up, watched a couple minutes of the Hawaiians, said my good-byes, and headed west. It was a little chilly out, so I wore the bright yellow jacket.
I saw my reflection in an office window, which looked kinda neat, so I took a picture.
Then I took one WITHOUT the flash.
Then I made a crummy movie.
On the Rose Canyon bike path I saw this little bit of strangeness.
But then again, I was getting near to UCSD...
Some dolt in a defective (non-working turn indicators?) Porsche got in my way near the Tritons atheletic center. Maybe he could have spared a hand for the turn signal stalk if he wasn't yapping on his cell phone!
Watered up and ate an Albertson's granola bar at Torrey Pines State Park. Took these couple pics.
Headed back through UCSD. Noticed this warning sign. Seems irrelevant.
Found this picture on Montezuma Road. Now, normally, I wouldn't have even NOTICED a picture on the side of the road. But I was stopped, resting taking off my Screaming Yellow Jacket.
If you know these people, let me know. What's the story with this happy picture laying discarded on the side of the road?
Or, make up a story!
Why Torpid Pines? I couldn't think of anything more clever. I AM torpid, now!
Ride Stats:
50.07 miles (80.61 Km)in 3 hours 45 minutes riding time.
Finished a book Bangkok 8 today, so I biked up to the library to pick up a book with The Talented Mr. Ripley in it. Mission accomplished!
Started work on a model railroad kit. Found I had no glue! Biked up to the train store to get some Tenax. Pick up some X-Acto blades while I was at it. On the way back some yahoo in a white car in the turn lane went STRAIGHT instead of turning.
The green is me, the red is him. One can clearly see the turn arrows in his lane.
I yelled "Excuuuussseeee Meeeeeee!" at him. He didn't even look. His passenger did, though. I also made a rude sign, I must admit. I am so ashamed.
What I should have said was,
"Take heed, O thou who art a byword for idiocy, for you will be smitten with all-over boils!"
When I got up this morning it seemed rather warm. I did my half-hour of home physical therapy, ate the flakes, suited up, and hit the road. When I went outside the morning turned out to be VERY misty and cool. I was glad to be wearing the long-sleeve t-shirt I appropiated from the lost and found (Hey, it there TWO days!! Somebody asks, I give it back!).
There was a nice tailwind blowing me up Jackson. I've said before, it's not really a hill, but it just goes ON AND ON!!
I found a check for $1,700 and change laying in the middle of the road on Dallas. Too bad it wasn't made out to cash... I Googled the address when I got to work, turns out it was one of those streets I go down every day, but don't know the name of. And very near to where I found the check. I mailed it to the guy, just so he will have the peace of mind of knowing what happened to it.
I ordered a "Fighting For Susan" jersey that the Fat Cyclist is putting out there. It's a stunning PINK!
My favorite new junk food from last week is wasabi-flavoured Funyuns!!
I heartily recommend them to everyone!
I had an extraordinarily fine snack this morning at work. Someone shared cranberry-nut brownie-type things. They were so excellent! I especially like how one could dig little bits out of the various oral crevices and enjoy them 10 minutes later! When she-who-must-be-obeyed emails me the picture, I will post it here. Or somewhere.
Have to report to P.T. in a few minutes, so will make this quick!
Had a flat yesterday, while hurrying home to meet up with Aaron (who wants to see his name here) for coffee and pie (rhubarb). Only took twenty minutes to replace the tube, on the greasy rear wheel. With one of those stupid-looking LONG-stemmed Presta tubes. I don't know why I bought them. Didn't find the flat-maker, but I suspect it was the broken beer bottle I road rode through.
Came very close to getting whacked today by someone in an SUV coming out of a driveway AT WORK!! (I came out of a different driveway.) Geez! Didn't see who it was, but I WILL REMEMBER and look for the miscreant on Monday!
Almost 50 miles commuting on the ever-optimistic Jamis odometer.
