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October 30, 2006
chilly!
Nothing like the time change to bring it home. Summer is over. It's done.
Last night, as we drove home from an early dinner, it was pitch-dark outside. Tonight, that's what I'll be riding home in.
This morning, it was in the 30s. Whoa. So I am back in my winter outfit. Long underwear, top and bottom. Thrifted cashmere sweater. Wool scarf. Windbreaker. Wool cycling cap under my helmet. Wool skirt. Wool socks.
It's always a little daunting, the first really cold ride of the season. Am I going to be warm enough, or too warm? I was actually warm enough, though my face was pretty cold. I think it's probably balaclava time.
I have my poncho in my pannier, so I'm ready for the rain too. Last time I wore it, I had a huge puddle between my arms that never leaked through to the inside.
...
thanks to everyone who wrote me expressing concern. I don't know what to tell you, but I'm feeling a bit more positive, and hoping that will stick around for awhile. I really appreciate your concern.
I am going to try to get a little more exercise, without an expectation that it should be achieving anything, and I'm going to try to remember why I exercise in the first place: it's fun. So I need to just remember to keep it fun.
With this thought in mind, I rode home from work Friday, and I realized if I just didn't try to get home as quickly as possible, it was a lot more fun. I stopped for cars, I slowly inched up hills and I decided I was going to go slow because it's more fun, rather than feeling like I go slow because of my weight and fitness level. Keep my head up. Fun. Gotta keep it. fun.
...
Over the weekend, I went to the Film Celebration of Portland Transportation at the Bagdad. It was rather bike heavy, in spite of a very nice intro by Chris Smith of Portland Transport about Portland's original streetcar system, and how it influenced the shape of Portland. Clarence of BikeTV was there showing his films, including several that aren't on his web site. Dan Kaufmann of Crank my Chain also had one. There was one scooter flick, which someone I know, catcalled. Tacky.
Anyways, I really like Clarence's work and it was great to see it on the big screen. He filmed a great interview with Enrique Penalosa, the former mayor of Bogota, Colombia, who talks at length about deciding what you are supporting on a city level. It really got me all revved up.
It's interesting. Here, when you have a discussion about transportation, at least at the level I'm at, you are talking about bike commuting, and public transportation. Pedestrians are mentioned, but the radical pedestrianism that was here in the early nineties seems to have entirely dissipated. Or maybe there are so few radical pedestrians these days that we don't know how to organize our voices?
And, why isn't the motorcycle and scooter communities interested in this in a huge way? I mean, if parking is an issue, motorcycles take up much less space. If pollutants are an issue, modern motorcycles are cleaner than cars.
I saw my first bakfiets cargobike there, and I talked to its owner, who is going to open a dutch bike shop in town. I for one can't wait. Hurry!
October 26, 2006
get a bicycle.
Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live.
—Mark Twain
...
I finally have the 24-speed back in my greedy hands, so I've been using it as my regular commuter. It really makes my life that much easier. Yes, I know I could just got off my three-side and walk it up the hill—yes, I know that would be faster. Sigh.
Lately, I've really been struggling with body image. I mean, I haven't been happy that I've gained back the weight that I worked so hard to lose, but just in the last couple months, I've been feeling a brand new sense of self-loathing that is really hard to shake. Especially since my body really doesn't seem to care what I eat, or how much, or what times: it just wants to pack on some more weight.
Shessh. I still commute most days by bike. I still make neighborhood trips by bike. I still do a lot more walking than the average bear. No matter.
Last night, I walked up from work to school. Now, some back story: I didn't get any lunch until 3:30, and had no dinner. I was running entirely on adrenaline.
The distance from work to school is about 3/4 of a mile. In other words, nothing. But it is uphill.
As usual, I was late, I had a heavy satchel, etc, so I was hustling up to school. Totally out of breath.
Sheesh. A year and a half ago, I did the Columbia Gorge Marathon. Now I get out of breath not even running up a hill?
I hate that. I can't even tell you how much I hate that.
Climbing the 3 stories to get to class or lab is more of the same. It is so embarrassing to be the fat sweaty out-of-breath woman, that I walk up one flight of stairs, then walk across the building to another staircase, up another flight, repeat. I'm really dedicated to not taking the elevator, but ugh.
I know I didn't get here overnight, and I won't get out of here overnight, either. I've been trying to ramp up the exercise: making sure I walk the stairs at work, walk a little more, ride a little more. But it feels like I'm making no progress at all.
...
Anyways.
The 24-speed had lived on someone's front porch for over a month. In that time, everything that could quickly be stolen, was, and somehow the bike computer got screwed up.
So, I haven't even been looking at the computer. Why bother? And then today, as I was cursing out some drivers who were trying to run me off the road, I saw that I was going 17mph. Huh? Suddenly, the computer was working! And of course, now I'm even more pissed because, damn, I'm moving plenty fast.
I stop at the light, and then when I get the green, proceed... and on the computer, there's nada. Zip. Then I'm into the downhill by the Rose Quarter, and suddenly, it's working again, and I'm going 24mph (it's a downhill, that's about right).
So who knows what's going on, really?
October 15, 2006
Vegas, baby
I'm back from Vegas.
One thing is clear. Before I go back, I need to train. Walking around with women in their 70s wore me out. We did manage to see a lot of the Imperial Palace, Caesar's Palace, the Mirage, the Venetian, the Wynn, the Flamingo, and the Bellagio. In one day.
I was fascinated, and still am, with the civil engineering involved in Las Vegas. Indoor canals, outdoor lakes, unending waterfalls, S-curving escalators: how do they do that, really? The whole imposition of fantasy upon the desert. The idea that if you wish it, you can make it so.
And that could be a good way of describing my experience. I had a fantasy, but in the end, it was a desert. It was a buffet where the fish was old, and nothing tasted good. It was just crumbling infrastructure, a lot of flashy exterior and not much real.
I'm glad to be back. But I've been in a funk ever since. My dreams are all Vegas, baby.
...
Yesterday was my darling's birthday, so I was going to save a long walk for today. Great idea, except today is seriously blustery and rainy. We need the rain, heavens knows we need the rain, but I need the walk too.
So I'm stuck with indoor activities. Cleaning, trying to get the evil smokey smell out of all my clothes (there appears to be no smoking laws in Vegas. People smoke everywhere. Even clothes that stayed in my luggage and never saw the casino smell like smoke.), knitting, doing homework. Yes, I know the homework should come first. I know. I'm just not there yet.
I'm still working on a gift for Velogirl and her peanut, and I started making a cowl/gaiter out of the gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill yarn I got in Coos Bay at My Yarn Store. The cowl is going slowly, as you might expect with #2 needles and a 25 inch diameter, but I love how it's knitting up.
Right now I'm obsessed with creating a felted satchel. On the MAX train coming back from the airport, I meet some folks that I instantly wanted to adopt. They had come to Portland on an elderhostel, to do a cruise up the Columbia-Snake rivers, from Astoria (OR) to Lewiston (ID). They were adorable. They could have taken the elderhostel shuttle to the hotel, but instead, they chose to take the MAX. They had been boning up on Lewis & Clark Expedition history in preparation for the trip. They were just so excited.
When I pulled out the in-progress cowl, the man mentioned that his wife was quite a knitter, beaming. And she was beaming too. She had made her carry-on bag, which was the apple-green color that is in now, felted with some slubby-shiny-viscose-y yarn knitted in, and she had trimmed the bag with upolstery trim. It was adorable, and she was adorable.
So I think I could recycle the yarn from the Olympic shrug which was gorgeous but so itchy, and make a satchel of it. That's the plan now..., subject to change like everything else.
October 9, 2006
pretrip neurosis
So I have this trip to Las Vegas coming up in, well, minutes, it seems. Usually, I spend the week before the trip trying to deny my need to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe, which takes up a lot of energy.
This time, I decided to go resaling, and see how things go. Just embrace the neurosis. I haven't been terribly happy with my clothes lately, which I think is more about my self-image than anything else. But I've been noticing that alot of the work clothes have stains that aren't coming out. It's time to just set them free.
So I drove down to the Dig in Milwaukie. I've still got this stoopid flu bug so I decided not to tempt fate by scootering. Like any thrifting, I ended trying on about 5x more than I actually got, because clothes had the sizing ripped out, or just the total lack of sizing continuity.
Anyways, I came away happy. I got two wool skirts, both relatively lightweight, one grey, one black. Both have pockets! I got a pair of jeans that's a size or two too big, so I can layer on the long-underwear and wools when winter scootering. And I got three tops, all work worthy, with two of them really Mom-worthy. $15
Next stop was Savvy Plus, a plus sized consignment shop. Again, I brought in a pile to try on, and came out with some winners. The real score was a lined cocktail dress in a gorgeous pattern. I also got two blouses and two tops, all Mom-worthy. This was quite a bit more expensive than the Dig, but well worth the money.
On the way into SP, I decided I would stop into the bicycle shop next door. Outside, I saw a lovely 8-speed Raleigh that looked so very sweet. I wonder who in town sells Raleighs? Then I stopped into the store to say hi to my potential future bike, the Breezer, and I ran into Hollie and her sweetie. I got to check out her very sweet project bike, which was cleaned up, repainted and absolutely gorgeous with its new Brooks saddle. We chatted bikes for a little bit--it was so nice to see Hollie!
In the evening, we got together with some of the Texiles and had dinner and some theatre. Dinner was great, theatre, not so much. The theatre actually could have been really funny, but the actors seemed so earnest and overacting that it would have been cruel to laugh.
I was reminded, too, that community theatre seating means unforgiving, tiny seats. Yikes.
October 6, 2006
I'm just sleeping
Sorry I've been away so long. I've decided that I'm trying to limit the whining on this blog, and if I haven't got anything good to say, I should just shut up. Novel idea.
So it hasn't been the greatest of times, but when things would be heading back up, I'd get too frantically busy to be able to write.
Certainly part of this has to do with deciding to take a graduate class. And getting the flu. And knowing that I'll be seeing my mom next week.
Anyhow. I've been bike commuting, and loving that, even the commutes back home. The last couple days, I haven't bicycled and I really miss it. It's so humane. Taking the bus is fine when I get a seat and get to knit or read, but that doesn't happen so often. Yesterday, I waited for 45 minutes for a bus that was supposed to run every 15. That sort of thing wears on me, especially knowing that there's a little pink bicycle in the shed just waiting to get me to work in 20 minutes.
My graduate course is GIS, geographic information systems, a software that allows you to build maps with all sorts of embedded information. If you use MapQuest or Google Maps, you use a GIS. I have been less than enthralled with it, but I've loved the lectures, and last night, I did my homework in the lab, and that was great.
I walked out of the lab, and I just felt so good. I remember that feeling from graduate school, of really working hard, thinking hard, and getting something accomplished, and just feeling so great. Part of my reasoning for taking the class was that I haven't been feeling so smart lately, but school makes me feel smarter. Oh yeah, baby.
I cheered on my best friend and thousands of others this last weekend at the Portland Marathon. I figured it wasn't going to be big deal, but I got all excited when I got there. And then, as we're riding up the course, watching people streaming down the other side of the street, I just wanted to be there amongst them. I saw lots of folks who looked really bad, who didn't prepare for the day, or just through the luck of the draw were in bad shape.
It's funny. I thought the long distance urge was past me. Maybe not? I have no desire whatsoever to do a 5K. But a 20K or half-marathon sounds great.
I've been really excited listening to the buzz around Electra's new Dutch-style Commuter bike. Today, in the Wall Street Journal, there's an article about the new commuter bikes that it appears everybody's putting out. Usually, WSJ articles are behind a pay wall, but this appears available.
As I read these things, I think a Breezer or a real dutch bike is in my future. I want 7 speeds, I want a hub generator lighting system, I want it to be road-ready. The only thing a Breezer is missing is the coat/skirt guard. Which is very important.
Portlanders seem a bit dutch bike obsessed. I just found this blog just now. Man.
Here are a few more bike related sillinesses that I found via the Bike Hugger:
- Yay! Who doesn't love Free Bike Day?
- Chick Magnets!
