1) Ice cream headache in my face for the first 15 minutes of the ride.
2) The snot dripping from my nose and freezing on my upper lip. Yummy snot cicle.
3) Bike lanes that just disapear. Another brilliant concept by King County.
4) Fat-ass SUV's and their Bush supporting bumper stickers. Stupidity at it's best.
5) Knowing that it's freezing outside, the procrastinator in me is able to turn a planned 2 hour ride into a 45 min. ride.
So much for training.
6) Cold feet. I mean achingly cold feet that turn firey hot once back inside.
7) Other riders on the road that look warm. How dare they go around acting as if they are enjoying themselves?
8) Cold feet, cold ears, cold everything.
9) Cold feet.
10) Damn those cold feet.
Obviously, some of these are year-round riding peeves, but the cold weather seems to compound the iritation factor...
As usual, I formulated this list while on a ride and now that I'm home in basking in the warmth, I'm wishing that I had another 2 hours before work to go riding. Heck, I wish I had the whole day. Apparently, it wasn't that bad.
2.15.2005
Calling all crazies...
Yesterday was Valentines Day and all the nut jobs were out en masse. What's up with that? We had this one guy come into the store that smelled really bad and was wondering around in a manic way that was making us very uncomfortable. He kept picking stuff up off the shelves looking at it and then putting it back. He was trying to look busy and not succeeding. Then when I thought he was in line to order something he bolted to the condiment bar, picked out a stir stick, (these are wood and made for stiiring coffee)),and started chewing and then spitting the pieces out onto the floor. I approached him to find out what the hell was going on and he started muttering about not bothering anyone. Did I mention he smelled really bad? I told him he couldn't hang out and spit stuff onto my floor and he replied that he might order something. As if that was going to make a difference at this point.
Next thing I know he is jumping into a car that is parked in the pull-through/fire lane in front of the store. We all looked at each other in shock because none of us had noticed that there was a car there in the first place and my first thought was that he was stealing someone elses car. I had one of my partners check the bathrooms and we asked all the other customers if their car was parked in the pull-through lane. As he pulled away, I noticed he had Florida plates and watched as he drove 50 ft. into a space in the parking lot. Perhaps he was suffering from post traumatic stress from the 2000 elcetion debacle in Florida and now wonders around the country spitting wooden stir sticks onto the floors of coffee shops everywhere...
On the other hand, this is North Bend and pretty much everyone here suffers from some sort of craziness. At least he wasn't as bad as the guy we had one morning that was whacking off outside the window. But that's another story.
Next thing I know he is jumping into a car that is parked in the pull-through/fire lane in front of the store. We all looked at each other in shock because none of us had noticed that there was a car there in the first place and my first thought was that he was stealing someone elses car. I had one of my partners check the bathrooms and we asked all the other customers if their car was parked in the pull-through lane. As he pulled away, I noticed he had Florida plates and watched as he drove 50 ft. into a space in the parking lot. Perhaps he was suffering from post traumatic stress from the 2000 elcetion debacle in Florida and now wonders around the country spitting wooden stir sticks onto the floors of coffee shops everywhere...
On the other hand, this is North Bend and pretty much everyone here suffers from some sort of craziness. At least he wasn't as bad as the guy we had one morning that was whacking off outside the window. But that's another story.
2.10.2005
Ahhhh, snow...!
Yesterday was a totally perfect day and really, that can't be said too often. My Dad played hooky from work and we met out at Longmire with our skis and snowshoes and hiking boots, (just in case we couldn't find snow). But, oh did we find snow! The most fluffy, sparkling snow I've ever skied on in WA. The weather was just about as good as it could get. Warm and crystal clear. And the Mountain! Did I mention the mountain? There are no pictures because of course I forgot the camera. Doh! Suffice it to say that it was huge and beautiful.
We made our way from Paradise up to Mazama Ridge. Watched a group of telemarkers bomb a big bowl and then climb back up to the top just to do it all over again. Man, those guys work for their fun. I wanna learn to telemark... Some day. We then spent a good part of the afternoon making our way down the ridge. The thing about playing in the snow is that you get to make your own trail. You go where the path looks friendly, which is...nice.
I realized about half way through the day that I'm no skier. I like to bomb little slopes and the whoopdy-do's through the trees are fun, but I'm really not cut out to be on skis. My legs get all rubbery and I fall down a lot. Put me on a bike, any bike, and I'll be right at home. I adapt easily to different terrain, different bikes, and different conditions without even thinking. Not skis. My Dad kept reminding me to keep my edges this way or that, and not to ski into creeks or off the side of the ridge. It's just not intuitive like cycling. Kinda makes sense though. I grew up in Santa Cruz and we didn't have snow, but we did have bikes and I've been riding one since I was 3 or 4 years old.
The good part of skiing is I still have fun doing it even if I'm really no good at it. And the best part about skiing is that it gets me outside during the winter months and we always end up at these most spectacular places on these amazing days. That in itself is worth flinging myself haphazardly through the snow, (even when it get down my pants!).
We made our way from Paradise up to Mazama Ridge. Watched a group of telemarkers bomb a big bowl and then climb back up to the top just to do it all over again. Man, those guys work for their fun. I wanna learn to telemark... Some day. We then spent a good part of the afternoon making our way down the ridge. The thing about playing in the snow is that you get to make your own trail. You go where the path looks friendly, which is...nice.
I realized about half way through the day that I'm no skier. I like to bomb little slopes and the whoopdy-do's through the trees are fun, but I'm really not cut out to be on skis. My legs get all rubbery and I fall down a lot. Put me on a bike, any bike, and I'll be right at home. I adapt easily to different terrain, different bikes, and different conditions without even thinking. Not skis. My Dad kept reminding me to keep my edges this way or that, and not to ski into creeks or off the side of the ridge. It's just not intuitive like cycling. Kinda makes sense though. I grew up in Santa Cruz and we didn't have snow, but we did have bikes and I've been riding one since I was 3 or 4 years old.
The good part of skiing is I still have fun doing it even if I'm really no good at it. And the best part about skiing is that it gets me outside during the winter months and we always end up at these most spectacular places on these amazing days. That in itself is worth flinging myself haphazardly through the snow, (even when it get down my pants!).
2.08.2005
Exploration
So, today I went for a ride. I tried to get out of the house early, but I had to put a new tube in on the road bike but the rim tape is falling apart and about 2 minutes after I got everything back together, it exploded. Sad. I decided I would finally go see if I could get to North Bend from Issaquah by way of the Cedar River or the south side of Rattle Snake Ridge. I would need a map and had to scan one out of the Gazateer. That done, I couldn't decide if I wanted to take the single mt. of the multi gear mt. bike. Figuring I didn't really know what I was in for, I opted for the multi gear and set out a whole lot later than I wanted. Off I went into the unknown.
According to my map there is a way to get there, but I wasn't confident I would make it. So, I rode and rode and rode... Through the forest and into the middle of nowhere. Literally nowhere. But here's the crazy thing, people live out there. I'm about two thirds of the way down this road and a car goes whizzing by. I'm thinking they'll be back soon. The road is suppose to be a dead end. Then a short time later another car goes by. Weird. I keep riding and then wholly crap, there's a
whole neighborhood out there-in the middle of freaking nowhere.
Long story short, I never found the way into North Bend. The four way intersection I was supposed find never presented itself and since I started so late, it was sure to be dark before I got all the way home. So I turned around at the end of the "private road" I ended up on. Funny side note: this road had a huge sign that said, "NO ADMITTENCE, ROAD DEAD ENDS, PRIVATE, NO TRESSPASSING". I went up it any way. I mean what were they going to do to me? But every car that went by, the person waved and smiled. Do they know they live on a private road? Nice people. It was good to know if I need anything that they might help.
There was snow up there and starting to get very cold. I realized as I was heading out that I was going down hill. I hadn't even realized I had been climbing for the last 15+ miles. I was frozen by the time I made back to pavement and just couldn't wait to get home. All in all, I spent 3 hours on the bike and rode 33.5 miles and never found the way to North Bend.
Sometimes, that's the way exploration goes. You do a lot of exploring and not a lot of finding.
According to my map there is a way to get there, but I wasn't confident I would make it. So, I rode and rode and rode... Through the forest and into the middle of nowhere. Literally nowhere. But here's the crazy thing, people live out there. I'm about two thirds of the way down this road and a car goes whizzing by. I'm thinking they'll be back soon. The road is suppose to be a dead end. Then a short time later another car goes by. Weird. I keep riding and then wholly crap, there's a
whole neighborhood out there-in the middle of freaking nowhere.
Long story short, I never found the way into North Bend. The four way intersection I was supposed find never presented itself and since I started so late, it was sure to be dark before I got all the way home. So I turned around at the end of the "private road" I ended up on. Funny side note: this road had a huge sign that said, "NO ADMITTENCE, ROAD DEAD ENDS, PRIVATE, NO TRESSPASSING". I went up it any way. I mean what were they going to do to me? But every car that went by, the person waved and smiled. Do they know they live on a private road? Nice people. It was good to know if I need anything that they might help.
There was snow up there and starting to get very cold. I realized as I was heading out that I was going down hill. I hadn't even realized I had been climbing for the last 15+ miles. I was frozen by the time I made back to pavement and just couldn't wait to get home. All in all, I spent 3 hours on the bike and rode 33.5 miles and never found the way to North Bend.
Sometimes, that's the way exploration goes. You do a lot of exploring and not a lot of finding.
