6/30 Construction Report

There's prime construction riding happening on Maple, between 2nd and NW Boulevard.

No need to share the northbound bridge with anyone.

The riding's as good coming as it is going.

No telling if I would ever have the chance again to ride the wrong way up the on-ramp, so I thought I should seize the opportunity.

We're sharing again on North Wall, between Francis and Wellesley. Brand new no parking signs on both sides of the street.


Wonder how it's going up on Mt. Spokane.

Commuter Count

Despite the fact that my new commute is going great, I decided to ride in today. I hardly ever do this due to the lack of shower facilities at work, but it was too nice of a day to sit on a bus, so my co-workers will just have to deal with me today.


As I headed east on Upriver Drive, between Mission and Argonne I counted 20 cyclists headed into town. Impressive. Presumably almost all commuters, since they were carrying loads.


I was delighted to run across a nice little construction zone on east Wellesley. The new Paselas got a taste of what they are in for.

It's shaping up to be a pretty good day.

Euphoria

This was the best day in the history of the world.

Yeah, I'm exaggerating, but a pretty dang good day. This was the perfect weather we were dreaming about through all those MANY months of garbage that we thought would never end, and just about didn't. I just thoroughly enjoyed being on my bike today.

Today I found out that the AquaVelva, an old soul, has some kind of very weird spiritual past life that compels it to run stop signs and ride on the sidewalk. I just wish I could do something to stop it.

I'm getting sucked into the GDR. Last night I found out that my wife's sister went to grade school with David and at the same time I made the connection that his dad is the deacon at our church. So even though I don't know David at all, now it's a tiny bit third-party-personal. The Spokane guys who do know David and are all over this are Jason and John. You should check it out, because it's pretty epic stuff.

De Leon Downtown is open. This is major, to quote the 80's.




I picked up a set of Panaracer Paselas (35c's, cause that's what they had), on the way home from work. The stoic self-portrait is something to behold, I know.





I was so proud, riding up the SH with my new rubber draped over my shoulder. That is, until I got home and found out that in all my excitement, I failed to realize they were Tour Guards. I was specifically instructed to stay away from the TG's, and I blew it. But it's too beautiful a day to dwell on mistakes and beat myself up, and besides, I already got the krap kicked out of me at work, so I put it behind me . . . they're already mounted and ready for tomorrow's ride. I'm going with the "everything happens for a reason" theory.

I stopped at Rosauer's on the way up the hill. PBR light? Who knew. Like this day couldn't get any better.

Damnitall

With no more than a few carefully-chosen words, John has planted this insidious little seed in my head that I need new cross-bike tires. The only reason I'm pissed is because he's right and I'm gonna have to put off badly-needed new socks and eat rice again this week. Shit, there goes my allowance.

Sunday Ride

What could be better than a construction ride ?

Well, a trespass ride, as it turns out.

Nice and Ugly

A few days ago I blogged about the bike that will take me from Mirabeau to work. So I'm halfway there. Now for the other half.

What I need is a bike that I can ride from my house on the South Hill down to the Plaza, lock to a rack and leave there all day, and then ride it back up the hill at the end of the day. It needs to be relatively efficient on pavement, but it would also be nice if it had a little off-road capability so that I can ride up or down the the trails off High Drive on occasion. And of course it needs to be able to haul a little freight so I can do errands on the way home. It needs to be ugly enough so that nobody bothers it at the plaza and double-ugly enough so that I don't get attached to it, in case they do anyway. But if it could have just a hint of charisma amidst the ugliness, that would be cool, too.

So I decided that the bike for the job is an older rigid-fork mountain bike. There are quite a few around, so finding one shouldn't be too tough, and shouldn't take a lot of cash. I started my search with Craigslist. Too far to travel looking at bikes. Then, yard sales. Colossal waste of time. Next, pawn shops. Mostly front-suspended, over-priced Chinese bikes with no character. I was starting to think this was going to be a little tougher than I thought. But then, out of the blue, Ken over at the Cycling Spokane forum posted about an old Specialized Hard Rock for sale at the VOA thrift store for $60. (Thanks, Ken!) I knew it was the bike for me when I read that it was a "Gloriously god-awful shade of green." Due to my superior bargaining skills, I was able to talk them all the way down to $55. ;-)


Here she is on the day I brought her home, in all her glory, complete with mis-matched knobbies. The picture doesn't do it justice, but trust me when I tell you the saddle is hideously non-anatomical.




The weird roller-cam rear brake that Ken mentioned.

Color-coordinated stem with pass-through brake cable. Sweet.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been goofing around with her, going through the bearings and whatnot, shaking her down on short trips around the neighborhood. She's quickly become the short-trip, jump-on-in-your-flipflops, errand-running bike of choice. I don't wanna carry any kind of tool kit, so I had to get some Armadillos. I love Armadillos, but these are seriously ugly. I can't believe I bought them. I can't believe I spent more on them than on the bike. They should be perfect.

She's a work in progress, but we're off to a good, ugly start. She's ready for her first commute tomorrow.

I'm know I'm not supposed to get attached to this bike. She's now ugly enough that only a mother could love her. I call her the AquaVelva. You can call me mother.

Too Sad to Ride

Today I lost my bestest canine pal, Jasmine. I could care less about riding a bike at this moment.





She was 14-1/2. My daughter grew up with her. We have a boatload of great memories with this dog.

This morning, I picked all 80 lbs of her up and lovingly carried her out of the house when I got up (she could no longer stand or walk) and then carried her back in before I left for work. I got two heart-wrencing, sobbing calls from my daughter, who is now a young adult and out on her own. The first was because she was so upset when she got our message saying that Jasmine probably didn't have long to live and the second was when she came by to check on Jasmine, and called to say that she thought Jasmine had passed away.

When I got home, Jasmine was lying where I had left her, and she was gone. I cried so hard. I knew that she was fading, but I thought we had another day or two. I wish I could have said goodbye the right way, but I know that she knew that we loved her. And there was no doubt that she loved us. I'm comforted in the knowledge that she had about as good a life as a dog can have. We took care of her and she took care of us.

I'm qualified to say that losing a pet is nothing like losing a person that's close to you. But at the same time, it's not insignificant, either, and it hurts like hell. Dogs have such great loyalty and such great spirit. She was 100% devoted to her fam.

Jasmine, aka "The Jazz", aka "Jazzy G", aka "Home Dog".

Sleep tight, sweet girl. We'll remember you always.

Love,
Your people.

P.S. Brandy misses you and hopes she can fill your paws.

P.S.S . You rock at frisbee and ball and swimming.