I was on my bike all weekend (big suprise).  I rode 85 on saturday out to point reyes station and back through nicasio and then 45 on sunday out to tiburon.  It rained pretty much the whole ride sunday but we still had a good time.  There was a woman on a very heavy recumbant bike who I didn’t think was going to make it across the bridge but she rode thirty and couldn’t believe it.  Good for her.  I’ll bet I’ll see her on the last day of the lifecycle this year and she’ll have done just fine.

Pouring down rain this morning.  I came in on Bike #3 which has these fabulous disk brakes that are so great in the wet and give you such control especially when you compare them to the wet weather performance of Bike#2 yesterday which was an EXERCISE IN TERROR coming down camino alto but I survived it so what can you do.

Jeff managed to get all the cooking, cleaning, wood hauling, laundry, dog petting done all weekend.  Why I’m practically a lady of leisure!  I dopn’t know what I’d do without him!

I’ve got homework to do tonight.  My class is over in three weeks and then I’m going to start biking for two hours after work every night.  I’ve also got four new episodes of Yu GI Oh! GX that I haven’t seen yet so I’m going to watch those too.  Jeff’s in class tonight so I’ll be home alone.

Yesterday was President’s day and I took the day off.  I slept in late and then we went to north beach to walk around. 

We’re at Jack Early park.  Nathan wanted to go because everytime he went the gate was locked and he was strating to think that it was all part of some elaborate brank I was playing on him.  Here he is looking sinister:

“These Humans Disgust Me”

 

I biked all weekend but it pretty much sucked.  Saturday, I rode 50 out to fairfax in wind, rain, and 43 degree temperatures.  My poor feet were numb all day.  I was riding with this guy from Lake Placid, NY who was a really strong rider but I wasn’t going to go any faster than I was because the pavement was so slick.  We got passed by team Phonak in town for the bike race.  Made no attempt to keep up.  I was shocked to see the size of one of them.  Bikers are usually pretty little but this guy was HUGE!  Maybe he wins by eating the other riders.

I did the lifecycle training ride but it was really cold and I was sweeping (following the last rider to make sure nobody gets lost) so I never really warmed up all day.  Here’s Stephanie and Ian from the beginning of the ride

It was a tough day too.  Some jerk ran into one of our riders on the bridge and cut his finger and knocked him off the bike and he didn’t even say he was sorry he just got back on his bike and rode off.  And then, when I was coming back to the bridge on the hill out of Sausalito, this guys blows by on the right, in the shoulder and almost hit me and the guy in front of him.  I called out in my loudest voice a few comments about his riding manners and I can neither confirm nor deny that a string of explatives might have followed. 

Rainy day! I rode for an hour before work when it was damp but not wet. I had RSVP’s for my ride tomorrow so I’m totally committed which is actually a relief because I don’t think it’s going to rain all that much tomorrow. I think I felt a few snow flurries when I was riding through the castro home. It was definitely snowing in Berkeley. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

My mom has complained that there are no close up of my face on my blog. Here’s one from my wedding day. The happiest man in the world. Still am.

“America’s Sweetheart”

Disaster Narrowly Averted!

Bike#1 2002 Cannondale T800 10,000+ miles and my favorite all around bike

I was riding to work on bike #1 this morning and  the rim on my rear wheel separated with a loud bang which sounded a lot like a gunshot.  The rim (the part that the brake pads rub against when you brake) split into two pieces on one side for about eight inches of the wheel.  Yikes! 

I was going on a flat surface when it happened and I can’t help but think that the outcome could have been catastrophic had it happened while I was braking at speed on a hill.  After, the rear wheel didn’t spin anymore so I had to carry the bike home.  If you read back on my blog a few days you will see that my mechanic had warned me of this very thing last Thursday so I knew exactly what was had happened. I”m going to have to get new wheels and probably tires too because the ones on there were pretty old.

So I got to work a little late today on Bike #3.

Bike#3 2005 Kona Sutra Triple with drop handlebars and disk brakes. A little heavy but those disk brakes rock in the rain.

The weather has been vary cold and I haven’t been riding a whole lot extra this week and it’s supposed to rain and snow(!) at higher elevations (like Mt Tam and Mt Diablo) on Saturday morning.  This may put my Saturday ride in definite jeopardy.  But Sunday’s still supposed to be OK.  But I’m not going to be thinking that it’s rained out now because the storm may well race through the area a little early and be cleared up by Saturday morning.  Or that’s what I’ll be telling myself while I’m riding in the rain.

Went for a walk over lunch up to Telegraph hill and down into North Beach. Cool but beautiful. Like me!

Got Disk 2 of the yu gi oh 2nd season and I’m hoping to watch that on Friday night.

 

I had a fun weekend.  The weather was so fabulous.  Saturday, I went on the Different Spokes monthly ride.  Here we all are:

 

After, I came back into the city and rode out to the ocean and then came up Ulloa up to portola, then over twin peaks and home. 

We celebrated out Anniversary on Saturday night because Jeff had class on Monday so we went to the Chinese new year parade and then to Yum Yum in the Mission for dinner.  The parade was really neat:

Sorry my pics didn’t turn out so well but the parade was at night! 

Sunday I had a lifecycle training ride and then I did Marin headlands after.  There’s this great descent after you climb to the top where the drow off is so steep that if you went over the guard rail you’d likely plummet into the ocean.  Watch that last step!

Then I went home for dinner and went to bed early.

Today is my second wedding anniversary. 

We got married at city hall in San Francisco during the brief period that they were married same sex couples back in 2004.  I remember when they started issuing licenses that I thought that a judge would put a stop to it within hours.  But then on Friday, February 13th, I came back to work from lunch at the judge had not made a ruling and wasn’t going to until the following Tuesday and city hall had stated that they would marry everybody who was in line fy 4PM that day so I called Jeff and told him to leave work early and I went over to city hall to wait for him.  It was crazy there and we didn’t get home until very late but we had a new shiny marriage certificate when we did.  Of course those licenses were invalidated a couple of months later but I don’t think it will be too long before we’re exchanging vows again in san francisco city hall.  And the next time we’ll already have the rings.

The weather has been so nice in San Francisco this week and it’s largely expected to hold through the weekend.  For a change.  I’m riding both days (big suprise) and I’m looking forward to the Chinese new year parade tomorrow night.  Why are AIDSlifecycle training rides so much fun??  Because wondeful people like Edna and Nick bake pies for people to enjoy at the end.  Edna’s even had a home made lattice crusts on top this year.  Can you imagine??  If I was in charge of bringing the pie, the most work I’d put into them would be to cross out the word “Hostess” and write “Joseph”.  I didn’t get a pic of them this year, but here’s one from their pie-stavaganza from last year.

Went to the bike shop after work to last night to get those brakes on Bike #1 looked at.  He tightened them up but evidently my wheels need to be replaced before the the rear rim separates in a dramatic and potentially catastrophic bang.  That’s going to have to wait.  Biking is very, very expensive and although some people do all their maintenance themselves, my half assed attempts almost always leave my bike in worse shape than it started which is why they love me so much at Lombardi Sports.

Rode much the same route to work as I did yesterday except that I had brakes which made the ride so much less terrifying.  I have class tonight and I’m going to try to drop off bike #3 which has brake issues as well off at the bike shop before they close first.

Looking forward to this weekend!  Bike rides!  Chinese new year parade!  We’re celebrating our wedding anniversary (2 years!) and valentines day this weekend because out anniversary is on Monday and Jeff has class and then I have class on valentines day.

Here’s a picture of myself and my friend Nathan from the observation deck at the beautiful new DeYoung meuseum in Golden Gate Park from last summer.

Nathan definitely looks like he’s up to no good.  Believe it.

Had a short but fun ride through pacific heights today.  I need to get my brakes looked at again because they’re already pretty soft on my commuting bike and I was a little scared barrelling down washington street into chinatown without the complete ability to stop.  And of course there was sand all over the street because of some water main repairs they were doing. Yikes!  I’m sending off my regisistrarion for the AIDSLifecycle today and I’m really excited about it.  I’m going to be on team Different Spokes San Francisco.  They’re a fun group to ride with.  Here’s a few pics from a ride we did last summer:

Tom and Michael from a ride I lead over to Marshall on Tomales Bay.  Michael’s got this cool custom built steel bike in this crazy orange color with 105 components.    Sweet!Tomales bay is such a fun place to go and so beautiful on a sunny day.  These pictures are from the top of the “Marshall Wall” looking west to the bay and the ocean beyond.  You’re up high enough that you can see the ocean behind the next ridge.

David (our team lead this year) in the red gloves.  I’m planning on riding with them this weekend and I’m looking forward to that. 

I slept in a little this morning so I rode down Market into work because that’s the fastest way.  Why am I looking forward to the lifecycle this year??

Because of the awesome roadies who treat us so right.  This picture was from day 1.  last year.  All of the volunteers staffing the rest stop dressed up like Dolly Parton.  Amazing.  That’s a whole lotta tantalizing top heavy temptresses.  Here’s me with my friend Michael at the close last year:

How can I look so impossibly fresh after a long day of biking??  I don’t.  I hauled ass all morning and got in at 10AM to my usual LA reception which consisted of irritated volunteers letting me know that they weren’t ready yet (now that’s hospitality!).  So I rode to the hotel and took a nap and a shower and came back around two when there was a crowd assembled.  The most dangerous part of the lifecycle for me??  The trip back down Wilshire from the hotel to the close.