It was beautifully cool this morning.  Still massively foggy west of Twin Peaks but managed to avoid the fog mostly.  It took me forever to get out of the house this morning but I still managed a little ride on my way into work.  I headed off Corbett to Clayton to Ashbury to Frederick to Masonic to Haight to Baker to McAllister.  This is the view from McAllister and Van Ness looking towards the glorious Federal Building at 8th and Market and it’s wonderful paper airplane like roof:

Me with the Opera House in the background:

I continued on McAllister to Polk to Post.  I love the clean, modern lines of Saks Fifth Avenue.  This is the women’s store– the men’s is a couple of blocks down the street:

Union Square from Post and Powell:

I continued on Post to Kearny to Bush to Sansome and into work.

Monday and Tuesday I came down Market into work and lunch downtown and then headed right back up Market after work to free the dogs.  It was just too hot mid day for me to go home and our house was very warm.  Luckily, Mr. Chris gave us a portable air conditioner last year so we were able to be relatively comfortable at night and without all the windows in the house open which means our dogs weren’t pacing and barking all night long.  Bliss! 

The heat finally broke on Wednesday and I headed home for lunch and then I went on a ride after work.  I headed off Sutter to Fillmore to Clay where it went from full sunshine to increasing fog.  I continued to Spruce to Washington to Arguello to 23rd to Balboa.  This is pretty St. Thomas Apostle on Balboa at 40th.  I love it in the fog:

This is the view up Balboa which illustrates how very foggy it was:

I continued on Balboa to the Great Highway and stopped at the beach for pics.   Not that there was much to see:

Me:

I came down the Great Highway to Vicente.  This is the incredibly foggy view from Vicente and 19th:

I continued on Vicente to 16th to Taravel to Merced to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola and finally emerged from the fog.  I stopped at around Corbett to get a pic of the dramatically different conditions:

I took Corbett to Ord and home for dinner.  Mr. Poe had to work late so I was on my own for dinner.  I’d forgotten that he was working late and hadn’t thought about what I was going to eat so dinner was pretty crappy.  I’m not one of those cooks who can whip up something fabulous at the spur of the moments I need to think about it for a while.  So I had chips and salsa, hummus, basil and onion sandwiches and tater tots.  Not my most inspired menu.  After dinner I finished up my homework and worked on my bathroom a little and then walked the dogs and waited for Mr. Poe to come home.  Long day.

Bike Mileage:

Today 26.1 Week to date 40.1 Month to date 653.8 Year to date 6,231.5 To Goal 3,768.5 Over (Under) plan (1,220.6) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 690.5 Rolling Year 8,625.1 Since Inception 10/1/07 27,401.3

It’s been hot in the Bay Area the last couple of days.  Very hot.  I think I’ve passed the point in my life where I want to ride in a lot of heat.  So Friday I headed down Market in the morning into work and ate lunch downtown and came home up Market after work.  Saturday we ran errands and Mr. Poe worked on finishing the glorious new shelves in my bathroom.  I went down to Mike’s in the later afternoon and picked up my Cannondale.  It needed a new cassette which I’m not amused about replacing after only 6,000 or so miles on the bike.  Not amused at all.  They suggested, and I agreed, that it should be replaced by a much cheaper and more durable version.  It’s going to be a little heavier but I’m not gonna notice. 

Sunday I went for a ride in the morning.  I had posted a Different Spokes ride out to Lucas Valley but nobody turned up and I wasn’t keen on roasting my ass off in San Rafael so I headed down the peninsula to the airport and then came back through Burlingame on Skyline.  I managed to make it home before it got too hot and spent the rest of the day lounging about the house.

This is a fabulous martial arts mural on Persia at Mission.  It’s super fantastic:

This is the view from McLaren Park.  It was already hot up there:

South San Francisco:

Views from the the park at the foot of Millbrae Ave:

ANA:

United 757:

United 747:

I got home and had some lunch.  Mr. Poe continued the work on the shelves in my bathroom and the dogs wandered about the house.  We had the front doors open to catch the maximum amount of breeze and Mimi marched up the stairs to have a look.  Angelic:

Here she is all tuckered out later:

Ashley Junior passed out on the floor:

Both of them:

At some point in the afternoon their nap space moved to the pillow in front of the fireplace:

We had dinner and went to bed early.  It’s was pretty warm all night and I didn’t sleep very well. 

Bike Mileage:

Today 41.2 Week to date 109.1 Month to date 613.7 Year to date 6,191.4 To Goal 3,808.6 Over (Under) plan (1,178.5) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 729.1 Rolling Year 8,705.4 Since Inception 10/1/07 27,361.2

I worked from home on Tuesday and Wednesday because we were having some work done at the house.  We’ve added some much needed storage in my bathroom that’s going to look spectacular when it’s varnished.   Thursday I came down Market into work and made it home for lunch and then met up with Different Spokes after work for a ride around Lake Merced.  The weather was really nice and it made for great riding.  We had a few brand new riders with us and I hope they had fun.  Here’s the gang assembled at Peet’s before we left:

Here we are a little north of Lake Merced right around sunset.  Perfect:

I headed home after for dinner and finished up my homework and went to bed.  It was a long day.

Bike Mileage:

Today 34.1 Week to date 60.9 Month to date 565.5 Year to date 6,143.2 To Goal 3,856.8 Over (Under) plan (1,144.5) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 848.4 Rolling Year 8,777.9 Since Inception 10/1/07 27,313.0

I slept in on Monday and just came down Market into work.  Onmy way back to work from Lunch, I stopped by Mike’s Bikes and dropped off my Cannondale to get a tune up.  For all the years I’ve been cycling I’ve done my own bike cleaning but lately the rate at which my bikes have accumulated grime has exceeded that which I’ve managed to remove it.  And my Cannondale is such a nice bike it’s just such a shame to see it in such a sorry state.  So off to Mike’s for them to deal with it where I had to endure a lecture on proper bicycle maintenance.  Which I totally deserved but in all fairness it’s not that I don’t know how to maintain my bike it’s just that I don’t want to. 

After I dropped off my bike I walked over to REI where I picked up my commuter bike which was receiving the same kind of loving.  The woeful shape that the Vitus was in was the event that precipitated the professional bike cleaning in the first place because it was caked with so much grime–  some of it that dated from twenty years ago when it was Daddy’s bike–  and in addition the nipples were corroded on the front wheel and the spokes were starting to snap.  Ugh.  Brandon at REI managed to it incredibly clean.  Unbelievably so.  He even used some kind of a compound to remove some of the corrosion on the cranks.  I’m really delighted with it and I’m hoping that I’ll be similarly pleased with the job that Mike’s does on the Cannondale. 

After work I headed off Sutter to Fillmore to Clay to Spruce.  I stopped at Spruce and Washington for a pic of my favorite view of the north bay:

Me:

I took Washington to Arguello to Lake to 8th to Cabrillo to Funston and into Golden Gate Park at the Rose Garden:

I headed over to Stow Lake and stopped for pics of the Chinese Pavilion.  Beautiful:

The view of the lake:

I headed over to MLK to the Great Highway to Taravel to Merced to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola.  This is the view looking down Portola from Laguna Honda:

I took Portola to Corbett to Ord and home for dinner.  We all had dinner and went to bed early.  It was a long day.

Bike Mileage:

Today 26.8 Week to date 26.8 Month to date 531.4 Year to date 6,109.1 To Goal 3,890.9 Over (Under) plan (1,096.4) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 913.7 Rolling Year 8,805.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 27,278.9

On Sunday I led a Different Spokes ride out to Point Reyes Station.  My friend Tom came up from the South Bay to ride with me.  It was a fun day but the weather was a little schizophrenic and kept going from light rain to hot sun to blustery and back.   There was just enough precipitation that Marin was a little bit greener than it had been the week before.  We had a great day.

This is Samuel P Taylor Park.  It’s beautiful and the bike trail is a lot of fun to ride on:

Tom:

Tom had to head back to the city at the end of the bike trail so I was on my own for the rest of the day.  I made a wrong turn and ended up in Inverness so I stopped there for snack.  This goat was giving me the side eye when I stopped to take pictures:

This is the marsh around Point Reyes Station.  Lovely:

Me:

Nicasio Reservoir is definitely a lot fuller than it was this time last year:

Cranes!

I made it home around 5PM and gave all of the dogs baths before dinner.  My dogs have to bathed in a certain order.  Rufus has to get the first bath because he doesn’t like getting bathed and if he isn’t the first he runs around the house whining and is in a panic by the time it’s his turn.  We don’t have a basin big enough for him so I have to drag him into the shower with me.  Important:  wear junk protecting bicycle shorts in the shower when bathing Rufus.  I can’t stress this enough.  And he’s shedding.  A lot.  Mr. Poe brushed him that day and he still shed a massive amount of hair when I bathed him.  Fistfulls of it.  Yuck.  Ashley Jr. has to be bathed second because he doesn’t really like getting bathed either and will work himself into a similar panic.  Mimi gets the third bath because she likes getting bathed.  Actually, she loves it.  But she’s got very dry skin so we don’t bath her as much as either we or she would like.  After everybody got baths it took a while to clean/dry the house and then we had dinner and went to bed.

Bike Mileage:

Today 86.5 Week to date 212.5 Month to date 504.6 Year to date 6,082.3 To Goal 3,917.7 Over (Under) plan (1,095.8) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 886.9 Rolling Year 8,859.2 Since Inception 10/1/07 27,252.1

We had a busy day on Saturday.  We got up and went to Costco before the grocery store.  We got Mimi a new blanket for the futon.  She loves it and wouldn’t let boys sit on it until she’d rolled around on it for quite some time.  The four princesses:

Rufus and Ashley:

The weather was quite nice on Saturday and maybe a little hot.  After lunch I walked all three dogs for an hour and Rufus by himself for another hour while Mr. Poe took a nap.  The little dogs were not loving the heat and I’d be a little more sympathetic except they’re the ones that need the exercise.  Everybody was comatose by late afternoon:

I managed to make it to the beauty event they’re having at Neiman Marcus on Friday.  I’m such a sucker for gifts with purchase.  They were handing out these horrendous faux shearling tote bags in a leopard print pattern that the guy who helped me described as “So YSL circa 1981″.  Oh it’s so tacky.  So wonderfully, wonderfully tacky.  And it’s furry!  OMG!  And come summer, when I’m walking to the shower truck while on the Lifecycle, I’ll be carrying this baby under my arm and every queen who sees me will be blinded by my glamor:

We went to dinner at my friend Larry’s on Saturday night and it was lots of fun.  We made it home very late (for us) and went to bed.

It was soaking wet when I went home for lunch and I wasn’t happy about it at all.  I probably wouldn’t have gone home for lunch but I wanted to stop by the comic store in the Castro and the need for Avengers surpassed my desire not to get wet.  After work, it was warm and sunny in the Castro but I could see this thick bank of fog from Twin Peaks westward and I elected to go home up Market instead.  Mr. Poe was at a movie and I had to work a bit.  The dogs and I watched mysteries while we waited for him to come home. 

I didn’t get to bed as early as I liked on Thursday so I slept in a little and went on a shorter ride Friday morning.  I probably could have gotten more mileage in but it was soaking wet with heavy fog and the roadway was very slick.  I headed off Corbett to Clayton to Ashbury to Frederick to Masonic to Haight to Baker.  This is the view from Baker and Oak.  Foggy and wet:

I continued on Baker to McAllister to Steiner.  This is pretty St. Dominic’s at Steiner and Bush.  Overall effect improved by fog:

I continued on Steiner to Pacific to Powell to Jackson.  I stopped for a pic of Chinatown from Jackson and Grant:

Me:

I continued on Jackson to Columbus into Montgomery to Clay to Sansome and into work.

After work I headed off down 2nd to Howard.  This is the view down Howard from 5th.  Note the massive fog bank:

I continued on Howard.  I thought they were finally demolishing this blighted building at 6th and Howard but they instead cleaned the furniture attached to the facade.  It’s not that I hate the look–  it’s really neat–  but this neighborhood does not need vacant building in it:

I continued on Howard to 11th.  This is the Jackson Brewery building on 11th and Folsom:

I continued on 11th to Bryant to Mariposa to Florida.  This fabulous mural is on Florida between 23rd and 24th.  I need to go back when the light is better to try to get better pics of it.  It’s fabulous:

This is one of my favorite signs in the Mission on Florida at 24th:

This building, also on Florida at 24th has amazing murals done by the Precita Eyes Project:

Fabulous:

I continued on Florida to 26th to Valencia to Tiffany to 29th to San Jose to Monterey to Ridgewood to Flood to Hazelwood to Greenwood to Plymouth to Wildwood.  It was fog central in Westwood Highlands.  This is the view from Wildwood and Miramar:

I continued on Wildwood to Faxon to De Montefort to Ashton to Pico to Urbano to Moncado to Cerritos to Winston to lake Merced to Middlefield to Ocean to Clearfield into 34th to Yorba to 35th to Vicente and down to the coast.  I came up the Great Highway and went into Golden Gate Park at MLK and took that to Center.  I stopped for a pic at Metson lake and I couldn’t believe how foggy it was.  Cue zombies:

Me:

I continued on Middle to Transverse to JFK to the Panhandle to Stanyan to Page to Scott to Duboce to Castro to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.  I walked the dogs and worked a bit and then I went to bed. 

Bike Mileage:

Today 36.6 Week to date 109.6 Month to date 401.7 Year to date 5,979.4 To Goal 4,020.6 Over (Under) plan (1,116.5) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 885.2 Rolling Year 8,777.3 Since Inception 10/1/07 27,149.2