Thursday I had to get up extra early to get Mr. Poe to Oakland for a 6AM flight, an act I'm expecting to get taken out to dinner in thanks for.  You know, her married me twice so I figure I have to take him for his early morning flights at SFO as a freebie but Oakland is another matter entirely.  I got back from the airport at about 5:30 and had a big breakfast and went back to bed for a couple of hours.  An enormous storm moved in on Thursday and it rained all day. I worked from home and stayed indoors all day.  Even poor Rufus refused to go outside until he just couldn't wait anymore and then charged back up the back stairs and grumbled til I dried him off.  I got this pic off of my front porch mid day.  Where's that famous California sunshine I've heard so much about??

My friend Chris came and collected me a little before 5 and we went to Sports Basement for the Different Spokes membership drive meeting.  Turnout was light--  I think it was the weather.  We had an interesting presentation by a lawyer on road safety and then I headed home.  The dogs and I watched a little TV and then we went to bed.  I hope the weather's nicer tomorrow.

Wednesday the weather was kind of all over the place.  I managed to make it in for work and I headed home for lunch.  I got a pic of the Castro as I headed back to work from the comic book store:

This was the view at Market and Gough:

Me:

I headed down Market into work.  I got a pic at California at Sansome.  Nice and sunny:

After work I headed off 2nd to Howard to 8th to Bryant to REI to go pick up my new bike gloves that I got with part of my dividend.  Then I headed off Brannon to Division to Harrison to 15th to Noe to Duboce to Scott to Fell and into the Panhandle then into Golden Gate Park at JFK.  It was sprinkling on me when I got into the park but that quickly turned into pouring rain.  I headed home.  I took JFK to Stanyan to Page to Scott to Duboce to Noe to 15th to Sanchez to Market.  I got a pic of the Castro Farmer's Market.  I seemed pretty lively despite the weather:

I continued on Market to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.

Bike Mileage:

Today 19.2 Week to date 51.7 Month to date 366.7 Year to date 1,158.9 To Goal 6,841.1 Over (Under) plan (638.4) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (8,066.4) Rolling Year 7,161.4 Since Inception 10/1/07 29,664.4

My ride on Sunday indeed did get rained out.  The weather turned out to be pretty nice in the city but it rained in Marin pretty much all day.  I think we would have been pretty miserable if we had gone.  Monday turned out to be pretty nice.  The weather was mostly south us and it was dry all day.  I made it home for lunch and went for a nice ride after work.  I headed off 2nd to Howard to 11th.  This is the Jackson Brewery building at 11th and Folsom.  It's one of my favorite buildings South of Market:

I continued on 11th into Bryant to Precita.  The murals on the Precita Center are unbelievably spectacular:

I continued on Precita and stopped for a pic at Folsom.  Precita Park is such a lovely neighborhood but it's ringed by crappy areas and isn't the safest place at night:

I continued on Precita to Mission to St Ann.  I stopped at St. John the Evangelist for pics.  It's not in the greatest of shape but it's such a lovely building and it's got great detail:

I continued on St. Ann to Marsilly to Bosworth to O'Shaughnessey which I hadn't been up in a long time.  I stopped a couple times to get pics of pretty Glen Park:

Me:

The San Francisco School of the Arts with Sutro Tower rising behind it:

I continued on O'Shaughnessey into Woodside to Laguna Honda into 7th to Judah to 9th and into Golden Gate Park.  I stopped for a pic at the Shakespeare Garden:

I headed over to the Music Concourse and then to the Rose Garden.  A few things were in bloom but not much.  Then I headed off Fulton to Funston to Cabrillo to 5th to Balboa into Turk to Central to McAllister to Laguna to Market to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.  After dinner I walked the dogs and worked on my music collection a bit.  Itunes has stopped keeping my playlists in order when I transfer them to my Ipod and the workaround involves explicitly telling itunes to preserve the playlist order but that has to be done playlist by playlist and I have hundreds.  Not my favorite feature.  I worked on that til 9 and then I went to bed.

Bike Mileage:

Today 25.5 Week to date 25.5 Month to date 340.5 Year to date 1,132.7 To Goal 6,867.3 Over (Under) plan (620.7) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (8,092.6) Rolling Year 7,206.9 Since Inception 10/1/07 29,638.2

Friday the weather was awful all day and I took Muni into work and home at the end of the day.  Saturday was even worse.  Thankfully, my ride out of Hollister that day got cancelled so I didn't have to drive 90 minutes in each direction to ride in the freezing cold rain.  Instead, I slept in and then Mr. Poe and I went to the grocery store and then to the Asian Art Museum which was no small feat given that it was pouring down rain all day and there was a Harry Potter marathon but my powers of nagging are strong.  I love going to the Asian Art Museum.  Everything about it is fabulous-- the building, the artwork, and the hot Asian guys that work there--  me love you long time!!  This is a pic of the hallway that leads up to the permanent collections:

They had a exhibit on Bali which was very interesting.  The collection was mostly brought from the Netherlands which invaded and conquered Bali in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Disturbingly, the royal families of several of the kingdoms of Bali dealt with imminent defeat by dressing in burial shrouds and putting themselves in the line of fire of the invading Dutch and killing one another if the Dutch refused to shoot them.  Which kind of explained how so much of the royal collections ended up in the Netherlands and totally creeped me out.  Here are some of the spoils:

From there we headed off to the permanent collections on the second floor which thankfully didn't carry such a macabre provenance.  First up was the Japanese:

Then we headed to the Korean gallery.  They change the stuff in the permanent exhibit quite a bit since they have way more objects than they could ever hope to exhibit at one time in their collections.  There was a lot of new stuff I hadn't seen before including these gorgeous diaphanous metallic fabric panels that were absolutely gorgeous:

Another fabric piece I couldn't get enough of:

Chinese pieces from the permanent collection:

A young emperor's robes

Hello gorgeous:

Some parts of the original 1917 parts of the museum from back when it was the main library:

Ceramic on display in the main hall:

We headed home for dinner.  Mr. Poe's gonna watch Harry Potter til he passes out.  I think I'll stick with cartoons.  I think my ride in the morning is gonna be cancelled because the weather tomorrow will likely be worse than today.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a weather miracle.  It's happened before.

After work on Friday I met up with a couple of Different Spokes riders for a trip up Marin Headlands.  I hadn't been up there since it was reopened in November (hangs head in shame) and I was pretty excited to go.  The weather managed to hold up all day although it got pretty cold by the end of the ride.  I left work and headed up Columbus and stopped for a pic at Kearny looking back towards the Financial District:

I continued on Columbus to Union to Stockton to North Point to Van Ness to Francisco to Octavia to Chestnut to Lyon and into the Presidio at the Lombard Gate.  I made my way up to the Golden Gate Bridge and met the group.  We headed up to the top of Conzelman and the view was, of course, spectacular:

Roger, Ben, Will,  and Nancy:

Evidence of the work they've been doing on the road:

They've obviously done a lot of work on the roadway and it looks fantastic.  I think they're going to start on the lower part of Conzelman next.  We headed back the way we came back across the Bridge and into the Presdio and then took Washington to Argello and into Golden Gate Park and then JFK to Stanyan to Page to Scott to Duboce to Castro to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.  Mr. Poe had already eaten but he had dinner ready from me and then we went to bed.  It was a fun, fun ride.

Bike Mileage:

Today 25.7 Week to date 53.7 Month to date 284.8 Year to date 1,077.0 To Goal 6,923.0 Over (Under) plan (566.8) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (7,890.1) Rolling Year 7,376.0 Since Inception 10/1/07 29,582.5

Happy Saint Patrick's day!  It's supposed to be cool and sunny all day which is fine with me.  I wish I'd gotten up earlier to so I could have gone for a longer ride this morning, but for some reason my desire to get up at a quarter to 5 has tapered since I turned 40.  So I just came down Market into work.  Many of us, me included, are guilty of starting to move before the light turns green.  I caught myself this morning  because just as I was getting ready to start rolling I noted a police car was also stopped at the light.  Another cyclist at the light didn't stop and was almost through the intersection before the light turned green.  The cop pulled him over to yell at his which didn't really surprise me but what did surprise me was that the fool rider argued with him and in a tone I could hear ten feet away and over the music on my headphones.  Now maybe it's my southern upbringing where we learned from an early age to be scared shitless of rednecks possessing both guns and badges respectful of uniformed officers, but I couldn't believe that anybody could be so stupid.  I didn't hang around to see the outcome, but my guess is he left the scene with a $200 ticket and some points on his drivers license.  Joseph's advice:  don't argue with the Man.

It slowly dried out all day on Wednesday.  I was delighted not to get soaking wet on my way home for lunch.  I stopped at Montgomery on  my way up Market to get another pic of the beautiful California Admission Monument that I'd gotten a pic of on my way into work.  I haven't paid it a lot of attention before but it's so well done and it has such great movement:

The sun was starting to peek out of the clouds by the time I got home.  I got a couple of pics of Mr. Poe's garden which is fixin' to come into bloom. The buds on his prize winnin' wisteria are starting to open"

I got a couple of pics at Castro and Market as well:

It was supposed rain at the end of the day but to my surprise it was sunny so I was able to go for a nice ride after work, my first in a couple of weeks.  I headed off Sutter to Fillmore to Clay to Spruce to Washington.  I stopped for a pic of my favorite view of the North Bay:

Me:

I took Washington to Arguello to Lake to 28th to California.  I stopped at the very end of California for a pic of the pretty staircase at the end of it:

I took 32nd to Clement to 34th to Balboa and down to the coast.  The surf was pretty crazy.  I read later that a top surfer died surfing the Mavericks down in Half Moon Bay. 

I took the Great Highway to JFK and into Golden Gate Park.  I took some pics at the North Windmill:

The tulips are starting to come up but the whole area was roped off.  The whole area must be waterlogged with all the rain we've been getting:

I took JFK to the Music Concourse and stopped for a pic of the De Young.  They were having a member's night and the line to get in stretched from the entrance all the way to MLK.  I usually associate lines that long in San Francisco with methadone distribution but evidently these people were all there for the art:

I love this view because all of the elements seem so curiously juxtaposed like a collection of found objects:

I took MLK to 7th to Irving to 9th into Laguna Honda to Portola to Corbett to Ord and home for dinner.  The dogs got their first walk all week!  I hope they enjoyed it because the rain comes back on Friday and it isn't going to be pretty.

Bike Mileage:

Today 25.7 Week to date 53.7 Month to date 284.8 Year to date 1,077.0 To Goal 6,923.0 Over (Under) plan (566.8) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (7,890.1) Rolling Year 7,376.0 Since Inception 10/1/07 29,582.5

Tuesday wasn't a great day for biking.  It was soggy all day although it was in the low sixties so it was almost pleasant.  I came in to work on the bike and managed to make it home for lunch.  It was pouring rain when I left and I carefully made my way home after work and managed it without an emergency room visit which was nice.  Mr. Poe's still fighting his fly so I had to make dinner again.  Breakfast burritos.  Again.  If I have a week to plan I can make an awesome dinner but my skills are weak when it comes to cranking out dinner on a nightly basis.  Thankfully, Mr. Poe's almost better which I'm hoping means a return to his fine, fine cooking. 

It was wet again this morning and in addition it was quite a bit cooler.  We've got another big storm coming in and my prospects for cycling look pretty dim for later in the week.  This is the California Admission Monument at Montgomery and Market that commemmorates California becoming a state.  Very pretty:

I continued on Market to Sansome and into work.  The weather looks pretty crappy today.  I'm hoping for the best.

I didn't do a lot of biking on Monday.  It was pouring down rain when I went to work and I almost came on Muni but it wasn't very cold and just couldn't face taking the subway.  Also, I had a new pair of shoes that had been sitting in my closet for a week and weren't to get wet under any circumstances.   So I got on my bike and came down Market in the rain.  I managed to make it home for lunch in between rain showers.  I wanted to go riding after work but I but pretty tired and it was still really wet so I just headed home where I found an exciting surprise waiting for me in the mail.  My friends Nick and Jess sent Mimi a glamorous new parka that had the boys green with envy.  Green.  With.  Envy.

Ashley Junior was disgruntled:

Rufus gave her the side eye:

Here she is modeling her new look:

Mr. Poe was pretty tired so I had ribwich for dinner and we got into bed around 8.  I watched  cartoons for half and hour and went to bed.  I was beat.

Bike Mileage:

Today 14.0 Week to date 14.0 Month to date 245.1 Year to date 1,037.3 To Goal 6,962.7 Over (Under) plan (562.7) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (7,849.8) Rolling Year 7,438.0 Since Inception 10/1/07 29,542.8

I managed to get myself together for my Lifecycle training ride on Sunday.  I was feeling pretty much recovered and didn't have any trouble riding.  The day was kind of a mess.  We got a bit of rain in the afternoon and that was hard on the riders.  Thankfully, Jenn and Alvin ran a sag vehicle for us which was so incredibly helpful.  We ended up sagging 8 riders over the course of the day which is a lot since only about 50 people turned up.  We also had a rider get hit by a car on the notorious White's Hill heading back into Fairfax.  Thankfully, she's only a little banged up and not worse.

Our heroes, Jen and Alvin, with Deyon and Tomas:

More pics from the start:

We were soaking wet by the time we got to Mike's in Sausalito and we hung out there for a while before heading up to the Golden Gate Bridge.  They had a curiously well endowed undressed mannequin that was causing a sensation and watching the staff try to wriggle a pair of bike shorts onto it reminded me of dating in college:

The parking lot is under construction on the west side of the Golden Gate Bridge so we came up underneath it from Fort Baker.  I love the view from there:

I made it home around 4:00 and had a big dinner.  Then I got cleaned up and made Mr. Poe macaroni and cheese for dinner.  We got into bed before 8PM and I didn't even make it to the end of the Simpsons.

Bike Mileage:

Today 61.5 Week to date 61.5 Month to date 231.1 Year to date 1,023.3 To Goal 6,976.7 Over (Under) plan (554.8) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (7,803.8) Rolling Year 7,485.1 Since Inception 10/1/07 29,528.8