5 posts tagged “ride”
I had originally planned to ride with the Cascade Bike Club on Saturday, but somehow the description of their ride put me off. They were planning an 80 mile bicycle ride with no food stops and the post further explained that your bicycle should be in good condition (has had a tune-up in the past two years) etc. and the ride leader wouldn't leave the group to fix your flat. Also carry your own money and be prepared to get yourself home. And so forth.
I think it's fine you have common-sense rules, but once you start reminding people to be responsible over and over, it seems a little condescending. And it certainly is not fun to assume if something goes wrong to you or someone else, they're simply abandoned.
Seattle Bike Club's rides are less popular and so less people show up. We had about 10 riders. They say that 2-10 riders is best since: It's easier to remember people's names. Less frequency of mechanical trouble. It's easy to keep track of each other.
The ride yesterday was a 75 mile loop from Fall City to the city of Snohomish through the Snoqualmie Valley. The ride was mostly flat an on mostly low-traffic roads. I saw about 100 other bicycle riders out, mostly people on club or group rides.
I'm definitely going to be doing this ride again, hopefully with Kevin, to get his riding mileage up.
Valentine's Day
2008 has been going pretty well for Hitomi and I. I'm not sure if it's because I've turned into a nice(r), more thoughtful guy or Hitomi's happy, or getting old or tired of each other smooths out relationships. In any case, it's been good so far. One theory I have is I've been off enjoying my own hobbies and I've been busy with work. Or she's been grateful I've done translation work for her idol, Momoi Halko.
Valentine's Day I had considered weeks in advance. Gifts and deed ideas ranged from baking a cake to sending flowers to her work. Hitomi's not too into jewelry or flowers, which saves money. I've done cake baking before. But what has been successful before, on a number of levels, has been buying clothing, or underwear aka lingerie. She still wears Birkenstock sandals bought by her very ex-boyfriend and a watch or two. And she's kept around the few clothes I've bought her over the years and it's always a treat to see that.
Given my schedule, shopping waited until the day of. I went out cycling to a few stores in search from some undies. It was a beautiful day and I had time in the morning to shop. I was dressed like your typical bicyclist, and though I stick out like a flashing LED in a lingerie store, somehow that makes me feel more comfortable.
Construction-wise, there's a lot of variation of underwear. But the general rule seems to be, the less material the more expensive. But I try to be mindful of comfort. You hope they're worn at least a few times.
I also picked up some chocolate at Fran's which was quite busy even in the middle of the morning, full of men deciding how big of a box is reasonable. I actually haven't heard Hitomi complain her chocolate box wasn't big enough, and actually in the mind of Hitomi an enormous box would be neither cute nor conducive to maintain body weight. Selection was easy and the line moved relatively rapidly until a man who wanted to put together a customized box for his honey stalled the process. Yes, you can hand-pick 20 different chocolates and caramels but if you don't have any idea about anything, why not buy the already assembled "assortment" box?
I made it back in time for some meeting. I was going to meet Hitomi downtown and she was late and I was too. Hitomi decided on Japanese crepes for dinner. The place was closed though, it being one of those "occasional" days they close early. Still, there's nothing wrong with the alternative restaurants nearby. Then, I bring out the with gifts and find out Hitomi wasn't expecting anything, since I was busy. And thus, I got nothing in return.
The behavior/result flowchart is as follows:
You may notice from the diagram that there are only two final states, neither of which result in a strong positive for me. Of course, Hitomi would cite several supporting arguments for why I should be reasonably scared of her.
.83 Ride to Bellingham
I had nothing special going on the coming Saturday, and I wasn't going to spend my three-day holiday weekend indoors, especially with the nice weather. Thus, with a bit of assistance from my Mom, I rode about 110 miles from my house to downtown Bellingham with some of the riders from .83, whose logo is of a bottle opener and sprocket. I, being punctual, arrived early for a 6AM departure, which inevitably dragged on to 6:15AM as a few riders were having equipment issues, possibly hung over, etc.
The morning was cold and a little rainy and I was attempting the ride on my singlespeed, which had much needed fenders and lights. People were nice, but I wasn't that sociable at the stops, mainly because I wanted to get back to riding. I also wasn't dressed for the group I was in. Nobody else wore padded tights/shorts but instead had Brooks saddles and wool pants. No fancy jerseys either. They all wore mostly practical clothing that most roadies would find old fashioned. In my favor, I had a nifty, practical bicycle people were interested in talking about, and one rider like me wanted to take off from the slower group and whose name I can't quite recall, but whose bicycle I would recognize: a beat-up Gary Fisher with grip shifters and Crank Bros pedals. The ride itself was quite fun, actually most of the RSVP (ride to Vancouver, B.C.) ride I will be doing. The ugliest part of the ride was crossing I-5 from Arlington, but the rest of it was riding in the country or along bike paths. It was pretty flat, too, with some climbing before Bellingham on Chuckanut Drive. (Photo from the group.)
Wet California
Before flying off to California, I'd like to mention a short ride with Kevin and Gary, and later a nice BBQ dinner put on by Stacy, Kevin's seemingly eternal girlfriend. It was a holiday for me, but Hitomi was off working. I had wanted to see her at that dinner, but she worked until about 9PM. I pretty much hadn't seen Hitomi the entire week since Valentine's Day and I was leaving the following day. And with the forecast calling for rain in S.F. and with a growing number of people I didn't want to see at my work, I wasn't keen on flying out.
Still, there were at least a few people I wanted to see and it's fun to eat out.
Kevin was out with Pat from Catdaddy for both a Game Developer's conference and a series of meetings at Take Two the following week. I earlier decided to stay the weekend to spend some time with other people. There's a lot to do and if it's wandering around town I have more fun with a couple others along.
We met at the De Young museum, which had live music and was apparently free admission. They had spent most of the day walking across town and climbing up hills. Kevin's favorite thing to do is climb hills and take pictures, and Pat made to climb these hills in dress shoes, was shuffling around pained at the museum. We left early. I took the two to my favorite Korean BBQ spot in S.F. and we made a early night of it.
Saturday at 7AM I woke up to put money in the meter; I had parked outside our hotel in Fisherman's Wharf for free that night and had to feed the meter. Then, I took Kevin to a nice Little Italy cafe and we then walked around in the morning until 9AM and the meter I found required money. I didn't want to be cheap about it, but we were waiting for Pat to active his iPhone and so instead drove around town looking from various viewpoints.
Saturday was the big S.F. Chinese New Year parade, but with high winds and rain I imagine it was canceled. Walking around, several booths' roofs seem to lift off the ground at times and people were pelted with rain. At least we had no interest in sitting in a puddle outside. Instead, we drove to Muir Woods National Park and mostly was out of the wind and rain thanks to the large trees overhead. (Incidentally, a bicycle ride to the woods looks like a lot of fun, but quite challenging. I had considered it before and I'll have to do it sometime when it's raining less.)
Sunday we drove out to Point Reyes and saw the dramatic coastal parts of Marin I had yet to see. It was a perfect time of year to see everything green, thanks to all the rain. We saw the lighthouse, unfortunately no longer operational, but still intact and open to visitors. Along the point were elephant seal colonies, which were quite fun to see; there were many pups and mothers in the various pocket beaches far below the cliffs we were on. Kevin attempted various shots of the cliffs while the light filtered through the clouds, sometimes passing bright light or blocking it, confounding him.
Mike and Ian came by soon after I returned home Friday. Ian has spent a large amount of money on Magic cards but does not seem to win as many games as he might. I won two out of three.
We later wandered over to Ballard, where I thought we might catch the night life. I thought first to check out Cupcake Royale, who put a decidedly gourmet and hip twist on the ordinary cup-cake. I liked what I got (orange frosting and vanilla cake) but would have to make a few more trips there to try some others. I can't say their cupcakes were as revolutionary as the superior desserts from Top Pot Donuts.
The place got close to closing and we left. If it were just Mike, I would have probably gone to a few more places, i.e. bars. Ian was tired and disinterested, obviously. Since the smoking ban, I don't mind going bars but need somebody to talk with, and I'm not friendly with strangers. I figured we could drop Ian off and Mike and I could go to the Wedgewood Tavern.
There, I lamented on how Ian can't get it together to make more of a business of his painting. And how specifically, to make money as a fine artist you have to sell really hard and cover a range of markets, e.g. make high-quality prints. Frankly, I don't see myself capable of that kind of salesmanship, and somebody like Ian lacks this ability. Mike was quick to defend Ian, pointing out how Ian is developing a collection of paintings, and we shall see how it goes.
Fortunately, for me to develop my career, all I had to do was go from Catdaddy to @mobile, stick up for myself at various occasions, and I make considerable money. I have Boon Hwang to thank for getting me started and supporting my career at different points. I do have my own talent, hard work, and deep interest in computers as well. If I were less timid and more motivated I could develop my own consulting business (or company?) full-time and possibly be successful at that.
I spoke to Mike about the sailboat business Tim is putting together, with some help from me. Hopefully the boat will be completed in due time, and this will be my next big thing. This may take years. So simultaneously, I do know well enough about how to run a software organization, or at least I know how not to run one based on prior experience, that perhaps I could get into management or something besides development. The way I see it, although individuals can develop really good software, single-person efforts means little unless there's a more functional organization around it.
About Mike's job: I do know a bit about what he does now, which is natural language processing for organization-specific search engines using a specialized scripting language. He alone seems to have mastered the intricate details, whereas other people use a higher-level tool that "writes" the underlying scripting language but does not allow for much customization.
Saturday, Hitomi had a all-day show at the Seattle Center. She's been busily making things to sell, as well as ordering vast quantities of T-shirts with her designs. This, the first of three shows this year, was quite slow, embarrassingly slow. Compared to last year's event, there were just a handful of interested people, and a lot of the traffic was actually from other booths. For what I believe is a waste of effort, I still help out carrying things and setting up and tearing down her booth and give up a day for her things.
Adding to the whole melancholy mood, I walked around the Seattle Center Fun Forest and nearby buildings, making mental notes of what things had changed over the years. My dad used to take me and often a friend to the "Fun Forest" and buy us an all-day ride pass, available on certain off-season times at discount rates. This time of year, most of the rides were shut down. The relatively new indoor arcade area had some incorporated the same carnival games that used to be outdoors elsewhere. The old 18-hole mini-golf course was removed and replaced with a shorter , less silly course. As a kid, I would also wander around the Center House and go buy food, candy or tchotskis at various stores; some have moved, some have gone, some surprisingly are still around.
I returned back to Hitomi's booth. I played on Hitomi's Nintendo DS until around closing. Near the end, it was almost completely dead, and the people and friends loitering in the neighboring booth set up chairs in front of their booth. A confused or thoughtless women wandered into our booth area and started talking to somebody in the neighboring booth, her butt just two feet in front of where I sat. "Get the fuck out of my booth!" I might have said. But obviously nobody was coming by, and we were obviously of no interest or notice to anybody.
Frankly, I get depressed thinking about holiday shopping, which could have resulted from my days at helping set up, tear down, and occasionally man booths for Steel Silhouettes.
Sunday, I had thought to spend the day with Hitomi, but Hitomi came up with yet more project stuff, so I went bicycling instead. It was cold and the road was icy in places, but other riders were cheerful and the sun was out. A little under of fifty miles did me some good, I hope. With about 40 riders, our speed was pretty uneven. One fellow, Ken, who almost killed me on last week's SBC ride, was sporting Zipp "Speed Weaponry" wheels, specifically a clincher wheel set which retails for about $2000. I think he picked the wrong ride.
It was my first ride of the Chief Sealth Trail. All 3.6 miles of it.
My initial thoughts were it's really quite unlike most rails-to-trails trails in that it's quite hilly, it's also not very practical for transportation. I had my single-speed bicycle on it, and there's quite a lot of steep sections. I remember seeing a post complaining it wasn't straight, but it obviously curves to make it easier to climb. I was amused thinking about young kids trying to bicycle it. It was during the day and I didn't see see any bicyclists, just some walkers. I don't think there would be any bicycle commuters come evening.
On the plus side, there's some unobstructed views off east of Lake Washington and Mount Ranier looks lovely, but the power line towers cross the view a bit. And it is fair training ride, but would be improved if the sections of trail weren't continually criss-crossed with roads.
Yesterday, I participated in a Cascade Bicycle Club (CBC) ride called "Tuesday Night Surprise." The plan was for a 20-25 mile ride through various parts of Seattle, and the leader would take us wherever he felt like.
Meeting at Gasworks Park, there were about 6 of us. The ride called for "steady pace" (12-14 miles per hour) and "some hills." It sounded relaxing and perfect for a nice, sunny and cool spring evening.
Although it did start out relaxing, since there wasn't anybody slow in the veteran group -- me excluded -- they turned up the pace a bit. It turned into a hilly, and at times, a "brisk" ride (16-18 mph). We climbed up around Beacon Hill and Magnolia Hill. And the ride went on for over two hours, with about only one break over a minute, so I'm guessing we went about 25-30 miles.
From Lake Washington Boulevard, we crossed Martian Luther King Jr. Way, and went up a long, steady hill to the top of Beacon Hill. I've actually never explored the hill on bicycle, but there's plenty of interesting and potentially good ethnic restaurants. Then, we coasted down past Amazon.com's main office and across the bridge over I-90 to the International District. I was getting hungry and was smelling plenty of Chinese food -- but we did not stop. Then, riding along Alaskan Way north, through the new Sculpture Garden, into Magnolia, around Magnolia's bluffs, through the Ballard Locks, and back.
My fellow riders were good natured and seasoned, that is to say older. Though, I probably should ride with people my own age, assuming I can keep up with them. It was getting dark, and with no lights, I had to race back home (another hill climb up Stone Way Avenue to Greenlake) to change and go eat. Otherwise, I would have stuck around for hamburgers and beers.
