This (gardening), That (computers and bikes), and the Other (walking)

1. I did get help cleaning out the side bed back in March. Today the kids and I put in some seedlings from Growing Hope. Later in the evening, I found myself worrying a spot on my wrist. I thought it was a bug bite, but no, sigh, was six or so alarming (well, alarming to those of us who are poison ivy sensitive) red bumps. I went in straight away to wash with the special soap and cursed my stupidity at planting without gloves (I didn't want to hurt the baby plants!). Grrrr...

2. I'm having cord issues. The power cord to my laptop is fritzing out. By standing my head, hooting like an owl and realigning the feng shui of my living room, I finally got it to work so that I can recharge my barely-holds-a-charge battery. And then I sent an urgent message to the tech people on campus and asked them to hurry up on the ol' warranty check they were doing. NEED NEW CORD VERY SOON! But then I am also having cord issues, it seems, with the computer on my dirty bike. In the process of moving my shifters and brake levers around to accommodate my new grips, the dead-all-season computer suddenly came to life... so I jiggled and realigned and tried what I had for my laptop, but to no avail. A couple of glimmers and one reading of 4.5 mph when the bike was dead still, but I couldn't get it work properly. Another day.

3. I've been sucked into the walking (and biking) vortex. My kids' school, with the help of the Ypsilanti Health Coalition is finally getting it together to apply for a Safe Routes to School grant. I brought the idea to the principle over a year ago, but, as he does whenever I mention the wholly inadequate placement and style of the schools' bike racks, he just sort of shrugged at me. But now... now the media teacher is on board, a couple of parents, the school janitor, and the YHC are helping out. We did a walking audit of the neighborhood two weeks ago. There has been a survey about walking and biking that went home to all families. And we just got word today that our request for a concrete pad in front of the school for bolting down bike racks has been approved! (Yes, we still have to find money for the bike racks, but there will be a place for them!!!!) The sheriff and the township planner came to our meeting today and had great suggestions for how we might get some of our wishes met (moving parking away from the school, lighting and adding crosswalks and a shared-use path to Service Dr., etc., etc.). We are staffing a table at the ice cream social next week and putting together a helmet giveaway before the end of school. It is exciting to see things happen -- and happen fast.

Things I Like -- Fall 2008 edition

Cabins (on rainy fall nights when temps fall into the 30s).
Exuberant dogs wearing silly sweaters.
K & N's friends.
Apple/cider/donut stands on rural roads, after big hills.
Wool base layers.
Vans that carry lots of bikes.
Wine with lunch after a long hike.
Dry trails.
Polish porters and Golabki.
Wheels with all spokes attached.
Deer bounding across trails.
Riding off the last trail with 18 miles on my widget and a smile on my face.
Euchre, beer, and ribald talk.
Apple pie and hot coffee for breakfast.
Adventure buddies.

Well done, Bike Ypsi... but now what?

Run down of the bike festival:

1. Gorgeous day. Bright and chilly in the morning, but stayed bright and got warm quickly.

2. Lots of folks. Maybe 20 on the long rides and 60 on the not-so-long rides. Over 100 rode the community ride.

3. Good booths. Washtenaw Biking and Walking Coalition, St. Joe's, Project Grow, PEAC, Rails to Trails, and the Ypsi Food Coop all had tables. Wheels in Motion and Tree Fort really turned out. The former tweaked mechanicals on lots of bikes, including a bit o' work on my back wheel and squishy brake. My next biking business will go to them.

4. Minimal no-shows. AATA was supposed to send a bus so we could let people practice putting their bikes on the racks but some sort of crisis downtown distracted them and the bus never came. I did get a call from them this morning apologizing (good) and they are eager to come out to our next happening. Two Wheel Tango notified us a few days before the event that they were not going to come -- disappointing, but at least they let us know. Ypsi Cycle just plain did not show. I do not understand that one.

5. Surprise hit. Bike polo and kids apparently go together quite nicely. I was really happy to see that the usual crowd of polo playing adults mostly wore helmets and then happily worked with the kids who got curious to teach them the game and let them play.

6. Nice rides. It looked for a while there like I was again going to have to shorten my ride, but the folks who were not up to the 19-20mph pace of the fast group proved happy to do the whole 30 miles at 16mph. I don't mind riding slow... as long as I get to ride long. I did have to do a few wicked sprints to move between the front and back of a way stretched out group (which we eventually broke into two) and a mechanical breakdown and the main group. Pretty fun to see that I could get 23.5mph -- and not just on a downhill. The community ride (pictured above) was a bit intimidating to launch but rolled nicely once we got going. Letting the group break into groups during the ride actually seemed to work, but that was mostly due to having sooooo many Bike Ypsi people there to make sure somebody who knew the way and would look out for the group was at the head of every clump of riders.

7. No major disasters. One kid fell (he was fine), we ran out of hot dogs (Andy got more), we forgot to mention that we were selling t-shirts (let me know if you want one!)... but really? Nothing big. No fires to put out. Nice.

So now what? I've been a part of planning the Bike Ypsi Spring Ride and Festival for months. K tells us it has been [deep breath] 5 months in the works. Wow. I didn't really notice that because there were a few other issues along the way (like weekly rides, Bike to Work, and preserving the Ford Blvd road diet/bike lanes) and because I really enjoy the people in Bike Ypsi. The meetings were fun, the post-meetings involved happy hour at the Corner, and the between-meetings meet-ups usually had us on bikes pedaling out and about in the world.

I suspect that with this second big and successful event (you might recall that we had a fabulous fall ride in Oct 2007), there will be some fresh blood looking to get in on the Bike Ypsi love and the group will change because of that. There will be new agendas. Organizational issues will have to be dealt with. People will take us back over ground we have already covered. Personalities may clash. I'm happy to have new recruits (we don't want to burn out!), but I just gotta say, this first year has just been a blast.

Where did the weekend go?

Friday night included live music (Hullabaloo + BackForty) at one of my local spots with a couple of good friends -- some drinking, some dancing, some hugging... all good.



Saturday morning found me awake bright and early. Oh, esp. after closing the bar the night before, how I wish I could sleep in... When I was awake at 7:something and didn't need to be, I felt myself mighty envious of W who was snoring away (and would be for several more hours). I cleaned around the house and sent the kids out the door. One did not feel well, however, and came back. No worries -- she decided to pitch in and we woke up the yard by raking out beds and lawn, running the core aerator, seeding the problem patches, and putting down the usual organic fertilizer (mostly chicken poop). It was a good day of manual labor with plenty of sunshine to leave me feeling toasted and tired.


Dropped in at the Corner while the Freighthouse banjo fundraiser was going and saw lots of the usual suspects and had a quick beer before heading down the road to EMU. Melissa Ferrick rolled through town on Saturday evening to do a *free* show as a fund raiser for the LGBT Resource Center. The crowd pretty well filled the ballroom, but overall, it was a small crowd for someone who is sooooo cool. I love her -- "mangina" and all (sorry, inside joke for those who were there). She is goofy, loud, irreverent, and spastic in ways that totally appeal to me and I'm impressed by her ability to tell stories while tuning and then integrate those stories into her songs -- a rockingly good live show, she is. The evening also gave me a chance to catch up with a friend who has been out of town for much of the winter, though I probably stayed up too late again.


Sunday morning I finally made it back to my pre-surgery weight levels while lifting at the gym. I've been cautious, since the right hip is still weaker than the left, but I'm coming up on 4 months since the surgery and have been fairly active so I thought I'd test it out. It worked, at least for squats... I'm still hesitant on lunges, since that leaves the hip out there pretty unprotected on its own holding all my weight and then some. Was back on target for chest, triceps, biceps, and shoulders as well. Yay!


After a shower, I played with the kids a bit and was going to take a quick nap, but E decided to brush my hair... Having my hair brushed is one of those small yet great pleasures in life.... and it was just as good as a nap, I decided.


Sunday afternoon found me out with Bike Ypsi folks. A dozen riders made it out this time, including a couple of new folks. We made use of the Ford Blvd bike lanes and then headed around Ford Lake for sixteen or so miles and lots of sunshine.


I left the BY people to ride into Ann Arbor and meet up with W and the kids for Festifools. It was a significantly larger happening than last year and they created quite the party by circling up and down Main Street. W is inspired to make his own giant puppet -- for camping, music festivals, and just those odd times with the kids when one wants a 10ft tall puppet to parade up and down the street.


Another shower, pizza, and polishing off the taxes rounded out the evening. I'm a tiny bit sore (mostly from the yard work... that core aerator is heavy machine), more than a little bit sun/wind-kissed, and ready for a good long sleep.

Fighting the Blues with Orange

Feburary was not the kindest month. I did not ride my bike, I did not finish the Girl Watching article (though it is getting close...), and I did have many bouts of serious grumpiness. We had lots of beautiful snow and even some clear, sunny days to go with it, but I found myself battling the blues for much of the month.

Part of my decision to tackle the kitchen was the hope that having a project would help me feel a bit more energized and connected to something. So the wallpaper came down, the scrubbing and patching commenced, stinky primer went up, much debate over color ensued, and finally 7 hours of painting netted me an orange kitchen. Well, it isn't really orange... technically, it is "pumpkin patch" -- a sort of orangish/brownish/terra cotta kind of color. Along the way, the kids, Andy, Shannon and Laura all pitched in. There is still caulking and organizing to do, but step one is done. Hopefully, I can get the ceiling fan replaced soon and pick out some new window treatments as well. I like it.

There are two things I particularly like about the recent changes (besides the color and lack of wallpaper). The first is the new arrangement of the stove/fridge area. For some reason the cabinet that is now in between them was over on the far side of the stove. Moving it in between and moving the microwave to the other side of the kitchen has netted me a butcher block work space next to the stove!

Second, is the new outlet/garbage disposal switch. It used to just be a switch, but now it does both and that means that the space above the dishwasher is much more useful.

Giggles

This is the first day of a long weekend for the kids. They have a friend over to spend the night and the three of them have been happily building pillow forts in the basement and playing "snake family."

I've been toddling around upstairs, keeping an ear out for conflict or over-the-top craziness, but all I'm hearing is giggling. For something on the order of an hour, the trio has been giggling wildly. As adults, you know we would have puked long ago from all that mirth, but they are just cruising along.

Oh sure, there was that moment when exuberant play led one child to crash into another and then that child smashed his face on a hard doll head... but the tears didn't last. They shifted from the basement to the bedroom and the giggles resumed. Soon I will have to try to convince them to go to sleep and stay that way until a respectable hour in the morning, but for now, it is the easiest night I've had at home in a long time.

This allows me to ramble on about other things:

1)Cake. W and I stole away for lunch out on Thursday after my PT appointment. We split a hazelnut torta for dessert. It was super yummy. Don't worry, I didn't really lick the plate, I was only smelling the hazelnuts and gingered cream...









2)Sledding. We had the hill to ourselves yesterday for the Second Annual Valentine's Day Sled Fest. While there was lots of interest in the event, only my family, Andy, Matt, Stacey, and her kids came out. Yep, adults outnumbered the kids! The snow was not particularly fast, but it was still fun and nice to not have to worry about reckless sledders running anyone down. Well, Stacey did overtake O and knock him out of his sled at the bottom of the hill on one run, but no injuries were sustained. Andy wins the "most reckless sledder" award for trying to recreate the spectacular fall Andre took last year (sleds are not for standing on, people!) -- and his neck is hurting today, hmmm.... Geo and Warren win the award for longest run. Riding double on Uncle Bob and having received a nice push off the top from L, they were able to hit the snow fence at the bottom. Dinner at Aubree's followed. The place was pretty well empty (not a romantic Valentine's Day destination, I guess), which meant the kids could be left to play tag among the pool tables while the grown-ups drank tall, tall beers...

3)Dalat. We like this Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Ypsi quite a bit. After surfing around through the menu, we've now settled on our favorites and order the same thing every time: 61, 62, 64, 66 -- a good amount of food and enough diversity to please all. But the restaurant has been closed of late -- and not for their annual trip to Vietnam. A friend sent me a pic of the sign that is on the door, but it doesn't really clear things up. Anyone know what's up and when they might be open again?

4)BeerFest. It's coming. Feb. 23. Yep, I'm as excited as Daye! I think I'll go do a bit of delious warm up by checking out the scheduled beer line up. What could be better than drinking beer on a February afternoon in Michigan on an outdoor ball field? Sounds perfect to me :)

Sickness, a party, bikes, and bars...

I had a couple of intense days of parenting lately with a short school week last week and a boy who sprouted an unexplained but lingering fever. After pulling full-time duty on Friday and Saturday, I was mighty happy to head out to the Burns' Night festivities -- even if I did show up a bit late. Andre once again hosted a lovely party with a fine mix of academic friends, music friends, neighborhood friends, and friends of friends (and yes, some people fit into multiple categories). The kitchen reeked of Scotch by the time I got there, but considering the occasion and the host, that seemed fitting. I somehow ended up staying until 3:00am!

I don't sleep-in well and had been out way late the night before and that made getting my butt in gear for the Worst Day of the Year ride on Sunday a tad difficul. It was a realtively balmy 32 degrees and the roads were wet but plowed -- though the promised sunshine never appeared. I had a stupidly hard time choosing which bike to ride, but finally committed to the road bike (which has commuter tires and an insufficient back fender on it at the moment) and headed out to grab Andy on the way to the start at Kerrytown. We rolled up just in time to grab some coffee cake and jump onto the back of the 12-mile group. People bunched up and strung out quite a bit, so we opted to push up toward the front, but eventually ended up riding mostly with only each other. We would pick up another rider or a pair here or there, but there wasn't much "group" on this "group ride" -- and where were the ride leaders? I only saw one and he had this sort of annoying habit of riding way out into the lane in order to look back at the group and yell at us. I didn't mind losing him. Anyhoo, after a bit of creative route taking and a bit of cursing (on my part) of route planners that had us climb that stupid Broadway hill (I know North Campus is nice to ride through, but I'm still suffering a "decline in fitness" post surgery) we rolled up to Arbor Brewing for a beer and munchies at the after party. It was interesting to take in the crowd and find almost no bikey people we knew. Definitely an older crowd, but lots of pretty committed pedalers, which was very cool.

On Monday, the boy was still sick, so I accomplished little work but did make it out to the Bike Ypsi meeting. Put May4 on your calendars, people -- it'll be our big spring event with morning rides, some food, and afternoon exhibits/polo/other fun bikey stuff to be determined.

After the meeting there was a movement afoot to grab a beer at the Corner. Most folks bailed, however, which is a shame because it turned into a much later night than I was expecting, full of frivolity, flirting, new acquaintances, odd conversations, and general silliness when we ran into Bethany and her buddies. We were in a bar and we were drinking, so I'm thinking that the stories from the table should not be blogged about, but I'm gonna encourage ya'll to come out to SheBang when they have live music and meet Bethany (who does the organizing and sound). She's a hoot and I've enjoyed both bands I've seen there so far.

Snow Day

Well, now it looks a bit more like misty rain, but an hour ago it was a fine snow coming down. Just enough had landed to coat the grass and suggest the whiteness of winter without the deep drifts, chilling winds, and painfully low temperatures that will come soon enough.

Taking advantage of the mild temps and fuzzy percipitation, the ancient dog and I went for a slow ramble around the block. What a pleasant wobble.

Bang Bang, Good Music

Ah, music season has begun. Yay!

I went out to SHE BANG at TCs last night to hear Tracy Mack and The Shondes. Tracy rocks on a beautiful guitar all by her lonesome and she showed remarkably good humor in the face of technical problems with the sound.

The Shondes were just lovely. The first song was a bit loose but then it came together. Lots of energy -- particularly the engaging vocals. My only complaint is with the short set. Including the encore, they were done by 12:15am! And they were the headliners. But how lovely to stumble down to my local venue and find a new band to love. Hope they come back soon. Good job, B (the energy behind SHE BANG evenings at TCs). We want more.

And on the horizon, Hullabalo, Deep Space, and Jam Samich on TCs on Saturday.... and then many, many bands after that. It isn't quite time for the Blow Out yet, but it is coming soon and all you folks in local bands should consider getting in on it -- deadline for applications is Dec. 28.