early november

and we're a third of the way through november now. past the midpoint between the equinox and the solstice, so more than a quarter of the way through the dark part of the year, and coming into the darkest. i kind of enjoy it, though, when it's pitch black by 5:45. except for the whole commuting in the dark thing... makes me glad i have good lights on my bike. (thanks in no small part to a certain someone who makes sure i am well illuminated.)

i've never been particularly prone to seasonal affective disorder; in fact, some of the deepest depths of my depression were during the summer. the lack of light doesn't seem to affect much other than my sleep schedule; however, with other factors at work on my sleep schedule these days i have found myself out of bed by 7:30 and out the door before 8:30 most mornings, instead of ignoring the alarm clock through 10 snooze cycles and bombing down the hill at 9:00, then pretending to be on time to work. plus, the mornings are still nice and light right now, so it's like i'm wasting daylight if i'm not up and at 'em before 8.

grad school application deadlines are rapidly approaching; i'm trying not to panic. they'll get done, i'm sure, it's just a matter of sitting down and writing. and filling out damn online forms. harvard wants not only a transcript, but also a form-based enumeration of all the classes i took in my major field of study, in related fields of study, and in mathematics. plus $90, by credit card, for the privilege of applying to their university. it is where i want to go, though, and i'm really excited by the research going on there, so I'll buck up and pay the fees. I'll just bitch and moan about it in the process.

it's a three day weekend, which is awesome, and which also means that my new sweetie and i will have a day off in common this weekend. this has never happened before; it should be fun.

and, completely unrelated, here's a picture from the latest episode in bicycle hooliganery:

seasonal obscenities

my morning commute is fun, but it can be harrowing at times. today was no exception - i had no fewer than 4 close calls on my way in. one or two of them were my fault - i was not paying attention and was irritated at lights for being red - but the others were caused by drivers being inconsiderate. like when the bus decides to pass me just as the road narrows and cars are parked in my travel path, forcing me to move left. or the jackass whose boat was hanging out into the intersection long after the light had changed.

being that it's halloween, the phrase which popped into my head to yell (i usually don't actually yell, i just mutter, or think rude things at drivers) was not the usual "eat a dick!", but the more seasonal "eat a VAMPIRE dick!"

i don't know where i come up with these things. i think that riding with other aggressive riders makes me more inclined to ride like a bat out of hell, which will probably come up and bite me in the ass someday. until that day, though, i just keep in mind: rubber side down!

it's wet

and suddenly october is half over, and november is quickly approaching. it's been wet, warm and wet, the last few days, and we've had some decent winds too. this is what happens in seattle during la nina, evidently.

i'm really falling in love with this city all over again this year. it makes me very sad that i will probably be leaving it in less than a year.

we've entered a season of lots of work, work and stress. it seems like it happens every fall, things just get busy and hard. but at the same time, i'm really enjoying life, and trying to live every moment of it. it's put me outside on my bike a lot, but at the same time it's keeping me from a lot of the work that i need to do.

but for now, i'm going to go enjoy the fact that i can sleep in tomorrow. one of my favorite things, sleeping.

cyclocross!

So I rode in my first cyclocross race today, and I have to say: it was EXTREMELY fun. Aside from the fact that I had to haul myself out of bed at 7:15 this Saturday morning, it was a good time. My friend Matthew races too, and was nice enough to give me and my bike a ride to the race (up in Kenmore) so I didn't have to leave hella early and ride my bike there.

Cyclocross is a different kind of bike racing: instead of riding on pavement, you're riding on grass, dirt, gravel and even occasionally sand. Plus there are barriers, where you have to dismount and jump over (with your bike) and get back on and ride, all without stopping. I'm not so good at this part yet, so I did end up kind of stopping a little on the remount a few times, but I am getting the hang of the dismount. Not that I'm fast, but it was mostly just hella fun. The barriers and the varied terrain of course make CX slower than road racing, but the top performers are often the same people and are by no means less fit than road racers. Also, at this one at least, there was a beer garden (bonus!) and Matt offered to buy the first beer for anyone in our bike club that rode and finished the race (double bonus!) So after my race (which was first) and the mens' equivalent race (in which a few of my friends were riding, and which was second) we all stood around in the beer garden heckling and cheering on the later, faster, better racers.

The best part about doing a CX race is that you can eat whatever you want afterwards. Because really, spending 40 minutes (which was how long my race was; i think i came in around 39:00) at or near your maximum heart rate, riding a bike up and down hills and running and jumping barriers is a good workout and burns hella calories.

I ended up finishing 8th out of 15 women in my category; not a bad showing for my first race. My average lap time was 9:35, while the women who won were closer to 7:30, but... like I said, being my first race and being as out of shape as I am (trip to HI, no bike...) I think I did pretty darn well.

After the race, Matt needed to stop at REI, so I tagged along and once again demonstrated my inability to enter that store and exit without spending over $100. OTOH, I picked up some much-needed gear (floor pump; front light; new tubes) and only one overpriced fun gadget - a heart rate monitor watch. So now, if I'm wearing the chest strap sensor, I can see what my heart is doing at all times, and make my workouts more efficient. Hopefully the fun gadgetry will make me more inclined to actually work out, rather than just riding with my beerbike club twice a week. I can see CX being a really fun way to keep in shape this winter... and who knows, after a few more races, I might actually get faster.

i love seattle

because only in seattle can four semi-randomly selected members of a given bike club, standing around enjoying tropical drinks in chilly weather, discuss the latest xkcd comic and not have to explain to a single party present either the nature of the webcomic (because everyone reads it) or the joke (because everyone has experienced the ballmer peak, firsthand).

it's fall in seattle

i left perpetual summer (albeit a slightly cloudy one) around 9:30 last night and arrived in wet, chilly autumn at 6:30 this morning. the sun has since come out, but it's very definitely the dark half of the year; yesterday at this time the sun was directly overhead and now it's clear over *there*.

the fact that the sun is out has made it harder for me to sleep as i was planning this morning; damn east-facing apartment. i did catch a few z's on the plane, but they were not peaceful cozy z's, they were uncomfortable and slightly paranoid. (i've been having wacky dreams the last few nights; wonder if it's the full moon.)

oh, and to add to the complaint pile: the one working USB port on my laptop seems to have given way, meaning all the pictures i haven't yet uploaded to flickr (and the rest of the 680someodd i took on the trip which i wasn't going to subject the entire world to) are in limbo on that computer. i guess i'll take it into a genius and see what they have to say... but according to brian it could be the motherboard, so it might just not be worth fixing. i'll have to get firewire devices or something.

anyway, i'm going to read now, in hopes that it'll eventually make me sleepy and i can get a nap in before critical mass this evening. it's been too long since i've ridden a bike; to get to go out and do it with a fuckton of people today is just too exciting to pass up.

overwhelmed. a strange, crushing emptiness pressing me into my chair.

cyclist killed by dump truck at an intersection I cross every single morning.

an intersection I can't reasonably avoid crossing. every day. a cyclist, riding in the bike lane, obliterated by a dump truck making a right turn.

what's the answer? what could have been done? do we need a special bike signal at that bridge, like there is by the fremont bridge? no right turns allowed from eastlake to fuhrman?

a dedicated right turn lane, with a dashed stripe and an arrow? (hey, now there's an idea!)

stupid fucking trucks to use their damn turn signals, and be aware of the fact that there's a bike lane?

or stupid fucking cyclists to slow down, ride more carefully and for fuck's sake don't ride without a front brake* in this city FTLOG!!??!11? (this is seattle, we have hills. this isn't a fucking velodrome.)

(*edit: he did have a front brake. he was not wearing a helmet, but it's unlikely a helmet would have helped in this situation.)

this hurts me. physically. fresh from my first major crash (bike vs. pavement, no other vehicles involved, thankfully), recovering from the inevitable loss of confidence brought on by some minor road rash and a bit of a bonk, only to have this happen. on a route i take every single day.

did i know him? have i ever seen someone on that bike at a ride?

how many more senseless deaths will it take?

christfuck. words cannot express.

monday monday monday

wow, that didn't feel like a weekend at all. flying out to spokane on friday night, wedding saturday, hangover and drive home sunday, not exactly relaxing and chillaxing. it was fun though, and it was great to see everyone on that side of the family - don't get to do that much.

and now it's monday morning, and i have to figure out what all i'm doing this week. besides riding bikes/buying bike parts/playing with bikes/fixing bikes. because i have to pay the bills... you know, that work thing.

contemplating entering a cyclocross race or two this fall, as if i didn't already have enough to do.

OK! time to work on writing. grant proposal + personal statements for grad school apps. whee!

dead baby downhill

fry day

another week down, wtf? my second week of full-time work, y'know, like with a paycheck and everything. i'm pretty excited about that; cash flow is always a good thing. things are still a little slow as i'm trying to get into the swing of things. there's not a lot to do when you don't have fish; i have to come in on saturday to set some up. there's a 6-day turnaround between setting up breeding pairs and having larvae to screen, so it'll be next friday before the fish from tomorrow's cross are ready to be experimented with. but once i get into the pattern, figure out what days i'm doing what with which fish, my productivity should skyrocket. crank out that data left and right.

what else? lots of riding bikes. yesterday was a very decent ride, put in significant mileage and had a good time while doing it. went and visited mobius cycles downtown, and had fun riding around their lounge/art gallery space:


that's me on a fixie, trying to trackstand. the picture makes me look a lot better at it than i really am; i think i held that for about a second before falling out of it. oh well; once my old sekai is converted i'll be able to practice a lot more. :D

good morning sunshine

it was a slow wakeup this morning, and i'm still running about half-speed. not good for a day i have to leave work early... oh well. i'm planning on coming back in for another few hours after dinner to get some things fully done before meeting tomorrow. but this afternoon is the bike protest to tell the city how we feel about their decision to not stripe bike lanes down stone way. we're anticipating a pretty huge turnout. should be good.

ok, time to work.

dreaming in stereo

i had a dream about bikes last night.

it's not particularly surprising, since i spent all last night riding bikes.

i dreamed about the fixie conversion i am going to embark on with my old sekai frame. i dreamed that it had been turned into a singlespeed (not a fixie) and i remember being highly annoyed at the ability to coast.

critical mass/greenlake madness

there were a lot of people at critical mass tonight.

it was my first time, and it was definitely interesting... it's the one night a month when we just really fuck up traffic.

and then there was... shenaniganery.

and imagery.

and this was how i ended the night: up the fucking stairs. with my bike. cyclocross boot camp, hell yeah!

long-exposure madness

slow sunday

i ride my bike

44 miles today. not bad. also: i got a spoke card which i did not promptly lose. woohoo!

now it is bedtime.

things i am worried about

1) the cut on my big toe. i sliced it open on a razor-sharp tree stump at the park on Wednesday. it's a doozy, not quite stitches material, but I'm not quite sure how deep it is because of the angle of the cut. i have been keeping it clean and have my eyes peeled for oozing, because the last thing I need is a superbug infection in my foot. I need that like I need a lobotomy.

2) my knees. the surly is great, it really is, but the gearing ratio is not optimal for the amount of hill climbing i do. i need to start taking it easier, keeping my cadence up, and standing up when i get tired. i raised my seat by about a half-cm and moved it back a bit, which should help.

3) whether or not this job is going to come through. OTOH, i have been doing some phat networking over the last week or so, and am reasonably sure i'll be able to find another job in a reasonable amount of time, and i have guaranteed hourly work until then, so i'm not *too* worried. that's why it's #3.

hells yes.

check out my ride today. oh plus the 11+ i did earlier today when I rode around lake union for the first time ever. i almost hit 40 today.

:D

add in beer, about 20 people, a fire, and the beach at Lincoln Park, and you have yourself a nice time. the .83 kids? they're alright.


and the highlight of the evening, the grand central bread dumpster:

i forget that there's a bike beneath me

it feels a little like flying. cruising down the trail, becoming one with the outdoors. i can't figure out how i survived this long without a bike.

the only problem i have with the new bike (predictably) is the saddle: it sucks. it takes about 10 minutes of riding before my seat is hurting. it's ironic that the saddle on the old bike is more comfortable than the one on the new bike, even though the old saddle is, as far as i know, stock on that 1970's bike. how funny would that be, to switch out the saddle on my brand new surly for the one on a 30-year-old sekai... heheheh.

mmmm. yes. do like riding. do want more please.

SURLY!!!

*grin*

i discovered the real reason cyclists wear gloves. it's so when you completely bite it (usually in front of at least 5 people) you don't scuff up your hands.

of course i had to fall at least once, since it's the first day i've had the bike. i almost fell on broadway, but i caught myself on some dude's car. then i got to the corner of boylston and olive and realized i couldn't start going uphill from a dead stop in the gear i was in, and didn't want to go downhill away from home, and the street turned into an alley if i went straight, so i decided to turn around. and i didn't get my left foot out of the pedal soon enough and i just sprawled out on the street. yes, in front of several people. sigh. but i just bounced back up and went on my way... unscuffed even! hard to believe. but it was from a dead stop. so i'm just not quite coordinated enough with the clipless pedals yet. i'll get better i'm sure...