Large Fella on a Bike

We're In, and it's 2009...

...so Happy New Year.

For the last 5 days we packed everything from the high rise apt in downtown PDX and car-moved it to our new place [reason being-Uhaul wouldn't rent a truck to us unless we provided chains for 4 of its tires.  They don't sell, rent or install chains, and I quote "Ahhh, they should run you 200 bucks or so, and after using them you can, I dunno, sell 'em on eBay or something"  Pass, Thanks], and then once Odot allowed, we got the rental truck and over 3 days loaded it and unloaded it [rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat] and then... we were finally in.  Big thanks to my unsuspecting buddy Josh, who came out to visit us from NYC and didn't realize we had plans for him that went beyond mere hanging out and catching up on things [wink].

Amy & Chloe rocked hard with the unpacking [pretty much looks like we have resided here for a year or two] and even Santa cooperated by throwing an X-Mas extension at Chloe and delivering gifts over Saturday night that were opened and enjoyed Sunday morning.

Being in our own place is fantastic.  And while we are absolutely exhausted, we are dug-in... finally [not to mention, no more Ramp-Riding for me].

Hoping you & yours have a great and safe night, and that 2009 becomes what you want/wish/impact it to be [it's all of ours to shape, mold & control].

Keep Ridin'... Always

44 Miles of Parking Ramp-->

The look one gains after 44 miles in a parking garage.  Personally, I think it's too much artificial lighting and concrete dust.

Thank everything Good & Great for the miracle of the iPod.

Keep Ridin'... Always

A New Way of Approaching Things->

The last two nights, and growing exceptionally bothered that our move westward has netted us precisely what it was that we uprooted ourselves as a family to avoid/eliminate, I have taken back control from the increasing snow, mashed potato & otherwise, ice and generally unsavory weather conditions and formulated a strategy for unencumbered riding w/the tires of my choosing.

I call it improvised alt-weather riding, the girls have taken to calling it, "Ramp Riding".  And it goes like this:

We reside in a high-rise building.  And while we don't care for much of that kind of living ["Community Rooms", "Gym", elevators, resident "Crazy Lady", etc] we do have a rather sizable parking garage directly underneath us.  So I swapped the Nokian studded tires back out for some lightly used, mostly new, highly recommended to me by Chris Panaracer T-Serv 26x1.25'ers that I scored off Boulder, Colorado Craigslist [from a fella who only wanted a local, easy-peasy, sale... after convincing him that I wasn't scamming him, that the tires in that particular size weren't easily available here [at least at that time, 3 weeks ago] and that I did not reside in Nigeria]...  **And by the way, there is a deplorably crap amount of 26 inch tires made for the 1.25 and more narrowly minded out there [someone should do something about this]**

 ...and got back to the bidnizz of rolling.

3 levels, nice elevation changes, warmest at the bottom/coolest at the top [especially nearing the steel gates at street level], 3.5 times to & fro equal 1 mile or 35 back-n-forths for 10 miles, or 70 for 20 miles, or like last night: 105 times up and down = 30 miles.

Let the fun begin...

 

At the bottom level, speed of 28mph, Amy begins the fotorial.

 

Chloe chases down dad, 2nd to 3rd level elevation drop, Amy snaps off a pic, good thing these new tires have some grip as I began using up the entire apex of these corners & with nothing but slab concrete to stop me-it wouldn't be a soft landing, 32mph into this turn.

Climbing, 2nd to 1st level, temptation to go out of the saddle is strong but learned quick to watch ceiling height when I climbed out of the saddle first time and caught a pipe to the helmet that left my ears [and brain] ringing for an hour.

 

3rd to 2nd level, water break, almost @ 30 miles.  Very sweaty, and the amount of concrete dust I was kicking up was significant.

 

30 miles, done [Amy knitted and drank caffe, Chloe studied Oregonian history, while I rode]... I really like these tires a lot.  Sorta bumpy on the 3rd level of the parking garage @ 100psi, but man the rolling resistance felt like zero [especially compared to just coming off the Nokians].

Tonight, I'm shooting for 40 miles down there [and going to wear the iPod for some type of sanity relief].

Keep Ridin'... Always

X-Mas Movin'...

After getting the Green-Light from the Big Guy, Santa, and okaying it with Chloe, our X-Mas Festivus is going to be delayed by a couple days.  This coming Thursday while the rest of the universe is hunkering down for gift giving and receiving, we'll be packing up our stuff from here -the Yuppie/Geriatric Paradise- and moving into our new home in Sellwood.  And we are very psyched too!

The following day, Friday, we pick up a great friend coming out to visit us from NYC who will -unbeknown to him now- help us with getting our stuff from the rented storage place, ALL of our stuff -that hasn't been available to us since Minn, and then move all that stuff into our new rented house [nothing like having a friend show up to see PDX, and unsuspectingly be recruited into a holiday/vacation moving cartel].

By Saturday, we'll be in!  Saturday night Santa visits us, and Sunday morning we sit around the Great Tree and celebrate really being in Portland, OR.  HooRay!

PS... a couple observations while rolling lately:

Portlanders cannot, I repeat, cannot drive [a car] worth 3.2 shites in the snow & ice, and also: I don't see many cyclers out there either.  Wassup with that??  No.#1 Cyclering City??  The Minneapolis Crue get it done regardless of the weather.

Keep Ridin'... Always

You Dress, You Ride...

32.56 miles, 14 degrees, 20-25mph winds, black ice abundantly everywhere, left at 8pm-back home sipping a beer @ 10:40pm, it was a great night to ride.

It's only impossible if you won't let it be possible.

Keep Ridin'... Always

"It" follows me, wherever I Roam-->

Two days of no riding [yesterday and the day before yesterday], one inflicted upon me by Amy [she explained to me -as I have been reading the biography of Bill Bowerman [legendary Oregon track & field coach, Olympic coach, Prefontaine muse & coach & co-founder of Nike] and mistakenly mentioned to her his theory on people who run their bodies into the ground by doing too much of what they love [in my case, Rolling/in their case, Running] that it was time to take a day off].  I agreed, on Day 1, so I went walking for 5.7 miles [amazing how that uses a different muscle group], and then yesterday, Day 2-not inflicted on me by Amy, didn't plan on not riding but was taken off-guard by the onslaught of ice and as such was unprepared for riding... so I walked again.  She just rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

So, what follows me?

This, follows me:

It might be for only 4 days, and it was a pain in the arse [fender removal/reattachment is something I do NOT enjoy ~I have a serious thing for perfect fender-line profiles: and spend gobs of time getting it right], but with the amount of rain/moisture on the ground out here, the temps, the low temps expected at night [as all of my riding this week will be nocturnal because of Amy's work schedule], it had to be done.  **Note: Sorry BBBB, yep... these very Nokians were to be en route to you in The 651 but as such will be here, in The PDX, until Mama Naturallia backs off Me**

All said, this will be such an easy Studded-Tire-Riding-Experience compared to MPLS... the amount of snow [barely any] and the amount of ice/black ice [fairly copious], make for the perfect Nokian environment: I have found studded tires to roll pretty efficiently on the one or two days back in Minneapolis when the conditions were like they currently are here i.e. low snow/much ice.

I do wish, someday, to reside in an area that requires no Studded Rubbers.

Keep Ridin'... Always 

The Hurlmato...

Amy found it in our tomato bin, just prior to adding them into our evening salads, and then said "Scott, Hurl's here... in the form of a tomato".

Have at it:

 

 

...you say tomato, I say Hurlmato...

In other news worthy news:

It's snowing and 17 degrees here in PDX today, people are panicking, businesses are shut [or shutting] down, the city is pretty much a ghost town, and Amy and me are laughing quite hard about it.  After last winter in The Minnesota, this is Nothing/No-Thing/Nada-Thang.  I'm thinking of donning my carbone thong and goin' riding [Amy thought this a not too good idea].

The supermarkets are empty, even the Starbucks in our building is thinking of closing early-gasp... come on folks, this ain't 9/11.  It's snow.

Keep Ridin'... Always

^%$#!@!@#$ Ouch->

Waiting in line for a caffe tonight, mid-ride, woman turns -after buying/receiving her 16oz. hot [keyword: HOT] Americano w/no lid... BAM, right into/onto/over my left hand.  I had a wool liner on it, which only added to the magma-napalmishness of the experience.  I ripped the liner off as quickly as possible as it was trapping the hot Columbian fluid onto my digits/tender spaces between my digits/and my palm, and chucked it across the caffe shop while letting loose with many French, and Italian, descriptors... a girl sitting at the table where the liner landed [thankfully not on her blueberry scone] she aloud, "Jesus, look at his glove, it's smoking!".  I looked over while wincing, yeppers: there was my wool liner looking like an artifact from Chernobyl.

Had to ride 14-miles home, one-handed, excruciating pain, my body kept sweating and then I'd get covered in chills.  Amy, 11 years experience as a Burn Unit nurse, sez 2nd degree burns for sure... and then wrapped it after slathering Silvadene on it, but thinks I'll might be headed to the hospital if/when it starts blistering & opening up.

It hurts pretty bad.

One for posterity:

And one for the self-absorbed, yapping lady who shoulda looked before spinning around into me with 16 ounces of nuclear-hot caffeine:

Keep Ridin'... Always

Weigh-In Day...

First time ever, Up-Not down.  Sensed it was coming [Amy says she 'KNEW' it was coming/had to come]... my last weigh in was 184 flat [the last official one] and about 3 weeks ago I cheated and stepped up on the scales and it read 181.8 pounds [this amazed me, and greatly concerned Amy 'too much, too fast, it's gonna slow or stop soon'].  1.5 weeks ago I stepped up, again unofficially, and the scale spoke 184.8 pounds, what??  That seemed very extreme to me, either up or down, to get that much of a difference in just one and a half weeks time.  Amy didn't bat an eye, "It's ending Scott, you're nothing but bones, empty deflated skin and muscle... and with the hills out here compared to Minnesota, the muscles are increasing and they weigh more than fat or deflated skin".

So...

Weight:  185.8 pounds

Weight on Last Weigh-In [October 25th, 2008]:  184.0 pounds

Gain Of:  1.8 pounds

Total Loss Since November, 2005:  315.2 pounds

Stupid or not, what I don't get is... if I eat the same [which I do], the same amount [which I do], ride more [which I do], and the hills are more formidable out here [which they are] why wouldn't my weight just stabilize and not go up.  Maybe there is something to this Muscle-Theory-Thing?

Other News:

Allah-willing, we move to Sellwood this weekend.  We have no love for this high-rise, Chloe [and me & Amy too] want our stuff out of storage, want to not feel like we are perpetually living in a hotel and out of suitcases, enough is enough.

Anyone reading this locally: if you want to help us schlep our life's possessions from one locale to another... by all means email me.  We'll feed you, beverage you, and probably make you laugh a lot too.

Thanks.

Keep Ridin'... Always

New Jacket-

Swobo Cottonwood, it's a very nice jacket.

Sooo,WoBo.

Keep Ridin'... Always