Poem of the Month - August

Journey
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Ah, could I lay me down in this long grass
And close my eyes, and let the quiet wind
Blow over me—I am so tired, so tired
Of passing pleasant places! All my life,
Following Care along the dusty road,
Have I looked back at loveliness and sighed;
Yet at my hand an unrelenting hand
Tugged ever, and I passed. All my life long
Over my shoulder have I looked at peace;
And now I fain would lie in this long grass
And close my eyes.
Yet onward!
Cat birds call
Through the long afternoon, and creeks at dusk
Are guttural. Whip-poor-wills wake and cry,
Drawing the twilight close about their throats.
Only my heart makes answer. Eager vines
Go up the rocks and wait; flushed apple-trees
Pause in their dance and break the ring for me;
And bayberry, that through sweet bevies thread
Of round-faced roses, pink and petulant,
Look back and beckon ere they disappear.
Only my heart, only my heart responds.
Yet, ah, my path is sweet on either side
All through the dragging day,—sharp underfoot
And hot, and like dead mist the dry dust hangs—
But far, oh, far as passionate eye can reach,
And long, ah, long as rapturous eye can cling,
The world is mine: blue hill, still silver lake,
Broad field, bright flower, and the long white road
A gateless garden, and an open path:
My feet to follow, and my heart to hold.

I'm Ready

On Saturday I did a 200K Brevet with the San Diego Randonneurs. We rode from Chula Vista to Jacumba and back via Highway 94. We had a tailwind most of the way out which is good, but we knew we'd pay for it on the way back. I'm quite pleased that I was able to finish this ride - see the last slide below for elevation details. This was the most climbing I've done in one day and the second longest distance covered.

On Sunday Ellen and I had a leisurely ride from home, out Willow Glen Rd., then back to our local Starbucks for lunch.

I think I'm pretty much ready to spend three weeks on a bike!

Same Ride, Different Bikes

Last weekend I rode the same 32 mile ride both days, but with different bikes. I rode up to Alpine and back, stopping at the new Alpine Starbucks for a breather. On Saturday I rode my Eriksen, but decided to get reacquainted with my Lemond Victoire and skinny tires on Sunday. As currently configured the Victoire is about 8 lbs. lighter, and I did like how it climbed, though in other respects the rides of the two bikes are quite simiiar. The only time I noticed the harshness of the skinny 23 mm tires was a short section of Tavern Rd. before Southgrade Rd.

Rather than blather on about training rides, here's something completely different, lifted from Neil Gaiman's most recent post (Walter and I are big fans of The Magnetic Fields):

KT's Weekend

This past weekend brought near perfect weather-maybe a little warm, but really quite nice-low to mid 80's...I could ease into the heat though, as it was about 70' when I left the house. Rode the standard Fall City-North Bend-Carnation loop. Lots of other cyclists out riding too-mostly aero bar tri wanna bees. I don't really understand the whole aerobar thing-the typical get up I saw was clip on aerobars on a bike set up with a 8cm 45' riser stem, and a whole bunch of spacers on the stem. Then, angle the aerobars at about 45', making them appear to be some sort of mutant rhinocerous horns, or maybe even a grotesque unicorn. What's so aero about what appears to be some sort of upright Praying Mantis position? I particularly liked the guys coming down the Falls hill on the aerobars, drafting their buddies down the hill.

Anyway-ride stats-About 45 miles, 3 hours ride time, with a stop at Sandy's Espresso in Carnation, for a Hot Dog and a Coke. Mmm...health food!

Sunday was a day of "cross-training". Teaching a kayaking class on the Green River, mixing it up with every moron in South King County floating the river in inner tubes. At least they have the technique down-beer in one hand, cigarette in the other, butt in cold water yelling "Whoo Hooo!" Proof that Natural Selection is still hard at work. While practicing ferrying across the river, one student remarked "It's like playing Frogger"!

Garbage Pick-Up Count: 20 empty beer cans, 1 full can of Bud Light (refreshing!), 4 bottles, 1 can Hawaiian Tropic Spray Tanning Lotion, and 1 styrofoam cooler lid.

Saturday's Ride with Ellen - Leisurely 15 Miler

Predicted Effect of Tour on Legs

Before Tour

























After tour (I reckon)



























(Confession - these are the legs of Fausto Coppi)

I Live in the 30%

Today's weather forecast for Seattle called for temperatures in the low 70's, with a 30% chance of scattered showers. For the foothills this meant 65', and rain almost guaranteed. I went for my normal ride to North Bend, and left the house in mizzle (a northwest word that is a combination of miserable and drizzle). In otherwords, a typical 4th of July in the Northwest. Of course, the skies totally opened up, and I got rained on, but that's okay...I just kept in mind how the So.Cal. people think that they might melt in the rain, and kept ridin' on.

Tour de Grandma's House

Kevin's memories of bucolic Oklahoma days got me reminiscing too, so back we go to 1972, when Stan Poe and I tackled the Tour de Grandma's House. I was 14 and Stan was 15.

I had been riding my new Ross 10 speed for a few months. It looked something like this, except that mine was white:
















How I had longed for the sleek Peugeot model displayed at the Burbank bike shop where I purchased the Ross, but it was too expensive. The Ross was expensive enough - my father was fond of amortizing its $130 purchase price over the miles reported by my hub mounted mechanical odometer. I had raised half of the purchase price somehow, but Mom and Dad paid for the balance. When I later logged 600 miles and got the cost down to $.22 per mile, Dad let up a bit with his kindhearted harassment, although he continued to make fun of my fixation with the "POOOOOOzhow". I rode that Ross all through college.

Here's the route (approximately) of that first bike tour. We carried small backpacks with a change of clothes and pedalled in T Shirts, cutoff jeans and Jack Purcell tennies. Grandma took care of feeding us and gave us a place to sleep in her ancestral Claremont home. We pedaled back to La Crescenta the next day.

I don't remember all that much about the ride itself, except for some fleeting images of Foothill Blvd. stoplights and craftsman style Pasadena homes. We never did the ride again. Even so, I think that such adventures have a huge effect on our lives, and I'm sure the Tour de Grandma's House cemented my lifelong love of cycling.

Fire and Smoke

The fires in Northern California continue to burn...here's a link to a satellite photo taken on June 27th. Here's Central California, same day. The smoke in the Central Valley and along the Big Sur coast is "impressive"