Another Bike!?

I have been thinking of getting a road bike. Last year I was pounding the pavement a lot. Started looking at a different ride than the Trek FX (hybrid).
This morning I rode from Xtreme Wheels to Margaritaville on the hardtail. On the way down the hill, I decided to talk with Blaine about a road bike. He had a Gary Fisher Rail in my size (55cm).
Now, I had never ridden a road bike. Once again, the shifting is new to me. It will take some time to get used to it. But, nothing I can't master. The great part of it was the bike geometry was perfect for me.
I felt very comfortable in the riding position. Actually can see better and puts less strain on my neck than the hybrid.
We got down the nitty-gritty. I asked about the components of that bike based on my weight and riding style. Blaine recommended that I consider a shifter upgrade with the miles I put on a bike. I requested a triple ring gear, because with the 3 ring gear "grandma" is a little too fast.
So, I now have a road bike on order. Its not a "Trek" but in the Trek family. White Fisher Rail Super T. The only color is comes in is White. So I will HAVE to ride the same color Fisher bike as Zach! A small price to pay for a bike that fits me to a "T".

Stop thief!

Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Chicken food thief!
Actually I don't begrudge the blackbirds or grackles a little chicken feed. But I have started to wonder about the possibility of melamine in the layer ration.

Sweetness Doubled

Seriously, can you believe how sweet these two babies are? I'm so in love with them. We're all still in awe that they're girls (after four boys in the same family) AND that we were blessed with TWO!
This beautiful photo was taken by our friend Molly Cook. Check out her Facebook page or here:http://www.mollycookphotography.com/. She's one talented lady! She also made the adorable hats for the girls. One has an S for Scout. The other has a P for Piper.
The little cocoons were made by my talented sister-in-law, Sharon.
So which is cuter, my dining room (referring back to my last post) or these two little sweeties? I'm just joshing. There's no contest.

Finding Your Sweet Spot

I'm reading Max Lucado's book Cure for the Common Life-Living in your Sweet Spot. In chapter 3 he invites us to READ OUR LIFE BACKWARD. He says to think back and remember what you loved doing as a child; what entranced you.
I made a list of things I could remember. Here they are: 1. Reading 2. Writing 3. Playing the piano 4. Painting 5. Solitude 6. Photography 7. Gardening 8. Being outdoors 9. Decorating 10. Sewing
The thing that amazed me is that these are EXACTLY the same things I love to do today.
He also says, "The oak indwells the acorn. Read your life backward and check your supplies. Rerelish your moments of success and satisfaction. For in the merger of the two, you find your uniqueness."
I've spent too much time trying to be what I'm not. I'll never be a public speaker or know much about how things work, but I could take a photo of both and love it. Not that trying these things hasn't been beneficial for me. I have learned things along the way; mostly I've learned what I never want to try again!
I just don't want to spend any more time trying to do things I hate or things that other people want me to try or to be. I want to focus on culivating what I'm already good at and what makes me happy. That's my sweet spot and where God will use me to His glory and my bliss. The two merge and make me the most effective I can be for His kingdom on this earth.

Autumn Wears Her Red Dress

We're still enjoying temperatures in the nineties each day, but the plants show signs that it is fall. One proof - the hummingbird garden has gone completely Red.
Tall white hardy Hibiscus, Shasta daisies and blue salvias dominate this area from May to September. I saw a few Texas Star Hibiscus flowers in summer along with the off-and-on red of the short-lived Hummingbird sage - probably Salvia coccinea. It blooms, sets seed, the original plant dies, and another pops up nearby.
The largest red-bloomer hasn't done much since last fall, but look what's happened to the Pineapple sage, Salvia elegans in the last few days:

Its flowers appear when the days and nights are close in length. This can happen in a mild spring when the plant is not frozen back, but is more usual in fall. Most salvias are useful in deer-resistent gardens, but not our deliciously-scented Pineapple Sage! We kept it in deck containers at our previous house.


The Chili pequin [Capsicum annuum, according to the Wildflower Center] still has lots of tiny peppers. Philo hasn't tried it yet, but one of the Divas told me her husband Warren pickles large quantities of the fiery little fruit each year.

Autumn wears a purple hat with her red dress in the photo above. 'Bat-faced' Cuphea llaevea has produced red/purple flowers since early summer.

A few purple berries remain uneaten by mockingbirds on the Callicarpa americana/Beautyberry below.

My attempts to make vines bloom in a crepe myrtle has had mixed results - no new Passionflowers to photograph, and the Hyacinth bean/Dolichos lab-lab is all pods now, dangling ten feet up in the tree.
One of the surest signs of autumn in my garden is the flowering of Barleria cristata, the Philippine Violet. Some sites say this is a native of India, not the Philippines, and not in the violet family, but belonging to Acanthus.The plant below started out as a 3-inch rooted cutting in March, and it's now about two-feet tall in partial shade. The flowering seems to be triggered by the shortening of the days as the Autumnal Equinox approaches.

Those of who garden in the Northern Hemisphere celebrated the autumnal equinox on September 23rd-- and now our blogs record and share what happens as fall arrives. It might mean cooler, shorter days, changing leaves and that slanting, autumn light.
In my mind the term autumnal equinox meant that the days and nights were of equal length, so it surprised me when Philo pointed out that here in Austin, our day & night actually became equal on the 27th, and our descent into winter didn't really begin until the 28th.
I'd already noticed the startling variation in the longest days of summer for the different places friends and family lived - just one of those things that color our individual relationship with our spot on the globe. Philo used Naval Observatory tables to chart a few US cities for me, arranged by latitude, North to South, so we can see how things change as you move toward the equator. He adjusted to Daylight time for summer and this data is for ...

This may be the point where you jump ship, but I enjoy mildly geeky statistics and bet some of you do, too:
The days and nights in Anchorage, Alaska reached equal length on September 25th. Seattle, Washington also had equal days and nights on September 25th.

San Francisco, California took another day to even up its days and nights as did
Chicago, Illinois - both had equal days and nights on the 26th.
Austin, Texas and Miami, Florida waited until September 27th.
Kona, Hawaii was a day later than the others, on the 28th.


That's pretty interesting, but this is the part that really gets me - day length variation:

In Anchorage [latitude N61º 13'] on the shortest day in winter, the sun rises at 10:14 AM and sets at 3:41 PM. On the longest day in summer, the sun rises at 4:20 in the morning, and stays up until 11:42 PM - so the difference in the shortest day and longest day is a whopping 13 hours and 55 minutes.

Seattle [latitude N47º 38'] sees sunrise on the shortest day of winter at 7:55 AM, with sunset at 4:20 in the afternoon; go to the opposite season and the sun rises at 5:11 in the morning, setting at 9:11 at night... what a nice long day for gardening, and the glow at twilight makes it seem even longer. Seattle has a difference of 7 hours 35 minutes between the longest and shortest days.
Chicago [latitude N41º 51'] has a 6 hour, 6 minute variation from longest to shortest days, with winter sunrise at 7:15 AM, winter sunset 4:23 PM, summer sunrise 5:16 AM, summer sunset 8:30 PM.

San Francisco [latitude N37º 46'] comes next, with a 5 hour, 14 minute variation from summer to winter; the sun rises at the winter solstice at 7:21 AM, sets at 4:54 PM. The sun rises on the longest day at 5:48 AM and sets at 8:35 PM that evening.

Day length in Austin [latitude N30º 17'] varies only 3 hours and 54 minutes from shortest day of winter to longest day of summer. Our winter sun rises at 7:23 in the morning, setting at 5:35 that night, not so bad for school buses. At the summer solstice, the sun rises at 6:29 AM, setting at 8:36.

Miami [latitude N25º 47'] daylength varies even less - only 3 hours and 13 minutes separate longest and shortest days. The sun comes up at 7:03 AM in winter, setting at 5:35 PM on the winter solstice. In summer the sun appears only a half-hour earlier, rising at 6:30 AM and setting at 8:15 PM.

If you're in the city of Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii, [latitude N21º 19'] there isn't a lot of difference in winter and summer: only 2 hours and 36 minutes. This part of Hawaii has sunrise on the shortest day at 7: 04 AM, and the sun sets at 5:55 PM. The sun will rise only a quarter of an hour earlier on the longest day, at 6:50 AM, and the residents will get the extra 2+ hours at the end of their longest day - with sunset at 8:16 PM.

While these numbers were interesting in themselves, since we read blogs by people who garden in different places we might think about how day length affects humans and their gardens.

Back in Illinois the crows started cawing as the sun began to glow - waking us at 5 in the morning. Northern friends could rise early and fit in an hour on a vegetable plot before dressing for work. When we moved to Austin it was a surprise when it was still quite dark at 6 AM in midsummer, and we were often awake before the birds made a sound. [It was also a surprise to see Turkey vultures rather than crows!]

The people in the North get earlier frosts and shorter summers, but they also get used to having many more hours of daylight during the summer. Kona, Hawaii may miss out on the pleasant glow of long summer evenings, but those folks won't need headlights at 4 PM in December.

Do you think the variation in your shortest and longest daylength affects you?

Is this really necessary?

I know Koalas are facing extinction in some parts of the country, but to they really need to resort to this to endear themselves to the public?
That was one of the sights of yesterday's morning ride to Binna Burra, another day another mountain climb.

The thing that really stands out about this ride, as always, is the stretch across the top of the Beechmont range that offers superb views on both sides. Someone paid $17 million for an apartment in one of the high rises in Surfers Last week, probably for views inferior to what I get for free everytime I ride up that particular mountain. About the only thing I did wrong was leaving a little too late and getting caught in the sun without protection. I didn't get badly burned, but it was enough to be uncomfortable. I suppose it's just a warning with summer only two weeks old.

In other news, I went to Brisbane to see Wil Anderson last night. It was just about the funniest thing I've seen all year. If anyone reading this ever gets the chance to go to one of his shows, take it (unless, of course, you're Shannon Noll).

Echo Wall first ascent

The final hard move on Echo Wall, Ben Nevis. This is a video still shot by Claire.
On Monday night (July 28th) I led my Echo Wall project. I was for me a perfect climbing day. Folk always ask me how doing a degree in sport science helped me do hard routes, expecting to hear about little details about physical training practice. But the biggest thing I learned was about how disparate the ingredients of a good performance are and how big an effect it has on the rare occasions when they come together at just the right moment. Monday was one of those days for me.
Throughout the spring and early summer, I pounded myself with training to reach a higher base level in my all-round strength and fitness. Once I started tapering in early July, I felt that strength come through. But my body was heavy from putting on a little too much muscle. 3 pounds taken off with a little diet in America (despite the lovely pancakes!) slotted in another piece of the puzzle.
Racking up for the lead, looking pale. Video still: Claire MacLeod
The break from the route in the US brought back the freshness and the fire to be back at the wall spending more time in those beautiful surroundings and reminded me just how badly I wanted to climb this piece of rock. But it also took the edge off my fitness.
Two hard days on the wall immediately off the plane with two gentle rest days afterwards put me in really good physical shape. Then, Kev Shields, a man who ‘knows the score’ when it comes to bold routes and a good person to be around on a scary lead day, was up for a look at some other unclimbed rock beside my project. A day’s worth of clear air broke the cycle of humidity of late, so we walked in on a relaxed morning.
At the shakeout before the most serious part of the climb. Video Still: Claire MacLeod
The air was so crisp but it was hot. Kev checked out a big groove, I belayed, time passed. I was waiting for the Katabatic winds of the late evening rolling off the plateau and snowfields just above the route. At 8pm the chill wind gently got going. I waited and waited until the temperature and rock friction was perfect, and at 9pm exactly, all this preparation over months crystallised and I led the route in a dream state of confident execution.
It felt easy, as every hard route I’ve ever done has – the great paradox!
Echo Wall, I am just pulling over the roof, low on the arête. Video still: Claire MacLeod
As I hoped, my feeling at the start was not “how can I dare to lead this route?”, but “how can I dare not to lead this route?” What an opportunity! All these ingredients coming together to put such a fine climbing experience on a plate in front of me.
There was the question of the last boulder problem. I had fallen there sometimes on the toprope. To fall here on the lead is to leave yourself with only an RP in a finger width flake of suspect rock, with a skyhook stacked on top of the RP as the last barrier between you and a 20 metre fall to the floor.
The only chance of falling would be to continue above the roof knowing you were too tired due to poor conditions or errors. A clear judgement to jump off before it got too late and you got out of range of the gear. I would have done this if I needed to.
I felt that the biggest risk of all would be to stand at the foot of such a great and memorable route (experience) and back out due to fear of injury. My fear of lost opportunity is greater, attraction to the positive experience on offer greater still.
Claire a tiny dot in Observatory Gully, left of the snow.
The feeling of climbing the moves on perfect rock, in perfect conditions in the company of Claire and Kev will stay with me all my life for sure. It’s hard for me to describe the feeling of freedom from experiencing that something that had seemed so unreachable could feel so effortless, all that was required was to draw the right ingredients together, piece by piece over time.
My strongest image from the day though was of Claire as Kev and I arrived at the top of the wall, high on Tower Ridge, looking down on Claire – a tiny dot climbing the endless nightmare of scree (Observatory Gully) yet again. Although my name only is on the route description, it was a team ascent.
There are so many things to talk about – Ben Nevis climbing, what to do now, more about the climbing on Echo Wall… But that will do for now. Thanks for all your messages you sent me about this over the past months I really appreciate it! There are more video stills from the route and thoughts from Claire on her blog.
Claire looking remarkably happy to be on the Ben after midnight!
Route description:
Ben Nevis, east aspect of Tower Ridge, about 1100m alt.
Echo Wall **** 100m Dave MacLeod July 28th
Grade: Harder than Rhapsody (or anything else I’ve been on)
A spectacular route taking the huge sharp arête of Echo Wall, well seen from Tower Ridge or when ascending Observatory Gully. Poorly protected in general with groundfall potential at 20 metres near the end of the crux section.
1. 30m Climb easy slabs to a belay at the foot of the grossly overhanging arête of the buttress.
2. 70m Pull into an overhung groove and exit this with immediate difficulty. A hard and poorly protected boulder problem leads to the roof and an upside down rest. (wires, poor camalot 6). Pull leftwards over the roof with desperate climbing up the wall just right of the arête to a shakeout (RP & Skyhook in suspect rock). Move left to the arête and make very serious moves up this to a good spike and reasonable gear. Continue with more ease up the arête (runout) to a small ledge (drop your left hand rope to relieve drag). Continue up steep flakes in a great position to gain easy ground and a short solo to reach Tower Ridge.
Looking west from Ben Nevis at the end of a long and perfect day's climbing.

Downtime

Downtime is not something that I particularly enjoy, but after suffering mild burnout last year, I'm reaching the conclusion that sometimes it's a necessary evil. The weekend just past was a little like that. Apart from riding to Brisbane for an errand on Saturday morning, I just didn't do a great deal -- hence a picture from Thursday's early ride to Little Nerang Dam in the rain. It was fairly convenient to schedule a lazy weekend, given that my bike currently has some mechanical issues that need resolving. Quiet contemplation was more my style last weekend, mixed with a stint of garage cleaning, but in an increasingly shallow and vapid world, contemplation is an activity that seems unlikely to hold my interest for very long.
It's clear that I need a new project, something capable of holding my interest when I'm not actually riding. This blog looks like needing a complete redesign because of it's apparent non-functionality for anyone who uses anything other than Internet Explorer, but that's hardly a fulfilling challenge. I could always get involved in cycling advocacy again, but that felt more like banging my head against a brick wall, and it's probably worse for the burn-out factor than simply riding all the time anyway.
I suppose I just need to look at downtime as a necessary evil, and just grin and bear it.

Blue Ridge Parkway

Tuesday, June 29th
After a shower and change of clothes, I was off to drive a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I started driving up to the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center & Park Headquarters. The HQ is Northeast of Asheville on the Parkway.
I picked up some maps, literature, and a t-shirt. Learned there is a detour south of Asheville. Much of the detour was the same type of scenery than the Parkway. The detour took me past Looking Glass Falls.
Most of the rest of the drive was unremarkable. Like the Cherohala Skyway, its a limited access mountain road. Lots of turn-outs and view area. The big difference, you can really see something at the Parkway view areas.
A quick shower came across the Parkway. When the sun came back out, the "steam" started raising from the hills. The photo with this post is a view along the Parkway after the rain. The "smoke" is very evident in the photo.
The South end of the Blue Ridge Parkway is at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So, stopped in the visitor's center there to get info. Picked up a couple book to help plan my visit to the Park.

PERFECT day on the Pigeon River!

We went paddling on the Pigeon River today and the conditions couldn't have been more perfect! We saw barely a ripple on the water the entire time we were out there (well, other than the ripples created by our paddles and kayaks!). Here is a picture of Jessica enjoying the incredibly calm and beautiful water of the river today.

River Dropping, Lake Rising

The Missouri River level continues dropping. I hear that some sections of the Interstate north of CB are being inspected for damage. It's not pretty. Three months of the river flowing over the highway has taking its toll.
We got word that the CB end og the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge will reopen on Saturday. Plans are to open the bicycle trails on the levees very soon (maybe the weekend?). Sure looking forward to that. There are sections still under water (highway underpasses. Behind the Trails Center, under Harrahs).
Not to mention the clean-up that will be required. I am sure the trail will be covered with muck and silt. Word is that its still Mid October before the river is back to "normal".
Low spot of the Veteran's Memorial trail just east of S 24th St is now dry (though the barricade is still up). Lake Manawa Trail east of the nature trail parking lot is still underwater.
Meanwhile, with all of the rains, the level of Lake Manawa has risen. The entrance and part of Boy Scout Island is underwater (see photo).

Ride on the Duluth Lakewalk

Cool morning and the forecast was for scattered showers. After coffee and pastries at the hotel, I found a place to get a haircut. I had been getting pretty shaggy!

Weather.com was showing some showers heading through the area late morning. So, I killed some time chatting online. Soon, the clouds were getting thinner, so kitted up for low/mid 40 deg weather.

It was a little over a block from my hotel (Days Inn Duluth) to the Edgewater entrance of the Duluth Lakewalk. Took the hybrid off the car rack and loaded up for the ride. It was a 3 mile ride along Lake Superior to Canal Park. Rode around Canal Park before riding back to the hotel.

Was a bit brisk ride back as I had a stiff headwind. While I was a little chilly, I was not uncomfortable. Guess I had just the right layer of clothes. Felt great to be back on the bike. Was not sure I was excited about riding in this weather, but sure glad I did. Just over 7 mile ride.

OH, I had the GoPro on the bike. Still have problems understanding when the camera is running and when its not. Did not get the footage I thought I was getting.

Was thinking of getting out last night - sampling the local night life. But the exercise and fresh air made me too tired. Instead, I feasted on a chicken fried steak at Perkins (2 blocks from the hotel) and called it a night.

Xtreme Wheels Century

No, I did not ride the 100+ miles today. But I was up bright and early to take some photos. A good turn out, great weather. Hope every had a good ride.
After the Century Ride start, I took my normal Sunday Morning Ride with Dennis. Was a gorgeous day - Was in the mid 70s and no the light wind. We got stuck by a train - waiting about 20 minutes. Made it was a long ride. The rest kind of rejuvenated me.
After the ride, I headed home to process the photos. Left a CD at the bike shop.
Backing up a couple days, we had a good Friday Night Ride at Lake Manawa. The trail was in mostly dry (just some slick/soft/muddy spots). The sunset is starting to cutting into our riding time.

Teakettle frostflower

I've written about Frost Flowers before, but I don't remember ever seeing them this early.
This teakettle was formed from the stem of a White crownbeard flower (Verbesina virginica). Dr James Carter has the definitive page on Frost Flowers. He's also done a lot of fun experiments on extruding ice from pipes (also here).
The forecast was for 23°F last night (-5°C), but here in our glacial little microclimate, it was 13°F (-11°C) when we woke up this morning. Too bad it's not always 10° cooler in the summer too.

The Air Travel Saga Begins

Here I sit in the San Antonio International Airport. It's 10:15 a.m. I have been here since 7:00 a.m. My flight was scheduled for 8:40 a.m.

If you're familiar with air travel and Southwest Airlines, you know that if you check in 24 hours in advance you can get in the "A" boarding group. So, yes, I was in the A boarding group. We got on the plane, pushed back from the gate. Hunky dory, right? Nope, you'd be wrong.

The captain came on the loudspeaker, said they had a problem with a light on the overhead panel being out. Maintenance was on the way to check it out. Once maintenance arrived and diagnosed the problem, we were told it was the battery indicator light and we would have to take a different plane, which they were trying to set up. Our plane pulled back into the gate and we all deboarded.

A few minutes later, the gate agent announced they had reset the computer on the plane and the problem was fixed. We were told to line up to reboard, oh, EXCEPT passengers to Portland, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Philadephia. We were all being re-routed. Sigh, really? Why? It's the same plane and only one hour later getting out.

Originally I was to fly through Phoenix, then on to Portland on the same plane, scheduled to arrive in Portland at 12:40 p.m. Get this...NOW I am being re-routed: leaving San Antonio at 11:45 a.m., flying to San Diego, then Las Vegas, transferring planes in Las Vegas and arriving in Portland at 5:45 p.m. Sheesh! Who thinks up this kind of torture??

I much prefer traveling in our 5th wheel!

And here I was worried about the weather. I'll keep you posted on my progress. With another change of planes who knows what else could go wrong. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of the day will be more fun...and on time. Hey, I do have free wi-fi at the San Antone airport!

P.S. The "more fun" mentioned above has started. My name was called by the gate agent. I went up to the podium and was given a $200 voucher that can be used by anyone on any Southwest Airlines flight for up to one year. Wow! Now that I like.

Update: As we flew into Portland, I was able to see Wilsonville and Lake Oswego through breaks in the clouds. Then we flew directly over downtown Portland and I wished my camera would have been on at that point. I could have had a gorgeous photo of the downtown skyscrapers and the Willamette River from the air.

I did capture a few photos of our approach to Portland International Airport..

Welcome to Portland!

Active, stormy-looking sky.

Fremont Bridge over the Willamette River and industrial area.

Travel Bug out.

Busy Week

This week I am visiting Kenosha. While there, I was able to visit with a high school friend that I had not seen in many, many years. Was good to reconnect.
Have been visiting my mom. Yesterday I was out on the bike for a ride. Rode from her apartment North into Racine. When I got done, just over 15 mile ride. Took a few photos that my show up on a future calendar.
Later this morning, I am planning to ride the Kenosha lake shore.
Have not blogging much, because there is no internet in the apartment. First thing in the morning I drive to Panera Bread to check my e-mail, facebook, etc. Suffering a bit from withdrawal.

If I've said it once? I'll say it again... Those travelin' undies sure are comfy.