Coincidence

The juxtaposition of the Humane Society of Silicon Valley's Adopt-an-adult-cat-free week with with Nimue's upcoming birthday proved irresistable. We now have a funny-looking but very sweet black-and-white-splotched four-year-old cat named Mariam in addition to the Bobber.

 

Nimue is quite pleased, of course. She spent all of last evening and this morning in the TV room where the new cat is confined for a few days during the "get used to the new house" period.

 

The Bobber, of course, knows something is up, and has installed herself just outside the door to that room. The two cats have looked at each other through the door without either one seeming unduly perturbed: a very good sign.

 

Trip to WA: the family stuff

We were out of town again... here's a set of snapshots of the family stuff that went on. Mt. St. Helens bike adventures to be dealt with in future posts.

My dad turned 60. Needless to say, this required a lot of flames.

 

Nimue got the "Go to Garage Sales with Gramma" experience while we were off on our bikes. I gave her $3.00 and she came back with many new stuffies, some of which are pictured with my dad below.

 

Hunting wabbits in the back yard.

 

Visit to see cousins Janika and Keldon, + more good Gramma time.

 

 

Chad's birthday, just two days after my dad's.

 

Lots of good trampoline time.

 

Three-generation bike rides. My mom is in the lead on her recumbent, my dad was behind me.

 

And the simple joys of toys from the grocery store gumball machine.

 

Rebuttal to Anna's Summer Solstice ride report

While I would never denigrate or impugn my lovely wife's perception of the Summer Solstice ride out of Quincy (as reported below) I would like to take this opportunity to say that I found it to be a delightful ride, full of charming yet ceaseless climbs, descents of suitable steepness, and happy microclimates varying from frigid breezes wafting off snowpack to oven-on-self-clean down in the valley.

I am not usually very tolerant of the heat, so I was surprised by how good I felt going up the big bakey climb. Other than suffering one flat thanks to the long stretch of evil and vicious chip-seal, I quite enjoyed this ride. For other riders' reference, I used a 34 x 27 low gear, and that was just perfect. Most of the hills I could have climbed in a slightly higher gear if I was pushing a faster pace, but we were taking it pretty easy and the low gear let me spin up the few steep climbs, and not get too cooked on the long hot ones.

I'd rate the Summer Solstice (S.S.) route as somewhat harder than the Death Ride (D.R.) route. The D.R. climbs, while long, aren't as steep and since in the D.R. you go back down what you rode up, you get a nice bit of rest coming back down the hills. Those relaxing descents are absent in the S.S. -- the good long descents are steep and twisty and demand your attention (I clocked something close to 50mph on a couple of them, without really going for max speed), and there are lots of small rollers that don't help you out much.

So now I need to figure out an angle to convince Anna it wasn't really so bad, and that we need to go ride it again next year...

New Skills

 

Nimue learned how to sew a straight seam with the machine today -- a great way to keep her from bouncing off the walls while waiting to go to the pool with her friend Aleksei.

Camping with friends at Portola Redwoods

Last weekend, we met our friends Todd and Sarah, along with several other of their friends out at Portola Redwoods State Park. The general idea was to let the kids go feral and enjoy nature down in the redwoods and creek; Nimue obliged.

 

Chad was a Very Good Sport. Of course the chance to relax, read, and nap helped considerably.

 

Nim quickly joined the kid pack. The trees around our campsites provided the perfect place for the pack to found "Camp Nitro". I don't really know why "Nitro"; I was told it was short for nitrogen, like that explains anything...

 

They had a Camp Nitro Pledge of Allegiance, and then tried to troop off into the woods in the dark on a puma hunt. Sarah patiently explained that this wasn't a good idea, while Nim tried to explain that she didn't think it was a good idea either and the only reason she was tailing along was to keep everyone else out of trouble. Patrick the puma hunt leader was unfazed.

 

There was also a fine creek running through the campground, which the kids took full advantage of.

 

 

Cold wet Nim.

 

Evenings brought toasted marshmallows (including some scary homemade ones generated in my kitchen) followed by glow stick fun for the kids. Kids include Chad.

 

More Crops

More stuff growing in the yard in the last couple of weeks.
Pumkin blossoms. Sadly eaten by evil squirrels, along with the rest of the apricots.

 

Raspberries. Mmmmm....

 

The first pepper. Appear not to be molested by squirrels despite the fact that I bravely planted them outside the cave. Ha. So far, at least.

 

Growing like a weed. Three new pounds of kid in the last month.

 

Fun in Downieville

While we were in up in the mountains for the Summer Solstice Century, there was also time for the required relaxation in Downieville. Nimue played and created:

 

We enjoyed lounging in the sunshine in the front yard while contemplating Linda's poppies:

 

And of course, Nim found a way to get wet while making her famous monkey face.

 

Snakes!

 

Nimue has adopted a new anti-hair-tangle strategy for the summer. She calls it "Snakes".

Silent Movie: Anna Fixes a Flat

It was bound to happen eventually -- after a whole spring riding on the new bike with no mishaps, I got a flat tire right after dropping Nimue at camp this morning. Of course it had to be the rear tire, which I hate. No big deal for anyone who is actually competent -- others seem to be able to just pop the wheel off and back on, but the geometric conundrum of getting the wheel around the chain and derailleur there always takes a lot of fiddling, and I swear one needs black magic to get the wheel back on without getting one's fingers covered in grease.

Normally, this would really irritate me, but it was nice out and I was feeling a bit slow getting going this morning, so I pulled over onto the sidewalk and sat down in the sunshine to fix the tube. While I was taking the wheel off, I noticed a big, obvious piece of glass embedded in the tire, so it was going to be nice and straightforward to find the hole in the tube.

Not.

Now as I mentioned before, this is the first time I've had to take off the tire on this bike. Sometimes it's hard to get the tire off the rim when it's relatively new. Fortunately, that wasn't too bad. However, once I got the bead free from the rim, I ran into the other potential new tire woe: the tire and tube had been so new and squeaky clean when first installed that the tube welded itself to the inside of the tire. (Recent riding in the heat probably didn't help either...) Not just sorta sticky, but downright bonded together as one. I must've spent about 10 minutes just trying to peel it all apart without destroying anything.

Tube out. Phew. Time to put a little air in to find the hole in the tube and patch it. It should've been easy, since I kept track of generally what part of the tube to expect the hole from the glass that I had already picked out of the tire.

Of course, it wasn't so simple... I found that the tube wouldn't even hold enough air for me to stop pumping long enough to feel for the escaping air. Pump pump pump pump pump. Contort self to listen all around tube while simultaneosly pumping. Feel strong breeze emitting from an unexpected part of the tube. Big hole. Gotcha!

A closer examination of this break revealed a hole with edges that looked like the rubber had literally been pulled apart -- probably when I was painstakingly trying to get the tube out of the tire. So now there are two holes to patch. Argh.

As I put a patch on the first hole, a older Filipino guy out for his morning walk passed by on the sidewalk. He looked at me curiously; I said "Hi" and smiled back to indicate that there was no problem.

A minute or two later, I looked up to find that he had crossed the street to come back to investigate more closely, so I cheerfully pointed out that I was fixing a flat tire. He smiled back with an expression that seemed to say "I don't understand a word you are saying." and hunkered down to watch.

Great. I suck at fixing flats (mostly due to impatience), and now I had an audience.

After getting the first hole patched, it was very easy to add a little air to the tube and find the second hole. My observer continued to watch. Every time I moved something, he would shift a little to get a better view of the process, so I started taking that into account, holding things at a visible angle and moving very deliberately -- sort of a wordless demonstration of how to fix a flat tire. After a while, it felt like I was watching my own hands to the job rather than actually doing it. Quite odd.

At this point, it was a fairly straightforward job (probably because I was being more careful than usual). The fellow watching me looked a little alarmed when I let some air out of the tube after I started to inflate it, as I don't think he realized that all I was doing was making sure the tube would seat properly without getting part of it caught between the tire bead and the rim. For once, I got the wheel back on the bike without too much fiddling, reengaged the brake, and checked it before looking up and saying "All done!" He smiled, gave me a big thumbs-up gesture, and we both went on our merry separate ways.

I had a nice mellow ride with no further incident, just as I wanted. He probably had a very nice walk. I still wonder what he was thinking as he watched me. It really seemed like genuine curiosity, though it is a mystery whether it was about the flat-tire fixing process itself or just about the fact that someone might sit on the side of the road and do it themselves. Either way, both of our mornings were punctuated by an out-of-the-ordinary encounter.

Footnote: Upon arriving home after the ride, I found that I have a big blood blister on the tip of my index finger. Ow. I blame it on the peel-the-sticky-tube-from-the-tire process. The flat fix held up just fine. :)