Not looking back

Right now I am living vicariously through other cyclists who are on cross-country adventures.  I am cheering them on, wanting all to make it no matter how long it takes, and I want to hear about every adventure all the way.

I will go when it is my time, which is not now.  I have two animals that need to pass away first, and although one will probably get put down within the month, the other is not as close to that place, and except for her blindness, she still has the enthusiasm and energy of a puppy at 14+ years.  She has a few years to go.

But as I look forward to going, I am wondering if I will ever look back.  Will I sublet my apartment or just sell everything I own and leave Los Angeles for good.  Will I effectively make myself homeless for a greater adventure than sitting still in a mundane job?  Is it even possible to survive off the bike?  I wonder if I will be looking for a new place to start over.  The reality is that I think I would at least have to put some things in storage.  I haven't checked into that.  If I didn't sublet, however, and if I did put things in storage, there would be no turning back once I got onto the bike.

Unlike most cyclists who do their journey and return home, I don't really feel I have anything holding me in California anymore.  What I came out here for (screenwriting) isn't really part of my life now, and although I love the state, there is definitely an emptiness here, a void that I can't fill.  So I know I need to go.  I need to start over, start a new life, a life of adventure.  

In the grand scheme of things, I really don't know how I would live for an extended period on the bike, and I'd like to have an extended period.  I get tiny amounts of residual money through ebook sales, but can also go for weeks without a single sale.  I know that whatever computer I take, I can connect to the internet via various free wireless places, including a library or most Starbucks, and a multi-year prepaid subscription to skype would enable me to make all the long distance calls I need whenever I have wireless.  Still, I think I would want to have a mobile phone... but how would I pay for it with an extended period on the road?  All these things need to be carefully planned out.

I'm looking into buying a tent and a sleeping bag and other basic camping gear.  I have plenty of time to save up for it and to have it all ready to go for when I do get on the bike and begin the trek eastward.  I'm toying more with the idea of towing a small trailer. rather than panniers.  That will also enable me to take my standing bike pump.

I want to spend some time at the Bicycle Kitchen to learn more about bike maintenance and becoming my own mechanic for more than just changing tires or adjusting screws. I'll need to know as much as I can if I'm going out on the road for an extended length of time for which there is no set return date.

I'm just musing. 

biking to Cuba

Wow, for some reason, my brain is on fire with new bicycling ideas, including biking in Cuba.  I just did a little online research about the possibility of taking a ferry from southern Florida to Cuba, and can't be done because of embargos if you're just a common American citizen.  I need to check with Michael Moore to see how he managed it for his film SICKO. 

Then I got to thinking, what about taking a ferry from Miami to the Bahamas and cycling there?  Okay, suddenly my mind is on fire... so why not island hop on ferries and go all over, to Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, etc., and even island hop from Cuba to Cancun, Mexico?  In fact, you can travel up the Gulf Coast of Mexico right back into lower TX... and I got to thinking, why not cycle the Gulf of Mexico?  What a fantastic biking trip that would be. 

Rode to church today for a Good Friday service.  Now my brain is on cycling fire.

West Hollywood cycling adventures

It seems to me that if there are multiple lanes in each direction, the far right lane should at very minimum be marked with sharrows if there is no bike lane. And if there is only one lane in each direction, automatic sharrows. Period. That being said, bikes have the right to the full lane. We don't have to ride so far to the right that we are in the gutter or in peril of being doored by some fool who doesn't look. And that right side usually has some of the worst potholes and road debris anyhow - which is no problem for a car but for a cyclist can be deadly. I take the full lane when I go down the length of Orlando/Gale in WeHo to Gregory Way. The street is narrow with parking on both sides but cars can have a lane in each direction. So if the cars have to wait behind me, too bad. There's a stop sign at every block anyhow so that can't get up much speed to begin with.

Shifting cycling plans

I saw this on my ride yesterday.

I am a part-time caretaker for a disabled woman and have been for the last 3-1/2 years.  She has been in and out of hospital five times since I've been working for her, mostly due to intestinal issues (mostly due to diet issues, but I won't go down that story at the moment).  She is also a Life Master at the game of Bridge, and when she's feeling up to it, I take her to play at the local Bridge clubs 2-4 times per week.  Recently she had scheduled herself to play in a Bridge Regional down in San Diego at the end of March.  Now, this meant that I would be out of work for a couple days (unpaid days), so I thought that with a 4-day weekend that I would make the most of it by trying to push myself with four 50-mile days in a row - because if I wasn't going to be working, I would try to make good use of the time and try to push myself.  It would be a small taste of what it would be like to be on the road for a long trip averaging 50 miles a day, and it totaled 200 miles, which is approximately the mileage needed to get from the Santa Monica beaches to the border of California.  However, due to her latest hospitalization, the San Diego plans were scrapped.  The means I'm working, which is good, but my 4-day plans are also scrapped.

I'm currently far behind on my cycling goals for the year, but I know things will catch up in the upcoming months.

Techinically it's uphill all the way...

I live in West Hollywood but work just south of Beverly Hills near Pico/Robertson.  My work is about 3 miles each way.  On the way, it's downhill, but it's pretty flat regardless, and on the way home it is entirely uphill, but also pretty flat.  It is not a challenging ride whatsoever.

Today I did not go directly home because I had to make a detour east to the Laurel Pet Hospital and pick up some Lactated Ringers fluid for my cat.  It's an electrolite solution that get's injected sub-q daily and helps flush out his very elderly kidneys (he's nearing 21).  So I took Willoughby to Edinburgh and then went north the two blocks to the vet hospital.  From Willoughby to Santa Monica Blvd, the incline got a little steeper, and by the time I got to the vet, my heart was pounding.  I could literally feel my chest pounding.

I don't stand and pedal.  I can't seem to do it on my bike without feeling totally out of balance, so I sit all the time - up hills, on the flats, down hills.... I sit.  The glutes work while being sat on no matter how hard the work.  I wish I could stand, but I've tried it and it's just not natural.  I lose all torque, and part of me is nervous a pedal will snap off and send me into a terrible crash.  Ugh.  Stupid, I know.  Perhaps if I had a trainer at home I could practice that in safety.  One of these days i'll get a trainer.  I really want one anyhow for those days when I just don't want to go out, and now that I've shipped out all the movie costumes that had been in boxes on my living room floor, I can actually see the floor and have room for a trainer!  When the old cat passes on, I'll also be getting rid of the sofa he calls home, and them wowsa... tons of floor space!

So... backtracking a bit, I got to work where I take care of a disabled woman M-F in the afternoons.  Sometimes her husband is there, sometimes not as he is a professional Bridge teacher, probably the best in Los Angeles.  Anyhow, I noticed his car in the garage and I thought to myself  sort of ... ugh.  He'll be underfoot all day.  Well, turns out he either had food poisoning or that stomach virus because he had been vomiting all night, and the proof was in the towels on the bathroom floor, in the sink and splattered around the sink.  So, I cleaned all that up.  The wife was still asleep.  I cleaned up what there was to clean and was twiddling my thumbs within an hour because the wife still wasn't up, so I took an hour and rode my bike down a few blocks to Jack in the Box for something to eat, then came back.  The wife was just starting to get up, and I made her breakfast about 3:30-4:00 pm.  I had to change the bedsheets because she didn't want his stomach flu or whatever anywhere near her, even though he didn't vomit in bed, so I had to rip all that up.

I left about 4:30 and that's when I went to the vet.  Got home at 5:30ish.

Bontrager panniers pushed to the limits

Well, I don't exactly know what the limits of the panniers are, but I put a 21-lb jug of cat litter in one, and it held but I think that's the max weight I would put in it.  In the other pannier I had a bottle of laundry detergent and assorted other things.  Certainly I had 35-40 lbs of stuff in the panniers.   One thing for sure, it is hard to balance the bike while packing it, especially when something heavy goes in, because then it just wants to fall to that side.  Sometimes I take the panniers into the store with me if I've ridden my bike to the store, but today I rode the bike to work and took the boss's car to the store.  In this particular case, I kept my panniers attached to the bike because wrangling a pannier onto the rack when it is packed with 21-lbs is a bear.  So far I don't see any wear or stress on the panniers, but I don't carry heavy loads for long distances.  3 miles is max.

Still nice to know that I can cycle just fine with all that weight back there.  

In Laguna Beach without bike

Today I drove my boss down to Laguna Beach to visit her relatives who are staying at The Montage.  She's down by the pool and I'm up in the hotel room connecting to the internet and catching up on things.  She told me to bring my bike, that I could ride it down here but my bike rack would have scratched her car for certain as that's what it did with mine.   I don't care about my car so much getting scratched because it's 20 years old hand has dents and scratches already, but she has a 2003 Acura that rarely sees the light of day.

Anyhow, I would love to ride my bike up and down Laguna Canyon sometime as there are bike lanes the whole way.  I don't quite know how I would handle the PCH at the bottom, however, since it is so packed with cars.  Yes, I know that I have the full right to a full lane, but I'm a slow cyclist (okay, that wouldn't have mattered so much today because the traffic was slow and bumper to bumper, but still, I would definitely hold things up).  Maybe the clue is to do it very early in the morning, at least the PCH part. 

Two bike errand runs today

Okay, so I'd been putting off going to Smart & Final because... well, I don't want to drive the car (not that there's anything wrong with it except that it guzzles fuel - and I'm only putting $25 in it this month and that needs to last the whole month.  So... NO driving except for emergencies and loads too large to carry on the bike.) and sometimes I just get nervous about locking the bike in places.  So, I thought I'd be a real smartie and make a video on how to properly lock the bike... HA HA!  Well, it wasn't until I got home and looked at the footage that I realized my own big FAIL - didn't get the frame inside the U-lock.  Duh!!!  Here's the proof!  Otherwise it would have been perfectly locked. Proof below!!!  However, both wheels and the seat we locked down with heavy cables all tied into the U-lock which was locked only to the metal railing.  So, I will make a proper video and post it eventually.

The Bontrager panniers in the pic are full of groceries and each weighs about 20 lbs.  I always tell them at Smart & Final that I have my own bags and will pack them myself.  Here's what I hauled:

3 - 4-lb bags of powdered sugar
1 pint lemon extract
3 lbs tangerines
4 beefsteak tomatoes
1 ginormous container of spring lettuce
1 containter of mild fresh Rojo's  salsa (the best!!!)
8 oz of Mexican shredded cheese

The panniers were pretty full but I could have squeezed in a few smaller items too.  Then when I got home, there was a check in the mail, so after I unloaded I quickly biked down the opposite direction to the bank where as always I take the bike in with me and right up to the teller window.  They know me well in there!

So, about 6 miles of biking.  Not much, but I faced the bike locking demons yet again.  Gosh, if someone ever stole my bike, I would be so distraught.  I would be less distraught if my car were stolen!  And I don't even have an expensive bike!  I may have paid about $350 for it on sale (think it was originally about $500).

Ballona Creek with a friend

My friend Nessie from Hollywood and I decided to do a bike ride, but I wanted to take her on a new route, so I told her I would take her on the bike path that goes through Marina Del Rey and that we would go down to the Ballona Creek Bridge.

I ended up driving into Hollywood to pick her and her bike up and then back to my place where we pumped up her tires and then left about 10:30 A.M.  I'm not sure what time we got down there, but we each took lots of pics with our cameras and also some videos.

People on the bike path through the marina parking lots.

Ballona Creek Bridge.  Stopping grounds for lots of cyclists.

 She noticed how low the planes were flying, and I said that LAX was very close and that we could go down to the part of the bike path that is directly in front of the runways, and she wanted to do that, so off we went.  When we got down there, we look more photos and videos.  Part of the bike path was closed off, and that was the part in front of the runway.  There was another cyclist there, and he was sitting on a bench with his back turned to us as we talked and snapped pics for about 10 minutes.  Finally he got up and left and I asked him, "Were we disturbing you?"  "Yes," he responded matter-of-fact.  Oh well.  He doesn't own that spot.  Lots more private areas for contemplation.

We rode down to where the 105 Imperial Hwy dead ends/connects to the bike path, then turned around and went back.

We decided to take the entire Ballona Creek Bike Trail to it's eastern end since she hadn't gone that way before, and she got unnerved by a lot of the graffitti past Overland, but I didn't think anything of it (still don't).  We then wove through the neighborhoods, go back onto National, over to Regent, to Cattaragus, to Reynier, and then wiggling back through suburbia for 4.5 miles back to West Hollywood.  We rode about 32 miles total.

I motored her bike back into Hollywood.  And we were done.  It was late in the day.  Rewarded myself with a hamburger happy meal from McDs.

More pannier experiences!

On Wednesdays I go grocery shopping for the lady I work for, and usually I do a tiny bit for myself afterwards.  Now when I say tiny, that means it has to fit in the two Bontrager side panniers... and today i was going to push it a little because I needed cat litter.  I knew I couldn't get the 21-lb containers because I had other stuff to get also plus I'd done some pet food shopping on the way to work, and those foods were still in the panniers.  So I got two 14-lb containers and put one on each side.  I know I had at least 40 lbs on the back on the bike.  I could feel it getting started, but once the momentum was up, I was good to go.  When I got home, it was as always a struggle to get the bike up the stairs, but that happened too, so I was good to go.  I still need to ride over to Smart & Final and get some lemon extract.  Maybe tomorrow morning if I am organized.



Might go riding this weekend with a friend, and if so, I'll take her down to the Ballona Creek Bridge.  Maybe we'll stop on the bridge for some pictures and a bit of a picnic.

100 milles

Taken on Whitworth, 1 block E of Robertson.

Okay, I admit, this is pretty dismal for the first 21 days of the year.  I'm thinking of doing a half century on both Saturday and Sunday to try to boost my miles for the month and stay on my goal of 250 per month.  Ugh.  I need to get prepped for the weekend.  Good thing is the weather has turned warmer.

bike buying tips from youtube video

I found this great video tonight with lots of great tips on buying a road bike, which will be my next bike.

Varied day of cycling

Not much to blog about - only 12 miles on the bike today.  First two miles were to the pet store, bank and back.  Then a ten mile trip to work, taking the long road and even stopping at Jack In the Box. Yes, I brought the bike into the little restaurant.  Well, it was about 3:00pm and quite empty.  It was safer with me this way.  Oh, and their Jr. Jack is pretty good.  The chicken nuggets are like McD's - processed chicken something, but the honey mustard sauce is great and that covers a lot of food sins.  I'm addicted to the curly fries.  Must stop.  Must stop!  The JITB I stopped at was on Holt/Pico.  Yeah, I am guilty of visiting them quite often.  Maybe that's why I never lose any weight from cycling (I don't gain weight either). Nah, I think it's that my metabolism is just dead.

Ernest Hemingway quote on cycling

"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them" - wise words from Ernest Hemingway.

Brrrrrrr!

It was supposed to rain today according to Yahoo weather, but not a raindrop appeared.  In fact, the sky was largely clear today with high, gusty winds.

I wasn't sure if I was going to ride to work or drive due to the winds, but the winds had calmed some  by midday, so I put on my arm warmers, packed a warm hoodie in the pannier, and off I went.  When I got to the intersection of Wilshire/Gale, the wind that was channeling down Wilshire Blvd nearly knocked me off my bike. 

I knew the temp was supposed to drop tonight as we're in a cold snap (cold for Los Angeles), and the windchill factor plus riding the bike made it absolutely icy, it seemed.  I started out with just the arm warmers but within a couple of blocks pulled over and pulled out the hoodie.  It was much much MUCH too cold for only arm warmers.... well, they might have been okay if my short sleeves had been longer, but they are short short sleeves.  I didn't put on my head band that covers my ears and that was a mistake because by the time I got home, my hears were practically frozen, as were my cheeks.  Plus the headwind was withering, and when I got back to the Wilshire/Gale intersection, I was nearly blown over from the east and then the west.  I had to slow to 8 mph just to keep the bike steady because I was really fighting for balance.

Tomorrow night for sure I am putting on the headband and suiting up properly before I step out the door.

I am wondering what Lance Armstrong revealed to Oprah tonight.

Honking

Yesterday on my ride I got honked at - not the annoying honk but more of a scolding honk, and when the lady drove by me, she yelled something that I couldn't understand.  I'm sure, however, that she didn't like me controlling the lane on the suburban street.  There was plenty of room to pass me, but I was NOT going to move into the door zone of the cars parked on the street.  So, whatever.

Crazy riding today

Today on the bike I went back and forth to work twice, which was about 12 miles total, but then when I got home in the evening I decided I needed a little bit of food, specifically bananas.  I'm eating two bananas per day now in efforts to overall boost my potassium intake.

I'm getting pretty good at locking the bike.  I wish it went a little faster.  Even though I'm locking it to a bike rack in a well lit area of the parking lot by Pavillions, I am constantly looking over my shoulder.  I solidly locked the wheels to the frame with cables and the seat was locked down with a cable that was threaded through the U-lock.  All the cable ends were threaded through the U-Lock, and then the U-Lock and the frame were locked to the bike rack.  It all went very smoothly.  If I'd wanted to lock down the handlebars, I would have needed my third cable, but honestly, if someone were to steal the handlebars, they'd have to cut the brakes and the damage would be substantial.  The good thing is that I have enough bananas now to last me for five days, so I don't have to shop for more until Saturday. I also indulged and got my favorite cheese bagels and some cream cheese. They are definitely NOT on the high potassium diet, but I have to ease myself into a more vegetarian lifestyle and ultimately a vegan lifestyle (although both possibilities were hammered over the weekend when I made fried chicken nuggets.  Oh well!).

Bicycle locking and pannier rack troubles

I've been meaning to blog for days, but between heavy cookie orders for Christmas and  having to put my boss in the hospital on Dec. 4 and running back and forth to UCLA hospital, I just have been fairly tired and spent.

Since my last post I have purchased 2 more bike cables.  I now have 3 cables and 1 U-lock.  So last weekend I did some errands on the bike and worked on my locking skills.  The first place I went to was Aaron Bros. to pick up a new glue gun, and there was nothing to lock it to except for a skinny tree.  I locked down both wheels and the seat, using only two cables and the U-lock.  Three cables might be one too many.

My next stop was the pet store, and although I normally take the bike in and park it just inside, the store was a little busier so I decided to lock it up outside... but no place except a stairwell landing, and that was sort of like stringing the bike up, but it worked although it wasn't as well locked down.

I also received in the mail from China four more bike lights, the frog kind. They require 3 AAA batteries, and that rubbery/silicone outside was a pain to remove, but I sort of got the hang of it after four times (I bought four of them).  I mounted one on each side of the front fork but angled the lights to shine to the side, not forward, and I mounted the other two on the ends of the handle bar.  The handlebar mounting is not a good idea.  They are too big and put my hands in an uncomfortable position, making my hand muscles feel fatigue within a half mile.  I like the idea of them being there, but there's not enough room for me to grip well.

The bike now has 11 lights for night riding.  I've ordered 3 more rear lights just for back ups as I already broke one...

Then... late last week I was on my way out of the house with the bike, and when I walked it down the front steps, the rack came partially undone and flopped backwards.  I couldn't fix it on the spot and ended up having to take my car to work, but I decided against taking it back to I. Martin for a fix - not because they couldn't fix it, but because they would only be able to fix it back to the problem it had anyhow - in that it couldn't be mounted properly with the top of the rack level with the ground using the the Bontrager pieces it came with.  However, now that it was pivoting freely on the braces on the rear fork, I was able to position it so that the top of the rack was level with the ground.  Securing it into that position, however, was my challenge.  Also, because the rack is mounted higher than normal, it meant less room for my top pannier.  I went to Koontz Hardware to get some zip ties.  The longest ones they had were 15", so I got a packet of those.  First I secured it twice to the seatpost.  Then, looping two ties together on each side, I secured it to the back fork.  So, it's very secure and not going anywhere at all, and I even put about 40 lbs of weight in the side panniers over the weekend.

I have noticed with the rack now being level, however, that I get heel strike on the side panniers if they are not mounted as far to the rear as possible.  So, I definitely have to keep an eye on that.  The top pannier still gets squished on the end by the seat post, and that's a pain, so I guess I'll be on the hunt for another one.