FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  I guess am settling into being 60 now.  I actually piped up and asked for the Senior Discount at
Walgreens yesterday - 10% off every Tuesday!


2.)  We went to see American Hustle last Saturday - what a powerhouse cast of amazing actors.  It was second only to Blue Jasmine on my movie list for the year.  We also saw Inside Llewyn Davis  a week or so ago - a bit slow moving but the music was great.  Tom wants to see Nebraska this weekend - anyone seen that one?

3.)  Having 10 days off work was great and really made me look forward to having every day off work...


4.)  We took our new bike rack out for the first time last weekend - we drove to Martinez and then rode our bikes over the Benicia Bridge, all around the downtown and marina and then back to Martinez.  It was about 22 miles altogether.

It was another amazingly warm winter day - we don't know how much longer this weather is going to hold but plan to take advantage of it while it is here.


5.)  Finished our book club selection Cukoo's Calling, which was very good and dove right into The Goldfinch which is sooo excellent.  I have read one good book after another this past year.  So satisfying.

6.)  One of the owners of the company I work for had a hissy fit a few months ago when the flu started going around and made a big deal about everyone getting a flu shot.  She quizzed everyone for weeks about getting the shots and freaked out when I was stuffed up even when I assured her it was just allergies.

This week she came into work sick as I have ever seen anyone.  We were all just cringing and practically bathing in hand sanitizer.  Her daughter is our office manager and kept telling her to go in her office, close the door and keep away from everyone but she just kept dragging people in there or walking around touching the door handles, the printer and the schedule book which is kept on my desk.  We sanitized everything in her wake.

Now we are all watching each other for signs that we caught her bug (it appears it might have been H1N1 and she finally got drugs from her doctor) - so far I think we dodged the bullet.

This weekend will tell.  Hope you all have a nice, healthy one!

RIDING MY TURBO BIKE

Tom's holiday gift to me was a turbo kit for my bike.

It's not really called that - it's an E Bike conversion.  Tom calls it an assist.  There is a battery and a little button to push which activates the motor and zooom, off I go.  It is a bit of an old lady gift - but with my knees, I'll take it!

It also allows us to expand our ride locales and terrains.  And I admit I have gotten a bit bored with our usual routes. It is especially useful for hill climbing, but was also put to use at the end of the day when I was getting tired and my knees were hurting.  We were able to use a route which had 10% grades as opposed to our usual 1-3% grade rides on the trails.  It is a little bizarre to use the assist.  When I start to bog down I hit the button and the motor just takes off as if am on a moped rather than a bike!

I knew exactly where Tom would take me on our first "assisted ride" and I was right.  He loves going up Dougherty Road through Dublin, San Ramon and into Danville.  The Iron Horse Trail we usually take goes around the hills - we went up and over.  Our 35 + mile ride lasted about 5 hours (with a stop at the Farmer's Market and a couple of drink and snack breaks.)

My gift to him was getting a hitch on my car and a new, smaller bike rack for our 2 bikes so we can travel light when we want to go ride out of the area.  He already has a whole list of new adventures for 2014 lined up!

SATURDAY AROUND TOWN

 We live just a few blocks away from one of the high schools and woke up to the sounds of marching bands and drums so we hopped on our bikes to see what was going on downtown.  It was the annual high school band review marching down Main Street!.

We rode down to Tom's office and had a birds eye view of the judging of the drum lines - the main review stand was several blocks down the street.  We watched for a while then I went down the street to see the full bands perform for the judges while Tom did some work  in his office.  I loved that the drum lines had boys and girls and so did the flag teams!  Also noted was that the performers came in all shapes, sizes and nationalities - I love that about our changing society. In my day the performers were uniformly slim, pretty girls and the band was nearly all boys.





In the meantime, I noticed some trick or treating going on and found out the city was also hosting a Halloween scavenger hunt.

Cute kids, band music, sunshine - can it get better?






Being Saturday, there was also the weekly Farmer's market going on - so things were really hopping!

 I love the change in the colors at the market - the autumnal hues abound not only in the flowers but in the fruits and veggies on display.

 While we were wandering around taking in all the activity we noticed that one of our favorite places was having  a Happy Hour from 3-6.

So after finishing all our Saturday chores we cleaned up and managed to snag our favorite sidewalk table.The intention was to have a couple of drinks and appetizers, then go home for dinner. Turned out it was the evening of a Fall Pub Crawl and all the adults in costumes partying up and down the street was so entertaining that we stayed for dinner and enjoyed several happy hours which our darling server captured here!

RIDING ALONG THE BEACH

We had a great time in Monterey riding bikes along the coast and catching up with Zac.  He is juggling 4
jobs and doesn't have much time off, so we were honored that he invited us to spend some time with him on one of his rare days without a commitment to one or more shifts somewhere.

October is one of the best months to visit any coastal area in CA and we managed to have a gorgeous day.  A windbreaker in the morning was shed off by lunch.  As we rode along Zac shared stories from his week at Sea Lab and his group of 8-10 year-olds - some of them had never been to the beach!

I almost fell off my bike laughing when he told us about trying to re-direct the attention of his "campers" from a sea otter which was frantically fornicating a deceased harbor seal - apparently those cute, furry little otters everyone loves are quite kinky - and violent!  He regaled us with a couple of other "bad otter" stories.  His group also witnessed an otter grabbing a seagull, ripping it's head off and eating it, which is more disturbing than their usual tendency to simply drown gulls which are trying to poach their food...

Fortunately they also got an opportunity to see some of the magical side of marine life, too.  On their last morning at the beach there were some dolphins passing through.  Zac lined them up to watch them when suddenly a wave crested right in front of all the kids and the dolphins were riding the wave right in close to shore.  They did it over and over and all the kids in the camp got a chance to witness this  amazing spectacle!

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.) What does it say about our little city that the most prevalent new businesses seem to be two of types:
 massage parlors  and academic tutoring.

2.)  I was disappointed when the book selected for our book club this month was a Jodi Picoult novel. I am a bit of a book snob - I admit it.  However,  though I am not finished with it yet and it may still disappoint, The Storyteller is a pretty good read.

The thing is, I am anxious to get back to re-reading the first two of the Margaret Atwood MaddAddam Trilogy - the third book just came out and all the reviewers suggested going back to the first two before embarking on this new one.  The first, Oryx and Crake, came out 10 years ago and I was amazed at how much of it I recalled when I re-read it last week.  When I finish the book club book, I'll read The Year of the Flood again and then dive into MaddAddam.  Just love Margaret Atwood.

3.)  I started my holiday shopping this weekend with a online session.  I didn't have much luck finding things I was thinking about for gifts - some companies I have shopped with in the past seem to be gone and prices seem to be a lot higher this year.

I read that the California economy is supposed to be nearly back to what it was 8 years ago.  It certainly hasn't happened in my house and the article didn't address the huge increase in the price of everything vs. the new lower wages we are living with. I make $4.00 an hour less now than I did 8 years ago and pay $800. more a month for health insurance. Then add in the higher cost of gas, groceries and even internet.

 I suppose statistically speaking,  people who made good money during this recession and are making even more money now will skew the numbers higher than the reality most of us live with.

4.)  Just got back from our date night. We skipped dance class and went to the gym then out to eat.  The moon is huge and bright, the temperature when we got to dinner was 68 degrees; we ate outside knowing it is probably the last week of this balmy fall weather...  Tomorrow we are off to Monterey to ride bikes with our Zac.

Hope everyone has a lovely fall weekend!

FALL RIDE

We had planned to ride into Livermore to attend the annual Art Walk but didn't realize until this morning that it was only a 1 day event on Saturday - so we decided to make it an adventure.

 We have passed by this trail and never knew the name until today -  the Arroyo Mocho Trail  runs along the creek of the same name and makes for some pretty scenery.  It's so nice to get off the road and into more varied and natural settings.  (Plus now we have a new neighborhood to keep an eye on when we are ready to move next year.)

 Turns out it came out near the Concannon Winery vineyards and a softball facility we spent many a weekend hanging around.  I recalled a great breakfast place down the road.  So we stopped in for breakfast and then headed back along the trail and home.

ON THE MUT

We ride our bikes on trails as often as we can, it is safer than the street and sometimes more scenic.  Most trails are MUTs (Multi-Use Trails) so there are people jogging, rollerblading, walking, being walked by dogs and biking all in some semblance of harmony.

Saturday morning there were a lot more people on the Iron Horse trail than there were last week.  We decided it is because school is starting on Monday so lot's of people were out and about.  This made our ride more challenging.  There are a lot of people who don't seem to know how to behave on a MUT.

Sometimes I think it is a cultural thing because it seems many of them may be immigrants and perhaps in other countries traffic doesn't keep right as it does here. It would seem obvious that they are coming face to face with disgruntled, curious and frustrated people approaching them as they walk on the left and we are all on the right and trying to get around them safely...

Other times it is a simple lack of concern for others - those off leash dog people allowing their pets to dash all over the road; others with dogs on the leash but allowing the dog to wander across the trail (I have seen other trail users tripped and nearly garroted.)  The chatting walkers, two and three abreast without moving in the face of oncoming traffic, the cross country team which seems to think they need to run in a pack, 4 and 5 abreast; the large family on a multitude of transportation forms

Why okay for pedestrians but not bikes?

wandering back and forth across the road. Don't get me started on people with strollers!

And lest I come off as some sort of trail ogre, I generally remain friendly and just deal with stuff as it comes.  I thanked a family last week for verbally reminding their kids to stay to the right when there were other trail users coming.  I call out "on your left" and use my little bell to warn others I am behind them. I had one older woman grab her meandering husband and pull him out of the middle of the trail.  She said "he can't hear"  I suggested she walk on the inside and keep him on the far right of the trail and she kind of had that "light bulb moment."

That said, I do ride in fear when we are around others on the trail -  that someone will knock me off my bike or run me off the trail  - or worse, hurt someone else.  When we rode in Monterey last month the trail was clearly marked with lines and directions and reminders to keep to the right and leave the center of the trail for passing but people just don't pay attention or care or What?  I don't get it.

Anyway, we had another good day on the bikes.  I can feel  Fall coming.  Soccer teams have replaced the baseball and softball teams out on the fields.  Acorns are starting to drop and the leaves are losing their greenness.  The first apples arrived at the Farmer's Market and a big garden we pass all the time has some whopping big pumpkins on the vines.

THE LONGEST RIDE EVER

Tom decided I needed to expand my biking horizons so last week we went on some unpaved trails, but didn't get too far because of this:

Construction on the bridge closed the trail.  Riding on gravel is really nerve wracking, so I am not eager to do that again!

Today he decided I was ready for more miles so we went from Pleasanton to Walnut Creek on the Iron Horse trail. The weather was odd - thankfully we had some low clouds most of the day, with little direct sun. It was humid but not terribly hot.  Six miles or so of the return trip was up a 2-3% grade which really took a toll on my knees. Then at about the 28 mile point the wind started up so I was pretty miserable.

After about 5 hours of riding (a stop at the Farmer's Market and another one for a snack) and a documented 42 miles,  we made it home.  I went straight for the Advil...

Then we grabbed our  swim suits and headed for the Jacuzzi at the gym.  The hot, bubbly water and the Advil did their work and I was no longer feeling so sore,  After a shower we went out for a Margarita  and I felt much better!

HOLIDAY WEEKEND

I have to admit I have been so excited for this long weekend.  It has been a couple of years or so since I had 4 days in a row off work and I had a very long list of things I wanted to do - it filled a whole page of notepaper.

Love this sculpture of seahorses!



When Tom said we should get away from the 7th straight day of  103+ heat I balked.  I just wanted to be home getting stuff done, but it was so hot and we barely slept on Wednesday night so Thursday morning I went along. 

We packed the bikes up and headed for Monterey Bay.  The first whiff of that cool sea air brightened my mood and energized me.  We had a wonderful ride - dodging the pedestrians, their dogs,  bikes and rollerbladers along the multi-use trail.  We stopped frequently to enjoy the views and take in the day.  We even locked up the bikes and walked along the wharf, stopped in a bar and had margaritas and a spicy ahi tartar. At that point we contemplated breaking into our son's apartment  and making a weekend of it (he was out of town.)  Instead we rode down the beach, found a shady spot and took a nap!

We stopped at a BBQ joint in Gilroy on the way home; no fireworks, but a really nice holiday.  Plus the heat wave broke that night and we got a good night's sleep.

I hit my list pretty hard and am happy to say I did pretty much everything on it. Including getting an eye exam and some much needed prescription sunglasses.  I also cleaned out a couple of  closets and took a carload of donations to the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop. 

I even got some time to finish the tile on a mosaic plaque I have been working on and got started on a new pot.  I hope next weekend I get time to grout the two pieces I have done up to that point.  Grouting is the messy part of making mosaics and is something I tend to put off until I have multiple pieces to do at the same time!

I have a new list started and hope it doesn't get as long as the last one...

BAD WEEKEND FOR BIKE RIDING

I wasn't going to post about bike riding this week - we didn't go out due to temperatures that had reached the high 80's by 10 am on Saturday and strong winds on Sunday.  On Sunday night I got an e-mail asking if we were okay and a link to a news article about a Pleasanton couple in their late 50's riding their bikes when they were struck and knocked off the road.  The woman died at the scene. The driver of the car which hit the bike riders is 18 years old. 

It wasn't us, but it certainly could have been though we do not ride on that road due to the lack of bike lanes and because people speed there.   It is a narrow, winding sort of "country" road with high end developments on both sides of the street. But we certainly have seen our share of distracted and careless drivers when we are on our bikes.

I think some people just are not educated about sharing the road with bikes.  When we enter the left turn

lanes it freaks people out. I guess they think we are supposed to act like pedestrians and walk our bikes in the cross walk at each intersection.  Also people have a hard time  if we are in the bike lane and they want to turn right.  In our area there are broken lines which indicate where cars should turn right, but rather than slowing  to turn behind us, drivers frequently speed up and then cut us off by turning in front of us. 

The law in CA is this:

When to Take the Traffic Lane

Many roads do not have designated bicycle traffic lanes, so bicyclists share the traffic lane to the left of the white line. If there is no shoulder or bicycle lane and the traffic lane is narrow, ride closer to the center of the lane. This will prevent motorists from passing you when there is not enough room. You should also use the traffic lane when you are traveling at the same speed as the traffic around you. This will keep you out of motorists’ blind spots and reduce conflicts with right-turning traffic.

Motorists Passing Bicyclists
Be patient when passing a bicyclist. Slow down and pass only when it is safe. Do not squeeze the bicyclist off the road. If road conditions and space permit, allow clearance of at least three feet when passing a bicyclist.

People in cars get mad that they might have to slow down for a moment to let a bicycle pass or turn or get across a road.  Usually it is a matter of a few seconds - and if it is longer or a cyclist has to take the road for safety - get over it!  It's part of being on the road. 

I know some people on bicycles are jerks and don't follow the traffic laws.  I am sorry for that.  It really shouldn't give anyone the attitude that all of us on bikes should be fair game which seems to be the attitude of many people who were commenting about the news article.

The facts of the particular accident aren't reported yet.  Some people who know the 18 year old driver have commented that he known to speed around town.  If that's the cause, I hope he is prosecuted. In any case it is a tragedy all around.

AMGEN TOUR IN OUR AREA!

Saturday Tom and I rode to Livermore to see the start of the 7th leg of the Amgen Tour of California.  There were a lot of people with the same idea.  It was fun out on the road with so may people on their bikes.

I got to ride with my new inspirational art on my bike bag - Maggie sent it to me for Mother's Day!  So now I start every ride by saying "WaHoo!"

People were lining up to see the start of the race. We wandered around the booths and through the team areas.  There were hordes of fans waiting outside the team buses for the riders to appear - I admit I wouldn't recognise one if he sat in my lap!

There is a womens group on the tour but we didn't see any of the women around.

We walked back to the main street which the riders would come down after the start.  I got a quick photo of them coming and going.  The number of security and support vehicles was huge - way more of them than there were riders!

Off they went to climb Mt. Diablo - and off we went to ride home.

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  I am still adjusting to the new job, still really like it but come home tired every night.  I am hitting the gym 2

times a week on my way home but thinking maybe going more often might up my stamina?  The housing market in the Bay Area is going gangbusters and the staging business is hopping - so that means we are on the run all day, every day to keep up!

I did turn in my vacation schedule today - off to Idaho for a family thing at the end of July.

2.)  I am happy that I am able to collapse in the evenings in front of one of my favorite shows - So You Think You Can Dance!  It is such a positive and uplifting show and Tom and I have been laughing and cheering through the current audition shows.

I am not a big basketball fan - but Tom has been watching our Golden State Warriors win many more games than anyone thought possible!

3.)  This Saturday we are going to ride our bikes into Livermore and watch the Amgen Tour stage 7 start in the downtown area before they head up Mt Diablo for a day of hill climbing!  The riders arrive and mingle with the crowds for an hour before the start, there will be a parade and booths, etc. They are also going to have big screen TV's so they can televise the riders on the route.  No sure we will hang out all day but it should be fun to be a part of the Tour de California!

4.)  I am hoping to take down the tarps and get my mosaic area up and running for the season.  I have missed my hobby time.

5.)  I hope Spring smells good where you are!  I am loving the gardenias outside our office and the jasmine in my yard makes my whole house smell wonderful each evening.