John’s Ramblings

He’s been kinda busy, on several fronts:

Cycling: I’ve had two rides, Tuesday the 2nd I did 25 miles with the Use It or Lose It gang. The weather was crappy before and after the ride, but it was warm and no rain fell on our little out-and-back trip to Sumner. I skipped Thursday as I was in the throes of a headcold, and did not want to exacerbate matters with a ride in 40 degree temps. Saturday I went out solo, and did 19 miles in the valley to shake out the cobwebs a bit.

Rim Failure: I’ve been riding my fair-weather bike, as my new wheels have not been finished by the boys at Ti-Cycles. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to fetch them tomorrow before the night ride. It looks like it’s going to be a wet ride, so I’d much rather be riding my winter bike with the fenders.

Bent Car: My car ended up staying at the auto body place for the weekend, as they had not quite gotten it done on Friday. In the meantime, I drove around in a Ford Focus Hatchback, which was roomy enough to stash my bike in the back, but has seats that were designed by the Bishops during the Spanish Inquisition. I picked the car up this afternoon, and it looks perfect. All the repairs and the car rental were direct-billed to the insurance company of the person that backed into my car. Thank you, Kirmac Auto Body. Nice job!

Gauntlet: Today is Terri’s birthday, but we celebrated on Sunday with dinner at Salty’s. I’m halfway through The Gauntlet with the end in sight.

College Bike: Also on Sunday, I got in touch with my ex-mother-in-law. About 25 years ago, when I was not cycling but owned a bike I had bought in college and ridden up until about 1980. My ex’s younger brother wanted to borrow my bicycle for a while. Rumor has it he never even rode the thing, but it has been hanging in his mom’s garage ever since. I had no recollection about what brand it was or even the color, but Sunday morning we went by and picked it up. It’s a Centurion (predecessor to Diamondback), vintage approx. 1975, 10 speeds. It is pretty well preserved, and not too badly rusted. The tires are shot, as are the brake pads. I may replace those, give it a quick lube, and try it out on the trail. If it is anywhere close to fitting me, I may convert it to a fixed gear bike to do some training and playing on.

Spin Class: I did the spin thing tonight. Class was packed with all the new year’s resolution people, but I got a trainer and class was o.k. Music was so-so tonight, but I tuned it out and got a good workout. He actually played Celine Dion. In Spin class. What is the world coming to?

Advocacy: I had written to King County and the City of Auburn in an attempt to get some sort of fix put in for the Interurban Trail near my house. The trail floods with any moderate rainfall, forcing a detour through truck traffic. The King County Trail folks have inspected this section, and they believe that the flooding may be the result of a clogged culvert. Now the challenge is to see who has jurisdiction over the culvert, the City of Auburn or Union Pacific Railroad. The county folks have promised to track that down, however, so I’m hopeful we can get this problem fixed.

A whopping 44 miles, ytd.

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