So Here I am ...

In Pasadena. Rain. Wow -- I remember. I am having an unusual trip. Seeing old friends in a place I have rarely enjoyed. Strangely, it feels remarkably like home; it is, after all, coastal Califonia. I am surprised to find these places in Los Angeles to be so friendly, so homey, to have so much history and charm. All this time people have been telling me that Phoenix is turning into LA. Well, Phoenix has a ways to go before it can turn into LA.

Go Jill

Kick some butt!

Off to a Veritable Paradise

Gosh, I'll be in LA -- that mecca of Smog and the wisdom of film. I'll be picking up one of these and some of those ... I think there's a dinner and a darkroom -- and friends of all ages. I never knew so many in LA.

I'm Not Talking ....

Date: February 14
Today's Mileage: 10.0
Average: 11.9
Mileage for February: 138.6

Mondays ... I Like

Date: February 13
Today's Mileage: 10.70
Average: 11.7
Total for February: 128.5
Temperature on Arrival: 70 F.

Today's ride went up the hill to the entry of the Usury Mountain Park. I actually passed another rider. Now I am going after some carbs at the Thai place.

Pearl the Cat

The static electric cat. I am watching Jill (the "are people crazy in Alaska" Jill) because I want to cheer her on. She showed a picture of her cat -- so I thought I might show off Pearly.

Arizona Fire Season Starts Early

This is a haboob (pronounced haboo -- no giggling). It's a phenomena that occurs in the Sahara Desert and in the Southwest of the US. It is a duststorm proceeding a squall line in a thunderstorm as a result of the downdraft. It can be blinding and scary. I shot this photo on August 7th 2005. It rained hard on me that day -- I had to run with camera for about a mile to sanctuary in the truck, out of fear of a lightning strike. It's been hard to remember it raining here and I miss it.

I think the fire season has actually officially started here in Arizona. Over the last few days it has been fairly windy, with strong winds at night and in the morning coming from the norht and east. These winds have made riding a tad miserable. Today when I was sitting here playfully at my desk gazing out at the view to the east of the Superstition Wilderness, when I saw a plume of smoke. Panic was my immediate reaction.

You might wonder why would that guy panic, it's the middle of the winter. When you spend a lot of your life in the west -- and a lot of your time out doors -- an innate sense develops that tells you when it is dangerous, a mistake, to light a fire. The forest and the desert smell different (more like firewood, and less like a salad). They look different. The sonoran desert can be extremely lush and green. Right now the plants have sucked in all their moisture and sealed themselves against a serious dry spell. The desert is grey and dull and flat. It is so dry that when I pet Pearl the cat, it is a continuous electrostatic discharge. This doesn't phase her at all, in fact I think she likes it. I have never experienced this, and have discovered that other cats do this as well, so it can't be attributed to my formerly feral cat.

News reports have talked about the fact that it hasn't rained in forever, longer in fact, than in the entire recorded history. Normally things are more like this Wikipedia entry for Phoenix:

The normal annual rainfall at Sky Harbor International Airport is 8.29 inches (211 mm). March is the wettest month of the year (1.07 inches or 27 mm). Rain is particularly scarce from April through June. Although thunderstorms occur on occasion during every month of the year, they are most common during the monsoon season from July to mid-September as humid air surges in from the Gulf of California. These can bring strong winds, large hail, or tornadoes. Winter storms moving inland from the Pacific Ocean occasionally produce significant rains but occur infrequently. Fog is observed from time to time during the winter months.

Now 8.29 inches isn't really very much rain at all, especially considering that one day last year it rained between 3 and 5 inches in just a few hours here in Mesa. That means it really doesn't rain very often. According to this statement from the National Weather Service:

THE LAST TIME ANY RAINFALL WAS RECORDED AT PHOENIX SKY HARBOR AIRPORT WAS OCTOBER 18 OF 2005. THROUGH SUNDAY FEBRUARY 12TH...THAT IS 117 CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITHOUT MEASURABLE RAIN...0.01 INCHES OR MORE...OR EVEN A TRACE. THE PREVIOUS RECORD FOR SKY HARBOR WAS 101 CONSECUTIVE DAYS WHICH OCCURRED SEPTEMBER 23 1999 THROUGH JANUARY 1 2000.

I believe that we might have had a few drops fall the other night here in Mesa, with my only clue being the interesting pattern of circular shapes in the dirt on my windshield, proving clearly that not very much of it got wet. The absence of rain for so long clearly explains why children ask their Mothers questions like "Why is there water falling from the sky?," or run around trying to catch a raindrop on their tongue.

According to this in the Arizona Daily Star, a fire has gotten started near Payson, as of few days ago. The northern sky tonight had that wonderful red glow that frequently accompanies a fire up on the Rim. If the wind stops then Phoenix's infamous "Brown Cloud" will return. The contributions that a fire burning might make to the brown cloud could be severe. The easterly wind is currently blowing the cloud toward Los Angeles. If I were there -- I might consider blaming Phoenix for the pollution.

The fire out to the east went away as fast as it started. I am sure it was someone using the day (no burn ban, because of the wind) to burn off some trash. SO there was no reason to panic after all.

It's Sunday Again

Date: February 12
Today's Mileage: 14.60
Average: 10.6
Total for February: 117.7
Temperature on Arrival: 78 F.

The New Lights

The New Lights, Digital Photograph. © Shawn Kielty 2006. All rights reserved.

Oh the wind

It's been windy here, and although this is a joy when it's behind you, there's is always the revenge of the wind. Riding in this morning, I had a max speed of 30 and an average of 16+. Look what happened on the way back.

Date: Feb. 11
Mileage: 16.4
February mileage:102.9
Today's average: 11.3
Temperature on arrival: 62

The MD has instructed me to massage my prostrate, leaving me thinking, how am I supposed to do that?? The new saddle is good -- my sit bones are sore in a much more appropriate place and the gentler massage on my prostrate (as opposed to the previous hammering) could probably meet with the docs approval. The adaptive process has started.

Moonlight Ride

Ohhh-la-la. My new Brooks™ saddle came in the post (how British can I make this sound?). It's very firm and I am sure it's really going to hurt to break in. A masochist, I must be. I took it for a spin around the gravel circle (my driveway), and it already feels better than the stock Bianchi™ saddle.

I bought some additional lights. So now I have a redundant system. I rode over to the friendly guy's bike place for them and rode home in the moonlight.

The light I got was a Cat Eye rechargeble halogen. It seems very bright. Hopefully I can see better than tonight when I was coming up my driveway with the Cat Eye LED headlamp and my streamlight LED headlamp strapped to my helmet (I haven't decided if this is a good idea yet -- but it works ok). I added an additional tailight so I can have one flashing and one solid.

Date: Feb.10
Mileage: 20.5
February mileage:86.5
Today's average: 12.2
Temperature on arrival: 62

I only had one small indication I was going to cramp up the way I did yesterday -- and it passed after a few minutes. Today's average speed was higher than yesterday's. I find this surprising, because the return trip in the dark was for the most part less than 10 miles an hour.

Something Wrong Here.

This is ... well, what it is. Found at the Bike Refugee.

UPDATE

I just read a bunch of the comments on the link referenced above. That article has been viewed 365954 times in the last 2 weeks, so there are a lot. The story goes something like this, according to the photographer. Driver throws some trash out the window of his vehicle. Courier picks it up and throws it back in the open window. Driver throws a cup of coffee onto courier. Courier assaults vehicle with key or something else. Driver gets out and grabs courier. From here the pictures are somewhat explanatory. After that the photographer follows driver back to car to photograph the license plate. Driver pulls a base ball bat out of vehicle and chases photographer -- who -- wisely -- flees.

So where's the line? The line gets crossed when you actually intend to physically harm another person. In a civilized society that's a crime. Her throwing his trash into his car might be defined as a political statement -- in the crafty mind this could be protected by the first amendment, perhaps not. Damaging his property (keying his car) may be both insulting and vandalism (also a crime). But it doesn't compare to trying to hurt some one.

Attempting to cause physical damage to another person is bad. Pouring coffee on someone -- maybe. It is absolutely assualt, if it is scalding hot. Throwing someone to the ground against a car -- is definitely assault. It's clearly a life threatening attack. In Arizona ... you could easily (and quickly) die for much less. Were a man like that to attack me, I would want to disable him very quickly, in a way that he would remember. Stepping on his running gear comes to mind.

Where I grew up -- Men didn't beat up on women. It is just wrong. It's bad -- I hope that guy never gets on a bike. There's a lot of instant karma that might show up there.

Road Rage Kindness

This morning when I went over to the cafe of the beautiful people, I was pulling in to park in the way I do every morning -- occupying the opposing lane with my truck and targeting a spot directly across from the front door. Gloria (we're total strangers at this point) -- coming directly at me -- is coveting the very same spot. We simultaneously turn on our blinkers, and then both decide to relinquish our claim on said spot in favor of a spot behind Gloria. And both immediate drive toward it. So busy were we being nice to each other, Gloria (we never actually met -- I picked up her name out of her conversation with the barista) and I, that we almost collided. An imaginable world where I was trying to be nice to someone and ran into their car appears before me. We laughed a bit about "Road Kindness" and the kind of trouble that can get us into. Too bad we all always aren't so busy being nice to each other.

Date: Feb. 9
Mileage: 11.0
February mileage: 65.8
Temperature on departure: ~68

For some reason today (so that I would bring the bike in to work) my riding/hiking buddy decided, at about 6 in the morning, to call and change today's hike plan to a ride plan. I am better that it was a ride.

Today's ride wasn't exactly uneventful. I rode up past Red Mountain and into the Salt River canyon for a round trip total of 11 miles. I think this is the spot where the water mongers hijack the entire Salt River and put it into a canal. On the way up to Red Mountain I seriously cramped up, but I tried to just ignore it and push on. The cruise down into the Salt River went okay, but the trip back up out of there was tougher. On the way up the cramps in my calves were so bad I had to stop and walk for fear of just falling over.What the heck causes this to happen? I didn't think Tums™ were a required part of my diet. Maybe I could combine Tums™ and dried papaya to make an interesting gorp for riding. This is the first time I have been stopped from riding by this. On a more positive note the average speed for the ride was 11 miles an hour, up slightly from the other day.

Despite a somewhat painless day, I did order a Brooks™ saddle, which I hope will arrive soon. The promised pain from breaking it in will make me feel like I am riding a bike again, which seems good. There should be some measure of paradise immediately following.

Grumble - More from the Archive

Mohave Desert. Digital Photograph. © 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Mileage today: 0. I've been asked to go for a three mile uphill there and back hike tomorrow. I am a little nervous; I haven't been up a hill since the hike of the serious downhill pounding aka the hike of the injury. I was just starting to feel comfortable that hauling my (sore) tail around on a bike wasn't going to damage my knee. I'd prefer it if it was downhill first ... but there ain't much of that around here.

Pick from the Archives

Mono Lake Rainstorm Clearing. Digital Photograph, © 2004, 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Lights.

Date: Feb. 7
Mileage: 4.0
February mileage: 55.2
Temperature on departure: 65

All my lights work! It's just now dark so I really didn't need them to see. I think I'll be buying that Brook's Saddle.

A Century to Ride

Ok -- so i have decided to try to find a century to ride in. I was looking at one from St. George to Zion -- which would be cool. Except that they have an eight hour cap on the ride, "All riders must be off the road by 4:30." I am not sure I can complete 100 miles in 8 hours. I know, that makes me a bit wimpy. But, at my current pace of ten miles an hour, I either need to better make a road bike or get busy riding faster.

TNF

Date: Feb. 6
Mileage: 2.3
February mileage: 51.2
Temperature on departure: 68

Total, not far, Tonto National Forest, or tushy ... Today's ride went ok -- I had to struggle a bit to bring myself to Saddle up. A short ride helps to get my sitter in better shape.

Push Myself

Date: Feb. 5
Mileage: 25.6
February mileage: 47.9
Temperature on departure: 62

So today's ride was supposed to include pictures of an overcast day here (maybe tomorrow I can figure that out). I thought I could do something like this woman with the pictures. I could be like her if I was tough enough to ride 60 some odd miles through the snow. That's almost unbelievable after my little ride today. I am impressed.

Today was our first real overcast since I can remember in a while. It hasn't rained here in over a 100 days. It took me a while to make today's ride, with an average speed of about 10 mph. I tried to push myself early in the ride when I was running up the hill into Tonto National Forest. But toward the end I was mostly just trying to cruise back.

I stopped for a sandwich and made a stop at the cafe of the beautiful people. The regular aged road bike crowd at the cafe looked at me so overly thoughtfully when I said "Hi", perhaps because of my ugly old bike and ever so bleu jean grundgy appearance. Not exactly road racer chic. I just think they were suprised to see me on a bike. I didn't much mind; I had just ridden 18 awesome miles. My friend was there and his gf bought me a coffee. We laughed at my old ugly bike -- and enjoyed the coffee.

Everything worked really well, except my seat, which needs a bit more of a break in period, or I need one of those donut shaped butt pillows to sit on. Rumours that a hard day in the saddle might make me impotent are probably a bit far fetched, but nevertherless a possible good excuse for some. I'll be ok in a couple of days, I reckon; I shouldn't need to sit down 'til then anyway. I'll be dreamily admiring those Brooks^TM saddles over at the friendly guy's bike place, and hope that the ongoing pain of breaking one in won't damage my virility.

Saddle recommendations are more than welcome.

Riding and Ranting: Windy Day

Wow -- nice shot Brian Parker. Riding and Ranting: Windy Day