I Saw Bellas on My Ride Today

I left my house at 8am. I rode up and along Skyline, down Pinehurst into Moraga. There was ice on the ground. I sang as loud as I could through Canyon because I thought it would keep me warm. I sang some Beetles tunes. The ice was slippery. The canyon was beautiful.

I stopped in Orinda for Peets. I warmed my hands and feet with my coffee.

I rode the 3 Bears and around and then up Wildcat along to the ridge. I figured the climbing would keep me warm. I didn't see very many riders out there. I kept riding because I thought those bears would warm me up.

I saw a man riding his bike, wearing a balaclava with a jacket and shorts on and I laughed out loud at him when I rode past. I followed another man on a single speed for a while. He had a nice smooth pedal stroke and nice legs.

I could smell the smoke from the fireplaces, the bacon and eggs and toasts from breakfasts. I rode 60 hilly stiff cold miles because I thought they would all warm me up. All those miles, like a warm wool coat. I can fool myself like that sometimes. I was pretending I lived in Alaska.

When I was almost done and limping along on Skyline and fizzling out like a burnt up old candle, I heard happy voices from up ahead. Talking and laughing and then around the corner I saw them Bellas.

Marscat yelled LAUREN! And I saw Ippoc behind her and she said there's Lauren!

And I waved hard and smiled and yelled HI! And then I went home and took a nice long hot shower.

When You Can't Ride...

You hike.

We hiked for 4 hours. It was a girl hike. No boys allowed. My legs hurt more from hiking then if I'd done a 4 hour ride. We didn't think we'd be out that long.

Vans aren't good hiking shoes. Vans and mini-skirts aren't really good hiking outfits. But we all looked good.


We brought our dog with us. He's quiet, doesn't bark, doesn't eat and doesn't poop. But he's not too cuddly. Kinda ugly too.


Good hikers deserve rewards. We stopped at the corner market for ice-cream before hiking back up Joaquin Miller to the play structure for a little bit of swinging.


As we were finally making our way back to the house, Meika said what's that loud noise? Lulu passed the house first and said, oh my gosh, someone's riding rollers in their garage!


Michael McClure lives near us. His wife is a sculptor. Sculpted heads line the decks around their house. Illuminated heads in the setting sun.


And our neighborhood tree house with festive lights and their dog.


We hiked back home just before dark and got a nice picture from the front yard just as the sun was going down.

This Wasn't in the Manual

My 9 year old asks me out of the blue yesterday, when does puberty start?

Well, I say. Usually around 12 or 13 or maybe 14. And then he says Oh! Well... I have hair on my nuts. And then he walks away.

Uh, Nuts? Hair on nuts? Whaa? Can we call them something else I say?

And then the 7 year old walks over and says, Sam's got puberty?

So I go through the whole talk about how some kids mature faster and some slower and blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I ask him are you sure you have hair? And he says yeah. And I ask, when did you notice it and he says about a week ago. Are you sure I say again? And he's says yep and goes back to his Lego's. And I leave it at that for a little bit.

But for the next half hour, I'm thinking a lot about it. And wondering, could this be true? Does my little 9 year old have hair already? Do boys get hair sooner then girls? They call them nuts? I've fed him hormone free milk all his life! Puberty? Hair? Good Lord. I'm not ready for this.

So I ask him again a half hour later. Are you really sure? And he says, yep, I'll show you. So we walk in to his room and he pulls down his pants and he's searching & searching everywhere and he finally says, see? And I breath a sigh of relief. There's nothing there. Just his little-kid body fuzz. The same fuzz that's been there all his life all over his body.

And I tell him, that's not puberty yet. You've still got some time. And he smiles.

Phew!

Quickies

Yesterday, while the kids were still with grandma and the pending storm loomed on the horizon, Morgan and I stepped out for a quick hour and a half of some single track across the road in Joaquin Miller park.

We didn't see any other riders and very few hikers. I think the pending storm kept everyone home. But for us, well, we'll never pass up a window of "no children" opportunity even if it's raining.

We made it home just as it started to sprinkle.

We rode some nice single track. Trails of Big Trees, Sinawik, Chaparral and Cinderella among others. The Big Trees trail kisses a circle or "fairy ring" of trees from the roots of a gigantic redwood that was cut down and logged in the mid 1800's. You can stand in the middle and look up and imagine how gigantic it must have been. Apparently back then, the oakland redwood trees were so gigantic that ships used them to navigate in the S.F. Bay.
Anyways, afterwards we still had a little extra time so we headed down to the local pub for lunch and a beer.

Ruby Slippers

Mulled wine and chocolate cookies and applejuice cheers and antipasto and tire swings and gameboys and board games and ruby slippers...






...and as the kids call this, the jesus circle...

Long Rides are Like a Nice Stretch

Yesterday I finally had the chance to get out for an extended period of time on my road bike. I didn't leave the house until 11 am and had no where to be afterwards and no where to go in between.

Such luxury! Like a nice looong comfy stretch. I rode a nice happy 50 mile loopty out to Danville Peets. Hung out at Peets with all the other cyclists for a while and back I went.

So now I guess I've started my base training. Which means I guess I need to decide what to do between now and next cross season. Which mtb races to do and maybe actually train? Train? Should I train?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. New Years resolutions and such. But I'm not good at training.

I've tried to train with a heart rate monitor. I've tried to train with a power tap. I've tried to follow a training schedule. I hired a coach once for a road racing season. It all made me so cranky. I felt like my life was so heavily schedulized already; between working and having kids who play soccer and ballet and band and drama and homework and making dinners and oh yeah, morgan's training schedule.

I got irritable trying to stay on it; writing all my numbers down, days riding, time spent, miles logged, power produced, heart rate acheived, feelings felt.

So I train like I balance our checkbook. I know in general what's in there. What we've deposited so far, what I can take out, what bills to pay. Sometimes we have a little excess, sometimes we're a little short but I have a good feeling for where we are. But we could do a lot better if I kept better track, if I were more attentive, if I really worked hard at it. Just like if I trained.

Is This a Chain Letter?

Tagged by johnny sprocket. 5 things that people may not know about me?

Uhh...

1) Well, I love, love, love Jackass (and I think Johnny Knoxville is hhhhot!).



2) I don't believe in god, nor anything after this. I believe that there was a guy named Jesus and he was a good and generous person, but not a magical being and not a son of god. I grew up a strict Catholic, read the bible many times, went to Catholic schools, studied history in college and then decided I didn't believe in a God. This is it, so have as much fun as you can while you're here. I do believe that life is spiritual and magical.

3) I've seen over 100 (Grateful) Dead shows in my lifetime - and I've sat on the bed in Serenity Knolls (in the rehab joint) where Jerry Garcia died.

4) I can't stand the words, "panties", "morsel" and "mount". They make me feel the same way as fingernails on a chalkboard.

5) I'm politically pretty left. I love conspiracy theories and sometimes I even believe them. I'm a "libertarian socialist" as Noam Chomsky puts it (and he's one of my idols and I love Gore Vidal too).

Morgan once told me (figuratively) to stop wearing my aluminum foil hat when there was lightening out. This was after I told him that I thought the California clouds were being seeded by the Bush administration - when it was raining so much last year.


6) I used to grow the stink weed. I grew it and financed my last few years of college and bought a VW Karmen Ghia.


OK so onto 5 others....

Marscat, VG, Ippoc, Panda, and Flandria

Night Riding in the Rain

Doing a night mountain bike ride in the rain on a cool, quiet, foggy night with your friends and then coming back home for mulled wine that's been warming on the burner and then sipping it and being silly...

Too bad I was upstairs helping with homework and putting little children to bed, but is sure sounds like they had fun. I could hear them giggling downstairs in the garage till late. And I had some mulled wine anyway.

So here's the recipe, it's pretty yummy...

2 lemons
2 oranges
1 - 750 ml bottle of medium, to full, bodied red wine
Nutmeg (to taste)
Cloves (to taste)
1 oz brandy or Cognac (or to taste)
1 cup (250 ml) granulated sugar (optional)
Herbal or citrus influenced tea (optional but excellent)
Water (optional softener instead of tea)
4 large cinnamon sticks

-Cut lemons and oranges into slices.
-Pour the red wine into saucepan and gradually heat.
-Add fruit slices, nutmeg, cloves and brandy.
-Keep an eye on the mixture and wait until it becomes hot to the touch.
-At this point you could blend in sugar or water (if desired).

Serve and enjoy.

Patting My Head & Rubbing My Tummy

My 9 year old knows more about science than I do. I can't remember anything and I just spent 2 hours helping him with a solar system project.

My eyes hurt.

Magical Beings

When Sam was 3 we were discussing Santa one time and he told me it didn't make any sense that a person could actually slide down a chimney with a bunch of wrapped presents. When we discussed the magic involved, he told me there wasn't any magic involved.

A few days ago he reminded me that two years before last, Morgan and I didn't get them any gifts for christmas and that santa was the one who brought them gifts that year.

Thank god for Santa.

One time the tooth fairy forgot to come. Actually, twice she forgot to come. The first time she forgot to come two nights in a row! The second time she forgot, she miraculously came the next morning during breakfast.

Now a note accompanies each tooth that is lost. A note asking a question like, how does she get from one house to the next so fast and why don't bigger teeth bring in more cash. Each note requires a signature and an answer from the tooth fairy.

This year, they each have to spend their own money on a gift for each other. Neither of them has bought anything yet. There's still lots of thinking going on. Spending their own money, of course, involves more thought.

Yesterday after school we donated some of their money to an organization for alternative energy. We had a long discussion about wind, air and electricity and how we were giving a gift to their future.

The struggle lately, is the balance. Trying to teach them that christmas isn't about receiving things, but about helping others and hanging out with friends and family and being thankful for everything we have and going for a bike ride on christmas morning, when there aren't any cars on the roads.



But of course this santa person gets in the way and he sure makes it all so damn expensive.

Insignificant Little Things

I got caught up on some things this weekend.

I read a book, I thought about my new years resolutions, I thought about gingerbread houses, we decorated a christmas tree, I read some magazines, I mopped the floor, we had 5 kids spend the night, we went to a school play, we went for a hike, I slept in, I played with my kids, we went Christmas shopping, I shopped online, I ate more fudge, I yelled at my kids, I instructed my kids how to wrap presents while I did yoga and blah, blah, blah.

I didn't, however, ride my bike at all. I just didn't feel like it. And I pretended to be a little bummed when Morgan got home so late from his race yesterday. I pretended that I wanted to ride yesterday, but couldn't because he got home so late. But really, it was ok.

My road bike still has that awful flat attached to it. The bike fairy hasn't fixed it yet. I love the bike fairy. I place my bike back on it's hook after each ride or race and prior to just about each ride or race the tires have been aired up, chain's been oiled and sometimes the bike's even been washed. My little bike fairy, he's so nice to me.

I also didn't do any of the dishes all weekend. And now there's no clean dishes left. It actually woke me up at 4am this morning - thinking about all those dirty dishes. Laying in bed, thinking about washing all those dirty dishes, I actually felt anxious, almost like I should get up right then and do the dishes.

Tweaker twinge.

As I was laying there, I ran through my list of to do's, because I felt so anxious. I figured there must be some underlying thing that I was missing that was really important, that I needed to do right then. But all I could pull up was the dish situation, so luckily I fell back to sleep pretty quickly.

And then I spent two hours in traffic this morning because of a jack-knifed Pepsi truck on the San Mateo Bridge. When I finally passed by the truck, I saw the driver, standing in the middle of the road all by himself with a big red santa hat on and a big grin on his face...

Dear Santa

How is it that a 2nd grade, 45 pound, petite 7 year old girl scout can belch and fart louder and smellier then a sailor.

On my perfect lunch ride today, I had 3 flats. After the 3rd one, I had no tubes or patch kits left, so I did a bad thing and rode the rim back to my house.

I was late to pick up the kids from school because of all the flats. I tried to run with the bike a few times, but road shoes are slippery on wet ass fault and I did the splits and faulted on my ass a few times. So I got back on the bike and used the front brakes and rode real slow down Joaquin Miller onto Robinson and home. Good thing I learned me some good cx skills this season. I rode that rim like a princess.

Here's what the belcher gave me to mail to santa today:

Dear Saint Nick, I wold not want to be noddy. I want to be nice. So please give me some presints. My brother Sam is mean to me sometimes. I wold be happy if you taught him a lesson. Hopflee you git this letter. If you do please sighn back on the back of this paper. Sincerely, Lulu (Louise Fletcher) P.S. Thank you, bye.

Find Your Happy Place

I love Wednesdays. I work from home on Wednesdays. I can get work things done without interruption. I can sleep in until 7:30. I get a little extra laundry done. I get some time to myself with no kids or husband around.

But best of all, It's my easy ride day. I just ride for two hours - no intervals, no running, no weights. Just me and my little imagination and my little bike.

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This is funny, from Yvonne's weekend race report...

"Lauren and Jenny remained behind me. Every time I rode through one of the little lakes I could hear them laughing. I wish I knew what was so funny. Was it me? Am I paranoid??"

I bet if I were more serious, I'd do better. Maybe that'll be one of my goals for next season. Be more serious about cx.

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There's a christmas tree standing in the corner of the dining room wrapped in twine. It's been there for 12 days. It's alive and in a bucket of water and my kids keep asking me when we're going to decorate it.

Normally we don't get a tree until a week or so before christmas. This is my doing. I'm usually not ready for Christmas until then. Winter is not my time. December is like sludge to me. It's heavy and dark and cold and I move slowly.

But this year Morgan went out and got a tree first thing and there it sits.

It's hard to do anything after two weekends of two days racing in a row. Morgan and I discussed this last night after feeding our children fish sticks and steamed vegi's for dinner - while we were drinking red wine and eating fudge.

I bet if I stopped drinking wine and eating fudge for dinner I'd be a better racer. I should make that a goal too: no more fudge.

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Our cleaning lady hasn't shown up in a while, which means I should probably clean the bathrooms and maybe change the sheets soon. She sometimes disappears for periods of time but I like her so much that it's ok.

A few months ago she disappeared for a while and I had to pull out a mop to clean up a sticky area and my 7 year old looked at it and said what in the world is that thing?

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The paper printed my letter to the editor. The editorials that day were interesting. A few admonishing Bush and his war, a few complaining about city government. Mine, which asked people to slow their cars down and not run me and my kids over and another letter from someone asking the police department to punish the driver who ran over a cyclist on Skyline a while back.

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I still haven't gotten all the mud spots out of that white kit - and after 3 wash cycles, I'm thinking of bleach. We might be wearing white and light pastel green kits next weekend.

Two in One

Morgan said it pains him to see me walking during a race. I ran most of the first lap and rode some. But on the second lap, that horseshoe thing wasn't ride-able anymore. And It seemed slower to run it. But maybe not, because 3 women passed me while I was walking and they were jogging. And that crazy Feix woman tricked me by smiling and talking to me and then she laid down the hammer and passed me in slow motion. I should have pushed her over in the slop, but I like her too much.

During the long run-up the second time I had a lot of time to think because, well, I walked that part too. I thought about laundry, I thought about pain. I thought about where I'd left my keys. I thought about needing a skin suit. My jersey kept riding up above my stomach and I could see it sticking out. I'm sure that was very attractive.

I liked the little coffee shop in the barn. And the MCing was off the hook. We need that at every race.


Morgan's pointing at me, probably telling someone how much he loves hearing me yell encouragement to him during his race. I think It helped. He got 4th.



Friends helping friends and Moms on the podium; that makes me so proud!


Sunday was all together different. It was pouring when we got there and I was determined not to race. In fact, laying in bed at 5:30am, I was determined not to go. In fact, at the company holiday party the night before we talked about bagging it. But how can you pass up a double race weekend when the kids are at grandma's. How?

Whatever.

I still wasn't going to race. But Morgan came in and poked me with his computer at 6am and said he'd just gotten an email from Tom and that the Feix duo would be there and that Mrs. Feix and I were tied for the lead in the series for middle-aged mom's.

While I was drinking my coffee, Morgan made me watch one of those muddy European cyclocross videos on his computer while he packed the car. I think they call that brainwashing.

Anyway, it was pouring when we got there and I sat in the car for the first hour reading my book waiting for his race to start.

I talked to Bunny for a while and told her there was no way I was racing. Too wet for me. No way Jose. I'll cheer for you Bunny. I took some pics. I saw some other women and told them, no way Jose. I'm a big baby. I'll take your picture and cheer for you gals. Good luck out there.



And there weren't as many smiles as the day before. And no music and no MC and no goodie bags. Hmm. No thanks. I'll just work on my other hobby today, taking pictures.


There's Mr Fast Feix, fast as all get out. And I love the guy balancing the camera and the beer - all for the action shot.



But then I raced. 10 minutes before the start time It stopped raining. And secretly, deep down inside, I'd told myself that I would race if it stopped raining. So I ran down to the registration table, signed up, got dressed, grabbed the bike and ran back up to the start line and off we went.

And of course, it was fun. Jenny and I laughed the entire first lap but then, again, she put the hurt on me and took the lead in the series.

Two fun races in one fun weekend. Baptism by mud.