...summer

Summer is officially here.

Yesterday was the last day with students, and today I slowly and methodically packed up my classroom. When I was younger and had kids at home I couldn't wait to get away from school. Things would be crammed into cupboards in a slap-dash fashion, and I'd be at the district office, ready to check out, as early as allowed. The car would have been packed the night before, and the kids would be eagerly waiting for our summer adventures to begin. But now...while I do have adventures planned, there's no sense of urgency. Now I prefer to sort and toss because in just a few short weeks I'll be back in that clean, freshly painted classroom, pulling everything out again. I'll be glad I took the time to organize, but I do miss the excitement of the.first.day.of.summer! Time to start planning my adventures....

...falling in love again

In the early 80s I was a newlywed in northern Alberta. On our trips back to Oregon we'd pass through Banff and Jasper where all kinds of crazy road cyclists were working their way up and down the mountain passes. I remember looking out the window as we passed a group of cyclists and saying, "That looks like so much fun! I want to do that." To which my dear ex replied, "Looks like a lot of work to me." In the wintertime in Peace River, going crazy with cabin fever, I'd look out to see someone going by on cross country skis. Again, "That looks like fun! I want to do that." And again the response was, "Looks like work." It's not that dear ex was a couch potato. He was passionate about baseball, belonged to a curling league, and had played hockey when he was younger. It's that our interests didn't match up. I spent many hours sitting on bleachers fighting mosquitoes or trying to stay warm (and feign interest) depending on the season. But, I wasn't the kind of person to try something on my own if dear ex wasn't into it.

End result, I never tried cycling nor cross country skiing during my time in Alberta. Our children were born, the marriage ended, and I found myself back in Oregon, back in school to finish my teaching degree. Life was busy.

While the kids were growing up we camped

and hiked and put many miles on our bikes. My first "expensive" bike was a tax refund splurge and cost all of $300, and a trailer for Katie was about the same. I laugh when I think how our car looked, loaded up for spring break or at the beginning of summer vacation--a four-door Geo Metro with a huge storage bin on top (the old kind, not the sleek models you see now), bikes and trailer on the back, and inside, 1 adult, 2 long-legged kids, a dog or two, and a cooler. Ha!

Fast forward a few years...kids were into sports,

and my free time was spent traveling to games.

Life was very busy.

Then all of a sudden, it came to a stop. Kids grew up, went away to college, and I had time on my hands. What to do with myself now that other people's needs and wants don't dictate what I do with my free time? When my friend Kathryn invited me to come out and ride with a group from the LBS, I was ready.

And I fell in love.

In December Kathryn and her husband Charlie invited me to go cross country skiing on New Year's Day. Of course I said yes. I was so excited I could hardly sleep the night before. What a beautiful day to be out in the mountains!

I think I may have fallen in love again.

Oh, and speaking of love....Kathryn and Charlie were just married on 12/27!

And as for falling...there had been a warm spell that melted the top layer of snow, and the trail was ungroomed.

This was only Kathryn and Charlie's third time on skis, and my first, so we fell.

A lot.

And laughed. A lot.

I want to go again.

And speaking of love one last time...today would have been dear ex's and my 29th wedding anniversary. I hope he is also pursuing his dreams. No regrets.

...2756

2756. That's how many miles I put on my bike this year. I was hoping to round it off at 3000, but it's not to be. I didn't keep track of my miles in 2008, my first full year of riding, but know the number was much smaller than 2756. This past Sunday the roads were clear and dry, and I went out for a short jaunt. I hadn't seen the weather forcast, so envisioned getting out each day this week to bump my number up. But now there's snow on the roads, and the only seat time I'll be getting will be in my living room. Rats. There's always next year.

...feeding my spirit

• Cycling (Yeah, I know that spinning isn't quite the same, but it's better than nothing this time of year! These folks are fun to hang out with, and the fast guys can't leave us behind.)
  


• Sewing (I finished two projects this week and will rev up the machine again as soon as this blog is posted! This is an apron for Katie to use at work--not sure why I took the picture with my phone and not the camera.)


• Reading (I've been slowly reading the books on the Oregon Battle of Books list. My current book is a tough read and not at all conducive to sweet dreams. I need to find time during the day instead of right before bed.)

Sewing update: Another project complete and ready to be mailed. :-) This is a reversible play mat for my great niece Jadyn. Arlene will keep it at her house for when Jadyn wants to play with her daddy's Matchbox cars from 30+ years ago.

...a new jacket

My birthday gift to myself. It's cobalt blue and black and matches my bike. Resistance was futile. This morning's ride was the perfect time to wear it--cold, but no wind nor rain. Bliss.

...things that make me smile (and one that makes me giggle!)

A few things that brought a smile to my face this weekend:

• Working my butt off in my classroom yesterday so I was free to renew my spirit today.
• An invitation to join my very good friend for some patio time. Even though I was knee-deep in work in my room and didn't want to stop, I appreciate the phone call.
• Beautiful, gorgeous, perfect weather for riding this morning. My buddy Scott flaked out on me, and the only other people to show up were 2 of the fast guys. I told them not to worry about me--I didn't want to hold them back, and didn't want to work as hard as I'd need to to try to stay with them. So I rode by myself and thoroughly enjoyed it.
• Riding to the Potato Sheds and saying, "Good job, Sue!" just like the guys do when I finally reach the top.
• Passing a corn field as it was being harvested. Ah, what a delightful smell! Ditto for the newly cut mint fields.


• Finding a recently harvested red onion along the side of the road. It fit perfectly into my center back pocket! It almost looks obscene, doesn't it?? (There's the giggle.) I contemplated the watermelon field for a minute, but couldn't figure out where I could carry one. :-)
  


• Some time on the bike was spent trying to recall my new students' names. A few are easy: Azucena. Beautiful. It just rolls off the tongue. And she prefers to be called Susie. Like I said, easy. But the boys...oh, the boys. They like to see if they can trick me, so I created a cheat sheet for myself. That works in the classroom, but I still don't have names and faces matched once they're not in front of me.


• My parents having been doing their own dance steps together for 57 years today. :-)


• An impromtu picnic and hike with John on top of the mountain that separates us. We each drove 45 minutes. The day was still beautiful, perfect for talking, hiking, and laughing. We had a hard time getting this picture because we couldn't quit being silly long enough. Good to see him in person again.

  

And some things that DIDN'T make me smile:

• Almost getting hit by a vehicle not once, but twice on Friday afternoon. Yikes. They were in a rush to get past slow farm trucks.
• The dog with the hungry look in his eye this morning who thought my leg looked like breakfast. I prevailed. Gave him the full-of-authority teacher voice, "NO!"

A busy weekend, but I'm ready (in more ways than one) for the week ahead. And that makes me smile.

...the end of summer vacation

Today's ride was the last official group ride of my summer vacation. And while there will be plenty of riding to be done this fall, the freedom to get up and go...has gone. I put 1167 miles on the bike since school got out in June, almost half of my 2009 total so far. It has been a good summer for riding...

Two years together and still in love...ain't it grand??? Ha!

...cool free stuff!

It was a surprise to open my mailbox yesterday afternoon and see a bright blue package inside. What's this?? I haven't ordered anything lately. So I tore into the package to discover a water bottle and two stick-on tattoos (!) from Eleven Gear.

What fun! Last week Kathie had emailed me the address--we're going to order one of their jerseys as a birthday gift for Scott. As I poked around on their site I noticed that they had cycling haikus on a sidebar, so I submitted one of mine--and they used it! And since they sent me cool free stuff I won't get too upset about the fact that they changed the title I had given my baiku and changed "farm truck" to "big truck." (How dare they! haha) So, I have a new bottle (like I really need another one!) and am sporting a tattoo on my right hip. ha! I'd love to be able to show it to Katie with a straight face next weekend--she knows I'm not a tattoo kind of mama--but it will probably be starting to fade by the time she's here, and I can't keep a straight face about anything that makes me giggle. (I'd have both tattoos on my bod, but neglected to take the protective plastic covering off the first one. Rats!)

Thanks, Eleven Gear!

...a different sort of ride

I'm glad I was able to go to North Bend this weekend. It was fun, as always, to hang out with my cycling buddies Kathie and Bob. But it was a different ride, one we probably won't mark on the calendar for next year. The pancake breakfast was edible. The scenery was beautiful. The people were friendly. But...

We didn't get more than 10 miles away from town in the first two hours. (Up one mountain road and back down again, up another, and back down again.) And in those two hours they had a rest stop every 7-10 miles--more than needed. So they faked us out. We thought the whole ride would be like that. Finally, finally we headed out of town on a 50 mile loop. And guess what? The support ended. Nada. Zip. Zero. A porta-potty on a construction site got lots of use--we were mighty glad to come upon it. Thankfully, the weather was overcast and cool so we didn't go through our water quickly, but by the time a rest stop did appear, we were running on empty.

In spite of it all, the three of us had some laughs. This picture is for Scott. Last week on a group ride we were hustling our butts to get back in because it really started to rain. Kathie and Bob heard Scott yell, "Hey! That's sweet corn! We could stop and pick some!" And he meant it. So on Sunday we just had to stop and take a picture of Kathie picking sweet corn.

...a dilemma

There's a ride this weekend. A ride that I hadn't planned on doing. And since I hadn't planned on doing it, I put it out of my head and thought no more about it. But last night Kathie and I were out together and she really wants me to go along. She has the motel booked and is driving her car. All I would have to do is show up. Easy. So by the end of the evening it was decided--I will do the ride this weekend. It wasn't until I got home, sat down to check email, and heard somebody behind me in her usual spot... ...that it hit me. I didn't plan on doing this ride so I didn't make arrangements for doggy care! Oh dear. The easiest (for the old dear) is for me to run her to Portland to Katie's. But there isn't time for that. The last time I asked a friend if she could stay at his place, she was so nervous that she peed in his garage more than in his yard, and escaped and ran back to our old home (where she had lived most of her life) not once, but twice. Another time I asked a friend to come let her out during a day trip. She got busy and sent her teenage son instead. (Nice kid, but certain recent events make me nervous about the thought of him in my house unattended.) So what to do? Which friend can I impose on now??? Who would be willing to interrupt their weekend several times to come let an old, neurotic dog out? OK, time to start calling...wish me luck! (Why does staying home now seem like a bad thing? I hadn't planned on doing the ride in the first place!)

Update: I found someone willing to come let her out and feed her. Thanks, Chris!

...more STP photos, as promised

Day 1--waiting for our wave to depart the University of Washington in Seattle

Leaving Seattle--Xavier in red and blue. His first bike ride over 25 miles. Maybe 50 miles total seat time before the ride. Oh to be young!

Lunch break--day 1 Instead of standing in long lines for a PBJ we opted to go to a diner so we could sit down, drink lots of ice water, and use their facilities. Not the kind of place I would normally go to--too many anti-immigrant and "speak English by gawd" types of posters around the place, but the food was good and service was quick.

Water break, day 1

This unicyclist made it the entire 200 miles. Abs of steel?

These guys rode the whole way on fat-tired bikes. One of them had a case of Fat Tire beer strapped to the back, so I think they were part of a promotional scheme. This bike path is where I fell last year. I was hypervigilant around the posts!

Halfway point--Centralia, Washington. Another 7 miles to go before we get to our motel in Chehalis. A loooong 7 miles.


Day 2--Leaving the motel in Chehalis. A dreary, cool morning. Four of us advertised for Scott's Cycle, but we never took our jackets off all day, so it was all for naught.

Wating for the downpour to ease up...

Coming into Portland. A man leaned out his apartment window and hollered down, "I thought cyclists waited for no one?" We all shared a laugh. But, I have to admit, there were too many rude and inconsiderate cyclists on this ride--they give the rest of us a bad name.

We did it! (Ivan the fast beat us all in, which is why he's already in street clothes. Xavier looks a little tuckered out!)

Ahhh...chocolate milk...now let me get out of these wet shoes and clothes!