Today’s ride after work took me to the southside of town and I planned in advance for a long ride because I won’t be hitting the road tomorrow because of an odd anniversary (more later).

Proceed at your own risk »

No love in the geocaching today. I was tired, it was hot, and there was 5:00 rush traffic all around. I did get 7+ miles in, so it wasn’t a wasted trip, but treasure hunting on a Tuesday afternoon is way different than on a Sunday morning. Still fun, though.

Nice by-product of the hunt: here’s today’s bike track.

Went for my first geocache ride today and preprogrammed four easy wayward points within a couple of miles of the house into the GPS 60.

Proceed at your own risk »

Just back from taking my old Trek 800 (codename: Dollar) for a 3.6-miler and as mentioned here, it is an exercise bike. If The Bride were standing here, she’s be hooking up the oxygen tent but I say thee Nay! I’m having a good wheeze. Glad to be back.

First, some housekeeping. The above statue pix featured in this entry is from Stanford University, not UCB. Had I been a responsible blogger, I’d have linked the original picture back to the source web page and you would have seen where I got my information. Even so, my blog, therefore my bad. Here’s the same pix with others from the Stanford 1906 Earthquake site. Thanks for the sharp eye and the link, Aunt Lily, and I’ll be more careful next time.

And now, an old friend.

That’s my mileage for 2008, a fair indicator of my lack of biking mojo. No excuses or reasons to offer; I’ve been neglectful towards my health, gained weight, and lacked the motivation to do anything about it. Today was a little different as I did three miles before work and 3.5 miles afterwards, so hopefully I’m emerging from my funk. Another motivator is I’m getting my old bike, Dollar, cleaned up and I plan to ride it more.

Dollar is an Trek bike that weighs a ton compared to my lightweight Giant (codenamed Buster) and there’s actual exercise involved when moving from Point A to B. The Giant just sort of mosies along, which is good for the status quo but not for shaping and firming. Because of uncontrollable work-related events, I won’t get to the Trek riding until July but I’m eager to start when I can.

Now if I could get someone to go riding with me. Not mentioning any names…

Theirs was a love that pushed the envelope, crossed the line, and created a new paradigm. She knew she would be caught someday, but she couldn’t stop her yearnings for passion, joy, and sweat that were missing from a marriage grown cold.

It was love gone wrong and she didn’t want to be right.

Then it happened…her husband walked in…and their lives would never be the same.

Catch the three of them at that moment after the jump.

Proceed at your own risk »

Trolling the web for funny bike pix and found…me. This is why you’ll never see Bubba here in a pack…gaggle…swarm of tight-lycra-wearing speedsters: I might accidentally gobble one during a snack attack. If they slow down long enough for me to catch one, of course.

By the way, the dude needs to wear a helmet. No excuses.

This was one of those long bike-riding kind of days despite ten miles yesterday and cavorting late last night at the soon-to-be-in-laws in Spanish springs (north of Sparks). Soooo much good company and excellent food there (*burp*).

Anyway, just posted this morning to Bike Journal:
EB to Gold Dust West Casino
WB Hwy 50 to SB Saliman
EB Fairview to Prison Hill
NB Edmonds to NB Airport Rd
Back streets to WB Long
SB Mountain to Home (12.92 miles)

I wish there were decent pix for you but my photo mojo was absent.

And my second home looks like it’s finally about ready to open. I may never leave if they get WiFi. (after the jump)

Proceed at your own risk »

Blog entries that start with “sorry I’ve been away” win the Grasping the Obvious Award, so let’s skip that. I will say that No Safe Place has fallen on the wayside since my job responsibilities have increased and the middle part of the semester is piling on. The upside about the former is the pay for the extra hours (nice!) and the latter means we’re on the downward slope of the school year. It helps, too, that the grading is practically up-to-date and it’s Test Week for all of my classes.

On top of everything else, I’m filling out forms to go back to grad school in the Fall. Why, you ask, especially since I’m getting to a time in my life where degrees don’t matter as much as the 26+ years in my profession. Uh…good question, especially after my last time at the Little University on the Hill and the time/money it takes to get a graduate degree. Especially the money. The best answer “because it is there” and it’s the hole in my resume that bugs me the most. Maybe I’ll get a better answer once I’m back in class.

Like every blogger in the world, I’ve an opinion about the economy (excrement -> rotating air circulator) and politics (Clinton campaign = amateur hour) and the war (bring them home), but I just got back from a five-mile ride in perfect weather under blue skies. The IQ is down and the endorphins are up. It’s a good day.

The pile of dirt is for Scott who might have problems getting this picture unless he’s sneaky. The folks over at Nevada State Prison don’t like cameras on the grounds (for obvious reasons) but I don’t think they’d mind a pix from their parking lot of the big pile of dirt that’ll block their view of the mountains. This is the freeway extension where it’ll go over Fifth Street. You can’t see them but there’s a whole bunch of heavy construction equipment compressing this dirt and, according to the gatehouse, they’re working around the clock to get things done.

Well, back to the grading and maybe another ride later, too.

It broke 60 degrees today so the choice between grading and biking was easy to make; Not even the Cubs beating up the Royals was enough to keep me inside (final score: 13-1). I took the Big Back Way up King to Longview and up the bike path to the college. The good feeliing I got today from ride shows my legs are getting back into biking form and, as long as I stay upright, it’ll be a good year for the two-wheeler.

Here’s some pix: the north face of C Hill, the mountains to the west, and Harvey Field at WNC.

And Lake Calebro. In reality, it’s a nameless artificial pit on WNC’s southeast corner where it catches mountain runoff water and prevents flooding in the neighborhood. I don’t believe the college has anything named after its second president (and my former grad advisor). There’s the Davis Observatory and the Randolph High Tech Center. Tony’s missed out so far on the college naming thing so this’ll have to do for now.