on velopaths and reconciliation

well there you have the weather. on the way in i was waiting at fifth avenue and huron, over to the right with no cars at the light, and right as it turned green a subaru outback slipped by and began to turn right, the old right hook as it were. i gave it a slap on its hindquarters, and the driver stopped, although it may have been because there was a moving van around the corner. i then did my best to urge the driver to keep moving, to get along, shoving as hard as i could (as if it mattered) on the wagon's rump. eventually the driver moved out of the way, a cyclist on the sidewalk said "you tell 'em" and i rode away, muttering expletives. while it certainly couldn't be counted as "altercation-free" (my goal, remember), neither did it leave an unpleasant aftertaste as these things so often do.

i get weary, and sometimes even sad, when i read cyclists' posts on bikeforums referring to all motorists as "cagers" along with other narrow interpretations. let she or he who has never driven a car step forward, and then immediately return to their business. certainly the actions of many motorists infuriate me, and not only when they also endanger me, but i have to believe that the important stuff of being human is shared among all of us.

safety is my goal, so i ride defensively. to me, this means anticipating unsafe behaviors on the part of other drivers, of all vehicles including bicycles (which are very much part of the overall picture). this anticipation, when realized fully, is entirely sufficient; that is, it is unnecessary for me to speculate as to the motivations and philosophies of the other drivers. in simple terms, i don't make it personal. usually that makes things worse. and then there is the whole stereotype thing.

last night we had an interesting meeting of our task force on the church and homosexuality, largely to discuss the outcome of the ELCA's churchwide assembly and the voting on recommendations concerning rostering of gays, and blessing of same-sex unions. the short story, with the best possible spin, is that we did not take a step backward. the long story would involve details of how divisive the issue continues to be, even in the relatively progressive ELCA. at trinity, we are contemplating RIC and affirmations of welcome, to the chagrin of a few. our pastors are very much behind this, however, and are wonderful persons, and they have considerable support. we are just going to have to continue to talk about it.

i have a busy day ahead of me here so i can't write more although the topic is of great interest.

i'm walkin' on sunshine

when that claritin commercial first started to air, i thought: one thing worse than being a one-hit band is to have your one hit show up on a tv commercial being covered by studio hacks! a little while after that, the same song was in another commercial, for playskool i think; their problem may have simply been bad licensing choices.

most, if not all, of new orleans' residents had probably forgotten about katrina and the waves as of last week (those who had heard of them in the first place), but by this morning i would expect it's already a bad joke. so i won't make it.

the weather in michigan continues to suggest that summer is drawing to a close; the dew point of the moment is 65 °F, humid in great lakes style but not oppressive. there is a weak threat of foul weather later today.

school has started, and i'm making lunches and serving breakfasts again - happiness! i hope this can be a good year for the little cicadashells (neither of whom are actually that little, anymore), full of maturing and personal growth and better muscianship and all that. we shall see...

fade to yellow in a box in an attic

weather update: wednesday 51/51; thursday 60/56; today 66/60. so it is getting warmer, and more humid. storms are on the way.

yesterday morning there was this tremendous mackerel sky as i rode in. despite all the crapola i've been putting up with (indeed, that we all put up with), i was still able to appreciate that almost perfect moment in the morning, when i first start rolling down the vesper hills and hear only the faintest crunch of grit beneath the slick tires of my otherwise-silent fixed gear bicycle, and i smell only traces of humus from the wooded slopes behind those little houses up on hockey lane. of course i am reminded of reality as i hurtle down brooks street, and when i am greeted, at miller ave., by the usual procession of automobiles, the general feeling of beauty and simplicity evaporates quite quickly.

but it is still a wonder to ride. this morning is garbage morning, however, and the truck was dripping something especially rancid along miller today. i am also beginning to see osage oranges in the usual spot on state street; not a road hazard yet, merely a sign of fall...

and it was wednesday morning, as i recall, when i went outside to grab the newspaper and was greeted, in the southeastern sky, by orion. that would have to be the most unambiguous sign that cooler weather is indeed on the way. but there will still be a few summer days yet, i can feel it. in my bones i can feel it.

atom-powered

this morning it is 60 °F, dew point is 53 °F. by local standards, it is pretty dry. riding has generally been pleasant.

last night i put on those almost-brand-new-looking atom 600 pedals that i got on ebay a few weeks back. they are, of course, just like the ones that were on the follis when i first got it nearly 30 years ago. they are just not beat up. so those, plus brand-shiny-new mks toe clips (size "LL"), made for a spiffing tight pedal feel this morning. ah the simple things...

everything is closed it's like a ruin

what a difference a front makes. this morning it is sunny, and calmn, and 54 °F with 53 °F dew point. so cool! i wore long sleeves and just broke a sweat by the time i got here. and yes i rode 115+ miles saturday to midland, much of it in the rain, and no my knees don't hurt a bit. it was a very good thing to do, and i hope sometime later i will be able to write an account of it. but i'd better get to work - there is too much to do.

what a difference an affront makes.

saffron in the difference

--->cicada puff

the trick is to keep breathing

totally overcast, 73 °F air, 71 °F dew point, which is a lot more humid than yesterday. correspondingly, i am sweating more profusely. otherwise okay - continued altercation-free, no-pass-on-right riding. this is getting pretty cool.

there is a likelihood of thundershowers for my a2-to-midland epic tomorrow. that could be interesting.

yesterdayon the way home i heard the distinctive sound of a spoke breaking on my rear wheel. i was fresh out of replacements so i went to the bike shop and got some more. before going i extracted an unbroken one to help the shop guy get the right length, so i ended up putting in two new ones. i think that's five total on this wheel. at this rate, in five years i will have replaced them all. i also tried to get a spacer off the hub, using windshield washer fluid as a solvent (methanol, you know). but i couldn't get it to budge. so i am still going around with no bb-lockring on the rear hub, and braking more and skidding less. it's somewhat uncool but it will have to do for now. the proper solution, i think, is to rebuild the rear wheel with a track hub. that conflicts, however, with my principle of keeping the town bike "on the cheap" as they say. really what i need to do is get to the velodrome regularly, and avoid all pretense of anything else.

sincerely diana

in my mind and in my car

[insert yesterday's weather report here]

plus a chance of showers. and make that another altercation-free ride in, along with last night's ride home. whoopee!

at some point i am going to have to take a look at the construction site for our fair city's new high school, which is very close to our home. in our family we are bullish on the subject, generally; the elder son will not attend it, but our younger will most certainly. yesterday, however, i looked at a web site dedicated to negative comments about it, some of which were certainly justified, because it would be impossible to site a modern high school without some compromises. the web site had a paucity of constructive commentary. i took to heart the observation that the site is in the midst of the lowest density of economically disadvantaged students; it was argued that a southeasatern site would better serve these students, which is true, and that these were the students who really deserved the new school, which is not so much true as it is a way of assuaging white liberal guilt. i think it would have been great, but where is the site? the web page did not offer anything, and i can't think of anywhere besides, say platt and ellsworth. would building a new high school for the poorest kids right next to the city landfill be considered environmental racism? you have to believe some folks would have a problem with that.

it also seemed mildy pathetic that the site had dozens of pictures of mud and debris and piles of woodchips and so on, from the construction site. is it possible to build anything without clearing the site first? i understand that the maple road site had quite a bit of "natural" beauty, in part because it had been left alone for a long time. but there is no wilderness here; it has all been cut over, and plowed under, and cut over again. i'm sorry about the salamanders.

the traffic at m-14 and maple is going to suck, that's for true. i hope there are plans for a pedestrian overpass, for example adjacent to newport road, or perhaps along the western edge of the sludge lagoon (it's water treatment sludge, people, just calcium carbonate, nothing to worry about).

song of the day: ravel's bolero, can you dig it, playing on the canadian public radio station to which my alarm clock is tuned. an intersting way to wake up, today.

here's where we walked to church

another cool morning, wet with dew: 62 °F and 61 °F, dry bulb and dew point, respectively. and another altercation-free morning ride to work. either the motorists are becoming more mellow, or i am, or maybe even all of us.

i've been suffering from what seems like a post-vacation blankness of mind, or lack of imagination, or some such malaise. it is as though the adventures of this summer are now over, but the comforting routines of fall have not yet begun. in truth i know there are still at least a few adventures yet; i should also remember that the routines can flip and flop between comforting and confining. but still, i've been plowing through the days at work (mostly in a pitched battle with the toledo sewer system model and the "final alternatives") and doing next to nothing once home again. i need something!

hold that thought, crunchy bug...

who to me

this morning we have, at the ann arbor municipal airport, an air temperature of 60 °F and a dew point of 59 °F. i barely broke a sweat riding in. delightful! also, it was an altercation-free ride, no fingers required. that helps.

today the elder son leaves for band camp at interlochen. i wish i could have done that sort of thing in high school. this sunday there is an all-school concert, which we will attend. to break up the driving, however, we plan to go to midland on saturday and stay at the mother-in-law's place. but get this: i'm riding my bike there. so that's a nice 100+ mile ride on saturday! i will take the green bike, i've already decided, just to give my knees a bit of a break, recalling the effects of the ms150 a few weeks back. also i'll have a computer to verify my awesome mileage. this will be the first time i've ridden an unsupported century - i'll have to choose my own rest stops and lunch breaks and whatnot. i am, of course, looking forward to that.

sea cruise

ooh wee baby. 65 °F out there, and dew point is 60 °F? i go away to the ocean for a week, i come back and it's fall already? i want to tell the whole story at some point here, but i gotta work first. and how. but it's nice to be back, and be healthy again. stay tuned...