Weekend Summary

Something is up with this memory card, twisting up images

The summary of the weekend is easy. Warm weather SUCKS for ice season and turf sticks! Laura and I were motivated enough to try to find a little something to climb. We took a drive to see if we could get on some of the better formed lines as of recent, but to little surprise it was a bust. The ice took a severe beating with multiple 55°+ days. Now the ground is thawed and things are back to square one. Here's a photo of what we set off to climb today.

From almost good to almost gone!

Son of Beastwas looking good a few short days ago

We left and headed for Rattlesnake rocks salvage the day and get in some dry tool groveling. The woods felt like spring not winter. The ground is no longer firm and has turned to muck. My hopes for a serious winter season are hanging by a thread. Blah, Blah, Blah, enough about our lack of cold... Our hike up to the rocks was pleasant with temps in the mid 30's. We were excited to get on some climbs, hoping to get on or up something new. We decided to warm up on the climb we had done the last time we were there. Its about M5 or so and was a pure blast to climb, so seemed like a great place to start and clear the cobwebs. The climb went well until I realized that the last time we climbed the line the ground was frozen and the rock has ice plastered in some of the cracks. The climb today was nothing like the friendly M5 we had climbed last week. This time the lovely, frozen turf and roots were merely unusable loose dirt. The roots weren't frozen and a couple crucial small blocks that were mortared into place by ice now wiggled unnervingly in their current location. They were quite questionable indeed, but needed to support full weight as the wall doesn't offer much in the way of feet. These moves came near the top at a distance out from my last gear that would land me quite close to the ground. The blocks held and so did my nerves. The fun, warmup climb turned into a different experience.

Laura seconding our warm up and only climb of the day

Laura seconded the climb agreeing that the climb took on a little difficulty and upped the commitment level considerably. We enjoyed a cup of coffee at the top and made our way to the bottom. I decided to do a little dry tool bouldering across the blood wall. I started out with everything going well. Hooking, camming, steining I was like hercules making my way across, well not really, but I went to make a move left and my crampon got a little stuck. No big deal happens all the time. A little jostle and ping out it came. Thinking nothing of it I moved on making moves left. All of a sudden I realized I had no front point.

My dart became a DA. Time for some new ones.

I might have to try the new Grivel G20.

Watch for an upcoming review!

Shittttt! I busted the front point off of my dart. It must've been jammed a little tighter than I thought. Low on morale and motivation, we decided that the broken crampon was the deciding factor. Time to call it a day.

We set off to climb ice, got shut out. Went to drytool, climbed a cool line again. Broke a crampon and called it a day... Par for the season. Maybe our luck will be better next time! Happy climbing to all

Outside Lights

Lights on the tree and swing just outside the front door.

Winter is Finally Here!

Since about April of last year, Nathan and I have counted down the days together of when "winter" was back again. Not that we cared so much about winter, but we did care about our pickleball friends making their way back to us and not having an empty park.



So when I see the first Happy Hours taking place, I had to high five Nathan that "we did it" meaning we lasted here through the summer until the park was back in full swing again. I did not make it to this Happy Hour, so the pictures are all courtesy of Donna.





I did manage to snap these shots, which shows again how lovely the weather has been here!





Living the life in lovely FL!

Immediate Bike Immersion

For the first time since I've been staying in Vienna, there was a bicycle all my own waiting for me when I arrived. Here is Jacqueline again, courtesy of my friend Wolfgang - famous here not only for his fantastic vintage collection, but also for his bicycle touring and bicycle moving endeavors.

Since our last time together, Jacqueline has been given a leather saddle and is now more beautiful and comfortable than ever. The saddle is a sprung Brooks that appears to be a vintage version of the B66 (the model number is faded and I cannot tell exactly).

It felt so, so wonderful to be greeted by Jackie's "familiar face" and to cycle around the city on my very first day back instead of using public transport and moping. With the memory of my own bikes back home still fresh, I can say this Steyr Waffenrad is a distinctly different ride from my vintage Raleigh Tourist. Riding the Austrian bike feels as if I am sailing on a ship. Not quite sure what this means exactly, but that is what the sensation makes me think of. It is not better or worse than my bicycle at home, just different. Amazing that even among similar bikes, there are such differences in ride quality.

Still trying to adjust to the transition from Bostonian to Viennese cycling, I nearly missed this girl in front of me with a spectacular crocheted dressguard on her bike.

Here is the best close-up I could get. I love these vintage crocheted dressguards, and in Vienna you can actually see them occasionally "in the wild".

Wolfgang also has some nice ones on one of his collector bikes, but that bicycle is too old and valuable to cycle round the city. Crocheted dressguards are a passion that I try to suppress due to how difficult to find they are, but I am always looking. The only place I know of where you can get new ones nowadays is Simeli in the Netherlands, and I hope to review one of those soon. A couple of people have also emailed me about some handmade projects, but I have not had any follow-ups (let me know if you've seen or heard anything on that front).

Being in Vienna again, I have weeks of stressful workdays ahead of me - but having Jacqueline by my side will be a great help. I will see my friend Anna from Cycling is Good for You soon with her gorgeous Retrovelo Paula. And I may try to ride a vintage Austrian track bike, though I am still unsure whether I am brave enough to attempt it! Stay tuned.

Domesticating the Transportation Bicycle?

[Bowery Lane bicycle, made in Brooklyn; image via bowerylanebicycles]

When a skirt-wearing woman is photographed astride a step-through bicycle, she is inevitably described as riding a "European bike."Transportation bicycles in North America are to a large extent synonymous with European bicycles, and the cause is understandable: Most classic bikes currently on the market are indeed imported from the EU. But ultimately, how good is this association for the fate of transportation cycling in North America? Tom Bowden taps into this idea inHow to Talk About Cycling to a Conservative, where he suggests to"refrain from gushing praise of European cycling culture, e.g. the Dutch, the Danes, or whoever. Conservatives are not inclined to emulate pre-colonial imperialist has-beens - at least not consciously." Funny, but true. And in my view not limited to conservatives. The US "as a whole" (inasmuch as there can be such a thing) prefers to be a cultural trendsetter, not a follower. Is it realistic to believe that bicycles are immune to that?

[vintage Schwinn, made in Chicago; image via eva.lu]

A separate issue is that of cultural affiliation. Does a European bicycle really mean anything to the majority of the North American population? Are images of Amsterdam, romantic as they may be, really of personal significance? I don't see how they could be. Images of a glowing midwestern girl riding a '50sSchwinn through the noisy streets of Chicago, or a carefree Californian on a beach cruiser, are likely to be more relatable. And thatbrings me to yet another point: the US has its own upright bicycle manufacturing tradition. From Victor Bicycles and Iver Johnson in Boston, to Worksman Cycles in New York and the aforementioned Schwinn in Chicago, the history is there and the cultural associations are there. Can new American manufacturers emerge from these historical roots?



[ANT basket bike; made in Holliston, MA]

Please don't misunderstand: Obviously, I love European bicycles. English Roadsters, Dutch bikes, French mixtes, Italian city bikes - I am crazy about them all. But in addition, it would be exciting to see the US revamp its own distinct cultural specimen. To some extent, Mike Flanigan of ANT does this nicely - but he is a custom framebuilder and not a manufacturer. Perhaps over time, someone will step up to the plate and we shall see the classic (lady's!) transportation bicycle domesticated.

Jackson Visitor Center - Final Weekend to Visit!

Yup, the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center (JVC), whose design has been loved, hated, and debated since its opening in 1966, will welcome its last visitor on Sunday, September 28. It is closing to prepare for the demolition and move to the new JVC, which will open at 10:00 a.m. on October 10th. Between September 29th and October 9th, the Paradise Ranger Station (in the upper lot) will serve as the main NPS contact point at Paradise.

Here's some background on the now infamous "space saucer" of Paradise. The NPS commissioned its construction as part of a 10-year effort called MISSION 66. MISSION 66 set out to improve infrastructure and visitor services for NPS in time for its 50th anniversary in, guess what, 1966. The Paradise visitor center was originally known as the "Paradise Day Use Facility" until 1987, when it was re-named in honor of Washington Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson. "Scoop" had originally secured congressional funding for the project and personally selected the architects.

The future of the oldJVC is significantly less promising. With the initiative to build a new visitor center came the $880,000 contract to demolish the JVC and rehabilitate the lower parking lot. Sometime late next year, you should be able to park your vehicle near the current information desk or bookstore. If the weather holds, this fall the contractor intends to start salvage operations of reusable materials and also carry out removal of fuel tank and hazardous materials. Final demolition will begin in the late spring of and will be completed by the end of the summer.

NOTE: If you're visiting the park this weekend, September 27 and 28, there are no entrance fees. The NPS is waiving fees on Saturday in celebration of National Public Lands Day and on Sunday in honor of newly naturalized United States citizens. The JVC at Paradise will be open from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. through Sunday the 28th. Come on by, because it's your last chance to lounge in those creamy orange couches and chairs.

Close up of Quail

here is another shot of the quail that I pulled in closer. You can see part of a residental section of Rio Rancho, NM behind him.

Aesthetics of Use

This morning I came across the phrase "aesthetics of use" when it appeared inBill Strickland'sdescription of hismuddy cycling shoe. It is a term I often hear thrown around by artists and designers. In essence, it means that to see an object in use is beautiful - that an object reveals its true self not on display, but in action. Some makers like to think of the aesthetic direction their objects take in the new owners' hands as a happy surprise. Others try to control it. Others still encourage what might be called hyper-use (or at least superficial signs of such), believing that distress enhances the appeal of their creations. These attitudes can be discerned in the manner manufacturers describe and promote their products. Owners' attitudes run the gamut as well. Some emulate the manufacturer's vision in their use of the object, while others are intent on making it their own.







Thinking of these differences, I am reminded of Pamela Blalock's bicycles. A local randonneur who probably spends more time in the saddle than not, she has a few bikes and they are very nice ones. At some point I had it in mind to test ride and feature some of them here. But the more I examined them, the more I realised that the bikes say more about Pamela herself than they do about the manufacturers and models they started out as.






Befendered, weathered from winter commutes, and covered in all manner of curious contraptions, "Cielo Cross bike" hardly seems like an apt description for the magnificent creation that is the Green Queen -Pamela's transportation bike. Fixed gear, rear rack, dynamo lighting, possibly more than one bell - these things make sense to her; the bike is clearly built with a purpose.








Neither is it really accurate to describe her roadbike as a Seven Axiom and leave it at that. While I do not think Pamela was the first to put dynamo lighting and bar end shifters on a Seven, she certainly managed to do it in a way that looks eye-catchingly unusual - blurring boundaries between racing and utilitarian riding and making others question their own understanding of these boundaries. The visually distinct setup reflects preferences that developed out of personal experience.Pamela came up with these ideas from doing years of long brevets and endurance races. It's what works for her in use, and the aesthetics are merely a by-product.








We all have our own ways of using objects, of gaining experience, and then of changing the way we use objects as a result of what we learn from experience. We can follow a manufacturer's vision, we can imitate those whom we admire, we can heed the advice of the more knowledgable. But ultimately we each have our own trajectory to follow.Aesthetics of use are personal; they are not generic, rigid ideas of how an object ought to be utilised.

Inglourious Basterds in summary

Watched Quentin Tarantino’s new movie yesterday – Inglourious Basterds and I’ll have to say that if you have watched Pulp Fiction then this is about the same caliber, as fiction as you can get yet with the right prudence of seriousness, extremely funny scenes with equally funny characters, violent as usual, and with a storyline that has different plots crossing and locking into each other. Typical Tarantino brand.

I’ll leave you to go over at the official website of the Inglourious Basterds to watch the trailers. Make sure you watch the different trailers they have. I think the International version is the best although these trailers will never do justice to the film. Then traverse over at Youtube and do a search on the movie’s name. Read the comments as they are just hilarious. You will also see remnants of the neo Nazi propaganda, posts from anti-Jews and anti-Americans fighting for comment space in there.

We watched the movie in Pathe Rembrandt Theater in Utrecht. Good thing that the conscientious always-a-boy-scout Dutchman bought the tickets online because when we got there 15 minutes before showtime, crowds were packing like shrubs at the cashier with a long tail of people queuing up all the way to the cobbled street outside in Oudegracht. This is probably the first time I have experienced in my going to the movies in the Netherlands that the cinema is full.

Cinemas in the Netherlands are tiny and Rembrandt Theater probably has the biggest seat capacity in Utrecht. The Dutch are really not avid cinema goers as many of them are so cheap (and proud of it) they just watch movies downloaded free from the internet at home.

The film has a very impressive international casting. German, French and English were spoken all throughout the movie. It really gives you the feeling of transcending boundaries, cultures and languages, and it’s inspiring to see actors such as Christoph Waltz (Lt. Landa in the movie–I was quite enamored by his charismatic yet stealthy performance but I can understand why some people find him irritating haha) who spoke fluent German, French, English and Italian!

One of the funny scenes in the movie is when Brad Pitt aka Lt. Aldo posing as an Italian escort to German actress and spy, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) at the Nazi film premier spoke Italian with a very, very, very thick American accent, “Buongiorno!”

The rest of that scene was just frickin hilarious.

On the other hand the movie has a tragic Romeo and Juliet effect with the characters, Shoshana Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), the French-Jewish survivor turned Theater owner and Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruehl), the Nazi soldier hero. There was momentous heartbreaking gravity there when they both killed each other.

Another favorite character is Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), the ex Nazi who became famous for killing Gestapo officers and recruited into Lt. Aldo’s the Barterds team. His character in the film is so mean, unyielding and driven that it’s almost and insanely bordering comic. It is strange but so true!

3 hours long. Worth it. Watch it.
.

Canadian Geese

This bunch of Canadian geese were on a pond to the side of the Nature Center. Those are the Sandia Mountains in the background as they are in so many of my photos.

Fizik Microtex Handlebar Tape

Last week we replaced the cloth tape on the Co-Habitant's Surly with Fizik Microtec tape. He wanted something that would not get dirty, did not require shellacking, and was not as heavily padded as cork tape.I've been using this tape in red for the past several weeks, so I suggested he try it. We both purchased it at Harris Cyclery, but it's available in many bike shops.



FizikMicrotec bar tape is a synthetic tape with about half the padding of typical cork tape. The perforated surface is smooth, but not slippery. It lies down flat, the edges resist fraying, and the surface stays clean. I know some complain that cloth and cork tape tend to get dirty and frayed, so if you want a bright handlebar tape that is durable and retains its colour, this could be it. Mine looks and feels the same after 300+ miles of sweaty gripping as it did when first installed. But more importantly, this tape could work for those who find cork tape too soft and cloth tape too hard - it is sort of the happy medium.



Although visually the perforations resembleleather tape, there are no tactile similarities. The Fizik tapeis stiffer than leather, and it feels distinctly synthetic to the touch. While I would not describe the surface as slick, I can see how some might find it too smooth - especially if riding without gloves. My preferred handlebar wrap is cloth tape, but on some handlebars - particularly on modern ones that have channels for cables - I feel that I need more padding. The Fizik Microtex tape is durable, easy to wrap, provides just enough padding, and is available in a variety of colours.

Lobstah Gettah?

This spectacular bicycle was parked next to a beach entrance at the National Seashore on Cape Cod. The frame is ancient, but clearly the bicycle is very much functional. The red Raleigh grips look like a comparatively recent addition, but all else seems original - including tires and saddle!

Rear wheel. Note the chainring and guard on the other side. The bolt-on on the stay indicates that it is coaster brake.

Front wheel - note the original parking stand.

The blue plaque between the tubes says "Donut Shop".

The lobster pot is shiny and new. The lid is secured with pink bungee cords, but I wonder how the pot itself is secured to the front rack without the need to make holes in the metal? The owner of this masterpiece was not in sight, or I would have loved to ask. This is one of my most exciting bicycle sightings ever!

The Clipless Ambush: a Tale of Failure

Well, my first encounter with clipless pedals occurred sooner than I anticipated. Last week the Co-Habitant decided to update his pedals, and the new set arrived in the mail today... which meant that he could gift me his old ones. I thought that surely this gifting would take place some time in the future - a distant, abstract future. But no. Cheerfully he attached them to one of our vintage roadbikes right then and there, so that I could give them a try. Don't get me wrong, I myself had expressed interest in this. But... I don't know, I just didn't expect it to happen immediately!



I already owned a pair of compatible shoes, having bought them on clearance last summer "just in case." With apprehension I watched him attach the cleats to the soles, trying to gauge the correct position. I then put them on and dragged the bike over to the kitchen sink, so that I could hold on to the edge with one hand as I tried to figure out how the contraptions worked.



I expected that clipping in would be relatively easy, but clipping out difficult. It was the opposite. At first I could not to clip in. I tried and tried, but my foot stayed on top of the pedal and the mechanism would not engage no matter how hard I pressed. I struggled to figure out what I was doing wrong, but the explanation turned out to be simple: I am a weakling. We had to loosen the tension almost to the max for my foot to engage the mechanism. Even after that, I still had trouble pressing down with enough force and in the exact position necessary for the cleat to catch. Clipping out, on the other hand, was intuitive: the sideways twist of the foot is exactly the same motion required to get out of Power Grips, so I found it natural.Transitioning from the kitchen sink to the trainer, I practiced for some time, clipping in and out successfully. I then decided it was time to go outside. I felt pretty confident at this point. Nothing to this.

It was around 10 pm and the small side street behind our house was well lit and empty of cars. Confidently, I carried the bike outdoors, swung my leg over the top tube, and clipped in my right foot. Now all I had to do was push off, coast for a bit, then put my left foot back down on the ground. That would be such an easy first step. No different from Power Grips. Just need to do it. Now. Go! But... it was not to be. Like some malfunctioning marionette, I kept clipping and unclipping my right foot, trying to mentally force myself to push off, but it wasn't working; nothing was happening. The amused Co-Habitant offered to stand at the end of the street and "catch me" if I found myself unable to unclip when I got there. But imagining that just made it worse. It began to feel as if I'd forgotten how to ride a bike entirely.

There is no redeeming ending to this story. After a good ten minutes I gave up and went back inside, my head hung low in shame. Obviously I am just not ready.

Aside from the tale of failure, I have some observations about the shoe and pedal set-up. I can't find the model name of the shoes, but in retrospect getting clipless shoes with laces was silly. Being stiff and unyielding, they are difficult to put on and tighten, and it's a pain to tuck the laces under the velcro. I am also not sure these pedals are right for me. They are Shimano SPD 520s: mountain bike style, double sided and with a very small surface area. I know that many love this type of pedal, but to me it felt like not enough of my foot was connected. Pedaling on the trainer, I had the sensation that there was too much pressure on the spot where the cleat meets the pedal and that a larger contact area would have been better. Maybe these particular shoes are not stiff enough, or maybe I would do better with a different style of pedals. There seems to be a consensus that the mountain bike clipless system is easier than the road system, but I wonder whether I might prefer the latter. Unfortunately, there is no way to try these things out.

Navigating the world of clipless shoes and pedals is complicated, and at the moment it seems best to postpone it... at least until I am brave enough to use the ones I have beyond the confines of my kitchen!

Great Blue Heron Rookery

This week we went to visit a Great Blue Heron rookery with 17 active nests. This was my first time seeing a heron rookery and I was fascinated by it. The birds were pretty active, with the adults changing places on the nests quite frequently. It wasn't until late in the evening when we finally noticed some babies in one of the nests. At one time we could see three individual baby heads sticking up out of this nest. It sure was a fun day watching these birds and I can't wait to hopefully go back in a couple of weeks and see the babies when they are bigger!

































































































































Above is a photo that shows almost the entire rookery which has 17
nests. If you look closely you can see several of the nests have herons
standing in them. This sure was a beautiful place to watch the sunset!