Posted On Friday, August 22nd, 2008 By David Veatch
Allow me to call your attention to a post by a friend of mine… Most specifically, I’m impressed and inspired by this: I’ve been told by some that I have near-inhuman willpower. I don’t know about that. I might have a lot of willpower, but I think mostly it’s just that I know (I don’t “believe”–I know) that I am in control of my body. My body’s laziness, cravings, and other unhealthful desires don’t control me. I might cave in to them sometimes. Life’s too short to be strict all the time. But usually I treat my body, not as a temple, but as a machine that carries my brain around and does for me what I want it to do. … and this: Make a commitment to yourself to be fully aware of your body and in control of your body for twenty minutes a day. During those twenty minutes, make your body work for you. Make it work hard! And when the twenty minutes are up, don’t reward it with unhealthy food. In fact, don’t reward it at all. After all, it was only doing was it was designed to do in the first place. You’re just reminding more »
Posted On Thursday, August 21st, 2008 By David Veatch
Last night at pool league, a friend of mine brought in a copy of the Wall Street Journal. There was an article about a local San Francisco wanna-be politician, Rob Anderson who has effectively stalled the installation of bike lanes in San Francisco because… Cars always will vastly outnumber bikes, he reasons, so allotting more street space to cyclists could cause more traffic jams, more idling and more pollution. Mr. Anderson says the city has been blinded by political correctness. It’s an “attempt by the anti-car fanatics to screw up our traffic on behalf of the bicycle fantasy,” he wrote in his blog this month. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a conclusion.
Posted On Thursday, August 21st, 2008 By David Veatch
Last night was the last night for our Wednesday night pool league. Tuesday night was the last for the Tuesday night league. I still love the game, and am 100% certain I’ll get back into it, but it was taking too much time, and there are so many other things I want/need to take care of. It’ll be nice to have free nights for a few months to get caught up. We’d only been playing the Tuesday night league for a single session, but already made our mark pretty well. The wait staff, as well as others working there made it a point to tell us, in no uncertain terms, that we would be back, so just accept it and move on. It was very nice, and made us feel very good. The whole night was fantastic. The four of us had a blast, and made sure that the last night would be one to remember. We’d been playing the Wednesday night league for some time, and felt it was just time to let it go. Last night was, also, a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed playing there for the last few years, but I’m thinking it’s time to expand more »
Posted On Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 By David Veatch
While the Torelli is in the shop… or rather, while the wheel is in the shop getting straightened out, I’ve been on the Kona. It’s only been two days, but I’m already missing the tight handling and faster speeds. Then again, it’s the faster speeds that landed the wheel in the shop to begin with, so maybe it’s for the best. I took the Kona out yesterday for an long ride home by way of the Indian Creek Trail and the Gary Haller Trail. I ended up with just shy of 33 miles, and that because I ended up missing the turn into Shawnee Mission Park, and doubled back to grab it. It would have been a perfect time to have the camera with me. Lots of stuff to take pictures of. Beneath a bridge, there was a little boy playing in a bucket by the water. Standing guard was his little Jack Russel Terrier. It was very Norman Rockwell. I wish I’d had a camera. Though, these days, I would have had to have him sign a release to post his picture. Later, on the trail was a group of suburban white guys in gangsta gear. They actually flashed more »
Posted On Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 By David Veatch
Well, I did it again. This time I was heading north on the Gary L Haller trail. I was near mile marker 15 just off Northgate, going down a shallow decline and picking up a little speed. I didn’t notice any caution signs indicating a sharp turn. When I got to the base of the “hill” and entered the turn, I was going way to fast for such a sharp turn, and brakes fully compressed, I went headlong, heels over head over heels into the brush. I came to a stop, and all was quiet for a moment when *BANG!* my rear tire blew. Right about that time my left calf seized up good and proper and I recognized some of the signs of a good old fashioned adrenaline shot. I took stock of things at this point. My calf was cramped pretty good. My right wrist and left hand were aching. The bursitis in my right shoulder had been aggravated. My left hip felt like it’d been hit with s sledge. I had minor scrapes and rash along both arms, my left knee and my left shoulder. Finally, I wrenched something a little bit in my lower back. All more »
Posted On Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 By David Veatch
It was actually a little chilly this morning, and a mist had settled in places as I made my way slowly to work. Slowly b/c last night was a bit of a late night. The sky is getting progressively darker every morning. Slowly, but surely, it’s getting closer to the day I’ll need to mount the light back on the Torelli. I know, I know… I’ve been running without a headlight for a while now. I’ll mount it soon, I’m sure. Once I do that, I’ll lose my front frame bag to the battery, so I’m going to have to get a fanny pack to carry the gear that the Kona carried effortlessly, yet the Torelli struggles with. On the way in, amidst admiring the sunrise, and the mist crawling the yards, I saw about a dozen cyclists. This is more in one day than I’ve seen all month. In one case, three were riding side by side in nearly full team racing gear, completely with derblinkenlights and backpacks, northbound on Lamar. In every case, the observed cyclists were going the opposite way. I’m weird, I guess, heading south when everyone else heads north. There are no pictures this morning, more »
Posted On Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 By David Veatch
There have been many articles lately about the rising tension between motorists and cyclists. You can read about it in the New York Times, Reuters newswire, The Wall Street Journal, the Austin Cycling News, Newsweek, and a wide variety of other sources. Frankly, I’ve just not seen it. I’ve been out nearly every day riding my route, peacefully and almost entirely without incident. In fact, I can count on one hand the times I’ve been “harassed”, and both times it was very easy to chalk it up to idiocy. The first was a (pardon my stereotypes here) three toothed, chew spittin’ redneck on a country road yelling “Dip Ass!“, and the second was a pair of know-it-all high school jocks in daddy’s pick up. Aside from that, I’ve had numerous men and women offer admiration and encouragement. Two quite attractive young women even offered me a ride. Stupid me, I didn’t think to ask where we were going to ride to. ;) Just the other day, I got into a brief exchange with a fellow at an intersection who good-naturedly told me I was crazy, and then said how he wished he could do the same. I talked about how more »
Posted On Sunday, August 10th, 2008 By David Veatch
I cleaned and lubed the drivetrains and checked the tires of both the Kona and the Fuji. The GF and I had it in mind to ride the Indian Creek Trial from 151st between Mur-Len and Ridgeview all the way out to Stateline (or wherever it ends now) and back. I was going to ride the Kona so I wouldn’t be too fast for her on her Fuji. The bikes all checked out and loaded up on the car, we set out. And… stopped. Two full lanes are closed on I35, the highway is reduced to a parking lot at the moment. 45 minutes after we start driving, we get finally there, in spite of construction and plenty of stupid drivers. We unload and get ready to ride off when I hear her yell “I have a flat!” Sure enough, her front tire is completely flat. And here we are without any spare tubes or a pump. Why, when everything checked out perfectly right before we drove off? *sigh* A touch frustrated, we load the bikes back up and head back home. This time, we take Pflumm all the way, and beat our previous highway time by half. I change more »
Posted On Thursday, August 7th, 2008 By David Veatch
So I started running this morning. As much as I love cycling, and believe me, I do, I want to expand my horizons and get fit in other ways as well. I’m not looking to be a master at anything, preferring the jack-of-all-trades mentality. I’ve already started adding some weight training back into the mix. So far so good on that. Starting back into it slow, though, so as not to burn out again. This morning, on the advice of a friend, I ran for 12 minutes just to see how it went. I’ve only been jogging one other time, truth be told. It was to impress a girl in college. Cute girl named Maya. I ran far harder and longer than I should have, and ended up so sore I had to crawl up the stairs. She ended up pregnant within months with some other guy, and I haven’t run since. After this morning’s brief revisiting, I can tell you, it ain’t cycling. For 1.3 miles (according to Google – no running computer… yet), I felt awkward, jolting and like a fish out of water. My lungs and heart felt fine, if a little taxed, but I felt like more »
Posted On Thursday, August 7th, 2008 By David Veatch
I left the house, and was astonished at how cool it was. I hadn’t checked the weather when I left, and the following dialog ensued… It feels like 65°! No way. Yes way! No. No way. It’s probably 75°, and just feels cooler b/c it’s been so hot lately. Ok. I can live with that. So I did. I lived with it joyously all the way into work. Right as I left at about 06:10, a truly gorgeous sunrise was in the works. All flame, it lit the world around me with that pinkish orange glow that I’ve seen nowhere but Kansas. While I do love the mountains and the ocean, nothing offers sunrises and sunsets like the Midwest. The only frustrating part of the ride was the stoplights that wouldn’t change. Scofflaw that I am, I waited my typical two cycles and rode through them. The same thing happened to me last night at 79th and Nieman. The light simply wouldn’t change, though there was a line of cars behind me ready and willing to trip the trigger. We waited probably 3-4 minutes before I scoffed and rode through, followed immediately by numerous cars. On the way, I saw more »