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14
Jul 26

Evening sounds

Poison ivy update: today marks three weeks from my careless self-exposure. Tomorrow marks three weeks from the first itchy symptoms. I am much improved — which is to say healing, not healed. Eventually I worked it out to alternating between Calamine and cortisol. I also had a few very long oatmeal bath soaks. Now, my skin is mostly dry, itchy, flaky, or some combination.

Also, I found some on a tree while puttering about the yard. I dealt with that one in a much more sensible manner.

In short, I will survive, but the ivy probably will too.

The actual poison ivy vines I plucked, meanwhile, have surely returned by now.

Enjoy a nice little solo ride this evening. My lovely bride was off doing a workout elsewhere and that let me visit some lovely little roads at my own pace.

I made some new sheep friends. They couldn’t even be bothered to look up as I soft pedaled past their evening graze.

The corn is coming along nicely. Took me three tries to get this photo, and it wasn’t quite what I wanted.

The chores never end in farm country. I wonder what else this guy could be doing right now. I wonder if he’d rather be pedaling around, like me. I think most people would rather be riding a bike than doing evening work. Then again, combines aren’t connected to bikes.

Sometime after that I dropped a water bottle — a fate worse than dehydration. So I had to turn around and fetch it. Stop, put your foot down, wiggle the bike around and coast a few feet the other direction. Then bend waaaaay over to the ground without hurting yourself. And then you stab yourself with greasy gears.

I have joked that I should just get that as a tattoo and save myself some time. I won’t, but then again it has been a while since I gave myself the ol’ grease tattoo, too.

I wore a new jersey today, a loose fitting number, which was perfect for one of those days when it didn’t matter that everything clung to me. And on the back of the tag …

Sure, now you tell me. Good thing it fit.

It’s actually too big, but I took that tag off.

One last clip from the Guster show, last Friday. Their alt-breakthrough, now 28 years old (that was a great time to be listening to 99X), somehow, fell off the live show list for a long time. I guess you get tired of playing the same things every night at some point. Also, the ping pong balls were probably becoming a problem. (People used to throw them onto the stage at the end of the song. It makes sense with the song, moreso than having to bring the things into venues, I’m sure.) Also, you have other things you want to play. Or maybe you’re just looking for ways to do old things. I think they called this version Airport Song 2000 for a while. It has an entirely different feel.

I wonder if they’ll have another re-instrumentation for the 30th in 2028.

Anyway, great show Friday night. I’ll put up a little clip of a DMB song from Saturday’s show tomorrow. Also, we’ll be talking about generators.

cycling / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
8
Jul 26

The round-and-round tale

This is a harmless little tale about estimating distances, and also impulsive and obligatory new discoveries. It is a story told by bike, and so it is the same as every story told by bike. You know a lot, but you don’t know much of anything. No matter how many times you take on that story it is always different.

I rode kinda hard-ish yesterday. That’s qualified, on account of it being me, and my being old and not perfectly fit and never fast to begin with. Hard-ish is also, then, a relative term. Perhaps especially so. With that, I decided that, today, I would take an easy ride. I had a route in mind and I find that when you start thinking about roads and turns like that, you should just go do the thing straightaway. If you don’t, your mind just keeps adding to the thing.

And, today, that route involved going the opposite way on the first part of one of the regular routes. For some reason that is always just intriguing enough. So I went this way instead of that. I went by the sheep and the park and then into town and over and around and then down a busy highway — one which has a nice healthy shoulder — until it dropped into a river that I know is there because of the way the terrain falls, and what a map tells me, but I have never, ever seen.

I turned left, knowing I could go down a bit and then turn right, making an elaborate second rectangle at a right angle to the first. I figured that’d give me about 15 miles and a casual hour outside on a nice day. The heat had broke and it was sunny and in the mid-80s.

As I was working my way into doing that, though, it occurred to me that instead of turning right here, I could go just a couple of miles farther down the road, and then turn, and enjoy one of my favorite roads around here.

It’s so quite out there that you can think of anything, stare at anything, get lost in any little moment, like, say, a drop of water on your shoe.

Then this other thing happened. I got to the road that would turn back home. It’s a standard intersection, two roads running into one another in the farmland. Stop signs beside you, a flashing yellow light above you. And as I rolled up to it I realized that this is not a T-intersection. The road I am on, in fact, continues straight through the stop sign. Today I should turn right and head home. Usually I am either turning to go down this road from whence I have just come, or passing from my right to my left. I had never noticed that road that was just now ahead of me.

It only takes a second to ask yourself the question, and less time to answer it.

Where does that go?

There’s only one way to know.

So instead of turning right to go home, which was my plan, or turn left and do a familiar route, I went on this newly discovered road. Because it is predominantly farmland, a lot of this is a sort of a long grid. I know where the roads on either side wind up headed this northwesterly direction, but not this particular road. Maybe it’ll be different!

Such is the imagination, and it is seldom unrewarded. And, look, if you are on a new road you see new things. And maybe you figure, seeing new things, you decide you might write about them. And maybe you’ll need to grab your phone and snap a quick photo or two. And if you do that enough you’re sure to fumble the thing. And you just might take photos without even realizing it.

Eventually, you’ll get one that is artistically minimalist.

Or is it minimally artistic? Either way.

Anyway, the road meandered for about 2.5 miles, eventually running into one of those other roads I know, at a place that was a little too busy for the day. So I turned around, which allowed me a second opportunity to photograph this little church.

It is a Methodist church and it gets five stars on Google and why are we reviewing churches again?

It was 7:49 p.m. when I took that photograph and I had 10 miles to get home, which I did, riding easily, and before dark. Gotta love those long summer days, which allow my estimated 15-mile ride to turn into a casual 30-mile experience with two spur-of-the-moment decisions which, ultimately, gave the whole ride its character.

On a bigger scale, this is the kind of riding I want to do.

cycling / memories / music / photo / Re-Listening / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
30
Jun 26

Everything about this post is a classic, even the cliches

I rode my 25-mile time trial route today. This is the 13th time I’ve done this route, and that doesn’t matter. My time today was right in the middle of the 13 times, and that doesn’t matter. Top half by 16 seconds, and that doesn’t mean anything. It could have been the wind or a little better fueling or I just sat up a few seconds earlier on one day than the other. It doesn’t matter.

Maybe I took one less photograph this day than that slightly slower day that separates the two halves of the sample.

That’s about halfway through the route. I just like the way the road dips into those trees, how they carve a bit of darkness out of the brightness of day. Each time I’m on that road I imagine the next little bit to be something like spelunking on wheels, but it’s just a patch of trees, a good canopy that will soon open back up to the sky. Too soon, on some days, like today.

It is official, heat is hot, and right now heat is bad. Also, it’s going to get hotter.

When your skin is under siege — and urushiol is a siege — heat isn’t especially pleasant. The cab of this tractor is air conditioned.

My bicycle is not. But maybe if I’d gone faster? Maybe if today’s ride had found its way to the top of the spreadsheet.

May as well start digging out from this stack of CDs I’m under. I was doing something here I called the Re-Listening Project, where I was playing all of my old CDs in the order of their acquisition. More or less. When last we did this I was in a batch of CDs that replaced some that had been stolen. It’s a weird bit of decades old nonsense that serves only to confuse me for something that only interests me, but, hey, my name is at the top of the site. Also, I’m probably way behind in this little effort which, again, is a singular indulgence. The point was to put a few songs from each disc here, maybe think up something interesting about them. This never was a review, because no one needs more of those.

At this point, I’m just trying to take some discs out of the Re-Listen To Do pile and put them back in the old books. It’s a big stack.

Daylight was Duncan Sheik’s third studio album. (He’s up to nine, now.) It was released in 2002, and I probably bought this soon after. (Shame on me for not clearly remembering that detail.)

This was a single, and found its way into a movie, a teen comedy few remember.

This one sounds romantic. Has great imagery. And even the narrator knows that it is in no way true. It was, and remains, my favorite song on the album.

For a long time I played this CD on my way into the studio, because singing along, I thought, might just lower my speaking tone a bit for the day. And during that time part of this song fit the vibe. A sarcastic sing-along was, I thought, just one of the most clever things you could do in a deep cut.

There might have been a breakup right around that time.

The next one is Deuces Wild, B.B. King’s thirty-fifth studio album, which was released in 1997. Each song features a second musician, and so this was one those homage-slash-gimmick records. Also, it is quite good. With appearances by Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Mick Hucknall, Bonnie Raitt, D’Angelo, Jools Holland, Dr. John, Marty Stuart, Dionne Warwick, Paul Carrack, The Rolling Stones, Zucchero, and David Gilmour how could it not be great?

Also, it had these three tracks, which are automatic favorites for a variety of reasons. The first being Tracy Chapman, because Tracy Chapman is absolute dynamite in everything she does.

And this one, because the idea of Heavy D seducing Lucille is too hilarious to overlook. Plus, the entire concept is fun. There’s just enough mirth in King’s voice to allow this to be nearly timeless.

Speaking of. This song was released in 1960. King played it as far back as 1967, at least. King and Willie Nelson did it way back in 1984, at least. As a duet, the two of them have had it in their repertoire since 1984 at the very least.

I remember hearing this track for the first time and thinking it felt like something as a sad dirge. This could be the last time and all of that. But King played for another 17 glorious years after this was released. I’d been in crowds at concerts where the audience had serenaded Willie Nelson on his birthday. More than once, as I recall. And he marked his 90th birthday, in 2023, with two concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. He’s timeless, so is King. So is this. Enjoy the man hailed as the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century and one of the greatest troubadours and musician of his, this, or any generation.

That song is 66 years old, and a timeless treasure. Willie Nelson was just 26 or 27 when he wrote it on the road. Looking back, I don’t even think I could understand, truly understand, the song at that age. While it is amazing that he could right something that would persist as this has, we’re all just fortunate that it has stuck around for each of us, when we’re ready.

And, with that, I am something like 35 discs behind.

adventures / cycling / memories / Monday / photo / safari / South Africa / video — Comments Off
29
Jun 26

It’s an itch

Poison ivy status: The backs of my hands have blistered up. My arms are terribly itchy. But it’s all there on hands and arms. No fever, no real additional spreading. Just a painful inconvenience. I have been applying Neosporin and Cortisone and some other lotion that we have that has the magic words on the label. Extra Cortisone has been acquired. Calamine lotion, too. I wake up itching, of course. More accurately: I wake up scratching, which is when I’m doing the most of it. Will power only gets you so far and not that far at all when you’re unconscious.

It doesn’t feel nice in the heat. It is about to get terribly hot. We are approaching the end of week one of this by the book consequence to hasty and stupidity.

You know what else doesn’t feel good just now are my cycling gloves. Fingerless gloves are meant to be a protective bit of accessory, but the worse of my blisters are on the backs of my hands and … ouch.

Anyway, we went out for a short ride today. Just long enough to get in some posed photos.

There is a Strava segment near our house and it seems to me that I should be offended that I don’t own the best time on the Strava segment that is near our house. It is a .8 mile stretch that starts with a downhill and then comes back up. It’s nothing, but, then, neither am I. Also, I usually try this on those days when my legs feel good, but always at the end of a ride, when “good” is a relative term, anyway. (You wouldn’t do it at the beginning of a ride, because you aren’t warmed up, but I should try that sometime, just to see.)

Anyway, we only rode for a half hour and so my legs were basically warmed up but I was not tired, so i gave it a go.

And now I have the second fastest time of that Strava segment, improving my best by three seconds, and now just seven seconds off the overall.

I’m, also, almost out of tricks for improving my time. Not sure where I can find eight more seconds.

Here’s another little video from earlier this month at Kruger National Park. This elephant was, momentarily, not happy that we were there. I was characteristically thrilled he was running right to me. I took out the audio because mostly you can hear our guide try to warn him off, and then begin to move his truck as a precaution. But the elephant was running a bluff, and we’re all still here of course.

I was, initially, a bit ambivalent about the idea of a safari, but found myself won over on the first day. The views were lovely, the animals we encountered were outstanding and each one felt unique, and our guide was top notch. The entire experience was stress free, aside from early morning wake ups. If we ever find ourselves in South Africa again, and going on a safari again, it’ll be with Wild Wings. And if you’re considering doing such a thing, do it. And book it with Wild Wings. They were terrific.

adventures / cycling / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
25
Jun 26

Oh no, dropped again

Poison ivy status: inside of both forearms, and the space between my thumb and index finger on the back of both of my hands. Itchy and liable to stay that way for a few weeks. There’s something to look forward to.

We had a lovely little bike ride this evening. We got to say hello to the sheep who were grazing peacefully as we pedaled by.

Here’s proof that I wasn’t dropped right away. This is 22 minutes after the sheep, which were, themselves, about 25 minutes into the ride.

But I did get dropped, and dropped but good. Also, we had 20 mile per hour headwinds for the last seven miles. That’s OK, it allowed for some time to move through the countryside at my own pace — which was slow in that win. Near the end of the ride I was counting on this tree line to give me a little break.

That lasts for about 11 seconds.

And at the I-can’t-believe-I-must-stop-twice-in-1,500-feet-when-I’m-tired section of the route …

I wonder if I’ve seen that tractor and its driver or, if so, how many times. I doubt he’s counting cyclists. I wonder which fields behind me is going to work. Or maybe he’s as done with the day as I was just there. I was pretty much done.