ROC Day

Yesterday, Tall Pines, our Spinning and Weaving guild held Roc day. Per Wikipedia, "Roc Day, is 7 January, the day after the feast of the Epiphany. It is also known as Saint Distaff's Day, since it was not really a holiday at all. In many European cultural traditions, women resumed their household work after the twelve days of Christmas. The distaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of women's work."

We use it as an excuse to gather together, spin some yarn and talk. Everyone gets to see everyone else's work in progress and a general good time is had by all.

Last year I started some weaving at Roc day. Sad to say, that weaving is still on the loom since it really didn't inspire me and it really doesn't look all that good. I really should remove it and start something else.

This year I dug into our bottomless stash of fiber and found four batts of Shetland lamb's wool that I carded up 5 years ago and earmarked for a shawl project. Yesterday I spun up 1 1/2 spindles of the wool in 15 tpi thickness and just about finished the first batt. Looks like there will be plenty for that shawl if I can just remember what pattern I was going to use. I fully intend to at least get this batch fully spun up before I put away the wheel.

On the mend but brittle

I'm back home from the hospital after 8 days. I'm on the mend but still sore inside. I still feel weak and more than a bit disconnected from reality. I am also walking on tiptoes for fear that I'll do again whatever unknown thing it was that triggered this in the first place. The thought of going through this again scares me to tears!

The doctor tells me that my pancreas is about the size of a football and will slowly shrink back to the normal size of a large human hand. I have a shelf full of pills and a head full of fuzz but should be able to get back to work next week. I need to do something because I could drive myself crazy sitting here for too much longer.

Between the hurricane, the clean up, the hospital and the fact that my Dad put himself in the hospital by letting his blood sugar get away from him ( my Bro in California had to call a 911 on him in Florida) and its easy to see that this has not been a great September. I'm hoping that October will be much much better.

DON'T GET THIS DISEASE!!!!!

I am flat on my back in Memorial Herman Hospital. Been here for 7 days and there's no telling how many more I'll be here. I am living from hour to hour on pain medication, the strongest they can give me without having the little green men come out of the woodwork ( which has happened several times already). In between doses, I am literally moaning in pain. They ask on a scale of one to ten with ten being the worst you ever had, what does it feel like today. It's usually around a 7 but that's only because I established ever increasing levels of ten on my first day. They confirmed that this pain is similar in level to the peaks of childbirth, but those last minutes. These have gone on continuously for a week.

My stomach is so bloated that the shorts that I wore to the hospital which fit just fine, now won't go around me by almost a foot. I look pregnant. Because of the pain, the pressure and other things, I have not eaten or drank anything significant that they didn't make me take in for the full week. I have been on a saline drip the whole time so both my arms look like over used pin cushions. That drip and the fact that I don't pee has added 35 pounds to my weight in the last 7 days. I look like the Michelin man. Face, hands feet, everywhere. There is no comfortable position. Even with broken ribs I could find a contorted position where nothing actively hurt. With this, there is no such position.

I have pancreatitis.

What a difference the sun makes

I rode 35 mile last Thursday. I rode a little more than 34 miles today. Same flat Texas roads, same temperature, a bit more humidity today but all in all, about duplicate rides except for one thing. Thursday the sun was out full bore. Today was completely overcast, with no shadows at all. The difference in the ride statistics is incredible.

Today I rode 3 mph faster, spent 1/3 of the time resting on the side of the road, drank about half the water and felt 3 times a good at the end of the ride. Unlike John Denver, sunshine on my shoulder doesn't always make me happy.

Hope you had a safe, restful and enjoyable 4th of July.

Heat, Idiots and Nice People

Yesterday I took a comp day off. My dear boss had set me up last Friday to do a presentation for potential clients coupled with a site visit on Saturday. The net result was that I worked 14 hour days for a week to get the presentation together, gave up my off Friday for the presentation and lost Saturday to a bus ride with a bunch of Malays and Singaporeans. I still get paid for just 40 hours. So I took one comp day off. I love my job.


I went out for a long solo ride yesterday morning. Marni had a training session at the gym and with the heat as it was, I didn't want to wait until she came back at 11AM to take off. I decided to bike through George Bush / Terry Hershey Park since its a place with bike and pedestrian only trails and it being a working day, I didn't want to fight the traffic any more than I had to. There are posted signs that say that when bikes overtake or pass pedestrians they should slow to no more than 10 mph. With the number of idiots out there using the park, I obey that law for my safety if not theirs.


I didn't beat the heat. Its a 10 mile ride up there and it was already 90 plus by the time I got into the park. At least there was no wind and there are a fair amount of trees that shade the path. The park was full of cops in all their guises. I have no idea why. I saw three on foot patrol, two on motorcycles, one in a park golf cart and even two mounted on horses. I wish I had the nerve to photograph the two on the horses because they were bigger around than the horses they were riding. Those horses looked like they were sagging in the middle and there was no chance of breaking into a trot let alone a gallop. I swear that one of the horses rolled its eyes at me and sighed as I rode by.


Anyway I was coming off a bridge over a creek that had an immediate 90 degree right turn after it. The view right was blocked by bushes. There was a runner coming toward me who had just reached the apex of the turn. I slowed to the required 10 mph. At that instant a biker came out from behind the blocking bushes going at least 20 mph, headed right at me to pass the runner. I shouted "Look out Dammit" at him because he was looking at the runner instead of where he was going which was straight at me. I started bailing out to the right.


He jerked around to look at me and started bailing to his left which kept him coming straight at me. I bailed farther right headed for the bushes and he kept bailing left into my path. At this point I screamed "Oh SHIT" (I'm not great a dialog in emergency situations) and turned sharp left just behind the runner to end up in the grass. He ended up in the bushes. The runner kept going, never looked back, and disappeared over the bridge.


I was out of my cleats at that point and dragging my toes for stability on the rough grass. I caught a toe and now have a big pedal sized bruise and 4 long gouges on the back of my left calf. The other guy was wearing twigs and leaves for decoration. He came screaming out of the bushes and berated me for having screamed at him. I was in no condition and had no desire for confrontation so I spent about 5 minutes calming him, convincing him that I did not blame him for the accident and finally agreeing with him that it was all the runner's fault. He finally took off down the trail after the runner to give him a piece of his very small mind. I hope that he caught up with him at a point in the trail that had some of the cops around.


All of that sort of put me off the ride so I cut it shorter that I had planned and tooled on home. My short cut took me through an area I haven't ridden before. Houston has a large Asian population and they have congregated in a sort of "China town" on the West side. This is not to say that they are all Chinese. There are Vietnamese, Koreans, Cambodians, and many other nationalities. At least half the business signs are multi lingual (English and XXX) and some are entirely in foreign script. Even the street signs are multi lingual. See below. I wish I knew what language that is and what the non-English really says. Bellaire into Japanese or Chinese can't be a direct translation, can it?

I did have two consolations to make up for the idiot. First, I got a picture of a new wild flower for my collection. See below. It was growing in a lawn area in the park which had been recently mowed, right out in full sunlight. It is about the size of and looks like a crocus but this is the wrong season for crocus, they don't bloom in South Texas and its far too hot and dry for them to grow. Its not in any of my wild flower books. Anyone who can identify it will receive my enduring gratitude.








Second, I met a very nice person almost at the end of my ride. I had taken what I thought was a short cut and had gotten lost in the maze of one of Houston's ubiquitous housing developments. I stopped an ATT repairman and asked if he knew the way to an intersection that I knew was close but had no idea how to get to. He stopped, pulled out a GPS mapping device and proceeded to give me detailed directions on how to get there and from there the rest of the way home. He opened up the back of his truck and gave me a bottle of ice cold water from a cooler and chatted while I drank, then wished me well as I rode off. That quite took away the bad taste from the idiot in the park and put a nice feel to the end of the ride. I ended up with about 36 miles, having gone through 5 large bottles of water drunk and one poured over my head. All in all, not the worst of ways to spend a comp day.

Hot as an Iron and no shade

I got a new saddle for my bike this week. I've been having butt pain problems at about 40 miles no matter what I do and about decided that I needed to try a new seat to see if it would cure the problem. As I told the clerk at the bike shop, I've got 70 mile legs attached to a 40 mile butt. Of course the only way to test that this is the cure is to ride more than 40 miles with the new saddle.

Today was the first free day that I had to ride. It is also the 19th straight day in Houston with no rain, 90 degree plus temperatures and 80% humidity. On top of that, we had a 20 mph wind blowing out of the southeast. Not the best of days for a long ride.

But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do so I decided to get out early to beat the heat. Ha! I sweat through my jersey just pumping up my tires. I picked a route that had me going into the wind on the way out and with the wind on the way home. Of course, that usually fails because the wind changes just about the time you turn around, but the theory is good anyway.

Straight out flags mean 20 mph wind. Bed sheet tight flags = 35 mph wind. These aren't there.....yet.


I set out with my 24 and 35 ounce water bottles both full and enough cash to refill them at convenience stores with bottled water several times over the course of the ride. I needed all of that and more. I arrived home empty after filling both bottles twice. I was sweating it out faster than I could pour it in.

At about the turnaround point I was attacked by 4 dogs coming out of a fenced yard with the gate left open. There were two pit bulls, a black lab mix and a terrier something or other that looked like a fright wig on legs. The two pit bulls got on either side of my bike and lunged at my legs. I screamed at them, flailed at them and ultimately kicked one in the head rather hard. It didn't even slow him down. I finally had to out run them, getting away with nothing more than a good scare and a set of very tired legs. Forgive me if I don't have pictures of the event but I was a bit busy at the time.

There were some new wild flowers to take pictures of. These black eyed Susans are about the size of a dime. They were growing in perfusion along the ditch lines at the side of the road. All of the other wild flowers have browned out due to the prolonged heat, the ditch mowing that is still going on and the fact that we haven't had a decent rain in about a month.

Black Eyed Susans in the ditch. Note the dry cracking of the dirt behind them. Its dry and hot!

As I turned toward home, the wind died down somewhat but at least remained behind me. However the heat and the sweat were taking their toll and by the 30 mile mark I was starting to bonk. This is when your body says, "You ain't gonna do this to me no more!" I ended up doing the last 12 miles in 4 mile increments with a stop at the side of the road in the shade between spurts of effort.

At one of them, near an old Texas war of independence cemetery, I ended up sitting in a huge bunch of dragonflies. I wonder what you call them? A flight? A flair? I sort of like a dart of dragonflies myself because it is evocative of what they are doing. Anyway, these were all the same size, about 1 3/4" long, in different colors of blue, grey and green. They were very aggressive and territorial so I never got a chance to get a photo of more that one at a time. They even landed on my legs. I wonder if they liked the salt?


I finished up the ride really short of energy and with that "golden halo" effect around everything I looked at. I did 45 miles at 14 mph. Gave the bike a perfunctory check, wash down and lube and came in and took a nap. Now I need to get more fluids and some salt into me to stop my legs from cramping. And to top it off, all the stopping and starting didn't really give the new saddle a decent test so I'll have to do it again next weekend.

But a man's gotta do..............................

Cell Phone Woes

My Nokia Verizon cell phone bit the dust yesterday. I used it on Monday, pugged it in to charge Monday night and when I took it off the charger on Tuesday morning it was hotter than a pistol and would not turn on. I called the number from another phone an it kicked immediately into voice mail.

This afternoon I took it into the Verizon shop and got about what I expected. NOTHING! The "serviceman" looked it over, said that indeed it was dead and that it was also outside of warranty. Suprise. I could buy a replacement for it (cheapest was $215), I could get a replacement by extending my contract with Verizon for 2 years for only (ONLY) $114 pus tax, or I could do without. Mind you I would still have to keep paying the $79 monthly charge without any phone service at all. Final option, I could cancel my service entirely but the cancellation charge was $175.

In other words, they sold a cheap phone that will not last and no matter what, I have to pay a substantial sum for nothing that they shouldn't already have given me.

Recommendation, stay away from Verizon.

Long rambling ride to nowhere

I get every other Friday off and today when I woke up the weather was ideal for bike riding.

• It was cool for Houston; mid seventy's with mix of clouds and sun. This is important because we have had 2 weeks straight of 93 degree plus weather which sucks the energy out of your bones.


• There was little wind which is a huge factor in a pleasant ride here since any wind that is blowing is invariably in your face.


• And finally, it was the last day of school for millions of Texas rug rats so they would be penned up inside while I was outside doing my thing.

So with no plan and some concern about the weatherman adding to that run of high temp days I set out on a ride to see what I could see. The first half of the ride was on familiar routes up to George Bush park where the Bike is king and no cars are allowed. This would get me through the morning commute for those poor souls who had to work on such a nice day.

I stopped on a bridge over the Buffalo Bayou to talk with some other old farts who were also out riding. They bemoaned the fact that there were no rabbits out this morning. I had seen two along side the bike trail but they said that those weren't the right kind. They were looking for 20 something young ladies who looked good in bike shorts and jerseys and were riding in their general direction. I opined as how I at least wasn't greyhound enough to catch those and they agreed but said that it was the race that was important, not the outcome.

I stopped at several garage sales along the way. Why? I have no idea but I have a compulsion to look at other people's junk. This when I have a garage of my own full of perfectly good junk that I haven't yet gotten rid of. I blame it all on the Antiques Road Show on PBS. I'm looking for that Rembrandt or a Tiffany lamp for $5. And I'll find it someday too!

Since I was in the area, I decided to head up to the local bike shop and see what was on their sale rack. I always need new jerseys don't I? Ended up buying nothing but a tube of butt butter (non bikers will have to Google this product to understand how important it is to us long distance bikers). This is the point that I usually turn around and head home since it gives me a nice 35 mile ride and gets me home before noon.

Today I felt strong and there was nothing at home to drag me there, Marni being out on her own LD ride in Indiana by now I guess. So instead of turning right out of the parking lot, I turned left. Immediately across the main thoroughfare, I saw the following sign.


Now there's a nitch market that I would never have thought of. Not only can you wash your car and canine at the same time but you can do that at 3 AM. I guess I didn't know that there were that many insomniac dog owners with dirty cars in Southeast Texas. I would like to know how you get that soaking wet dog home in your newly cleaned car without making a mess of it.

I kept on riding through increasingly less familiar territory until I came to the end of the road.... literally. Cinco Ranch Boulevard is a main road that I have crossed many times at various points but never ridden from end to end. I thought that since it was so major an artery, it would connect to the main highway at some point so that I could get my bearings and plan my next move. Silly me. The road petered out in the middle of a cow pasture that is being turned into a gazillion new huge homes on postage stamp lots.

We're talking 4000 square foot houses on 8000 square foot lots. This is Texas, the biggest state in the Union. (I know about Alaska but Texans say it doesn't count because its got Canada between us and them so its really a foreign country.) Why do they build these huge houses on no land at all when they have so much land that no one is using for anything? Two answers; air conditioning and grass mowing. Until they can air condition the state, no one goes outside between March and October except for us biking nuts. And if the houses had any yard to speak of, you'd have to have it sodded and then have to cut that grass. Grass grows after each rain in Houston. It grows 4 inches after each rain. Over night. I know because it my job to mow it. Small yards are good. Yards paved in concrete are better.

Anyway, I back tracked out of the cow pasture /suburb and finally found my way to familiar roads. I had been looking for new wild flowers to photograph but found that the week after Memorial Day, every municipality in the county decided to mow every ditch and verge on every road. There was nothing but crew cut stubble that would stay that way until the first rain when it would turn into 4" grass and weeds. Not a wild flower to be seen until I found a thistle rose up against a fence post that protected it from the mowing madness. Here's my sole flower photo for the ride.

I took it easy going home since the temp had risen to 91 degrees and the wind was starting to blow, in my face naturally. My final stats for the ride were 51.2 miles at 13.1 mph and six bottles of water and Gatorade. My legs said I could do another 20 miles but the heat headache said time to quit. Sadie, our Corgi pooch got her salt fix by licking my legs when I got home.

Sunday Wandering bike ride

The summer weather is upon us and the bike riding is no longer easy. Today was 92 degrees, 80% humidity and 15 mph winds in my face a lot of the time. I am riding solo since Marni is off Woman's Touring so I was pretty much able to pick my own ride route as well as speed and stopping places. When I'm riding with her, it seems that we are always in training and I find it nice sometimes to just wander and explore with no speed or distance goals in mind.

Today there were a lot of new wild flowers in bloom that I had not seen before, this year at least. I am in the process of taking photos of all the wldflowers we see along the road and may put together a biker's guide to wildflowers in Southeast Texas. The idea is to make is small and light so a road biker could take it along as he / she rides. A selection of my photos for the day are shown below. I haven't determined their names yet but that comes later.

I stopped as usual at our favorite Sunday coffee shop, Fill Your Cup at rt 90A and Rt 356. They are very friendly and genuinely happy to see us. They have good coffee, smoothies and brown sugar scones so what more could a biker want. Here's a picture of the co owner and barrista with a typical big grin.

I purposely routed the end of my ride to go by the Cricket pitch. There are an amazing number of Indians, Pakistanis and a few Brits who play in an 18 team league here in Houston. They even compete with other leagues in Dallas and beyond. Its a bit surreal to see cricket being played in the middle of a cow pasture in cowboy land. See below.

In all I made over 39 miles, got a lot of good pictures, and most important, didn't let myself get overheated, dehydrated or otherwise bonked out. A good ride with lots to see and enough to stretch me out and put a good ache in the leg muscles.

Highland Games - Day 2

I guess that the organizers of the Houston Highland Games had to take the hall for two days or something but the second day was really a bust compared to day 1. They had completed the competitions for field events and music and had almost completed all of the dance competitions. Most of the competitors and performers that came in from outlying areas or even out of state had gone home and not come back for day 2. Only the junior girls were left competing.



Since it was Sunday, almost no one came before 12. After that, there were some visitors but most wandered around for a bit and then left disappointed that there was nothing "Scottish" going on. There were still some real characters including a kilted Goth with rings and piercings everywhere, tattoos, jack boots and a black kilt complete with black sporran.

About 2 pm the organizers realized that there were a lot of disappointed people out there who had paid $15 a head to get in to see very little. They got a group of 2 pipers a tabor and a snare drummer out to put some Scotch back in the day. They went through a lot of different songs and some pipe and some drum solos. They were really good (watch the hands on the Indian drummer) but a little to late to save the day.

I got a lot of spinning done and managed to ply up about 250 yards of brown alpaca and 120 yards of white so it was not a wasted day for me.

Highland games in Houston

As a "find something to do" plan for a long weekend without my riding buddy Marni, I went to the Houston, Texas version of Scots Highland Games. It is being held in a fairground building that is usually scene to bull riding and calf roping. Today there was the sound of bagpipes, the sight of highland fling dance, drum and pipe competitions and the almost surreal sight of Texans in kilts.

I wish that I could have gotten a picture of the one in cowboy boots, a McCloud dress tartan, a leather vest and a ten gallon hat. What a cultural statement. I did however get a picture of the most ethnically diversified set of Scots that I have ever seen. Look at the picture below.

Close examination shows that the two drummers in the last row are a Korean and a Japanese, the drummer in the middle is black and the piper ahead of him is from India. The rest of the band was just as varied. I went and listened to them in the band competition and they sounded really good for a junior High school band.

I ended up getting into more than I planned. Contemporary Hand weavers of Houston (CHH) one of our spinning and weaving guilds, was doing a demonstration of Scots tartan weaving and they were short a spinner. I volunteered and ended up demonstrating wool spinning for over 6 hours. I'm going back tomorrow to do more spinning. We didn't have a lot of people stop by to watch but there were always several coming around to ask questions, mostly good questions. It was fun and I hope to enjoy it again tomorrow.

USS Drum

USS Drum - A WWII Gato Class Submarine with an impressive war record.
While in Mobile, Alabama to see my wife off on her adventure to Canada, I had a lot of time on my hands while the women met and planned their ride. I went over to the Battleship Alabama museum since it was the only thing in the area close by. When I got there I found that they also had a WWII submarine on display, the Drum (SS-228). My father sailed in a sister ship to this one, the USS Tunny during the war, participating in several war patrols in the Pacific and the Sea of Japan.

I've seen several battleships (Massachussetts, North Carolina, and Texas) but never a restored Gato class sub so I passed on the BB and headed straight for the Drum. The interior of the boat has been lovingly preserved and it gives a vivid picture of the conditions that my father and his fellow submariners served under during the war.

While wandering around, I ran into Tom Bowser, a retired Machinist Mate with service in several Nuclear Submarines. He has taken on the task of almost single handedly restoring the Drum. Evidently the battleship upkeep and maintenance eats up all of the funds for the museum and the Drum was left slowly rusting away with no one to look after her. Tom is a member of the Mobile submariner's association and his military specialty gives him the training to take on the task of keeping the Drum from rusting away.

After talking with Tom for some time, he took me on a tour of the areas that the visitors never see, showing me the work he has in progress and the areas that he plans to work on next. He has a lot to do since the damage that several recent hurricanes have done to the boat have let in enough water to cause severe rust problems on most of the hull. The aft torpedo doors are almost completely gone as are several plates in the bow. The fuel tanks are pitted and holed in many places. Still, Tom has done a wonderful job of fixing what he can, buying much of the steel and paint himself from his social security checks.

Anyone who cares for saving this important relic of the silent service could contact Tom at his email address, tmb105@juno.com.

Forward torpedo room - USS Drum

Tom Bowser in front of his labor of love, restoration of the USS Drum.

Batching it

My DW is off on her adventure riding her bike from Mobile, Alabama to Ontario, Canada. The ride is run by Womans' Tours so absolutely NO MEN ALLOWED. In fact, there was only one other husband who even came to see them off. He and I talked a bit about the things that men talk about when they are strangers and will, in all likelyhood never see each other again. The $64 dollar question both of us asked was, 'What are you going to do for the next 6 weeks while the wife is away?" My answer was, "... feed the animals and clean out the cat box." Aside from work, that about sums it up.

I drove the 8 hours home to a house full of worried animals. The cat box is overflowing. Six weeks. Sigh

This is the whole group. The lady on the right in blue is the head turtle herder.

There they go headed north to Canada. This picture sort of sums up how I feel right now.

Lion's Club Charity Ride

Marni and I went out on a 46 mile supported ride for the Lion's club. Donations and the ride stipend go to children with physical disabilities or type 1 diabetes, for summer camp and the like. The Lion's club puts on several of these each year and they tend to be the best supported and controlled rides we participate in. They have a lot of experience at doing them and because they have a lot of members who are into the power structure of the towns, they get great support from the C of C, the police and the various civic and business organizations in the area. They are sponsored to the hilt.

Today's ride started at 8 AM and it was about 42 degrees out. Nice and warm for you Yankees and Bo honks but really a shock to our southern acclimated systems. Add to it our wind chill and it really was cold for us. My hands about froze to the handle bars for the first 8 miles. The police presence was fantastic. There must have been 50 of them out to support the ride including two or three who were biking along with us in police bike patrol uniform. More on that later.

There were about 800 riders in all. This is the size ride Marni and I like because it is big enough to get good support and protection and small enough that you don't get caught up in a mob scene at every corner and stoplight. The route was in a part of town that neither of us had ever ridden so we had a great opportunity to sight see as well as enjoy the exercise and the feeling of freedom that comes from long distance riding.

We found another couple who rode at the speed that we felt comfortable at and did about 30 miles of the ride with them, sharing conversation, warning each other about upcoming obstacles and generally just hanging out. Lost them at a rest stop when we stopped for a gear check and a banana and they went on ahead. We'll never know their names but "Thanks for sharing the ride."

The best part from my perspective came near the end of the ride. I know I complain often enough that there's never a cop around when you need one. This time there was. The police did a fabulous job at all the busy intersections making sure that the bikes got through safely. At one major intersection, a cop car blocked off the main road at a stoplight so that a pack of us could get through the intersection from a side road. One car on our road tried to scoot through with us and I ended up grabbing both brakes and throwing my butt off the back of the bike to keep from getting side swiped. This is know as a panic stop and thank God I learned how to do it well. I screamed a blue streak to keep the bikes behind me from running into me or the car. The cop in the patrol car heard and saw what happened. He stayed put in the middle of the intersection until we were all safely across. Then he hauled ass after the offending car. We passed the bad guy about 2 miles down the road with the cop leaning on his door, writing him a ticket. Thanks, Officer!!

We finished the 46 miles in under 3 hours with minimal stops and almost no rest periods. We even plan to go out tomorrow for our normal 25 mile Sunday coffee ride. Not bad for a pair of old grey bikers.

Marni is back!

The title is appropriate for several reasons and I couldn't be gladder..

First, she's back from Florida after spending two weeks helping my Dad recover from a bout with pneumonia. He ended up in the hospital for a week and then was home but needed someone there full time because he was so weak. My sister Sue stayed with him from Christmas till just before New Year and Marni took care of him from New Year's till mid last week. I couldn't leave Texas because of the start of a new project on January 2nd so she stepped right in and took charge. I'm so proud and appreciative for he help.

Second, she's back in the saddle again. She has been forced to stay off her bike since the end of October because of a really nasty biking accident that, among other things, cracked three ribs. Those of you who have had that condition know that it's really debilitating and takes a long time to heal. Last weekend she and I went out for her first bike ride since the accident. It was a reasonably easy 26 mile circuit with a stop at our favorite coffee shop at the half way point. I'm happy to say that she did really well, all things considered. It wasn't the Tour de France and it didn't scale any alps but we did the ride at a respectable 15 mph and she wasn't completely whipped at the end.

Its so great to have her back; back in the house, back in my arms and back as my weekend riding partner.

Sometimes it all comes together

I go to spin class every Monday and Thursday evening. For non bikers, this is an indoor, intense session on a stationary bike done in a group to loud, driving (think disco) music. The teacher leads the class through a series of increasingly fast and difficult exercises that, if done properly, cram the equivalent of 2 1/2 hours of outdoor biking into one hour of sweat and strain. A lot of my progress in biking is due to these classes since I work during the day and can only ride on the roads on the weekends. I love the way I feel after a class; somewhat tired, stretched out and totally relaxed and at peace no matter how hard the day has been.

The Thursday before Christmas was the last class of the season. There were twelve of us including two young men who were fairly new to the class. At the end as we were cleaning up and putting the bikes away, one of them commented to the class in general that he was exhausted and stated that he guessed that since he had just turned thirty, he couldn't expect to do the kind of things he was able to do when he was younger. I should have kept my mouth shut but I just couldn't help it. I leaned over towards him and replied, "I know how you must feel. I remember how it was to turn 30.........about 30 years ago".

I know it was rude and a bit cruel but it felt sooooo good. Sometimes life presents you with the perfect line in the perfect scene and it would be a waste to let it pass.

Christmas Fiber Swap

My wife and I belong to the Tall Pines Spinners and Weavers guild in Spring, Texas. For the past two years we have done a double fiber swap for Christmas. The format for this year was that everyone brought in a fiber of some sort to the September meeting. These were swapped in a blind random draw so that we each walked out with a bag of fiber from an unknown member. Only the one member who organized this knew who's fiber was who's.


Between September and October, each of us had to dye their swapped fiber in some way we thought was interesting. Then at the October meeting, the dyed fibers were blind swapped again so that we each had fiber from at an unknown member, dyed by a second unknown member. We had to take that fiber and make something from it that we could give back to the original owner as a Christmas gift at our December meeting / Party. Its a challenge to be given a yarn of random type, color and thickness and try to come up with something as a gift for an unknown recipient.


My fiber this year was a ball of 100 yds of red and 100 yds of blue single ply generic wool. The fiber had been tie-dyed so there was some variation in the color at random intervals. Since I am not skilled with pointy sticks (knitting) or hooked sticks (crochet) I usually weave. Last year I made a woven tote bag. This year I decided to make a rug

The 200 yards of wool were certainly not enough for any reasonable sized rug so I raided the stash and found a white and a charcoal grey wool that were nearly the same weight as the the dyed fiber. I had a rigid heddle loom already warped up with some light wool, and with only one month of spare time work until the party, I took the lazy man's way out and used that. Now all I needed was a design. As usual, I let the rug make up the design as I wove it. My usual motif is Navajo so that is not as hard as it sounds. Everything is symmetrical in width and length so if you fill in one quarter, you know what the other three quarters should look like.

Also as usual, I just barely finished on time. It came off the loom at 8 this evening and the party starts at 10 tomorrow morning. I am reasonably pleased with the result even though the last 4" of the rug got away from me when some of the warp stretched out and the tension went bad. With a little ironing and a little blocking, it doesn't look too bad. The picture to the left shows me at the loom and the finished product is shown below. I hope that the anonymous member I made it for likes the work.








I'll post my return gift after the party so you can see what became of my fiber.

Independance Day Charity Ride

I participated in a charity ride today that the Schlumberger Cycling Club held to raise money for disabled veterans. Their aim was to raise money to fund and promote physical and leisure/athletic activities that enhance the disabled veteran’s physical and emotional well-being. This is the first year they have done this and for a first time, it went pretty well. They had a lot to overcome.

First, its not easy to organize a ride like this. They had the Knights of Columbus (parking lot and hall facilities), the VFW (food and drink), the police and EMTs from the three counties and five towns we went through, the Mayor of Wallis (civic support) and the US Army who supplied an Apache helicopter, just for the heck of it (see attached picture). On top of that, they ended up scheduling the ride on the 1st of December since that was the earliest date that did not have a competing ride somewhere in the area. December is an "iffy" month at best here in Texas.

They had planned on getting about 300 riders. By 6PM the night before, they had already had 400 sign up on line and, because the weather looked good, there were at least another 100 walk-ins the day of the ride. In spite of this superabundance of participants, the support staff did fairly well.

The start was a bit chaotic. With so many riders trying to get out of an over packed parking lot, there were bound to be a few bumps and thumps. At least one whole row went down like dominoes when a guy on the left stopped and could not get out of his clips (bike shoes clip onto the pedals like ski boots clip on to skis for you non riders).

Then there was the Apache. You remember the army helicopter that was brought in for the heck of it. Someone had the bright idea that it could lead each wave of riders out of the parking lot and down the road to the first turn about a mile from the start. Two small problems. First, an attack helicopter is noisy. Really noisy. Having it hover directly over the starter meant that no one could hear anything that he said. They ended up having to do the entire start by hand gestures, including some that were not so polite aimed in the direction of the helo pilot.

The second problem is that a helicopter stays up by blasting massive amounts of air downward at a high velocity. Bikes don't stay upright if their riders are blasted sideways by those same massive amounts of air. Do you see the problem? Neither the organizers nor the Army did. The first wave of riders took off, the helo screamed down the road at treetop level and attack speed and more than one rider headed for the ditch. Then, having reached the turn a mile ahead in about 6 seconds, the helo turned around and blasted back down the road toward the group. I guess someone on the ground was in radio contact with him because he abruptly stopped, climbed about 400 feet and slowed down to a more leisurely pace.

As an aside, I wish to point out that this was a fully outfitted attack chopper, with a Gatling gun and rocket pods fully visible. I can imagine that any auto driver who saw that first pass coming at them down the middle of highway 1093 at 100 mph and 50 feet altitude now believes that the city of Wallis is very serious about traffic enforcement and that speeding violations will be dealt with most harshly.

Luckily, I was in the third group to move out so I got to be a spectator rather than a participant in that little drama. I elected to take the shorter (42 mile ride rather than the 60 or 104 mile routes primarily because of the 20 mph gusting wind and the fact that I had done a fairly intense biking spin class the previous day. The ride was nice and smooth with a bit of climb and drop ( just a bit since southeast Texas is FLAT!) on mostly country roads with very little traffic. The support volunteers had scrambled to get extra fruit and water for the higher than expected turnout. The one thing that they couldn't get on short notice was more porta-potties.

Those of you who ride know that the first 15 miles shakes the **** out of you and there is a higher than average need for relief at that first stop. Our first stop had one and only one porta-pottie. The line was huge. However, the wait was not as long as expected. Come to find that the organizers had placed said facility directly on top of a fire ants' nest and said ants had migrated into the cabin. Needless to say, no one wanted to sit and think in there for very long.

The remainder of the ride went well with enough riders of my skill level that we were able to form a pace line of sorts and help each other out with the wind which was from the side or the front quarter for the middle 15 miles. We saw several flocks of migratory geese taking off from the harvested corn fields, forming up vees and heading south for the winter. We went thru the first capital of the Republic of Texas (San Felipe). We pounded out the miles.

The last few miles were the hardest. We swung directly south into the teeth of the gale. The SAG crews from Schlumberger were great keeping tabs on the weaker riders and picking up the "empties" (those being the riders who had run out of gas and needed a ride back to their cars). I was proud that my gym work, spin classes and weekend riding had gotten me in good enough shape to cruse in with a 16 mph average for the entire ride. Not bad for an old man.

The ride ended with a sloppy joe on a bun, potato salad, cole slaw, and a diet Dr. Pepper. Who could ask for more. I even got a tee shirt. And I beat the rain out of the parking lot by a good 20 minutes. All in all, a good day. As a parting shot, let me leave you with a photo of a Texas golf cart, imported to the ride to help the disabled vets get around. I'm not sure that you will see these on every golf course in Texas but it is indicitive of the patriotic feelings of our fellow Texans.

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On Starting a Blog

Yeah I know. I'm still in the stone age, blog wise. I read several blogs from my family and a few from others that I have met along the way and sometimes I even comment on them. Until today, I never felt the need to have one. I'm not really sure who, if anyone, will want to read my ramblings. On the other hand, I have never kept a diary either, and I guess if no one reads this, it will at least perform that function.

For those of you who stumble upon this blog, I hope that you find something here to interest you and tempt you to come back for more. I'll post a bunch about my rides because that's where I'm at right now, but you will also find things about my hobbies (where does he find the time???), about my family, and an occasional foray into commentary, criticism or outright rant as the spirit moves me.

If you don't find anything of interest, I hope that you can at least take away two things before you move on to greener pastures.

First, you are never too old to start getting yourself back in shape. I spent 57 years as a couch potato. Ballooned up to 275 lbs. Couldn't climb two flights of stairs without stopping to gasp for breath at the top. Today I did a 42 mile cycle loop at 16 mph into a 20 mph headwind and felt pretty good at the end.

Second, a bike is a great way to actually see the area you live in. I can go 175 miles in a car in the same time that it takes me to go 40 on a bike, but I will see more new and wonderful things in those 40 miles than I would see in 1000 miles of 70 mph blur. Today I saw a flock of geese take off from a field, circle to form a vee and start away on their next leg to their escape from winter . In a car I would have blasted past before the first dozen got off the ground.

Anyway, I'm off to the wonderful world of blogging. I hope that it works out and that I can keep it going for a time at least. Feel free to comment. You may even get a reply. I've made a few good online friends by commenting on their blogs and I hope that your comment may make me a few more.