Project delay and other news

Work has been exhaustingly busy and I haven't had much time for recreational activities, so I've been working on "Project Rainbow Collection: Blue" off and on since the start of August.  I finally got to a good point on the project (only buttonholes and buttons remain!), when I became 95% sure that I made it a size too small. So, let's delay that drama, shall we? Here are some other cool things that have been going on.

 My street got bike lanes last Thursday! The City just came out and striped over the course of two days, no re-design necessary because our street was rather wide from the get-go.

 You can still see the shiny reflector stuff all over the street. If anyone is heading to Burning Man, you should come roll on our bike lanes first!

Uncle Mark (Chris's side) brought us some dates back from UAE. They are much sweeter and stickier than the Medjool dates we're used to over here. They are wonderful!

 Forty-five silver bullets lurk in the shadow of our fridge. "Aw," you may say, "that's not that many!"...

 ...except that there are twenty more in the fridge. Thank you, rafting!

 I got these bundles of fabric at the Verge Arts Center Jumble Sale two weeks back for about $3. I washed five of the bundles yesterday all is well. The red and white bundle has some print errors on it (smudgey and confused like a sugar-hyped kindergartener finger-painting), but the others have decent yardage and are in good shape!

And let us mourn the loss of Buttons. Buttons died a violent truck-door death yesterday at 7PM. Buttons, you were a good iTouch and I really enjoyed my time with you. I'm so glad that I won you in that workplace raffle and that we had fun together. I'll miss you.

The Alphabet According to West Sac

*snicker

Today's bike ride from Davis to Sac was brought to you by the letter "C".

Maker Fair Shenanigans

Ah, good times at Maker Fair this weekend. This was my third time to go (twice in San Mateo, once in Austin) and there is a good amount of repetition between years (high altitude kites, those Monkeylectric rims I covet, the Lego league members desperately trying to ignore those tall-for-their-age 8-year-old boys reaching over the guard rail to cover Legometropolis in stickiness), but I still enjoyed wandering around and taking in the sights.
Who am I kidding, the real highlight was that I finally got to ride one of Cyclecide's crazy bike rides. Claire and I became one with the pedal-powered ferris wheel of sorts.

Terror!

Joy!

Terror!

Also pretty tremendous, I saw (heard? The place was seething with stolid giants) the OK Go show, where they all submerged themselves in water. Fishtanks on the heads of members playing non-submersible instruments... 

and a mobile watersuit for that dream of a lead singer.   

Quite the concerted effort to liberate him from that blobby contraption after the show.

Folsom:0, me: 1ish!

Yes! The trip to Folsom was more or less a success. It was completely a success in that I got there right as Chris John was getting off work, so Huzzah for me! Around 27 miles in two hours and five minutes, here is the recap.
I could not find my lil' bike pump, so I took off with all the other listed items from last post and some chapstick. I figured that in the worst case scenario, I would have to walk a fair amount and call someone to pick me up or find a bus route that would suit my needs. I took off at 3pm because I lost  a fair amount of time looking for that rascal of a bike pump. By that time, I had been running around in my helmet for ~1/2 hour, loathing it the whole time but fulling expecting to leave the house any second.
For those unfamiliar with the American River Bike Trail, it is nothing short of lovely.

It is well paved and more or less flat with some gentle rolls that would not ever be called hills. When I first heard about it, I thought it was some gravel path perilously close to sheer drops into the American River. It is like I was living on a different planet back then, or I was just simple.

These pictures give you an idea of how pleasant it is. The river is off to your right in this shot, there is a healthy amount of tree cover for most of the trail, and some crazy looking birds with yardstick long tails and urban squirrels who were tired of the rat race at the Capitol. Wild turkeys too. 

Previously, the farthest I had been on the ARBT was to Sac State with Chris. This is me, a fire in my belly from covering new ground!

For most of today's ride, I was as regal as a sack of cement in my bike saddle--I could not tell you why I was sitting so un-pretty, but I'm sure I'll feel it much more intensely in the morning.

By the way, the river looks freakin' wonderful right now. I repeatedly considered taking a tumble into it, in spite of the beautiful mid-60's weather. 

Looking a little worse for wear somewhere around 15 miles (in skinny leg jeans, I might add). No, I'm not drunk, you can tell because both of my eyes are open.

Things were straight wonderful until I got to where the ARBT ends and where the Folsom Bike Trails are supposed to pick up. Here is a shot across the five lane highway where Folsom Bike Trails were supposed to make an appearance.

WTF, Folsom? Anyhow, it took a little bit of resolve to bounce back from that, I got my adrenaline levels amped up by biking on Hazel and Iron Point on a scabby looking shoulder with the occasional faded bike emblem chipping away from the pavement. It actually wasn't that bad except for the first part when I was acclimating to being off the trail. It was like being in detox, very scary and painful. But after that, it wasn't too bad except for the terror of knowing that most of the drivers overtook me without seeing me at all. 

I made it to Intel, though. Glory days!

Chris gave me a ride home (he drove in case of any emergencies with my bike plans) and we went to Moxie to celebrate me living through my mission. :)

Now I only have to log about 18 more miles on the May is Bike Month site to meet my goal of 100 miles!

Folsom!

Yes, I'm aware that "Folsom" is not typically followed with "!" unless it was proceeded by "Get me out of--", but this is still exciting for me. I'm going to bike to Folsom today after my COG time to meet up with Chris and then...come directly back home. This is monumental because I've never biked this far before (~25 miles) and, well, I've never biked that far.
Things I'm going to take on this trek

1. patch kit, complete with wrench and small bike pump
2. helmet
3. camera
4. water!
5. snack-ums (sugar snap peas and an orange?)
6. cell phone
7. bike map (I hope to find one at the COG this morning)

Did I forget something? Tell me before I leave around 2 this afternoon!

bike run-ins and the like

On my way to work, I witnessed a near run-in between a Range Rover type thing and a bike. The cyclist was on the through street running through campus and the Rover was turning right onto the street. The driver somehow over-looked the cyclist and started to turn in his (the cyclist's) path, but was stopped by the cyclist's yell. No-one was hurt but I'm sure the cyclist was jarred and the driver apologized. The cyclist then instigated a confrontation and expletives were hurled as the cyclist pedaled alongside the Rover for about 200 yards, taunting and goading the driver.
I've been nearly hit quite a number of times and I've been in the same position as the cyclist this morning. I have no doubt his reaction was largely fear based because what dork on a Specialized wants to take on a Range Rover? But I don't see what good can come from berating a driver to the point where he thinks all cyclists are asses that deserve any accidents they get. Couldn't that behavior easily result in escalating confrontations that end with drivers deliberately harming cyclists, like the Los Angeles physician stopping intentionally and suddenly in front of cyclists? Granted, not everyone will react quite as violently, but for moderate drivers the best thing we as cyclists could do is make our presence known in a good way.
After witnessing this morning's interaction, I hung back on my Nishiki and once the yelling cyclist had passed, I pedalled near the driver and told him that not all cyclists are angry and wished him a good day. It got me thinking, couldn't that be a way to increase the good interactions between cyclists and drivers? What if whenever there was a near run-in with a cyclist, instead of being showered with curses the driver was politely addressed "Hey, I know you didn't see me back there but please be on the look-out for bikes"? Fortunately for me, I don't have too many run-ins with drivers but I witness a number of them. I would like to make a business card with a little message to the effect of "bikes just want safe journey, keep an eye out for us" plus some well wishing and it could have a website with bike information listed. And some cute graphic. You know, to make it look nice. Then, whenever some driver has the near run-in with a cyclist, they could get some helpful information out of it instead of an antipathy towards bikers.
What do you think?