Go Stuff It

I have this habit of sometimes stuffing things away. People around here don't really like it. But I don't really care.
Last night they all ganged up on me. Me, the one who cooks them all dinner every night, who makes sure their back packs are ready by the door each morning with their homework and lunches ready, the one who puts their folded clean clothes nicely back in their drawers, the one who hangs their current team kit on wood hangers in their closet, the one who cleans out the damn litter box now that no one will do it because it smells like ass.
Bunch of complainers.
I don't like a lot of stuff. I'm a minimalist. I don't like acquiring a lot of stuff. Too much stuff makes me crazy. Maybe it's a weird tick to have when in just about every other way in my life, I'm a perpetual teenager.
So sometimes, I stuff things away. But it's not like it's gone - it's in the general area of where it should be. Like manuals are filed in the filing cabinet near the manual folder. Receipts are in piles near the desk. All cords for all the power taps, garmins, ipods, sync, cameras and whatever other electronic gadget Morgan happens to be into that month are in two drawers in the office.
Bike clothes are in the bike clothes closet.
And then the legos, which hurt like hell when you step on them in bare feet, those are in his top drawer or his lego buckets.
But apparently yesterday, someone rode his bike at lunch at work and ended up wearing a size small team jersey instead of his usual XL team jersey. I'm surprised he actually got it on his boday.

And then someone else found his newly built star wars lego battle thingamajig in his top drawer in the wrong bucket.
And then someone else complained that she still couldn't find her tooth that I'd miss placed that fell out of her mouth a few weeks ago.
And then they all started in on me.
So then I told them all to shut up and I busted a few karate chop moves on them and grabbed my box of thin mints and my glass of wine and went into the other room and watched jackass. But only after I folded the laundry and made THEM all put it away themselves.
Bunch of big fat whiny babies, that's what they are.

Schwinn Le Tour II Restoration, Phase 3 - Single Speed

Before

After

Background
If you have been bored enough to follow my posts, you'll know that early in the spring I bought a 1976 Schwinn Le Tour II for cheap. After a couple of weeks, I restored it enough using the stock parts so that I could ride it for a while, putting a few hundred miles on it. I then tried to do a 650B conversion on it, but ran into trouble with brake reach. The stock brake already had a long reach, so the newer "long reach brakes" weren't any longer than the stock brake.
I had already put the Le Tour's chromed steel 27 inch wheels on my daughter's 80s model Schwinn Varsity, so the Le Tour was sitting wheelless, lonely, and unused, especially since I was satisfying my road-style biking needs with the Specialized Tricross.
The Single Speed Conversion
Yesterday, on a whim, I grabbed the frame and Tektro 556 brakes and headed down to Re-Cycle bike shop to see about getting some wheels for the Le Tour. Mike, the owner of the shop, had me go ahead and put the bike up on the work stand so we could start fitting wheels. Over the course of the next five or ten minutes, we worked out a plan to single speed the bike with parts he had in inventory. You'll recall that the Le Tour II has semi-horizontal dropouts, and is a common candidate for single speed conversions.
Mike turned me over to his mechanic, Dan, and within an hour, most of the work had been done. It all happened so fast, I almost wasn't able to keep up with what we were doing.
Here's a list of what we (mostly Dan) did:

• Selected single speed 700c wheels with freewheel. I didn't know that wheels could be built for single speed. I think the difference is the dishing of the wheel to better accommodate the single cog, Also, these are bolt on wheels. Mike said it's common to use bolt on for single speed, especially on the rear when to need to ensure a snug fit. 700C give me more options for tires than I would have if I stuck with the 27 inch. Also, it opens up a tad more room for fenders should I go that route.
  
• Selected an optimum rear cog. Mike suggested an 18 tooth cog. He's familiar with some of the hills I ride, so he was able to make a suggestion. Of course, I can change it out to make it easier or harder after I ride it some.
  
• Put on a new drive side crank and chainring. By chance, they had a busted crank set brought in by someone who tried a jump and bent up the left side of the crank. The right side was in perfect shape, and included a single 40 tooth chainring. The crank arm length was 170mm, and matched the Schwinn crank arm perfectly. I got a really good deal on this part, and was pleased the way it turned out. My original plan was to keep the existing dual chainring, but this looks much, much better.
  
• Selected tires. Mike set me up on skinny 25c, almost smooth tires. I've never ridden a skinny tire before.
• Used a step drill bit to enlarge the rear brake hole on the fork to accommodate the recessed mounting nut. The stock brake had a bolt that went all the way through and a hex nut on the outside. We saved the curved washers to get a better mount between the brake and frame.
  
• Used a Dremel tool to open up the rear brake mounting hole on rear of the frame. There was no room to get the drill in there.
• Mounted new Tektro 556 brakes.
• Removed all unnecessary shifting components: shifting levers, cables, cable guides, derailleurs.
  
• Cut chain to fit the single gear and bolted the wheel into the dropouts.
• Selected a new saddle to replace the broken stock saddle. I got a budget racing style Velo saddle. It looks pretty good, I think, but may get replaced with something else in the future (Can you say "Brooks," boy and girls?)
  
• Selected new brake levers and cabling. I took home Tektro RL520 levers, black bar tape, and new cabling and cable housing. I installed the levers, cables, and bar tape myself at home. I'm impressed with the look and function of the new levers and how the cables disappear beneath the tape. It makes for such a simpler look on the bars. It's almost like there aren't any cables, as the visible parts of the cable are minimal. It took me a few wraps, and then unwraps, to get it right. My taping still isn't perfect, but I think I'm getting better.

What remains, potentially:

• A nice powder coat job, to make that 33 year old steel frame look new again.
• Fenders? Rack? It'd be a shame not to ride this fun bike just because the streets are wet. On the other hand, I already have a bike with fenders and a rack.
• Brooks saddle and earthy colored, varnished bar tape?
  

That's Interesting, But How Does It Ride?
Oh my goodness! Oh my! I never knew it would feel so different. I think all of the changes done to the Le Tour, with the new skinny tires, light weight 700C wheels, well performing brakes with sturdy hoods to hang on to, plus the direct drive to the wheel, it's like a totally new bike.
I'd tried to simulate the single speed experience a few times by setting my geared bike at an equivalent gear. However, there just appears to be something magic about that nearly direct connection to the street through the single gear. It's probably not as direct as with a fixed gear, where's there's no freewheel/freehub, but much more so than with a geared bike, and all of the extra chain snaking through the derailleur jockey wheels. It feels more efficient, as if I get more power using the same gear ratio on the single speed as I would using a geared bike. The clicking of the freewheel is loud, but when I am turning the pedals, it's totally silent.
Of course, when using a geared bike set on a particular ratio, there's always that knowledge in the back of my mind that I can change the gears if I want to. When riding my new single speed today, it was kind of liberating knowing that I had what I had, legs, feet, pedals, chain, to wheel, and that was it. I had to make do with the gearing, such that it was.
I took the Schwinn out for a test ride this afternoon to run some errands over about 12 miles of in-town riding. First I rode some of the bigger hills on my normal daily commute. I found that I could stand out of the saddle to do the toughest hills, but for the most part, I didn't need to. I think it's that efficiency thing again. I did notice that on some downhills and some slight downhill flats, I quickly topped out my cadence, and had to resign to coasting, as I couldn't make my legs go any faster. On my geared bikes, these are spots where I could almost keep up with traffic using really big gears, but on the single speed, I'll just have to relax and take what I can get from gravity. On my first few stops, I felt the urge to downshift on the phantom levers.
The steel frame seems more comfortable than the aluminum Tricross frame, as I think it really absorbs the bumps in the road, despite the more narrow tire. Nothing I've ridden is as comfortable as my Trek 7300 hybrid, with its 35mm tires and seatpost and head shock suspension, plus gel saddle. But the performance of the Schwinn was a lot of fun. I've got the brakes tuned so that I can do most of my braking with a feather touch from my index finger around the hoods. I did have to toe in the shoes a bit, since I was getting some vibration and squeal on my rear brake, which came right up into my saddle for an odd sensation. With my clipless pedals, the acceleration is quite snappy.
I will probably try to commute with this bike this week. Between the 12 miles of errands I ran this afternoon, plus the eight mile round trip to dinner out, I've really enjoyed riding this "new" bike. I think the single speed conversion was the right thing to do at this point in time with the Schwinn, since I already had the hybrid for hauling and wet weather, and the cross bike for fast road and gravel riding. The single speed will be my "city" bike, for fair weather commuting, and tooling around to the coffee shop and restaurants, and casual, easy rides when I don't need to carry any cargo.
Pictures
Here are some photos of the completed bike.

Weekend at Endless Caverns

Friday, July 16

The Phaeton was cleaned inside and out prior to finalizing the purchase in May.  It certainly looked great when we picked it up in Oregon.  But a cross-country trip takes a toll on any vehicle, and the coach was not immune.  Wanting to give our “condo on wheels” a once over before we start settling into it, we’re hanging out at Endless Caverns RV Resort this weekend to take care of chores and have a bit of camping fun too.

It was capital letters HOT, HOT, HOT when we left the house around 2:15p.  The temperature gauge was reading 105F [41C] by the time we arrived at the storage lot.  There was no way we were going to be able to pull right out and get on the road.  Poor Phaeton had been baking in the sun for days.  So, we cranked up the generator, turned on the A/C to cool it down some, and used the time to offload stuff from the CR-V into the basement of the coach.  By 3:15p, we were on I-66, heading west to the junction with I-81S.  It was still hot inside the coach, but it was bearable.

The 88-mile [141 km] drive to our destination near New Market, Virginia was an easy one.  We made just one stop along the way and that was to top-off the diesel that we’d used on the last leg of our cross-country trip.  (Love’s Travel Stop — $2.80/gallon with a $.05 cash discount.)

Mount Jackson’s “Basket of Apples” Water Tower is a well-known landmark on I-81.

By 5:30p,  we were checked in at the resort office.  A few minutes later, our golf-cart escort was guiding Mui as he backed into site A24.

The Endless Caverns Gift Shop is also the check-in office for the RV resort.

There’s no map; we follow an escort to our assigned site.

Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, the Phaeton is settled in for the weekend.

This is a new RV resort (144 sites; $51.99/night for a full hook-up), located in a heavily wooded area.  It is still growing, with both new amenities and additional sites in the works.  If there’s any construction going on at present, it certainly isn’t evident to us.

We’d chosen a back-in site so Mui could practice maneuvering.  As it turns out, this decision worked in our favor in regards to privacy as well.  All of the pull-through sites down the hill from us are occupied.  The perimeter back-in sites, on the other hand, are mostly unoccupied this weekend.  Our nearest neighbors are four campsites away to the left; five campsites away to the right.  That’s a lot of privacy when you consider that the sites are not only wide, but they are terraced and well-spaced out as well (Mui’s guesstimate is about 20 feet [6 m] separation on either side).  In essence, it’s like we’re all alone in the middle of the forest, except that we have electricity, water, and sewer.  Life’s good!

View of the campground from the bedroom window.
(Straight down from us are empty sites with our closest neighbor
in the distance; the pull-through sites are on the left)

You can’t see the pull-through sites when you look out the windshield,
unless you go to the very front and look right.

After settling in, we went for a slow stroll around the campsites; with the temp reading a humid 97F [36C] anything more strenuous was out of the question.  We like what we saw and wouldn’t mind coming back in the fall or spring.  The weather then should be more conducive to outdoor activities.  And perhaps the teeny-tiny, gnat-like flies won’t be in evidence then either.  The flies don’t bite, but they are a pain nonetheless, because they swarm as soon as you sit down or otherwise come to a standstill.

We didn’t want our lentil and rice dinner garnished with gnats, so we had dinner inside the coach.  Afterwards, Mui tested the satellite without success.  The antenna did get reception from local channels, and though it was grainy, it was sufficient for Mui to get his evening news fix.

With our evening chores taken care of, we popped in a DVD to watch a movie, but it failed to hold our interest.  We could have gone down to the Rec Center for a NASCAR “tailgate experience away from the track,” but we’re not fans.  Instead, I switched to blogging, which is always fun for me; Mui opted to read for a bit.  A quiet way to bring our day to a close.

All we can see of the sunset is just a glimpse of orange skies through the canopy.

Tomorrow we have chores to do, so perhaps it’s just as well that the forecast is for high temps and thunderstorms.  We won’t be tempted to go play outside.

Next Up … Housekeeping at Endless Caverns

Analyze This

When I first started road racing like four or five years ago or something, I used to write race reports that were all serious and stuff. I wanted to be taken seriously and also analyze my moves and fitness and skills and position and blah, blah, blah.
I think I even used a heart monitor a few times and I knew my zones. But after a few years of writing and racing and analyzing, I realized how much I sucked and how much I hated it so I quit doing it all. And besides none of the guys ever wore skin suits.

But then, last year I discovered cyclocross. And it all made sense, because I'd found my tribe. Although I still kind of suck at the racing and reporting, but now I just don't care as much about sucking ass.
I was thinking that maybe I'd go back to the old format and analyze more. And stuff.
Race: cccx
Date: january 6,
Category: b
Rider: lauren
Field: i don't know. a bunch.
Teammates: none
Placing: can't remember
Series Overall: i think 6th or so
Breakfast: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a banana, chocolate chip mini cookies.
Warm-up: a few laps or so. fuck warmups, that's what i say. but i did stretch a little bit while i changed my socks.
Pre-race food: half a gu, some beer and some water and some chocolate chip mini cookies.
After-race food: some beers and a turkey sandwich and some chocolate chip mini cookies.
Weather: cloudy and cool, but no rain.
Course: lots of swoopy single track, sandy but no real sandpit and some logs and barriers and hills and run ups and some pavement and some hecklers.

Mood: rock solid
Health: on like tony orlando and dawn
I did a few pre-ride laps and was ready. And then I kept warm before the start by riding around the parking lot. At the start I got a call up, because Kat and Soni and Rita where missing and were probably at the bathroom or something.
The call up was confusing though - because of my name. No one ever pronounces it correctly. Why in the hell is Lauren always so hard to get right? I can understand Haughey, but Lauren?

It went something like this, "Okay, next is, uh, Lara Hugarly". And we all sort of stood around looking at each other. Who the hell is that, we all thought. And then he said again, "Laurie? Heerar..."
It caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting a call up, so I wasn't listening for the miss pronunciation. Usually I'm waiting for it. And it's interesting how people always throw an L into my last name. That little h next to the g really throws people off. You know, the long look of it and stuff.
Anyway, I realized after a bit that that he probably meant me. So I started rolling up and as I'm rolling Keith says LAUREN! aHAHAha, sorry about that.
He started us women folk all together and after the whistle I called out, last one up the hill is a glazed ham!
And then we raced around for 40 minutes or so. My chain fell off once and I got a little out of control on some of the corners and slid out a bit. And of course there was the heckling by the men on the barriers and the run-up.
And that was about it.
And then the camera was dropped into a puddle of water near the porta potties and it stopped working.
Afterwards I met a Laura who told me a story about how they never get her name right either. At the place she gets coffee, she just decided one day to go with it and she became Lauren because that's what they kept calling her. But then someone who knew that her real name was Laura was in there one day and accused her of lying in front of all the Batista's and people in line waiting for their coffees and it was a mess.
Now she goes by Lily.
Morgan's coffee name is Jethro. In the beginning, when they'd call him to come get his coffee, Lulu used to say really loud YOUR NOT JETHRO! And how do you explain to a four year old that it's just your coffee name and to everyone else that you're not stealing Jethro's coffee.
Or sometimes we'd see the Peets lady out and about while we were hanging out with other friends and she'd say oh hey Jethro, how's it going? and everyone would look confused and uncomfortable.
Don't worry, we'd say, that's just his "coffee name". Now we all know who Jethro is.
Lessons Learned:
1) The chocolate chip mini cookies were delish, but I kinda threw up in my mouth a little on that long first hill on the first lap. I shouldn't eat them so close to the start.
2) Stick around long enough and you'll get to see one of the (A) men's bare ass as he's changing out of his skinsuit.
3) (A) men have nice asses.
4) Some people bring TVs to watch to cyclocross races.


All in all (I think I remember ending all my race reports that way, with all-in-all), a five star day.

More Travel Photos from Britain

A few more images from our last trip to the British Isles.
This path was on the hill overlooking Tintern Abbey in Wales. I love the moss and the exposed roots.
The next one is of a barn courtyard. What I love about this photo is the contract between the red bricks and the blue doors with the large black iron hinges.
The last one is of canal boats. We stayed on one for a week. It was close to Nottingham. I thought it was quite an adventure. Husband was less enthusiastic. It was cramped, for sure. But all we did was sleep there anyway. I wouldn't want to do it again, but I'm glad we did it once. We didn't go to Sherwood Forest, because friends who had gone said it is too commercial and to skip it. So instead, we went to Burleigh House. It was well worth the visit. You can read that post here: http://artfulaspirations.blogspot.com/../07/burleigh-house-my-ancestral-home.html

Confirmation

128km with over 1,500 metres of climbing last night was the confirmation, I just love night riding. There's just something undeniably special about being the only one around, the only one for miles late at night as the moonlight dimly casts it's spell over the surrounding mountains, forests or whatever is there.
Unfortunately, we're conditioned from an early age to perceive daylight as the time we're "supposed" to do everything, and night as the time we should all be in bed. This feeling can provide a problem when undertaking a long night ride -- particularly in the early stages. If, however, it can be overcome, the rewards are absolutely priceless.
I also saw more wildlife than usual on last night's ride, including two owls, a possum, a bat, and a koala in the canefields surrounding Murwillumbah (perhaps the last place in the world I would have expected to see one). Passing through Urliup (pictured above) for the second time in 40 hours, but this time in darkness as opposed to bright sunshine provided an entirely different perspective on a new ride.
The whole experience was a reminder that I really need to take advantage of the balmy summer nights over the next few months.

Bloom Day & Genealogy

WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE??
Maybe you recognized that line as a riff on the recent family history series "Who Do You Think You Are?" It was fun to see Twitter-friend Megan Smolenyak on the show, helping celebrities find out answers to mysteries of their family's past. My time and brain cells have been devoted more to genealogy than to gardening lately - and until last night's blessed 2-inches of rain fell, the gardening mostly consisted of watering.
Somehow old records suddenly appeared, solving some puzzles while sprinkling new question marks all over the charts.
Some of the findings are fun: A previously unknown great-grand-aunt appeared out of thin air on the Zoelle branch! Researching this name has produced such variations as Zolle, Zolla, Zoller, Zello, Seller & Colley.
Some of the findings are disturbing: so many death certificates had forms of tuberculosis as the cause of death that I started reading about its effects on Chicago in the late 1800's-early 1900's. Now I'm feeling emotionally overwhelmed with sympathy for my poor immigrant ancestors, many of them born before TB was recognized as infectious rather than an inherited tendency. Logic and reason remind me this happened so long ago that they'd all be dead by now... even without consumption to carry them off...how is it possible to mourn for and with people you never knew?
Enough of Family Trees for now! It's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, begun by May Dreams Carol. Even in that relationship genealogy comes into play... I first found Carol in a web search- not through her garden blog, but at her Grandmother's Diary.
In other months my GBBD posts may feature plants that will only grow where winters are comparatively mild - Texas mountain laurel, Carolina jessamine, White ginger or bluebonnets.But sometimes a vignette like this one looks quite similar to some place 1200 miles away and a dozen years ago.
This little reblooming daylily, a recross of 'Stella d'Oro' called 'Vi's Apricot', used to flower in Illinois -
But it bloomed in July rather than May, and never at the feet of a 'Meyer's Improved' lemon tree!
Tomato blossoms are beautiful no matter where or when they bloom.

Calibrachoa and green beans are pretty universal, aren't they?
The so-called Ditch Lily (Hemerocallis fulva) really did grow in roadside drainage ditches in Illinois. It was so common that I didn't bother to bring a piece with me to Texas. It's been nearly 11 years since I saw one blooming but thanks to Good and Evil Lori this Wisconsin-born orange daylily opened flowers today.
And thanks to the inspiration of MSS of Zanthan Gardens, the daylilies opened with a cloud of 'Royal Wedding' sweet peas above them
In Illinois the yellow rose would have been 'Graham Thomas' instead of 'Julia Child', the pine was a dwarf Mugho Pine instead of an Italian Stone Pine and the pale purple bells of Mexican Oregano would never survive winter, but the vine in the background would be the same -a Clematis 'Ramona' eventually shows up in all my gardens, no matter where we live.
So does the light yellow daylily, Hemerocallis 'Happy Returns' - here with other old favorites blue larkspur, yarrow Achillea 'Moonshine', yellow snapdragons and Salvia farinacea. The main difference in this scene versus one in Illinois is that the rocks are free in Texas!
If I see a beloved plant from the past on the distressed/sale table there's a good chance I'll try to grow it here. This Oakleaf Hydrangea followed me home from Countryside Nursery last winter

But before anyone calls the Reality Police and tells them to stage an intervention, here is proof that I really do know where I am. This is Austin, Texas, where Salvia 'Black & Blue' grows like a weed
Where exotic fruits like Pineapple Guava are used as garden shrubs

And tender fruit trees like 'Wonderful' Pomegranate live through the winter and bloom
Where 'Celeste' figs grow uncovered and unprotected as landscape elements

Where a fragrant double yellow Oleander from Plant Delights
Combines with fragrant white Confederate jasmine
And a fragrant white 'Little Gem' magnolia to scent the air and make one feel like a superannuated Scarlet O'Hara
Austin is a place where odd lilies like Eucomis copy pineapples
A Justicia pretends to be a Shrimp
And Cuphea llaevea mimics a Bat's face
Where Pam's passalong Aloe can survive hail and cold in the shelter of a holly tree to bloom in the shade
Where wildflowers like Texas Paintbrush can be picked up at local nurseries to grow as container plants on the patio (last year's plants even seeded in the front lawn!)
And where the tender Rosa Mutabilis that I once sighed over in out-of-zone gardening books elbows out every other plant in the front border
Here's one more look at the 'Royal Wedding' Sweet peas, caught a few days ago as the sun came through their petals in early morning light. The seeds came from the Natural Gardener - a little gift when we bought our second rainbarrel last winter.

Happy Blooming Day! Celebrate by checking out the gardens linked to the GBBD post at May Dreams Gardens. Soon I'll get a list together of everything in bloom with botanical names at Annie's Addendum.
(The GBBD List is now up)