Let's See... Pictures!

Finally sharing pictures! Let's see, the last thing you guys saw was the big day of snow... that means I need to share... all this!

It snowed lightly another day.

My niece had her 3rd birthday. I didn't get to go to her party, but look what I got her! 

It's German, and I love how it isn't automatically PINK. I have nothing against the color, but everything for girls is pink. (They have a wonderful lime green one! And matching helmets! <3) 

I got this for $15 from a lady who didn't think I'd want to buy it all scratched up. If her little boy loved it that hard, don't you think Natalie will too? She'll add her own scratches and scrapes!

Here is the photo proof of Zoomie's big blowout that I mentioned in the last post.

It's huge!

A lesser bulge of tire failure.

And from the side.

And now you know why I got these! 

I like how I accidentally captured the branding just perfectly- it was not planned!

I LOVE these tires, by the way. I can see why everyone raves about them on the online forums.

Daylight savings took beautiful morning views like this away from me again. I'm back to fully lighting myself up like the aforementioned pathetic Christmas tree and pedaling along in the dark.

Oh yeah!

This happened during a trip home after visiting Jamie at work. He was getting the evening shift a lot and that meant I didn't get to see him in the middle of the day and by the time he got home, I should have been asleep. I missed him :(

The little shortcut path was slick and muddy, but it didn't occur to me that it would be until I was already on it. I was jamming along to music, feeling awesome, so I had a BLAST! I threw mud everywhere- slipped and slid a little through it, and tested out that traction on the new tires. 

It sure was fun!

Jackson wondered why I stopped to take pictures.

Then it snowed some more. It was very pretty, but melted fast.

I love those reflective sidewalls!

We went grocery sopping at Sprouts and bought WAY more than we intended. Jamie had to haul it home.

Look at all that stuff!

A train on the morning commute.

Some geese decided to hold up traffic too one day.

I discovered a night scene setting. It sounds like it takes 5 pictures and puts them together. Regardless, I'm pleased with the results!

And now with my new route, I don't even get to see this anymore- it's full dark and I've been to my first stop before the sky lightens this much.

Hehe, static! It's unusual on the streamers, to say the least.

After all that mud, Zoomie required a bath big time. 

This is why I had to go find a new chain- I didn't think this one was worth cleaning. It took all day and I ended up finishing the bath in the lighted breezeway. I finished at 11, well past my bedtime, but it was worth it.

All clean!!

Poor scraped-up Zoomie. <3

Yay clean.

I still love my frog watch. It didn't take long for me to get dependent on it for telling me the time- my wristwatch is always covered lately and my bike computer can now show more important things- like temperature.

Look, a fender sparkle!

This cloud is out of focus, I swear. Look, you can see the tree mainly in focus. I really did check and make sure I was wearing my glasses when I looked at that cloud, it weirded me out.

And lastly- I had big news:

JAMIE GOT A NEW BIKE!!

Ta dah! 

It was a dusty display on clearance. 

Jamie got another 10% knocked off for a few tiny dings.

Disc brakes!! 

I guess it is a Mongoose Stat.

I'm trying to think of a name. I think either "Squishy" or "Dory", after the Finding Nemo character. Jamie said he had to get a suspension seatpost since he no longer has rear suspension. This put in my mind the mental image of him bouncing along as he pedaled, which made me think of squishy suspension... the idea just sort of stuck in my head once it got in there. Since Dory is a female character, I think this bike might be dubbed Squishy. 

Tell me what you think or make other suggestions!

Vandal now belongs to a coworker of Jamie's, which saves us the hassle of trying to figure out how one person can get two bikes home (or two people for three bikes). I have to get my trailer hitch, though. It's still on Vandal from that grocery trip.

That's it so far! Life goes on. 

I'll talk about my new route later, today was only the second day.

Goodnight.

Spring is Coming! Time for Changes and Plans

I woke up this morning and was absolutely elated to find the thermometer showing over 50 degrees in the darkness before dawn. 58! I had bare skin exposed for the first time since.... well, for a long time. It was glorious.

Life has been pretty same-old-same-old until just recently. Did my lack of posts give it away? There just isn't much to write about when life is happening smoothly. Now, there seems to be a bunch of stuff to talk about, and it's all exciting.

Firstly- I got a bus route!! I've been serving as a substitute driver on a regular but unofficial route. That means we are driving these two kids around until they no longer need service- indefinitely. They could disappear tomorrow, or we could finish out the year with them. It looked as if we'd finish the year with them, and not only that, but the one boy started summer vacation long after my district was out on holiday- so yay for more pay!

But, I'm happy to say that I am now going to be a driver with an official route- which means the uncertainty of tomorrow is gone (you know, as much as it can be). I'll go from driving that white Suburban to the wonderfulness that is a yellow and black school bus, complete with flashing lights and emergency exits and everything. It's a mini-bus, but that's ok. I will gleefully throw on those hazard flashers at every railroad crossing to hold up traffic and check for trains.

The office staff is already talking about adding more kids to that route, now that a driver with a CDL will have it. The previous driver is one of only 2 remaining who do not hold regular CDL licenses- which means that if their little buses break and all we have are big spares, we have to find another driver to substitute as well. If the office folks want to add students, they'll just upgrade me to a big bus now that they can. See, there are additional perks to employing me besides my awesomeness.

The new route begins on Wednesday, which also happens to be the Vernal Equinox, or first day of spring, when the length of day and night are equal. How appropriate!

Anyhoo.
The second awesome thing is that I'm officially planning my first bicycle tour!

We had originally thought of doing it during Thanksgiving break, but decided against it. We tossed the possibility of spring break around, but we (my mom and I) agree that would be rushing things. Now it will definitely happen sometime this summer. Scheduling will depend heavily on the work schedules of participants.

The plan is to ride from my house to my dad's house, pretty much. It is roughly 120 miles from Longmont to Colorado Springs, so 2 days is a reasonable expectation, maybe 3. I am the only one who rides regularly, although my husband also commutes to work when he can't get a ride. The other people accompanying me on this trip is my mom, my dad, and my twin sister. And my husband Jamie of course!

Rather than find a dog-sitter, I plan to tow them along just as if it was my dream cross-country tour. Grunt has done very well- we've had a second trip, this time for a rushed picnic dinner at the dog park. I plan to get him used to the trailer with more trips, but rides fine, if a bit noisily.

We also plan on acquiring a tandem bicycle sometime between now and then. I started coveting a tandem shortly before my birthday. I very nearly had one then. How awesome would it be to ride a Schwinn Twinn with my twin on our birthday? Alas, it did not happen, but I brought up the tandem to my mom, who seems to have immediately fallen in love with the idea just like I had- we could use one on our tour! It is now a done deal- I will be getting a tandem at some point, I just don't have it yet.

So far, I'm just trying to think of supplies that we'll need (sunscreen!!!), and I'm figuring out a route. By "figuring out a route" I mean I told google I wanted directions from point A to B and told it to go by bike. Now I am walking the little street view man along the blue line, and taking notes. I'll peek at each road it wants us the travel on and check for a bike lane, a sidewalk, a wide shoulder. I'll divert from roads that might be unsafe. I'm also marking hills that I can see- Mom is concerned about hills (understandably!) due to her fitness level and leg strength. With Zoomie's gearing, I would be worried about hills too, but I also know that you'd be surprised at what you can actually pedal up.
Oh, and of course, I must do the onerous chore (horrors!) of taking my puppies on bike rides to someplace nice- like Petsmart or the dog park, or for a picnic. I'm sure I can manage.   :)
I wonder if I should put some weights in the trailer and start carting it back and forth to work with me?

Speaking of work again, Daylight Savings has robbed me of my glorious sunrises! How rude. I'm back to pedaling along in the dark lit up like a Christmas tree. Well, a small pathetic tree. Really I only have my front Maglite flashlight, the rear Bell Radian, and 2 dim NiteIze spoke lights. I expect the NiteIze to only have a 1-year commuting lifespan, the way they are slowly dying. Slowly, I can see the sun starting to grace the world with light a teeny bit earlier each day, and it makes me happy.

I got new tires! Zoomie had a blowout as a result of the cheap stock tires being unable to hold my DIY winter studs. The rubber started tearing, so I uninstalled the studs. It was only a matter of time before the tears opened larger. Sure enough, one morning I started pedaling off and felt a bumping, and heard a rub in the fender. My two layers of inner tube lining saved me from ruining the thorn-resistant tube. I rode Chainless to work that morning.
That afternoon, I found a guy in Boulder selling Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tires- nearly new, and for half the usual price ($70 for both, and that's usually what I find a single tire listed online for, IF you can find them in stock)! These are reputed to be the best winter tires on the market, according to just about everyone in the bike forums. The guy was awesome enough to agree to accept a check from me dated for the next day when I got paid. I decided it was fate, and I spent that day between school bus routes taking a bus to Boulder and back and installing the new tires.
Thank you Keith!!!! I rode Zoomie back to work for my afternoon run.
The tires were indeed practically new, with the little nubbies still on in most places (he'd said they had 12 miles on them). One tire was missing 7 studs (out of 240!), the other was perfect. YAY!!

There, I think that's everything you missed. I have pictures, but I've misplaced my camera. I assure you I'll post them soon- I have some gorgeous scenery to share, more snow, and of course that magnificent tire failure had to be captured in imagery.

Happy Friday!!!

SNOW!!!

My twin sister's boyfriend posted a photo of pretty scenery taken from the inside of their vehicle this morning- he's a paramedic (is that the official term? I get confused) so it wasn't during a commute, I think, but part of their job.

Not to be outdone, I simply HAD to share pictures I took this morning as well. I was going to share them anyway, I just think it's funny that my morning was SO GORGEOUS also. I may be biased, but I think mine are prettier.

The bike path calls, "come hither".

Also: ha. Ha. HA!

I thought my plan to survey the roads and use them in the case that the greenway was unplowed to be a smart one. In EVERY previous instance of snow, the no-man's-land between the last park and Airport Rd, I think that section is called Lykin's Gulch, is the very last part to receive attention. People just don't use it much, compared to the other parts near parks and closer to town. You're either out there commuting purely to get somewhere, such as myself, or you are out there for fitness reasons. It. Gets. Plowed. Last.

Until today.

Ha, ha, Longmont! Very funny!

I got all the way to Hover Rd on the icy, bumpy, perilously plowed pathway. At the park there (I've looked it up, it's called Roger's Grove- fitting since that one has the orchard in it), the plowman gave up. He abandoned us. Got tired? Something. Ha ha, trudge through the snow now. It's only halfway up your bicycle wheels. Drifts touched the axles.

It's the deepest snow I've cycled in to date, and I REALLY wished that my tires had some tread in them. It didn't take me long to realize that uphill was impossible, even slight inclines. I also learned that making my own new trail was better than trying to follow the one already there (I think someone rode a dirt bike through there- those tracks were HUGE! The track was icy at the bottom, and it's impossible to stay on it while keeping your own balance. Meanwhile the untouched snow was actually fluffy and pretty loose, so as long as the wheel kept turning with traction under it, I was fine. Without traction, it spun wildly and soon I had to get a foot down or fall over. Trudge, trudge, remount. Try riding again. Repeat a little distance further along when a deeper drift would slow me too much and cause another spin-out, or the path dipped upwards again.

It was highly amusing to look back at the tracks I was making- sometimes a crazily-crooked rut with footprints slogging along beside it, sometimes just a nearly-straight rut in shallower or flatter places, but mostly a rut surrounded on either side by random holes where my feet turning on the pedals were at the lowest points in the rotation.

I realized that if I wasn't hurrying, I'd be late, even as early as I'd left the house. It took me an entire hour to cover my usual 30-minute route. Also, if I hadn't been worried about being late, I would have been having SO MUCH FUN! It was kind of fun anyway, even as I was cursing the city folks for my assumption of a fully-plowed greenway system.

My camera died before I could get a proper shot of wheel and snow-depth. Oh well.

Good morning!