The times they are a-changing (for the better I think)

  I didn't realize how long it has been since my last post, since my life devolved into somewhat of a basket case shortly thereafter. It has since calmed down and slowly began to re-assemble itself but I'm finding it hard to believe it's already December. So, pour yourself another cup of tea and get comfy, because this is a long one.
   In case anybody wonders what happened to me, here's the rundown:  Oct 17th I made a really dumb decision while riding and did a slo-mo endo, still clipped in, directly onto my head for concussion #2. Since when was it ever a good idea to use your head as landing gear? Hello arms? I fortunately felt almost back to normal within a week though and was ready to keep it waaay more mellow for the rest of the year.
   Exactly 2 weeks later I was working on moving things into the new house, since Kit decided to rent his house out for the winter while we stay in a temporary spot in Incline Village and ponder our next move. Truck loaded with stuff, and neck still stiff from crashing, I had a hard time telling how close I was to backing into the tree growing through the parking platform at the new house. KLUNK! Oh, there it is...my head feels funny now. Yep, concussion #3. Not even a scratch in my truck's bumper. This last one has been really weird, with some crazy reactions to both a massage and a craniosacral treatment, and a neck sprain that showed up a couple weeks later which may also be a large part of feeling so messed up. I'm finally doing better now and able to get out of the house, so the doctor says I can start some physical therapy.
   Coincidentally, my co-worker at Placer Mosquito who has been taking an EMT course in Truckee told me about the "brain guy" Keith Tatsukawa who came to her class to gather data on brain waves for part of a concussion study he is conducting with Tahoe Forest Hospital. I contacted him and set up an appointment for him to come and collect data from my brain, figuring that at least some good had to come out of acting as a crash test dummy this year. His project is to design a portable device that can scan the brain waves of athletes and differentiate whether they have had a concussion or not after taking a hard hit. It would also be used to monitor the recovery process and provide an indicator for when the brain has completely healed. In all, a very useful tool and I am happy to contribute.
   The biggest unknown will remain, now that all kinds of new research on multiple concussions has come out, will I start losing my marbles sooner because of this? Only time will tell, but I've been mega-dosing on fish oil this whole time because it has been shown to help prevent brain damage in rats and theoretically it does the same in humans.
   Added on to the stress of having to move in the middle of all that, Kit and I had just put in an offer on a house in Meyers, on the south end of Lake Tahoe. With Kit starting a new job it was up to me to get all our paperwork in order for loan documents; I almost forgot to mention that I managed to spill tea on Kit's Macbook (and kill it) somewhere between all this so I was having to leave the house and run around to get things printed out and signed--not the best recovery plan, I've noticed. I didn't even get around to finding a new computer until only a couple of weeks ago.
   This all worried my mom so much that she flew down for a week to--what else--be a mom, cleaning the house and cooking so many good meals while putting as many away in the freezer for later. Kit and I are both so thankful for her help, allowing me to rest fully and Kit to have some down time after work every day instead of cooking and washing dishes every night.
   The house buying process is plugging along smoothly, and we are considering keeping the current tenants for a few months after closing since we don't plan on moving down until spring and the rental income would be nice. After so much debate about buying vs. renting and re-visiting the rather depressing north shore housing market, the light bulb came on and we both agreed that south shore might be the answer, since it is much cheaper to live down there but it's still near the lake and has tons of amazing recreational opportunities.
   Almost immediately we found the house in Meyers, just cooking in the sun and begging for some solar hot water panels, with a giant yard in a quiet neighborhood. I know I'm really going to miss some things about Kings Beach, but I'm also really excited to try out something different, and on top of that the house doesn't need any significant work. More time for the fun stuff like gardening and playing outside! We'll be right near the Upper Truckee river for doggy playtime, a golf course and meadows for me to XC ski on in the winter, and the Pie Shop bouldering/climbing area is only a mile or so away. Not to mention being close to Mr. Toad's and all of the other rad bike trails, and a plethora of backcountry skiing options.
   Amid all of these other bits of excitement I've had a lot of time to ponder the significance of whacking my head a few times, and as much as I don't like to admit, it may be time to move on to other things besides riding downhill, that don't involve such forceful interactions with the ground. At least, until someone designs a proven concussion-proof helmet. Yes, mountain biking in general is a hazardous sport (see concussion #2) but I think that if I go through proper steps to restore upper body strength, revise my decision-making abilities, and avoid jumping off things for a while, I should be able to continue riding cross country and shift over to racing mainly enduro.
   I'm also planning to spend more time climbing and ski mountaineering, exploring the Sierra in the spring and summer, because I'm beginning to feel like wilderness therapy has been a major missing piece in my current life. Having grown up roaming the mountains, getting semi-lost occasionally, and seeing some amazing things that the average person never will, I've started realizing that a major part of what makes me happy has not really been happening as often as it should.
   Aside from playing in the mountains, I've had the idea of trying to race an XTERRA triathlon rolling around in my head for a while as well, and if I can make a successful effort to get better at swimming that may actually happen next year. Oh yeah, running too--I haven't done much of that lately. We'll see. I'm really so thankful that I have so many options, and having always been a multi-sport athlete I think I'll be happiest with the variety of juggling several things at once instead of narrowly focusing on just one like I have for the past couple of years.

More of this next year, please!

   So....who's in for a Mt. Shasta climb/ski around June 24? I'm hoping to make a birthday climb an annual event!

Summer is over, what the heck happened to it!

   The switch from sandals to shoes and socks seems like it happened almost overnight here. Warm one day and frigid the next, with leaves turning color and already falling off the aspens. It seems like ages ago now that I was watching chickens in the backyard, and even longer since I last raced or hit a jump on a downhill bike. Such a long summer but strangely short at the same time, spending far more time with my rear in on the couch than on a bike seat. At one point I started feeling as though I didn't really care about riding any more and could just go on without it--such a strange thing, looking back, now that I've been riding again.
  About a month ago now it started feeling like fall and rain poured out of the sky, leaving trails in a beautiful state. Ahhh, I said, it's time to ride again! After getting the go-ahead from the doc I was able to help coach Shine's Queen of the Mountain clinic at Squaw Valley; teaching some basic riding skills, trailside bike repair, and taking a course walk through the rock garden. Even though I wasn't racing it was still a great time, with plenty of spectating fun, and I realized how much I miss just being around bikes and the awesome people who love to ride. My teammates especially--such a rad group of ladies! I even squeezed in a lap on the DH trail before race time, and though I skipped the rocky top section I found the rest of the trail quite exciting as my first real mountain bike experience in nearly 6 months. Shine had a great showing in the race with honorary team member and coach Tasa Herndon in second, Gretchen Johnson third, Allison Oliver fourth, and our youngest rider Sam Kingshill coming in with the 5th fastest time. Next year...look out!
  Things are feeling mostly back to normal, besides how terribly out of shape I am. Single speeding kicked my butt as I discovered my gear ratio is slightly harder than Kit's SS bike...whoops. If it doesn't kill me it should make me stronger, right? I've definitely re-discovered a love for the simple hardtail bike and how light and zippy it can be. A trip north to the Sierra Buttes to ride Downieville and discover some new trails by Graeagle also made mincemeat of my poor legs, but it all feels so GOOD! The past month on bikes has been so much fun I can't imagine having to go without riding again any time soon. Darn you winter! Stay away until December!
  As always, I am so appreciative of my team Shine Riders Co. for being so positive and supportive while I was not able to ride. And I am also thankful for all of our great sponsors who keep the team equipped with the best gear and provide so much help with our fundraising efforts: Five Ten, Kali Protectives, Loaded Precision components, Guayaki, Happy Turtle Apparel, Loeka Clothing, Smith Optics and Yelo Velo. I'm looking forward to next season so I can get back out and represent them on the race course!

All the ladies @ Queen of the Mountain clinic

  Although racing is done for this season, I'm going to keep shredding trails until the snow falls and then some. Come ride with me and share the joy of mountain bikes!

Still sorting it all out...

  Starting on a good note: I went swimming in the lake! For more than a minute! On Saturday morning I drove (yes, still scared of overdoing it) to Speedboat Beach and pulled my wetsuit on, splashed in, and paddled about for maybe 15 minutes. With lots of resting on boulders to make sure I didn't push it too hard, but it's the most consistent exercise I've gotten all summer aside from walking. Another totally awesome thing that happened last week was that I finally got to do a fun little trailside emergency bike maintenance clinic with some ladies from SheJumps! Lindsay Currier found time to leave her busy homesteading to come up and help me, and Meghan Kelly the SheJumps coordinator for California made it up from south shore with some goodies to pass out. The group totaled around 10 women and we covered a variety of topics from fixing a flat tire to adjusting brakes and shifting and remedies for broken chains/derailleurs. It was so much fun that we're planning on holding another one at the Tahoe Fat Tire Festival on September 14, so tell your friends/girlfriends/wives and anybody else who might possibly be interested in learning a few very useful things about trailside emergency repairs.

Fixing bikes with SheJumps

  Now, had anyone asked me what I thought I'd be doing now a month ago, it sure would not have included making important life decisions about our current and future housing dilemma. It would have more likely been somewhere along the lines of: more relaxing camping trips, hammock snoozing, lots of yoga, and hopefully some swimming and paddling. Probably more gardening and chicken watching as well. And had I not been recovering from an injury, I would have been out racing bikes around the country while Kit was at home alone dealing with this messy situation. Not cool. So everything works out in its own crazy way, and among all of the turmoil my brain is actually feeling good enough to not really notice it any more!

First cherry tomatoes!

   After continuing the round-and-round debate between cheaper Kings Beach fixer-upper, nicer Truckee house, and buildable land in either location, now we're going back around to the little cabin we looked at in the very beginning, wondering if it might not be such a bad idea after all...assuming a few key additions would be doable according to Tahoe building regulations and also not prohibitively expensive for permitting and building. If we could get the price down enough it might even be affordable to hire some friends to help with the remodel/addition process and bust it out much faster. More decisions... AAAHHHHHHHH!!!! What if I just want to live in a van, ride bikes, and climb rocks for a while? It's undeniably stressful to be considering a step into the unknown (or in this case partially known) direction; having already been through one remodel it is not at all on my list of favorite things to do, nor is it on Kit's. It could be so worth it in the end, but I just can't get excited about sacrificing yet another summer of riding bikes and having fun, especially after going through this particularly lame summer. We'll just have to continue the wait and see game, sell the house, and hope something good pops up on the housing market here if the logistics or motivation don't work out quite right for the cabin.

Jamming out!

   In the meantime, not knowing exactly how much longer we'll be in this house, I've been canning pickles and jam like a crazy person in an attempt to utilize my amazing kitchen to the fullest while I have access to it. This has really set the bar high for any future kitchen I will use, having 13 feet of counter space to make enormous messes on and yet everything within reach in a couple of steps. The industrial hood fan keeps the whole house from smelling like bacon or dog food, and I LOVE my antique stove! It really has become my dream kitchen, in my dream house, and it's really so sad that things aren't working out here for having more outdoor space here. The lack of sun on this house has also bothered Kit since he got it, and his next place he is determined to have good enough sun exposure to set up a nice solar heating/power system to offset bills and be more reliant on renewable energy sources...goodbye to winter power outages! Back to the canning projects, I think I'll take on some peaches or other fruit next for winter dessert goodness, and plan to tackle some tomatoes and tomato sauce soon as well. Even if I don't put up quite enough to live on all winter, at least it will mean one less trip to the store for a last-minute pizza or pasta night and putting all this spare time to use while I'm hiding from the smoke and tourist mayhem outside.

Peach-plum ginger jam
recipe from foodinjars.com

   

Turmoil is becoming my new favorite word.

   Some disorganized ramblings from my upside-down mind here, so bear with me as I'm still trying to sort it all out. My pump track just got dozed, and while that was probably going to happen sooner or later, it's still emotionally disturbing to watch it happen and then stare at the empty lot for an entire week. At least I was able to lap it a few times, slowly, the week before it went down. Being still unable to hammer on a bike is not helping--yoga and meditation only goes so far when one's mind is filled with seething emotions that need to be pounded into submission out on the trail.
   I think I left off last time with us thinking about making a purchase of a little cabin in upper Kings Beach. That thought took a nose dive when Kit gave it a good investigation and discovered some glaring issues that would need to be remedied to make it anything close to cozy and warm; things like the bedroom addition missing a foundation and floor insulation, a leaky water heater, and other various issues...Basically, another project, even if not nearly as much of one as our current house was. Poop. There went that great idea! If it goes way down in price it might be tempting to re-consider this one, and pay someone else to fix the most glaring issues right away.
   In the meantime we didn't think much would happen with the next door lot, laughing at anybody who would spend $90,000 on a piece of dirt in the middle of Little Mexico. Surprise turned to shock when Kit got a call from el creepo realtor threatening to sue him for the full value of the lot if we didn't immediately move all our stuff. Apparently there was a serious buyer and he didn't really like us occupying this piece of property. A cascade of worst-case scenarios ensued, causing a boatload of stress to everyone on our side of the situation and horrible feelings of helplessness.
   Lesson 1 from the situation: California apparently has some very tenant-friendly laws regarding this kind of thing, especially for those holding a lease. We could have occupied the lot up until the end of our lease on August 31 without any issues, giving us perhaps a little more time to find places for some leftover things. Unfortunately we didn't find out about this until after moving most everything of value and losing a bunch of firewood and other lumber to the cleanup crew he sent in on a Sunday of all things. I'm sure we both came close to losing our sanity due to the rough treatment, and I'm still trying to unravel everything and get back into mental balance afterward!
   Lesson 2, unfortunately, was a firsthand experience in dealing with people who lack any compassion for others or their situations, and whose concern is focused mainly on growing their bank accounts. I think this was such a shock mainly because I have been so fortunate in my life to have met so many wonderfully generous folks, the kind who actually enjoy helping others or at the very least working out solutions to keep everyone involved happy. This was a great reminder to avoid as much as possible dealing with bad apples like that in the future, especially a certain name in Tahoe real estate. I hope karma will be involved for all parties opposing us in this situation.
   The chicken coop and hens were distributed to some friends last week, and my happy little vegetable garden was transplanted into pots with the help of a few other friends to whom I am so grateful. Most of the plants looked quite unhappy for a week or so but even the largest squash and tomato plants are making a recovery now. The cherry tomato even has tons of fairly large green tomatoes on it, and two of the squash plants have little squashes on them, one which gets bigger daily and is about 5" across now! I'm guessing it's a kabocha squash from its round shape. So far the garden's survival has been one positive coming from the situation--yay miracle plants!!
   Back on the real estate roller coaster Kit found a house up several blocks from us, decided it was awesome, and we needed to look at it immediately. It was enormous by my standards but nearly the entire bottom level was a garage, a huge bonus for the man-cave situation. We went out on a limb a little by putting in an offer but it ended up being too low and I was more than a little relieved to hear they got a higher offer. Everything else we've looked at so far has ranged from a complete dump to just not quite right, and it's becoming obvious that in most cases a small house with a big garage/shop is an anomaly in Tahoe. Big house=big garage, cute small house=no garage. Then the issue of the kitchen: I'm very happy right now with 13 square feet of counter space, while most small houses have maybe 4 or 5 square feet like this one used to. A pain in the rear for someone who loves to cook a lot and make messes! The conclusion, then, is that we might have to find a small house, remodel the kitchen and build a garage...or buy an empty lot and build everything. My logic here is that it might be the same amount of work and expense as reviving a haggard house with all sorts of can-of-worms situations once the walls/floor are opened. Maybe. I've never built a house before, but we darn near rebuilt Kit's. Maybe we could even pay somebody to do some of the work. Or, find a house that's good enough to compromise on and deal with it being large and awkward or having to build a shop. I think all we've decided on at this point is that selling the house first is the best idea so we are ready to pounce when something really exciting comes up.
   Speaking of the house, it's gone through a pretty major transformation in the past weeks, since Kit decided it was going on the market. Finally the exterior got painted with the help of one of Kit's good friends who kindly donated his weekend to the cause. It is very green, and the grumpy next door neighbor lady had some choice words for it, but our friends all think it's cool. I like it myself but it does look just a bit out of place here where everybody tries to blend in with brown houses. There are a couple more projects to finish when Kit returns from a much-needed trip home to Wisconsin next week. After that I am not really sure what is going to happen. I think we'll be moving into the studio behind the house to keep the main house clean, and looking for a place to rent if it ends up selling soon. We have one friend of a friend who sounds really interested in it right now, and would be a perfect fit for the place...it would sure be nice to not have to worry about people come by to look at it all the time.

Some photos by Cline of Roundwood Furniture --I really should dig up some "before" images somewhere for contrast, it's like a whole new house here:

 

Decisions, decisions...

   I'm just hanging on right now spinning round and round, hoping to make it through in one piece. This story actually has nothing to do with brains. Or bicycles for that matter. It concerns that crazy thing, life, that requires important decisions to be made every once in a while hoping one doesn't screw up and make the wrong choice. This is a long and bumpy one so buckle your seatbelt and hang on!
   For a little background Kit bought his house here in 2008, a run down ramshackle building on an incredibly narrow lot only a few feet wider than the house itself. Parking was a big issue with space for only 2 cars comfortably in front of the house, 3 was pretty crammed. About a year later we began taking over a vacant lot adjacent to the house, setting up a fire pit and myself beginning a pump track that has never been much above average but still a pump track in the yard, and using the extra space to park vehicles and as a campground for visiting friends. Not too long after we decided we should probably find out who owns the lot and see if we could rent it yearly. We did and we could; it stayed that way until maybe 2 1/2 years ago when the entire compound containing that lot went up for sale...our first thought was hey, lets try to buy it!
   Kit wanted to build a garage so badly and this could be a perfect opportunity. Things seemed in our favor since nobody really was interested in the empty lot but us. The first offer combined with another buyer who wanted only the rental units on the corner was rejected by one of the banks involved. That took about 6 months to find out. Then a Truckee local guy was going through the buying process (taking about a year). He intended to sell the lot to us as soon as things went through but he finally just got frustrated with all the hoops he had to jump through. Finally an out of town investor was interested, still so long as Kit wanted the lot. Could this be it? We waited almost another year for this one to go through, and when it finally did, a certain scumbag local real estate agent was working for the buyer. Kit heard his name and thought, this is not going to go exactly as planned. Well, it didn't. Said realtor decided that the lot was worth nearly twice what we offered, and opted to put it up on the market for that ridiculous sum instead of selling it to us for the lower price. Whether or not he thinks we would still want to buy it is up for debate... the joke's on him at this point.
   We absolutely freaked out about this for about a day, and came to realize we were more upset about being strung along for so long than actually not getting the land. We had already discussed options for if we couldn't end up buying the lot and all of those involve moving out of this house and going somewhere else. Moving to Bishop naturally came up, since both of us have talked about it for years now every time we visit for a climbing or skiing trip. At first it seemed like a great idea, but the more we thought about it there were a lot of considerations to make. Finding jobs was one of them, finding friends another. Then the issue of the seasons: Bishop is perfect in the winter but way too hot in summer for my taste; being from western Washington where it rarely gets in the 80's I start to melt when it reaches 90 and need to jump in some cold water. Mammoth on the other hand is just too small and touristy, though in the summer it is more pleasantly cool. Food is also an issue there with the only health food store being pretty pathetic compared with what we are used to.
   We both finally concluded that it's hard to beat Tahoe with all our friends, jobs lined up, the CSA box, and backdoor access to mountain bike trails in summer and XC skiing in the winter. But it's still time to move away from Brook Ave and get closer to the forest somehow. Honestly, neither of us really liked this part of the neighborhood that much with the garbage, idiots driving way too fast in their Cadillac SUVs, screaming kids and barking dogs all around, and mariachi raging most nights of the week. It dawned on us both that not getting the lot was the biggest blessing in disguise because it really cut us loose to do what we've wanted to do all along. Optimism says that things will change down here but likely not before both of us are driven to insanity by our neighbors. And trading easy beach access for forest access is a no-brainer, since the beach is so crowded in summer and the woods are definitely locals territory and an easy place to escape people.
   Enter the "coolest house in Kings Beach." Shortly after I moved here and began riding the trails up above town in the national forest, I took a different street to get home one day and passed by a cozy little cabin with lots of windows, fully in the sun yet surrounded by trees and set back from the quiet road. I immediately wished more than anything to live there! When Kit and I started riding together I showed it to him and he agreed that it was a really neat place with so much solar potential. Fast forward 4 years and it happened to show up on the market several weeks ago in a new properties email from Kit's realtor. At first we think, ahh well, that will probably never happen. Then the lot falls through and we both think, WAIT JUST A MINUTE!!!! What is this situation telling us? Let's make it happen! So we're madly scrambling now to figure out how to go about getting that cabin so we can be happily in the quiet part of Kings Beach once and for all. To sell Kit's Brook Ave house or keep it and rent it out for a while? I supposed finding out how much of a loan he can get will probably decide that one. Finally though, we are so glad to have put in so much work making this house as nice as possible, because if it comes down to selling now it should be worth a fair amount more than it was before. If we're meant to stay in Tahoe this might be the last chance since the housing market is still climbing slowly but steadily, and there are not many affordable places left around here especially in such a great location and not in dilapidated condition.
   Should we acquire that little cabin it will likely be the final step in putting down some roots here in Tahoe, which is a little scary in some ways since there are so many places I could think of going to at least try for a little bit. I miss Washington too, at least some parts about it, and my parents would sure be happy to see me move closer. At the same time, we've managed to vacation rent our place to a friend's family once already, so knowing that's an option makes it a little easier to think about getting away for a trip now and then and making it pay for itself. Although Tahoe has a reputation for being a black hole, pulling many folks back who try to leave, at least it's an amazing place to be sucked into staying. I'm not complaining one bit! We'll just have to wait and see how things unfold over the next several weeks, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that finally something will work out in our favor.

Getting priorities straight, working on bikes, and vegetable gardening.

   By now, everyone is probably as tired of hearing about injury-related blah blah as I am of thinking about it.  Let's just say I tried to increase activity levels a bit too much just over a week ago, and experienced somewhat of an epiphany as a result along with an achy head.  This mental re-set reminded me me that everything happens for a reason, and this long drawn-out ordeal might have something to tell me.  Partly influenced by the opinion of my massage therapist and friend, I have finally come to realize that the overall priority of this process should not be to try and get back riding bikes or training for any sport ASAP (you bonehead!).  There is no timeline aside from hopefully being ready to race early next spring.  Instead I need to work toward overall health by taking care of my body and letting it get as much rest as it needs, and take this opportunity to relax and lengthen those angry tight overused muscles I have cultivated through years of pushing my limits and accumulating stresses.  Plus, it's not like I'm going to turn into a lazy couch potato or anything.  There is no better time than now to break down the scar tissue from past injuries that may not have been properly rehabilitated, and make them more flexible and receptive to building strength.  Later on this fall I'm hoping to find a strength trainer to address any remaining issues and bring things into balance before seriously getting back to business.  It's a great time to address muscle imbalances and focus on correcting postural problems (like climber-biker shoulder hunch) before they become major issues.  Just like my brain, I only get one body in this lifetime, and I'd like it to continue being as functional as possible for a long time.

   I highly recommend my friend Emily Quinn as an amazing massage therapist, as well as a knowledgeable, nurturing yoga instructor focused on therapeutic methods here in north Lake Tahoe.  I can't thank her enough for helping me finally realize that putting the time and money in for healing bodywork will pay off in the end.  It has taken me 3 or 4 years of seeing Emily usually once a year, and every time she sighs and shakes her head and always says she needs so much more time to work it all out.  And do your stretches more often!  Ok, you win, and I will too in the end.  Instead of paying for race entry fees and bike parts, my poor beat-up muscles finally get an upgrade.  And when I've done my time getting the worst of the tension worked out, I really hope to do some kind of massage maintenance schedule, every 1 or 2 months, to avoid letting things ever get that bad again.  This week I'll try to venture out to a few mellow yoga classes like Yin, restorative, and therapeutic to help things along.  I'd like to think I'm strong enough to stay with this program without deviating and hopping on a bike other than a beach cruiser too soon, but just in case I may lock both of my mountain bikes together and give the key to a friend to keep for another month or so.  I'm way too easily swayed by the idea of hitting the trails, and my "bad idea alarm" seems to be malfunctioning lately, or I just have a really bad bike addiction.  Must…ride…now…aaaahhhhHH!

My old XC racing rig, now converted to SS

   Even so, I've continued to put together my single speed project, and it's now close to being done.  Nerding out on building bikes is still pretty great!  It is only in need of one more tiny headset spacer to compensate for a slightly smaller stem clamp.  For the drivetrain I decided to experiment, using an online chain length calculator which uses inputs of chainstay length and cog sizes, to figure out if I could use a half link to achieve proper tension without using a separate tensioner.  With the vertical dropouts on my frame I presumably only had 2 choices: a tensioner or an eccentric hub like Kit has on his SS; the hub looks the cleanest but it would have meant trying to figure out an eccentric disc brake adapter situation that would work with my brakes, or buying a new rear brake that worked with post mount adapters.  In the end my plan worked out perfectly, and the chain is tight enough to stay on securely but not so tight it doesn't move freely.  The parts I used are an old XT crankset, an extra fat 16t stainless steel rear cog and Surly 32t stainless front chainring, and a burly single speed chain.  Some other small parts I used are a new set of aluminum cassette spacers, which I decided would look classier than the old plastic ones I had, and some shorter chainring bolts.  After having Kit try to grind down some longer bolts with varying degrees of success it seemed a lot easier to just get a new $5 set of bolts.  Finally I added some new cockpit bits: a set of wider riser bars for better leverage and a new Loaded Precision Ti stem to accommodate the fatter diameter bars, and some fresh new grips from Loaded.  I'd like to find out how much it weighs now, because it's pretty darn light.  I'm dreaming of cranking up some gnarly climbs on that bike!

Mmmmm...looking slick!

Shiny new parts

 



















  With bikes no longer the center of my existence this year, now I turn to my other favorite thing: food.  Cooking is my favorite indoor activity, and I find myself in the kitchen for hours at a time making an exotic feast or paging through cookbooks looking for dinner inspiration.  Thanks to my gathered resources and a good helping of internet browsing, I've had no problems dispatching approximately 10 lbs of vegetables that we receive every week in our CSA box, sometimes even wishing for more and winding up at the
farmer's market to fill the produce bins partway through the week.  I have fallen hopelessly in love with vegetables since starting the CSA two years ago; the roots and leaves, colorful and plain, they all are so tasty when cooked in the right way.  Rutabagas, turnips, celeriac, and other oddities disappear quickly with stews, soups or roasting.  Striped chioggia beets are one of my all time favorites, looking so lively in cole slaws and shaved raw onto salads.  Crispy lemon cucumbers that can be eaten like apples on a hot day…ahhhh, yum.  The irony I have discovered this summer is that an innocuous herb, parsley, is becoming my undoing.  Parsley goes easily in so many things, but since a small amount goes such a long way, getting parsley in the box two weeks in a row is proving to be an insurmountable challenge.  On top of that, I have a parsley plant in my garden happily growing away untrimmed.  What to do with so much parsley?  Feeding it to the chickens comes to mind, although that seems like a cop-out, and maybe that much of a strong herb will make the eggs taste funny?  Help! I'm buried in mountains of parsley!!  Oh well, I guess I could always freeze it…

Garden as of July 27, notice the squash exiting to the right.

   The garden has gone nuts in the past few weeks, loving the warm temps, and one of the squash plants has exploded out of the raised bed and ventured out into the yard, growing at the rate of nearly a foot a day.  The squash in the middle has numerous flowers, while the one on the left is struggling a bit with being eaten by something at night, requiring some pepper spray application once in a while.  It looks like a totally different variety than the other two and I'm curious to see what it ends up being.  Some baby snap peas are coming out already, not quite ready to pick but maybe in a few more days.  The cherry tomato has tiny green fruits already and one of the giant heirloom plants is flowering.  I'm not sure what will happen with the corn since it's behind schedule but still going pretty strong; it might end up just providing the chickens with more shade in their pen.  I'm kind of surprised at how easily this gardening thing is turning out to be overall, not a whole lot of weeds to pull or maintenance other than daily watering.  Hopefully I should be overrun with veggies within the next couple of months, how exciting!!

   I'll leave you with this particularly applicable quote, shared today by a Facebook friend, who is always coming up with the most inspiring things to share and post:

"Your life, with all its ups and downs, has molded you for the greater good. Your life has been exactly what it needed to be. Don’t think you’ve lost time. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the current moment. And every moment of your life, including this one right now, is a fresh start."  -Spiritual Awakenings

Ponderings on a passion for bikes

   Lately, life feels a little bit like a repeat of my last backcountry ski trip in Washington; the mountain covered in a few feet of fresh snow, struggling to follow a steep skin track the whole way up.  Now and then my skins will lose grip and I slide backwards a ski length or 2, maybe tumbling over into a small tree, filling my pants with snow.  Eventually I have to cut off and break my own less-steep trail.  The going is incredibly slow and frustrating, but despite minor setbacks I'm picking myself back up and climbing steadily at a turtle's pace and can finally see the top getting closer.  As good an analogy as any for coming back from an injury; for every three steps of forward progress I'll slide back a step or so every week after getting too excited and overdoing it again.  Generally things are much improved from week to week even though day to day can vary if I spend too much time in the sun or don't rest enough between active days.  This past week after being cleared for more moderate activity I was able to ride to the beach in Tahoe Vista, about 10 minutes away.  Along with several other rides of similar length and effort this was a small victory, but considering where I was 2 weeks ago, or a month ago, it's something to get excited about!

   Being able to ride even for such short distances feels great, partly because I'm able to pedal on a bike again, and partly because I am becoming less dependent on my truck to get around.  Driving in Tahoe in the summer really stinks dealing with tourist traffic, road construction, parking, and all this to get just a few miles away from home.  When I bought my truck after living car-free in Tahoe for 4 years I continued to pretend I didn't have it for much of the time, using it mainly to shuttle downhill bikes and get to climbing crags some distance away, or make backcountry skiing excursions.  Working at Alpine Meadows got me free bus passes to further save on gas, and if I planned right I could snag an extra 10 rides toward the end of the season to use in the summer.  Everything else within the north Lake Tahoe area, from grocery shopping to work I was able to ride a bike and get exercise while running errands all summer long.  Even now with my summer job in Truckee, I had planned to commute 10 miles each way by bike 3 days a week or more over Highway 267's Brockway Summit.  Being trapped in a car for such mundane activities is borderline painful compared with the thrill of flying down pavement on two human-powered wheels at 6:30 AM and arriving at work more awake than ever.  Then a pedal down the Truckee River bike path to Tahoe City completes the triangle and makes a 40-mile bike sandwich day, fun for variety instead of climbing back over the pass.  Wow, do I ever have a bike problem!  I'll have to put in some smaller road rides before attempting to ride to work, but I hope that at least this late summer-fall will be filled with more bike commuting and less icky driving.

   My mom gave me a book about cycling in Amsterdam for my birthday,  In the City of Bikes, by Pete Jordan.  After eagerly tearing through it in a couple of days I'm convinced that I had to have lived there in a past life to develop such an unusual addiction to pedaling.  It was fascinating delving into the social aspects of cycling's evolution in Amsterdam, and how cars very nearly took over the city at one point but were fought back by an overwhelming number of cycling advocates, with the extra help of a gasoline shortage.  Most interestingly, I also found the correlation between one's vehicle and social status doesn't exist to such an extreme degree in the land of bicycles, with all walks of life pedaling the city together from students and nuns to politicians and successful businessman.  As someone who watches Hummers and Cadillac SUVs with chrome wheels cruise up and down my street before parking in front of a trailer or dilapidated motel, I am puzzled by this.  Sure, you drive a fancy car, but you live in a shack and eat cheap garbage food in order to feed the monster with gas?  If gas prices went up to $10 a gallon, would you move out of your trailer and live in the car?  Convincing people to ride bikes where it makes more sense is looking like a lot more work than just making safe places to ride; it entails changing the cultural view that bicycles are for kids and poor people, and why should one ride if they can drive instead and make a bigger impression.  That kind of change can take generations, and I wouldn't expect to see it happen in my lifetime, barring a drastic event such as running out of oil...but then we would have much larger problems to face.  I just can't imagine any way to make a majority of average folks get out there and ride bikes for some part of their daily routine.

   I can only dream of living in such a place where cyclists are accommodated with as much space and respect as cars instead of being relegated to a 2-3 foot (if even that) shoulder with RVs and boat trailers zooming past with inches to spare, or squeezing past cars parked IN the bike lane.  While some parts of Tahoe are lucky enough to have a separated bike path to ride on, much of the north and east shore is devoid of such luxury and leaves one to ponder how much less of a mess parking and traffic might be if the lake was completely surrounded by a bike path and bike rental shops in every town.  Tons of people probably would still drive, but at least riding bikes would be much safer for the rest of us who like to pedal.  Who can complain about cutting down on both pollution and traffic in this amazingly beautiful mountain lake basin?

And now, for something completely different:

Porky with a baby chicken. He is actually terrified of them and ran upstairs to hide after this.

A happy garden. No vegetables yet but the squash are ginormous! Most of the plants survived an invasion by the chickens one afternoon, though I lost the cucumber (WAAAHHHHH!) and one tomato plant.