Stan’s Obligatory Blog

6/8/2007

We’ll always have Paris…

Filed under: — stan @ 4:57 pm


D’oh! I had a whole plan set up for Sunday’s bike ride. We were going to ride down to Lynwood and sightsee the jail where Paris Hilton was staying, but then she got sprung from da joint.

Sheesh.

Well, it sounds like the judge is pissed, and she’s been ordered back to jail. But I’ve already made other plans for Sunday, so we’ll have to go next week.

6/6/2007

Another ‘flat’ lunchtime ride

Filed under: — stan @ 6:25 pm


Route map

Today at lunchtime I went riding with Vikki. By chance, we both wore our Caltech Velo jerseys, so we got a souvenir picture before we started out. We did our flat route through Arcadia, since Eric wasn’t along this time to point out that it’s not really flat. It was a perfect day for riding, and we had a very nice time.

18 miles at lunch, 26 for the day.
cycling

To have one’s life summed up in one line…

Filed under: — stan @ 6:53 am


The L.A. Times has a small obituary today for Maurice Marsac. The headline says:

Maurice Marsac, 92: French actor often portrayed snooty waiters

What a way to go. To have your life and career summed up so tidily.

Reading the obituary, it sounds like there was much more to him than that. He was part of the French Resistance during World War II, and a highly-ranked croquet player. And he and his wife were married for 55 years.

Read it here at the L.A. Times website


6/3/2007

Glendale Vistas

Filed under: — stan @ 5:09 pm

Route map

Today’s ride was a new version of Gene’s “Glendale Vistas” route. It had some added hills for more fun! We had a very big group today. Apparently, the Foothill Cycle website and rides were mentioned recently in Bicycling magazine.

We headed out under a cool overcast and rode across Pasadena and then up into La Cañada. There, we took a left on Chevy Chase and rode up the hill. Then it was the nice long downhill into Glendale. At the bottom, we made a loop through the middle of Glendale, passing by the Graceland Apartments. There was no sign of Elvis, though.

Coming out on Glenoaks, we headed west to our snack stop at Paradise Bakery. I had my usual two chocolate eclairs. The eclairs are very good there. When we were getting ready to leave, Vikki took my picture, since I was wearing my new Fat Cyclist jersey.

Leaving Paradise, we took Kenneth and Mountain back across Glendale. Then the fun started. We rode up and down the hills on edge of Verdugo Mountain. Some of them were pretty steep, and I almost had to shift to a lower gear.

We regrouped at the top of the biggest hill and then headed back down. Then we rode past the country club and up yet another steep hill. At the top, we stopped to regroup. After a few minutes, we noticed that we were missing a few people. Someone said that there had been a flat, so I headed back down to take some pictures.

Erich had gotten a flat next to the country club. It was a perfect spot to get a flat, since there was a nice spot of shade under a big tree, and a fence to hang the bike on. He put in a new tube and pumped it up. In the process, he managed to break the valve stem. In my book, this constituted a second flat, so I took another picture for the Flat Tire Gallery. Today was his first time riding with us, and he already has two entries in the gallery.

After the tire was fixed, we all rode up to meet the group. I saw Vikki and Randy practicing their trackstands, so I had to take a picture. Then we went down the hill and back home through La Cañada.

When we got back to the park, I had 45 miles, so I rode out to Sierra Madre with Newton before heading home. It was a very nice ride.

50 miles.
cycling

5/31/2007

Lucinda’s report

Filed under: — stan @ 12:41 pm

Lucinda’s school had an Open House last night, and we got to go in and see all the stuff the kids have been doing all year. Apparently, one of the assignments they did was to write a short report on a famous person. They must have done this entirely in class, because I don’t remember her doing any of it at home.

Her subject was Lance Armstrong, as she explains in the first paragraph:

“I chose this person because my dad was a bike racer.”

I thought that this was very sweet. So what if all that was 30 years ago.

5/30/2007

Water tower

Filed under: — stan @ 5:27 pm

Route map

Today’s noontime bike ride was the Water Tower route. Nothing especially remarkable happened along the way, but it was a perfect day for riding, and we had a very nice time.

18 miles at lunch, 26 for the day.
cycling

Product placement

Filed under: — stan @ 12:22 pm


Today’s Los Angeles Times has a couple of articles about the continuing train wreck that is Lindsay Lohan. One is on the front page, and talks about how underage movie stars go drinking at trendy nightclubs in Hollywood. Following the article inside to page A-16, we see the paparazzi photo of Ms. Lohan passed out in her car with her AA sobriety necklace hanging from the rear-view mirror. And right below the article, a large ad for a summer acting camp for teens. You know, so they can learn to act and be movie stars, just like Lindsay Lohan. Talk about great product placement.

Click the picture to see the whole page.

5/28/2007

Echo Mountain

Filed under: — stan @ 7:04 pm

Today Lucinda and I did the hike up Echo Mountain. This is close to our house, and it was a nice day for it. The actual hike is about 2.5 miles each way, and the climb is about 1,400 feet.

We started at the trailhead at the top of Lake Avenue, and we headed up the trail. Lucinda did very well. She maintained a good, steady pace most of the way. She didn’t even complain, aside from wanting to take a few breaks when we came to spots of shade. After we passed the 2-mile marker and I told her we were almost at the top she started running. This was the first time that she has done an entire hike like this unaided. Last summer when we climbed Mt. Lassen, she did about half the hike riding the mule.

Along the way, we saw some interesting nature sights. There were lots of lizards along the trail, and a hawk soaring overhead. And there were some nice cactus flowers near the start of the trail.

At the top, Lucinda had fun poking around the ruins of the former White City. She was going to try out the Echo Phone, but she got self-conscious about yelling into it. We sat down and had some snacks amid the ruins. And she particularly enjoyed looking through the rubble of the old powerhouse.

Finally, we headed back down, covered with dust. Overall, it was a fun day.

5/27/2007

No Tuna For Me

Filed under: — stan @ 8:14 pm

Route map

Today’s ride was a new route that Gene called “No Tuna For Me”. It went up to Sunland, but then came back by a different route, completely avoiding La Tuna Canyon. I was a little skeptical about this, since I like La Tuna Canyon, but this turned out to be a pretty nice route.

We started out straight west, across Pasadena and Eagle Rock to Glendale. Then we took Kenneth across Glendale, which was nice. It has a lot less traffic than Glenoaks. When that ended, we got on Glenoaks and rode up into Sunland. That’s where we saw the hot rod roadster.

In Sunland, we took a right on Peoria and rode along the edge of the big landfill there. Fortunately, the wind was blowing the right way so we didn’t have to smell it. Then we took several small streets up through the hills. The area there has a very rural feel. Most of the houses had horses, and one had geese in the yard. Finally, we came out on Sunland Blvd by the 210 freeway.

Crossing the freeway, we turned off Sunland and took some small streets through Tujunga. That’s where Gaurav got a flat. We stopped to fix it, and while we were fixing it, a guy from across the street came out of his house carrying a floor pump. He said that he’s had to fix flats on the side of the road many times before, so he thought the pump could help us. And he was right. It was a very nice thing and helped us a lot.

We came out on Foothill Blvd, which we took for a short distance through the middle of Tujunga, and then we turned down Tujunga Canyon Road and from there it was all downhill into Montrose and our snack stop at Oven Fresh Bakery. We saw the Pasadena Triathlon Club across the street while we were there. They were in the middle of a long ride of their own.

After the snack stop, we headed back through La Cañada into Pasadena. Then we went down Arroyo and Lincoln to get back to Orange Grove, which brought us back to the park. At that point, I had 44 miles, so I rode out to Sierra Madre with Newton before turning around and heading home with my Magic 50 Miles for the day.

50 miles.
cycling

5/26/2007

Wind caves in the OC

Filed under: — stan @ 9:43 pm

Today we went down to the OC so Lucinda could visit with Grandma and Grandpa. While she was doing that, Cathy and I went out. We went to Aliso and Woods Canyon Wilderness Park and did an easy hike there. I’d found it on the net yesterday, and the wind caves sounded interesting.

The actual trail was very easy walking. There were lots of people riding bikes there, also. It’s probably a better trail for bikes than for walking, just because a bike can cover the distance much faster. Signs warned of mountain lions, but we didn’t see any evidence of them, aside from some large scats along the trail.

We saw a flowering cactus along the trail, as well as lots of colorful birds. There was a very large birdhouse a short distance away from the trail. The sign said it was a raptor perch for hawks. We saw some hawks flying around, but we didn’t see them landing on the perch.

Cave Rock was a large outcrop of sandstone with some small caves in it. They were large enough to crawl inside, but not high enough to sit up in. The sandstone is quite soft, and people just can’t seem to resist carving their names in it. We saw one name dated 1927 on the side.

The highlight was Dripping Cave, which is reputed to have been a hideout for stagecoach robbers in the old days. The ceiling still had black soot on it from campfires.

On the way back, we came across a rattlesnake snoozing on the trail. It was about 3 1/2 feet (1m) long. It woke up and looked at us, and then slowly slithered away into the brush.

Overall, it was a pretty nice little hike.

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