Stan’s Obligatory Blog

On Tuesday, Kathleen and I met up in the park to join the hiking group for an evening hike. I was a bit sore from Monday’s stair practice, but as much as I like to make fun of elementary school gym teachers, I was determined to ‘walk it off’. The hike was a relatively easy one, and it was a nice evening for a walk in the park.

About halfway up, we stopped for a nice view of downtown L.A. Including the building I’d climbed on Monday, and the one I’m practicing for for next month.

And apropos of nothing at all, when we got back and got ready to leave, I noticed that the odometer reading on my car was a palindrome.

The YMCA downtown has been running a set of practice sessions for the upcoming stair climb. They started out on the Bunker Hill Steps, then moved to a 20-something story building, and today they moved to One California Plaza, which is 42 stories. I figured that this was getting into the range that would be enough of a challenge to be worth a trip downtown.

The run itself was pretty good. I passed a lot of people. We went all the way to 42 and then one more to the roof level. I’d guessed that I’d make the top in about 7:55. My time was 8:06, but that included the one extra floor I hadn’t counted on. So really, I was right on target.

The only bad part was that the freight elevator had croaked, so they made us walk down. Ow.

Today’s ride was over to Griffith Park for a stop at The Trails in Fern Dell. It was cool and overcast, and pretty much a perfect day for riding. We had a big group again this week.

When we stopped at The Trails, Carla gave Don a “Team Estrogen” post-it pad for his desk.

Near the top of the pass over Mt Hollywood, I got a picture at a nice overlook. I also got some action shots on the descent, since there are some good curves there.

We rode home by was of Figueroa St and South Pasadena. That’s the flattest way home from there.

45 miles.
cycling

This is Coyote. She is a cattle-dog and something else mix. And her name is pretty self-explanatory. She looks like a coyote, and she moves like a coyote.

Last weekend we went and met Coyote. She was nice, and very mellow. So this week we took Suzie out to meet her to see if they would get along. They did all right, so we brought Coyote home. She’s still new here, but Lucinda is teaching her to use the dog door.

So we’re a two-dog family again.

Lucinda was over at a friend’s house when I got home from work today. So I had a couple of hours to go for a ride. I did my usual loop over the hill by the South Pasadena water tower, and then home by way of the Rose Bowl and up through Altadena. It was a very pleasant evening for a ride.

23 miles.
cycling

To have one’s life summed up in one short headline…

Today’s bike ride was the ‘Random Ride to Whittier’, which is a nice flat route that doesn’t really go anywhere in particular. After last week’s big hills, it seemed like the thing to do.

We had a big group today. On the way down, we stopped for a photo-op at Dork St. in Pico Rivera. Then on to Whittier and back by way of the San Gabriel River bike path. Just below Whittier Narrows dam, I saw a pile of sticks just below the floodgates and I thought, “That’s one ambitious beaver…”

Our snack stop was at Merengue in Monrovia. The window said, “Food That’ll Make You Dance” We’re not sure if this is a good thing or not. I had a little pastry called a “Refugee”. I was sort of expecting it to be shaped like an inner tube or something. But it was good.

It was a nice ride.

45 miles.
cycling

This is funny. I subscribe to a discussion mailing list that includes a lot of topics. Gmail has programs that look at the text of the messages to decide what ads to display on the page when I’m reading my mail.

So here’s the FAIL. You’d think that if they’re keying on ‘goldline‘ to trigger displaying the goldline ad, they might consider not displaying it if the next word is ‘scam‘.

A couple weeks ago, the L.A. Times had an article about a house in La Crescenta. The owner had had it painted bright green, and the neighbors were all upset. Of course, I thought that this would make for a good sightseeing trip for the bike club. So today was the day.

It was a perfect day for riding. The route was a variation on the “No Tuna” route through Sun Valley and Shadow Hills. We started out across Eagle Rock and Glendale, and took Kenneth most of the way to Burbank. We had an early snack stop at Paradise Bakery in Glendale. Then we continued on, taking a short side trip to see the backyard pirate ship in Burbank. Then it was back to business, north on Glenoaks into Sun Valley.

That was where Keira got a flat. But that didn’t stop us for long, and soon we were riding past the dump in Sun Valley. The wind was just right to bring us the stench of rotting garbage. Yum. I love L.A.

In Shadow Hills, we saw people riding horses. But sadly, Lorenzo the Llama is not there any more.

In Tujunga, we started up the hill. We had to climb almost all the way up the hill to get to the Green House. But when we got to the top, there it was. Resplendent in its green-ness. I started thinking about having mint ice cream when I got home. I heard someone else talking about having lime sherbet.

I think it’s funny that they neighbors are upset about this house. Along the way, a car passed us with a bumper sticker that said, “Freedom is Not Free”. But it seems that the essence of freedom is that in order for you to have freedom to do as you wish, others have to have it, too. Including being able to paint their house bright green.

After seeing the house, we got treated to a very long downhill. Then we rode home by way of Altadena. It was a nice ride.

47 miles.
cycling

For the first time this summer, I had a free evening to go bike riding. This was a nice treat, so I went and did my usual loop down to the South Pasadena water tower, and then up to the Rose Bowl to noodle around a few times before riding home by way of Altadena. Not much to say about it, aside from it was a very pleasant ride.

33 miles.
cycling