Today is the first full day of Spring. It also happens to be the first snow of the entire Winter. Somehow, this seems wrong.
What does Spring mean, what does Winter mean if it rains all Winter and snows in the Spring?
Predictions for the Pacific Northwest agree that this year will be wetter and cooler than the last few, in opposition (or balance) to the rest of the country seeing warmer and dryer weather.
No one said anything about snow.
I scored some major enthusiasm today by visiting the Made Right on Whidbey show up in Coupeville, WA.
I went originally to see Linnane Armstrong and her woodcuts, but as I wandered about, I stumbled across Bev McQuary with some of her lampwork beads! I hadn't read closely enough to discover that she was going to be there.
To make this short, I came home with a boat-load of enthusiasm for getting back to art. Oh, sure, I took some pictures of the flames in the wood stove yesterday, as sources for doing custom flame paint jobs (haha, like I'll ever get back to doing that), and have been doing paper miniatures for wargaming, but really: these two are real artists with work to show and sell.
I managed to avoid descending into wood block prints (having done some before as well as serigraphs), but I find myself all fired up (no pun intended) to light the torch and make some beads.
Imagine! I want to make something!
I'm not sure I've ever ridden a "real" bike ride three days in a row. But I suspect I've reached that weird (and fabled) point where riding is the high point of my day.
It used to be cooking dinner.
I'm sure dinner will return to priority as soon as the weather turns cold.
I rode my regular loop. That's how I feel about it now. It's 25 miles and covers the Scatchet Head, Ewing, and Bayview climbs.
I pushed a bit harder than usual and I was feeling pretty good. In fact, I covered the route in 100 minutes, down from 135 for the last round!
My back aches a bit, probably because I used arms and back on a couple of stretches to get more power to my legs.
My doctor this morning tells me I am still anemic, possibly a bone marrow thing. I don't care. My LDL is dropping, the HDL climbing very quickly. Good, but I don't much care about that, either.
I care that my bike got all muddy, that I got some mocha Clif-shot on the handlebars
I gotta figure out how to keep riding when the rain returns.
Is that wrong?
Every year, I watch the Tour de France. I would hear about climbs of 6%, 8%, etc. That means, of course, a slope of X feet per hundred. I thought that a climb of 6 feet in 100 was not so steep.
I was wrong.
The first hill I'm showing here climbs 180' in 3000'. That's 6%.
Here it is, the Scatchet Head road seen from Bailey Road (on Whidbey Island, WA):
I know that slopes are hard to show on a photo, but trust me on this: it's steep.
Happily, it's only 1 kilometer long. The TdF guys ride this slope for as much as 18km, and they finish at 9,000' elevation: very thin air!
I also tackle this climb, up Goss Lake road. Similar slope.
Why do I do this? I sometimes wonder.
The Tour de Whidbey is September 24. These two hills part of 50-mile southern loop I hope to ride. There are about four hills like this on that part of the tour.
I've ridden the entire loop piecemeal, saving the full 50 miles as a target "on the day"
I just thought you might like to know.
