Blog Update
My posting has slowed down quite a bit, because I’ve been dating this beautiful woman. I’m reluctant to say much without her permission. Except to say she make me happy and it’s very enjoyable and simple.
Riding has slowed a bit, but not too bad. I’m off all this week and expect to pick it up quite a bit. Three days of good riding. The weather is great; unusually humid and near 90F.
Friday, I’ll go to Abilene to rent a truck for my cousin, Patience. Who has a new job and is moving to Amarillo with her son, Adam. Christopher and I will bring her stuff back on Saturday.
The Memorial Day cookout at Jessica’s was good.
Bike Upgrade
The new rear wheel and cluster arrived today. I swapped it out in a couple of hours with a minor change to the cluster. The old cluster was an 11-32 SRAM PG-950. The new cluster is an 11-34 SRAM PG-980. Instead of an 11-34 cluster of 11-13-..-34, I replaced the 13 with the 12 of the old cluster. The two smaller cogs cluster the gearing on both ends (high and low) and spread it out in the middle. The new 34 is for mountain climbing. The new low gear is now 19 instead of 20 gear inches. The gearing is a bit customized and requires some attention.
The wheels now match; both Mavic Open Pros on Ultegra hubs. The rear is a 36 spoke for the extra weight and the front is a standard 32 spoke. Both handbuilt from Bikeman. Very nice.
Garden Planted
Let’s see if I can make this shorter..
Yesterday and today the majority of the garden went in the dirt. I stopped a Sutherland’s and got seeds and transplants. Also, Tim gave me some extra cukes and cherry toms in addition to the heirloom tom’s I bought and planted weeks ago. Of those 6, 3 have survived. Many of the purple onions have sprouted among the tomatoes.
Nearly, all the transplants went in yesterday.
That would be:
In the raised beds:
6 green bell peppers
6 cherry red tomatoes
2 thyme
1 green basil
1 purple basil
6 petunias
2 gazanias
6 marigolds
In the garden beds:
2 purple sweet potatoes
12 cukes, slicing and pickling (some were too young)
6 okra
6 petunias
Today, I added the seed and put 2 cu ft of composted cotton burrs in the raised beds and another 2 in the garden beds. The new seed is from yesterday, mostly nasturtiums, zinnias, and marigolds plus lots of left over seed from last year.
In the raised beds:
marigolds
zinnias
babies breath
poppies
nasturtiums
carrots
beets
radishes
dill
In the garden beds:
nasturtiums
radishes
poppies
zinnias
marigolds
green bush bean
yellow bush bean
soybean
african okra
Flashback/forward
Just had one of those moments again. One that seems to connect the present waking moment and past dreaming moment. Something I dreamed one night and my awake self took years to get to.
I’m working on my computer like every other day and I open the folder with the VMs in it. There are 3, but one directory is only holding have the VM. Each one takes up 20 gig and the half takes 10. I needed space bad and am think about deleting the half VM. Then I stop and question whether I truly have a full copy and deleting the half is a good idea. Bam. That’s when the flash occurs that I’ve seen all this before, but years ago. And that mindset from then is palpable. From a time when I didn’t know what a VM was, but what it did and that it was very big. And I needed space and was afraid of losing some work. From a time when a 20 gig anything was huge and that the files could be a computer and hold tons of work. The past dreamer knew the what and everything I’m thinking in that instant, but without the connection to the years of familiarity or the how it all got to the current point in the story. Like seeing an Apt complex vs living there; observer vs participant. Just as quick it’s gone. This time I can’t put a year on it, but the feeling is, like many other times, that I was in college or working for UE. When this happens and I was working for UE/college the dreamer would wonder and be confused by the CSStars thoughts; the tiny cube, the near people, and the Dilbertishness of the atmosphere.
As I get older these de je vue experiences fade. The initial ones were so stunningly strong I hated them for years.
And this is why I think time is squishy and not linear for everybody/thing.
Training Status
Today’s ride was a surprise. Four layoff days due to weather and a very late starting time pushed me to the best speed since the post century rides last year. 16.36mph under a strong, 10mph, tailwind over an hour and a half, ride 24mile ride. My legs had plenty of go all the way to the end. The limit was my aerobic capability. The last 20+ minutes my side hurt like I was running or playing basketball.
It makes me wonder what a no-wind day would do. The last ride like that was in Feb and I pulled 2mph faster than average. An hour plus 18mph ride would be very cool.
Quick Notes
Feels like there is an overlap in God, Truth, and Ethics. Maybe, I have different definitions for these terms.
Was thinking I would find Christian links, not Gandhi.
Mahatma Gandhi site
The Story of My Experiments with Truth
Truth is God Excerpts
More Bike Touch Ups
Today, I ordered a few things for the bike instead of training. It was cold and threatened rain all day. Even after truing the original back wheel seems out of whack slightly. It was wobbly and I had that fixed, but it’s still not right. The ride feels fine, but it looks weird when looking at it spin. Like a little jitter up and down, not quite perfectly circular. Normally, I would just write this off, but the wheel I bought from Bikeman last year to replace the one I ran over is rock solid after over 1000 miles. So, I ordered another one like that with 36 spokes instead of 32 (normal). It’s an Ultegra hub on Mavic Open Pro silver rims.
While I’m fiddling with the back wheel, which I hate, I decided to replace the cluster. It bugs me that I have the very cheapest cluster and chain. These are rather important parts, constantly in motion, and without which the bike doesn’t go anywhere. The replacement is a SRAM PG-980 11-34 and the chain, a PC-991 Cross Step. You replace chains about when you replace derailleurs, clusters, etc. or over a certain mileage. The current setup is a SRAM PG-950 11-32 with a PC-951 chain. The new setup is 200+ grams lighter and changes the gearing again. The top gear is up a bit. The bottom gear drops even lower, because of the 34T gear. 11-34 is as wide as it gets. And the 24/38/50 up front is nearly as wide.
The training rides, especially the 44 miles yesterday have been great with the new gearing. I spend most of the time in the middle ring. The big ring does come in to play on downhill, especially with a tailwind. The gear is easy to remember. The middle and big chainrings make the rear gears 2 clicks apart. So, shifting from middle to big also shifts the rear down 2 to find a similar gear.
To look at it another way, I have a small chainring with 6 or 7 unique gears. Then the middle gives me 9 with 7 overlapping the big ring, which gives me 2 more high gears. It feels like I have 18 distinct gears, but I want the overlap between the middle and big ring, because that’s were most of the work is and it makes things predictable. Though sometimes I think about a 52, 53, or 54 tooth big ring.
Cat Pics
This is what happens when I go to work.
Tiger and Dora
The only cat I know who sharpens her claws on single sheets of notebook paper.
Mitten