Petunia season is done

The windstorms stripped away all the blossoms.  Now we're left with the baskets piled up by the light posts, looking like heaps of dry roadside weeds.

It seems the doxycycline is not quite the miracle cure I'd hoped.  After working thirty-five hours in five days, on my feet for a full shift, plus the regular 16-mile round-trip bike commute, my leg and back were sore and tired again, though not as bad as some times.  My cold/flu symptoms are gone, though.

Now maybe I'd better get off that subject before someone from work chances to read my posts - not the best publicity for a coffee shop.

By the way, my bike computer says I burn more than 400 calories every day I ride to and from work.

Don't know what's wrong with me

Monday's windstorms had gusts of 55-65mph, but today was mostly sunny and pleasant. I hate to miss a day of riding in these last days of summer.

In the evening after I went to the doctor, I did some searching on Google and Wikipedia and learned that the antibiotic I'm taking doesn't work on colds or flu, but does help prevent or treat malaria, Lyme disease and other parasitic illnesses, and is also effective for some types of arthritis. I felt much better after taking only two doses. Maybe I was having an arthritis flare-up. The lingering cold symptoms were mild, but I was so tired and low on energy and stamina for weeks, having a lot of back pain, and my lame left foot was getting so painful I was beginning to think I'd reinjured my ankle somehow. After two days of doxycycline, my foot feels almost normal, my neck isn't sore, my spine doesn't crack, and I slept much better last night.

Tomorrow I hope to get out early for an easy sight-seeing ride with my camera so I can post some more pretty calendar photos.

Stormy Weather

Yesterday I rode to work in a 25-35mph headwind. I left home about ten minutes earlier than usual so I could ride low-and-slow. The ride home was great fun, though. On Northwest Avenue, on the smooth, straight bike lanes between Bakerview and Smith Road I can pretend I'm time-trialing for three or four miles.

Since Labor Day weekend I've had a cold dragging on, so this morning I visited the clinic and got some antibiotics. Doctor said possibly walking pneumonia or mononucleosis. I was worried about maybe swine flu or food-borne hepatitis - something that could start a good little plague. I plan to spend my days off resting up at home until I shake it for good. The storms are supposed to last only a few days, then we should have another nice spell.

Bag Lady Chic

The weather has been so variable this month you can't be sure whether it will be sunny or rainy from morning to evening.  I love the smell of rain on dusty pavement, and of the ferment of tree sap and dead leaves and weeds in the woods along the road.  Last week I had my first chance to get out last year's rain gear and work out a new weatherization routine for commuting to this year's job.

I still have the big blue tarp I used as a rain cover last winter, but have no place to keep it at work, and it's too heavy and bulky to carry in every morning.  Luckily I found a cheap shower curtain liner that works pretty well.  I threaded a cord through the ring-holes at the top and use bungee cords to strap it down around the handlebars.  It's big enough to cover the brakes, drive-train and all the cables and levers up front, plus it's light and wads up into an easy to carry bundle.  It may get shredded in windy weather, but did I mention cheap - I found some on sale for $1.47 each, and discount stores have them for three to five dollars.  I chose a simple frosty-white, but there are unlimited patterns and colors for true crazy-bag-lady style.

On smaller bikes, a red reflector attached to the seat post may not be visible if you're carrying stuff on a rear rack.  Planet Bike makes a red tail light that screws on to a tab on the end of a rack, a brilliantly simple idea, but on the two I've had, the on-off switches got corroded from moisture inside the case.  This winter I'm trying a couple of the small, dangly lights that attach with elastic cords (I can't remember the brand names, but I got them at REI Co-op).  They are easily removable and seem water-tight, although one of them looks kind of like a large, painfully inflamed boil.

Planet Bike's Beamer LED headlight is the best I've found.  It's pretty well sealed and detaches easily so you don't have to leave it sitting outside in the rain; unfortunately the plastic cam that's supposed to lock it down doesn't hold.  I've had to wire or rubber-band the clamp in place.  Otherwise you end up either illuminating your front tire, or risk flashing any border patrol aircraft that might be passing overhead.

I'll be mostly making do with last year's winter clothes, or the year before's, since I lost my job before buying much new stuff last year.  Underarmour, light-to-mid-weight fleece and a rain shell are usually enough for most of the winter, but I need to figure out a way to keep my shoes dry.  There's always plastic bags and duck tape, I guess, if I get desperate.

A curious goat at Hovander Park checks out my new tail-light . . . I'm trying to think up Rudolph jokes . . .

Back to School Season

Some early autumn color

It's been a year since I was laid off from my full-time job, and almost six months that I've been a part-time barista. My unemployment benefit year ended at the end of August, and I should be eligible for extended benefits, but there is some hold-up because of my variable hours - the Employment Security people have a question about a reduction in my work hours after I worked extra shifts to cover for other workers. The delay isn't painful, though, because most of my income is from my job - I usually only receive $5-$50 a week in benefits. But I think it's better to keep a continuous claim going until I can find a real full-time job. I think.

The advantage to weekend work is that I have week-day business hours free for job-hunting, and also for play-time. I missed most of the local festivals and farmer's markets this summer because I had to work, but now that the kids are returning to school I can have quiet, uncrowded bike rides and visits to parks and beaches for most of September and into October.

This has always been my favorite season, although when I was younger I often went through a moody and excitable phase in the fall. I spent most of my twenties working and studying at the University of Washington (in the 1980's). Fall quarter was always a time of changes:  new schedules, new students, new professors and grad students arriving, while others left for academic or professional jobs in other cities. Plus the start of football season, Hell Week on Greek Row, freshman dormies having their first experiences with college drinking parties . . . And then the mellow late summer sun, between foggy mornings and chilly evenings. So I often became a little hyper, sentimental and melancholy all at the same time.

Petunia Revolution

Ferndale has spectacular petunia baskets hanging from practically every lamp post on Main Street, blooming since I moved here in May.  Some of them are at least four feet across, big enough to obscure crosswalk signals - not that I'm complaining, but they could be trimmed back a bit.  A couple of mornings a week, an elderly man drives on the sidewalk in a miniature John Deere truck with a water tank and a hose with a long wand attachment, so he can reach up from the driver's seat to water them.

A transportation-planner I know once noted that studies have shown that planting trees along a street causes car traffic to slow by ten miles an hour, and I recall reading that flower baskets have a similar psychological effect.  During a low point of one of the Puget Sound region's regular Boeing-boom-and-bust cycles, when local governments were looking for ways to revitalize small towns and neighborhoods, it was suggested that planting flowers helps promote optimism and encourage redevelopment.  Bright, colorful planter boxes, baskets or flower borders cause people to take a second look at a street and think, "Hey, it's not so bad here.  This could be a real nice place."  So they went ahead and planted flowers, even though there wasn't much budget money, without any real business prospects, or plans for investment or development.

Sometimes I entertain myself with making up a sci-fi ecological disaster story, imagining mutant petunias that run wild and smother a small town.  But then I had another whimsical thought that's starting to seem like a good idea.  A counter to the Tea Party movement:  the Petunia Revolution.  Just start by remembering the people who put tax cuts before all, ahead of developing ideas to provide services, stimulate business and create jobs.

Remember when re-election time comes around.

Feels so much better

The morning after I picked up my new bike, as I was heading out the door to work, I discovered the front tire on my old bike was flat. I'd meant to test-ride the Surly before taking it to work, but I was already about five minutes late getting out the door and didn't have time to fix the flat. Good thing I had a back-up bike. I've been riding the Surly sixteen miles a day, four days a week, to and from work since the first week of August - more than 150 miles already.

The Cross-Check comes equipped with a men's saddle, and the store didn't give me the option of ordering a women's saddle, based on the old misconception that men are normal and women are not, I guess. The standard saddle has a largish hump on the nose, which puts painful pressure on some very tender soft tissue when I lean forward. Moving the seat down about a quarter inch helped, but after only twelve or fifteen miles I'd find I was tilting my pelvis back to relieve pressure at the front, causing pain in my spine and low back muscles. Luckily I still have the original Terry women's saddle from my K2. The cover had weathered and split, but I patched it with moleskin and rubber cement and replaced the men's saddle. It's just the thing - I've done a couple of 25-mile rides since, with no discomfort.