August Already

A previous post for August somehow got over-written when I tried to add in this photo via my Kindle and wifi at the public library, but I will try to reconstruct some of it.

This map appeared outside of my favorite Friday Harbor coffee shop, explaining the wifi trouble I've been having. It appears that much of San Juan Island is composed of large hunks of volcanic rock, which disrupts phone and wifi signals. Early in the spring I was getting unreliable wifi at the house where I'm staying, but by late summer it's mostly non-existent. Sometimes I can't even get a phone signal, but one evening when I went for a walk around the neighborhood, on a hillside a bit south of the house, I connected with Rogers Communications in Canada.

So this makes the island a perfect place for digital detox: no wifi, no phone, no internet, no problems!

Also, no GPS or Strava, if you need that for navigation. But I did read that island emergency services have built a network of transmitters for 911 calls.

We expect the shop to be busy over the Labor Day weekend, but then business should fall off quite a bit and I will be heading home to Ferndale for the winter. I'm actually getting a bit homesick.

Where I'm At

The morning commute

I got a job! For the past month I've been working in a small bike shop in Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island. The shop has been in business year-round for more than thirty years, although most of their business is during the summer tourist season, when they offer rental bikes to tourists and summer people, in addition to serving locals. It's a bit grubby, but the owner is a thorough and meticulous mechanic who has an amazing ability to fix, find, or patch together parts on older and new bikes.

This isn't an easy career change for a middle-aged woman to pull off so I'm very happy to have this opportunity. In the almost six months since I completed the mechanic training course at UBI, I got a little vague about a lot of the material I haven't had a chance to practice and I've been fumbling about a bit. While classroom training is valuable, there is no substitute for hands-on experience. But I'm confident about the things I do practice regularly, like cleaning and tuning drive trains, adjusting the brakes, fixing flats and so on.

(Parenthetic note: I'm amazed at the filth and grime on some bikes that come in: CLEAN YOUR BIKES, PEOPLE! THEY WILL BE SO MUCH EASIER TO RIDE! AND FIX!)

Waiting to board the early ferry back to Anacortes

I actually started work in April, after arranging to rent a room in a house three or four miles from the town of Friday Harbor. I had been thinking of giving notice at my place in Ferndale, putting all my stuff in storage for the summer, and taking my chances on finding a new place come autumn. Good thing I didn't, because after one week the manager of the Mobile Estates Park informed me I had failed their background check: the landlord from my previous apartment had reported that there was still an unpaid judgement against me after the eviction drama of 2010 (refer back to the early posts at the beginning of this blog).

I didn't want to make trouble for the lady I was renting from, and needed to check my legal docs back home to clear things up, so I headed back to Ferndale, thinking I would have to leave the job if I couldn't resolve the housing problem. Luckily I had court records showing there was no unpaid judgment, the managers and my landlady changed their minds, and the bike shop owner emailed to say he really wanted me back, to be ready for tourist season. So at the beginning of May I returned.

Nice place to free-load on wifi while waiting for the ferry

Friday Harbor is a pretty, quaint little town that suddenly comes to life whenever a ferry comes in. The rainy days of early spring have been a bit slow and dull, but with the sun returning and Memorial Day weekend coming up, things will be lively again until fall. There does seem to be a strong and close-knit year-round local community, but I haven't been around long enough to get to know it well yet. On my days off I've been out on some lovely rides around the island, developing my hill-climbing legs on the rolling roads and steep descents down to beaches (and climbs back up . . . )

Now I'm back at my place in Ferndale for a few days, after a month away. I decided to keep my apartment here over the summer, despite the double rent, so I'll be sure of having an affordable place to return to. It was most upsetting to have that old legal trouble come back on me after more than five years, and to almost lose my job because of it. Both times I've returned to Ferndale, when I rolled in to the parking lot, I was half afraid I'd see an eviction notice on my door, or find the place had been burgled, or squatters had moved in and trashed it. I can always think up new things to worry about.

I'm still deciding whether, or how, to follow up on that bad background check report. At this point I'm not sure who is at fault, whether my former landlord gave false information, or the screening agency did a sloppy job. At least I should make sure to get things cleared up before I apply for rental again.

Nevertheless ......

(This blog is sort of on pause while I try to chart my future plans, but I will post an occasional note whenever I'm moved to do so.)

When the phrase "nevertheless, she persisted" first started turning up in my online news feeds, I thought, "yes, that's the thing." To me, it didn't seem like a political statement. That's the only way I ever get anything done - persistence.

Then I read the context farther down in the news stories, and the message became even more important.

So I had to buy the t-shirt. I had to search for it on Amazon, too, because it's not available in stores, at least not around here. Are retailers and shoppers so easily intimidated that they shy away from wearing or carrying even such a mild statement?

Spring Forward, Fall Back

One important lesson every beginning mechanic must learn is: "Lefty loosey, righty tighty."

To which I reply, "I before E except after C, and when sounded like A, as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'."

Also:

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November.

All the rest have thirty-one, save February,

Which one year in four has one day more.

How can anyone forget that?

United Bicycle Institute - Portland, Oregon

My bike, waiting to board
Amtrak at Portland Station

After a month at United Bicycle Institute in Portland, I'm home again. Our class results will be mailed to us, so I don't know whether I passed the certification test yet. But I will report on my experience now without letting that influence my opinions, or worrying that my comments might affect my results.

The days and weeks of class went by fast. The instructors are knowledgeable and well-organized. They would lecture for an hour or so, then demonstrate how to take apart and reassemble various bicycle components, then turn us loose to work on demo bikes or parts, but were always available to guide, assist and answer questions. Their written exams are open-book and multiple choice, and not too demanding, but as the teachers often pointed out, these days everything is available on the internet. In real life, they said, any mechanic will often see components they've never handled before, and have to search online for instructions or specifications for particular parts, or contact manufacturers or dealers to trouble-shoot.

I already feel more confident about working on my own bikes, although I still would need more training and supervision to work in a bike shop. Probably many people could learn the same material by hanging out in some bike fanatic's garage shop, but I don't know anyone like that and wouldn't feel comfortable loitering in someone's garage, or making a pest of myself in a bike shop - it's just not a welcoming environment for middle-aged women. Most of the other students in the class had more experience than I have, even several years working in very responsible positions in bicycle businesses. I sometimes wondered whether they felt the class was below their level, but they never acted superior. I think they also learned new ways of doing things, or had misconceptions corrected, and often met with instructors after class with more advanced questions.

Classes meet Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm, with an hour-long lunch break that gave me plenty of time to try out the many very good (but kind of pricey) restaurants on N. Williamson Street. Unfortunately that didn't allow a lot of time for exploring the city, especially after an early autumn storm hit. I had been hoping to escape the first of Bellingham's October drenchings, but I guess it was a big weather system that covered most of western Washington, Oregon and northern California.

St. John Street Bridge, Portland OR

Sometimes I was able to get out for an hour or two after class and ramble ten or twenty miles around nearby streets, which are well-marked with designated bike lanes and routes. On a few weekend days there was enough sun for some 30-40 mile rides, including a ride on the East Esplanade along the Willamette River, and along North Willamette Drive on the bluff above the river.

On one Sunday ride I took a wrong turn-off and ended up riding a short stretch on the freeway, which had a marked bike lane. I kept my cool and made it to the Broadway exit, then rode through the edge of downtown and along a stretch of wide industrial/waterfront roadways. There was very little traffic on the weekend and I even saw several deer grazing in vacant fields and margins near railroad tracks. It wasn't at all the route I'd planned to take but at least I got a good cardiovascular workout.

I crossed back over the river on the St. John Street Bridge and found a small harvest festival street fair in progress in the St. John neighborhood. I liked this area, which is a little more modest and earthy, less upscale (and less expensive) than some of the city's other redeveloped areas. If I get back to Portland I'd like to explore more and get to know it better.

Back to School (again)

This coming weekend I leave for United Bicycle Institute in Portland. I will probably be riding my bicycle in the rain to catch an early train at the Amtrak station in Fairhaven. I'm getting nervous, worrying that I'm not prepared for the class. It's been six years since I took UBI's week-long intro class, and except for about six weeks at the Birch Bay Bike Shop, I've only done basic repairs and maintenance on my own bikes - my old K2 Tradewinds hybrid, my Surly CrossCheck, and my new Cannondale Synapse.

I've been doing a lot of cleaning and housework, including sorting through my collection of bicycle paraphernalia, old parts, and tools. I wrote up a tools inventory and found duplicates of a few things like cable cutters, and an assortment of hex wrenches of different sizes. And a couple of things I've never used and don't recognize (crank puller? free wheel remover?) I guess I'll find out soon.

I also found this collection of old keys, clamps, clips and devices for attaching lights and accessories. Back in my days as a commuter, it took a lot of trial and error to find head and tail lights that would last more than one rainy season. Rain or condensation always seeps in to corrode the contacts, so every autumn I would end up buying a new set. Often the lights came with more than one type of attachment, to give the customer options for mounting. But the fittings are not interchangeable so I'm stuck with a bunch of mysterious, useless black plastic parts.

Would it be possible for designers and manufacturers to invent a universal attachment, maybe using zip-ties? Please?

Free again

I worked through the Labor Day holiday weekend, and have been free for the past three weeks. I quit a bit sooner than I had intended, because soon after I started work I received a summons for jury duty. The store managers said they couldn't schedule around a possible absence on short notice every day for a week (though retail employers typically reserve the right to change schedules on short notice . . . but that's a rant on another subject). Anyhow, they gave me a week of leave, and then it didn't really make sense for me to come back to work for such a short time, so I'm done.

It would have been good to get a few more weeks of pay, but the job was wearing me out. After my first week I started having muscle spasms in my legs at night, which made me wake up gasping and yelling in pain a couple of times. I got in the habit of popping two ibuprofen every night at bedtime, and went to sleep with a cold-pack on my back.

After two nights working ten hour shifts, until midnight, I took four ibuprofen. I know everyone who works restaurant/retail jobs has back trouble and sore feet, but it was more than I could stand.

So I have been rehabilitating myself with yoga two or three times a week, and an "Active Seniors" strength training class. I was assuming "seniors" meant over fifty-five, but I am usually the youngest in the group, though not the most athletic, agile or strongest. We work out with small hand-held weights and resistance bands, plus a little cardio and stretching, which has been good for my knees, back, neck and shoulders. I was beginning to feel a bit over-stretched doing yoga, I needed to build a little more muscle.

And I'm getting out on my bike again, weather permitting. It is turning rainy again already, in between spells of perfect September weather. Yesterday I rode out to Birch Bay again, and wandered around some side roads out in farm country, a lovely cool, sunny, still day. Today it's windy and pouring rain.

The longest rides I've done this summer are only a little over forty miles - I put a cut-out saddle on the new Cannondale because I was getting kind of sore any time I rode more than about thirty miles. Now I'm good for longer distances more often. I haven't quite ridden 2000 miles so far this year - I used to ride 5000-6000 miles a year when I was commuting five days a week. But it's probably good to rest a bit while I figure out my course for the future. My places-to-go list keeps getting longer, not shorter.