Drive By Vineyard
December 23rd, 2008 / No Comments »
I had my real camera with me in the car this morning. I really really should have stopped.
Too bad my job isn’t to drive/ride/walk around looking for lovely things.
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Race leader
December 22nd, 2008 / 3 Comments »
I just haven’t been feeling the photography thing lately. Not having access to a way to post process my pics takes all the fun away. Especially for the way I like making the pics.
I headed out to a cross race with my crackberry with the intention of snapping a few pics and tweeting them real time to anyone who cares. And yes, I said tweeting.
The nice thing about crackberry pics is they are usually so bad I don’t really care about what I take. I just click away. But after a bit that photography buzz hit. You know that feeling when you really “see” the scene and a way to capture it. Its like being in the zone or something. And you just get all hyper and excited by what you see both in front of you and on the screen.
Anyway, it was fun. Almost as much as racing. Maybe.
More Crackberry Cross here
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Icarus
December 10th, 2008 / 6 Comments »
wingsuit base jumping from doubleA on Vimeo.
You must click on this video. The images of these guys, flying next to cliffs is both breathtaking and profound.
I love how people stretch possibilities. I love that there are people creative and brave enough to do this.
I love that its not me.
Defects
December 5th, 2008 / 1 Comment »
My crackberry phone has this weird camera defect that makes starburst thingies when light hits it.
Cool.
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Early Riser
December 3rd, 2008 / 3 Comments »
I gotta remember to get up earlier in the mornings. But I am not a morning person.
If I got up earlier though, I might have a little time to stop and pull out my camera when I see something cool during my commute (which happens all the time because I live in an amazing place).
Instead, I roll down my window, aim my crackberry, swerve, piss off the people behind me and snap a pic. And I tell myself, tomorrow I will for sure get up early.
And yes Steve, I gave in and used the Flickr to blog. There goes the neighborhood.
Just a Test
November 29th, 2008 / 4 Comments »
Don’t mind me. Just trying to figure out how to post to my blog from my crackberry. I’ve figured it out mostly. Just can’t figure out how to post with pics. If anyone out there has some tips or tricks for this, let me know!
Halloween Copy Cat
November 1st, 2008 / 1 Comment »
Well, Surf City kept me from doing just about anything else lately, including blogging. I am going to cheat and post a post I posted on the Surf City site, and then, after I catch my breath and stuff, its back to pictures and blogging.
But man, it was so worth it. What a great time.
Thanks everyone for just about the most fun ever! We had an unbelievable 100 people in our costume cross this year and about 50 kids in kiddy kross. I’m still not done laughing…
A big thank you goes out to all the amazing volunteers who make this race happen:
The Women of Velo Bella
The Fellas of VOS Racing
Beth Welliver - Clinic
Clinic Instructors: Ben Jacques-Maynes, Shauna Potocky, Kathleen Bortolussi, Mark Abele, Clark Natwick, Sheila Moon, Barb Howe, Stella Carey, Steven Gile
Linda Locke/Erika Donald - Kiddie Kross
Amy Hall - Registration
Steve Litvin - Results
Natasha Perry - Sponsorships
Tim Watson - Decorations
Jeff Clark - Legacy
Our amazing sponsors (check them out over there <---- ) and everyone who pounded a stake, wrapped course tape, picked up trash, raced their hearts out and wore a silly outfit. Check out the results and all the amazing pictures!
Can’t Katch Up
October 4th, 2008 / 2 Comments »
I was too busy before our Ketchum trip, too busy during, and now too busy afterwards to get a decent post going.
Hopefully soon…
In the meantime, enjoy the Aspens
The Bad Guys
October 2nd, 2008 / 4 Comments »
What do you do when reality is actually funnier than a Tina Fey SNL skit?
I want to watch the debate tonight, but don’t know if my ribs are healed enough yet to handle it.
Mountain Biking and Sprinter Vans
September 23rd, 2008 / 6 Comments »
I tried mountain biking twice before this trip. Except that wasn’t mountain biking.
The ride we did on Sunday in Chico was mountain biking.
If someone asked to recommend a good trail for someone just recovering from an accient involving a broken collarbone or rib, B Trail at Bidwell Park is not the trail anyone would recommend.
If someone asked for a trail that made you swear on the climb, concentrate over rocks, give a yippy skippy yeehaw on the descent and genuinely fall in love with mountain biking again, then B Trail at Bidwell Park was just the ticket.
I was dying on the climb. Frightened that I could no longer continue and maybe real mountain biking was too much for me right now. I was ready to turn around and give up….Luckily my ride buddies are patient and the descent was just around the corner.
~~~
We made it safely to Idaho. The Sprinter van is mostly still in one piece.
The scenery here is stunning. We did a little ride by the house yesterday that was so scrumptious, I would be happy doing loops of that all week. But we have new territory to explore and new trails to conquer
Private Idaho
September 11th, 2008 / 13 Comments »
I was gonna get all politicky in today’s blog. I’ve had a post brewing and stewing in my head for a few days now.
But daydreams of Idaho keep interrupting my thoughts.
We leave for Ketchum next Saturday. My first non racing related vacation since my trip to Canmore in 2004. And that trip is one of my fondest memories. Epic country to be explored with great friends. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Plus, Heather’s obsession with Rye whiskey is sure to keep us entertained.
Ketchum if you can.
~~
I will leave with this one sorta politicky message. I hope that the seriousness of today’s anniversary causes our country and media to pause and reflect on the substantive issues, rather than on attention garnering , time clock wasting, bullshit tactics like getting all hypocritically pouncy over lipsticked pigs.
There’s a New Sheriff in Town
September 8th, 2008 / 8 Comments »
The Good, The Bad, and The Barry, originally uploaded by Sabine Dukes.
.
Did you know that the Vuelta is going on right now?
Its been on for a week, and I just realized it yesterday. Levi is in yellow. And I haven’t been paying a lick of attention.
It might be because I am too busy riding and swimming and picking backsplash tile. Or it might be because I am sort of over it right now.
I hope not, because I love the sport of cycling….but I am a little weary of it. Not just weary of the euro stuff and all the drugs and bad hair. But of cycling in general. The myopic training hard and talking about heart rates and carbon nanograms and calories and watts and I would have won if only type of cycling.
As I seek to regain fitness, its not racing I am thinking about as the epitome of fitness. Its the effortless gliding speed of a tailwind, the power in the last two strokes at the crest of a climb, the body language to scuttle over a tricky rock garden, the glow of a smile at the end of an awesome singletrack.
Cyclocross season is coming up and its colorful wackiness and plentiful beer might be just the ticket to reignite my love for the racing…until then, I’ll be honored to enjoy the ride.
Marco? Polo!
August 27th, 2008 / 19 Comments »
I’ve been swimming for about 3 weeks now.
And, this weekend, as I got ready to swim and I watched a few of the other swimmers…I had a moment of clear self awareness.
In the water, I am a fred.
I am not going to toot my own horn or anything, but its been at least 10 years since I was a cycling fred. I’ve come a long way if I dont say so myself.
But in the water, I am a fred.
I dont use those fancy speedo eye socket goggles, I use these things that are almost as big as a scuba mask. Now, I’m no expert or anything, but I am guessing thats pretty fredly.
But I love my scuba googles. They dont feel like my eyeballs are gonna pop out of the other side of my head and I can see everything….(which is actually not a good thing at one of the pools I go to, but I will spare you the details on all the strange floaty bits). Don’t tell me you can see anything with those little eye socket googles, cuz you can’t.
And then I bought my swimsuit at Big 5. The Big 5 right next to the Salvation Army store in Watsonville. Thats gotta totally be fredly. Its also reversible and I am guessing thats gotta be the fredly equivalent of leaving your reflectors on your bike.
Dont even get me started on the swim cap issue. I think that might be a whole blog post on to its self.
And toys….I notice that swimmers have a lot of pool toys. But not the cool ones like Log Flume Water Joust or anything. These are things like kicky boards and hand paddles. I used to wonder why everyone had all these toys. I mean, just swim and be done with it.
But after a few weeks of swimming I realized why.
Because swimming is freaking BORING
and you need something to break the monotony.
splash, splash, splash, push off the wall, splash, splash, splash, push off the wall, splash, splash, oh no please dont get in my lane…..whew, splash, push off the same damn wall, splash, splash, oh look that lane line is a little crooked someone should fix that, splash, push off the wall, splash, ewwww is that a pubi…
BORING. No dowhills, no rock gardens, no oh shit moments (lets hope)…the same damn scenery over and over again…and no chit chat. If I can’t chit chat in a sport, it loses a lot of luster for me.
So I bought some pool toys. I bought a bright yellow old school kicky board that I splash around on and pretend I know what I am doing while I stare at the warning to not use it as a lifesaving device and wonder why not because its holding me up pretty good and if I were drowning I wouldn’t be very picky.
And also a bouy that you stick near your hoo haw and try to hang on to it while you swim. So thats always good for a little fun. But I also bought my toys at Big Fred so I am guessing they are not chi chi. These folks are just lucky I dont plop in the pool during lane swim in one of those big floaty loungers with a giant inflatable palm tree and a margarita holder and start playing Marco Polo.
I confessed my fredliness to Michael (who has the inate ability to not be a fred in any sport he tries…well, except maybe like football or hockey or something). And Michael tried to reassure me. He told me that the people we see at our little funky gym pool aren’t really real swimmers anyway. Was this supposed to make me feel better…knowing that I was not only a fred, but a fred’s fred?
Marco?
Your Boob is Bubbling
August 20th, 2008 / 7 Comments »
So far within the last few days Michael and I have:
- learned how to dance Salsa Rueda
- swam a gajillion laps in the pool
- had a massage
- got acupuncture
- lifted weights
- stretched
- picked blackberries
- listened to podcasts
- watched Tropic Thunder
- watched olympics
- mailed out bella stuff
- played the guitar
- read books by a fire while eating kobe burgers
- kicked the kitchen remodel back into gear
- bubbled away hours in the hot tub
and all while operating on half the usual brain and energy levels.
How is all of this possible?
Well, neither one of us is riding.
Its utterly amazing how much of your life bike riding takes up. Not that I am complaining because my main goal in getting healthy is so that I can get on the bike again….but man….that bike can lead to such a myopic and unbalanced life.
Since I am one to look on the bright side, I am embracing this period of recovery as a time to undo some of that imbalance. Michael and I are having a blast being gym/spa rats and having weekends where we can sleep in and drive nowhere.
I am sure we will tire of it eventually. And I know I will be back on the bike soon….but racing? I dunno….
we’ll see.
~~~
I love watching these Olympics. I have like 7 different blogs about them that I wish I had time for. But for now… I love the Track and Field sprinter cam. Beautiful.
Don’t Look Up
August 10th, 2008 / 13 Comments »
Haven’t posted in a few days because I have been busy whining about my recovery.
Things were going fine. A little too slow for my liking, but I was mostly coping.
Then I went and picked blackberries.
Picking blackberries in my yard is just about my favorite thing to do. Its calming and its fulfilling and I get to eat sweet blackberries grown without any water or attention or effort on my part.
And the blackberry part was all cool, but after I was done I went in my little garden shed (which since I dont garden I should just call a shed) . The garden shed features a doorway thats about 5′5″ tall. I am 5′7″ tall and sure as shit, I smacked the hell out of my forehead on the way out.
I could hear my doctor’s words ringing in my ears….”just don’t hurt your head again while you heal”.
And of course, I am back to being as dizzy as I was several weeks ago.
Just to make certain I didn’t do anything dangerous to myself, I went to see a neurologist. He gave me lots of tests. It was sort of like a combination of a DUI and a high school equivalency test.
I had to touch my nose, walk in a straight line. I almost launched into that 5-4-3-2-2-3-4-5 thing on the fingers out of habit (you guys who know that know who you are….).
But then the doc asked me to spell “world” backwards.
d……………
umm……d……..
…….
then I wrote the word with my finger in the air in front of me.
d..l…r…ow !
I have no idea if I got demerits for spelling it in the air, but I was pretty pleased with myself.
Next, the doctor asked me what 17 times 3 was. I totally thought he was kidding…who knows what that is just in their heads? I sure don’t, even without a concussion. Give me a ten-key dammit. Or an excel spreadsheet.
But he was quite serious and he started to look really concerned and worried so I scrambled for an answer. 17……..
17……..
17 is a stupid number. 20 is better.
Aha! 20 times 3 equals 60. And 60 minus 9 is
51!
I said this calculation out loud, so I probably got more demerits.
I was worried that I was going to have to do trigonometry or that isoceles triangle theorem thing or something next, but he seemed satisfied.
The final test involved the little mallet and a tuning fork. For real, a tuning fork. He pulled it right out of his little black bag. I had no idea doctors still used tuning forks or little black bags. He bopped me with the mallet and dinged me with the fork. Stuffed it all back into the little black bag, And said my brain seemed fine and that I would just have to be patient and wait for the concussion to heal.
Which could take several months.
Waaaahhhh..months? But what if I get stuck like this? waaaaahh.
Fortunately, I am part of an awesome team of cyclists (who bang their heads a lot it seems!) and I asked them to share their concussion stories…and something about hearing similar stories, just made me feel so much better.
Well, that and Tracie’s yummy peanut butter cupcakes.
Delicate Little Flower
July 30th, 2008 / 14 Comments »
I saw these little sunflowers on my way home from work yesterday and had to stop and take pics. I don’t carry my regular camera around right now, because with my injury, I can’t hold the camera up to take pics.
But I did have my trusty Motorola.
So I used my camphone instead and all was swell until I got super dizzy. The concussion effects leave me a bit swoony these days and i guess leaning over and doing all the posturing necessary to take these pics was too much.
I almost fainted right there in the field. Luckily, a few solid breaths later I was able to clambor back to my car and drive the 2.2 miles home. (where I milked it a bit for some lovey sympathy)
I have to admit to being a bit frustrated last night. Almost fainting in a field is just a wee bit pitiful…and I hate being pitiful.
I’m gonna have to go back to that field and show it who’s boss.
Oh yeah, almost forgot! Scar picture:
Tour Hangover
July 28th, 2008 / 13 Comments »
Photos from The Big Picture
I got up early this morning, ready to head downstairs, make some Smooth Move (don’t laugh, its better than prunes) tea and settle in on the couch for some Tour…when I remembered that its over.
If there was one good thing about my crash, it was that I timed it with the tour.
So, now what?
~~
This blog is all about cycling and photography and sometimes those worlds collide and make beautiful things. Thanks to Beth, one of my photography links on the sidebar over there is The Big Picture from Boston.com. They update each day with large wonderful photos that are all great examples of photojournalism.
Well, I noticed that today’s update was a celebration of Tour photos. So, if you are feeling Tour withdrawals, its worth a little peek over there to check out the shots.
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