~ nice fall weekend ~
I had a three day weekend recently, in which I was able to fully enjoy the pleasant fall weather. Amazingly, Josh was also able to have a three day weekend, so it proved to be an all Joshifern all of the time three days. Which was quite lovely.
On Friday, we ended up riding our cruiser bicycles about 25 miles to and from Eagle. I must say, 25 miles on a cruiser is something else. We took the neighborhoods as much as we could, winding our way along the northern side, at the base of the foothills. And speaking of those foothills neighborhoods, we had a couple of good grunts uphill which afforded us some pretty fun downhills...on a cruiser! We also rode several miles along a canal road which was very similar to, say, a beginner level mountain biking trail. I was elated that we were mountain biking on our cruisers. A very unique and interesting experience. That photo above is us on the canal road (I've got a bit of helmet hair going on). We had to take a bit of a detour through the new Veteran's Cemetary in order to relieve ourselves and then, by the time that we arrived in Eagle, we were both starving and experiencing a low-blood sugar state. We went to the Rembrandt's cafe and shared a weird (but tastey...in a weird way) protein-heavy egg and pasta pie with ham and mushrooms. I also enjoyed an eclair, you know, for the blood sugar. We were planning on spending the whole evening in Eagle which sounded like great fun, but we quickly realized that the setting of the sun would mean a sharp decrease in the temperature, and Josh (due to having spontaneously donated his coat earlier in the day) did not have a coat. So we enjoyed a bit of a walk around the downtown area and then hopped back on our cruisers for the return journey. We were cruiser-mountain biking back along the canal road a little before dusk and it was very very cool. It was dark by the time we made our way into the North End neighborhoods.
We had another fantastic bike ride two days later, on Sunday. I must say, weatherpersons sure can be incorrect about their weather predictions. Saturday, as predicted, was rainy, cold, and lame. Sunday, in full contradiction to the prediction, was glorious. Yes, it was a bit on the chilly side, but it was sunny and beautiful. In the early afternoon, Josh and I decided to embrace the chilly gloriousness and we went on a road bicycle ride. I am not yet fully equipped with proper cold-weather cycling gear, so my fashionable knitted knee high wool socks may have appeared a bit silly with my spandex knee warmers and shorts. But hey, I was plenty warm! I was actually a bit too warm on the upper part of my person, as I was wearing a base layer, a long sleeve jersey, AND my wind breaker. Dressing for chilly weater cycling, I have found to be challenging. As per the obvious, one is always colder at the beginning of one's ride than after one warms up from the physical exertion. And since I am an extreme coldy-pants, I tend to over-do-it with regards to layers. Not that I am complaining, because I would much prefer to be on the a-bit-too-warm side than the a-bit-too-cold side.
~ Two New Wheels ~
I had not expected to actually purchase my third bike yesterday. Indeed, my plan was to go to the bike shop TODAY. Nevertheless, yesterday when I got off of work, I engaged in communication with a local bike salesperson who indicated that it might be a good time to look at some bikes. I rode my mountain bike to the bike shop and parked it outside. Inside, I proceeded to investigate the selection of cruisers, and most especially the new Electra Amsterdams. As you may recall from my fantastic post of yesterday, I was interested in a red Electra Amsterdam sport, not the blue Amsterdam classic. However, as I stood in front of the row of cruisers, one ladies blue classic, one men's black classic, one men's red sport, and one men's black sport, I felt myself gravitating towards the blue classic. Firstly, the blue is really something. It's not your normal everyday ho-hum blue - - it's this fantastic blue that I would imagine being on some old-fashioned dental equipment. So awesome! Secondly, the classic is more distinctive than the sport. There is a rack on the back, and I LOVE it. I am ambivalent about the skirt (which I removed upon purchase), but the rack is so wonderful that I could just lick it. And the sport has no rack. Also, the classic has a neat light with a tire-rubbing-generator-dealie - the sport does not. Sure, the classic is heavier (being steel instead of aluminum), BUT the classic also came with a BELL!!! No bell on the sport, yo. Seriously, how's the sport gonna ring my bell if it has no bell? pfft!!!
Anyroad, before I had actually become all excited about the blue classic, I gave it and a red men's sport a trial ride (there weren't any women's sports in stock because apparently these bikes haven't even been officially released yet). I did notice that the sport was much zippier, but yea, no bell, no rack, no light w/ generator, all dealbreakers. And as I shifted my gaze from the red sport (truly, a beautiful red and a good looking bike - - such a hard decision!) and the blue classic, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something really special about the blue classic.
Then, I started to consider the logistics. Of utmost importance to me in having a cruiser was to place a basket at the front of the bike. The light on the blue classic limited all basket capabilities. I couldn't even get the basket onto the bike because the light was right in the way. What a stupid place to put a light on a cruiser! Everyone knows that people like to put baskets onto their cruisers. Anyway, I then began a discussion with my local bicycle connosieur about the possibility of moving the light. He examined the way that it was installed and we wheeled it over to a mechanical area. I exercised my mechanical muscles by removing a mud flap attached to the front fender (stupid, ugly, and dumb) and Josh rewired the light. He was able to move it down to just above the front fender, below where a basket would go (so that light and basket would exist in harmony), and we worked together on fastening the extra wire with some zip-ties. Please see the detail on the light and basket area. Another modification that I made was to remove the skirt attached to the back fenders. In theory, a skirt would be a fantastic addition (helping to prevent things being caught in the spokes as well as looking awesome), but in reality I wasn't very impressed with their functionality. The cheapo latches for them didn't fasten tightly to the fender and they kept popping off. I think that if one made the latches a little longer that it would work better, but after I removed the skirts entirely, I decided that I actually liked the way that it looked without them anyway.
Josh suspects that someone recently tried to steal my mountain bike because on my lock there is a suspicious point of damage. While I was at the shop last night, I decided to invest in a super expensive mini kryptonite u-lock. Of course, because I'm sleeping with one of the bike shop employees, I get a discount so everything was much more affordable for me. I did spend some good time thinking about whether to get some side bags to attach to the back rack, but I did not at all fancy the reasonably priced ones (mainly because they were ugly, and a big part of why I got this bike was because it was so beautiful - - so why would I adorn it in ugly accessories???) and there were some nice looking ones, but I didn't feel justified in spending $114 for them. So, no bags for me just yet. But maybe later when I save up my pennies and nickles.
Now, the hard part is thinking of a name of my beautiful blue wonder. I am entertaining suggestions. Another bike shop employee suggested Blue Betty, but I quickly shot that down.
~ Fifteenth Monthiversary ~
At some point on Friday, while I was at my place of employment, I was proofing an email to verify that it contained none of the snarking attitudes that I was articulating in my head, when the coworkers I share a corner with became excited about the presence of someone in our corner. Given that I inhabit the far corner of our modest corner, my back was to the excitment and I had no clue what was happening behind me. Then I heard something about "pumping our tires" and I turned around to see what was up. It was Josh! At my place of employment! With a bike pump??? The very social coworker seemed to be monopolizing his time (something about making jokes about pumping our tires) and it took me a while to even have an opportunity to inquire about his presence. He wanted to have lunch! With me! And he was going to fix the flat on the tandem so that we could ride it to a park!!! I then escorted him through the building and we toured a conference that was going on and picked up some pens and breath mints the vendors were giving away. It was exciting. Later, when I noticed that it was about time to meet the little whipper-snapper, I discovered a text-message that he had left for me saying "Happy Fifteenth Monthiversary!" I said, "Oh" in a meek voice and my coworker asked what was wrong. "I forgot" I said and she said that she found Josh very cute.
We rode the bike over to Pioneer Square and ate Josh's homemade-by-a-store sandwiches. We sat near the waterwheel, ate, chatted, and engaged in general forms of p.d.a.
When I got off work, Josh and I utilized our gift certificate to the Boise Consumer Co-Op which my friend Devlyn gave to us for Boxing Day. For $25.48 we purchased a breast of chicken breaded with shitaki mushrooms, blue cheese, crackers, spinach dip, and a bottle of taste wine, only $0.48 of which we spent out-of-pocket. It was so delightful that we decided that we should send Devlyn a thank-you note...four months post-receipt. We then inserted our consumer co-op items into our picnic backpack, also a gift from Devlyn, and took off on the tandem.
We rode out to Sandy Pointe Beach (and by "Sandy Point Beach" I mean the nicer beach just south of Sandy Pointe that I don't know the name of) and it was a lovely ride. I caused myself to get a sore throat by blabbing non-stop in a loud voice so that Josh could hear everything that I was saying while dry air was rushing against the back of my throat. Among many of the exciting things we saw on our ride, was a large herd of deer grazing on the alfalfa fields. When we got to "Sandy Pointe Beach", we spread out consumer co-op items on a picnic table and experienced flavors.
Then we tossed the football around for a time and watched the raging waters of the Boise River. Josh also fed some squirrels, because you know they don't get enough food and are just starving. On the ride back, I made it my responsibility to be a photographer for the duration of my time on the rear of the tandem. I had not directed Josh's attention to this, and at some point while I was sitting on the bike, peddling but not holding on at all or watching where we were going (which never happens anyway, since I can't actually see past Josh's back), we started going down a hill relatively fast (relative to our previous pace) and I latched onto my digital camera as though my life depended on it and then proceeded to inform Josh that sometimes I am doing other than paying 100% attention to what I am doing. Most of my photos from this photography experience were kinda blurry which has led me to deduce that taking photographs on the back of a tandem bicycle is the most high quality photography experience one might have.
