The ancient Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” was insightful. Maybe that’s why it’s a proverb and Lao Tzu is quoted so often. A huge or daunting task starts with a small action and as progress become consistent it leads to results over time.
It’s hard to believe that today is #499 and I’ll open the door to the 500s tomorrow.
Now going from Day 1 to 365, a year is far more that going from 400 to 500, but still there were probably more obstacles in the 400 to 500 that the first year. I can’t really calculate why beyond the basic fact that I traveled more to other places this year versus the first year of my challenge.
Loaner from my cousin.
The last 100 days, even the last 25 days required infinitely more thought and intention that I expected. Being so close to 500 consecutive days of cycling made it more important that ever to get to that milestone. The weather has been a huge factor. If I wrote a book about it, the weather would be a prominent character. You know the type. It’s been like a pesky, persnickity, grump of a character that reminds you of its presence but offers no help or consul.
I thought I’d wrap it at 365, even a leap year, 366. But I just kept pedaling and some of it was to just see if I could keep it up.
Bundled up for my Divvy ride in Chicago.
Then 400 and a perfect number to stop. But why not one more day. And another. It’s worse than a bag of chips. Yet, it’s not. It’s good for me and it makes me happy and I’m out in the world and taking it all in and that’s good.
There may be a few regrets I have in my life. Some choices that I rethink, but biking is not one of them. Every day I can physically bike, I will. 500 is a good number, but so is 501.
Bike the Lights. An Events at PIR, Portland International Raceway
My bike(s) are like a part of me. They are an extension of my body and my mind. As a bike knocks off mile after mile and you pedal through the weeks and commute or grab groceries or try this hill or that dale your bike willingly goes along for the ride.
I went too far. We’ve had lots of rain and I thought the screeching braking sounds were a result of the rain. However, that’s not the case. Prepare yourself for the photos you see.
In my defense, I did hit the 5K mark on my commuter, HollyBerryBike recently and I suspected that I would be addressing the brake pad soon however I didn’t really think they’d sound like the Psycho score turned screech.
The downhill spiral on brake pads is quick. What you suspect becomes reality when dogs howl and birds flee and babies cry as you pass by and you may not even be using your brakes. Today was such a day and I’m grateful that it wasn’t SO bad that fluids leaked and my bike was ruined but was bad enough that I learned my lesson. Again.
But here’s the thing, I’ve gone to the garage a few times tonight and my bike isn’t there. It’s at the shop. It’s having an overnighter and I don’t think we’ve been separated ever, so I feel like a bad bike mom and I know it’s only a night but I miss her.
Left is the one I wore out. On the right is the new pad.
All the forums and experts say every 5K miles your brake pads should be checked and “possibly” replaced. But it depends on how hard you ride and how much you brake. Commuting adds loads more wear and tear to a bike and in this case, she’s right on time. 5,100 miles.
I have been here before. We’ve all learned lessons about bike maintenance multiple times. I’m here again at the brake pad lesson 101 and it’s all going to be okay. Mark at the shop assured me that I did the right thing and it’s all going to be okay.
She will get rear pads and a new rotor and we’ll be riding into the end of the school year soon enough.
This is Bike Goddess here with a reminder to check your brake pads. Don’t be like me.
Thanks for reading. I know it’s been a beat and I’ll be back sooner than you think with a few exciting announcements. In the meantime if you found this helpful, please give this post a Like and I look forward to another post soon.
It feels like we’ve had 1,000 inches of rain. In actuality we’re within our seasonal norms (I checked) so my complaints are more laser focused on the month of January and its predicatability. Predicable much in the same way of a jack-in-the-box. The music is certain and you know what’s going to happen and still that demonic puppet POPS up and you want to rip it to shreads. Weasel indeed!
We’d had a shortened winter break because of our teacher strike. Shortened by approximately 5 days, so in January we had 4 snow days due to inclement weather. POP!
It was after Dr. King’s birthday, Monday the 15th and the Friday before that we were released from school early since the storm was coming in and could dump snow, ice, cats and dogs during the bus ride home. Out early, sure, no problem.
The weather system was of course delayed from Hawaii or something so it didn’t arrive when is was supposed to but whatever, weather is like that. It arrived Saturday and it wasn’t all that bad. A dusting as we say around here. Nothing too significant. Pretty but would likely be gone in a few hours. The wind up. Hear the sing-songy tune? Keep winding and one more turn, nothing yet, still nothing… POP!
Oh boy, oh boy! It came down.
I could hear the little diamond drops hitting the picture window in the living room and I knew it was icy but it left behind more snow than ice at first. The ice was on its way.
January 13, 2024
Again, this doesn’t seem like much, but in my neck of the world this represents a late start which could become a snow day, depending on whether is persists. Buses aren’t going to be able to pick up kids safely. Let’s not be judgmental here because I even though I grew up in the midwest and this is nothing by comparison, it’s treacherous here because we’re neither prepared for it nor do most people know how to drive in it and there are lots of steep hills. My school district goes from elevations of 300 to 1,000 feet.
Saturday was the day it snowed and snowed and snowed more
After about 8 hours the blanket covered more.
Sunday was quiet and this snow was “Canadian snow” or so I’ve heard from a friend who lived in Alberta. It was wonderful easy-to-walk-in-without-being-slushy snow. However, Mother Nature was not finished with us. Next temps plunged into the teens and ice cometh.
Shimmery ice on January 17th.
With temps in the teens, our pipes at school froze and at some point on Sunday one broke, “at an elbow”. There were two spots and one specific pipe broke in the library. Yeah, I’m a bonafide school librarian so my principal called me Sunday night and in a voice that sounded like doom on the doorstep and gave me the news that there was around 2 inches of water on the floor because the pipe burst in the corner and the ceiling tiles came down over a whole section of books.
Speechless and stunned in an avalanche of feelings I’m not sure what I muttered back in response. It’s not bad, y’know. You’re alive and you have heat and water and really in the grand scheme it’s not that bad. I wanted to be consoling but I was seeing the area in my mind and I couldn’t quite visualize the extent of the damage described.
The week rolled out like a bunch of glass in the bike lane. Shards everywhere you couldn’t really see, but you can feel your tires being punctured. Monday Closed for MLK Day.
Tuesday-Closed
Wednesday-Closed
Thursday-Closed
Friday-Closed
I couldn’t get to school. I could only wait, wonder and worry. Despite the futility in that process, I still did it. Updates from my principal who was very suppotive and thoughful. I learned about something called the Extraction Team! There was a team from a company known for restoration work called Paul Davis who were at the school throughout the week that was. They took some 4000 gallons of water out of the school. Around 400 in the library. Two science classes were damaged and their classes had to move into portables.
In the library a whole section of books was wiped out. Ironically, the 500s, which are Natural Sciences. Of the 280 books in the section about 50 survived. There are several still checked out, so that saved them.
Wall replacement.
POP goes the weasel, again.
There’s no rain gear for this sort of thing. As a cyclist, I’m accustomed to lots of weather systems and situations. How many times have I been waiting for a traffic light to change and noted that the rain was coming in sideways or that the wind was blowing hard enough to knock me down. I get it weather. I’m in and of all the weather. I’m never trying to outsmart it, I’m trying to stay out of its way and do my thing. I try to dress for the weather and I do conisder alternatives if I could be in danger. What about if you can’t protect against Mother Nature? There’s no Showers Pass rain gear for this sort of thing. Only insurance. Like this situation at school is really impressive. The damage to classrooms, collections and the building is something I’ve been fortunate in my career to avoid.
The water came in above.Everything moved out of the way.More damage.Our studio equipemtn.My office area. There were cabinets there.Cabinets removed in the studio space.Books in bags. Only 50 were unscathed.
Until now.
These are all brand new. Or were.
People have said “that’s why you have insurance” so much that I hear it as a mantra. But the fact is I will believe it when I see it. Will that section of books come back better than it was? I don’t know. Lately all I’ve heard are insurance horror stories, so I’m dubious.
POP!
Books are sponges.
What happened after all that? Monday came and we all went back to school. No one has much experience with this and educators are planners. We don’t do well with not knowing what’s next. Plus, the library is still absorbing (pun intended) the impact of the pipe break. I’m going through each book one by one to determine what, if anything can be salvaged. I’m throwing away more that you can imagine. A little part of my soul pouts in the corner over the losses. There were two other big areas that were impacted. The studio space where we do the news and the head end room/storage area which also was hit hard.
More and more.
The incessant sound of the fans and dehumidifiers are annoying but necessary to extracting the water from the area and the air.
It has been a January for the books. Funny, not funny. POP!
Yes, it could have been worse.
Yes, it will be okay.
Yes, no one was hurt, just stuff which can be replaced.
In library school we have whole classes devoted to “collection development” because it’s rare to be able to have everything up-to-date and in perfect condition so you develop and grow areas over time. I lose a section and that also means lost time and content.
Still. Like that moment when the weasel POPS up out of the box you’re surprised and it scares you a little. I’m drawn in and ready to start building another colleciton, post flood.
I can say, I survived!
There’s a series of books called I Survived by Lauren Tarshis and each explores a time in history and characters that survived a certain event, like the sinking of the Titanic or Hurricane Katrina. The first book someone brought in to me was unscathed and found in the hallway was the one I’m holding. I took that as a sign, that we will survive this setback.
I was hoping my first post of 2024 would be a recap or goals or plans for biking this year or the best gear of the year or I don’t know anything else but a flood. POP!
I’m grateful. This will be in the rear view soon enough. It did provide enough content for a blog post and it will be okay.
Thanks for reading and checking out the photos. I’ll post an update a few months down the road when hopefully insurance has come through and I can share pretty pictures of spring in the libary.
No people and no bikes were harmed. I am hoping to settle into a routine soon. That would be a lovely surprise.
One more thing. Did you know that often the song Pop Goes The Weasel the puppet BOINGS on the word, “POP” so there’s some predicability.
Get out there and ride. I’m going to try that today to lift my mood.
The calm and bright from the sailboat on the Columbia River.
The lines from Silent Night echo in my mind often and without provocation at this time of the year. I think it’s a coping mechanism in my brain and much like breathing, it’s simply in my head on autoplay. I especially love the “all is calm, all is bright” line. There are many more.
“Glories stream” and “radiant beams” and the “dawn of redeeming grace.” Wow, right. I mean, the words alone are sunrises and you feel your heart fill with the potential of the universe. Plus, there’s sleeping in peace and heavenly hosts singing and the shepherds are quaking but who can blame them with all the beams and streams and glories.
I love it because it’s simple and majestic and there’s a meditation in the lyrics that helps me breathe and relax. There are such equisite simplicity in that carol.
Being alive is science and it’s also a miracle. It’s wonderous and any day you feel like you’re healthy means you are indeed wealthy. Any day your head is on and you feel like you’re in a good place is special and if you happen to be moving and grooving, well, that’s success!
At this time of winter darkness anytime a star wants to lend its light is indeed magnificent.
This was the first night which was delivering Santa to the public dock. Photo credit Christmas Ships.
Dear readers, at this time of the year I usually report a great year of biking. The miles ticked by and topped over and I feel like a Goddess to the tenth power! This fall has not been successful in miles. The weather has put quite a damper on my riding goals. I’ve also had a few mechanical issues and I’ve felt defeated by the number of things put on my work plate and much like a child who shoves superfluous items into the grocery cart, my work life has been full of excessive distractions and most of which are not even my job. But whatever.
What better time to admit that it’s been a daunting December. However, also delightful and successful in a different way. The days that I have been able to ride have been splendid and beautiful with sunrises that are breathtaking and remind you that the madness of the moment will pass.
Wreathly good times!
Also I had some new experiences on water not land when my guy and I joined the Christmas Ship parade on the Columbia and Willamette rivers. Even though we thought we’d only do a couple nights, we ended up participating in seven of the 13. This is the 69th year of the Christmas Ships parade and I’m happy to report that both our boat and our marriage survived.
She’s also a biking pal who enjoyed our river run.
As it is the eve of THE EVE, I wanted to take time to be calm and mild and think about streaming glories and radiant beams of light since it’s been weeks of watching the boats on the rivers and seeing the community of people who pull this off. There are moments when the lights from the boats ahead or behind fill your soul and you know that it could all end right then and there but you’d be complete.
Sunset on a commute home.
I ride and I ride a whole lot. I do have suggestions for gifts to buy the cyclist in your life, but that will have to wait. Maybe Valentine’s Day I do a post about that. I don’t even remember my Strava goals for this year and while I could look it up, I don’t really care. A year ago this experience with the Christmas ships was merely an ember. I never expected to be among the fleet of boats that participate in the parade. But now, I can’t imagine not doing it. That’s the thing about new experiences, they seem to crack open something in us that fills a void. The faces of people at the dock were indeed radiant and they were filled with a childlike innocence that was resplendent and angelic. I remember thinking, “It this what it’s like to be Taylor Swift? Is this what it’s like to be so beautiful that people line up to take your picture and applaud at your existence?”
Simply, yes, that’s what it’s like.
Our onboard noise makers and more importantly, friends. I was working the radio so you have to have help from crew.Bridges in the city. Dreamcatcher. We were 1 among the sailboats.Our stern wreath.Another spectacular sailboat, Speendrift.View from the bow of the Columbia.Blushing.Following is an art all its own.We’re the green triangle.Skipper HusbandSpeendriftPretty, pretty! Yeah, so much beauty! Our leader.
However, to do this, we had to submit. We had to defer to those who have done it and we had to be passive and learn how to be meek and mild. That’s not easy! It’s a miracle we could set aside our egos and our will and fall into our place in the parade.
My life is much richer for having experienced the rigorous pace of doing Christmas ships and for hearing people from the docks and piers yell their appreciation and Merry Christmas greetings and telling us and all the ships that we were beautiful. We should all do that. We should all yell to one another how beautiful it all is and in those moments find the calm and mildness and simplicity of the moment.
Readers, thank you for being here with me in the moment. I’m grateful for your Likes and Follows and I wish you all the calm and mild you need this season and into each and every day of 2024.
A muse is any goddess presiding over a particular art. Yes, that’s my photos of the Acropolis in July, 2019.
Summer musing is the best. It’s squandering time like you’re a kid and just rolling down life’s hills and letting whatever happen. Today for example I have been thinking about donuts. I often think of donuts. It’s because there was a time in my area that there were zero donut shops and now there are so many I could honestly have a donut every day from a multitude of places. I “donut” indulge often because donuts are my Achilles heel. I’ll overindulge and that won’t be good either. I’ll be in the corner with a box eating them like Homer Simpson.
After the donut musing I thought about Threads and I fingured out how to get on it last night and it’s nice. Most seem to agree that it’s like you realize you were in a very toxic relationship with the other one. I like it and since my blog posts no longer go out on the Twittersphere through WordPress, I thought I’d give it a looksee. I don’t know what to post yet, so I figured I start with a new blog entry. I’ll just ease into it. I’m still on Twitter, but I’m not really ON it at all. I guess like most people I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I don’t really like to share vast amounts of information on the socials, so even though I wanted to be closer to family, I’m mostly posting my Wordle scores and of course watching pet videos.
Marina paddling around.
Next musing was whether to bike or go for a kayak today. I could try for both however, if it gets hot-hot, then it’s better to bike earlier in the day. I could take the Bromptie to the kayak and paddle around the marina and out onto the river. That is a very attractive option since we are hopefully getting the newly fabbed fuel tank and that will mean we can finally start our Summer of Sailing. Last summer I kayaked just before returning to school so this year I’ve been trying to get out once a week. Last week I went out of the marina and onto the Columbia River and it was spectacular. It’s my upper body workout plus you can’t beat the sounds of water lapped on the sides of the kayak and the ducks and the intimacy of being right there at each ebb and flow of the river.
Kayak-ak-aking.Getting close to the pilings and the current is definitly got a mind of its own.
Then there’s book musing. When I’m not being Bike Goddess, I’m actually a middle school librarian and I love my job but I also love summer and reading the hours away and preparing video booktalks for my YouTube channel. I’m trying to become a YouTuber and the channel I have with my school district is doing pretty well, but once I moved everything to my home study I needed to step it up with lighting and audio so my hobby is becoming work and I’m struggling with that a bit. At school I can crank it out and post in the fallow moments between chaos, classes and Chromebook repair. Musing about that becomes overwhelming and I feel myself getting into a the bilge of details, so I push off and go back to the donuts, because, well, those beautiful pillows of sugar and all that’s sweet and glazey calms me down even if I’m just thinking about it versus shoving it in my face.
That’s the very essence of summer though, it’s pondering all the possibilities and considering what, if anything, you want to do on a lazy summer day when you can do anything.
Here’s hoping summer is being nice to you and you are getting some time to chill. Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.
Get out there and ride. Or kayak.
Tell me in the comments how you’re spending your time.
In my city we average 42 inches of rain per year, which is four inches above the U.S. average. Spain gets like 25 inches of rain annually, so clearly spring has been a soggy mess on the plains and dales and mountains and everywhere in my area. There’s a fatique that comes with that much rain. A hopelessness that it will never be sunny again or that you may never, ever see the blue sky unless you leave and go to another city perhaps in Spain.
Today marks the last day of my Spring Break. My expectations for this vacation are always extremely low. Some people can rally and book a trip someplace like Las Vegas or Los Angeles or Paris, but I don’t like week long trips to places overseas. I’ve been to L.A. and Vegas doesn’t interest me and I mean a week is not long enough. I like to set up camp and get to know a place. But more than that, but most importantly I don’t have the energy. Summer is around the corner and experience has taught me that it’s better to rest and. find my life again.
Monday we took our sailboat to the boat yard for some work. I wasn’t going to join my husband onboard because there was rain in the forecast and my friends, the only thing worse that being on a bike in the pouring rain is being on a sailboat under the same conditions. But the skies, while menacing didn’t rain. They glowered and grayed and clouded and scowled but then there was a break and I saw some blue and I found myself forgiving the great Northwest rain gods for their moods.
Same day. Bluish skies start to give way.
We even saw seals. I do not know much about smelt but the numbers are high this year (or so said everyone upon learning that we saw seals) and for the first time the seals are abundant on the Columbia River. It was amazing to behold.
Seal chat.
What I assumed would be a terrible weather day turned out spectacular. The seals and the break in the rain and seeing the sky was like finding a hundred dollar bill. It reminded me that even with all the prognostications and apps that in-between the storms and gloom there is such beauty. Now it might not happen again for another 40 days but I took photos and video to record the moment.
That’s at the heart of any vacation too. You leave or vacate your life and routine and go do something, somewhere else and come back refreshed and ready to take on the next thing in the routine. Back in January I was contemplating a trip to Nice, France. Ticket prices were good and I was starting to consider an itinerary, and yet, I knew that it wouldn’t work. Realistically I knew I’d feel like I do during most spring breaks, exhausted, enervated and weary.
But I know that on the other side of those clouds there’s a blue sky trying to break through. I know that as I move into the downhill portion of the school year I’ll think of those seals out there on the river doing their thing and barking at the boats and I’ll know I saw them and for a moment I forgot about everything else and that was wild abandon.
Happy Easter to you if you celebrate and happy, dry trails ahead. Although I think for me that will be in July.
The sky looks like Milk of Magnesia and I’m not impressed with the forecast for the day. Not raining does not mean sun. There isn’t rain today but I did experience a brief misting. There is snow in the forecast for Wednesday, but for now it’s just dull.
I won’t say how stunned I am about how quickly this month is passing. I won’t drone on about the fickleness of the weather. I won’t invoke the various frustrations I’m having with the morning temperatures which hover in the high 20s and only climb to the mid 30s. I’ll reject the notion that spring is in the air, because it’s not. The gardening shops are putting out the pansies and it’s all I can do to resist the urge to buy them to brighten up the yard, but the fact is that there’s still frost on the roads and rooftops in the morning and I’m going to stay firm in my commitment to waiting. I’m here to announce that I’m trying to keep a steady cadence in life and I’m overjoyed that Monday is a holiday.
Holly Berry, my newest bike, is simply lovely and I enjoy taking her on rides she hasn’t been on yet. Today we went to the waterfront and looked at how the Milk of Magnesia sky met the gunmetal gray of the Columbia River and I enjoyed looking at her candy apple red frame against the backdrop of winter dull. She’s gleeful in a sea of dullness.
Icing on the paths.
Last week I decided to ride in spite of the weather. I didn’t care if it was icy, I was going to give it a go and commute anyway. We had a late start on Tuesday because there was a bit of a dusting of snow at higher elevations but since school started 2 hours later I figured it would be okay. I’m glad I did so at least I have a sense of what it looks like when I ride in those conditions but I don’t know if I would do that again. Probably I would but I hopped up onto the sidewalk at several points on my commute since the bike paths were icy.
Frosty sunrise commute.
Why do you do it? People ask me that all the time. They cite various issues, like safety and time and of course the unpredictable weather. I guess I do it because it’s beautiful to see how nature works and behold with my own eyes how spectacular it all is. That and bragging rights! There are things about commuting that people often say seem dull. I don’t really get that because I can’t fathom commuting by car. While it is a challenge some days to get in gear and ride, I’d much prefer that to the alternative. I get to witness the sunrise and sunset and the birds and the blooming of everything. It’s like having a front row seat to a performance and sometimes it’s beyond awesome.
God rays and the ride home.
Winter is long and cold and sometimes it feels like it will never be over. I often remind myself in a commute that the seasons will change and to settle in and enjoy the moment I’m in. It’s not easy but when you breathe in that cold air and open your eyes wide you can see that it’s pretty special to just be in it all.
Wherever you are in the world and with whatever the season, I hope you’re doing well and enjoying the ride.
Thanks for reading! Get out there and ride your bike
Bike Goddess 