Mount Diablo - Nov 1 or 2

[dachshund]

Is anyone interested it riding up Mount Diablo the first weekend in November?

I have a slight preference for Sunday (11/2) but it's only slight. I'm thinking we'd do the same as the group did a couple of months ago, meet at the big parking lot off Railroad in Danville, and ride up from the south entrance.

I've only been up to the junction once, so I'm not much of a tour guide for anything more than going up and coming back down the same way. But I'm certainly game for any other routes (provided we go up from the south.)

[melissam]

Is anyone interested it riding up Mount Diablo the first weekend in November?

Will there be beer afterwards? :p

[dachshund]

Will there be beer afterwards? :p

Most certainly! :D
(other phrases that come to mind start with "is the pope..." "does a bear..." You get the idea.)

[melissam]

OK, then I'm in! Either day (Nov 1 or Nov 2) works for me.

[jobob]

Have a few for me! :D

[aka_kim]

I'm interested! My preference is Saturday 11/1, since I think I'm traveling on Sunday (it would be good if I could remember these little details).

[dachshund]

I'm interested! My preference is Saturday 11/1, since I think I'm traveling on Sunday (it would be good if I could remember these little details).

Oh good! The 1st it is then. :)

[melissam]

Hey dachshund (doxie?),

Is this your Seven's maiden voyage up Diablo? We should have a celebration at the summit! Hmmmm...what to do, what to do... Guess we have until Nov 1 to figure it out. :)

- Melissa

[dachshund]

Hey dachshund (doxie?),

Is this your Seven's maiden voyage up Diablo? We should have a celebration at the summit! Hmmmm...what to do, what to do... Guess we have until Nov 1 to figure it out. :)

- Melissa

Why yes it is. And it will be the first time I see the summit, ahem, couldn't quite make it that far the first time. So, yeah, a celebration is in order!

[aka_kim]

We just need one really strong person to tote up those bottles of champagne.

[melissam]

We just need one really strong person to tote up those bottles of champagne.

Um, Veronica, are you joining us for the Diablo festivities? :)

[Veronica]

Nope - racing the Salmon Duathalon on 11/1. :D

I hope I can run faster than a fish.

Veronica

[melissam]

Nope - racing the Salmon Duathalon on 11/1. :D

I hope I can run faster than a fish.

Veronica

We'll miss you and your bob-trailer-pulling abilities. But good luck on the duathalon -- no feeding the fish! ;)

[dachshund]

Hmm.... Salmon... champagne... I'm getting some good ideas...


Nope - racing the Salmon Duathalon on 11/1. :D

I hope I can run faster than a fish.

Veronica

Well darn, Veronica! I was looking forward to having a conversation with you this time, instead of wheezing, gasping for air, and muttering about cardiac arrest. :D Kick butt on your Duathalon, ma'am.

[dachshund]

Well I suppose we should discuss the rain issue. I'm inclined to wait and see how bad it gets. I have Sunday free as well, in case Saturday's rained out.

[aka_kim]

Or, we could play hooky!!!

[melissam]

Or, we could play hooky!!!

Hmmm...I like the way you think!!

[aka_kim]

For once, I'm both willing and able. Job be dam*ed! Either tomorrow or Thursday would be OK with me.

[melissam]

Oh, well, um, if I played hooky tomorrow (Big Release Day) or Thursday (Day After Big Release Day), it would *not* be looked upon favorably. My job probably would be d@mned.

After that, though, hooky will be a viable option...

[aka_kim]

Drat! Well, hope for good weather this weekend.

[melissam]

According to weather.com, it's not looking good for this weekend.

OTOH, it looks MARVELLOUS on Mon - Thur next week. This hooky thing is seriously tempting says the girl who's just about to shut down her laptop and head home for the day.

[aka_kim]

But, but ... our Big Release Day was LAST week, and I'm visiting the Mother Ship next week (that would be Redmond, not my mother), so unfortunately no hooky for me then.

[jobob]

Ah, such is the life of the software career girls. :cool:

[Veronica]

When they play hooky they don't have to write lesson plans. :D

Veronica

[dachshund]

Darn the rain! Maybe it will clear up on Sunday.

Tomorrow would be a good day to play hooky though. :rolleyes: It's very tempting. I could probably swing it.

[aka_kim]

We "software career girls" think a 40 hour work week is just like being on vacation :p. Which is a good thing, because vacations are few and very far between.

dachshund - so ...?

[Veronica]

Nope, don't envy you the work hours, just wish I had a little more flexibility sometimes. You know, it would be nice to spread that summer vacation out a bit throughout the year.

Veronica

[melissam]

Yup, we have flexibility all right: we can work any 12 hours of the day that we'd like. ;)

Dachshund & Kim, I think you should play hooky and ride Diablo tomorrow, then we can skip to the post-ride festivities on Saturday. :p

[Veronica]

Yup, we have flexibility all right: we can work any 12 hours of the day that we'd like. ;)




I'll trade you my student with defiance disorder for your 12 hour workday. :rolleyes:

Work is overrated.

Veronica

[melissam]

I'll trade you my student with defiance disorder for your 12 hour workday. :rolleyes:

Work is overrated.

Veronica

Hmmm...it's tempting for today -- we'll be here until ~ 4am doing a rollout. Fun times!

[dachshund]

We "software career girls" think a 40 hour work week is just like being on vacation :p. Which is a good thing, because vacations are few and very far between.

dachshund - so ...?

I'm game!

[dachshund]

Yup, we have flexibility all right: we can work any 12 hours of the day that we'd like. ;)

Dachshund & Kim, I think you should play hooky and ride Diablo tomorrow, then we can skip to the post-ride festivities on Saturday. :p

See - we can always count on Mel for these good ideas. I'm still searching for a decent place to eat with good beer around Danville. I don't remember where we went last time.

[aka_kim]

Cool! So time and place tomorrow? Anyone else free?

V - is "defiance disorder" a nice way of saying "spoiled brat"?

[melissam]

See - we can always count on Mel for these good ideas.
Dachshund, you're the best! :D


I'm still searching for a decent place to eat with good beer around Danville. I don't remember where we went last time.
We went to Fuzio's in Dublin last time.

Here's a possibility:
Pyramid Alehouse, Brewery & Restaurant
1410 Locust Street
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Telephone: (925) 946-1520

Another idea:
Don't they have a bike shop in Danville that has Colnagos? ;)

[dachshund]

Cool! So time and place tomorrow? Anyone else free?

V - is "defiance disorder" a nice way of saying "spoiled brat"?

I'm open on the time. 9ish? 10ish?

[Veronica]

From research it seems that it's not something that can be changed. Medication makes it a little better.

But I wonder why just being a jerk became a personality disorder. part of the behavior is a desire to see others get angry. So caregivers and teachers are suppose to stay unemotional.

Veronica

[dachshund]

Dachshund, you're the best! :D

We went to Fuzio's in Dublin last time.

Here's a possibility:
Pyramid Alehouse, Brewery & Restaurant
1410 Locust Street
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Telephone: (925) 946-1520

Another idea:
Don't they have a bike shop in Danville that has Colnagos? ;)

Oh, right. Fuzio's was good. I've been to the Pyramid, it's good. We'll have to help you out-of-towners with parking locations though. But a brewery would be a good choice. They'll have that baseball stuff on TV for you. :cool:

Yes, the bike store. The one where we're going to test ride Colnagos and compact doubles while my Seven is getting painted. Uh huh. We'll need a non-rain day, tho.

[dachshund]

From research it seems that it's not something that can be changed. Medication makes it a little better.

But I wonder why just being a jerk became a personality disorder. part of the behavior is a desire to see others get angry. So caregivers and teachers are suppose to stay unemotional.

Veronica

So Veronica, can you take a mental health day tomorrow??

We're going to meet at 10:00 at the Lunardi's parking lot in Danville, on Railroad. So far it's just me and aka_kim as the slacker-IT-heroes. So there's still room on the bus for more.... :p

[Veronica]

I wish. But with this class if I have "sub off the street" I need to leave lots of worksheets to keep them busy.

I don't do worksheets as a regular thing, so having a sub requires a lot of extra prep work.

Veronica

[melissam]

But a brewery would be a good choice. They'll have that baseball stuff on TV for you. :cool:

"A brewery would be a good choice?!" I see that my reputation is shot. :p OTOH, we probably won't need to worry about the baseball stuff, as it may be all over tonight.


I wish. But with this class if I have "sub off the street" I need to leave lots of worksheets to keep them busy.

I don't do worksheets as a regular thing, so having a sub requires a lot of extra prep work.

Veronica

Veronica, you should delegate the worksheet thing to us! Shoot, I'm sure we could come up with something that would keep your class occupied for hours. ;)

- Mel (who wants to be a hooky-playing, Diablo-riding IT-hero tomorrow)

[dachshund]

I wish. But with this class if I have "sub off the street" I need to leave lots of worksheets to keep them busy.

I don't do worksheets as a regular thing, so having a sub requires a lot of extra prep work.

Veronica

I figured there would be a snag. Darn.


"A brewery would be a good choice?!" I see that my reputation is shot. :p


I was only making the point that a good brewery will have good food AND good beer. Your reputation is safe here. But, hey, you've been putting in all those extra hours at work. You deserve a hooky day, or even half a day!

[dachshund]

What's on the agenda for Saturday? I'm interested in riding if there's a break in the rain. Mount Diablo might be risky in case the road's wet, though. Somewhere with rolling hills might be better. There's always Calaveras and the roads around Pleasanton & Sunol. What's anyone up for?

For the record, aka_kim and I did ride up Mt. Diablo yesterday. It didn't start raining until we were off the mountain and coming back through Danville. Good timing! It was beautiful up there. Very different with the dark clouds all around.

[Veronica]

This weekend I think will be like my ride a few years ago.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=12128&highlight=diablo

[dachshund]

This weekend I think will be like my ride a few years ago.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=12128&highlight=diablo

Nice one! It was windy up past the junction yesterday, though it also seemed warmer up there. I'm not keen on trying to see through my glasses while it's raining. And I guess I'm going to have to invest in a larger bag so I can ditch a few layers on the way up. I was too warm on the climb.

[melissam]

What's on the agenda for Saturday? I'm interested in riding if there's a break in the rain. Mount Diablo might be risky in case the road's wet, though. Somewhere with rolling hills might be better. There's always Calaveras and the roads around Pleasanton & Sunol. What's anyone up for?


You know me -- I'm always up for Calaveras!

OTOH, I'm not sure I have it in me to do a copycat ride of Veronica's epic journey on Mt. Diablo. You might think it's because I'm lazy and don't feel like climbing Diablo. Well, that would only be partially true.

Or you might think that I'm chicken and don't want to descend Diablo when the road's wet. That's true too, but it's not the deal breaker.

It's that whole exposure to freezing wind thing that gets to me. My fingers turned blue just thinking about it.

What time are we thinking of meeting up tomorrow, and where should we meet?

[dachshund]

You know me -- I'm always up for Calaveras!

OTOH, I'm not sure I have it in me to do a copycat ride of Veronica's epic journey on Mt. Diablo. You might think it's because I'm lazy and don't feel like climbing Diablo. Well, that would only be partially true.

Or you might think that I'm chicken and don't want to descend Diablo when the road's wet. That's true too, but it's not the deal breaker.

It's that whole exposure to freezing wind thing that gets to me. My fingers turned blue just thinking about it.

What time are we thinking of meeting up tomorrow, and where should we meet?

Well I am chicken and don't want to descend Diablo on wet pavement. There, I said it. Calaveras sounds much more civilized.

9:00 is fine for me, at the Sunol Glen School in beautiful downtown Sunol.
I'm certainly open on the time though.

[melissam]

Well I am chicken and don't want to descend Diablo on wet pavement. There, I said it. Calaveras sounds much more civilized.

9:00 is fine for me, at the Sunol Glen School in beautiful downtown Sunol.
I'm certainly open on the time though.

Thank goodness someone was brave enough to say it. ;)

OK, 9am @ Sunol Glen School sounds like a plan to me. I think I'll bring the Merlin and see how she likes the rain.

[Veronica]

Have fun ladies. I'm wondering what racing in the rain is going to be like...

Veronica

[melissam]

Good luck, Veronica!!

Have fun, and be careful out there!

- Mel

[SadieKate]

I've raced a tri in the rain in Woodland - over Labor Day weekend when the roads were covered with squished tomatoes and the first treadless road tires were out. The bike shop owner smiled and said "let us know how they work."

In tri, you should be in a pack so it's not that huge a deal. You can control your line and speed.

[dachshund]

Yes, good luck Veronica! I'll be interested in hearing about it.

[Veronica]

I ride in the rain enough that I don't worry about that.

It's the running in the rain...and mud.


I'll have a report after. Hopefully Thom will be able to get some pictures.

Veronica

[SadieKate]

Riding and racing on slick roads is a bit different. You tend to stop thinking about fishtailing.

The run is on the pavement. Why would you be in the mud?

[aka_kim]

9:00 is fine for me, at the Sunol Glen School in beautiful downtown Sunol.Well, I'm one huge wimp. Getting up EARLY, on a Saturday, to go ride in what Weather Underground says is 100% probability of rain all day, is strangely just not appealing to me. I think ... I will sleep in, have breakfast, then hop on the trainer for some quality time with ECT! Yeah, that's the ticket!

Have fun all you hardy souls!

[melissam]

Yesterday dachshund and I completed Stage 1 of the Tour di Stupid. The route was perfect for a Tour prologue -- not too challenging, but with beautiful scenery. According to my Garmin Training Center, we climbed 2197 feet, which when translated to US feet, means that our total elevation gain was ~500 feet. :rolleyes: OK, maybe a little more than 500 feet, but probably closer to 500 feet than 2200 feet.

We started at the civilized hour of 9am, and the wind was gusting pretty steadily from the west. Clouds were threatening to open up, but since this was the Tour di Stupid Prologue, dachshund and I decided to head out and see what happened.

The weather cooperated as we made our way up Calaveras past the nursery -- we stopped at Geary to shed some layers. We climbed up to the false summit and continued on the rolling hills until we got to the part before the Wall. There's a dirt driveway with a locked gate that's a great stopping place -- I used it to re-align my cleats the last time we were there. This time, we stopped and began chatting about ... well, lots of stuff. It's really interesting how the stream of consciousness works when you're out on a ride. I mean, one second you're talking about the upcoming election, and the next thing you know, you're trading stories about your misspent 20's.

Eventually, we decided to resume our ride back to the starting point. After about 100 yards of pedaling, the sky starts to open up. I put on my best "glass is half full" mentality and hoped it would just be a temporary drizzle. No such luck. After another mile or so, I decided that it'd be best to put the sleeves back on my jacket. Good thing, because my sleeves were already sopping wet. And this is with a wool jersey too! I took my full fingered gloves off to better work the zippers, and they were literally wringing wet. Oh boy, this is gonna be a fun ride back!

Meanwhile, dachshund decided to ditch her glasses, since she couldn't see thru the beads of water anyway. I tried a different approach -- looking over my glasses to see, but trying to use the glasses as a shield from the raindrops. Uh, my way was stupid, so I ended up ditching my glasses as well. I have to say that riding without corrective lenses is an interesting experience for a nearsighted person. Just ride into the blur! It really wasn't a problem...well, until we encountered the flock of turkeys in the side of the road on Calaveras. I think the leader of the turkey pack was trying to play chicken with the blind cyclist -- almost with devastating results.

I also confirmed the fact that my cycling shoes are not waterproof. Nope, not in the least. Every time I stood up to pedal, I'd squish out a bunch of water.

Actually, it was kind of fun. :)

We got back to the parking lot, no worse but much wetter for wear. I threw all modesty aside and changed right there in the parking lot. Dachshund, who's much more civilized, waited until we got to Bosco's to change.

It was a truly excellent adventure and a worthy prologue to the Tour di Stupid (Lite).

[dachshund]

Nice writeup, melissam!

The good news was that it only rained during half the ride. The bad news was that it rained during the descent. :eek: It's a blessing there weren't any horribly steep sections. Since it didn't feel very dangerous, it was actually pretty darn hilarious. Descending in the rain - not a bad skill to acquire. Brake early and often.

Sorry I couldn't warn you about the turkeys in time. What's the proper call for turkeys up ahead? "Turkeys up"? Hmm. Not sure. Gotta work on that.

[melissam]

Sorry I couldn't warn you about the turkeys in time. What's the proper call for turkeys up ahead? "Turkeys up"? Hmm. Not sure. Gotta work on that.

I think the better question is: how come you saw the turkeys and I didn't? Kind of an enigma...

[dachshund]

I think the better question is: how come you saw the turkeys and I didn't? Kind of an enigma...

Bird watcher... what can I say? :p

[Veronica]

It sounds like you had fun. :D

Veronica

[melissam]

It sounds like you had fun. :D

Veronica

Oh yes, I'm sure that dachshund will agree that we most certainly had fun.

[maillotpois]

Wow - sounds like a great time!! :p So sorry I was holed up inside with the NY Times and a cup of tea.... :p