Thread Drift

[Kitsune06]

Yeah, I hear ya, Brina.
I set out for a little ride Wednesday, and sure it was sprinkly here and there, but no *real* biggie, right?
Wrong.
Cue hard, fast, angled rain. I throw on my rain jacket and pants and tough it out. Then the wind kicks up, and I'm getting *cold*. I look at my arms; Instead of beading like it did the first five minutes the raindrops are now soaking right through the shell. Great.

I get home, over hills etc etc, put the bike up on the futon frame for a cleaning before locking her up, and lo and behold, the sun comes out, it's all shiny and warm and nice.

Great.

[Lise]

Brina, you've confirmed what I heard. I was in a car with friends, driving south to the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, for the opening of the Day of the Dead exhibit. My sister called me on my cell to tell me that a tornado had been spotted on the north side. My friends and I kind of laughed, "Oh, you'll never see a tornado in the city!" It sprinkled a bit of rain, got a little chilly, but by the time we came out of the the museum, nothing. We laughed again about the dire weather predictions. Then I come home and read your post! Amazing! Scary. I'm glad you got home OK. And you, too, Kitsune.

I had a great time at the Dia de Muertos exhibit. http://www.mfacmchicago.org/

I've adopted some Mexican customs, and this is one of them. It's nice to build an altar every year to honor the beloved ones who've gone on ahead. The exhibit this year was the best they've had in at least 5 years. I'll go back a couple of times before it comes down in December. Check it out if you can. I am sure that the SW and CA gals see some amazing Dia de Muertos altars and ofrendas.

[KnottedYet]

Playing "compare the bikes" before I've even been able to ride Flossie. The seat is 4 cm higher than the Kona (gotta cut the seat post, can't lower any farther) and the bars are 10 cm lower.

The seat feels too high, but the drop bars feel fine. Reach feels fine, too. (this is without riding, mind you)

I'll go for a ride tomorrow, stop at LBS to get seat post trimmed, and see how things go.

The beautiful lavender tape Trek sent will wait until I'm sure what I'm doing with the bars and stem.

It's so much fun to have an obsession....

Edit: SKnot is at church camp for the weekend, and I miss him already. (Mind you, this is Unitarian church camp, so clear your mind of any preconcieved notions of "church" camp...)

[maillotpois]

Beta - Well, crud!!! Let's have a non-cyclists' drinking binge party. It'll be great. Really. I'm 2 1/2 months into my 6 months off the bike. I am REALLY not a fun person to be with, and I don't see it improving. However, I am on vacation in hawaii so I can't complain that much.

(However, I just read a post from my PE support whatever group where the guy had to be off the dugs for a week before he could ride - so that's an extra week, there - but YES SK if that flat 200k is my first ride ever I will still do it).

Yay Roux - I hope you're home.

I can't catch up on everything. You guys are great.

[crazycanuck]

Hey kids,

I've tried to keep up with TD this week but have had no luck.

Kiwi_in_ OZ & I went for a short ride this morning as I had errands to run afterwards etc. I invited another friend of mine but dunno what happened to her . It was nice to catch up with Anna (kiwi in oz) and will see her again at the tour de pink in October

My running partner & I are doing a 10km fun run tomorrow in Freo. All the proceeds go to the Royal Flying DR Service

I'm tired of headwinds but it's probably good training.

We're getting ready for my dad's arrival on thursday. We had the car professionally cleaned inside and out today We have a new mattress coming on thursday (the hassles to get items delivered-Western Australia caters well for the unemployed, shopping hours are backwards & service can be crap if you can't be home during the day for a product to be delivered )

I'm sending out an imaginary search party for cyclists on the bike routes here in Perth. I don't know where everyone is but it seems quite quiet out there.
Even on my commute home I might see around 4-5 cyclists in a certain 10km area.

I'm not sure if you are into theatre sports but there's an Australian show called "Thank God You're Here" that's worth a look. They have a website www.tgyh.com.au. I've heard there's a pilot on one of the channels in US/Uk/Europe. It's one of the only shows I make a point to watch.

Have a good day kids


c

[Lise]

Isn't this inspiring?! From a story about the landing of the space shuttle:

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, a 43-year-old from St. Paul, Minn., is a commander in the Navy and was a mission specialist and cosmic electrician aboard the shuttle. She carried out two of the spacewalks, joining an elite club of only six other U.S. women and a single Russian woman who have made spacewalks.

I love that! A "cosmic electrician".

[betagirl]

MP: dang that's right, you're off for a long time. I guess I can't b*tch about 6 weeks I think I need to go to Hawaii to feel better. Thanks for the tip, I'll suggest it to the BF.

[betagirl]

Hey Lise

I was at Lalos on LaSalle with some friends getting liquored (you know, my new habit) when the sirens went off. We were like "are those the weather sirens?" It didn't look all that windy, but was pouring. Resume drinking. It's obviously an effective system because nobody in the restaurant moved.

Here's what they had in the trib today:

"Thundery deluge delivers record rain, 70 mph gusts

With a 140 mph jet stream directly overhead, a strong influx of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, and a warm front just to the west and south of Chicago, all the ingredients were set for a severe storm outbreak late Friday afternoon. Heavy downpours hit in eastern Kane, northern DuPage, and northern Cook counties. St. Charles and Mount Prospect reported over 3 inches of rain in an hour and a half. Those areas and many others reported flooded streets and paralyzed traffic. O'Hare's 1.73 inch total far exceeded the previous record (1.09 inches in 1965) for Sept. 22. Aided by instability created by the diverging jet stream flow aloft and the converging winds at the warm frontal boundary below, towering storms built to 58,000 feet tall. Downdrafts resulted in widespread hail and wind damage (70 mph reported at Hanover Park and 60 mph near West Chicago). Funnel cloud reports and Doppler radar signatures prompted at least seven tornado warnings."

[Lise]

Bi-zarre! I can tell you that the Mexican Fine Arts Museum is a very solid building. We neither felt nor heard anything. It's at Damen and 19th, perhaps south of the big weather. Out on my run this morning, I saw lots of big puddles and small branches down. Sounds like N of us really caught it.

Yeah, KN, I forgot about your crucial skills in the Hawaii team! And we could all go over to Kona for the Big Triathlon. Anybody find a pile of money lying around recently?

[Xrayted]

Hey ladies... could you use an EMT/X-ray tech there in Hawaii? If ya fall off the bar stool and break yer arse, I can immobilize/splint, start an IV (afterall, a little more alcohol at this point couldn't hurt? ), transport, and xray ya.

[KnottedYet]

Oh, yeah!!!

[KnottedYet]

I'm going on a bike ride, I'm going on a bike ride! (on Flossie!)

See yas!