TWO BUCKS WASTED

Woke up at 6am thinking about a girl.

Blackberry dream "maybe someday."

Cried "SHIT!" out loud to myself in the kitchen when I saw the sunrise.

I hustled down to the corner

and enjoyed this view, all alone on the cliffs. When I asked some friends a few hours later if they saw the sunrise, they looked at me like I was crazy. I guess most people don't get up at dawn on a Saturday.

Dry roads, clear skies, and sunshine, so I pulled out my favorite bike and ran an errand in 39 degree air. Happy. A kid in the drugstore asked "Is that your fixie outside?"

I came home and decided to ride a few miles across town to explore Land of Medicine Buddha, http://www.medicinebuddha.org/, so I layered up in one of my favorite things ("Icebreaker" top - it's merino wool) after a smell check.

This stuff is awesome. For two days this top was tucked inside a cordura nylon bag along with my wet weather gear. I pulled it out and it didn't even smell.

I loaded up for the ride (toolkit, water, journal and pen, energy bar) and and headed down the hill to Capitola and saw the holiday decorations getting pulled down at the restaurants on the beach. Checked out the headlines for the day in Santa Cruz and over the hill in San Jose, a.k.a. Silicon Valley. Tough times.

I wasn't totally positive on the route to Land of Medicine Buddha, so I headed out of Capitola, up Depot Hill, and grinned when I saw this roadie in front of me. I like passing roadies in their full kits when I'm on my fixed gear. With a bag slung over my shoulder. Going uphill.

Getting close... closer...and he's behind me...

Then I got a flat, and learned that my small, space-saving adjustable wrench was too small to remove the rear wheel.

So I used my last CO2 cartridge to fill the tube, thinking I could just haul-ass the four miles home before it flatted again. I blew the CO2, hopped on the bike, and the tire was flat again in about 30 seconds. Two bucks wasted. I was more upset about wasting two bucks than the sudden change in my plans. Thank you yoga.

So I turned around and headed home...through a eucalyptus grove

and hitch-hiked for the first time in my life

Closer to my neighborhood, I saw another example of typical Santa Cruz living. People put stuff on the street corner that they want to get rid of. There's always a handwritten sign on the stuff that usually just says "FREE." I liked the sign on this thing. It says "FREE. YOU FIX IT." So bossy! I was super-stoked and I stopped traffic when I took pictures of this. It says "If my life had a soundtrack..." and is written in cursive on the white stripe of a crosswalk that connects a parking lot to a spot overlooking the ocean. I was walking back and forth across the street, totally oblivious to any traffic, reading it over and over. Happy. I consider this crosswalk to be one of the unofficial entries into my neighborhood (Pleasure Point). And seeing it as I entered my neighborhood made it that much better. How many people in cars will never enjoy this? :)

I got home and went straight to the garage to fix the flat. I found the cause...

...and added the punctured tube to the other 12 tubes that are waiting to get patched.

After I fixed the flat, I went for a spin around the neighborhood to test it, making sure I didn't stray too far. This lady had it figured out.

I pulled onto Manzanita, the street that my garage is on, and saw the neighbor boys playing cars . Pretty boys with pretty cars. Check out Anthony's custom plates on his SS Camaro(FSLFUEL).

Around 4:30 I went down to the Dirt Farm to juggle fire. Short days and beautiful sunsets. Yesterday, I met this guy who was taking pictures of me juggling. He showed me the pics and they were really good, and he said he would take more if I showed up again today. His name is Loic and he's from France, here on holiday, renting a house in the neighborhood. Here he is taking a picture of his daughter (and the guy on the far left is my neighbor Terry).

After he took a lot of pictures of me he asked if he could try juggling. As I handed him the clubs, dripping with fuel, and the lighter, I asked "Can you juggle clubs?" He said "Yes, a little, but never on fire." In a few minutes we had him doing it. I was impressed - not with his juggling chops but with his generosity. He spent so much time taking really good pictures of me over two evenings while keeping two kids in check, and never once made any reference to himself being able to juggle. Thanks, Loic. Very refreshing.

My Latest Ride

Ten miles on pavement from home to get there - riding along the coast, passing spinach fields and cows. Bucolic.


Then the entrance to Wilder Ranch, the only place on the entire planet where one can find the "ferocious and agile" Ohlone tiger beetle (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/invertebrates/Ohlone_tiger_beetle/index.html)



Sweet covered single track...


...then some single track through the meadows...





I came across this little guy on the trail. He wasn't doing good - laying on his side and making little clicking noises as he was breathing. I held him for a while and talked to him. He started moving a little bit. There wasn't much more I could do for him, so I set him off the trail and squirted some water onto the grass, wished him well, and continued on my way.




More climbing. I walked a lot. It was foggy.




When you get to the top of Wilder Ranch, you can cross over into the trails around UCSC..



...where the fun starts. All I did (since I didn't know where I was) was find technical sections and ride them over and over, trying to get better. It's easy to get lost on these trails if you don't know them.







Some sort of tanks, all graffiti'd-up. Here's my favorite one, up close. Somebody did this with a can of spray paint?



On my way home, I rode along the coast and saw these old Woodies.







Spinach fields, cows, killer-endangered beetles, beautiful scenery, redwoods, sweet trails, and Woodies. That was my ride today.

My new(est) bike...

...is a Bianchi single-speed mountain bike, 29'er (29-inch tires, instead of the 26-inch tires found on typical mountain bikes). I have become a single-speed convert since transitioning to a single-speed bike for my commuting in April. I enjoy it so much on the road that I decided to switch over to a SS for the trails, as well. SSs are quieter, simpler, lighter, faster. And sometimes humiliating, when you have to get off and walk up a hill.

Here are some pics of my latest rides:

The first time the tires hit dirt (at Nisene Marks Forest).

This morning I got up just after dawn and went on a 31-mile solo ride. Back to Nisene Marks Forest. This ride took me very close to the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake(http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/disaster/89quake.shtml).



Redwoods - these are just the babies. There's a big one tucked away somewhere in this forest, but I haven't found it yet...45 feet circumference.

This is the payoff after climbing 1,600 feet in five miles.


My bike in the redwoods on the downhill section.

After the ride
I drank a cold beer by the beach, studied my surroundings, and tried to figure out which of the following was more ridiculous:

1. This GI Joe-trailer-hitch-attachment on a jacked up Jeep

2. Gas prices

3. This Chihuahua in sun-goggles

Quad tandem

Random picture of a family on an extreme tandem bike in the Santa Cruz harbor.

Tim gets his firefighter's uniform

I was walking by Tim's apartment over the weekend and he pops his head out and says, "You gotta see this!" When Tim says that, you never know what's coming your way. Out he comes with his firefighter's helmet. He is a certified EMT, and is working towards becoming a firefighter. Until he gets signed on to a full-time firefighter job he's doing paid-call firefighting. Basically, they give you a pager and when there's a fire they call you. Tim told me to try the helmet on:

Afterwards, he read all of the warning labels inside the helmet. There are a lot. They are scary.

Go Tim!

My Flip-Flop Fixie Fiasco - 6 days later

So I came home last night, stripped down for bed, and happened to catch a glimpse of my tushy in the mirror. There's not much to see, but what was there was capped off with a new bruise - right at the base of my spine, between the top of my butt cheeks. Kinda scary since there was also some swelling there, and I didn't think I had made contact with the pavement on my rear, just my left side. I went to the urgent care clinic this morning and they took a couple of x-rays and the Doc in a Box is confident that nothing is seriously wrong.

Here's the latest picture. You'll notice that gravity is pulling the blood down. I'll spare you the pic of the bruise that is between by butt-cheeks.