Sunday, March 01, 2009

Watching Hockey with the air conditioning on.....

Well, that's what I'm doing right now.
It is strange , that in the Lenten season, which we here in North America associate with weather appropriate for Hockey outside.
But I'm the land of the endless summer, and got back interested in Hockey when I broke my elbow.
And things are different. unlike in Saint Louis, we have two teams, the Ducks and the Kings . I initially liked the Ducks better, as they have a couple of player from the Blues "Glory Days", Chris Pronger and Bret Hedican.
I always viewed the kings as being perennial also-rans, but found that I actually like them better - it seems that have a younger team that ready to go places, where the ducks seem to have a lot of veterans. I remember when Mike Keenan assembled his "hall of Gimps" (my dad's term) line up in 1995 or so(Wayne Greztky, Grant Fuhr, Charlie Huddy, etc). I Thought they would do great, and my dad thought they would increase ben-gay sales. My dad was right.
But some thing never change . The King's opponents? The Chicago Blackhawks (boo!!)
and now back to bicycling
I''m begging to think that buying recumbents is a virus. One of my friends, Steve. was having problems with back pain, so he test rode mine. This week he bought one.
From 2-28-2009

we even got the club president , Tom, on it. His comment "get me off before I buy one":
From 2-28-2009

So we took off on the club ride. I did until we go to the light at Beryl, and i could get started on the hill. I tried the old downhill on the driveway and then turned uphill. no dice.
Steve and I were both worried about the climb on Benson. we agreed to wait for each other, and we both made it:
From 2-28-2009

From 2-28-2009

I almost ran into a curb on sapphire, and did another hike. But I made it back, and Steve bought me a coffee.
I was feeling so good, I decided to do my "age in miles" ride. I headed out baseline again, and got nailed by the light on Beryl. again.
So I decided to go up Beryl and then double back on 19th:
From 2-28-2009

Wound up with about 5 extra miles (will that mean 5 extra years? I hope so!) I noticed my knees hurt, so I moved my seat up some and made it more upright.
Since the sun is coming out early, I decided to ride to church. I did some extra miles by doing the rail trail. I actually worked up enough courage to pedal past the Bollards(from some reason , the scare me more on a 'bent). The light at beryl stayed green , and I made it there with plenty of time.
Coming home ., I was going to do the section of the Pacific Electric Trail in Montclair and Upland. I was going Monet Vista at 30 mph, thinking I had finally got the high speed handling down. I got to the trail,and noticed that they had made no curb cut. Bad planners!
So I rode down 9th street. reminding myself of Mark Twain's quote about bicycles and hills it goes something like he thought the road was perfectly flat until he tried his bicycle on it and it reminded him that It was uphill.
I was going to stop and get my Train pass for the month. but I realized I was late for my family phone call. I got on the Upland section of the PT. better bollards, but more painful curb cuts, and got lucky and go the light to turn to get on vineyard - rather than going to bear gulch park and doing a u turn.
The final score - Hawks 4, Kings 2. Maybe next year!

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