Is Fifty Nifty?

Well , Wednesday at 2:37 PM Central Time, I will officially be an old Geezer.
I had put together a group of friends to ride 50 miles to celebrate.
And then the storm came in. The forecast looked like Rain all morning so most folks stayed in. No one was there at 7:27, so I took off (Pete and Vanessa arrived 2 minutes later). The sky did not look good:

I decided to go up shinn road. It looked a little better crossing the 210:

and through the Heights:

and a lot better when i go to the dam:

I took at break at Mt Baldy road:



I took a break in Claremont when I saw this sign:

I stopped at the coffee shop for a break and some good natured ribbing before proceeding on :

Goal!:

it was still threatening when I rolled back to it's grind:

I also did some celebrating, as I bought a new cell Phone without the old one breaking first. I got a LG Vortex, which happened to cost me $50 (plus a two year contract with Verizon. I took a photo for a review of my new helmet(which I may post):

not bad for 3.5 mp.It;s an android phone. I have to get with times. I mean I do have a priest who reads his sermon notes on a Iphone. :) I even managed to make a call on it. Now to get the mobile hotspot working (Must resist the Ipad and Samsung Galaxy tab that is calling my my name)
so, what's it like to be this old? I'm not sure, other than it brings Perspective. I was think of the lyrics from Glibert O'sullivan "when I was Gay" which has a different connotation now than in 1972. Speaking of the modern meaning:

Most of my writing work this week was doing research. I've done some updating on my Cape Girardeau story, and will be probably review my other drafts this week. Part of it that I usually the train to do my writing, and I had to drive in several times this week. Probably will be the same next week, but then I'm going to back in Cape next weekend. Maybe one of these day I pay one of those editors who advertise in the Back of Writer's Digest to beat the Living daylights out of one of drafts....

Sick day

I met my Friend from Pennsylvania, Mark. He had flown to visit his in -laws.
We were going to do the Santa ana river trail. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.
Put I have my cell phone:

From Cell phone

Quack, quack, quack:

From Cell phone

Monster Truck Rally TONIGHT!!! Think I'll wait for spring training:

From Cell phone

Mark at Newport burger:

From Cell phone

and the Beach (with Catalina island in the distance:)

From Cell phone

From Cell phone

we loafed a bit coming back. when we got to green river, Mark wanted to know where he could get something to eat. I pointed all the stuff at Green river and mentioned the steep climb. His rental bike had a 53-39 double and 12-21 straight block cassette. We went to Keno's instead.
And today I have a cold. so no riding today

How a half inch became a mile

I did our usual club ride. It was retro day:

You'll also notice the Elliptgo in the background. some Folks had to take a test ride:

And it's still winter here

and at Big Bear:

stopped by the old Biane Winery:

before heading out to bentup in North Hollywood for sopme new bearings, which didn't fit. While I was there, I got a Call from Comp Edge, informing me they had sold my Roubaix. Yippee! I bought a new bag, and went back to Rancho to pick up my money.
When I was there, I had them look at my helmet - it had cracked. so it was time for a new LAS Isotrion. and my wheels? they had used set in the right size that used standard bearings. I still had some money after all goodies:

Today I took my new bag out on my other bike. I had put new tires on it, and had not re done the setting on the bike Computer. By the time I got to church, it was off by by a mile. oops! I did a rollout (measured the circumfrence when mounted), and it was off by half inch, hence the title of this post
I did some research today (Primarily ordering things on Amazon) and some writing. I'll leave you a pic of Mt Baldy:

Riding and Research

I managed to combine both my passion this weekend
Friday , I did a brief ride before heading out to Bentup to pick up my bike:


Since Bentup is in North Hollywood. I seized the day and did some "location scouting" and drove into LA to the Site of the Old Ambassador Hotel , and 1818 Venice Boulevard. why there? Read on.
Saturday, I rode by the Filippi Winery



afterward, I rode out to a subdivision in Fontana:




This was once the site of Gifillan airport. My plot pulls the development of GCA Radara few years, adds some Nazis and a 360 year old protagnoist in the mixing , and hopes that page turning (or clicking the button on a ereader) ensues. In case you're Wondering , 1818 Venice was where Gilfillan was located in the 1940's. I my have to change the company name, but i've got more writing to do.
What's GCA?

Love Chuck and his pipe. I also found another novel on GCA development. And yes, my British engineer is now name Arthur.
Until next week, keep the rubber side down

remebering

I didn't get much riding in
I had a flat on the front tire of my giro 20, but didn't have a spare tube, I went ahead and made the memorial ride anyway:

From 1-23-2011

I had planned on using "time to say goodbye" but ran into copyright problems. "how to save a life" was used during the memoial service at Pomona College, and it fit in more ways than one.
I did make another video of my ride to the Grind:

Today I did a 25 miles ride in honor of Nancy Fish, aka Pansy Palmetto, I made to 24.75 and had a flat. I walked the rest.
On the aviation front, I added to my fleet:
TOL to ORD via SBN:(BAE 146)

The largest plane I have been on Boeing 757-200:

Special livery

I also started work on another book, primarily because I thought it would be more marketable ("Richard Sharpe meets Duncan McLeod at Blackadder's Castle and moves to America"). Plus it's set in LA in the 1940's, which makes research cheaper. Now to do some more research on GCA radar
Until next week, don't lose your head

Transistions

I had two cycling friends make transitions this week
First off Kevin Unck passed way on Sunday in a accident on Glendora Mountain road.
Here a photo from the memorial service at the Start of the Grape fun ride

From 1-15-2011

and second, Nancy Fish, aka Pansy Palmetto on bikejournal.com has treminal cancer.
Not a fun week.
Also, I wound up dropping my Strada off for an overhaul at Bent up on friday. I forgot how much harder my Giro 20 is to ride! Plus , it developed a flat on the front and I only had one spare tube. I had to meant to walk today, but I wound up cranking out some chapter for my books. You see, I have been praying for directions, and I keep on getting back "write, write, write" (followed by the Human "edit, edit, edit"). I'm not sure where this is taking me with the Brave new world of publishing, but all I can do is trust and obey

So I'll leave with a good pic of Mt baldy, and see you all next week

Just like the real thing, only smaller

I order an Ozark Coffee Mug for my Brother and threw in this:

so , I decided to a model plane for each airliner type/livery I have flown in (No, I never made it on TW's 717s. Let's pretend it's DC-9 or MD80)
My usual way out of MDT:

My First Flight out of ONT:

a CRJ:

another way to get to MDT:

From 11-14-2010

a real "Mad Dog"

From 12-3-2010

and a "Jungle Jet"

From 12-24-2010

more mad dogs:

From 12-24-2010

and a flying cigar

Yes, I did, but the weather was not picture friendly:

and yes, let's have a You tube:

Kicking the can forward

Not really inspired to write much, Probably because I started another fiction project and have been working some crazy o/t.
Any way I did make it to the Rose Parade:

and from the still:

One thing I notice was that some of the floats were really optimized for viewing from above rather than street level, you can watch it http://www.ktla.com/entertainment/roseparade/
Hopefully, a better post next week