Cycling Blog and Happy Movember Eve

Well, I have tons of weight loss surgery blogs and now running blogs that I read and enjoy, but it turns out there aren't a whole lot of cycling blogs out there. Correction: there are a lot of blogs about bicycles, mechanical whoosies and whatsies and what's available and buy this and rate that, etc.

Maybe someday that will interest me. But it doesn't right now. I'm still all about "ooo, how I will I make rent this month and feed the children?*" No $5K bikes for me!

*I promise, as I'm paying for the plastic surgery, I will continue to feed and house my children. Maybe in a cardboard box whilst eating Top Ramen, but I will at least meet the spirit of my obligations.

No, when I am looking for cycling blogs, I want something like this: cool people talking about how cool it is to ride a bike. Anecdotal stuff, personal stuff. The kind of fluff I write, in other words.

I found a couple one: Jess Cutler. She lives in Seattle and races bikes. Alma also bikes and throws in little biking tidbits along with all her running, too. It's a start! Anyway, I'm looking for more, so if you know of any. I get sleepy when there are too many technical details about bikes, though. :)

God Watches Over Drunks, Children and Girls on Bikes Who Have No Sense
Now, for my own little biking tidbit this morning, I rode my bike to the P&R before work. Just a short little ride designed to put my bike in the right place after work so I can go on my now-standing Wednesday night group ride. Umm, standing ride for this week and next, anyway, haha. Then I'll be in recovery mode for awhile.

I opted to go down the very steep hill by my house, even though it was dark and rainy, because I was being lazy. There is a back route that is not much farther at all. On the very steep hill, there isn't really room for cars to pass, and it is the main thoroughfare out of my neighborhood. When I drive it in the morning, bicyclists irritate me make me wish they had taken the back route for their safety. Well, it was dark, and rainy, and I didn't want to hold up any cars (and really, there's so much traffic that the cars are certainly going slower than a bike can, jeez). But I was going fast, and at the bottom of the hill there is a hairpin-ish turn that also has a road divider in place. I always get on the sidewalk for that part, just so no cars get to run me over and say they had no choice but to squish me.

Well. I was going too fast to brake and move onto the sidewalk, and my bike started fishtailing like crazy, and PLUS it is garbage day in my neighborhood so the sidewalks are full of garbage, yard waste and recycling bins. I was very lucky to have not fallen, and it would have been at high speed into a curb line and maybe the garbage bins would have saved me from sliding into the road at the narrow hairpin turn, where, as I've said, cars have no choice but to squish you should you enter their path.

Oops. Lesson learned. I think God picked up my bike, with me yowling in shock and surprise, and set me on the sidewalk and told me to stop being dumb. I can still take the short route, but perhaps I should remember what a super-speedy cyclist I am now. :)

On another biking note: I stink. I rode in the rain and I don't have fenders on my bike (maybe I should read some of those techy-buy-this-for-your-bike blogs, after all). I am pretty darn wet at work, and I was okay with that because I will dry. But I think mud puddles must stink. Oh well. I'll have to continue to refine the process here, packing clothes or something. Honestly, it seems like much work. My mornings are already busy with "find your backpack, eat your breakfast, put your contacts in, don't forget to have me sign your agenda, are you bringing lunch or buying" etc. Not a lot of slush time available to get to work and take a shower, etc.

Plus, I hate this sling backpack I bought. Hate it. Maybe they have cycling blogs about cool bike stuff you can buy without wasting your money on things you'll end up hating, hahahaha.

Blogger's Remorse
Oh, I'm not sorry I did the Huff Post interview, but I am a little surprised at how surprised I am that people IRL would stumble on it. Oops. Thass okay. I can't really complain about them knowing about my weight loss woes when in a very short time I will GO TO THE MAT with HR to defend my right to wear a bikini to work, haha. Still, it's kind of weird, and kind of skeeves me out. It's a bit like in my old blogging days when I was blogging about my divorce and I found out X's family was reading it, haha. Not a bad thing, per se, just an "Oh, really?" sort of thing.

Mustache Dache
As you may recall, I really only think that men are able to grow facial hair in order to screen some of them out as to whether or not I will find them attractive. Don't like it. Although, speaking of X, I did have a startling revelation recently that X had facial hair for probably 90% of the time we were together (uh, only twenty years or so) - and I had completely overlooked this fact. Do you think this gave me weird facial hair issues?? When I was a kid, our cocker spaniel went ballistic any time the UPS man - dressed in brown - came to the door. Other delivery people? No problem. UPS? Those guys was not allowed on the property. Maybe my anti-facial hair stance stems from this in some deep subconscious level.

Jon Hamm can do whatever he wants and still be the most attractive man alive. But I do like stubble. A lot, actually.

I would still do him, but it would be out of pity for him as much as anything.

Anyway, it's Movember Eve, the time when many of my friends and coworkers decide to make themselves as humanly unattractive as possible by growing fur all over their faces. Go, boys! (I guarantee you none of them know this is tied to prostate cancer awareness and fundraising.) It's like puberty all over again...look at me, I can grow hair! My eleven year old son is also asking questions about when he can grow facial hair. (Not as long as you live under this roof, buddy.)

But my very favorite Movember activity is the Mustache Dache in Seattle. I (BIG HEART) their website. It is FUNNY! Go poke around. But better yet, sign up for the 5K! It's November 17th in Magnuson Park. They had a presence at the Snohomish River Run last weekend and they were cute. I saw many fake mustaches and a girl in an outfit like the one on their site:

I won't be able to do the 5K as I'll be just a few days post-op. I am coordinating with Alli's friend's mom to see if the girls, who both did cross-country at school, can go to the race together.

But if you have a strong stomach and are willing to brave a crowd this is concentrated with a higher than norm population of facial hair, go do this 5K! I'll bet it is going to be a ton of fun. If I don't make it there with Alli, I am looking forward to scrolling through the event pictures - they will no doubt be hysterical.

Dork Alert
Coming back to add that I am such a dork. Really, on my best days I am so far from smooth, you wouldn't believe it. I am clumsy, uncoordinated, I say stupid isht and put my foot in my mouth all the time. I don't care. :) But I hit a peak this morning at the park and ride. I was waiting in line for the bus, and I still had on my helmet and this headlamp, which is like a miner's light, not strapped to my helmet. (I really should look for some biking equipment blogs - I wonder if there is such a thing? With reviews? That would be so helpful.) So, this headlamp is COMPLETELY cutting into my forehead and I cannot wait to get it off. Nope, not the ten extra seconds it would take me to get my helmet off. I pull the elastic band of the headlamp and attempt to stretch it over the bike helmet. I fail, and the headlamp springs back and clocks me in the forehead, HARD. I bust out laughing so hard!

The guy in front of me in line? I swear to God he took one look at me and walked further back in line. Which made me laugh so much harder. I was dying. :)

p.s. no costume for me this year, but I told Sabrina that next year this is what I'm wearing:

I'm just sayin.