Oi, this blows

The wind was extra-ordinarily high this morning. I mean, dang. The hard bike ride gave me a good boost though. Turned the volume down on the day.

Climbing Like Stinky Patootie

I mean really. I lay off top-roped route climbing for a month and I can't finish off a single route in an entire night of gym climbing! Gah!!! I mean, ok, I really got two routes finished. But I spent the rest of the night falling. Repeatedly. And hanging in my harness. Very disheartening.

And of course Nate just cruised 5.11's all night. Grrrrr.

-sigh-

Daddy Long-Legs

So Dev and I went snowboarding at Timberline lodge on Saturday with our friends Warren and Toni. Snow kept falling all morning. The temperature hovered in the 20's. Our instructor rocked the slope. And Devon and I feel like we can ride a snowboard now. We still need more practice and we have one more lesson in our package, but we definitely can ride a snowboard now. I need a lot of practice riding the toe edge but it really is just practice at this point.

Warren and Toni suffered through the first day of snowboarding. Which is normal. I have not talked with a single person yet who had a good first day on a snowboard. But everyone I've talked to about boarding has had a good second day. Like Dev and I. -grin-

And apparently I kept rushing ahead of our crew on the slope and in the lodge. Finally Toni asked Dev where her husband Daddy Long-Legs was going so fast. So Dev has been calling me Daddy Long-Legs ever since and chuckling to herself every time.

Snowboarding tomorrow

The weather on Mt Hood has been right for the last week. So it looks like Dev and I will be going to Timberline Lodge for the second of our three lessons tomorrow. I'm so ready. -grin-

Flat tire yesterday

Went out to the garage. Started wheeling my bike out. Found I had a flat. Curses flowed like beer at a frat party. Tried to find the puncture agent - no dice. Wasn't going to put a new tube into the tire if I can't find the thorn or wire or shank or shard of glass that rendered my tube deflated.

-sigh-

I was really looking forward to the ride yesterday.
I fixed the tube last night. Still couldn't find a cause. So we'll see if the tube stands up to the ride to work today.

Still rolling it around in my head

I haven't posted my Mt Hood climb report yet because I'm still rolling it around in my head. Which is probably a mistake - I should have written my experience down more fully when it was still fresh. And now three climbers have been stuck on the mountain for over a week. Their ordeal stands in stark relief to my climb. We had perfect weather, they got stormy conditions; we had less than really complete gear lists, they had a text-book and almost professional approach to the climb.

I've been glued to the news about their misadventure. And I've been replying the day of my summit attempt. And it makes for good thinking, but not for good writing.

Last Week

Last week rolled by pretty quick and with little fanfare. I rolled through a 40 hour grind to reach Friday. Dev worked a few more hours.

Saturday changed the complexion of things. Dev and I went snowboarding at Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood. The weather looked a little dodgy on the weather reports, but we woke up early and gambled that rain would in fact be snow at 5000 feet on the mountain. And we won the bet. Snow dusted the slope all day long with brief breaks and the temp stayed well within the range of comfortable.

I had a lot of fun in the snowboard lesson. I've only been snowboarding one time before. I went up to Tahoe with some friends from work back when I lived in the San Francisco bay area. The day at Tahoe was warm and the slope icy. I had a terrible time. This weekend at Mt Hood I felt like I had better control of the board and the snow conditions were better for a novice learning how to control a waxed piece of wood on a steeply sloped surface of low friction material.

Dev had a harder time of it. She left the slope exhausted shortly after the lesson ended. Our first ski lesson treated her better last season. But we have two more lessons, so there remains a good chance that she might convert. She likes the style and weight of the gear better than snow skiing gear. -grin-

Can't wait for our next trip to the mountain.

Pictures from Hood yesterday

Here's the pictures I took yesterday. I hope to have a more detailed trip report up sometime this week.

Not quite there

I climbed up the side of Mt Hood today with Nate, Sue and Aaron. We fell short of the summit by a thousand feet. I'm beat and will post more details later. I'm off to bed now. -grin-

Brrrrrrr

Below freezing last night here in PDX. No precipitation though. The ride in to work was chilly but dry. And I even broke a little bit of a sweat even though the mercury floated right around 30 degrees Fahrenheit (yay layers!).

The forecast says freezing rain overnight tonight. I'm hoping either a) enough to shut Portland down for the day (so I don't have to go to work) or b) not very much (so I don't have to ride through slush tomorrow).

Pics from Thanksgiving

Ann and Scott posted pics from our visit on Thanksgiving here. Fun pics for everyone.

And she also posted pictures of real snow at their house. Crazy deep snow. Looks like Dev and I chose the right day to leave for home!

Working off the turkey

And the potatoes. And the sweet potatoes. And the stuffing. And the pie. And the ice cream.

And you get the point.

Dev and Scott and I tripped up to Deception Pass for a little hike this morning.

First we rolled down to Rosario Beach and had a very short hike along the beach bluffs. Classic Pacific Coast beach bluffs. Vertical drop. Jagged rocky face. Kelp swaying in the waves breaking on shore below. Wind whipping you back from the ledge. The same wind that twists the trees brave enough or unlucky enough to grow on top of the cliff. We spent a few minutes staring at the trees in the sun and the wind with the dogs and then tromped back to the car to go to Deception Pass State Park proper.

Once at the park, we unloaded the dogs and proceeded to the bottom of the stairs at the end of the parking lot. These stairs lead to a great view of the underpinnings of the bridge that crosses Deception Pass waterway. We snapped a couple of pics of the green-painted steel trestles. Then we started off down the path through some lush northwest rain forest. After less than half a mile of hiking we topped out on the north east summit of Goose Rock. Enjoyed the view for a few minutes and then skedaddled back to the car for the ride back to Scott and Ann's house.

For more turkey and pie. -grin-

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all recover from your food comas soon!

(And, yes, I know this post is one day late. The Turkey won yesterday.)

Short week jubilation

Feeling so much better after my bout with the not-quite-flu. I can breathe again though I am snorting a lot of snot. Sniffling accompanies me everywhere right now.

But I am well enough to ride my bike to work again. And that 45 minutes every morning and another 45 minutes at night provides me so much sanity. I work out my workday crunchiness. I resolve any issues with the repeating revolutions of my feet. I expiate my workaday ennui with my peregrinatory exertions.

In short, (to borrow the motorcycling phrase) I ride to live. (Well, that *and* climbing.)

New Jacket seems to work

So the new Spraymaster jacket I bought from the Patagonia store seems to work pretty well. I rode home in an insanely windy deluge Wednesday night. I scarcely had to pedal because the wind blew from the south end of the river towards north Portland. At one point I realized that I had traveled from one stoplight to the next at the speed of traffic without pedaling a stroke. And the jacket held up pretty well.

I need to futz with adjusting the neck and hood. The only leak I had was rain running down my face and onto my chest. Brrrrr. But I think I have devised a trick or two to prevent a recurrence of that leak.

Reading a lot

Well whatever crud has been creeping around the office finally took me down yesterday and laid me up today. The weather turned nice yesterday too. So I miss the first good weather in two weeks because I don't feel well.

The upside is that I had a chance to finish reading Into Thin Air by Krakauer and Over the Edge by Child. I burned through these two books.

Big Blow

The rain started in earnest Monday night.
Tuesday night had me wishing for pontoons on my bicycle.
Wednesday and Thursday slackened on the rain with sporadic outbursts of liquid gloom.
Friday unleashed new precipitative fury that had me swimming from curb to curb as I crossed the street to get to a movie theater.

Yesterday I purchased a new rain jacket (the Patagonia Spraymaster) as a new refuge from the weather on my commute. The sales associate Tom at Patagonia rides in to the Pearl District from Vancouver every day on his bicycle - more mileage than my daily commute. This shared distance under glowering skies on a daily basis convinced me that he knows what he's talking about. And I like Patagonia and their values. And their line of goods. Just about everything but their price. -sigh-

So I'm hoping to stay dry. This week has a forecast only slightly drier than last week. I hope to post a glowing review of my new equipment soon.

Basking in the glow of victory

Haven't written much this week. Too busy being happy with the Democrat insurgency in Washington. The real work begins in January (even thought the spin started Tuesday night).

So once again:
YAY DEMOCRATS!!!!
YAY DEMOCRACY!!!!

Go Dems!!!!

CNN has called the House of Representatives for the Democrats. Can we get the Senate too? Only a few more hours will tell us for sure!

Final Stretch

Today through Tuesday is the single most important stretch to get voters out. Join me in calling voters through MoveOn.org's Call For Change program. It's fast. It's easy. It's a no brainer if you are angry about the Republican control of our government.