a near miss

the following is an emailed rampage i unleashed on two of my hapless friends, Corey and Nicole, after a near miss between my beloved Sparky and a car in northwest portland. a few edits have been made to protect innocent eyes. it is a testament to Nicole and Corey's copacetic nature that they are still speaking to me at all. i am also ashamed to say that i posted something FAR more benign on bikeportland.org after some guilt and shame caught up with me.
here we go:

okay, i must vent.
i was on my way to REI (they have a clearance sale, and i needed a floor pump), and there was a road closure in front a few blocks. a subaru came up and drove past me on my left (i was in a bike lane) and then turned right in front of me and then stopped directly in the bike lane. i mean dead stop for absolutely no reason. i skidded to a stop just before flying into her rear window.
i was so angry i slammed my hand on her rear window before riding around her (she was STILL parked in the bike lane, by the way). she rolled her window down and told me "that's what blinkers are for. you should be more careful". i replied that it's hard to see the blinker when the person's coming from behind and cutting you off in your lane, and she snottily made a few comments and then said, and here's the clincher:
"you give bikers a bad name". i was speechless, mesmerized by her audacity and her unbridled assurance that her driving was completely flawless (when in fact had she done the same with a car she would have a great deal to answer for). that speechlessness, of course, lasted about a nanosecond. needless to say, i pointedly invited her to get out of her car, but she was already starting to drive off.

i hate drivers sometimes. not all, not most, actually. just brunette former cheerleaders who think that the tonnage around them gives them license to drive whatever way they choose regardless of traffic law (and had she stuck around i . . . well, first i would have rearranged her pert little nose . . . but THEN i would have graciously offered her my copy of "pedal power" with all traffic regulations regarding bicycles therein for her perusal and, one hopes, her ultimate enlightenment).
but i got to REI. and i got my pump at 25% off. it's orange. and makes me happy. or will make me happy after i'm done with murderous rage.
give bicyclists a bad name. the impertinence!

love,
-s

okay, so there was the rage-stricken biker that you see on the news (i can still work up into a lather when i think about it for too long). just would like to follow up with a tale of coming together through adversity that happened the following monday morning. Sparky and i were waltzing around ladd's circle on our way to work when a silver economy car turned in front of me. i veered as much as i could without hitting the parked cars and ended up getting hooked by her passenger-side rear-view mirror and taken along the front of her hood for a few yards (still riding my bike). she stopped, i landed on the pavement, then got up to check on Sparky and my paddle, expecting another lambast from another haughty motorist, to be honest. instead i heard a bashful, "i'm so sorry. i didn't see you there." the driver was out of her car and shaking a little with her hands out to me. she asked if i was alright, and we ended up hugging each other a lot and asking if the other was okay. we talked a bit about how it's difficult to see bikes, that the laws are always changing and so it's difficult to know where to look or what to do, that we'll both be more careful next time. she didn't even LOOK at her car for damage until she was about ready to get back in. i don't know who that woman was, but i hope good luck is strewn before her like rose petals for the rest of her life! it was such a reversal from the near-hit the week before that i was able to appreciate her candor and generosity of spirit even more.

this is a test

it is only a test.
the postings predating this one have lived in other venues and in varying formats.
the strings of words above these trifles make their debut on the computer stage via the portal from which you are currently discerning.
if this had been a real post, you would have probably witnessed a foppish attempt at poeticisms before you realized the day had gotten long in the tooth and it was high time you attended to other matters.

a fabulous bike move (and PDX100)

sunday was a duo-cyclical romp through the ins and outs of portlandia. to begin, we had the first ever portland century bike ride. folks could pedal their way to the 40, 60, or 100 mile mark, depending on their ambition and pain tolerance. i chose the 60-miler, which i term the "metric century" because it makes me sound slightly less wimpy. i didn't feel less wimpy, mind, but in repeating the phrase every half hour or so, i hope that history will treat me kindly. . . or overlook me completely, which seems slightly more likely (and i have only you to thank, my glorious two readers, for some passing notice. grateful and more grateful).

i rode for most of the way with Fillard Rhyne, who had the perfect bike and the perfect hair for the occasion. i felt as though the two of us were a peculiar sight, as neither of us were sporting spandex for the event. Fillard, if you don't know him yet, is a rather tall fellow with what could only be described as rich tresses, which was lucky for me since it was easy to spot him in a crowd. we set out from PSU a little before 9am after having wrestled with the other registrants. there were about 3 times as many participants as they were expecting, and the limited resources (water, gatorade, snacks, etc.) were an often sought and rarely found commodity, but i imagine such is to be expected on the first ride of its kind. i heard later that one of the big reasons for the massive over-registration was that many more people registered at bike shops than had been expected, and those forms didn't get to HQ until a few days before the event. next year will assuredly be more luxurious, but it was great to be among the pioneers of the pdx 100!

i got back to the finish line about 3pm and wound my way to the office to pick up my brand spankin' new bike trailer in time to help my friend my friend move her apartment. there were about 12 of us (?) with trailers and panniers and joy in our heart to be invited for the great Stuff on Bikes parade. our new little trailer (who does not have a name yet, but we are considering "Pluck" or "Minerva") had a big first week with a BTA bike move followed by delivering hot water for breakfast on the bridges with Elly's move as dessert! every one of the movers demonstrated awe-inspiring prowess at bungee-cording, stacking and scrunching every worldly possession she owns onto a team of eager bikes. the trip was incredibly short and followed by a long stretch of multi-course delicious concoctions created by Meisterkoch John.

at the end of the evening i was a tired, tired bicyclettist and endured a rather bad movie just because it meant sitting for 2 uninterrupted hours in air conditioning. sometimes even when the movie's terrible one is able to stay for comfort.

paddling in victoria

this post is scrawny and far inferior to the glory that was our trip to victoria, but it's a reminding placeholder.

bibledash in seattle

just your average weekend in seattle. you know, biodiesel homebrewing guides, wedding crashing, the time warp, VegFest, the experience music project a la my man Frank Gehry, chinese food, and ikea with contingents from the east and west coasts.

oh yeah, and Bibledash.

consider six people sitting in a hotel room still buzzing from dancing the conga and time warp at a wedding to which only 2 of the 6 were invited (Mel was gorgeous, and Andy's dance moves are beyond compare!). imagine, if you will, a desire to play a game together. but which game? ahh, one cries out, balderdash. everyone grows excited at the thought. hearts a-quiver, the search for a wortebuch commences. sadly and finally, however, scavenging and treasure hunting fail to produce the almighty, the requisite, the everliving dictionary. well, posits another, what book do we have that might take its place? more scavenging. tossing. pondering. eyes flitting in oscillating hope and perturbation. and then, a light! what one book does every hotel room in america possess?

that's right. the Gideon's Bible.

thus was Bibledash formed. how Bibledash works: at random (and random, as any balderdasher knows, is quite relative and of lesser priority than whimsicality), each person takes turns finding a book, chapter and verse. others coin what they think could pass for a biblical phrase. books referenced during Bibledash's maiden voyage included Genesis, Lamentations, Acts, 2nd Chronicles, and (what game would be complete without) the Song of Solomon.highly recommended regardless of your liturgical prowess. watch out, King James!

Random: the deity

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this week's randomness quota (for i must do one random thing per week) was filled by snowshoeing. never done it before, never actively pursued the idea of doing it, had no idea who my fellow snowshoers would be, had no idea what modern snowshoes looked like and assumed that they resembled the backs of wingback wicker chairs hailing from the heyday of the 70s, etc. had no idea. also spent most of the 45 seconds it took me to respond to the www.cnrg.org posting contemplating just how surefooted i am not. i mean truly. the last time i went hiking it was on the slippery, damp leaf-carpeted grounds of southern thailand rainforest area, and i almost died once. the short version of that story (though not the focus of this entry, so i hope the telling of it will not over-weary my two readers with tangential data) involved me climbing up a slippery slope with sheer rock faces on either side, no purchase to speak of, sharp rock licked by the andaman sea below, a slip, a slide and a last-minute catch of my foot on a root. every day since has been a gift.

so it was with these thoughts that i rented my snowshoes and met the 13 others at "the daily grind" this morning. we set out for mt. hood with the guidance of Christine and Pat.

i'm already hooked on snowshoeing. it's fabulous. claws secure purchase, toes dig to surety. the journey is ponderous and hushed with snow. crunch shhhhh clack crunch. crunch shhhh clack crunch. the sounds of every character Jack London ever immortalized can be heard to clatter their teeth or spit ice with every snowshoeing step.

all hail, deity of Randomness!

my favo(u)rite soup

well, you literally asked for it this time! as requested, following is the recipe for the soup i made last time at Izzi, Matt and Ted's house:

dilled broccoli soup
(from Lorna Sass' "cmplete vegetarian kitchen")
serves 5-6

INGREDIENTS
1 lg bunch broccoli (2lbs)., cut into small florets
4 c. vegetable stock
1 lg. onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/2 c. steel cut oats (the original recipe is for old-fashioned, but steel cut are better)
sea salt or blond miso to taste
3/4 c. tightly packed minced fresh dill (you can substitute 2T dried dill, but don't whimp out and go for dried!)

DIRECTIONS
1. throw everything into a pot and bring to a boil
2. cover the pot, reduce heat and simmer about 15-20 minutes, until the broccoli is soft and the oats cooked
3. add miso to taste and serve

(3a) the recipe calls to puree the soup, then add miso and serve with dill garnish, but i prefer this soup chunkinated. you be the judge.

and there you have it - 6 ingredients, quick as a wink, easy as whistling, and good as Gideon's!