bye-bye gas guzzler

Sometimes I think in pictures.  When I can't find a clipart that expresses the img in my mind, I get creative!  Right now, I'm heading into a car-free future and I'm excited and terrified.

Why am I scared?  I worry that we will be hit by a gas guzzler, which is ironic because we've been driving sooooooo much over the past two years it's remarkable that we've not been in an accident.

A rough estimate of husb and myself's driving habits (21 miles and 36 miles to work, respectively) and husb and myself's fuel economy of our vehicles (35 mpg and 41 mpg, highway, respectively) gives roughly 1500 gallons of gasoline we used in two years.  That's 28,600 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted.

We're investing in Metrolink and taking the green route, at least for the month of August to see how it goes.  What are your stats?

SUPERMOON = SUPER-PMS?

I'm a scientist.  We observe and form hypotheses.  I have one going right now about the supermoon.  Remember that weekend where everyone watched the moonrise because the moon was closer to the earth than usual causing it to appear larger on the horizon?  Yeah, and it made the tides higher.  I am thinking that it also synchronized the world's women's menstrual cycles, and not just humans -- animals, too.

Strange things have been going on in my body and in the creatures around me.  I was cleaning up the backyard and heard the neighbor's cat really wailing.  It was like she was strummin' my pain with her finger, singing my life with her meows, killing me softly... with her song...

I ran into a stranger who asked me within 3 sentences if I was PMSing.  I also caused someone to burst into tears with my own bitchiness.  Awesome, not awesome.

So here comes my hypothesis: if the moon is exerting some kind of control over the tides, then is it too far-fetched to say that it affects us (animals) too?  And what about plants?  I read in the Farmer's Almanac that the moon's cycles influence seed germination.  I'm not sure I believe it since it said not to plant on the 9th of June because "seeds planted on this day will rot in the ground" but mine germinated just fine.  So, like I said, it's just a hypothesis.

CicLAvia ~ Iconic Wilshire Blvd ~ Ride Report

This event started at 9am and we rolled through the starting point just beyond Pershing Square at 1 Wilshire Blvd at 9:05am.  It was quiet to begin with, under great cloud-cover.  Westlake/MacArthur Park was a really pleasant surprise, since I've never seen it before.  Like a mini- Central Park for LA.

The architecture at Vermont and Wilshire was spectacularly colorful.  The Bullocks Wilshire/Southwestern Law School building (1929) with copper panels and the housing, retail and a public school surrounding a subway station (1996) make the area a bustling and dynamic multi-use city-space.

The Pellissier Building and Wiltern theater (1931) in green terracotta is another stunning structure.  The marquis advertises Patty Griffin, but my inner comic read Kathy Griffin, who I LOVE.

The Wilshire United Methodist Church was another eye-popping building.  It's spire is intricately decorated and it has a large rose window facing the street.  By the time we reached the turnaround at 5900 Wilshire Blvd, we were surrounded by cyclists.

I really enjoyed the display of the Berlin Wall sections.  It was a peaceful spot to lay in the grass and appreciate the music.  We didn't catch any of the advertised belly dancing, but I heard the music and knew it was coming soon.  The Variety Building (1971) is the tallest skyscraper on the Miracle Mile and has displayed ten segments of the Wall (the longest in the US) since 2009.

The Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) is definitely something we will return to someday. We had fun posing with the Oscar statuettes outside LACMA. Ruben Ochoa's Dancing POPOS were really cool.  The theme of this ride seemed to be art & architecture and even though CicLAvia organizers encouraged this as the most walkable event, most of the participants were on bicycles!

There were two adorable costumed greeters outside the Korean Cultural Center at 5505 Wilshire. The Los Altos Apartments (1925) at 4121 Wilshire were totally iconic.  The Scottish Rite Masonic Temple (1961) was an ornately frescoed building that we noticed both coming and going at 4357 Wilshire.

Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park at 3410 Wilshire nearly brought tears to my eyes.  Actually what captured my interest was an out-of-service fountain at the intersection of Alexandria and Wilshire, a remnant of the demolished Ambassador Hotel (1921).

Most of the information presented here was found in a pamphlet prepared by Catherine Gudis based on the Los Angeles Conservancy's curatingthecity.org.  I got a few comments on my socks, one had multi-colored bicycles and the other was a rainbow all the way up to my knee.  Gudis also cites "Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in LA 1945-80."  Shoutout to PFLAGs!  I didn't know if they were complimenting me on the bicycle sock or the rainbow sock, since both people said "I like your sock."

T-shirts bearing the logo I (heart) K-town were for sale for $10 each and a group of volunteers out front of Immanuel Presbyterian Church at 3300 Wilshire were handing out free bottles of water (BIG THANKS!). Rolling back into downtown, we saw more cyclists than ever.  

A stop at the Westlake Theater (1936) for a traffic crossing was nice.  We noticed the gorgeous mural, which I now know depicts Jaime Escalante one of my biggest role models in life.  I first learned about this dogged calculus teacher like most other people by watching the movie Stand and Deliver (1988), in which he is portrayed by Edward James Olmos.  Both men are in the mural along with a graduate and a proud parent.

After a quick bite at Crepe'n Around, we headed back into LA Union Station and caught the train back to Glendale.  Overall, we had a great time with no accidents or mechanicals.  We are extremely grateful to all volunteers and workers (LADOT t-shirts were amazing) who made this event possible.

It's TIME: Pt. Reyes ~ Ride Report

A ride mapped on 03/21/2013 using a Garmin Forerunner 110

Sometimes when you do something so EPIC, you have to take a step back and see how that jewel fits into the crown of your existence.  This ride was certainly tops in LIFE so I have to express a bit of it here in my biking blog for posterity, of course.

A HUGE thanks to my dear aunt Anne for organizing and facilitating this transformative weekend. We took 1,066.27 ft of climbing in strong winds along Sir Francis Drake Blvd all the way until the end of the pavement.

Basking in the sun at the turnaround like a sea lion.  We saw so many different flowers and wildlife, including a coyote.  Also ran into an experiment station at the end of this tree-lined driveway.  It was a great pleasure to take an 11 mile recovery ride the following day out of that wind.  When a friend told me to bring a windbreaker, I'm glad I listened.  Also totally loving these gloves I found at a gas station in either KS or NE over our epic Christmas vacation.  Missing family right now, lots going on with cousins and sisters.  It's the dawning of the Age of Aquarius or something, like big things are happening for all of us.  Claiming the area like early explorers must have done felt really inspiring.   I always loved our in-house library with maps and photographs of ancient artifacts and cultures.  I wonder what will survive this modern digital age for the future generations.  Will this carbon fiber bike still be an artifact after 10,000 years or will it be broken down again to atoms and converted to another substance in this universe?

Things I learned from this ride:  hills kills.  Beware of cows.  Bring lots of CLIF.  Don't be afraid to lay in a grassy meadow.  Explore meandering pathways.  Sing in unison.  Sometimes all you need are two peas in a pod.  The experience of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center was incredibly authentic.  The powerful women we stared into each others eyes and shared deeply.  It was scary and uplifting.  Hiking the hills of Mount Tamalpais overlooking Stinson Beach was a moment in time that is completely priceless.  When I think back to the expansive views, I become speechless and calm from the inside out.  When you see yourself in that scale, the worries fade to grass and the peaks which seemed large are now just a part of the landscape.

LA River Ride (preview)

When my collaborator said Friday is writing day, I must have heard RIDING day because I took off on Friday afternoon at 2:30pm like a bullet and overshot my destination.  It's easy to do on the LA River Bike Path, which takes you along the I-5 corridor.

The wildflowers were spectacular and the skies couldn't have been bluer.  I met my mirror image.  At a stoplight.  She wanted to ride with me, perhaps considering I was wearing as much fluorescent yellow as possible in addition to reflectors.  With the help of her mobile device and McDonald's free WiFi, I got back home without reaching my original destination.  Something about the next turn being 'Apex' I knew there would be no soon end to the climbing and I was out of gas.

Sometimes it's fun to see where the city leads you.  There were two streets I identified with.  One I called out 'Muhlenstrasse' because it was steep like the street in Jena I used to push my bike up on foot rather than choke halfway up.  It was actually called Alessandro.  Why is it always a freakin' hill?  That guy must have been one powerful dude if every street named after him is a long climb.  Made me think of a friend from Jena of the same name.

Long days give way to high productivity.  I can feel the solstice coming, it's only 10 days away.  From LACC you can see a cathedral of Scientology, the Hollywood sign, and Griffith Observatory; it might be fun to visit the last one on the solstice.  They have a cool sculpture that reads out the time and date by objects' shadows and alignment with the heavenly bodies and the energy emanating from them.

20 miles of SMILES

Speaking of collecting photons...The radish (easter egg blend) seeds are almost ready to harvest.  Spinach too.  Harvested Mexican Poppy seeds today.  Lettuce and chard are bolting.  Squash is flowering and fruiting.  So are tomato and pepper.  So is basil.  I started more radish (white icicle), new carrots (Danvers #126), new salad mix, and a bunch of herbs that I haven't had in awhile.  V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.  Spell it with me!  Made some new seed packets too.  And a new set of QR codes.  Just need popsicle sticks to finish that project.  And time, love, and tenderness.

Corona del Mar Scenic 5k ~ Race Report

The Corona del Mar Scenic 5k provided us what it always has, sweeping views and more food than you can fit on one paper plate.  This year, we ran in the Men's Race although in previous years we have run the Women's Race.  We stayed at the DoubleTree Club in Santa Ana to be nearer to the starting line.

It was super fun running with a large representation of family members, my husband and his mom, her husband, my sister-in-law and her husband, and their two children (8 people).  The weather was fantastic, cool and overcast with a slight breeze, although at one point it seemed we were running at exactly the wind speed since we only felt the breeze while walking but lost it when we started jogging again.

CdM5k 2013 Course Map

I won't bore you with the details of how we placed, let's just say we ran 12.5 minute miles and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Staying down there for the weekend allowed us to get a total body workout, running the CdM5k on Saturday and Kayaking around Newport harbor on Sunday.  We caught a bit of the Balboa Island Parade while stopping at Pavilions for a bathroom break.  Hot chocolate and doughnuts were our Kayaking turnaround treat.  Even though it was overcast while we were out on the water, it wasn't too windy and we didn't flip once!

Kayaking Route

I thought of the poem containing the line "One if by land, and two if by sea;" and I'm not sure if it applies here.  Maybe if we consider ourselves "attacking" a fitness routine, our metabolism will respond doubly if we challenge it at sea. Or maybe it means when we're done with a workout, we can eat an ice cream cone with one scoop if we did a 3.2 mile run (337 Cal) and two scoops if we do 5.3 miles of kayaking (1048 Cal). Working out at the beach is the best.  BTW, Happy national running day!

value

I've been thinking about value lately.  I've said this before, but I'll remind myself again, when a word gets stuck in your head, you better get it thought through, because it might be the universe trying to tell you something.  Or the universe that is your grey matter.

First, I think of values (political) such as whether people "value human life" or not.  I mean, who doesn't at least value their own life.  When I think of my own health, which I take for granted, I realize that many of us do not make daily choices that lead to a state of optimum health.  Others do.  A recent trip to Las Vegas cemented these opposing values in my mind as part of the fabric of American culture.

Then, I think of value (bargain, price) which we may have had at Circus Circus.  I enjoyed the theatrical escape of being geographically distant from my house, which seemed much less cluttered when we returned than when we left.  Something about staying in a dirty, crowded, noisy hotel makes you enjoy the peace and quiet of your own home when you return to it, exhausted.  I went totally WifeBOT5.0 on the house with the remaining glycogen in my system from the crystallized ginger and added some boiled turnips and barley/lentils for good measure.

Also, I think of value (of a color based on its reflectivity).  I like highly reflective colors!  Especially for biking and cycling.  Think of them as photon friendly.  High value is like canary yellow or cyan (#00FFFF). Low value is like a king's red or navy blue.  I still haven't gotten to my craft project of adding reflectors to a couple of pairs of pants and a jacket using iron-on double stick batting and fluorescent orange ribbon coated with retroreflective tape.  I have one running outfit, but I want a few things for urban night-cycling.  Wolfpack Hustle, this summer I am riding (at least once) with you.  Found my stack of blank canvases so a flock of birds I hope to paint.  I've been watching you carefully this spring my feathered friends.

Finally, I'm thinking about eVALUEations.  It's the end of the semester and naturally I am evaluating my students while they are evaluating me.  We each give each other a certain number of points, and then I give them a letter grade, they submit teaching evaluations (both electronically and on paper).  If my garden were to evaluate me, it would give me an F.  The value on the thermometer was above 100 deg F yesterday, which means it's time for the dogs to get their summer haircuts.  At the shop they ask you, what value?  Meaning how short of a razor guide to use.

Value is everywhere in my life these days, but I am in a big moment right now.  Finishing up at Claremont and heading into a summer of new experience!  Grades are due in a week.  We had our first research meeting yesterday, so it felt great to show how much progress we've made this past semester.  Publication-quality figures!!!  I feel like my neighbors are valuing (or evaluating) the educational garden in the front yard.  We have our first ripe tomatoes and cayenne peppers (thanks to this heat wave) and there are seeds forming on many of the native and cultivated plants.  These are a few of my values: plants and chemical education.

Yeah, and it's BIKE WEEK in LA.  Amgen Tour de California is happening!  You can take your bike onto any bus for free.  There are bike lanes spontaneously popping up around town this week and weekend.  I value my carbon bike, it was costly.  I value the Reve Tour and they gave me a free subscription to a magazine so I can read stories other writers write and other photographers photograph about a lifestyle I wish I had more time for.  But I guess that is what tells us about our values.  What you spend your time doing must be what you value, or as Tony Robbins would say: "You're out of alignment, and that's why you're not happy."  It's almost time to align myself with a showerhead, but at least the thoughts about value are out of my head and down here (not on paper), or should I say: up in the cloud?  Maybe later today I can align myself with my bicycle around Claremont or otherwheres.