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.

Verdugo Mtns 10K ~ Race Report

This race was awesome, particularly the weather that day was stunning and perfect.  We had cool winds, cloudcover, sprinkles, and just as we were finishing up, it was warm again.  The steep change in altitude throughout this course has you discovering layers of wildflowers and canyons overlooking Hollywood and Los Angeles.  I think my knees are almost recovered.

The officials said we did it in 2 hours 16 minutes, which is crazy by the way, since we have not been training to do such a thing.  If we hadn't have been part of that event, which we did it one time, our time was more like 2 hours 39 minutes (on May 28, 2012), so I guess we rested a bit more when we weren't compelled by photographers and volunteers along the way to "keep going!"  There were water stations at every mile and cyclists in yellow jerseys throughout the course with MTB on standby for emergencies and to remind us to "keep to the right" as runners who had already turned around were flying down the rock face.

The fastest man, Kwin Keuter of Los Angeles, 24 years old, managed to go up and back in 40 minutes.  The fastest woman Lliana Hernandez, 25 years old, of Glendale, placed 28th overall. She was only 10 minutes behind the fastest man, finishing in about 50 minutes.  It was so fun to read about her coaching story in the Glendale News-Press and seeing her "sweep by" us a full 2 minutes ahead of the next woman Emily Farr of La Crescenta, age 29, who placed 34th overall.  As for us, or me, I was number 622 out of 653 racers, that's among the slowest 5%.  Out of 54 women who ran in my age group, I was the second-to-slowest, among the slowest 2%.  But hey, finishing is finishing and by golly we did it!