Ending Spring Break Right

Most of Spring Break was pretty low key, playing with my kids, trying to give my wife some time to get on top of her paperwork, the monster of a desk she's been trying to cope with, working on her shop, yardwork and emergency fence repairs.

Not a bad break by any stretch.

But not too much to write home about and rave either. Until the last few days of the week and the weekend in which much goodness, fun and too much sun was all packed in.

First off, I got two good mountain bike rides in, one less than I'd targeted but I can call the demo ride of the Delta 7 Arantix at the Sea Otter Classic a half a ride so I'm even that much closer to my goal. But I did get two good rides in, one with Nande which makes for a more fun outing, usually.

My second ride was on Thursday and wasn't quite as far as normal but I didn't want to over-tax Nande on her first run/ride in a while so we took it easy. She did alright overall but was definitely riding the lag wagon towards the end.

On Friday, I headed south to Laguna Seca and the Sea Otter Classic bicycle festival. Aside from the long slow slog in, it was a great time. The weather was magnificent, there were some great races to enjoy, the dual slalom was particularly cool as well as the BMX trick riders. I did do a full write up of the event on NorCal Bikers, I think the link is in the post right below this one.

On Saturday, we hit the beach so that the boys could play with their cousins. The four kids had a ball running into and out of the surf, throwing sand at the water, making designs in the sand and generally running around like wild little boys. We also got to see a rather large fish wash up on the sand, still alive, flap around for a bit and then get carried back out into the bay. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of fish it was. It was about four feet long, had pretty big teeth and a bunch of spines on its dorsal fin. It also was extremely iridescent in the sun and flashed bright blues, greens and maybe some purple.

Sadly though, no pictures as I'd just put my camera back in my bag when it rolled up on the shore. And, because the four kids were getting really close, I couldn't just run over and grab it. Especially not after seeing how nasty big those teeth were!

On Saturday night, a buddy of mine and I went out to Salinas to watch UFC 97. Overall there were some pretty good fights but Anderson Silva's title defense fight was about as thrilling as watching paint dry. Which sucks because he was trying to draw Thales Leites into a fight but Leites seemed content to flop on his back about fifty times. The fights also pretty well ended Chuck Liddell's career with another TKO stoppage. That was a bit of a bummer. Overall, I went 5 for 8 on my predictions and should not have gone with the sentimental prediction on Liddell or I'd have gone 6 for 8. Not a bad night of fights but it could have and should have been way better. Silva may be winning but he's losing his marketing draw with each successive boring crappy fight. They need to put someone in the ring who will bang with him.

And that brings us to yesterday. The early part of the day was spent at the house, doing yardwork, fixing a slowly disintegrating fence and trying to steal a little rest while avoiding the sun because it was hot, hot, hot here, must have been in the mid-90s. But the afternoon was spent at a birthday party. Lots of kids, a little wading pool, a sprinkler and some damned fine Hoegaarden White Beer on tap. It was alot of fun but very tiring.

After we got home, got the kids bathed and into bed where they put up only the most minimal resistance to going to sleep, we watched Thursday's episode of Survivor. And saw the most annoying character since Johnny Fairplay keep stroking his scraggly beard and massive ego. This season is turning out to be a pretty meager and bordering on annoying enough to stop watching one. The Coach guy is a complete tool, liar and jackass. If he'd been voted out then I'd have been happy but nope, we'll be subjected to more weeks of his incredibly grating personality. You're losing me, Survivor, you are losing me.

And that brings us up to current. This week will be a busy one, with meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, after school work on Tuesday and lots of little computer fires cropping up from the break.

My legs are worked, I might have pink-eye and a spot or two of poison oak but I look pretty darned tan and healthy even if my allergies are starting to lose the battle against the post nasal drip.

It was a very, very good end to the week off. Now we'll see what kind of looniness develops as California just got another $3.1 or $4 billion for education. I hope that money goes to its intended use and not to another of Schwarzenegger's projects because that money could mean I have a job in the fall.

The Sea Otter Classic Write Up

I just posted my write up of A Day at the Sea Otter Classic over on NorCal Bikers. Lots of fun, lots of new people, lots of pictures and some sweet BMX video as well!

Bad Parenting 101

I had to make a trip up to Target earlier today as we needed some batteries for one of Grady's birthday presents. While I was there, I saw a couple of boys around 12 or 13 years old riding their BMX bikes through the parking lot.

They had no helmets on and, I learned quickly enough, no brakes on their bikes. A car started coming at them and, rather than squeeze a brake lever to slow down or back pedal to engage a coaster brake, they both dropped their feet on the ground and skidded to a halt.

Which made me wonder what kind of an idiot parent gets their kid a bike without brakes and lets them go riding it through a busy parking lot filled with distracted parents in enormous SUVs without wearing helmets?

I was reminded of an old motorcycle saying about helmets, "If you've got a five dollar head then get yourself a five dollar helmet." I guess those boys have zero dollar heads or their parents think they have zero dollar heads.

Just a Quickie Before Bed

My laptop broke last night and stayed broken most of the day, so bad that I had become resigned to dropping $500 to replace the motherboard so I could replace the video card that's soldered to it.

The signal to the display had gone all haywire and zapping PRAM, resetting the PMU, none of it helped (by the way, thanks Apple for trying to charge me $49 to do just those two basic ass key sequences, way to try and capitalize on a down computer). So I backed up my hard drive and started to get it prepped to get sent off for repairs.

And, just when I'd brought my spare laptop, the wisened old Pismo aka the kitchen computer aka Grady's Thomas the Tank Engine viewing machine, up to the office to stand in for the much faster Aluminum. But I thought I'd reboot the Aluminum another time or two to see if it fixed itself yet. And, lo and behold, it has fixed itself. For now.

I have no illusions that my laptop is going to need some major and expensive work sometime in the next couple of months. But it works for now and we're going with it.

I also took Nande out for a great, great ride/run this afternoon. We met up with John and Brady and hit the lower flanks of Nisene Marks but this time we rode all the way out to the far trailhead which was a damned ass long ways up some goodly hills. By the time we topped out, I was nearly tapped out. But there's not much better to recharge your batteries than turning around and descending the hill you've just grunted your way to the top of. And its made more fun by the addition of your hound and your hound's pal and your pal.

I'd also like to note, for the record, that the record now stands at John - 1, Erik - 0. That's a good thing because he's now beating me in biffage. On one part of the descent, he got his front wheel tangled in some roots and went arse over heels, as it were. I was right behind and got a great view, I wish I'd built the camera mount for my bike because it would have been good video.

Anyway, he was actually pretty well protected by his sweatshirt and pants and only suffered one good rashie on his elbow, the initial point of contact.

By the time we'd gotten back to the cars, I was pretty well fried. So tired but really happy with the fantastic ride we'd just racked up. The dogs had had a great time running and playing in the river, we'd gotten in some excellent, fast singletrack and good hill work too.

And Nande and I got a nice bath when we got home, for we were ten kinds of filthy from the trees, dirt, water and dust.

Next time I'll take the GPS to map and measure it. And, hopefully, I'll have put together the camera mount.

Critical Mass Should Go

I've been a fan of the concept of San Francisco's Critical Mass, the idea that bikers (and other non-mechanized forms of transport) essentially take over the city to demonstrate an alternative to cars.

The reality of Critical Mass is that it is a fucking huge pain in the ass for everyone not in the ride. People who need to get to work or get home or get to the store. And I say this as a biker and cyclist.

Or, in the case of this family from Redwood City, a birthday celebration that turned into an insane and terrifying horror story. The complete wrongness of the whole ordeal is a sign, to me, that Critical Mass is no longer any kind of positive influence or good awareness of cycling event. It is a horror show.

A biker in front blocked her as another biker began pounding on the windshield. Another was pounding on her window. Another pounded the other side.

"It seemed like they were using their bikes as weapons,'' Ferrando said. One of the bikers then threw his bike -- shattering the rear window and terrifying the young girls inside.

All the while, Ferrando was screaming, "There are children in this car! There are children in this car!"

What kind of awareness has this raised? Lawsuit awareness? Probably.