Hello London!

If anyone reading this blog got here via the url flashed in the telectroscope this morning, (evening or afternoon to you) please leave a comment.(That's Little Squid's back (identified by his bike helmet).)

For the rest of my readers ...

We took off to visit the telectroscope when it was, hopefully, less crowded then it was yesterday.

In large letters, we flashed the url of this blog to the watchers across the pond and did some waving of our own. Then, we took off to find a mid-morning snack at the Farirway in Red Hook.

(But first, I paused to take some nice pictures of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge - now 125 years old.)
On the way home we rode over the Brooklyn Bridge and, while Mike was waiting for the rest of us, encountered a fellow Bike Friday devote in the middle of the bridge.

Four FridaysFour Squid

For today's ride, I was equipped with a new saddle -- named "the seat," and Little Squid was riding Squidette's old mount, the Specialized Dolce. The ride was intended to be a "try it out" kind of ride for both of us. I was sold on the saddle almost immediately after mounting, if only because my tender areas from yesterday were not being sat upon. Now I have new tender areas but they are less bothersome then the traditional ones. (Basically, my sit bones are a bit bruised instead of ... well, you know.Little Squid was a bit apprehensive and a little put out that he no longer "fit in" with those of us on folding bikes. Add to that the fact that this bike has a cross bar -- and that he came in contact with it, once, he ended up a bit resistive to the change. New handlebars, brake levers and shifters have been ordered to customize it a bit more to his liking so, hopefully, in a week or two he will be happy with his new ride.

Squid of Wheels -- Tour de Brooklyn 2008

Let me start by saying -- a ride can't be all that bad when it starts here.

Today was the 4th Annual Tour de Brooklyn. Moderately obsessed squid that we are, we had to ride in it.

The ride took us in and out of various Brooklyn neighborhoods including Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Bedford Stuyvesant and Stuyvesant Heights.

We passed cultural institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art (below).


Paused occasionally to let the rest of the group (over 3000) to consolidate.


And ventured into places that do not usually seem like biking destinations.

Evergreen Cemetary

We even got to ride inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Unfortunately, shortly after the picture above was taken, another rider collided with Little Squid, causing a four-bike pile up. Little Squid was uninjured but his back brakes locked into place. Two marshalls assisted us and finally we were able to totally release them, this however, required Little Squid to finish the day with only his front brakes. Not to worry. Turns out that he tends to mostly use the front ones anyway. Needless to say, I stopped taking pictures for a while.

We finally rejoined Papa Squid and Squidette at Cadman Plaza and the official end of the ride. Little Squid took a few minutes to melt down and then, composed again, insisted that we go find the telectroscope.
Not the Telectroscope, just a cool sculpture seen as we headed to the telectroscope.
The Telectroscope, parabolic mirrors set up in a long forgotten tunnel that links Brooklyn and London. We were able to people in London. Cool! I'd love to ride through the tunnel some day ...

Tomorrow we might head back and flash the url of this blog to the Londoners.

Having satisfied our curiosity, and stocked up on chocolate, we headed home by way of Sid's.
Brakes repaired, we are already for tomorrow's adventure.

Actual mileage including the ride to and from the Tour: 29.5 -- recorded mileage, 30 miles. We figure the trauma of a bike crash qualifies for another half a mile.

Riding Through Fleet Week

As May loomed on the horizon, so did the part of my job that I kind of love the most. (Actually it is a love-stress relationship.) When I realized that obligations would keep me at work until late on the day before the long weekend, I started thinking of ways to avoid getting caught in traffic. My school is right by two of the bridges off and gridlock makes crossing the first avenue in my commute (First Avenue, strangely enough) a nightmare. (I've been stranded on the east side of it for over 20 minutes at times.) Finally, after rejecting driving and kind of rejecting the subway, I decided on biking. I would, through force of will, make the weather be nice on this one day in May.

That decided, I managed to move the bike into my daily commute by letting the kids choose between being dropped off at school over an hour early (versus the 10 - 40 minutes early that they are usually dropped off) or, taking the subway by themselves. They opted for the subway and I got to ride my bike. Rah!

For the first two weeks of this testing period (Advanced Placement exams), I rode 2 days each week. This week I rode partway home on Monday, took the subway on Tuesday (Mike had the car, I had to be at a performance starring Little Squid and ... it was raining) and I rode Wednesday and Thursday. I am, through sheer force of will, going to make the weather nice enough to ride tomorrow. Right?

I've played with my uptown route and think I have settled on taking 8th avenue (containing a bike lane) to Central Park and doing much of my uptown ride in the park.

The time in the park is heavenly. One long hill and some smaller "slopes" and no traffic lights. At least none that I stop for.

Coming home, I am now making my way to the park -- entering where I left in the morning -- and riding down the west side of the loop to the south end. This gives me 3 or 4 (maybe 5?) significant hills, including the Great Hill. I am now making it up the Great Hill without huffing and puffing. My breathing is faster but I am no longer panting when I reach the top.

My only problem with my ride home is that, this week, the wind has been really nasty. The gusts are coming from all directions and, once, between the wind and the helicopters (on the Hudson River path) I almost got blown over. I was blown to the other side of the path. Eek! Otherwise, the very act of pushing away from the school sends my stress flying off with the wind.

Yesterday, however, I had a different kind of stress as I got caught in the rain and then, got caught in sailors. Yup. I got caught in a sailor traffic jam. *grin*

Coming down the Hudson River path, just as I was breathing a sigh of relief as I entered the shelter of the piers, I had to slow down and then stop as I, and others, waited for a shipload of sailors to cross the path. After about five minutes (maybe it was only 2) of being polite, I finally, gently and politely, started working my way through to the other side.

Pedaling downtown I had to edge around crowds of Sailors and Marines, always calling my route and saying thank you as I passed. None of my usual New York edge to the groups taking up both lanes of the path. Nope, just a quiet feeling of hoping they weren't insulted as I made my way around them and wishing I could thank them all for everything they do for us.

It was a sobering mile.

It's Fleet Week in New York City. If you see one of our service men or women, give them a wave and a smile. We may not all agree on the politics of it all, but I hope we can agree that these Soldiers, Sailors and Marines deserve our respect.

Enjoy your weekend!

One Word

I picked this up from Dee and thought it was cute. Take it if you want it ... I'm not obligating anyone.

Here goes:


ONE WORD ONLY!

Not as easy as you might think. Now copy, forward, or post this and change the answers to yours and pass it on. It’s really hard to only use one word answers. (I changed one question and deleted one question from the l

1. Where is your cell phone? ………….. lap

2. Your significant other?………………….. desk

3. Your hair? …………………………………….. long

4. Your parents? ……………………………….. wonderful

5. Your dream last night?………………….. strange

6. Your favorite drink? ……………………….. tea

7. Your dream/goal?………………………….. quiet

8. The room you’re in?…………………….. living

9. Your ex?……………………………………….. none

10. Your fear?…………………………………….. loss

11. Where do you want to be in 6 years?…….. home

12. Where were you last night?………….. home

13. What you’re not?………………………….. perceptive

14. Muffins?……………………………………….. cranberry

15. One of your wish list items?………….. loom

16. Where you grew up?…………………….. NYC

17. Your favorite thing? ................... husband

18. The last thing you did?………………….. sync'd

19. What are you wearing?………………….. sweatshirt

20. Your TV?……………………………………….. annoying

21. Your pets?…………………………………….. turtles

22. Your computer? …………………………….. laptop

23. Your life?……………………………………….. interesting

24. Your mood?………………………………….. confused

25. Missing someone?……………………….. no

26. Your car?……………………………………….. minivan

27. Something you’re not wearing?…….. hat

28. Favorite Store?……………………………….. yarn

29. Your summer?……………………………….. happy

30. Like(love) someone?…………………………….. yes

31. Your favorite color?……………………….. pink

32. Last time you laughed?……………….. morning

33. Last time you cried?……………………….. evening

34. Who will re-post this?…………………….. noone

Squid Underground

With gas prices now topping $4 / gallon and parking in Manhattan being difficult in the best of times, we have started reassessing our use of the car for intra-borough trips. For all four of us, it might still make sense since back and forth transportation on the subway runs close to $16 but, for one or two of us, taking the subway is a financial wash or even a gain.

That said, Squidette and I hoped on the subway on Sunday and, arriving at our stop well before we needed to, paused to take some pictures.

All of these were taken at the 81st Street stop on the C train -- also know as the Museum of Natural History stop.

Uptown Platform

Top and Bottom -- Floor Tiles

On the walls

Look on the floor as well!

And, for your enjoyment, and because we were waiting quite a while for the downtown train, I present the Downtown Platform

SQUID!

Dining Al Fresco

Since Little Squid missed out on 12 family miles last week, we made it up with a Mommy-Monster breakfast ride. While Mike took Squidette to band practice, Little Squid and I pedaled uptown, purchased muffins at Fairway and then rode a mile more to some picnic tables along the Hudson River.

We had a lovely time and even made up our own theme song to the tune of the Addams Family. I had figured the song as blog fodder but Mike and Squidette vetoed it.

For lunch we all walked up to the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival. This particular street fair is unique in that many of the vendors are actually local food establishments. There are the usual assortment of generic street fair peddlers of sausage and peppers and crepes but then there are the churches and neighborhood associations and local restaurants plying their fare.

See all those people -- look toward the back of the photo -- people stretching all the way up to 57th street (photo taken at 42nd street).

I love the different spellings of the same words ... shiskebab / chishkacab.

Pork sandwiches, any one?

I chose a Caribbean vendor and feasted on jerk chicken, rice and peas and sweet plantains. The Squidlings dined on arepas -- "standard" street fair food but purchased from a less commercial stall.

Dessert was apple tart, bread pudding and zeppole. Yum!

Yes, yes they are wearing different hats in the two pictures. Like them? I got a new hat, too!

Doing Good and Riding Through the Week

I had an opportunity to do a nice thing for another school today and was able to parlay it into a longer, nicer bike ride.

The nice thing made their lives a little easier but was not a huge thing. I just delivered something that they would have had to pick up in the morning. Since I was on my bike, the errand put me into Central Park a mere 20 blocks south of where I would have entered coming from work. This added a good mile or two to my ride. This was a Good thing! Instead of doing the half loop of the park that I had figured on, I got to do a 3/4 loop. Woo Hoo! The only not so nice thing about it was that I hit a head wind going up the Great Hill. That's not quite fair. I should not have to fight the wind and gravity at the same time!

I've been thinking a lot about "good deeds" recently. As a general rule, I try to be a good person. I hold doors for people, give up my seat on the subway and do other, simple things like that. I'm not looking for recognition but do these things because in my world, they are the right things to do. When others in my world do good, I recognize it and comment on it when appropriate. Whether it is a letter to a colleague or a "that was very nice" to one of the kids. But in my world, good deeds do not have to be acknowledged. You do them "because" and that should be enough.

That said, I am a bit irked by people who need recognition for their deeds. As in constantly. And who whine about not getting it. My (not voiced) response: if you more then the satisfaction of doing good then you are not doing it for the right reasons.

So there!