I’m headed to Los Angeles today to spend the week visiting customers and stafffing our booth the World Congress on Computational Mechanics (basically similar to last year’s USNCCM-equivalent). Since
Ride Around Washington is a scant five weeks away, I am bringing my bike in hopes of getting some hot-weather riding. I know: “a bicycle? In Los Angeles?” We’ll see how this works out. I’ve already set my expectations low.
Packing the bike was much more challenging than I remember it being when I did it last October. Since then, I had the disc brake installed. It all fit nicely once I pulled off the crank and kickstand. The remaining parts are bungeed within the case to reduce the jostling that will ensue after TSA rifles through my personals artefacts.
TMI time: I am officially greying. The discovery occurred during my July 4th weekend camping trip. Doubtful that there would be showers, I left my shaving kit at home. At the end of two days, I was looking rustic, a mere flannel lumberjack shirt and can of cheap domestic beer shy of the “mountain man” image. By the end of the trip, there was no denying the Santa Claus-colored chin hairs. Then this week, I discovered a couple of platinum jobbers on my head. They’re subtle, but if the light hits just right… salt and (mostly) pepper.
With a lottery magnitude optimism, I hope that the white chin hairs could mean I wouldn’t need to shave quite so often.
Also for the record, my major concern about my thinning, scalpal rainforest is sunburn, not vanity.
Just wait until you find your first grey pubes. For some reason, that was a lot more more traumatic for me.
This blog talks about riding around LA and the Valley.
http://www.1134.org/blog/
You could also do the loop of my home turf, the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Enjoy the sunshine!
What if you go along the beach? People rollerblade there all of the time so I imagine biking will be possible.
By the way, I am LOVING my new bike. I will have to post about it soon. I took a nice ride this morning down to Seward Park.
Terri: I’ll find out tomorrow evening. My current plan is to find a way through this part of Los Angeles to highway 1, which preliminary indications suggest is an okay place to ride. There is also a trail of some kind along the Los Angeles river.
I saw a bunch of people riding near the section of Santa Monica Blvd (under deconstruction; no apparent bike lane) “near” UCLA.
John: How’d your one-day STP go?
Ted: Thanks for putting this into perspective 🙂
Drat Apparently the rear disc rotor is bent. (I knew I should have packed a torx driver). Looks like I will be heading to a bike shop (or riding without a rear brake).
I prefer to think of grey hairs as a mark of distinction. They symbolize accomplishment, not deterioration (literally — grey hairs seem to be thicker and stronger than the ones they replace!). I also tend to refer to them as “silver” instead of “grey”, which I think is more attractive and also captures that notion of increased value. 🙂