last of the year

 So after yammerin' about not goin' out of my way to get over a round number of miles for the year, I went on Laura OLPH's last-minute-listed ride today. Some pics:

So now I've got 4025 miles for the year. At least one of my readers will probably feel the weight lifting from his shoulders.

I've got a "first of the year" listing for Sunday. Y'wanna come along?

Also: I've led 37 rides this year. I know the club is up over 1,000 rides for the year, and I've led about 1/30th of 'em. Not bad, for a guy who was working full-time until six weeks ago.

I still suck at retirement, though.

tempting but unimportant

 My RideWithGPS page shows that I have 3,989.6 miles for the year 2021. I could crank if over 4000 by logging another 10.4 miles... but:

• I make a point of NOT adding miles on rides to get up over arbitrary numbers;
• Miles are not the most important measure; I have over 281 hours of riding logged, which is probably even more important (I almost always enjoy my riding time);
• That about 6420 kilometers. Who's to say kilometers aren't a better unit than miles?
• It's cold and wet, my back hurts, and I have other stuff to do. 

 

back to retirement

 I've given up the job at Sourland Cycles; it was simply not a good fit for me.

This is not in any way an indictment of Sourland Cycles: Their floor staff are friendly and knowledgeable; the mechanics (the ones I met) are well-informed and efficient.

Since I've given up the job, I'm sleeping better and somewhat less anxious. I'm looking at other options to be engaged and fill time.

75% is still a passing grade...

 

I don't know whether I'm getting better at leading, or whether the group was more together, or whether I'm just more accepting of the disorganization that's common on a big ride, but even though we started with 20, this ride was much less chaotic than my other recent big rides.

We started with 20... but about five miles in, one complained that she had just gotten her booster, and she wasn't up to continuing, so she turned back.

A few miles after that, another reported knee pain that just wasn't clearing, and HE turned back.

Then, at the end of Pretty Brook Road, one noted a slow leak in his front tire. He decided to roll home (a few miles from there), then take the other bike to go get his car.

Shortly before the stop at the Boro Bean, another rolled off to home.

At the Boro Bean, Laura OLPH decided she had enough pocket space to take home not just one, but two muffins:

While at the Bean...

Then, on the way back after the Boro Bean, another rider rolled off home. So 25% of my ride had left, and I finished with the 75% that remained. Still a passing grade, right?

They included Len C, who had a new ride... on which the seatpost disappeared down into the seat tube; there may have been an inadequate supply of carbon paste in the installation. Len was planning to Have.A.Word. with the shop that had done the bike build. I have not heard of shots fired or similar disturbance from Len's area, so I expect he managed his ire at the shop better than he managed it for the last several miles of the ride, standing the whole way to pedal. I'm sure I sympathize.

Ride page. This makes 37 rides I've led for the year, and a little over 3950 miles for the year. Not bad for a guy who was working full-time until last month!

cold gravel ride

Above, near the start at the Washington Crossing bridge; below, Martin tells us about a memorial for soldiers who died before the crossing.

 

Friend Peter G invited a few of us on a towpath ride for 12/23 (we're usually road riders, but the cold weather suggested an alteration of plans was a good idea). I went along. I didn't get may pictures, because my fingers were RIDICULOUSLY cold for the first umpteen miles (hint: if it's cold enough to justify a towpath ride, it's cold enough to wear the heaviest gloves; I had fears of frostbite for a while... but I'm typing this without incident, so my fears were unfounded).

Most important to me, though, was the opportunity to talk to a few people I trust about some emotionally-laden decisions I have to make. A few decades ago, there was a men's movement (one of many, recurring men's movements) that advocated for support groups, but the support groups as such never really got off the ground. Some people get their support in different ways from formal groups, and this group of riders is one of mine. This ride was hugely helpful for me.

I came home, though, with several cubic feet of towpath stuck to my bike and my person. I had to clean the dried sand and mud out of the car, and then, because the hose is not connected for the winter, I poured several buckets of water over the bike, and had to wipe down the bags and other accessories. Even the camera, in my pocket for most of the ride, had an accumulation of gook on it.

Ride page.

more retirement blues

I read a worrying article this morning that sleep difficulties are highly correlated with dementia. I'm suffering with the former and worried about the latter.

I also know that my job at the bike shop is not an ideal match. I'm not doing the mechanical work I'd hoped to do, and the shop is built and designed to appeal to an upscale clientele (the owners dropped a LOT of money on rebuilding the old house that forms the front of the store, for example, and the merchandise is mostly all top-of-the-line stuff). I'm much more of a how-can-we-make-this-work, satisficing kind of guy. I worked for seven years in the insurance industry when I was newly out of college, and left that to work in substance-abuse and mental health, almost exclusively with indigents. I worked that career for more than half my life. And now I'm in a store catering to customers who can be described as "affluent or above". 

(I've also got to admit that there may have been a bit of "white, educated savior" thinking going on in my career with indigents. I'm not above some complicated egotism.)

I do admit that much of what I was looking for in the retirement job is new stuff to learn, and engagement with people who are not The Excellent Wife (TEW), because its not fair to put all my needs on her. The job is providing those things: I'm engaged with people, and I'm learning a lot, although it wasn't what I had planned to (or, frankly, hoped to).

I'm not great at this retirement thing.

two more from cranbury in franklin

Friend Luis C sent along these two from the ride today:

Above: mostly the fast group. Below: some others. That guy on the left: is there that much lavender in that jersey?

 Thanks, Luis!

cranbury in franklin

 This ride was always gonna be chaos.

The title is a reference to the sometimes-huge rides that go out of Cranbury, our most popular start. The rides frequently split up, and are sometimes a bit... unpredictable.

Yesterday, Saturday, was rainy, and a number of folks didn't go out to ride. Today was colder and windy, but clear... but only three rides were listed: a slower ride, subsequently cancelled; a faster ride, the listing for which included this caveat: "I'm concerned about 35MPH wind gust forecast in Allentown. Will drive to the park and make game time decision", and my medium-paced ride.

At one point, I had 26 registrants, but there were a number of cancellations and no-shows. Still, we had 20 riders, at many different ranges of ability. It was clear that this group was going to break up into a faster and a slower group. I could see no way of keeping the group together, and with a group like this, I'm not sure that was a desirable outcome, anyway. Prior to the ride, Laura OLPH agreed to lead the slower group, and I knew I could count on Dave H to sweep; I also enlisted the services of Albert P to keep an eye on the slower end of the faster group.

Turfing out those responsibilities turned out to be a smart decision. People decided which group to ride with, and the decisions appeared correct as the ride went on. 

As we left, I heard over my shoulder, "I'm on your wheel, Jim." It was Len C. I said, "There's only one problem with that, Len: when I look into my mirror, the only thing I can see is a mirror full of Len C." There's no way to know how far back the rest of the gang is; and with Len, they might be pretty far back indeed; Len can lay down some wattage.

I tried to keep up with the fast group (who are mostly all younger than I), and was able to for a while. We rolled up to Colonial Park, where there was a call to use the toilets. While we were there, Laura rolled past with the other group, apparently not noticing we were in the parking lot near the rest room. There was subsequent confusion when we rolled in behind them. There was also confusion when I changed the route to avoid some headwind on Skillman Road on this windy day.

But we all got around to the Blawenburg Bistro, and some of my riders went in and spent cash at my currently-favorite café.

After the stop, I could no longer keep up a pretense of riding with the faster folks; I let 'em go off ahead and stayed in the back, and chatted with the folks, at a more "parade" pace.

I think some of these faster folks need to lead a B+ ride on Sundays, don't you?

Ride page.

facebook, and nothing is final

 In March, I went off Facebook.

But I recently heard from a person who had been very helpful to me. She wanted to hear from me, and the only way to contact her (and her preferred way) is through Facebook Messenger. So that's how I messaged her.

Also, I'm web editor for the Princeton Freewheelers. Some of our members use Facebook as a source of news about the club. My absence may be affecting club members and access to information.

And friends post useful information there. I may be isolating myself.

I've not heard that Facebook is doing any better on the misinformation issue; in fact, there are new lawsuits. More than one, apparently.

I've got to think more about this.

no good at this retirement thing

 So I've been off work from the job I retired from for about a month. I suck at retirement:

• I started at Sourland Cycles two days a week.If you count from my actual retirement December 1, I was out of work for about three days before I took the other job;
• I'm still not sleeping right; I got about two hours sleep before getting up, and then fell asleep for about forty minutes early this morning, before getting up for an early dental appointment. I did get a nap in, so I feel better, but I rarely sleep though the night;
• The dental work is costing a lot of money, so now I'm low-key worrying about money;
• I'm in the middle of rolling over my Rutgers retirement to the Vanguard where all my other funds are. They still do the rollovers by sending paper checks through the mail, so my Rutgers fund (at TIAA-CREF) showed zero balance for several days before Vanguard showed they got the funds (and there's still a hold on part of the cash as the check clears). That led to some more financial worry (suppose the money just doesn't show up?), but that was mitigated by the fact that I've been through the experience before, and I know how it works.
• I'm apparently being a real PITA at the new job, trying to be in everybody's business and show how helpful I can be. I'll find it ironic if I'm let go because I'm trying to do too much and wind up putting people off.

That sleep thing is really messing me up, though.

plastic bikes

I've been slandering carbon fiber for bikes and components for years, complaining that it was too expensive, didn't have a long lifespan, and generally wasn't worth the money. I've been calling 'em "plastic bikes".

But a few days ago, a customer picked up a lovely candy-apple red number from service at the shop where I'm working now. It turned my head.

Then I got a chance to work on one for a fellow club member. Nice ride.

OK. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I like the look, and especially feel, of carbon fiber frames. And bars. And maybe cranks.

The lifespan is still a problem, though.

(Above, the Van Dessel Motivus Maximus, sold at the shop where I work. Nice ride. Not pretty enough to get my attention, and I'm not going to research the pretty bikes that DO get my attention, because the consequences might be unsatisfactory.)
 

mutiny ride

 

Well, when there are only two club rides listed on a sunny (albeit windy) Sunday, I suppose I can't be surprised that I had seventeen registrants at the start. Some were new to me, and they brought a range of abilities from "just about able to keep up" to "holy bananas, but that character is fast; what on earth are they doing here?"

Laura OLPH had contacted me about having a glass sale; she'd made a number of globes and ornaments which she was selling at holiday-sale prices, with proceeds to benefit the Trenton Bike Exchange. Like, I was really gonna say no to Laura about that?

She later contacted me ans said they'd nearly cleaned her out. Laura may not be impressed with her own glassblowing abilities, but everybody else sure seems to be. (I also gave Laura another long-sleeve jersey I'd sewn up for her.)

My plan for the ride was to try one of my regular routes, but to see if I can find an alternative to Homestead Road. Homestead has a number of annoying hills, and I wondered if we could avoid that by going up the one nasty hill on Amwell Road; today I tested the hypothesis. Results were mixed: this one didn't like the increased traffic, that one thought this hill was less miserable, the other thought that Homestead was less demanding. I was hoping for a conclusive decision; I didn't get one. Alas.

We continued along to Thomas Sweet for the stop.

I got to talking to Bolong about bike maintenance... and the next thing I know, the rest of the ride is leaving without me, because I'm taking too long! Wait, what? Whose ride is this, anyway?

I guess there's a certain amount of anarchy in the club, or something.

We caught up to the rest of the ride when they were waiting to gather at one of the turns. As large rides tend to do, we broke into a faster and slower group; I stayed with the slower folks (even though both Dave H and Ricky G were sweeping). And we got back with everybody with whom we'd left!

Ride page.