classical music

 Classical music is racist, misogynistic (oh yeah, like a lot), and colonialist.

Much of it is also great art, and I love it.

Both of these things are, uncomfortably, true.

cold but no snow

I looked at the prediction for today's weather several times last week, and every time, I saw predictions for snowshowers right across the planned ride time for today. So when Laura OLPH sent me an email yesterday morning asking, essentially, "So are you gonna list a ride for Sunday, or what?", I was all set to get all cranky and point her to the forecast.

In a rare display of good sense, I decided to check the forecast again before I sent off the zinger email, and I saw that the prediction was now for cloudy skies, but no precipitation. So I quickly posted a ride listing, apologizing for the late notice and giving the excuse of the dire threats of snowshowers, that had miraculously been averted.

Still, when I was riding to the ride this morning, there were flurries, and I did have about a dozen snowflakes on my sleeves, although everything stopped and cleared up before I got to the start. So there.

I was still weather-suspicious, and picked a route from which I could turn back to the start from several points if snow or rain started, but I needn't have worried; while it was cold (and damp and raw), the skies held off.

The registrants today were mostly among my faster riders, and, while there was a complaint that the ride was generally getting faster, I tried to keep the pace manageable, by allowing faster riders to go off the front where appropriate. Most did early on, but by the end, only one or two were riding ahead, and not always the same people.

We went down Canal to Kingston, then over to River Road, when there was a call for a stop. It turned out that Len C had broken the nose of his saddle off; I got a picture at the stop in Millstone:

I have never seen such a thing on a ride!

Before that, we stopped at the Arboretum, where there is a porta-potty:

When we stopped at the deli, Heddy asked where we were. "Millstone," I said. At her look of confusion, I pointed out that there were several Millstones in New Jersey, as there were three or four Washingtons, and at least two Franklins. Most of these towns are older than statehood.

Above, the mount for her Garmin device, that Ming had been told about by Tom H. Ming wasted no time getting it, mounted it herself, and is apparently delighted with it. Thanks, Tom! (Or was it Peter G? Or some other Insane Bike Posse member?...)

Ride page. Despite my best efforts, we went a bit faster than I would have liked.

This is about the coldest I like to ride. We'll see how future Sundays work out for listings.

I might wear this shirt

 I'm not a t-shirt kind of guy, but I'd probably wear one that said,

"Your toxic freedom is destroying the world your children will inherit."

43 miles on a cold & windy day

 I was surprised at how few rides were on offer for this Thanksgiving Saturday, but the weather promised cold and windy (and delivered on its promise, boy, howdy!). It's not that the thermometer was so cold, but the constant wind meant I didn't feel warmed up and loose until many more miles into the ride than usual.

Tom H, showing remarkable good sense, set a route that was mostly into the wind on the way out, so that we'd have a tailwind on the way back (and it mostly worked).

A couple more at the start pics:

From Mercer East, we went up the Trolley Trail, where the rule seems to be that we have to get turned around twice (because that's what's happened both of the times I've gone that way). Then to South Brunswick and to the D&R Canal at Franklin. At that point, we were on routes familiar to me, and we had our stop at Thomas Sweet.

 

After the stop, we headed over some of my usual roads winding up to the park near the top of Herrontown. Tom did a real-estate tour of Princeton, and took us through the back of the Sarnoff compound, and then through the tunnel under Princeton Junction station. (Luis C pointed out that there was an easier way... but easy is not the Hammell way.)

When we got back to the park, Martin G took my Yellow Maserati titanium bike for a spin; he's thinking of a new frame. He appeared to like the feel of the titanium, and also the Selle Anatomica saddle. (I like 'em enough that I have 'em on both my bikes.)

Ride page. Most of the folks probably had faster averages than I.

I've got one listed for tomorrow. I didn't post until this morning, because, like, snow was being predicted!

Also - interview for a job at Sourland Cycles on Monday morning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's a good fit for me.

unwieldy

 

I posted a ride for yesterday, and didn't pay much attention to the signups... but then Dave H cancelled his ride for the previous day, and suddenly I had fourteen registrants. I capped it at fifteen, then saw that one of my recent regulars hadn't registered yet, and raised it to sixteen. She registered (I swear I did not contact her directly...), and then there was a flurry of cancellations and registrations (and in one case, re-registrations; a rider was undecided if he wanted to be out with a faster crew or not), but we wound up with sixteen.

All with differing abilities and expectations, and all of them showed up. One who did NOT appear was my usual sweep Dave H (when I offered any assistance, he said he thinks it's a passing ailment; I hope it's true); luckily, Eric H had the legs and the inclination to sweep for that ride. By myself, I could not have reliably kept track of the folks at the front and the folks at the back.

In a (possibly hopeless) attempt to keep the group together, I had posted a route from which I knew I was going to make corrections and changes, and announced when fast riders could ride ahead and wait, and when they would have to stay with me as the posted route was unreliable. It worked, kinda... it would have been better with a smaller group. (One of the changes was over roads new to me. Sometimes that kind of thing works... and sometimes it manifestly does not.)

At the start.

I'm not even going to apologize for that eyes-closed picture of Ming, and she's got such an excess of politeness that I can count on her to forgive me for it. Also: did a memo go around about hi-viz cold-weather gear? (I don't care; I've already made my thoughts on that known.)

We did this route (note the side trip off Elm Ridge Road; with Bayberry closed, I'm probably going to use Elm Ridge, but with little shoulder and fast traffic, limiting the amount of distance on it may be a virtue). We did not take the turn on Fairway to Tyburn, as Laura OLPH usually directs, and she assured me that the ghost of Joe Miller McBride was sticking his tongue out at me (although, as I remember, flipping me off was more his style). However, the road surface on Fairway has gotten difficult, and until Joe's ghost has a chance to repave it, I will risk his ethereal, ectoplasmic ire.

We stopped at Boro Bean, where I mostly got bike pics.

On the way back, a question arose about whether a rider was off the back or in the group at the front. It turned out that not only was she at the front, but had gone off ahead and had told riders to tell me, but, with the separation, the message hadn't gotten to me yet. There has been a certain amount of unnecessary apologizing since (emphasis on the adjective).

Many times on this ride, I mentioned that I'm now an old, retired guy (mostly because I'm trying to persuade myself), and it was pointed out to me that, with some number of my fellows not-close-enough to that status, the frequent reminder was less than welcome. Apologies...

In other news, when I got home, I arranged for an interview for part-time work at Sourland Cycles. Watch this space!

almost dave's ride

 

Freewheeler Dave H posted a ride from Skillman Park for Saturday, but then was unable to lead and cancelled. Laura OLPH took his route, and rejiggered it so that it started at Twin Pines in Hopewell (when she sent it around to those of us she invited, she called it "The Route I Stole from Dave"). There wasn't time to post as a club ride, so she invited a few of usual Hill Slugs; John K, Peter G, and I went along.

Much of the Pennington-Rocky Hill/Cherry Valley road was closed, as I discovered when I was almost late to the start, but we were able to work around it. It happened that Laura placed the stop at the Blawenburg Bistro, my currently-favorite stop. (After my experiences with the closings of the Main St Cafe in Kingston and Sourland Coffee in Pennington, I'm all rah-rah for the Bistro. I engaged in my frequent refrain, while there, of "Stay the F@&# Open!" I'm sure the staff smiles were as much for the eccentric old man as for my wishes for their continued prosperity.)

After the stop, we got to go up Province Line Road (you'll see it in the ride page, and it's beastly in both directions), and I got to remember how hateful it is. As we came to Cheery Valley, it was still closed to trucks, but the constable allowed us to pass as far as Carter, where we turned off and headed towards Princeton. By the time we got to downtown Pennington, the breathlessness from Province Line had passed, and I was able to speak coherently again. (Hrmph. Do you suppose my silence for a few miles was the reason Laura picked that route?)

retired

 

I've been counting down my retirement date for years (there's a (=DATEDIF) function in Excel that will give you the difference between dates in years/months/days, because of course there is), and the last day of work finally arrived. I'm not really retired until the end of the month, because I'm working off required time off, but I've had reduced workload for weeks, as well as a position as fount of department memory and lore, and old guy who's in the way as we try to institute some too-long-delayed changes around here.

I had, in essence, two retirement celebrations with my staff today: an online one during work hours, and the dinner at the Rutgers Club where the photo above was taken. For the online Zoom-like affair, a few of us were in the office including my director (with her young daughter in the picture above), and she brought over my going-away gifts: the obligatory official plaque, a card with cash inside (my stars! People were so generous!), and another plaque, this one a printout of memories and well-wishes from my coworkers (in mine and several associated departments), printed in several colors and framed. Around the fame matte, many had hand-written even more thoughts. I was moved when I received and read it, and I put it away; I'm not ready to look at it again yet. I'm tearing up again now, just thinking about it.

The dinner was at the Rutgers Club, far classier than most of the places I go, so I got out my tux for the occasion. My pictures didn't come out as well as that one above from Jackie M; a few are below:

People took time at the dinner to tell me what they remembered and what I had meant to them, and I was just awed at the lovely things they said. I am so grateful to have had the experience of working with these folks, in this wonderful project, over the past six years, after having been fired from another job at the age of 60 (I might never have worked again). Unless they were simply being polite, I meant more to these people than I knew. I am so grateful to have been a part of their lives, and that they have such memories of me. I had no idea. People to whom I've always wished I could be better, told me how much I meant to them. I'm humbled.

And now a new part of my life starts. Between school and work, except for summer vacations, I've had something to do and somewhere to go daily for more than sixty years... and now I don't. I've been telling bike club members that I thought to get a part-time job as a bike mechanic... and during the dinner, I got a text from a local shop saying they'd got my number from riders who knew me, and asking if I was willing to talk about maybe coming on. I've sent an email with some of my experience and job expectations. We'll see.

It's the middle of then night, now, and I'm not sleeping. I'm nervous and excited to see what happens now.

The Excellent Wife (TEW) and me:

She sure cleans up good-lookin', don't she? I'm lucky to have her.

not the princeton half-marathon

 Well, I was gonna do a ride through Princeton this week, and posted the planned route... but then Luis C emailed and informed me that the Princeton Half-Marathon was scheduled, and many of my planned roads would be closed. So I emailed the eight-or-so who had either signed up or indicated some interest, and let them know I had to change the route, and linked to the new plan on the ride listing.

If I was worried that people wouldn't want to come, that worry was misplaced; I had twelve today.

We did a route that goes up to Somerset, then into Hillsborough. We stopped at a park for a porta-potty, and found this:

The handicapped one was intact, but the other was apparently a casualty of yesterday's winds. We decided not to try to use that one.

 

There was a bit of wind today; in Skillman, I adjusted the route to avoid some of the headwind on Skillman Road (and also so that some of the faster riders would keep with the group, in case there were other changes!). We rolled around to the Blawenburg Bistro, another coffee-and-empty-calories purveyor that I like.

After the demise of both the Main St Cafe (which transformed into a PJ's Pancake House... and who the $#%& cares that much about pancakes?), and "The Pig", Sourland Coffee (which just disappeared as a result of the pandemic), I'm almost reluctant to say how much I like the Blawenburg Bistro... but I do; I really hope they stay open. Go spend money there, will you?

On the way back, the group got a little away from me, and rushed back on their own (they knew the way); their averages are likely faster than mine... you can see on the ride page. I kept up with the folks on the rear, and we all got back. Many thanks to the excellent Dave H, who is my regular sweep.

Maybe you ought to come out with us!