SpokEasy

December 2018

Clear?

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About two days ago I checked an online forecast; and it indicated clear weather for today. I turned out to be overcast; and that always makes me worry that it will rain on my ride. Luckily it didn\’t rain; and the wind wasn\’t nearly as strong as it was last Sunday. I still did a much shorter ride than I\’d had in mind — 29 miles instead of 40. An area near my right knee feels strained, so I decided it would be wise not to push things. Most of the time I stayed on the small ring. I also found that I had only two Clif Bars; and I didn\’t want to run out of food during my ride. Who needs to bonk? Sure, I could have taken cut-up fruit-and-fiber type bars, but they\’re a bit too squishable for the purpose. Then, on the way home, I was a minute or two too late to beat a very long train to the railroad crossing near home. I was getting chilled before the crossing was finally clear. Is there anywhere that\’s immune to that nuisance?

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Ah-h-h!

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Ah-h-h, what relief! Wouldn\’t I love to have this waiting for me when I get home at the end of a 40-mile ride on a cold day! Hot chocolate tastes so-o-o good when I come in cold. I\’ll bet I could make a hot drink using powdered milk and chocolate whey protein powder. I don\’t think I\’ve tried that yet, and it\’s time I did. And to have cookies fresh out of the oven in addition to the hot chocolate would be heavenly. Maybe gingersnaps. Or add some spices to the hot chocolate, and have still-warm sugar cookies as a \”side\”. Unfortunately I don\’t have anybody around to spoil me like that. If the wave of the future in service is robots, however, maybe if I get rich (yeah, like that\’s going to happen), I could have a \’bot that I can program to have my hot drink and cookies ready at the time I expect to reach home. Until then, however, having hot chocolate made is entirely up to me.

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Figgy Pudding!

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Now bring out the figgy pudding! Or shold I say, the plum pudding? Plum pudding doesn\’t seem to be very popular in the USA. Or perhaps I never looked carefully enough.  I remember having it only once, as a teenager. A cookbook I had included a recipe for plum pudding that used mincemeat. I tried it; and it was pretty good. The recipe required baking the pudding in the oven, if I remember correctly. I used a round, glass casserole dish. Some recipes say to put the pudding mixture in a mold of some sort, and steam cook it for several hours. Long ago a plum pudding would be boiled. Read A Christmas Carol, and you\’ll find a description of the Cratchit family\’s Christmas dinner; including plum pudding. The custom then was to pour some brandy atop the pudding just before serving; and light it! Maybe people still do it; but to me it seems an unnecessary fire hazard, however festive it may look. With fired-up brandy or without, may you enjoy your figgy pudding!

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n + 1 Revisited

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It\’s time for n + 1 revisited. Are your bicycles at the critical point where they\’re about to crowd humans out of your abode? Here are some possible solutions. At present my indoor bicycle storage system works well enough. The hybrid has a kickstand. I simply use that; and put an old lid under the tip of the kickstand so it won\’t tear up the carpet. I got that idea after I read about taking along a frozen juice lid when you ride to the beach, so your bicycle\’s kickstand won\’t sink into the sand. For the road bike I got a stand that holds a wheel; can you see it here? I don\’t know whether it really makes any difference which wheel goes into the stand; but I got into the habit of putting the rear wheel there. If I got one of the things listed in the Bike Radar article, I think it would be a bike tree; aka a free-standing rack. Even then, I\’d have to be careful not to knock it over! My ceilings are much too high to make a ceiling-to-floor rack possible. That kind that you can lean against a wall might stick out too far from the wall; and then I\’d trip over it. If I can ever have my own home, maybe I can try those hooks that screw into a wall. I\’d just have to be careful to locate a 2×4 (\”stud\”) to fasten them into, because the hybrid weighs about 35 pounds. Sheetrock, to name one interior wall material, won\’t hold that! Or, if you\’re lucky enough to have sufficient acreage and a bottomless purse, you could build your bicycles their very own house. That makes n + 1 revisited much easier!    

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Bad Wrap?

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Let\’s not get a bad wrap! With gift-giving season upon us, we have to think about wrapping paper. Much gift wrap these days seems to come in long rolls. It\’s so very different from the tissue paper I knew when I was growing up. I suppose that items in large, bulky boxes are why gift-wrap rolls were designed. I can\’t always find tissue paper; and cutting out pieces from a big roll of paper can get both awkward and wasteful. (My mother always saved gift wrap to re-use!) But you can get creative, if conventional gift wraps aren\’t your style. I\’ve come across suggestions such as making a drawstring sack from a pretty fabric remnant, if your sewing skills are up to it; and putting the gift inside. Or use burlap sacking tied with twine, for a \”country style\” Christmas. Another idea was using the colored comics pages from the newspaper. I don\’t think I want to try that one. Newsprint tends to rub off; but all the same, it\’s appropriate for a joke-style present. Now let\’s get really crazy! How about using a cycling jersey? That would be especially good if the gift is cycling-related. Whatever you do, just don\’t make it a bad wrap.

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A Matter of Proportion

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There are many things to consider when purchasing a bicycle. Bike size, first of all. If the frame is too big for you, you\’ll never be comfortable on the bike; and a bicycle that\’s too big will be harder to handle, which has negative safety aspects. Then there\’s frame geometry. What\’s the \”reach\” from saddle to handlebars? The angle of the seat tube? Can you reach the brake levers comfortably? What kind of frame material? Aluminum? Steel? Titanium (\”ti\” for short)? Carbon fiber (sometimes called \”plastic bikes\”)? The catch with steel is that it\’s vulnerable to rust. Where I live the average annual rainfall is 60 inches, and I\’d probably be hard pressed to keep a steel bicycle properly dried. What effect a salt-hazy climate has on steel, I don\’t know, but I rather suspect it isn\’t very good. And, of course, there\’s the weight of the bicycle. That might not matter much for cruising around the neighborhood, or pedaling to the grocery store. If your  cycling interest is long-distance rides, or racing, it\’s a different story. The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling gives a rule of thumb for determining what weight of bicycle is best (pg. 61): 12% of body weight. According to that formula, my road bike, once I add in the weight of the under-saddle pack, is too heavy for me by about seven pounds. This advice goes on to say, buy the lightest bike your budget can afford, if you can\’t get one that meets the 12% criterion. This formula, however, was given for riders on long — really long — endurance tours. So far I\’m not doing such rides. I don\’t have to climb 12% grades. I\’m not racing or doing time trials. So I\’ll keep plodding along with what I have. It still works, and it can get me to where I want to go. That\’s what matters.

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Trimmings

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Turkey isn\’t the only thing to get trimmings. The Tree gets its share of trimmings, too! Lights help brighten things up. The twinkly kind weren\’t around yet when I was young. We had the kind of bulbs that were night-light size, and in different colors: red, green, blue, orange, white. Speaking of night lights, when we kids were small someone gave us a Donald Duck night-light. We declared that it had to go on the Christmas tree; and we had that light until I was grown up. We still put it on the Tree even after it stopped working. When I was about six, Christmas trees made of aluminum were popular. People who had that kind of tree sometimes had a small floodlight that they could aim at the tree. This thing had a turning plate with four sections of different colors; so that the tree had a different colored light shining on it about every five seconds. Putting lights on a metallic tree was a big no-no, as there was the risk of creating an electrified booby trap for anybody who touched it. We had some very old ornaments that my mother had bought way back when, I think during the Depression and WWII years. One was shaped like a viol. For some reason I was especially fond of that one. There was one made of glass-like material, shaped like a bird, with fiberglass filaments for a short tail. And one, a small trumpet, could actually blow! There were ball-shaped ones with a small \”dent\” in one side. Oh, and a lot more. Then there are ornaments in shapes other than spheres: snowmen, reindeer, snowflakes — pretty much anything you want. Tinsel makes a nice finishing touch. Let your imagination run wild, trim up the Tree, and enjoy!      

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Iditabike

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Iditabike This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” Iditabike is an event for the hardiest. Ride 100 kilometers (62 miles) over snow in Alaska? And in February? A scene like this one makes me wonder what it would really be like to ride through the snow on a fat-tired bicycle. I’ll never know, I suppose, unless I moved well away from Southeast Louisiana; but I guess it takes a lot of energy to push through the snow. Especially a heavy, wet snow. If a short ride on a snowy day takes extra care and planning for most folks, what must it be like to participate in Iditabike? Imagine riding over snow, in temperatures that can get far below freezing. One of my cycling books mentions the race, and tells of it being a “clear night”.  Yes, it looks as if Iditabike doesn’t stop for a little thing like darkness. I wonder, do the riders get to see the auroras? I think  would be beautiful to ride under those Northern Lights — if I could stand the cold. I’ll bet my thoughts would turn to hot chocolate, if I were out there. And a warm room, with a cozy chair and a blanket to snuggle into. And a good book to read! But daydreaming could be perilous on the Iditabike trail; possibly fatal. Maybe my imagination is running away with me; but I suppose Iditabike riders would need to stay alert to wildlife. I would not like to be struggling to ride through snow with a kodiak bear chasing me. From what I know about bear encounters, it’s best to avoid bears if possible. Part of that is making some kind of sound so you don’t surprise the bear. Jingle bells, jingle bells🎶… ABOUT ME I began this website primarily as a way to present the story of how I accomplished a century ride on an adult tricycle. Other riders of adult trikes might want to know whether it’s possible. It sure is! You can read all about it in My Story. I live in New Orleans; and  retired in January 2023. More time for cycling! Website designed by Cecile Levert © This website is the property of its author. DISCLAIMER I am not a cycling coach; nor a health professional. This site is based on my own experiences, opinions, etc. If you need help, please consult the appropriate professional.   FRESH FROM MY JOURNAL Mini-Ride! December 7, 2023 I Still Can’t Ride! December 6, 2023 Unseamed December 5, 2023 A Stitch in Time December 4, 2023 Load More TRANSLATOR

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Aero Bars

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Aero bars at first sounded to me like something to eat on the bike. Before long I knew what they are. Shown at left are plain handlebars; but adding aero bars can let a rider be more aerodynamic. I know aero bars when I see them; but that\’s the extent of my knowledge. I\’ve read enough about them to know that they\’re not a good idea in group rides. Check out this. There\’s also this contrasting point of view. So, which is it? To have my hands way out in front while riding seems scary to me. Would I be able to move my hands quickly enough if I should need to make a sudden stop? Don\’t those bars exaggerate steering? There\’s that bit about \”aeros\” being tricky to handle in a crosswind. My regular handlebars are bad enough when a gusty crosswind is buffeting me. Edible aeros would be more to  my liking. Trust me for that! I don\’t need to be as aerodynamic as aeros would allow, anyhow; so I\’ll skip them. Regular handlebars are good enough for me.

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Festive Sweets

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Festive sweets? I love sweets any time! At about age nine, I became interested in cooking and baking. More specifically, I wanted to make candy; and bake cookies! There was the sugar cookie recipe my mother had always used. I remember helping to make those cookies long before I was old enough to try my own hand in the kitchen. I tried making ginger snaps; pinwheel cookies; and more. It’s many years since I’ve been able to bake cookies; but I think I remember the sugar cookie recipe. It goes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit) Cream 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup shortening. Add two eggs; mix well. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla extract. Set aside. Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt (reduce or omit salt if desired). Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. On floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Put them on greased cookie sheets, about 1/2 inch apart. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until light golden brown. Loosen the cookies from the sheet as soon as they\’re baked. Allow cookies to cool completely before frosting them. *************************************** When I was about 13 or 14, I learned this frosting recipe: 1 lb powdered (i.e. confectioner’s) sugar1/3 cup shortening1/3 cup evaporated milk (regular milk is OK if you don’t have this)Flavoring(s) (vanilla, butter flavoring, etc.) as desired; about 3/4 tsp total Put all ingredients in a bowl large enough to allow the beaters of an electric mixer to operate. Mix well. Add colorings, if desired. This frosting is great on cookies and cakes. Enjoy your festive sweets; at holiday time, or any time!

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