Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s ride was out to San Dimas for one lap around Bonelli Park. We’ve done this ride before, and it’s always nice.

On the way out, I saw a nice abandoned couch in Baldwin Park, and then a little way down the road, I saw a pile of trash with yet another couch. And then Frank got a flat. He said we should just go on, but I had to stop to take a picture.

After the flat, we continued on. The ride out to San Dimas is pretty flat and not very exciting. But when we got there, we headed into the hills around Bonelli Park. We rode down past Brackett Field. There was a lot of activity on the drag strip at the Pomona fairgrounds. The Love Ride is tomorrow, and apparently they go out there at the end of the ride. So there were thousands of people on motorcycles there to warm up the pavement or something. It was the most motorcycles I’ve ever seen in one place that wasn’t having a tattoo convention.

We took Via Verde back through the park and over the hills. The plastic horse in front of the equestrian center was pretty funny. Then we climbed the hill out of the park and headed down the other side. I saw 40mph on one of the downhills, which is unusual for me. I’m terrified of high speeds now that I’m old. But it was fun.

Coming down into Covina, Tom got a flat. He changed the tube, but the spare had a too-short valve, so he had to borrow a tube from someone else. Finally, he got the tire fixed and we continued on.

The stop was at a restaurant in Baldwin Park. By that time it was getting late, so Jon and I skipped the stop and just headed for home.

It was a fun ride.

55 miles.
cycling

Yet another weird toy. It’s the Pig Splat Ball. Lucinda saw this in a catalog and just had to have it. So we ordered it. Now there are 12 of them in a box, so everywhere we look, there are sticky vinyl pigs stuck to every flat surface. And I’m trying to remember how life was even possible before the invention of such marvelous things.

Here’s some of the 7.5 pounds of candy that Lucinda got on Halloween. Sort of like the traditional cornucopia, but not quite. But quite appropriate to modern American culture. Yikes.

One day this week I was sitting in my office and started smelling a pie baking in the kitchen downstairs. This happens sometimes, since my office is in a house, and we have a fully-functioning kitchen. It was a peach pie, and a half-gallon of ice cream appeared, too. It was quite good. And I was suddenly seized by an urge to make an apple pie. I’ve only made a pie from scratch once before, and never made an apple pie. But there’s no fighting these urges.

I got some apples today when I went to do our grocery shopping. I looked up a pie crust recipe. And I got down to business.

Making the crust wasn’t too hard. I used to make quiches, so I’m not a stranger to pie crust. But this was the first time in many years. The worst part of the whole process was peeling and cutting the apples. Then I cooked the apples for the filling, which wasn’t too hard.

The instructions said to cool the apples to room temperature before assembling the pie, but I was a bit impatient. They were still a little bit warm, but I don’t think it hurt anything.

I baked the pie for just about 38 minutes before it looked perfectly done. So I took it out and put it in the laundry room to cool. Again, the instructions said to cool it completely before cutting it. But I was impatient. I wanted to try it out. So I cut a piece and ate it.

It was good.

Lucinda looked at me kind of strangely, since I think this is the first dessert she’s ever seen me make that didn’t involve chocolate in some form. But it was a fun little project.

Today’s bike ride was down to Larchmont Village for a bagel at Noah’s. Sure, there’s closer bagel places, but that’s not the point.

We rode out across Pasadena to Eagle Rock, and then down to the L.A. River and into Silver Lake. We rode around the reservoir and down the hill by the dog park. Then across Koreatown to Hancock Park. When we got to Larchmont, we saw Snow White’s wishing well.

The bagel at Noah’s was quite good, and they had fresh-squeezed orange juice, so I was happy.

The big movie billboards on the wall of Paramount Studios were pitching a movie called “Things We Lost in the Fire”, which seemed appropriate enough right now.

After the stop, we rode up Wilton to Franklin, and then east across the Shakespeare Bridge. Then back home through Eagle Rock to La Loma in Pasadena.

It was a very nice ride.

44 miles.
cycling

Today’s ride was a combination of the regular La Tuna Canyon ride, coupled with Gene’s “No Tuna for Me” return route. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but warmed up nicely once we got going.

We went out by the regular route up through La Cañada and Montrose. That was where we saw The Cone. Ever since going to the “Cone Migration” art show, I look at every cone to see if it’s part of the project. And today, it was. It was Cone number 6. The label said that it was released into the wild on September 8th. And now it’s sitting in front of the Montrose Village Newsstand at 2329 Honolulu Ave. I took some pictures to document the location and condition of the cone, and I logged the sighting on Lana Shuttleworth’s web site.

We regrouped at the top of La Tuna Canyon. By then, it was quite warm, so nobody was cold on the four-mile downhill into Sun Valley. Then we rode up past the dump and took the back streets back to Sunland Blvd.

We rode a short distance on Sunland Blvd before turning off to take Apperson, which is a nice, quiet street that parallels it. Along the way, I saw a truck parked in front of a house. It looked like another family was getting leopard-print carpet like ours.

Our snack stop was listed on the route slip as being at Oven Fresh in Montrose. But we like Berolina better, so we went there. It’s just down the block. I got a big fresh-squeezed orange juice, which is a nice treat.

From there, we headed back the way we went out. Back up Hospital Hill and then down past Descanso Gardens and back into Pasadena.

It was a fun ride.

45 miles.
cycling