Stan’s Obligatory Blog

So here are some random images from our 24-hour vacation to Ventura.

We brought our bikes, so we could go riding on Sunday morning.

On the way out to dinner, we saw seagulls walking around near the park, looking for food. We don’t see many seagulls inland in Pasadena.

We had dinner at a restaurant with a martini bar, so we started off with caramel-apple martinis, which was novel.

After the ride on Sunday, I took a walk while Susan showered. I saw utility boxes painted and turned into art. I also visited the Albinger Archaeological Museum and saw the excavated foundations of the original mission church.

Before heading home, we had lunch at the marina, and got a souvenir picture with a tile mural of a sea otter.

It was another nice, albeit short vacation.

Edit: (4/7/2009) And this trip has turned out to be the swan song of our relationship. It all collapsed for reasons I’m not going to go into. It’s sad, but it will be all right in the end.

For a year now, Susan has been telling about the rides she used to do with the Channel Islands Bicycle Club when she would visit Ventura. So this weekend, we headed up there for an overnight micro-vacation complete with a bike ride on Sunday morning.

The ride started at the park next-door to the hotel, which was very convenient. It was relatively warm for 8:00AM. The ride went up to Ojai and back, including a gratuitous climb up the Dennison Grade on Highway 150.

We started out on the Ventura River bike trail, which paralleled the 33 Freeway. We rode through some oil fields on the way out of town, but we were out in the country very quickly. We went up past Lake Casitas, which had some very nice views from the road. Then it was down into Ojai. That was where I saw the Muffler Horse. I’ve seen Muffler Men before, but never a horse.

A bit later, we saw a house with the front yard turned into a large found-object art project. That was pretty amusing.

Then it was time for the gratuitous climb. It was a pretty nice uphill, with a nice viewpoint near the top, complete with a wall I could balance the camera on for a picture. Then we turned around and went back down.

At the bottom, we picked up a stiff tailwind, and we were able to cruise at 30mph easily. That was fun for a few miles. Then we got to the snack stop. We loitered around for a bit until a group decided to head back. We rode pretty much straight south back to Ventura. It was mostly downhill, but with a weirdly varying wind that kept changing direction on us.

The last part was back down the bike trail we’d started on, which let us off right by the park where we started.

It was a very nice ride with some very pretty scenery.

41 miles.
cycling

On Saturday, I went on the Foothill Cycle ride out to West Covina. This was a pretty mundane, basic ride. But suddenly, I saw a photo-op. It was Gaybar Ave in West Covina. Who knew there would be such a place? I stopped to take a picture for my collection of signs.

I needed to get home by noon, so I skipped the stop and rode home. It was a nice day, so it was a good ride.

49 miles.
cycling

I signed up for the Los Angeles Climb California stair climb. This is a timed run up the stairs of the AON Center in downtown Los Angeles. This is the second-tallest building in L.A. I’d have preferred to do the Library Tower, which is taller, but this one was available. Anyway, running up the stairs in a 62-story building just sounds like fun to me. I’m funny that way.

The only real reservation I have about this is that it’s a fundraiser for the American Lung Association. While that’s appropriate in that without functioning lungs doing the climb would be extraordinarily difficult, it’s one of those things where they want everyone doing it to bug everyone they know to make a donation. And I just don’t like doing that. So this is a problem.

Sheesh. All I wanted was to do something silly and stand on the roof of a really big building for a few minutes. So if you want to make a donation in my name, the page is here.

The Sunday ride this week marks five years that I have been riding with the Foothill Cycle Sunday group. And today we did a new route.

We rode to South Pasadena and then across the bridge on York into Highland Park. From there, we went down Figueroa to Lincoln Heights and then up the hill on Montecito. That side is the longer, but less-steep side, and it was a nice little climb. We regrouped at the top and then headed down the steep side to pick up Huntington Drive for a long cruise out to Arcadia.

Along the way, I picked up the requisite picture of Susan with her packet of Gu.

We tried something different today, in that we tried forming the group into a double paceline for practice. Most of the riders in our group had never raced, so this was a new experience. But with a little coaching, we made a reasonable effective line, which we rode out through Arcadia and then down to Temple City.

We stopped at a bakery called El Pavo. I noticed that they had a vanity phone number, 800-6-EL-PAVO, which I thought was a little funny, since that implies that “4-EL-PAVO” was already taken. I wonder where and what that number is.

They also had a minor spelling FAIL on the sign on the side of the building.

After the stop, we rode back to the park. Along the way, we rode through one neighborhood where all the trees had purple ribbons on them. Gene asked, and one of the people who lived there told us that it was a display of neighborhood support for one of the residents who has cancer.

By the time we got back to the park, the sun was out, and it had turned into a nice day. When we got back to my house, Susan and I washed out our helmets and hung them up to dry together.

It was a pleasant ride.

41 miles.
cycling

I didn’t get to go on a bike club ride today, but when Lucinda went to play at her friend’s house, I went out for a little ride on my own.

I went down to San Marino, and then across to South Pasadena. That was where I saw the Percy Crossing sign. So I had to add it to my Animal Crossings photo collection.

After that, I headed up to the Rose Bowl and did a few laps around there before heading home by way of Altadena. It was a fun little ride.

26 miles.
cycling

Today marks one year since Cathy moved out. Looking back on it, it was a big adjustment after living together for 20 years. But, I’ve not only survived, and I’m actually doing quite well.

This time last year, I was feeling pretty sad about the whole thing, but time has its way of healing. It’s been quite an adventure. I’ve always had a belief that things would work out all right in the end, but this past year has been far, far better than I’d ever even dared to dream it might be back when this was all starting.

Today’s bike club ride was the route down the San Gabriel River to Seal Beach. This ride is a sentimental favorite, since the day we did it last year marked a special day for Susan and me. We’d been bike-riding friends for a long time, but that day was the first time we had that moment when we looked at each other and said, “Hey…”

It was cool and overcast, much like it was last year. The club met at Live Oak Park in Temple City, and we headed out down the Rio Hondo bike path. In Whittier Narrows we crossed over and picked up the San Gabriel River bike path, and from there it was a straight shot all the way to the beach. We started out trying to get the group moving a bit faster, and a new guy named Scott took us up on it. He was very strong, and he towed us all the way down there, averaging about 22mph the whole way.

At the power plant in Long Beach, I tried to see if I could see any of the green sea turtles I’d heard live there, but the water was kind of murky, so I couldn’t see anything.

When we got to Seal Beach, we rode down to the pier for a souvenir picture with the little seal statue there. Then we went to the bakery. By the time we got there, the others were arriving. I had a honey-bran muffin, which was quite good. Then we headed out, back up the river.

I took a picture of Susan when we rode past the power plant on the way back, since that was place where we had our moment. Then we both just concentrated on hanging on to Scott’s wheel. He towed us all the way back up to Whittier Narrows, again averaging over 20mph the whole way.

There is a place in Whittier Narrows where people fly radio-controlled airplanes. The bike path has a chain-link cover over it there, for reasons that I guess are apparent. When we were riding through there, I saw the wreckage of a model airplane that had crashed next to the structure. Maybe it got into a fight with the people at the rifle range across the freeway.

When we got back to the start, everyone else had turned off to go home. So I rode home with Susan, just to keep her company and be sure she got home all right. Then I rode home from there, passing a “Star Trek” themed birthday party along the way. That’s something I could relate to.

As always, it was a nice ride.

79 miles.
cycling

On Tuesday night, I went to Susan’s house for St. Patrick’s Day. She’s Irish, so she had an evening planned out for us.

We started out with some green-tinted martinis. Yum. And I’m not even going to bother with putting in the redacted text. It was a fun evening.

It’s kind of chilly and drizzly today, so I don’t think I’m going to go riding. Instead, I rented a machine and cleaned the carpets. It made a noise like a jet taking off, so it certainly sounded like it was doing something big. It wasn’t too hard, and it did a pretty good job. Even though the leopard carpet hides dirt, I can see a difference. So I guess I’m happy with the result.