Finally!

Finally! This week I have finally ridden the Slide. Here I am going down it. After being totally buffaloed by this hill for so long, I just rode it. It was not that scary.



So, with the exception of the top 3 feet of a steep climb out of the Evil Wash, I can clean Fire Loop. I am a happy camper.

After the Holidays

Greetings and post-holiday salutations. I hope you all had the Christmas you desired. Ours was excellent. Jim found a new lamb chop marinade on the web, and the little sheepies were just delightful.

We're engaged in yet another hunt for the perfect bicycle saddle. I rode the Terry Butterfly successfully for years, last summer something changed. It wasn't the saddle, so I can only assume something happened to the shape of my posterior. It's very frustrating. The first replacement, a Fizek Vitesse, held so much promise, but no, it was not to be. Then I ordered this little beauty from Terry thinking that its gel surface might make it the one.

Nope! Not the one. After 35 miles my fanny was on fire. That is going back! She has another one that looks promising. It's wider than the above, but narrower than the Butterfly. Hope springs eternal that something will work. Jim's dexterity with the 5mm allen wrench has returned since he has to change out all of these saddles. It's good to have a mechanic on site.

The Seattle Times has their Pictures of the Year article up. These are two that are really cool.

This is the 787 with Mt. Rainier as a backdrop. It was headed for the Farnborough air show. It is such a pretty airplane. One does wish it would enter revenue service.

The Blue Angels practicing over Lake Washington during Seafair weekend. Notice that the pilot in the background plane is looking at the foreground pilot. Foreground pilot is looking at the plane with the photographer. It's just amazing that people can do this kind of flying.

We are all well, and have very little to report from the desert.

Merry Christmas

Jim and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

New Web Site

This is from a web site of which I have just become aware. This one is funny and I get it. I don't get all of them. If you like it there's more at his site.

25 Years!

Yesterday we had to get up early. This is a sunrise. I can't remember the last time we saw one. It was very lovely.

Today we dropped off the road bikes at Arizona Bike Experts for new chains. They're a really good shop, and of course they have a really good shop dog. That's Spenser. Is he cute or what?

We took the mountain bikes out to Fantasy Island. I rode very well. Today I did both sections of the Elbow Slammer and was able to ride all the way out of another wash that has been difficult for me. I did not run into the tree I usually hit and I did the creepy wash in both directions. All in all I only had one unplanned putting the foot down, which is very good.
This is what we saw at the end of the Bunny Trail just after you get to the western fence line. He would be a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. He wasn't moving very fast, he was probably cold. He was right where we needed to ride. Jim lobbed a few rocks in his direction, and eventually he moseyed off the trail.

This is a better picture from the web. They just creep me out.

So, in addition to having a nice ride with my beloved, we also celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. It's been a good quarter of a century with my best friend.

What we Saw Today

Today was a low key day, Jim was tired from going up and down the ladder a zillion times yesterday. So, we set out in search of Christmas shopping. First we went to Morning Star Traders. If you have any interest in Native American pots, baskets, fetishes or jewelry, you must go there. It is the best store of this sort in Arizona. They've been in business for 40 years. We were talking to the owners, they recently bought the inventory of a store from California that had closed quite some time ago. They have items from the 1930s and 1940s that have been wrapped and in storage, and they haven't aged. The lady owner was talking about how the baskets have not acquired any patina due to not being exposed to the world. It's a great shop, I can not speak highly enough of it.

We had planned to go up to REI at Tucson Mall, but discovered that every single parking space in the mall was full. So, good for the merchants. We decided to flee and try again next year.

After leaving the grocery store, we saw this. It's a 1935 Pierce-Arrow and it is fully and meticulously restored. The inside is just as nice as the outside.






Isn't that cool? They just got it and were picking up their dog at doggie daycare and were exercising the car a little.

Another gaudy Arizona sunset was on tap for tonight.