INTERESTING TIMES

I used to wear heels that made me six feet tall.  I loved being tall and accepted my big feet for the anchors.  I never liked my body much though, or my face, always found fault.  When I was approaching 30 years old I decided to get in shape.  I'd been in shape a couple of times before... from jiujitsu in high school and my first year of river guiding.  My plan at age 30 had to do with biking, swimming, and walking, hopefully running but I had never been a runner.

( When I was living in Knoxville, )

Pain is temporary.
It may last a minute, or an hour,
or a day, or a year,
but eventually it will subside
and something else will take its place.
If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
--Lance Armstrong

I just got back from a yoga class, to which I drove my truck. Driving anywhere is still strange to me. For the last year my truck was not registered. For several years before that it was registered, but I barely managed to start it up once a week. I ride my bike. I use public transportation. I walk. I have an aversion to the automobile. I think it is part of our demise. And yet, I drive. I just drove all the way to AZ and back. And it was a blessing.
( rumination )

interesting new 2-wheeled motorized urban personal transport
it folds up tiny and goes 25km/hour
looks like it rides as instinctively as a bike--after a while
http://www.yikebike.com/site/gallery/video/yikebike-discovery-channel
my concern is the sort of posture that it traps you in, upright but slumped
like we need any more reasons to slouch and be sedentary

The last time I rode my bike was in late November, I think. It was the day that Fritz came through town. I was on my way home in the dusk at 5pm, and had made it successfully across the Ross Island Bridge and the 9th Ave pedestrian bridge. Traffic was heavy so I rode down Milwaukee looking for a chance to get across it. It never let up enough for me to even shift over to the left side of the lane and look for a chance to turn left. So I went to the pedestrian walkway at the Brooklyn Park.
( more )

Back now. Was a very fine weekend adventure. The McKenzie River is a lot like the Nantahala, fast and cold and fresh clear green. We visited Cougar Hotsprings (4 pools, clothing optional, 1/4 mile hike, near the Reservoir, $5/head to the USFS to get in) and did a hike to the top of Castle Mountain. Susan rode her bike down from Castle and for once was on a trail all by herself. She also rode about 25 miles of the McKenzie River trail, which is a heavily used singletrack. I hiked to places that I could jump naked into the river or creeks. We paddled from the Paradise Campground down to the covered bridge in Rainbow, about 9 miles class II continuous. Lots of great surfing waves and some nice holes too. I got the feel of the boat again, was no longer afraid, was able to frolick properly and catch waves on the fly. The flow I'd guess was 900-1,000 at Paradise, more like 1,200-1,500 at the covered bridge, as the tribs were gushing. Best campsites at Paradise are 19, 51, 54, 55, 56 (river access). A good boating store in Eugene is Oregon River Sports, they did us right. http://www.oregonriversports.com/

This is the bottom two pools of Cougar hotspring.

You won't believe it until you see the pictures. This happened today, but I was at the Pride, and at the YMCA proving that I can swim for 20 minutes straight. Glad to see someone posted a link to their photos on LJ:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/solteronita/sets/72157605612507578/

On the bottom floor of the 3 story brick building that houses NCNM there is a row of computer terminals lining one wall of the hall. There are several printers also lined up, and during the daytime students are at every terminal checking email and printing course notes from e-reserves. Now I'm the only one standing here. The library is closed. I am officially at "work" doing my security job. I just cleaned out the three fridges in the student lounge. Well, not really. I didn't clean them, I just tossed all the rotting food in the trash. The non-rotting food continues to sit there, and the leakage from the entire first 6 weeks of school is still in there. Maybe next shift I'll really clean them. It's not "my job" but somebody really should. I also just walked around the entire school and checked all the windows and doors and classrooms that were still open. No bums around, just students and staff. This job is easy but it is not rewarding. I would rather be at home. I took this job so that I could apply for food stamps. I have never had food stamps before but being a student qualifies me as poor enough, as long as I have a workstudy job.
( more daily life stuff )

Got my Oregon driver's license this morning. I passed the computerized driver's test with 82% correct. I didn't look at the rulebook, and took the test at high speed. The guy next to me had been working on it for a while, and when I started clicking up a storm next to him he sped up. The ones I missed were questions like "You should turn on your turn signal 50, 100, 150 or 200 feet before the turn?" I wanted to say "it depends".
( More )