Bike Police

Biking in this morning I was already on alert for the bike police around the UW since I had heard that they were hiding near the two new blinking stops signs on the Burke. When I reached the sign for the crossing at Brooklyn (which was not blinking today) I did the closest thing to a track stand that I can manage and waited for a car to pass. The nice lady on her cruiser style commuter bike did not stop and rolled through. Low and behold there they were on their mountain bikes on the other side in the grass. They pulled the lady over to reprimand her. I didn't stay for what they had to say or if they gave her a ticket, but I felt very bad for this person who is simply trying to do her part and not clog our streets with traffic.

There is the importance of safety and education for people on their bikes but I believe that if you post the stop signs most of these people on their bikes also drive and can read and will most likely understand the concept of a stop sign. If they then choose to ignore it and roll through they either are taking a risk that they have chosen or have enough common sense to know when stopping (i.e. when the several 1000lbs object is not going to stop and they will get squished) or when rolling through is safe (i.e. lack of vehicles on the road or these vehicles yielding.) Really if they make a bad choice unfortunately they will get hurt in most cases but the innocent driver just minding there own business while talking on the cell phone (or texting or checking the traffic alerts on their smart phones) will be unscathed. OK they could have some scratches on their car, but that is about it.

I am all for following the laws and rules but I also believe that people need to take responsibility for themselves and their choices and we don't need this extra policing by a third party. If the lady flew through without looking making a car screech to a halt and then she almost ran over a baby, then by all means pull her over and give her hell, but that is not what they are doing. It is like the Mercer Island issue and drivers in general that think that stopping is putting a foot down no matter what the circumstance. I see cars and motorcycles roll through stop signs all the time, we all do. The fact is that so many people do that they would need to keep a cop at every stop sign to enforce "the rules". Not practical and the majority of the time people are safe, we by nature don't want to get hit by someone or hit anyone.

These cops would be much better utilized if they would stop the runner with the headphones on that flips a Uey on the trail with out looking or the group of walkers that spread out over the trail blocking traffic in both direction. Educate not ticket, remind anyone who is not sharing the trail that it is a shared commuting thoroughfare (yes, this would include cyclist). That would require these bike cops to actually ride up and down the trail encountering all the users and vehicles the real trail users have to contend with daily. Maybe then they would be more aware of what should be addressed as unsafe and what is reasonable for a person on a bike to do safely. Hiding in the bushes waiting to catch those rouge cyclists who don't follow the rules is not the best incentive for getting the average joe to bike to work or making it any safer for the rest of the tail users.

Dumb Monday!

I had a great weekend, went for a long (relatively speaking) slow ride on Saturday and then went with Reid to Mt Rainier on Sunday. We hiked to Pebble Creek, the flowers were amazing, I love the mountains and have spent far too little time in them recently.

Even though the mountain was obscured by clouds, it was beautiful. In the morning I was feeling guilty for not doing Seward but after hiking up this mountain in the fresh air I realized my day was very well spent and Seward will be there next year.


I have missed seeing my friends and racing but I have been healing and have fun doing different things. I am actually looking forward to training. I say that now but as soon a s the roads are sheets of ice I may have second thoughts. :)


While hiking we ran into a couple of guys from Russia, they had spotted a marmot and were super excited. We told them what they were, the younger guy kept calling them mormots, (insert Russian accent). He was surprised when I told him there were black bears around as well. They were trying to feed the marmot and I told the guy that the marmot's work with the bears louring people into feeding them then the bears come out and eat the people. His eyes got huge and he said "really?!" I laughed and told him I was just kidding and he started laughing. I couldn't hlep myself.



Cute marmot eating alpine lupin.










Now for Dumb Monday.
I am dumb for packing my bag this morning and forgetting my shoes. Yes, I am walking all over my lab in cleats. Clopping around and slipping trying to help people set up their experiments and all. Funny things is it took a couple of hours before anyone asked me if I had forgotten my shoes. It is also dumb that the weekend weather was more like October than August and now Monday greats us with sun while we all have to go to work. I want more weekend(w/ sun), not Monday.

I have Wednesday off with my girls looks to be sunny, time to swim in the lake! School starts in a week. Started coaching soccer, fall is already here. Fingers crossed for an indian summer. Please, please, pretty please!!

What's new...

Apparently I should update my blog. :]

New? My basement is 98% done!! Yes the annoying 2% are things like painting molding, installing bi fold doors for the laundry closet and small "weekend" projects. They still loom but nothing I can't live with. I did a thorough cleaning of the entire house last weekend, my life is sooo exciting. Actually is was great to get all the dust and neglected little things cleaned after a year of working on such an all consuming project.

I spent 10 days in Durango Co at the end of July, it was great to see my entire family and spend quality time with my girls. We hiked, went swimming, did the alpine slide at Purgatory, had a great day at Mesa Verde and just relaxed. I also got to ride with my sisters on some of the most beautiful roads around. It was great to be on my bike. My back did pretty well and I feel like it was what I needed to start my come back to racing.

Speaking of racing... Volunteer Park was my first race since Methow, it went as well as I could hope for. Good to know my fitness isn't completely gone and I do have some power back now that my injuries have had time to heal. I really need to focus on patients when I race, this was evident at the crit. Last lap I went way too early and blew up on the final hill. I knew that I had made a dumb move but other than that I loved racing again. It was nice to see friendly faces I miss my teammates though.

OK some photos of the back breaking project.

Here is the framing. This is the 1st time I have ever framed anything, needless to say later on I learned how important square, level and plumb really are. I had already completed all the demo and removed literally a ton of material. Notice the windows, it is amazing what a tigersaw can do.

Drywall installation, not plumb, not square and not standard 8ft walls=lots of measuring & cutting

Floor leveling and beadboard install. Hopefully all the foundation sealing will keep out the winter water.

The finished bedroom!! I love the floors.

Tile install with radiant flooring, very nice to walk on.

Glass shower surround & finished bathroom.

TV room and laundry. I can't believe the difference it has made to have flooring! The cement floor was very cold and dirty. I feel like my house is twice as big now.

Now I get to focus on training and enjoying my house and yard... Coming soon will be the garage renovation. It will make a great winter training room :) Never a dull moment!