Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Ever since I was old enough to ride a bike on the road, I’ve always wanted to ride my bike to Oswego. Around 25 miles from where I grew up, as a young kid Oswego seemed like the closest place that would be interesting and that would be reachable by pedal power. I would ride to Oswego, look around the downtown area a bit and then ride him. It’d be roughly 60 miles around trip.

My mother wasn’t having any of it. She barely let me ride my bike to school (around five miles away) let alone riding my bike to Oswego and back. So the ride was out of the question. I never made the trek on my three-speed Huffy bike.

On Thursday I sent Earl an email while at work and simply asked him, “how would you like to meet me in Oswego for lunch on Saturday?”. His response was simple, “I’d love to.”

Earl and I had lunch in Oswego today. I left for lunch at 6:55 a.m. and arrived in the Port City right at noon. The ride was much farther than it would have been from where I had grown up; all in all I clocked 73.4 miles today on my Fuji 21-speed bike. I think making this trek in five hours is a decent accomplishment. I’m a little sunburned as I write this, but all in all I feel fantastic.

I found my “zen spot” shortly before the halfway point of the ride. By then it had warmed up to 60 or so and the countryside was enjoyable scenery. Several stressors from the week resolved themselves in my head and I was able to think about various things while riding along. I think this is contributing to the wonderful feeling I am having this evening.

I made a few brief stops along the route. I stopped in a little town called Lee for my first protein bar and my second protein bar was consumed in the front lawn of the New Haven Elementary School. While at the school I peek through the windows to see what time it was, as classrooms usually have their clocks over or next to the door to the hallway. This particular school had their clock in the front of the classroom. The clocks were recently replaced. I’m such a clock geek.

One of the things that I hadn’t accurately remembered was the number and size of the hills along Route 104 between the village of Mexico and city of Oswego. I knew there were a few hills here and there, but I didn’t remember the up/down, roller coaster approach to the road. Being that this stretch of the ride was the last part may have contributed to the slightly daunting feeling I felt while cruising along the former US route. (NY Route 104 was US Route 104 until 1972). I maintained my stride, though and Earl was able to find me along the waterfront along Lake Ontario at the Port of Oswego. Yay for “Find Friends” on the iPhone; it has proven to be invaluable in situations like these. Come to find out, Earl had been only a half dozen miles behind me for the final hour of the ride. He decided not to pass me and make his presence known as it psychs me out a little bit and makes me feel like the ride is over.

My husband knows me well.

I rewarded my body with a relatively healthy lunch at the local Ruby Tuesday before taking a scenic ride home in the Jeep with the top off.

I think I might take a shorter ride tomorrow morning, but it’ll be a loop so Earl can sleep in.

A couple of pictures:

I don’t know why I’m biting my lip.

This was taken from the Jeep on the way home. That’s the Nine Mile 2 Nuclear Power plant in the background.

The remnants of a railroad bridge, again taken from the Jeep on the way home. I was in too much of a zen mode to stop and take photos from the bike.

As I rode the back roads and through a couple of villages on my bike this morning, I noticed that the world seemed quieter than usual. I wasn’t being hounded by vehicles trying to pass me, I didn’t hear the thump thump thump of unrecognizable tracks rattling license plates on cars and I didn’t see any school-aged children outside waiting for the bus. As I drove by an elementary school my suspicions were confirmed as the message board in front of the school proclaimed, “No school May 3”.

Apparently the local schools are closed today.

I am curious as to what has spurred this seemingly random date for a school closure. Are there extra snow days to be used up? Is Cinco de Mayo weekend a long weekend now?

It then dawned on me. School is closed today because the annual Town-Wide Garage Sale Event Weekend! starts today.

The exclamation point is mandatory.

During a break from working at home today I took a walk up the street and was nearly accosted by more vehicles than usual. And these vehicles were moving slowly, very slowly. An eyeball stared out from under the steering wheel.

Elderly drivers were in search of a garage sale. Apparently the sport is actually called “Garage Sailing”, but that doesn’t make sense because I haven’t seen one garage that looked like a yacht.

I digress.

The crazy cat lady woman up the street has put out her wares for the Town-Wide Garage Sale Event Weekend! and this has drawn the garage-sailors like, as they say, “white on rice”. Vehicles are parked haphazardly up and down the road and people are walking near the center line, apparently breathless from all the deals they are about to find at each of these garage sales.

Tomorrow is going to be garage sale hell in these parts.

It’s time to get out of town.

So it’s lunch time and I’m sitting in the Jeep on probably the most gorgeous day thus far of 2013. Today simply rocks. The sky is clear, the humidity is low and the sunshine is abundant.

I’m hiding in the shade of the big sign that pronounces the existence of the shopping center I’m relaxing in. I went to the “alternate” Dunkin’ Donuts today for a little change of pace. A change of scenery is good.

As I look out I see the beginning of the Adirondack Mountains less than a mile away. The trees are starting to show a more cheery color; the combination of rain earlier this week and sun for the past two days have started the whole spring thing around here. The days are getting longer, the birds are singing more, there’s little to complain about.

My iced tea even tastes a little better. I even had a friend stop by that wanted to share a PopChip.

It’s a good day to let the stress melt away.

I’m not really that cohesive in my thoughts today so this is going to be one of the blog entries where I just kind of write down what’s floating around in this head of mine. Bear with me or find a picture of a pretty pony if you’re bored.

1. Google Now is on iOS! Being the tech geek that I am I’m always dazzled by sparkly things so I was delighted to see that Google Now is now part of the Google Search app on the iPhone and iPad. w00t w00t! Google Now is an awesome little tool that uses all the data that Google has gathered about you to basically try to make your life better. For example, at the end of the day yesterday, Google Now told me that it would take 1 hr 6 min to get home from work and to avoid the Thruway due to a traffic back in a construction zone. When I got in the relative area of home, Google Now suggested a couple of restaurants for dinner. It has also reminded me of some birthdays. Google Now can do a whole bunch of other stuff and if you’re not creeped out about Google knowing things about you, go give it a try. I’m hot and cold on Google and apparently this week I’m hot. Especially since I can do Google-y things on my iDevices.

2. Mail. Before sitting down to write this blog entry I walked out to the mailbox to see if we had anything exciting waiting for pickup. We had one piece of junk mail suggesting that we buy the contents of William Sonoma for Mom’s enjoyment on Mother’s Day. Remember the excitement of the daily mail delivery? Is there a card? An invitation to a party? A chain letter? I used to always look forward to getting the mail but that seems so 20th century now. I kind of miss it, which of course, runs completely contrary to my aforementioned excitement of Google Now.

I’m complicated like that.

3. Oh Shut Up. Eastchester, New York has apparently banned any casual fast-food restaurants from calling Eastchester home. No Panera. No Chipotle. Something about “they’re Eastchester and they’re proud of that”. Sounds like an uppity place to me. They’re lucky I haven’t heard anyone call Eastchester “Upstate” because then I would lose my mind for a few moments.

4. Music. I was recently passed over on the chance to DJ a party in Chicago next month and quite frankly I’m not that shook up about it. Twenty years ago I would have been in tears and motivated to be more “gay” with my music selection so the crowd would have been bouncing up and down to the mad beatz. But these days the sights and sounds of GaGa and her ilk rather nauseate me so I’m not that worked up about it. If enjoying music that isn’t auto-tuned makes me obsolete then I wear my obsolescence with pride.

5. Money. I’m trying to decide if money makes people evil or if money just reveals the evil tendencies within a person. Either way, money does some pretty screwed up things to assumedly screwed up people, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

It’s no secret that I’m an avid cyclist. This past weekend I rode over 90 miles on my 2002 Fuji bike and because of this I feel marvelous today. Cycling is great exercise and I find that it’s a wonderful mental exercise as well. I lose myself on the back roads and find that I can resolve issues that are causing me stress. It’s a good feeling. I’m very happy that it’s cycling season in these parts.

As an avid cyclist, I tend to think that I know how to navigate the roads of Upstate New York (and occasionally other places around the country) on my bike. I learned many of these skills as a youngster; I remember my first bike ride to school, which was five miles away, on a three-speed with a banana seat. I was in grade six at the time. I had no close calls then and for the most part, my rides have been accident free. I’d like to take a moment to remind cyclists and motorists on how riders should be behaving themselves on the road.

Cyclists should be following the rules of the road. Some people get confused about this, but bicycles are just another vehicle and they should be moving in the same direction as all the other vehicular traffic. Cyclists should not be doing the pedestrian thing and riding against the flow of traffic. That’s a no no and dangerous. Should you encounter a pedestrian on the road, the pedestrian should be walking towards you and they would be the farthest away from the center line of the road. Remember, you’re a vehicle, you’re not a pedestrian.

Because you’re riding a human-powered vehicle, you should be following the rules of the road. This includes stopping for stop signs and appropriate traffic signals, riding only where you’re allowed to ride and keeping off the sidewalks. Unless specified by local ordinances, don’t ride on the sidewalk unless you would drive your car on the sidewalk.

Wear a helmet and brightly colored clothing. In the chillier months in Upstate New York I have a heavy rain jacket that I wear that is a dark green. Because this isn’t the most visible piece of clothing I could be wearing, I also wear a fluorescent yellow safety vest that Earl brought home from one of his manufacturing plants. You can’t miss it. If you’re riding when it’s dark out, put some lights on your bike and use them. The discount department stores have them for as little as $20 and they don’t even require tools to mount them on your bike. Make yourself REALLY visible. Folks barely pay attention to their driving these days as it is, be flashy so you don’t get hit by someone that’s more preoccupied with their hands free unit.

Now here’s where you have to be a little aggressive. If you ride in areas where there are multiple lanes at an intersection, for example, a left turn only lane, use that lane just like a car would. There’s an intersection close to the house where there are three lanes moving in my direction: left turn only, straight ahead and right turn only. When I want to go straight ahead, I get on the right edge of the center lane. This way, the cars that want to turn right can still use their lane without worrying about me cutting across to go straight, the cars going straight through can pass by me as if we were anywhere on the road and the folks turning left can do their business without a care in the world. Use the lanes as if you were driving your car or truck. Act like another vehicle and people won’t have to guess what you’re going to do due to unpredictable or erratic lane movements.

Be kind to pedestrians. Don’t terrorize the woman at the gas pump who is struggle with self-serve by cutting across the parking lot at a wild speed. Don’t cut in between cars and bushes and buildings just to save time. Be respectful of those around you so they’ll respect you.

As the opportunity arises, stick to the marked bike lanes and the myriad of bike paths that are cropping up all over the Empire State. I’m quite critical of NYSDOT but they are doing exceptional things when it comes to accommodating those of us moving about by human cycle power.

Follow the signs. Obey the one ways and the do not enters and the “No Bicycles Allowed” signs on the freeway entrances. In New York State if the speed limit is 65 you’re not allowed on that stretch of road with your bicycle. Other states vary with this, but that’s the way it works around here.

Most importantly, have fun and enjoy your bike ride. If you find riding around the city to be too stressful, find a nice country ride and enjoy the view, say hello to a cow and breathe in some fresh country air.

Share some zen with me.