When it's time to relax...

What to do on a Friday evening? Get more miles, of course. Adrian & Kim went with Syd, Erik & myself out to the pub in Eagle for some food and some guilt-free empty calories. (This was especially nice since most of the miles I put in are solo.) On the way back the night was alive with insect song, the stars were clearly visible, and there was a beautiful orange crescent-moon hanging where the mopac met the horizon. It's too bad camera phones can't capture such things.

l'équipement

At a little after 7am, with the bike locked, I begin the ritual of settling in for practice. The bike commute is something I've only been doing since late April. The guitar practice is something that I've been doing for three years, and the steps are fast and automatic. I've been trying to do it the same way every time, since there are a lot of pieces to manage and I want to maximize my practice time.

First I pull two little cinch sacks out of my pannier. The first bag came with my dorky-looking full-sized headphones. It contains the headphones, a single AAA battery, and two Flents Quiet Please earplugs. The earplugs go in first, with the headphones over the top of them. This is how I had to deal with the extroardinary amount of ambient noise in the cabin of the bus: revving engine, whooshing air outside the cabin, conversation, A/V equipment on days when the television is being used, the constant whine of tires rolling down the interstate. The earplugs deaden most of this, leaving the sound comming from the headphones themselves.

The second bag is a hand-me-down Brooks sack that Syd gave me. It contains a guitar chord (about two cubits in length), a portable practice amp with 3 out of the 4 AAA batteries that it needs to operate, a couple of Dunlop 3.0mm Big Stubby guitar picks, some spare batteries, and a few random things that I would need to conduct string changes, trim fingernails, etc.

The practice amp is a Korg Pandora PX4, which I store with only 3 out of 4 batteries. I do this because the power switch, if jostled in the bag during transport, always seems to activate and drain the juice. (Grrrr.) This little amp can make a big variety of sounds, a few of which I find acceptable for day-to-day practice. It also has a built-in tuner and a few built-in drum loops which are occasionally fun to improvise over. Most of the time I use the acoustic guitar simulator.

Once assembled, I plug in the Traveler Speedster. This is an affordable guitar, designed to be very portable. Much of the body of a regular electric guitar is absent, with the part that your right arm would rest on being detachable with a thumb screw. The head is also absent, and the tuning pegs are hidden in the body near the the pickup. The fretboard is full sized, with the same 24.75" scale length you would find on a Gibson Les Paul.

Mine came with a single-coil pickup, which I replaced within the first week of riding. Ever used a drill or a hairdryer near an AM radio? That's what it sounded like. The alternator on the bus, an electrical generator used to power the A/V equipment, and the air conditioner all conspired to fill the air with awful electrical noise, all of which the single-coil pickup brought faithfully to my ears. I replaced it with a humbucker right away, which solved that problem beautifully. Speedsters come with a humbucker now.

With headphones on and guitar in hand, all that is left to do is tune & play. I'm pretty sure that nobody around me can hear much of anything. Any acoustic energy given off by string vibration is overwhelmed by road noise. This means I can engage in tireless scale & arpeggio exercises without making someone want to throttle me.

Podunk Commute Chronicles

I sometimes envy bike commuters whose destinations are in town.

While there's something cool about a multi-modal commute (it makes me feel a bit like the people I saw bringing their bikes onboard the BART trains in San Francisco) it has one huge drawback in my case. If I worked in Lincoln and some minor glitch in the morning ritual put me 15 minutes behind schedule, then I would just be 15 minutes late for work.

As things are now, I would miss the bus.

Take today for example: I linger a bit too long over my iced cappucino and home-made granola (getting into the fast-paced plot twists in Mary Worth) so I'm 10 minutes behind schedule. No problem, I'll make up for it by getting a better workout.

So I'm pedaling up 84th street, fully loaded with cargo, and pushing it hard. It feels awesome. I'm making good time, working on my cadence. I'm almost there.

But something doesn't feel right. What is it? Hmmm....crap...I'm not wearing my bike lock. Now I'm totally screwed.

Someone had borrowed my "comfort bike" last night, but didn't drape the lock over the handlebars like I normally do. That's ok, it's good to see the youngster getting on two wheels, and it's my own fault for not practicing mindfulness -- even if it is 6:30 in the morning.

Still, that left me with the problem of getting on top of a derailed day. How best to do that?

The answer: come back home, unload the cargo, change out of my work clothes, put in some extra miles (25 around-town trail miles), stop in for a freddo, head back home, do my upper-body workout, and telemute for the rest of the day.

Oh, purdy good. (apologies to cvo)

Bow Chicka Bow Wow

The Love Bus...Exciting and new...come aboard...we're expecting you...

I've been riding this thing for three years now, and it still seems like another world: plush vinyl couches along the sides, dark shades on the windows, huge flat-panel television on the back wall framed on either side by columns of bubbling liquid (lit by a rotating color wheel), high-powered receiver/amplifier, subwoofer, DVD player, satellite television receiver, built-in beverage coolers, mirrors on the ceiling (I kid you...not) with integrated fiber-optic light dots sprinkled throughout, faux wood trim, climate control, laser light show, wall-mounts for an array of long-stem glasses... It's as if this baby were designed as a set for a very specific sub-genre of low-budget film.

And, who knows, maybe it was.

But by day it carries me and my associates to work and back. There were three of these busses initially, with departure times separated by a half-hour. Now there are two. Soon (about three weeks from now), we'll be down to one bus, and at that time it will be a more conventional, non-limo, bus.

And that's ok with me. The only good seats on the bus, in my opinion, are the ones that face forward. For some reason the stopping and lurching of the bus while sitting sideways along the walls gives me nausea. So I always sit along the back off to one side of the television screen or the other.

This puts me near the speakers. Three years ago during the honeymoon phase this made it a very loud environment for practicing the guitar, because back then it was novel to watch an in-flight movie. After the shine wore off, it was constant war coverage on the Faux News Network. But I found a way to be oblivious inside my headphones, which I'll describe another day. (Edit: here's that post.)

Today the A/V equipment doesn't get much use. Most people read a book, or the newspaper, or converse. Perhaps this is because those features don't work anymore: Sexy as the bus looks, it has been the most cantankerous machine that I've ever seen. But it has given me up to 10 hours of guitar practice every week, which I may have not had the discipline to do otherwise.

Criterium Race

I got another fun opportunity to practice my camera phone skills. It's a constraining tool for action photography, but it's a good exercise. Click on the picture to see the full set. Check out the racing results on Nebraska Cycling News. Syd's reaction to the event can be found on her blog.

Time Trial and Road Race

Sydney won 1st place in both the time trial and the road race for women's category 4. Here are some pictures from the event. Some pics from the Cornhusker State Games opening ceremony are up now too. Congratulations, sweetie!

Her thoughts on the races are up now. More details about the event can be found here.

Reverting to the Old Way

I don't mind riding in the rain when I'm out for pleasure, but it's difficult to take it, head-on, first thing in the morning: I'm not sure I have the appropriate gear, and the schedule is so tight that gear needs to have been set out the night before, or organized in an easy-to-grab place in my closet.

Even then, if I had to change out of wet rain-pants after my commute, I would have to choose whether to change on a bus full of people, or sit soaking-wet on the bus for an hour before changing at work. I'm open to suggestions here.

Today's rain got me to thinking about the comming winter. I know I'll need to save up for some cold-weather peraphernalia for extending my riding season. My dear wife and inspiration is an expert at this, but despite the extreme lengths that she goes to [1,2] preparing for winter almost seems easier than being prepared for rain. Maybe it's just that winter is at a safe distance, but it seems like the cold will come gradually, giving me time to refine the ritual.

Rain always seems to take me by surprise. Still, that doesn't stop her.

Anyway, here is the first glimpse of the glorious limbusine. Next post I'll take you inside.

Daily Commute

There is a lot involved in my daily commute to work. My day starts at 5:20am with the sound of my alarm. The weakest part of my routine is responding to it in a timely manner (without hitting snooze), but from there onward it's a well-honed ritual: shave, shower, dress, breakfast, read the comics page (Mary Worth is riveting in the early morning), pack the bike, and head out the door by 6:30am.

This is a picture of my bike during a pre-flight check. It's pictured with flat pedals. Usually I ride with SPD clipless, having left a pair of shoes under my desk at work. On the rack is everything that I need to face the day: a laptop, sun gear for the afternoon ride home, and an electric guitar & accessories (which is what makes my commute at least somewhat bloggable). More on this later.

After an aggressive ride that takes about 30 minutes, I dismount, unpack, and lash the steed to a light pole in a church parking lot. This is not my destination. Rather, this is where I climb aboard a limo bus for the second leg of my commute: a one-hour ride down I-80 to Omaha.

Manawa Psycowpath

I went to the Manawa Psycowpath bike race today, tagging along with Sydney and her friend Tim. I captured some images from the day with my camera phone. This was Sydney's first mountain bike race, and she crushed the competition. It was a lot of fun to watch. Ran into CVO and Alter Nate there, and got the chance to try out a bike with a Rohloff speedhub. Instant gear lust.

July 4th ride to Seward

Though the night before I was extremely skeptical of my ability to handle a 62 mile journey from my doorstep to Seward and back -- half of which would be during the mid-day UV peak -- I somehow actually woke to my alarm at 3:30, headed out the door at 3:50 (sans coffee), and made it to the designated starting point by 4:25.

I first met Ortiz on N street, which was cool because I was nervous about meeting a crowd of new people all at once. Before we got to the bridge we happened upon mombok, whose macintosh had been made unbootable the night before by the 10.4.7 update. Apparently there was a small window where Apple had a bad update package up on their servers. Those who were effected got a dialog box that said something failed to install. Guess what, I got that message when I applied the update yesterday. Luckily, I haven't rebooted yet. I'm afraid to.

Next I got reacquainted with CVO, having only met him briefly at Tour Day France. Soon thereafter he lit a roman candle to signify to all who could see that the train was leaving the station at 4:30am sharp. Before we got too far I discovered Cornbread was among the group. (I didn't recognize him in his roadie gear.)

The ride out was awesome. It was dark; I was unfamiliar with the route; nobody was in too much of a hurry, and every once in a while some fireworks would flash around me. My favorite was a roman candle illuminating us from behind. We could see our shadows appearing large and then shrinking, wrapped in alternating green and red frames shimmering on the pavement.

The hills on highway 34 were pretty challenging to me, but I kept thinking of Syd, who always sees wind and hills as an opportunity.

We arrived just as the sun was asserting itself in the sky. Our bikes took refuge in the CVO's parents' back yard and we chilled for a minute. That's when the above picture was taken. The day's activities: the ceremonial explosively-launched anvil, a good pancake feed at the VFW (where I observed the art of sly photography), watching warm-ups for a pole-vaulting competition (very nice), checking out the craft booths, buying beer, chilling more in the back yard, watching Alter-Nate's mini-anvil fireworks display, and eventually getting introduced to Thad and Scott.

All in all, a really cool bunch of guys to hang with. I could learn a lot from them, the least of which is what the heck "GB" stands for.

Just as it was time for the 10:30am return trip, Sydney arrived with Conrad. I bailed on the crew so that I could ride back a bit later in the company of this beautiful woman. However, before we returned we had an opportunity to check out a mind-boggling collection of bicycles. I was asked not to share the pictures that I took. Rest assured, even a newbie like me was blown away. Too cool.

The ride back was at a "nice pace" (Syd's code word for "excruciatingly slow", I think.) My legs were dead, the hills seemed worse this way, and the wind was not blowing in a helpful direction.

But I made it. It was the best way I've ever spent the 4th of July, although it wasn't until today that I realized it.

Seward

Seward
Originally uploaded by p0dunk.

The anvil has asploded.