VACATION IN VENICE BEACH

Vacation in California

Time with Brynne and Gustavo

Skateboarding at dawn

skateboarding at duskbiking on the beach

dinner at mao’s kitchen

Movies in Santa Monica,

ART in graffiti

VENICE BEACH

WE ARE visiting my daughter Brynne in Los Angles and staying at the Hotel Erwin in Venice.  The biking is too good, a bike path to die for, that is dedicated just for bikes, spectacular scenery and flat easy terrain.  Too easy, but easy to get use to it.I biked to Hermosa beach and got passed by these guys when I stopped to take pictures.  It was hard to believe that I was biking on such a wonderful trail, but it only got better.  I couldn’t take this perfection for long, it is too good. I’d have too complain about the weather, or too many people, or too perfect people.  Having constant challenges and obstacles is more my style, more to complain about, better excuses to not go out.Sally got into the act, renting a hybrid and biking for one hour and 59 minutes of her two hour rental.  I pulled a fast one, not on purpose, but because the bike shop didn’t open until until noon, they were late and they don’t rent from that location.  So I didn’t get my bike until after 1pm.  I biked 30 miles yesterday afternoon, and 50 this morning.  I took the bike back at 12:30, one days rental, two days biking.We’ve had a great time with Brynne and Gustavo, forcing them to drive all over to meet us at the airport and then at our hotel, where we walked on the beach and had chinese at Mao’s kitchen.  We went to Brynne’s apt on Romazine in West Hollywood. A quiet residential street not to far from USC.

Brynne has moved from one continent to another, found a home, started school, made friends, entertained sisters and family and found time to study, train for a marathon, write papers  and do powerpoint presentations all like it was the easy thing in the world.

Brynne’s husband Gustavo has recently followed her from Nicaraugra where he has been writing a screen play for a political drama.   He returns there in January to act in it.  He has stayed with this opportunity for three years, through a  rigorous screening process to finding out the NGO funding it didn’t have the money to go forward.   Then he went  to a screen writing composition, wrote some of the script, now he flies back in January to be a character.  These two are quite a dynamic couple.

Circular thinking

We  bike to get ouside and get sunlight.  Today was clear, crisp and windy.  Pat and I know any day could be our last.  They are calling for rain tomorrow, snow up north with a cold front arriving.  The rain could get pushed into snow.  Snow won’t end the season, but sand on the roads makes riding treacherous.  We talk inanely and my thought are spontaneous.  I asked Pat what did Dudley Moore died of.  He didn’t know, but  said,” Where did that question come from?”

I said that I was thinking of the sufi music that soothes my troubled mind and I remember that as a kid I listened to Ravel’s concherto in G major and then that reminded me of Bolero.  That reminded me of  the movie “10″ and Bo Derek and and was she still alive,  I wasn’t sure, but I knew that Dudley Moore had died.    Pat said, “What a round about way of getting to the point, but what happened to Bo Derek?”

Who knows?  When your attention revovles in a big puzzle, you have to connect the dots.   Listening to sufi music, or baroque seems to make a linear connection that is more managable.

RIDING IN THE RAIN

Great day to go biking, a little mist and rain on the way.  The  rain came a litle earlier than I wanted, so I got wet.    This is the Gardiner under pass that runs along  the river and connects to the rail trail.It runs along Cobbosee  Stream and is exploding with recent rain.  I wanted to get  the best light, but it was elusive,  considering I stopped mainly under bridges to tru and keep the camera dry.  It is a little taxing being in 45 degree rain, but once you accept that you’ll get a little wet, its not bad.

4302 miles on a gray november day

The end is near.  I  enjoy work, I like movies, books, competetion but I live on the bike. The more I can spend an hour or two, even on gray, air less low pressure days, the better I feel.  I’ve been on a 5 day a week biking schedule, but what am I training for? I might as well bike every day.  I  want to rack up as many miles as I can before snow flies.  We are slow at work so soon I will have have more time, and then of course it will snow.  I am ready for skiing, but it is hard to give up the push to do better than last year.  I’ll have to switch gears and start all over again.

We’ll be disappearing into the sunset soon.  No more biking until spring, so we’re awash in grief.

THE QUALITY OF LIGHT

After a less than productive day, it is time for a bike ride.  I’m on my way to 4100 miles this week, so I  grab every chance I can to add a few miles.  It’s cold and dreary, air damp and with the sun setting at 4;30,  dark early.   Pat and I get out at 3:15, so our hour and a half ride gets back in the dusky dim light.

I had a day best forgotten with delays and long drives for short solutions.  All of that was lost when a young menonite girl waved hello as we  pedalled past.  We’d been by their house many times, they have a farm stand and we’d nodded.  Today was different, she recognized us and waved through all the differences, preconceptions and biases to say I see you, fellow travellers on the road.  I forgot the frustration and incompleteness and revelled in being  present.What struck me as we pedalled back on the rail trail was the quality of light coming off the refection from the river.  Seeing the sunset in reverse  changed the quality of the subtle shades of pink and rose to sublime hues.  We rode in awe, feeling priviledged to get rewarded by going through our daily routine, riding  through bliss into amother day in paradise.

‘aegt

4000 MILES BUT WHOSE COUNTING

Pat and I plan each year on reaching 4000 miles on our bikes.   We keep careful records,miles,  weather, average speed, but it’s mainly for the bragging rights.   This year has been wet and rainy.  We’ve had to work twice as hard to stay even so it seemed like I was falling behind.   I managed a few long rides, the Dempsey challenge and than a ride to Portland, but mostly 20 to 40 mile rides.  With shorten days, I have to go every chance I can, get complusive.I  go good weather and bad, and this time of the year, toes get cold and ears and fingers.  Some days its torture thawing out.  I feel let down when I can’t make it out.  The worst is that once snow comes its all over, and it is a real sense of loss.  I have three weeks left and then we’re visiting Brynne in LA.My goals are to keep going, get miles than last year.  Its really about being outside, feeling the weather, feeling capable of making that next hill, feeling that a trip to Richmond is an everyday event.

Interrupting Inertia

I have a form of poor attention, an  inability to concentrate in certain situations.  I feel at a loss to control my life and I search for solutions to this dis-ease.   I would always prefer to be on Mount Pisgah then in a building, no matter the weather.  I choose a occupation that kept me outside, or in uncompleted buildings for most of my life.  Being a stone mason has its drawbacks and getting a bad back is one of them.  The neurosurgeon said you’ve got progressive back disease, you should get a new line of work.   Not exactly what I want to hear after finally reaching a place where I understood my craft.  I was in demand and got the jobs I wanted to do.   I felt like I was at the top of the heap. 

Instead of being a craftsman, I became a manger, running a masonry contracting business.  It was okay, but I never like having clean clothes and few callouses.  I like the puzzle, coming up with a strategy to get the dry look (show no mortar) and still be water tight.  Or how to make a huge fireplace draw well and not smoke.

I work  in the office, spend time travelling, an hour or two going over the work and then back to the office didn’t have the same kick as creating astone strucure that would last generations.  I got bored and antsy, avoiding paperwork and the office at all cost.  I barely managed to get things done on time. I had anxiety.  I frequently got bids done at the last minute and sent out bills late.  It didn’t matter.  The business grew in spite of my neglect.

My fear of  officework got worse, I could apply myself  only to jobs that appealed to me, but day to day decisions and details I couldn’t digest..   It seemed as though I  existed in biking, parenting, skiing, blogging, but was absent in about half of my life, stuck in inertia.  Sitting down to do any form of office work cause a sense of disconnection.

My wife was looking through the Maine College of Art course and saw Proprieoceptive Writing.  I thought I’d sign up, but their website didn’t take the registration. I didn’t realize it until I didn’t get a confirmation, but got busy and I  blocked  following through on small details.  It started on Friday and I hadn’t called.  At about noon on Friday my wife called and asked if I checked on the registration.  Sheepishly I admitted I hadn’t.  She called and got a real registration.  I biked, got a room for one night and took off in a rush.

We met in a forth floor room and wrote by candle light and baroque music, Bach and  It’s not about writing, it’s about listening to your self.  When a question comes, ask what does this mean?  It wasn’t easy and I struggled, but keep going and things started to pop up.  Ideas that had been dormant.  I came up with a design that I hadn’t been able to get down on paper.   I cried over a hidden memory.  I didn’t write easily but by Saturday afternoon I felt comfortable in my own skin.  I felt that I was exactly where I was suspose to be and the light was right, music perfect and the strangers from a day before were friends.  I came up with a plan to deal with my phobia, my attention defict.    My inertia was lifted and I felt able to cope with whatever was in store.

It’s dark early

The sun sets at 4:30 and its hard leaving at 3:30 and making it to the rail trail before it’s to dark .  I ride with blinky’s, which make me visible.   I try and get off the big roads, and stay on the rail trqail and intown Hallowell in the dusk and early evening.  Its colder and not too many hours of biking to get another 400 miles in.  I rode 25 miles today, putting my total at 3928.  I hope to get 20 more days in, averaging 21 miles  ( our most frequent ride.)  That would give me 4348 miles, slightly more than last year. 

I got a chance last weekend to climb Pisgah with Ron and it reminds me why we live in Maine.  Lots of room, few people and natural beauty

Its Fall

The weather has changed, it’s cold and the days are short.  The sunrises are easy, almost 7 am.  Pat and I are  getting in as  many rides as we can.  It is colder and we struggle some days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ron called me one morning when a ride was cancelled and said lets go canoeing up to Pierce Pond.  I never heard of it, had no idea where it was.  I was bummed that the training ride for the Dempsey challenge evaporated (the organizers didn’t show.) 

I hadn’t canoed in years, was sore, but fell into a comfortable ryhthm under Ron’s guidance.  We meet kayakers, campers, and guides.  We paddled about 10 miles, went to upper Pierce Pond, ate lunch on a sandy beach on an island.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We portaged through this stream and then passed kayakers on the way back.