As Mark usually says, we don’t live by politics alone, so how was your weekend?
I’m currently in the Bay Area, so I managed to partake in Major League Baseball’s equivalent to the “rivalry round”, with the LA Dodgers travelling to AT&T Park to play the San Francisco Giants. The short version is that the charms of baseball, particularly when compared to cricket, are somewhat lost on me. After that, it was Fourth of July fireworks on Fisherman’s Wharf. It was faintly disturbing to see six-figure crowds of Americans celebrating independence day without a single example of the Stars and Stripes bettwen them.
The photo from my Saturday. It’s from is from my (bicycle, obviously) ascent of Mount Tamalpais, the highest mountain in the Bay Area. There’s something unusual about the photo, though, and brownie points to the first person who can tell me why (or comes up with an amusingly insulting but incorrect version).
So, how about you?
Sorry, with “Rob M edition” in the title, the pic of guy holding a road bike and the Tour de France coming up soon, I thought this was going to be talking about Robbie McEwen. Boy was I wrong.
‘… six-figure crowds of Americans celebrating independence day without a single example of the Stars and Stripes bettwen them.’
Are you referring to their numbers or their salaries :-)?
Anyway I’m sure they were all wearing their lapel pins.
did a half hour of walking to find the old Bulock Track along which women used to walk from Hahndorf to Adelaide, sell their produce, buy supplies then walk back to Hahndorf the same day.
i will walk that track with my cross breed terrier (terror?) bitch but in stages!
Is the weirdness that you did your ascent with a road bike and not a mountain bike?
That is the bicycle that was hired, at the top, for the descent of man Merkel?
GW: Robbie McEwen is one of the slowest climbers (as distinct from sprinters) in the Tour fields. I reckon he’d still beat me up the hills by a very large margin. BTW, seems like Valverde’s real hungry to put on a yellow jersey
Ken L: numbers, though given it’s San Francisco I suspect that despite the recessions a fair proportion of them do indeed earn six figures
Thomarse: sounds fascinating! Follow-up reports appreciated.
mick: well, Mt Tam is supposed to be the “home of mountain biking” but these days most of the fun trails are apparently illegal. But you’re vaguely on the right track.
joe2: nice try, but the hired bike ascended under Merkel power (and no, I wasn’t accompanied by some other individual also named Merkel who did the hard work) all the way from just above sea level to 784 (corrected, don’t want to exaggerate) metres. The descent wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped, in fact; it seems that either Marin County or the State of California can’t afford to maintain their roads properly, meaning I was nervously braking all the way down for fear of hitting a pothole and ending up flying over the handlebars.
well the bike is a right hand drive so if you are in the states then you are dicing with death, oh and you have visible panties.
i got to tell you, Parenting is a mugs game, just when you think that everything is sorted, along comes the month from hell, conjunctavitis, bronchitis, gastro, new teeth. and then the hbomb gets sick.
The hbomb, nearly 21 months, has been a work of puzzlement these last few weeks, sudden tantrums just seem to burst out of her. she had one yesterday on a swing. we were surrounded by a school holiday crowd. and she falls out of the swing and slaps into teh ground. twenty YMs and a few nans gasp collectivlly, it is official, i am the worst father in history. she bounces and is running and laughing a few minutes later, but i got nasty looks for the remaining time there.
Mind you, the porter is drinking well and i prepared the bed for the asparagus to go into next week and pruned fruit trees and roses and a host of other little jobs so i have that warm inner glow that seems to accompany household task achievement. + the hbomb is asleep, a whole 90 minutes early and the dr has gone to bed in an attempt to regain some health, so peace has decended upon the abode at the same time as a small shower has dampened everything, i hope that it buckets down tomorrow.
Ciao
We know the Yanks stick with an odd measuring system but by my reckoning Mt Tamalpais should be 2506 feet or it has been miscalculated in metres, assuming they use ‘yards’ and they have 36 inches as against metre at approx 39 inches. Then again the San Andreus fault might have to be factored in. Global warming and land expansion?
Stayed inside working, listened to the rain, and wished some nice person with a lot of time and organisational skills would turn up and organise me a tank.*
*rainwater not army
I’m spending my Sunday evening blogging and watching Tarantino’s Death Proof simultaneously. The latter is some weird shit.
Pablo: My sums produce the same answer as that sign in the photo. You have lost 65′ somewhere, better go and find ‘em, they may come in handy someday!
“…the charms of baseball, particularly when compared to cricket, are somewhat lost on me.”
Baseball can most aptly be compared to premature ejaculation. You are no sooner on for (fielding) than you are off again. Batsmen have an ever swifter experience, three strokes and she’s all over.
SATP. Yeah my long multiplication (39 times 784) and division just aint what they should be any more sans a calculator.
Thomarse [3]:
Happy wanderer, eh?
So there’s more to Hahndorf history than mere drinking scores at its Schutzenfest.
Robert, Mark and Everybody:
Went to the annual commemoration service at St.Christoper’s Chapel just off the Emu Park Road outside Rockhampton, Central Queensland. It’s held on the Sunday nearest American Independence Day. The service honours the thousands and thousands of United States military personnel who passed through Rockhampton during the Second World War - and the Australians who fought against the Imperial Japanese in that war too. The non-denominational Chapel was built by American soldiers, in 1943, out of creek stones they gathered by hand and out of bush timber and whatever else they could come by at the time. After that war, it was maintained by a dedicated band of volunteers, including Mr Jack Fleming of the 41st Infantry Division, who married a local lass and made his home in this part of Australia.
The Salvation Army Band, as always, put on superb music.
I - who have had no hestation whatsoever in attacking the military follies of Rove, Rumsfeldt, Cheney, Bush and their cronies or semi-cronies and who time-and-again voiced my opposition to the waste of war - was proud and delighted to take part in that ceremony.
It was a ceremony that honoured the ordinary decent Americans and Australians who put their lives on the line when their homelands were attacked and in dire peril …. and who wanted nothing more than to return safely to their families and to their work and to their normal lives …. A lot didn’t make it ….
Kim: you’re from San Francisco - did you ever visit Mount Tam?
Graham: well put.
“There’s something unusual about the photo,”
You’re larger in real life?
Well I spent a big part of this afternoon aranging the species names of Russian flora and fauna into a song lyric…as you do.
Panthera pardus orientalis
Rangifer tarandus
Cervus canadensis
Ursus arctos
Pusa sibirica
Lagopus muta
Nyctereutes procyonoides
Tamias sibiricus
Pteromys volans
Moschus moschiferus
Mustela sibirica
Vipera berus
Picea obobata
Abies sibirica
Aguila chrysaetus
Strix nebulosa
Full marks for identifying what they all have in common.
And bonus points for popping the weasel.
Rob at 15, I’ve been to the State Park, but hiking and/or biking aren’t my thing unfortunately! It’s a gorgeous part of the world. Marin County generally is just beautiful. I’d like to retire there someday!
Glad you had a good time!
Kim - Death Proof is quite odd but I enjoyed it in a schlocky kinda way.
It had its moments, mick, but I think Planet Terror was a much better film!
Kim, I can understand WRT the hiking/biking. You’re right, the whole area is really nice.
So, you liked SF then? Did you get to Muir Woods?
As for the photo weirdness, is there something broken with the bike?
Robert, It doesn’t look like a picture of a lazy Sunday to me.
Rob,
If you have a chance get up to Yosemite…those cliffs are something I will never forget…
The one thing that sticks out is the “Danger Keep Off” sign - does that refer to what looks to be a doorstep you’re standing on? If so then the USA has kept up with our own trends of “bleeding-obvious” warnings!
Otherwise sounds like a damn good ride - just a pity about the road condition
Talking of which did anyone else get to enjoy the Blue Mountains yesterday? Went climbing at Glenbrook gorge - perfect weather for it…
Robert Merkel: Where are your knicks? Those pants look damn uncomfortable for road biking.
I meant to go out for a ride on Sunday but didn’t get there. Watched TdF on Saturday night (whoooooosh Valverde!). Sunday brought a harbinger of doom that even Garnaut didn’t account for:
What is the worst part about global warming? The missing arctic ice? Double Bay mansions under water? Endless stupid ads for vegetarianism interrupting the cycling?
No, it’s MOWING THE BLOODY LAWN IN JULY!
It’s JULY and the damn grass is still growing. In New England! Get the hell out of your cars and switch off three of your four televisions you selfish buggers, I HATE mowing the lawn.
Dave R,
This winter in Armidale has been hot, and I meran hot. I’ve only just started to put my heater on regulaely and its supposed to be really cold down this end of town.I reckon this is the hottest winter I’ve experienced in nearly 30 years in Armidale.
But, to the weekend:
Quier Saturday, on the net, reading Letters of John ad Abigail Adams. RV, Sat night, love Wild at heart despite all the melodrama. The Bill. Then fir some odd reason subjected myself to rhat dreadful fascist movie, Starship Troopers.
Sunday, Reading Adams Letters, watched Insiders, on Net. Taking notes from various primary sources I’d typed into my computer ages ago. Sunday night, Dr. Who - better than last week, but not really inspiring. News from the London Times suggests it gets better and that some time Rose (Billy Piper) will be back. Some confusion as to whether there will be a real doctor.
Watched Valentine’s Day. Enjoyed it, surprisingly, given my abhorrence of the cult of violence enshrined in football in this country by a whole pack of media morons. Ro bed.
They’re called “shy shorts” David, and conceal padding essentially equivalent to bike pants.
carbonsink: I did have a pretty good time in SF, once I made it into the city. Real food, urban culture, and cheap shopping with the combination of the currency and the US recession. Hays Valley feels a little bit like Richmond, Height-Ashbury is Brunswick Street writ large (though a bit touristy), and Mill Valley is roughly like Healesville or Daylesford.
I didn’t quite get to Muir Woods, the route I took to Mount Tam didn’t take me that way. Had a look at Old Mill Park though.
“I didn’t quite get to Muir Woods”
I don’t recommend making that mistake again if you get the chance. Tis quite stunning, especially if you luck out and go when the steelhead salmon are spawning.
Robert, if you do get to Yosemite and wish to do some climbing i can recommend Snake Dyke up Half Dome. a couple of straightforeward balancy granite pitchs, all well bolted, leads to a fantastic dyke that provides bucket loads of hand and foot holds, you can basically free climbthe last 2-3 hundred meters of the climb up half dome. one of the best climbs i’ve done for combining exposure and safety.
should i point out that the bike is supposed to be supporting you, not the other way around.
What FDB said.
Muir Woods also has a couple of interesting historical associations - the first time legislation was used to “preserve a living species” - Teddy Roosevelt acted in 1906 to protect the Coast Redwood Tree:
http://www.nps.gov/muwo/planyourvisit/muir-woods-centennial.htm
Then in 1945, delegates to the founding conference of the UN met to unveil a plaque commemorating FDR in Cathedral Grove.
Robert Merkel, I know what’s wrong with the picture.
Your bike is infected with Shimano judging by the levers. Campagnolo or walk, it’s one or the other
David: tell me about it. I managed to get the chain off the small front ring; took me 15 minutes, and the bike tool, to put it back on again.
But otherwise the bike was fantastic, even if I still couldn’t keep up with the fast brigade flying up the hill.
Thanks for the tip on Muir Woods. I did see some very tall trees on the ride, but perhaps not the world’s tallest.
No detour to Yosemite this time, I’m afraid. In any case - and to give away what’s wrong with the picture - I generally like climbing things on a bike, not walking or hauling myself up. Unfortunately, the hire place didn’t give me a bike lock, and there’s a rocky walking trail for the last 400 metres to the summit of Mount Tam. Hence I had to carry the bike up to the summit
With all the talk about Muir Woods… if nothing else, this would be a great time to re-read (or, to just plain read if you haven’t already, ye bloody illiterates
the works of John Muir, crazy-kat Scot and naturalist extraordinaire. There’s a fine “Collected” edition available thru the Library of America. Also, while you’re in that neck of the woods, if you read Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums you’ll get a good sense of some of the things he and Snyder are talking about.
RM, while you’re up there, you should try and have a look at the Sierras and Tahoe if you can do it. Actually, scratch that. Come back to the Sierras in winter time, to ski. ! !!! !!!!!