Dirty Dozen race, art as bike racks and a never-asked question

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust recently added 11 new art bike racks Downtown, this makes a total of 16 racks after last year's installations.

We drove (not my favored mode of transportation these days, but I'm in no condition to ride a bike) to the Strip and walked into town for my "get dressed and out of the apartment for some fresh air, exercise" enrichment program.

Another part of my enrichment program was to drive to 3 of the hills along the Dirty Dozen race route and cheering on the riders. We'd forgotten our cowbells, so we had to yell and strain our vocal cords. We started at Rialto (AKA Pig Hill) and then raced over to Sycamore (keeping ahead of the pack in a car is actually difficult!) and then over to the South Hills to Canton to see the steepest hill in the world*

(*debate surrounds whether Canton holds this title, interestingly, Guinness claims Baldwin St in New Zealand as the World's Steepest. Canton is officially measured to be a 37% grade.  However, that angle of 37% only extends about 22 feet, whereas Baldwin Street's steepest part (a 35% grade) stretches 230 feet.)

These folks played inspirational tunes on their horns like "Eye of the Tiger" and "Gonna Fly Now"

Stef, sweeping

Canton Ave in Beechview, World's Steepest Street

I'm off to the right in this Bicycling Magazine photo of the youngest (and happiest) rider

The smiles, I love the smiles!

After a long day of driving to the hills (hey, it's tiring work getting in and out of the car multiple times!) we needed food and we settled on tacos in Brookline. The chef gave us a hearty warning about the 'super-hot' sauce that Marko took a small amount of and was careful to keep it separate and in a small container well away from his tacos. Wow, that stuff must be insanely hot on a dangerous level, right? Both Marko and the chef gave me wide-eyed looks when I was able to eat a taco with large amounts of this sauce with little issue. Taste buds are funny.

The 'killer' sauce in question is the red stuff on the bottom right.

Oncology visit:

I'd had my initial visit with my oncologist and we found an issue of Bicycle Times in the treatment room as well as bike-themed artwork in the waiting room. Nice.
Being curious if chemotherapy treatments would impact my cycling, I asked my oncologist if I'd be able to ride my bike back and forth to infusions and such. He laughed and told me that in all his 25 years of practice, he'd never been asked that question.
He didn't recommend riding anywhere after a treatment, but noted that the drug I'll be using was developed in Norway and that he was certain that Norwegian women rode a bike right after treatment. So, there's that.
I'll have the next 6 months of my life devoted to regular trips to an infusion center. Joy.

Kids have all the cool stuff!

At a local Target, we found these cool droid bike helmets and Darth Vader reflective vest for kids.
Jealous.

WANT.

A good friend in Canada mailed to me these awesome linen kitchen towels. Fish on a bicycle. So much awesome.