Yielding to Hula-Hoopers

Rode out to REI on Saturday, a gorgeous day in the high 30's and picked up a sorely need pair of glove liners. I was not letting cold fingers deter me from riding again. I also 'found' a pair of boots that hubby bought for me many Christmases ago and I let sit virtually unused in my closet since. It turns out they are incredibly warm, dry and suitable for riding. No toe warmers needed with these boots, even in single digit temps!

I'm noticing graffiti on ped-xing signs around the city. Pedestrians with wings and hula-hooping ones too. I'll have to look closely for more. DB also told me about the mysterious 'Protractors' all about the city during our conversation the other day. I noticed one on the Hot Metal Bridge today. I may have to start snapping shots of those too.



Stopped in Point State Park, just because.

When I got back home, this was waiting for me:

Thanks, Mary!



2014 YTD Miles: 43.5
BMI: 25.3

"Metal? ICK! Ahhh" and CLINT HURDLE!

I had some maintenance I needed to do, there was a horrid cringe-inducing metal-on-metal scraping noise whenever I tried to use my rear brakes. Off to the interwebs to learn how to fix this issue. I find YouTube invaluable for this stuff: things I've never done before. I was able to learn from such videos the finesse required to remove and reattach a chain link with a breaker tool and changing the flapper valves in our toilets.

I spent a good week or so using only my front brakes but decided this was the day I needed to carve out a few minutes of my lunch hour to take the brakepads off and clean them. My hands got all icky and black from working in there.

Both rear breakpads had metal shards embedded in them.

 Ruby sounds soooo much better. I let out an audible "ahhhhh." when I re-installed the brakepads and tested them. I still have an annoying rubbing noise though.

My Dad would be proud.

A Brush with Greatness

Friday was frigid an snowy, schools and our office closed shop, but not before myself and another employee were already there and working. The two of us decided to stay and tough it out.

On my lunch hour, I went out into 11 degree temps, the trails were treacherous again so I used the salted and plowed roads. I got to PNC Park and my fingers were in a lot of pain, I was frustrated that I hadn't gotten very far before deciding to turn back.

Then I noticed Clint Hurdle walking up to the Pirates Office doors.  
Oh. Mah. Gawd.
I called out a "Good Morning, Sir!" to him and waved as I rode by. (DOH, it was early afternoon!!)
He called back, "How ya doin'? Love the helmet! Atta girl!"
Clearly, the "Atta girl!" was because he was in complete awe of my bad-assery.
I'm actually surprised he could tell I was a female under all those layers, gloves, gaiter, eye-protection, etc...


Oh, and I had the camera rolling too!





Go ahead and berate me for riding on the sidewalk. I'm naughty, I know.

Soupaneuring 6

 

When I got back to my desk, I enjoyed some homemade beet soup with yogurt. Not bad.

 I almost forgot to document it being so excited by the Clint Hurdle exchange!

2014 YTD Miles: 31.5
BMI: 25.3 

Icycle Bicycle 2014 and a spectacular Hades tile.

25 miles total in the cold, a very good day. I bumped into DB (whose wife is the former owner of Ruby) at the Casino and we made good conversation along the way to the South Side for the Icycle Bicycle ride.

On my way back into town, I thought I would do the grid ride in search of any remaining tiles. I found these two. 

Allies and Smithfield

 Boy, did this one ever cheer me up from a gloomy mood. Wow, look at the detail! Both of today's finds mention Toynbee Idea!

A spectacular find at Allies and Cherry, aptly placed right across from the Art Institute.

I think I found the best one last, I rode over nearly every asphalt street in the Golden Triangle and made no further discoveries. There are NINE new Hades/Toynbee tiles and a Stikman that I know of.
*sigh* what am I going to look for now?



I went back to the Allies and Market tile and got closeups of the text with the good camera, had Photoshop Panorama them together and adjusted the contrast in the hopes that I'd be able to read it. My eyes hurt now.

I have the documentary on the Toynbee tiles lined up in my Netflix queue.

 I couldn't resist getting this shot.

Goodbye, antlers. Maybe I should add Viking horns or a propeller?

2014 YTD Miles: 25 (this is the one and only day of the year that I'll be ahead of Vannevar in miles logged!)
BMI: 25.3

Hill climbing to Soupaneuring 5.5

Hubby and I made a compromise today. He wanted to drag me all over the city (in a car), go shopping, have lunch, do some more shopping... *YAWN*
I can't lament these things to other women, they give me an evil look and tell me how lucky I am to have a husband who wants to take me out to eat and shopping. They then tell me how awful it is to have a spouse who lies on the couch, drinking beer, passing gas and watching football and refuses to go anywhere with them. OK, that does sound like it sucks, but I'd rather ride my bike than drive to all these places.
The compromise was that I would ride my bike there, hubby would meet me there in the car. We'd shop separately. He was happy, I was happy. This was a good way to start the new year: happy.

I actually bumped into him at Marty's Market on my way through the Strip and said a brief hello before I was on my way again.

I took this opportunity to take the new Bike Boulevard there. It was hilly, and I did a fair amount of heavy breathing, but it wasn't as bad as if I were riding the Monster. It didn't give me mental scars.

It was snow-squalling on my way up Gold Way and left a layer of snow on my bike while we ate. I got egg dosa and it comes with sambar... I got insanely sick the last time I had the sambar there. So, I gave my nuclear/toxic sambar to my lunchmate. Maybe this will count for #soupaneuring 5.5? Again, I'm bending and breaking rules! However, I'm riding my bike, soup is involved and I'm feeling very good about it. I'll be having a safe miso later tonight at our Eve dinner at the only Chinese restaurant I've found where the staff understands English very well and is very concerned about my MSG allergy. They go out of their way to make sure everything I get is MSG-free.

I had to get a shot of Immaculate Heart on my way through Polish Hill.

Stikman resides at Liberty, Garrison and 7th.

 On my way back through Downtown, I found a Stikman tile. These fall into the Toynbee/Hades guerrilla art category: a spectacular find as they're hard to distinguish from a random piece of paper on the street. It was about the size of a dollar bill. I'm surprised I even noticed it because traffic was VERY thick with the FirstNight street closures and I was paying close attention to the vehicles.

I was finally able to get Ruby back into the bike racks at our building, for the past week and a half they were blocked by copy machines and huge palates of recycling. I'm glad to see we have access to the bikes again. She had been parked in my office, next to my desk for the time being, which I liked to be honest. I parked Ruby and took the Monster and hooked her up to the rack to be taken back home and resigned to light Montour duty. Ruby was going to be my everyday bike from now on.

Here's Ruby, all reflective n'at.

The Monster came home with me and she managed to stay on the rack.

I bought beets in the Strip on my way back with intentions of making a beet soup, which I've never tried. A new soup! This will be a true #soupaneuring adventure.

2013 Miles: 623
BMI 25.5

Down with the Sickness

Monday brought a close encounter with a car on the trail.


Some Dead End and/or Authorized Vehicles Only signs are sorely needed there at the end of Kroll Drive, there must be GPS devices directing motorists to drive on the trail, I see MANY drivers lost on this portion of the trail. They normally yield to cyclists and ask me how to get where they want to go. This guy wasn't interested in hitting the brakes in order to avoid hitting me.

When we got home, this was waiting for me, all the way from Latvia:

 It's a red waterproof basket cover! I really could have used this yesterday.

The sickness.

I've discovered I have a sickness; I love riding in the cold. I love it more than an 80 degree day. On warm days, I sweat and it's evident. I'm hot and woozy. I get a headache. On a few occasions, on very hot days my nose bled. I get a disturbingly red face, but I think that's some Irish genetic thing. Irish folk get red in the face from many things: drinking, hard labor, the sun, politicking, embarrassment... sometimes the politicking and embarrassment go hand-in-hand.
The heat will keep me indoors, it seems the cold doesn't. Hubby was telling me that the temperature on an upcoming day would be in the single digits. I said "Yes!"
What the heck is wrong with me?

Dude, you just *don't* grab a woman's antlers.

I worked a few hours at the office before setting off with the intentions of doing some Hades Tiles searching. It was raining hard and was set to do so all day long. This was a great day to test out my new Cleverhood and Leggits. I ran into my supervisor's spouse and a friend of his who were tailgaiting in the parking lot before the Steeler's Game. They were sure the Leggits were boots until I told them otherwise.




I found one Hades Tile here at Boulevard of the Allies and Wood.

This guy doesn't like the media, I'm guessing.

 I quickly discovered that trying to find Hades tiles in the rain was a bust. Every time I'd get off the bike to shoot a tile, my saddle and hands would get wet, not to mention my phone. I preferred to do this with the good camera anyway. So, I abandoned my plans and decided to head to the Pump House and Kennywood. This was just beyond my 'furthest point reached' so far with my trip to the Waterfront on Christmas.

I stopped at REI for a bathroom break and to look at waterproof gloves. The mittens I had with me were drenched already. I found a pair of lobster gloves on sale and finally got a membership.

I'm not wearing pantaloons, honestly.

I made it to the pump house and decided to turn around. I was tiring of the sloggy soft trail and being wet and covered in limestone sludge. I was having a hard time drying my hands before putting them back into my new gloves. I was also hungry and thirsty.

Vannevar's hype about the oatmeal at Big Dog didn't go unnoticed and I headed there in hopes that I'd catch it before it was too late. 20 minutes too late. I got a latte and undoubtedly annoyed the staff by coming in considerably wet. I tipped like a madwoman to compensate.

The Steeler's game was letting out by the time I got back over by Point State Park. One particularly inebriated gentleman decided he'd try and grab my antlers as I rode by. He got pretty close with his lunge and may have knocked me off my bike if I wasn't lucky. Asshat.
I stayed on the streets to avoid more asshattery. As I rode through the crowds, many more drunk asshats hooted and screeched with vigor at my antlers. Thankfully, they were on the sidewalks and I was out of grabbing range.

The brigade of asshats approaches.

About to lunge at my antlers.

The pedicabs were the only other cyclists I saw today save one woman all geared up in spandex and cat-6-ing me on the EFT. You go girl. She didn't have ANY raingear on. I also saw one older gentleman in a recumbent near the Eagles' nest.


I collected hubby and we went to Nu for matzo ball soup. I avoid the broth. Hmm, we *drove* there. Maybe this can count for Soupaneuring 4.5? We also got latkes; I got an eggplant/beet-pickled egg pita thing that was fabulous. Hubby got a brisket on rye. The latkes were fan-freaking-tastic. The restaurant is really cramped though... and a tad pricey.

Hubby demolished one of the balls before I could get the phone out.

 The Cleverhood and leggits did very well. The spats are covered in tons of road grime now, but my feet were dry.

My hair didn't holdup very well though. The back of my neck was wet and my hair was a frizzy, moist tumbleweed. I must have let the hood drip water back there when I took the hood down at several points. I had to re-iron my hair to get the frizzy/wavy out.


A fun day. 23 miles, a new record.

YTD Miles: 607

BMI: 25.7

More Toynbee tile discoveries!

I went for a ride on my lunch hour today and was forced to take the roads because snow and ice still made the trails treacherous. I found 3 more Hades/Toynbee tiles at the corner of the Boulevard of the Allies and Market Streets.

Two, right next to one another!

I need to get better closeups of the text. I can't read that either.

This was right across the intersection, closer to Market Square. Those are pennies embedded in there.

Now, I'm fixated on finding all of the new Hades tiles. I'll have to grid-ride all of Downtown to accomplish this. It may be best to do this on a Sunday when there's less traffic. I found myself paying more attention to the ground and not enough to my surroundings.

Happy dance: I can use my raincape and leggits soon!