post-ragbrai

other photos on flickr. what a difficult experience to describe to someone who's never been on ragbrai, but i liked the description of a traveling city/county fair/woodstock/tour de france that someone came up with. a few happy surprises included the weather (not quite as ultra-hot and humid as i thought, no severe weather except for some rain thursday night....note to self: borrowed tents run the risk of not being waterproof) and my adequate physical condition (i did not end up in excruciating physical pain like i thought i would). here are some other random thoughts for the week.

1. i'm so glad i put off buying a bike. during the course of the week i got to try out four different bikes and now i'm converted to a carbon frame fan.

2. i didn't realize that the production of ethanol was such an area of controversy among iowans. our route took us past an ethanol plant one day (and unrelated, also past a monsanto facility with many testing fields). so...i don't really get the view that genetically modified/pesticide/herbicide/mass produced corn is ok but growing corn for non-food use is not. can't sacrifice any of that raw material that could be going towards high fructose corn syrup or some other essential "food" product, i guess.

3. i still hate bud light and all similar products.

4. it's nice to know that the tiny farm town is still out there somewhere. hopefully they aren't all secretly controlled by giant corporate farming.

5. my appreciation for a good pie has been restored. what an art form. my future plans include the purchase of a rolling pin. and that other tool...a pastry cutter? i don't remember what it's called.

6. bottled beverages are so wasteful. and iowa is *slightly* behind the recycling curve.

7. life is just fine without mirrors. but i do have extra appreciation for private showers and flush toilets.

8. how great that these towns still put their lives on hold and welcome thousands of crazy bikers with open arms, even though it totally disrupts everything and probably leaves them with a huge mess to clean up when we all leave.

9. vacationing with your dad is fun.

10. i really am a west coast snob (see 2, 4, 6).

i need to quit screwing around on the internet, but i can't. i must drop in on friends and eat chips and salsa. i love it that everyone has their own little space where you can check in on them and that they can say whatever the hell they want and keep everyone up to date. aw, i feel all warm and fuzzy.

so tomorrow is a planned packing frenzy. i have to get all my last minute stuff for iowa. i have to disassemble my bike and pack it neatly and safely into a box. i have to remember all the things i'm going to forget to pack. i have to alter a bike jersey if i get around to it. i have to make sure my laundry is done. i have to go on one more last minute bike ride (on a borrowed bike). i have to end it all with a pleasant dinner with friends (well that one i don't have to do, i just want to).

then i'm off friday morning.

r.i.p lady bird

oh i forgot a few things.
1. that giant pile of mulch is still in my driveway.
2. i never drank the jelly soda. i decided i'm never buying random food produced in china again when i realized what horrible food regulations there are.
3. my carbon score is 243.
4. i'm actually trying to learn how to play the carnival-prize pink guitar.
5. i think my ipod died for good this weekend.

let me just start by saying i'm thinking about giving up on the blog. my last post before this one was may 14 so that says something. well, maybe i'll give it one last try.

topic 1: working the 4th of july
so here's my horrible 4th of july story. this dog came in around 11 p.m. because he was "very anxious from the fireworks and breathing heavily." the dog is actually very dyspneic and his temperature is 109 on presentation. as i get the whole story from the owners, it turns out the neighbors were shooting off "illegal fireworks" and it freaked the dogs out. so they put them in their horse trailor to get them away from the noise and calm them down (??). i think they were in there for an hour or two. so the dog overheats to say the least. i had a long talk with the owners about all the horrible complications of a 109 temp, especially DIC (some say this acronym stands for "death is coming"). here is a little summary of what it actually is. not unexpectedly, by the next morning the dog definitely showed signs of it. but the owners took him home to "see if he would perk up there" for financial reasons. geez.

topic 2: the bike search
i've been doing some bicycle shopping because it's about time to retire the old bridgestone. partially due to some encouragement from dad, i decided to try and get a new one before ragbrai so i could ride it then. however i am pretty indecisive and i've also waited until the absolute last minute so it's not quite going as smoothly as planned. after much back and forth, i thought i had finally made a decision and decided to take the plunge and order one yesterday. so i talked with my local bike shop (again) and found out that the company didn't have any frames in my size right now. the bike i'm considering is a surly cross check. no wait, use this link instead because it has a picture of a freaky guy on the bike. it's not quite a road bike, but i think will fit all my needs better in the long run. but ANYWAY, i think i may have resigned to the idea of giving the old bridgestone one more moment of glory in iowa. i don't want to make some rash decision just because i'm running out of time.

topic 3: ragbrai
something like 3 weeks away? i don't know if i'm really training as much as i need to, but i'm assuming it will work out just fine assuming i don't collapse from the crazy midwest humidity (i can't really add that part into my training). i've been going on rides out in the country east of portland and it's gorgeous. but hilly. but gorgeous. oregon is awesome in the summer. today i went on a leisurely ride out to sauvie island with mary. it's a big island where the wilamette river meets the columbia river and it has a large wildlife refuge, a beach, and several small farms. very nice. we took a mid-ride break and went down to the beach. the sand was much, much hotter than we expected and we had to sprint down to the water because our feet were on fire. when we got down there, we realized we should have sprinted the other way back to our shoes. we stood in the water for a very long time debating what to do (take off our shirts and tie them on our feet? no really, we considered it). we finally borrowed someone's sandals to walk up and get our shoes. i thought my feet were going to have serious burns but they're just a little sore now.