So, I’m off to “The Great White Way”: Broadway, New York City.

As you may already know, Dale accepted CUNY’s admission to the PhD program in English. The first day of classes will be our wedding anniversary: August 26.

“Gee, if only we could get some kind of sign that this is the right thing to do!”

Ya think?! We are so psyched! Dale has been fighting with ETS and applying to programs for at least five years and she is finally accepted into the best fitting program with the greatest breadth, depth, and engaging faculty to which she ever applied.

“Oh wonderful!! Oh No!!”

We’ve lived in the same place for over thirty years and we will move over 3,000 miles. I’ll find a job, we’ll find a place to live and garage the Love Van, move a library, piano, five bicycles, four surfboards, a serious tool box, and then some in six months.

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

Stay tuned! This should be an interesting adventure and hopefully, I will continue to bicycle a bit.

Vertical Feet of Climbing

This past Thursday's night ride went very well. Went hard. No pictures, no video, no extra water bottle. I really felt "on" and pushed fairly hard. Sure, that is a relative term nowadays, and I'm not sure I can use the word "hammer" anymore, but for now I went hard and fast for me. Same 30 miles that I have been riding lately.

Saturday, I caught the warmest part of the day, maybe close to 65 degrees. Sun shining, birds singing. I rode the same 30 to start, then rather than descending Spruce St. coming out of Tilden Park, I turned left on Grizzly Peak to add another 5 miles and few hundred feet of climbing.



Which brings us to the recurring discussion of route elevation.
KLIMB shows 2,900 feet of vertical climbing.
Mapmyride http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/28209968 shows 2,650 and my barometric pressure altimeter watch shows 3,200.

Fundamentally, I think the differences arrive from the number of measurements. My watch takes a reading every 20 seconds, the other systems I cannot say for sure but are using elevation recordings for the area. I have been in many discussions about which is correct and I have to come down on the side of whichever you want. Rather than comparing varying elevation gains across different systems, I use one system or the other and compare different routes to determine hilly, from very hilly. Then I just round up a few thousand feet and swagger around the juice bar bragging about my greatness.
http://contour.com/stories/descending-pinehurst-road-into-canyon-ca
http://contour.com/stories/claremont-2-12-11

Tuesday Night February 1

I rode a terrific 30 last night: Wildcat Canyon > Pinehurst 30 miles. It was a clear, calm night and the roads were mine. Sure, the problem exists that anybody else on the roads thinks the same thing: the road is mine and nobody else is on it. I've come across a runner in the middle of the road with not even the slightest bit of reflective wear. But last night was just terrific.

I mounted my second headlight low on my front forks hopefully to see better when I next run into fog. I stopped at Inspiration Point to bundle up before descending into Orinda and took these photos of my bike, trying to show the headlights.