Three days out

April 23, 2018

With only three days until departure, it’s time to make some of the truly hard packing decisions - like which bicycle shirts to take? I love my Rodriguez bicycle, but it’s storage-bound in a few days; so if it’s not going, I guess my Rodriguez jersey will stay home too. I’ll take them both to Canada this summer though.

Learning a new skill, I execute the rarely attempted triple-selfie for the first time. And no, that’s not a skin cancer on my nose - I somehow impaled myself with my thumbnail last night.

Today is beautiful again, but the day is chopped up by errands - starting with a trip to the condo to meet the furnace maintenance guy this morning who’s coming by to perform routine maintenance. This is the last work needed on the unit before the sale goes through, so I don’t begrudge the interruption. Rachael leaves for a ride out to the river, and I have plans to bike down to the unit that are unexpectedly thwarted by a text message - the maintenance man is just leaving for our unit, about a half hour earlier than expected. With too little time to bike, I hurriedly hop in the Jetta and arrive about five minutes before he does. Phew!

As long as I have to be over here anyway, I indulge myself in what may be my last look around our old home. I haven’t let myself dwell on it too much over the past few months, but I really am going to miss this place. It’s been a great spot to live for the past sixteen years.

It’s time for someone else to enjoy this.

The view south is completely changed from when we first moved in. Those trees were new when the building went up in 1998, and they barely cleared the window when we moved in four years later.

Spring is really the best season to be here. It’s only been in the past two or three years that the shrubs across the street were mature enough to blossom.

The furnace man wrapped up about 11. I have a date at 1:30 to meet Rachael for lunch down at the waterfront so I’ve got a bit of time to myself. I head down the street to REI for some last minute provisioning, and then drive back to Amy’s, pick up the bike, and head back to town. I hook up with Rachael and we enjoy a lovely lunch, dining outside by the marina.

They’re making great progress on the Ross Island Bridge renovation project. I look forward to seeing it completely repainted someday.

It’s been a good month for construction action shots.

After lunch we have a pair of errands to attend to together. First, we bike up to our new bike storage unit. I want to confirm that both bikes will fit inside comfortably so we don’t have any last minute surprises when we prepare to leave town. Then, we swing by the symphony office. We have a concert on the calendar for tonight, but I can’t find our tickets. I want to confirm that we have seats and to pick up replacements so that we don’t drive into town unnecessarily later and discover our calendar was just wrong.

Both errands have a good outcome - the bikes fit, and we have tickets. After that we bike together down to the waterfront and then go our separate ways again. Rachael has put in her 40+ miles for the day and is ready to head home and relax. I have one more errand though - to bike out to Keiser to pick up my new eyeglasses, which happily have arrived a day early.

Plenty of room for both bikes in the storage unit. In a pinch we could even shelter ourselves in there too.

I can’t believe we’ve never ridden this stretch of Stark Street before. Great fun - a ten block long ribbon of green leading us all the way to the river.

It’s such a beautiful day today that even an errand run like this is a delight. There is a modest climb up Interstate Avenue to Keiser, but I get a bit of a workout from it when some young biker latches onto my wheel at the bottom of the hill. It’s a busy, fairly narrow street and not a good place to pass, so I decide to keep a good pace and try to stay ahead of him. Toward the crest I’m starting to feel it, and am hoping to hold on until my turnoff. He’s feeling it more though, and I’m happy to see I’ve dropped him.

As it turns out, he’s going to Keiser also. We park our bikes at the same rack, walk into the hospital together, and have a nice chat. He looks pretty fit and about half my age, so I part with a good feeling about my condition - not too bad for such an old fart!

I take my time on the way back home, stopping here and there to enjoy the scene. It feels like summer this afternoon.

Later, in the evening, we drive to town, park the car at the condo for nearly the last time, and walk to the symphony. Halfway there I realize I don’t have the tickets we went out of our way to pick up just a few hours earlier (I left them in my pannier, I discovered later). This must be a new personal record - getting replacements for lost tickets to the same event twice in the same day.

Awesome concert though, highlighted by the stirring Saint-Saens organ concerto. It was well worth the embarrassment.

I love this elm in Overlook Park. It’s so evenly sculpted - almost like topiary art. One of my favorite trees in the city.

Another wonderful, sprawling tree in Overlook Park. Amazing that those long extended branches don’t just snap off.

I’ve never noticed this fence art next to the streetcar stop before. I don’t know if it’s new or if the afternoon sunlight on it was just right for catching my attention.

It is especially striking on the east side, with the pattern shining through the fence and across the sidewalk.

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Kathleen ClassenDo let us know when you are in Canada. We have been following you since CGOAB. I think I remember you are going to the Rockies...a pretty amazing journey, but if you pass through western British Columbia on the way home we have a place for you to stay. We are in Victoria, which is a pretty, pretty spot. Keith and I are headed back to Europe on the bikes this fall and looking forward to it. Not sure yet where or if we will blog. We are just home from nine weeks in Australia (no bikes). Our youngest son has fallen hard for a girl with an Australian accent. Life sure has some curve balls, doesn’t it.
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6 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Kathleen ClassenHi, Kathleen. Thanks for following along! I’m embarrassed to say that I wasn’t familiar with you and Keith before now, until I looked you up on CGOAB last night. What an awful accident you had last year, and how impressive that you’re back in the saddle again so soon. If we’re ever in the same place at the same time, you, Dodie and Rocky should compare notes on your mishaps.

How kind of you to propose to meet up and offer to host us. You’re right, Victoria is wonderful cycling country. We’ve been up that way a few times, but it’s been far too long. We’d love to get together sometime, but it won’t be this summer. We’re going to Canada for a month, but it’s all in the interior; and we’ve scheduled ourselves too tight to have room for a detour to the coast. One of these years, for sure.

What about yourselves? Is there
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6 years ago