datlas 

Ok Dan gets KOM. I think I have had it often enough, I am willing to share. I only climbed 12k feet this weeks. Slacker.

mschwett 

so jealous!! fighting a vicious head cold / infection over here, it was getting near peak and I had to take a day trip to Seattle, which totally ruined my left ear. off the bike for 5 days, did two quick neighborhood circuits today at 3/4 output for a grand total of 19 miles. miserable few days… and it’s not COVID.

the worst was yesterday, waking up to blue skies, almost no wind, perfect temps for a big ride (had a century planned) and being unable to do anything but lie in bed and look at it out the window.

datlas 

Moving does suck. Mrs datlas and I moved six times in 10 years and we hated it. We have been in our current place for 21 years and although we may move eventually, at this point we are staying put.

genejockey 

Oh, geez, dude! That IS terrible! The late afternoons have been delightfully free of the usual howling headwinds the last month or so.

Reminds me of a few years back. I forget which year, but it was one of the smoky ones. My birthday's in November and I was building up to "Ride Your Age". Had the route all planned out. Told my boss I was gonna take the day off, and why, and he said, "Great!"

Then, a week before my birthday, the fires started. Air was bad every day, until Thanksgiving, and then it rained for two weeks. So, now I Ride My Age some time in October and consider it done.

big john

My ex and I left our house in the mountains and found a nice rental in the lowlands. Then the housing market recovered from the low point it was at and people started selling their rentals, including our landlord. We'd go look at a rental and there would be 40-50 people there trying to get it. All we could do was get on a list.

She found a huge apartment complex which had plenty of units available, so we figured we could go there if we couldn't find a house. At the last minute, that's what we did, except they only had one unit left. It was, of course, the unit from hell. Upstairs facing a busy road, traffic noise was a constant, truck jake brakes would wake us up. Our 2 assigned parking space were in a tandem garage so we had to switch cars around every day and out third car was parked blocks away.

Worst of all, the neighbor below us was a chain smoker and the smoke came into out unit through the door or window and I swear even the vent in the bathroom.

After we were there for a couple weeks we found an ad for the house in the canyon where I ended up for the next 16 years. I called the number on the ad and it was a friend from my teen years and he remembered me and we got the house ahead of 40+ others. Of course we had to move in right away and we had paid first and last at the apartment. They said they might refund part of that if it wasn't their worst unit, so we were stuck.

So we moved twice in 3 weeks, paid a couple guys to help twice, rented trucks, rented storage when we went to the apartment, and paid 5 weeks rent on the apartment while we didn't live there.

edit: I wrote 2008 but the housing low point was in the late 90s.

MoAlpha

Good news from Brazil!

indyfabz

Consider yourself lucky in a way. I tested positive on Thursday night and Friday morning. It’s has been a great weather weekend, and except for tomorrow, the rest of the week is supposed to be great, with some days 70+ degrees.

There was a block party with a live band right around the corner from me this evening. Had to skip it.

BillyD

The key is to travel light, don’t accumulate a lot of stuff. I’m going to be spending a lot of time getting rid of stuff.

phrantic09

Did you move into Albany proper or one of the burbs?

phrantic09

No podium for me last week. Really struggling with the kids new schedule for mornings. It’s essentially 3 hours of getting them ready for school. One gets on the bus at 7, the other at 8:30.

Also had my daughters last softball tournament of the season this weekend. 6 total games for about 16 hours total at the fields. They took the trophy again with 84 total runs scored and only allowed 8.

datlas 

What's your bike frame size again??

seedsbelize2

Wordle 499 4/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
It's a new morning

BillyD

Found a really sweet 1,700 sqft, move in ready colonial right in the city of Albany, recently updated including hardwood floors, all the windows, the upstairs bath, insulated attic and finished basement. Two car garage and a brand new shed. It’s like they had plans to stay put forever but then suddenly changed their mind and moved. Very quiet neighborhood with friendly neighbors. We started out hunting the burbs but when we found this it was too good to pass up.

phrantic09

nice, you should be able to hit both the Mohawk-Hudson and Helderberg trails nearby- both are pretty flat.

If you cross the Hudson it gets pretty hilly pretty quickly

genejockey 

One thing I'm finding from hours spent on Redfin is that there are two kinds of remodel - remodel to LIVE and remodel to SELL. Since we're looking in places with a lot of houses > 100 years old, the difference is important.

Dan333SP

Back from Mallorca, had no idea y'all are still looking at that Strava group but happy to take the first and only KOM of my life. I'm not built for going uphill, but man there are a lot of uphills where I was staying. We were in Soller, which is nestled in a valley in the middle of the Serra de Tramuntana, and there are basically 3 roads that get you out of town. All 3 were 6+ mile climbs with 2k+ elevation gain, so I spent a lot of time in the lowest gear on that bike slogging away. No coincidence I had almost 10 hours riding last week but did less mileage than when I rode 6.5 hours a couple weeks before in mostly flat Richmond.

Anyway, if you haven't been, Mallorca is absolutely worth the hype as a cycling destination. It's probably the most beautiful place with the best climate I've ever visited, the roads are absolutely unbelievably good, you can do a ton of other activities beyond cycling (SUP, hiking, kayaking, laying on a beach ripping Estrellas, whatever), the food is stellar, exchange rate is currently favorable, airbnbs are plentiful and cheap, etc etc etc. Cannot recommend going there highly enough. There are also bike shops with rental road bikes on just about every block in every town on that island, and thousands upon thousands of riders on the roads, especially the utterly stunning Ma-10 from Pollenca to Sa Calobra. I think my new ambition is to be able to budget enough to go back there every year, it's pretty much heaven.

datlas 

Kudos. We are planning to go there in April and I have signed up for the 312. Apparently they close the route to automobiles for it.

Plus, my friend with the fancy cars has a house there. It's good to have friends!

Dan333SP

Some pics for tax-

Dan333SP

Enjoy!! If you want a fancy dinner with the mrs, check out either of the restaurants at La Residencia in Deia, it's a very fancy hotel but the road into town is my favorite on the planet and the service and food are outrageously good.

datlas 

Apparently AT&T cellular service is down in our area. My staff are all stressed out as they have been unable to check social media etc. on their lunch break.

First world problems.

bampilot06

Received an email from garmin last week that they received my pedals, and that my new ones would be shipped shortly. Was unrealistically hoping they would be at my home when I got home this morning.
Nope.
Checked the status and it shows they have not received my pedals. I called them, and they received the pedals last week, but it will take them this whole week to process them and expect the new ones to be shipped sometime next week. WTF. This process is going to take close to a month. Seems a little ridiculous to me.

I am happy they are replacing them, but your product has known issues, seems like you could be a little bit faster.

end of rant.

phrantic09

I usually just put up the money up front and have them ship immediately. They refund it once the replaced item is received.

genejockey 

Weird thing happened on my ride yesterday - well, a couple weird things. One was when I was riding along a back road - enough of a back road that people walk in the traffic lane with no fear of being run over but wide enough to have a double yellow line. Two women were walking on the other side of the road, going the same direction I was. As I roll up on them, I can hear a car coming some distance behind me. Apparently they did to, because they start moving over to my side WITHOUT LOOKING! I managed to stop, but one of them said, "I didn't hear you coming, but I heard a car" So, why, if you heard a car coming up behind you, IN THE OTHER LANE, would you cross INTO THAT LANE, WITHOUT LOOKING? Especially because there's even less shoulder on that side? Weird.

The other thing was that at bout 14 miles into the ride, my HR reading starts blanking out. Then it comes back and it's stuck at 133. Then it goes away again. It did that for a few miles before giving up completely. "It's the battery, dumbass!" I hear you thinking. But at about 28 miles, it starts working again, and continued working for the remaining 33 miles without a hitch. Worked fine for 14 miles, stopped working for 14 miles, worked fine for 33 more miles. Riddle me that, Batman!

bampilot06

I didn’t know that was a thing

Dan333SP

Maybe some water ingress thing? My Wahoo Elemnt has a little spot under one of the buttons where heavy rain can get into the unit, and the screen goes completely wonky and is unreadable, but after a few days sitting in the sun/bag full of rice it's now been resurrected 3 times and works perfectly. Maybe I'll just learn my lesson and never ride in the rain again.