New Lens

I got a new lens a short while ago called a lensbaby. It looks like an old-fashioned bellows camera got stuck the front of my digital camera. You focus it by manually pushing the lens in and out. It has a sweet spot that you can push left, right, up and down, so only a small part of the picture is actually in focus. The rest as you can see gets wildly distorted.

I wanted to practice taking pictures with it, so I drug Nick down to the Marina in Kirkland. He brought the Minolta with him, but the last remaining bit of plastic that helps hold the film on when you wind it broke off. Back to the camera shop with it.

The kids above are playing on a statue of kids playing. Kind of fun. Kind of ironic.

The motorcycles at the very top were parked near our car. Every single one of them had a ticket. I don’t think they paid for parking. Ooops!

Mistakes

“Always make new mistakes.”

-Esther Dyson

Big Ride Slideshow

I finally compiled my pictures from the Big Ride Pacific Coast that Nick and I did last fall. Rather than post hundreds of pictures in a list, I put them in a slideshow to music. (Now that they are all together, I think it was worth the wait.)

Most of the pictures were taken by me, Nick, and Tim Byer. A few from Dave and Karen Derrig snuck in there too.

I’d recommend watching the small one if you’re on dial-up. The medium and large sized shows seem to play pretty well if you have high-speed access.

Family Dinner

The whole family got together this last weekend to celebrate at Perche’No, an Italian restaurant at the base of Queen Anne. We were celebrating Nick’s new job at Accenture, my new job at Cascade Bicycle Club, Sarah’s birthday, Brian’s video game launch and my parents safe return from Maui. (Whew!)

One of the owners came by to snap a picture of the birthday girl and took a pretty nice one of the whole family (above).

Chilly Hilly

I am here today to officially put to rest the burning question all of you non-Seattlites might have about Chilly Hilly - Seattle’s annual February cycling event. “Is it really chilly and hilly?”

The answer, we discovered today, is unequivocably yes!

The forecast was for sunshine, but all we saw when we woke up this morning at 6 a.m. was dense, cool fog. It didn’t lift as we drove to Seattle. In fact, it might have gotten thicker. No matter; we were registered, and we intended to ride.

Marilyn, Nick and I had decided to take the 8:45 ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge. Little did we know that over 1,000 other riders decided that they were going to take this ferry as well. (We think there were 5,300 riders overall.)

I was surprised to see that a few cars made it on, given how many cyclists there were. Of course, any driver that tried to leave their car and go upstairs would be hard pressed to find a seat.

Marilyn was entirely responsible for our good moods as we rode across the sound. I had a chest cold and wasn’t feeling very energetic, and Nick was overwhelmed by the crowds. We were looking forward to a cup of warm coffee in Winslow, which put a smile on our faces long enough for the requisite group shot. Aren’t we cute?

It’s hard to describe the total experience. The sheer number of people on this ride mind-boggling. Going into this, the largest ride I’d ever been on had 43 people and we were often spread out over 75+ mile routes. Chilly Hilly on the other hand regularly attracts 4,000+ people for a ride on a relatively short 33-mile loop around Bainbridge Island.

Normal road riding ettiquette goes completely out the window as you try to unobtrusively thread your way in and out of groups that have spread themselves across the right hand side of the road. If you aren’t careful, riders who don’t know that they should look behind them before darting out behind another rider might hit you. Yellow lines become suggestions, downhill sections become high-speed slaloms, and you wonder at how lucky we are that someone doesn’t get seriously injured.

All the negatives aside, this is actually quite a remarkable experience. For all the traffic headaches the cyclists must cause the locals, they come out in droves to support us. Not a mile went by without someone offering you juice, brownies, orange slices or some other nicety. Not a single car honked or showed any sign of irritation. And every rider had a smile on their face (at least when they were going downhill anyway). Simply amazing.

Although we didn’t entirely expect it, the sun finally did come out about halfway through the ride. Nick stopped to admire the view as he waited for Marilyn and me to catch up.

I really can’t think of a more interesting way to spend a Sunday in February. Riding bikes with friends is just awesome.