Ride 56: Back on the Blue Bike
Aug. 22nd, 2011 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
judifilksignI picked up my bike from the repair shop today. The guy who helped me was bemused that it was pre-paid, but grinned at how pleased I was to get my bike back. I heard him chuckle as I got on it on the sidewalk in front of the shop, and rode back to the parking lot behind it.
I picked up grade books from the teacher supply store. The catalogs only seem to carry grade books with room for four grading periods of nine weeks each, four quarters to a semester, for either six or eight classes. I require a grade book that has six week grading periods, three grading periods per semester, for eight classes. It took me a while to find what I needed, but thank goodness I was able to do so.
Now, the other teachers at my school use MicroSoft Excel as their grade books, and have even shared their set up database with me. I haven't used Exel, and it is counterintuitive. I'm going to try to double-book my grades, so that the hours-long ordeal of trying to accurately average by hand is reduced. My peers are bemused that I find Excel so hard, since word processing, and other computer programs aren't that difficult for me. I expect that if I just use the program instead of staring at it in bewilderment, I'll get better at it.
After supper, I took Irish to Open House to meet and greet his teachers. Sparkle's school did not have an Open House listed. Dino's high school actually picked him up at his bus stop last week and ran a Freshman Orientation Day. Since he had Accelerated Geometry at the high school last year, and has spent his summer at the high school's parking lot marching with the band, Dino is pretty confident that he'll manage all right.
As soon as I got home, I helmeted up, and saddled up, and rode on out. I discovered that my blue bike is heavier than the yellow bike I've been riding. It was much harder to get up hills, and I had to gear down quite a bit. Changing the gears, even after adjustment by the shop, is a bit difficult. But at least all eighteen gears work. I expect that having twenty one gears on the yellow bike meant that the gradients between medium and hard were less steep than they are on my own bike.
The bike has new tires on it, and the tires have these little rubber sniblets that wave like caterpillar legs as the wheels turn round. They make a raspberry sound as I ride, it is so funny! They even smell like new erasers on a pencil.
I saw my friend the sleepy road cat. She remained blissfully where she was, eyes mostly closed, ears following my progress. She lazily blinked as I passed her, totally unconcerned. I'm not sure I admire her sangfroid, or if instead I am appalled at her indifference to danger.
Riding into the golden light, I could see all the midges or mayflies playing in the sunbeams again. The sun has shifted from being just a bit to the right of the path, to nearly shining down straight along it, so it is hard to see any distance ahead of me.
There was a pigeon pecking away at the path, in an area devoid of everything. She saw me coming, and like Darzee's wife from "Rikki Tikki Tavi," she pretended her wing was broken, and peeped pitifully, dragging one wing as she fluttered and hopped away from me. I could almost parse her peeps as saying, "I broke my wing! The boy threw a stone at it!" I looked for a snake, but no cobras here, nor rat snakes either.
Since my bike was heavier, and it has been a week since my last ride, I only rode to the first road before turning around. (I did walk every day with my father and Sparkle while I visited my parents in Pennsylvania, so I wasn't a total lazy butt.) I saw a number of cyclists, most of them today a half generation older than me, pudgier than me, and for a change, slower than me. We all grinned at one another, pleased to be out on such a lovely evening. One cyclist had a really groovy recumbent bicycle, with a wide, comfortable seat. It had headlights, and a flashing red line of led lights along the back seat, and a jaunty orange flag upon which was drawn a charactature of the cyclist.
The pigeon pulled the same broken wing stunt on the way back. The dogs of the neighborhood still recognized me on a blue bike instead of a yellow bike. They didn't like the recumbent bicycle, not one bit, but as I pulled up behind him, they stopped fussing to lie back down.
When I went down the last long hill, I noticed the blue bike went further and faster than the yellow bike did without pedaling. More evidence that the blue bike is heavier.
The neighbor's dogs, as I pulled into our shared driveway, all bounded in circles around me barking joyfully and excitedly, wagging their tails and wiggling back and forth as they followed me down the drive to my garage. I was scared I was going to bump into one of them, but they kept just out of reach. They have practice doing this with their own boy. As soon as I braked at the garage, they tore away, all interest in me lost.
When I parked the blue bike, I took the yellow bike out back and forth along the drive, just to see whether it really was easier to ride, or if walking for a week had weakened my riding skills. The yellow bike was really easier to ride, and was easier to lift up and down in place.
My darling husband says he will look into putting the trailer back on the blue bike soon now, so Sparkle and I can ride again. I'm looking forward to it! (But it's gonna be a LOT more work!)
I picked up grade books from the teacher supply store. The catalogs only seem to carry grade books with room for four grading periods of nine weeks each, four quarters to a semester, for either six or eight classes. I require a grade book that has six week grading periods, three grading periods per semester, for eight classes. It took me a while to find what I needed, but thank goodness I was able to do so.
Now, the other teachers at my school use MicroSoft Excel as their grade books, and have even shared their set up database with me. I haven't used Exel, and it is counterintuitive. I'm going to try to double-book my grades, so that the hours-long ordeal of trying to accurately average by hand is reduced. My peers are bemused that I find Excel so hard, since word processing, and other computer programs aren't that difficult for me. I expect that if I just use the program instead of staring at it in bewilderment, I'll get better at it.
After supper, I took Irish to Open House to meet and greet his teachers. Sparkle's school did not have an Open House listed. Dino's high school actually picked him up at his bus stop last week and ran a Freshman Orientation Day. Since he had Accelerated Geometry at the high school last year, and has spent his summer at the high school's parking lot marching with the band, Dino is pretty confident that he'll manage all right.
As soon as I got home, I helmeted up, and saddled up, and rode on out. I discovered that my blue bike is heavier than the yellow bike I've been riding. It was much harder to get up hills, and I had to gear down quite a bit. Changing the gears, even after adjustment by the shop, is a bit difficult. But at least all eighteen gears work. I expect that having twenty one gears on the yellow bike meant that the gradients between medium and hard were less steep than they are on my own bike.
The bike has new tires on it, and the tires have these little rubber sniblets that wave like caterpillar legs as the wheels turn round. They make a raspberry sound as I ride, it is so funny! They even smell like new erasers on a pencil.
I saw my friend the sleepy road cat. She remained blissfully where she was, eyes mostly closed, ears following my progress. She lazily blinked as I passed her, totally unconcerned. I'm not sure I admire her sangfroid, or if instead I am appalled at her indifference to danger.
Riding into the golden light, I could see all the midges or mayflies playing in the sunbeams again. The sun has shifted from being just a bit to the right of the path, to nearly shining down straight along it, so it is hard to see any distance ahead of me.
There was a pigeon pecking away at the path, in an area devoid of everything. She saw me coming, and like Darzee's wife from "Rikki Tikki Tavi," she pretended her wing was broken, and peeped pitifully, dragging one wing as she fluttered and hopped away from me. I could almost parse her peeps as saying, "I broke my wing! The boy threw a stone at it!" I looked for a snake, but no cobras here, nor rat snakes either.
Since my bike was heavier, and it has been a week since my last ride, I only rode to the first road before turning around. (I did walk every day with my father and Sparkle while I visited my parents in Pennsylvania, so I wasn't a total lazy butt.) I saw a number of cyclists, most of them today a half generation older than me, pudgier than me, and for a change, slower than me. We all grinned at one another, pleased to be out on such a lovely evening. One cyclist had a really groovy recumbent bicycle, with a wide, comfortable seat. It had headlights, and a flashing red line of led lights along the back seat, and a jaunty orange flag upon which was drawn a charactature of the cyclist.
The pigeon pulled the same broken wing stunt on the way back. The dogs of the neighborhood still recognized me on a blue bike instead of a yellow bike. They didn't like the recumbent bicycle, not one bit, but as I pulled up behind him, they stopped fussing to lie back down.
When I went down the last long hill, I noticed the blue bike went further and faster than the yellow bike did without pedaling. More evidence that the blue bike is heavier.
The neighbor's dogs, as I pulled into our shared driveway, all bounded in circles around me barking joyfully and excitedly, wagging their tails and wiggling back and forth as they followed me down the drive to my garage. I was scared I was going to bump into one of them, but they kept just out of reach. They have practice doing this with their own boy. As soon as I braked at the garage, they tore away, all interest in me lost.
When I parked the blue bike, I took the yellow bike out back and forth along the drive, just to see whether it really was easier to ride, or if walking for a week had weakened my riding skills. The yellow bike was really easier to ride, and was easier to lift up and down in place.
My darling husband says he will look into putting the trailer back on the blue bike soon now, so Sparkle and I can ride again. I'm looking forward to it! (But it's gonna be a LOT more work!)
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 12:42 am (UTC)And not to sound heartless, but it's probably time you upped the intensity of your rides somewhat anyway. And you can always go shorter distances to start out with, if necessary.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 12:55 am (UTC):)
Date: 2011-08-23 01:40 am (UTC)I found The Missing Manual Excel guide to be very useful
no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 02:43 am (UTC)Happy to help with the Excel, if you need it....
no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 04:11 am (UTC)I keep all of my gradebooks in Excel. I'd be happy to answer questions, trouble-shoot, or even send spreadsheets back and forth until you feel more certain of what you're doing.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 08:54 pm (UTC)