Sometimes people are SO stupid...

Metering lights... When the light is red, you stop. When the light is green, you go. When nothing is lit up, the meter is OFF and you go. Seems simple enough.

I can only speak for a few on-ramps, but I know that those metering lights turn off at 10 a.m. After that time, wheeee! Anyway, I was running a bit late this morning and hit the on-ramp around 10:30. No metering light, right? Most would think that because, well, IT'S REALITY. About the time the curve of the ramp straightens out, most normal people are accelerating to merge into traffic at the speed limit. There were 2 cars in front of me that were sort of dawdling. A maroon Tercel (or some variation) and the black Mustang convertible in front of me. All of a sudden, the Tercel slams on their brakes at the metering light and the Mustang plows into them. Fortunately for me, I was well aware of my surroundings and able to move around them without having to brake much.

Ummm, who stops for a non-lit metering light? Okay, who in their right mind stops for a non-lit metering light? No, they weren't elderly.

I still feel a bit bad about not stopping to offer to be a witness, but dang. I've always thought that the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's was the worst time of year to be on the road, and it seems to hold true every year.

Hold onto your butts. We still have a few weeks till the madness is over...

I am so grateful...

Today has been topsy-turvy. I went to vote this morning. I was on top of the world. Huge smile on my face. Back on track to getting into work on time again, and I'd done my civic duty by voting. I felt the hopefulness the country felt this morning.

Then I got stuck in traffic. Then my phone rang. My cousin was on the phone, telling me that my favorite Uncle, Robert, had passed away early this morning. He had been sick, but my Great-Aunt, Hazel, had been covering for him - he had dementia and they had to put him into a nursing home. I only found this out last Friday. I had no time for any of this to sink in. I got off the phone with my cousin, and called Hazel. As soon as she got on the phone, I burst into tears. I only talked to her for a short while, but continued bawling my eyes out, the rest of the way to work. Fortunately for me, traffic was moving at about 15 mph, so I didn't endanger myself or anyone else. Finally, after trying to work, and failing, I came back home. I rode my bike, which only made my back hurt and didn't make me feel better.

I've been watching the telly, and now that the networks can predict a President elect, I am again, in tears. But these are tears of joy. Tears of hope. Tears of relief.

And Christ, I have a headache. Whenever I cry, I sweat. And I get a gnarly headache. It's bad... I seem to be a bit more tearful than normal, which the 2nd glass of wine is probably NOT helping, but wow.

I can't believe my Uncle Robert got out of voting by dying. I guess that's a valid excuse. I'm grateful that I'll be able to go to his funeral on Friday morning in Kansas. And I really hope someone tells the story about when Robert won the County Commissioner seat in the county in Kansas in which he and Hazel live in. They told me this story many, many years ago, and I was so shocked, but amused. It's one of those stories that will stay with me and make me smile for the rest of my life... Robert won the election. Kind of like tonight - by a landslide. He and Hazel were celebrating a bit, and on the way home, Hazel got sick. Out the car window (acccckkkkk!!!). Imagine your Grandma barfing out the car window, and you get the picture. He got them both home and into bed. Sometime in the middle of the night, Robert woke up. Sick as a dog. He knew he was going to throw up, so he jumped out of bed, and ran down the hall to the bathroom. Only he didn't make it. He puked in the hall while running. And then he stepped in it. To add to all that humiliation, he then slipped and fell down - into his own vomit! Gross, but funny as hell. I'll always cherish that story. And even though I'm both sad for him, and elated for our country, it makes me smile.

I will never forget today...

Grow up and vote.

Tonight, I left work early to go to the gym. It was raining lightly, and everything on the radio stations was saying to "drive mellow". Lots of spin-outs and accidents due to the rain. I saw a few driving like morons, as usual. Tailgating and such. You just know that those people wouldn't be able to stop in time in the rain, and I always pray some *sshat like that stays off my tail.

Around Marsh on 101 North, I saw a caravan of automobiles, all with signs, in support of Proposition 8. I have my own feelings on the Proposition, but it's a free country. Tomorrow is election day, and everyone has a right to express their viewpoints. Out of nowhere, a silver BMW comes flying past me on the right, and darts into the caravan. I think, "Jeez, plan ahead... it's raining, can't you think ahead for a few seconds and plan your exit safely?". A few seconds later, the BMW darts out of the caravan towards me, speeds up and then darts back into it. I was so shocked that it hadn't occurred to me exactly what was taking place until a few moments later. The BMW veers out of the caravan and back towards me again. I get a good look at the guy: white, male, late 30's, silver BMW 5-series, 4-door sedan. He speeds up and darts in front of me. Now I'm mad. I lay on the horn and the jerk slams his brakes on. Hi. What the heck is your problem buddy? I probably aggravated the situation by telling him he was "#1", but I'm sure he already knew that. That prompted me to call 911, as I felt like he was endangering a whole lot of people, just because he disagreed with a caravan of people, expressing their rights to free speech.

When I finally got through to the 911 operator, the jerk had darted in and out of 101 and onto the collector distributor lane before the Holly Street exit (I'm well aware of the irony here). I was so shook-up that I was in tears trying to explain to the nice 911-operator exactly what took place. I couldn't get the fool's license number because it all happened so fast and I was unable to follow him with his erratic driving. I was able to explain what had happened and what had so obviously set him off, and a description of him, and the car, but no plate #. I have no clue if he exited at Holly, or darted back onto 101, but it was likely the latter. Both the 911 operator and myself got a good laugh when I had to give her my location and name (no pun intended).

I can't believe I was the only one that called and turned that moron in. And I'm ashamed that I too oppose Proposition 8, not because of what it is or represents or what I believe in, but because that jerk just made everyone who opposes it look like a homicidal maniac to every single supporter in that caravan. Thanks, pal, thanks a lot. It wasn't so much that he was darting in and out in the rain, but he was DIVING. Turning his steering wheel HARD and directly in the path of those cars. Endangering people just because they disagreed with his thinking (and people like myself who weren't even involved). What kind of Neanderthal douche-bag does stuff like that? And I'm not saying that all BMW owners drive like a-holes, but why is it so many of them DO?

It made me start thinking about how polarizing Prop 8 really IS. I mean, think about it. Nobody will win. Regardless of the outcome, nobody really is going to win. If it passes, then there will be another prop in a few more years to re-vote. If it fails, same thing. It will be like a bad penny and keep coming back again and again. And what will it do for *true* voting? Will people try to vote multiple times just to make their point? It's just ugly any way you look at it, unfortunately.

Back to the douche-bag on 101 tonight... Jeez dude. Don't endanger people just because they don't see eye to eye with you. Just grow up, and go vote.

Low key hill climb - Bear Gulch

Cripes. Why I agreed to do a HILL CLIMB, I'll never know. Several weeks ago, before I went on a blissful (and mai tai'd) vacation, I mentioned a couple of these to my coach. Well, I went on vacation and promptly forgot.

Wednesday evening, I was looking ahead to what I needed to do over the weekend for training (since I did SO much riding in Hawaii - yeah, 3 days on a rented bike with toe clips. I tried to train on vacation, and have you ever tried to sprint with toe clips? I pulled out of them the exact number of sprint attempts: three.). Thursday looked good. Friday good. Saturday: Low key hill climb: Bear Gulch. WHAT? Oh crap. How can I get out of this? It's going to be evil. I distinctly remember (now) thinking it would be a good idea, because it was short (less than 3 miles) and not super steep (6.4% average). But I also remember saying, "I'm not sure if it's a good idea THAT close to returning from vacation.". Clearly, my coach ignored that last sentence. I tried to think of all the excuses, and finally I decided to just go do it. "It's low key! It's not a race! I can do what I want!". But I also decided to park in Woodside and ride up Kings for my warm-up.

Yeah, I said that. Climb Kings for a warm-up. Clearly, I lost my mind on vacation. If someone sees it, please send it home. I sort of need it back...

A co-worker of mine wanted me to join our work team, so I raced (relative term today) with them today. I told her I was slow. I don't think she REALLY believed me.

This morning, I nearly caved and stayed in bed. I was awake before the alarm went off, but then I did a stupid thing: I hit the snooze. Bad, bad! I freaking snoozed for 45 more minutes, which just made me TIRED-ER. I stumbled around the house and made breakfast and got myself together, but not fast enough. I got to Woodside later than I wanted, so my leisurely ride up Kings turned into a faster ride than I was ready for. Drat. It was stinking cold at my car, but the higher I climbed, the warmer it got. I started bemoaning the fact that I wore a vest, arm warmers and long fingered gloves. This would turn out to be a problem later...


(at least I looked okay.... thanks Eric Willis! )

As I was climbing, I noticed that I felt really awful. I'm not much of a climber, but I usually don't feel *that* crappy. Especially since I made the brilliant move to skip power and use my bike with the compact crank (my knees are still thanking me). I was spinning, but my legs were dead. I bet that the deep-tissue massage I got last night didn't help (well, it did, but it didn't), and then the 2 weeks of mai-tai time, and non-riding and "hiking" with my Mom. It's not like I did a ton of high intensity stuff.

Anyway, I made it to the reg area in time, but then we stood around registering, and talking, and trying to get ready to roll out. And then riding down Skyline to the real Bear Gulch, I dropped my chain! Ugh, the curse of the compact crank!!! I had a really hard time putting it back on too (the old up-shift trick did exactly squat). Then another co-worker helped, but now I had grease all over my glove and fingers. And then we descended Bear Gulch. And stood around. When we started, my legs felt exactly like they did when I first started climbing Kings! And I thought, "Why on Earth did I bother with a warm-up?"

The bottom of Bear Gulch is nasty and steep and then barren. The trees give way to completely exposed roads and was it hot! Especially with a vest and full-fingered BLACK gloves on. Oh yeah, those were a stunning idea, if I do say so myself... My computer registered the max temp at: 93. BLEAH! At one point, I was doing about 3 mph, the paper boy, my HR was inching up, I was roasting like a luau pig, and I really thought I was going to barf. I got off my bike and walked... I'm not too proud to admit that, but I really wanted to just lie down and think about life... I was almost moving faster on foot at that point. Forced myself back on the bike and ended up getting back off again later. Jeez. Once I got back into the shade and the pitch mellowed out, I was fine. I rode myself back up to a few that had passed me and I felt pretty comfortable climbing after that point. My HR was high (I wasn't going harder than 80 or 85%), but I've not been doing much climbing or intensity, so I pretty much expected it. I finished much better than I started (if you start at the bottom... nowhere to go but up!) and I can still laugh about walking. It's Low Key for crying out loud! One woman told me, "I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm usually ahead of those 3 up there." Maybe I'm still on Hawaiian time, but I didn't really care who beat me today. I just know that I didn't chicken out, and I finished...

I think I like this low key stuff, but I'm sure not keen to do one again soon! I do now remember telling my coach that I wanted to do the Low Key up Mt. Hamilton on Thanksgiving. I've never been up Hamilton, so I think it will be good. I likely will not feel the same way the night before or the day of, but I'll be glad I did it when I'm done. Just like today...

Laupahoehoe Point and Tsunami Victims Plaque

On April 1, 1946, a tsunami blew into Laupahoehoe Point and swept several small schoolchildren and a few adults out to sea. I'd read about this before, but never got to visit the place where it happened. I knew there was a plaque for them, so I made sure to visit this time. What a powerful place. Just the sight of the plaque brought tears to my eyes. Some as young as 2 years old. Several children from single families. Wiped out. In seconds. It struck at 7 a.m. Really makes you think...
The waves on this side of the island are CRAZY intense. Raw, powerful and really, really scary. There's a story inside my guide book which tells about a barge of brand-new Toyotas crashing near here. An insurance adjuster came to assess the damage, insisted on the helicopter he was riding in land on the barge, a wave came in, swept over the helicopter, tossing it, and killing the adjuster. You don't mess around with the ocean on this side of the island...

More volcano images

First stop yesterday was the end of Highway 130, South of Hilo, on the East side of Hawaii. As we were hiking the approximately one mile out to the overlook to see the lava, you could turn to the right and see the lava coming down the side of the hill, towards the ocean. Luckily, it's jogging West before heading down to the water.

My Mom and I on the edge of the Earth!
Inside Hawaii Volcano National Park, a new steam vent/lava pit has opened up. It's inside the Halema'uma'u crater, which is inside of the Kilauea Caldera (next to the Volcano House hotel and the Jagger Museum). The view during the daytime is impressive enough, but when I looked at the webcam, during the evening (Hawaii time), OMG. It's glowing orange/red with lava inside! Before this vent opened up, you used to be able to drive to the other side and look over the edge of the Caldera, just to the right of the steam and smoke. The eruption of this new vent took out part of the fence, that I've stood at, looking down into the Caldera. CRAZY! The webcam is here. It also looks like we had significantly better weather yesterday than they're having today. Whew!
The view of the smoke/steam from Halema'uma'u from the other side of the Kilauea Iki. The Iki is an amazing hike, but it was not to be on this trip... It's a long trek from one side to the other, but it sure is amazing. The "hill" just to the left of the steam cloud is Pu'u Pua'i, the cinder cone that was built by the eruption of Kilauea Volcano inside the Kilauea Iki crater (in 1959). There is just some really amazing history to go with the Volcano and I'd have loved to have been a geologist here. Truly fascinating stuff.

Looking into the mouth of Hell

I was pretty stoked to find out that the lava was flowing to the East side of the lava fields. This meant that we could DRIVE to it, and then a short hike to a lookout, and voila! Last time I was there, the stuff was flowing to the center of the field and the Park Ranger told me: "Yup, it's a 6.5 hour round-trip hike. Well worth it." F*ck that. This was after doing a hike in the park which lasted just over 2 hours, and got me soaking wet when it rained. I took the plane ride instead, and it was great.

This time... we drove to it. And hiked. 1 mile each way. Over lava. Damn. That counted as double. I got freaked out a few times when there was hot steam coming out of the cracks in the lava. And one such area was SILVER, instead of black. WTH??? I later learned that it was lava FRESH from AUGUST. Yeah, 2 months ago August. No wonder... There was no one else out, except two girls that we finally caught up with on the edge of the world. I took their picture, they took my Mom's and mine, they gave me some cool advice, and told me to perch on the ledge above and that was that. I stood on this ledge for a long time, watching the delta below. There was a crapload of steam (and sulpher, gross) from the lava hitting the ocean (it was RIGHT THERE). When the clouds moved out of the way, there it was - a shelf with orange lava flowing across it. Every time I saw it, I tried to take a picture. And every time, the steam clouds obscured it. I couldn't see the lava through the view finder, but I could with the naked eye. We played this game for a good 20 minutes and I finally snapped a few pics. In this one, when I zoomed in, I could see the orange (faintly) on the shelf. Thank God. I sure didn't want to hike back out there for more pics!!!

It was cool, definitely. But it was at least 2 hours of hard hiking to get 2 miles, round trip. And with steam all around, and only the forest to go by (for the safe harbor), I got freaked out more than a few times (and checked to make sure the soles of my shoes weren't melting!!!!). I almost aborted the hike due to concerns (and very few markings, and no other souls out there). But in the end, I'm glad we stuck it out (my Mom had a hard time with the hike and the heat coming off of the lava). We got to look out onto new land being created, see lava flowing into the ocean, and I kid you not: it was like staring into the mouth of Hell.