To Market, To Market...

but not to buy a fat pig. Instead: plums, peaches, corn, lettuce, garlic and a pickle! I haven't been down to the farmer's market at PSU in a while. We've been getting most of our vegetables through the farm share or at the nearby Eastbank farm market lately. But, having gotten my bike looked over yesterday, I was in the mood for riding to the market this morning. There is a new stand - Pickleopolis (aka "Kingdom of the Brine") where they sell pickled cucumbers, beans, beets and some kraut. The pickle I brought home for lunch was really good - lots of garlic, very crisp. And, seeing my bike helmet, the woman very nicely packaged it in a second bag for me so it would survive the trip without getting pickle juice all over my fruit.

On the way home, I stopped at Clever Cycles and bought myself a present - a small basket to put on the front handlebars. I've been looking at them in various places for a while and found a nice simple one there. It has 2 hooks which just hang over the handlebar - very easy to put on and take off, has a handle if I want to take it off to carry around. There are some things that I don't really want to put in the panniers, but which should survive a trip in the basket more safely. For example, this morning at the farmer's market, I was looking at pints of berries and some flowers, but passed on both because of not having a good way to carry them.


So, with a little tuning up and a new basket, I'm good to go - trying to ride without worrying about falling again. My arm and leg are mostly healed, so it seems like I should be able to get over the rest of it. At 58, I don't seem to bounce back as quickly as I did in my days of bike-riding around Menominee, Escanaba and East Lansing. Duh.

Now I Feel Like a REAL Bicyclist

as a result of having my first bicycle crash (at least in a very long time). And, maybe "crash" is a bit more dramatic than the accident warranted. I had an up close and personal meeting with the pavement this afternoon. Since I started riding again on a somewhat regular basis, I've wondered if I was going to be able to avoid a fall. In the main, I ride pretty slowly and cautiously, so it didn't seem to be terribly likely.

But, I believe somewhere in Bicycling 101, they tell you not to try to cross streetcar tracks at an angle. Duh. It's not like I don't know this rule. I regularly have to cross railroad tracks to get to the path along the river and always am careful to cross as close as I can to a 90 degree angle. Today, I was riding down to the south waterfront area on the west side of the river. Had gotten as far as the Spaghetti Factory restaurant and was looking to figure out where I could turn to head back. In hind sight, I know that I should have gone one more block and would probably have been just fine. But, instead, I turned on the same block that the streetcar turns down there. And, just about the time, I was figuring out that there was no place for the bike to ride, I went flying. Ouch! Double ouch! (and a lot of other words that I need to leave out in case Mom reads my blog.) Sad to say, it was my own darn fault, no one else I can blame!

I was, in fact, very lucky in two ways. One is that I really wasn't hurt in any significant way - painful, yes, but not serious. And the other is the number of people who came to offer help. I was so impressed. One woman who was just walking by, came over quickly and helped by getting my bike out of the way. (I was a bit concerned because I was sprawled across the tracks and not feeling ready to move any too quickly.) Another woman came out of a business across the street and offered bandaids or other first aid paraphernalia. A shuttle bus driver stopped and asked if I needed help. The business across the street was "Paradym Events" and, as it turns out, the kind folks there took great care of me - fixed my handlebars so I could actually ride the bike again (had the tools and the knowledge to take care of that), gave me alcohol wipes for all the scrapes (did I say Ouch?!) and water. How great that there are people who will take time to do things like that. So, as much as I would like to whine, I do feel quite fortunate.

I'd love to show photos of my injuries, as some of my blogging sisters and others like to do. But this is a high-class blog - none of that blood and guts stuff. And Catherine would be grossed out. Nevermind that, if there were pictures of my "injuries", I'm afraid there would be a lot of guffawing out there amongst the real athletes. In addition, right after I got home, I needed to drive to go pick up our CSA share. Another woman came in for her produce with a serious black eye and bruises on her face around her eye - saying she'd had a recent bike accident. She'd even had a concussion. So, my tale was a lot less glamorous to tell. (Didn't ask her if she was wearing a helmet.)

Grady is offering zero sympathy, for some reason. I just mention this in a blatant appeal for words of sympathy from blog readers. :)
(Well, in the interest of fairness, I guess I should add that, after I rode a bit less than half way back home, and things were starting to hurt quite a bit, I called him and he did come and pick me up. So maybe he didn't feel any additional words of sympathy were required.)

Instead of unpleasant photos of my arm and knee, I'll offer instead a picture of one of the herbs from our CSA share today - borage. Another new adventure in cooking.

One Local Summer, Week 5

I decided I should just go ahead and write up one of our local meals now because we are eating out or with other people the next three nights and I don't know how much control I will have over the options.

Boy, I am loving this not working most of the summer. Reminds me of when I was first teaching. There is so much you can do when you have big stretches of time available. Today, Is started out doing some volunteer work in the morning, had a workout at the gym, and ran some errands. And, then, in the late afternoon, I rode my bike to the Eastbank Farmer's Market. We're lucky to have a couple of mid-week farm markets and both are in easy biking distance from our house.

Back at home, I picked basil and made pesto. The freshly made pesto with basil right out of the garden is SO much better than other versions we've had.

Our dinner tonight:

Pesto Pasta Genovese: basil from garden, potatoes and green beans from farmer's market
Whole wheat penne: didn't make pasta from scratch today - too hot!
Salad: greens from CSA; tomatoes, cucumbers and green onions -today's market trip
Pinot Noir: King's Ridge made in Newburg, Oregon
Baguette: made by the bakers at New Seasons

The Pesto Pasta Genovese recipe was in my new Ivy Manning cookbook. This is a variation of pasta with pesto that we first learned about from our cooking teacher in Siena several years ago.

In fact, all our meals so far this week have been pretty much local thanks to the garden, our CSA, and local choices available at the grocery store. It is getting easier and easier with so many options this time of year. I'll have to try to remember these good feelings along about next February when the choices are quite a bit less plentiful.

Now It Feels Official

that I am retired. Today was the last of the various retirement festivities - a luncheon put on by our Portland district administrators professional organization. Along with my fellow principal retirees, I was given a plaque and a nice tribute. In my case, the little speech was given by one of the Assistant Superintendents whom I have worked for in three different positions in my career with the district. It was embarrassing, but nice to be acknowledged by my colleagues.

Since I didn't need to go back to work afterwards, I celebrated by taking the time to ride my bike to the athletic club for a workout. For normal people, this wouldn't be any big accomplishment since the gym is only a bit under 2 miles from here and it's a posted bike route most of the way, even though on city streets and crossing the bridge. But, it's the first time I didn't take the car to go the gym, so I feel like it was a step forward for my exercise program.




Why couldn't it have just been a nice day all around instead of coming home to the news that the Supreme Court has made a huge mistake?

Bike Toys

Ann, don't read this.

On Sunday, I rode my bike downtown to the Bike Gallery and got their help to install my bike computer. The dirty little secret of this story is that Ann and Gina gave me this computer for Christmas (!) and it's taken me this long to get it installed and working. (That's why I don't want them to read about this.) And, in fact, right at the beginning, Ann suggested I just take it to a bike store and have them install it. But, oh no, we had to do it ourselves. Grady was sure he could install the apparatus on the wheel and I worked on the set up of the computer itself. But, it didn't work. Over time, we had various people, including our son and our almost-son - both avid bicyclists - look at the installation and declare it to be done correctly. But, still no readings on the computer. To make a long story short, over the long stretch of crummy weather, I didn't have a huge interest in riding the bike somewhere to get help and there was always something else to do. Eventually, I called the store that it came from in Seattle to ask if they knew what local Portland bike stores sell the same brand and they suggested the Bike Gallery. And, I finally found a time to call the store here, they were available to help and it was a nice day to ride downtown.

Turns out the computer itself was the problem. When the bike mechanic couldn't get the system working, he started trading out parts and, as soon as he put in a new computer, it worked like a charm. Luckily, they were willing to let me take home the new one on my bike under the assumption that the warranty on my original one would get them a replacement. I had to pay an installation fee, but it was well worth it.

So, I rode around that day for 8.4 miles, just in case you're interested, including the trip back from the store and then an excursion down the Springwater Trail, a path that heads south along the Willamette River. Today I rode down to the People's Coop for their weekly farmer's market - only 1.2 miles. Ok, I promise not to report on the mileage of every bicycle trip I take. It's just that I do love gadgets and this shows distance, speed, time, temperature and a few other things - could probably get stock market quotes if I were interested.

By the way, I bought cabbage, white onions and shiitake mushrooms at the market. The first two are for making a local version of fish tacos tomorrow night.