Jekyll and Hyde

The weather in Portland can be fickle and change dramatically from one part of town to another. On Friday's bike ride it caught me off guard. Sticking my nose out the door of our house that morning I saw only sun and blue sky. Perfect. Except that when I arrived at the top of the west hills there were low gray clouds hanging over the valley on the other side of the ridge. Often these will burn off, and indeed for a few minutes I found myself in semi-sunny conditions. A few miles on, though, I encountered  heavy fog with low visibility. Predictably, as I worked myself around my loop du jour, I could see the fog line ahead, and for the long climb back up to the ridge it was all sun all the time. 


On Saturday I vowed to be smarter than the weather. So in addition to the all important 'nose test', I checked the State's web cams to see how things looked along the highway that runs west toward the ocean. The cameras showed clear sky closer in and gray conditions further out. I estimated the clouds to be further west than I'd be riding. Oh, twit it twer. The ride began innocently enough, sunny and blue. About 6 miles in I was even thinking about taking off some clothes. About then is when I turned a corner and entered a seriously stubborn, low, heavy fog bank. Road turned wet, temperature dropped, visibility went to nothing, mood worsened. Ugh, not again. I peddled through this soup for 6-7 miles. I turned east to head back up to the ridge, the fog line just to my right, so close yet so far. I eventually rode myself out of the fog, and by the time I hit Skyline the weather had reverted back to sunny and blue. Schizophrenic weather.


This week was also the week of the obligatory office Christmas party. On Friday, Chris's office had its "Secret Santa" gift exchange. Chris hates these things but brightened when he realized it was an opportunity to re-gift the gift he received last year. A fish. Last year someone gave him a fish for his Secret Santa gift. Somehow, miraculously, against all odds, Chris kept the fish alive all year in his office. On Friday he bagged up fish and bowl and put the new owner-to-be's name on it.  Chris said the guy was pretty unhappy about it. But that's life with Secret Santa.


My office party was Friday night. We do a White Elephant gift exchange. This book jumped out at me when I was at the store earlier in the week. 

All wrapped and ready to go.....Certain members of the household always need to have their nose in things.

And here is the booty I took away from the party. A packet of "Teacher Signs" that I will find some use for at the office...

Ride Interrupted

The weather continues to make a mockery of my namesake blog. Friday was another cold but dry and sunny day. My ride plan was a short but steep loop that starts at the base of the west hills, follows sweeping switchbacks through the upper crust neighborhoods of Westover, Hillside, and NW Heights, past Pittock Mansion, eventually topping out about 3 miles up. The entire loop is less than 10 miles and takes me an hour. It's a good route when I don't want to spend a lot of time riding, or when the weather's bad and the goal is to get out and back home quickly. Today the weather was not an issue. As you can see, sunny and clear.

Top of Lovejoy, view of Portland and Fremont Bridge

The first sign of trouble appeared early in the climb at the base of the first switchback.... Ice? Frost? What is that? There were orange cones around it, so I attributed what appeared to be an icy patch to workmen having spilled water on the road or a burst pipe. A few hundred feet later, though, I again spotted what looked like frost patches on the road. Then more. It wasn't until I came across about 1/2 dozen of these that I was willing to consider that there might be frost on the road. But the patches were sparse enough that I could easily ride around them. Until.....

Icy Cold Patch

....less than halfway up the climb, the road turned entirely white. I dismounted and, still not quite willing to admit it, tested the ground with my hands. Frosty indeed. Wondering if the streets higher up might be in the sun and thus frost free, I walked to the top of the hill but saw that the road ahead was as bad as the road behind. So I walked back to the nearest dry spot and rode back down to the car. There is nothing as discombobulating as a workout interrupted. Go home or try again? I was already dressed and the temperature wasn't too bad so I drove to one of my other parking spots and did a short, frost-free ride on sunnier west-facing roads. Got a personal best on Girlfriend's Old Germantown hill climb with a time of 17:54. All's well that ends well.


In other news...

Mystery Picture; note the furry legs

Saturday night dinner. Carrot and sweet potato soup, courtesy of Chris. With roasted asparagus.

Friday Bike Ride

After a wet October and an even wetter November the weather is predicted to be dry (but cold) over the next few weeks. Dry in December is good. Very good. Especially when it's accompanied by a little sun, which can warm things up nicely for cycling. With the right clothes cycling in cold weather can be quite comfortable, and anything is better than rain. The last few days started off in the mid-to upper 30's, sometimes foggy, often cloudy, peaking at 45-50 degrees later in the day, depending on whether or not the sun came out. It was pretty dreary on Friday morning, which is typical this time of year. Low clouds, cold, the sun popping in and out but never staying out very long to convince me that it's going to be good riding weather. After my usual procrastination routine (it's not all laziness; in winter, timing is everything if you want to try and peg your ride to the nicest part of the day), and with some urging by Chris, I did finally get my bike clothes on and drive over to the West Hills to go for a ride.

Cyclists on Skyline near Skyline Elementary School

My favorite cow. Or is it a bull? I have passed him many times over the years. He is HUGE. Sometimes he is close to the road, other times he is a small white dot up on the hill next to the house. 

"Red Barn" mailbox

Great old trees, Kaiser Rd.

For now this area is protected from development. But the boundary line has recently edged closer.

Old barn, Kaiser/Germantown