Ilana over Rio 

Ilana over Rio 

Another Century

Jared and I did the Tahoe Sierra Century last weekend on a rented tandem. It was pretty intense, but we survived. It included a 6,800 foot vertical gain over the 100 miles, which is no Death Ride (15K feet over 129 miles) but impressive anyway. I'm sure you'd agree.

I really enjoyed riding the tandem with Jared, and he says it was OK too. It resolved a lot of issues that have come up with pace and talking while riding. I'm terrified to descend quickly, and there were some pretty serious descents on this ride, but I just closed my eyes and crouched against Jared's back side. We lived. We're always near each other; so, talking is only a problem when it's windy.

It's also an interesting exercise for a couple. You have to pedal in cync and communicate with your partner what you're doing and when. We chatted with one guy who said that he had been married for 25 years, and he and his wife DO NOT like to ride a tandem together. They learned that they need separate bikes. I quickly became comfortable with Jared doing all the steering -- I didn't need to look out for potholes or lean for corners. I needed to do what he asked me to do (stand, sit, work, etc.).

Alaska (and Hood Canal) vacation

Jared has compiled, processed, titled, and posted our photos here (on 3 pages). It was my intension to post these with my trip narrative, but alas, he's way faster than I am (probably bc he has less time; have you heard the quote, "if you want something done, give it to someone who's busy"?).

Here are a few of my highlights:
1) the Salmon Migration
The creeks held literally more fish than water. You've seen the documentaries, and how amazing it is when they jump up stream. It was like that except that there really wasn't enough space for them all. They were each about the size of a boot (Jared identified various species), and when one advanced, it had to bite its companions to get them to move out of the way. I think we took a movie, but I'm not sure if it came out.

2) the Mendenhall Glacier
Huge, and absolutely phenomenal... The day we hiked up the west trail blew my mind. Make sure to try to find the people in that one photo of it on page 2. It will give you a sense of scale. I heard someone say this glacier moves 500 feet per year. Can you imagine the sheer force of an environmental event like that???!

3) the Ferry
Basically, I want to be on the ferry all the time. It's comfortable. Beautiful scenery floats past. Showers are clean and hot. It has $2.50 beers (Alaskan). The food is decent and reasonably priced. There's unlimited free hot water. Other people camping on the deck are interesting and friendly. Yeah, when you're bike-camping in the rain for 2.5 weeks maybe your standards change, but if I did this trip all over again, I would have stayed on the boat most of the time. If you go, DO NOT get a stateroom; camp on the deck.

4) the Beer
Both Haines Brewing Company (which does not distribute outside Haines) and Alaskan make great beer. At Haines, my favorites were the IPA and the Stout. At Alaskan, the ESB and... was it the stout again? I might be able to get Jared to remind me.

5) the Bear
It was a relatively brief event. You can see the dark photo. We were cooking dinner at the camp site at Mendenhall when a medium-sized black ambled into our camp, about 10 feet away, looking as if he might crawl into our tent for a little nap. He was fat and had a beautiful glossy coat. I gasped but completely forgot how you're supposed to behave. Jared yelled and waved his hands around. The bear rolled his eyes at us ("ah, campers. I wish they'd stay out of my forest," he seemed to be saying) and ambled away. Nearby a group of kids were camping, and I heard one little boy making up a song about the bear ("there was a bear. there was a bear. there was a bear right over there..."). I think he ambled thru their camp site too.

6) the Seafood
Not in AK, but the crab pot-pulling and eating in Hood Canal was awesome. Jared's mom made some crab cakes which were especially memorable. The halibut and chips in Juneau rocked too.

7) the Company
Of course

I'll post some stories another time.

Me trying to look like my mother

I visited my friend Carolyn Helmke today in Palo Alto. She set me up with some great work clothes, some hand-me-down magazines, and a free burrito. After some conversation, she decided it was important to take a picture of me that resembled this one I posted of my mother. Here's our best effort:

Your friends will save your brain... and your life.

A recent study by the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that women with a number of close friends and frequent social interactions are less likely to suffer from heart disease, Alzheimer's and dementia.

I sold my TV!

Craigslist is amazing! Should I admit that I got nearly what I paid for it?

In other news, studies show that tall people earn more money than short people by 2% per inch. Also, input increases output. The source of productivity is a refreshed mind.
Source for both: my NPR Podcasts

Moving towards a totally self-programmed world

I don't remember if I've mentioned that I have become completely obsessed with podcasts recently. I basically don't even listen to the radio or look at google news anymore, because I now get my news from the sources and on the topics that I've pre-selected. I'm also actively pursuing selling my TV, and may join a DVD rental club to be entertained entirely by pre-selected programs on my computer.

However, I'm a little scared. I was not permitted to watch television as a child, which made me even more of a misfit than my personality and genetics had already set me up to be. I had no idea what the other kids were talking about and rarely got the mass-media-referential jokes. I would laugh anyway, but they saw right thru me. You know how kids are. So, I'm wondering now if, by self-programming all my media inputs, am I isolating myself yet again? Or is this something everyone is doing? And if it is, are we isolating ourselves from each other?

I don't remember if it was the last national election or the one before that when a lot emails went around about how we, humor me as I call us the Educated Class, have no idea what's going on in the minds of the rest of our country. Because if they were privy to even the smallest amt of knowledge and information we were, how on earth would we, collectively, have elected That Man as our President? We all vowed to talk to our distant friends and relatives who might be Republicans or even just live not on a coast, to share information, to promote Democracy. I've tried to do that. At the same time, now, I'm setting up my own little self-programmed universe where everyone I talk to less than once a week is getting their information from absolutely, completely different sources.

This hints at the concept of brainwashing, and the effect media has on culture, but I'm in no mood to go there right now. I know you want to hear about Alaska, and I'll tell you all about it... later.

Teenagers

My friend Carolyn Helmke said a very interesting thing on the phone today that I wanted to share with you. She suggested that, biologically, the reason teenagers are so unpleasant to their parents is to make it easier, perhaps even possible, for the parents to let them leave the nest. Sure, everyone always talks about teenagers' need to individuate, but I never thought about it as something that the parents need to let them.