When the going gets tough...

the not so tough bake bread. I made two loaves yesterday. The house was filled with a delicious aroma, but that did only so much to make us feel better.

Jerry will have surgery on his clavicle on Friday. I feel pretty good about that part. The surgeon has good credentials and I spoke to another orthopaedist friend who knows him, and he said he's a good guy.

But it's the recovery that is troubling. I know the AIDS ride is just "a ride," but it means so much to us. We will be a part of it, no matter what, but it's hard for me to imagine not riding. My ortho friend said Jerry might be able to ride on the back of the tandem, but I don't know if I have the strength or confidence to be the one in the front. I have contacted Lorri Lee Lown of Velogirls to see if I can get some coaching.

So much is in the air. We are both pretty depressed. Maybe I better go make some coffee cake.

Good Advice and Peanut Butter Candy

Jerry and I went to the ALC Expo today. It was great to be surrounded by cyclists, even if we aren't riding. I had peanut butter candy to deliver and a wind trainer to pick up, so I had to go, but since Jerry felt good enough to go, that was encouraging.

I dropped him off and parked the car a few blocks away, toting my cooler of candy. I had three pounds ordered, but brought along some extra just in case. That was good because I sold all I brought with me. The peanut butter candy was really messy and more difficult to make than the peppermint bark, so I'm not making any more, but it did raise a little money for the ride.

We really don't know what Jerry's ultimate ride prognosis will be, but Russ, our cycle buddy had good advice-- if Jerry can ride by that time, no matter how much or little we have trained, we ought to go. We'll ride as much as we can and enjoy Utopia for a week. We'll be amongst friends and get back to camp early. We have ridden every single mile the last two years, so we don't really have anything to prove.

As long as Jerry is able to ride by then, we'll do it. If he's able to ride a couple weeks before the ride, we'll train, and who knows, we may be able to do more than we think we can.

So for now, I'll concentrate on raising funds for the ride and keeping Jerry's spirits up and making sure he doesn't overdo.

Clavicles and Chinese food

Jerry has not been having such great luck lately. Just a few weeks ago he crashed his car, and yesterday, he crashed on one of his bikes. The first crash totaled the car. The bike crash did more of a number on him than the bike. He came home last night barely able to walk, battered and bruised. I put him to bed with ice packs and red wine.

He was not much better this morning so I got him in to see a doctor at UCSF. They did x-rays, and he broke a rib and worse, he broke his collarbone. It being Cesar Chavez Day, we could not get in to see an orthopedist, so we headed north. I bought him a sling to keep his arm and shoulder immobile, and then we had Chinese food. Lots of garlic, basil and spices. It was comforting, though neither of us could eat very much.

I'm not sure how much this will change our future, but it could make some significant changes. I am supposed to start a culinary program on Monday, and if I don't show up, I'll lose my seat and have to wait eight weeks. But depending upon how Jerry is, I may wait the eight weeks and stay with him.

The bigger if is how it will affect our training for AIDS Lifecycle. Right now he cannot ride at all, but we do wonder if in the near future he could ride as stoker on the tandem. That would mean me being captain, which scares me. But if it is a choice between not training together at all or being captain, I will at least give it a try.

My hope is we will get in to see an orthopedist on Monday or Tuesday and figure out what is going on. But to say this has thrown a wrench into our plans is definitively an understatement.

We are not a happy pair right now.

Riding and Coffee

I think Aeropress ought to give me a kickback. I praised them to Thanksgiving Coffee and they now sell them. I've also told numerous riders about the Aeropress, so my guess is I won't be the only one with an Aeropress on the ride this year.

And speaking of riding, we got in two days of riding-- Friday and Saturday. Friday was a ride out of the parking lot at Golden Gate Bridge to the Tiburon Loop. Jerry and I rode pretty strong and we felt great. Our average speed was Cat2-3 and we climbed Camino Alto faster than I think we've ever climbed it.

After the ride was the usual stop at Comfort Food Cafe where I of course, ordered coffee. But it actually tasted kind of funny. I don't think it was the coffee, but residue from the washing-- maybe a little detergent or even bleach.

Saturday's ride was not as strong as Friday's, which is to be expected. It was our first back to back in some time. Also, it was colder and we did not escape the rain.
This ride was to Lagunitas, which meant a climb over White's Hill. I'm proud to say that we didn't stop on White's Hill, which is another first for the season. But it was about time for us to take it in a single ride. But it was slow. We're not kids and it was our first back to back, so I'll cut us a little slack.
We got to the Lagunitas Market and I had some tabouli and Jerry had a cup of chili. I had also brought some butterscotch bars to share, mostly so I could get them out of the house and not eat them all myself. They were appreciated. I also had a cup of their really good French roast coffee. It definitely helped warm me up for the cold ride ahead.

It started to rain while we were there, but just a little sprinkle. We thought we better head out before a downpour--after all, we were 20 miles or so from our starting point.

But the rain was faster than we were and we were pretty cold and wet by the time we got back to the car. It was great to get home and peel off the wet bike clothes.

On another topic, but definitely related, I got a wonderful present this week. It was a photo of my friend, Jimmy, who died from AIDS several years ago. Serendipitously, his sister is a friend of a friend on Facebook, so I sent her a message. I wasn't really sure how she would react, but it was extremely positive. I am so happy to have his photo. Jerry and I will carry it with us on the ride. I've written about Jimmy before. His birthday was February 29, so the joke was he only had to have a birthday every four years. If he had had only had the opportunity to grow old.

I have lost other friends to AIDS, but no one as close as Jimmy. Even though we only spoke every couple of years, I still miss him. He will be in my thoughts every day on the ride this year.

It's so easy for me

All I have to do is pedal and raise some money and I get to do the AIDS ride. It's that simple.
It really struck me this morning how lucky I am as I read a posting on the ALC discussion board. It was a posting from a Positive guy who will be a roadie on the ride. He has several medications to juggle-- one on an empty stomach, one on a full stomach-- you get the idea, and with the crazy schedule roadies keep he had questions about adjust times of taking meds and was looking for advice from other Positive riders and roadies.

I do have some legitimate worries in my life--money is tight and I worry about making ends meet. But none of my worries is life and death. I have it so good, so easy compared to so many people in this world.

But it's so easy to take all that for granted. The world is in pretty much of a big mess right now. The US financial problems have created ripples, if not tsunamis, on every continent. Death and disease are around the corner in so many countries.

We bitch and moan about the economy, about the state of our healthcare. And I'm not saying we should stop the bitching and moaning. It should be much much better in a country as wealthy as ours.

But we are damn lucky. Even folks who are HIV positive in the US are far better off than in some parts of the world. And that's because we have places like the SF AIDS Foundation and the LA Lesbian and Gay Center.

So, all I need to do is keep pedaling, keep raising money for SFAF, keep looking in nooks and crannies for freelance and contract work, and go to sleep at night counting my blessings.

Only in Marin

would two tandem riders almost get run over by a Prius. Well, actually, one would hope that Prius drivers in Marin would be more politically correct than to go after cyclists.
Jerry and I were riding through Corte Madera on our way to Woodacre. We were on the side of the road, as we should be. We are very courteous, law abiding cyclists. We stop at stop signs; we stop for people in crosswalks; we always use hand signals and call out "on your left." Maybe this Prius driver didn't realize what nice people we were, but he veered inches away from us and laid on his horn. Jerry said if I had been thinking more quickly, I could have unclipped and put a gouge in his lovely hybrid with one of my cleats. But as I said before, I'm really very nice. But that did make me a little angry.
And so do cyclists who whizz through stops signs and red lights. Saw way too many of those today, though they were not people on the ALC training ride. But it gives us all a bad name.
The ride today was pretty nice. We did stop once on White's Hill, but then, I continue to remind myself, it's a ride, not a race. As usual, we screamed down the other side, passing all the cyclists who passed us on the way up.
We had a snack at the Woodacre Market, then headed back. We did stop at the bike shop to see if our broken hub was fixed. No such luck. We're going to have to do some digging to find a replacement hub, unless we want to spend $500 on a Phil Woods. Not this week.
After we got home and changed, we headed to Comfort Food Cafe. Jerry had a fried pork chop sandwich, which he pronounced "okay." He had garlic mashed potatoes as a side, and I tasted them. They were pretty good. I went the scrambled eggs, french fries and coffee route. I asked for the fries to be extra crisp, and they were. I ate more of them than I usually do and I'm feeling it now.
If the forecast is wrong and it doesn't rain tomorrow, we're heading out on a Cat 2 ride around China Camp and Tiburon Loop.
Besides a good day for riding, it was a good week for fundraising. I sent out emails to almost everyone I know. This year is tough, so it's going to have to be an ain't too proud to beg season. Don't know if a $5000 jersey is in my future, but I'd sure like to hit my minimum. People have been incredibly generous despite these hard times. But I've got to keep doing this. I hope in my lifetime we see a cure for AIDS and my friends live long, happy lives.

White's Hill on a Fixie Tandem

is not something I recommend and I hope I never have to do it again.
It was a lovely weekend for riding, finally, so we took advantage of it.
Yesterday, we rode in northwest Marin, out to Inverness. We enjoyed ourselves immensely. We stopped at the Busy Bee Bakery in Inverness Park for a cinnamon bun and for me, coffee. I liked the bun, though it had either been around a while or had been overbaked. The outer edges were quite dry, but what I did like about it was its lack of stickiness. I am not a fan of gooey buns covered in glop and pecans. This was a nice, dry bun, but maybe just a little too dry. I had an Americano to go along with it, and Jerry had hot chocolate.
We went to the usual for lunch-- Comfort Food Cafe, then were home for the evening.
We finally watched a Netflix DVD that has been around the house for weeks. Young@Heart is a documentary about a chorus in Northampton Mass. made up of "older" people. They were all, in fact, older than me. I think the youngest was in her 70s and the oldest was 92. This was not your normal run of the mill chorus. This group of seniors sang songs by Sonic Youth, Talking Heads and Coldplay. The doc was full of interviews and some very fun "music videos." I highly recommend it.

Today we joined up with a training ride that was headed to Lagunitas. We rode to Lagunitas last weekend, so we knew what we were in for. Or so we thought.
Something happened on our way up White's Hill. The chain was sagging and we thought it had slipped off the gear cassette. But no, it was nothing that simple. Jerry thought it might be the derailleur out of tune, so he opened the gear bag and got out his wrenches and started fiddling. But no matter what he did, it would not get better. He then thought it might be the freewheel, and we figured out that if we didn't coast, we would be okay.
Do you know what not coasting down a hill is like on a tandem? It is a battle of wills and brakes. On the less steep side, Jerry performed admirably by keeping the speed down. We got to the Lagunitas Market and he flipped the bike over to see if he could fix it. No such luck. It was not in need of a minor adjustment. He figured we needed a new cassette.

We got back on the bike. The steep side of White's Hill was more of a challenge, but Jerry did keep our speeds down. We kept over to the side and now have more of an understanding of why people crash going down White's Hill. The side is full of gravel and it's easy to slip. We never ride down the side; we are usually going at least as fast as cars; they in fact, usually slow us down.

We stopped at a bike shop in Larkspur to get a new cassette, but when it was removed, we noticed the hub was shot. The guy there couldn't get off the old one, so Jerry's taking the bike back over there in a bit.

So we did Camino Alto with no coasting as well. I really notice a difference in my legs and how tired I am. Even when we weren't putting pressure on the pedals, all that pedaling really wears a person out.

When we got home, all we wanted to do was eat, and it was nothing memorable. But tonight we'll have one of our favorite dinners: movie popcorn. Not sure what we're going to go see, but we do know what we'll eat.