Searching for Easter

In 1992, my friend Tisha and her boyfriend Fritz very kindly drove about 80 miles out of their way to pick me up to take me to Tisha's mom's house for Easter dinner. The day was warm and spring bulbs were in bloom. I listened, many times over, to the Cowboy Junkies' Black-Eyed Man while I was doing whatever I did until they came to pick me up. Every Easter since then, I've played the album (and the song Oregon Hill at least twice), which oddly (given the lyrics) makes me think of spring and flowers.

A few years ago, my friend Matt and I started going for Easter rides. That's how I have that great photo of me kissing the big bunny sculpture along the creek. Today we went Searching for Easter,* or things that made us think of Easter. It was a fun multi-city scavenger hunt, with mixed results.

I've never seen a bunny costume like this.
I thought maybe it was a statue, but then it waved.
I had to stop on my way to meet Matt.

The angle isn't great, but the rabbit was very nice.

Matt and I rode to the Swedish Institute which has this
temporary golden egg sauna. The photos of the
inside look really cool. It is intended to be an incubator
of ideas and discussion.

We rode downtown, crossed the river, past the U, and to the
Conservatory. We were in search of tulips, and thought there'd be
some outside. We found blooming bulbs inside. And Easter lilies.

A perfect burst of spring color. Pretty soon,
Minnesota will be green. It is rather brown still.

We rode to the capitol to see if they had any flowers or rabbit
statues or secular eggs. Nada. But the sun peeked out and
we admired the beauty of the capitol and the shiny gold statues.

We tooled around St. Paul, rode up the Smith Avenue Bridge for the first time since it was refurbished, and saw the river from the bluffs. After parting ways back at the Fort, I saw a bald eagle and a deer, but that's pretty common, so I didn't take any photos of them.

Now that the snow has melted everywhere, I need to start looking for hills to start training for the ride I'll do in California. I have some in mind, but given the high water on the river, they aren't accessible yet.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/GoMaggieGo


*IMDB tells me that there are at least 200 shows or movies with "Searching for..." as the title. I didn't see any called Searching for Easter. I should have filmed today's adventures and made a documentary. A very, very short documentary, after all necessary editing occurs.

Coincidences Mean You're on the Right Path

“Coincidences mean you're on the right path.” 
― Simon Van Booy,

Today was mostly sunny, in the 60's - - quite a change from last week when we were prepping for a multi-day, many-inch snowstorm. There is still a loon hanging around at the lake down the street and the male cardinals are pretty much louder than any other creature in the universe. (I do not think that's an exaggeration, although the spring peeper frogs were really loud the other day over by Cedar Lake.)

I decided to go for a ride after work, and took longer than intended (as always) getting out the door and on my bike. I debated the direction to go, since it was rush hour. Once I was on my bike, I decided to head toward St. Paul. So, the odds of my crossing paths with my friend Matt heading the opposite direction to Minneapolis while we both were crossing the Mendota Bridge were pretty low. But there you go! What do you do when the universe puts the person you most regularly ride with right next to you? You decide which direction you both will go. And we chose my path.

It was a great night for a ride. We crossed through a couple of road closed signs, rode on some streets that were full of sand from the recent floods, and very adultishly decided not to ride through standing water.

I apologized to Matt for having to ride with me as I wore this outfit, which I put on because it was within reach when I was trying to get out the door. He noted that it was rather striking. I am hoping that I will win the "most creative workout outfit" in our contest at work, especially since I didn't try when I put this ensemble together.

Don't worry, I buckled it when riding.

It was such a great night for riding and what a bonus to be able to ride with a friend.

Speaking of friends - - - thanks, friends! I am only $235 away from my fundraising goal of $5000. I think I will be able to get there by mid-May, which is my goal. Woo hoo! http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/GoMaggieGo

I sure appreciate the creative help I got from my friends this year - especially Annie and Ann - and thought I should document THE ONE AND ONLY TIME you'll see me with gold and green shamrock fingernails, compliments of Ann. I confess, though, that I also put these on my toenails and am not nearly as opposed to gold toenails.

 

So festive!

Getting down to non-brass tacks

I escaped the Midwest, changing my work-from-home locale to the home of one of my sisters and her family for a couple of days, and spending the weekend with them. In addition to the good quality family time (and remarkably productive work days, plus a delicious treat of cream tea), my sister and I went to the Cantor art museum at Stanford with her friend, where they have a huge collection of Rodin's work and some really cool temporary exhibits. I also got in a nice ride with my brother-in-law, although it was cut unexpectedly short.

Obviously not a temporary exhibit.
Cool serpent fence thing. If I lived on an
estate and was rich,
I would do this.

I was totally enamored with this exhibit by
Josiah McElheny - the intersection of art &
physics. Huge lit up constellation things
that they wouldn't let you photograph up close.
You also had to stand >3 from them. The security
guard confessed that she does, indeed, lie on the
floor under them at the end of her shift.

Rodin's Gates of Hell

The Thinker is cool, but look at the guy
hanging from the ledge.

Creepy skulls and all that jazz.

It's a good thing that last weekend's
bike ride-induced neck injury has
gotten much better, so that I
can do things like this once again.
Rodin's sculptures have unusually
large hands and feet.

Today, my brother-in-law and I rode up Old La Honda Road, which apparently is "the" hill to ride up in the area (although the one we rode up in the fall has a higher elevation gain). We stopped shortly before the top. Despite my panting and sweating (sweating! outdoors!), I was willing to finish, but we turned around and had a great, long, long, ride down the hill. Thankfully, I didn't ride over a tack and get a flat tire until the bottom of the hill, where controlled steering was less important.

A very shiny bulletin board tack.
Not a construction or furniture tack.

Sad flat tire.

Apparently peeved area homeowners have been known to put tacks on the road to sabotage the riders.
It reminds me, yet again, of Boffo and the Great Motorcycle Race.

Oddly, neither of us had thought of bringing spare tubes, a patch kit, or a pump on the ride. Doh. And, unlike Boffo, we did not find any nearby lactating animals to help us out. My sister had to come and get me, taking off the part of the ride with the good view of the bay, but at least I got to do some hard riding and some fun winding downhills among the redwoods.

I don't think I'll be back here until I do the 100-mile BikeMS ride in September, with 6000+ feet of elevation gain. Since I'll be riding my niece's bike for that ride, I ordered new tires and tubes and some bar ends directly to my sister's house, and will bring my spare bike seat. I will have to get some serious riding in between now and then. It's going to be hard with the hills! 

Now it is back to Minnesota, where apparently we're in for some snow this week. Oh joy. At least I'm now within $600 of my fundraising goal! Woo! Thanks to all who've donated or supported me in other ways! http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/GoMaggieGo