Precipitation, accumulation

It's rainy. All week has been rainy. This means snow in the mountains, but I went skiing for the first time this season last weekend. Before the snow came. My timing isn't great right now, but we got a pretty awesome show on our way up Saturday thanks to a gorgeous sky and some freaky clouds. Looks like a cuttlefish.

On top of the rain, or perhaps somehow linked to it, I'm sick. These things combine to make me the least motivated human. I can barely fathom biking to work today, but hope that I will in the end. On that note though, since my last post I've been marking miles biked per day still, including the 5-mile round trip ride to work. That, plus a couple of modest rides, brings this update total to 234 miles, which isn't too bad at all. It's nice to see that little bits each day help. In fact, this is one of my favorite concepts in life and why I think I'm so drawn to water: repetition, time, and persistence, however small the stream of action or water, will in the end make a significant difference. Maybe it will be sunny again soon and I can keep going on rides.

The good rides have been challenging. The routes around here contain significantly more hills than my Tiburon rides (other than the Mt. Tam ride), and I'm more out of shape. This creates the unique challenge of trying to not blow up so that I can ride better for the whole route. My heart rate monitor has been crucial in this, and while it's hard to not just go for it, it's nice to have some instant feedback. It lets me release my normal frustrations; I don't care if I get passed, I don't care if I'm just grinding slowly up the climb. Requires toning down the killer instinct for a minute, but the logical coach reminds me that this is the best way to get fit. Blowing up will do no good. So hopefully, if I can do enough of these rides, I can start worrying about hunting other bikers more and less about my heart rate. Lugging 220+ lbs up 5-7 miles of continuous climbing is not conducive to bike hunting. Doesn't matter though, because the views along Skyline Drive are totally epic. I once went up Skyline from 92, and once down. Either way, seeing the ocean, San Francisco, and all the way down the bay to Milpitas is something special. Check it out.

On the theme of continuous little efforts resulting in larger positive results, I fixed some small things on the M5 which felt good. I found out that the electric switches you push to raise/lower the windows and sunroof fail after a while, and working used ones are readily available on eBay. Internet magic, as I researched the problem on the internet, then used internet money from blogging to pay a man on the internet to buy car pieces for a car I found on the internet. Also fixed a dead foglight. Both endeavors required small modifications, but it was fun to know that I could do it, and I'm glad to have those little gremlins solved for now.

So, plugging along. Contrasting the small streams, I'm trying to unleash the dam on my sickness and kill it in a deluge of liquid: tea, orange juice, water, and soup. Feeling slightly better today but still off. Maybe once the rain leaves it will wash away the scratchy throat and tight lungs, leaving me as sunny as a 75 degree March afternoon in Northern California.

One more cup of coffee before the... rain

Got a ride in. It wasn't easy despite being half of what I used to crush multiple times a week. Got behind a guy early and the competitive bike hunter would not be quieted. Chased him for a while until he peeled off on a different route. Later saw that he took a shorter way while he was stopped on his cell phone. He eventually caught back up and I was too blown up to stay with him for more than a few miles. Frustrating, but motivating. Crystal Springs was gorgeous and flat, and the rolling of Canada looked worse going out than it felt on the way back.

Ended up with 32.5 miles at 16.6 mph. It's a start.

New Years, Revolutions

Never been much for resolutions, and this New Year is definitely a revolution more in the way of a new cycle beginning again as opposed to an upheaval or large change. The large changes in my life began last year, so 2012 is more of the new revolution gaining momentum. I see it as a giant concrete wheel, on top of which I have stacked a ton of shit. New car, new house, larger job on top of the considerable amount of life happening before all of those things. They sit on top of the 2012 wheel as it creaks into motion, gaining speed and momentum with each moment.

Biking has been limited to commuting, but the crucial part in this is that by moving to the Peninsula, there is no reason I should ever drive to work. It takes as long or longer, is less convenient, and I'd usually end up taking my bike and biking to the office from free parking anyways. 15 minutes and 3 miles on my single speed makes it awesome. With that, there's a slight uptick in my mileage, though I'm hoping that will start to increase faster as I get more settled and get back on the real bike. With no practices today and my morning meetings done, today might be the day to get that going. A resolution seems trite, as there is a constant battle to run against the treadmill of time and lethargy towards a little more fitness.

The car has continued to be a revolution, in ways I had planned and some I had not. Perhaps two anecdotes sum it up, or start to. First, the bad in some "growing pains," involving several trips to the mechanic. The steering became loose on the road trip home which turned out to be broken steering box mounts. An expensive but solid fix left me feeling good as I drove Mean Marcus up to Washington for the holidays, but the steering got a little wonky on the drive back down, which was both depressing in thinking about the fix not working, and disconcerting as I flew through mountain passes significantly above the speed limit. But, I made it, got the steering box tightened, and things are mostly better other than realizing that someday it will require a new steering box which, thanks to the rarity of the car, is several thousand dollars.

The flipside of this is best represented by the day I returned from our weeklong training camp in Sacramento and Lake Tahoe immediately after New Years. After a week driving a Ford F-350 SuperDuty with a 60-foot long trailer, I got home late in the evening before morning practice the next day. I hopped in the M5 just to hear it for a minute. As soon as he rumbled to life, shaking the garage and jostling awake my love for cars, I started laughing uncontrollably. This continued as I shut him off, walked up stairs, and went to bed.

I don't expect 2012 to be an easy road. In fact, I think there are some big challenges ahead, the car being one of them but certainly not the greatest. The team is strong but needs more. Camps will still be a clusterbake. And I'm sure there are plenty of things hiding out there that will knock me down a few pegs. 2012, whatever you've got, I'm ready for it.

Faith revolution: A long overdue "thank you"

As we packed up the M5 and prepared to strike out into the dark Tennessee night, my brother said something that has stuck with me. In saying our goodbyes to Curtis, Coop said "Thanks for making my little brother's dreams come true. And thanks for restoring my faith in humanity. I have to admit, I was a little wary when he first said he wanted to fly across the country and buy a car, but you have shown us how awesome people can be." I've been meaning to write a post about Curtis, the seller of what is now my car, for quite a while. But things pop up; first it was the journey itself, followed by the recent whirlwind of moving for the first time in 2 years, all while trying to get the M5 up to smogging standards. But more than enough time has passed, and I want to say "Thank You, Curtis."

The initial suggestion on MyE28.com to investigate the clean, reasonably-priced M5 in Tennessee seemed like any of my normal internet-based car searches: daydreams and wishes, wishes and daydreams. I was fresh off having an M5 so close I could taste it. It was local, it had 30k on a rebuilt engine, and I drove it. Hoowee, that sound, how could I say no to that? But it had plenty of blemishes, enough to make me pull myself from the tractor beam and into reality. If I was going to spend the money on my dream car, I knew damn well I had to do it right. But still, how the hell was I going to get a car that was over 2,000 miles away?

I toyed with the idea a little, mostly creating hypothetical possibilities with large amounts of skepticism. How does one ship a car? How do you know it is as it looks on the internet? How do you know that, despite the vouching of people who seem to have credible followings and trust on a most specific internet community, the guy isn't going to screw you over? How do you send money across the country safely? At the bottom of it all, how do you trust someone on the internet?

Well, Curtis was the man to put those worries to rest. I emailed him regarding his car. It was still for sale. He wanted to talk on the phone about it, so we connected. Over the course of several conversations about the cars, and several hours swimming in car-nerd talk, I got the distinct feeling that this guy loved this car. He loved it so much that he didn't really want to sell it, and he held such an interest in getting it to a good owner that he didn't care that he was getting far less than he had put into it. He could list the work put into it with such detail, often repeated casually in different discussions, that it became clear the car was real and his intentions were good. He offered to help take care of a few remaining issues he wanted fixed and split the cost with me, got a stereo installed for the trip back, and just generally held up more than his end of the bargain.

After documenting my journey, someone on MyE28 messaged me and asked about how to be sure of buying a car long-distance. It was hard to respond, because basically I wouldn't recommend doing what I did. Serendipitously, I found a seller who was a genuinely good person and held the rare quality of caring that I came out of the deal happy as well. I will forever be grateful to Curtis for his kindness and generosity. I don't think there are too many people out there like that, but then again, Curtis has affirmed that there are some people out there like that, and that's a good start.

Wee wee wee all the way home

After the long road west, a restful Thanksgiving week in LA was much-needed. Plenty of stories to come on this including failed smog tests, backwards tires, swimming in the ocean in November and charging up Big Sur. With work and moving to a new home looming tomorrow, those stories will have to wait. For now, hopefully some pictures will do.

Made it!

Landed in Manhattan Beach, CA. Stoked.

33 hours of driving, 2100 miles, and lots of memories. More later.