Smoke From Fires

These are photos I took this evening when the wind blew the smoke in again after almost a week of this. The smoke from the forest fires in Arizona is coming into New Mexico and causing a lot of air quality problems here. That is smoke in our skies here not clouds as it may look like in the photo. We haven't seen a blue sky in over a week. The machine that tests air quality normally reads about a 30 (what ever the scale may mean) and is reading about 200 when smoke is at it's worst right now. I have head that some of this smoke has been tracked all the way to Iowa. But at least we are not right on the edge of the fire as those that live near it are.

Glowing Clouds over McFarland Lake

After making the "Celestial Fantasy" photo I continued driving up the Arrowhead Trail until I arrived at the swimming beach on McFarland Lake, which is one of the best places in Cook County (in my opinion) to watch the northern lights. This beach has a great view to the north and the lake is often very calm at night, which means you can get great reflections of the lights in the water. Unfortunately when I arrived at the lake the sky was still completely covered with clouds. I hung around here for almost two hours hoping the sky would clear, but it never did. Several times, however, the cloud cover got thin enough that the glow from the lights could be seen even through the clouds. This particular photo is from one of those times when the clouds were thinner. It is my favorite photo made during my time at the lake waiting for the sky to clear.

While We're Still In Northeast

(From left to right-standing: Nick& Kiki Kendros, Pota& Peter Cokinos, Kalliope Cokinos)

Middle Row-Catherine Cokinos w/big bow, little George Cokinos

Seated:Bill Maofis and Harry Tagalos)



So I was looking in old photo albums when I found a picture of the Kendros and Cokinos families. Dad's been reading a bunch of crime books by a certain local writer with a Greek background, and it came back to him that our families have crossed paths and were all part of that H street scene.



I wanted to know more. (What else is new?) so I hooked Dad up with Ruby Kendros Pelecanos who is sharp as a tack, and sort of a cousin. She was born right around the corner from our family at 808 K Street. Her Dad, Nick Kendros, had the Woodward Sandwich Shop at 1422 H Street in the 1920s. She also remembered Bill Maofis who had a dry cleaner across H from our family's candy shop. Bill was godfather to my Uncle Nick and to Ruby as well. Her maternal grandfather, Harry Tagalos was great friends with our grandfather, Peter Cokinos, and her paternal grandmother, Economia was first cousins with him as well. (Peter that is) (Yep, my head hurts,too) And a lot of them made the trip from the tiny hamlet of Agoulnitsa, Greece all the way over here, so along with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, they got this city rolling. Hats off to those urban pioneers.

Another Gilia Tricolor

A bird's eye flower that opened just after a rainstorm.

Wild Flowers in the Mountains

I hope I am correct on these names. Purple is Bee Balm, then a type of ragweed, cat tails both a new green one and a dryed one, black-eyed-susans on the fence and later with grasshopper on it, small white is Queen Anne's Lace, larger white is bind weed (wild morning glory),

purple thisle (a new one and one that is fully open), milk weed seedpot, and a cone flower.

Cycling Indoors: the Kurt Kinetic Trainer

Last month I asked for advice about bicycle trainers, but after reading all the comments decided not to get one after all. It was the promise of horrific boredom that dissuaded me: I didn't want to get a trainer and then end up never using it. But several blizzards and several yards of snow later, I once again found myself climbing the walls and thinking that any way to be on my roadbike would surely do. My birthday is coming up, and so I asked the Co-Habitant to get me a trainer as an early gift - requesting that he do all the obsessive gadget research himself, and just present me with it as soon as possible.



He was suspicious at first."You want a trainer. For your birthday? Are you sure that's a sufficiently ...romantic gift?"



"It's a fine gift. Totally romantic. Just get it for me, please."



And so, since last week I have been the owner of aKurt Kinetic Road Machine Fluid Trainer. The model was on sale at the Wheelworks in Somerville, MA (they had four left as of last week), and the opportunity was ceased. It is lime green and in no way blends in with any normal household decor. It is a good thing we have a "bohemian" apartment where pretty much anything goes, including a bike plugged into a neon contraption in the middle of the bedroom.



To set up the trainer, you have to attach the rear wheel of the bicycle using a special skewer, so that the tire rests firmly against the mechanism which provides resistance. I would describe the set-up process as somewhat tricky: You have to align the wheel just right and tighten everything just so.



As you pedal, the resistance from the trainer is similar to the resistance you feel when cycling on the road.Beyond that, I admit that I have no idea how it works, and am not particularly curious as long as it does the job.Some prefer to put a block or a riser under the front wheel, but I feel fine without it.



To me, using the trainer emulates the cycling experience realistically insofar that I am on an actual bike, and that the sensation of pedaling really does feel like being on the road. What's different, is that the bicycle doesn't lean, as would have been natural on the road, and - oh yes - that I am in my bedroom, staring at a wall and going absolutely nowhere. After the first time I used the trainer, it became clear that I needed visual stimuli - music alone was not sufficient to counteract the mind-numbing effect of looking at nothing.



So I rigged up this "tower" using two wooden chairs (don't worry, they are very stable), which allowed me to place my laptop at eye level.



Thank goodness for Netflix and enormous earphones. The trainer is fairly quiet to begin with (the sound it makes is a sort of low hum - not high pitched or annoying), and if I had a TV rather than a tiny laptop, I don't think earphones would even be necessary. But the nice thing about using them, is that they drown out the sound of the trainer entirely, making it easier to get absorbed in the film and put my legs on autopilot.



It took me a couple of days on the trainer to learn how to pace myself. I guess on the road, there are factors that control my speed - traffic lights, obstacles, turns, and even just fear. With these factors gone, I had to keep forcing myself to slow down, so as not to get exhausted immediately. Watching a movie helps, because my pedaling starts to sync up with the highs and lows of the film - slowing down during the quiet parts and speeding up during the exciting parts. At the moment, I am able to keep going for 40 minutes at a time before needing to stop, but I am hoping to make it an hour by next week.



I don't want to give the impression that the trainer is anything other than what it is - a device that allows you to pedal your own bicycle as it remains stationary. The experience does not even begin to compare to "real" roadcycling, which to me is much more about exploration than about exercise. But if I approach it from the other end, and start with the given of wanting indoor exercise that emulates cycling, this trainer pretty much fits the bill. Having never tried others I can't compare, but the Kurt Kinetic trainer does everything I imagined a trainer doing, and it is quieter than I had hoped.



I think I have to face it that something in me has changed over the past year, and I now feel that my body "needs" strenuous exercise. I never thought that would happen to me, and I don't understand human physiology well enough to know how that works. All I know is, that I've been on a roadbike every day for the past week and I am feeling a little more like myself again. It's indoors, it's stationary and it's not real cycling - but I'll take it.

For the technically inclined gear geeks

I have been thinking my ski skills are much improved recently.



Then I thought a dose of reality was do. Call it a gut check or soul searching. Your choice.



For various reasons I waxed and took a pair of 207cm Rossignol 4Gs out for a spin yesterday. The skis are like new and when purchased in 1993, state of the art. Reality checked inonthe first turn. A few runs later and I was enjoying all the good things about an old school GS race ski. Solid under your feet. They carve like a Samurai sword and they are stiff enough to plow through anything.



Conditions were literally falling apart at Alpental yesterday. Snow turning to water the moment it hit you. BIG slide evidenceeverywhere inside the ski area and a foot or so of heavy snow generally cut up where it wasn't simply avi debris.



Truth is, almost perfect conditions for a snow board. But even they were finding the avi debris problematic.



The 4Gs were fun, but hard to turn prior to building up some speed (warp speed). Damn scary by comparison to a fat ski (or snow board) in the deep wetsnow. Pretty fun blasting through the chop though. It was the kind of day most of us simply didn't bother skiing BITD. Too much work and too easy to sink a tip and get seriously hurt.



Enter my 196cm Dynafit Huascaran. First turnwas easy. Mindless actually with almost exactly half the boot technology on. The previously frightening experience in the chopped up junk became almost (almost) playful by comparison. The entire mountain opened up to me...almost as much as it had been to the snow boarders. The Dynafit ski almostdoubles the surface area on the snow. 115mm under foot as compared to 67mm under foot. And the Dynafit is so much easier to ski in the majority of conditions I see on the hill.



And to be honest of all my skis this 196cm Huascaran isn't the easiest ski I own to ski.



So truth is my skiing skills haven't found a magically fountain of youth and improved skills. Instead I am lucky enough to see the gear improve enough that it haseasily made me a better skier. Imagine what you might be able to do!



"What would Trevor do?"



Dude, he'd change to a fat, rockeredskis.



http://www.denverpost.com/extremes/ci_11874810



More gear geek info here:



http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive//04/the-power-of-gear-how-technical-equipment-redefines-our-relationship-with-extreme-environments/275177/