Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition – Page 13

Meet Lightning

A month ago, I shared a picture of G [finally] riding his new bike, with a promise of a full story later. Bike month seems an appropriate time to make good on that promise.

Our first outing on the new bike went fairly well, but after that we reached a stalemate. It was all we could do to convince G to even get on the bike. I turned to the interwebs for some advice, and ended up at a Sheldon Brown page, which had this advice on running with a child:

The parent should hold the child by the shoulders and run along behind. It is important that the parent not hold the handlebars-the child cannot learn the feel of balancing if the parent is taking control of the bike. If the parent holds onto the saddle or any other part of the bike, the child will not necessarily realize if they are leaning a bit to one side or the other, because the parent will be correcting for them.

Instead, hold the child by the shoulders, so that as they lean to the side, they will feel the side pressure, and can learn to reduce it by turning into the lean. This should be done in a wide flat space, such as an empty parking lot. The parent should not make any attempt to steer the child, just let the bike go where it will.

I thought I’d been doing good by holding on to the back of his seat rather than the handlebars, but the above advice made a lot of sense, and I was itching to try it, so after nap time that day, I told Gabriel that I had a new idea for helping him ride his bike. Unfortunately, I had a less-than-willing subject.

Once outside, G was more interested in his sandbox than the bike. When I finally coaxed him onto the bike, he lasted all of 1/4 of a block before declaring that he was finished. Sigh!

Our next attempt ended in us conceding to training wheels (which I’d REALLY hoped to avoid). I followed the Sheldon Brown advice for proper training wheel use, and adjusted the training wheels to leave some wobble. At first, we left too much wobble [for G’s comfort]. We adjusted the training wheels closer to the ground, leaving just a tiny bit of wobble, but by that point he was pretty much done for the day.

The Saturday of Easter weekend, we towed G’s bike to the local school playground, which features a big open paved space. After some time playing on the equipment, we proposed the idea of a bike ride. No joy.

Then Matthew suggested that G’s new bike was feeling lonely because he wasn’t riding it. One of us (don’t remember who) had the idea to ask Gabriel if he wanted to name the bike. He settled on “Lightning” (an imminently practical name, as it has lightning bolts on it), and we started talking about how Lightning wanted to go for a ride. We finally succeeded in engaging Gabriel (and Lightning) in a game of follow-the-leader.

For now, [empty] parking lots, or other big, flat, empty paved spaces, are going to be our best riding locations. Sidewalks just have too many distractions, and present too many obstacles — bumps, frequent intersections and alleys, etc. It does mean we’ll have to continue towing G’s bike to said locations — not hard, per se, but we do need to protect Big Blue. I’m pretty sure the towing was what caused this damage to Big Blue’s frame.

Xtracycle is selling touch-up paint, but we were planning to pair the order with the Hooptie to save on shipping, and the Hooptie is now out of stock until July. Anyway, eventually we’ll get this fixed, and then we plan to use some kind of padding to protect it. (A bikey friend suggested part of an old rubber bead bicycle tire wrapped around this part of the frame.)

Between life, allergies, and illness, we haven’t actually gotten Lightning out again (so it’s been over a month — boo!). I did replace the worn-out handlebar grips with a new, bright red pair (G’s color request). I was still debating other “decorating” options — decals, stencils and paint, etc. — and now G is saying he’ll wait to ride in until said decorations are in place. Argh!

I’m trying to remind myself that this is a learning process, just like anything else. When in the throws of it, potty learning felt similarly frustrating and never-ending, but it was just a stage that’s now past and that I don’t even think about any more. Eventually, G will be able to ride a bicycle without training wheels — pushing too much now is only frustrating all of us (and perhaps making G more resistant).

We’re also in the process of getting a tag-a-long bike (a Burley Piccolo), and I’m hoping riding that will make him more comfortable on his own bike (that is, if he deigns to even get on the Piccolo — at least it’s already a nice color . . . ).

New bike at long last

As I mentioned in my previous post, on Friday, I finally bit the bullet and bought a bike (to replace the departed Baby Jake). I ended up purchasing a 2013 Kona Dew Deluxe that I’d actually been curious about even before Baby Jake’s demise.

First, a bit of back story. At the beginning of April, I test rode a beautiful baby blue Salsa Vaya 2 that was for sale on Craigslist. I knew the 56cm frame size was a bit of a stretch for me (the Salsa sizing chart says I’m just barely tall enough for a 56cm; my ideal frame size with them would be a 54cm or 55cm), but if it worked, I would have had an awesome bike for a good price. The 56cm frame was totally rideable, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t wishing it into being, so I arranged for the owner to take it into The Hub for both a frame check (it was in amazing condition, but it was enough of an investment that confirming that didn’t hurt) and a fit check. As I suspected, the frame was in great shape, but when we looked at the fit, their advice is that the 56cm was really a stretch for me. We maybe could have made it work, but it wasn’t what they would put me on. So, even though it would have been a good deal, on a bike that is otherwise inaccessible to me, I let it go.*

On Friday, I went into The Hub to test ride the Dew Deluxe, and another bike, the Scott Sub 10. Both bikes had been hanging out in the shop for awhile (quite awhile for the Kona, given the model year). The Kona caught my eye with it’s stock front rack, fenders, and cute integrated bell. The Scott? Well, the color was the first thing that caught my eye . . .

Thought you can’t tell in the photo, it’s metallic green. The color (and matching fenders) caught my eye, as well as the belt drive (i.e., it has a belt in place of a chain — belts are very durable, provide really quiet operation, and don’t get greasy and gunky like a traditional chain). It also has an internal hub (Shimano Alfine 8, so eight speeds), which I enjoy on Big Blue, and disc brakes, at a price that seems VERY reasonable for all of those features.

So, on Friday morning, I went into The Hub to ride both bikes (I’d taken the Kona for a spin a few months ago). And while it seemed crazy, I kind-of had in my head that I would be leaving with one of those bikes.

The Kona Dew Deluxe is a 9-speed (so only one chain-ring in front), and, like the Scott bike, it has disc brakes. Both bikes have aluminum frames. Though it’s silly, there was definitely part of me that was drawn to having “Her Green Bike” to match my blog.

While the gear range on the 9-speed Kona seemed similar to that on the 8-speed Scott, it felt like the Kona’s lowest (i.e., easiest) gear was a bit lower than the Scott’s. I found some decent hills to test them on, and, while I made it up on the [unloaded] Scott, I was a bit concerned about what would happen with some cargo. (Big Blue’s internal hub is the Shimano Alfine 11, and it definitely has a wider gear range than the Alfine 8).

If I’m not happy with the Kona Dew’s gearing, I could add an additional front chain ring fairly affordably (not super cheap, since I would also need the front shifter), but there weren’t a lot of options for the gearing of the Scott (short of maybe upgrading to the Alfine 11, but that would be pretty pricey, and I wasn’t sure it would even fit on the bike), and in the end, that tipped the scales in favor of the Kona.

Despite the fact that I’ve been looking for EIGHT months, this felt like something of an impulse buy. Matthew said he wanted to see the look on the faces of everyone at The Hub when I finally. bought. something. When I relayed this comment to the folks at The Hub, Ron said they’d just sold a bike to a guy who’d been coming in and looking for three YEARS. So clearly I should have waited longer, right?

When it came down to it, I was just ready to have something (other than BUB) again. A hybrid bike suits almost all of the riding I do at present. I still see something like the Salsa Vaya or the Surly Long Haul Trucker (or maybe the Cross Check or the Troll) in my future. While my bike hunt is technically over, I’ll still be glancing at Craigslist for a Salsa Vaya (that is both my size AND not stolen) from time to time, and I’ll keep on eye on the available color options for the Surly bikes. I may find something in 2 months, or it may not be for ten years.

In the meantime, I’m working on getting my new bike up to speed. I was able to salvage most of the accessories from Baby Jake, so the Dew now was water bottle cages, light mounts, and a kickstand (like the Scott, the Dew Deluxe came with matching fenders — it was nice not having to mess with that install). While undamaged, the rear rack from Baby Jake, doesn’t quite fit the Dew. I was a little frustrated that I couldn’t reuse the rack, but it became somewhat of a moot point because we just ordered a Burley Piccolo (tag-a-long) for Gabriel(!), and that requires using Burley’s proprietary “Moose Rack,” so I’ll be putting that rack on the Dew. With any luck, I’ll have it all set up in time for the CyclingSavvy class I’m teaching on Saturday!

*I’ve built up a pretty strong customer loyalty to The Hub. Unfortunately, Salsa has an exclusive contract with another local bike shop, and The Hub can’t play. Until or unless I find a used Vaya, that bike is inaccessible to me.

Allergies and busy bees

I feel like it was just Easter . . . and then I blinked and four weeks flew by!

Awful allergies
Seasonal allergies hit all three of us hard at the beginning of the month. We took G to the doctor, thinking it was something infectious, but he said he’d been seeing kids like that all morning and it was allergies. Our pediatrician prescribed a low dose of Claritin, which seemed to help. (After feeling pretty funky ourselves, despite our regular Neti pot habit, Matthew and I jumped on the Claritin bandwagon, too.)

Busy bees
April was pretty crazy around these parts. The day after Easter, my MIL had a hip replacement. Fortunately, it went well, though getting back to “normal” has taken a bit longer than she expected/hoped. She is both Gabriel’s main caregiver (when he’s not at preschool), as well as Matthew’s main gardening partner-in-crime, so we really noticed her absence.

Matthew was really busy work-wise the first half of the month. No sooner did things settle down for him than MY work kicked into high gear. As a result, my meditation practice started to fall by the wayside (just when I needed it the most, of course). But there’s light at the end of the tunnel!

And into May . . .
The first few days of May are giving April a run for their money. On Friday, my eight-month-long bike hunt [kind-of] ended when I purchased a Kona Dew Deluxe.

And, for better or worse, I got my first-ever smart phone. (Good news — it’s looking like I may be smart enough to use said phone!)

Saturday was a catch-up day. A bit of phone learning and bike tinkering, though not quite what I’d hoped, because the rear rack from my previous bike didn’t quite fit on the newbie.

We ventured out early Sunday morning for a bike-by of a property that had an open house later in the day. We confirmed that we did, indeed, want to make it to the open house that afternoon. The trip was extra productive because the route we took on our bikes led to the discovery of 4-5 more letter-worthy properties (that we wouldn’t have found by car).

In the afternoon, we went back for the open house, and decided we wanted to make an offer. And then things got crazy. We seem to attract seller’s agents who like using the “give us your highest and best offer by X date and time” technique.

Sunday night and Monday morning were spent scrambling to figure out and put together a reasonable offer, all with our realtor somewhat out of commission due to injury and illness, and us dealing with Gabriel being ill, as well. (Plus some work deadlines I had — crazy days, I tell you!)

Matthew took the day off work to be with Gabriel (another diagnosis of pneumonia, I’m afraid), while I dealt with the house stuff. Our offer is submitted (one of at least three offers they received), so now it’s just a waiting game. I’m enjoying finally having a bit of space to breathe, especially because it might be temporary.

Earth Day, every day

What kind of “green” blogger doesn’t post on Earth Day? This one, apparently (though that has not been true every year: 2011, 2012, 2013).

While “Earth Day, every day” sounds cliché, it really is something that we need all people, corporations, governments, etc. to embrace, rather than simply creating hype for one day and then returning to familiar unsustainable practices.

For me, this year’s business-as-usual Earth Day involved biking to the library (sharing books instead of buying) and a yoga class, lunching on our potatoes and asparagus (plus some non-local beans and broccoli), and biking to a school tour (the school is now near the bottom of my list due to the pick-up time madness that results when every child is transported in a separate motor vehicle).

That said, Earth Day can be a good time to check-in and look for areas of improvement, whether that’s catching little lapses that have become habits, or looking for new ways to further lighten our footprints on this planet.

With the severe drought in California, it’s a good time to visit water conservation ideas. One of our small, but regular, practices is capturing the water that runs while waiting for hot water. In our second story apartment, we usually capture a gallon of [cold] water while waiting for the pipes to warm (a bit more in the winter) in the shower or in the kitchen for washing dishes. We reuse plastic 1-gallon milk and apple cider jugs (of which we don’t generate a lot) for this purpose.

After sitting to dechlorinate, this captured water, which would otherwise just go down the drain, is perfect for our potted plants. In the summer, when the plants are using a lot of water, we sometimes go through more than we can capture.

If you don’t have plants to water, you could use this captured water when doing laundry –just add it to the machine as it’s filling — or perhaps to wash the floors or some such.

While I’m not planning on participating in the local Earth Day festival activities (on Sunday 4/26 here in StL), I do want to make it to the recycling extravaganza. Over the past couple of years, we’ve accumulated a broken toaster oven (we let G use it as a toy for a bit, but I’m ready to get it out of here), electric mixer, humidifier, grow light fixture, and a few dead AA and AAA batteries. While I wish these items (particularly the humidifier and grow light) had had longer lifespans, at least we can keep some of this out of the landfill. Being able to get all of this to the right place for recycling at one convenient drop-off point sounds pretty good!

So, let’s share inspiration — what’s one “Earth Day, every day” tip that you have, that others could adopt?

The seven year house hunt

Sometime in April of 2009, Matthew and I made our first offer on a house. It was a low offer (but one we felt was fair, for an amount we were comfortable paying for the house in question), and it went nowhere. It was by no means our “dream property,” and we didn’t want a starter home, so we shrugged it off.

Our house hunt it now entering its seventh year. In that time, we’ve made a handful of offers, usually low offers on something that might have worked, but that we weren’t too sad to pass on.

It feels like we’re looking for a needle in a haystack (I thought there was a previous post outlining what we’re looking for, but I guess I need to work on that). In the past six plus years, we’ve viewed hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of online listings. The listings are first filtered through some of our criteria for price, lot square footage, location, and number of bedrooms.

If something looks interesting, the next step is to pull up a satellite view. Sure, it may have a BIG yard, but is it a big, SUNNY yard? Or does it have the potential to be a big sunny yard, i.e., are there trees we can remove, or is the shade coming from neighboring buildings and/or trees on neighboring lots?

On the maps, we also look at proximity to highways, train tracks, and other NIMBY factors, as well as looking at transportation options. We’ve already limited our search to locations that would be bikeable [to current/potential work sites], distance-wise, but what would it actually be like to bike from Y to Z? Is it at all convenient for public transit? What about walkability?

The map test significantly reduces the number of properties that are actually worth seeing in person, but every now and then it happens. Yesterday was one of those days, and the property in question even had an open house.

I like attending open houses because it means we don’t have to waste our realtor’s time with an official showing. (I like the realtor we’re currently working with, and after over six years and at least as many realtors, I’d like to hang on to this one.) With an open house, you just show up, pop in, and you’re on your way.

Of course, the last few years of house hunting have been with a little one in tow. The hardest part of this by far is scheduling viewings around his sleep times; compared to that, the actual house tours are a piece of cake! When he was little, we would just stick G in the Ergo and wear him while we toured houses.

Things are a little trickier now, but fortunately G is pretty flexible and low-key. If we’re viewing a clean, safe property, we’ll sometimes bring a favorite toy or two and give him the option of walking around with us or plopping down somewhere with his toys. (Dirty properties, or those with hazards, are a bit trickier, but we don’t encounter too many of those.)

Anyhow, I brought a couple of toys to yesterday’s open house, but G was content to walk around with us. We had finished viewing the main floor, and Matthew opened the door to the basement. In addition to an immediate view of some rather creative plumbing (I don’t think you ever really want to hear the word “creative” applied to plumbing), we were met with a special stench, which Matthew identified as cat pee (the owners had already moved out, so there are neither humans nor cats living in the house at the moment).

All in all, the basement was less than inviting, and Gabriel said he didn’t want to go downstairs. I was also fine passing on that experience, so I suggested the two of us check out the second floor. Now, Gabriel really likes cats, and I could tell that he was curious about Matthew’s comment. In a quiet voice (so the realtor showing the house couldn’t hear), I tried to explain why we thought there had been a cat (or cats) in the house. So we’re climbing the stairs up to the second floor, and Gabriel gets this really serious look on his face and says, “But what color was the cat?”

His non sequitur totally cracked me up, and now I feel inspired to use that line at random in conversations. “Yes, I see your point, but what color was the cat?”

Unfortunately, after our quick walk through, we deemed yesterday’s house yet another non-starter — the location would have been great for both biking and walking, and decent for transit, and the house itself had some nice features, but the actual usable garden space wasn’t as big as we’d hoped, it was overpriced for the updates it needed, and we’re not sold on the school district. It all added up to a big N-O. And so the search continues . . . .

Previous house hunting posts:

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*I’ve built up a pretty strong customer loyalty to The Hub. Unfortunately, Salsa has an exclusive contract with another local bike shop, and The Hub can’t play. Until or unless I find a used Vaya, that bike is inaccessible to me.

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