Whispers from Beyond the Death of the iOS Blogger App

Hello, friends!

A lot has happened since my last post in October 2015. A quick timeline:

• June 2016: Twins turned one!
• August 2016: Learned we were expecting one more!
• April 2017: Baby Bee arrived!
• June 2017: My office moved from 7 miles away from home to 1.5 miles away!
• Summer/early Fall 2017: Hotter and more humid than a dog's mouth.
• Mid-Fall 2017: PERFECT biking weather. 

I was able to sneak in a couple of rides to and from work before it was getting dark before I could get home. I found my helmet (need a new one!) lights, and get them charged, but I'm not feeling very organized about it just yet and plan to start fresh in the spring when the days are a bit longer and the temps a bit more favorable. 

The twins are now two-and-a-half, and the baby is almost 9 months old. We were gifted my brother-in-law's bike trailer (yay!) this summer, so when it warms a bit, I'd also like to take the Tinies (the twins) on our local bike trail (Grant's Trail, from Kirkwood to Mehlville). My BIL also provided us with two helmets appropriate for young children, so we're all set.

I have also been able to walk to and from work a couple of times but that also requires organization and a bit more time over my schedule than I've managed with a nursing baby. But she'll have broader food options in a few more months and with my 40th birthday(!) coming up later this year, I plan to reinstate a lot of things that have been pushed aside for high-risk pregnancy or to care for three very young people in the past 3.5 years. (How? So fast. So long. So everything.)

Goals for my 40s:

• Ride/walk to work as often as possible
• Start running again
• Streamline my wardrobe and possessions
• Capsule wardrobes 

I hope to start posting more regularly here again - I'll aim for once a week.
It's good to be back. ❤🚲

Postpartum Peeps

Hello there!

It's been a long time since I've checked in here. SO much has changed since my January post. A few seasons, to begin with. Also: our family. And my address! Let's catch up, shall we?

Babies! 
Over the summer, I gave birth to boy/girl twins! We are all doing so well and they are now about three months old. I had a Caesarean section with them, and while recovering from the surgery itself wasn't terrible, I am finding recovering from a twin pregnancy in my upper 30s to be pretty incredible. I have been assured that some of this is due to hormonal changes that are sustained while nursing, but gracious. I feel like a little, old arthritic lady more often than not these days! The weight has largely come off though, my energy levels are stabilizing, and the babies sleep pretty well, so those are three great things going for all of us. The kiddos are absolutely darling and I am completely smitten! I remain really excited to introduce them to bicycling, which I plan to do in the spring when they have better head control! I am looking at Burley trailers as a possible Christmas present.

Location, location, location! 
As if doubling our family isn't enough (haha. sigh.), we also moved over the summer. We bid adieu to our little house and purchased a new, larger family home a couple of miles west of the first one. From a biking perspective, this is good, bad, and neutral. The good news is that we're in a neighborhood with more gridlike streets, which opens up cycling routes for me and for the kiddos when they are old enough to ride independently. We're also part of a more complete community, so we have things to ride to within a 1-2 mile radius of our new home, like the Y, library, shops, restaurants, church, etc. So I am really excited about incorporating bicycling to those places into my life, and until I can ride with them (or independently) more easily, I like that these places are also within walking distance of our new home. The bad news is that I've added 2.5 miles to my work commute, which, given how slowly I ride and the busy-ness of part of the route, means I probably won't ride my bike to work much, if ever. When I was 6 miles from work, it took me a solid 50 minutes to get there or home. I imagine adding another 2.5 miles to that would add another 20 minutes to the commute, and while I'd be willing to try it more readily if it was just me at the hubby, for the foreseeable future, there are two small people to feed and take care of the morning, and I can't fairly leave that to my husband, nor do I really want to plan to be up for the day at 5:30am, which I'd need to do to get riding early enough to get to work at a decent hour, only to hit issues at the other end, where I'd either have to leave work early to get home in time to release our nanny or plan to pay her for extra time. All in all, it just doesn't make sense right now. I'm a little bummed, but the other reasons we chose this neighborhood ultimately trump bike commuting to work, which I think I would only have done regularly if we'd shortened my work commute to 3 miles or less, and that radius around my office didn't offer much that made sense for us at this point in our lives. In neutral news, I'm the exact same distance to and from my local multi-use trail, so hey!

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Plans.
So that's where we are. I find myself feeling physically ready to ride again, but with that we're finally in a place to work on our home on the weekends. So I may not be able to ride a whole lot this fall after all -- if I do, I will definitely be writing about it, though, so it may be worth checking in once in a while. I will try to post more regularly again once I have figured out how to fit bicycling back into my drastically updated life!

x

Make it Work: Trek Mountain Bike

Happy Friday, friends! 

Let's go on a virtual bikey shopping-spree, shall we?

Today, I want to talk about my moutain bike. I worked in a bicycle shop in my hometown when I was in high school, when mountain bikes were the thing. As I mentioned in my initial post, I cycled (heh) through a few mountain bikes due to bike theft (my hometown is kind of steal-y about these things, though my second MTB was actually stolen from the flat we were staying in in London for the summer in 1995). While I was working at the shop, I purchased an alumnium-frame Trek 8000, then upgraded the fork to Shox. It has its original tires. My bike looks like this, except for the headset and Shox:

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It's a gorgeous bicycle, and I love the color scheme - loved it in 1996 and love it today (charcoal and yellow are a fab pairing). I also have a yellow bottle cage. That said, I wouldn't mind it getting a slightly more sophisticated style. I'd ideally like to make the following modifications (not in order of preference):

1. Upgraded saddle - The current saddle is not comfortable and the gel cover I have over it shifts and doesn't help much. Plus, since I've been riding again, I'm a little more accustomed to the bike saddle. I would like to get a Brooks, since I don't like this saddle (I don't LOVE the Linus' stock saddle, but it works just fine, so if I'm going to spend money to replace a saddle, it will be the MTB's). I like the ochre ($117.00).

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2.  Smooth tires. Let me be honest: I've never been a big "off road" girl. I don't mind fairly flat trails, but I'm not going to "shred" and never have. I like my spine and noggin intact, and I'm not an aggressive- or competitive-sports girl. The knobby tires slow me down. I'd like to get smooth tires. These Kwenda Kwests (~$25 each) would be fabulous . 

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3. Rear-view mirror. Always. I am particular to Sunlite mirrors, because they are crazy-inexpensive (under $8.00) and large and have reflectors on the back. Also, they mount to the handlebars instead of the bar ends which means your grips remain intact. Speaking of grips...

4. I'm now obsessed with these grips... ($81.00) to match the ochre Brooks saddle. My plan is coming together nicely...

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5, 6, 7, 8. The foregoing address cosmetic and comfort issues. From a truly-practical standpoint, I'd also need a kickstand ($29.00), rack ($90.00), fenders ($55.00), and I'd like a chain guard ($29.00) to protect my pants. I have combined them, because VeloORANGE makes gorgeous accessories. All photo credits below are VeloORANGE. 

I would be inclined to order two of the kickstand, since the single-leg variety (which I have on my Linus) doesn't do well with heavy loads, or since I've added the front basket. 

9. Finally, I'd like a pannier for the Trek. The narrow Philosophy Burnside is perfect, and the grey and black is really sleek (if a little expensive at $259.00).

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10. Bonus? A bell. Can get those anywhere for a song.

My thinking, here, is that the Trek could become a meaningful commuter option for work (extra gears), and I'd have the Linus for errands and local travel. I've have a couple of very good-looking bikes, and since I know the Linus can get me to work and since the outfit on the Trek can accommodate baggage, either would be a perfectly-reasonable substitute for the other in the event of a flat or if repairs were needed.

Summer Bike Riding Goals

It's generally quite hot in St. Louis in the summer! I have pretty modest goals as a result, but this makes for a nice and easy time to transition back into biking without trying to do too much all at once. Here's where things stand and what I'm currently working on

Goals and current status:

1. Ride to church for meetings and worship
   So far, so good! I have attended worship three times since I started riding* and have had one meeting schedule at the church, and I'm 3 for 4 so far! The day I drove was only because I was playing in our volunteer orchestra and have a rather large and unwieldy instrument case. I might figure out how to bike with it at some point, but I don't want to do too much too soon in terms of testing my balance or tethering skills. 
2. Ride to work when the weather permits
   So far, I've ridden to work twice - once on a test run on a Saturday morning (June 15) and once for real (July 1). The remaining days have had heavy rain or storms in the forecast (I don't mess with lightning) or have been hot and quite sticky (again, sometime I'm game to navigate as my comfort level increases, but when it's as muggy as it gets in St. Louis, figuring out how to dress** and how early to leave the house are things I'm still figuring out). Last Monday, it was 63F when I rode to work and 78F when I rode home! Unheard of for July in St. Louis. 
3. Get a bike basket...or baskets
   Part of my hesitation to ride to work was having the right places to store stuff while I'm riding. I have been riding with a diaper bag*** which works better than expected, but still leaves much to be desired. For example, it's soft-sided, and sometimes little bits would knock against the spokes (never loose enough to catch, but the sound is distracting), and it was the only place for a drink on my bike, so I had to come to a full stop to get water. Not the end of the world, especially since I'd probably stop to drink even with easier access (still getting comfortable on the bike - I'm just not at a place where I feel stable with my right turn signals). But hardly ideal. I received a front basket for my birthday last week and installed it myself the same day! Next step will be to get two rear, folding Wald baskets for the back.

*I sing in the choir at my church from August or September to May or June, and am very active in leadership, and so when things slow down for the summer, so do I. It's a chance to keep my batteries charged so that it's good for me and I'm good for it! I attend about every other week in the summer, unless I'm traveling, which I also do extensively during summer weekends, since I'm not missing choir as a result.

**I participate in a limited wardrobe project called Project 333 (I do a modified 2-month project) and so swapping out what I picked for May and June on a whim was not practical. However, incorporating biking into my life definitely informed my choices for July and August!

***I read several years ago that diaper bags make great camera bags because the bottle slots are great for camera lenses. So that is why I have a diaper bag. The stroller straps clip right on to my rear rack, which is awesome, though I had to play with placement, since I was kicking the front side of the bag when it was hooked all the way forward on the rack. 

Here's the new front basket! I am looking forward to sharing more bike adventures with you. If I can get into a rhythm, I might try to update every Friday (Fiets Fridays or something).

Cheers!