November | 2014 | Steve Tilford

I rode around the city of Seattle yesterday, mainly in the rain, and just checked out some of the neighborhoods. It is pretty hilly, the roads were wet, plus there are a ton of painted lines, crosswalks, and leaves on the ground. My broken hip was whispering, “be careful, be careful” all day.

Anyway, it was a pretty good day other than I got super cold before I got back. One thing I noticed was there were a ton of homeless people. I guess the climate is good enough that they can stay here all year long, because most of the ones I saw seemed like permanent fixtures.

I got thinking about this last week when I went through Venice on the way to the Mike Nosco ride. There are a bunch of down and out people there too. It got me thinking about what turns in a person’s life gets them to the point they’re sleeping on the sidewalk.

Some of the people are obviously mentally ill. At least compared to general society. So, they can’t function within the normal parameters of our society. But others seem alright. It seems like they just had a few unlucky breaks and next thing they knew it started spiraling out of their control.

I watched a street musician in Venice when we were eating lunch. The guy was super good. I wish I would have video’d some of his music. He should have been a super star, a rich artist. Maybe he was and was just out on the street doing what he enjoyed? I don’t know. All I know is that it seemed out of place for a guy that good to be sitting on a step and playing for a few bucks.

But that is the way of life. People that have the same talent sometimes have vastly different lives. I know it’s the way of music and acting. It is sometimes that way in sports.

I’ve run into quite a few cyclists throughout my lifetime that are super talented and possess nearly all the goods to ride at the Pro Tour level. They just never had the contacts, or maybe just the luck, to get the opportunity to be seen. So they just do the local stuff while all the guys they race against just shake their heads in disbelief.

There is a saying that is something like, successful people make their own luck, or you make your own luck, something like this. I don’t agree much with that. I think some people get super lucky and some people get bad luck. And when the bad luck comes, it sometimes starts a cascade of events that hardly anyone could overcome.

And then, you end up sleeping on the hard, concrete sidewalk some.

This guy was really great, singing, what seemed like, original music. Most people, like this guys, just walked by without a glance. Funny the guy is wearing a cycling t-shirt.

This guy was really great, singing, what seemed like, original music. Most people, like these guys, just walked by without a glance. Funny the guy is wearing a cycling t-shirt.

I think there were a couple people sleeping under these blankets near Venice Beach.

Riding around Seattle is challenging. At least the last couple days it has been. It has been pretty wet all day long, thus slick. But, it is slicker here than normal. There is just about every slick thing here that is bad for bikin‘.

For one, it is wet. At least it has been. That is the #1 slick problem, water. I’d say #2 is leaves. It is officially the time of the year, fall I guess, that all the trees are dropping their leaves. Wet leaves and bikes don’t like each other much. #3 is a close tie between road paint and manhole covers. I’d have to say manhole covers are worse, but it just depends if you’re going straight or turning. Then, since #4 is road paint, then #5 would be the marking plates going up and down curb cuts. They have these little yellow plates that signify curb cuts and they are slicker than shit.

So, there are at least 5 things that make cycling here challenging. That doesn’t count the automobiles or hills. This town has a bunch of both. I was barrelling down a hill by Queen Anne yesterday, probably 15% downhill, with a stop sign at the bottom. All of a sudden, the whole road was covered with wet leaves. I didn’t panic, but I got a little scared. It is a fine line between stopping and sliding in that situation. I didn’t fall, but it was a tense moment.

My hip has been a bit achy here. There is a ton of barometric pressure changes here and, for sure, my hip tells me when that is occurring. It also is telling me to corner gingerly when turning left. Right turns so to be okay, but slick left turns aren’t natural yet.

I wrote slippy on the title because that is word the rest of the world uses for our word slippery. English speakers, other than Americans, say slippy. I found this out mtb racing in England. I didn’t even know it was a word. I now realize we’re in the minority compared to everyone else, in usage.

Today it is supposed to be pretty nice. Keith is gonna get off early and go for a ride around Lake Washington with me this afternoon. I rode with Todd Herriott, a Nebraska native, who used to race pro, but now runs Herriott Sports Performance. It is a training facility, mainly for cyclists, but also a bike shop. I stopped by on my way “out of town” and Todd suited up and rode an hour with me. He was heading off to Colorado Springs for a conference, so didn’t have much time. Engergentic guy he is.

Tomorrow we’re going to ride up to Kenmore and do the Rocket Ride, which starts at Log Boom Park at nine. It is 50 miles and 15-20 miles there and back, so it will be a good, longish day. Long for Keith and Catherine, who don’t do those miles in a week nowadays.

Keith has been cooking up pretty much gourmet dinners the past three nights. The food here is super fresh and readily available. They are making the best of that.

Okay, that’s about it from sunny Seattle. That is true for today, and probably tomorrow, but after that……….