Big event of the past week was an overnight bike ride to Santa Cruz (over CA-84 to highway 1 then south). For those who don't know where I am or where Santa Cruz is, that's about 60 miles (plus some more once in Santa Cruz obviously). Lunch was at Pescadero Beach about halfway (and it was a long lunch as I needed to rest after lots of hills!) The rest of the way to Santa Cruz was relatively easy compared to the first 30 miles. I camped overnight at New Brighton State Beach (camping fees are much lower for hikers and bikers!) and, in the morning, road back into Santa Cruz and took a bus back to San Jose (biking home from there). Total for the weekend is around a hundred miles (the bike just to Santa Cruz was 60 miles and around 6 hours 15 minutes wall clock).

I got a pretty bad sunburn Sunday as I missed putting sunscreen on some spots on my shoulders, but other than that sustained no real physical injury (slight pull to left achilles that went away by Tuesday morning but in any case did not hamper morning gym fun at the Y). I was somewhat pleased that neither Saturday night nor Sunday night was I so physically exhausted I couldn't do anything. More importantly, I was just barely muscle sore. Big change from the Mt. Diablo hike.

Some random notes on the bike-camping (I like the term bikepacking so maybe I'll start using it) as I can't form a coherent story here:

• I walked up some hills (CA-84 is damn long and steep in places and was on the single-speed). But it occurred to me around noon with the sun beating down as I walked up 84 that it didn't matter how I got up the hill because I would still get to ride down. This seemed wildly profound to me at the time (I am not prone to such).
• Note to self: sleeping pad is much more important than tent. I found it easy to strap the tent to the rack (both tent and sleeping pad are too long to fit in the panniers I have), but couldn't figure out how to get the pad on there easily. Now, I realize that you just strap all the shit down and to each other. Err. Duh.
• Riding down hills at 30 mph (or higher in many cases) is damn fun. Strangely, making it up a hill, even if you are going really. damn. slow. at the end has a sense of euphoria in it as well, but not the same. While you're going up there is only a sense of work unless you think about how awesome it will be to make it up this hill.
• You can view the klimb profile of the route. There are some more photos there too (didn't really take very many on this ride).

Emotional

Other news of interest is that the ex has moved out (friday which is a big reason for the bike trip) and I am now in the process of cleaning, sorting and throwing out stuff. In some ways it is very nice to be able to organize everything how I want and if it gets messy ... well I got it messy and can clean it. I'm not cleaning or tidying up after someone else. Plus, I finally have counter space in the kitchen again. (N.B. If you marry a homebrewer, insist that you only live in places with two kitchens.)

In other ways it is obviously mindbogglingly depressing to not have anyone around. Even if we were a bit on the outs, at least I could get a hug sometimes. Or hey just a nod or two and how was your day? I'm starting to talk to the cat more (alert! crazy cat lady!) and putting on music when I get home. The friends and the coworkers (who know) are very good in trying to make me not feel the loneliness as much, but well friends can't do everything (nor should be expected to). It just turns out that I haven't lived alone ever. I went from high school, to the college dorm, to living with the future husband with no gaps. The only times I've lived alone have been on business trips, but that hardly counts. So, I just have to learn a new skill.

Reading and Watching

In bullet form:

• Finished up Are We Rome?. I liked it. The conclusion is both yes and no (of course), but more importantly pointed out the U.S. can actually do things to avoid becoming a decaying imperial entity (if we wanted to). Almost uplifting at the end.
• Google Reader == Teh Useful. Towards not reading as much shit online anyway. I find I quickly skim thru the list and just mark a lot of stuff read. Strange, no?
• Sent back Remember Me, My Love without watching it. There's just no way that is going over well at the moment and I had it out for weeks.
• Don't bother with Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. Excepting a bit at the beginning with a red carpet premier joke, it wasn't any better than the edited version for television.
• The Alien Nation television series was actually good. Very good. The pilot is better than the movie. Yeah, over the top and the race-relations moralizing is right there in your face, but good acting, adequate costuming and effects, entertaining story lines, nice mixture of serious drama and jokes. Sexual tension and near-naked alien chicks. And so forth.
• Saw Stardust a couple weeks ago with various husites. I liked it a lot. Note: I never read the book.