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Lincoln Park, yesterday morning...

paddle boarder, and her dog...

morning sunlight, filtering through the tree tops

the plan

the plan
Bellevue Arts Festival
major traffic jam(S)
shoudda listened to the voice in my head
-----"take your bicycle"
bail!! there's a way out!
Jazz on the car radio
back home and a hot bath
-----"ofuro": honorable Japanese bath
meditation
ok, let's start over...
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ps - maybe I'll try again tomorrow, but earlier, and I'm taking my bike...

loop ride

I did a loop ride today, following the G River Trail south to South Ctr and up Southcenter Blvd to the LRT station, and then down 99 to our house. It was a nice change, just coasting downhill that last mile or two. With the small hills I usually have at the end of my ride, I'm usually panting by the time I open our front door...

I headed north from our house (blue dot), connected with the GR Trail after passing under the LRT tracks, and followed the meandering river back south to SCtr. I am still surprised when I see so many cars at the casinos just south of the golf course, at 8am! in the morning? To each his own I guess...

"Mr You-Have-More-important-things-to-do"

I feel like I'm stiff-arming "Mr You-Have-More-important-things-to-do", and I've got "Mr Procrastination" and his friend "Mr Why-Hurry?" helping me push...
My plan this morning was to just ride - no stops for picture taking - just ride, and come back home and get to work! I rounded a bend by the Community Ctr bridge, and was stopped in my tracks by the sunlight flickering off of the river shallows there. Oh well. I just now told myself "only an hour of look-see/photo-editing..." I'll see how that goes.
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"IT'S MY HABIT"

our "little brother" Jimmy, who we lost a long time ago, would say "it's my habit"
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beautiful weather!
although it's amazingly beautiful going walking (riding now) in weather like this, it still surprises me how so many people get out only when it's nice. I'm like the old mail person motto "neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night..."
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a little later...
I couldn't help myself...

sunlight flickering off of the river shallows

"ride and shoot"

My first day of "ride and shoot". I got out before 7am and started my bicycle ride, but today, for the first time since I got the bike, I made a few stops for picture taking...

this would have been a good companion pair to the "trolling the grass" photos I took the other day...
though it would have been better if the tractor was stuck in a swamp...

one thing about getting a bike with a little larger tires is that I can go off the smooth roads sometimes...

this is looking across the river from Becu...

I rode around and over to the other side, down the path and onto the sandbars...

bird prints...

little bird

middle bird

big bird

sandbars...

miscellaneous...

hawk...

this is what happens sometimes when you just click "Autofix"...
sorta cool...

China's Oprah
"Yang has benefited from China's economic rise, but she also sees its shortcomings.
'If you regard material success as the only goal in life, then you have so many [problems such as] fake food, poison food, fraud in construction of schools, which collapsed during the earthquake," she said. People in China have compared the effects of the earthquake in Sichuan with the recent tsunami in Japan. 'Look at their houses, even when they floated away in the flood, they didn't collapse.' "

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2015711627_inpersonyang25.html

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so many things I need to do today, and all I want to do is ride my bicycle...
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from today's "Sideline Chatter", Dwight Perry's column in the Seattle Times:

"What, Tiger Woods regret firing Steve Williams?
'The New Zealander is a master caddie,' pointed out comedian Argus Hamilton. 'Williams can look at a green 200 yards away and judge the wind, the slope and whether the blonde in the third row is wearing a wedding ring.' "
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My bike ride with Pat and Lita was the highlight of the day today, but I also got a few photo ops...

lines

running

tide

father showing how it's done

coming out of the shallows

trolling the grass

Stop Go

textures and a green bottle

MISCELLANY

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L.A.'s KNBC-TV cameras caught Andrew Bynum, the Lakers' $15 million-a-year center, parking his BMW across two handicapped spaces outside a Playa del Rey grocery store.

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The new normal for America's economy

by Lance Dickie, Seattle Times editorial columnist

"Ruthless exposure of nearly a decade of faux prosperity has forced the country to see the reality ahead. Consumers will not and cannot spend the economy back to those artificial good, old days."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2015688935_lance22.html

This the only photo I took this morning. I stopped at a bench along the river to eat an energy bar, and this tree was right in front of me. I liked the three vines curling around the bottom of the trunk.

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technology...

Although I love a lot of the technological advances during these past few decades, it would be hard for me to lose good old newspapers. One example of technology I like is my Kindle. I have a gazillion books in my Kindle library, most of which were "free". I subscribe to a blog that focuses on Amazon's "free" book offerings, and other promotions to get people to read and buy more I guess. These same titles can end up back at their $9.99...prices the very next day. I think I've actually "purchased" a book on average only once every two months or so.

Back to newspapers, here are a few "keepers" from my morning ritual today:

amazing image

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fun interview/web chat with Isaiah Thomas in this morning's Times...

two of my favorites:

Are you excited to play with Jimmer?
"Yes. He's like the Justin Bieber of basketball. Everywhere we go, people are crying over him. "

Which Pac-10/12 player talks the most smack?
"Man, me. I talk so much, but no one ever responds in the game, so it's like I'm talking to myself."

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If anyone is reading these entries, there will be fewer photos for awhile, and more bicycle talk. I am enjoying that thing so much that I jumped at the chance to do more errands down by Southcenter this morning. Instead of whining about "I don't want to drive to wherever...", I used the excuse of some grocery shopping, and off I went. "Grocery shopping at Southcenter?" you ask. Seafood City, down the hall from Penneys.
Being the primary driver in this household, I cannot say that I "enjoy" driving. Biking is a whole different creature. I try to stay on the established Trails as much as possible, but there are some impediments here and there. With the Howard Dam paranoia blocking off some of the G River Trail, some creativity is involved.

And some brazen defiance (ha ha). I guess the blue paint on this sign was an expression of that?

There are places where we can still walk, but biycling? No.

Where there's a will, there's a way. Eyes right...

it's not infatuation

I love my bicycle. I had some things to pick up at REI and Lowes this morning, down by Southcenter, and instead of driving, I biked the 8 miles RT (according to mapquest). Actually, with my meanderings on the G River Trail, etc, I probably logged a lot more, but it felt so darn good!
And using some numbers from fueleconomy.gov and mapquest, I think I saved $1.21 to boot, and that paid for one of my items.
I love my bicycle.

"ding"

One accessory I got right out of the gate was a Bell. After being a "Walker" for several years, I became extremely cautious and aware of bicyclists over time. Around 80% of them do not abide by the following sign:

Of course I don't know what exactly happened last year when that old lady was killed by a bicyclist, but I would wager money that the bicyclist didn't give a warning, he/she was going too fast, and when the lady realized he was behind her, she stepped out - the wrong way, right into his path.
Even with me being as alert as I try to be, a few weeks ago I just sensed someone coming up behind me, and when I turned to look, he was only a few feet away. If I had reacted the way that old lady did, I could have ended up dead meat. He was cookin'!! Fortunately, I froze, like a deer in headlights, and he did a left-right-left squiggle with his bike not knowing what I was going to do, and there was no collision. This all happened in a split second.
Anyway, I do a "ding" with my little bell when I'm approaching someone from behind, and like I did as a "walker", some of them even say "Thank you"...