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Face slappers, or thin vines growing out over the trail, are a common nuisance in mountain biking. One that I hit today on curved gravely hill caught me on the lip and made for some sudden pain and blood. Here’s a photo of Erik’s hand holding what I believe to be the berry cane that I hit showing its thorns. We went back and cleared back as many as we could, but I suspect they’ll grow back before very long. The bleeding stopped quickly and by the time I got home the scratches were no longer noticeable, but the hot sauce that I had on my pizza dinner did a great job reminding me where they were. Now it feels no worse than a chapped lip.

Oh, and the rest of the ride? Outstanding, save for the deer flies that were taking refuge in my helmet and occasionally biting my scalp. Every time I removed my helmet there were 3-5 of them hiding in the crevices. I can deal with swarms of mosquitos while riding, but I truly loathe biting flies.

Today while out riding my bike at Addison Oaks I fell and scraped up my arm. I think I also banged my shin and hip a little bit, all while packing dirt into various parts of the handle bar. That’s part of the excitement of riding a bike in the woods, eh? Good thing the weather was perfect and there were far fewer bugs out than there have been in past days. The rest of the ride, which started at the Clarkston Road crossing of the Paint Creek Trail and went through Bald Mountain, was nice, fun, and generally uneventful.

Here is a photo of the place where I fell. For those of you that know the trail, it was on one of the curves right before the small bridge/boardwalk which has the sharp uphill, banked, right-hand turn after it. Yes, it’s a very basic spot. I just wasn’t paying enough attention and either washed out the tire or got too close to the edge of the trail and slipped into the soft/shrubby stuff.

Thinking back, it’s now been a bit (two weeks?) over a year since the last time I fell at Addison Oaks. The last time was when I washed out the front wheel and left a plug of skin on a screw hole of my other bike’s stem.

As of last night I’d wholly intended to ride my bike to work today, packing it and getting everything ready to go. Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning I realized that I simply couldn’t. My throat is hurting a bit, I feel physically run down, and I’ve got a constant, groggy / spacey feeling. Either I’m getting sick, or I just need a good, long sleep. I’m hoping that instead of being sick the cumulative lack of sleep from the past week, and a whole weekend of not sleeping well has done me in and I just need some proper night’s rest to feel better, but as I’m rather accustomed to working on little sleep I fear it’s actually illness. If I’m not feeling any better soon I may have to call off my plans for the rest of the day.

I just hope that I’m feeling better for Saturday morning for the River Bends Park Trail Day with the MMBA where we will likely be finishing the first segment of new single track trail. Along with some other folks I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the past couple months planning it, marking the route, working with the township, and doing initial cutting and clearing of the trail, so I’m really looking forward to seeing this first piece finished.

Turn your time machine back to 1991 and I’m sure that few of you will have difficulty remembering Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the pathologist who (per his claims) helped more than 150 people to end their lives. Two of these assisted suicides took place in an area where I frequently bike, Bald Mountain State Recreation Area‘s North Unit, located just off of the Paint Creek Trail in Lake Orion.

One of the locations along this trail are two rustic cabins. The one pictured above, Cabin #2, was the place where Dr. Kevorkian helped Marjorie Wantz and Sherry Miller end their lives. Knowing their story, never having visited them, and out riding the trail alone yesterday evening I decided to detour past the cabins and take a look around. This photo was taken then, just as I was to head back out to the trail. The cabins are unremarkable, and appear to contain simple wooden bunks and a general open area with a chimney on one end, nice looking fire pits, and easy (albeit rather unmaintained) access to Tamarack Lake.

(Please note that I’m not completely certain this is Cabin #2 as they are not numbered, but since it’s the second one on the road I’ve made that presumption.)

To deal with my current cold I purchased some NyQuil D a super-hardcore night time cold medicine. Because it contains alcohol (10%) and pseudoephedrine I had to show ID and sign something informing me of the penalties (jailtime and fine) if I sell it to minors. I also purchased some straight 120mg time-release capsules for daytime use.

After taking the NyQuil I ate some Hungry Howie’s Cajun Bread along with a beer. I’m now quite, quite tired and ready for bed. The beer may not have been the best idea as the medication already contained alcohol (which, oddly, is not listed as an active ingredient), but I don’t think that just one will do anything more than contribute to the feelings of sleepyness.

Today I made a stop at Costco and visited the eye doctor inside to get some contact lenses. I’d tried getting them back in 2002 or so, but found that I didn’t really care for them at the time with my eyes feeling dry almost all the time. Now that I’ve been biking a lot I find myself wanting sunglasses, but it’s both difficult and rather expensive to get them in prescription models, and even if I do it’s necessary to carry a pair of clear lenses if I’m out late enough that it becomes dark.

This eye exam was much different than the last, with a device being used to determine how much correction my eye needs then the results of this confirmed with the old fashioned lens-based eye exam tool. This is much nicer than the old “This or That”, “One or Two”, “A or B” method. This was followed up with a puff-less glaucoma test, inspection of my retina, and then application of a fluorescent dye and close-up inspection of the surface of my eye and tears.

The device which automatically determined my prescription displayed an image of a hot air balloon with three colored stripes, which I suspect is really the image it looks for on my retina, with the three colors being used so it can compensate for chromatic aberration. It also measured my pupillary distance, which the doctor noted on the prescription after I asked for it so that I can use said prescription to order glasses online.

Hopefully I’ll have some time this weekend and throughout this week to try out the daily disposable contacts that I was given. This type was suggested to me by the doctor after I told him that I only plan on wearing them on days when I’ll be riding my bike, and that otherwise I’ll probably just wear my glasses. He told me that he uses this type as well when playing softball and is quite happy with them.

Today when meeting up for a wintery bike ride my friend Bob (seen here with a mustache full of condensation) gave me this book, What’s Your Poo Telling You?. It reminded him of when I informed him of the (very useful) Bristol Stool Scale and is a collection of stories and information about poop of different sorts. I imagine it’ll make for a good bathroom read, and thus far amuses me greatly.

Using a spare aluminum plate^†, some leftover cheap cardboard^‡, a chair, and a ruler I was able to measure my sit bone spacing. This was done by sitting on the assembly with my legs bike pedal spacing apart, then grabbing the metal plate and pulling it against myself to ensure good dent formation in the cardboard. I then looked and felt for the dents in the cardboard, marked the centers with dots, and measured. Both measurements were ~122mm, so I’m happy with the result.

Some research into how sit bone measurement should translate to saddle size uncovered the Specailized Body Geometry recommendations for saddle widths, which are supposedly as follows:

· 130mm saddle for sitbone center to center width of 100mm or less.
· 143mm saddle for sitbone center to center width of 100mm to 130mm.
· 155mm saddle for sitbone center to center width of 130mm or more.

The WTB Rocket V saddle which came with my new bike (post forthcoming once it is complete) felt a bit narrow in the few test rides I’ve taken, and at ~130mm measured width these measurements confirm that it likely is the wrong size for me. The Specialized OEM saddle that came on my old bike is ~140mm and matches the aforementioned recommendations. As it has been comfortable for two years now, I think I’ll be looking at a new saddle somewhat along these lines.

Now to figure out which one to try…

† Former Power Mac G5 and Mac Pro stand.
‡ Twelve South BackPack box.

Danielle had her wisdom teeth removed this morning and is currently in the living room napping. While all four wisdom teeth were impacted, three were removed intact, which impresses me. In particular I find the one on the right with the twisty root to be neat.

Click here or on the image above to see all the detail, including the yet-to-dry-out pieces of her gingiva.

The most recent stage of the cold is an exceedingly runny nose. Danielle experienced this yesterday and purchased the box of Target-brand (up & up) pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, which helped her but kept her from sleeping well last night.

Knowing that this drug makes me feel overstimulated I resisted taking any, but by mid-afternoon when my nose needed to be emptied every five minutes or so, I relented. Since twenty minutes (or so) after injecting the pill I’ve felt twitchy, shaky, and slightly nauseous, the same as if I’d just ingested a few hundred milligrams of caffeine. This is not very much fun, and hopefully it won’t keep me from sleeping, as there’s a bunch of things that I want to get done at work tomorrow.