There are many qualities that go into being an excellent real estate professional: integrity, in-depth market knowledge, marketing savvy, effective negotiation skills and a high-quality professional network, all of which are hallmarks of how I work. That said, throughout my career working in your area I’ve also found that providing high-quality service is essentially about putting my clients first – by keeping myself accessible, being a good listener and responding quickly to your needs

This “client first” philosophy has always been my approach. So when you decide to sell, please call or email me. I’ll provide first-class service that will help you get more money for your home and make the selling experience as enjoyable as possible.

Welcome to Ride The Realty.  Please browse our site and come back often as content will be added everyday.

This is what British bureaucracy is about.
Story:

BRITISH police chiefs have come under fire for a 93-page guide telling officers how to ride their bikes, including how to brake and how to balance to avoid falling off.

The Police Cycle Training Doctrine also warns policemen not to try to tackle suspected criminals while still “engaged with the cycle” – on the bike – and gives a diagram on “deployment into a junction” – turning left or right.

The guide was produced by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), which insisted it had not been fully approved for publication after the document was reported in the Sun newspaper.

Other advice includes to wear padded shorts for “in-saddle comfort,” while officers must always remember to “rear-scan” – look over their shoulders.

Undercover police are advised that they may have to cycle without a protective helmet to avoid being found out.

But, underlining the importance of sometimes-criticised health and safely laws, it warned: “This lack of protection must be noted and a full risk assessment of the required role … be undertaken.”

The Sun – which noted that the original US constitution ran to only four pages, and the Bible takes less than a page to recount God’s creation of the universe – said the guide had cost thousands of pounds.

Critics said it was a waste of money.

“I am sure it is of great value… but I think you can do this kind of thing much, much more cheaply,” said London mayor Boris Johnson, a keen cyclist who has sought to boost bike use since taking office last year.

“This is an absurd waste of police time and thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money,” added Mark Wallace, head of the Taxpayers’ Alliance lobby group which campaigns against misuse of public money.

But Dave Holladay of the National Cycling Organisation rejected the charge that the guide was too long, and defended its contents.

“I would quite expect a manual on police cycling to tell police officers how to turn corners correctly,” he said, adding: “The advice of getting off the bike is actually included in most police bike training.”

“Police cyclists have to be exemplars,” he told the BBC.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26343385-5013016,00.html

RIDE A BIKE,

then buy a shirt

http://www.etsy.com/shop/happyland2007

An article by David Chanen in the Star-Tribune. Hmmm. Should a weapon be included in my pre-ride checklist?

Charges: Teen killed by man he
was trying to rob

Whirlwind Horse, of Minneapolis, told police
about the robbery and fight, according to the
complaint. Jackson, of Minneapolis, recently had
been accepted to Haskell Indian Nations
University in Lawrence, Kan., friends said.

As a cycling enthusiast who resides in Scott County, Minnesota, I have been sorely disappointed by this county’s lack of biking trails as compared to neighboring metro counties. Scott County maps have shown “proposed” trails year after year with no apparent progress being made.

I was encouraged by this article written by David Peterson in the Star-Tribune. It seems to me that if money has been set aside for these trails, there is no excuse for them not to be built. But the cynic in me worries that these earmarked funds will still somehow end up in the general fund to cover budget shortfalls, and trails will continue to maintain their pathetic proposed status.

I have been historically rather apolitical, but now I’m thinking I need to learn how to be a better advocate for a cause that personally matters to me. Where do I begin?

Scott County plans major trails
Happy trails to you: County officials have plans for miles and miles of them, a threat to some and a goal for others.

At a recent open house in rural Scott County to get reaction to trail alignments and other plans, Themig said, “The most common question I heard about trails was, ‘When will these get built?’ I didn’t have a single person opposed to them.“

Hello Week 3!

I started the week off with an early morning bike ride. I had to drop my truck off at the shop for a 50k mile servicing. It’s about 4 miles from my work, so I decided to ride my bike from the shop to my work. If I did that every day, I’d be in great shape in no time! My legs felt like jelly for half an hour after I got to work.

My BodyBugg says the half-hour bike ride burned 400+ calories, so I should have no trouble meeting my calorie deficit today! I have been considering lowering my calories burned vs calories consumed, but we’ll see how I do over the next few weeks. My goal of a 1000 calorie deficit would stay the same, of course.

I took a Biggest Loser photo of myself last night. I had to use my cell phone camera and the bathroom mirror, so it’s not going to be anything fancy. I did the whole Biggest Loser thing– sports bra and spandex shorts… NOT A PRETTY SIGHT! It’s still going on this website for the world to see. I have to figure out how to mash it up with an old photo of me when I was around 300 lbs, and then you’ll be able to see it on my sidebar. Forgive me if I am less than motivated to work on that with anything resembling immediacy.

So for week 3, I am hoping to get down to 207-208 lbs. That’s my goal. That’s only 2-3 pounds, but it will be a huge feat with finals going on this week.

Next week is that fancy work dinner at Medieval Times. I am so glad I ordered the vegetarian meal after talking to everyone about the meals they serve. They used to serve whole Cornish Game Hens, but it looks like they switched to half a chicken to save money. The ribs are what would kill me though. I love ribs, and I can put away a rack (or two or three) of ribs with ease. I won’t feel great afterwards, but that has never stopped me.

I had my phone coaching session last night, and I learned several things… like how to turn the beeping on my digital display off. There is more on the website than I realized, so I will have to spend some time exploring. They gave their whole APEX supplements pitch, but the lady was very nice when I told her that I don’t really buy into the whole “scientifically engineered, PH-balanced fat burning, liver cleansing blah, blah, blah” bit. If their miracle supplements really did what they claim to do, it would be awesome. In my mind, however, it’s just so much wishful science. It’s great that your multivitamin is PH-balanced not to dissolve until it hits your small intestine, but… the bit of your body that absorbs most of your nutrients is what connects your stomach to your small intestine (research the duodenum). So, if the multivitamin is already in the small intestine before the pill begins to dissolve, it seems (to me), that there’s a good chance will be most of the way (or completely) through the bit of your small intestine where most of your nutrient-absorption takes places. That’s just my skeptical train of thought, and I made this blog to offer a skeptical assessment of the whole BodyBugg system.

One of the things that came up in my phone coaching session (totally worth the 45 minutes of my hectic week, btw) was how skeptical I was before purchasing the BodyBugg. Is it really going to change my life? The woman asked if I was a believer now. I explained that I remain respectfully skeptical. Two weeks isn’t enough to turn me into a BodyBugg believer. Anyway, the BodyBugg is only as good as you are, so I have to wait until the novelty wears off to really tell how effective it is as a long-term weight management tool. I’ve read a couple of blogs where people quit wearing it, quit tracking their calories with it, and quit losing weight. You’ll know I’m a believer when I start recommending it to everyone I know that is overweight. Until then, stay tuned.

This was the summer that Anika mastered her 2-wheeler (and Andreas probably lost 10 pounds from all that running behind her)!  Here she is looking proud as punch riding in front of our house for the first time solo:

Benjamin too got caught up in all the excitement and decided there was no reason that he couldn’t learn to ride as well.  So in September off came the training wheels, and off he went!  (Poor Daddy sweated another 10 lbs away… but my is he looking good!)  Here’s Benjamin practicing his skills in the parking lot up the road:

(Boys and their antics… this particular crash was staged!)

When you think of the ‘Great Outdoors,’ what typically comes to mind is: camping, hiking, biking, running, all of which are outdoors in some isolated area, from a park to a mountain range. However in NYC, while there is never a shortage of things to do, most of the outdoor things are pretty much ‘made up,’ from the ice skating rinks, sky diving locations, rock climbing…you name it. You can find everything in some borough and was made up to fill a ‘need.’ Gone are the says when mountain biking was in the mountains some distance away from home, or rock climbing on some dangerous, likely to die mountain range…you can do everything…from Central Park to Brooklyn… Something I hate, and something you gotta love.  As in Mr Baseball,  “[NYC (Japan)] takes the best of the world and makes it her own” (Mr. Baseball)

Steve: Freda, probably the most popular place for REALLY LONG ADVENTURES is the Washington and Old DominionRailroad trail. It is around 40 some miles long and even has parts where you can ride horses safely. You can check it out at:http://www.nvrpa.org/parks/wod/index.php as well as Trail link (you can find other local places for adventure on this site): http://www.traillink.com/ViewTrail.aspx?AcctID=6017236

I was so annoyed after coming up short in my biking group’s recent century ride, I scheduled another one three days later, on Tues, the 27th of Oct.   Posting a notice on the club’s message board, I was lucky to find another rider to go with me.  Masuo had missed the previous ride due to the flu, but was now recovered enough to give it a go.  We elected to tackle the same hilly “Sunrise Solitude” route as the previous ride.

Goofing around the night before, I procrastinated my bike maintenance until after midnight, fixing my flat, and installing my new lights in case they would be needed.  I was set to get a reasonable night’s sleep, until I suddenly remembered I also had a bent crank from my previous spills to repair.  It was a tougher job than I expected, because the aluminum alloy had a rather springy quality that made it resistant to straightening.  Eventually I figured out a way to rig it in the vise with strategically placed spacers, and crank it down to where it needed to be.  By the time I was done, I would only get three hours sleep before the alarm clock’s pre-dawn jangle.

I found driving through the heart of the metro and heavy rush hour traffic to get to the ride slightly ironic…isn’t cycling all about getting away from traffic?

We got rolling right about sunrise, and set a steady brisk pace.   We had short bathroom/snack breaks every 20 miles or so, with a long lunch break around the half-way point. I had gotten this tip from an Online cycling site, and I recommend it for anyone planning a century. Getting off the bike for a while and enjoying a nice sit-down meal will completely recharge you and make the rest of the ride feel so much more manageable and fun instead of formidable and grueling. For this Blue Book p56 loop, I highly recommend the Scandia Cafe at mile 57. (Note: they’re only open until 2pm on weekends.)

I couldn’t believe what a strong rider Masuo was, not only just getting over the flu, but also recovering from a serious rock-climbing fall where he broke several ribs and bones in his foot.  In fact, that’s the biggest reason he took up cycling, because his foot injury precluded him from running.  It was good for me to ride with him, though, because being slightly faster, he got me out of my comfort zone, pushing harder than I would’ve imagined was possible for me on a century ride.

It was a wonderful day for a ride, the sun was shining and temps were moderate. The Gateway trail was beautiful, fall colors at their peak, with the breeze sending brightly colored leaves dancing and cavorting down through dappled sunlight to rest softly on the trail like rose petals on a pillow. Speaking of the breeze, the wind picked up throughout the day, whitecaps on the lakes, flags straight out from their flag-poles, and we were riding full into the teeth of it on our late south-bound stretches where we were already feeling exhaustion. It was tough-going and I struggled to maintain my speed, several gear ratios deeper than usual.   Adding the wind made this ride seem so much more grueling compared to Saturday’s group ride. Running a faster pace at my limit was one thing, but those long stretches into that brutal wind took a lot more out of me than I care to admit. Couldn’t fake my way by with bravado and bluster, I was suffering, and had to dig deep.

My mind wandered, and I hallucinated about Deezy in her soft turquoise mini-dress, and I wondered what was wrong with me, putting myself through hell on a lonely road, when I should be in Las Vegas with her, relaxing by the pool, holding her hand, maybe stealing a kiss.

We finished in about 9 hours which isn’t bad considering our lunch break and the wind.  I think my first century, years ago, took over 10 hours.   I know on a calm day and a less hilly route, I could easily knock an hour more off this new century time. 

We celebrated our feat at Barley Johns, a local brew-pub near the route terminus.   Masuo treating himself to a $9 glass of designer beer, and I had my coffee, of course, and the most exquisite raspberry cheesecake with a tasty graham cracker crust that was at least a half-inch thick!

Bike Acrobatics

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

We spotted these guys hanging out and doing tricks down by the wharf. Talented group of kids.

Chuck Klosterman did an interview with The A.V. Club in which, in honor of Halloween, he discusses his fears. Here is an excerpt:

A few years ago, that movie Open Water was out. I can’t swim, so of course the idea… It’s really hard for people who can swim to relate to this. If you can’t swim, the idea of being in nine feet of water is terrifying, much less the ocean. So when I saw the trailer for that movie, I just couldn’t fathom seeing it. I get no pleasure from that. People who can swim just can’t get it. They’ll push you into the water, assuming that you must be lying.

The interview is, as all interviews involving Klosterman are, very much worth reading. But I don’t want to talk about Klosterman right now; I want to talk about people who don’t know how to swim.

For some reason, it seems unreasonable to me that some people don’t know how to swim. I don’t know why. Swimming hasn’t been essential to the survival of the human race for a few millennia now, and unless you’re a lifeguard, a pirate, or an employee of the Coast Guard, I don’t see it really being integral to your day-to-day life. And it’s not like I swim very often myself.

But for some reason, swimming seems like something every adult human should know how to do. If not for its obvious practical applications, swimming seems key to being a self-reliant human being. Once, as I’ve mentioned before, I went on a cruise. At some of the ports, a shuttle boat would have to take us from the ship to the shore. It was about a two minute ride, but if you couldn’t swim,* the cruise staff made you wear a life-jacket; there were grown adults wearing those bright orange vests while small children looked on unencumbered, probably thinking What kind of learning disorder does this person have?

*This does, of course, bet the question: Why the fuck would you go on a cruise vacation if you can’t swim?

As Klosterman points out, if you can’t swim, then any depth of water you can’t stand in is literally frightening. It seems silly to allow that kind of subservience to 2/3 of the Earth’s surface go on when it’s so easily correctable.

Learning to swim isn’t very hard. Most people who learn how to do it learn before they’re in second grade;* the only other things that’s really true of are speaking, walking, and dressing yourself, which seem pretty fundamental. And, unlike speech, swimming isn’t something that actually gets harder to learn as you get older. If you have a human body, then you can float, and if you can float, you’re practically halfway to swimming anyway. The rest you can probably learn in half an hour. 

*This is speculative.

The closest analog to swimming is probably bike-riding: You either learn it early, or you never learn it at all, and once you’re old, most people only do it as a way to exercise. But bike-riding isn’t nearly as imperative. It’s a hobby—it’s not the only way of traversing part of the planet.

It’s true that, for most nonswimmers, not knowing how to swim will never really hurt them; only a small fraction will die horrible, water-soaked deaths. But just because you can survive a certain way doesn’t mean it’s ideal to live that way. First of all, even if you don’t drown in the ocean (or a small, above-ground pool), you still have to live in fear of deep water. Secondly, while the chances of drowning are low, the payoff is one of the most terrifying deaths I can imagine, and the cost of learning to swim is low. Plus, it can be fun.

So don’t live in fear of deep puddles; learn to swim.

 

Bam.  8 miles from the finish, I had a flat tire.  My spare tube was the wrong size due to the new tires, I didn’t have a patch kit, and because I was stuck at the back, I didn’t have access to anybody else’s kit.  And my shitty cell phone died.  But I was lucky our volunteer “sag-wagon” eventually came along and stopped for me. I had my knobby tires in the wagon, but by the time I would’ve completed a tire swap, it would’ve been too dark to continue.  So, I sadly accepted a ride back to the finish in the sag-wagon.  And due to the extra missing miles, I put plans to complete repairs and go the full distance on the back burner.  

I didn’t mind that the sag-wagon was a Mercedes C230 Kompressor driven by a pretty and vivacious blonde group member.  I’m definitely not her type, and in Deezy mode, so I didn’t even bother flirting.   Besides, even though I like the active women in this group, I just want to be respected for my riding and for being a nice guy.  I certainly don’t want to get a reputation as one of those guys who is constantly on the make.  I just sat in the Kompressor’s passenger seat and decompressed with Sooty, the driver’s pooch, in my lap.  Hot and sweaty from the ride despite 30-40 degree temps, I didn’t even bother to object when she cranked my seat heater on “high” for me. 

Mounting a bike and riding freely is mind clearing. Today I went with a close friend on a photo scavenger hunt. We rode a ten-mile radius from the Bishop Arts District. It was a creative race that I would love to do again but with a road bike, not my cruiser. We used a Polaroid camera and worked from a list of fun things to do such as trying on a Quincenera dress, sitting in a church pew while in service, toilet paper mummy and lying at the base of Clive Burrow’s tombstone. We didn’t win anything physical but I won a freer spirit.

Thank you Photopol.us

I just came back from a 2-hour walk. The leaves are changing and upstate New York is in the midst of its most scenic season. In the afternoon, it’s still warm enough outside to walk without wearing a sweatshirt. So, rather than walking on a treadmill, facing a wall or watching a small TV screen, I went for a walk through the woods and LOVED every minute of it.

It’s important to find fitness activities that you enjoy, so you’ll look forward to doing them. I like bike riding outdoors more than riding a stationary bicycle. And, for me, playing tennis with a friend is a great way to stay in shape and in touch.

© Sheri Jordan and Aunt Sheri Says, 2009-2010.

Our bikes were put away for the fall, but I dragged it up again for some errands.

Total mileage was 6.27 miles and ride time was 27:10 with total time being closer to 40 minutes.  I rode to the bank to make my car payment.  It was soooooooo windy.  I thought about going back home and taking the car to Walgreens to pick up my photos, but I thought, well, I’ve already dragged my bike upstairs, I might as well ride it.

I’m glad I did.  I doubt I’ll get another chance to.

Growing up, whenever discussion of where we would go on holiday if we won the lottery came up, Ireland was always Mum’s answer. It’s where a lot of our relatives come from, so it was a big deal for mum and I to be the first in our family to set foot on Irish soil since our ancestors left!

We arrived at Cork airport and hopped in a taxi with a friendly driver who drove us to our hotel. Oh the accent! I could listen to it for hours. Not in a romantic way, it’s just warm and full of character.

Our hotel was a wee bit out of town (I was a cheap skate) so we walked up to the bus stop from our hotel and caught a bus in to Cork city. It has quite a city vibe in Cork and seems a little ‘built up’ but it was nice to see nonetheless, with a few quieter streets here and there.

Quieter street in Cork

We then caught a train in to Cobh, which is the last harbour the Titanic left from.

There happened to be a ginourmous cruise ship docked in Cobh on our visit, so the town was filled with tourists like mum and I, tourists from the cruise ship and rubber necked locals who wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Sleepy old Cobh

St.Colmans Cathedral is one of the main attractions in Cobh so we went for a walk through the town to have a closer look. On the way we noticed how brightly colored the houses are painted here, it reminded us of neopolitan ice-cream.

Photo credit to mum for this pretty photo of St.Colmans Cathedral

We made friends with a sleepy local cat who was lulling about in the sun near the cathedral!

Time to head back to Cork for dinner at a place called Luigi Malones (not very Irish of us!) because they had been reccomended on the internet as a great place to eat. I’ve learned from Kaushik to do food research before staying somewhere new, otherwise you often get caght out in tourist traps where the food is average and the cost doesn’t follow accordingly.

After dinner it was time to honour my Aunty Pat’s wish who gave mum $50 to buy us a round of Irish beer at a local pub! So we found a small pub which didn’t look too touristy and ordered two Murphey Stouts. Mum had hers watered down with lemonade to make it a shandy (blegh!) that’s pretty much the only way she will drink beer!

We chatted to some locals who were quite sozzled, one of which took a shining to mum and kept telling her different stories. His friend said to me on the sly “She shouldn’t believe him, he’s a nutcase”. We managed to shake them off for a while and enjoyed our first beer to ourselves. A trip to the bathroom upstairs also provided some laughs, there was a poster right down Mum’s alley!

Poster reads: Dandy Shandy

It was decided we were both ready for bed so we caught the bus back to the hotel for sleepy time.

Day two in Ireland and we set off for Killarney. It only took about two hours on two different trains to get there, which went quickly because we spent the time either playing cards or napping. Once we arrived we felt relieved because it was a much smaller town and had more character than Cork, something we were hoping for.

I booked a room at a hostel nicely situated near the station, so we dropped our bags off and then headed to a tourist info office where they gave us directions on how to get to Ross Castle. We were told it would be about a half hour walk, which turned out to be more like 45 minutes, which was fine with a few little rest stops on the way. I think what made it seem longer was seeing people glide past in the back of horse drawn carts, just sitting there with blankets over their knees and waving at you like royalty. I’m glad we walked though, it meant we got to see sights like this:

We made it to Ross Castle (built in the late 1400’s) in time for the last tour of the day where we learned the history of the castle and how it was to live in such a place. Happy snaps were also taken!

Go mum go!

Ross Castle

We took what we thought might have been a short cut through the nearby National Park to get back to Killarney, but it added an extra 20 minutes or so to our journey! It didn’t matter though, we enjoyed the walk. The scenery here is so lush and green.

Our dinner that night was wolfed down after a lot of travelling and walking that day and we thought we would have slept like babies except staying at a hostel comes with the price of noisy guests clomping around, drying their hair in the hallway at 12am and chatting outside your door. We eventually got to sleep of course, but were woken up early by the Friary next door who rang their bells at 7:30!

Having done enough walking, we decided it would be nice to rent some bikes and ride over to Muckross House. We arrived in just half an hour and enjoyed beautiful country side views along the way. Muckross House itself was nice and all, but we didn’t bother with a tour and were more interested in the lakes and forest near by.

We caved in and rented a horse drawn cart with a driver to take us to one of the lakes and waterfall, but we shared it with a sweet older couple who were visiting from the U.K, it made it much cheaper to share and was nice to have a chat along the way. The driver himself was a young guy just out of high school and enjoyed joking around and telling different stories about the area. Irish accents make any story ten times more entertaining!

The cart arrived at Torc waterfall and we were given time to look around and enjoy the scenery. It really is the Emerald Isle! Everything glows with the color green and moss covers the ground like carpet!

Torc waterfall

Back in the horse cart and our driver James took us back to Muckross House where we had more of a chat and took a few photos.

Our horse, Henry. Thank you Henry!

Cheers James!

We hopped back on to our bikes and followed a path which lead to Muckross Friary. Inside there were gravestones with Celtic inscriptions and spooky under ground rooms. Outside there was a cemetery where we found a Gleeson gravestone! I picked some flowers and laid them underneath the headstone, having no idea who these people were but it somehow seemed appropriate.

Onwards on our biking journey we rode alongside Lake Leane and coasted down a very steep hill covered in wildflowers to reach our lunch stop. We brought along some crusty bread, cheddar cheese and fresh peaches and devoured them in record time. It’s such a  nice change to earn your food!

Our lunch spot

Back on the road again, we headed back to the main town of Killarney and rode around a near by park for a while until we were hungry again and stopped off at a cute thatched tea house for berry muffins, tea and a strange conversation with a curious french man who slowly inched his table closer and closer to ours.

Tea house, yes it's real!

We also struck up a conversation with a local old man who promised us a stunning view if we followed a particular path through the park and went up a hill. Thankfully we followed his advice! There was even a wooden seat at this viewing point where you could sit and just take in the beauty and watch the long grass blow in the wind. Sounds terribly cheesy but it was stunning!

Boy were we aching! These bikes we rented had low handle bars, unlike the Dutch bikes I’m used to which allow you to sit up straight comfortably. So we called it a day and headed back to our hotel for a well earned shower. Hungry again, it was dinner time before we came across an Irish pub where they promised to have a live band and sing-along songs. We hung around for a while, drank a few beers and when the band came on stage we scored a table right up front.

I surprisingly knew a few of the songs, thanks to Mum who would sometimes play one of Nanna’s classic pub song records when I was a kid! One of the men whistled an entire song called The Lonely Fisherman which I wish I could find somewhere online, because it was quite a haunting and sad song to be heard as just a whistle.

We had been extremely lucky with the weather up until this point, when we walked outside it was absolutely bucketing down with rain! We shared an umbrella on our walk back to our hotel where we slept much better with the soothing noise of rain on the roof.

Our last morning in Killarney before heading back to Cork airport was spent keeping warm and dry in a local pub playing cards and drinking juice. We stopped off at Cork city on the way to the airport and visited an art gallery to pass some time, then caught a bus to the airport.

We took off with a great feeling of being able to tick off one of life’s “must do’s”.

dogrepellent2, originally uploaded by reneevt5.

You can keep dogs from chasing you by just pointing this. I had this happen several times today. My guess is that at some earlier time these particular dogs got sprayed by someone and didn’t want to repeat that experience.

It’s one of those things that they say you never forget how to do. Riding a bike.

Now, I’m not sure where the expression comes from but I am pretty sure that there may have been an easier comparison made for things that you never forget. Take brushing your teeth for example.  Let’s face it, brushing your teeth is something we should do at least twice a day from when we can hold a toothbrush. It’s a big deal, and kinda important unless you want end up looking like an extra from Oliver Twist when you smile to ask for more.

I might be wrong but I would have thought that overall riding a bike requires significantly more effort. You have to maintain your balance whilst at the same time mastering the constant up & down knee action required to provide forward motion. Couple this with having to steer left and right to counteract the wobbly front wheel  and I think you would be doing pretty well not to forget all this after a while of inaction on the saddle.

As it happens I’m actually not that  long through process of teaching the first of my children how to ride a bike.  I don’t know about anybody else, but my dad never taught me how to teach anybody to ride a bike and after the first 30 minutes of trying, I think I was just about as frustrated as Blake was for not getting the hang of it as I was with my seeming inability to get it him to get the hang of it!

However, I am pleased to say that with a modicum of perseverance and a bit of bribery (sorry, I mean rewarding) we got there. We did have our moments though, like the time when, riding along a coastal path and trying to avoid a small dog that looked like a rat on a string, he rode off the edge ending up three feet below with a mouthful of sand. Or when at the beach, he snuck off clothed in only his Speedos and Spiderman cycle helmet, to end up charging down a hill and smashing into a fence in full view of a somewhat disapproving elderly couple who only went out for an ice cream!

For me though, it goes without saying that, the hardest part of the whole experience was the ‘disposing’ of the stabilisers or training wheels as they are sometimes referred to. In fact, many people would argue that kids should never use them. They say that it can encourage bad behaviour whereby children learn to ride the bike by leaning on them so that it can be much harder to get your balance when this is what you have been used to. I know what they mean. Even now when Blake can’t bike up a steep hill he will demand his stabilisers back as they made it all much less work! His words not mine.

Well, just the other day I stumbled across the latest in children’s bike riding technology that has the potential to rid us of the stabiliser issue for good. It is the Gyrowheel.

The Gyrowheel

Designed and engineered by San Francisco based company Gyrobike, the Gyrowheel replaces the front wheel on a bike and uses gyroscopic precession to stabilise the front wheel when steering. They describe the wheel as basically augmenting what any kid would naturally learn to do.

Normally when riding a bike and you begin to fall, turning into the fall will correct it. The Gyrowheel works by using the gyroscopic precession effect to actually force the handlebars to turn when you begin to fall so you dont have to. It’s genius!

The wheel can be fitted to any standard bike, has a rechargeable battery and multiple stability settings so that once used to riding with the Gyrowheel you can be weaned off it. They currently only have 12″ wheels but are working on 16″ wheels too. Initially on sale only through their website in the US, it will be available from December 1 2009 for approx $100, which to me seems pretty reasonable. For us poor cousins in the UK, we will be looking at mid 2010 before we can get our hands on a Gyrowheel.

Personally, by the time it hits the UK shelves, I’m gonna have 3 little people looking to be taught how to ride their bikes and I would love to give this a shot – mainly because I think it is a pretty cool and innovative use of technology that could make the whole learning to ride a bike thing more fun for me and the kids. You should really head on over to www.thegyrobike.com to check it out and they have some pretty decent videos that will show you what has got me all excited, particularly the ghost testing. Oh and If you’re listening Gyrobike, I would be more than happy to be your advocate among parents here in the UK…nudge nudge, wink, wink!

Empire Realty Associates Broker Associate, Elizabeth Enea orchestrated a plan to participate in the the Asti Century Bike Ride to raise money for local charities and local Rotary Clubs.

Elizabeth and Empire Realty President Hank Perry stepped up to the challenge and successfully completely the ride in beautiful wine country. The ride took place this past Saturday, 10/17 at Asti Winery in scenic Sonoma County.

The bike ride took Elizabeth and Hank through the breathtaking Alexander, Dry Creek, and Russian River Valleys. They rode through charming rural countryside with breathtaking views of autumn-hued vineyards and the meandering Russian River.

Elizabeth is passionate about giving back to the community - it is one of the most important things to her. She is so happy to have completed this challenging ride with all proceeds going to a worthy cause. It is true – everyone can make a difference in the community!

Thank you Elizabeth!

Posted by Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Empire Realty Associates

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There were a few random trips/activities I did this summer that I never got around to writing about..and I keep staring at the photos. For posterity’s sake..here they are.

City Bike Ride

The first big thing I did was go on a bike ride through Manhattan. After purchasing a bike this summer, I tried to ride it as much as possible. I decided to ride from my place to 59th and West End to go visit my brothers for the day. The trip was fairly straightforward – but it was kind of cool to ride all the way from Astoria to the west side. The 59th Street Bridge is vastly underrated and I had the path mostly to myself.

These pictures are all from the bridge itself – the rest of the time I was using Bond-like maneuvers to avoid cars. Other than Central Park South being unpaved at the time and a few aggressive cabs, the trip was stress free and I would definitely do it again. The trip was a little over 6 miles each way.

The one caveat about it being “stress free” was my decision to play squash for 2 hours when I got there. The next day, my legs felt like some sort of purée.

Try a New Recipe

Next item on my list was a new recipe. Lauren and I were out of options (this was before the Great Epiphany During Which Lauren Decided to Eat Meat Again) so we went with an easy seafood dish. We didn’t spend too much time making them complicated but they tasted very good. The one change I would have made would be to crisp them a little more but other than that, they came out great. Recipe and pictures below.

Maryland Crab Cakes

1 pound crabmeat, shredded
1 1/2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon ground dry mustard
1 dash hot pepper sauce

DIRECTIONS:
1.    Preheat oven broiler.
2.    Mix together crabmeat, bread crumbs, parsley, salt and pepper.
3.    Beat together egg, mayonnaise, hot sauce and mustard. Combine with other ingredients and mix well. Form into patties and place on a lightly greased broiler pan or baking sheet.
4.    Broil for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly brown.

Two kinds of crabmeat

Rice. Exciting, no?

Baking the crab cakes

Finished product. Probably could have made a more exciting plate, but they tasted good. FWIW, honey glazed carrots are awesome. And yes, that salad is pathetic, and is only there in case my mother reads this.

Brandon’s Play

Last, but certainly not least, was my brother Brandon’s play. He has been acting as long as I can remember, and has already appeared in an Andrew Lloyd Webber play and Rescue Me with Denis Leary. This summer, he enrolled in Stagedoor Manor (I would be remiss if I didn’t note that when googling it, be abundantly sure to click the the camp in upstate NY, not the self proclaimed only gay bar in Georgia).

The camp is like an acting farm system, with alumni such as Robert Downey Jr., Natalie Portman and Zach Braff. With any luck, Brandon will be out of rehab in time for Iron Man 16. Anyway, the camp put on a production of Oliver and he got the role of Oliver.

He was terrific, and it was very funny to hear my 12-year-old brother speak like a poverty stricken Londoner. Here are two incredibly low quality pictures (he’s on the left in both).

The other item of note was a celebrity connection. When Tony Randall was 72, his longtime wife died of cancer. Three years later, he remarried (she was 25 – Tony Randall FTW) and had a son and daughter. Well, that son was Brandon’s roommate at camp. He seemed like a very nice kid for the few minutes I spoke with him, and it was a random brush with celebrity considering we were deep in a Hasidic town in upstate NY.

More importantly, though, the night after I met him, I was at Lauren’s watching Family Guy with her dad. The following episode came on. Skip forward to the 1:15 mark (it takes a second to load since it may or may not be from China).

This concludes my very long catch up post.

If you ride a motorcycle successfully, you know this–your attention is always immediately around you. Your mind does not wander to the grocery list, the plans for next weekend, or lunch. You are focused on where you are, who is behind and in front of you, and what is happening right now. As you ride in this moment and focus on it, you begin

Image from BestBeginnerMotorcycles at http://tinyurl.com/nbo57f

to know what others in cars are thinking, what they will do. Your circle of awareness expands and you are alert and calm, aware and easy on the bike. As a creative, I know this is a moment of flow that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes about. (Watch Csikszentmihalyi’s TED YouTube video.)

This afternoon, I was on the freeway entrance ramp, accelerating and ready to merge with traffic. Behind me, in the lane I was about to enter, was a gray car. When I clicked the signal light, the car slowly accelerated.  I had an instant to make a decision–hit the brakes, hard, or continue to accelerate and merge. Because I was more than two car lengths ahead of the gray car, I hand-signaled and merged. I felt the driver’s flash of anger and although she neither had to brake nor react, she didn’t like my decision. Freed from my own thoughts, I could feel hers.

Although bikes come equipped with turn signals, many motorists don’t see them. When I make a lane switch, merge, or turn left, I make a definite, strong arm movement in which I point to the space I’m going to move to. There is no doubt what I’m going to do. It’s hard to miss.

On the freeway, I changed lanes again, using the passing lane to avoid a turnoff, and joining the speed of traffic, which is fast here in Arizona. Traveling 70 mph on a bike keeps you alert. Traveling 70 mph on a crowded freeway keeps you as alert as you have ever been.

I don’t like to ride in the passing lane, I like to leave it free for cars to pass each other. I crossed into the middle lane,  felt the relief of the pickup who swung into the passing lane and edged past me, and knew without checking that the driver coming up on my right behind me was on the phone. It’s amazing what being in the moment tells you. It informs the way you handle the bike, it feeds you information on your position in traffic.

The car on the right behind me pulled even with me, then dropped back. I checked. Yep, he’s on the phone. Impaired driver. Not in the moment. Not fully engaged in driving.  On the other side, the gray car was now a car length behind me. I knew what she would do 10 seconds before she started her move. She was going to pass on the left, then cut me off and slam on her brakes. This game is incredibly dangerous, it can cause a multi-car accident, but that wasn’t her intent. In her mind, she was justified in punishing an arrogant motorcyclist who took her lane. Had a car done the same thing, she would not have given it a moment’s thought. You ride on the road with a lot of people, and you don’t get to pick any of them.

I couldn’t change lanes, but I slowed slightly to build a space cushion. She cut in front of me sharply and braked hard, but then accelerated, not looking back. She had achieved what she needed to do. She wouldn’t be a problem, and I had not had to brake hard, risking a skid on pavement that hasn’t seen rain in eight weeks.

On the right, the phone talker passed me. His car was not centered in the lane, he wanted to merge into my lane. I wanted to be out of his way, so I checked my left and saw a white car racing up the passing lane. Although the phone-driving had seen me ahead of him, he was not aware of me. I felt his decision before his wheels crossed into my lane while I was even with his back door. He’d forgotten me. I was in his blind spot, and his attention was on his call, not his car.

But I had the passing lane free, so I hit the horn at the same time I moved to the left of the center lane, ready to pull into the passing lane if I had to. Phone driver swerved back into his right lane, and I passed him. He waved apologetically at me, using his phone hand.

This is what driving a motorcycle is like–a constant awareness of the world around you, the emotions and patterns of drivers. You know what is around you in that moment, and it changes in the next. Your mind doesn’t drift or waver, you know just what you have to know to stay upright and moving forward on your bike. It’s why most bikers ride, it’s a feeling like no other. It’s what being in the moment means, and I learned how from Suzy Lightning.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer, trainer, and creativity coach. She rides Suzy Lightning, her motorcycle, as often as she can when the weather is good.

When I’m out on the road, I have a good sense of where I want to ride.  There are times when I get to an intersection and, depending on how I’m feeling and the weather conditions, I’ll take a different direction than what I had planned.

It’s that time of year now when that change of direction becomes a metaphor for whether or not I go anywhere when I turn the pedals.  It’s a colder than usual October here, and I’m desperately checking the long range forecasts for anything above 52°F and a wind less than 15mph.  I’m not having much luck.

I was all psyched to gain a calendar advantage with a riding vest.  I was able to use it only once so far.  It has not only been cold, but very windy and rainy.  The one ride was successful, but it was almost two weeks ago.

I have stated before that I ride for fitness and for fun.  To me, riding in a cold rain while pushing the red line so I can go 12mph into a stiff headwind is not fun.  The other side of the coin here is that I can turn this all around by calling it a season and moving indoors to ride on the trainer.

Is this that much of a decision?  I can eliminate weather as a factor and get in three solid workouts every week.  No more numb fingers and toes, no more chasing ever-waning daylight, no more feeling guilty that – while my appetite has not lessened - my caloric expenditure has.

I think I know what I should be doing, but I’m fighting it – for now.  I should just pay attention to the signs; there’s only one way to go.