gurdymonkey | Sunday afternoon at the 2065 Club

Waiting for Dad, who should be here shortly. I've been looking at pannier and saddle bag designs on Teh Intarwebz and there are a couple of European companies making them in fun colors and prints. But wait, I have a sewing machine that can handle repairing horse-blankets! Surely I can make something and custom fit it to whatever rack I end up installing. Gotta be water proof. Two tone red and cream, obviously. Patterns could be fun, particularly something with a 60's mod feel....

Stripes and polka dots are a possible. Hmmmm.....

Ooh, darned cute, but not waterproof.

EDIT: Dad arrived laden with a bagful of leftover snack foods from the dorm suite. He is snoring on the downstairs futon after what has had to have been a pretty full week, so instead of proposing a jaunt into SF on BART to go to SFMoMA or something, I am availing myself of some fruit and cheese and will probably take a turn around the neighborhood on Mimi in a few.

EDIT: Whew, that was fun. Last night I ran into Mark in the stairwell and he complimented me on my new ride. When I confessed I needed to get in shape and get my traffic confidence back, he told me that Grand Street had bike lanes on both sides all the way from the boat ramp on our end of town to the beach.

My route: Eagle Avenue northbound to Grand. Grand all the way out to Shoreline. North on Shoreline to the curve where it turns into Westline, right on Otis to go south again back to Grand, then back east on Grand to Eagle and another seven blocks home. I just looked on a map and fiddled with Point A and Point B on Google Maps and it works out to four miles almost exactly. I was able to time my pace on approach to some of the traffic lights so I didn't have to stop at every single one. Plus Grand Street is part of Alameda's old "Gold Coast" neighborhood, wide, treelined and home to some still grand old homes, so it was a pretty ride out and back, as well as the stretch along the beach. Felt good. Felt considerably less scary than Wednesday night, which is also a good sign.