The Mother of all bike-rides

Good thing i had a day off today. i realized this weekend that my bank account was nearly depleted, that the cost of new checks was about to be deducted from my account, and that my ten-dollar check for a year’s subscription to Mother Jones was also due to be cashed any day.

Mike owed me a little more than $200, and he said that i could collect this from either Zack or Jerry down at the farm. So about 10:30 -- after a wonderful surprise half-hour phone call from Abdulkarim -- i jumped on “my” bike (God love ya, Ann Federowicz!) and arrived at the farm at 12:40. Not bad for a 46-year-old! (Geez, i still cannot believe i’m 46. Still feeling 30-something.)

Sandy was in her usual place beneath the house, fast asleep, and the poor thing is so totally deaf now that the only way i could waken her was by tossing little pebbles. She woke up after the 3^rd one hit her, and shambled out all groggy to be petted and kissed. (Abdulkarim, you’ll be glad to know that i did deliver your kisses to her just as you’d requested in our phone call this morning! How’s that for fast service?!) Had a long chat with Jerry about the behind-the scenes Heartwood, then got the cash and started back up the hill toward the pavement, a half-hour away.

At 3:00 i was back at the road, and from there it is about 95% down-hill into town. Once there, i made a phone call back to Heartwood to have someone tell the only non-American student at the school, a lovely German gal named Christina, that i would need to postpone my giving her a massage at 4 pm. Then deposited the cash at the bank across the street; went to the bagelry and got a soy-“turkey” bagel sandwich, and biked down to the Eel River for a quick skinny-dip in its cool waters. Utterly refreshing.

At 4:30 i began the slog homeward. i had toyed with the idea of hitchhiking and had even brought along my Heartwood sign for the purpose, but it was such a beautiful day, and aside from studying for Thursday’s exam on THE MUSCLES OF THE HUMAN BODY (!), there was not really anything requiring me to rush back.

Well, what took me 19 minutes to go down took me 1¾ hours to get back up! Total bike time, Garberville to Heartwood: 3¾ hours. Big thanks go out to the handsome blonde-haired muscular guy (who i’ve seen here at dinner once or twice) who stopped when i held aloft and pointed to my nearly empty water-bottle and shared with me the rest of his, just enough to see me through the rest of the way. It was hot and i was sweatin' up a storm. i stopped to pick and eat some blackberries on the way, which were delish.

The only other thing of note about the trip: around sunset, two skunks (count ‘em! TWO!) raised their tails at me! With the first, it was merely an instinctual reaction, and i noticed his tail going flaccid almost as soon as he’d raised it up. But the second, who was about to amble onto the dark dirt road, actually had the nerve to chase after me, and i had to find some more energy to cycle faster! Fortunately skunks are not very fast runners, and he gave up pretty easily.

i swung by the mailroom before heading down to the Lodge for a late dinner, and found a b-day package (postmarked 9/14) from my niece Amanda, containing one VERY cute b-day card (a dog looking at the photog. with its head tucked between someone’s legs) and a book on naughty Italian slang (should come in very handy, thanks sweetie!), and a b-day card from Lance and Norio (postmarked 9/13: 6 days from Japan, not bad.) Thanks boys!

On the big day itself, word had leaked out that it was in fact my birthday after my sister Eileen called at breakfast-time, and passed this news on to Word. So when i walked in some time later, 'Word [Edward] had cued up on the boombox in the kitchen the Beatle's song Birthday, and thoroughly embarrassed me by singing and dancing around while i tried to fill up my cereal bowl and prevent my face from turning another 3 shades of vermilion. To make matters worse, i'd gone to sleep with my hair wet the night before after a massage from my friend and classmate Laura followed by a spell in the sauna, and what with waking up 15 minutes before breakfast ended, there wasn't much time to do anything with what my hair had turned into. Definitely a Funny Hair-day.

A few more things that made my birthday special: a package of Mexican coffee beans from Tim Diko (received on Saturday! great timing buddy!), and the ever-popular Happy Birthday song sung to me Sunday morning from the Bronx by Martin, Dana, Molly and Lucy Carney! (Um, hang on to your day-job Martin ... ) So great to catch up with my oldest friends. Eileen finally caught me on the phone in the Lodge around lunchtime Saturday, and we had a nice, long chat while i finished eating lunch. Email greetings came in from Simon "DJ Puregroove" and our mutal pal Ian "DJ Slice!" And to mark the occasion, i once again accompanied our resident guru Marion Gibson on his monthly full-moon hikes. We leave the Lodge at 10 pm and are usually back about 12:30 or 1 am.

Well, i'm sure there's more from the past week i should be passing on, but it's 11 pm and i'm ready to crash. i'll leave you with my first blog-photo, taken Sept. 8 near Bull Creek Flat in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Norio, Lance, Sandy and i are in front of a redwood tree that is the height of a 30-odd story building.