Yeah, me neither. I never even thought about it. In fact, I hate loud motorcycle noises.
But in case you are on the OTHER side of the fence, I bring you TURBOKSPOKE!
OMG IT COMES WITH 15 CUSTOM STICKERS!
Get this for you and all your cycling buddies and sound like a motorcycle gang on your local bike paths!
I bet this gets all da ladies, too…
Cool or lame? Would you actually put one on your bike??
So I stole a bicycle from my best friend. He let the bike sit in his garage for ten years and collect black widow spiders.
I’m traditionally a road cyclist. I know how to avoid cars and broken glass like no one’s business. But now I have access to tons of awesome trails, time to start hitting the dirt!
HOLY MOLY TRAIL BIKING IS DIFFICULT!!
- The road has good grip – on dirt, your bike SLIDES.
- Dangerous items on the road (cars) try to avoid you. Dangerous items on the trail (rocks) want to hit you.
- You are in the middle of nowhere on a trail bike; you are on a charted street when on a road bike
- The above is also a PRO for trail biking – it’s awesome being in the middle of nature
- It’s easier to find a tree and fall asleep while trail biking (see picture below)
I swear I did not fall asleep under this tree
In all honesty, trail biking is AWESOME. But I obviously need to work on my skillset. Fortunately, there is a free MTB skills class available right down the street, so me, my pride, and I are going to attend it next month.
Any tips/tricks you recommend? Do you prefer road or trail biking?
what a view!
Happy New Year!
2011 started out sort of boring and bland for me, even with a new job.
Then it all hit the fan at the same time. Cancer, work, love life, all hit at once! Alas, I haven’t done any serious cycling since my surgery, so time to change that.
Glad to be cancer free, and I’ve managed to pay off all my medical bills! I wanted to buy a new bike last year, as my current bike is about ten years old and I’m a sucker for the latest in cycling technology (I’m a techno-phile in every part of my life). But cancer isn’t cheap, so… oh well. That is OK.
This is how my brain feels right now
If you got here because you are researching post-thyroidectomy symptoms, please please please take at least a month off to heal. I went back after only two weeks and it was a horrible mistake. It took me longer to heal because I went back too soon and didn’t listen to my body.
OK Enough whining about that.
I think my cats got more Christmas presents than me. A sign of being a crazy cat lady is when your parents give up and start calling the cats their “Grandkitties” and give them tons of gifts while throwing a small gift card in your direction. And they also like to give the cats wet food and pet them and get angry when I call my boy cat stupid. He IS stupid! He has this vacant look in his eye, and constantly whines. He’s so freakin’ adorable but he’s a tubbachub and hides under the bed and runs away from me like I’m going to eat him.
I don’t believe in New Years Resolutions. I never seem to keep them and of course I need to lose 20lbs. I’d love to lose weight, but I also love food.
I have a lot of hopes for this year, but can you really do anything more than hope when it comes to life? I’ve lived long enough to know that there are parts you can (kind of) control, but the rest is up to … Fate? Destiny? Life?
Life has so many curveballs (who would have guessed I’d get Thyroid cancer!?). It’s bittersweet in so many ways. Now I’m just rambling.
I stopped truly planning long term for life, as it’s so erratic that all you can do is just try to enjoy the now and maintain balance for the future.
Enjoy the now, give people lots of hugs and go out and have fun.
Have a lovely 2012 and get on that bike! 
Today I broke one of the Rules of Cycling – I did not make eye contact with a driver that was pulling out into the street.
While biking home from a ride with friends, I saw a motorist ahead of me start to pull out into the main street. I thought ‘oh gee I’m sure they see me… I’ll just keep going ahead without slowing down’
I’m sure you can see where this is going.
The motorist was looking to her right (I am not sure WHY because in America oncoming traffic would be coming from her LEFT) and started to accelerate.
At this point, I could see her still looking to her right and that her car was accelerating…towards ME, who was now almost directly in front of her vehicle.
Realizing the imminent collision, I mentally berated myself for breaking the 452th rule of cycling by not making eye contact with the driver first.
Fortunately, the driver then looked forward, saw me and slammed on the brakes. I made some loud sort of curse and pedaled onward, a sigh of relief escaping my lips.
So this story ended well, but it could have ended poorly. Heed my stupidity and make eye contact.
Now I’ll share some pictures I took during a trip to the UK:
What the heck is going on here with the wacky lines?
Roundabouts are living hell for Americans
This is to keep tourists from getting hit by a car
OK when I say “cold”, I mean “Los Angeles cold”, which is in the 50s. I can hear some of you laughing at me.
So a month after my surgery, I’m back on the ‘bike to work’ kick. My lazy self could have easily done this a week or two prior, but I’ve been fat and sassy the past few weeks.
No, really. I’ve been pigging out. I was convinced that my post thyroidectomy lifestyle would be SO healthy, but it hasn’t been.
I blame mom. She keeps cooking all this delicious food, and I keep eating it. Can you blame me? When YOU come home to mom-made rice pudding, you tell ME how you not eat that.
The Enemy
So yesterday the last meeting of the day ran late, and it was my first ‘night commute’ home in quite awhile.
Front and rear lights blinking, nifty reflective bike wrappers and my beautifully hideous ElevenGear Traffic Master jersey.
So Bad it's Good
I have wanted this jersey for TWO years and finally bought it for myself a few months ago.
Now the weather is “chilly”, I busted it out last night and it did the trick. I felt warm, snuggly, and eye shockingly atrocious.
I mean, how can someone hit me with their car and say they didn’t see me, while wearing something like that!? Hell, the jersey comes with the United States Universal Vehicle Code, §11-1205 on the sleeve, just in case you want to start ranting at a motorist. Which I often do.
What do YOU do to stay visible at night on your bike?
Wow, this has been such a busy month, I haven’t had time to update the blog.
I’ve been healing from having my thyroid removed. Sorry for all my normal readers, but I wanted to post about the thyroidectomy experience and post healing process. Mostly because I haven’t been able to find any that are NOT insane horror stories and were all non-normal scenarios. So hopefully someone who has thyroid cancer (or has to have their thyroid removed) will do a Google search and read my experience and help them feel better.
3 weeks after the cut. Note weird neck line above the cut - that was not there before - I think it's cuz there is a chunk of body missing on the inside, resulting in excess skin.
1. The worst part of the whole experience is waking up in the holding room after the surgery. You might find it hard to breathe – DO NOT PANIC. Take slow, deep breaths. It will be uncomfortable, but you should really focus on trying to breathe.
2. The hospital sucks. They will take your blood once at night and again in the morning to check your calcium levels. If they went up a bit overnight, they will probably set you free. I was able to leave by 8 AM the next day.
3. People will try talking to you. Your vocal chords are temporarily damaged and you can probably croak at them but it will suck. Text them on your mobile device and tell them to stop trying to make you talk. Texting is your friend for the first few days after the surgery.
4. You’ll be able to walk around, etc. In fact, two days after the surgery, you will start your new medication and you might feel AMAAAAAAAZIIING!! You will feel like you can run, bike, go hog wild. Don’t do it! It’s your body hyped up on hormones, since the old thyroid hormones take over a week to go away, so you are doubled up. The thyroid controls your energy levels, so of course with too many thyroid hormones coursing through you, you will feel amaazing!! wooo! superwoman! yaeahhhh!!
5. This will end. You will crash. Sleep is your friend.
6. You might feel great after two weeks and decide to go back to work. DO NOT DO THIS. You will get tired really easily and by that 1 PM meeting, feel like you got hit by bricks. Take THREE WEEKS OFF. I made this mistake and suffered heavily.
7. It takes about three weeks for the neck swelling to go down. My scar looks like a red line drawn on my neck, but that all depends on your skin type, etc. I smear Vitamin E on it every day and wear my hair back so it doesn’t stick to my neck. Classy.
8. It’s been about three weeks and I have most of my voice back. It’s hard to talk loud and I can’t hit the high ranges. Expect to NOT sing in your car for about a month.
Overall, I feel great CONSIDERING that only three weeks ago I had my neck slit open and my thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes cut out of me. I’m still a little tired, but overall pleased.
Please feel free to contact me if you were diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer and want to talk about it.
Overall summary: Only go here if you want to truly know what the word ‘inhospitable’ in the Hospitality Industry truly means. The owner of this establishment was rude, defensive, and worst of all – knowingly endangered my sister and I which led to physical harm. Stay away!!
I purchased the “Escape to McKenzie River Mountain Resort” through LivingSocial.com. This was to be my last big blow out before going in for a thyroidectomy. I booked our cottage for the last weekend of September for my sister and I go stay there and go trail biking and kayaking.
Needless to say, our experience was short of a living hell.
Sad collection of broken bikes
1. The Rental Bikes:
a. I am 5’10” with a very long inseam. My sister is 5’5”. They tried to give us the same size bike. I made them give me a larger bike. I happen to have a lot of road biking experience (which I know doesn’t translate over to trail), but I do know a properly sized bike. They did not.
b. The mountain bike rentals were literally pieces of trash. The bikes barely worked and they tried to give my sister a broken bike. The pedal on my bike was broken and ended up scratching the heck out of the back of my leg. The bikes are banged up and covered in dirt and barely shift.
c. They do not know how to maintain their rental bikes. The rear derailleur was obviously broken on the bike they tried to give my sister and they did not know how to fix it. I finally pointed at another bike and made them give her that one.
d. Note that these bikes are to be used on a remote 26 mile trail where we will get NO cell reception. Therefore, it is critical that the bikes are in working order.
e. No water bottle holders on the bikes. They said they didn’t have any at all, but I saw one on a bike in the junk pile (see photo) and they moved it onto one of our bikes. Bring a camelbak.
2. The Service:
a. This is where I am really furious. My sister and I arrived earlier than expected, as we had flown into PDX and drove down. We hung out in the reception area and were greeted by someone that said they didn’t work there, and that we could just go into the cabin. Ok…
We go into the cabin (which are pretty nice and roomy and well decorated), and when I exit I see some guy coming towards me. I introduce myself and he just stares at me, and then grunts something about filling out paperwork.
It's like Jurassic Park but without the dinosaurs.
Later in the day I meet the proprietor, who for some unknown reason decided to go into the hospitality business but has the worst chip on his shoulder I’ve ever seen. I tried to mention my poor service experience, since he was the owner, but instead he got defensive and stated that it was my fault for coming early, and they don’t have the staff to provide full coverage as they are a small business. Uhm.. sorry, but running a “resort” is a 24/7 job, you should have people trained to work the front desk, and since you are a small business, then you should be able to more effectively communicate with your staff.
Walk your bike, people!
He says it is easy to moderate, and recommends bearing right on a part of the trail to avoid the difficult part. OK, great.
Next day he grudgingly takes us up (we had paid for FOUR van trips with the LivingSocial deal, only one of which got redeemed) to the top of the trail.
The trail is apparently a BLACK DIAMOND. My sister and I had to walk our bikes for six miles, and my sister got hurt repeatedly. Even I took a spill and got tore up by the crappy bike pedal. Having to see my sister in pain, bleeding, miserable infuriated me. We both took time off of work to fly up to Oregon and were so excited. And now here is my little sister, bleeding!
I couldn’t believe it. The proprietor knowingly endangered us. He knew how rough the trail was. I was VERY clear that we were beginners.
The next day, I confronted him about this (in front of one of his VERY KIND ex-employees, who’s name I did not catch, but we love her).
I asked him point blank “Have you ever ridden the trail?”
Him: 26 miles is a long way to be on a bike all at one time so I haven’t ridden it all in one day
Me: Have YOU RIDDEN the trail?
Him: Parts of it…
Me: HAVE YOU RIDDEN THE BLACK DIAMOND PART OF THE TRAIL
Him: Well, I’ve only hiked it…
Me: AND YOU THOUGHT IT WAS OK TO SEND MY SISTER AND I, WHO WERE COMPLETELY UNSKILLED, ON THAT TRAIL?
Him: Well, the other times I tried to dissuade people, they never listened.
Me: You never tried to dissuade US and I was HONEST. I would have listened!
At this point, my poor sister said she had enough and wanted to leave immediately.
The living social deal also provided a $50 gift certificate in the “resort’s store, but she didn’t want to face the proprietor again and wanted to leave immediately.
While packing to leave, we get a knock on the door. The proprietor sent his OWN CHILD to deliver an apology letter (to be scanned and posted). The child sticks out a letter and mutters ‘sorry’. I didn’t know what to say so I just took the letter and said ‘okay’.
Chris LaVoie – I hope you read this. Man up. Don’t send your child to do YOUR work. That is just sad.
I can tell that the only reason I got this letter is because the awesome ex-employee saw the exchange and told Chris he was in the wrong.
The owner tried to blame the LivingSocial deal, saying that all the people who had used it were also “disappointed” with the trail. I can understand that there was apparently a miscommunication with LivingSocial – there were NO kayaks as advertised and the trail was made to sound very easy. But I still say that the proprietor, who has actual knowledge of the trail, should have warned us. I have emailed LivingSocial with my complaint as well and won’t be purchasing any experiences from them again.
Start your ride south of this landmark!
This trail IS beautiful, it is amazing. But unless you are very experienced, do NOT start the trail at the top!!! Start the trail at the parking lot where you can hike two miles north to the blue pool (and do that hike, it’s so beautiful).
Also make sure to go to the hot springs and do the waterfall hike on the other side of the McKenzie River. Wow, this area is spectacular and I can’t recommend it enough.
Sitting around waiting for my adorable sister to catch up, enjoying the scenery
So a week ago from today, I went to the hospital to get my thyroid removed. Recap: I had Papillary Thyroid Cancer. The cure? More cowbell. No wait. Remove thyroid.
Little known fact since this a blog about biking – I also specialize in saltwater aquaria, with a focus on invertebrates (coral, clams, etc). So I see a fishtank in the waiting room and wander over and am greeted with a horrifying sight.
This clownfish's days of laughing are over.
A dead clownfish, floating in the tank. The superstitious side of me, albeit small, starts to panic that this is a premonition of how the surgery will go.
So I flee the tank and wander around some more and see the following stuck to a door:
Well, hell. Depending on your chosen genre of vampire literature, I’d rather have a vampire sexily suck my blood then a goddamn needle jammed in my arm. It’s been a week and I still look like a domestic violence victim on my arms.
Finally I’m prepped for surgery, they put me under, I wake up and have a panic attack that I’m dying, and end up in a room. I won’t go into detail of the next 24 hours, which just really sucked, but I’m alive and I think I am well. We find out fully on Thursday, but the surgeon said it went really well.
Below is my ‘victory’ picture taken in the hospital after the surgery. I can’t believe I really thought my neck was getting ‘fat’ on one side (which was the tumor). I have my pretty slender neck back, and am doing really well.
w00t.
Wow, October is already upon us!
I had an amazing weekend mountain biking and hiking up in Oregon. I’ll have a separate post about that. Talk about an adventure, in many ways!
Today I am a .. cancer patient?
Tomorrow I’ll be a … cancer… survivor? Whuut?
Still strange to think about. Not scared about getting gutted, just concerned about the recovery period.
So I’ll have plenty of time to update this week about my crazy adventure in Oregon!
So for the final weekend of having a thyroid gland, I decided to be a big roller and take my sister and I on a biking/hiking/kayaking trip at the McKenzie River Trail. Check it out – Rated #1 for having the best bike trails in America!!
We’ll take lots of pics – I’m super excited. I love Oregon, love biking, love trees and lakes… oh and my sister, I guess I love her, too, so we’re gonna have some fun!
I’m debating if I should draw a frowny face over the tumor on my neck. It’s sad because it’s going away. hahah To be honest, though, the closer we get to my surgery, the more nervous I am getting. I’m sitting here, my stomach is twisting into a knot. I know there is nothing to be afraid of but… I’m afraid??
Oh well. So I look forward to a final weekend of fun before I go into a few weeks of boring recovery.
Anyone ever biked up in that part of Oregon?
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