hillary dixon rust

I've already made myself into a liar so...


Let me swoop around to a time not all that far in the past and explain how I am able to find myself sitting at home typing instead of "working". It is a long and convoluted story but basically at 11:30 pm  last night I went to bed having not told when to be at work today. 


I did eventually get an email with a call time but it was after I fell asleep and by the time I read it at 8 am today the person who sent it had written me another email explaining that she'd had to find someone else. 


So I'm left to my own devices. 


Riding is all I can really think to do. I stared at a map of Los Angeles for quite a while and made up my mind where I would go but then a funny thing happened. I remembered an article I read recently about "recovery". It was written by a guy who is or was a trainer for professional cyclists and he said that the hardest part for him was never getting people to ride and ride hard and train hard. It was actually getting them to not ride or even ride slow so that their body could recover. I vowed that I would never be one of those guys. 


I then got on my bike and rode to iMartin (the bike store)...very slowly. I got some straps for my pedals because the ones I have are beginning to deteriorate and I want to be ready.


I rode home instead of riding out to the Santa Anita Race Track like I had planned and now I'm going to make sure I get in some serious recovery time on the couch reading my new book and watching No Reservations with Anthony Bourdaine. Which, if you haven't seen it, is quite possible one of the most interesting shows I've seen in a long time. 


Alright, I have to lie down now so I can be faster! 


Chirp,
hillary

Well, well, well. Another day another blog. I rarely come to these things thinking that I will have anything to say and yet, like in most situations, after I get started I seem to find myself doing "just fine". At least by my standards. 


I went to work at 2:45 pm on Wednesday which, for those of you who don't know, means I got off at about 3:15am. Truth be told I'm not convinced they needed me for a full 12 hours (plus the 1/2 hour for lunch) but I got to read my bicycle magazine and eat until my heart was content and my belly was splitting at the seams so I won't complain too much. 


It gets tricky because on Tuesday I went to work at 9am, which combined with the 2:45pm call for the following day had me nice and sleepy by about midnight Wednesday. It was pretty cold, I'm guessing low low 40's and my wonderful and concerned wife Sara told me in no uncertain terms that she would be more than happy to come pick me up so I wouldn't have to ride sleepy. I began to doubt myself. I started to wonder if it was worth it. I mean, aside from trying to "get ready" for riding to Austin, there is no real reason for me to feel any pressure to continuously ride 65-75 miles everyday to make a Reality TV Show (is that really a "proper" noun?) that I've never even seen.


The entire day I kept feeling worse and worse and wondering if maybe Sara was right. Maybe it was better to have her come get me and spend the 2 gallons of gas ($7.00) and pollution and her sleep so that I wouldn't have to endure the 34 mile journey through the cold-ish early morning So-Cal darkness.


I got the nod from the powers that be that I was officially finished for the day and by this point I was convinced I would call. What I did instead was put on my long sleeve Old Navy shirt that I got from Sara's mother for Xmas a year or so ago, a weird Nike exercise hoody thing I found in the lost and found at work while I was in the closet looking for tape, and my trusty old hoody that I got from I don't know where about 6 years ago. I changed into my riding shorts (some Walmart khakis pants I got in South Dakota and cut off into shorts) and took off. I figured worst case scenario I'd have to call Sara from somewhere closer to home.


One of the strangest/best things about being on the coast of California is the constant wind blowing in from the ocean. It's not always noticeable (I hate spelling that word. It just never looks right) on the beach but when it gets channeled into the canyons it is a force to be reckoned with. Heading down it ruins your day. You think that you're going to bomb through the steep turns and get a chance to go fast while relaxing but what ends up happening is that the wind forces you to stay ducked down and pedaling much more than you would want or expect. The good news is that the same wind that makes you hate the fact that you rode all the way to the canyon when going downhill will make you feel like a climbing giant when you're going the other way! I average faster speeds going uphill on the way home than I do coming down on the way to work. 


Once I got past the initial uphill experience I decided that I was completely and totally fine and forgot entirely about calling for a rescue car. My head was free and clear to think about all sorts of other things. Like the fact that it is technically a shorter distance (by about 4 miles) to take the Pacific Coast Highway to get out to work. The only issue is that Malibu Canyon gets narrow and windy (not windy, curvy) and in the day time there is a ton of traffic from Pepperdine University and surfer types cruising the beach for waves and babes and dudes. Besides the traffic, from my house to the beach and then down the PCH to Malibu is essentially flat. Which means on the way to work the entire ascent that is normally spread over 30 miles or so would be crammed into the last 8-10 miles. Leaving would be fine (minus the afore mentioned wind) but at night there is little to no light for most of the way and...I make a lot of excuses and I promise that I will find a way to tackle Malibu Canyon in both directions before the end of my work in the area. 


Another thing I had time to think about was the fact that for the documentary I want to meet people that are living as close to "outside" of the "system" as possible. Not renegades or revolutionaries, but people that simply aren't sitting around waiting for Obama or the government to give them permission or help to form the world they want to live in. Not that I think "the system" is a complete and total failure...I guess I just think people in general know what we need to do to survive and some people are already making the changes voluntarily by making rooftop gardens and community spaces that support more than just themselves and they do it all in their "free" time which is much more valuable than any of us like to admit because mostly we do nothing with that time instead of working towards creating the things we want and need. I don't think we should all quit our jobs and build greenhouses in our living rooms but I do think there are millions of interesting things we can explore and enjoy and "work" on that may not make us money but could make us much happier and more interesting.


I hear a dinner bell.


Chirp,
hillary
  

Just to get it out of the way, I'm not planning on going to Juarez Mexico. I'm not sure why the map makes look that way but...El Paso is close but for the documentary I have no reason to go to Juarez no matter how interesting it may be.

1 st off I'd like to say this - 


Dear LA busses,
You are bullies. Just because you are big doesn't mean you can pull out without checking your mirrors. Especially not the 3rd time. That one I'm not going to let slide. Also, I'm not letting slide the part where you honk at me incessantly because there's too much traffic for you to pass and I'm not going fast enough for you even though we are clearly headed to a red light where you'll have to stop and then when the light turns green you gun it around me actually cutting off the driver in the next lane over and then you cut back over in front of me and slam on your brakes to make your stop at the bus stop that is just past the intersection where, I might add, there is no one waiting for you and sine I was trapped behind you I could clearly see that no one got off. Good for you busses. You guys are doing a great job.

So I'm officially riding to Mullholland Highway in Calabasas CA every day from our apartment near 3rd and La Brea for work for the foreseeable future. It's a pretty good ride I think as far as my "training" goes. 33 miles to get there and then between 32-42 on the way back. There are some nice climbs, good decsents etc. The time of day dictates the route I take home because Los Angeles traffic is dumb and certain roads end up being essentially a death trap during peak traffic hours (aka between 7am and 9pm) with lanes merging together in an apparently random manner which causes cars to change lanes often and rapidly and...I add on 5 or 10 miles to save my brain from feelings of certain doom.

One thing I've learned is that people in cars aren't "looking for bikes". Which sounds like a big load of horse BS (and it is) but it is apparently a viable excuse (sorry if this is a repeat story for some of you.). I was hit by a lady that blatantly ran a stop sign where the cross traffic didn't have one.  I was the cross traffic and got to do a sweet "Dukes of Hazard" over the hood of her car and she drove away . I was "lucky" and was basically unhurt. The bike was "ridable" but essentially worthless. The cops came, I had 6 witnesses and a the license plate number. The officer that was assigned to the case seemed bored and underwhelmed by the whole situation. He called me 2 weeks later after the daughter of the woman that hit me called in an insurance claim to her insurance company for the apparent hit and run damage on her sweet old mother's car and it through up a red flag from my police report. That's some good detective work if you ask me especially considering he only had the license plate number and make and model of her car. The officer went over her side of the story and told me "She just wasn't looking for bikes." and he seemed to find that to be a reasonable answer as to why after having hit someone with her car she drove away. Then the woman's insurance company called me to assess what type of settlement I should receive. The agent assigned to the case explained that "Motorists aren't looking for bikes.". I dare you to use this logic next time you get a speeding ticket. "Well, you see officer, I just wasn't looking for signs. And since I only see what I am looking for you really have no right to issue me a citation." The agent then offered me $350 dollars for a bike that was worth about $500 and explained to me that since I really wasn't hurt that it was "very generous" and "more than fair" and that I should consider myself lucky. And I do. 

I don't know about you, but I see things even when I'm not looking for them. I also am sometimes distracted by any number of things like multiple giant electronic flashing billboards (But driving with a cell phone to your ear is illegal?) and don't always see everything. Close calls happen to everyone for any number of reasons. Accidents happen more often than we would like. And completely avoidable accidents happen to the very best of us. Some people are fully capable of driving and talking on the phone at the same time. Some people can't even drive when there is only a radio to distract their attention. I think if we all make an effort to try to be a little more aware of what we are doing at all times instead of assuming that multitasking is a necessity we may all have the crap scared out of us less often and also think better of other people. Because as we all know, "Never admit fault". Yes that's right, it's ALWAYS someone else's fault. I'm going to go not look for trees now.


Chirp,
hillary     

So, I've been biking in Los Angeles for fun and as a commuter for over a year now and I've been blogging about it at clogla.com for about as long. But now that I have this little slice of the web pie I figured I'd do a one stop shop for myself. 


Clogla.com is sort of an ironic concept. Here is a quick recap of all things clog so you don't have to go back and scroll through a year's worth of posts.


Biking in Los Angeles is supposed to be a good thing but there is a lot of evidence that because motor vehicle operators don't know what to do when they encounter a cyclist they often make poor decisions which causes all sorts of issues.


But it's not just drivers doing dumb stuff. A big part of the issue with cyclists is that people don't ride enough to be confident on the road and so they do things that make them feel more safe but actually put them in more danger. Like riding on the sidewalks. 


Humans are also very unpredictable in general and it is never more obvious in large crowds. Just try to walk in a purposeful straight line at a fair or busy shopping mall. People stop out of nowhere and change direction and pace at random intervals. It's chaos. 


Almost as obvious as that is when people who don't ride often get on bicycles. I'm not sure if they just assume that everyone in the world is always looking right at them but...the only safe way to ride anywhere is to assume that no one, absolutely no one, is paying any attention to you.  


That being said, people in cars should learn to treat people on bikes like slow cars for the most part. Or maybe motorcycles. Cyclists have all the same rights as motor vehicles on any road where bicycles are allowed.  I understand it is annoying when you have the ability to accelerate rapidly and maintain a high rate of speed just by moving your foot 1 inch and then there is some yahoo on a bike in "your " lane going 14 mph but you can pass them or e patient like you would have to be for a big truck or an old lady. Trust me, cyclists do not want you driving right behind them, or next to them, or trying to be courteous and let them go first at a stop sign even though you got there first. 


Then there's the "expert" bikers that think that just because they can handle their bike willy nilly it gives them free reign in the streets to do whatever they want. They weave in and out of traffic and don't care if cars know they are there or if they are causing people to slow down or swerve. They get to where they are going very quickly by riding like a bad driver. Which is selfishly and thoughtlessly. 


I won't lie, I slow down and stop as little as possible. That means I treat stop signs like yield signs and stop lights like stops signs. But I only do what is safe. If I can't see around a corner, I stop. I act exactly like a car in every way shape and form when there is traffic around. But I don't necessarily sit at a red light when I can clearly see that there are no cars coming.


I've probably ridden 8,000 miles in the last year and I feel as safe on my bike in Los Angeles traffic as I do in a car. 


I hope you enjoy all of this because I do.


Chirp,
hillary