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When we decided to move out here, we didn’t know quite how hard it would be to find a place to rent. But, it was challenging – we only found two places to look at, and one was way to small (and went to someone else anyway) and the other was waaaaay far away from town – 21-ish miles, in fact. However, due to a combination of its beauty, the fact it is furnished, and that it was the only one available, it was the one we ended up in.

So, we both started getting nervous about the distance, and rightfully so. Twenty-one miles is a long way to bike twice daily, even with an e-bike. Still, we’re going to do our best to stay a one-car family and use the bikes as much as possible. This meant that one of the first things we did was make a test-ride into town and back.

First off, I want to give a shout out to Reddit user korDen, who indirectly inspired me to diver headfirst into this attempt. I read korDen’s post on Reddit about finding a family bike. The rural commute they do each day is admittedly longer than ours (though preschool dropoff is less), but after reading that my hesitancy turned into a Barney Stinson-style “challenge accepted”. I now know that we can’t do the same level of bike-use as Seattle (at least currently), but it’s a fun challenge to see how much we can do. 

We started off a bit late in the day, which was unfortunate. It meant the heat had already climbed to around 80 degrees, less than optimal in a ride that is about 50% completely exposed to the sun. We took about a gallon and a half of water for the four of us and ended up drinking pretty much all of it by the edge of town. Based on this, I’m going to finally figure out a good way to attach water cages to the Packster so that I can have even more water with us, and water that is easy to reach.

The ride really isn’t bad from the standpoint of difficulty and safety, at least during the week. It starts on about 6 miles of country road with virtually no traffic. Not many people live up there full time and it dead ends at the National Forest. The second 3^rd is very similar. It’s a rural-residential road that roughly parallels the highway, again with few full-time residents, at least compared to pretty much everywhere else we ride. There are rolling hills on both sections, but nothing that we couldn’t climb without the e-assist, even with one kid each on our bikes. That means that almost 2/3rds of the ride is on nice roads with little traffic.

The last 1/3^rd of the ride is the only part that made us a bit uncomfortable. It’s a rural highway, but has nice wide shoulders and so far, with one exception, everyone has been quite respectful, pulling well to the left and not making sketchy passes. (One Acura SUV decided to pass too close and over the speed limit, but I’m fairly certain they were a tourist.) The only thing I disliked was the occasional truck and trailer combo, but even they were well aware of the space they took. Still, I’ll continue being super cautious.

In the end, my verdict is that even though it’s a highway, the ride through downtown Seattle is much worse and I’d rather bike these 8 miles every day than have to work in Pioneer Square and make the daily commute by bike. The exception is weekends, especially holiday weekends. Based on what locals have said, and our own perception of the traffic, I’d not ride that highway between Friday at noon and Monday at 7:00am, and I’d add Thursday to that on a holiday weekend. Too many Seattlites visit and they show the distinct lack of care that most in the city do. It would basically be like downtown but at 60mph.

Total active riding time was just under 1.5 hours, though with water stops and a potty break it was around 2 hours total. The girls were mostly happy, and Lurline and I enjoyed the ride. I think that one of us solo on the GSD would do it in slightly less time because the Packster is noticably slower and whomever rode it did have trouble keeping up.

The main takeaways from this test ride were that we’d have to leave by no later than 6:30am in order to make it to school on time, with the ideal departure being closer to 6am, and that it’s unlikely we’ll do this much in the winter, not due to concerns over road conditions but because of the high berms we’ve heard build up on the sides of much of the route. Having nowhere to ditch in a close call makes me fairly worried.

Our current soution to neither of us feeling like just under 44 miles every day is really sustainable is that on days we want to bike, one will drive the girls to school and the other will leave on the bike at the same time. We’ll then swap at the end of the day, the biker taking the girls home and the other bringing the car back later. We also had the pleasant surpise of discovering there’s a bus, so we have the option to just bike part way and lock up at the bus stop. The schedule doesn’t work for going to preschool, but would be a nice way to get a ride in.

In all, I’m glad we spent extra to get a U-Haul large enough to carry our bikes in addition to our stuff and I’ll keep track of mileage from here out and keep you updated.

It’s been a looooong time since I’ve posted here, and kind of a crazy 3.5 years it’s been. There’s good news, bad news, and everything in between, so here are some highlights:

First, the really awesome: we had a 2nd kiddo! She’s a bit over 2 now, loves biking, dancing, singing, playing, and gymnastics. She’s talking up a storm and has the best smile.

Second, the plain ol’ awesome: We’ve upgraded our bikes. The Mundo is still in the garage, but I’m getting ready to say goodbye and find it a new home. Instead, we ride either a Packster 80 or a GSD S10. They are both amazing bikes, and huge upgrades from the Mundo. I miss that orange bike, but it’s nice to have the easier ride of the Bosch e-assist and the ability to trade back and forth with my wife. That wasn’t an option with the Mundo because it’s just too big and heavy for her to feel safe riding it.

Third, we’re moving. The opportunity arose to spend a year out of Seattle, so we’re headed to a small town up in the mountains. We’re both going to be largely self-employed, both girls get to be in an amazing Montessori school, and we’ll be minutes from skiing, hiking, swimming, fishing, climbing, and, of course, biking. I get to try some real mountain biking for the first time, and ride gravel to my heart’s content! This is a test run, and we may stay if we like it enough.

And, this serves as a natural segue to the not so awesome. I am disappointed. Incredibly disappointed. You know that last post I made? The one with protestors chanting, “We won’t wait!” Well, we’re still waiting. Project after project has been canceled. Funds have been redirected. The mayor has caved to terrorists who send death threats to city officials and nothing has been done to improve intersections where people have been killed. Basically, cars have been prioritized over human life to a ridiculous extent, all while our mayor claims she is a “climate leader” on the forefront of reducing global warming. Way to go Mayor Jenny doing nothing to reduce driving.

In all, the good outweighs the bad in my personal life. I’m excited for the move and for the chance to be on the forefront of family biking elsewhere in the state. I wish Seattle the best, but there’s a lot I won’t miss here.

Last Tuesday was R’s first experience of political activism (but hopefully not her last!). We went down for a rally in support of improving bike infrastructure in the city at City Hall. It was a really inspiring experience and although R may not remember it I hope the energy and collective willpower sticks with her.

First, some background. Last year the people of Seattle passed a levy in support of transportation improvements – transit, bike infrastructure, Safe Routes to School, etc. (called Move Seattle, and no the lack of comma is not a typo so it’s a bit silly). The biking community was a huge chunk of supporters and the local bike advocacy organizations put significant effort into passing it, partly because of promises from the Seattle Department of Transportation to work on the Bike Master Plan that was created a few years ago. I voted for it in part because of that and in part to improve transit. (Though I’m a little sick of Metro running out of money and needing tax increases to run – but that’s another story.)

However, in a big slap in the face to one of the communities that worked so hard to pass the levy, the DOT decided to drastically cut the number of bike projects they promised. Worse, there is now no plan for improving the most dangerous part of the city to bike in for at least five years, if not more. One of my friends did the math and at the rate SDOT has decided to move the Bike Master Plan will not be complete until R is 28. Even if it is on schedule she will be 20 before it’s finished. So much for the cities promises to work on Vision Zero.

So, in light of all that, Cascade Bicycle Club organized a rally at City Hall. There were two parts – one a sit-in on the steps. Bikers filled the foyer with their bikes and we sat and listened to speakers while holding signs and eventually chanting “We won’t wait”. The energy in the room was palpable. I haven’t been part of a rally in a number of years and it felt good. I’m wary of the big ones here since the local anarchists have a tendency to disrupt them and damage property, but if the Longshoremen go on strike again R and I will definitely be bringing cookies to the picket line. (I was an ILWU member for a couple of years and have a lot of goodwill towards the union.) For that matter I’ll be looking for other picketers to support. I’m sorry I never made it to support the teachers last fall, but I’ll be better about it in the future.

The second part of the rally was testifying at the Transportation Committee meeting. I was on the fence, but decided that it was important for me to testify, especially since I was one of only a few people who were able to bring their children. I thought putting a face to family bikers was important. My testimony was brief and touched on my fear of biking downtown and in the Rainer Valley (I flat out refuse to bike either place) as well as the problems with my local neighborhood, mainly that the intersections have no visibility and people regularly charge into the bike lane causing close calls.

R hadn’t napped and got fussy while the meeting was going, so I had to leave after hearing only a handful of the 30+ people signed up to testify. I did get to hear some other family bikers and that was nice, but I was curious what else would come up. Apparently even the people who came to testify about a bus program for low-income Capitol Hill residents ended up mentioning their feelings about biking. I hope the City Council members took it to heart and will help enact change to SDOT’s plans.

So, here are a couple pictures and a video.

I posted on Facebook a couple weeks ago that I had just had one of the roughest weeks of my life. I’m ready to talk about it now. My dad has struggled with depression and PTSD for his entire life. He grew up in a family with an abusive father and has dealt with the repercussions of that childhood trauma ever since. This includes severe, debilitating depression, anxiety, anger, poor sleep, and the difficulties of facing triggers for his PTSD. It has effected not only him but our entire family.

Last Wednesday morning there was a massive natural gas explosion up the street from me. It shook our bed and woke my wife up from 1.5 miles away away. Two buildings were destroyed and one more damaged so as to be uninhabitable. This was big news and you may have heard about it on NPR or read about it in the New York Times. In all, four businesses have lost their spaces and are forced now to face a frantic search for a new space or close their doors. It’s tragic and has had me sad ever since.

However, I’m also feeling hopeful. The two neighborhoods in the area, Phinney and Greenwood, often called “Phinneywood”, have really come together. As of last Friday evening over $111,000 had been raised to assist neighborhood businesses and residents affected by the explosion and the count has only gone up from there. 150 people came out on Saturday morning and cleaned and painted the block with the most damage. Businesses all over the area are hosting benefits and donating significant proceeds to the relief fund set up by the neighborhood association. I’m working on arranging a benefit concert put on by my orchestra. I feel really proud of my neighborhoods right now.

Probably the most personal part about this though is the (hopefully temporary) loss of my favorite bike shop, G&O FAMILY CYCLERY. Two years ago my wife and I purchased a cargo bike with the intent of biking our planned family around town rather than driving so much. On the advice of our friend Dave we decided to get it converted to an e-bike. We chose G&O because of their wonderful reputation among and support of the local family biking community. The owners, Davey and Tyler, are not only good at their job, but wonderful human beings.

Because of some idiosyncrasies of our bike the conversion turned out to be more complicated than expected. Despite the difficulties Tyler and the two other mechanics at the shop persevered and got us exactly the bike we needed to successfully traverse hilly Seattle while carrying kids and cargo. You’ve seen it here and seen some of the loads I’ve carried.

Driving in Seattle super stresses me out. The traffic, the unsafe drivers, and the necessity of always going on the freeway is just so different from everywhere I’ve lived. In one two week period a couple months ago I had 6 close calls. Six! Every one could have cause a serious accident and in at least one I was REALLY lucky there wasn’t another driver nearby or there could have been a fatality (their’s or mine or both).

When I switched to biking my whole outlook on life changed. Between the reduction in driving and the physical exercise I became happier, less stressed, and honestly a better husband and father. This was really driven home when I hurt my back again last fall and was pretty much unable to bike for two months. The difference in how I felt and acted was palpable. I was getting frustrated more easily, more angry about politics and the news than usual, and sleeping incredibly poorly. When I started biking again that all began to evaporate. Yesterday I had a rough day and my wife commented on how she remembered that not so long ago I felt like that every day. So, I can literally say that G&O Family Cyclery changed my life for the better. This shop is super special to me and Davey, Tyler, Donald, and Karl have been so good to me and my family that the thought of them closing just breaks my heart.

So, I have an ask: consider donating to G&O. Even just $5. You can read more about it onWWW.SAVEGANDO.COM and you can donate on this GoFundMe page, SAVE G&O FAMILY CYCLERY, set up by Davey’s partner Danielle, or better yet by sending a check made out directly to G&O to their bank, Umpqua bank. I’d appreciate it, the entire family biking community would appreciate it, and especially Davey, Tyler, Donald, and Karl would appreciate it. With the help of the community they can succeed in rebuilding. Here is the info for Umpqua Bank:

Umpqua Bank
7120 Greenwood Ave N.
Seattle, WA 98103

You can also find info about this on the website www.savegando.com and on G&O’s website.

Thanks for reading what is perhaps one of the most personally important posts I’ve put up here.

 On Saturday Lurline and I packed up R and rode up to G&O Family Cyclery for a book reading. Our local family biking celebrity Madi Carlson just released a book titled Urban Cycling and was giving a reading, so we decided to go show our support and hear about the book. The event was fun. There wasn’t a huge crowd, but the folks who were there were very friendly and the energy was overwhelmingly positive. Madi read a couple passages from her book and chatted with folks. We ended up getting a copy of the book, along with an adorable wool cape for R. I’m looking forward to reading the book and R seems to love her cape, so the night was a success!

 

I’ve been kind of quiet here lately, partly because I haven’t had anything burning to say and partly because of how busy I’ve been. So here’s a quick recap of the last month (since I see it’s been exactly that since I last posted).

December saw us visiting a lot of family. My in-laws came up for Christmas and we all spent about a week in Portland with my family. It was a nice trip and fun having Christmas with a big group. It’s been several years since I’ve spent Christmas there and with the other side of the family so scattered around the Northwest it’s been a long time since I’ve been at a big family gathering for Christmas.

It was great being around so much family for such an extended period of time. I spent quality time with my cousins, including Rachel who was visiting from out-of-country, and my cousins, aunts, and uncle all enjoyed seeing us and especially Rosamond.

One of the highlights of the week was seeing a chunk of family we don’t see often enough. I arranged for almost all the cousins on that side of the family to be there and it was the first time we’d all been together in quite some time. It was a lot of fun reminiscing and catching up. Soup and pie was the theme for dinner and my aunt and cousin really out did themselves with the menu. Three delicious soups and three delicious pies. Pretty wonderful.

After the holiday Lurline, R, and I got some quality time at home together as a family. We had a quite New Year’s Eve. I was the only one to make it past midnight, though I didn’t tune in to see the ball drop. I was too busy playing video games to notice the time until about 12:30. Even though I missed having the parties we had the first few years we were in the house it was still a nice night. Maybe next year we’ll have a party again, but I don’t regret not having one this year.

January has been very busy. I decided to take two classes in the winemaking program at one of our local colleges and they are pretty time consuming. Between reading and class I’m busy for a fair amount of my free time. It’s fun, but one of the classes is in the evening and it really eats in to my time with the family and that’s a bit of a bummer. I plan to take more next term and hopefully it works out so that any evening class I have to take isn’t butted right up against orchestra practice.

I am, however, really enjoying the class. I am taking Intro to Enology and Wines of the World. The former is a lot of review for me after working in a winery, but I’m still learning some of the “why” behind a lot of the “what” I already know. That’s really helpful. Wines of the World is pretty interesting. I’m not familiar with much of the wine from other countries, so the information and tasting are really interesting. About half the class is lecture about the various regions and the other half is tasting wine from those regions. I’m glad that I’m learning about international regions and wine and also glad for the tasting that will help me develop my palate. (Palate is the term used for the ability to taste wine and discern it’s components and complex flavors.)

After some of my lonely chunks of the last year I’m trying to schedule in more social time with friends, both with and without children. With the friends with kids it’s great for R to get to spend time with the kiddos socializing (as much as a one-year-old socializes) and without the kids it’s easier to have an adult conversation, which is nice in a totally different way. Today we go meet with our friends Jeremey and Sage, which I’m looking forward to. Last time we got together both us adults and the kiddos had a great time.

I’ve also snuck in some time to work on some house projects. We’ve been pretty frustrated with some of the lighting in the house basically since we moved in, so we finally decided to do something about it. Last weekend I spent probably around 5 hours installing a new light in R’s room. Though it was sometimes frustrating and always tiring I got it done and feel pretty proud. Next up is my office and the living room. I think I learned enough about the old lights I’m replacing and the new lights I’m installing that the next two lights should take nowhere near 5 hours each. Here’s hoping.

The rest of the month promises to be much of the same, and promises to keep me busy and engaged. This should be a nice change from some of the lonelier parts of the last year and I hope the social time and classes keep up. That’s it for now.

Not to be confused with the music festival, Sasquatch Boardgame Festival happens yearly in the fall around the end of October or beginning of November in Bellevue, WA. I’d been invited a couple times in the past few years but hadn’t made it. This year I finally decided to make it work.

It’s a five day festival running from Wednesday through Sunday where people get together to play games. One fun aspect is that they bring new games from the big German game festival that happens in the fall. Most have not been released in the US yet, so it’s fun to get to preview. One of the local game shops also brings some back to sell, so there is the opportunity to buy the ones you like. I ended up picking up two: Royal Goods and Undersea Adventure.

Royal Goods is a card game in which you are trying to build the best set of production facilities to make goods like coal, flour, fabric, clothes, glass, etc. You earn money throughout by producing goods and selling them, then building new buildings to make new goods. Everything is represented by cards, so goods get stacked as facedown cards and traded into the discard pile as money. It’s very fun and fairly quick once people know how to play. The first game was a little tough because I was tired, but after I got the hang of it it was really fun.

Undersea adventure is a game where you are trying to collect the most treasure from the bottom of the ocean before oxygen runs out. The treasure is represented by small tiles set in a path and you roll a die to see how far you move down. The die has the numbers 1-3 on it, but you jump over other divers so you can move up to five spaces. The thing is, each treasure you pick up slows you down on the return trip by one space. So there is the potential you could move zero spaces on a turn. The treasure also speeds up how fast the oxygen runs out, which each player causing a loss of one per treasure tile. It’s another quick game that is a lot of fun to play.

The other game I played that I really liked was called Chronicler, a quick to play civilization building game. It was pretty lightweight and quick as well, though I felt two games was probably enough so I didn’t buy it as well. It is, however, on my maybe soon list.

I had a great time and last week I went ahead and registered for next year. I’m already looking forward to it!

I’ve been suffering from back problems for at least five years now. The first time it went out I was bending down to grab my belt and I felt stabbing pain. Since then it’s given me problems once or twice a year, usually in fall or winter.

Two Sundays ago it decided to go out again. This time I didn’t do anything to precipitate it. I woke up in a bit of pain and by mid-morning I could barely walk. The pain brought me to my knees several times throughout the day. What a way to start off the week! I couldn’t pick up R, I could barely walk the fifteen feet to the bathroom, and I definitely couldn’t do the stairs.

I had been out at a boardgame festival during the day that day, and thankfully was still able to enjoy that as most of it was sitting down. Getting home was quite painful, as was hobbling down to the basement so I had my video games to play while waiting for Lurline to come home. The downside to that was that then I was stuck in the basement for the next two days.

Luckily we have a lot of great friends in town and an amazing babysitter. Lurline did take two days off work, but then we had help the rest of the week. Our babysitter was even so kind as to wheel me around the zoo in a wheelchair while wearing R. That was a great outing on Friday after being stuck in the house all week long!

By Saturday I was able to walk pretty readily and managed to watch R for a couple hours while Lurline went and did yoga. She was really thankful for that after an understandably stressful week. She did, however, take R for the rest of the day. Sunday I was able to get out of the house for some games at my cousin’s house and to watch the Sounders play in the playoffs. (That was a disappointing end to the season!)

I’m now able to lift R and take care of her solo for at least part of the day. I had help Monday and yesterday for half the day, but went totally solo on Tuesday. I did fine, but I was in pain by the end of the day. Today our babysitter is coming during the middle of the day so I can do acupuncture and some much needed physical therapy. My doctor is prescribing something that should help minimize the pain and she ordered an MRI for me, which happens at the end of next week. It would be nice to have some answers about the pain, especially if it rules out serious problems with my back. I’d like it if physical therapy is all I need. Thankfully I saw two doctors about it and both said it was highly unlikely I’d need surgery.

So, it’s been a rough 12 days but we made it through and I’m on the mend. Here’s hoping it keeps getting better and I’ll be back to normal by Thanksgiving.