Cycle in the City

On Monday, my Dad and I had a frustrating experience exploring Houston's bike paths. We chose to try the Buffalo Bayou path starting at Detering and heading downtown. It is an unfinished patchwork quilt with short sections of brand new concrete path breaking up a treacherous, ancient, and disappearing asphalt trail. To keep things interesting, several dead ends result in back tracking and bayou crossing. And then there is that section that goes under freeways with broken glass and questionable loiterers.

It reminds me of the importance of a good, well maintained recreational pathway system. If the pathways are good, people will be using them and the city comes to life. In many areas of Houston people are not seen outside of their homes and cars. In Calgary, people roam the city on the pathway system and this is part of what makes Calgary a great community. There are people in Houston working hard to connect the dots on these patchy trails and this will make them useful and bring a new energy to the city.

I already see this energy in Memorial Park. Today I found a second example of where this is working in Houston - Buffalo Bayou Hike and Bike trail from Beltway 8 to Terry Hershey Park (and on to the office at Westlake Park). If I can find a safe route from Memorial Park to Beltway 8, biking to work will become an option. That will have to be a project for January weekends.

Here's the last section of the ride:

Electrical Hat Trick?

I woke up at 5am this morning and was trying to nod off again for another half hour of rest when the ceiling fan and light in my room came on. What the? It wasn't as alarming an experience as you might think. The first question of why there is suddenly light in my room could have many answers, most of which didn't involve a home invasion. Upon opening my eyes, it was clear that the light was coming from the ceiling fan. Ghosts? Or maybe just a neighbour with a remote control using the same frequency. I pulled my remote out of the drawer and turned it off again, wondering if my neighbour's light would also go off. This is how wars get started! I hope this is not a regular event.

It Seems That I Have High Potential

On my last night in Algiers last week, I was ready for bed and reached over to move the bedside lamp a little closer to the bed. I was literally shocked when the lamp reached out and grabbed my arm, sending electricity through my arm to my chest.  I'm not sure whether I pulled my arm away in surprise or the current was above the leg-go current and caused my muscles to contract. In any case, I instantly found myself standing with a sore arm looking fearfully at this ferocious lamp with its metal shade.

It was after 10pm and the other Villa guests were most likely already asleep. I wiggled my fingers, moved my arm, checked that my heart was beating as normally as it ever does. The lamp just sat there on the night stand, its yellow light staring at me. What to do? I must disable this monster. Using a plastic hairbrush as my sword, I stabbed the plastic on/off switch, extinguishing the lamp. I looked around the night stand, using a blackberry to illuminate the darker corners, searching for any other possible source of this mysterious problem. Finding nothing, I thought it best to unplug the lamp. Threat fully disabled.

I went to bed and discovered that electric shock therapy doesn't help you sleep. Should I let someone else know now or wait until morning? My arm hurt, but I was otherwise fine. I probably should have asked someone to turn off the breaker before turning off and unplugging the lamp, but my tired head didn't think of that. I eventually went to sleep.

I reported it in the morning. Somebody told me it was normal, if I wasn't wearing shoes to get a shock. I explained this seemed a larger than normal shock. But who knows, with 220 V maybe static electricity shocks are worse? They threw out the lamp and were having someone check into the wiring. After about 24 hours, my arm didn't hurt anymore.

On the flight from Paris back to Houston, the pickings were slim for movies - this is one of the old planes with only about 8 movie choices for the entire month. I discovered on my last trip back that sad movies are to be avoided - crying on a plane is a bit awkward. I watched X-men: First Class. Hopefully they will change the selection for October. And the meals as well. I looked at the menu and thought, "didn't I just have this?" Chose the lamb this time, not because I really wanted lamb, but because I had already had the chicken, seafood is to be avoided as a result of the movie "Airplane", and the last time I had pasta it ranked considerably lower than KD. Business travel could get old fast.

New jet lag recovery tactic: mold and pollen levels forecast moderate in Houston so took a non-drowsy anti-histamine after second meal (is this lunch or dinner?) on the plane. I was pleasantly buzzed by the time I hit the freeway. Attended the Manhattan Short Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Art with the Canadian Club of Houston that evening. Managed to stay awake, but went home to bed before 10pm. Mountain biking at dawn on Saturday, followed by race committee duty for the Saturday afternoon races at Seabrook. Pizza for dinner with the sailors and home to bed before the Alberta PC leadership race results started coming in. I woke up at 5am central time to find that the folks in Alberta were still awake at 4am mountain time tweeting about Alison Redford's victory. Impressed that Carter had pulled this off.

Puttered around tidying up and Skyping most of the morning and then went out for a mountain bike ride. I decided to try the outer part of the purple loop this time, and then try the orange trail and half of the blue, and maybe return to the green for the finish. The outer part of the purple loop is along the railroad tracks and there was a train going by. It passed and I was cycling merrily along when I started getting tiny pinprick shocks. What the? The exposed parts of the cables were shocking my legs and the metal bar ends were shocking my hands. Hmm....it seemed that this trail was also directly under a major power line, with some lower power lines running alongside. Was there a line down? I kept my hands on the rubber grips, and my legs away from the cables, turned around and cycled back to the parking lot as fast as possible. Who does one tell about this sort of thing?

Maybe the family in the parking lot who seemed to be heading for the trail. So I tell them and their answer is that it has been unusually dry here and they have experienced a lot more static at home lately. I explained that I just moved from dry Calgary and had never experienced this much shock there. Normal they said. I decided to stay away from the power line just in case and went back and rode the inside part of the purple loop, the orange loop, part of the blue, part of the red, skipped the green as my threshold for excitement had been exceeded after navigating the two one foot drops at the beginning of the orange trail, and took my bike in for a cable replacement. In spite of this unusually dry weather, the only place I received shocks was under the power line. Is there something wrong? Or do I just have high potential? Just call me Magneto.

Blossom Street's Dark Secret

It's Saturday morning, and I woke up, much earlier than desired, at 5:30am with a bit of a stomach ache. As I try to get back to sleep, I periodically hear voices of people passing in the street. Between dog walkers and cyclists that seems pretty normal for Blossom Street, even if it is still dark and early on a Saturday morning.

Sometime after 6am, the periodic voices rose to a constant roar. Wondering if maybe a large crowd of cyclists was gathering at the bike shop for an early morning ride (in the dark? really?), I got out of bed to have a look out the window. For whatever reasons, the view through the window was very foggy so I stepped out onto the balcony. (How nice is it that my bedroom has a balcony?)

As far as I could see up and down Blossom Street, there were runners; hundreds of runners. It felt as if at night, with the cars safely parked in garages, the runners took back the streets. For an hour, runners streamed past in trickles and packs. Was this some kind of a road race? Maybe I should pay more attention to local news. Most of the runners didn't have numbers on their shirts and the pace seemed generally quite relaxed and the runners were chatting with each other. Maybe a fundraiser run? Except there was no common theme like a T-shirt or a hat. Thinking I might never see the end of the stream of runners, I went back to bed.

I still couldn't sleep so I decided that I too would take advantage of the early morning freedom on the street. I would very much like to have put on some shoes and joined the runners, but I need to get my foot fixed first. Having run out of milk on Friday morning, I decided to take my scooter to the pharmacy to get enough to tide me over until the next flight.

My neighbour, Jane, was outside eating breakfast and watching the runners. She was waiting for a friend to pick her up to go for a bike ride in Katy. What's going on? Does this happen every Saturday? They are training for the Houston marathon. Jane looked it up on her phone - the marathon is January 15th. A great event even for spectators. The route doesn't include Blossom, but passes a few blocks to the south along Memorial. We are close to a place were there will be a band during the race. Fingers crossed I will be in town that morning!

My first scooter ride in Houston was lovely. The streets were quiet except for a few more runners. The roads are flat and the asphalt smooth. The morning twilight welcomed me, and the sun stayed just below the horizon as if to keep the cars asleep just a little while longer.

I need to git me some wheels

This weeks focus is on which set of wheels is right for me. For those who don't know my car buying tastes, let's start with a little history. My first car was a 1997 chevrolet cavalier, also known as the crapolier. 2-door, manual 5 speed, no a/c, red. Brand new when I got it, serious engine repairs before the warranty ran out. That combined with fraudulence at the dealer's repair shop has me sworn off chevies forever. The only thing I missed about this car after I sold it was the all season tires- they were good even in the winter (oh, and I kinda missed the cassette deck cause where else was I going to use all those tapes). At some point in the Deep River days, we decided that red cars go faster. In fact, the statistic is that red cars get more speeding tickets because they are so visible.

So my second car was a blue 2001 Toyota Corolla 5 speed manual. This time I added a package to get the 60/40 fold down rear seat and this came with a/c, and of course the tape deck gave way to a CD player. I chose this over the Civic because you couldn't put a hitch on the Civic. I wanted the Nissan Sentra, but I wanted a standard and I couldn't comfortably reach the stick in the Sentra without sitting way too close to the steering wheel. I can't remember why I didn't even look at the Mazda Protege. I did test drive a Ford Focus, but it was new at the time and reliability was unknown. Plus there was an anhydrous ammonia spill that cut short the test drive. This car rocked. I kept it for 10 years and 97000 km. I wish I hadn't sold it. I had planned to keep it for another 100000 km, but the thought of driving it from Calgary to Houston and figuring out how to import it in the midst of moving madness was enough to push me to sell. The Corolla could tow sailboats, car top a laser, fit two smaller mountain bikes in the trunk, and carry all of my sailing and camping gear for a weekend regatta. The best part is that it never needed any major repairs.

So that's the history. I like the most fuel efficient car that can do the job. The job includes towing sailboats, transporting bicycles, car topping a laser, and now commuting to work on the freeway.

This post will be modified as I find out more and narrow things down. Here are the cars I am currently considering:

Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen (gasoline, not diesel. Diesel won't pay out for me in this situation)
Hyundai Elantra Touring (haven't taken one for a spin yet - they are sold out)
Nissan Altima (now with telescopic, adjustable steering wheel)
Toyota Corolla (it's different now)

The Honda accord has been ruled out because of stiff steering and an uncomfortable seat. The Mazda 3 has been ruled out because towing is not recommended and may void the warranty. The Toyota Matrix is off the list because it is actually shorter in length than the Corolla. The Camry is off the list because it isn't nicer than the Corolla in any way that matters.

Feel free to comment on which car you think is the best on the list and why. Or which car is not on the list and should be considered and why.

It might be time to vote on a home

Okay, today I looked at 4 properties and felt like I could live in any one of them. They all have pros and cons. I will describe and provide links to the real estate page. Then you can give me your 2 cents worth!

First, an orientation map so that you can see where work is relative to these properties:
Houston Homes
Work is at Westlake way on the west side of the map.

The first 3 properties are within a few blocks of each other in the area east of Memorial Park. Memorial Park is a giant park where people go biking, running, picnicing, etc. Kinda like Fish Creek, but more square shaped. In this neighbourhood, you actually see people riding bikes and walking dogs. It's also close to Washington Ave where there are a lot of good restaurants. This area is also pretty close to the I-10 which means my commute to work would be 15-20 minutes on the freeway.

1. Blossom http://www.har.com/90138542
This is my favourite. It has a pretty little garden in the front, 2 little balconies, a nice open floor plan so that the kitchen, dining room, and living room are all one room. For the single host, this is a great feature as you can actually talk to your guests while preparing dinner. It is cater corner from West End Bikes. It also has a large driveway in front of the double garage (streets are narrow here, folks, guest parking is an issue!) The downside? Berber carpets upstairs that haven't worn well and it is below my ConocoPhillips rent budget. Oh, and it doesn't have a rooftop patio (see house #2)

2. 5507 Rose (this listing is gone now - I wonder if someone leased it?)
This is the kind of place that looks cool online, but is kinda weird in real life. I fell in love with 1505 Utah st's online listing, partly because it has an awesome rooftop deck, but the realtor didn't recommend living within 3 blocks of the railroad tracks. Good point. And then I saw Rose- a pretty rooftop patio with awesome views and a spiral staircase up to more roof with higher views.  The layout is a little awkward, and they spent a lot of money on tiles which are a bit loud. The staircases are pretty, but very narrow. Like to the point that I worry Calgary's broad shouldered Mayor might not be able to talk with his hands while coming up the stairs. How does one fit furniture into this house? There is no evidence anyone has! And there are a lot of stairs. There appear to be issues with the quality of the construction (largish cracks in exterior walls) so the realtor doesn't recommend buying this one but thinks leasing is fine. This one would be a cool party pad (at least in the winter when you might actually use the rooftop patio). Parking would be okay here too. It's tempting, but why can't it be perfect?

3. 209 Knox http://www.har.com/47773185
TJ describes this sort of development as the "urban trailer park". It's this weird thing they do all over the place in Houston for infill developments. Build a group of townhouses off a tiny lane. Getting a car in and out is a bit tight and you are close to your neighbors on all 4 sides! Inside, this home was also perfect. Except for the berber carpets upstairs that are much worse than Blossom - these ones have waves that need pulled out. This one backs onto Westcott, which is a busy main street, and overlooks a law office. I think I can rule this one out because I like Blossom better.

The fourth property is in a completely different neighborhood. I think it's in Montrose, but it's hard to really find out which area is called what exactly. This is closer to downtown and about 10-15 minutes further from work. It's also far from Memorial Park, but just as close to Buffalo Bayou as the first 3 properties. This neighborhood feels a bit fancy pants. While this neighborhood appears walkable, you don't actually see people walking (there is sense in this - it's too hot! Those cyclists near Memorial Park are crazy!).

4. 2023 Park http://www.har.com/95040049
This place is HUGE. While it sounds nice to consider that my parents could spend the winter in a nice large room on the ground floor and almost never run into me, the reality is that most of the time I would need my scooter to get around this empty house and that would wreck those beautiful hardwood floors. And it is urban trailer park - although this is fancy pants "gated" urban trailer park. It's a nice house with at least 3 rooms that could be the living room. It's not as open as Blossom. This one has a HUGE kitchen, but it is tucked in a corner with view of the smallest potential living room (or a second dining room?). Realtor thinks I should take this one quick, but that's mostly because it would max out my ConocoPhillips budget and her commission. I'm concerned about being further from the park (think bike trails after work) and losing an extra daily half hour of my life to the commute (I will run out of Coffee Break French Podcasts!).