Adios, tree

Cut in half and loaded on the Big Dummy for a ride to the collection pile for mulching.

It's just starting to snow here. I know I'm getting weirder as I get older, but for some reason I'm really enjoying the snow this year.

Sub zero

Warmed up to about -2F, from an earlier -12F.

Today was a little chilly around here. So chilly in fact that school was canceled even though we only had a couple inches of snow on the ground. This situation is a bit odd for me because I don't remember school ever being canceled for low temperatures as a kid. In fact, I vividly recall walking to and from school, as well as being outside at recess, in extremely cold and windy Wyoming weather.

Now, I know how this sounds. Implying that kids in the present day are somehow softer than kids in my day makes me sound like a stereotypical old guy. Perhaps not coincidentally, a concerned member of my household reminded me of my old guy status when I decided to make a trip to the post office this afternoon on the Big Dummy. Something along the lines of, "it's cold outside and you're not young anymore." Call it what you will, whether steely resolve or stubbornness, at that moment I was compelled to make the 2 1/2 mile round trip.

The post office journey passed without incident and I returned home no more worse for wear than having red cheeks and cold fingers. While it's true that I may not be young any more, I don't exactly feel old quite yet. What's more is that I'm happy for kids not to have to weather this kind of cold if it can be avoided.

At the post office. The Big Dummy rode perfectly, although its cyclocomputer refused to work properly.

CSA apples and cherry wine

Excited about a seed she picked out of an apple core

After school on Wednesdays for the last few months, my daughter and I swing past a pickup spot for our CSA fruit share. The share has mostly been apples of different varieties for the past several weeks. Outcomes of having all these apples around include apples for snacks, lunches, and a lot of apple pie and apple crisp, all of which I enjoy. However, this week we got some cherry wine in addition to the apples. I'm eager to drink the wine, but I'm not sure what foods go with cherry wine. Apple strudel perhaps?

School picnic

Today there was a picnic lunch at our daughter's school and an early release afterward. I loaded up the Big Dummy and the Xtracycle with equipment and goodies. Nothing makes as good of a combo as bikes and food.

Picnic machines

Holding down the picnic blanket

We also got to see some of the great stuff she has been doing in school. I particularly liked the following project, in which kids draw something and describe it to practice writing using what is called "kindergarten spelling." The idea is to sound out words and think about how they might be spelled.

I clearly see a pink Electra with nicely arched fenders. I like to ridmibik too.

Gettin' some eats

We took our longtail bikes out for a Friday evening trip to the grocery store for dinner and some Labor Day weekend supplies. This was Julie's first cargo hauling trip and she did a great job.

A bike pixie vamping in front of two cargo bikes all loaded up and ready to roll

The cooler is for the cold stuff, of course

On the way home we went past Doctor Who's house where the TARDIS was hidden in plain sight

Yes indeed...

Give a little, get a little

Big Dummy loaded down with books, boxes and an apple-munching, timeless classic-reading co-pilot

Every so often, it's time to redistribute the stuff that tends to collect around the house. Today's objective was to reduce some of the excess of books, clothing and other goods. Many of the books were those that she had outgrown, so she suggested that kids at her old preschool would enjoy them. We loaded up the Dummy and hit the town with three stops to make along some familiar routes.

We paused to say hello to our ovine neighbors

Things were going as planned until we ventured down an alley and discovered a perfectly good wagon and bouncing ball next to someone's trash. When she saw these items, our girl, who is a robust yet surprisingly sensitive kid said, "It breaks my heart that people throw good things away. They should give them to somebody else if they don't want them."

I've learned to be cautious of my own inclinations to pick up random but useful things that I find, a habit that is not always welcomed at home. But I challenge anyone to hear such an observation from a little girl, so earnest and profound for her age, and not end with the same result as I did. Needless to say, we now have a new (to us) wagon and bouncing ball. Both items will no doubt eventually leave our house, but it's a good bet that their exit trajectory won't be through the trash.

Rescuing free stuff can be its own reward

Picking up Mommy from yoga

Julie wanted to be picked up from her yoga class via bike, so I rigged her Breezer to the Big Dummy with the Freeloader's integral straps and a supplementary ratchet strap. It's always fun to have a pedal powered road train.

New bike bash!

The bike is a snazzy new 16 inch wheeled Electra Hawaii, in pink of course. A very cool little bike, well built and appropriately equipped.

A ride to the park with cousins, Aunt Jennie, Mommy and Daddy.

And a little three on the rear seat of the Big Dummy while towing the Electra action.

A tale of transition

Our little girl first rode a pedal bike at age four years ten months and four days on the bike below. I got this little 12.5 inch-wheeled bike for $5 at a second hand store. I put air in the tires, lubed the chain, removed the generous coating of scraped and faded princess-themed stickers, and it was good to go.

It is the typical inexpensive department store bike originally sold with training wheels (otherwise known as "the crutch that cripples"). Although it never had training wheels during the time we've had it, the bike arrived with a little warning sticker denoting that it was intended for use with training wheels only. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the warning sticker before I removed it with the other stickers. From modest origins, this bike has nevertheless been the perfect stepping stone from her 12.5 inch-wheeled Skuut balance bike, a great little bike in its own right.

Her first solo ride on a pedal bike was on May 20, 2010. She took to it immediately, her skills progressing exponentially each time she rode.

Since she has entered the domain of pedal bikes, this has been the primary shape of family transportation around our house:

The Dummy with the little bike stowed aboard the port side of the vessel. On side streets, trails and parks, she launches off on her own like a jet fighter from an aircraft carrier. It's been a good era. But now less than two months later, she's moved up to a 16 inch-wheeled bike. I bought the Schwinn Trixie a few years ago from a second hand shop for about $15 and prepped it for her older cousin Chloe, who used it to learn to ride. Now it has come back as a hand-me-down.

Prior to this bike, she dabbled with another 16 inch wheeled bike, rescued from a neighbor's trash pickup.

The little purple bike is leaving soon to help Chloe's little sister Meredith learn to ride. I wish the little bike well and cherish our time together. But things change and girls grow. Who knows what the future will hold, but with a Daddy like me, she is destined to a bike-filled childhood and is unlikely to ever be a one-bike kid.