Pants Management 101

This is the stuff they didn’t teach us in Home Ec back at Bowdish Junior High School in the Spokane Valley (go Rockets!): How to manage your pant leg so it doesn’t get caught in the bike chain.

While I’ve ranted before about the search for the perfect women’s pants for bike riding (stylish and comfortable) and have even compiled a shopping list (although I have yet to execute), there are simpler answers.
  1. Buy pants with narrow enough legs that they don’t flap and get caught. Easier said than done, what with the changing winds of fashion and all that. Summer is fine—hello, capris—but my usual fall/winter pants have a little bit more going on in the fabric department.
  2. Fight the flap. Sure, you can buy those uber-geeky reflective ankle straps with the Velcro fastenings, but have you ever checked out what Velcro can do to a nice fabric if it goes astray? Ugh.

I have two basic weapons in this battle, both of them straight from my desk: rubber bands and binder clips.

I slide rubber bands on over my shoes for the ride, then store them on my cyclometer when I park the bike. (Only problem is that over time the rubber dries out and they eventually break; this is perhaps not the ideal storage spot.)

Binder clips are a fallback because they can pop off under strain, but they don’t give in to weather the way the rubber bands do. I carry one clipped onto my pannier so it’s always there in case the rubber band breaks.

For wetter weather I have a great pair of North Face pants I picked up at Mountain Gear, my favorite local outdoor gear shop even though they don't carry bike stuff. They (the pants, not Mountain Gear) are water/wind resistant and work for most of Spokane’s weather, although I do note that “resistant” and “proof” are very different levels of protection in a really blustery downpour…. The feature that helps fight the flap is a Velcro tab at the ankle (not as risky to fabric finish as the geeky ankle strap, since there’s the extra pant leg there as protection).

I usually go ahead and rubber-band my office wear to make it easier to put the overpants on; otherwise I'll spend five minutes hopping around on one leg trying to stuff the first pants leg down into the overpants leg and I end up with a lumpy, uncomfortable wad halfway down my calf.

You’ll see people who have only reined in the fabric on the right leg, where all the greasy messy mechanical stuff resides. I like to keep both legs under restraint; I’ve had at least one startled moment when a wider pant leg managed to slide over the entire pedal crank and stop its rotation completely in mid-pedal. This makes for a nasty surprise in an intersection and I’d rather be safe than sorry.

I also found out the hard way that the pants I'm wearing in these photos wrinkle really easily. I left the rubber bands on through a one-hour meeting because I was just going to zip out the door and back to my office; that was enough time to leave me with pretty funny creases. I don't buy linen any more but I thought this polyester/rayon blend (which is really smooth and doesn't chafe) wouldn't wrinkle. Wrong.

Turns out this is not rocket science—but I found another excuse to shop. What’s your secret to clothing management for riding?

Related posts:

We Stand United

Last Friday I had the great privilege of representing the university for which I work at the Human Rights Rally in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The crowd filled every corner of the Human Rights Education Institute, housed in an old railroad building at the city park.

For me this was a homecoming of sorts. Born in Lewiston, I’m an Idaho native and formerly served in the Idaho state legislature. The crowd held friends and supporters: former State Sen. Mary Lou Reed; Tony Stewart, long-time human rights advocate and former North Idaho College political science prof; human rights stalwart, attorney and former North Idaho College trustee Norm Gissel; Barb Harris of the North Idaho Labor Council; and others I haven’t seen in a long time.

We have stood together before in support of human rights and in opposition to bigotry. We lined Sherman Avenue in downtown Coeur d’Alene and turned our backs in silence when Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler and his acolytes jackbooted down the street; human rights supporters made lemonade out of lemons. We worked to defeat the anti-gay Prop. 1 in 1994. We supported the creation of the Gay/Straight Alliance at North Idaho College—a club initially rejected by student government leaders and ultimately approved by the Board of Trustees.

Last week’s rally took place in the face of a visit to Spokane and Coeur d’Alene by the Westboro Baptist Church (which is not a part of any official Baptist organization). About a half-dozen people affiliated with the WBC went to several higher education campuses, three high schools and an evangelical Jewish synagogue to hold up signs with messages of hate for Americans, veterans, people who are gay or Jewish, and others.

The visit was probably triggered by a performance of The Laramie Project at NIC, since the WBC often targets that. You should have heard the crowd go wild when NIC students walked through holding up posters for the play. 

When Norm Gissel and I talked after the event, we had to marvel at how far we have come. We know we have far to go, but it was only 15 years ago that student leaders at NIC were uncomfortable with the idea of openly gay students having a recognized club. The Board of Trustees (on which Norm served at the time) had to stand up for the First Amendment and the rights of the students to organize and there was still discomfort in the community when I won a seat on the board on the following year. Today political candidates list endorsements from GLBTQA organizations in their ads.

I can’t resist live tweeting events for that “you are there” quality, albeit in 140 characters. Here are a few to give you a taste, but you really had to be there to taste the energy, the excitement, the victory.
My parents raised me to believe in the dignity and worth of every human being. Those are Idaho values. Washington values. American values. Human values.

The Cemetery Club: A Really Amateur Theater Review

I wouldn’t belong to a club that would have me as a member, Groucho Marx famously said. There’s one club we all have the chance to join if we take the risk of loving someone: the Cemetery Club.

A look at the unfinished business of a marriage, the sadness of losing a loved one, the nervous flutters of meeting a potential new love, and the sparring and forgiveness that can take place in friendships of many decades, The Cemetery Club opens this weekend at the Spokane Civic Theatre.

I got a sneak peek at the dress rehearsal in return for which I’m sharing some of my impressions via social media. (If you end up buying tickets as a result, give a shout-out here, on the Civic Facebook page or @SpoCivicTheatre on Twitter so my friend and Civic marketing director Allyson Shoshana gets credit for her mad social media marketing skills J ).

You first have to sign the disclaimer noting that I am not only not a professional theater critic, I’m not even an amateur theater critic, and I’m no Bobo the Theater Ho.

Instead I’m someone who cries at Hallmark commercials (although I forget to buy cards, as friends and family can attest), considers “willing suspension of disbelief” a normal everyday occurrence, grew up on a pretty steady diet of old Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers/Bob Hope movies, and is a sucker for happy endings.

If you have a girlfriend who can finish your sentences—and sometimes does, much to your irritation—and who never lets you get away with anything, you’ll see yourself on stage. Lines about aging, plenty of jokes about death and cemeteries, and the unseen Selma whose many weddings “are like reunions” drew plenty of laughs at all the right spots from the small audience who saw it with me.

Likewise some great physical comedy, character-revealing mannerisms and gestures that spoke volumes. You could feel the audience response to Thomas Heppler as Sam Katz revealing his nervousness with a truly awkward Groucho Marx imitation, or to Mary Starkey as Doris saying volumes without saying a word just by banging an iron down on the ironing board.

The “heartwarming comedy” description on the Civic website gives you part of the flavor but not all of it, unless "heartwarming" is code for "makes Barb cry."

Without giving away any plot lines I’ll just say that I was first moved to a few tears by Ida cooking up a storm after her Murray died, then cried through several scenes in Act II. I always consider it a good sign when the audience goes silent with intensity, as they did more than once.  And I wasn’t the only one—I heard you sniffing, people! Seriously—take a hanky.

I have few bones to pick with any of it. The staging in the Firth Chew Studio was wonderfully effective for this, and the audience responded to facial expressions we couldn’t even see thanks to the responses from the other actors on stage. The casting was also dead-on (and tell me if I'm the only one who thinks that Vera Ora Winslow, the actress who plays Mildred, looks like Bea Arthur).

Just a few things—because even when my disbelief is willingly suspended my continuity editor keeps ticking—that are really script issues, not acting/directing/staging:
  • Would a Jewish woman of that generation from Queens say “For Christ’s sake!” as Lucille does, and then “Goddamn!” in the next sentence?
  • Would a Jewish restaurateur really name his place Klein’s Korean Kitchen (KKK)?
  • When Selma’s wedding is first discussed it’s in two weeks. A month passes between that and the next scene at the cemetery and Selma’s wedding is still two weeks away.
  • I’m sure this was deliberate in order to give Doris and Ida things to do while they get through all the lines involved but honestly, no woman is going to zip up another woman, not tie her bow, and then come back to tie the bow later. Just doesn’t happen—not going to leave those dangling ties.
I told my husband he probably would have gotten restless during Act I (I can hear him saying “Get on with it already!” because he gets tired of caustic banter) but that he would have appreciated Act II because he likes love stories and happy endings. Plus he would have known the exact moment I started to cry and would have put his arm comfortingly around me.

I laughed, I cried, I’d see it again. You should go.

What other (more professional) critics have to say:

Spokane Blogs: Help Build the List

Once upon a time I went on a hunt for Spokane blogs, assuming someone would have compiled a comprehensive list. Couldn't find one so I started a spreadsheet. When I first posted it as an editable Google Doc sometime in 2010 it had 105 blogs.

As of January 19, 2013, the list was at 270 and growing. At that point I had been living in Seattle for six months and stopped maintaining the list. I leave it live for whatever utility it may have.

If you're on Twitter, follow @SpokaneBlogs for an RSS feed of posts.

I've created a Facebook page with feeds from the active blogs so you can get Spokane blog updates in your news stream there, if you like. 

Who did I miss? Use the form below to provide information on blogs you don't see on the list, or send an email to spokaneblogsATgmail.com with the information requested in the form. I don't monitor the email account very often and it is not a way to reach me for a conversation. 

Blog Title
Twitter Account
107down
20MilesNorth
VHWeddings
mwproductions
spikelola
desautelhege
AccelerationPT1
alisasgarden
applebride
avistautilities
terrybain
willowsprings
bdelaney
BHW1ads
biggreenape
bigshowmobile
BikeStyleLife
BarbChamberlain
justsmyluck
TineReese; bloomspokane
Booksflutterby
BrownesAddition
CadChica
sarahkbain
dancingcrwmedia
mystillpoint
designspike
nostartnoend
Christian, Mary & Molly
drjoshcochran
nectarwine
dte_spokane
dubshack
pinkcomics
KariJoys
erickdoxey
EricRacesBikes
ErrikaEats
StanShapiro
FarmgirlGourmet
flickeringtorch
werle3
fridgeworthy
frostyjunction
genolewan
GreaterSpokane
gifcunningham
rgschoenberg
camillsap
shadownlite
ImNotURavgmom
1ntheDepths
inwbusiness
Troy Nelson
jeik42
jeffsebring
capebretoner
hmmmsunshine
jdemke
KlundtHosmer
LaotianMama
janfletcher
lilaccitymomma
LusList
Ms_Oblivious
CrazyHmSchlMama
andreimylroie
moosicornranch
mtspokane
alwayslaura
tedm2
SpokaneNeighbor
blushresponse
terresamonroe
RitaAtNCLife
NorthwestButter
noseyparkerinw
dankolbet
thequestess
oneweespark
outtheremonthly


perketing
latahbistro
terrybain
AllyShoshana
recoverytoday
jamiemorgancda
RiverCityRed
theroasthouse
savethemoon
MattQsack
shepherdsgrain
sipofspokane
dawnshrum
someprtips
piahallenberg
spinachskittles
spoCOOL
dutchgirl73
spokanebooks
spokanebride
SpoCOOL
VisitSpokane
SpokaneKids
spokanenights
spokaneFAVS
spokenspokane
ryanstemkoski
stepupandgo
sunpeoplegoods
sweetandstout
TammileeTips
spokanelibrary
barrettrossie
MattQsack
thecococafe
thefbcspokane
bartmihailovich / SpokaneRiverKpr
mmullin
ToriLynnJohnson
Mickeylonchar
ClangeDesign and designsourceinc
brian_burrow
spokanehomeguy
ErikaPrins
thespovangelist
sproutspokane
pinkcomics
laurasuki
acarollospok
camillsap
landprof
JynxOTeaLeaves
pillowfarmer
SpokaneBusiness
Wed4LessNW
willfuljoyful
writeoneleaf
craiggoodwin
kxly4news
kxly4news
kxly4news
zagaholic

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