Doris West Thank you for everything

We thank Doris West's son Patrick for providing us with Doris's
obituary. It will appear in the March 14 and March 18 publications of
annarbor.com.

WEST, Doris H. (Barnard). Born in Enderlin, North Dakota in 1917,
Doris and her family moved to Monrovia, CA where she attended school,
graduating from Monrovia High School. She married in 1935, living in
Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Washington before moving to Michigan in
1956, where she worked for the Bureau of Government Library at the
University of Michigan until her retirement in 1983.

Doris is survived by her children Gerald (in AZ), Sheila (in GA),
Diane (in WA), and Patrick (in MI). She was predeceased by a daughter
Helen. She leaves 9 grand children and 7 great grand children.

Doris never drove a car.

She used a tricycle for her local transportation for 38 years.

During the gas crisis, her tricycle bore the sign

"My 'CAR'. NO Gas".

Doris was an active member of the Ann Arbor cycling world. She served
on the Mayor's Bicycle Coordinating Committee, and worked to make
biking accessible to beginners, leading bike rides in Ann Arbor and
working to improve bike paths. She rode in PALM (Pedal Across Lower
Michigan, a week long bike ride across Lower Michigan) for many
years, where she was usually one of the oldest people on the ride.
She even went to Great Britain to pick up a trike with better gearing
and spent several weeks riding the roads in England on the new trike.

Interested in learning about plants, people, and the exact meaning of
a word, she kept 3 unabridged dictionaries well used. She had many an
interesting story to tell and had a quotation for any situation.

In her 80's, when breathing difficulties arose, she became part of a
University of Michigan pulmonary rehab program in which she learned
to play a harmonica. The harmonica group joined together in music and
laughter to build lung power for more effective breathing. After she
moved to Brecon Village in Saline, she became known for her impromptu
"Happy Birthday" harmonica serenades for other residents.

Doris passed away February 24, 2010 at 92 years of age. A memorial
will be held in the meeting room at Brecon Village in Saline, 200
Brecon Dr, Saline, 48176 on March 20th at 3 p.m. The family invites
you to come to share your memories.

Memorial donations may be made in Doris's name to PALM, PO Box
7161, Ann Arbor, MI 48107.

Alternatives to PALM

As many of you know, PALM filled very quickly again this year, and we have turned away a large number of potential riders. I believe that PALM is a fairly unique ride in that we keep most of our daily distances to a maximum of about 50 miles, and we try to have a ride that appeals to a wide variety of ages, abilities, and biking experiences. However, there are other rides in Michigan and our surrounding states that you might decide to try as an alternative to or in addition to PALM. I will list some of them in this blog entry, and you can get details by checking out the web sites. As far as I can determine, these rides do not fill as quickly as PALM does. There seems to be a "hilly" theme to the rides this year. If you have young children, please read the web sites carefully as some rides have restrictions on the ages of children permitted on the ride.

The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure. www.goba.com. June 19-26, a 7 day loop ride. From what I have been told, this ride attracts the same variety of participants as PALM does. Like PALM, each year GOBA follows a different route, and this year's ride will be located in very scenic but also rather hilly southeastern Ohio, near Athens and the Hocking Hills area. The 7 days include 5 riding days of 45-60 miles each, with 2 layover days that include optional loop rides or alternate activities. The ride limit is 3000, and the fee does not include meals. GOBA has an excellent web site, with lots of details about the ride and an excellent rider handbook.

Across Ohio Bicycle Adventure (XOBA). July 25 to August 1. www.outdoor-pursuits.org/xoba. The ride is limited to 250 participants. This year's route will cover the rolling hills of southern and eastern Ohio. The average daily mileage is 60 miles.

TRIRI. Touring Ride Across Rural Indiana. June 20-26. www.triri.org. This year's hilly route is in southeastern Indiana and includes 3 days of 65 miles, and 3 layover days with optional loops.

Rides sponsored by the League of Michigan Bicyclists. www.lmb.org. The League sponsors several rides which this year include Pedal and Paddle (June 5-6),the Sunrise Adventure (June 18-20), MUP (July 17-24), and the challenging and very scenic West Shoreline (August 7-14).

If you want even more options, you can go to www.nbtda.com, and search for rides all over the country.

We sincerely hope that all of you find a biking adventure that you can enjoy in 2010, and we hope that you will be able to join us on PALM in 2011.

Ellie, PALM "Mail Granny"

Working away

Things are going slowly on the application front. I did a batch of applications for about 80 people last weekend. I sent out confirmations for those on Wednesday. Everyone should have gotten them by now. I checked with Vickie today and she sent me some more that I should be getting tomorrow. With all this, I'm only up to rider 371. I'm not even half done yet. Ellie has created a list of everyone who is on the ride and when we received their application. I checked it and I haven't started on the people whose applications reached us on Jan 19, the Tuesday after the MLK holiday. That means if you didn't fill out and mail your application the day you received it, there is no way I've processed your application. We've mailed back the checks of everyone who didn't get on the ride 10 days ago so everybody who is not on the ride knows it. If you haven't heard from us, that's a good thing.

While you are waiting for your confirmations, now would be a good time to get your bike in shape. I got a note from my bike shop. He's pretty idle and it's not like you're going to miss any good biking weather this week. You'll get your bike back quickly and you'll be ready for those odd little quirks in Michigan's weather. (Last year it got up to the 50's in February and I was able to ride to Belle Isle and around it from work. Go figure.) For me, I broke a tent pole on last year's PALM. The bike shops helped me jury rig a fix for the tour, but I've got to get it fixed or replaced. Now is the time for me to do it, not May when Sierra Designs will be too busy to care about me.

Amazingly, the gardening stuff has really picked up. Last week I began a 9 week course (Urban Roots) on community gardening. We had the first meeting of the Grandmont Community garden on the Tuesday of the big snow. And we have the potluck next Tuesday that kicks off the Garden Resource Program, a good way to spend Mardi Gras. All this and we can't see the ground for the snow. We must be optimistic in Michigan. I found out that my dog really likes playing in deep snow, so it does have its uses.

Entering Applications

We are well into processing the applications now. I've sent out confirmation letters for 286 people. Basically I sent out confirmations for all the applications we received thru Saturday Jan 16. This would be everyone who sent in their application the day they received it and live close to Michigan. Last week Ellie returned the checks, with regrets, to all the people who sent in their applications too late, ie everybody whose application is postmarked greater than Jan 19. She sent out letters covering roughly 200 people. If you didn't mail in your application the day you got it in the mail, you don't want to hear from us until the end of the week at the earliest.

Vickie has been working me hard. She even sent me applications for 55 people just before she left for Florida for 6 weeks. (She'll be sending me the rest of the applications from there. If you can't get to Florida at least your application can.) I sent out confirmations for this latest batch today, so I am finally caught up. Meanwhile, it's getting cold here and I run outside. On Thursday it was in the low teens with a 10-15 mph wind and I froze. On Friday, it was 3 degrees with a 5 mph wind and I was fine. I wore different clothes on Friday, basically everything I had, but I wore plenty on Thursday too. Today I ran with the temperature in the mid teens and a 10 mph wind. Once again I was cold (but not my hands: I learned my lesson there). It looks like for me, it's all about the wind.

I know you're thinking: it's the end of January. It's the coldest time of the year. How can he work in something about gardens and vegetables? It can be done. I mentioned that each family garden gets 34 packets of seeds and 102 plants in the Garden Resource Program. The plants come from the greenhouse at Earthworks Gardens by the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. Where do the seeds come from? Some of them are saved from plants grown in the last season. Some are brought in bulk. That still leaves filling the individual packets from the bulk/saved seeds. This year the seeds are being packed by volunteers all over the city organized by Riet Schumack. Last Saturday I helped pack seeds for kidney beans, Swiss chard (one of my favorites), and dill at Rosedale Baptist Church on Evergreen, a place I run by every time I run. And next week I start the Urban Roots gardening program. You see I could work gardens in and summer is coming.

PALM 2010 Has Filled

We jumped from about 250 participants to 414 on the Tuesday after the MLK holiday. When we only got applications for 50 riders on Wednesday, I thought that we could make it thru the week before PALM filled. Wrong. We jumped to 637 on Thusday and then got applications for 200 more people on Friday. We are filled. If your application is postmarked on or before Jan 19 you are on PALM, otherwise you are not.

A word about this: we don't like turning away people from PALM. All of the staff are volunteers. We do this because we love PALM. To tell someone that they cannot be on the ride that you can't imagine living without is very painful. We try to do what we can. Everyone who didn't make it this year will be added to the mailing list. (And once again, the best chance you have of being on PALM is being on the mailing list.) Each year I create an email list of everyone who has missed the cutoff. When we start to fill, I email warnings. This year I did it on Saturday when I saw that we had 250 participants after only 2 days. People do miss PALM, but we do what we can.

I'm starting to enter applications on the computer and send out confirmation letters. Today I'll be sending out confirmations for all the applications that we received on Friday Jan 15 . I'm up to 175 so I have about 600 more people to enter. It will take Vickie and I weeks to check the applications for errors, enter them into the computer, and mail out confirmation letters. We'll be returning the checks of the applications that didn't make it to us in time, with regrets, starting today. Unless you mailed in your application the day you received it, you don't want to hear from us for a while. Ellie has been keeping track of the applications we have received. Wait two weeks. If you really got to know if you are on the ride, email us then and Ellie will tell you. But wait two weeks. If you haven't received your check back by then, the chances are very good that you are on the ride. Your application would have to be lost in the mail and, if we receive it even weeks later and it has a post mark of Jan 19 or earlier, you are on the ride. Remember Ellie is the one with the broken wrist. Give her a break (no pun intended).

Applications Are Coming In

Ellie and Vickie went to the PALM post office box on Friday and it contained the applications for 143 participants. There goes my chance for a low number and I mailed my application on Thursday night. I went to Ann Arbor on Saturday to pick up the first few applications from Vickie (26 of them) so that I could test the changes I made on real data. They brought in Saturday's mail. I counted 70 envelopes. That should end up being about 100 people. We picked up mail for two days and PALM is already 1/3 filled. Since there is no mail on Monday, Tuesday could be a big day. If it is and you want to be on PALM, you had better send in your application this week. Remember all you have to send in with your application is the registration fee ($110 for adults, 18 and over; $65 for young people, 11-17; and $55 for children 10 and under). You can select and pay for meals and bus rides up to May 15. If you need an application, you can download one from here.

Besides the PALM application, the application to join the Garden Resource Program came in Tuesday's mail. My two favorite things for the summer in the same mail. I've expanded my garden to 20 by 25 with an additional raised bed behind the garage, but I'll be getting 108 plants and 34 packets of seeds. I'm going to be hard pressed. There is going to be a community potluck on Feb 16. There is nothing better than to talk about gardening in the dead of winter. They also sent out a list of classes that I can take. I took one on bee keeping last year to see what was involved. It was very interesting. Did you know that keeping bees is illegal in most cities, including Detroit? Something about harboring wild animals. Did you know that almost all cities are losing pollinators, but not Detroit? (Could have something to do with the 40% of Detroit that is vacant land.) Did you know if you move a bee hive 20 or 30 feet, the bees won't be able to find it? (They navigate back to the hive using the angle of the sun. They'll find where the hive used to be.) But if you move a hive miles, no problem. (When the bees leave the hive after the move they realize that their geographic bearings are messed up and they will recalibrate.)

Applications Have Started Arriving

I guess they really did mail out the 2010 PALM applications because I got mine today. Of course, I'm only 40 miles from where they mail them. This year's applications are in black and white, sort of like winter. The hardest part of winter for me is the lack of light and the color deprivation. That's why I like cardinals. Their red coats in the winter are an act of defiance. You also can show defiance: mail in that PALM application. There will be a summer. You will be able to ride your bike again.

I took a few days off last weekend before the registration rush to go to Florida. It was the coldest it's been there in 27 years. I was going to run a race so the cold weather was great. I was trained for it. The 80's was what I was afraid of. I was probably the only happy person on the plane. The only trouble was the race started at 5:30 AM (Actually I was in the third wave so for me it started at 6:00 AM). There were 16,887 participants so we had to get there early. We were supposed to be at the start at 4:00 AM. This meant that we had to get up around 3:00 AM. All this so that we could wait in the dark and the wind and the cold for the race to start. We had 4 or 5 miles in before the sun even rose. I went with my brother and his training group from Flint. We all did well. My brother was the first finisher from Flint. I was the second finisher from Detroit. Well, Detroit is larger. Oh, I was also the last finisher from Detroit. You just have to look at it the right way.

I should start getting applications this weekend to do my part of registration. I still have work to do to get ready. I had to make changes to the registration program, database, and the confirmation letters. I made the changes but I need to test them more thoroughly to be sure that they work. I made a preliminary test and caught a few obvious errors, but I need to test some more before I start doing things for real. It's best if I do it on weekends when I have more time and am more awake. Wish me luck.