When life gives you just one tree,

Hyde Park, just north of the UT campus
Austin, TX
10.8.11 pm

Bike Route 47

Date: Friday October 7, 2011
Time:  6pm
Temperature:  86 degrees F

Road conditions varied quite a bit.  There were sections of freshly paved asphalt and then sections of under-construction concrete patches and bumps.   Today, my ride included the 3.5 mile section from Hyde Park to the 183 underpass.  It seemed like the route stopped there, but according to this map, it actually keeps going further north for quite a while.   My turnaround point was when I got to the 'Austin China Center' parking lot.

Along the way are neighborhoods and industrial parks.  While the route crosses several major intersections, they are all lighted.  The route itself is on not-too-busy roads with wider than normal lanes for passing.  There is a designated bike lane for pretty much all of the section I saw today.

With it being October and halloween season, there were lots of fantastic halloween displays.   One included spiders crawling around a tree stump that had to be at least 2.5 feet wide.   Lights are very popular in Austin in any time of year.  Now, most of the lights you come across are orange :)  It's fun to see everyone's take on decorating for the holiday.  Not to mention all the houses are neat to look at anyway - unique character, landscaping, and architecture.  Now that it's cooling off, this might just have to become a weekly habit.  Hmm.. to bike every bike route in Austin...

Cut Off Jeans

 Lucky Jeans - 1st Generation 

Due to my conservative upbringing, I've never had cutoffs.  Or, more correctly, never made my own cutoffs.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided I wanted a pair.  And today, I realized my window of opportunity is closing in rather unexpectedly.  You see, cutoffs are usually shorts (as opposed to capris) and shorts are worn in warm weather.  But, out of the blue, it's starting to get a bit chilly in Austin.  Quite a surprise to me.  The 100+ degree days had 'frozen' a picture in my mind of it simply always being hot in Austin.

The subject was a first generation pair of my Lucky Jeans. Originally purchased back in the wee years of undergrad, they were the response to my American Eagle jeans literally disintegrating after 5 years of intimate love.  Those AE jeans were stretch, and boy did I test that characteristic.  They'll always hold a soft spot in my heart.  But, these Lucky jeans had a good life, too.  Saw the best of my undergrad years and were officially retired last year when I upgraded to a dark shade of Luckys... more grown up and sophisticated.  You know, you gotta grow up some time.

Cutting any sort of material short of wrapping paper or construction paper is going out of my comfort zone.  For reassurance, I came up with a plan of action for taking my jeans under the knife.  Cutting material seems really really final in my mind, and I didn't want to screw up my cut and render the jeans unwearable.  Not that I was wearing them as long jeans anyways, but still - I'd hate to see a perfectly good pair of jeans permanently damaged.  To put my uneasiness at ease, I tried a practice cut way down south of the danger zone.  My fear that cutting the thick material would be difficult was quickly diminished.  It was easy.  

Where to make the final cut was the next task.  I didn't want to go too short.  Remember, I'm grown up now and tend to side on dressing more conservatively.  Having ample coverage on my legs while biking was another practical reason for leaving the shorts fairly long.  Standing in front of the mirror, I eyeball a good length and use my straightedge (engineers scale) to mark with the red pen a line across one leg.  I'm surprised when I lay the pants down on the floor and the red pen line is arched across the left leg.  Hmm.  I cut along anxiously and try 'em on - one leg long, one leg short.  Satisfied with the length, I repeat with the same method: bathroom, mirror, straightedge, red pen, knife.  I mean, scissors. 

Final Product!

The cut is almost too clean.  It isn't exactly the look I was thinking I'd get, but then realize I'm working with stretch jeans that were already pretty thin to begin with.  Improvising, I try rolling up the bottoms.  I like the way this looks.  A more permanent solution will be to sew the two sides... but that'll have to wait for another day.   For the time being, I'll admire my first pair of homemade anything (clothing wise) (!! :D).  And also ponder... what to do with the leftover jean legs?? :P