There wasn’t a lot of news this week.
The week started out nicely with a Ravens win. We don’t usually watch football, but we watched the game last week. We’re glad we did, because it was a heck of a game; and made nicer with the Ravens moving on to the AFC championship later on today.
Wednesday, I went to the dentist and had the right half of my mouth cleaned. This was the second half of my periodontal cleaning. This one was a little harder for me. The dental appointment was Wednesday morning. Shortly after I got home, I started feeling under the weather. I was OK, but just under the weather. Things were better by late Thursday.
We had Circle last Sunday and a party at the club house Friday.
Mostly, the weather was mild for January. The week stared with several days that were cloudy and in the 40s. Then it got down right nice – sunny and 50. I got a good amount of riding in. I didn’t get much riding in over the holidays. By last week, I was definitely down in my speed and ability to do hills. Early this week I went out looking for bonus hills to build my climbing ability. A couple of streets I usually ride on are closed for construction, so I had to take detours. This caused me to find Oella Rd, which goes to the town of Oella. This is a 19th century mill town right next to Ellicott City. The mill was re-built into apartments and looks modern. But the houses and streets have the patina of history. Oella Rd is a pretty good hill in its own right. But once in Oella, the narrow back streets are hilly enough to earn respect from any West Virginian. I’ve had some great rides and have my bike legs pretty well tuned up. That’s good because the weather is taking a turn for the colder. I could ride when the high is 28, but I don’t see how it would be considered fun.
Here’s a picture of the entrance to Oella. It’s hard to realize how steep the hills are from a 2-D picture.
Bomb shelter or basement?
This shows a different kind of walk-out basement. You can’t tell too well, but there’s a generously wide sidewalk over the basement doors. It looks like the basement could double as a bomb shelter. It’s hard to get a good persective on this shot, in part because I was standing on the edge of the steep part of the hill, which was behind me and to my right.
Oella Row Houses
Here’s a shot of some Oella row houses. A couple of them had stained glass on the doors, but I couldn’t get a good shot of them because of the angle of the sun.