jimmuller 

I did ride my commute yesterday despite not intending too. The weather people kept pushing back the prediction of t-storms until today. I finally drove to the office today but my legs were indeed complaining last night. Just before leaving the office at 4:50 yesterday I decided to check the radar map. Yow! Despite no predicted storms a big blotch of yellow and red menaced like a Steven Spielberg movie. Despite wanting to take it easy I hammered home into a southwesterly headwind and seemingly outran the weather as the sky grew lighter. I made home dripping wet but not because it rained.

Sometimes riding a bike throws something your way which you didn't expect and you just have to take it in stride. A few days ago Woburn was putting a finishing surface on the northbound lane of the multi-name road (Pleasant St?) between Four Corners with Woburn Center. As I approached the construction site I chose not to run the right shoulder because a big paving truck was visible in the distance. The right lane was steaming with shiny asphalt, and orange cones defined the traffic lanes: left lane for northbound, left shoulder for southbound. I had no choice but to enter the northbound traffic and take the whole lane. Once I was in there was no way out. I held my own with the cautious drivers (slightly under 20mph, I'd guess) until someone a few cars ahead had to wait to make a left turn. We all stopped for a few moments, and then the two vehicles in front of me took off. Uh-oh, I'm all alone at the head of a line of cars, hot pavement to my right and oncoming traffic to my left. I hammered as long as I could but then the road started uphill into Woburn Center. When a break in the oncoming traffic occurred just as I went by a road to the left I bailed out, crossing the oncoming lane over to the left sidewalk. I explained to the policeman there that I could sort of keep up with the traffic but not uphill! He and a road worker pointed out that the paving ended us a few hundred yards further. They offered as how I could walk across the new pavement to the other side of the street but I declined, thanked them and walked the sidewalk. A minute later I was back on the bike and pedaling to work.