Bike order woes are chronicled in a different thread, so I'll spare everyone details here. Suffice it to say new LHT has yet to be built. OTOH a friend lent me a nice Specialized MTB that wasn't being ridden. So at least I'm back to commuting. $7 a day riding metro was adding up fast; so was the emotional toll of not having a bike to ride and having my soul sucked out of me by the daily subway drudge.

Today's commute was with a backpack for the first time in a year and a half. Since it's likely to be next weekend b4 the new bike gets built, I may take the rack off my hybrid and mount it on the loaner ride... not sure I want to put up w/ a backpack for the better part of two weeks. The rack was going to have to come off anyway for its transplant to my LHT.

The ride itself was nice. Warm, windy, cloudy and with a little rain by the end, but such a blast to be back out and about on a bike after a few weeks w/o. Made surprisingly good time given that I hadn't ridden in weeks, had a headwind much of the way and was riding on 2+ inch knobbies instead of my usual 32mm road tires.