Consecutive bicycle work commutes number 2131 and 2132:
Yesterday was not the day I was planning to have. Our well pump died a while ago. Our house also has city water, so the well water is mostly used for irrigation (lawn and my wife's prized garden.) Earlier this spring I had contacted the well guy to come and replace the pump. He is pretty much the only well guy in this area, so consequently he is very busy. He put me on his list. The weather and higher priority projects kept bumping me further down his list.
I hadn't heard from him in about three weeks until yesterday. I was about to leave the house to ride to a client when he called me at 7 AM. He was available to come fix my well pump, and would be there at 8 AM. Knowing that these projects rarely go as smooth as they should, I realized that I would be unexpectedly working from home for at least part of the day, if not the whole day. However, according to "the rules" that I have set for myself, I can't use working from home as an excuse to get out of a bicycle commute.
By the time I informed my wife of what was going on, I had less than an 45 minutes until the well guy would arrive. So I hopped on my bike and rode the 4.5 miles to the client's office, then turned around and immediately rode back home. Because I wasn't staying, I left my backpack with my work clothes and supplies at home. It had been a while since I had ridden the road bike without wearing a heavy backpack. I probably gained about 1 mph average speed. I felt like a wild man.
The well guy arrived, and par for the course ran into issues. The well pump had been in place for more than 40 years, and in that time the metal cap had solidly rusted to the cast iron pipe. The two pieces were now one. The crane he brought which was capable of lifting 20 tons was unable to budge the well cap. So that meant excavation. He had to bring in a backhoe and dig down 8 feet below the cap and cut through the cast iron pipe to pull the old well pump out, then repair everything he had cut apart. It also came with the consequence of tripling the price of the well pump replacement. Needless to say, I wound up staying at home all day and working between visits out to the work site to monitor progress.
This morning I was scheduled to ride to our company office for the day. The only problem is that on Wednesday evening I had left my laptop in the desk at the client from which I thought I would be working on Thursday. I needed my laptop to work at our office. So, I got up extra early and rode to the client to retrieve my laptop. Then from there I rode to our company office. All said and done, by the time I got to the office I had ridden a little more than 20 miles. That's the most I've ridden in one shot in quite a while. I regularly log days of 20+ miles, but usually the miles are broken up into shorter trips spread throughout the day.
The weather this morning was beautiful. Mostly sunny, light breeze and 52°F. And because of my modified commute I was able to ride a route I hadn't taken in a couple years, so that was nice.