The weather has been so ideal here in NC that I haven't had much to report lately. I did see another bike commuter -- and a chick at that -- yesterday, which is a rarity on my route. I should have slowed down to talk but we were going up a rather short, steep hill and I wanted to keep my momentum up.

The city is repaving one of the roads on my route and they ground up the surface of the road, so it's like riding on one of those bridges with steel gratings. Very sketchy at best. I would take another route but there are no good alternatives to this road, so I'll just have to gut it out and hope I don't take a spill.

Another curious observation. I rode with my friends after work last week, which is something I have rarely done since I started bike commuting. Our regular Wednesday route is on the outskirts of town on roads that previously were very lightly traveled. Anyway, I began to realize during the ride that I feel safer on my commuter route than the group ride because traffic has gotten so much heavier in that area over the past few years with new developments in the area. Kind of ironic because one of the things that kept me from commuting over the years was my concerns about riding in traffic, but I now think my commuting route is safer than many of the recreational routes I've ridden for years.