All day it felt like something is busted in my foot, and I could barely walk without limping like an old man. Even sitting, throbbing pain. Then after a couple of miles on the way home it feels good, no pain, and I'm riding as normal. Faster than normal, but not hard enough for endorphins. I'm not sure I get why that was, but maybe I should go with it and take a couple days off from work to just ride.

My FIL's employer just went to a no-vacation system. Just get your work done, never mind whether or when you show up or not. I don't understand how this is supposed to work when projects have deadlines and might need overtime, families have vacations, and people get sick or injured. I also don't know what happens if he quits. Under the system I've always been on, an employer would pay out your vacation but not your sick leave, but what do you get if you work to burnout, then quit? Nothing?

[MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION] at least she ate the lunch! Given the opinions of your family I'm not sure whether it's right to encourage you to get commuting. Just glad you are feeling well enough to think about it.

Thanks.

Both my wife and I have worked through the stress from the fall both independently and together. I'd say that the issues from then have been about 95% resolved. And that remaining 5% is tied in with normal relationship stress.

I'm not going to start with commuting I know that. I'm thinking a little ride the around my in laws place, they live on a small island with no paved roads few people and fewer cars. Plus no busses and only dump trucks when they are barged over.

I'm confused regarding the lunch part though?

I recalled you wrote that when she retrieved and cleaned up your stuff, she ate your sack lunch.

That's right I had forgotten. It would have been a good sandwich too...

My first ride this week and since coming back from a week at Disney with the family. The ride in this morning was very nice, as the temp was 26f degrees. So not to cold and a dark clear sky.

The canal towpath is still under snow, so I'm still on a slight detour route; and with all the piles of snow melting along the roadside the roads are still pretty wet, but other than that, my commute is back to normal after the blizzard.

Nice ride in, still pretty warm out there (or at least not cold).

Pathways are mostly clear but I encountered one major obstacle on the way home last night....how this is not cleared a full eight days after the blizzard is beyond me:

Wow! That's quite an obstacle.

Nothing like that in NC. We got mostly sleet and freezing rain in the big storm, so it melted pretty quickly once the sun came out and temperatures rose above freezing.

Yesterday was one of those incredible winter days we get in NC, sunny with high temperatures about 70 F. It's a little chillier today, but temps are still supposed to reach the 60s. I had a nice tailwind riding to work this morning, after fighting the wind yesterday. At one stoplight a young woman who looked very familiar was crossing the street in front of me. I quickly realized it was my daughter, just arriving at her place of work. I rang my bell and surprised her. That was humorous.

I had another stoplight happening that was my first ever in nearly 10 years of commuting. Three cyclists (including me) converged at the same red light. I rarely ever see other bike commuters on my route, and when I do they are usually traveling in the other direction.

All last night there were blizzard warnings coming on TV and the radio. Not sure what we were supposed to do with these warnings, maybe hide in the basement? I mean, this is South Dakota. It's not like we never have them or they haven't been predicting this one for a week. At 10:15 last night our phone rang and it was the automated school information system calling and saying, "Due to the impending blizzard we are cancelling classes for tomorrow." My son, who was still up working on the mountain of homework he'd been assigned yesterday, immediately began doing this weird dance of joy that was quite entertaining.

My wife turned to me and said, "You're driving tomorrow, right?" I responded with, "I'll get up in the morning and evaluate the situation, then make a decision." To my surprise, that response satisfied her.

This morning they were sleeping in because of no school (my wife works for the school system too). I got up and looked out the window. No snow falling. Not a flake. So I rode to work. The winds are pretty stiff, which the forecasters did get correct. Thankfully it was a cross-wind so I didn't have to ride directly into it.

Sounds like things are pretty ugly south of town, and now they're saying it will move into the city by the afternoon. We'll see.

Sorry about everyone's snow difficulties... not really! Mid 30's again this morning and forecast for this afternoon is 50's, thunderstorms and high winds. Thunderstorms in February?!

28F, pea soup fog. It was so very clear before sunrise, nice chance for planet spotting. All gone by the time I left on my ride.

Decided to ride yesterday instead of my usual Tuesday since we're having strong storms today. Temps in the lower and upper 50's to about 60 in the afternoon. No real issues to speak of.

Then I got an email last night saying the Monday morning staff meeting is moving from 8 AM to 7 AM! Guess that will preclude me from ever riding on Monday again, unless I leave my house around 5 AM (highly doubtful).

2 days of bike commuting in above average temperatures. Rain coming tomorrow and supposed to bring colder temps. I really like riding in at 48F and home 70F yesterday. Today was 48 but only supposed to be 53F on the way home. I am not sure we will see that though since it is pretty cloudy. I guess to get ready for tomorrows all day 90% chance of rain.

I rode to work for the first time since the big snowfall on January 23. The city has been doing a great job clearing snow in Manhattan and The Bronx. The weather is sunny and clear, and the winds are not too gusty. I put new tires on my bike and tried lower pressure, which worked great. I used 65-rear and 60-front. I had a great time and made it in fairly quickly considering I faced headwinds most of the way.

Snow actually started falling around 10 AM. By noon we had a couple inches down, and the winds were frequently above 40 mph. Most of the people at the client's office where I was working had either not come in at all, left early or were looking to leave early. I decided I could work from home just as effectively and if I left then I'd have less snow to ride through than if I stayed until 5 PM.

The ride home wasn't too bad on the MUP as I was blasting through a couple inches of unplowed powder. I just dropped the gear and spun. It was tougher when I got off the MUP and was riding through unplowed streets as the ruts from cars made things pretty slick where the snow had been compacted on top of the slick pavement surface.

To make matters worse, about 3 miles from home I realized my rear tire was going flat. I decided I wasn't motivated enough to stop and fix it in the middle of a blizzard, so I just rode on the flat. A flat rear tire doesn't do much to make pedaling easier. I had a pretty good sweat going once I finally made it home. I'll have to fix it this evening once I'm done with work.

If you get a doc to give you a prescription for that I want his number

I don't take them even when I do have a pain prescription so I'm afraid you're out of luck. It's all purple today but again, I didn't feel it all all while riding.

Fun. The snow came down good and the wind was whipping hard. I kept a good pace as able and really only had to put my foot down twice prior to when I hit the BIG snow drifts off the U of M Ag fields and had to walk a little more than a 1/4 mile before being able to jump on my bike again. All in a all a good 10 mile ride.

Rear tire flatted mid-way in this morning. Fortunately, I found a good streetlight. Turned out to be a sharp chip of road salt. Took off the panniers, flipped the bike (vertical drops and disc rear) and got things straightened out. The tire only has ~1000 miles on it, but with the weight of the rear bags, it's wearing down. Either I replace it soon, or I just put in a Mr. Tuffy and keep going. Leaning towards the latter.

I'll be patching the tube at lunch today.

Oh, and a warm-ish 45 degrees or so, with light mist. Blowing rain later today, but it'll mostly be a tailwind. Yay.

31°F this morning. First time this winter.

Ride home yesterday I watched the radar and left during a hole in the storm fronts. Hit a few drizzles but about 10 minutes after getting home it really opened up (thunderstorms in February). I love when I can do that!

This morning I got dressed on autopilot and then looked at temps - 47F! I thought there was something wrong with my phone, nope. Had to take stuff off though now I'm worried I don't have enough clothes for the ride home when temps are supposed to drop.

Drove today for the first time this year.

We wound up getting about 7 inches of snow, but with the 40+ mph winds the drifts were pretty deep in places. (One side of my roof nearly has no snow on it, the other side has about 4 feet. lol) The back roads leading out of my neighborhood had not yet been plowed, which is a guarantee that the MUP hadn't yet been cleared either. Had I gotten out of our neighborhood I'm pretty sure the only streets that the plows had gotten to at this point would be the main arteries, of which riding on them is sketchy on a clear day let alone when the road is still slick.

Add on that I spaced the fact that I had gotten a flat tire on the way home yesterday and hadn't yet fixed it, so I would have had to spend even more time repairing that before I could leave. Coupled with how slow riding through unplowed snow would have been, I probably wouldn't have made it to work before 11 AM. So I sucked up my pride and drove.

Several inches of fluff this morning, fortunately over a hard base. My girlfriend took this photo of our driveway when she left for work.



Schools were closed today, which meant no plowing for my commute. The plow drivers seem to take their time when they don't have to beat the school buses.