Weird commute, it felt like that auto insurance commercial where it's obstacle after obstacle.

We had heavy thunderstorms early this morning. There was still lightening in the distance a few drizzles when I headed out on the wet streets that were strewn with twigs, stems, leaves and a few branches.
On Highway 70S in Bellevue, I slow rolled through some police activity. Two police cars with blues flashing, one SUV between them.. I dunno.. kept on rolling.

I actually heard a tree fall, the crack and thud. It was behind me, opposite side of the road so no immediate danger but awareness quickened. I turned onto the Music City Bikeway (Post Road at 70S in West Meade) and there was a skunk in the middle of the road. I paused, it ran. It was headed down the road away from me. It began to drift toward the right, headed for a hedge row - I gunned it past on the far left side of the road.
The greenway was full of downed debris from the storm. I dodged the rabbits who are regulars on the path, then ran upon a couple of armadillos. Yep, possum in the shell.. I raced past them.. then on to Sylvan Park, to Centennial past the Parthenon and into the city, arriving at my office on Lower Broadway safe and sound . whew!! :thumb:

Any openings I can apply for?

This morning when I got on my bike my neighbor was in her yard watering. She said, "You're going to get sunstroke."

Wasn't sure what to reply, simply said, "You get used to it."

Thought about it on the way to work. Several people have told me similar things. Truth is I don't take the heat lightly. I've had heat exhaustion. Twice, many years ago. There was a period where I was afraid to go out in the summer sun here.

But the last few years I haven't had any problems. I hydrate before leaving work in the afternoon. Then try to monitor myself on the ride. I've been hot. Real hot. But no problems.

Two things, acclimation, SLOWLY getting used to the heat and building up a tolerance. And keeping hydrated. So far that is working for me. OTOH my rides are short in the afternoon.

I tell people all that. I don't think they believe it.

Tired legs, could only do the 9km route this morning but that's OK. It was a beautiful, hot (for me) morning ride, in bright sun.

Best commuting year ever, I've missed only 3 days since March 22, 2 of which were the result of a bad storm in mid-April. I'm not counting days that I didn't go to work. This month has been a big push to cycle 1,000km for the Great Cycle Challenge to raise money for charity so in July, I will likely ride just 22km in and either 9km or 22km home whereas many mornings in June, I've been riding between 32 and 50km in and 9 or 22 home. Had I had the legs yesterday and today to do 70km each day, I'd have finished it with this afternoon's commute home but I'll just take it easy; as of right now, I have 69km to go and with another ride of 9km home, I'll have 6 days left in the month to do the final 60km.

Have a great Friday (it is Fri-nally here) and weekend!!!

Have you tried one of those cooling scarves? They are a tube made out of a cotton kerchief that is filled with diaper stuffing (do I really need to tell you it is unused stuffing?). Here's how to make them: http://www.instructables.com/id/Sew-...l-Neck-Cooler/. A cousin of my wife makes them by ripping apart disposable diapers and gathering the crystals from there. The other day, I thought that having one of them would be nice because it was very hot out. I would probably want to make one from a dark cloth so that sweat stains would not be so visible.

This morning a mother duck and her seven babies entered a long bridge just before I did. Trapped with me behind them, the ducks took off waddling across as fast as they could. I stayed about 15 feet back. The mother positioned herself between the babies and me, quacking encouragement to her young. When they finally reached the other side they veered off into the brush. I'm sure they were exhausted from their long run.


See, this is why I like ducks more than geese. If this was a mother goose and her goslings, the mom would have had the babies stand their ground and then she would have gotten all up in my grill.

Well poo, was going to ride today but opted out. I accidenetally left my trunk bag at work yesterday when I had the car, so I had a backpack rigged to my bike's rear rack, which I wasn't sure was going to work very well. Plus I stayed up too late (again) last night and was tired this morning.

So I only got in one commute this week. :(

Heh. I recently had to stop along with a car for a gaggle of geese crossing the road. They were a few adults with some young ones. The baby geese had yellowish feathers. No probs with stopping with them. They just aren't the fastest walkers around.

Was a nice commute this morning from home. Second day in a row doing the longer distance (and end of the week) so feeling a bit tired. Will gear down a bit for the ride home and take it easy.

Are you saying that these ducks "took the lane"? Did you yell at them to "get off the &%^$ bridge"? Did you tell them you pay bridge taxes and that they're just freeloaders?

Most importantly, did you take a photo? :lol:

I'm always on the lookout for some riding glasses. Are the amber motorcycle glasses working for you? I get a fair amount of junk in my eyes at times whilst crossing the GWB.

I use some Tifosi clear glasses with photochromic lenses, and no frames along the bottom edge. Half frames are important for me because frames along the bottom causes a pretty bad blind spot when I do a shoulder check.

That is certainly nice. I was actually on track for an 8:30 arrival but got sidetracked by my wife wanting me to hang out while she got ready. I then got stuck in accident traffic but made it by 9. My earliest arrival in over 1.5 years!

I have always had good luck with Uvex Genesis and using clear, amber, or smoke lenses. They are durable as well. I am convinced they saved from a severe eye injury when I had my accident; I had a large (3ish inches) laceration just above my left eye and a broken nose.

Thanks for the tip. Have seen then for less then $7 here:

BettyMills: Uvex® Genesis X2? Eyewear - Honeywell 763-S3500

The replacement lenses are only around $4 - $5 or so. WOuld be curios to try them on. Will have to see if a major store carries them near me.

They sometimes fog like crazy when stopped, but clear right away over 5mph. Wind Riders brand, and in the local WM, they're right by automotive, among the motorcycle gloves and such, around $13. Foam padding inside the lens frames, which makes me feel a little better about getting popped in the face. (I've had a frame bruise around my eye from a wood block disintegrating at 1200rpm on a lathe before. Beats the hell out of losing an eye, but preventing/reducing that pain too would have been nice.)

I used to get them from my universities chem department's lab supply store. I think they sold them in the bookstore for students to sue during lab courses.

I most recently got them from a safety supply company that serves construction and other trades. They just drove over and sold me what I needed. This cost a bit more but it was worth the delivery service.

Agreed, I have a new pair of (cheap, department store) glasses and I don't like the bottom frame but I have adjusted to them (some of the styles that I noticed TdF riders wore in previous years had bottom frames so I didn't think anything of it but I don't like them after all).

I haven't tried photochromic lenses, I'd like to but I have used glasses with interchangeable lenses and I did like the yellow and dark brown lenses most: the dark were good for bright days, especially winter, but I could wear the yellow ones also on bright days and they were especially nice for dull or dusk or even night conditions: the yellow seemed to brighten up dull objects.

Just pulled the trigger on the Uvex Genesis glasses in vapor blue frame with espresso lens:

http://www.bosssafety.com/images/Pro...dium/11210.jpg

Was a little less than $10 from Amazon. Will see how they work for me... ;)

Let us know how it goes. I hope my advice works.

I work in the IT department, so yeah, maybe. The odd truth is that I'm not used to it. This is my second summer at this place (Manhattan College), and the rhythm of four days on and three days off is disorienting. I'm not complaining!

@tundra_man, ducks are definitely cuter and funnier than geese, though I like them both.

The commute in this morning after a long weekend off from work was very nice. I was riding up a long hill and a police man pulled up along side me and said I was going to fast. I just laughed.

@essiemyra - that's funny. Glad to hear you got off with just a warning.

Pleasant morning here at 65F. I'm on track to hit 2,500 miles by the end of June. Another year of 5,000 may be possible. Though I'm gonna have a zero mileage next week when I'm off work and taking the fam to Florida.

Great ride today! Just about empty streets from the Better Half's office to mine, with a stop for a 2nd cup of coffee.

Pleased to report that my wife commuted by bike today for the first time (ever! Proud of you honey!!). We drove to my workplace with our bikes on the back of our Jeep, took hers off and she rode 2km along a quiet MUP to her workplace (I followed to make sure she didn't run into any problems, I then rode back to mine afterwards) and then she'll ride back to my workplace at the end of the day and wait for me to finish about 15 minutes after she gets to the Jeep. We plan to do it this way for the next couple of weeks and then we'll switch to a 5km route that we can both ride from home to work (5km for her, 8km for me unless I go for a longer ride after "dropping her off" at her workplace). And then we'll work up to the 6km route which is actually the easiest for both of us, my distance will be 9km.

Her journey to fitness and weight loss has begun, luv ya hon!!

Crazy easy commute today. My wife's car had a large screw protruding from the tread of one of the tires, and coincidentally that same tire was also completely flat. I pumped it up and found it would hold air long enough for me to drive it to the shop. I threw my bike on the rack, dropped the car off and rode from there to work.

Only 1.9 miles each way from the shop and the office, so it's a good thing I also went for a 2.8 mile run this morning.

Unfortunately, my air compressor decided to seize up after I filled the tire. When I first fired it up it sounded a little slow, but pressurized the tank. Once the tank pressure lowered enough for the motor to cycle, it clicked on, hummed and tried to turn but doesn't have the oomph it needs to spin the cylinder. After about 5 seconds of struggle it pops the breaker. I guess I'll have to add fixing the compressor to my to-do list. f it can't be fixed I've at least gotten 28 years of use out of it.