I've enjoyed the cool-morning/warm-afternoon commutes so far this week. Going to be a windy one tomorrow though.

Rough morning so far. Didn't sleep well.

Weatherman completely missed the boat today. They said it was supposed to be sunny and nice, and the rain wouldn't hit until Wednesday. About 4:30 AM I woke up to the sound of torrential rain hitting my roof. That got my brain spinning.

On Saturday I had taken a short ride up to the grocery store on my hybrid with rack and fenders (which I call my "rain bike".) On the way home, I blew my front tire. This was the original tire on the bike, and had lasted 7115 miles before it finally wore through. I could quite literally see light through the thin spots in the tread, so I didn't even bother fixing it. I just walked the bike home and threw the tire in the trash. Then I ordered a new tire which is scheduled to arrive tonight (Tues evening.) "No problem" I figured. The rain isn't supposed to hit until Wednesday, so I could just ride my fenderless road bike for a couple days until my new tire shows up.

Now the rain hitting the roof had me rethink my plans. Of course, I could always ride my road bike in the rain. I don't like to do that, though, because it's such a pain to clean the bike afterwards. And probably a bigger issue is riding in the rain without fenders is extra miserable. All the gunk that would have normally wound up on the underside of the fenders is instead evenly distributed all over my body. Yuck.

So as I lay in bed I formulated a plan. I managed to doze off for a while, then I got up 15 minutes early. I went out and took the front wheel off my TT bike and put it on my hybrid. They were both 700c so it was a pretty easy swap, I just had to adjust the brakes a little to accommodate the thinner rim. It looks a little funny with a 32mm tire in the rear and a 23mm slick in the front, but oh well.

So I was congratulating myself on my ingenuity when I suddenly realized the bike had no chain. When I'd pulled the front tire off I'd also decided to clean the chain. I then forgot about it, and the chain was still sitting in my jar of cleaning solvent. So I had to pull the chain out and try my best to hastily dry it off and lube it, then reinstall it on the bike.

By this point it was 20 minutes past when I should have left for work. Even though I had gotten up early the extra monkeying with the chain had made me late. So I rolled the bike out of the garage to discover a couple of things: first, while I was messing with the chain the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out. So I probably could have just taken the road bike. And second, with the unexpected rain came an unexpected change in the wind direction and intensity, and now instead of a mild crosswind as I thought I would have, I had a fairly strong head wind to fight all the way to work.

Finally got to work late only to discover that my network account was locked out. So I had to monkey with that for a while.

Well, the day can only get better from here, right?

I was prepared for rain this morning but it stopped about an hour before I headed out so all I had to deal with were wet roads and puddles. I overdressed and arrived at work sweating buckets, I dressed for -7C/19F knowing full well that it was actually +7C/45F.

This is a perfect example of why we shouldn't be riding bikes but driving cars and trucks instead.

It's been so nice this week, I haven't had anything to report. Get up, drink a cup of tea, munch some cheerios, get on the bike... same old, same old. Which is nice. I haven't missed my train, and I haven't seen any car accidents, nor any deer, skunks, raccoons, opossums, or even geese. This morning a bunny ran across my path, oo we.

I have a major road crossing on the MUP, 6 lane split road with a little island in the middle. Today, for some odd reason, a car stopped for me in both directions and both were pissed when I waved them on. Dear drivers, while you may think you're being nice by stopping and letting me cross, the other two lanes of traffic are likely not watching you or me so if I wave you on GO! Rant over

Good cyclecommute in this morning. Had to dress for 40's F since it was fairly cold. I saw a dude on a nice all chrome single speed Bianchi. Thumbs up to him for doing Harmen Meer in a higher gear.

A beautiful day, just beautiful.

My one mile of fire road was kind of chewed up and when I got to Nimbus Dam I found the culprits. The near-flooding of the winter, and the lake basically returning to its roots as a river, led to a huge accumulation of driftwood floating in front of the dam. They had already gathered it all up with a boom and scooped it out of the lake, and made a huge yucky pile of it. Now they have trucks hauling it out.

I went to meet my wife for lunch. She is using my employment uncertainty to fantasize about moving to La France. The idea terrifies me, because I think they basically wouldn't want us there. I've got a great education and job history but I don't think they'd have a lot of patience for a poor-to-worse speaker of French. I always thought if I had an opportunity like that it would come through a job I already had. Still, I'm looking at websites of Arianespace and friends like Thales and NAMMO

Started out in a down pour which I could of handled. Half way to work the rain stop, the wind picked up and dropped 10 degrees. I hate Kansas.

Nice cool 1C/34F temperature but there was a strong wind from the east, which accounts for approximately 60% of this morning's ride so I was much slower than normal. Brought my rain gear as the forecast is for rain on the way home and tomorrow (morning anyway).

Our city announced last week that they are preparing to sweep the sand that is dumped on the roads during the winter (and ends up at the side of the road, where bikes travel) but, they are starting with the roads that are going to be used for the annual Sudbury Rocks marathon which (1) is approximately 4 weeks away, (2) won't be used by runners until the race as runners don't run on the road, and (3) cyclists have been riding for at least 3 weeks now and are looking to use the bike lanes that are covered by the sand and could benefit from sweeping now, not after they are done the race route. Furthermore, part of the race route is on a road with bike lanes (we don't have many in this city) so sweeping the sand off this bike lane also clears the sand from this part of the race route.

I made a complaint (on Facebook) and as much as I might like to take credit for getting the city to change its plans, I don't think that's what happened. However, it appears that a number of bike lanes are being cleared now (including the one that will be part of the running race route).

I am back to work after four days off. Office was closed for Good Friday, then I went to Boston to run the marathon there. It was a great experience, but I had a rough go of the 26.2 miles.

It was quite foggy, damp and a cool 56F this morning. My arm and leg hairs were beaded with water and my helmet kept dripping. The sunny, 80F degree afternoon will be quite the change. It was good to get the legs moving again, though the quad soreness is definitely still there.

They say that getting that BQ is the work. Actually running is like the dessert...though I don't think I'd consider running 26.2 miles dessert.

What was you finishing time?

Was a wet and rainy 51F this morning. I decided against the rain jacket but wished I had it at times. No matter, its going to be a nice and sunny 62F this afternoon. Also am trying to use the "balled up paper towel in the shoe" trick to get them drier for the ride home.

Very pleasant today, upper 60's this morning, low 80's this afternoon with a tail wind. I rode the e-bike today which meant I was able to leave the house at close to 6:30 instead of 6 AM and still have plenty of time. That's always nice.

I was expecting to ride home yesterday afternoon in rain but it didn't rain until late in the even and through the night which meant a rainy ride in to work but again, I missed it and the wetness was just water kicked up by my tires from the road. I'm wondering if my luck will hold out and I'll ride home without rain but now, I've probably jinxed that.

It was 4C/39F and damp of course so I wore my rain jacket to keep dry and because it wasn't that cold, I wore just a base layer of a long-sleeved merino shirt (a very light layer) and my buff, not on my head like a beanie but around my neck like a neck gaiter. Even dressed as light as that, with my jacket unzipped about 15cm/6" down from the top, I was still sweating a bit by the time I arrived at work. I was wearing fleece lined cycling tights with padded shorts underneath so that would have contributed to my body warmth but I don't have rain pants that I could have worn without tights underneath, just shorts. Therefore, I don't know how much more I can get rid of at these temps and in rainy, or at least wet, conditions to keep myself from sweating after only about 25 minutes of riding. In the summer, for commuting, I'd just bring a second set of jersey, shorts and socks and accept warm rain but 4C and wet might be a bit tough to go without rain protection. There's supposed to be some rain next week so maybe I'll try no tights and see how I do.

Saw two different fellows on two different days this week salmoning and I asked them both to ride on the right side of the road (a residential street with no traffic at the time). Both complied. I told my wife about these salmons and she replied, "Well, it's good they don't give you a badge or you'd be ticketing every cyclist in town".

Some guy in a white pickup pulling a big boat passed close, but worse he had a bilge pump or something going and water was gushing out the side. Like a fire hose. This was just outside of a cul-de-sac office center - he couldn't have just pumped it out at the edge of the parking lot??

That guy deserves and old stinky sandwich and some rotten eggs on his windshield.

Another rainy one like yesterday. Maybe a little colder but didn't really notice it at ~49F. The rain should stop by 9am or so I've heard. Had some excitement on the ride home yesterday. Coming up to St Nicholas and 162nd St, I heard a "thud" sound in the distance. Then cycling past 163rd St, I heard scraping and a siren from a cop car. I then saw a what I think was a Dodge Charger speeding down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street between 162nd and 163rd. Then the car swerved off the sidewalk went across the intersection and down St Nicholas St (on my side of the street). An unmarked police car (dectective?) was right behind it from the sidewalk with the sirens on. I'm guessing that the car was stolen and the guy was trying to lose the police in a chase. I would be amazed that they didn't hit anyone since they were both going pretty fast. Another crazy day in the big bad city...

He deserves something, not vandalism but I'll bide my time and allow karma to make the balance. After all, we're (most likely) on the same road all the time and eventually a situation will arise where it comes back on him.

I was just amazed, the last thing I expected by an office during morning rush hour was to be flushed by a boat.

Due to heat and some leg cramps, I had to slow quite a bit from what I was hoping to run. I finished in 3 hours 50 minutes. Not horrible, but way off of my BQ time.

I saw the clouds and possible rain coming before I left work. I made it 10+ miles before it caught me on the last 3 of my ride home. It was warm enough though.

Nice enough ride in this morning except for one spot on the new MUP. I only occasionally take that as part of my route. They had a 10 foot or so section fenced off for repairs (hopefully correcting some drainage issues). The path around was a bit muddy due to the rain. I hopped off and walked it to prevent major mud on the bike. Instead, my shoes got a bit on them. Oh well.

33F. Pea-soup at home. Usually when that kind of fog is coming off the water, it is coming from the NE and it is all the way to work. Otherwise it comes from the NE, hits a ridge, and doesn't reach my house. Today the fog was apparently coming more from the SW so when I hit that ridge, sudden bright sun!

Good ride, a new personal record on my Strava commute segment! 19.8 average. Yay.

The last few days the weather was quite windy. But strong headwinds do not tell me if I ride my bike or not, they only suggest me what to wear on the commute.

Apart from that, a total of five more idiots I can add to the 2017 collection

Stats2017
-------------------

Near Misses: 1

Idiots met: 12



SCR FCN: 16

SCR score for today's commute:
- AM: 16+0-0 = 16
- PM: 16+0-0 = 16

SCR total score for 2017:
0

My first commute in over a week due to having my daughter's dog at the house and him liking to walk so much. I walked him instead of riding. I miss my riding. The commute was very nice with the temp at 40f degrees and its getting light so early. I am going to be able to extend my morning ride after Wednesday when the rain leaves.

Quite the rainy Sunday and Sunday night. I was watching the radar and it appeared to be about to end. I like to leave a little before 7, but waited until about 7:10 today for it to stop raining. Wet roads but no real rain on me. More may come this afternoon though. Cooler at 52F.

And it's Monday.