Yes it is!

I decided to ride yesterday. The rain didn't really get going until several blocks before the GWB. Got two tickets from a cop, got soacked fairly well, had to ride through water several inches deep in Leonia. I'd say it was an eventful ride home.

60F. Apocalyptic smog from the ashes of British Columbia, triple the particles of Beijing right now.

[MENTION=25132]ptempel[/MENTION], what were the tickets for? I haven't gotten a ticket for anything yet, after many years.

[MENTION=60072]HardyWeinberg[/MENTION], what's going on in BC?

I waited yesterday evening for the rain to abate. The surface was still wet, so I got a little wet and dirty, but it was OK.

There's a chance of rain again today, smaller than yesterday's, so I think I'll be OK. I rode in today for the fourth time this week, which is unusual. I get Fridays off in the summer (YAY!) so four times a week is the maximum for me. The humidity is building day after day, and the air looks steamy.

In the first mile or so on my way in in the mornings, I don't go at full speed, and some racers and racer wannabes often pass me. A young woman came up from behind and looked like she was going to pass me but didn't. (I wear a mirror.) I decided I was warmed up enough so I picked up my speed, and she matched my speed. I don't normally compete with women because it's a dumb display of machismo that doesn't impress them, so that wasn't my motivation. Then after a few minutes, she did pass me at a pace that would have been painful to match, and I didn't bother trying. As she passed me, first she turned to look at me and check me out. I saw that she was not only very fit but also very good looking. Then as she gained distance from me, I saw her checking back several times, expecting me to pursue her, which I didn't do. Eventually, she stopped to rest or turn around or take a drink. As I passed her, we both smiled at each other. I was impressed at her ability. I don't know why she smiled at me. Maybe a guy with a salt and pepper beard is a cute thing? Who knows.

Lots of fires.

And the smoke is filling up Puget Sound.

Running a stop sign and a red light. I made a new thread warning others here:

https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...g-tickets.html

Edit: [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION], do you use the Hudson Greenway for your regular commute both ways?

Wow. That fire has been burning for almost a month...

Yes, why? Here are my GPS tracks from Monday. It's a 13 mile route, and I'm lucky that 9 miles are on the Greenway. Sometimes I don't have to stop at all.

Great. Good to be back in the UK, although I do miss the mountains of the USA.

That's nice! The closest I can go for non stop riding is the local rail trail but that too intersects with roads at various places. Otherwise my commute is split across 7 2-mile sections and one 3 miler.

There is an overnight brevet on 8/12 near Boston that I am thinking of taking part in. That will have some nice non stop rides down long lonely moonlit roads. It is full moon too.

But for now, I have to tackle the commute back home. I am going to treat this as though it's the start of a 200 km ride and ride accordingly. I don't think I have enough strength left to ride it any other way either. Is it weekend yet?

I wondered how it was up north. I definitely got smoked on my commute home today down here in Oregon.



It's just kind of a general haze down here. I didn't notice any breathing problems, but it was making my eyes sting a bit. I rode at a pretty moderate pace.

The chewy air is really remarkable here. I haven't had breathing problems and I have had lifelong pretty severe asthma. So I've got that going for me. I have felt hungover the last couple days; that could just be insufficient hydration I guess.

Heading to Portland tomorrow to retrieve my son from a summer camp he's been at for a week; well, camp in Sandy, pickup/dropoff in Portland.

I have heard that the smoke is good for ~5 degrees of cooling in daytime so to still hit 106 is something! It's also supposed to be good for ~20 degrees of warming at night so we're only dropping to ~70 instead of usual ~50.

Daycare reroute averted

A good Friday ride to work. Often I'll start out slow and telling myself it's a good day to take it easy, but then find myself trying to stay at higher speeds come the last 3 or 4 miles. Oh well.

The family and I head out of town tomorrow for a family visit in Arkansas. I'm not taking my bike, so will log a zero mileage week. It will hurt my annual goal of 6,000 commuting miles, but I'll just have to rise to the challenge of making it up the rest of the year.

This week has been great for riding to work! Temps are way below normal for Oklahoma. Our usual high pressure system moved out to all you poor souls on the west coast! Today was also the first time I had to get out my $2 Walmart rain poncho since I started riding this year. It was just a heavy sprinkle, but I actually enjoyed it! Of course, we'll see how enjoyable it is if it's pouring this afternoon on the way home!

Crashed last night. Wasn't paying attention and hit a rock (a chunk of asphalt really) that sent me going down at about 10mph. Just banged up my knee a bit but worse is my front wheel seems badly out of true--hopefully nothing bent with the rim or hub. Gonna take it to my LBS tomorrow. Sigh... coulda been worse.

Work travel precluded almost a week's worth of riding - today's my only day this week. And what a day to ride - 65F and temps are dropping! Going on vacation so will miss another week - this one's worth it!

Ok, thanks. It's a little out of my way but I sometimes ride it from 154th St entrance to the 104th St exit. It does have the benefit of having less stop lights and stop signs to get in trouble with.

Twas a nice ride in this morning. I just missed the pop up thunder storm that rolled east through the city. So it was only wet roads with good temps. I recall the sky color being more red than usual when I got up at 6am. It made me think of the old addage, "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning." Then I started singing this song to myself:

lots of smoke in Vancouver lately. There are a bunch of forest fires out in the mountains/interior of BC. The smoke usually doesnt drift west towards the coast, but it is doing that right now. As HardyW said, air quality of Beijing. It's kept a bunch of commuters off of the roads, but it hasnt bothered me much at all. I just take it a bit slower, but have still been riding every day. Apocalypse Now sunsets lately.

The smoke in the Portland suburbs didn't seem as bad this morning. I got a late start, and by the time I left the house at 9:30 the temperature was already up to 80º F. Today is supposed to be a bit less scorching hot, though, with a forecast high of only 97.

I rode in on my 1982 Specialized Sequoia. It defies almost every theory I have about what makes a particular bike special, but the ride of the Sequoia never fails to make me smile.

I was in Victoria Tuesday and Wednesday and Vancouver Thursday; we were to stay Friday but we aborted our trip and headed home early.

Anywho Nanaimo was just warm but Victoria and Vancouver were dark, hazy, calm, and stifling hot due to the smoke. It was erie, I hadn't seen it this bad since I moved to BC in 2003. So we decided that we didn't want to be in Vancouver in this weather since we now have our own gorgeous home on an island o paradise. We got home after a several hour ferry wait to a cooler island and our nicely insulated home. It was nice! The forecast for Friday was near 37°C/98°F, we weren't looking forward to that but the smoke rolled in Friday and Saturday and kept the temperatures much lower, which was appreciated.

I had to go to Vancouver for an appointment with my original plastic surgeon. I've decided that I need to move ahead with the next surgery. It's a skin/muscle flap which would be taken from some place of large muscle mass to replace the hypertrophic and keloid scar tissue on the back of my knee. It's been a big decision over the last 1.7 years; but the rate of recurring infection isn't acceptable and is greatly hindering my quality of life. The surgery is intensive though: two weeks in the burns unit, 1.5 to 2 months immobilized, rehab, and that's if it goes well. If it doesn't go well: they could have to repeat the surgery, but that should be obvious quickly; they could have to do another vascular graft; and the not negligable risk of amputation above the knee. If it comes to the final option I'd feel okay since it's been 2.5 years and I'm stagnate in recovery and I feel very limited.

Anywho the house is amazing, the kids are great, my wife's working too hard (but she's amazing), and my bike repair service is being well utilized on the island. I've been riding regularly since I finally fixed my bike trailer, which has allowed me to stop relying on the golf cart. I do need to walk more, I can feel the health benefit and general improvement from regularly walking. Since the accident I've creeped up to about 210. I've come down about 5-6 pounds in the last month but I need to still drop 25 pounds to be back to fighting weight. Since my accident and related trauma my former resting heart rate of 55 bpm has gone to 85-90 bpm; this has been very noticeable in the heat, which I never cared for. But now it doesn't take much to break a sweat, and not just a few spots. I need to work on my health.

Wasn't sure I would be able to ride to work today! Had a small tornado touch down right along my commute route over the weekend. This morning I got to dodge tree limbs, metal building panels and roofing materials the last 5 miles to work! Rode down 2 streets that were blocked to car traffic due to trees laying on the road. Even had lots of trees blown over at work!

55F pea soup fog

[MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION] good plan to go for surgery hoping for the best!