i got sooo drenched this morning! (Not used to that, but will have to get used to it again!)

On the way in to work I stopped at the local dirt jumps to put a few tarps in place to try to protect from the rain.

Just got a good deal on a Chariot for the kiddos. Was it really good? It's not complete. It has parts but not all of a baby sling and is missing one of the strap pads. So I can't put the babies in it tomorrow. But it has both the hitch and the jogger wheel.

Anything under 50 degrees and the gloves and head band come out for warmth.

Another cool ride today with the temp at 40 f degrees pleasant and uneventful.

My brother and I changed the front brakes on my bike yesterday. It was not a hard job at all and next time I will be able to do it myself.

49F this morning - first commute below 50F since early spring. I wore a jacket and lightweight gloves, but still okay with shorts.

September ended with about 465 commuting miles. Lower than average, but still decent.

A chilly 53F but I'm still wearing shorts!

44F, foggy

I watched the weather reports last night: 10% chance of rain every day this week on one channel, no chance of rain until the middle of next week on the other. Ergo, I didn't worry about the overcast as I left the house. With a lead-in like that, can you guess what happened today?


Yes, a rain shower! Just as I neared the parking lot at work, just enough to feel it, and get spots on my specs (grr!).


At least it didn't soak me before I had to face the stiff wind!

The weather forecast predicted a swing in temperatures from the 50's to 80's here today, back to bringing multiple options for the different ends of the commute.
I rode home Saturday night not knowing what temperature it was between the different readings on different weather sites and ended up both hot and cold in different parts, jut like I usually do when it's getting cooler out.

I had a nice commute into work, all things considered. I forgot about a doctor's appointment so I had to rush out. First I had to find my bike lock, which I rarely use. Pedaled to the doctor's office and locked the bike on the street. Nothing happened to the bike, yay! I took the "inland" route to work which I rarely take. I went through Central Park and eventually, I was along the Harlem River. I felt strong and made good time, and I suspect the Harlem River doesn't always get the high winds that the Hudson River has.

I wore my new bib tights for the first time, a wool jersey, and my summer gloves. That combo was just about perfect: a little cold on the top and a little hot on the bottom.

Riding through Harlem, an old man shouted out something that sounded like, "Mow that bike down!" I have no idea what that means.

Still enjoying daycare delivery with the kid seat. Mom is going to want me to stop soon due to the chill, I'll have to remind her it was early spring when I started.

Another pleasant commute this am though there was some dense fog in areas. The temp was 44 f degrees when I left the house.

I think this morning was a few degrees warmer than yesterday, but it felt colder. I'm still chilled sitting at my desk.

I forgot to mention the guy I saw yesterday morning blow through a stop sign. If he had stopped and looked both ways, he probably would have had to wait for me. But since he barely even slowed down, he blew through well ahead of me. His window was part way down so I shouted, "HEY!" He gave me the finger and we both went on about our day. People.

40 degrees again today! Full finger gloves, merino wool jersey and half an hour delayed start. The delay is mainly to get some daylight. Supposed to get warmer rest of the week.

It rained last night. I heard it at times, but slept through most of it.

The forecast for today was supposed to be pretty nice. I woke up to wet roads. I figured it was just residual moisture from the rain during the night. Seeing as I had to ride 20+ miles today I opted to take the road bike without fenders. I figured that the roads would be drying out soon and I would be fine without the protection. My first stop of the day was about 4 miles from home, so I just wore my work clothes.

Well, once I was rolling the pavement was a lot wetter than it had looked. Misjudgement, but it didn't seem necessary for me to return home and re-pack to take my hybrid with fenders. I rode slow, just below the point where I could see my front tire starting to spray water. I didn't want to get my work clothes any dirtier than necessary. I decided I'd rather be a few minutes late than covered in slop.

Once I came down out of the hills where I live and got on the MUP by the river it really sank in how much it had rained during the night. There was lots of flooding. The river had risen by at least 4 feet above normal and in many spots overflowed its banks onto the MUP.

Whenever possible, I went around the flooding. Sometimes I could just ride through grassy areas, but sometimes I had to dismount and walk/carry my bike through some unpaved areas that weren't ridable. In a few spots there wasn't any way around the flooding, but the water level was only a few inches deep (and was completely still with no current) so I just rode as slow as possible through it.

Unfortunately I judged one spot incorrectly. The path went down below a bridge carrying a major street. There was about 30 foot stretch of water under the bridge. I considered leaving the MUP and crossing the street on foot, but there wasn't a light/crosswalk and the traffic looked pretty heavy. I decided the water under the bridge couldn't be that deep as I rode that route often and don't remember it being unusually low in that spot.

Wrong. I got out in the middle of it and realized it was much deeper than I had guessed. The water was up over my bottom bracket (rats) and my feet got soaked.

Thankfully I had a spare pair of socks available at work. Unfortunately they are white and don't match my business attire. But they're dry so I'll deal with the fashion faux pas to not walk around squishy all morning.

I certainly didn't have the adventure [MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION] had!


Weather was sunny, roads were clear (I think the schools have fall break -- that's a foreign concept!), no rain and it was warmer than yesterday. There was that nagging 10 mph headwind to deal with, but the ride's been much worse.

I have not been on my road bike enough lately so I took it to work for the first time, expanding my usual 3-4 mile route to just over 10. worked out great, I'm sure I'll do that some more.

Yesterday afternoon I was reading the news (Tom Petty, RIP) on my phone when I got off the train. 5:20 PM. When I got to my bike I stuck the phone in my messenger bag and rode home. When I got home I couldn't find my phone. 5:45 PM. Dumped my bag out on the kitchen floor and put things back into it one by one... but no phone. Thinking I may have left it on top of my bike locker, my wife told me to take the car and drive to my locker; but I was pretty sure I'd put it in my bag. 5:50 PM. So I got back on the bike and rode on the left side of the road, going slow, riding on the grass or sidewalk when there was traffic (about half of the way) all the way back to the station. No phone. Then I rode home again, following the exact route I'd taken before, eyes on the street, gutter, grass... got home, no phone. Dumped my bag out again and looked all through it. 7:00 PM. It was now dark.

Turned on my laptop and wifi, and used Google Chrome "find my device" app to locate my phone. First thing I did was to lock it, and put my wife's cell phone number on it, so if someone tried to turn it on, it would immediately call her. Neat app. Then I looked at the map, which took for ever to load, but ... it showed it across the street from home. WTF! So I took a flashlight and looked around everywhere I could think of, down to the end of the driveway, the mail box, both sides of the driveway, under the steps, looked everywhere I could think of. No phone. Eff this, I'm having dinner. My wife didn't want dinner but I hadn't had lunch, so I made something while she took the flashlight and looked around outside. I refreshed Chrome while eating, and my phone was still out there across the street from my house. It couldn't be on the other side of the street, I hadn't gone there, and the GPS is a bit imprecise anyway, but no matter how many times I refreshed it, it never came closer to the house than the other side of the street. SO when I finished my dinner I took my brightest bike headlight and went out looking again. Passed my wife down at the end of the driveway, as she was giving up. I went over to the other side of the street, looked in all the yards, sidewalk, up the side street a hundred feet, and gave up. Walking home I found my phone at the end of the driveway. Right where my wife was looking before; and I'd looked there several times as well. It was in the grass, screen looking pretty smashed, sand and gravel embedded in the gel case, looks like it got a glancing hit by a car tire and shot out like a tiddlywink. But at least I found it, right? 8:40 PM.

When I pick it up, and touch the screen, the light comes on and it's calling my wife. I hit the disconnect button and went in the house. I took the gel case off and found the battery case was bent, so I bent it back and stuck it back on the phone, and it looked almost okay. SO I took a knife and peeled the tempered glass screen protector off it, and, woah, the screen protector was shattered into hundreds of pieces but the actual screen was intact. In fact, the phone seems to work fine. Three hours wasted, but hey, things could have been worse.

Still, not a good day, and that's not even thinking of Las Vegas and Tom Petty.

Google Chrome users, I have to recommend that 'find my phone' app. It works.

38F, pea soup fog

Rudi, I have one of those stick-on glass screen protectors, too. It has several cracks which are unobtrusive. I want to believe my screen is intact, and you've increased my faith. I don't want to peel it to find out.

Last night's commute was my first in the dark. It was ... dark. I hope my eyes adjust to the extra need to process the information coming in. The cyclists and pedestrians in the oncoming direction were hard to judge. One jogger was wearing a tail light and a headlight, and I liked that.

This morning's ride was strong! I'm almost worried -- but not really -- that my friends won't be able to keep up with me any more. My new tights are HOT, but I hope that ceases to be a problem as temperatures drop. I was cool from the waist up.

I hope it doesn't mean what I think it might mean, because that would be mean. I mean, what else does "mow down" mean these days?

I've ridden the Hudson path (not sure if it has another name) a couple of times now after 9pm, from Pier 40 to Hudson Yards, following a soccer game. Luckily I'm pretty tired from the game so I'm really taking it easy, but I also found that in the unlit areas it's very tough to judge certain things. I've also found that bikes with really bright lights seem to blind me, like a car with it's high beams on.

Maybe he said, "slow down" not "mow down." Or maybe I heard him wrong entirely. I will never know.

There aren't many dark spots on that route, and they aren't big. They're worse above 100th St but still not awful. I agree that bright headlights on bikes are extreme overkill there. They're pretty inconsiderate, and they seem mindless to me. And I see other weird stuff, like a red light in front and a white light in back. I don't think these people are thinking.

Keep the faith!

My glass screen protector had one lateral crack for the last couple months; and it developed a second one just a few days ago. Didn't really matter. But you should have seen it yesterday, oh, man, what a mess.

A new one is in the mail

Today was my first MTB commute with armor... which was a bit uncomfortable because I still have the scabs from my final MTB commute without armor. But nothing to report. For the first 3 of my 5.5 miles I saw no one. It was eerie, usually there are joggers and dog walkers. Today, no one until the fishermen at Nimbus

Had a banner week last week, to end a banner month, to end the National Bike Challenge! For the first time ever, I rode to work 4 days and only took the car once. I ended the week (Sunday) with 155 miles, my highest weekly total. I finished September with 526 miles, my highest monthly total. And for the whole NBC May thru September I cycled a total 2,187 miles! Currently I'm up over 700 miles YTD over last year's YTD at this time.

So yesterday I had my first verbal confrontation with a motorist. I could see the large truck coming up behind me, and since sight lines ahead were poor, I signaled left to pull off to a side street for a second so that they could pass. But he decided to pass anyway as my left arm was out, so I held up my arm and looked back with a "WTF" look as he passes. I recognized the truck and huge enclosed trailer as the guy I yelled at a couple of weeks ago for passing on a blind hill.

So the guy gets to the bottom of a hill yesterday, and then STOPS in the road, 2-lane road with no shoulder. He gets out and walks towards me as I'm approaching the back of his trailer. I decided to just zoom past him in the left lane. "What's your problem?" he says, so I just said "what's YOUR problem buddy?" and went on up ahead, then pulled off on another side street and waited. As he drove his truck past me, he stopped again to talk, but stayed in the truck this time. I tried to explain that I was trying to pull off so he could pass, but him passing while I was signalling left was dangerous and rude. I don't think he understood much of anything I was trying to explain so he went on. I passed where he works and it looks like he was waiting and got out of his truck just as I passed, but I just ignored him.

I'm thinking of stopping by there some time if I see him just to say sorry if I caused confusion. Maybe patch things up or something, and possibly explain why it's dangerous to pass when you can't see over a hill or farther ahead.