A bit damp.

I was number 400 on the way in at the Manhattan Bridge. Usually I'm around 1000 but I had to go in early today. I was number 3915 on the way home which is about right.

More about the bike counter here

I'm really happy about this counter, and I hope we get more.

I rode the Manhattan bridge twice a couple of weeks ago. It's a very efficient crossing and quite scenic, too.

I haven't tried using the Brooklyn Bridge in about 3 years. It is just too crowded with tourists.

That is cool. Is there a web site or anything where one can see the numbers live, or at least with daily tallies? Around here it would probably just show how few cyclists there are. Many winter days I would likely be the only one to trigger it.

A good ride in this morning. Happy Friday!

As of last night at 6 PM we've had about 7" of rain at my house since Monday evening, with 5" of it coming in the previous 24 hours. Lots of flooding forced me to take a very different route home from work. But the weather guys said that we should be done with the rain and that today (Friday) should be sunny and dry. Given the forecast, I packed my backpack and laid out my clothes expecting to take the road bike to work.

Wrong. I woke up to discover it continued to rain during the night, and was still raining this morning. I swapped my gear into my waterproof panniers, changed my clothes around and took the hybrid with fenders.

The temp was an optimistic 50 degrees, and the wind was blowing hard. Combine that with the rain and I really felt cold. Especially my toes, which are still chilly a half an hour after I've arrived at work. In three months I'll have my winter skin on and this will be a balmy day, but today I was freezing.

My normal route to work is along the river where it's relatively flat. Given the flooding, the area where I normally ride is underwater. So I had to take a different route to work which took me through an area of the city known as "Hilltop". You can guess why they called it that. In this area the streets are either going straight up or straight down. The hills are usually only about a block long and I was weaving through back streets trying to stay off the main arteries, which meant I was frequently turning at the intersections at the bottom of the hills and couldn't really take advantage of the speed I'd gained. Combine the hills with the headwind and needless to say I didn't set any speed records.

Had a lady close pass me for absolutely no reason. There was no oncoming traffic so she easily could have moved over. I was up against parked cars so I had nowhere to go to my right. She was only going about 5 mph faster than me so I had plenty of time to bang on her window and yell. She didn't even acknowledge my existence.

55F medium cloud ceiling happy equinox!

Mt. Rainier? or St. Helens?

I was number 895 today on the bridge, It was overcast and in the high 60s so actually comfortable to ride hard.

That's Rainier, I have only had a few glimpses of it the past month or so...

Background story: a while back I was tasked to collect "lessons learned" from a big job at work. One of the guys who had some inputs told me, "I don't think we learn any lessons at this place." So his inputs were titled, "Lessons Available to Learn."

Steve's a nice guy buy I hated him this morning, especially when I proved him right. Again.

A line of showers was brushing by the house this morning before I left, so I took the rain bike. Shortly after leaving I thought to myself, "This bike is going 'flump flump flump' with every wheel revolution just like the other bike did last week right before it had a blowout. I should take a look at the back tire when I get home." Sure enough, two miles from work, the bead separated and the tire blew with a bang that resonated around the isolated hollow at the foot of the hill I was in.

So the trip to work was dry, and cool, and I was soaked in sweat by the time I got to work. Plus I feel stupid.

First rain commute today! Very exhilarating, especially with no fenders.

That's not unusual. When I lived in Seattle you could go for months without seeing it. If you could see Mt Rainier it was going to rain, if you couldn't it was already raining. I can't say that I miss the rain, but I loved Seattle.

Today is a 'going to rain' day

Had some very strong tail winds Did some pretty good time on Strava. Got home a few minutes before major rain/wind storm. F2 tornado about 10 kilometers from my place, lots of power outage here. Lightning hit the roof of a high school, it's now in flame

Glad to be able to be back on my bike now for a couple of weeks, after a bike crash with broken wrist etc...

Let's commute again ^^ day by day !

Fall is here! Charge those lights

Saw the tornado coverage on the news. Scary for sure. Glad you got a tailwind benefit and got home safely.

There was a chance of rain showers, but they just mist me. I'm too funny. A very misty morning here. I started with clear glasses, but they were getting more and more covered in tiny droplets that took them off and I just rode without. I left early and stopped by the gym for a bit of weight lifting on the way to work.

Back to the Mondays.

There's been a front on the northwest edge of the local weather radar for three days now. It may be moving, but not towards here. I tempted it Saturday by hanging bike clothes out on the line to dry AND firing up the grill. That's two major rain baits. One brief shower last night, not enough to get the grass wet under the trees. (We need just a little bit of rain over here!)

The upside is that the riding has been great. Ten degrees cooler high, and this morning was more of the same. Nice breeze, medium overcast, a bit of traffic but a lovely day to be riding a bicycle.

Pleasant morning. 57 degrees, the sun peeking through the clouds and the wind was light.

Flood waters crested Friday night/Saturday morning so by this morning the river had receded enough for me to take my normal route to work. There were some muddy areas from where the water covered the pavement. I came around one corner and felt the wheels let loose when I hit a muddy patch, but thankfully it was just a quick pucker moment and I kept the bike upright. More rain is expected this afternoon and throughout this week but hopefully it won't be in the quantities we had last week.

Stopped to look at yet another old house in my neighborhood that they're bulldozing in order to build a McMansion. I think that's the fifth one in the last year. Not sure who all these people are that can afford to pay lots of money for a house only to destroy it and build an even bigger house. I know I can't.

Now you tell me! I can tell I'm not into the new routine - about 20 minutes into this morning's ride my light started to dim. Fortunately, a buddy caught up with me at an intersection and I "rode" his light until it got light. Rain most of the way and looks like rain most of the week.

The forecast says rain starts tonight at 1am and goes all through tomorrow and tomorrow night. I have three rides tomorrow, so I think I'll skip the bike and take the subway. I might regret it.

Rain. I wore my Ikea rain poncho. It kept me somewhat dry, except for my feet. Ugh.