Yesterday, my rat count of 3 came from my observation from the subway platform. Rats were on the tracks. So charming.


On some days when I don't ride, I end up walking a lot, and my watch/phone combo congratulates me.

Early morning plan continues, with fair success. Overshot home yesterday for a stop at the bank. This is my day off

As Sir Mick pointed out back in '78:
"To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough , tough, tough, tough, tough, tough! We got rats on the west side, bedbugs uptown..."

Your post make me a little nostalgic as my step-daughter would give us subway rat reports when she lived in Manhattan back in the early 2000's.

We have a weekend home 90 miles north in the country. Honestly, the critters here in High Falls require more attention. Spiders are everywhere. We can win battles against mice in the house, but we can never win the war. Bugs, bugs, bugs. Occasional snakes, and they're a little startling but mostly amusing. Our road is famous for pileated woodpeckers, the species that Woody the Woodpecker was modeled after. It seems to be turtle week when they leave their burrows (or wherever they live), cross the roads, and lay their eggs. I had to stop the car to wait for one. Bears. I could go on...

But yeah, rats give me the creeps more than most creatures. Maybe it's because I got attacked by one, long ago.

For the record, my wife and daughter love NYC...it's exciting and full of life. And despite the rude, big city stereotype, most people are friendly and helpful...at least that has been our experience.

TIcked off my final to-do on the DropHopper and it seemed to yield greater results than expected.

A few weeks into last winter my '97 Nishiki Blazer's frame broke and I replaced it with a refurbished 1997 Specialized Rockhopper. At the time I made all the necessary upgrades for winter commuting, transferring the fenders, lights, folding baskets, snow tires on their own wheel set and the horn from the old bike. I used a lighter, newer Canondale rear rack I had laying around. That was it. I didn't want to screw up the ride when I needed it most...for snow commuting. Eventually after snow season I added higher gearing for faster cruising, then the drop bars from the old bike. The rear wheel the bike came with had a broken spoke, but I didn't use that wheel till spring. Even then the wheel was true enough.

But a couple of weeks ago it worked out of semi-true and began rubbing the rim brakes. So yesterday I picked up a spoke from the bike co-op, installed it and trued the wheel, adjusted the brakes, topped off the tires and horn and waited until this morning when I planned to ride it the 10 miles to my mother-in-law's place to deliver her Sunday paper. (She could probably get the paper delivered to her new place, but it's a good excuse for a bike ride, and it means she'll always have company on a Sunday.)

With the wheel trued the bike seemed to roll even more effortlessly. A small tailwind didn't hurt either. Being Father's Day, the MUP seemed more crowded than usual, but my average speed was still way up there. It was sunny and dry and when I got stretched out and down on the hood of the drops, in the same road bike position as my other bikes (minus the 16" folder) it was sublime.

The trail takes me within a hundred yards of the office, where the final bridge of the trail's 8th Street spur has now been removed. For the time being I can use the closed off turn lane, but that will not last as the vehicle bridge will be demolished and replaced as well.

There is another trail spur that goes to a Wal-Mart a couple-hundred yards down from the office. I thought I had to access it from a dirt path on the west side of the creek, a path that is more like a confederation of tents and boxes of the homeless. But today's ride on the paved trail on the river's east side reminded me there is a bridge from that pavement across the creek to the paved trail up to Wal-Mart. And while there were some encampments, I could see they were far fewer. So that's the plan for tomorrow.

On the way home I decided to take a street that puts me 2/3 of the way home on my old commute routes (1992-2020). Such nostalgia, and on a bike that is of the same 26" genre as it's predecessor (the Blazer) and its predecessor (1986 Schwinn Cruiser Supreme), It wasn't till 2009 that I acquired a second bike. (now 6).

With the big 2.125" smooth tires and rebuilt drive train, the refurbished RockHopper has such low rolling resistance compared to the two preceding bikes. In fact, despite its weight, the RockHopper is only slightly slower than my other bikes. Only the aluminum/carbon 2006 Felt F85 is significantly faster. And the 16" folder is about even with the DropHopper.

And, the Rockhopper's front triple has a stupid-low low gear which made one of the old commute route's toughest hills a piece of cake...a slow piece of cake. I used to know that old route like the back of my hand, and to see how horrible the pavement has become was heart-breaking (the back of my 63-year-old hand isn't so great either) . There are some improved areas, but overall it was rough. The big 26x2.125 smoothies really helped.

Before leaving for home my wife called and asked me to pick up some items at the grocery store. And with the folding baskets, I was able to do that.

I felt strong on the bike, I felt he achievement of changing out a broken spoke myself, using my first chain whip, purchased only 3 years ago at 60, and I think I felt a performance gain from truing the wheel, even if it didn't;t seem like that much.

It will be nice to have no immediate bike projects to do, but I am already considering replacing the bar-end shifters with the same Microshift brifters I've been enjoying on the main commuter for the last few weeks.

And now up to Denver with the wife for an evening of Jazz with our ex-Manhattanite daughter. It's a happy Father's Day for me.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2141:

This morning's commute was easy and warm. But let me back up to Friday, which I haven't had time to post about until now...

Friday morning I rode to a client's office as normal. It was an uneventful commute. About a half hour after I sat down at my desk I was typing when suddenly I lost all coordination in my left fingers. I remember thinking, "uh oh!" I then attempted to lift my arm and it didn't move much. I reached over with my other hand, and had very little feeling in my left arm. It was weird, because it felt like I was touching someone else's arm; my right hand could feel my left arm, but my left arm couldn't feel my right hand touching it.

One of the side effects of my mechanical heart valve is an increased risk of stroke. Knowing this, I wasn't taking this sudden development lightly. I looked around, and I was the only person on this side of the building. I decided the first thing I needed to do was get myself to a more populated area of the office so if I suddenly went horizontal there would be people around to help. I stood up and was able to walk without issue. My left arm was mostly dangling. If I really concentrated I had a little bit of movement, but it was like it was responding in slow motion. If you've never experienced this, it's a very strange feeling to know your brain is telling your limb to move, but the limb isn't responding.

I then realized that the left side of my face felt a little numb. Around the same time, I got a very pinpoint headache on the right side of my head for about two minutes, which then went away. After the headache stopped, I started to regain some feeling/mobility in my left arm. I was debating on what to do, and discussing it with some other people in the office when I realized I was slurring a few words. One of my client coworkers told me I should go get this checked out, and I agreed. I briefly considered hopping on my bike and riding to the ER, but the coworker told me that was a crazy idea so he drove me over to the ER in his car.

At the ER, once I announced my symptoms to the person behind the desk it was about two minutes until they brought me into an examination room. My symptoms indicated I had/was having a stroke of some sort. They wasted no time and already had the entire surgical team assembled there in the room ready in case I needed emergency surgery. After some initial tests and getting an IV inserted, they took me down and gave me a CT scan.

The CT scan revealed nothing that would require immediate emergency brain surgery, so the surgical team was disbanded. They then gave me an MRI to see if there was anything more subtle lurking in my head, and to check for any brain damage. By the time they were putting me in the MRI machine nearly all my symptoms had gone away.

The MRI revealed no brain damage (well, no NEW brain damage) and that there was no sign of anything nefarious hiding in my head that would cause alarm. They ran a few more blood tests, but mostly after that I sat on a gurney in the exam room for a good chunk of the day. I eventually was able to get a hold of my wife, so she came and sat with me.

A little after 3 PM, which was nearly six hours after I first arrived, I was released. The neurologist told me I had experienced a transient ischemic attack (TIA), which is basically a small stroke that my body was able to stop before any brain damage occurred. He said the usual treatment for people who have these was to get plenty of exercise, go on blood thinners and use medication to keep the blood pressure under control. As I am already doing all of these things, he said there wasn't much else I could do. This may happen again some time, or it may be a one-time event. It's unknown.

After we left the ER, my wife (under protest) dropped me back off at the client's office. I reasoned that all my stuff was still there at my desk, so I needed to retrieve it before the weekend. I decided I could still get a couple of hours of work done before I left, so I started trying to catch up on some things that I had missed while I was out. Until my phone rang. It was the head of sales of the company I work for, who then reprimanded me for returning to work instead of going home.

He told me to leave work immediately. I negotiated with him to let me stay for about 20 more minutes so I could wrap up my weekly status report I send out on Friday afternoons. It's a lot easier to write this report while everything I did during the week is still fresh on my mind. Plus, if I don't send it out I'll have people complaining on Monday morning that they haven't received it. By Monday they'll have forgotten I had a stroke. So I finished my status report and then hopped on my bike and rode home. I still logged a full commute to keep my streak intact.

I've got about 95% of my mobility/feeling back on the left side of my body. The neurologist says I should return to 100%, it just might take a few days.

There is a lot to love. And a lot to hate. Sometimes I wish I didn't live here. I was born here and grew up here and left at the age of 26. I came back at the age of 52 to start the third half of my life. I feel very mixed.

But yes, there isn't a lot of outright rudeness, and there is a lot of warmth and openness which sometimes comes when you don't expect it. Most people here are good just like everywhere else.

Bike commuting here is much better than in other places such as the NJ suburbs where I lived. It's not as good as other places like Boston. NYC has a lot of natural barriers such as wide rivers with not enough space on the bridges and no space at all in the tunnels. The heatmap of the Boston area on strava shows more cycling in the whole area. And their climate is even worse than ours. I lived there for three years and did a ton of cycling.

My goodness Tundra_Man man, what a day you had! I think it's fine that you did the status report but your boss was right that it's less important than your health by far. I wish you good health.

Tundra_man, that is terrifying. It could just have easily picked a worse blood vessel or been a little larger.

I rode today. Saw some deer. Pushed, but not too hard, as tired from paddle board yesterday.

The paddle boards were a gift from my wife for my birthday a few weeks ago and this was the first outing. They came with extra blades so the paddles can be configured kayak style (and I might have preferred a plastic kayak but I'm hardly going to tell her that). So long as you don't actually stand up they require basically no skill to take out on a calm reservoir. I did try standing up but had no idea about paddling technique. My canoe experience of j-strokes was incorrect. Reading up now you just need to reach forward with the paddle and claw yourself in the direction of travel and switch sides all the time. We had an electric pump borrowed from a friend and it was absolutely necessary. These things are supposed to pump up hard to ~10 psi, and doing that with the giant plastic hand pump they included would have required a real gorilla by the end. I had an idea we could ride to the lake with these things which came with a backpack, but I really don't know if a cordless inflator like one for an air mattress could hack it

I have a big aluminum Grumman canoe. Maybe I should finally get rid of it. It barely ever gets used, like every other year or less. I am keeping it for nostalgia. My dad bought it to woo my mom.

I'm glad you came through the TIA OK, Tundra Man.
"There's not much that can be done about it" is scary too." Seems like you already get plenty of exercise.
Blood thinners seem scary; like you'd have a hard time clotting if you fell and scraped your elbow or something.
Is your diet OK? (would that even help?)
Re. your boss sending you home, that's nice, but it seems like an emotional response, rather than something that would actually help.

************

Un-eventful 2 mile commute this morning. I'm going to try to not take the eBike for commuting this month, as I'm going for 800 km (497 miles) this month, and will need every little bit.

This is not a commute, but you might find it interesting anyway. I explored a nearby town on my folder this weekend:
ZiZZO Forte Review

My dad in his decline went back and forth on blood thinners. He got afib and started; he hated it and stopped; got valve surgery and started; internal bleeding from just stupid popcorn and stopped; a clot in his leg and started again; etc. My day is coming and I’m going to hate it.

Tomorrow probably no ride. Got an echocardiogram downtown! Might pick up the bike after. I looked at riding. It’s about 19 miles on the street, quite a lot more on the river trail. I think I could do 38 in a day but it’d take at least 3 hours and not also get any work done for fatigue. It’d be a good adventure, though. It’s a totally straight shot but the neighborhood changes and changes.

Wednesday I’ve got to pick up my daughter early so no ride again

Thankfully I'm very blessed that I tolerate them well. I generally don't bleed super excessively or bruise easily.

I've been on the same Warfarin dosage since August of 2019, which completely baffles the anti-coagulation staff whenever I go in for my regular blood thickness checks. They rarely have anyone go more than a year or two without a dosage change, let alone six years. It probably helps that I am super vigilant about my vitamin K intake. I think the diet side of coagulation management is where most people get out of whack.

Tundra_Man Terrifying! Glad it wasn't more serious.

Big bonk on the ride home yesterday.

The day started out great! I was buoyed by Sunday's super ride on the Drophopper and eager to try the detour to work. I have a pair of shoes at the office, but I decided to take my dress shoes, and my big commute bag, so I was on my heaviest bike with an extra heavy bag...but I still felt strong like yesterday, and the ride was amazing.

I had to drop off our special referendum ballots but that only takes me a block out of my way downtown, but that gave me the opportunity to take a few different streets to hook back up to the trail, rather than back tracking, so that added a little adventure, plus some fun swoopy W's at the south end of America the Beautiful Park (Colorado Springs).

With "my" final bridge removed I detoured around Walmart which uses a different bridge and a short tunnel under the highway, about as long as the usual final tunnel, but much narrower. I feared being blocked by "loiterers", but it was clear with just a few discarded backpacks and trash. I think the reason for the path being clear is that there are no "shoulders" in the tunnel...just a single width sidewalk and an equally sized aquaduct separated by a low curb. The water channel is about a foot and a half down and it is really quite dangerous without a railing. It had been raining every afternoon for the last few days and water was rushing through even though it had been hours since the last rain. I am sure that during a downpour the sidewalk must be flooded.

All-in-all another fun ride in.

It was a normal day at work but a mid-morning phone call from a relative from out of left field required some logistical problem solving, taxing both my memory and patience, necessitating a few phone calls, many carrying an unnecessary load of emotional baggage at the other end. In the end the problem was resolved and off my plate.

But it had left me a little shaken...more than I would have thought. Was I accidentally over-caffeinated again? Had the episode triggered some residual anxiety? Whatever it was I looked forward to the ride home.

And the ride started off really well. I rode back to Walmart using a low-traffic access road, and back to the adjacent tunnel which still had water gushing along it!

But now the bike felt heavy. And since I had just recently trued the rear wheel and adjusted the brakes I stopped a few times to make sure the brakes weren't rubbing...they weren't. After almost 33 years of bike commuting I knew the problem was me. After lunch I had three peanut butter cups, even though I knew that more and more often now, sugary candy makes me bonk.

I opted for a shorter routes home and came to one of the bigger hills, but I did okay,,,then I felt pretty good. Then 2.5 miles from the house...

...bonk!

My legs held no energy, my upper body sagged. I stopped, dismounted and returned a phone call hoping I would regain some mojo...but no. I thought about calling the wife to pick me up...but decided to wait another 10 minutes. I wan't dizzy or anything, just spent.

I regained enough oomph to ride home. I fought to stay awake in the shower and through dinner, then slept for an hour on the couch.

I went to bed early and so far this morning I feel fine.

But I'm gonna drive today.

Echo was only half an hour, and gentle, vs the average. Sometimes it can go up to an hour with a trainee, and a manager showin' em how you really gotta squish the flab out of the way...

Then, rode in.

May go home a skosh early to help eldest kiddo with some Boy Scout requirements before tonight's meeting so he can get his XP signoffs, and maybe level up next week. Scout membership is now front-loaded with a ton of online training for adults and kids both, that echoes harassment training for work, with the added adult / kid dimension. This particular troop wants all adults who come on campouts to sign up for national membership, which is more extra $$ with a background check and "mandated reporter" training

Beautiful day here. Meeting some friends for the ride home from town tonight. In & Out is about 120km with 2 x 250m climbs near home, and it’s relatively hot plus I had the 2.5kg laptop to cart in today so I decided to take the detour which gets me a train at 0608, early enough that you’re allowed bikes on it, avoids the hills, and takes about 20km off the ride (though very little time off the journey, interestingly) leaving a decent 100km round trip.

Left 2-3 minutes late so had to rush. Decent pace but too hot when I arrived. Luckily my carriage was empty for the first stop so I could stick my face against an open window and only look an idiot to the CCTV.

Thought I’d take the remaining leg through the park and into the city nice and easy but as usual, the riverside peloton and traffic light sprints got the better of me. Won though. Fastest other two guys didn’t employ the same level of cunning at a couple of junctions 😄

Rode today. Feeling tired. Not sure what it is. The early morning plan has been more difficult this week.

Yesterday, I skipped riding, as it was raining in the morning and >80% chance of rain in the afternoon. Indeed, it did drizzle the whole late afternoon and evening. I DID get out for a walking errand over lunch, only a mile though.

Today, I rode the folder in, 2 miles. I made a 6.6 mile lunchtime errand to Kohl's for an Amazon return. (see pic below)

At 77 °F and sunny, it's too hot for that and now I'm all sweaty at my desk for the afternoon. Gonna do the 2 mile commute home in a few hours, then the slow club ride tonight: 13 miles each way to the start point, then 15-20 miles for the actual ride: I MAY take an eBike, to save my legs for a bunch of riding this weekend. We'll be doing 60+ miles Saturday and back again on Sunday.


About to head back to work from Kohl's. You can see that I just got the Planet Bike Grateful Red light mounted to the rack. It's not QUITE as bright as I like for daytime riding, so I'm leaving the Trek Flare City on the top of the seatpost for now.

Lots of traveling

We have a weekend home in the country, about 90 miles north of our home in the City. Since I have no classes or work this week, we drove up on Tuesday at midday. It takes two hours, more if there is traffic. I like the bus better, but she likes the car better, and it's the only way to carry a lot of stuff which we usually have. I thought I had a job fair to attend in the City today (Thursday) but it turns out that it was yesterday (Wednesday). I realized this only a few hours in advance so I had to rush down to the City on a 90-minute bus. She had to drive me to the bus station. Once in the City, I took a subway to Brooklyn. The job fair was two hours long. I headed out, bought food from a pushcar, and moseyed to an open plaza to eat. Then I took the subway to the bus terminal, the bus to New Paltz, and my spouse's car back to the house. I got home exhausted and even allowed myself to sleep a half hour late this morning.

No cycling.

Rats

Only one rat or two through all these travels. Ugh.

I have a friend from Facebook who is now also a local cyclist I know, and now we're Strava friends, too. He suggested that to take care of all these rates, the city should put some rat snakes in the park. So funny. Of course, we know the public would not be happy about, but I would be an exception. I'm not horrified at the sight of snakes. Rat snakes and black snakes are huge but harmless.

What a great commute day! After the bonk on the big bike earlier this week I decided to take my lightest bike, the 2006 carbon/aluminum Felt F65, and wear the light commute bag. I took the trail-to-trail route and caught both lights (one of the underpasses was flooded, necessitating a street crossing).

While it's not as light as a modern carbon fiber bike, it's still super light and with the 700x25's pumped up to 90psi I was skipping over the pavement like a stone across water. There must have been a slight tailwind 'cause my speeds were 3-5 mph over normal. There was one section where I was doing 24mph where I usually do 18 on a good day.

In fact, at one point I hunkered down and the air rolling over me reminded me of the sensation of moving through the water when I used to swim laps in my 20s. It was about 65 and sunny.

I ended up leaving work 45 minutes late. It cooled down to 90 from a high of 95. The sun was low enough that it wasn't hot on my skin. I rode into a light head wind and just took it easy, but the lightness of the bike made it a quick ride none the less. Worried about bonking, before leaving I hydrated and had a handful of unsalted peanuts and a handful of cheesy crackers.

The Felt has Shimano Ultegra components, and while the brake lever is twisted to shift (along with a long paddle that is pushed) the twisting required is slight and much less than the lower tier Shimanos that came on my Charge Plug. The Felt is a 2x10 and after reading a post about 13-speed 1x's vs 2x's I was really paying attention to how much shifting is required to go up and down the gear ranges. I'm very happy with a compact double and even the triple on the DropHopper as the multi ring set-ups let me shift to lower gears faster. Perhaps an e-shifting system would allow for multiple downshifts with just a few quick taps of the shift button, but I will stick with cables for now as I don't have to charge the cable system.

I just felt so fast this morning...it was a thrill!

Rubbernecking on the way home. Sac Metro Fire chopper 3 circling, but not dousing a little fire on Lake Natoma. I think it was already under control when I came by

Nice thing about doubles & triples is the chain line can always be straighter, so it saps less power in the gears at the extreme edges. I wish triples would make a comeback. I had one on my Trek Verve3 a few years ago and took for granted how awesome it was to have that super low gear. I could've gotten by on that bike with a double, but the lower two, not the upper two!

Yep, you nailed it. I have several buddies in the bike club here with electronic shifting, and it's great as long as you keep it charged and as long as the battery holds out. (batteries lose capacity over time) I hate to voluntarily make myself dependent on batteries and then be S.O.L. when they die.

You WERE fast, on that lightweight road bike! That's why people tolerate the downsides to them. Will you take it more often?

I took the scooter in this morning, saving my legs for the upcoming 120+ mile weekend on gravel bikes. (Waukesha, WI to Madison and back, one way each day) I forgot to check the forecast before I left. I got to work and saw that rain is likely coming.
I think I will miss it, but the scooter's going to be dirty if I join the group ride tonight.

Morning temps in the high 70s to low 80s on my way to work. But it's only low 40s (C) on the way home.