That's pretty cool for nerds like me. Thanks!

Not super pleased with this but it’s all right for today. Between work and home and kid extracurriculars I find myself doing a lot of quick hokey crap with my vehicles these days.

I didn't feel like riding to work this morning, but I did the wise thing and told myself to do it anyway. It was fine. Before long, I'll wish for idyllic weather like we've been having for a long time now. And it reminded me once again that this route is not hard physically, unlike previous ones.

The heart rate data on this morning's recording shows I kept my heart low, and yes, I didn't push myself. It's good to know that this is an option, and it doesn't make me late.

Back on the bike a week later than I planned. I did do 50 minutes on the stationary recumbent yesterday to make sure I was up to it. The temp was 45F at the house at 7:15am. It dropped to 42F halfway to work, with light drizzle. I wore a windbreaker and long bike pants plus long-fingered gloves. I had to unzip the windbreaker a couple of miles from the office.

I rode my main commuter on the streets with no drama or incidents.

It felt great! Looking forward to the ride home.

Weekend was a scout campout. My kid's troop hosting candidate Webelos. Supposed to be an easy opportunity to help out the next batch of kids with their knife and fire stuff and score some achievements toward his own rank advancement. Kiddo did nothing scout related unless coerced. They put him in a tent with me since no other scout wanted him. I slept on the ground with him for two nights. Came home with a twinge in my back and a lot of mystery bruises. Meanwhile wife cleaned scout kid's room and found all his moldy food, and contraband stolen from the siblings, and we had a night that was all about that.

So it was nice to get out on a ride this morning, but it wasn't really long enough to cope with this s---

^ Ugh. This forum needs a dislike button. Sorry to hear about your struggles DL. Parenthood definitely isn't like what they portray on the Hallmark channel.

So true. I raised two kids, and it seemed that there was always something majorly annoying and stressful like that stuff. They took turns creating drama or crises. I'm not sure if our family was out of the norm, and I tend to think not.

We watched a Harry Potter movie on the weekend, and I still marvel at the idea of sending your kids away for the entire school year.

Speaking of school, every grade school teacher in the province is on strike, affecting almost as many kids as the population of South Dakota. That means no school drop-off for me, which in turn means that I can ride if I want. The question is if I want to, with the days (particularly the mornings) getting colder. Today was nice. House thermometer said 5C/41F, weather service said 8C/46F, so I put on a windbreaker, gloves, bandana, and toe covers, but left my legs bare. Fall seems to be the season of dodging poo on the trails. Seriously, it was like a slalom course on one downhill section.

Have a good day everyone.

As a kid, the thought of boarding school terrified me. Part of that was probably influence from those books called Madeline.

In two straight lines
they broke their bread
and brushed their teeth
and went to bed.

And there was a picture of the dinner table, and on each plate, there was a slice of broken bread but no evidence of a dinner eaten. I took it literally and pictured them going to bed without dinner. My mother explained "breaking bread" was just an idiom, and I understood that, but the image was deep in my psyche.

As a parent, I could not have sent my kids, either, though I did send them to summer camp. It was good for them (mostly), and I enjoyed time without them, and I also missed them a lot. Our time with them as children is short. I say that now that my kids are 36 and 33, and my granddaughter is 3 (almost 4).

Teachers' strikes are rough on everyone! We had some big ones when I was in 2nd and 3rd grades. They really shook things up. I'm now a member of the teachers' union here, and I hope we never strike. They've avoided them for a very long time, so not much danger, I think.

Another nice bike commute yesterday. The cooler temps make for comfortable riding!

It's getting cooler now. It feels good to not have to sweat a little. I've got my dayglow spring & fall jacket out now and my lights are more effective. I went home for lunch yesterday, so 8 miles of commuting instead of 4.

Bike club board meeting tonight across town, so some extra commuting miles will be ridden; probably another 8 or 10. Big decision will be whether I want to take the eBike and not arrive sweaty or take the muscle bike and get a bit of a workout in. Probably the latter, since I won't ride tomorrow.

The Baconator chain came apart back in July or something and it had been parked ever since. It had an old style chain with bushings. Yesterday morning, I tried to try to put it back together with an 8 speed quick link, but the bushings + inner links were just a little too fat. However, it turned out I hadn’t lost any original parts, so I just stuck it back together with my new chain tool. A mile til work, this is what happened. SWMBO picked me up after work and I’ll put a new chain on. I'm not counting this against my bad chain year because it had broken once already.

You're lucky your spouse is willing and able to pick you up. When we lived in New Jersey, she did it for me only once, and after a lot of griping. Now that we're back in NYC, I don't need any rides.

Tuesdays are long days for me. I wake up at 6 every day, and on Tuesdays, after work, I have a class from 4:30 to 7:00, and then I have a rehearsal from 7:00 to 9:30 or 10:00. I'm guaranteed not to get 8 hours of sleep on Tuesday nights. I was feeling extra tired having ridden 17 miles for the day so I decided I would take the subway today, and I did. Coincidentally, it's a rainy day, the first in a long time. At one point when I was getting dressed, I heard the rain come down very hard. By the time I was walking to the subway, it was very light. If I had ridden, the weather would not have bothered me, but I think a little rest is probably wise.

Smaug1 it's cooling in Wisconsin? Not here yet! Mornings are around 67º and warmest time is still 80º or so. Unusual for this time of year, though there's not much "usual" anymore. As I say from time to time, I'm very concerned about the climate, but I'm enjoying the weather.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2214:

This morning was the first of the season to break the 40 degree barrier: it was 39°F when I left the house. I took the road bike. Wore a sweatshirt, headband and cycling gloves, but stayed in shorts. It's supposed to be 71°F on the way home tonight, so I didn't want the warmth of long pants.

Had my regular blood coagulation appointment this morning, so the first place I rode was the hospital. Because of the different route I left the house a little later than usual. As a result, traffic was heavier.

Whenever my blood thickness is tested and found to be in range, I celebrate by treating myself to a breakfast burrito at my favorite taco shop. If my blood thickness isn't in range, then I console myself with a breakfast burrito at my favorite taco shop. This morning I was in range, so I celebrated.

I rode from the hospital to the taco shop. Given the location and the fact that it's open 24 hours, there have been a lot of altercations at this taco shop over the years. Their unofficial motto is "tacos so good it's worth getting shot." Things were pretty quiet at 8:15 in the morning, so there was no extra entertainment while ordering my shrimp and egg burrito.

As I rode from the taco shop to the client office, I hit a rock with my rear tire. That in itself is unremarkable. I mention it because the rock suddenly propelled itself sideways from under my tire like a bullet and hit a parked car about 20 yards away with a loud BANG! The sound was slightly muted so I'm suspecting the rock hit a piece of plastic molding rather than paint or glass. Thankfully there wasn't anyone in the car so I didn't have to try and explain myself. I couldn't see any visible damage to the car, which is good because if there was I wouldn't know what to do. The tradition is to leave a note, but in this day and age who carries paper and pen with them? I don't.

From the sound the rock made when it popped out from under my tire I fully expected the tire to go flat. To my surprise it held pressure for the eight blocks remaining in my ride. We'll see if it's still holding pressure at the end of the day, but I'm optimistic.

Well, it worked with our schedule yesterday and it's not far.

I don't suppose it would really interest the C&V crowd but I experimented with chain sizing with large-large-rings-only, vs small-small-min-tension. I was able to get tension with the entire 114 links and didn't shorten it. Large-large said I could take it down to 112 but didn't give me a reason to.




Once it was installed I found the front derailleur would barely downshift and not upshift. The derailleur is yawed a little right. With the pins sticking out of the old chain there was plenty for the cage and the ring to bite on, but with the smooth sided 8 speed chain and no shift gates or pins on the rings, it needs to be adjusted. The back is better behaved - it's a difference but not a problem. I'd go for a modern freewheel with shift gates but the frame and hub are 120 spaced. I don't think there are any surviving options with the narrower 5 speed body - not even the ones that have 5 speeds.



In other news the behavior kid has turned over a new leaf for the week. Not sure what flipped the switch. Phases...

A chilly -2C/28F on the house thermometer, 0C/32F according to the weather service. There was frost on the grass and vehicle windows, so I'm going with below freezing out in the 'burbs. Cooler in the ravine. Or a least it felt cooler going downhill at 40km/h/25MPH.

While I was climbing out of said ravine, a guy was walking his dog into it. It's not a designated off-leash area, but the dog was not on a leash. Okay, whatever. However, the dog came trotting towards me making a low growl. Now, it was a black lab or something like it, and my impression of black labs is that they love people and are generally good-natured. This dog might have just wanted to play, but when I see a dog coming towards me, growling, I try to avoid it, so I veered left (I was going up a steep hill, slowly). Meanwhile, the owner was trying in vain to call it back. Nothing bad happened in the end, and the dog trotted away. I turned to the owner and said, politely but firmly, between gasps for breath, "If you can't control your dog, please keep it on a leash." And he said, "I'll keep that in mind." And I said, "Thank you!" And he said, "See you later!". Those were his words, but his tone was, "Go suck an egg." I had a few choice words swirling in my head, but I kept them to myself. I wonder if he's the kind of dog owner who doesn't pick up after his animal, and if his dog's was some of the poo I was dodging in the same ravine on Tuesday.

Have a great day everyone!

No ride this morning. I need to get the travel trailer for this weekend. I may do that early this afternoon after the lunchtime meetings, and then ride in for the afternoon stretch.

I used to let my dog run in the wilder sections of the trails. About a dozen years ago my old dog trotted up to a family with a pitty. It felt threatened and it picked her up by the neck and shook her. She suffered permanent neurological damage, couldn't walk too well the rest of her life and couldn't stand up on tile or hardwood. So I don't any more. And now I have a house, and don't need to walk them twice a day. But it means the dogs we have now are not serious about coming when called, because it seldom happens. They think "come" means "play tag." And also now, around here, those sections may be inhabited by desperate people. So I never can, even where it is permitted.

A couple weeks ago, I pulled up to a stop light on a shoulder that hadn't been swept since forever and had a lot of sizeable gravel. As I came to a stop, one tire sent a rock sideways and into the side of a car already stopped at the light. I looked over apologetically and shrugged. I then wanted to reposition my pedal to get ready for the green light, and since I was riding my fixie, I had to lift the back wheel. After getting the pedal in the right spot, I dropped the back end, and the tire landed on another rock which squirted sideways and hit the same car! At that point, I just played dumb and stared straight ahead. The driver didn't try to get my attention either. I dunno, is it my fault that there's gravel on the shoulder? It was kind of a crappy old car anyway, so maybe he didn't care. My own vehicle has enough scratches and dings that I wouldn't care if it got another one.

I Googled “pitty”, and Google was like, “do you mean “pity”, and I’m like, “no, I don’t think so.” I did finally figure out that you meant Pit Bull, right? Anyway, that’s an awful story. Sorry you had to go through that. 😢

Pittie, maybe? Sorry, English is my only language. It was a long time ago and she was still a sweet and happy dog afterwards for three or four more years.

So in my area our regional rail service, SEPTA, has been underfunded for some time and is being used as a political scapegoat. Some of the older trains have been in service for over 50 years and have started catching on fire. So lots of issues. But the other morning I decided to skip driving and to take the early-early 5:48 am train to work. I rode in the dark to the station, about 3.5 miles away, only to find that my train was cancelled; not because of political drama but because of a signal issue from Amtrak. Okay, plenty of time to spare before needing to be at work by 8 am. So I turn around to ride home, only to get about 1.5 miles in and to hit a manhole construction cover and get a flat. I was able to call my husband to come get me (he didn't gripe as much as he could have, given the early hour) and then I drove to work. So the commute was a fail but my heart was in it!!

Stereotypical Canadian politeness. (tone and private thoughts aside)

Got the flu and Covid vaccines at work on Wednesday. I usually feel a little punked the next day and yesterday was no exception. Very tough time getting out of bed, but despite the achy shoulders and lethargy I managed to bike in which ended up being invigorating.

Took a quick nap after lunch and had a tough time waking from that. But by the end of the day I was back to normal...in fact I took the long way home.

My pace was a little better than average and the trails weren't too crowded. I remembered another BF thread asking if one still sprinted I couldn't remember the last time I did, and as I entered one of the flat, straight empty stretches of trail I remembered to try to sprint...

...I barely increased my speed. It reminded me of when I was 43 and I played softball for the first time in 13 years. Despite biking every day I was as slow as molasses, although by the end of the season I was much quicker. Now at 63, I have an even tougher slog to up my sprinting game. Strength-, cardio- and stamina-wise I'm up for it. I just gotta get those muscles working faster.

I figure finding safe, sprint-friendly sections of my commute routes (and then sprinting) will help add excitement and variety to my commutes.

Aside from the reaction to the inoculations, and the weak sprinting, the commutes were invigorating, comfortable in the cooler weather and really good for my mental health as an antidote for some of the stress of life and work.

Oh, yeah...I have taken to honking my AirZound Airhorn before entering this one blind underpass where a homeless guy likes to lay in the path. On the way home he wasn't there but a young family on bikes was, and was finishing moving to the right. The mother looked at me and said "Thank you for the warning."

A couple degrees warmer than yesterday, which was welcome. Just above freezing at my house. No interactions to report, polite or otherwise.

This might be my last commute of the year. Even if the teacher's strike continues (which it looks like it will, for the foreseeable future), meaning I could technically ride, the weather is forecast towards conditions where I just don't enjoy riding as much anymore. We'll see. I'll consider it a day at a time.

For now, have a great weekend, everyone! Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving, so happy long weekend to my fellow Canadians!

I managed to get a lap in yesterday amongst four meetings, a school event, dropping off my oldest kid for a scout trip, and then packing up the other kids in the travel trailer and driving to Santa Cruz

Monday is don’t-say-that-name Day so I would normally ride out early and come back before lunch when my wife needs to go to work. However, it’s looking like rain and plenty of it. Tuesday too.