I was able to walk around this

Last week, I ended up riding every day until Sunday, when I decided I was not getting on a bike. Then yesterday my kid didn't need their car, so I used that to bring stuff in and take stuff home that I had ended up leaving for one reason or another.

This morning it was 52 degrees! Southern Cal weather is getting a bit manic lately. So, back to tights, because I'm a weather weenie now. It rained yesterday - it never rains in California!

I'm a little annoyed at work, however - someone stole (and ate, I assume) the breakfast sandwich out of the common fridge that I had brought in yesterday.

Uneventful, but still wonderful rides today. Took the main commuter, and my big everything's-in-it commute bag so I didn't have to worry if today's chance of rain happened on the ride home. It didn't, it rained lightly twice earlier in the day, and the streets and sidewalks were already dry by the time I left.

Took the central streets today, very little interactions with traffic.

Immediate saddle pain when getting on today so I decided to skip. It's been a blue few days and feeling low anyhow. Got some weird news in my latest pacemaker scan that might be aging or might be something else; my wife had discouraging that she's not a candidate for a corrective surgery she's wanted all her life, that would give her closer to normal hearing; boys behavior crash and burn as usual now that spring break is over; a meeting about getting more services for them didn't feel like it went in our favor.

On the plus side my younger boy advanced last night from Bear to Webelos in Cub Scouts.

37F and drizzle+ this morning, pretty nasty. Also, a light that stopped a queue of traffic, waiting for it to change, I can definitely beat that from the distance I was stopped at, seemed to change about 3 seconds earlier today so there was no question it was red when I got to the stopline, so I did stop and waited again... turned out I had a coworker at the front of the cross street queue and he was also surprised how short the red was, and saw me stuck at it when he continued on thru...

Monday, can't remember the am - 40s and gray I am guessing, but pm, 50s, I took off all kinds of layers (tights, 2nd shirt, went to fingerless gloves). I expect today I will be dressed pretty similarly to the way I came in.

Got passed today by two e-bikes and a roadie. One of the e-bikes was the guy with the front fat dualie. Such a weird bike, but at least he was pedaling when he passed me. The other e-bike was some clown-size bike with a throttle. He cleared his throat aggressively, although I guess he could have been saying "Left!". The roadie was silent, as usual.

And again, I thought I was in for a slow ride today, so I didn't particularly push. Came in at about 37 minutes again. Consistency!

Congrats! That was as far as I got, never made it to Boy Scouts.

Thanks. I made it to Star. My BIL made Eagle but he was very driven by his dad. My older kid went all the way thru Cub Scouts, but his first year of Boy Scouts was miserable. They have a lot of things that should interest him. But the base load of getting along with people, and frequent organized camping and hiking which he despises, proved to be too much to ask. When I tried to encourage him how great it could be, he'd only say how he missed the Pinewood Derby. I really liked the troop, they were very well organized with a foundation and about 30 years continuity. I'll try the younger one on them if he ever shows interest.

I'm doing the ol' half-electric commute today: unpowered on the way in, powered on the way home. I'm enjoying a cup of it now, matter of fact! I'm pampering my legs now in preparation for the Dairy Roubaix Saturday out near Ferryville. The weather looks clear, but I'm not looking forward to riding into that 17 mph wind for dozens of miles. I guess the hills and trees will tame it a bit...

I left my trunk bag home today, as I had to bungee down a Costco box of K-cups to bring to work.

(tangent warning) As long as we're sharing home/family problems, I will share mine. My daughter (14), who lives with my ex most of the time, decided last week she doesn't want to see me any more, ever. My ex lets her run the show at her house, so she's not sending her anyway, as she's supposed to do according to our parenting agreement. She's one of those permissive parents and she thinks she's SO clever for it! Daughter tells me it's because I traumatized her as a child when I stopped letting her wake me up every time she had a nightmare and some other BS, but what it really is is that I don't let he spend all day face-down in her phone. (I didn't even WANT her to have a smart phone until high school...) She doesn't want to be away from her friends and her dogs, and she likes getting her way. (she's an only child, and her grandparents live in the house too, so you can imagine she's quite spoiled. Her mom's got plenty of money between being a doctor and child support too.) So now I have to decide if I lawyer up again (she pulled this last year and lost) and take my ex to court and spend all the money I saved for vacation on the lawyer, or just let it go and live the single life, hoping she comes around. I spent about $15k over the last two years fighting to keep my time with her. I was clearly in the right, but lawyers are expensive. It really hurt, emotionally and financially.

On one hand, my ex will get her just desserts, raising her as a spoiled brat like this. It's only a matter of time before she rebels against her as well. On the other, I don't want my child to grow up useless and fragile because she's so used to getting her way and can't cope with any kind adversity. She's really smart and gets straight As in school, even the honors classes, and her mom thinks that's all that counts.

Also, Mom just went into memory care, as she has advanced Alzheimer's, and my bipolar brother had her sign her PoAs to her under duress. Mom wanted ME to be PoA when she was fully with it, as I'm kind of local (85 miles) and I'm mentally healthy. So I need to go to court at some point to get that revoked or he'll blow all her money.

At least my marriage is good and I'm able to burn off my frustration on the bike instead of drinking so much, as I did in the past. I used to have 5 or 6 per night and got declined for supplemental life insurance because of it. That was a wake-up call, as I'm not even 50 yet.

Rode today. That makes three laps for the short week.

I stopped off for a few minutes to watch the lake. Needed it.

I'm sorry man. I do feel very fortunate that my family is together. Sometimes feel like we are clinging to one another thru a tempest. I don't know how we'd handle any of this if custody things across the state were added.

Smaug1 at age 14, these matters are out of your hand. My view is that at her age, using force to adjust the parent schedule won't be fruitful. Incentives might work, but maybe not. You've lain the foundation that you can lay. If you trust that you've done a good job, it will grow, and she will come to appreciate you. I've been through this, and if you like, I can tell you about my experience. My kids are now 37 and 34.

Save your money on lawyers. At this point, you can spend it to send your lawyer's kids through college or on sending your own kid to college.

Sorry about your mother and your brother. We are dealing with dementia, and we've been through it a few times. It's very painful. Adding your legal nonsense makes it much harder. I hope you get what you need. That might be a good use of legal fees.

I feel for you, too, Darth Lefty. I'm watching your stories.

It was a beautiful day. I observed about 20 young track athletes in running shorts and sports bras running down the sidewalk. They stopped at a corner. I wasn't sure if they wanted to cross in front of me or were merely waiting for some stragglers, so I stopped. They all smiled and waved to me and said "hi". They didn't cross. We all continued on our way.

This is one reason I'm happy with my backpack-on-the-rack strategy. I bungee my bag to the rack, but if I need to pick up items on the weay home, what doesn't fit in the backpack gets bungeed to the rack and I can wear the backpack. My big bike, the Rockhopper has Wald folding baskets so if I take that bike, I usually don;t have to wear the backpack, but once in a while I do. On the two rackless roadbikes I have small collapsable backpacks tucked into the large saddlebag of one, and the small frame bag of the other. IThe collapsable backpacks are for weekend rides when I don't have a packpack and I decide to pick something up. If I were commuting with a packpack, especially the smaller, lighter one and I needed to carry more home I thought I could either wear the foldable bag on my front, or try to fasten it to the other bag. My big bag has a few velcro straps in it including a huge, super stretcth one so I'm sure I could figue something out. I haven't tried any of this out though.

The ride in today was fast and wonderful. One odd thing, a backwards jogger coming at me who kept swerving into my lane each time he looked back over his right shoulder. I almost turned around to show him my glasses mounted mirror and suggest it or those glasses with built in mirrors in the corners.

It was 71F and sunny for the ride home. A cold front is expected to blow through tonight and ahead of that I had very strong winds behind me on the way home. I left the office a tad late so I decided to hustle, and with help from the wind the rolling time for my south central downtown streets route was 28.5 minutes compared to the usual 35-36. I made some lights so the total ride time was shockingly short.

Speaking of backpacks...I forgot to clip my big bag onto the bungees on the way home. I realized it when I lay the bike down on its side to trigger the exit gate. The bag tilted off the rack but was still held to it by the bungee cords. 30 years ago when I worked out this system my original commute packpack has a pronounced pair shape...hips, if you will, and never fell off. THe subsequent bags have lesser hips and I use D-clips that loop through grommets on the big bag to secure it to the cords. The smaller, lighter bag has click-to-fasten side-0straps and I loop those through the bungees. When I got home I shot a short video to show how the bag is somewhat secure, even without being clipped in:


Here's how I fasten it...sometimes one cord on each side, but usually two. It depends on how the bag sits...each bike's different.

Here was this morning’s welcome committee on my way into work…

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2333:

The wind blew hard all night. The temp and humidity was at a good level last night to open up the windows of the house and let things air out. That is until the wind slammed a bedroom door shut and made everyone in the house poop their pants.

This week I started getting up early to do some walking before my ride to work. One would think that riding to work would be enough exercise, but I've noticed in my 19th season of commuting that I'm at the point where my body hardly counts it as exercise; it's just "normal." So during the warmer months I like to supplement my riding with walking. Being that I'm just getting back into it, I only walked a total of 6.5 miles this week. I'll slowly work up to around 12-15 miles per week.

The temp was 51°F when I left on my walk. Today's high happened at midnight, and the temp is supposed to continue to fall to below freezing by this evening. I started walking and as soon as I felt the 20 mph wind I felt cold. I thought maybe I just needed to get warmed up, but I was cold during the entire walk. By the time I got back home, the temp had dropped to the low 40s. That explains why I felt like I never warmed up.

I got on the bike for the 4.5 mile ride downtown to a client. I took the road bike. I had to fight the wind, and once again I think I under dressed. I was wearing a sweatshirt and shorts. I froze the entire way to the office. I probably should have worn a windbreaking jacket, long pants, warmer gloves and toe covers. I also arrived about 10 minutes late due to the fierce headwind slowing me down to about a 9 mph average.

The ride home tonight will probably be a colder temp, but with the wind pushing me I'm hoping I'll actually feel warmer.

I enjoy hearing about everyone's home/family problems. Please don't read that as me enjoying that you all are having home/family problems. It means that when people share their struggles, it reminds me that I'm not alone. These last eight years have been the most challenging of my life, taking care of family members with mental health issues and a father-in-law with dementia. It's easy to start feeling like I'm the only person in the world who has problems like these. In reality, the vast majority of us do struggle. Knowing this keeps things in better perspective.

I thought it was a bad idea to ride to work today. Looking back, I was wrong. Oh well. I'm getting some walking in and plenty of stairs as usual.

Fourth day this week. Annoyingly, I dropped a chain again. Climbing, I was coming up on a street on the right and could feel a car behind me that wanted to do the turn (goes to a golf course). It was cool, he didn't try to right-hook me; but there was another car waiting to turn left onto my street, so I tried to accelerate a bit to get out of the intersection. If I remember correctly, I was in 2nd gear and shifted up to 3rd ... and the chain dropped. Mega-grrrrrr.

So, it seems to be coming off when going from cog #2 to cog #3, so at least it falls off outside instead of inside onto the frame. Not sure if it has also happened between #3 and #4, but will be mindful. I guess I just have to be careful from #2 to #3, and not spin so enthusiastically while shifting.

Other than that, a nice ride. Herons, geese, ducks, yesterday caught a glimpse of a wren.

My commute will change next month, however. Moving down the hill, so I will no longer have two climbs, just the bigger one to get into work. It will be faster, at least.

Gorgeous day today but I drove my wife to the airport and then just straight to work rather than home to change and ride and come in half an hour late. Sigh...

my FAVORITE days to ride are Fridays because the traffic is always terrible and I can just float right past it

After riding home with 71F yesterday, the forcasts for today called for a high of 40F with heavy winds and a couple of inches of snow for the ride home. I don't mind the snow, I was kinda lookin' forward to what would probably be the last snow ride of the season. It would only take 5-10 min to put the studded wheelset on the bike; even if it didn't snow much it could be icy with the afternoon temps projected to be around 32F...but I didn't want to deal with the wind. So I drove.

It was 43F, dry and breezy during morning commute time...so I could have done that. But then after lunch the wind whipped up and the snow came down...big, fluffy flakes blowing sideways. About 2 inches over an hour or so, at least judging by what stuck on the grass, trees and plants.

I walked outside to guage the situation and sure enough there were slick little patches of "almost ice" in the parking lot. And a stiff wind.

But by the 4:30 came around the snow had stopped, the pavement was almost dry, the wind had died down considerably, the sun had come out and the temps were back up in the lower 40s.

I could have biked easily and in relative comfort. Oh well. I'll put in another weekend ride either outside or on the indoor recumbent...but I feel like I missed out.

I shared this story on another reply on another thread, but my story needs to be shared here since it's relatable. After years off my bike and commuting, I decided to start up again. Over the winter I totally rebuilt my single speed Klunker for commuting since I used to commute on it before. I figure with my busy schedule doing an 11 mile round trip daily commute would be the only way to get any time in the saddle.............



I put a lot of time redoing the bearings, repacking the coaster brake, front hub, stem, and crank bearings. I upgraded the saddle, pedals, bars, and a bunch of other small upgrades. I even gutted an old BMX Shimano coaster brake wheel and all the internals replaced the Falcon coaster brake on the 26" Huffy wheel. What a HUGE difference in braking performance. Here is the issue I ran into. I have a truck that I only drive in the winter and when needed. My daily driver is actually 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback. I consider myself a smart guy, but did not realize in order to fit my bike in my car I would have to remove BOTH wheels AND the handlebars. That would be too much trouble twice a day. A new hitch and bike rack would run me like $300+ to haul the bike. I cannot use a conventional hatch rack on this car because of the rear spoiler. Note the pic of the car......



My truck gets awful fuel milage and I am not loading a 40+ lb Huffy in the bed of my truck twice a day. I had to come up with something. I started searching folding bikes on Marketplace and stole a 2019 Zizzo Campo folder for $100 and a handshake. I did not have to do any work to the folding bike and it fit right in the back of my little hatchback with little effort. Looks like I am all set!



OK so the folding bike was fine so just needed lights and a new saddle. I rode it around a little bit and it rides nice, but handling van get sketchy, but that's probably just me. Let us fast forward to this week. I have yet to commute on any bike this year. My new to me commuter has been folded up in the back of my car since the 1st of April. The weather around here sucks! I had two possible days to commute this week and that was Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I work Tuesday through Saturday every week. Unfortunately on Tuesday I had to take my truck to work to drop off my used tires, used oil, and scrap I accumulated in the shop over winter. While I had the truck at work I decided to load up my Huffy Klunker and bring it home finally.

I checked the forecast and it looked like Wednesday was the first and best day to commute to work! I already lost Tuesday and was not going to miss out on the only last nice day for the week with more rain and storms coming. I went to bed early to get ready for my first commute. I couldn't sleep though since my brain wouldn't shut up. I get up and get ready for my 16 mile drive to town to where my wife works and get my coffee. Here is where I park the car and would ride the bike 5.5 miles to my work and then 5.5 miles back daily. Please note I haven't even ridden any of my bikes much for the last six years. I used to do this same commute from 2014 to 2020.

Wait for it...........
*phone starts ringing* - Wifey calling from work says - "Hey Johnny. Since you got the truck, could you bring our large canopy tent to the store so my boss can borrow it for a party they are having?"

Well, the large canopy tent won't fit in my little car unless I remove the Zizzo from the back, fold the rf and rear seats and squeeze it in. The Huffy was already in the truck. I grabbed the headlight, tail light, commuter bag, and took the truck. Unloaded the tent. Got my coffee. Saddled up the Klunker and finally commuted to work after all this time. My ride is mostly flat, but I totally felt every hill and gust of wind. I was actually feeling good! Even with a single speed I did great. So great I extended my ride to the local dollar store and then to work for a total of 8.7 miles.......




The weather already went to crap and looks like Wednesday will be my first commute on the Zizzo. Might be nice to have some gears! My first commute was brutal on a single speed, but I still loved every second of it. Especially the ride home. Wish me luck!

Same story north of you in Boulder-Longmont area.

Go! Go! Go!

Johnny Mullet nice story and well written. It was suspenseful, and towards the end, I was wondering if you made it. And you did.

How does Boulder/Longmont compare to Denver weatherwise. Below 7000ft Colorado Springs gets half the moisture of Denver and slightly higher daytime highs.

Awesome score! You're gonna love the Zizzo! I'd move the water bottle cage to the top of the top tube so the bike can fold down more. That's where the cage is on my similar Dahon Boardwalk.

Highlights from yesterday's ride: (Yeah, those are 700x23's on gravel.)