Today was a balmy -17C (1F). Lately our poor little section of the world has been in -20C to -40C territory. It seems the deep freeze is over. I'm gonna be in shorts soon!

My commute today was a bit smoother and faster than the last two days. That's because last night I realized I had installed my front wheel with the tread of my new winter tire in the wrong direction. Doh!

Pet peeve: I'm waiting for the light to change at a crosswalk and a biker comes up right before it changes and zips in front of me. Not like he's any faster than me, just impatient and a little rude. This kind of stuff from other bikers bothers me.

Wet! But it was actually a nice ride. My rain gear kept me dry and I arrived to work in fine shape. Both my magicshine and tail light also survived the wet, after some "custom" waterproofing with electrical tape.

It's annoying if they then sit in front of you and slow you down, but if they can stay ahead I've got no problem with that. I do it myself so as not to sacrifice momentum.

A hiatus in the rain for the first half of my commute, although the roads remained soaked, then more steady rain. Back to fingerless gloves after last week's cold snap.

Drove in. Left after my first period class.

Drove back home for an X-Ray.

Dropped the car off with my wife and rode my 16" folder back in to work. (the 26" needs a wheel trued after Monday's black ice crash)

Got the worst buzz of my life from a van who had a whole other lane to pass me in.

Email from the wife: the doctor called. it's fractured.

Rode back. Picked up the DVD-Rom of my x-rays. I felt pretty tough picking up my broken bone x-rays while carrying in my folder. Almost makes up for how foolish I feel for crashing. Actually, the worst part was having the radiologist ask if I "fell off my bike."

My own darn fault for even trying it on Monday. It was 38 degrees, but I guess the ground was just plain cold.

And now an orthopedist is going to tell me not to ride my bike. Grr.

2d day in a row that I drove rather than rode. The self-loathing is P-Cadian.

Ride home was about 20F with a blustery headwind. A snow squall dropped about an inch of really light, fluffy snow that made for a nice quiet ride. I went a slightly different way home just to keep riding on the snow for a while. I passed one rider and saw another going the other way. There were more bike tracks in the snow on the MUP. The cold doesn't seem to be chasing people into their cars as in previous years.

This'll be my last commute until Monday. Looks like I'll miss the first of the single-digit morning commutes this year. There will be more opportunities, I'm sure.

Not too good today. Left work early so I could get back to see my daughter since my wife was going to a party. Got a damn flat. It was 1degC and sleet. Changed the tire, got another flat a minute later. Out of tubes. Had to walk 3 miles back home.

Tomorrow, I stock up on new tubes and get a road morph or something.

The pumps can handle one inch of rain the first hour, then half an inch every hour thereafter. Our pumps are actually better than our drains and underground plumbing. So there is this delay. The low lying streets and roads fill up, water inches toward homes and businesses, then SHAZAAM! The water just disappears! Unless.....we get more rain than any part of the system can handle. That's what happened this week. The term is "storm train" where a line of strong thunderstorms stalls out on top of us bringing water and energy up from the Gulf of Mexico (75 miles south of NOLA). We were under a storm train for several days non stop. Today (Wed) we got a break but Thursday is another washout plus the ground is totally saturated already. Our "ground" is about 200 feet thick of organic materials. No bedrock in sight. Dig a 6' hole and water will fill it (that is why we bury folks in crypts, not underground - we can't dig a hole deep enough).

Everybody has their weather challenges, fires, earthquakes, whatever. I am happy with mild winters and some water. This two week "washout" is a rare event anyway.

It was a good ride in at 17 F ( -8 C). Even though the traffic is lightening up, it is getting more agressive. Must have something to do with the holiday season.

Beautiful morning! I have my Christmas lights on my bike now and a Semi kept pace with me for a block looking and shaking his head....not sure if it was the lights or me on a bike in the snow
:-)

oh yeah it was a chilly ride. 30 deg F and clear but lovely otherwise. glad I got the new winter shoes.

I want to know who let the cars out? normally my residential street ride is very quiet with very few cars. today they were out in droves. nearly every crossroad had a car or two and trucks, too. not sure what happened but I can't remember this much traffic on my route. must be the holiday shopping at 5:30 am....

Epic commute yesterday. I rode my regular 22 mile round trip commute, and then met some friends after work for a "Christmas light ride." We rode about 15 miles through a very large subdivision looking at all of the holiday lights and decorations. It was a lot of fun but extremely cold, particularly riding at a slow pace. Afterwards we stopped at neighborhood restaurant for pizza. I ended up with 42 miles for the day.

Dense fog this morning. It's kind of nice in a way, almost like you have the world to yourself. Keeps you on your toes tho, even the cars are ninjas.

Maybe my last commute on the Sirrus. I won a Giant OCR Touring on eBay last night. I can't wait to get it!

A stiff nor'easter blowing today, so a bad headwind the entire 18.5 mile commute. A little cooler - about 60F, so I wore my long sleeve Under Armor underneath my dry-weave T-shirt, shoes instead of sandals, and then my bike gloves. Still in bike shorts, though! Drained my bottle of gatorade on the way in, but that was probably due to dehydration from the two glasses of red wine I had with dinner last night - I was only sweating a little. The nor-easter should still be blowing when I ride home tonight. Should be fun!

Good ride home last night and then a quick jaunt out by bike later in the evening to the grocery store to buy some ingredients for my holiday office potluck contribution (FUDGE!!!)

Windy this AM! NWS says 18 w/ gusts to 25, and it felt a lot windier than yesterday. Colder, too. Only saw three other commuters, though I was running a little later than usual and didn't leave for work until 9, so that may have had something to do with it, too. Tomorrow's supposed to be calmer wind-wise, so I'm looking forward to a little less resistance from Mother Nature.

Great ride home last night, hardly any rain.

Added a biggish hill to the start of my commute this morning, rode over it feeling great, then got a flat on the bridge. My second this week. How is it that I ride 4000km recreationally with just one flat, from hitting a big rock on an offroad descent, then start commuting and get two in my first 140km?!

Alsmost got hit. And I usually refrain from saying that. Considering during the course of the same commute I was buzzed 9 times. And from all the times I do get buzzed here on the open road, there they don't care, He doesn't care and is over there, they just keep buzzing me in the country,
and I will stop now with bad drivers becuase I need to go ride a bicycle

Camera didn't catch the action as it was on my right side.
So I am in a bike lane (imagine that)
I am rolling at 8mph nice and easy.

I almost reach the other side of a driveway (over halfway) when this lady pulls up, but doesn't stop. I am like yo B*tch, as I do an emergency left posistion on the bicycle lane line. She then lets off the brake. WTF? Almost running into me a second time.

She didn't pass me (once on the road) and took off on a side road.

Telecommuting. Couple quick runs around town for errands on breaks, so may break 5 miles for the day. 1.0 highly unlikely though

Been off of the bike for two weeks primarily due to illness. Hope to get back on this weekend and resume commuting next week.

I'd for gotten how horrible it is to commute by car.

Today is good. Thursdays are always nice. The high school, and colledge I have to drive by start late on thursdays. So I don't see them. yay! So anyhow it was good, no rain, no ice, no frozen toes, and my heart didn't jump becuase of almost being hit.

screw_puncture001.jpg

Got to physical therapy AND the barber AND to work this morning without getting rained on. Wettest December on record. Rained all the rest of the day and into the night steady. Biked home in the rain. Caught a screw in the back tire. Thankfully, we were past The Hood. Also thankfully, my bud was on the same schedule as me and we ride the first 3 miles together. Had to walk the bike about 10 minutes to NOMA (New Orleans Museum of Art) for a dry place to work. We teamed up on my flat and got all fixed up in a jiffy. You can see the m0f0 deck screw in the picture.

It's been well over a year since I flatted so I can't complain. Nice to have someone watching my back while changing a tube. My Petzl Zipka headlamp came in really handy too as did the latex gloves I keep in my flat fix kit (bike was FILTHY after weeks of rain duty).

Clear/cool weather is forecast for the next 6 days. I really need a break from this rain bu11$h!+

The cold rain made the park (and museum area) deserted - so little chance of thugs and dudes cruising for tricks bugging us. Got back on the road without incident. My bud was poorly dressed for the weather too. We all abide by the "No Man Left Behind" philosophy when breakdowns occur, which is not very often.

That's one nasty piece of metal. The only thing worse than riding in the rain is getting a flat and having to walk your bike in the rain. You have my deepest sympathies!

This was a day to be social:

In the morning:

Saw a guy standing next to his bike in Penn Station Newark, and he had a huge overstuffed army duffel bag. I asked him, "do you ride with that?" He's been riding with that bag for a fw years now.

Ran into a fellow folding bike commuter today, at Newark Broad Street station; we see each other every so often. He was telling me that he saw Newark's mayor Cory Booker rollerblading on a path in the city. The path was pretty cracked up, bits of brick missing, etc. The folding bike guy went back to that path the next week, and it had been completely repaved. Weird; to me, Cory Booker is a voice on the Newark Light Rail that does annoying announcements about Newark events. This guy also told me about a "secret" sidewalk path that nobody uses to get to Broad Street station, and he drew me a map.

In the evening:

A woman got on the wrong train; she needed the next train, mine doesn't stop at Newark Airport. I got out my train schedule and several of us helped her figure out how to get back to the airport. I hope she made her flight.

Chatted with a guy at the train station who works at my company - I recognized his employee ID.