The headwind from Hell. Like I was pushing up a 45-degree incline all the way here. (Well, maybe not that bad...) If I'm lucky, it'll be a tailwind for my ride home and I'll average about 40MPH.

Saw two deer. One buck (already had a rack started), and one doe. They were both laying in grass until I came along, then they stood up and kept an eye me.

This'll be my last commute day until July 11. Taking next week off.

there's been a moderate change in the weather - a little cooler, a little breezier, similar dampness (although i expect it will get drier through the day). no corresponding change in motorists' habits, however, i'm sorry to have to report. i suppose i should pity the person who believes his or her life would be improved somehow by showing up at the office a couple of minutes sooner.

Day Camp has started again, so I begin each commute by pulling the trailer with my daughter up the hill to Fairlington Center. My 10 mile round trip has expanded to a 15 mile one, and th child and trailer come to about 65 pounds, so I now can consider myself a "real commuter" like all the rest of you ladies and gentlemen

Paul

But you KNOW the wind will shift by then and it'll be a headwind for the return trip too. That's how my luck goes, anyway --

Today was a nice ride in. I woke up with lots of energy and had plenty of room when I took my bike on the train. It is going to be a scorcher going home, though.

I rode down the street for lunch and it's already a scorcher. I think we may sweat a little this afternoon.

Actually, I just checked, and it looks like it's going to continue to be a south wind until tomorrow.

Only problem with that, of course, is that we (as riders) don't benefit from a cooling breeze when it's hot.

Yeah. I've already added some time to my commute in order to take it s l o w l y.

Left my car 3 miles further away than usual today. I have been meaning to do that for a while.

One pickup passed me during the extra 3 this morning. One car merged from the highway where I usually park and we both offered to give way. The only problem I had was a driver who turned right just as the vehicle was passing me. Fortunately I anticipated the move and was also turning right. I was at the passenger door all through the turn. We both ignored each other.

The commute back may be interesting because I now have to ride a quarter mile of a mall/highway access "octapus".

Well, I finally managed to commute to work today. 16 miles round trip. It wasn't bad, in the morning there was no traffic. In the afternoon there was but the bike lanes were wider than they looked from the car. When there wasn't a bike lane I went ahead and took the lane (there were 4 to choose from), and didn't get harrased or anything.

I also got to try out my new panniers. I bought them used for 8 dollars. They're made by Norco and have seen some wear but work just fine.

I think I need a shorter stem. I just got flats with bar ends and feel like I'm reaching for the handlebars now.

I'm getting Nimbus Armadillos tommorrow, then I begin saving for a road bike.

Pretty hot this week. Since yesterday our nice marine layer has rolled back out to sea, leaving us to roast. Reading you east-coasters' tales of humidity woes, though, I'm grateful for the reasonable humidity. I enjoyed some nice comradeship with other bikers this week and no road ragers. Have a great weekend.

A driver took exception to my taking a lane during the commute home last night. A woman taking a right gave me the chance to continue straight. I pulled into the middle lane (of 3) to let her turn behind me and let a car entering the road merge in front of me. The car on my left behind keep laying on his horn. When he passed me he yelled "move over". No problem till I noticed he was the only other car and had a full lane to himself. I gave him my best "F You", unloading with both barrels.

We met again at the traffic light and I was tempted to apologize for being like him. I need to control myself better and not even acknowledge these people. The reason being it usually pisses them off even more when they don't have the satisfaction of knowing wether or not they "won" the confrontation.

Working the weekend and plan on a good ride tomorrow. (Sunday). I will have the roads to myself in the morning.

Serenity now. Serenity now. Enjoy your ride this weekend.

This was cool today - on my last mile on the way home, I was kind of in "the zone" just pedalling along, when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was a coyote in the ditch, just standing there, staring at me (he must have heard my squeaky bike... must oil it up!). And as I pedalled by and said "hi, coyote!" he started trotting along beside me in the ditch! Very cool. Then I was going SO FAST (haha!), or more like, he was just trotting along, I pulled away.

THEN, just after that, I see a smaller but really long black animal on the hwy, and as it saw me come close, it sped up and was gone in a flash. It was black, furry with a white tip on it's tail. I'm trying to figure out what the heck it was. I'm thinking a marten or something. Oh well, at least I didn't see the bear I saw last week while driving in that exact same area!!!

Absolutely gorgeous day. On the road at 6AM for the 14 mile ride to work. Just a tad cool initially but warmed up quickly. I had my camera and stoppped a few times for snapshots. No traffic, just me and the critters on the country roads. And me and the trash on the city streets.

light rain this morning, 66 °F, dew point 65 °F. it was a refreshing change from the heat of the past few days. now if we could just work on the state of mind of some of those drivers out there...

My commute sucked today -- took the subway because my elbow is messed-up . Several more days of this in my future, at least. Maybe a couple of weeks.

Slept in today because Monday is racquetball after work. Once it was too late to ride I remembered today is Tuesday. dirty bastaard.

Thanks to a nice thick marine layer, it was cool and slightly foggy on the way in.
Perfect cycling weather. Only problem was, the three-day weekend interrupted my 'flow' and I forgot that I'd brought my used-up towel home on Friday. Luckily I keep a little hand-towel in my office, but it was still a "Monday" moment.

Ha! I was just in a shouting match with a motorist a few minutes ago, coming home for lunch.
I rolled up to a stop sign, preparing to cross a fairly busy road in my neighborhood, and waited
for a gap in the traffic, as usual.

The traffic was light, so I just stood there in a trackstand, slowly rocking back and forth, and
the last car to approach actually stopped in the middle of the lane, 35mph road. I noticed it had
no turn signal on, and then realized they had stopped for me!

At this time, I 'stood down', straddling the top tube, and waited. They waited. I pointed to the stop
sign that was beside me, and yelled at them. Meanwhile, cars are honking at this silly motorist.
They still wait. I'm frantically waving them on, shouting at them that I have a freakin' stop sign.
They finally move on, yelling something at me through the open window... I just laugh at them.

Some people... sheesh!

p.s.

Is it just me, or is this thread just waaayy too long?

The first post is over 3 years old. Could there be a better way to do this?

Just wondering... anybody else feel the same, or have any ideas? Or not?

Yeah it's too long, and a "normal" thread is not really appropriate for this kind of daily-checkin type topic.
It should really be a "ring buffer" that keeps the last 100 posts or so, overwriting the oldest one when a new post comes in. But I dunno if this messageboard software supports that.

grumpy. I didn't want to go to work. Usually I perk up about 15 mins. into the ride, but not today. Then some roads downtown were closed so I had to do some maneuvering on the streets with more and faster cagers. Hmph. Plus all the trash that people left lying around from yesterday along the river. Apparently alot of people just don't know how to pick up after themselves.

The ride was fine, but my attitude needs a few weeks at the beach!

My outlook was quite a bit better than velogirl's this morning (that's OK, ms. velogirl...look in the mirror and say "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darnit people like me"). Cool morning, humid from the much needed rain yesterday, and the humidity was hanging over the forest preserves. I took the scenic route this morning and found a trail I had never discovered in the eleven years of my commute! I too was tired and grumpy to start my commute, but the scenery changed it all!!!!

I disagree about the length of this thread. I just click on the "go to first new post", and only read the new postings, but I like to go back and read some of the really old one from time to time.