i have been waiting for at least a week for someone to say 'but isn't it cold?' so i can smirk and say 'well yeah, but that's why god gave us longjohns'. but they seem to have given up on the needle-y little underminer remarks; either that or they've caught onto my smartass factor and they don't want to play fish in my barrel for me. people just aren't any fun.

0C this morning on the led. +2 coming home, but i'm not buying it. we had fog at both ends of the day, although admittedly it was heavier in the morning. but to compensate there was a slight headwind all the way home. unless i'm just getting decrepit this week, which is also quite possible.

'tis the season to drive like a dingbat, it seems. i'm usually pretty equable, but it's getting old and i'm getting crabby. today after almost being doored a couple of times, bumped out of a traffic circle and just generally playing non-consensual chicken with turkeys all the way home, i walked my bike over the six-lane intersection that cuts the bike path close to my home, because i'm not suicidal just yet. and after three lanes of traffic had dive-bombed into the zebra paint before finally doing the brakes, i got a bit of the attitude thing. a few feet into the block on the other side, standing in the road preparing to get back on - on the bike path, did i mention? i did a casual shoulder-check and saw a giant van panting at that same zebra crossing, about to turn right into the same road with me. which is a bike path, i might have mentioned. heh. move out of your way? not bloody likely, buddy. it's a BIKE PATH. see the big shiny bike painted right on the roadway right here? see the big shiny sign three feet from your ear? and see how it bears a really startling resemblance to this here machine right beside me? so i'm just gonna finish strapping my gloves back on, stretch a little and climb back on that bike and saunter the rest of the way home along this here BIKE PATH the city's set up for me. down the middle of it, which i can do without a wrinkle of conscience cause it's a BIKE PATH and i'm on a BIKE. can't get by me? yeah, that's a shame. it ain't like you've got a whole city of non-BIKE PATH roads you can go drive on instead, now is it? feh. morphodite. it's a good thing tomorrow's friday; i'm feeling snarly.

songs: gaels blue, michael marra; me and julio, paul simon; illegal smile, john prine.

Big props to all the winter commuters in climates where there's snow on the ground -- or where, if snow were to fall, it'd stay that way..Much respect

Here in Norcal it's been frosty in the mornings (38F when I set out on Tuesday) but really pretty nice in the evenings. My biggest problem is that my PI jacket, though it zips under the arms from elbow to ribcage, still gets too hot/clammy at about mile 6 (out of 10). Bikes are riding well, my meager requirements for coldweather gear are holding up nicely, and basically there's no reason in sight to cause me to let up on the 5-day commuting regimen.

20F and snowing, an annoying headwind being the only drawback of the commute.
Always nice to roll quietly over fresh powder.

The big snow/ice storm amounted to a couple of inches of mostly slush on the trail. The bridges were a little hairy and the washboard-like snow debris from the plows made handling a little loose, but the ride was otherwise beautiful. What started as rain turned into snow by the time I hit DC. My new studded snow tires worked very well (although they were incredibly hard to put on-leaving me with a nice blister on my right thumb) and slipping and sliding were minimal. In fact, I only unclipped once and never had to put a foot down. That said, my ride was roughly an hour long compared to my usual 25 to 30 minutes. What a blast though! I chatted with two other riders and saw the tracks of two others. There were stretches where my were the only tracks on the trail and the glow of the streetlights in the snow againts a dark, ominous looking sky made for a surreal and beautiful commute. The slower speeds along with a lot of spinning kept me fairly warm too.

It snowed last night, and this morning the roads were still not clear. The sides of the road were still snow covered so I decided to ride in the lane the whole way to work. This wasn't a problem for most people, but one person got annoyed and started honking at me, despite having a second lane clear of traffic. Finally this lady (again a woman in a minivan!) hit the gas and went flying past me headed into a traffic circle. She then realized 2 things. 1. She was going to fast. 2. The road was very icy. She totally lost control and her minivan spun out, leaving her stuck in the ditch next to the traffic circle. I then rode past with a big smile on my face (concealed by my balaclava), waved (with all fingers) and continued on to work. Today is shaping up to be a good day.

I rode home last night about 9pm in 2 inches of slush in the tire tracks. The salt was still working, just a little gusty over the bridges. Someone yelled at me from a bus stop, "That takes GUTS". Huh? I am still annoyed at co-workers who think I'm completely insane for riding my bike in 2 inches of slush. Have they never lived north of here? In Chicago, this is an early season dusting.

Then I get home and turn on the TV news. I thought the end of the world had come. They showed the five worst accidents in the region, some semi in a ball of fire, and concluded it was "Apocalypse Now". But the alarmist weather guy scared me off with -4 winchill reports in the am so I wimped out and took the bus. 1.5 hours. The streets were fine. I could have ridden it in 40 min. Oh well.

Oh yes, that's what I'm talkin bout. Uh-huh. Nice one.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada is indeed my home. If you see posts that include the words "chinook", "black ice", and "divestment", it's probably Calgary-related.

I had to take a suit in with me to work today, so I had to take the bus, which sucked. It was full of high school kids, and I saw a biker go by us when we were stopped. It was +6C this morning too. Sigh...

Quiet late-night ride home last night. It was a nice way to destress and relax, though I still felt the need to stand and push myself hard over the minor inclines. (Not all that many on the way home.)

Pleasantly cool day this morning, and a nice ride in. I've noticed something. Even if no one's ahead of me on the hill on the way in (about 6% grade, about half a mile), I still feel the need to race hard up that thing on the way in. It's a fun early morning adrenaline rush.

SCORE 1 FOR THE GOOD GUYS!

low ride week, 1/5 days. mon, i carpooled w/boss who needed car work done, tues was our first snow when drivers here can increase mindless driving techs, weds was day of event-ride (nothing extraordinary), thurs i had to meet with my teacher after work, 35 miles nnw from here, fri was an ice/snow delay (i don't ride on ice).

placating the haiku fairies:

kid sick and cat sick
checkups from work by the hour
with car standing by

i did want to ride. just didn't work out today. you can't leave your kid with a cat who is the beat of his heart, and not take the fastest method you've got of getting back to them both if she gets worse. heart just wasn't in it today; i put in a few token hours and then came home. just realised i left my u-lock at work. bleh.

INSTANT KARMA!

Strange commute yesterday morning.

I took the Townie3 and the canoe instead of the utility trailer, just for S&G. That went fine, just a much heavier trailer. On the curviest part of my commute I've taken the lane when I hear a car coming up behind me. I see an on-coming p/u in the other lane so I signal for the car to stay back and not pass. The truck goes by, we're around that curve on a short straight-away. I move to the right and signal the car to pass me. He's not passing. Signal again. <Come on, Dude. We're running out of straight-away.> Signal again for him to pass. <What is this Dip-S doing?> Car finally passes. It's my wife? She pulls over onto the shoulder. I pass her, pull over, drop the bike and walk back to the car. She's all freaked out, hysterically ranting about something. Me, "Hey." Rant, rant, rant. Me, "HEY." Rant, rant, rant. HEY!!! in my Drill Field voice. She stops. Me, "Count to ten, take five deep breathes, and tell me what is the matter. Slowly."

The stupid windshield of the stupid car had a spider-web crack at the bottom.
For this, she traces my route, almost all the way to work.

"Go home and call what's-'er-name at the insurance place."
"Who?"
"The woman.....oh what's-'er'name.....you know. You went with me last time we made a payment. Her card is in the glove box and there's a couple more laying around the house."
"What will that do?"
Me trying to not get exasperated, "This is Florida, state law, we get three free windshields a year. Go call her, tell her a hickory nut from one of the trees in the yard broke it (that's what happened). Then do what she says about calling somebody to fix it."
"Where will I have to take it."
"Home. Somebody will come out to the house and fix it."
"Today?"
"I don't know. It depends on where they're located and how busy they are."
"What if it blows out and showers the kids with glass?"
<What the hell is this? She tracks me down on my commute to play 20 questions?>
Me trying my best to not get exasperated, "You could do over 100 miles-an-hour with that windshield, it's not gonna' blow out." <Now go TF home so I can get on with my ride.>

She finally leaves and I get on with my ride.

Now, I've ridden and driven this route probably hundreds of time. Today I see a borrow pit off in the woods to my right. I've heard it was there, but have never seen it from the road, didn't know you could. Must be enough leaves fallen to see it, because I sure couldn't earlier this year and I looked. I stopped to look at it. I had the canoe with me, if I had some fishing tackle I would have skipped work, in spite of the fact that the weather in the last two weeks has put me way behind on this project.

Pulling the canoe home yesterday afternoon, had a p/u pull along side and slow in passing, the driver yelling at me.
"Nice set-up!"
Later had a car pass and slow, passenger yelling out the window.
"Dude, you rock!!"
I heard him clearly.

Just before I got home, had a car coming up behind give me a "get-out-of-the-way" honk. Unusual around here. Oncoming traffic, he couldn't pass. I looked back at him and moved left, driving the point home I was not pulling off the road to let him by and he was staying behind me until the oncoming lane cleared.

The real workout was pulling the canoe down the road I live on. It's a sand road and all the recent rain turned it to soup. It hasn't completely dried out yet.

Another calm commute home last night. It's Saturday, a day I intend to drive in general, but I'm cycling today since a coworker wanted to see my CF bike. So another commute. It was cold during my pre-breakfast ride, but by the time I rode in to work, it was nice and warm.

Here's two days of commuting in one.

Boston was maniacal yesterday, Friday. Hurricane force winds of 75 mph, thunder and lightning, in white out blizzard conditions. There were rolls of thunder that lasted a good 1/2 minute- it sounded like someone was dragging a grand piano across the sky. The combination of bolts of lightning during a complete white out was surreal. Fortunately, I suspected some bad mojo was on the way and I car pooled it into Cambridge in the morning with a friend instead of biking. When skies cleared around 3 or 4pm the traffic was abysmal so I opted to walk 3 miles to downtown Crossing in Boston where I figured it would be a good time to Christmas shop. I was right- the stores were empty.

I then walked, bags and all, another 3 miles to where my wife was working and commuted home with her and 4 of her students crammed into the car who we dropped at various locations. Walking ain't that bad.

This morning I figured I'd attempt the bike since it was sunny and I figured most of the roads would be cleared. I also thought that since I was commuting into the people's republic of Cambridge, where there is a plethora of bike lanes and facilities, that every effort would be made to make the roads passable. Newton streets were clear, Watertown clear and Cambridge was solid 1" of hard packed ice on every roadway and the drivers were none too accomodating at times. I ended up doing about 10.5 miles (16.8k) and it took almost an hour to do it. The commute home at 6pm, a mile or two with a co-worker, and then onto the bike path, which was relatively well-plowed and cleared on the Cambridge side of the Charles River. I crossed over the Charles at Harvard Square and noticed the river is getting a light coating of ice- winter is upon us. The path on the Boston/Brighton side was also relatively well cleared, at times almost comically as the plow evidently lost track of the path and cut a swath into the mud and dirt making short cuts in the usual route. A section of the path in Brighton, behind the Public Theatre (at the wooden bridge) is unplowed but if a rider stays left towards the parking lot the plowing picks up again all the way into Watertown Square- but watch for the black ice!

Saturday afternoon's commute home was noteworthy only in that I had some free time, so I took a quick detour to Torrey Pines grade (a favored short climb in the San Diego area). I had read in the Road Cycling forum that there was a wind blowing from north to south (ie up the hill), so I just had to go ride. Even with street clothes on, thanks to the gentle tailwind, I managed to average over 10 MPH up the climb.

More snow this morning. Nice light powder. Low 20s. I heard a woodpecker attacking a tree. That's about it.

Good Commute this morning with temps around -8C and no wind. The only issue was the bike seemed to be making a lot of different noises. I'll have to figure those out.

Have a great day

Nice commute. The only issue was with my new panniers. The added weight assisted in my previously damaged rear rim going out of true again. Time for a new rim.
Resolved the brake rub by disengaging my rear cantilever brake. Today I will adjust the brake pads out some until I get a chance to visit my LBS.

Commute is was normal, early morning so very little vehicular traffic. It was cold down in the 30s and no end in sight. Came in on my new Trek 1200 and cut about 3 minutes off of my time.

Last night I was debating whether I wanted to ride in this morning. It was not-so-brief moment of laziness as I dozed off to Simpsons reruns on the couch.

By the morning though, I had made my decision and I'm so glad I did! The commute was on of the best ever! And the weather was great. Chilly but not too cold.

Heat wave, high 30s! Feels like summer again compared to the zero windchill week.

I don't like Mondays. I forget who sang that, but I can understand. Was running late today and knew I was gonna be late to the office so after I accepted my lateness, I cruised to work trying to figure out how far I can go from green light to the next red. High of 9 blocks and low of 7 for an average of 8 blocks duing light cycles on Lexington. Totally useless information I know, but nothing much was happening and there's no radio to fiddle with.

Oh ***** Moment of the Day: Knowing I was running late, I realized when I grabbed my keys that I was missing my car keys. Looked all over, checked my jacket pockets, pants, etc., but didn't find them. Rode to where I parked my car last night a few blocks away (I park on the streets) and did a quick search. Relief moment 1: Saw my car was still there. Relief moment 2: Found my car keys lying in a patch of snow right in front of the door. Whew! This being NYC, I was almost sure someone was driving around w/ a new used car today.

Fashion Statement of the Day: LL Bean flannel lined jeans keep me warm w/o having to wear long johns. And they're comfortable now that I've lost enough weight to fit comfortably in them.