The light was green 6 cars ahead and I'm all like WTF why arent teh cars moving and then suddenly i see the hood of a semi-truck sticking out. I'm like WTF what are you doing foolios. He then pulled all the way out. Big ass ace hardware truck. I've adjusted my commute 2 hours earlier so combined with the cloudy weather we've been having it's alot cooler. Traffic is still a ***** and a half though.

As a life long BeanTowner, I here by award this Commuter Merit Badge to Transplant for his unwavering commitment to commuting and fitness.

It must said that this a was mild winter respectively. Consider this past winter a prelude .

Nice ride today! Sunny, little wind, not much traffic. A smart looking M.I.T. Student nearly walked out in front of me. He must have calculated in his mind that it would be safer to check the lane furthest from himself first. That way he'd have less time to react to objects moving closes to him.

Did my short route again as planned, was just out of sorts this morning though...rode off without my glasses, got about a block and realized I was tearing up :-) The whole ride felt really slow though, I think it's cause I ate to much last night. We made taco's will all the trimmings (home made guacamole and everything) it was GREAT but I ate to much.

By the time I got to work I was feeling more "with it" but I'm still kind of dragging, need to get out and be mobile this afternoon to get some more energy. Gonna do 20 miles home today cuz it's the only day this week I'll have time.

Once Holy Week is over and church commitments are fewer, I'll be able to do longer rides, I need to...to gear up for the BTC.

A bit sluggish today since I'm still fighting a cold. And I was late out of the garage for having to reinstall the fenders that I took off last week in a premature fit of Springiness.

I got a bit sweaty with my REI trackpants and Gore-Tex jacket. I guess it's not THAT breathable after all. These days of wet and warm are hard to dress for.

The weather yesterday (Monday) was so great I completely forgot about posting. I took the long way to work, long cruise at lunch and long way home and ended up with 32 miles and then my wife and I did a 12 mile loop on our tandem! Today is pretty nice too so far (the are talking rain but I haven't seen it yet and it's 2pm). Same story today, long way in and long lunch cruise. You can tell I was ready for some good summer like weather.

saw 2 banana peels on the road today, a few traces of bike tracks in sand on the road, during my 20 mile extended ride home today. saw no other bikers w'helmet today, but i know i'm not along out here!
rode to work everyday this year (except 2.5 days last month, due to that repeated flat tire depression/funk) :-) !
traffic, temp, health, is well and predictable!

Took the long way home today which is 11 miles longer than the ride to work. Overheard the following from a woman to her male friend around Battery Park: I don't think I could fake an orgasm with another woman.

I usually ride just a couple of blocks to the train station, and ride that and then bike just another couple blocks to work. But today I went ahead rode home without using the train. The total ride is a mere 7-8 miles, but I am a noob, and wanted to wait for the good weather to give it a try. Well is was a great day and the ride was a lot of fun. I will deffinitly be riding all the way more often!!

woke up late this morning and was late coming in... so no morning rush hour for me. 54 degrees and a slight headwind coming in. generally a smooth commute. seemed like there was a lot more traffic than usual. no close passes or honks but a couple tailgaters and one person gunning the engine to pass (but in the other lane so all was good). I made good enough time coming in even though I was really tired.

the ride back was fun, and the temps warmed up to the mid 70's. first I went up and down the PB and trolley trails then rode to my parents' house about 3 miles away. the route I took was mostly residential streets, with one shortcut where I dismounted and walked the bike across a crosswalk. took a slight detour through a neighborhood park at one point on the route home, that was fun. also rode by a wrecked car that the county police put out for "Buckle Up Week" ... somewhat unsettling but it drives the point home effectively. all in all though, it was a great ride back, no problems at all.

I second the commendation. And don't let the weather gods know you thought it was a mild winter because they will hammer us next year for that. So, this winter was TOUGH! BRUTAL! KICKED OUR BUTTS! and anyone who rode through even half of it deserves a week off on a Caribbean island.

and my commute today was beautiful. Sweet weather. Perfect temp. I'm happy, healthy, what more is there?

Funny; I was just talking to my sister yesterday about how I've never fallen with my clipless pedals...

I was on the last part of my 6.5 mile commute today, when I pulled up to a line of cars waiting for a light at a busy intersection. The old fart () in front of me was too far right for me to squeeze past, so I decided to chill in line and wait for the green light. I noticed a handicapped tag hanging from his rearview mirror.

Just then, he noticed me in his rearview mirror and pulled left a little bit so I could pass. I clipped in and began to pedal, but I quickly realized that I wasn't going fast enough to get started. Before I knew it, I was on the ground.

I was very close to the curb, so I was able to stick my hand out to break my fall, and my bike frame never touched the ground. My ego, however, was damaged. I finally unclipped, stood up, turned around, and waved to the lady behind me to let her know I was okay. After she saw me wave, her look of concern turned into a chuckle.

Oh, and some guy in a pickup truck drifted into the bike lane early in my commute. I yelled "HEY!" and when I got close enough, I told him, "Watch the BIKE LANE!" I think he got the message.

I've decided on a new mantra to say in my head whenever I approach an intersection (see my signature for details).

Good ride to work & home. Have agood nite .

Heavy rain both ways. Hope it stops soon, next week I pick up my new road bike, and my county's Transportation Authority has a program that might pay me $100 of the cost of my new bike since I use it to commute. They also have an emergency ride home program that would give me a free ride home in case of an emergency. They want me to ride, I don't believe it. They are encouraging bicycle commuting. How great is that? I have a couple of coworkers that are considering starting to ride to work when the weather clears, with incentives like these I might not be my company's only bike commuter, at least in good weather. Today was good, no problems, just a few waves from drivers that are used to seeing me ride in the rain.

whoa. i think i'll be calling in sick tomorrow - i'd better be sick, i'd hate to feel like this for no reason. today was gorgeous though. i got out of the house at 7:30, knowing there was another practice at 6. such a pretty morning; perfectly the right kind of crispy-cool, and clouds still left over from the night so no sun-glare looking up approaching cross-streets. spring stuff is happening in what trees there are along the banks of the great grey-green greasy fraser. at the top of the bridge i stopped and got off to let someone approaching me go through, so i got to look down at the water for once. throughout the ride, i got to watch some pretty serious thunderstorm stuff setting itself up over the west side of the city. was cool.

tell you one thing i hate though. when you pack the day's work-clothes in a hurry and don't discover until the shower part that you picked the shirt the cat's been sleeping on. spent the day working in a fleece and pretending there was a shirt under it.

left work at 5. go me. and whoa was it ever gridlocked today. i don't usually ride right at the peak of rush hour, so i thought the 2.5k of nose-to-tail cars was the usual thing. it wasn't that different from my memory of what sent me to biking in a fit of temper about 8 months ago. i found out later at practice that there'd been some hideous accident somewhere to the south of me and what i saw was probably a lot of people trying to use alternate routes. something like that really causes a bike to make sense anyway. i thought of the new york commuters from this board while i was threading my way past all those side-view mirrors. made me feel all cosmopolitan-like.

all that gridlock going nowhere, and someone in an 18-wheel truck was the only driver who actually stopped trying to get around it and waited for me to get across the feeder lane onto the bridge. whoever said that about truckers being the most civilised driver-group they've encountered has had the same kinds of experience as me.

home in plenty of time to make practice. yee hah. and just noticed sometime today that i have until friday to get the car emissions-tested and re-insured. that's what not using it much does to you. karma's in tune though, cause there's a break from practice tomorrow and thursday, so all is good.

i took a extra half-dose of sulfa this morning to try bring my hip under control. doctor's suggestion, so it's okay to do. it might have worked on the hip, but not sure it's worth it. i feel kind of sick.

songs: peggy's kitchen wall, bruce cockburn; gaels blue, michael marra; should have been loved, the proclaimers.

Had a nice ride in this morning. Temps in the lower 40s with lots of traffic out, most I have seen this week so far. I made pretty good time but was very sweaty when I arrived at work. Should be in the mid to upper 70s for the ride home.

Great springtime weather we're having in Vermont. Yesterday was my innaugural ride in the Budvar Budweiser jersey I got in Prague a couple of weeks ago. I think it made me faster, because I was chasing down unsuspecting pleasure cyclists like a madman.

Waiting for a red light (in the Budvar jersey), a carload of coeds went by, and started tooting their car horn. The women on my side leaned out their windows and started waving and giggling.

This morning I spotted a blue heron wading around in some flooded land near the lake, and swimming past it was a cormorant (bird). I'm not sure what food they're trying to find. Frogs, maybe?

A woman was walking her bicycle through the same area and I said, "Problems?" She said, "No. Just looking for birds!"

Ahhh, nice and warm this morning (9 C), so I didn't even need my full-finger gloves. However, I did need to ride my DF Trek today, because it has fenders (and my trike doesn't). They're calling for rain, and I don't like getting wet from the bottom as well as the top...

Nice ride in today! I Finally spotted the new bike shop on Comm.Ave (Landry's) so I'll need to pop in one day to check things out. I live a mere 3.31mi from home, but I've been taking the 20mi route home as my first century is fast approaching. The "Bike Room" is starting to fill up again unfortuanately. There should be reserved parking for those who commuted all winter...myself and a few others.

I just paid for another year of secure, heated underground bike parking. 1/6 the price of a bus pass per month, 2.6% of the cost of car parking. As a bonus, I'm HHCMF!

The ride today was uneventful, although I almost got taken out by a van that was trying to avoid another van. I was just standing behind a truck, waiting at a red light, and whoosh, I feel the presence of this van come up right beside me. I was lucky to be standing in the middle of my lane, or I would have been tapped for sure.

My rides to and from work this week have been very pleasant, but generally uneventful, except for coming home yesterday evening.

Coming through Downtown DC on a busy street that I usually take, there was a guy standing in the street, well past the parked cars and mostly across the right-most traffic lane, with his arm outstretched trying to hail a cab. I normally don't sweat these things; but he was (perhaps unwisely) pretty far out there, and it's really a pretty busy street...

I'm normally not very confrontational, and I'm not sure what got into me, but I just couldn't resist doing something. So, as I passed him, I slowed down and very lightly "high fived" his outstretched hand. He was pretty surprised and said "whaaaa-uuuh-oooh-aaaah," or something like that. I then sped back up, quietly giggled to myself, and kept riding.

Maybe it's not really very funny and I shouldn't have done that (I mean, I did startle him...), and maybe I wasn't really advancing the cause of cyclist-pedestrian goodwill (and I normally give peds a lot of leeway, especially during tourist season); but I did get a strange satisfaction out of it. Oh well, anyway, I just thought I'd share that with everyone.

Great ride home yesterday, did 20 miles cuz the weather was SOOO nice, 75, with just a hint of a breeze.

About halfway home (on the uphill section) I had to stop to wait for traffic to clear before I could cross a street, had to wait for almost a full minute as it's a very busy street, while I was waiting a "fair weather rider" pulled up and edged ahead of me. He gave me a friendly but business like "hello" and from his fancy Campy LeMond to his $70 Pearl jesey to his gyro helmet to his fish white legs he screamed "I only ride when it's nice and because I have lots of money, but I think I'm really fast"

Sure enough when traffic cleared he darted out like he was somebody and tried to pull away. With my 20 pound backpack on I paced him for about a half mile, getting a good draft, then at the base of a long straight. I pulled out and went around him upshifted after I came over, and kept crankin. I never looked back, heard him for a while, then he dropped. After about a mile or so I think he turned off, cuz when i had to stop to cross another street he was gone.

Me and my 10 year old 8 speed Trek with year round conditioning OWNED him :-)

I still feel good about the punishment I delt out :-) I wasn't able to ride in today, have to meet my wife and father-in-law right after work for his birthday dinner.

I don't know why, but I think this is hilarious.

Kind of reminds me of the time my friend was running a marathon and passed what he thought was a guy giving out cups of water, so he grabbed the cup. Well it was just a spectator standing there holding a gin & tonic.

Its funny when people think they can span the distance of a 6 lane wide road while you're crossing in front of htem.

Ha ha... Just what you need while running a marathon!

Nice day, but traffic is getting heavier and heavier.