Pea Soup!

I saw one too, but this one just hopped out of my path. Maybe he's trying to throw you a curveball.

I stared down a (live) deer on the way home yesterday. Or he stared me down, I stopped pedalling anyway until he figured his best route off the path.

New one this morning. 45+ mph road, two lanes each direction and a center turn lane. I'm taking the entire right lane as usual, approaching my right turn.

Black pickup pulls into my lane from the left lane--not REAL close, but close--and pulls almost all the way to the right, blocking me. I sigh. I stop, then start walking the bike past him in the narrow gap he has left me.

As I walk alongisde him, he rolls down the passenger window and says , "Hey." I keep looking straight ahead and said, "Hi." He says "Hey" again, I say "Hi" again and keep moving past him.

I have no idea what he wanted to say--maybe it was to ask directions!--but I got this feeling that it wasn't anything I wanted/needed to hear.

I made my turn at the light. He passed me on that road, but by that point I was probably doing 15+ and he was doing over 45.

cold and humid

Got rained on last night on the way home... no jacket with me so I just had to "Man Up" and ride. Wasn't really that bad. Cool and refreshing is my justification I suppose.

Nothing special on the ride in this morning. Just your typical cool temps, bright sunshine, blue sky, bird chirping, bunny hopping, friendly chatting ride in to work.

Parking has become a real issue here. Now all management and supporting staff for the center have to park in a lot that is 1/4 mile away. Everybody is whining about the walk. I park 3 feet from the front door [nanny nanny boo boo] Some are talking about hauling bikes then riding the 1/4 mile to the office. I guess it's a start anyways.

50s and raining this morning. As always, it had stopped by the time I got in.

Last time it dropped from 80s to 50s I was pretty cold, but not so much today. Last time was very hot at night, too, while recently it's been going down to 40s even though it was up in the 90s during the day this past weekend, so maybe I've been retaining some physiological temp memory or something.

Two bunnies and a ground hog in the first mile on the way home. Storms came through in the hour before I left. From mile 2 through 8 was on leading edge of storm where it was cooler and large drops were coming down enough to keep me damp. Broke out for last 4 miles. Fast speed - 18mph ave - wonderful compared to mtb I rode yesterday. I had dropped off my car for repair so had to do a RT. On those days I ride much cheaper MTB and lock up outside.

I'm a little annoyed. There's a group of riders in my building who are going out for a ride this afternoon but for some reason they changed the time to 4pm and I can't sneak out early. So, I'll just ride by myself and think about how I would have made them suffer like dogs.

Anyway, the ride in today was pleasant. I actually left the house reasonably on time.

Hot and humid on the way in...soaking wet from a deluge of rain on the way home. It was actually quite nice to be cooled off by the rain. I was a little worried about being seen though. Ironically I had just installed fenders, lights and "waterproofed" my rack bags this past weekend...

still hot and muggy, as always. moderately paced ride in from my parents house. good ride, nothing out of the ordinary. felt a few raindrops as I was getting onto campus so I parked at the only covered rack on campus then as I was walking to my class the sun came out.

left a full 3 hours later than usual since I was working on a presentation that I have to do tomorrow. decided to ride up and down the PB Trail then take it back home. hammered all the way there on campus. the ride up and down the trail was good, it was in better condition today (up until the area between Tornado Alley and the Cherry Hill Road intersection which is still tore up). the rain started coming down as I was turning off the trail at the golf course and soon turned into a torrential downpour of virtually horizontal rain. and me without my raingear. I actually turned off the road, got under a nearby awning and waited it out... fortunately the really heavy rain subsided fairly quickly. still, I got thoroughly soaked and my rain pants still haven't seen any actual rain use. other than the little shower, it was still a great ride.

Grocery day, always a sweat-fest. Trailer, cooler full of ice, all told about 85#. Mid 90º's and humidity in the 50% range, feel like I've been swimming all day.
Chain fell off right as I pulled into the driveway, it's stretched a bit in it's 3K lifetime. Un-nutting the rear hub and sliding it back a touch, put things right.
--A

Hot, humid, hotter, and more humidity today. I made a big mistake by not putting some proper riding clothes in my bag. Rode in this morning in office clothes, luckily it was moderate early. But this afternoon I almost rode home in my boxers. So I treated myself to a DQ Blizzard, which tasted good but didn't help the exercising much.

Nice ride both ways. I have to go in an hour early tomorrow, my first dark morning ride in a while. I hope tomorrow is warmer than today was.

A bit misty on the ride in and the ride back. Most annoying bit was where I make this left turn from one major street to another. Have a left turn lane and get a green arrow. All the cars, who are in front of me make the turn and since I'm slower, it takes me a bit longer. A young girl (with another friend in the front seat) in a big ass black SUV going the other direction wants to make a right turn onto the same street (she has a red light). I'm sure she didn't see me even though I'm wearing one of those day glo yellow jackets. She starts to move forward right in front of/into me and finally sees me. I have to slam on my brakes. She slams her breaks and then honks at me! I give her a WTF look and she acts like nothing happened. Wasn't hurt, but just annoyed and wanted to vent a bit.

I had a fun ride, got in a race with a guy in lycras on a road bike, he should have been owning me as I was pedalling my MTB with 1.9" knobblies but he couldn't shake me off, he kept looking round and sneeking a glance at me and I was still there everytime. He jumped a red light to get ahead and then stopped at the next one he couldnt jump because there was traffic going across and then I appeared and said "look whos here" and he just turned away and then zoomed from the light and then eventually started jumping some really dodgy lights that I didn't want to mess with so he did lose me, but only by cheating so I claim the moral victory

On the way to work, closer to work than home they were redoing the bike road, so they made a detour (sp?) with THIN yellow string/rope, it was fine.

But on the way back i was thinking about somthing (dono what youll see why...) and thay yellow string FLEW at me (i was rinding right in to it lol, also this is were i lost what ever i was thinking about) so i slamed my brakes (lots of squeling) look around and i was 1 foot away from the string and the front wheel nearly under it (the string was at turso hight)... AND THEN i was going down this brige and 3 persons (lol, persons) come out all USELESS there like 17-20 or what ever, and they just hog the WHOLE road... WTF! and im going down 40+kmph, so what do you do? you zip between 2 of them lol and the guy of the group just swears out REAL SLOW like hes drunk (but i think he wasnt) FFFAAAAAKKK (but in finnish lol), and then almost home like under 2 min, theres a crossing, and this fat guy is looking to his left, doing maybe 10kmph, and im coming from the right... and he WONT look right!!! so i gues hes going to stop (like he should, theres the triangle and crossing sign and everything) BUT NO he slows down and then starts of again so i slam my brakes (squels again) and my front wheels is covering his right head light, so i back up and he speeds off, then i get home and vist BF...

Hot sweaty and uneventful ride home last night. Even sweatier ride in today. I'm guessing the dew point must be getting close to 75F. The low temp this AM was only 77 at any rate. Can't wait for cooler September weather to arrive.

Nothing to report. It's getting hotter but my new saddle bag is on the way. Hopefully this will be my last week with a messenger bag until autumn. Looks like a long, long, long day at work so I'll be checking BF frequently and hopefully leaving in after it has cooled off a bit.

I beat the rain to work again today, but I had an uphill climb into a 20 mph wind, so that was fun.

I was about to make my left onto a side street, as to avoid a rotary, when I checked over my shoulder to see a police cruiser approaching. No big deal, but I guess I was eager to demonstrate proper hand signaling, and as I turned to check his position, I hit a pothole, and lost my water bottle. So now I'm signaling a stop so I can go get it, and he revs his engine, and blows by me in the oncoming lane!

Yesterday afternoon I rode home in a soaking rain. This morning there was no rain and I had a bit of a tailwind. Nothing much to see today. Just a couple of women walking a really overweight Welsh Corgi.

I ate 2 bugs this morning...
they were small but still somewhat tasty.

Another day in the sauna.
This would be great right now.


I see more new commuters each day. Saw three this morning.
Something I've been seeing a lot of lately is people walking with backpacks or messenger bags. I hardly ever saw anyone walking before. Some are walking to the bus stop and some are walking to work. I guess gas prices are really hitting people's wallets.

It's way too hot and sticky around here in the mornings. I almost got hit by an idiot while leaving my apartment complex this morning. I don't even think he saw me even though he turned less than 10 feet in front of me. I yelled to him and saw him look back but that was it. Heat index will probably be over 100 this afternoon. After my ride home I will be riding to my soccer game. I will be dead by the time I ride home from that.

I forgot to mention that today was my first commute with my new fenders! I specifically rode through puddles to test them out, and they really work as advertised. Also, I wore my new Atomic Orange - Hot Gear from Under Armor, and not only does it wick really well, but the wind goes right through it. Really keeps you cool. I can't wait to try the Cool Gear in the fall.