Distraction compounded by stupidity. I put my lunch, including a very ripe peach and banana, in my pannier. And as I was rolling out of the garage I grabbed a couple of cans of soda and put those in, right on top. Duh.

Fine ride until I reached the edge of Capitol Park. I took to the path but to avoid some walkers going three-abreast, I tried tightrope-riding the edge of the pavement. Just as you might expect, I caught the edge and went down. Gasp! "Are you okay?!?" said one of the Three Abreasters. I gritted my teeth, "Yes, I'm fine. Thanks."

When I get to my office I discover I've made compote in my pannier. Sigh.

banana/peach is a good flavor, at least, if you can sort out the peel.

Commute this morning was fine, except for having a minivan driver pass me on the left as I signalled my left turn. Then he added to it by making a right turn in front of me. Not close enough to be a real right hook, but still dumb.

I waved at him giving my best "WOW! That was really SMART!" look, and he gave me the finger. Which I gladly returned. :)

H is for the horrid heat around me

U is for my underwear that's wet

M is for the mugginess all over

I is for the itchy helmet 0n my head

D is for the Dozen Bugs I've eaten

I is for "It's not the heat, it's the Humidity"

T is for the traffic lights at which I wait

Y is for the yipping dog I dodged

put them all together they spell "Humidity"----- blah, blah. blah.

actually the commute was nice after about a week off. but sweaty. AND I picked up a nice shiny metal screw in my front tire. looks like I'll get some tube changing practice today. sigh.

was still fun though.:)

I'm back to commuting on the mtb beater instead of the fixie, not cuz I'm tired of the fixie, but cuz the new work location doesn't have any bike racks, is extremely busy (it's Grand Central Terminal) and so my bike gets knocked around and isn't as secure as before. That beater's heavy as hell, and not as much fun, but until I get the bike situation figured out, the beater gets the nod.

I took the extended ride home to get a workout and break in the Brooks and watched two roadies yell at other bikers and joggers and rollerbladers and each other as they tried to pass each other. One would yell "On your left!" right before he tried to pass while the one in front would then stand up and start sprinting. I stayed w/ them at a safe distance just to watch. They were kind of reckless in the crowds and were still going at it when I turned off the MUP.

Nice, rando.

Two fun things have happened to me recently. Yesterday, I was taking my "short cut" (not really shorter, but nicer) through a private road belonging to a golf club, and saw all these golf carts crossing the road to get from one hole to the next. There was even a guy directing them, and this was 8 in the morning! When I rode past, I said "Looks like a golf cart parade!". He chuckled and said that actually, it was a big tournament.

Twice in the last month, the little road behind the shopping center at the end of my ride has been completely blocked by a trailer across the road, backed up to unload at the back door of one of the stores. Since it was not even running, I simply dismounted and ducked underneath, feeling a bit superior at having gotten away with some small cheat!

Nice ride in this AM. The full moon looked great, though the clouds obscured it eventually. Saw two other commuters on bikes this AM, which is a rarity for me. Especially given the time of the sightings, ~6:00 and ~6:30. The first one followed me for miles. I thought at first he might be on a Moped because of the very bright headlight, but a moped would have caught me sooner or later as I was only averaging ~17 mph. Rain forecast for the afternoon, though these days it seems that if they forecast rain, it won't. If they don't forecast it, it's almost guaranteed.

In Tempe?? Come on over to Georgia for some real humidity!! :D Actually Georgia seems to have been pretty humidless this summer - Not complaining mind you just saying...

And I love the poetry!!

I think I'm gonna get rained on today... and I'm looking forward to it.

Warmer ride in than yesterday or so it seemed. Was sweating up a storm. Probably because I was wearing my helmet today as opposed to yesterday. That combined with heavy traffic slowed me down and when traffic's that bad, I end up exerting more energy as opposed to when traffic's moving and I find a good rhythm.

No riding today. :( I went to bed tired and woke up tired so I drove. http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/sad/1004.gif

Not sure if I was tired because of --
1. the hot, humid temps and smog we've been having.
2. working long days and then doing lots of household chores when I get home.
3. the years catching up with me.

I hope it's not #3. I'm just a kid of 61. http://emoticons4u.com/cool/cool18.gif

Zipped home last night because I needed to bail out the MTB from the bike store. Just barely beat out a downpour....just a light sprinkle is all I got. 2 minutes after I walked in the door, the skies let loose. Drove down to the LBS.. it wasn't done yet. Sigh.

This morning I got to chat a bit with another commuter headed the same direction. That happens pretty rarely. Weather was a perfect 67f and 47% humidity.

Crossed paths with my daughter, she was driving and turned left as I was coming straight. She honked, I waved. Odds are slim for that one in a city of 1/2 million. She's on my list though... tomorrow she moving to the east coast with the grandbaby. It's a sad day, but at least the ride in gave me time to reflect on it.

Not to bad this morning. Had to go to a public meeting until nine last night, so wasn't real enthusiastic about getting up for work this morning. I had plans to get up and eat a real breakfast at the local dinner, but I slept through that. Luckily a co-worker brought chicken biscuits. Another late night tonight then an easy day tomorrow.

yeah, I know the humidity is wimpy here. I used to live in Tennessee... but it still got me! all 30% of it! :p

Humid ride in this morning, for here anyway. Started sprinkling right when I was going in the door at work. I have been spinning higher gears lately, not sure if that is what is getting me sweating more the last few days.

I drove into town last night to get coffee beans, ~1 mile each way, totally took longer than biking would have, I am such an idiot.

Nice ride as far as my gym (which is close to work, and where I shower and change). On my way from the gym to work, I managed to have my second "can't get my damn feet off the damn petals" moment. While waiting at a light, I fell onto my side (in my work clothes) in front of a large bunch of cars. Somebody shouted out "what happened?". Very embarassing.

A cute young woman handed me my underwear this morning! :love:

I was speeding downhill through an intersection where the light was green and there was no traffic, and I hit a bump and everything went flying out of my open-topped grocery pannier. The lunch stuff was all in its own plastic bag, but the fresh socks and underwear were loose, and it was all lying in the road just before the intersection. Fortunately, I did a U-ey and still had the light to go back through the other way before any cars got there. But a young woman who must have seen it happen was crossing the street to the donut shop, and picked up my socks and underwear (I expected she'd just stop with the socks) and handed them to me. We exchanged some small talk and went on our way.

No, I didn't get her number. I'm a happily married man. :rolleyes:

Got back from the Algonquin Provincial Park tuesday four days of Canoeing and drinking and hanging out in the back country! I love Canada you can drink legally at 18! Yesterday was the day of annoyances the front brake pads have been squealing and yesterday they hit the climax and are horrible! the pad material is as stiff as a brick maybe that is why they are squealing then my shoes laces kept coming undone and started crawling for the bike mechanics argh. Also yesterday I had to take the company cage out to make some pickups,and deliveries. Someone pulled out in front of me and due to what I learned form bicycling safety on these forms, and websites people have posted, I prvented a T-bone! Today was a nice day for commuting except for the grey clouds brought my lunch and some extra things to work the bike felt like a lead weight tied to a brick with a parachute dragging behind it the muscles got a nice work out today

Cancelled my ultimate frisbee game Tuesday because rain in RTP was "guaranteed". Rained everywhere else BUT there. :(

Big Ron and jack, either of you guys (or anyone else from The Triangle?) riding in BikeFest Saturday in Hillsboro? I'm doing the 31 mile option (maybe doing the 50 if I feel good).

If you'll be there, look for me. I'll be riding an OLD red and whilte Cannondale with down tube shifters and a frame too small for me (it's a bike I borrowed from a friend for the ride).

Oh, and the commute was mostly uneventful.

Beej

Still commuting intermittently, decent ride today. Seeing my cycling miles will go to crap once the baby gets here I'll prolly start running the 3.5miles to work.

Didn't ride in today, had an idiot moment last night which ended up with a 7 hour visit to the ER...

For those that know the route, was following a guy on a fixie along Queens Quay eastbound, was cruising past him heading onto the bike trail from the bike lane, crossing the train rails and (much to my surprise) the front tyre got caught in the rail track.

Cue the flying Flim. Did a few nice scrapes on elbows and knees, little one on my right wrist but seemed to take most of the blunt force on my left wrist - wasn't marked, but swelled up real big and was sore as hell. I rode carefully home, parked the bike and took the bus to the hospital. ER staff put it in a cast cleaned me up and off I went - they just had a busy night is all.

A HUGE thank you goes out to the cyclist on the fixie (yellow shirt) - he saw it all and seemed incredibly concerned - the compassion and care was very much appreciated!

Now I'm off the bike for a good 7-10 days at least.

Luckily, the bike suffered cosmetic scratches only by the looks, I will probably take a better look once I'm closer to riding again.

Then you best quit flashin your knickers at all the gals! :D

Nothing out of the ordinary. Which is just fine with me.

Aired up the rear tire before I left this morning. Okay, my husband aired my rear tire for me this morning. What a concept. Duh, no wonder I've been so sluggish. Still thrilled with the weather, just the tiniest bit of perspiration when I arrived at work today. Trying to enjoy the wide open bike path, next week the kiddies will start school, wobbling about in packs of three and four, no situational awareness whatsoever (not that I did at that age, either). Happy riding, all!

Another hot one. 81 this morning, 101 tonight, with a hard brassy sun beatng down and a headwind like Flying Spaghetti Monster's Industrial Strength Hair Dryier of Pain.

Still, beats driving.

Or walking.