Hangovers are a blast.

I rode really hard for the first portion of my route. Must have been all the added testosterone.:)
I was laboring like a mule on the last straightaway before the office, though. Guess it caught up with me. I felt like I was swimming during the 5-10 minutes of cool down at my desk.

Regardless, I'm glad i did it, cos there was some SERIOUS temptation to not even get out of bed this morning.

Good job, Floyd. ;)

Interesting morning today. Very few cars, light mist, low clouds, intermitent breeze. Strange weather, but looks like it will burn off this afternoon. Stopped and got some fig-filled cake snacks this morning, so I'm a happy worker.

Broke the law this morning. Stopped at a light to turn left, and the dang light just wouldn't change, even with the huge, noisy, smelly diesel truck sitting on the sensor behind me. After waiting a solid 10 minutes I just ran the light, as did the truck and a bunch of cars.

I'm sure they all blamed the light not changing on "that *&^%*&# cyclist".

Oh, almost forgot this one. Nearly got hit from behind by a sheriff yesterday on the way home. Rode my tail for a second or two, then gunned it and pulled out around me very aggressively. Bear in mind, this is all on a 4-lane (2 each direction) road and no one in the left lane behind us. "Serve and protect" my a$$.

Weather was warmer this am, around 63f or so. Made for a nice ride in. You can tell the high school kids are on the road now. Many more agressive drivers out at 6:30am than there used to be. One almost nailed me on a high speed right turn into our complex while I was coming out. I yelled at the little turd. He gave me the F-you look. Kids.... sigh

Was tired this am because I was up late last night building a blinkie. Yes, I acutally soldered all the Transistors, Resistors, Capicitors, and LEDs onto a circut board. Surprising thing was that it worked when I was done. I had never done anything like that before.

Commute was great this morning. I actually got a green light at SPEED to cross old milton parkway I didn't think that was possible...

Today will be our 40th day of >100° temps this Summer - w00t.

Still, commute was nice this am, 82, not too humid, winds negligible.
Beaucoup insect life on the trail, passed two ladies of a certain age on comfort bikes, wearing headnets.

Local high school cross country running team has started practicing on the trail, too, but they all seem pretty clued into the protocol.

Overcharged my L&M NiMH battery by about 10 stinking hours yesterday, so I'm curious to see how it's affected my run time.

fig-filled cake snacks??? Is there a new bakery in downtown Decatur? :)

A green light at Old Milton Parkway? :beer: You're a brave soul.


It looked like nighttime when I left the house. Got darker as I got farther from home. :o
The students are back at the university I ride through and so are the @$$holes. Some clown was driving a university vehicle on the wrong side of the street on a two lane two way street. He was talking to his buddy in the vehicle beside him. I stopped and when he saw me he stopped. I asked if he knew which side of the street he should be driving on. He just laughed and continued talking to his friend in the other vehicle. As I passed I got the license number. What an idiot! I wonder if he'll still be employed after my phone call? http://users.telenet.be/eforum/emoticons4u/evil/111.gif

The rain started when I was about 3 miles from work. Changed to semi-hard rain by the time I reached work. I do not like getting to work with a wet bike, panniers, ME, etc. Wiped the bike down and dried off. Then I was able to get to work. Luckily I'm usually the first one here. :)

Back from vacation, so it is trailer time again. Dropped off my daughter at day camp and continued on to the office. Trail-A-Bikes are a great idea -- vastly less work than towing a trailer.

Paul

He was running your plate to see if you were wanted. ;)

I took the Caldaro out for an early morning loop of the Pocket this morning, returned to the house to shower and change and kiss the wife and kids. Rather than switch to the craptastic Hard Rock as I usually do, I hopped back on the Caldaro.

Italian steel is the jam, as the SS/FG kids would say.

I was tired this morning... didn't want to roll out of bed at all. As a result I slept in and had to hammer it like crazy to get to work on time. And it was FUN. I was flying. Even though traffic was not congested and moving freely, I was actually passing all the cars and making all the traffic lights! Woo-hoo! (Yeah, I know, my ride to work is downhill... but it's only a slight down grade most of the way there! :))

Only one more day to go on this job, and then... um, well, I find something else to do. :D

I had to work an industry golf tournament this morning before going to work. I was told there would be breakfast. Yah right - black coffee and Doritos. I was so hungry I ate a lot of chips and drank about 5 cups of coffee. I felt gross when I finally got to ride into work. Bleagh.

nuther benefit of bike commuting:

it's pizza thursday around our house. i just took delivery of it, and instead of hunting up a clipboard analogue or trying to get through my (over-long) name against a wall before the pen ran dry, i just signed the (cobweb-thin) visa slip against my own (rock-hard) thigh. go me.

and maybe another, if your sense of humour is off:

on sunday we used the car (friend with art show having reception in back of beyond). on wednesday morning pre-work, i let myself talk extra-long to someone else because 'eh, i can always drive.' discovered a flat battery that way, and it was kind of fun listening to the bcaa dude when he asked the traditional 'when do you think you left your lights on?' and i answered him. i think it led him to think i don't have a job. and why don't bike people have a bcaa, we'd like to know?

so today was bike day for sure. really nice. it's just that kind of cool and grey now where i always start out in my neon-bright safety jacket, and always peel it halfway off while i'm waiting for the first light. it's too complicated getting a jacket all the way off when you're in a messenger bag with stability strap, so i usually just work the other arm free and let the thing wave behind me the rest of the way like superman's cape cause i still like the safety of the eye-bleed colour. no stops or detours this morning, just a really nice peaceful ride. i love that sensation of being just on the sweaty side of warm, when the air's nice and cool. i even found an actual free slot in the bike rack today, in spite of arriving so late.

coming home i just lollygagged. this is fun too, if you're feeling like it. stopped at a 7-11 and bought one of those trivial inconsequential little items you can't live without, and then just slobbed around outside like a teenager for an hour or so, drinking water and reading the georgia strait. got asked for directions by someone heading to where i'd come from, so it was fun to say 'well, i work there, but i don't actually know too much about driving there . . . '

eating cantaloupe and a salad with spinach in it. wtf is wrong with me?

Good ride home last night. Uneventful. Had a nice ride in this AM with a few notable events. As I was taking a hard right while doing ~25mph, my front tire slipped a little to the left. I heard it slide and felt my balance shift too, but thankfully I didn't go down. Never had that happen to me on dry pavement before. Maybe I had a little oil on my front tire after passing through the intersection. I also saw 3...yes 3!! other people biking this AM. I'm on the road from ~ 5:50-6:40 and on rare occasions I might see one other commuter, so seeing 3 in one day is unheard of. Maybe the cooler weather is bringing them out. One of them, an attractive young lady, was riding with no helmet (or lights) though.

Wet riding home last night and then again this morning. Really got pelted the last mile last night, at least I missed the *baseball* sized hail that was falling earlier in the day!

90% through first week of commuting M-F, 198 miles down, 22 left to go. With all that gas money I oughta save by not driving to work I think I'm gonna buy me some better rain gear...

commute this morning was great. Made it in record time. 8.3 miles in 36 minutes. Only one red light. Only one idiot in an F150 this morning who goes by me with about 4 inches to spare, then cuts me off by making a right turn in front of me. Thank God it wasn't a dually. The rear wheel well would have definitely taken me out.

Nice commute. Another cloudy, humid morning. :p
Saw a few commuters. Got stuck behind two block long backup. Usually only 3 or 4 cars at that intersection, so opted for the sidewalk to get past them. Let's see now, that's the third time this year that I've had to use the sidewalk.
Too many cars in this town. http://users.telenet.be/eforum/emoti...t/sterb003.gif

Something's up with my seatpost. It keeps slipping downward. Any ideas how to fix it? The bike is 20 years old. I'm thinking of removing it entirely, cleaning it with a good solvent, and then putting it back in.

Or I can use it as an excuse. "Honey, my seat keeps falling down. I need an <insert expensive bicycle> ASAP!" :D

The lower seat works the tops of my quads though. :eek:

Played leap frog with a bus 3 times last night unitl I finally won when he got tangled in the traffic. suckah... Blazed home so I could switch out to the MTB for the Thursday night ride with the guys. We proceded to tear up 8 miles of Ute Valley Park off road action, climbing, hucking, and just general crazyness. It's all fun till someone bloodies up the trail :) Wheelied almost all the way across a long bridge with a curve in the middle. Some day I'll make it all the way.

61F and drizzle on the way in...way kind of nice actually. Threw the cover on the bike cuz I'm pretty sure that it will at least sprinkle and rain a bit today.

Gotta tune up the tandem tonight for the http://www.moonlight-classic.com/ ride in Denver tomorrow night. Need to hang lights, the new pedals, more lights, and then some more lights. The little woman wants to hang streamers on the bars, but I may draw the line before there.

nothing particularly exciting to report this morning, other than a cabbie deciding to pull in front of me, then straddling the bike lane and half of the right lane. Good times. I'm glad I was half-asleep and biking veeery slowly at the time, that could have really really sucked.
The 4 lane highway I cross over on my bike path wasn't as packed as usual this morning. Kind of disappointing in a way, mocking them usually inspires me to pick it up once I get on the trail.


Big Ron... where in raleigh do you live?

I live in Cary, near Harrison Avenue and work on the northen end of RTP..... How about you?

I'm in the D.C. area now, but my fam lives in N. Raleigh, right near creedmoor / 540.

I was just curious to see, the triangle isn't the most bikeable place. My brother may start commuting from N. Raleigh to Rex, though, which sounds interesting, especially if he takes creedmoor.

This morning I decided to take the lakefront path into work instead of the streets. I took it home for the first time earlier this week, and totally loved it - even though it adds about 3 1/2 miles to my commute, there's no stopping. Plus, the scenery is prettier.

Coming into work that way turned out to be a little different. Took me about 20 minutes longer, mostly due to the heavier winds off the lake slowing me down to an average speed of 9 mph (sucks!). But it was still much more gorgeous than riding on the street. The only problem is, I wasn't quite sure how to get off the path in a way that easily got me to my office (darn one-way streets in downtown Chicago!) so I ended up having to walk my bike for about a block.

It was great otherwise, though! A little worried about the ride home, as they're predicting "strong storms" starting around 3 PM. I think I'll bust out of work early :)

It must be Sacramento Sidewalk Riding Day. I must have seen 6 other riders today and I was the only one on the street. No, wait. I take that back. There was the guy going the wrong way on 21st Street. He was in the gutter and to his credit, he was on the right side of the road, the only problem is that 21st Street is one-way. Dumbass.

Instead of my nice new route, I stopped by the grocery store this morning. I can't believe how much I stuffed in my pannier. In addition to my pants, shirt, and small towel, I had a 12-pack frigdemate of soda, a loaf of bread, a 1-pound bag of pretzels, a large jar of peanut butter, a small jar of jelly, a large squeeze-bottle of honey, and a pound of chocolates. It was great on the downhills because I coasted faster, but made the uphills tougher.

Got my bike goodie box last night. New lock (NY 3000), mega horn, and reflective vest. The vest doesn't have the tail (bike version) so it goes back. The lock is awesome. And the mega horn is not so mega. I thought it would be louder. Oh well. I'll keep it and see if I like it better as I actually get to use it.

Mike