I had my first dog charge me this morning.
Riding through a park next to the national guard armory and this mid size dog comes from out of nowhere snarling and barking at me. Scared the living hell out of me. My response was a very loud "HEY! WHAT THE F&*K!?
Scared the heck out of the dog. Then I noticed the incompetent owner and yelled "Get a f'ing leash!"
No big deal. Been a quiet week. *yawn*

Had a good ride home, wind was kinda in my face going up Sherbourne (a slight incline - which I'll have to measure on that site sometime), but mostly had a tailwind, which was awesome.

30 mins 19 seconds, I'll mention the seconds as I've knocked a good couple of minutes off tonight - fastest time yet since I've been back at it. Average of 14.3mph, I'm not surprised at that one - I put in a fair amount of effort racing some cars and a van along Cosburn (I was in a bikelane).

The look on this van drivers face was a pearler when I came barreling past him again, he looked so confused.

I decided to air out some of my 'crazy' tonight, and was doing the crazy incidental music thing that Jim Carrey did in The Cable Guy at the end when he's up the tower, heh. That felt great fun :D

Said another Hello to a couple of riders, one lady I caught up with at the lights by Bloor/Parliament, just small talked but it was nice. I always try and wish them a good ride if I have enough time to converse.

Thanks! I attribute my mediocre wannabe bike messenger skills to video games and the desire to not get stuck behind cars all morning/evening/ever. ;)

For whatever reason, cross traffic was blocking thru traffic at a lot of intersections which meant me leaving a lot of cars behind as I rode in between the gaps created by the traffic blocking the intersection.

I was feeling a tad bit under the weather this morning, so I had my wife drive me in today. No shame in that, though, because we had a lot of errands to run on the way home. Unfortunately, it was a day that was well worth riding, clear & cold, about 35F, but not a drop of rain to be found. The last week it has been raining profusely here, so much so that my car flooded out on the passenger side, but I fixed that (after a moment of sheer terror/panic!) this afternoon... my car hadn't been driven since last Tuesday when my wife & I went out to dinner. I also filled up with gas... got 40 days on this tank, though only 265 miles on 12 gallons... my car gets much better mileage on the freeway (33 freeway/19-22 city). Oh well... I'd still only get 265 miles to a tank that lasts over a month than have to fill up every other day, yet get 400 miles to the tank...

This is about yesterdays commute, as it seems like I'll be carpooling a bit more often at least for the next couple weeks. As it turned out I did crack a rib on Monday when I dove over my handlebars. Doc says I should stay off the bike for 6 weeks, I told the doc no way, so we compromised somewhere inbetween.

Yesterday I took my Gary Fisher Wahoo (2001, last of the steel framed Wahoo) as it has gears and is a bit of an easier ride so my aching side wouldn't be such a big deal. I got a late start so I pulled into the bus depot just in time to see my bus clearing the light at the end of the street. I give chase for about two miles when I finally catch the bus at a stop next to Highland Mall. The whole sprinting on a mountain bike with a (not known then) broken rib was no fun. Elated at catching the bus, I got to relax for about 8 miles until I arrived at my destination stop. The rest of the ride is 6 miles of some uphill and downhill (mostly up on the way there) but I took it at a slower than usual pace and it didn't bother me too much.

The ride home was a trial, as I tried to take a shortcut and ended up with three huge thorns in my tire. I actually only found and patched the first two as the third had broken off underneath, so all together it took me 15 minutes to find the three holes and by that time I just said to hell with it and busted out my new tube. Next time I'm just going to skip patching until later and not chance missing the bus. Which I did. I rode about a mile past my usual stop (so a little over 7 miles total) before my side started really bothering me so I stopped at the next stop I saw and waited another 25 minutes for the bus. On my last ride home I had some ******* honk at me and turned around to see what was up and it ended up being a tattoo artist friend of mine. Heh. Besides the pain and the tire my ride was really pleasant. The weather was nice and I didn't run into any thoughtless or evil drivers.

Tomorrow I think I'm gonna carpool again though. :(

bus-rider's limbo
for thursday. meditate on
penitential haiku

it's traditional, sorta. kinda. in the sense of 'not really'. some time ago someone failed to commute by bike and posted a haiku to confess and atone. or something.

bike will be back in my life tomorrow!

rode into Dorchester this morning then to downtown Boston then back to Dorchester and then home. This is the last of the long 16 hour Thursdays. I managed to keep riding while on this whacked out schedule and though at times the bike was wearing me down a bit I think it kept me sane.

Beautiful ride home yesterday PM. The weather was perfect, ~70F, 50% rH, little to no winds. Very enjoyable. Some knuucklehead in a minivan kept trying to pass me while I was going downhill doing ~30mph in a 25 speed zone. That irritated me enough that I took the lane, floored it and dropped his ass. Speed topped out at 42mph, much faster than a minivan could move on that stretch of road. He caught me as the downhill became an uphill of course, but at least then when he passed me he was doing 30 and I was doing 15....
Ride in this AM was very pleasant as well. Looking forward to a sunny and 78F ride home, and hoping to break the 1.5 hour round trip commute time for the first time since my shoulder injury in Sept. Need to average 17.4 on the way home to make it happen.

Tailwind on my ride home yesterday. Tailwind on my ride to work today. Life is good. :D

I think I'm getting faster on the Liquid, finally. Yesterday I caught a roadie with aero bars no less. He was moving along but he lost his head of steam on a hill. I didn't pass him though. I was concerned he was playing with me. :eek: :p This morning I caught a guy on a hybrid. He was funny, waving enthusiastically to the other MUP users. Nice to see. I don't usually wave but I'll smile and say hi instead.

Man it was bitterly cold this morning...and it was only 30 degrees. I think it has to do with the fact that it was a clear day and a light wind that made it seem colder. Nice ride in...the sun certainly seems brighter at 730am when its cold out :)

tokolosh is right
i didn't commute today
because it's friday

The ride in was really nice this morning, temp was 55 and sunny. Very little traffic made for an enjoyable commute. To all of the Marines and former Marines on the site, semper fi, and Happy Birthday!!

33F with 15MPH headwind today, which added about 10 minutes to the commute. Got a little overheated and then chilly at the end due to sweat. No flats this week! TGIF.

Another awesome ride in the ATL. :beer: Today I DID NOT over-dress ..... like yesterday.
Very light traffic. I guess because state and federal offices are closed for Veterans' Day.

I hope the ride home is as great as yesterday. :)

Perfect weather to ride in this morning. low to mid 50's and not very humid. Life is good!

Yay for government holidays! No commute for me this morning... :)

Rode to the hospital first thing to go to my physio, so that added all of a .5-1 mile to my journey, and I went TO work this time pretty much the same way as I ride back, and I really enjoyed it - so I might switch my morning route.

32 mins, 14.4mph average (slight headwind, but I was still managing 18mph along that stretch).

Wore no fleece again this ride, as last night, had a slight chill standing still, but once I was moving, I was good - damn near perfect :D

Today will be the first time I've ridden 4/5 in a week I think - pretty sure I didn't make it over 3/5 in the summer, so.. woo!

Riding down Sherbourne basically catching the lights each time with a big low-loader semi (crane truck), that was kinda fun - I had him on speed and acceleration, just the lights I couldn't catch (well, maybe if I went all-out, but I don't like to be totally exhausted before work :p). The low-loader flat bed had a real ****load of caked/dried mud and leaves and crap on it, the guy drove by me once, and that was enough with all the bumps the crap came off, into the air/on the road and I didn't want to be eyeing or breathing that crap in.

Made me feel a bit goofy when I stopped, as each and every time this guy (who was considerably slower) always caught back up to me - felt like a red-light racer - but it was fun, and a good workout - slight decline down there so I was getting a nice 22+mph - the stop/start/stop/start crap killed my last 5 minutes of the ride after though, damn lights! :)

Uneventful ride in this morning but it was nice and sunny! Temps are going to be near 80 this afternoon so I will be enjoying the ride home :)

Muddy snow from tires
Salty slop from the wet road
Grey skies surround me

No commute! I have to start burning off PTO before the end of the year. Plenty of 3 days weekends.
Going to head out and hunt down a new chain, tires, and a cassette since I thrashed it due to having 6500 miles on one chain. I am such a dumbass. Can't measure with a steel ruler worth a damn. Oh well.

No commute today; Veterans Day :D

GreenAnvil

We're taking Monday for the Veterans' Day holiday. Why? Don't ask. But it surely made for a very mellow commute. Rode my winter fixie for the first time today. Didn't have time to get the fenders set up so hopefully the rain will hold off until later tonight.

I walked into the building with one of the few other cyclo-commuters in my agency. He rides his early-70s Schwinn Varsity that he's had since he was freshman in college. That green beauty from Chicago still rides like a champ. Nice.

Birthday
 

Semper Fi, USMC 1957-1959. Keep on riding!

yesterday was the last commuting day for me (observed USA holiday from job today).
at a light (stopped), an age +/- 14 male (rider 1) rode next to me "why are you stopped at the traffic light?" he questioned. 'it's the law' was my response. "oh"
he and friend (rider 2) ran the light, but when it changed, i easily caught up and we rode to the next light. they (riders 1+2) stopped with me at the light, talked about speed/legality.
light changed, said good-by ('be safe').
i hope/think seeds were planted!
t

No commute for me
I didn't get today off
Worst day all week long