Green Anvil, good luck finding something better! Maybe after everyone gets there year-end bonuses and jumps ship, something'll open up.

Ride in was filled w/ traffic starting on my block w/ a backhoe holding things up. Things didn't get much better after that. But I made it so that's all that's important. 30F when I left and I was fine, but a little cool in a t-shirt and ski shell w/ the pit zips wide open.

25F for the 43 miles into work. I was bundled up nicely so no real problems with the cold. A cycling buddy gave me some shoe covers - and man, they helped.

It takes me 2.5 hours to pedal into work. I leave at 5 and get here at 7:30 with to short stops to rest and refuel. I still beat everyone in and have enough time to wash, change, and read email before they start getting here.

I really enjoyed this mornings ride in. The moon was full and helped so much through the mountain pass. At one point my light started flickering and eventually turned off. Before I could stop safely at a store to change the batteries, I rode with pure moonlight. It was pretty nice.

Bummer. Who do you work for -- Scrooge?
Best of luck in finding a new job and keep us posted.

19F and minimal wind once again. Nice ride in today. Camelback hose froze yesterday, but it was fine today after wrapping it in bubble wrap .

Cold ride in this morning, temps in the upper 20s. I kept warm with all the layers I had one though. Almost got run over by a guy driving a golf cart on the golf course path. Usually the maintenance people leave me plenty of room on the path but this guy kept coming over on my side around a corner and almost hit me. He came so close I had to go off the path! I think he was looking at a bird that just flew by and was going too fast for the corner. He had a surprised look on his face as I went by him

I can confirm, cold ride in this morning (though nothing like the -3 reported from our comrades in Canada!).

Kinda wild ride this morning. First a school bus stopped to pick up some kids in front of me; of course I stopped, but the guy in the pickup just behind me just kept coming on, like he wanted to take advantage of me being stopped to pass me. I gave him the, "What are you, an idiot?" look.

Then a mile later it was two fire trucks coming up behind, sirens and lights blazing. I was stopped at a red light as they approached; I pulled to the right (on a 2-lane each way road). The guy in the delivery truck next to me must have felt his packages absolutely positively had to be there overnight, as he just pulled into the left lane and then into the left-turn lane. And drivers say cyclists don't obey the rules of the road....

23° this morning. Overslept so had to deal with extra traffic leaving at 7:30 vs 7am. Got passed at the very end of my commute by a guy on a Bianchi. It's fairly rare to even see another biker much less get passed by one.

Very nice all told. I'll have a lot of clothing to carry home, tho.

Brutal, I was laid of in 2004, Dec. 13th (they let me go to the XMas party on the prior weekend then laid me off on the Monday ) - Keep your spirits up and enjoy your holiday season - best of luck to you with the jobhunt, and getting back into the commuting!

Ride home last night my bike lock fell off, turned out the little spline that it hooks into the mount with had come loose, and vibrated free. No big deal, was just pissed I had to turn back and pick it up. I rode the rest of the way with it in my backpack - and man was the ride so quiet, I have a rattle from the lock on bumps that's like a "I'm on my bike" sound, a familiar and non-irritating noise, but when it was gone it was almost lonely at times (in a good way ).

The Space-Grip that the bike store fitted for me was loose so that once my lights were clipped in, they shook/bumped down and I was nicely lighting up my front wheel and the ground and not much else. I seem to have lost my allen key set at home, so I had to leave it until this morning to fix it in the office (thanks to the tech. guys having the tools! ).

Ride home was average speed, I forgot my new safety goggles (Home Depot $10 - safety and UV rated 99.9% whatever that means) and so the snow started and was a bit uncomfortable for the last 5 mins, but otherwise great.

The bikestore also replaced and fixed up my brakes and cabling and swapped out the rear pads so my brakes are once again REALLY responsive, I surprised myself last night with them, heh.

Ride in today was good, -7C when I left for physio, and once I left the hospital -5C according to the radio. I donned a fleece over my normal lifa vest + long sleeve tee and took to the road. Had a couple of amber-light runnings - one was because I wasn't paying attention to the lights, I had an SUV trying to creep and drive into me at that point. I gave a few pedestrians a startle at a red light, I was doing a decent clip (22-23mph) and decided to give my brakes a nice stop-test, but I locked the rear a little and the brief skid noise obviously alerted the peds - they hesitated crossing in front of me, heh.

Otherwise uneventful, 39 mins ride time.

Overdressed this morning and peeled off stuff 1/2 way in. Was 30 degrees, and almost felt like a spring ride. Winds were strange, first a big cross wind, then a major head wind, then flipped to a big tail wind to push me the rest of the way in. When I got to the office there was no wind.

Last night on the ride home I guess it was a combination of rested legs and a Monday (nothing gets me like Mondays as far as frustration level) - the ride in was a soaker - could barely see it was raining so hard - no need for a shower I can tell you - just used the hose outside the office to rinse off.

Anyway, this meant of course my clothes were still pretty damp for the ride home. Not a pleasant feeling. But, got on the bike and started riding, hit the first hill and went right up it like it was easy - with all the rain, the small rocks are stuck in the sand / mud mixture so I wasn't sliding as much as usual.

Just cruising along taking it slow because I was in the rocky stretch and then, the next hill is already there - I didn't even shift down - just hit it and stood up and started seeing how far I could go without shifting down to granny.

Amazing, I almost made the break point! By the time I got home, I was smiling a big smile. Nice to start the week with a break through.

Not much to report today. My wife and I got cut off by the driver of a BMW X5 just before we got to a stop sign. I gave him the full force of my HID, but he took off. Since we were going the same way, we easily caught him at the next light. We were in the lane beside him, so aided by HID, I got a good look at him and the interior of his vehicle. He refused to look at us, I'll assume out of embarassment.

Good ride this morning. I was hoping to meet a buddy for a ride before work, but he wasn't able to make it. I was up and I resisted the temptation to crawl back into bed. First, a stop at Peet's for a double shot. Then to the office to drop off my bag. The Pipe Bridge over the American was still closed, so I rode through Midtown and East Sac to CSUS and crossed the Guy West Bridge to get on the bike trail. I was very pleased to see so many of our brethren bundled and lit for dawn patrol.

Out to the toilet and water fountain at the Watt Ave. Bridge for a pit stop and then back into town. I made good time so I had a few minutes to grab a muffin and another coffee. Had a nice chat with the guy at the counter about his Bianchi locked in front of the cafe. Coffee and bikes! They go together like a horse and a carriage.

There was actually someone on the bike path behind me this morning for the first time in weeks. That gave me some extra motivation and I got a better workout than I have been for awhile. The crossing guard at an elemantary school seemed shocked when I actually stopped to let some children cross... I don't know ... maybe the college kids around here just plow over the school children.

Bet commute of my life!
Last night I got on the Ballona Bike Path going East and this big, HUGE full moon was right in front of me. The moon light was reflecting on the creek, there was not one single person on the bike path - only me and the chirping birds. An owl flew right over my head. I felt so happy, like a kid.

Ride in was cold for me, 30 degrees. I gave an extra pair of goretex, insulated gloves I had to a homeless person I passed. She could use them more than me. Now I'm looking at warm jackets I don't wear to give away to the many homeless on my route.. Isn't that what the season is about? Ride home was only a couple of hours later, so it was ok, low 40's. Meetings scheduled for my day off, oh well. Bike felt faster today, might just be the chill driving me to get someplace warm.

Traffic right in front of the office was nuts. Had to walk the bike on the sidewalk, it was that bad. Found out traffic through the Helmsley bldg was closed both ways so traffic on Park Ave. was light.

Cold & slow .

Had a nice commute today. Great weather, had a nice chat with another rider at a stoplight which is always nice.

bikedaddy: I've been thanked for stopping at crosswalks for the guards, too - I was confused thinking "what else was I going to do?" but like you say, maybe others just blow by... another fine example to teach children.

Temp on my OSX weather widget told me it was -3C, much warmer than this morning - so I left the fleece and extra hat off and rode. Didn't see many other cyclists - though I left a little later than the normal rush.
Ride home was great, got ahead of myself going up Sherbourne with wind blowing in my mouth it meant I had to take a block or two slow to get my breath back. I had to ride by the hospital to pickup/meet my wife and daughter, so I took Mortimer to East General, then by the drug store and home (road parallel by one block south to the one I take, only without a bikelane). Total riding time 36 mins, less than my normal commutes which are directly home... I need to figure that one out

I ride thru school zones at 15mph and always stop where required and when requested by guard.

My commute used to take me thru a school zone and I 'knew' all the guards and was quite friendly with one
One day there was a substitute and I was going my usual 15mph in center of lane and the kids were still coming toward the x-walk along the sidewalk, no one was yet waiting to cross. No cars were behind me. Suddenly the guard jumped out and held up stop sign. I could barely stop in time. Then I waited what felt like forever (probably 15sec) for the kids to assemble and begin to cross. Pissed me off the power trip the guard gave me, she stood in front of me holding stop sign to my face the entire time, not even watching kids and didn't let it down until the kids had long crossed both sides of the road.

Al

Awesome fall weather! Great ride both ways...temps still seem colder than usual.

getting a bit colder these days.

nice ride in. the ride home was like a 5th grade math problem:

Buzzman takes roughly 40 minutes to ride his bike the 11.2 miles to work every day. His wife, Buzzwoman, takes the same path but gets off to work at 7.8 miles and she takes roughly 40 minutes to do her ride. If Buzzman and Buzzwoman leave work at the same time how much faster than his average will Buzzman have to ride to catch Buzzwoman before she gets home?

I caught her with two miles left to go and man, was I beat chasing her down on studded snow tires with about 20 lbs of junk in my milk crate. She says she slowed down so I'd have a chance of catching her- and I sure forgot how cold it was.

My first ride in since the big snow in Denver. I've been a fair-weather commuter (~5 mi each way) since early September, and I figured enough of the snow was melted on some of my route alternatives that I could make it OK on my bike (a late-70's(?) Motobecane Super Mirage road bike w/ slicks).

The snow is continuing to melt, and fenders just moved waayyy up on my Christmas list. Nasty, mud-spattered backpack.

Plus I had my first tire blowout ever today. Guess I'd better put that Road Morph pump on the list as well, and start carrying an extra tube. Luckily, it was close enough to home that I could walk the bike there.

someone yelled something out of a car window at me on my way home today. no idea what; all i heard was the word 'bicycle'. shrug.

snow slo-o-o-w-l-y going away. actually looked at the back yard today where it's lain untouched all this time, and had a thought along the lines of 'holy crud! that stuff is still at least 4 inches deep!' morning is not my profoundest part of the day.

most of the roads and bike paths now clear, but there are still several blocks where you can't see blacktop at all and you can still get yourself completely bogged down or stopped dead by a sudden island of ice under the slush. i'm getting fascinated by the way it just hangs in and hangs in at those locations. far side of the bridge almost clear, but still just a little spooky coming home in the dark since the ice clumps that are left are completely camouflaged with sand and gravel and stuff. and they're pretty steep and solid.

studded tires making me very tired. i let a lot of the air out of both of them sometime last week thinking that it might help when the whole city was deep under snow, and i'm pretty sure i didn't get more than half of it back in with my hand pump. don't see the point of taking them off yet since the traditional time of year for us to get snow hasn't even arrived. i'm enjoying the whole ticky-tacky rice krispies noise that they make anyway.

+1 for the studded tires making me tired. We are supposed to have snow by now and well into March some years. There was a bout in October, which made me put them on in the first place, but since then it's been eerily warm and slushy.