Happy New Year, the log blocking the trail was sawed up! New schedule now, ran into a ton of peds (3 on foot, one on roller-ski thingies in the 1st mile, which was likely to be their all last mile). The ones on foot were all dressed either in goth/asphalt black, or Kurt Cobain/Al Gore - earthy plaids. Invisible. The skiier dude was reflective head to toe and w/ halogen on his head, pretty visible. If only he'd had his poles reflective, I would have actually known what the heck he was quite a bit sooner...

Mellow ride in today. Cool and hazy, it can't really decide to be clear or foggy.

Mine was a cold and slippery ride today... The frost was heavy enough to hear under my tires.

Ride in was nice, 34F. Ride home was warmer and rainy. Rode the road bike home because I left the rain bike at home. Road bike didn't melt.

Hadn't done my usual ritual of riding the temperature on New Year's Day. So I did it today instead.

It was 51F today- amazing for this time of year in Boston. I did a 30 mile road ride and then later I did my usual downtown commute (to get my ukulele case) adding on another 21 miles.

It sure felt good.

really nice. no rain that i can recall, and no wind that you'd count. there was even some actual sunshine for part of my ride in, which is also weird at this time of year. and sure enough, it threw people. not one, but two different drivers ran the same me-controlled red light at the bottom of the bike path. they did it with that headless-chicken body language that says 'eek! i see the red light, but eek i've forgotten what it's for' that happens here when the sun first comes out. i forgive it more cheerfully than the standard vibe of 'i know exactly what it means, and please feel free to bite me.' i saw the first one, so the second one didn't surprise me any.

i love this immediate-post-christmas bit. when everyone comes back to the office, and they're all suddenly wearing clothes you've never seen them in before.

Today, my commute stank 'til high heaven. We finally got some nice enough weather for me to ride to work and actually enjoy the ride. When, lo' and behold, I got a spasm in my back so bad I can hardly breathe. Every time my breathing picks up, it feels like someone is stabbing me in the back. So, I turned around after only 5mi into my commute. Suffering seemed like an understatement at the time. Ah well, nothing a little rest and a few whiskey sours can't take care of.

Kind of foggy and misting this morning. Prettier than the usual drip I guess. I took a different route home from band practice tonight. It was pretty fast.

Warm commute this morning 11C. Otherwise uneventful.

Turned my 3 mile morning commute into an 11.2 mile ride this morning. I had to ride to the next town over to drop off a parking pass that my current employer is paying for which I never use :D

Nice ride this morning, and I ended up on a different bus route. Waking up at 4:30 to be at work by 7:30 kind of sucks, though.

There was a bit of a Burma Shave thing happening on the bike path this morning. (A lot of you younger people will be scratching your heads. I'm 40 and Burma Shave is even before my time.)

Anyway, written in chalk on the MUP were the following things...

CUTE DOGS = CUTE GUYS!
(a few hundred feet later)
NOT TO GENERALIZE
(a few hundred feet later)
OR CHEAPEN THE SENTIMENT

Mid 30Fs. A bit cloudy, with a light headwind. Not too bad. Plus the chalk scribblings brightened my morning.

I tried taking a couple of pictures with my lousy cell phone camera. Unfortunately they didn't turn out too well. One is of the moon in the west, and the other was an attempt to capture the sunrise, but the phone didn't get any color. Blah. :rolleyes:

My first day commuting in almost three weeks, ahhhh, that feels soooo gooooooooddd.
I was on vacation for two weeks (didnt have my bike :( ), and then the university was closed for the holidays so I didnt have to commute in. It's nice getting off the trainer and back outside. Even this nasty cold I've had didn't bother me much.

It was nice, 36 some degrees, clear, no snow on the ground yet here in mid Michigan. I've been tempted to switch over to the slicks, but everytime I think about it, the weather guy talks about black ice. Oh well, the studded tires aren't that bad:)

Unseasonably warm, as it has been the whole winter. Today was probably the warmest morning in a few weeks though, at a few degrees above zero. I didn't even need my all-weather helmet! Some frost on the ground, and well-behaved traffic.

Is it wierd that I'm 27 and LOLed at that because I got it? I have never actually ENCOUNTERED Burma Shave, but I'm familiar with the phenomenon (and I would have thought the same thing, given what you saw on the MUP)

No commute today. Planning on a nice hill climbing workout tonight on my new trainer I got for christmas.

Last night, I almost got hit by this stupid B*($%& in a small honda civic. I guess she does not understand that a 4 way stop applies to her. I came to a complete stop, as per the rules of the road. A mini van on my right had the ROW, and I duly let them take their turn. I then clipped in and started to go through the intersection. The stupid idiot in the civic comes up to the stop sign, stares at me and decides she's gonna go. Did not even stop. I grabbed handfuls of both breaks and stopped about 2 inches from her bumper. I know she saw me, cause I saw her face looking right at me. I shined 16 watts of halogen right at her, but she just kept right on going. Where in the hell is a cop when you need one?

First day back to work for 2007, and first commute by bike too. Starting the work year off on a high note!! Ride was very pleasant with unusually warm ~45F temp, partly cloudy with the 3/4 moon poking through the clouds and helping to light my way in the predawn darkness. Hoping to ride in tomorrow too.

Warming up again around here, temps in the low 50's by the time I arrived at work. Just a regular commute this morning, nothing special (kind of nice sometimes though). Should be in the 60s for the ride home, nothing like wearing shorts in January.

30F this morning and felt very warm probably due to no wind. Stopped a mile into it and took the tights off. Very icy, but I didn't have any problems on the bike. Just about fell on my a$$ walking in the parking lot to work though.

Second commute after a two week long hiatus thanks to a mix of flu and vacation. Much easier than Tuesday's commute. I'm glad I'm bouncing back fast. Not too cold and I'm loving the bike shoes and clip pedals I got for Christmas. My feet really didn't like sneakers and toe clips.

Back on the bike after almost a month of bad weather/bad health/good holidays. Didn't push it too hard. Luckily had many lights in my favor so still made ok time. Lots of coasting and not much stopping - total time was 26 minutes, 37 seconds; "ridetime" was 26 minutes, 3 seconds. Unseasonably warm - above freezing - but had to watch for snow/ice and sand in the road. Should be in the 40s (F) for the ride home.

It was a little cooler today, but still a nice ride in. I definitely need a higher gear. I'm spinning out in 3 places on the commute now...

A fair amount of rain this morning and just a bit too warm. Even the best breatheable fabric makes me sweaty in weather like this. I think I might be better off with an old merino sweater than a super high tech jacket.

Well the ride home for lunch paid for itself today. I found a fiver sitting in the gutter.

Is that a Burma Shave haiku?

Coming in today, took Thing 2 in trailer to her daycare downtown, so had the urban assault route (urban assault on me, I mean, dodging buses that think they can out-accelerate me on the left and still cut me off to get back to their next stop a block later). Hadn't done that since summer, builds character. Still trying to work out the schedule for the new quarter (of my wife's gig). Last quarter I biked w/ Thing 1 to his K every day, this quarter I may be trailering thing 2 daily (summer, I took them both to the same daycare).

Oh yes, urban route = big hill, spun up it on 22t ring, maintained double-digit mph, definitely not possible when I started this, so that was nice.

Towards the end, on 5 lane big road (+ bike lane on either edge), SUV ran a red turn light trying to left hook me, but parked, passive-aggressively blocking the intersection. Hijinks ensued among him and the cars, w/ green light, that he was blocking.

Fully aware that I'm about jinx myself (and therefore knocking wood), I realized about a month ago that I haven't been sick ONCE since I started full-time commuting, September '05. In years past I always got this bronchitis/sinus infection-like thing every fall when the weather changed. I've been two years without it now (not that I miss it, believe me).

Alas, I have a feeling this is about to change, as we're expecting our first child come February. Yet another advantage of dogs over children: dogs don't bring illnesses home from day care.