Ugh, didn't ride in today. Over the weekend, a friend and I did some trail riding in the forest (Harbison Forest). Anyway, about 2 minutes into our ride I took a nasty fall off a fairly easy jump, tweaking my bike up a bit and landing on my side, leaving me with a deep bruise in the hip, skinned elbows, sides and leg. Also, think I kinked up my shoulder as well landing on it. I kinda missed the ride this morning, as it's my birthday, and I really enjoy my ride early in the morning. Oh well, hopefully the soreness will go away soon, maybe I can pick up tomorrow morning.
I did however get a bell for my bike from a coworker for my BD (half our office commutes by bicycle, my boss has a cool folding Dahon), and I am ready to use it on some walkers on my route through the park!

Joey French

I hit a ground hog this morning. Actually he hit me. I saw him start running from like 20 feet away, I figured he was heading to his hole in the side of the bank. Nope he ran right up the bank across the trail and right under my rear wheel. I felt my wheel ride over him but as I looked back he was running away. I hope the little guy is ok.

very humid.

Fairly uneventful except for this:

Best way to describe this intersection is a Y. This is in a residential area. One road feeds into the other. I was on the 'main' one. the other road should yield to me, right? the other street also has a yield sign. I saw a black mercedes coming from the other road and I braked to slow down just in case they didn't stop/yield to me. Sure enough, they didn't.

Either she didn't see me or did, and said, humph, a biker, he won't mind.

It was extremely foggy this morning. I got out to the highway and saw how poor visibility was, and decided to go home and get my car. It was the first time I have driven to work since May 1st. Only the 5th time since the beginning of March, so I'm not doing to bad.

Work to live to bike to work to live... :)

Edited to add: I had a nice commute this morning but I had slept in. This wouldn't be so bad except the later I get up, the longer it takes me to get out of the house (I swear this is true, I have no idea what's up with that stretchy time business). So, when I got to work two hours later than I'd have liked to be here, there were no more spaces in the bike closet...my poor baby is parked outside, a hundred yards down the parking lot. Not only is my bike going to be hot enough to melt my shorts when I go to ride home this afternoon, but a huge part of the appeal of riding is that I don't have to trudge anywhere at walking speed in this god-forsaken valley of fire, and that benefit is shot when I have to put my bike in the outdoor rack. :-/ That'll teach me to hit the snooze button.

Looking forward to the ride home, anyway!

I just realized that as of this afternoon, when I hop off my bike at my chiropractor's office, I will have broken 1000km for the year (80% commuting). This is a nice milestone and calls for celebration! I think I will see if they have a massage appointment open :D

Did some online job hunting this afternoon and found that the local college is hiring support staff at *considerably* higher pay than I am currently making. It would cut my commute in half, but that means more time for recreational riding. Oh, and studying. Since I'm officially leaving here because of going back to school, not because it's a snake pit. :rolleyes:

Congratulations on the milestone! What do they mean by "support staff"? and is there more than 1 position? As of Saturday I need employment too. :(

Congrats, and I hope you can get your massage! :beer:

:lol: at "stretchy time." I know EXACTLY how that works! For me, it's part and parcel of ADHD. When I was first given Ritalin, that was the first thing I noticed - so THAT's what "time" is! (But I didn't like the side effects).

Replying to a few other things at once:

Yes, I got my massage (ow. Shoulder was kinda locked up there from stress. Ow.) and feel much better :) (I am also drinking a Guinness at the moment, by way of a recovery drink :D)

Support staff = administrative assistant positions, student advisor, that sort of thing :) Workingbike, what kind of thing are you looking for? And may one inquire what happened? (I bet mine is more dramatic!)

Even hotter on the ride home and still humid. Decided I just wanted to get home fast and sit in front of the A/C and the best way to go fast is lane split Park Ave. all the way home. Had to muscle a few cars that tried to get in my lane while I was still in it, but other than that and the heat and humidity, it was an awesome ride.

Strange sighting today. Came out to unlock my bike and had a really big dragonfly humping my front tire. Tried shaking it off and spinning the wheel, but it wouldn't budge til I dropped the wheel and it bounced off. That's not the strange part. The strange part was this was in midtown Manhattan at Grand Central Terminal, a good mile+ from the nearest river (East or Hudson, take your pick). I wonder if it was trying to catch a train?

HOT AND .... STICKY!! And bumpy - have to use the roadbike at the moment and our streets are just awful.

7.75 miles of pleasantness this morning.
Nice way to start the day.

Had a great time this morning - woke up especially early and got out the door by 6:20 AM. It was 70 F and a bit humid. My second time commuting by bike to work, and I was curious how the sweat was going to be (no shower at work - I just do the birdbath thing).

After getting into work and giving myself 10 minutes to cool down, the clean-up worked pretty well. If I can do it this morning I don't think it's going to get that much worse over the rest of the summer.

I also used my new Take a Look sunglass mounted mirror for the first time this morning. Wow, what a difference. That is definitely going to improve my comfort level with bike commuting.

Scott

No commute today... The wife and I are going to go put a bid in on a house.... Wish us luck!

Had a scare today... the family friend I'm staying with offered to DRIVE me part way along my commute, and I wasn't sure I could politely decline :eek:. Everything ended up OK, though, and my commute survived intact ;)

On the way home last night, I was riding slowly through a park and trying to stay on the right-hand side of the path so as not to spook oncoming pedestrians. It wasn't enough for one homeless guy, who shouted "WHERE THE HELL ARE YA GOIN, YA GOOF?" as I rode by. For some reason, I decided to stop and talk to him, explaining that I was sorry if my riding had somehow threatened him, but I was trying to ride as safely as I could. It turns out he had been hit by a cyclist before and was naturally a bit concerned about it happening again. After talking to him for a while, he grinned and said, "You're all right -- you have a GREAT evening!". Wished him a good evening, too, and rode off...

It made me realise that sometime the angry reactions of pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists to other pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists are often the results of misunderstandings.

Good luck devildog!

Today's commute was hotter and more humid than yesterdays. It's days like these that make me ask, "Why don't I just work from home today?" Then I remember my laptop power adapter's at the office so I ride in anyway. Noticed that the warm blast from riding next to a bus in winter is not as pleasant during the summer. Almost T-boned a car at about 1 mph and almost had a clipless fall, but didn't so that was good.

Glad you made it in safe, jyo. Pretty hot and humid here, too, but still worth the ride...

I took the bus today, my knee was bugging me yesterday. Either my seat needs adjusting again or I just got a bit too ambitious on a hill. Have to admit it was not unpleasant to sit on the bus and read for a change, but I'm glad I don't have to do it every day :)

Thanks ****. The almost T-bone happened as I was crossing an intersection where cross traffic was blocking the intersection. I was trying to time my progress w/ a car crossing in front of me, but he slowed down unexpectedly so I had to stop and unclip. I was barely moving by then.

Another warm, dry ride in. Last night I had to work late, so I missed the Tuesday night road ride. Instead of going straight home, I thought I'd tour through some of the neighborhoods close to downtown on the south side. Wow. Those are some nice houses. I always wondered where all the mid-century modern homes were around here, and I found them. Lots of Frank Lloyd Wright influences, and more than a few Eames lounges looking out across the Elbow valley to the mountains. I think I might move there when I win the lottery...

Good luck devildog!

Maybe said dragonfly needed a ride back to the river and was confused as to where to sit? ;) Glad you caught the almost-fall/t-bone ;)

Interesting gbcb... I must admit I rarely think to stop for that reason, especially at night - sometimes I just don't want to risk any hassles. Makes me feel bad in a way, I'd like to have the time to understand why people say stuff and act like they do (those kind of homeless folk) but I rarely ever follow through.

Rode with someone off BF last night for a rec./training ride - with that and riding to a buddies place and back home I managed about 35miles/60k. Made sure I had plenty of water and we rode near the lake (on the Leslie spit) which made the ride in the horrid heat much more possible/tolerable.

Late night last night + just being tired (and catching a pinch flat 0.5mi from home last night that I just didn't feel like fixing last night) meant I rode in directly via the road today, a whopping 11 minutes of riding - still enough to make me sweat like a fat kid at the fair in this terrible humidity (hopefully the 'scheduled' storm should break some of that for us).

Congrats buglady on the 1000k! I checked my roadie odo and have done 695mi. since May 7th which is about 1100k so I'm happy myself, too!

Today's commute was a good one...my first! Got my first road bike last week, and decided last night that today would be the day to start. Hopefully I'll keep it up.

Welcome to the HHCMF club, hophead! The more you do it, the less you think of it as "keeping it up"... it's just something you DO, simple as that.

Edit: Flimflam, I understand where you're coming from. I think I've been more talkative than usual because I'm so excited to be in a place where everyone is speaking English for a change ;). I usually wouldn't have stopped, but it was in a nice park on a bright and warm summer evening, and I thought I'd give it a go.

It was wonderful.

I haven't been able to commute since last summer due to distance and time constraints.

Glad I started again. 10.5 with three brutal hills.

Even with 80 degree temps and high humidity - it was worth it.