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The ability to notice what others do not is also one of my favorite aspects of riding as well.

I had what felt like a fast ride home yesterday on my new bike. But I have no computer and strava failed me. I was really pushing, Monday rides home are usually my best.

I can bunny hop on the bike, I have never had a bike light enough to do that! It is awesome!

This morning was a late start, the wife came down with a stomach bug and I had to run to the pharmacy before work. I drove there?! Some guy behind me was upset I was not blowing through the intersection with people crossing, then he was annoyed when he tried to go the wrong way down the parking lane I was parking and blocking; he looked like a class a d*uche buying milk for his wife. Then home and biked to work.

It was a nice slow leisurely ride. My son was also low energy on the ride. He was singing a made up version of This is the way... kids song; he added in lines about VW camper vans. Which are prolific in our neighborhood and he is fascinated with them.

The Raleigh newspaper has a chart on its weather page showing rainfall totals and how they compare to the normal monthly, seasonal and year-to-date averages.

Taking it slower does improve clarity, and I like it that I can start noticing people as well.

Today I found a purse and a phone. The purse was in the middle of the road and the phone was ringing in the grass 5 miles further down the road. Returned the phone, looked through the purse until I found a soggy receipt that had a name and address. Turns out I actually know the person, as they live a block away from me, so I get to swing by there on my way home as well. It's pretty trashed from being driven over dozens of times, but hopefully she'll appreciate getting her $50 back. Luckily there was no phone or IDs inside.

72F 22C perfect late Summer mornings. It's now darker and the lights are on.

It was my lucky day, I found three one dollar bills sitting on the road all wet on my way in this morning. The temp was a cool 53f degrees when I left the house. I took the same route as yesterday adding extra mileage on my way to work. I like this route better as it keeps me off the main road, which is not very busy but it does not have a good bike lane.

I have not been commuting this week. My wife and child are out of town as well as my brother and his wife. I am having to take care of their pets. Also I have doctors appointments a couple days this week like 10 minutes after work so I have to get there quick. I have been riding in the afternoon when I get home. I hope to be back commuting next week.

Left home at 5:30AM, had my short subway ride followed by my usual 11.5 mile ride. It was pitch black out when I started - when I first bought the headlights, I assumed I would only be using them in the early evening. But sometimes things change.

Someone else already took the phone and IDs, but somehow missed the $50? Could be a story there.

Normal ride home last night. Normal ride in this morning.

Sunny, 69 degrees, light wind from the side ... a nice commute this morning.

Last night, however ... urgh. It's my own fault, but I had a flat on the ride home. My second flat in as many commutes. The first was last Thursday, when my valve went bad in an old tube. Limped home with a "too big" tube stuffed in my 23 tire. Fixed it this weekend with a proper tube, and I think I didn't air it up completely before putting it away on Sunday. I think I was 8, maybe 9 miles into my ride home when I felt it going. Pulled over onto a sidewalk and grassy area and began taking the tire off. Was a snake bite (pinch) flat. I patched it, aired it up a little, rode for a minute or two and it seemed good but needed more air. I'm pretty happy with my Road Morph G.

Oh ... and I encountered the mexican salmon again, same spot. It's utterly maddening but I was so mellowed out by the flat tire that I just didn't care. I rode all the way to the ride, almost in the gutter, and let him hang out in traffic. Freaking moron.

Great morning commute. The temp dropped a degree or two as I turned off the road onto the MUP, so instead of continuing to push my pace, I backed off and enjoyed the cooler temps. Nice.

Finally a somewhat decent day for bike commuting, with "only" a 30-percent chance of afternoon storms. Very humid and warm, but it felt good to be riding. My commute started out great with all green lights through the first half of the ride, but I must have caught every red light in the second half, slowing down my pace considerably.

My big news for the day is that I finally caught the mouse that has been eating up my granola bars for the past few months. First he got into my stash of bars in the garage, so I moved them into the pantry inside the house, thinking the problem was solved. The mouse apparently developed quite a taste for granola bars because he then figured out how to get in the house and caused havoc in our kitchen and pantry. Called an exterminator, who set out a bunch of poison baits that did no good at all. So I bought some plain, old-fashioned mouse traps and baited them with granola bars "glued" to the traps with peanut butter. One of the traps killed a mouse last night, and hopefully that is the only one.

It was just before sunrise when I left, 6:40 which is early for me. I'd almost forgotten how pleasant the summer pre-dawn can be here. I think I'll change my schedule and do that every day until the winter mornings push the dawn away.

Tire was flat when I went to ride to work yesterday. I pumped it up and rode to work. Made it no problem. I noticed it was pretty soft so I used my handpump to pump it up to ride home. I made it home okay too. I switched out my tube and patched the old one. I pumped the old one up to see if it would hold air and it was seriously deflated. So I am without a backup tube. I put the patched one in the bag to carry just in case but I have to find some better tubes. They have all be cheap and I am replacing them all the time. (getting frustrated)

Ride in this morning was so humid I had to switch my glasses and almost went with no glasses but I wanted my mirror. My riding glasses were completely fogged over at one point.

Better than finding one three dollar bill, I guess.

Decent commute today. Very light rain, and thankfully it started before I left the house so I knew to take the bike with fenders. These days, that bike gets more use towing the kids around in a trailer or tag-along bike; it's a heavy bike, but amazing how light it feels without 50-75 lbs of dead weight behind.

Grr.. On the way home, I cross an entrance ramp to a toll road, but there is a crosswalk clearly painted across the entrance ramp. When I get there, it was clear - I start to move, and then the light changes above, and people come roaring down - they obviously have no effing idea what the point of a crosswalk is. I could tell that this one pickup truck just wasn't going to stop - I anticipated that he wasn't going to do this, so I let him go by .

On the plus side, I cross a number of streets along the way, and I am noticing that much of the time the signal is "don't walk" but when I press the button it immediately changes to walk. So I am trying to perfect a technique of slowly rolling up to to the pole with the button on it and pressing it while moving slowly, and if it changes I can cross without even unclipping...

Virtually a repeat of yesterday.

Coming home last night I was in driving rain the whole way. Was suppossed to meet a friend for dinner but I thought nmy general soaked appearance was not suitable for a restaurant. Coming in this a.m. one of the Capitol Police officers I see often finally mentioned that I do go through a red, every single morning, in front of him. In my defense...there is no traffic at that hour...but now I need to make a little tweak to my routine so I don't run the red.

This morning was yet another nice uneventful ride to work!

This morning's ride was fine. Yesterday afternoon's ride home was fine, until the last 1/2 mile.

Early commute again, but this time a minor mistake. I took my Northpoint/Windward route because I felt like some hills, and traffic is relatively light at this time, but a slightly later start meant facing the sun directly for a hill or two. The glare blocks my view of the road, and I think that the cars are driving blind behind me so that really makes me nervous. Fortunately there were no incidents. Beautiful morning.

I'm with you. pretty morning this morning. Unfortunately, I got caught out on a stupid.

Pro-tip: wet and leafy covered wooden surfaces are VERY slippery. Went down at about 4-5 mph going around a corner coming out of the Forsyth greenway section to Bethelview. Jumped the chain and had to do some roadside repair before finishing the ride out.

Nice ride.

Wet - thunderstorms and rain the whole way. I watched the radar before leaving and tried to time it so I'd be between cells... didn't work

Wet and muggy from the thunderstorms last night. I should get some fenders though when I changed when I got to the diner I had a long wet stripe up my back, oh well goes with the territory I guess.

Had a quick delivery to make in a neighboring town around 10am so I jumped on the MUP, I figured there'd be no foot or bike traffic in the dampness so it'll be safer than riding with cars. Wrong. Some a$$hole dressed in tights on a racing bike that looks like it cost more than my car decided to ride on the wrong side of the path, I swerved to miss a collision with him and he swerved which sent me into the grass, I swear he does it purposely - my daughter and I were riding on the same path the other day when the same guy was tooling around with his iPhone and ran us off the path completely oblivious to his surroundings.

Hoping for no issues this afternoon

So much fog this morning! It was pretty wild riding in August with about 5' of visibility. The cars were generally well-behaved and my commute is a short-ish 6 miles so there weren't any problems. Now the heat index on the way home of 100+ degrees is going to be a different story