Tool School has begun

I wound up driving to work Monday, in order to haul my two repair stands for use during the Park Tool School class I'm teaching. The first of four sessions was Monday night, with the second evening later today. It's going to be another great group of folks, from all indications, but I was still grateful to see that one of my students posted about her experience in her blog. I will, of course, strive to live up to the expectations that have been set so far, and exceed them if I can.

Since I drove Monday, it was Tuesday before I got to do my first post-time-change commute. Leaving an hour later by solar time made for a brighter morning ride, to be sure. The ride home was in darkness from the time I walked out the door, meaning I didn't leave the lights off for the first couple of miles of my trip, as I had been doing last week. One result is that I will have to keep closer tabs on my headlight run time between charges, as it's more like an hour of use every day, and I supposedly have a bit more than four hours' burn time per charge.

I had ridden the Raleigh to work one day last week, and got part-way home before the battery charge indicator started flashing its twenty-minute warning. I reduced the light intensity, knowing that doing so would extend my run time a fair bit, and it was more than enough to get me home before the lights went out--literally--which they have done before when I lost track of use times. Fortunately, at 3/4 power I still have plenty of light to see where I'm going, what with the ambient light along the more populated stretches of Westport Road. I could ride on 3/4 light intensity most, if not all, of the time, but like the extra brightness to help other road users see where I am.