Durn, it's hot!

With public school returning to session soon, Louisville Metro is renewing their "Street Sense" ad campaign. One site where one can view the press release is of course the Ceej. Predictably, there is a fair bit of nonsense being spewed on the comments section attached to the article. A couple of intelligent folks are posting, too, trying to educate the twits, but the twits generally refuse to learn factual information.

I'm nearing three thousand miles for the year. I don't know that I'll best that number before the end of July, with a hundred fifty miles or so to go, but it won't take much longer to get there. I am likely to exceed eight hundred miles for July, given that I only need another fifty or so--two days of riding to work will get me within a grocery trip of that goal.

I'm signed up to ride with the non-partisan bike ride for attendees of the legislators' conference later this week. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of the conference, but my part is to be bike-friendly without getting into the politics of the thing--a challenge for me, but one worth doing. That will give me a few miles on the bike, as will going to the final session of the Wednesday evening cycling class out at Iroquois Park later in the day.

As sometimes happens when I travel by bike, a motorist rolled down her window a week or so back, as we were sitting at a traffic light, and remarked that she was having trouble seeing me. I was a bit shocked, given that I was on the Ryan at the time. Mine is the one with the red reflectors:



I wanted to suggest to her that if she couldn't see me, she may want to have her vision checked, as she likely had problems that needed to be addressed, and was perhaps impaired enough that she should surrender her license if she had one.

I think about whether I'm seen. It's important to me that I'm seen, for what are fairly self-evident reasons. I get to tell whether I'm seen frequently as I ride, too.

When I'm on a four-lane road like Westport (my primary corridor for my to-work commute), I can watch in my mirror to see whether overtaking motorists see me. It's clear to me that I'm seen from well away, judging by how many folks change lanes hundreds of yards before overtaking me. If those folks can see me more than a quarter-mile away, and move to avoid confrontation well ahead of the need, why can't others?

I've long said that too many motorists have their focus too close in. They don't look "outside the cockpit" much, if at all. They fail to plan for things they could reasonably foresee if they bothered to think about stuff a bit.

Some complain about the sun being in their eyes. Folks, the earth orbits the sun such that the apparent path of the sun in our sky is predictable. As in, there is a listing called Civil Twilight based on sunset times, and the table presented is accurate to within a few moments every day. Even without knowing that such a table exists, we know that the sun sets every day, and that at times nearing sunset the angle is such that if we are driving in certain directions it will be hard to see what is happening. Intelligent drivers take action to minimize the problems this could present--we slow down, or drive in a different direction if practical, or wait a bit if practical (I've planned meals stops on road trips around sun angles, for example).

Maybe they are metaphorically blind in addition to being willfully blind. In any case, anyone who honestly cannot see a bicycle in daylight is either not looking (and is thus at fault) or cannot see well enough to drive legally (and is thus REALLY at fault). The only third option implies that the person claiming he/she can't see me is not telling the truth.

Doing a century and RAIN in one month will change one's monthly total. I now have a year-high 700+ miles for the month, and it's only the 21st. I still have ten more days to pedal another hundred or hundred-fifty miles (or maybe a few more).

The ride that tipped me over the 700-mile mark was the thirty-six mile round trip that encompassed the New Rider Clinic happening in Iroquois Park on Wednesdays for June and July this year. Adding this third session has been a very good thing for our program--there is a group of something like sixteen students that are VERY good about attending, excited about learning their skills, and looking forward to riding more. One woman in that class has already ridden a century this summer!

Although I've been encouraged to ride a club century this coming weekend, I won't have time. We still have some cleaning out of stuff to do at the old house to get it "broom clean" by the end of the month. Jenn is having some folks over Tuesday evening, so we need to sort/arrange/clean some stuff in the new house as well.

I wonder what my mileages would be if I had time to ride club rides...

brief RAIN comments

Another RAIN is in the books. Wow.

It was my slowest RAIN yet. However, it was a day of firsts for us: Jenn's first RAIN event (mindful that when she and I met less than three years ago she hadn't been on a bike in over fifteen years), it was my first RAIN on a tandem with a "significant other" as stoker (my first RAIN event was done on the same tandem, but with Larry as the stoker), it was my first RAIN "flying formation" with another tandem (at least part of the way)...

And it was a heck of a way to celebrate my first wedding anniversary!

It didn't all go as planned, of course. One lesson learned is that each of us has to take ownership of making sure our gear is loaded into the car--in this case, Jenn's cycling shoes didn't make the trip. The only other shoes she had with her were her Vibram Five Fingers Classics, which were NOT going to work, especially on SPD pedals. After some fretting, we noticed that Nita's pedals were "dual use" models, allowing for use with street shoes. Nita loaned her Teva sandals to Jenn, we found another rider who had a pedal wrench we could borrow long enough to make the physical switch of pedals, and off we went.

I'm sure Jenn's output was reduced a bit by her not having ideal footwear. Even so, I always knew she was putting effort into the system.

Larry and Nita rode her Screamer, and logged a rolling average some mile and a half better than ours. I'm okay with that--both of them have been riding long miles more than either Jenn or I have this year. Indeed, almost all of my miles are utility miles this year, and I've had two days this year that saw me ride more than sixty miles--one of them being RAIN. Jenn's "training" for RAIN wasn't even as extensive as mine.

Our rolling average of 16.43 for the 158 miles my cyclometer recorded (Larry insists that it's 162 miles per GPS) is fine by me. We didn't crash, did not SEE any crashes (I was VERY glad to not see a repeat of last year's car-vs.-motorcycle incident), and aside from the pedal/shoe stuff had no bike problems.

Phew! I'm still tired.

Time to get on a different bike and go to the grocery store.

Ride Across INdiana this weekend

Warning: blog post topic wanders (or should I say, "meanders?").

In a bit more than thirty hours, I'll be setting up for RAIN. This will be my seventh in the last eight years (I missed 2006 due to a work-related SNAFU).

This will be an interesting trip on RAIN for me. I will be celebrating my first wedding anniversary by riding a tandem recumbent bike 160 miles or so with my wife.

I think it's cool to think that three years ago, she hadn't been on a bike in over a decade--perhaps over fifteen years. Now she's excited about riding 160 miles in one day. She rides to work much of the time (on her own Vanguard, now!). We use bikes for much of our errand-running--something I'm not sure she had even considered three years ago (we met a bit less than three years ago). It was almost like some part of her said, "Wow, this is a great way to do things," as I showed her my own modus operandi (and how my own methods have changed over the last three years).

Yeah, I've been a sometimes-bike-commuter for over fourteen years--indeed, I have used a bike for transportation (albeit sporadically some years) since I was a kid (I rode my bike to work for my first job--pretending to be a fledgling bike mechanic--as a fourteen-year-old). In my late teens, I still used my bikes for transportation when it was necessary (although like many in that age group, I LOVED to drive a car!). I lived in Denver the summer after I turned nineteen, and didn't have a car there at all. I could sometimes drive a car my aunt had, but typically rode instead.

I haven't always thought about being car-free, and I still have things that are most easily done with a car. I'm kind of enjoying the "car-free-light" life, though. Jenn and I are managing, for the most part, with only one gas-powered vehicle these days (one car has been out of service since April, and we haven't gotten around to fixing it simply because there has been too much else happening). We borrowed a car from her folks for a week or two, but used it little enough that I haven't really missed it since we returned it to them some weeks ago.

Oh, well. Lots to do yet in preparation for tomorrow. Off I go...

Finally, a long-mileage day!

With a sense of "what am I doing here?" and a sense of "I can do this, I ," Jenn and I rode the LBC "Pretty Good First Century" today.

In Tom fashion, I rode to the ride (and since we were on the tandem, Jenn rode as well...). A bit short of ninety miles into the official ride, we were done enough that we split off and rode on home. Jenn was having some heat issues, I was getting very tired, and we still had to get the bike (and ourselves) home, so we split off when the ride crossed Kentucky Street and worked east--Mad Dog course rules be damned, as we covered more than a hundred (107, to be more precise).

With this ride, my mileage for July exceeds my mileage for all of June, and the month isn't half done. Next weekend will be another high-mileage weekend, as we plan to do RAIN.

After today, we are having to re-think whether either of us is really ready for 160 miles in one day. However, the plan is to take the tandem and my Strada, so that if Jenn decides to stop at some point I can finish the ride on the single bike. We'll see how things go--I find the tandem tiring sometimes, although I think it's a function of lack of miles on the bike rather than anything specific to how the bike is built.

In any case, I'm now tired enough that I need to go to bed a bit earlier than usual. I have a lot to do tomorrow before teaching the class on tire repairs in the evening.

Other thoughts for today

While thinking about and writing my last post, I also got to thinking about convenience. I do a lot of thinking about why I ride instead of driving, as I am asked that from time to time in face-to-face discussions. I keep coming back to that I enjoy riding more than driving, even when I can discuss the long list of other benefits.

One of those benefits is the perceived convenience. I see it as more convenient for me to ride a bike when doing my errands. The time involved isn't a big difference--it takes me perhaps twice as long to ride as to drive within a five-mile radius, and about the same amount of time within a two-mile radius. My ride to work--all eleven miles of it--takes me less than three times as long as I can do it in a car.

However, in that extra time, I get to: a) exercise, burning carbs and fat grams instead of petroleum, b) think about stuff that I wouldn't have time to ponder when driving thirty-plus miles an hour (not that others don't let their minds wander...), c) re-allocate gas/insurance/car upkeep money into the grocery and bike parts funds (I far prefer eating to filling the gas tank).

I also get premium parking spaces, often right at the door of whatever shop I'm patronizing! It's nice to not have to walk across acres of hot asphalt parking lot to pop in to the local grocery store, although one could say I'm paying for that by riding my bike for more minutes than the guy who is walking across the parking lot. I figure I'm more acclimated to the heat by riding, so it doesn't bother me as much, so I'm ahead. Or I think so, anyway.

In my errand-running today, I hit on an idea that solved a problem I've been perceiving for some time. The problem: convincing motorists that it's a good idea to stop with their front bumpers above the Stop Bar (that foot-or-so painted strip across the lane at a stop light). I had dropped off some paperwork at an office off Millbrook (near the Northeast YMCA), and my next stop was the ValuMarket on Whittington Parkway. Rather than ride Hurstbourne Parkway all the way to Whittington, I opted to use the roadways within the ShelbyHurst development that used to be called Shelby Campus for the University of Louisville (and which was Kentucky Southern College before that). Recent construction has changed the entrance of the campus to be directly opposite the Shelbyville Road end of Whittington Parkway, conveniently enough.

As I neared this intersection, I was passed by a guy in a pickup truck. He reached the light, and stopped with his back bumper above the stop bar. The light is set up so that it will only offer a green if its sensor is tripped, and his truck was not over the sensor at all. I pulled up beside him, and suggested that he'd get through the light quicker if he backed up over the sensor, and that the stop bar was a guide as to where the sensor is so that he could use that information on other intersections as well. He genuinely seemed to appreciate the information, telling me that my tactic was well-received. It didn't hurt anything that almost as soon as he backed up, the light turned green for him. I was in the process of getting back in line behind him, and the short light there almost caught me, but I made it under the yellow...

Parenthetically, one of the things I like about the new house is its proximity to ValuMarket. It's a great, locally-owned grocery that stocks a much wider variety of food stuffs than any Kroger I've seen, preferring to simply stock one row of a given item than six to allow for better selection. They have a lot of things I have no idea how to prepare, but that they have such things makes them stand out as local merchants.

Sure beats going to Kroger. It's a fifteen-minute bike ride home from ValuMarket with a trailer full of groceries, by the way.

musings on what it means to be a Vehicular Cyclist

Earlier this month, Mikael at Copenhagenize posted on Vehicular Cycling as a philosophy. His posts usually make a LOT of sense to me, and the two or three of you who read my musings often enough know I quote him from time to time--probably more often than most blogs I read.

In this post, he explains Vehicular Cycling in ways I had not considered. Prompted by this, I pondered my own outlook on VC, as I certainly consider myself a Vehicular Cyclist.

He has a lot of valid points. More or less separate infrastructure for cycling, even to the exclusion of cars from certain urban areas, would be wonderful. I would love to see bike lanes like those in Copenhagen in Louisville--all over the place, used all the time, cleared of snow before the main roadways, and all that.

I'm pragmatic enough to know that just about any philosophical position will have inherent compromises, though. VC is no different, to me, as there is a severe lack of political will to create the infrastructure like that in Copenhagen, let alone the dollars to do so. There is, in many places, a severe lack of room to emulate the Danish model. We are a young country by European standards, and much of our cityscape has been fashioned in the post-World-War-II era, with the assumption that if you were you would drive everywhere instead of walking/riding public transit/bicycling. There simply was no impetus for leaving room for bicycles in the traffic plan, such as it was. VC is thus a compromise, cognizant that unless our politicians develop brain functions more complex than, "I must work to be reelected to this office or a higher one," and the citizenry who bother to vote develop more of a conscience than to simply say, "it's so much more convenient for me to drive than to walk/ride/cycle, I won't vote for anyone who threatens my status quo as a driver!"

In the comments attached to Mikael's post, Anna opined, in part:

My opinion on this is different, because I can partially understand this behavior. It is not that "vehicular cyclists" are against bicycle infrastructure (although they might not know that themselves), but they are against crappy bicycle infrastructure.

I could not agree more. "Crappy bicycle infrastructure" is far worse than nothing, in many ways. Creating it, municipalities say, in effect, "Cyclists are inferior/second-class road users, so we leave them with inferior lanes so as to discourage them from using the roadways. Let the trash/debris/detritus from the traffic build up in the lane we leave them, further discouraging them from obstructing traffic with their fly-weight machines. Then rail against them even more when they refuse to use obviously-more-dangerous-than-necessary lanes we made for them." Sort of a parallel to the Jim Crow laws, in a way, if you will allow the analogy.

An anonymous respondent typed, "This is a strawman depiction of Vehicular Cycling." To some degree, I agree. Another opinion was that realists like Anna, whom I quoted above, are quite different than hard-core Vehicular Cyclists who decry ANY bicycle-specific infrastructure.

Yeah, I've heard that one before, too. I went through a brief phase of that myself, some years ago. I quickly figured out, though, that Multi-Use Paths (MUP) have their place in giving folks a place to ride as leisure riders, or semi-neophyte riders, or those of us who have the skill set and the confidence to ride on the roads but who want a low-stress alternative for a different style of ride, or whatever.

Since I'm all about getting folks on bikes, I figure that having a place for those with less of a chip on their shoulders than I to ride is a good thing.

Just don't tell me I have to ride there to the exclusion of roads that take me where I want to go.

We are a 'bent-up family

...and that's with the two of us!

The stable currently consists of the following bikes, roughly in order of their acquisition: my 1996 Vanguard, my 2002 Bacchetta Strada, Jenn's 2002 BikeE RX, her 1980-something Peugeot mixte-frame commuter, my 1975 Raleigh Superbe three-speed, her 2009 Bacchetta Giro 26, and her 1995 or-6 Vanguard, shown below:






Jenn's employer is big on United Way as a charity. There was a United-Way-based fundraiser at her workplace on the 30th of June that involved showing off rides, so we dolled up her birthday bike for the occasion. We mounted a good rack, a set of Axiom waterproof panniers, Planet Bike fenders, Planet Bike taillights and forward blinky light, Cygo-Lite Dual Cross Pro headlight set, a Delta AirZound horn (LOUD), and a Planet Bike rack trunk. Shown are two of the limited-edition RAAM Polar bottles that we managed to score during our trip.

In the long-range plans for this bike, I intend to upgrade the fork to accept modern linear-pull brakes, install such brakes front and rear, and modernize the drive train. I'm toying with getting SRAM X-7 rear drive parts, now that the 2011 model is ten-speed. The SRAM mountain derailleurs are compatible with the bar-end shifters of their road/time trial groups, so I can go that route with a compact crankset and give Jenn all the range she needs with two chainrings instead of three.

Oh, yeah. Not in the list, but in our garage nonetheless, is the younger stepdaughter's BSO, given her by her father several years ago. It's far too small for her now, but she is not ready to part with it.

Another Moving Experience

I've said it before: A change of address is a moving experience.

And of course, all the boxes have been emptied, the dishes and clothes put away, the books alphabetized, the rental house cleaned and ready for its next tenant.

If you believe that, I've also got a bridge to sell you. You can make money on this one, too--it goes up and down in the middle, so you get to charge a fee to get across (or threaten to interrupt travel if someone doesn't pay...).

I don't know if I've mentioned that Jenn's birthday was last weekend. We were on our way to Annapolis in the last few hours of RAAM at the time, so we didn't get to celebrate properly on that day. However, on our return home last Monday, she got her big birthday present from me: a Ryan Vanguard much like my own. She zoomed around the block on it, then put it back in the garage as there was so much work to do (on the houses and on the bike).

Last week, she called me about getting it set up to be her commuting rig. Her employer is big on United Way stuff, and is doing a fund-raiser this week in which employees show off their rides and garner votes. Jenn figured this was as good a time as any to trick out the bike, so we went through a few catalogs and accessorized for the hard-core cycle commuter.

I got to put the toys on the bike yesterday, in between sessions of preparing for testing my riders in the New Rider Clinic and dealing with little things on the new house. Jenn got to do a bit longer ride on her bike last night, despite not feeling well. I fine-tuned the handlebar placement a bit, and may need to shorten the seat-to-pedal distance a bit, but we got it mostly right the first time. I rode the bike briefly before moving the seat to fit her, and was quite pleased with how an unladen Vanguard feels after riding my heavily-outfitted bike so much.

She now has: a rack (Axiom brand, with some ridiculous weight capacity), a Planet Bike rack trunk (into which she can lock her lights rather than tote them inside when she's at work), fenders (Planet Bike), taillights (Planet Bike Super Flash), a be-seen headlight (Planet Bike Blaze half-watt flasher), headlight set (Cygo Lite Dual Cross Pro NiMH), and a Delta Airzound horn. We also got her a set of Axiom Typhoon panniers, into which we could pack a week's worth of laundry.

Will she win? Who knows? She'll get a few votes, just because there are a few folks at her workplace that are willing to buck a trend. She works in a four-story building, and is known as the one office worker that rides (some of the cafeteria help ride some times, but Jenn is the only office person there who rides regularly).

With the move, my internet access has been interrupted for a few days. I'm typing this during a break at the store, but must get back to work. Sadly, I won't be able to make it to Car Free Happy Hour this evening, and will likely miss Drinking Liberally this Thursday too. One of the things I liked about the rental house is that I could walk to a nice tavern like Brendan's or BBC, enjoy a beer or too many, and stagger home without having to drive or even ride a bike.

I'm back home

...but still VERY busy, catching up on stuff that didn't get done while I was gone and stuff that needs to be done for upcoming projects. I don't know when I'll get time to go through the recordings I made of my various thoughts during the trip, but I hope to do so soon.

In short, Team Type 2 finished Sunday morning, at 7 days, 15 hours and 10 minutes, two whole minutes ahead of the last finishing team in our division. Given that we had one team member and one crew member go into low-blood-sugar-related urgencies, several team and crew members fighting intestinal bugs (at least four shifts of racers went out missing a rider), some severe weather we didn't face last year and a couple of other extra challenges this year, I'm not upset. We learned a lot. Would I do it again? Perhaps. I have some conditions I would place on future participation, and Jenn and I will talk about those in the coming weeks.

Most of the race is a blur for me, but I remember being in absolute awe at what scenery I had opportunity to see out the RV windows, especially in southeastern California and Arizona. We were in the area of Monument Valley part of the time, and I couldn't help but think about geological time and how many centuries it would have taken to create the rock that became Monument Valley, and how many more to remove what had been removed to leave the magnificent sights that remain. I also thought about seeing that rock, over there, and thinking about how a century or so ago one would think in terms of "it's going to take me a week to get to that rock on foot, and I'd better have enough water with me to get there and to my next water source..."

In the short term future, I am:

Moving! We closed on the house less than fourteen hours before leaving for California. The moving party is scheduled for this weekend should anyone reading this in time feel like joining in the celebration. Food and home-made ice cream will be available, as will an assortment of beverages--some adult in nature.

Working like crazy to catch up with various things at the store. I am sure I have an assortment of item descriptions to fine-tune, in addition to doing some repairs that were waiting for my touch.

Getting ready to do RAIN in a few weeks. I was seriously preparing myself to say I wasn't ready, and to offer to drive support for Larry and Ed instead of riding. I've been talked into considering having Jenn on the back of the tandem and going a bit less than twenty miles an hour all the time, but I have to discuss it with Jenn before deciding. 160 miles in one day is simply a long day on the bike in that light. I remember struggling with some grades late in the day, and zooming up others, with no good reason for different performance levels on an hour-by-hour basis. We'll see how the discussion goes this evening...

If I don't have time to make blog entries, I know those of you who care will understand.

Are we ready to RAAM?

Yep, we are all but off to the races!

Final load-out is happening in another hour or so. My gear is already loaded, one of the perks of being a driver of the Rider RV.

It's been a very busy couple of days, to be sure. Tech inspection went very well--only one minor point, and that was a burned-out light bulb in one vehicle's taillight.

Of course, with preparation for something like this, there is always the list of forgotten stuff, stuff that everyone thought Henry was bringing, but Henry thought someone else already had it there, and so on. Part of the "busy" is dealing with that.

Then there was the dinner problem. To be fair, it was a case of inaccurate expectations. The hotel where we stayed in Carlsbad was not equipped nor staffed to deal with sixty hungry riders and crew, so dinner at the hotel didn't work very well. The barbeque I had off-property wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best I'd ever had. It did beat going hungry.

RAAM is about the riders, though. I'm here doing something I do reasonably well to make it so the riders can do their part. They get to show off soon. 2:00 local time this afternoon is race start. Their bikes are ready. Their legs are ready. Their hearts are ready. The "hay is in the barn."

We are ready for RAAM.

California, here I am

It's been a tumultuous couple of days for me. The closing, scheduled for Tuesday morning 8 June at 10:00, almost got pushed back until after my trip. This was not an option, for several reasons, not the least of which being that the seller had all her household belongings packed for travel.

Even a few hours' delay would have killed the deal for me. It was quite the emotional roller-coaster. It did finally happen, though. We closed on the house Tuesday afternoon. It's ours (well we share ownership with the finance company, but...). Jenn and I spent Tuesday night there, and got up far too early (and not early enough) so that we could fly to California Wednesday morning.

Several folks' flights were delayed, so we didn't get as much done Wednesday afternoon as we wanted. I spent some time working with another RV driver on our crew, building her confidence level in the unfamiliar-to-her environment of a vehicle with about four times the shadow size of her normal car. I spent some time later working on the Team Type 1 race wheels--installing Tufo Tubular Rim Tape instead of traditional rim cement and getting the team tires ready.

I spent almost all day building bikes for the race. Several of them desperately needed cleaning, despite team emails to the riders suggesting that they clean their bikes before shipping them for the race. Once the bikes were cleaned, we applied electrical tape panels then reflective tape on the electrical tape (so the reflective tape could be removed later without harming the paint schemes). We replaced a fair number of cables, some chains, a cassette or three, and a tube or two, then added lights as required by RAAM rules.

It took a while to do all this--Team Type 1 racers each have two bikes (road and time-trial styles) and Team Type 2 has road bikes (save for one rider who brought two bikes), for something like twenty-five bikes for three mechanics to build, tune, and kit out for the race.

We had a team meeting later in the evening, and were reminded of the importance of observing several key rules of the race. Some of us were assigned debit cards for specified purchases, we clarified a few other operational issues (showers are inside the RV, instead of a less-than-satisfactory outdoor shower system, for example) and some introductions were made. It's going to be an interesting trip. There will be some photo sessions tomorrow, followed by official inspections over safety issues and a couple of meetings so that RAAM officials can assure themselves that all racers and crew have had opportunity to hear about any changes to the rule book, the route book or anything else they think we need to know.

My mental clock is on some unknown time schedule. It's going on 3:30 EDT as I type this (12:30 in the morning out here), and I'm tired. I'll probably have stuff to edit into this post at some point. I hope I can remember it when I'm in a place to post it...

Count down timers

It's not that I'm anxious or anything.

Really.

As I type this, the closing on our house is a bit more than twenty four hours away.

Our departure for RAAM is a bit less than forty-eight hours away.

Still lots to do before I'm ready for either...

I'm about forty miles short of two thousand logged miles for 2010. I *might* get more than half those miles in tomorrow's errand-running. I may get a few more in on Tuesday, depending on how the timing works on the house closing and other tasks I need to accomplish that day.

I'm afraid the number of bike miles may have to take a lower priority than getting things done quickly, though. I still have lots to do before leaving Wednesday morning. I can't plan to have time to shop for stuff out west, but there will be some stuff I'll have to buy, just because I can't take it on the airplane with me.

Just a few more days...

The anxiety level has been pretty far up there of late, what with the house closing approaching, my trip to support Team Type 2 in RAAM, time away from the store, lots of repairs and new bikes to make happen at the store, getting ready to move as soon as I come back from RAAM, attempting to manage the LBC New Rider Clinics, and whatever else gets tossed on my plate.

There was some question whether the loan would actually happen, but that apparently got resolved today (if it weren't for the very last minute, NOTHING would get done in this country!). The lawyer in whose office the closing is scheduled to happen reported to my realtor that they have a green light for the closing this coming Tuesday.

Wow. Tight timing. No room for delays, no room for performance failures and no room for performance anxiety (or at least no room for it to flourish...).

When I get back, I will have time to get home, change clothes, and get on the bike for the class. I have part of my preparation done now, and will wrap it up over the weekend, during forced breaks from sorting/packing stuff in the house for the move.

I can't wait for July, when I get to prepare for Ride Across Indiana. I figure I have the base miles from my commuting, but I don't have the long miles. I'll have to cram a double-century prep into about three weeks. Fortunately, RAIN is not a double century, and is no tougher to accomplish than some of the local century rides. Hopefully, the annual Madisonville Century will be on the schedule, as it's as good a gauge for me as any.

Which of course reminds me that I have some schedule preparation to do before I leave town...

Back to the checklist!

I just looked at my page on mycyclinglog.com, and realized that I'm about a hundred miles short of two thousand miles for the year. Will I break two thousand before Wednesday morning? I'm sure I'll get there by the end of June.

Even as disappointed as I was with my May mileage count, I still rode more than I drove. Had I found time to ride club rides on Sundays, I would have done better, but getting ready for the upcoming move seemed more important, somehow.

Still lots to do before the weekend...

It's a new month

June is upon us!

Lots of stuff going on for me: The house purchase is starting to look like it might actually happen! There are only a couple of pieces of the puzzle left to assemble (I hope), and most of what's left is out of my hands at the moment. I'm still shepherding as much as I can, and planning for the crunch time to come next week as best I can.

I'm up against a deadline or three, you see. Our closing is scheduled for Tuesday morning. I'll have Tuesday afternoon to change (and repair a couple of) the locks on the house, before we fly out to California Wednesday morning for RAAM. We'll spend Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday and Saturday preparing for our race, which starts Saturday afternoon. Not to worry, I have an assortment of folks set up to do random drive-by inspections at both houses, to make sure nobody burns down either one while we are gone. All the good stuff is already boxed up, anyway, and one would have to go through a LOT of boxes to figure out where it is.

Nothing like a little stress in one's life.

Before I leave town, I have to prepare the lesson plan and working materials for the New Rider Clinic class to happen on the 21st, as I will fly home just in time to get home, change clothes, air up the bike tires and ride to the class. Maybe I'd better have a back-up plan in place for that, too, eh?

The commute was a bit different today, too. Jenn spoke with Bob (owner of Bluegrass Bicycle, and my boss) at the Mayor's Ride on Monday, and their discussion led Jenn to think Bob would find value in looking at our Burley trailer. Since I was riding the Raleigh to work today, anyway (the Ryan seat mesh broke last week, and I'm a bit concerned that it would break worse if I keep riding it before replacing the mesh), I pulled the trailer to work with me. As I was getting ready to go home, I found I had reason to visit my mom for a bit on my way home. Going to her house involves a roughly half-hour addition to my travel time (it's about a half-hour to her place from work, and about an hour home from her place), so I did that. I had removed the headlights from the Raleigh the other day, and had yet to reinstall them, so I needed to leave Mom's in time to get home with some light left.

Mom lives near Long Run Park. Best route home from her house is roughly Aiken Road to Old Henry Road, Avoca Road to Anchorage, then KY146 to Lyndon Lane to Westport Road. Not a bad ride at all, frankly.

Except that Avoca Road is closed to through traffic right now. I figured (rightly, as it turned out) that I could walk whatever section was truly closed, so I rode past the closure signs. Apparently, some of the embankment supporting one edge of the road (beside a railroad track that serves the quarry operations off Old Henry Road) failed--there is a stretch of pavement two or three feet wide and forty or fifty feet long that is six inches or more below road grade. I can see why they would not want motor vehicles to pass each other along there!

And, yes, I got home before dark!

Bird web cam

Web cam feeds can be tedious! Even so, some have glorious moments to show. This one, for example. It's a nest cam, showing a mating pair of American Bald Eagles and their young. Neat that someone was able to get the cam there, and that the Eagles are ignoring it. The baby bird isn't overly pretty to my eyes, but the parents are doing their part anyway. Maybe it's not about looks...

On selling utility cycling

I often link to Copenhagenize.com. I enjoy reading Mikael's comments. I think he is right with many of his opinions regarding how to sell cycling as an alternative to motoring. Mikael's view is that he rides because it's quicker than driving. Riding, for him, is done in whatever clothing he's wearing at the moment, or with minimal changes to what clothing he's wearing at the moment. Riding, to him, is done in street shoes, on flat pedals (at least a lot of the time). It's even--gasp!--easier to ride than to drive.

On a recent post, he quotes one of his readers who put forth a slightly different view. Brian Glover's point is that cycling for transport isn't perceived as being sexy enough. He goes on to say that "sexy enough" varies by location, and that what is perceived as a great reason to cycle in Greenville North Carolina may not work in Washington D(istrict of) C(oncubines), or Seattle, or Louisville KY, and that "selling" utility cycling in disparate areas requires more awareness of the nuances of the specific areas.

I happen to agree with both of them. As a cycling advocate, I like the idea of telling folks I ride because I prefer it over driving. I enjoy that I get where I'm going as quickly (or sometimes more quickly) than if I were to use a car. I am certain that if more high-profile folks in our area would ride bikes instead of driving cars, the followers would take notice.

One problem is that there would be a certain percentage of people who would simply write off the popularity of those high-profile people and call us losers. As Brian Glover points out, "Even when cycling clearly is the fastest, most convenient way to get somewhere, they won’t do it, and they’ll look with disdain on anyone who does."

My workday commute, at twelve miles each way, takes me longer on a bike than in a car. I still prefer to ride, but I recognize that I'm a bit eccentric by the standards many use. I use a bicycle to get around close to home (within four or five miles) because it is easier and quicker (or at least about as quick). I get to park closer to the door of whatever store I'm patronizing. I like myself better when I'm not at the wheel of a car (I have far less patience with other road users when I'm in a car. See: Motor Mania).

In short, to get more folks to ride instead of driving cars, we as cyclists need to recognize that folks will act in what they think is their own best interest. My commute takes longer by bike than by car. I ride a bike whenever I can (I have weather minima, and sometimes am hauling stuff that I can't haul readily with a bike). It's still in my own perceived best interest to ride--I feel better about myself, I get some exercise, I get to re-allocate the funds I would have spent on driving...

My errand-running is also done by bicycle, for the same basic reason: It's in my own best interest. I can tick off observable benefits to my self--physical and emotional--that I gain by cycling instead of driving.

That I see a non-mainstream activity as being in my best interest makes me something of an oddity. I'm comfortable with that. I embrace that, in fact.

Brian discussed a survey (since ended, so no link found showing results) that asked why folks ride bikes for utility. The question Brian wanted to see asked, with answers that were decidedly not overly polite, was:

“Why do you choose to do something that, in the eyes of 95% of your society, marks you as a freak and a loser?”

No one will say this out loud, of course – it’s not polite – but it’s the truth. And no one will answer this question honestly, either, but if they did, the choices would look like this:

A. I am too poor to get around in any other way. I have no choice. I
am abject.

B. I have had my rights as a citizen stripped from me because of
repeated, unforgivably bad behavior (i.e. drunk driving
convictions). I am an outcast and a pariah.

C. I think most mainstream people are idiots, and I actively seek
out their disapproval. I am a rebel. If the majority of people
around me start biking, I’ll hate that too.

D. I genuinely don’t care what other people think of me. I am an
independent thinker. I also have enough job security and social
status that I can afford not to care what other people think of me.
I am either uncommonly strong, or uncommonly privileged.

My own answer is pretty close to (D) on this one, even though I don't consider it an accurate description of me. Job security in this day and age is ephemeral for too many. I have a job that is a good fit for me, but it's a small store, and we always want to have more revenue than we have. Social status can be a point of contention with me--I admit to falling into the trap of reverse-snobbery too easily. I may be uncommonly strong in some way--willingness to be different than the norm, for example--but don't see that as a strength so much as merely a trait. I hardly consider myself privileged, until I look at what I have compared to folks with less income or mobility or fewer family/social ties or whatever other scale one measures wealth and realize that I am quite privileged.

Yep, I have the privilege of living in such a way that I can ride a bike to work on a regular basis, ride one bike or another to accomplish much of my errand-running, can walk to do some things, and otherwise leave the car in the driveway. It's in my self-interest to live this way, as I get to allocate my earnings into things more enjoyable than car payments, gasoline bills, car parts and higher insurance premiums in favor of better-tasting food, a nicer place to live (lower utility bills being part of what defines "nicer"), more comfortable clothing (kilts aren't as cheap as jeans, although a kilt will outlast several pair of jeans...), and so on.

I also have the privilege of acting in my own perceived best interest, and that means riding a bike to work a majority of the time instead of driving.

Bike to Work Week recap

For Bike to Work Week, I got the dubious pleasure of driving to work. Twice. For the third week in a row, I exceeded my car mileage for April.

Driving more than three times as much as I did last month is not something of which I'm proud. I'm not going to beat myself up over it, at least not in principle. However, it's a frustrating reminder that with what is happening in my life over the next four weeks, I won't be getting any long miles ridden. That doesn't bode well for RAIN, but I've done that ride with less-than-ideal preparation before.

And, yes, I even drove to work yesterday. I had an excuse, though--I knew I was going to be hauling a bunch of stuff home that would be at best unwieldy with a bike trailer.

I rode an assortment of bike miles this week. I rode the Raleigh a fair bit--for errands prior to the Monday evening New Rider class as well as to the class itself, to the Bike to Work celebration downtown, then out again with the trailer for some shopping (in two different directions, no less: a visit to a nice wine store on Frankfort Avenue and then to Westport Village to window-shop at The Trail Store). I even got to ride it for a while last night, in search of a small tool box for my upcoming trip across the country.

I rode Jenn's Giro 26 to work on Wednesday, as I'd had contact from a fellow who wanted to test-ride one for his upcoming bike journey. I rode home in something of a hurry, so that I could change jerseys and bikes and ride the Vanguard to the Ride of Silence. Good thing, too, as I wound up staying downtown for dinner with friends after the ride, and it was dark when I rode home (the Giro doesn't have headlights). I rode the Vanguard to work on Thursday, as is normal for me.

I didn't work on Friday, but had scheduled the day off so that I could attend the Bike to Work celebration downtown. I had been invited to join Team LBC in the Louisville KY Commuter Challenge. It surprised nobody that we won, as one of our team accounted for something like ten percent of the points earned in the entire contest ('twasn't I). We won a custom helmet mirror for each team member and the coveted "Golden Handlebars," along with bragging rights to enjoy until this time next year.

Saturday was "drive to work day" for me, as mentioned above. After work, I went to my mom's house to help her sort out final details on an apron she made for me.

Over the years I've worked in bike shops, I have worn out several commercially-produced shop aprons--usually tools wear holes in the pockets to the point that fixing the apron is time-consuming enough that replacing it works better. I mentioned this to Mom, and added that a layer of rip-stop nylon inside the pocket might prevent or delay the wear-through time. I took an old apron out to Mom so she would have a template, and she created an improved version in time for my birthday a couple months ago. We used various lessons learned from that apron's construction in tweaking the design for the second apron. I'll use the second one at home, for the most part, but she wanted to get it to me in time for me to take it on the RAAM trip.

I'm trying to sort out the packing for my trip. As established readers of my musings know, part of my duties for RAAM involve working on bikes, so I will need tools. I don't relish the thought of some TSA agent accidentally or otherwise losing any of my tools during an airport inspection (although I know that there are some conscientious agents, horror stories abound). I've made arrangements to send out my tools and repair stand via UPS, and will send them home again from Maryland once we reach Annapolis.

In the box with my tools, I will send my portable power supply for my CPAP machine. It's mildly entertaining to watch the TSA folks' expressions as they see the battery come through their x-ray device, but it's also a serious enough thing that I'm even happier not having to schlep the battery around with all the other crap I'm carrying on the airplane.

I'm trying to decide whether to buy a "netbook" or something like that for the trip, to enable me to type more of my thoughts before forgetting them. I would then be able to periodically update this blog during the race, read email and generally keep up with other stuff I like to monitor. I don't know that I'll have much time to do so--what time I spend online would be during my off-duty hours, and I may be more interested in sleeping then. I don't expect to have much time for such frivolity as blogging while I'm on duty, and am not sure how sharp the delineation between on- and off-duty will be. I suppose I could go low-tech, and write down my thoughts as I go, figuring on rewriting/revising as I upload it after I get home.

Bike to Work Week

It's Bike to Work Week. As I've said in prior posts, most of the folks who read this already "get it." Bike to Work Week and Day are more about those who are on the proverbial fence about riding to work--those who want to, but who feel there are too many obstacles for them. It's about encouraging them to ride and helping them to find ways over or around those obstacles.

Of course, I wound up driving to work today. It was raining, and I thought I heard thunder, as I did one day last week.

I almost committed to driving to work tomorrow, too, until I realized that the reason I was considering driving--to get Jenn's Giro to the store for a test-ride by a potential recumbent buyer--could also be accomplished by riding the bike without needing the car to haul it. I have clothes at work and I have lunch stuff there, so I won't need a lot of cargo space.

On a more somber note: Wednesday, 19 May is the day for the annual Ride of Silence. Many communities across North America and even the world will observe this event, held at 7:00 PM local times, to honor the memory of our cycling friends who have been killed in crashes with motor vehicle (mis)operators. I have several folks to remember this year, including my friend Sharon, who was almost as active in the local cycling community as she was in her home in Alabama.

Whoo HOO!!!

I've been antsy over the last couple of weeks due to the house-buying experience. "Will it go through as hoped? Will the bank agree that we have the wherewithal to buy the house?"

Late last week, another piece of the puzzle arrived--the loan company's appraisal of the house.

It was $4500 less than the contract price. Not going unnoticed by any of us, it was--to the dollar--the same amount we had initially offered on the house.

Apparently it would be all but impossible for the seller to get more money for the house at this point. The pool of buyers has all but gone away with the end of the first-time home-buyers' tax break program, so if she refused the reduced price it would likely be a LONG time before she could sell the house for more money, and she certainly would not be able to sell it to someone who, like Jenn and me, are buying using the FHA program.

Still, given the difficulty the selling realtor had getting her to sell for our second offered price, we were nervous. Would she come down that last few thousand dollars?

I learned late last night that she had. We'll have the signed addendum to our purchase contract at the appraised price tomorrow or Thursday.

The seller asked that we schedule the closing for 8 June. Good for us, as we plan to fly to California on 9 June. Jenn's daughters will be minding things while we are gone (along with some friends of ours that my step-daughters may or may not notice doing drive-by checks), and the closing is early enough in the day that I expect to have time to change the locks on the house before we skip town. I wouldn't expect problems from this seller, but I still feel better having my own locks installed. There was one deadbolt that is misaligned a bit, and I'll have a chance to fix that while I'm changing the key cylinders.


I've not been riding much the last few days. I rode to work Saturday, and rode to Mom's from work to help my stepfather plant a tree in their backyard. Jenn picked me up at Mom's house so that we could visit some of her family that evening, so my commute was only eighteen of the usual twenty-four miles. I'll hit the Tuesday evening ride in a bit, and get some miles on the Strada just for kicks.

I also now have my newest kilt. I've been saving for this one for a while, and it's been a pretty cool way to buy. It's an RKilt, with some traditional details but made on a more modern form. I couldn't justify getting a leather kilt, although having seen the one Robert (the creator of RKilts) was wearing this morning I can see why a lot of folks like them so well. However, I've been reading enough good things about his attention to detail and the "hand" of his hemp fabric that one of these has been on my "eventually I'll get one" list for a while. I need to wash it one more time before I start wearing it (and certainly before I take pictures of it), but the test-fit felt VERY good.

As I said, it's made of hemp, and the more I read about hemp the more I think this country has some serious cranio-rectal insertion problems! If the North American Industrial Hemp Council can be believed at all, hemp would easily displace tobacco as Kentucky's leading legal cash crop, and make a run for being the leading cash crop by making the current leader harder to grow (hemp cross-pollinating with marijuana plants leads to lower-THC marijuana, not higher-THC hemp). It's easy to learn the difference between the two, so reasonably-well-trained LEOs *should* be able to discriminate. Besides, hemp is typically grown densely-planted, to get it to grow more fibrous, whereas pot is grown widely-separated to get it to leaf better.

Of course, small minds prevail on such things. Go figure. Yep, keep us from growing a plant that has dozens or hundreds of uses, that requires far less chemical help than cotton and makes a better fabric, that provides an oil that was the original fuel for Rudolph Diesel's engines, has longer fibers and is thus better for rope, and much more.

...and the fabrics made from hemp are so darned durable! At least, that's what I keep reading. I look forward to seeing how this kilt wears. I plan to wear it when I crew on RAAM next month.

May--may we all bike to work

As mentioned previously, May is Bike Month. There is an assortment of stuff happening associated with this, including Bike to Work Week and Bike to Work Day (May 21). There are bike safety classes to be found, presented by Bicycling for Louisville and the Louisville Bicycle Club. There is a Commuter Challenge going, by which one can win some cool prizes and the adoration of your peers (or something).

I know that a few folks read what I put here. I get comments from time to time about something I put here but nowhere else online, and from people I don't know. I presume that most of the people who bother to read what I say are already bike-friendly enough that you want to ride to work even if you haven't figured out how to deal with the details. I don't have to convince you to bike to work, although I'm happy to help you figure out those pesky details.

I don't know how to convince others, though, aside from riding to work myself, talking about riding to work (I get to keep my bike in the store, and "casually" refer to it when talking to customers), and encouraging those who also ride to work to encourage others who haven't done so.

We don't have to ride to work to "save the environment," "stick it to the oil companies," or prove anything. I ride to work with those things in mind, yes, but mainly I ride to work because I like myself better when I am riding than when I'm driving. I enjoy the ride more than the drive. Sure, I save money on gas, car repairs and car insurance. Sure, I am keeping one more car out of the traffic jams (and still getting to work in a reasonable amount of time). I realize that I have some good fortune in that I'm able to keep my bike inside while at work, safe from idle hands who would toy with the various doo-dads mounted on the bike (or "borrow" said accessories), and that I also enjoy the good fortune to work in a place where cycling to work is not such a weird thing.

Anyway, it's May. It's Bike Month. It's Bike to Work Month. Soon it will be Bike to Work Week. Ride--to work, to the grocery, to the Post Office, to the Library, to the coffee shop, to your friend's house a couple miles away--and enjoy riding. Encourage your friends to ride.

"Work to eat, eat to live, live to ride, ride to work"

It's not always the bike slowing you down

I wanted to deposit my paycheck this morning on the way to work, so I stopped by the bank branch nearest my commute route--at Hurstbourne and KY22, across from The Summit shopping megaplex.



When I was done there, I was faced with the choice of riding back south to Westport Road or taking the more direct route to work, KY22. I was a bit later than I really wanted to be by then, so I opted for the more direct route. Yeah, KY22 is a bit nervy for cyclists, but I've got that chip on my shoulder thing going.



Shortly after crossing under the Jefferson Freeway (some call it the Snyder...), I saw a farm tractor coming the other way, equipped with round-bale loading gear front and rear, followed by a pickup truck pulling a wagon for hauling round bales. They were followed by a LONG line of cars--probably more than fifty. I figured that nobody would pass me for a bit, since I was occupying the only eastbound lane and am not in the habit of letting folks pass me in a narrow lane. I could be smarmy and say, "Sorry 'bout your luck," of course...

Anyway, over the next half mile or so, I was passed by a few cars. After a while, though, it started seeming that traffic in my direction was very sparse. After I passed the entrance to Briar Hill subdivision, I noticed what appeared to be that same farm tractor about a half mile back. I was moving fast enough that I could reach Central Avenue in plenty of time to pull off and watch the parade of motorists behind that tractor--all fifty or so of them!

Once there was a sufficient break in traffic, I continued on my way. It was a bit over a mile to Crestwood from where I pulled off, and in the first half mile, several more cars passed me, only to have to slow again when they encountered the line of traffic crawling along behind the tractor (of course, folks that were not the first ten in line had no idea what the "problem" was, or why it didn't go away once they got past that pesky bike rider...). My last half mile approaching Crestwood was spent riding as part of the line waiting to get through the traffic light at KY22 and KY329 (at the Dairy Queen).

I was chuckling a good part of the time, knowing that anyone behind me (and a fair number of those who passed me in that last mile or so) could NOT blame me for slowing them down, even though they did not realize that the delay was caused by something gas-powered.

And, by the way, my return home will tip me over the 600 mile mark for April--AND the 1400 mile mark for the year to date!

hehehehehe

Home again!

Wow. I drove more on Sunday than I had in almost all of April to date. I drove more in the seventy-two hours from Sunday morning to Tuesday evening than I have in the entire month of March and April prior to Sunday.

I took my sister to Charlotte, North Carolina for some testing related to a medical condition. She is embroiled in a battle with an insurance company over their denial of a claim, and her attorney felt that corroborative testing would help their case.

Without going into details, the trip was worth doing.

I got a chance to remind myself that I can drive longer distances well enough that I'm okay with doing my job on RAAM in another month or so. I also got to test some ideas on a "go bag" to keep in the cab with me.

I was concerned that my trip would prevent me reaching my goal, stated a few days ago, of logging six hundred miles on bicycles in April. As of my departure Sunday morning, I showed about 518 miles.

However, I also needed to visit my Chiropractor after driving something like 1150 miles in three days. My Chiropractor (actually both of them--a husband and wife team) has an office in LaGrange, a mere seven miles from the store where I work. It took me about thirty minutes to ride there, and another thirty or so to get back to work. It added fourteen miles to today's riding, which puts me at 556 miles or so for the month. The 48 miles I'll do riding to work and back tomorrow and Fried-day will just barely get me over that goal line.

On the ride home from work (yes, I rode the Raleigh, mostly to get over my foul mood caused by the rain), I was climbing out of the small valley behind Pewee Valley on Rollington Road, when I saw a bird in the roadway. It looked big--bigger than a crow--but vultures usually don't just hang out walking in the roadway.

As I neared it, I realized that it was, indeed, a turkey vulture. I was concerned about passing it, to some extent, in that I didn't want to startle it into a mistake like flying into me. Those things weigh up to five pounds, and a five-pound bird striking one beak-first would be painful. I rang my bell to get it to face me, and sure enough, it took flight exactly away from me, but not before letting me get within fifteen feet or so of it.

It took roost in a tree and watched me as I cycled past. I was moving too fast to be considered dinner, I suppose.

Fine with me.

Aw, phooey

As I type this, it's raining. I really dislike riding in the rain. I'm debating driving to work, knowing that doing so will spoil a streak of riding that has lasted since late March.

If my ride to work was more like five miles, I'd probably go ahead and ride. That it's an hour of getting soggier by the minute takes much of the fun out of cycling to work.

Part of the problem is that my rain gear, such as it is, gets hot fast. I'd be as wet from sweating as from rain--although a bit less muddy.

And when I looked for my rain cape yesterday, I couldn't find it.

The cape I have is fair for light rain and short rides, but is far from waterproof (unlike the claims made on the web site where I bought the thing).

I may see if I can find it, though, and ride the Raleigh.

edit added: After typing the above, I realized that I was in a foul moment, and could get out of that mood by riding to work, despite my usual aversion to riding in the rain.

I also figured out where the cape was hiding.

Yeah, it was a wet ride, and I couldn't figure out why it felt like I was riding into a headwind (aside from the usual additional drag attributable to the cape). Motorists weren't any nicer or uglier than usual, although I didn't get quite as many out-the-window comments as on some rides (I figure the twits who would yell out their windows had them closed due to the rain).

Oddly, the bottom bracket on the Raleigh felt loose once I got about a third of the way to work. I didn't feel anything in my ABC Quick Check, although I admit to having rushed through that a bit. When I got to the store, well before opening time, I tossed the bike in a repair stand long enough to tighten the bearings a bit, and it feels much better now. I also hammered in that pesky right wedge pin again--I don't know why this bike is giving me more wedge pin trouble than any other such crank I've fixed in the last thirty years, unless it's a matter of no longer being able to get decent pins.

Anyway, I may leave work early this afternoon if I can. A friend has an art show opening tonight, and it would be good to see the paintings.

And I'm in a better mood, having continued my list of days not driving to work.


Just to keep from driving (myself nuts).

May is Bike to Work Month

I was looking at my ride log on mycyclinglog.com the other day, and noted that I am on track to exceed six hundred miles for April. This will barely beat my mileage total for March.

I've not done many club rides these last two months. I drove out to Westport to do a couple of Larry's excellent WINGS (Westport Incremental New Goal Series) rides--once on my own, and once with Jenn. I've done a couple of the Saturday afternoon LBC rides from Bluegrass Bicycle after my Saturday shifts there as well. I've even managed to do a couple of the Sunday afternoon rides from either Heine Brothers' or Baptist East/Milestone Fitness. However, I've not done a lot of long-mileage days.

In other words, most of my riding has been getting back and forth to work. The last time I drove to work was in March.

Accordingly, I'm not really in the target audience for things like Bike to Work Month/Week/Day, despite being a staunch proponent of biking to work.

Instead, I'm one of those folks who encourages others to try it. Once a week. Once or twice a month. A few times a year.

I've heard the usual excuses--"I can't arrive at work all sweaty," "I can't afford the extra time," "I have to haul stuff," "Work is too far from home" and more. They are just that--excuses. If one really wants to ride to work, one can do so. Where there is a will, there is a way, as the old saying goes.

I don't mean for that last paragraph to sound so condescending. I also fully recognize that for some, the idea of riding a bicycle two miles seems an almost Herculean task. "Five miles? Ten? Impossible for me!" they say. I'm fond of recounting a friend's confession that "seven miles is a goal" when it comes to riding a bike. As an advanced cyclist, I find it useful to think of such folks and remind myself that I, too, once considered seven miles a long bike ride.

At any rate, Bike to Work Month is coming. Soon. There are all manner of local challenges and celebrations in the works, aiming to get folks to consider riding instead of driving. There are education programs, as well--both the Louisville Bicycle Club program, which I manage as the VP Education, and those presented by Bicycling for Louisville.

I fully realize that most of those who read my online blathering are already bike-friendly. Many of you ride to work or to do errands at least once in a while, if not often. To a large degree, Bike to Work Day/Week/Month observations, while they celebrate your efforts, are also to encourage our friends who are not so enthusiastic about the idea. We want to help them get that old bike out of the garage/shed/basement, air up the tires, lubricate the chain and cables, do that ABC Quick Check, strap on that helmet and go for a bike ride. There will be a few preparatory rides leading up to Bike to Work Week and Bike to Work Day--one is on Saturday, so that folks aren't pressed for time and can figure out routes without the stress of having to look great at the end of the ride (and share tips for regaining that great office-ready look once at the office), there is another the Friday before Bike to Work Day (May 14th), and of course on Bike to Work Day itself (May 21st). On Bike to Work Day, there will be an assortment of incentives--I think Heine Brothers' Coffee is going to offer a free cup of coffee to anyone stopping by on their bikes during their trip to work, for example. The Bike to Work Day team are working at getting more incentives implemented as I type this.

As I learn more, I'll post more here. Encourage your friends to try biking to work.

Hooray!!

I just heard from our realtor: We have a signed contract on a house! There were a few nail-biting moments, as is often the case with house purchases, and there is still much to do before we move in.

Next step for me is to decide on a home inspector and termite inspector. We get to do the loan application in the next few days as well. Hopefully we can lock in a decent interest rate that will remain in effect until closing. The seller is delaying the closing a bit due to some family plans, but we'll get possession of the house in early June.

I get to move again. Right after coming back from our RAAM trip. I get to go from driving an RV for a week to driving a moving van for a couple days. It will be a LOT of work, and a good part of it is going to have to be done in May (packing stuff we don't use all the time, mainly).

Time to buy the boxes...

Drat

For several months, I've been hearing periodic ticking from the rear wheel of the Vanguard. I've put threadlocking compound in the rim joint, I've inspected the spokes numerous times to see if any were broken, I've checked the cassette and freehub mechanisms, and have never found the problem. The noise went away for a time, but recently has not only returned, but gotten worse.

I had some down time at the store today, so I got the bike in the stand and removed the rear wheel for more detailed inspection. The spokes are all nice and tight, none are broken, and the cassette is fine. In the course of cleaning it, however, I noted that there was an odd line of schmutz around the shell, parallel to the flanges. I cleaned it off, but there was still a line. Sure enough, I have a crack in the hub shell. It's all the way around the shell. My hub is being held together by the collective forces of all that spoke tension and the axle holding the flanged ends to each other.

There doesn't seem to be any danger of catastrophic failure--it's been like this for a year or more. Still, it's an opportunity for me to build a new wheel for the bike.

This is the second wheel built on that hub. I built it early in 2001, shortly before I bought my V-Rex. It remains the only wheel set I've built using all alloy spoke nipples--and purple ones, at that. The hub dates to some time in 1999, when I installed it to replace the Sovos hub original to the bike (the rim on the original wheel was about dead, due to an assortment of pothole mishaps).

More than ten years on a hub and nine years on a rim, with something like ten or twelve thousand accumulated miles, is good enough, I suppose. They are wear items, after all. I'm no small guy at 220#, and the Vanguard has a heavy rear weight bias. Since I built this wheel, and have not been gentle to this wheel, I'm okay with needing to replace it. I built it to ride it, not to hang it on a wall and look at it.


On other fronts, I've been surprised a few times of late by folks who tell me I look thinner. I've not been doing any active work on weight loss--indeed, I've lost maybe fifteen pounds (or ten, depending on what the scale says tomorrow morning) since this time last year.

I suppose I may be altering my body composition a little bit by riding instead of driving. Logging my miles has proven to be even more effective than this blog at helping me make sure I ride to work more often than driving (although the fact that the car is in Georgetown with my younger stepdaughter is also a factor over the last couple weeks).

That I am apparently building muscle mass while losing body fat is interesting. I'm not losing any inches off my waist, I don't think, but my kilts are fitting a bit more loosely around my hips...

No stress today...

We got a counter-offer from the home seller. Wow. She came down a whole six hundred dollars from the listing price.

We've countered the counter-offer, and expect to hear a response tonight.

No stress at all. Nope, no sir.


On my ride to work today, I got to enjoy tracking an eastbound train as it went eastbound from St Matthews by listening to its horn. As it neared various crossings the horn would sound, and I could hear it clearly from Westport Road. It seemed that I was almost keeping up with it--the timing of the horn and the angle relative to where I was told me which crossing the train was nearing.

angst-laden day

"When in trouble, when in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout!"

I'm reminded of this expression when I think about my level of angst today, where it originates, what I'm going to do about it...

We made an offer on a house last night. To finalize the sale, we have to get financing, pay for an assortment of inspections and insurance plans--the usual first-time home buyers' hurdles. Lots of folks do this sort of thing every year. Some of those folks have more financial resources than we have, some less. Some have good reason to worry, some ignore those reasons and buy more than they can afford.

We looked at our budget pretty closely prior to this decision. There isn't as much room for error as I'd like, but this house is in excellent condition, it's fairly new (ten years or so since construction), and our incomes should improve over the coming year or two. We'll figure something out.

In any case, I have a raft of errands to run soon--starting with a trip to the bank once it opens, and continuing with an assortment of not-really-related-to-home-buying tasks. Life goes on regardless of what happens with the offer we've submitted.

We've looked at eight or ten houses, after culling from dozens more based on their MLS profiles and a few drive-by looks. There have been some that we really liked, but couldn't afford, some that we sort-of liked, but which were almost inaccessible, some that we could have lived in, but were never passionate about, and some on which we differed sharply in how we responded to them. Some had decent locations, but were crappy houses. Few have walkability ratings on par with the house we have been renting for the last two years.

I hope we get this house. It's a charmer. It's in a decent area, our commutes are shorter by a few miles, and the trips to the grocery won't take much longer. I can envision riding to Jenn's office with her on my way to the store in the mornings, without being far out of my own travel path.

It's going to be an adventure.

More Saturday thoughts on Sunday morning

There wasn't enough house-hunting to be done Saturday afternoon, so I rode the club ride from Bluegrass Bicycle before heading home. I wound up with just under fifty miles for the day--and had I gotten organized, would have ridden another few on the Raleigh to do some shopping just to trip the next color in the MyCyclingLog report.

I rode yet a different bike on the club ride. I'd ridden Jenn's Giro a couple of times, including once on the club ride last season, because it was a) there, with my Strada at home, b) I either didn't have one of my own bikes there or c) didn't want to ride the Vanguard, wanting to ride something faster. On that fairly hilly/rolling twenty-four or so mile course, I managed to average a bit over 17mph. I have not yet gotten around to attaching the cadence sensor on this bike, so I couldn't monitor that, but I could still feel it pretty well.

On the way home--on the Vanguard--I had another ugly-attitude motorist encounter. It would be pretty funny except that such twits (or their female counterparts) are herding large, dangerous hunks of metal in such close proximity to me as I travel from place to place. I also wonder whether such people recognize the example they are setting for their children who happen to be in the car with them when they act such jerks, or whether they see any sense of irony in their being such jerks when they accuse me of being selfish by cycling instead of driving.

In any case, I was feeling pretty good as I rode home. I was pedaling well, feeling reasonably strong if not fast. In one somewhat odd moment, a motorist pulled up beside me a bit west of Westport Middle School and opened his passenger-side power window to ask if he could take a picture with his cell phone. Aghast at the attempt to multi-task in traffic, and not interested in having my picture taken, AND conscious (far more conscious than the driver, apparently) that there was other traffic wanting to pass me, I waved him off. Thankfully, he took the hint and drove off. I don't know whether he realized the danger in which he could have been putting all of us, and doubt that he did.

A bit later in my ride, as I was nearing the construction (constriction?) zone on Westport Road, my legs started telling me that they could cramp if they wanted. I kept the cramps at bay until I was well off Westport Road and into the neighborhood I often use to get out of the constriction zone--indeed, I was in the parking lot behind the Hubbards Lane Kroger store and the attached shopping center before having to stop and shake out my leg muscles a bit. I didn't have the severe cramps I've had on other rides, but it was worth stopping for a moment and letting the muscles settle a bit before riding the last mile or so to get home.

Saturday thoughts

I started this blog in part to keep myself accountable for riding to work instead of driving most of the time. At some level, I feel I have to justify driving, simply because I prefer riding and like being able to look back on all the days I left the car at home.

A month or two ago, a friend sent out a link to mycyclinglog.com, with a request that folks creating profiles there join his Louisville commuter group. After tinkering with it on a day off work, I figured I'd continue playing along. It gives me a better record of what cycling I'm doing than this blog does.

I can (and have done so) look back on my entries here and get a pretty good idea of where I rode and how far. However, if I lack time to post each day, I have to think about it enough to give myself clues and so on. MyCyclingLog works a bit better for me in this way.

Being part of the group also gives me a gauge against which I can compare my riding to that of others in the group. I must admit that it's fun being in the top five members...

I also find that MyCyclingLog has some easy-to-use reports so I can compare my riding this month to prior months. For example, by the time I log my round trip to work and home today, I will have logged more miles for April than the entire month of February, and that even if I re-route my trip home to meet Jenn during our house-hunting. Looking at my March report, I doubt I'll exceed those commuting miles in April, although I will likely find more opportunities for club miles that will add to my April total faster than commuting does.

Of course all this commuting comes with its downside. Twice in the last two days, my trips to work have been punctuated with "ugly motorist" encounters. Friday morning, a guy in a pickup truck going the other way blew his horn a long time upon seeing me, and flipped me off as he went by. I don't know why--I certainly was not a factor in his drive at that point. I can only figure he likes being a jerk.

This morning, as I crept up the rise on Houston Lane approaching Mt Mercy Drive in Pewee Valley, a different pickup truck came up behind me. That section of Houston Lane is very narrow--probably less than twelve feet wide. There is no way in the world I am going to let a motorist try to pass me there. Of course, the guy had to run his window down and cuss at me for blocking his way, complaining that he couldn't get around me.

I didn't take the time to remind him that there is exactly no legal support for his sense that slower traffic must yield to him simply because he can climb that hill faster. Or simply because he wants to be jerk. I largely ignored him, or appeared to from his perspective. If his threats had escalated, I would have reported him for terroristic threatening at some point, but at this point it's not worth the trouble--it's enough to think in terms of "he likes being a jerk," and go on enjoying the rest of my ride.

The fantasy of having a sympathetic police officer who would be a hard-nose with such twits witness such events is still fun, though.


On the house hunt: There was a house in Middletown that we liked, but there was a house of Westport Road that appealed more for a variety of reasons. Sadly, we got beat to that house, and there was enough other interest in the house that a bidding war could have begun. While still thinking about the house in Middletown, we've opened the search a bit more.

I was reluctant to consider houses off Murphy Lane, for example, as I do NOT like Murphy Lane as a bike route. I looked at a map of the area, though, and have found some work-arounds which open that area a bit. Sadly, many of the houses in that area are reminiscent of "Vinyl View Vista Village" stuff, and I really dislike vinyl siding for a variety of reasons (some of which are even logically supportable). I'm having to resign myself to the idea that unless I can come up with an extra hundred thousand bucks for a down payment, I'll have to deal with at least some measure of vinyl exterior cladding or siding. I'm not terribly happy about it, but there it is.

On a windy day...

...you either feel REALLY slow, or that you are exceptionally fast.

I kept thinking of this adage as I rode to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. I felt stronger than usual, and noted that I was using higher gears than I usually do when riding to work.

On the way home, I felt like I was riding into more wind than usual--I was--but I still did well on my speeds and times.

On Tuesday, Jenn showed up at the store a bit before closing time, so that we could do some drive-by house inspections. She's pushing to buy a house while we can get the big tax credit, and I have agreed with the prospect--as long as we can get a house we can afford to buy AND maintain.

In my work with New Directions, I saw a lot of folks who bought houses based on their ability to get credit, but who didn't think in terms of having enough room in their credit rating or budgets to allow for repairs and maintenance of those houses. Decades later, the houses are in disrepair and they don't have the money to get things done. I don't want to put myself in that position.

On the other hand, houses that I think are in a reasonable price range tend to be well outside my commute range from work. The effective cost of living in such a house would be unreasonable in terms of additional commute time/costs or other values. It's tough to find a house that meets both sets of needs, especially since we didn't get started on this process until late in the tax credit timeline.

Sunday afternoon club ride

My bike ride for the day wasn't my usual commute, but the Sunday afternoon LBC ride out of the Heine Brothers' on Chenoweth Lane (actually the office building across the street). Jenn wasn't going to ride today, so I took the Bacchetta, figuring on pushing myself harder than I do in my commuting.

I rode out with some fast guys, and was able to stay with them through Cherokee Park--probably because they didn't drop the hammer until they got well down Lexington Road. The stretch between Grinstead Drive and Baxter Avenue usually is the site of a fast pace line. I was feeling pretty good until the first curve, when the front guys wound up the pace a few notches more than I had on tap.

I managed to catch them, mostly a function of a traffic light that caught them just before they hit Jefferson Street. I rode hard for a bit, but was dropped by the time we got to downtown.

As a result, I wound up riding River Road largely by myself. That's okay--I needed to focus on a workout, and did. I kept my cadence up around 95 RPM for the most part, and my speed above 20 MPH for the most part, until turning onto Glenview Avenue for the ascent part of the ride.

My climb up Glenview was slower than I like, and a little more painful than I like, but I soldiered up the hill anyway. I was able to stay in the middle ring, though, which hasn't always been the case on that climb. Once on Lime Kiln, I usually accelerate through a couple more gears than I was able this time, but I still was able to crest over the I-71 bridge at eighteen or nineteen miles an hour.

I finished the ride with an average speed of 18.2 miles an hour, which is a bit off my peak-condition pace. I attribute the shortcoming to the fact that I haven't been doing hill workouts in some years, and my resulting sluggardly climbing. It really is my biggest weakness on the bike. My second largest weakness is a lack of courage on the descents that I blame on a fall I had several years ago. I am not sure how to work on fixing that one, but figure that doing a series of hill repeats on familiar roads would probably help.

BIG durned birds!

In a recent post, I yammered on a bit about seeing Cooper's Hawks. I enjoy seeing the larger raptors--they have an important role in our ecosystem, and they are simply gorgeous birds in most cases (allowing that at least other Turkey Vultures think a Turkey Vulture is attractive in some way...).

Imagine my delight, then, that there is a nesting pair of Bald Eagles in Jefferson County, Kentucky! I have no idea how long the link will work, as the Courier doesn't seem to do permanent archives online (at least without some fee involved), but the bit in the paper shows how excited many are at this news.

Things that make one think, "hmmm..."

In the course of my errand-running today I saw something that was a bit of a head-scratcher. Florescent-colored shirts are gaining in popularity, it seems, as many folks who work on or near roadways wear them, including the recycling workers, pavement crews, delivery drivers (I'm surprised that UPS hasn't figured out a way to incorporate more reflective piping in their uniforms), and so on.

Apparently, the guy I saw riding a scooter on Taylorsville Road today was such a worker on his way to his job. The usual sense of such wear is that it also increases safety awareness in one wearing it, but this guy wasn't too worried about safety--he was not wearing a helmet, or even sunglasses, as he rode his scooter down the road.

unposted comments from the last week

I may have mentioned that we have hawks living in our neighborhood. I am not sure whether they are Cooper's Hawks or Sharp-shinned hawks, but I think they are Cooper's Hawks. I hear them calling regularly. Friday morning, while toying around in the garage with a new-to-us toy (more on that in a moment), I heard one very close by. I backed out of the garage and looked up, and there were two in the tree at the other end of the garage. Sadly, I didn't have a camera in hand--one had some freshly-caught food in its talon, and flew off to savor it after watching me for a moment to see whether I was a threat.

Saturday morning, on the way to work, Jenn spotted one on a fence right by our intended route in time for me to stop the bike and enjoy watching it for a moment before it flew away. Again, sadly, no camera in hand--these are pretty raptors.

The new-to-us toy is a Burley Lite trailer that Jenn found during one of her thrift-store jaunts. She called me on Thursday to verify whether I'd want her to buy it. The price was excellent, so I agreed. Digging around on the Burley site, I found the owner's manual for the thing, suggesting that it is at latest a 1998 model. The copyright date on the manual is 1992, suggesting the model was built for at least a few years in the 1990s.

It differs from my existing trailer in several ways: the frame is similar in construction, as it's aluminum tubing. This one has hoops that guard the wheels, though. The wheels are larger (406 ETRTO), and built more like regular bicycle wheels (steel spokes, alloy rims), with quick-release hubs, compared to the 16" plastic wheels on my Safety-1st brand trailer. The hitch attaches to the chain stay and seat stay, unlike the existing trailer that only "grabs" the chain stay.

We've not decided how we are going to use the trailer. We are considering keeping it as a second cargo buggy, and have thought about adding a wood floor supported by the frame to protect the nylon pack-cloth floor already there. The wood floor would have the additional benefit of being able to support Cisco should we take him for a ride.



Jenn is certain that Cisco would enjoy going for a bike ride with us. I figure he'd enjoy it more if he got to sit/lay down on a more solid floor than the existing one, and if I make a plywood floor for the trailer, I'll add a layer of closed-cell foam so that his claws don't slide around so much.

Of course, another option is to sell one or the other trailer, and keep the one we like best. Both trailers are rated at a hundred pounds carrying capacity, but the larger wheels on the Burley should make that one easier to pull. I can pull the Safety 1st one with my Vanguard, as it only connects to the chain stay--the Burley attaches to both the chain stay and the seat stay, and the Vanguard already has its kickstand mounted there. I know I can pull the Burley with my Raleigh, and that Jenn can pull the Safety 1st with her Peugeot. We haven't tried the Burley hitch on her bike yet--I'm sure that "connectivity" will be a factor in our decision.

I'll have to get some pictures of this thing and post them soon.

dam(p) Sun(less)day

Blah. It's been raining off and on much of the day, and I am known for my dislike of riding in the rain. The title is a bit misleading, as there were moments of sunshine during the day, but still...

I did go out earlier on a two-mile grocery run round trip.

My older stepdaughter's birthday is coming up in a couple days, and she came over to celebrate with Jenn a while ago. She's looking for digs closer to work and school, and has mentioned to me that she wants to ride her bike more for transportation. I've offered her help in the past with bike-related stuff, and she's ready to start taking me up on my offer.

Jenn and I put in some time on the tandem yesterday. We rode to the bike shop, where she worked on the web site a bit (she does some of the web site maintenance for us). We did the LBC ride out of there in the afternoon before riding home. Total mileage for the day was a bit over fifty, and it felt good to get out like that. We wound up driving to a friend's house for dinner instead of riding, as Jenn's legs were tired.

Cars take up a LOT of space!

I have sometimes observed that "population density is not always measured in terms of people per square mile."

While some of you find and enjoy the double meanings, I will share another bit of population density information--this from the How We Drive blog of Tom Vanderbilt. If the roughly three hundred thousand US citizens lived in a concentrated area, at the population density, of, say, Brooklyn, which US state has enough area for us to live within its hypothetical borders? Have a look at this chart as you ponder this--the answer may surprise you.





Quoting from Vanderbilt:

An interesting point of departure from this graph that’s been making the rounds of the U.S. packed into one Brooklyn-style New Hampshire is one I’ve mentioned before, via the work of Brian Pijanowski:

If the percentage of parking lot area in the county (0.44%) is scaled to the area occupied by the conterminous United States, the entire states of Connecticut, and Massachusetts (12,550 + 20,305 = 32,855 km2 ) would be paved over with parking lots.

To put this another way: The American parking lot currently consumes much more space than the entire country’s population would if it were scaled to Brooklyn-style density.

I saw a comparison recently discussion cost-per-mile of roadway construction vs. vehicle-specific taxes paid on one automobile (can't remember where...). The summation was that the average motorist pays enough taxes on his or her car (license, fuel taxes, insurance taxes excise taxes on other car-related purchases) to pay for about two feet of roadway. Given that most cars are at least fifteen feet long, and given that there is no way anyone could drive anywhere if the roads were fully covered in cars, there is a LOT of space paved for car traffic that the car-specific taxes are not paying for.

I'd be interested in seeing some hard data on this, and will have to dig around a bit. Even if the numbers are off by a factor of two, it takes lots of wind out of the sails of the argument that "bicyclists don't pay for their use of the roadway!"

Seasonal milestones

I enjoy thinking about seasonal milestones. A few weeks ago, I realized that I had walked the dog every morning for several days without wearing gloves. On my rides to and from work, I've gone from a long-sleeve base layer under the reflective jacket to a short-sleeve jersey under the jacket, with perhaps a sleeveless runner's top under the jersey. I rarely wear my silk balaclava now.

I even did a couple of club rides over the weekend, wearing (gasp!) shorts instead of long tights!

Since we are on Daylight Time now (for about two weeks as I type this), I've been expecting to ride home from work without having to turn on the headlights. Today was my first time for that this season--and my first ride home from work wearing--you guessed it--shorts instead of tights for the season. I wasn't even wearing socks with my sandals--another seasonal first for the ride home.

How did that silly rhyme go? Oh, yeah, I think this is it:

Spring is sprung
The grass is riz.
I wonder where
the bikers is?

As nice as the weather is and has been lately, I'm disappointed to not see more folks riding instead of driving. Even riding instead of driving to the corner tavern, for crying out loud!

Oh, well. I got to ride today, so life was better than it might have been!

Sunday wrapup

Interesting thought of my day, prompted by the folks at the Freedom From Religion Foundation:

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

— Blaise Pascal, French philosopher, Pensees (1623-1662)

This is the same Pascal who is so often quoted by those who would impose a theocracy upon us, in the form of what is often called "Pascal's Wager." The Wager is often simply stated as, "would you rather worship a god and find there is none or ignore said god to find that he will damn you to hell for not being worshipful?"

Of course, Pascal's wager ignores that there may be hundreds of other equally-likely options rather than merely two choices as presented, among several other logical failures.

In other news, Jenn and I rode two club rides this weekend, for a total of fifty-five club miles or so. The Saturday ride was, as mentioned in the previous post, a scenic one from Westport.

The Sunday ride was a typical 2:00 PM ride out of Baptist East/Milestone Fitness Center (once a month location), with the threat of rain. We had a few drops of rain close to downtown, a few more as we rode along River Road, and a few more later in the ride, but rode the longer route anyway. It was fun to ask Jenn to reduce power by ten percent a couple times so that I could modulate our speed more easily when riding in a pace line at close to twenty miles an hour!

There was a club meeting afterward, and an executive committee meeting after that. By the time we got to leave Milestone, we were facing a ride home in a rain shower. Aside from getting wetter, riding in the rain isn't so bad--unless the temperature is low enough to risk hypothermia. A ten-minute ride home is not likely to create such a problem, and ours certainly did not.

I think I've logged all (or at least most of) my miles from February and January on the MyCyclingLog.com site. I'm still behind David Crowell for our group's miles, but he has a longer commute than I do. He also did a better job of riding to work in cold weather.

Saturday once more

On Friday, I didn't get to ride much. The weather was GREAT for cycling (or doing just about anything outdoors), but my riding was limited to an errand or two in the early evening.

I drove out to Mom's in the morning to do some yard work for her. I weeded much of the landscaping across the front of the house, and put out the contents of several bags of mulch. This took about five hours--much of it digging wild onions out of the landscaping (ugh!).

When I got home, I HAD to get on the bike, even if only to do an errand or two. I had ordered a couple of books from Carmichael's Bookstore on Frankfort Avenue earlier in the week, and received a call telling me hat they had arrived. Especially given that both books have to do with cycling as a transportation mode in our society, I rode to fetch them.

Today's riding involved driving, though. Jenn and I took the tandem to Westport for one of Larry Preble's WINGS rides, this one a thirty-mile example of what I call a lollipop ride. The route goes out to a short loop, then returns from that short loop the same way we got to the loop. It was a scenic ride, as are many of Larry's routes. There were a few hills, and a few little rollers. We had a good ride, though. No, make that "we had a great ride." Larry has a batch of pictures on his site, including several of Jenn and me.