End of March

I haven't had much to post here recently. The odd pithy comment has wound up on the dreaded facebook, proving that I've gone overboard in my internet activities.

Latest milestone, though, is that I saw my first red-wing blackbird of the season on my way to work this morning.

In other news, I'm now the owner of a Bikes at Work trailer. Ian had a spare, since he closed the SoupBycycle operations a few months ago. I had heard that he was selling a section of it to some other friends (it's the newer modular design, more on that in a moment), so asked him about the rest of it. We worked out a deal, and I've used the trailer to haul his Surly Big Dummy a couple times (part of the deal being some maintenance work on said bike).

I got in touch with the folks at Bikes at Work, and ordered a hitch that would work with my Globe. Why not the Vanguard, as I used it for the bike move in February, you ask? Well, to use a BaW hitch, I had to move my kickstand to a not-kickstand-friendly place. I like having kickstands on utility bikes. I can likely manage heavier loads with the Globe, anyway, due to its lower overall gearing. Disc brakes are also a factor--a couple of factors, honestly, since the rear caliper is located in such a way as to make use of the standard BaW hitch impractical. The Bikes at Work folks were able to make a hitch that mounts to the site where the Globe accepts a proprietary kickstand.

I miss that kickstand, but it's easy enough to switch to using it when I'm not using the trailer. The bike also accepts a conventional kickstand mounted right behind the bottom bracket, and I can leave one there even if I have the rear-mount one on and in use.

For those two of my readers not living in Kentucky, many of the locals around me are caught up in the excitement that UK and UofL are playing each other in the NCAA Semi-Final. Not being a big basketball fan--indeed, as one who is turned-off by all the hoop-la--I have other things to do. As a UofL graduate, I would prefer UofL win, but beyond that, I'm not overly concerned.

mileposts

I had forgotten to post a couple of cycling mileposts for the season, like the first time I rode to work in short sleeves (a couple weeks ago). I rode to work in short pants for the first time this season this morning, though.

Jenn and I went to see Bicycle Dreams last night. If it's showing near you (Lexington, KY on Tuesday, the 13th, for example), you owe it to yourself to see it. Having been on a crew for the 2010 event (most of this movie was shot in 2005), I can attest to its realistic look at what drives folks to do such things, and the dangers they face.

To throw down the mileage numbers: January's total was 562, February's was 570 (more miles than seven months of 2010, and a touch more than three or four months of 2011). March is off to a slow start--I've driven to work three times already this month, due to lack of gumption in wet weather. I'm not going to stress over it, though.

As noted in a prior post or two, Bluegrass Bicycle, my employer for the last couple of years, is for sale. I have a couple of options I'm exploring, but nothing definitive at the moment.

Storms

I'm fighting some depression. Much of it has to do with my job--the bike shop where I work is for sale, and unless a buyer comes forward (and I can work with said buyer), we will be having a going-out-of-business sale soon. Special-order stuff will not be part of this sale, of course, and special orders will come to a halt in the next week or two (if you want me to build a wheel for you in the next month or two, now is the time to order parts!).

My first thought is that at least in the short term I'll be working some combination of part-time jobs. I have a couple of teaching gigs in the queue, and some home-repair work possibilities here and there. I'm spending some time networking as well.

Jenn has suggested that I get my "elevator sales pitch" together--a thirty-second (or so) spiel on what I can do well enough that someone would pay for me to do it. It's hard to do--I've done so many things over the years, and some of them interest me more than others, but are harder for me to do given my current situation.

One possibility is a car-free home repair service. I'm in negotiations to get a used Bikes at Work trailer, and working with Bikes at Work to get a hitch made to fit my Globe (really trick hitch that uses the Globe's kickstand bracket at the rear dropout, apparently). I figure that for most of my jobs, I'll know most of what I need to haul in terms of tools and materials, and that a sizable percentage of that stuff can be hauled by bike (bulky but not terribly heavy). It's not like I'd be hauling fence posts and sixteen-foot fence boards, after all.

I was planning on building some bookshelves in our front bedroom/office. That plan has been put on hold for the next couple of months--not just that I don't want to spend the money on the materials involved, but that we may have other plans for the room. More on that in another post if it's warranted.

All of this seems pretty small compared to what has happened in southern Indiana today. We had a horrible series of tornadoes come through, and reports have suggested that Marysville Indiana "is gone," at least according to one or two law enforcement officers. Six deaths have been attributed to the storms by the time I'm typing this. I don't envy those folks at all. I have a house that is intact, all my stuff is still inside it, my wife and other family members are still uninjured by the storms. Some of them are scouring the countryside for their treasures. Some of them have lost loved ones.

Needless to say (or perhaps not), I drove to work today. I didn't feel like getting picked up by the wind or beat up by the rain.

Brownsboro Road reconstruction--again

Probably not in direct response to my questions about the opponents' reasons for resistance to the Road Diet plan for Brownsboro Road in the Clifton area, but I'm glad to see it nonetheless:

Several folks involved in the plan and advocacy for the road diet have put up a site to refute the opposition from the folks who brought us "Save42." The site name is a clever twist on the opposition's site name--safe42.org--and gives real information instead of simply pooh-poohing the opponents' claims.

If you read the paper or follow the televised news (the latter of which I generally ignore), you've heard the claims--businesses will go under for lack of customers because nobody will want to drive on that road because it will be so clogged with folks who can't get anywhere because there are only two travel lanes (never mind the "suicide lane" in the middle...) because, well, the whole project was developed in secret without input from anybody with skin in the game.

Never mind that I've known about the efforts for over a year, and I don't even live in that neighborhood. Never mind that public meetings on the topic get advertised in Councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh's weekly newsletter, along with ways to contact folks who would have some influence.

I've wanted to reach out to opponents and address their concerns respectfully. Having read some of their missives, it's hard to respect their attitudes, let alone their stance. I am convinced of the value of reconstructing Brownsboro Road as planned, but want them to be as well. The more I read of their objections, though, the harder it is for me to take them seriously. I realize that part of their reality is that "more lanes = less congestion," although that idea gets debunked fairly often (build more lanes? more people will use them and clog them as badly as before).

I especially enjoyed reading Ms Ward-Pugh's letter to Jim Dahlem and his group of oppositionists. It lays out their misinformation campaign and points out that there was no secrecy in planning the road diet. They had chance after chance to bring forth data that would refute the notion that the road diet would be a positive step, and either ignored or refused those opportunities. This, of course, suggests that they had no data to bring to the table--only misrepresentation and fear of changes that would be good for the locals at minimal expense to through traffic.

Once the road diet is done, I wonder what Dahlem and his crowd will say when the businesses along there start flourishing? What happens when they find that they can get through there with less stress and no real loss of time after all? Will they apologize?

I doubt it.

Brownsboro Road Reconfiguration, revisited

I've heard of folks who think that traffic moving faster and safer is a better thing for the section of Brownsboro Road being reconfigured. Faster AND safer? That seems paradoxical to me. Smoother might be safer. Slower (within reason) could be much safer, especially on a road where there are (or would be) pedestrians of all ages, including vision-impaired or mobility-impaired.

Yes, traffic engineers used to hold that wider roads were safer. More maneuvering room, and all that, never mind folks on the sidewalks. In my last post, I mentioned this post from Strong Towns blog poster Charles Marohn.

I wasn't always so down with speed limits. I liked going faster, feeling like I was getting where I was going more effectively if not more efficiently. Several people tried to tell me otherwise, and in my youthful ignorance, I blew off the idea. I often say that riding a bicycle as much as I do makes me a better driver when I'm in a car. I am more focused on the task, being used to that when I'm on two wheels. I'm more aware of my surroundings, by habit formed of necessity. I also think that compulsory bicycle miles for able-bodied drivers would be a good thing for traffic safety, but I realize that it would never happen in the United States of the Automobile.

A friend recently got a speeding ticket for going twenty miles an hour over the posted speed limit. He was griping about it being a "total speed trap," never mind that it was an area known for fairly careful enforcement of speed limits and not far from his home (as if it was a surprise that someone would be *gasp* enforcing the law). The speed limit doesn't abruptly change from fifty-five to thirty-five, and any change is well-marked with MUTCD signage showing that a lower speed limit zone is ahead.

Twenty-five or thirty years ago, I would have had more sympathy for him. Perhaps even twenty or even fifteen years ago, although I would have been more sympathetic had the differential been more like ten miles an hour. Now? It's hard for me to empathize with anyone going twenty (or probably more, especially if the officer gave him any break) over the speed limit.

I bring this sentiment back to my discussions about the Brownsboro Road reconfiguration by noting that in my own travels along that road, I've seen folks going way too fast for conditions, treating the road like a raceway rather than a road with lots of stores (and thus driveways) on either side, sidewalks (and potentially pedestrians using those sidewalks), folks wanting to turn left into this or that place of business, and other reasons why a thirty-five-mile-an-hour speed limit makes far more sense than one set at fifty-five. Yes, it's a fairly major through-way for a lot of commuters, but that doesn't give them reason to expect to go at interstate speeds.

It's worth a moment to compare my feelings on this to how I feel about the way Oak Street was "fixed" between Floyd and Seventh Streets some years ago. On Oak Street, the city changed it from one-way eastbound to two-way traffic. I get that it makes it (hopefully) safer for pedestrians to get across the street to patronize local businesses. The down side in that location is that, to conserve on-street parking (parking being at a high premium in Old Louisville), one travel lane and one parking lane were maintained in each direction. If one wishes to make a left turn off Oak Street, and opposing traffic is heavy, one will block an intersection for sometimes multiple cycles of the traffic light. This is partly a good thing--it deters through traffic. It's also a bad thing, in that it now takes several cycles of several traffic lights to get through that piece of Oak Street, making someone who was accustomed to going through on one or perhaps two cycles of sequenced lights angry and less likely to consider doing business in the area. I wonder whether limiting on-street parking to one side of the street and creating a left-turn-only lane would help, here. Of course, then the decision is "which side of the street loses on-street parking?" The answer was apparently more complicated than they wanted to fix at the time.

What makes neighborhood roads safer?

I think I remember mentioning this blog post before, but I don't have time to go looking. It's from a traffic engineer who is rethinking the priorities of street design. It's a good quick read.

blog goals

Change sometimes prompts us to ruminate on things. With the changes recent and upcoming, I've been thinking about all sorts of things. Some more time-sensitive, like my own preparation for last weekend's bike move, and others less urgent. Some more big-picture, some less so.

This blog pops into my mind from time to time when I'm doing such reflecting. I think about some of the blogs I read, and their purposes and purposefulness. Some bloggers keep a very tight focus on one facet of their lives, and write about that focus in a way that attempts to be accessible to lots of people. I admire their discipline in maintaining such focus. I sometimes wish I had such discipline. I occasionally consider such folks to be over-achievers.

Then I remember the concept that we look at others' personae and only see the good stuff. We don't see the behind the scenes frailties and foibles. We think about our own perceived shortcomings in that light, and consider ourselves less valid somehow.

My own purpose for this blog has varied a bit over the three years or so since I started keeping it. At first, I wasn't even sure what I wanted to do with it. It became a diary of sorts, in part to help me keep myself accountable in my goal of riding to work more and more. I added little bits of celebration or at least recognizing little mile markers along the way--the first ride to work of the season in short sleeves, or short pants, or the first ride to work in sub-freezing temperatures (something I didn't even think to make note of this last season, as my utility riding has become more of a given for me).

It's been more public about seemingly private stuff at times. I've managed to hold back on other things that didn't really need to be said, but that I needed to put into words in order to help myself figure out where I was on those issues. In other words, I've found myself using this blog as a metaphorical mirror for my thoughts, helping clarify them for myself and being open to other folks acting as sounding boards (and have even gotten some helpful feedback at times).

So, yes, this blog is serving an assortment of purposes for me. I get to share blogs I've found and comment on posts and comments from those blogs. I get to clarify my own thoughts on things. I keep track of little things I want to remember, and my thoughts on those points, and revisit my typed-out thought-dumps once in a while. I get to read thoughts of a few others as they respond to points I make.

It's sort of like having friends might be, if I got to sit and chat with the several of you more often.

Bike Move, version 2012-2, complete!

Despite less-than-ideal weather (!), we did it. We moved boxes and boxes and boxes of books and stuff, a couple of dressers and file cabinets, and even a sofa (as Mary Beth said, "It's not a bike move until you haul a sofa!").

There were an assortment of news folks on hand, due to some pre-event crowing by Kirk the Media Maven Kandle. Links (with pics and video as appropriate) can be found here, here, here, and over there. I didn't even take my camera, figuring that there would be enough picture-taking done by others--I was there to move stuff.

And move stuff I did. Yes, that is me pulling the trailer loaded with the sofa. The Courier's picture of me pulling it had a caption that was not well-written or proofed (peddling instead of pedaling, coach instead of couch), but most viewers would get the idea. The route to the destination house involved a short 7% grade on Pope Street in the Clifton neighborhood, which is fun with a three-hundred-pound (guesstimated) trailer payload. I need to do more climbing like that, but not right away. My legs need to recover just a bit more.

Moving van, er, BIKES

This Saturday will be yet another household move by bicycles. Yes, I get to help!

I spent some time with Andy Dyson today, making some temporary repairs to his trailer so that I can use it this weekend. The current plan is for me to use it with my Vanguard, which could be interesting. There are some mild grades to climb this time that are a bit steeper than stuff we've done before. I'll be able to carry more weight than before.

Should be a good time!

It's been a few days

...and I haven't seen any comments on my last post. Figured there would be, given the nature of the news, but that's the way it goes some days.

Since that day, I've had a few other things happen--some good, some not as much. Rather than focus on the not-good, I'll mention a few good things.

I have stepped down as VP education with the Louisville Bicycle Club. I don't begrudge the time and energy I spent educating cyclists--quite the contrary! It was a lot of fun, and I got to learn stuff along the way. Some of the Ex-Comm meetings got to be tiring, some of the club politics got bizarre, but that's the way things go in an organization like this. David Wittry is the new VP Education, and I am sure he'll do well. I'll give what help I am able.

I'm still logging bike miles as part of my "ride instead of drive" transportation plan. As I type this, I'm in the lead in utility miles logged by Louisville Bicycle Club members by forty miles or so. The current second-place rider logged about as many miles last year as I logged in 2010, and a few more than I logged just commuting last year. Like several of us, he all but doesn't drive (I've not seen him drive a car).

Jenn and I have made some progress on the house--mostly reorganizing and making rooms more livable so far. The big project--shelving in the "office"--is waiting on me to overcome some inertia and buy wood and paint. Oh, yeah, cash would be good--the job situation is making me a bit more careful about cash outlay. At least I can do most of the labor on this shelving project myself, reducing the overall cost to easier-to-manage levels.

I really don't know what the coming year holds in terms of total bike miles. I'm not going to stress over it, and have adjusted my goal to simply be ride more than drive. If work opportunities that totally preclude bicycle commuting present themselves, I would have to think carefully about such gigs. I can't refuse a job offer simply based on that, but having to pay for a car for such use would offset quite a bit of the potential earnings.

I hear a change a-comin', comin' round the bend...

Ending some period of speculation by several folks in the local cycling community, Bob announced yesterday that Bluegrass Bicycle, LLC is for sale. In answer to the obvious questions, "I don't know how much money," "I don't have a definite answer for number of days or weeks," and "I don't know whether any future owner would get along with me or I with that person or persons."

In other words, I'm now looking for work, both short- and long-term. Part-time and full-time positions will be considered, mindful that any part-time position would have to be coordinated with other part-time positions.

I'm fortunate, in some respects. Jenn is employed, and has benefits that cover me. Indeed, those benefits were one of the reasons we married when we did, which was almost two months ahead of our planned 09/09/09 date (flip it over and remove the zeros for the sardonic anti-religious message).

I don't expect to find work in the bike biz for a while. I don't know. It's certainly possible that one of the local bike shops wants to deal with my ego to get the motley bunch of occasional customers I would bring in their doors, but would I be able to deal with the people in such a store?

*sigh*

tiny ironies

One of life's little ironies: I bought a new bike in March of 2011, primarily because it would accept off-the-shelf studded snow tires. Ten months later, I have not had need for those tires. The bike is out of service for the nonce, as its rear rim has some cracks at the spoke nipple holes (new wheel coming from Specialized, due to arrive next week).

My bike miles total since the start of the year has already exceeded my January 2010 mileage. I was living in the rental house at that time, griping about cold weather that I've since found I could tolerate more easily than I thought at the time, and thinking about using the TARC Bikes on Board program to lessen my weather exposure a bit.

Now, I'm thinking more and more about getting a velomobile for much of my transportation. I have read of folks who, once they got one, all but abandoned their bicycles as utility vehicles. I honestly don't know how I'd go on that--I like to think I'd still ride two-wheels a fair bit for fun and utility, but I can also see myself choosing the velomobile on a daily basis as a default mode, just as I found myself doing with the new bike this year (result: new upright bike got three hundred miles more use than the long-cherished Vanguard).

With that new bike, much of the increase in use over the Vanguard was that the new bike has brakes that are MUCH nicer. Some of the difference had to do with anticipated parking places--I can comfortably lock the new bike places I am less comfortable locking the Vanguard. Some of it was that I was using my bike as a teaching tool, and I figure that students will find it easier to relate to a bike more like their own than my recumbent. Some of this feels like rationalizing not riding a favorite bike, as if I was somehow betraying the Vanguard or something within myself by riding the Globe.

In the end, though, it comes down to one of the lines on that old list of "Why bicycles are better than women" (see also: Why bicycles are better than men): the bike doesn't care if I ride other bikes.

Over, already? (a year, and a vacation)

I'm back from my travels. I've not been on a bike since Saturday, the 24th. It's New Year's Eve. Jenn is in the kitchen fixing chili for tomorrow's Polar Bear Ride and Chili Cook-Off.

The trip was a great break from the norm for me. We took the new-to-us Toyota rather than fiddle with the expense of renting a car.

The focus of the trip was a more-or-less annual visit to my grandmother's house in Williamsburg, Virginia. My grandmother turned ninety-five early in December, outliving her own mother by at least three years and her husband, my grandfather, by a few months so far. She is still in good spirits, despite that her hearing and eyesight are not very good. My father now lives with her most of the time, going to his home in Staunton for a few days now and again to help my stepmother with things around that house.

That house. My grandparents bought the house in 1947 or so, and have been there since. It was built in the early 1930s to demonstrate the then-new concept of building residences with lots of concrete. The outer walls are concrete block, the floors are concrete (with hardwood flooring over it), the foundation and such are concrete... In the living room, there hangs a framed reprint of an advertisement that features their house, touting the fire-safety and economical aspects of the style of construction. The house has a screened-in porch across much of its rear wall, done for them in the 1950s by the man who was the primary builder when the house was first erected. There is a small bedroom and bathroom off the dining room, that was converted from the garage that was originally there. When I was a small child, my great-grandmother used it as her bedroom (yes, my grandmother's mother, who was 92 when she passed in late summer of 1969--I was eight years old at the time). That house has been something of a touch stone for me throughout my life--all the places I've lived, all the places I've been, I've always been able to think about that house as a grounding point. For several years, I spent the nights of my visits sleeping on that porch, in part to keep my grandmother from having to launder sheets after I left (or having to launder them myself before going...), but mostly because the porch was such an important part of every visit I've ever had there.

Until my grandfather ceased his gardening activities in the 1990s, just about every visit featured a meal with something out of his garden. The garden is neglected, now, as neither my father nor my grandmother has the energy to maintain it. Same with much of the other landscaping, although they have a fellow who comes to do what he can to keep up most of the yard. Even so, there are a couple of plants that are descended from things transplanted from where I-64 now goes by Covington Virginia (where we lived when I was in Kindergarten). My grandparents both had "green thumbs," and enjoyed having flowers, interesting shrubs, and that aforementioned garden in their yard. Sadly, I never learned how to keep such a yard so tidy and so green--my limited talents run more to making bicycles work reasonably well.

While in Williamsburg, I got to show Jenn some more of the surrounding sights. As you know, Williamsburg was the capitol of the Colony (and the Commonwealth) of Virginia for many years. It is but a short bike ride (shorter than my daily commute) from Jamestown (or James Towne, if you prefer), and not much farther from Yorktown. Jamestown was, as you know, the first permanent English settlement in North America, and the original capitol of the Colony. Yorktown was, of course, the site of the last battle of the Revolutionary War. A fair bit of early American history happened within a day's bike ride of my grandparents' house.

It's not all about history, though. One thing we did that was pretty entertaining was to take the ferry across the James River from Jamestown to Surrey. It's a fifteen- or twenty-minute ride from shore to shore. You can tell the locals--they stay in their cars most of the time. The tourists (and those locals entertaining tourists) often get out of their cars and feed the seagulls. The seagulls know this, and are willing to be entertaining in their efforts to catch pieces of bread or peanuts that are tossed aloft for their dining pleasure. It's a lot of fun to watch them flying in station-keeping mode waiting for food.

It's far too late to make a long post short, and I'll have to say more about the trip at a later time.


My bicycle miles total for the year 2011 stands at 8042. The "instead of driving" miles total stands at 7284.8. The commuting total stands at 5591, a hundred and fifty miles short of my total miles for 2010. That shortfall represents about six days of riding to work, and may suggest a goal for 2012: have the commuting miles for 2012 exceed my total miles for 2012.

Another goal that comes to mind is to simply ride instead of driving whenever I can, and see where the numbers go from there.

I DOOD IT!!

A couple weeks ago, I was wondering whether I would reach the 8000-mile goal I had set. I don't expect to ride much next week, as I will be visiting family in other cities.

However, as I rode to work today, I reached my 8000-mile goal for the year. Without planning ahead for it, I figure I reached the goal on Rollington Road, the descent on which is one of my favorite parts of my morning commute. The title for today's entry also notes that I remember Red Skelton appearing on television some time in my childhood, using his catchphrase. I may not know much of what has been on television over the last twenty years, but I still have bits and pieces of memories about broadcasts from decades ago.

I suppose the actual figure is off that by a mile or two (or ten...), due to various possible errors, but I've tried to reduce errors where I reasonably could. I hope that any variances even out--there were probably a few miles I didn't record, and maybe a tenth here and there that got over-recorded.

While much of what I've put in this blog over the last year has been crowing about the numbers, making this a numbers-chasing year, I haven't felt like I was chasing numbers to the point of it being tiresome for me. I haven't burned out on it--yet. A friend made the comment a couple weeks ago that focusing on the numbers could lead to burnout on biking. My countering strategy has been to bike whenever I could do so instead of driving, and enjoy how the numbers piled up instead of riding to get the numbers, if that makes sense.

A number I hadn't considered until a day or two ago was the quantity of miles commuting. I've tagged my rides as being for commuting (getting to and from work, with some small side trips that were more-or-less on the way), counting toward the CO2 total (riding for utility, including getting to work and errand trips), club, errands, and so on. The online log keeps track of these rides by tag separately and cumulatively, and gives me the breakdown in the report section. My commuting miles for 2011 YTD total 5566, less than two hundred miles shy of my 2010 total. Had I been focusing on this number all year, I might have been able to invert that difference if only by a few miles. Wow.

I don't know that I'll get as many miles next year. My riding patterns will differ somewhat, in that I won't be doing the New Rider Clinics as often (if at all). I may get to do more club rides, which could offset the Clinic riding. It's too soon to say.

It all seems so anti-climactic somehow

After crushing my earlier 6000-mile goal for this year some time in September, every single mile I've ridden has set a personal record of some sort. My CO2 mileage topped my 2010 total mileage early in October. It's almost become ludicrous, in a way. On the other hand, plans are afoot that may keep me off the bicycle for a few days near the end of the year, and that 8000-mile goal is *right there.* I only need to log two hundred miles to reach it.

My total bike miles for 2011 stands at a fraction of a mile shy of 7800 as I type this. Part of me wanted to go back out and ride that fraction of a mile, but I figure I'll go on an errand of some sort today and get that number--or not. I know I'll get that partial mile on my way to work Friday, if nothing else happens.

My CO2 miles, that I also refer to as "riding instead of driving" miles, now total over 7060 for the year. This, to me, is the larger news. I know several folks who have far more bicycle miles for 2011 than I have. I don't know many who have so many miles and have fewer miles on their cars.

A friend cautioned me recently to not focus too hard on a numeric goal, that I would lose out on why I ride. I recognize that danger, and will probably not focus on numbers as much next year (or I may--who knows?). I often tell customers at the bike shop that having a cyclometer (aka: cycle computer, odometer, et al) helps them quantify the fun they are having on their bikes. This has been a year of quantifying the fun for myself. I'm not burned out on it, yet, either, surprisingly. I don't know what sort of tracking I'm going to do next year, or if I'll track just to see what happens instead of aiming for some goal. On rereading some of my posts from early this year, I think my focus was on bettering prior successes rather than on the final number of miles. When I amended my annual goal to 8000, I remember having the sense that I was roughly three-quarters through the year reaching the 6000 mark, and thinking that 8000 would not be a big problem. Goals are set to be exceeded, after all. Exceeding the goal makes us feel superior to something, I suppose.

Little bits and pieces time:

A woman was in the other day asking about power meters for her husband's winter training program, and when I told her that the power meter would connect to his computer so he could track the efficacy of his training regimen, she rolled her eyes in an "I know--he's so engrossed with data" expression, half wondering whether she really should enable him by getting him the gizmo he thought he wanted. She WAS glad to know that the PowerTap hub was not specific to trainer use, and that many riders keep them on the bike year-round (except for events). I've been obsessed with enough numbers this year--I don't need to do power graphs for utility miles, nor pore over the data to see whether I should have eaten that pulled pork sandwich the other day.

My term as VP Education with the Louisville Bicycle Club is winding down. I have about a month left in office, and aside from a brief presentation or two at the Club banquet in mid-January, not much left to do. I need to decide what I'm going to say and organize it appropriately. I think I have one or two jerseys to get to folks, but most of that is done. I'm not yet sure who my successor will be. I don't know that I'll have a lot of time to help with the 2012 program, although I also don't want to leave it completely. I am examining other avenues to help teach cyclists that won't be such black holes of time in other parts of my life as being a Club officer had become.

The new-to-us car seems to be doing well enough. I drove it to a party we attended Saturday evening (and home), but Jenn has put far more miles on it than I have--not a bit of surprise to that, of course. We got it for her to drive to work when weather and time constraints keep her from riding (and I still rode to work in rain a few times in the last two weeks, including times since we bought the car and I could have driven the truck).

I keep thinking I need to run in my studded tires fairly soon, as in BEFORE I need them to get to work. Maybe I have an excuse to go for a bike ride, now.

Shocking news!

Put away drinks and food, take a deep breath, then read on.

We bought another car yesterday.

It's nothing fancy, mind you. It has a lot of miles on it already, but it's been well-maintained for the most part (there was some rust repair that isn't "pro" work, but it doesn't look bad from the next lane). It's an older Corolla four-door that is almost the antithesis of my Thunderbird Super Coupe of the same era--front wheel drive, automatic transmission, modest power plant, cassette (!) player in the dash--but my goal this time was a car that for fifty thousand miles (four or more years at current driving rates) would serve as basic transportation for us when bicycling is contraindicated.

We bought it from Peter Burkhart, owner of Saint Matthews Fence and Deck. I have known Peter for a few years, and was even a neighbor for a while. He and I have several friends in common. I have no reason to distrust him (although I have double checked some of the facts on the car).

It has its little idiosyncrasies, of course. The key that fits the door does not fit the ignition switch, but one key can be cut to fit both. I'm not over-fond of the window tinting, but it doesn't look bad. The rear window defroster grid doesn't seem to work, but it may have been disconnected by the tint installer (I've heard of this being done).

The general sense is that this car will get Jenn through the winter for days when she isn't ready to tackle snow tires on her Globe. My truck's current tires have never been good when the roads are wet--I can just about spit enough moisture to get the rear tires to spin. The ballast I habitually put in the back helps some, but the truck has enough other problems--the defroster doesn't work well, in part because the air conditioning system doesn't work (A/C helps dry the air in the defroster system), there is a head gasket leak allowing exhaust gases into the water jacket that I don't want to pay to fix, and so on. I'll keep the truck around for a bit yet to enable cargo hauling, especially since the next big project at the house involves built-in shelves for the "office."

And, if we find something else that will fill more needs for us, we can let my younger stepdaughter take this car to college with her next year. She's getting ready to graduate, and is not ready to do the totally car-free thing while working toward an advanced degree in Occupational Therapy.

In any event, if it goes fifty thousand miles before it quits, ownership costs will be less than thirty cents a mile. If it has any value at all after that time, the cost per mile will drop a bit. If it goes fifty thousand while we own it, that would be almost six years at current usage rates--not a bad deal, compared to buying something at four times the cost that won't go ten years for us.

It's December, already?!?!?!?

It's time to make plans for the next couple of months, and make those plans known to folks. We will be doing a couple of courses of Tool School, one each in January and February. Typically, I do these on a Monday-Wednesday-Monday-Wednesday evenings sort of thing, or Tuesday-Thursday, etc. It's a four-class course, meeting from 6:30 to 9:00 or 9:30 for the four evenings of choice. I've also done some Saturday or Sunday afternoon classes as part of a series. I need to make the schedule today and tomorrow so that it can be announced early in the week.

Today is also my grandmother's birthday. She is 95. Yes, I said 95. She is my only surviving grandparent, as her husband, my grandfather, died in 2006, a few months short of his own 95th birthday. These are my father's parents--my mother's mother died in 2000 (I think--I'm not sure at the moment). Mom's father died in 1966 or 1967. I am tremendously fortunate to have known three of my four natural grandparents (and my stepfather's mother!). As a child, I knew my great-grandmother (my father's mother's mother) as well. She was 92 when she passed in 1969. There is no telling how long Mom's father would have lived, had he not had his horrible accident in the early 1950s--his burns led to a cascade of complications that kept him in a nursing home from well before I was born until his death, and I never really knew him.

With all this genetic longevity in mind, it makes sense that I remain active as long as I am able. I attribute some of my father's parents' lives to my grandfather's gardening. Until he quit keeping a garden (he was in his late 80s by then), every single visit to their house would involve at least one meal featuring produce grown in his yard. My grandfather walked to work most of the time (he was a Chemistry Professor at William and Mary, and their house was a mile or so from his office). Both of them were active to just about their practical limits--my grandmother still likes to putter around in her yard when she can, despite her failing vision and hearing. It would do me well to make better food choices than I do, but I'm guilty of taking advantage of the convenience of prepackaged imitations of real food too much of the time.

As a side note, I wonder what the long-term effects of prepackaged foods will be with regard to the average life spans of American citizens.

Since the month of November is now over, it's time for some numbers as well: Thursday evening's return to home from work got me over the 7500 mile mark for 2011 YTD (sadly, that was on the first of December, not in November, but that's the way it goes). My ride to work Friday morning got me over the 6800-mile mark for bicycle miles "instead of driving." I rode 500 miles in November, down from November 2010 by sixteen or twenty miles.


There was another post on the kycyclist recently from a fellow who is commuting along my corridor, telling of his near-crash at a left turn lane. I responded to him, of course, encouraging him to look at other places for the left turn that offered better sight lines and such. He had posted back in the summer about riding the sidewalks along Westport Road to stay out of traffic, and I had responded at the time that he would be much safer being part of traffic and taking the lane instead of hugging the fog line.

I'm reminded that each of us has a starting point when it comes to cycling. I did not become what some consider an uber-commuter overnight (I haven't really become an uber-commuter, anyway...). It has taken me a lot of miles over a lot of years to learn what I've learned. My responsibility to the community remains to encourage intelligent cycling, based on not just my own experience, but that of those whose opinions I have learned to respect (including some that significantly differ from my own). Even though I am stepping down as the VP Education for the Louisville Bicycle Club after this term is over (next month), I figure I will still be involved in the local bicycling community as an advocate and educator for a long time to come. I may not do as much of it this coming year--I have things I want to accomplish at home, as mentioned before--but I won't go away completely.

Occupying and other blog reading

After the annual weekend of gluttony (I managed to not be terribly gluttonous), it's back to the real world. The news still has images and stories of the Occupy movement, and how other movements are identifying with OWS by simply saying, "Occupy this," or "Occupy that."

Small wonder that a blog I watch, by Mighk Wilson, has a post titled, "Occupy the Lane." Blog readers and cycling education folks know Mighk's name as part of Commute Orlando, part of Cycling Savvy, and general pro-cycling good guy. I encourage you to have a read--Mighk is more eloquent than I on this topic.

I'm also a fan of Copenhagenize, as both of my long-time readers are aware. One recent post there quotes a brief essay discussing the amount of exercise we get and really should get. I'll have to send my mom a link to this next time she challenges my choice to bike to work "when I could get there in much less time by driving."

Even when it rains, as it is doing today (and probably tomorrow), I do better for myself by riding than by driving. Even if I ignore the financial benefits of riding instead of buying gas, I am doing better for myself. Selfish? Maybe. Enjoying life is part of the "American Dream," though, right?

'Tis customary to discuss things for which one is thankful today. Rather than bore you with all the usual stuff about friends and family, I'll be a bit more light-hearted.

One of the many things: Because I travel by bicycle more than by car, I am able to find cool stuff beside the roadway. I now have a pair of gently-used Channel Lock pliers to supplement my tool collection (and add to the two pair already in my possession), found beside Westport Road Thursday afternoon as I was heading to the dentist's office.

I've lost count of the tools, cash, and other stuff I've found beside the road (including a four-D-cell Maglite that needed nothing more than a bulb and fresh batteries to be in perfect working order!). How people lose this sort of thing is something of a mystery to me, but I don't mind having the extra five or six Vice-Grip pliers, the aforementioned flashlight, the assorted wrenches, the bungee cord, the, well, you get the picture.

I would not have found this stuff had I not been riding instead of driving. I suppose I could rue that the prior owners DON'T have it, but I figure if they are careless enough to leave their tools where they will fall out of their cars, they don't mind buying replacements.

What about you? What have YOU collected during your travels (by bike or otherwise)?

Dentist revisited.

The crown is finally in, and it feels great. Thanks to Doctor Hakim!!

Yesterday was a good day on the bike, too, despite a soggy ride to work. I got to Saint Matthews with a bit of time to spare, despite the headwind, had the crown installed, and rode to my next errand.

Jenn got sold on the idea of a wireless hot spot for our home computer system instead of a DSL connection about the time we moved to the house last year. The thing has worked well some of the time, not so well at other times. A bit over a week ago, it went to giving me upload speeds approximating those I had when on a 26k dial-up connection in 1997. Want to watch a video? Forget it. It wouldn't even try to download if I paused the video while waiting for the thing to load. Getting to watch a half-second or six of a vid, then waiting a minute for the next few half-seconds to load really stunk. I took the thing to Sprint over the weekend, and they determined that they couldn't measure its speed (ya think their meter wasn't calibrated in bytes per hour instead of megabytes per second?). They ordered a replacement, and I was able to fetch it yesterday.

From the Sprint store on Hurstbourne, I rode farther east (away from home) to get some supplies with which to continue the war against the fleas. We are gaining on them--fewer are showing their nasty little selves every week--but we aren't done eradicating them as a species from our house. Fresh round of Advantage (instead of Frontline, which doesn't work as well as it once did), a round of Capstar (pill which complements Advantage) and a round of de-worming stuff (at least one cat has worms--no telling how he got them--so EVERY cat and the dog get treated), and on my way to my next stop.

I hadn't eaten at Mark's Feed Store in a while, so took advantage of the proximity to enjoy some ribs before pedaling home. Forty-three miles for the day.

When I started writing, er, typing this blog, I used it in part to keep myself accountable in my efforts to ride to work more instead of driving. This year, I've been doing that quite well, but the accountability has been shifted to my log on mycyclinglog.com. I've crowed about the numbers here quite often, as it's been something of a surprise to me how the miles have accumulated. It's past the point where every ride sets a new personal best for cycling-instead-of-driving miles (and overall miles, for that matter). I'm not so sure I'll break the current goal of eight thousand miles for 2011, and my commuting for next year will be reduced with my stepping down from the LBC Education programs, so it may be a while before I get close to that number again. We'll see.