sticky fingers

Someone walked off with my Planet Bike SuperFlash yesterday after I parked the X out on Main Street. I didn't discover it was missing until this morning as I prepared to commute. That's a small, not inexpensive lesson learned: take it off the bike and pack it along when the bike is parked in public.

Rode about 6.5 to 7 miles today. About one (+) mile was with son on the back of the X.

I heard there was a Critical Mass ride in our small town earlier this evening. Chose not to go and take it very easy instead.

-Phil

keeping it simple

Didn't ride into work. Too tired after being up too late working on getting our new iMac all in sync. 

Rode to the LBS for a bike flag for my son's bike. Talked shop/gear. Got to ride my first fixie and almost got thrown off the bike! Total riding today pretty low: about 2 miles. 

more tomorrow...

Stewardship?

Someday I may be motivated enough to get a Big Dummy, Yuba Mundo, or something akin to either. Right now, I'm working on finding ways of stretching dollars. Someday, I'll transform our child trailer into something more capable of carrying large loads as well. Between the X and the trailer, we'll probably be set. Do we NEED to have two utility bikes? No. Do we want two, yes. Can we work around "just" having one? Absolutely. Am I tempted to buy another long-tail, absolutely. Will we ever be car-free? Probably not, given our particular set of life circumstances.

Rode about 6 to 7 miles, including commuting and going to vote today.

In search of...

Recycling bins. Where did the bins go? I loaded up the X with two large loads of flattened cardboard to haul to the recycling bins at a park near the local grocery store. When I got there this afternoon, they were simply gone. All 10+ of them. Were they moved around the time of the local flood two months ago? Probably. Was there any notice about where they'd been moved? No. Did anyone at a nearby store have a clue about where they might have been relocated? No.

I wound up going home, off-loading the cardboard, then returning to get groceries. Wasted (?) about 40 minutes of time in the process. I was sorely tempted to toss the cardboard in a dumpster, but chose to wait it out and drop it off elsewhere sometime later this week. At least the weather was beautiful and the wind light. The ride was easy.

Total riding today: about 5 miles. Two trips to the area grocery store, a bit of riding about in search of bins, and round trip to church. 1 mile with son on board.

Interesting development

Yesterday was spent, in part, at a pig roast, where I got to help de-bone the meat after roasting. I enjoyed the company of friends as we prepared to celebrate one friend's 40th birthday and graduation from college. It's always inspiring to me when folks go back to school and further themselves. This friend dropped out of high school and never thought he'd amount to much in his life. He was inspired by service with Mennonite Voluntary Service and eventually went to college. He was voted student of the year in his discipline this year and his field instructor patiently waited for him to make other job decisions before hiring him with a few years experience credits and multilingual capacity. What a great story! Did I mention he's the first person in his family of origin to graduate from college?

What was amusing/interesting to me: I took my bongo board along to the roast. I've been using a homemade bongo board (1" x 12" x 30" shelf quality board with grip tape and a 4" OD PVC pipe about 18" long) to work on my balance and core strength. I also bought a wobble and balance board for use inside with my kids a couple of months ago. Along with all the biking I've been doing, my legs are getting pretty strong and my sense of balance is getting pretty good.

Back to the roast: I broke out the bongo board and invited some friends to try it out. I demonstrated for a while, not realizing I was keeping the board off the ground for an extended period of time. I also shuffled my feet in to center myself while I had my hands in my pockets (I was a bit chilly). My friends joked I was making it look easy. I wasn't trying to - I was simply doing what I do. Well, just about everyone else wound up see-sawing side-to-side, banging the board hard on the sidewalk. One friend took quite a flyer and, thankfully, didn't get hurt. I had no idea I'd gained that strength/capacity. I later took the bongo board to the real party (many guests and lots of great food). The board was great entertainment for kids and a few adults.

Total mileage yesterday: maybe 2 miles. The weather was very blustery and colder later in the afternoon. We would up using the cars in the evening.

A Blustery Day

The day started off much warmer than two days before, when I felt like the ice man by the time I got to work. Temps were in the upper 50's to low 60's. To top it off, the contractors building a car wash near my work finally got around to repairing the sidewalk they tore up to allow construction equipment access from the state route. I've been riding against traffic for about 100 yards along a somewhat perilous strip of that route - in the dark - and it's been rather anxiety provoking. The other side of the route is broken up somewhat due to water seeping onto/under the road - from what source I don't know. So, I choose to ride the sidewalks along that stretch - but couldn't do so much of the winter due to the missing sidewalk. I'm relieved it's finally in place and pedestrians as well as bicyclists can travel safely and without need to walk/ride through mud.

The blustery part: We once again had very strong southerly winds this afternoon - 25 mph average with stronger gusts. I was lucky enough to miss out on the thunderstorms from earlier in the day. After my last battle against the wind, I decided to simply go slow and steady and not exhaust myself trying to maintain any kind of speed. It was a much nicer ride home and I was able to enjoy the sensation of the wind this time around.

This evening, we rode over to our local ice cream shop and enjoyed some delicious cones. We decided to simply park out bikes and trailer in one car's space. Amusingly, we got lots of stares. Not amusingly, it amazed me how many people left their cars running while waiting for family members to pick up their orders. So many youth are still pouring tons of cash into tricked-out cars. Then again, my nehru-style "bike jacket" may have drawn a bit of attention, too... We bought this a few weeks ago at a boutique having a great sale. It's reversable, with the other side black with white bikes. Of course, I'm not going to wear something black while riding about, so the white side gets preferential treatment.

Total riding today: about 7 miles. 5 on the X with my typical workbag full of clothing and 2 toting my 50 lb son.

Culture

I'm lucky enough to work at a facility that's 2.5 miles from my home. Our region has a large population of Amish. The Amish often ride their bikes and/or drive horse drawn buggies. A bike and buggy shed was built on the north end of the main parking lot a few years ago. If you look carefully at the photo to the left, you can just see inside the shed. Take a look at the overexposed photo of the shed to the right and you'll get a better idea of the interior (That's not a pile of mud on the right hand side...). It's wonderful to have such a blend of cultures here. As for the bike side of things, there are a number of junker bikes in the rack right now I'm working on getting cleared out. I hope to make the shed more easily accessible for others who commute for work or business.

No entry from yesterday due to illness. I rode to work and felt horribly cold when I arrived. I managed to make it through the day, then spent hours in bed after work. A belly bug and low grade temp knocked me out most of the evening. 5 miles total biking for the commute. I'm giving myself a break physically today and not riding at all or very little to allow my body to rest.