Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Weird Yard Art


As some of you may know, my ride to work passes by 33 different Virgin Mary statues, but that is not the only form of yard art I ride by. I must say, these are my favorite kind of dogs to pass by on my bike.
It has been a good week of riding in so far. I have been crossing paths with a guy that rides the same route in the morning. It is nice to say 'good morning' to another cyclist as I ride into work. The other people I have begun to notice drive cars. One guy drives this huge, cherry red pick-up truck with at least a V8 engine. I try not to inhale his exhaust as he politely pulls past me over the interstate bridge. Another driver, a middle-aged woman who drives an older gold BMW grips her steering wheel oddly as she peers through the windshield. Her face brightly colored with make-up, her neck wrapped in gold, hair upturned in a fifties do. I swear it is her perfume I smell in the air. Needless to say, she doesn't understand the girl she passes each morning riding her bike to work. Hey, I think my hair turns out pretty good on the mornings in ride in! (;

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Commute by Bike (in pictures)

I got a chance to bike to work from Waterloo this morning, after dropping my car off for service (darn cars). I had extra time, so I took a few pictures on the way to work.

commute to trailwork

Getting ready to leave. Fortunate living only a couple miles from Tranquility.
Last Sunday, family was out and about and both vehicles were gone. Being it was a great day, sunny with temps in the 50's, I had an itch to do some trailwork. With mary down waiting for a seatpost, I broke out the first bike I ever bought - an 02 Giant Sedona - a comfort bike. I hadn't ridden this in a couple years. After pumping up the tires, checked the slop in the hub bearings, checked a few bolts, loaded up and went for it. Kept the chain in the middle of the cassette and occassionally changed between middle and big ring. Old rim brakes pulling a bob didn't inspire much confidence. I missed fix braking with the legs. Coupled with Ginger on a retractable lead, this kept me on my toes when braking for intersections and passing other dogs. After some successful treadwork and talking with a few people, pulled onto the last block just as it started to rain. - Great timing! Tired, dirty, and hungry - the sign of a good time with a bike!

Friday, April 25, 2008

commute to class, mtb ride





The weather was just right to convince Hannah to ride to her ASL class yesterday. Enjoyable, though a few drops hit us on the way home. About 3 miles one way.
Also rode to tnr at Swanson, from wet to dry and back to wet. Nice warm rain - didn't even break out the rain gear. That took me about 1.5 hrs one way. Need to work on my high cadence standing on pedals to get my bum off the seat. Stopped under 680 and Dodge on the way down to apply some assos to the tingly parts.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Man I love commuting!

Oh... hello there. I'm new here. When T-Bone wasn't looking, I made a copy of his blog keys. Mwahaha!

Actually, T-Bone was nice enough to invite me to contribute to the Omaha-Commute blog. Thanks T-Bone.

I like pictures, so here are a few pictures of my commute this morning. Click the images for the large versions. Enjoy!

Extreme North section of the Keystone Trail

Me...and my ______

Yes, a commuter bike is fun on this too

My idea of heavy traffic

Heavy traffic for everyone else

Friday, April 18, 2008

Bike More, Drive Less

Watch this.

The guy I work with filled up his tank today. $3.37 a gallon for the cheap stuff!!!

Video stolen from Mundson's Blog

But just think...

all this rain will make everything bloom and turn green! At least I got one day in this week. I was only going to drive on Monday and Wednesday and well, yesterday and today I drove, too. Oh well, I have next week to look forward to. I have even talked a co-worker into commuting as well, needless to say he was a little disappointed by the weather, too! Kuddos to those of you who have good rain gear and rode despite the weather!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Wednesday

55 degrees on the way in today was sweet bacon. It was nice not having to get all bundled up for the morning commute. Shorts, jersey and a light jacket was all I needed today.

Yesterdays ride home in 30-40mph winds was interesting. I've never been thrown around like that before. It's amazing how the wind can grab your wheels and send you off-line when your in a cross wind.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Monday



Cold ride in today but hopefully soon it'll be shorts and t-shirt weather in the mornings. Lots of birds singing on the way so spring must be here.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

friday was a bit windy and stingy


Mostly tailwind pushed me to work. Took the north side of sbl home and saw whitecaps and felt like the rain had ice pelet centers. Now have yellow rain pants to match my yellow rain jacket. If I just had a yellow hood, I could be mistaken for a haz-mat cleanup.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Friday


Wish I had one of these for yesterday and today. Next week it's supposed to warm up. Have a great weekend everyone and don't let this weather get you down.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Tuesday Night


I went for a little spin downtown last night. I found a few nice drops that I need to come back and do on my downhill bike. We need to start getting more urban rides going this year. A few years ago we would do a Friday night urban ride every week. I can't wait for the warm weather to get here. This cold stuff is getting old.

I would also like to get a Critical Mass style ride going on the last Friday of every month. That night we did the leap year ride we had traffic stop and check us out everywhere we went. Tons of folks in cars seemed really interested as to what we were doing. It was a great time.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Sundays front page



When I went to get the paper Saturday I was shocked to see myself on the cover. That's never happened before. The story turned out pretty good I think. I was surprised this was the picture they used. The photographer followed me to the Field Club trail for some shots and I thought they would have used those.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Friday

Well I'm back on the bike. Still not feeling 100% but I miss commuting. Had a photographer come by the house this morning for some pictures for the commuting story. He thinks the story will run in Sundays paper.

It's supposed to be 70 tomorrow and I can't wait. This winter has been one of the longest I can remember. Last year we were riding in shorts a month earlier.
I was riding down Park Ave on my way to work and came across a crime scene at St. Mary's Ave. They had the whole intersection taped off and closed to traffic. Didn't see much but an empty street. Now that it's getting nice out I think I'm going to start getting out earlier and do a little riding around town before I head to work.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Thursday

Well I haven't been riding much. I felt like crap all weekend and this week I've called in sick twice. Today I was getting ready to ride in and I looked outside and saw it pouring so I drove again. Tomorrow it's back on the bike. The World Herald is doing a story on Commuting and want a picture of me for it. I'll post something here when I know what day it's going to run.