Thursday, April 27

Morning:
Around 50 degrees. I had to get another picture of the jacket. You can tell that the camera can barely handle the glow - it sort of looks like I can't handle it either - I look like I'm in pain (I'm not, really. I had just finished battling the wind down Mem Drive). The camera doesn't know what to do with the blistering rays - look at my face - it looks red.

Monday, April 24

Morning:
Beautiful Spring day! about 45, raw, slight drizzle, wind, cloudy. Just beautiful! Anyway, see photo for the fruits of my weekend labors. Yes, that smart looking front tire is brand new. Check out the red stripes. I spent a good deal of Sunday wrestling with bike tires. I had to move the good front tire to the rear wheel and put the new tire on the front. My thumbs are in casts now.

Evening:
I received an interesting suggestion on my ride home. While I was crossing the Mass Ave bridge, a woman riding in the passenger seat of a white mini-van shouted to me "why don't you get on the damn f***ing pavement!". I was going to try to catch up to her to point out that I was already on the "damn f***ing" pavement, but then I figured out that what she meant to say was "the damn f***ing sidewalk!" Anway, this kind of thing doesn't really bother me - I take it as a good thing, actually, because it means that they are seeing me. Being seen, being visible is 80% of the battle when riding a bike. I've had pedestrians and drivers look directly at me seconds before stepping/driving directly into my path. My newest riding-related aquisition (a gift for my 21st birthday) goes a long way toward stacking the deck in my favor. See photo - this jacket is freakishly bright - you cannot possibly miss anyone wearing this jacket. I was wearing it at work earlier and someone begged me to remove it because it was giving her a headache. In light of that, I can only surmise that it was my jacket that promted the woman in the mini-van to make her crude suggestion.

Friday, April 21

See photo: No, this is not some springtime tableau. This is not a petit dejeuner au printemps. This is not jonquilles avec la bicyclette. This is not a picnic. This is not Dejeuner sur l'herbe. Nope. This is a flat tire. Five minutes after I had been on the road home, my rear tire went flat. No warning. One minute I was flying along, I had just navigated the Sinkhole, and the next minute the tire was dead-flat. I had a spare tube with me, but changing a bike tire is not pleasant. It usually takes me about 10 hours to change one and the effect it has on my thumbs is very unpleasant. Changing a bike tire requires super-human thumb strength. At the end of a tire changing session, my thumbs are usually black as coal and all the layers of skin except one have been rubbed off. So I walked the bike home.

Wednesday, April 19

Morning:
Nice gray, overcast and slightly nippy morning. Nice blast of wind coming over the Mass Ave bridge. Nice dead birds on Mem Drive. See photos for more proof that Mem Drive is hazardous to our avian friends. This particular fellow is either a) dead , or b) has been forced into a life of bipedalism. No way to tell, really, since there is no body in sight - just the two wings. This startling sight is at the Sinkhole outbound, right near Betty, the canoe.

Thursday, April 13

Morning:

Very nice out, 50s, light drizzle. As you can see in the photo, Betty has been launched for the season.

Evening:

Still very nice, although overcast and spitting rain a little. But does it matter any more? No. The temperature is nice, it's still light when I leave work (rode the Grater of course), so I have nothing to complain about. Photo is of Mass Ave bridge - it gets like this when there's a game - gets backed up to at least half way across.

Tuesday, April 11

Morning:
Winter Is Over - the Hanes t-shirt is the proof! 56 degrees on the morning ride - it's going to reach 65. Plenty of traffic and chaos due to opening day at Fenway.

Monday, April 10

Morning:
We are definitely out of the woods. April 15th is this Saturday, the marathon is Monday, and I know that we will not see any more snow. Just look at this morning - brilliant skies, not a cloud.

Friday, April 7

Morning:
I haven't had a photo of Like A Virgin for a while, so here it is in all it's ugly, terrifying glory. Pretty good ride this morning, quick, no issues.

Evening:
A torrential downpour began just in time for the evening commute. Here's another photo of Like a Virgin in all its rain-soaked glory.

Thursday, April 6

Morning:
Check out the picture of Kenmore this morning vs Kenmore yesterday morning. Quite a difference although the temperature today was only 3 degrees higher at 38 than yesterday. Fast ride, minimal crap.


Evening:
Took Memorial Drive out to MicroCenter to buy some computer headaches. Still cold, seems the wind has kicked up a bit more. Red, wind-chaffed hands on the handlebars, cursing at the headwind. The sidewalk on the part of Memorial Drive close to MicroCenter/Trader Joe's degenerates into something akin to a dirt road (see exhibit B). My fine, crud-encrusted Italian touring bike is now forced into mountain bike-like service. I rarely ride the sidewalks, but this stretch of Mem is too ridiculous to do otherwise.

Wednesday, April 5

Morning:
As Stanley, the janitor at my work, says "It's New England, what do you expect?". I don't know, Stanley, but I don't expect 35 degrees and snow on April 5. So the black mask and gloves are back on, as is the scowl of misery. My pipe insulation rear fender failed to keep me dry and even my socks got wet.












Evening:
Snow in April? Who cares.

Tuesday, April 4

Well, I just couldn't do it today. The forecast was for rain, and after almost two years of this, my rain pants are held together with duct tape and they leak. I didn't feel like sitting around in damp pants all day, so I took the T.
Friends, what a delight it was. I was able to read a book. I didn't have to watch the road, or watch any pedestrians, or watch out for opening car doors, or watch for potholes or dead birds, or broken glass, or any slick or sandy parts of the road.

Monday, April 3

The morning ride was insanely quick - I don't think I hit one single light. No time for photos, no time for griping, complaining or whining.

The evening ride was a different story. Cold, windy, 45 degrees, raw, spitting rain. One bright spot, though - the State Troopers were on the Cheese Grater pulling people over for speeding. This warms my heart because NOBODY is doing the speed limit on Memorial Drive, and that's not good for us cry-cyclists. In fact, there isn't much that's good for cyclists in Boston. When I saw the cops, I stopped and waited to see if they'd snag anybody. I hadn't been waiting 30 seconds before they pulled over the white car in the photo. You can see the officer returning to the white car to give the driver a ticket. In the vernacular of our youth, "Psych!".