Wednesday, December 20

Pidgeons

Monday, December 18

Weather has been terrific this past week. 55 today. Went to the Cyclocross National Championships on Saturday in RI with me friend JW. It was quite a revelation. Never again will I shy away from taking the Colnago off-road. Those guys were doing some pretty crazy things. The beer was good too. Today's clip is a Mem Drive Pedestrian sneak-attack.

Friday, December 8

Temperature dropped 30 degrees overnight. 22 degrees on the morning ride. Plenty of poeple out on their bikes, though. There were a few icy blasts that nearly stopped me dead in my tracks on the Mass Ave bridge.

Thursday, December 7

Here's a great clip of the Cheese Grater that I took this afternoon. This really captures the fearfull flavor 'o the Grater. As I have mentioned before, if you got doored along here, you'd be done for. You'd be a goner. Look at the black pick up truck that passes me. He's doing at least 40.Beautiful day, though - 53 degrees. Tomorrow is snow and a high of 29.

Wednesday, December 6

This is a pretty good one - this is going up First Street (dodging two POPs), and then approaching my favorite intersection, Like A Virgin (see glossary of terms if you don't know what that is). Right at the end I scrambled to apply the brakes because I was so distracted with my movie-making.

Monday, December 4

Snow this morning, low 30's. This clip is the Longfellow Bridge underpass. Right at the bridge the sidewalk narrows, but there is a small ramp that goes down to the roadway. It's tons of fun, especially if there's lots of traffic.

Friday, December 1

More great weather - 63 degrees. This clip of Kenmore is more par for the course than this past Monday - plenty of brake lights and cabs. Trouble coming this Monday, though. Snow is forecast.

Wednesday, Noveber 29

Tuesday, November 28

45 degrees today, raw, overcast. Clip below is Mass ave to the bridge. Two items to note:
1) Yes, I run the red light, but it was safe.
2) Another cyclist blows right by me. However, he was not riding with only one hand like Uneasy Rider.

Monday, November 27

Beautiful day - 56 degrees. Minimal amount of traffic. Below is a typical romp through Kenmore.

Friday, November 17

The weather continues to be outstanding even though it has rained quite a bit - temp today is 63 degrees - warm enough to ride in a t-shirt. The two pictures are of Comm Ave - a typical high-speed tight squeeze. The white van was backing up, but then began pulling out of a parking space and didn't see me. I slipped between him and the black SUV with inches to spare. And all one-handed.

Wednesday, November 3

Can't beat this weather for fall riding. 60 degrees today. Nothing of note happening. No break-downs, no one yelling at me to get off the road, no near-misses, no accidents. Nothing. Just riding to work and then riding right back. I am staying off Memorial Drive, which has definitley contributed to my well-being.

Friday, November 3

Saw this interesting scene this morning. A North American moving truck got on the wrong off- ramp on Mem Drive where the clearance under the Longfellow bridge is 11 feet. This seems to happen quite a bit on Storrow Drive, but I've never seen it on Mem Drive.

Thursday, November 2

What a difference a day makes. Temperature dropped 20 degrees from yesterday. Rainy, cold, yellow.

Wednesday, November 1

Thursday, October 26

Jeez, the weather has gotten really cold. I finally broke out the gloves - too cold to ride without them. A friend of mine just got doored last night. The attached picture is of the victim. Thankfully, she's OK. In case you're not familiar with the phenomenon, being "doored" is when someone in a parked car whips open their door right as you're approaching, or passing the car. It can be fatal, or can involve everything that comes before "fatal" (broken bones etc etc). She was lucky and got away with scratches and bruises. I was doored once, but I was going so slowly at the time that it was more of a Three Stooges move. Here's a good piece from Common Ground mag about being doored.

Thursday, October 19

Had a near miss today that goes in the top three. I was blazing down Beacon St right before Kenmore. There was a long line of traffic backed up at the light, and suddenly a car that was making a left through the stopped traffic into a parking garage appeared right in front of me blocking my path. For a split second I plotted where I would make impact on his passenger-side, then jammed on the brakes. At the last possible second, he saw me and gave it the gas. It was a very close call. The gentleman was around 90 or so, and appeared to be very surprised that someone was actually riding a bicycle on the street.

Weather has been great for riding these past couple of weeks. Front tire was losing massive amounts of air two days ago so I replaced both tube and tire in about a half-hour. No troubles at all. Now I'm all set for next week's Critical Mass ride.

Friday, October 13

Weather is getting a little nippy. 50 degrees today, but sunny.

Wednesday, October 11

Gloomy day. 56 degrees, windy, overcast. I commented to Stanley, the company janitor, that today was gloomy. He said "Why?" (as if he didn't know). I brought up the clouds and temperature and the wind, and he said "Well, you can't have the sun out every day, can you? You have to look at the overall picture...and the overall picture is pretty good, isn't it?" I brought up North Korea, thinking that I'd sink his happy-go-lucky ship with that. Nope. All he said was that he thought Iran was a bigger problem than North Korea.

Tuesday, October 10 - Monk's Birthday

Another beautiful day - 61 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. The weather has been spectacular these past few days. Blah, blah, blah.

Rode on the sidewalk down Mem drive today. Some days I get a skittish feeling if it seems the drivers are being a bit more unruly than usual. I started off on the road, but moved to the sidewalk/bike path about a quarter of the way down. You can see by the photo of the outcrop right before Land Blvd that things get a little tight if you're riding on the road. Blah, blah, blah.


Today is Thelonious Monk's birthday. He was born in 1917 - the same month and year that the Bolsheviks took over in Russia. October is a big month for birthdays. Dizzy Gillespie was also born in October 1917. My mother was born in October, my wife was born in October, my sister-in-law was born in October. It's really just a month of parties.

It's also a month of bad news. I got the news that the division of the company that I goof off for will be closing at the end of December. But as Stanley, the company janitor, says "Hey, at least your alive. You're here, and that's good." Crazy. He's always saying that, no matter what's going on. If he was thrown in a Turkish prison with nothing to eat but rats, he'd still say "Hey, at least I'm alive, I'm here, that's good." One of these days I'm going to tell him that every day isn't necessarily a good day.