Commuting decisions based on the weather...

OK, I'll admit it, I'm a fair weather bicycle commuter. It's still early in the season, with weather iffy enough for me to wait until morning to make my final commuting decision for the day. The alarm went off this morning, and my immediate thoughts were it's too dark, it's too cold, I could sleep longer... No Denise, get out of bed! The weather was beautiful. 45 degrees, a little chilly but easily handled with knee warmers, arm warmers and a wind vest (along with my normal biking shorts and jersey, of course). And by afternoon it was supposed to be (and was) in the 70's. It's so nice to ride to work - no wonder I get cranky in the winter when I can't ride!

It's been a good start to the commuting season for me. My first ride to work was on Patriot's day (marathon Monday) when the afternoon temperature was forecast to be in the 80s along with 30 to 40 mile an hour winds. Luckily it wasn't windy in the morning, and the afternoon wind was out of the southwest so it actually helped push me home. Two days of riding this week, and I'm hoping for at least two next week. A good start...

Nice rainbow!

Pretty day today, but there were dark gray clouds on the horizon as I drove home. I was on totally dry pavement, and I saw what looked like swirls of dust up ahead as the traffic came to a crawl. Dust? No, a downpour... The rain followed me home, but as I turned into my drive and watched the wipers taking care of the rain drops, the sky was blue and the sun was shining.

Out of the car, I turned, and look! A wonderful rainbow...

Peanut butter, peanut butter, peanut butter...

Funny, I didn't even like the stuff when I was growing up, but now I have to have it! And I have to have the grind-your-own kind, pure, unadulterated, ground up peanuts. Well, almost - I got hooked on grind-your-own honey roasted peanut butter last year. Whole Foods had it for several months, and then it disappeared. My options: peanut butter or almond butter. It had to be peanut butter for me. And now, guess what - I stopped by Whole Foods on Friday, and there was a third grinding machine, stocked with my favorite. Yum. Honey roasted peanut butter!

Swirling winds and sunshine...

Ah, 60 degrees and sunshine, a good day for a ride...

Have you ever noticed when you're riding that when a strong wind is directly at your back that it is totally silent? That's amazing to me, given that it can be quite loud when you're fighting a crosswind or a headwind. It was a knee-warmers cool kind of day - protect the knees, and maintain a warm and cozy feeling. But the wind - wow! It was a battle on the leg into the wind, but what a pretty day!

It's a gray, cool, and rainy day, but...

The forsythia are adding cheer to the day with their bright yellow smile, and there are buds on the trees. Maybe it's really spring!

Hey, who said you could leave work at 4?

I did! I woke up early this morning hoping to ride my bike to work, but the forecast was for rain, and I just wasn't ready for that! So - I drove in, but early... It turned out to be a beautiful day, with the sunshine teasing me all day long. I checked the weather at 4, and there was still rain predicted for the afternoon, but there was still that sunshine, and it was 80 degrees out. My bike was calling me! I had a wonderful ride. I'm happy!

Tired...

Yesterday's first (bicycle) commute of the season felt great - but man am I tired today! I forget that I need to ease into this ride 35 miles plus work all day stuff. Oh well, the weather for the rest of the week doesn't look like prime biking weather, so I may get more of a rest than I want!

A hot day, and the first commute by bike of the year (with a push from the wind)!

The forecast for today called for temperatures in the mid-40s in the morning, rising to the high 80s by the end of the day. Not an ideal temperature for the Boston Marathon, but it sounded reasonable to me for my first bicycle commute this year. That is, it sounded reasonable until I heard about the projected 30 to 40 mile an hour winds by late afternoon. Oh, wait - the forecast called for the wind to be out of the soutwest. That works, since to get home from work I need to ride to the northeast.

I'm so glad I rode today - it felt great - and I'm also glad that the wind behaved. Yes, it was very windy, but for the most part it was a tailwind or a slight cross wind (but still from the back). It would have been hard to get home if I'd been headed into that wind!

How annoying...

OK, OK, I know this is Massachusetts. But I still don't accept it! I decided I needed a change of scenery for my ride today, so I consulted my biking map and decided to drive to Cape Ann for a bike ride. Sometimes I just have to use that fossil-fuel-powered vehicle of mine to get somewhere different to bike... I haven't biked in the Cape Ann area in ages, and I guess now I know why! First, the road I was looking for wasn't marked. Hmm. The map showed route 128 intersecting with 127 and 127A. I found 127 easily enough, but 127A. Nope, not easy. I did eventually find it though, and I even found a beach park where I could leave my car. I took off on my bike only to find that almost all of the roads leading to the coast were marked Private, No Trespassing. I had an OK ride, but next time I'll head to New Hampshire or Maine. Guess I have to go to Cape Ann about once every ten years. And today was it!

Vacation dreaming again - or should I say still?

You'd think having a July vacation planned would be enough, but of course it's not! A week in July in the Canadian Rockies.... what else? Well, I'm still seriously thinking of repeating last year's Hawaii trip. It wouldn't be a total repeat in that I probaby wouldn't do the two Arnott's Lodge day trips again (or then again, maybe...), although I'd definitely stay there again. Instead I'd add a ride to South Point, and maybe some riding south of Hilo. Hawaii could be a nice extension to the riding season, so I'm keeping an eye on air fares in an October/November timeframe. Right now they are outrageous!

What else? Well, I'm trying to figure out if I can pull off a long weekend trip to Nova Scotia. It's so close, but it's so far away... a 12-hour ferry ride from Portland, or an under 3-hour ferry ride from Bar Harbor (which is a good 5 hour drive from here). First I need to figure out how many riding days I would need to make it worthwhile, and then I have to see if I have enough vacation time for both trips... more decisions coming!

A taste of early summer

A bit hazy, but you could tell the sun was there. Warm. Breezy. Oh, it's getting windy... was that a temperature drop?

Most of the trees are still brown - except for the willows which are showing their early spring yellow-green color - but the grass has turned green, and the early spring perennials are showing their green. Not too many blooming flowers - just crocus - but it's a start!

The temperature was predicted to rise into the 60s, but it was still in the 30s when I woke up. I used the cool morning hours to run errands and do things in the house, then headed out with my bike at noon for a loop I hadn't done since last year. It's always nice to ride on roads I haven't been on in a long time! My loop started at home, wandered through Middleton and Danvers to Topsfield, where I made the turn back to the west. As I got closer to the coast (heading toward Beverly) I could feel a very cold breeze. Hmm... maybe I should have worn my knee warmers! Not to worry, the temperature resumed it's warm feel once I turned for home. A nice ride...

Bikes belong...

There is a sad story floating through the biking forums of a cyclist killed by a drunk driver in a town in northern California. What struck me though was the Santa Rosa Press Democrat article by Chris Coursey. It was a story of caring and grieving, but it was also a story of educating those with whom we share the road. One of his statements: "We're not in the way of traffic; we are traffic". How true.

Gobble, gobble!

It's too bad I can't really capture the sound a turkey makes in writing! I arrived at the office this morning to find a flock of turkeys - 13 of them - standing in front of the office door. There was a very loud protest and some scattering of large birds, but they did allow me to enter the building. Happily as I walked toward them they went the other way!

Rain, rain, rain...

Another two days of rain, heavy, loud, wet. Ah, but it is April, isn't it? The good news is that I'm at work not at play, and (keep your fingers crossed) the forecast for the weekend and Monday is favorable. My bikes are waiting...

A chilly but very rideable weekend...

The weekend was chilly but dry, and Saturday was even sunny! A good time for a couple of (still early season) decent rides. Every year it feels like I'm getting slower, but I keep reminding myself that it is still early April and I didn't ride much during our cold winter. And I'm still much better at endurance - I was never much of a speed cyclist.

It feels good to be out on the road, and I even got my skinny-tired bike out. Very nice.

Welcome home Brandy!

Brandy escaped from the dog hospital. Well, not really, his mom picked him up... She said that he barked all the way home. Yap! Yap! Do you know that they didn't feed me for two days? Yap! Yes Brandy, we know - your stomach had to get ready to accept food again. Right now he's fed and sleeping - and happy!

Suze and Coco (her cat - oops, Suze just emailed to tell me that Coco is her daughter!) are visiting. Coco wants to know where the other noisy dog is. You see, Caesar always wanted to play, but he didn't have a clue how to play with a skittish cat. It should be interesting to watch the interaction between cat and the quieter dog (yes Brandy, I mean you) on this visit!

Wanted: a dog angel to look over our friend Brandy

I hope this isn't the start of another sad story. Brandy, the 13-year-old dachshund who owns my parents, is in the dog hospital with a recurrence of pancreatitis. He had a bout with it earlier this year - before his brother Caesar got sick and went to doggie heaven (see my March 9th blog entry if you want to read about him) - and the docs managed to get it under control. Brandy's been on a very strict diet, and he's been OK. But now he's not... So if there's a dog angel out there, please look out for Brandy. Mom and Dad need him to come home well and happy!

A beautiful day for a walk...

By the end of the day yesterday I was pretty cranky. Hmm... what's going on? Nothing out of the ordinary at the office, the same craziness - but maybe seeing the sunshine and knowing I was wasting it got to me. So today I decided to walk to the bookstore at lunchtime - a quick jaunt to the store (I'd guess about one and a half miles away), a 10 to 15 minute browse through some travel guidebooks, and another quick walk back to the office. That was a really good break!

But - no sidewalks? There actually were sidewalks a good part of the way, but there was a fairly nasty section (nasty means busy road with no shoulders and sidewalks) along with the need to cross a major road with no walk lights. It was short, but I really don't understand why the sidewalk wasn't continued!

If you're looking for me the last week of July...

My bike (or should I say one of my bikes?) and I are planning a trip to the Canadian Rockies. And yes, I'm only taking one bike with me. It would be interesting to haul a second one on my trailer for a change of pace, but I'm not going to do it!

It took me a long time to settle on some vacation plans - but I finally did it. I have a one-week trip planned, which means you'll be hearing more about other vacation decisions as the weeks roll on. This will be a reverse trip for me since I rode a good chunk of these roads in the other direction on my first solo tour back in 1998. Believe it or not, roads taken in the other direction look different!

I'll be headed to ride in the magnificent mountains. I'm flying in to Edmonton, and taking a train from there to Jasper. From Jasper, I'll bike to Banff and then on to Calgary. From Calgary it's back in an airplane again for my return home. I'm glad I made the decision - I have a vacation to look forward to (something that is very important to me), and I'm excited to return to the Canadian Rockies. Now I just have to finalize plans and focus on training!

Water, water, everywhere!

How much? When I checked the National Weather Service spotter reports for the wild rain storm that finished this morning, I found that North Andover - my home town - had a total of 6.38 inches of rain. Wow! And I'm really happy that it was rain and not snow...

A dry ride on a rainy, rainy night

I can't believe I'm saying this - but I'm actually glad to be cycling no where in my dining room tonight. Perched on my bicycle on a trainer in my dining room, pedaling, pedaling, and pedaling some more, and listening to the rain pelting down from the sky. When I checked the National Weather Service statement when I got home from work tonight I saw that we've already had 3.3 inches of rain in the storm that started yesterday morning, and it's forecast to continue through tomorrow morning. Some days it's good to ride indoors!