Bicycling

Lucky Duck

For the second time this week we chickened out of bicycling because of dire weather predictions, so we drove, but Monday’s dense fog and today’s morning rain never materialized.

This morning about a mile from home, while pulling away from a stop sign we both noticed a rustling in the bushes between two houses. There was some sort of animal, mostly white, moving towards the road, fast, so I slowed. Sure enough it ran right out in front of us and in typical animal fashion, noticed the headlights and stopped right in our lane. So I hit the brakes, hoping it was in time, watched as white faded from view and waited for the thump.

Didn’t happen, our lucky opossum scurried across the road and disappeared into the woods.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 95

Metal

On our bicycling route to work there is one house we pass that has a small screened-in porch. On that porch are two large dogs, I haven’t seen them because of the way the porch is situated, but they sound large and I’m glad they are kept inside. Definitely on the way to work and most times on the way home, we are the only traffic on the road this house is on, but we can not get within 25 yards of it before the dogs start barking. They bark continuously until we are probably 25 yards down the road past them. We are not usually talking at this point in the ride, it is flat so we aren’t doing any gear shifting, we are just pedaling along with the only sound being the whir of the chain and invariably those two dogs start raising a ruckus long before we get anywhere near them.

I think James Cameron must have been a bicyclist and had similar experiences with dogs hearing him coming a long way off because he includes a bit in the Terminator movies about humans using dogs to detect the cyborgs (AKA Metal.) If dogs can hear a component of the high pitched bicycle chain noise from a ways off it stands to reason that they also can pick up the sound of a motor moving a metal joint encased in a layer of human flesh.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 90

It’s All Over Now

The Constant

The Other Woman

We watched Episodes 74 & 75 of 82 tonight, so technically we’ve watched this whole week’s worth of shows already and the rate of two a night we will be through with Season 4 by Friday and Season 5 doesn’t start until almost 3 weeks after that.

Episode #74, The Constant, took place on Christmas Eve in Lost time, missed it by 5 days. When we started rewatching them from the beginning, I started on a Monday with the shows spaced so that we would finish up a couple days before the next season started, maybe I should have scheduled them to line up with island time, Season 1 started on September 22, 2004 and Season 4 ends on New Year’s Eve 2004. Maybe next year (as long as when Ben moved the island in time he just jumped exactly in years and didn’t shift days.)

It is almost a good thing because I have really wanted to stop writing the little episode synopsizes, because Season 4 is where the show got far out there (if that was even possible for this show that has been water skiing around a school of sharks looking for a ramp ever since the get go.) The season’s arc was intriguing, we find out that six people got rescued and we find out early on who five of them are (turns out we knew the sixth, but the producers were being cagey) and through out the episodes we see those 5 people scattered amongst several separate locations and circumstances and they are only brought together in the season finale. But several of the goings on leading up to the rescue are like jigsaw puzzle pieces that look like they came from a different puzzle.

We took the tandem out for a couple three miles as a sort of a shakedown cruise for it and us. Things worked well, mechanical and physical, and if the helmet mounted lamp arrives tomorrow as planned we are going to ride the bike to work on New Year’s Eve.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 87

Merry Christmas

I thought I was through with my Christmas gifts, but after yesterday morning, turns out I needed 2 more.

The Cateye LED headlight we bought a couple months ago does a decent job of lighting the road in a 4 foot diameter circle about 20 yards ahead of the bicycle. That, along with the ailing Nite Hawk incandescent headlight filling in the gap between the front tire and the LED spot, forward travel is pretty well illuminated. But turning corners is tricky because the lights are on the handlebars, they only see what’s around the corner once the bike is actually turned.

Yesterday morning about two miles into our 6-1/4 trip to work I turned onto a street that turned out to to be covered with leaves. Because of the lighting setup I didn’t know there were leaves there until we were crossing over them. Coasting at about 10-12 miles an hour the front tire slipped out from under me. Before I could even get out the O in OH SHIT, we were down and skidding to a stop on the ground. What took the brunt of the impact was the right front pannier that was loaded with my clothes and I think that saved both of us from a rougher landing. We got up, checked for any serious damage to us or the bike, I reattached the pannier and we pedaled slowly up the street. Because we less than half way to work we opted to turn around, pedal home and then drive the car in.

The bike appears fine except for scrapes on the right pedals and the tape on the right side of the handlebars where they skidded on the pavement. The attachment hook on that right front pannier needed to be rebent back into its natural shape. The captain has some road rash on the right knee that makes wearing pants uncomfortable, a sore left thigh that probably got poked with the handlebar and a tender right wrist from hitting who knows what. The stoker got a small cut on her right leg and a fairly sore shoulder. Both probably have bruises that will materialize in a couple days.

The right knee of my tights was shredded in the fall so I had to order a set online today. I also ordered another LED headlight, but this one has a helmet light so that I can aim it around corners by looking that way so as to avoid nasty surprises like yesterday.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 81

I Led You Here, Sir, For I Am Spartacus

While we were riding the tandem to work this morning I saw something or thought of something that I should blog about tonight. Of course I didn’t write it down. On the way home from work the same idea reoccurred, once again I didn’t write it down, so you won’t get to read about it.

It’s holiday time, so there are goodies around practically every corner at work and because I have no self control, I eat something each time I pass something. On Tuesday I started keeping track of all the handfuls of whatnot I consumed, retroactive to Monday, with the though of blogging about that today, but after writing it all down the totals weren’t nearly as spectacular sounding as I imagined, so I scratched that idea.

Even though they play the song That Thing You Do about 10 times in the 1-3/4 hours the movie runs, I still like watching it. And I did again tonight.

One of Ron White’s bits contains this quote: “…once you’ve seen one woman naked, you… wanna see the rest of ’em naked.” I’m not sure what he’d think of these women, or these…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 73

Creepy Nutcracker

If you have small children it may be best if you don’t let them check the mail for the next few weeks, unless of course, unlike me, you don’t think this year’s Christmas Nutcrackers Stamps are creepy.

We went out this afternoon and cleaned the rest of the leaves off the driveway and sidewalks and such. Afterward I pulled the car out of the garage and gave it a washing. It was pretty dirty from the rains of a couple weeks ago and the drenching it got last Saturday on the trip back from HHI. Maybe tomorrow I’ll pull it back out and give it a wax.

For the first time in a while we went for a bike ride today. At first we were going to ride our single bikes this afternoon, but changed it to the tandem tonight. We went out around 7 PM when it was fully dark and cruised a couple neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 54

Exodus – Part 1

Episode 23’s off island flashbacks feature a lot of the main characters in the Sydney Airport getting ready to depart while on island we see the last frantic construction on the raft as it gets ready to depart. Meanwhile the crazy French Chick arrives with a warning that the “Others” are coming. Jack thinks they should all hide in the hatch, but it still can’t be opened prompting a French Chick lead trip to the black rock to get some dynamite.

We rode the tandem to work today and it was chilly enough (low 50s) that I wore tights and we both wore some light knit gloves. We have been using a NiteHawk Pro Dual for commuting that we have had for what seems like ages (maybe 10 years?) It is starting to show its age as the light output is nearly non existent when we pull into the parking lot after just under a half hours worth of riding. You can buy a replacement battery for $55, but even when brand new it was only good for an hour and a half (plus the battery weighs about 2 lbs.) Instead I decided to try one of the newer LED lights, after a bit of internet research I opted to try a Cateye EL-530 which I found at Nashbar for forty bucks.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 388