goobers

I rode my bike to work and back twice today (scheduled for long lunch, and didn't pack my lunchbox). At lunch, I grabbed the grocery panniers so I could stop at the store after work.

At the store, I placed the bags on the conveyor belt, side by side, with the items that fit in them lined up neatly behind each one. The annoying bag boy took my panniers, put them in the grocery cart, and then put my groceries in three separate plastic bags. (I was distracted by fishing out my discount card, paying the bill, etc.) I try not to have fits in public, but I did, a little bit.

Right after, though, I ran into a neighbor I hadn't seen in quite awhile, with her darling children. That took the edge off. A little.

Tomorrow's commute will bring me to six consecutive days, and approximately 50 miles.

ye gads

Sometimes things take on a life of their own. I called my mom as soon as I got home to find out the name of the artist at her gallery who made the bigger knit? felted? bike bags that inspired my little bag. Cindy Krushenisky showed a series of bags at the art gallery my mom is a member of last February. Hers were much larger, designed more like a traditional front basket, but they gave me the idea to hey! knit something for my bike.

I finished a gift project yesterday. It will probably be late arriving to its recipient, but only by a day or two. I am rarely on time, but I try.

My odometer rolled past 100 today. I'd intended to photograph it (geek), but I was too busy thinking about the near-miss slow speed accident I avoided. Note to people in cars: you have to check crosswalks before you turn! Really! And turn signals are good, too.

my bike is a supermodel

but also charmingly utilitarian. I just took this photo because it kind of cracked me up. By the time I reached my driveway, I was tooling along with a hat and pair of mittens in the handlebar bag, plus two pennies I found in the street; my coffee cup; a small tote bag containing a knitting project, three catalogs I got in the mail yesterday, and my lunchbox; mail from today; my bike lock; and a loaf of bread. Amazingly, the bread didn't really get scrunched--I just fastened the cargo net between two slices in the middle of the loaf.


This was my lunch from yesterday--simple coleslaw with radish slices, potatoes and chickpeas roasted with nutritional yeast, some almonds and corn nuts (left over from the bike ride with the kid), and some baby carrots with a Vegannaise dip. The kid and I both use Laptop Lunches bento boxes, which are the most awesome lunch boxes evah. They make it super easy to pack a varied lunch, and we generate no lunchtime waste. (I carry a bandana as a napkin, and I'm quite certain the kid uses his clothing.) Plus the plastic boxes ride around in lead-free insulated cases which have room for a small water bottle (which comes with the kit). I usually freeze the water bottle, and then don't worry about refrigerating my lunch.

photo frenzy

We went for a five mile ride on a rails- to-trails trail today. We had a 2 1/2 hour window from the time we set out until we needed to be back at the house for a matinee of Iron Man.

We initially turned back at this gate, because the kid thought we shouldn't skirt around it. I hadn't ridden this trail before, and thought there was at least a chance that it was closed on purpose--the snow pack melted FAST last week, and the rivers are high. However, we ran into a park ranger, who told us that it was just the equivalent of an ecology block to keep the cars out.

We stopped to snack on corn nuts, dark chocolate M&Ms, and water.

There were more photos with crazy faces than not.

My new adjustable water bottle cage not only holds my awesome coffee cup, it will take my liter sized Sigg bottle, too.

The kid worked out a call system with his bike horn--one honk for yes, two for no, four for "MOM! STOP!!!" There was a lot of that, as the trail had a fair amount of loose gravel. We both lost patience toward the end of the ride, when I finally exclaimed, exasperated, "It's NOT that big a deal if you fall on soft gravel going four miles per hour!!"

My ride time was 48 minutes, with an average speed of just a little over six mph. We were gone for quite a lot longer than that--the computer wasn't counting the time when I was stopped to wait for the kid to catch up.

Still, I think we'd do it again. He was ready to call it a day at around 3.7 miles, but I pushed him to make it to five, and in retrospect, I think he was glad I did. He was annoying about it there for awhile, though.

I stopped to talk to my friend John, who sold me my lovely bike, and he told me he'd had several other customers report that they'd seen me out riding my bike and, "it's like she's barely pedaling!" Grrr. 1) How lovely of you to note that FROM YOUR CAR, since I don't encounter that many other cyclists on any given day. And 2) my cadence is not super fast, but whenever I check it, it's in the 60-70 rpm range--whether or not I'm using the pedal assist. Which is reasonably normal, especially since I tend to grind, rather than spin.

I will get over my bad self now. My bike is AWESOME for the kind of utility cycling I (mostly) do, but it is not a free ride.

I did get the rear tire changed on the Bianchi--much more expeditiously than the last time I did it. Both wheels on my e-bike are quick-release, but the most time-consuming part of the replacement job on the Bianchi was finding an adjustable wrench for the rear nut.

Current National Bike Month stats: I've ridden 15 out of 21 possible work days, and of the six I didn't ride, two were out-of-town training days, two were scheduled days off, one I had plans immediately after work plus it was raining HARD in the morning, and the first one, I just forgot. 100% would be lovely, but I guess we'll roll with 75%.

49.2

That's the odometer reading on my bike computer. Plus I rode to and from work on Monday (i.e. before I installed it), so my mileage for the week was around 56 miles. Today, I attempted to visit a toy store by bike, but arrived three minutes after they closed. So it was just a ride.

(A windy one, and I reset the computer for the trip home, to compare. On the way to town, my average speed was between 16-17 mph. It would probably be higher, but there are several intersections where I either come to a complete stop, or slow down dramatically. Coming home, I think my speed was right around 14, riding against the wind with the pedal assist engaged.)

Tomorrow is my kiddo's birthday. He'll be nine, and he is awesome. We did not get the kind of kid you can just phone it in with, but it is totally worth it to live with such an interesting and complicated boy. Not easy, hardly ever, but totally worth it. (Hint: the background is the important part of this photo.)

radar. bring it.

New toys. I got a blinky, and an adjustable water bottle cage, and a bike computer. Took me a while to get the magnet that cues the computer's sensor installed last night, and I cut my hand doing it, but today I had stats. It took me 12 minutes and 44 seconds to get to work, and about 18 minutes to get home. My average speed over the course of the round trip was 14.9 mph, and my top speed was (on a downhill) 29.4 mph. I rode 7.68 miles. Note that the 29.4 mph was on a stretch of road where the actual speed limit is 25, so bugger off, you pesky cars. I'm speeding.

Sunday ride.

I am currently scheduled to have Wednesday off, and my plan is to escort the kid to and from school by bike. The distance is eminently bikeable, but he's not quite nine, and there's a local-use highway to cross, and no crosswalk or crossing guard, so accompaniment is necessary for my peace of mind.

In advance of this plan, I decided that he needs a new bike helmet. It probably should have been replaced last year when he flipped over the handlebars of his bike and thumped his noggin, but it wasn't. So we walked down to our bike shop today, and got him a nice Bell helmet that should last for the next five years.

With a new helmet in hand, and blue skies overhead, the begging quickly commenced. "Mom! Can we go for a bike ride??" And who am I to say no to that? We live next door to a large developing resort, which has a great paved trail system. I have issues with many aspects of the resort, but a local citizen group worked really hard to, among other things, preserve public access to the land. My kid learned to ride his bike in an undeveloped cul-de-sac there, and it's a great place to ride together. It's a little hilly for him, so he has to hop off and walk up some of the steeper slopes, but his attitude was great, and we covered about four miles. First time my e-bike has been on the bike rack, too!

leak. proof.

This awesome mug is actually leak proof. AS in, fill it up, turn it upside down, and nothing comes out. There's a review of the pink, breast cancer research model on Amazon, and one of the three reviewers says that it leaks. If the cap is put on correctly, no, it doesn't.

This revolutionizes my working life. I made my first morning ride into work this a.m., all because my coffee was in my mug, strapped to my bike rack, and it was hot and all there when I arrived at the office.

I bought another manufacturer's leak-proof mug, which was not, not at all. But this one is absolutely water-tight. I bought it for $15; the other one was $25. (And will be returned.) Plus, it matches my bike. And the leather sleeve is not real leather. Score!

helmet liner

I made a helmet liner of leftover sock yarn. I needed something with earflaps, and it needed to be lightweight and warm. I started at the top, worked increases at eight points, and single crocheted the edging.

I rode my Bianchi hybrid on a short errand after work today. It was quicker to take it than to unlock the e-bike. I totally love my e-bike, but my hybrid is a sweet little bike, too.

It snowed on me on the way home from my errand.

I did not sign up for this.

It keeps snowing. Not a lot; just enough to continue annoying me. And the robins.

I'm attempting to make a helmet liner out of leftover sock yarn. If it worked, I'll know shortly. I've been winging it, working from the top down, and I ran out of yarn and had to go foraging for something that was at least in the ballpark. It has ear flaps. It should probably be a full face mask.

fully loaded.

I volunteered to go get frozen pizza and ice cream for the pack of wild children at my house last night. Because! I could test out my grocery panniers! It turns out that you can easily carry two frozen pizzas, 2 lbs of baby carrots, 4 apples, a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, a box of crackers, a magazine, and a six pack of beer. You can see where the beer unsnapped the stiff liner of the panniers, but otherwise all rode well.

The bag boy threw a fit when the supervisor who was running the express lane asked him not to crush my loaf of bread with the apples--apparently, he felt that this was an excessive use of her authority. Which is why I normally shop at a different store, where they instruct their baggers correctly and the employees aere mostly cheerful. However, it was worth enduring the tizzy to be able to ride there and back.

I promise not to add an orange safety flag.

Am I taking the accessorizing too far? But how can I resist combining some of my favorite avocations? (Wait, I'll answer that rhetorical question when I get home from the library.)

This is a small felted handlebar bag, which I concocted from some nice thick and thin wool I purchased at my LYS' big sale. It's just a rectangle knit with the yarn double stranded on size 11 needles. I folded it in half and seamed it, then picked up and knit the straps. Then I made a very loosely-knit swatch out of a single strand of the yarn, felted it on a vintage washboard, and used it with a cover-your-own-button kit I bought at a clearance sale. I think I made buttonholes when I knit the straps, but I ended up having to trim them, so what I ended up with were a couple of slits cut to fit after I felted the whole project.

The idea here was to have someplace handy to stash my wallet and cell phone when I am going for a ride and either don't need my bag or want to reserve the space in my grocery panniers for other things. A test run has been executed, and the items a) fit, b) are handy, and c) don't bounce out. If the buttons hold, we'll call this mod a success.

food, and how to get it home.

Nava Atlas is one of my favorite cookbook authors. In February, I picked up a copy of her newest book, Vegan Express. Her flavor range has changed a little with this book, but the emphasis is still on combining relatively modest numbers of whole, fresh ingredients. A couple of nights ago I made the Coconut Pineapple Noodles with a few modifications. I added some tofu, used fewer scallions, and added some steamed broccoli and shredded raw red cabbage to the plate. Making it again, I think I would add a little soy sauce, just to deepen the flavor a little...

This is one of the Nashbar grocery panniers I found on eBay. Due to my work schedule this week, I've only managed a short test ride with these on the bikes, but one of them held my small messenger bag, some mail, and a package containing two pairs of jeans. I'm sure eventually I will find out what happens when you misgauge the width of the bike when they're opened and full, but the first ride was uneventful. They also came with a bright yellow rain hood--which looks like a shower cap, so you can protect whatever is in the open compartment if it rains.

accessorizing

I just bought these on eBay, to make the kind of errand-running I'm likely to do easier. I have a rear seat post rack on my Bianchi, and managed to carry a lot of stuff just by lashing it to the rack with a cargo net, but I think the grocery bag panniers will be handy.

*Cough cough sputter cough* on the shipping cost, but my maximum bid was set to approximate the original retail cost, with free shipping. Even though the bags are well-reviewed almost every place I could dig up, they are no longer available, so my bidding strategy seemed reasonable.

Now I just need to come up with a set up for transporting my morning caffeine.