Juneuary.

 I was biking home in traffic, but pulled over to snap this shot of the sky. THAT was a big, black cloud. Not too much later, it started to sprinkle. I stopped to get a pizza for dinner (using my bungee cargo net to fasten it to my rear bike rack), and a few blocks from home, it was raining hard enough that I made an emergency call--"Meet me at the post office!" I was afraid the pizza box would get too wet and start disintegrating. The P.O. is only a few blocks from home, so the trip to rescue the pizza didn't negate the benefits of riding to and from work. Also, I rode my bike back home after handing off the pizza, and beat the boys by at least 30 seconds.

Now, it's raining even harder, and people have been saying all day that the snow level is supposed to drop to 2500 feet tonight. We're at 2280. So yeah. Juneuary.

not complaining.

I love beautiful sunny days, with a light breeze, especially late in the afternoon when the very slowly descending sun makes the forest all around me glow a warm, deep, golden green. I hope we will have some of these days this summer.

I also really enjoy it when other cyclists ride on the correct side of the road, with helmets, and when, if they are riding three abreast, they drop into a single file line when I pass them.

I am very appreciative of the road crews when they sweep the shoulders of broken glass. Also, I like it when weekenders take their beer bottles home with them for recycling, instead of tossing them onto the road.

Automotive UV film that allows me to make eye contact with drivers (who would not dream of talking on their cell phones while driving) is awesome!

Relief from huge propane bills is a welcome sign of summer! I hope it's coming!

***

It's been a bit of a long week; you can read between the lines for my petty complaints. Hopefully I will boost my mileage a little tomorrow--it was raining hard Tuesday morning, and today, and I wasn't scheduled to work on Wednesday. I did ride back to work from lunch today, but got quite damp. I considered picking up pizza on my way home, but I was too tired to contemplate waiting for it to be cooked.

On the brighter side of things, the elementary school spring concert was this week, I got to spend a big chunk of my day off with my guys, and my little guy called my cell phone while I was at work, just to tell me he loves me. And also, the third graders kicked the fourth graders' butts in kickball.

The "out like a lamb" part never happened.

I left the house (in the car) amidst yet more snow. (Aside: the Californian spouse did remarkably little complaining when it was snowing *on his birthday* last week.) At lunchtime, I decided that it was warm enough to ride back to work. Warm enough, yes, but by the end of the afternoon, not dry enough. At all. Which didn't alter the necessity of riding home, so I walked through the front door soaking wet. My husband dryly noted, "That didn't work out as well as it could have, did it?"

For me, 90% of getting dinner on the table is a loose meal plan. I usually shop by sketching out five or six meals, plus extra salad fixings and easy lunch-type things. I don't designate any specific order for making them, though logistics come into play. (For example, all postal employees are tired by the end of your average Monday. Complicated dinners do not follow.) Since I just did the shopping last night, I had a fresh selection of meal plans to choose from. I decided to make the soba noodles with green beans and almonds from Vegan Express. Wow--easy. A quick sauce based on hoisin; toast some almonds; slice some scallions; cook the noodles, green beans, and in this case, the added edamame together, and dinner's ready.

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.

tempeh fries with wild rice and veggies

In the interest of moving that snow photo down in the queue, this is what I made for dinner tonight. Tempeh Fries with Horseradish Mayonnaise from Vegan Express , served with wild rice mix, steamed broccoli, raw red pepper slices, and radish halves. Yes, I like arranging vegetables on my cobalt blue Fiestaware.

It did stop snowing, and today was brisk and sunny. If you were inside, it looked beautiful outside. If you were outside (and I was) you tried to ignore the fact that you were being buffeted about by a mighty cold wind.

remember when?

This weekend, temperatures were in the upper 60s, and on Saturday, at least, we had sunny blue skies. TODAY IT SNOWED. Not much, but please, please, stop it. This photo was taken on February 1st, and what you can't really tell is that the roof of our porch is at least ten feet off the ground. I took this shot from our driveway, and you also can't really tell that there is a path shoveled up to the steps. The piles of snow were so high at a couple of times during the season that I could barely hoist the shovel high enough to get the newly shoveled snow on top of them. My last electric bill noted that the average daily temperature for the billing period was eight degrees lower than last year. And I don't recall last year being especially balmy.

I did not ride my bike today, as the wind was blowing so hard that the entire flagpole at work was swaying. Also, did I mention it snowed?

I discovered today that Erik Marcus blogged my photo of the Coconut Pineapple Noodles. (Leftovers of which I finally finished at lunchtime today.) One of those things that makes you realize that we are all just regular people, even if some of us totally know who others of us are...

windy and cold.

My biggest challenge in riding to work is...riding TO work. I think it was about 30 degrees when I got there this morning. When I'm scheduled to be in at 6:30, as I am this week, I am sadly lacking in motivation. Actually, figuring out a coffee set-up will help, but 30 degrees + o'dark-thirty + no caffeine is not really feasible.

However, if I have an hour, or sometimes longer, for lunch, I will ride back to work and then home. That's what I did today, and the wind was an excellent reminder of why I got this bike. With the pedal assist on, it was still harder than riding in the highest gear with it off on flat terrain without wind. I'm really pleased with how the assist mode functions--it doesn't take over so much that you lose the fun of riding a bike, it just makes it a lot more fun in more challenging conditions, or when you're tired.

there's hope.

BIG picture of little flowers, because that's all we've got, people. I could post some of my extreme snow pics from January for the purpose of comparing and contrasting, but I am still traumatized.

It was right cold this morning, so I drove to work, but rode my bike back from lunch, and then home from work. Ride home from work was brisk and invigorating--without the pedal assist, it would have been just miserable and cold.

Also, I am a good sport--guy passed me going up Swimming Pool Hill, and I had the pedal assist switched on. I rationalized that he is at least 6 inches taller than I am, and this probably wasn't his second ride of the season. And he commented on my bike as he passed, and I've seen him around enough to guess that his "nice bike" was sincere.

And, hallelujah, Schrader valves. I must have some defective programming, because I can't fill a tube with a Presta valve to save my life. Plus, it's handy to be able to fill at a gas station, and the compressors are only compatible with the Schraders. This is a serious, stupid issue, so much so that I had the rims of my Bianchi drilled out so I could change the tubes. No need for drastic measures this time.