Bike-to-Work Day
Thu May 15 05:18:40 EDT 2014
The forecast is looking bad for Bike-to-Work Day this Friday:Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 2pm, then a chance of showers. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. High near 73. Southeast wind 11 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.
I signed up for the Adobe Commute Challenge. The [Agency] has 6 people signed up now, but we've picked 3 different names for the Organization. Somehow, we seem to have distributed ourselves evenly across those 3 names. I don't know who the other person is paired with me, but by subtracting my numbers I can tell what his/hers are. (S)He's done only 10 miles, in 5 round trips, so his/her commute is only 1 mile each way!?
Thursday 15:06
The forecast for BtWD continues to look terrible.
Accuweather's hourly forecast:Time6am7am8am9am10am11am12pm1pm
ForecastRainRainRainRainRainRainRainRain
73%73%79%79%79%67%67%67%
Temp (°F)66°66°64°65°64°63°65°66°
RealFeel®59°59°59°60°61°61°63°64°
Humidity77%76%85%79%82%89%78%80%
The main rally is 7:00-9:00 at Freedom Plaza. This is actually on my commute route now; I miss it by a couple of blocks in the morning because of one-way streets, but I pass it on the way home.
My work schedule has changed for the next 2 days. I'm going to be doing OS patching after midnight; I won't be working during the afternoon unless there's an emergency. There's still scheduled things from 21:00-23:00 too. So instead of being home by 21:00 (since I can't get home with Metro after 23:00), I'm going to go to work by 21:00, do the scheduled tasks, and stay there overnight for the patching.
That means I won't be home to ride to BtWD Friday morning, and with this forecast the ride doesn't look likely anyway. I hope to bike to work tonight, and Friday morning I'll take the Metro from the office to the rally, and then Metro home. Metro back to work Friday night, and the forecast for Saturday is clear to bike back home in the morning.
There will be die-hards at the rally. There will be food (bagels, coffee, juice, energy bars, etc), maps, leaflets, swag, T-shirts; there will be speakers and advocates. And we will all be wet. (I must remember to take an umbrella on the bike tonight.) With any luck, there will be a lot of extra T-shirts to give away. That will make up for the years I skipped, when getting up to ride to Rosslyn (Arlington) or DC at 06:00 did not mesh with working 'til 23:00 (or later) and biking home.
Thursday 16:52
It's raining now. I guess I won't be biking to work tonight. Time to copy some more TV shows to the Kindle for the Metro ride....
Hmmm, Accuweather said rain around 16:00, then just cloudy until more rain around 21:00. And the NOAA RADAR shows little blobs (one right over us) ahead of a massive front. So maybe I can still bike to work (but not home).
Thursday 19:23
My work schedule has changed again. We're patching fewer servers tonight, and more Friday night, so I will probably be done long before 07:00, probably done before the Metro is open. That messes with the whole idea of working through the time Metro is closed. It also means finding other things to do until the BtWD rally. (I'll manage.)
Also, I'd forgotten there's a photo-op for the SEC Bike Club with the Commissioner. That's at 11:00. No way I'll still be there that late, so I'm going to miss this one. (I did get in the first one, when the club was new formed. (It's still new.))
It seems that the person with the SEC Bike Club T-shirts and I simply will not be in the building at the same time at any point this week. But the urgency to get the shirt for BtWD is gone, since with this rain it doesn't look like I'm going to be on a bike at all Friday.
Thursday 19:39
It's not raining; there's a gap in the RADAR. But the roads are wet, and I'll be road-splattered all the way in, even if it's not raining. So I'm taking the Metro tonight. I may be able to bike to work Friday night; we'll see....
Friday 10:21
The roads weren't so wet when I left home, and it wasn't raining when I got to work, so I probably could have biked. But at 06:30 it was raining hard in DC. But Bike to Work Day happens rain or shine. And I knew some people would be there. Google Maps said it was a 30-minute walk from my office, or an 8-minute bus ride (plus waiting (in the rain) for the bus). Or I could take the subway, and end up 3-4 blocks away. I decided to walk; it was a simple, straight shot along the first part of my bike commute home. A bus happened to stop as I was passing a stop, so I hopped on and rode the rest of the way.
Half-a-dozen organizations had little tents and tables set up, and there was valet bike parking. There was also a DC Circulator bus parked on the side with much of the swag - T-shirts, water bottles, etc. That worked out well, since it kept the stuff and some of the people dry.
I came home with 2 shirts, 2 water bottles, 3 DC bike maps, 2 patch kits, 3 reflectors, a reflective key chain, and a couple of pamphlets. I had 2 bananas and 2 very yummy fruit-nut bars. There was also tons of coffee, but I don't do coffee.
There was only one recumbent at the rally today, a trike, and there was a bike with 15+ blinkers. (I counted from the rear, but noticed more on the front later.) I have only 6. (And that's for redundancy; I usually use only 2 at a time. I might use all 6 if I were riding in a downpour - something I try to avoid.)
The rally was scheduled for 07:00-09:00. In a display of meteorological impudence, the sky became lighter around 08:45, and by 09:05 there was no longer enough rain to need an umbrella. The weather should be beautiful late afternoon. (I'll be able to bike to work tonight - more server patching.)
After the rally I walked to the Metro Center station and took the subway to Balston. The train was nearly empty. It's a high-volume time on the Metro, but the volume was going into DC. My bus, however, was nearly full, taking people from Balston out to Tysons Corner. There is a lot of commute traffic that does not fit radial (city-hub/suburbs-spoke) model. (That's why rush "hour" on our beltway is so bad.) I've been here since 1989, and I never had the radial commute until 8 months ago.
Friday 18:47
Here's a RADAR mosaic from about 2 hours after our BtWD (morning) rallies ended. We had rain from 22:00 last night straight through the end of the festivities.
There were a few afternoon rallies. They should have had it great - if anyone was biking home after this morning's weather.
[This entry was originally posted as http://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/669821.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
The forecast is looking bad for Bike-to-Work Day this Friday:Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 2pm, then a chance of showers. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. High near 73. Southeast wind 11 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.
I signed up for the Adobe Commute Challenge. The [Agency] has 6 people signed up now, but we've picked 3 different names for the Organization. Somehow, we seem to have distributed ourselves evenly across those 3 names. I don't know who the other person is paired with me, but by subtracting my numbers I can tell what his/hers are. (S)He's done only 10 miles, in 5 round trips, so his/her commute is only 1 mile each way!?
Thursday 15:06
The forecast for BtWD continues to look terrible.
Accuweather's hourly forecast:Time6am7am8am9am10am11am12pm1pm
ForecastRainRainRainRainRainRainRainRain
73%73%79%79%79%67%67%67%
Temp (°F)66°66°64°65°64°63°65°66°
RealFeel®59°59°59°60°61°61°63°64°
Humidity77%76%85%79%82%89%78%80%
The main rally is 7:00-9:00 at Freedom Plaza. This is actually on my commute route now; I miss it by a couple of blocks in the morning because of one-way streets, but I pass it on the way home.
My work schedule has changed for the next 2 days. I'm going to be doing OS patching after midnight; I won't be working during the afternoon unless there's an emergency. There's still scheduled things from 21:00-23:00 too. So instead of being home by 21:00 (since I can't get home with Metro after 23:00), I'm going to go to work by 21:00, do the scheduled tasks, and stay there overnight for the patching.
That means I won't be home to ride to BtWD Friday morning, and with this forecast the ride doesn't look likely anyway. I hope to bike to work tonight, and Friday morning I'll take the Metro from the office to the rally, and then Metro home. Metro back to work Friday night, and the forecast for Saturday is clear to bike back home in the morning.
There will be die-hards at the rally. There will be food (bagels, coffee, juice, energy bars, etc), maps, leaflets, swag, T-shirts; there will be speakers and advocates. And we will all be wet. (I must remember to take an umbrella on the bike tonight.) With any luck, there will be a lot of extra T-shirts to give away. That will make up for the years I skipped, when getting up to ride to Rosslyn (Arlington) or DC at 06:00 did not mesh with working 'til 23:00 (or later) and biking home.
Thursday 16:52
It's raining now. I guess I won't be biking to work tonight. Time to copy some more TV shows to the Kindle for the Metro ride....
Hmmm, Accuweather said rain around 16:00, then just cloudy until more rain around 21:00. And the NOAA RADAR shows little blobs (one right over us) ahead of a massive front. So maybe I can still bike to work (but not home).
Thursday 19:23
My work schedule has changed again. We're patching fewer servers tonight, and more Friday night, so I will probably be done long before 07:00, probably done before the Metro is open. That messes with the whole idea of working through the time Metro is closed. It also means finding other things to do until the BtWD rally. (I'll manage.)
Also, I'd forgotten there's a photo-op for the SEC Bike Club with the Commissioner. That's at 11:00. No way I'll still be there that late, so I'm going to miss this one. (I did get in the first one, when the club was new formed. (It's still new.))
It seems that the person with the SEC Bike Club T-shirts and I simply will not be in the building at the same time at any point this week. But the urgency to get the shirt for BtWD is gone, since with this rain it doesn't look like I'm going to be on a bike at all Friday.
Thursday 19:39
It's not raining; there's a gap in the RADAR. But the roads are wet, and I'll be road-splattered all the way in, even if it's not raining. So I'm taking the Metro tonight. I may be able to bike to work Friday night; we'll see....
Friday 10:21
The roads weren't so wet when I left home, and it wasn't raining when I got to work, so I probably could have biked. But at 06:30 it was raining hard in DC. But Bike to Work Day happens rain or shine. And I knew some people would be there. Google Maps said it was a 30-minute walk from my office, or an 8-minute bus ride (plus waiting (in the rain) for the bus). Or I could take the subway, and end up 3-4 blocks away. I decided to walk; it was a simple, straight shot along the first part of my bike commute home. A bus happened to stop as I was passing a stop, so I hopped on and rode the rest of the way.
Half-a-dozen organizations had little tents and tables set up, and there was valet bike parking. There was also a DC Circulator bus parked on the side with much of the swag - T-shirts, water bottles, etc. That worked out well, since it kept the stuff and some of the people dry.
I came home with 2 shirts, 2 water bottles, 3 DC bike maps, 2 patch kits, 3 reflectors, a reflective key chain, and a couple of pamphlets. I had 2 bananas and 2 very yummy fruit-nut bars. There was also tons of coffee, but I don't do coffee.
There was only one recumbent at the rally today, a trike, and there was a bike with 15+ blinkers. (I counted from the rear, but noticed more on the front later.) I have only 6. (And that's for redundancy; I usually use only 2 at a time. I might use all 6 if I were riding in a downpour - something I try to avoid.)
The rally was scheduled for 07:00-09:00. In a display of meteorological impudence, the sky became lighter around 08:45, and by 09:05 there was no longer enough rain to need an umbrella. The weather should be beautiful late afternoon. (I'll be able to bike to work tonight - more server patching.)
After the rally I walked to the Metro Center station and took the subway to Balston. The train was nearly empty. It's a high-volume time on the Metro, but the volume was going into DC. My bus, however, was nearly full, taking people from Balston out to Tysons Corner. There is a lot of commute traffic that does not fit radial (city-hub/suburbs-spoke) model. (That's why rush "hour" on our beltway is so bad.) I've been here since 1989, and I never had the radial commute until 8 months ago.
Friday 18:47
Here's a RADAR mosaic from about 2 hours after our BtWD (morning) rallies ended. We had rain from 22:00 last night straight through the end of the festivities.
There were a few afternoon rallies. They should have had it great - if anyone was biking home after this morning's weather.
[This entry was originally posted as http://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/669821.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]