it was a dark and stormy night
Mon May 2 23:06:01 EDT 2016
The commute in was beautiful today, 80°F/27°C after a rainy morning. The ride home was a bit different. I left the office with light rain and a strong tailwind. Lightning flashed ahead of me - cool to watch, but not a good portent. The wind reversed, and the storm broke. I found an awning under an overhang for sufficient shelter. I didn't have the jacket I'd planned to bring, but the temperature didn't drop below 60°F/15.6°C. I continued after the rain stopped, and the rain resumed while I was crossing the Potomac - no cover on a bridge. (The Roosevelt Bridge, the one that I dislike in crosswinds, with the narrow sidewalk and low inside railing.)
Once in Arlington I found a lot of branches down on the trail, and I stopped several times to pull them clear. They'd be nasty surprises for anyone riding (or even jogging) with poor lights. (They'd be even nastier surprises as they came down.) I rode through puddles much deeper than this bike has ever seen before, and learned that it's easy to splash my butt in deep water. (But it's better than running through them and having wet shoes/socks/feet.)
I stopped at the grocery store for more OJ (They had plenty tonight.) and cookie dough (and got yet another coupon).
There were places where the street lights were out, and one intersection where the traffic signal was dead - one of those spots where you wouldn't even know there was an intersection if you didn't know the road well.
There were some very large branches down in a yard 2 houses before mine. Wooded areas would have been unsafe on a bike last night. I was in high-rise canyons during the brief storm - lots of wind, but not much loose stuff blowing around.
May 1 is the beginning of the Washington Bikes Bike Everywhere Challenge. (I don't think you can see much unless you register on the site, sorry.) We had one team for the [Agency] and it filled up, so I started a 2nd team last week but no one else has joined it. Someone started a 3rd team today, but they seem to be at a remote site (probably Denver), so it makes sense for them to have their own team. But we've still got several people who haven't joined a team; maybe that's what they want.
Tuesday 12:26
I renamed my Challenge team from "Ponzi Scum" to "Cycle Analysts". Maybe that will help?
Wednesday 08:32
After looking around the Challenge site more, I see that 10 members is not a team size limit, so I don't know why our first team's captain said the team had its "full complement of ten members". There was no need to start a 2nd team, unless he just wanted another team for competition. The largest team (so far) has 93 members.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/811180.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
The commute in was beautiful today, 80°F/27°C after a rainy morning. The ride home was a bit different. I left the office with light rain and a strong tailwind. Lightning flashed ahead of me - cool to watch, but not a good portent. The wind reversed, and the storm broke. I found an awning under an overhang for sufficient shelter. I didn't have the jacket I'd planned to bring, but the temperature didn't drop below 60°F/15.6°C. I continued after the rain stopped, and the rain resumed while I was crossing the Potomac - no cover on a bridge. (The Roosevelt Bridge, the one that I dislike in crosswinds, with the narrow sidewalk and low inside railing.)
Once in Arlington I found a lot of branches down on the trail, and I stopped several times to pull them clear. They'd be nasty surprises for anyone riding (or even jogging) with poor lights. (They'd be even nastier surprises as they came down.) I rode through puddles much deeper than this bike has ever seen before, and learned that it's easy to splash my butt in deep water. (But it's better than running through them and having wet shoes/socks/feet.)
I stopped at the grocery store for more OJ (They had plenty tonight.) and cookie dough (and got yet another coupon).
There were places where the street lights were out, and one intersection where the traffic signal was dead - one of those spots where you wouldn't even know there was an intersection if you didn't know the road well.
There were some very large branches down in a yard 2 houses before mine. Wooded areas would have been unsafe on a bike last night. I was in high-rise canyons during the brief storm - lots of wind, but not much loose stuff blowing around.
May 1 is the beginning of the Washington Bikes Bike Everywhere Challenge. (I don't think you can see much unless you register on the site, sorry.) We had one team for the [Agency] and it filled up, so I started a 2nd team last week but no one else has joined it. Someone started a 3rd team today, but they seem to be at a remote site (probably Denver), so it makes sense for them to have their own team. But we've still got several people who haven't joined a team; maybe that's what they want.
Tuesday 12:26
I renamed my Challenge team from "Ponzi Scum" to "Cycle Analysts". Maybe that will help?
Wednesday 08:32
After looking around the Challenge site more, I see that 10 members is not a team size limit, so I don't know why our first team's captain said the team had its "full complement of ten members". There was no need to start a 2nd team, unless he just wanted another team for competition. The largest team (so far) has 93 members.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/811180.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]