The wheels on the bike go round and round...
So, nothing particularly new news-wise. My sister came over this morning (after calling at the ungodly early hour of 9am to roust me out of bed) and helped clear all the clutter out of the living room in preparation for family construction weekend (replacing the carpeting with laminate floor, hopefully putting a drop ceiling in the basement, doing tons of other odds and ends that a full work crew will come in handy for). Since it was a gorgeous day, I drove to work with the bike in the back of the truck, Chris bussed over after work to get the truck, and I biked home. Well... part of the way home. I forgot that this week is the first night of the 4-week stained glass classes, and I usually end up staying until 8 to help get everything going and help the new students get their glass picked out and purchased and stuff. C was incredibly nice and let me go at 7:30, even tho she'd have really preferred my staying until 8. So, I biked until it started getting really dark, which was conveniently about the time I ran out of bike path and was going to start having to haul it up city streets through neighborhoods that are all named Something Bluff. I even managed to call Chris at exactly the right time to say 'I'm *here*, if you leave home now, and I keep biking, we should get to *here* at the same time', and it turned out to be true. It was a very nice evening, and the biking was pleasant, but there's weather rolling in tonight, and so my joints are letting me KNOW there's weather rolling in tonight, and also, I was hungry, since I ate lunch at 11, and then didn't have anything until umm... now. Which is 9:00. So yah, hungry. Maybe I'll get some of those little one-shot kool-aid mixes that you just pour into your water bottle, so I can have a little boost of sugar and electrolytes for the ride home.
I did find my bike computer, tho, and now I know that on madison's bike paths, I fly. 8.71 miles in 49 minutes, which works out to 10.6 miles an hour. So yay me, I r speedy. Of course, once I get into the 'bluffs', it slows waaaaaaay down. Traded a few more emails with electroportal today, that's definitely the electric assist package I'm looking at. I figure that I can use it to help get started from stopping at intersections, and help me through the bluffs, and once I'm on the bike paths, just use 'me' power, and it should pretty much pay for itself in savings on gas and wear and tear on the truck by this fall. It's currently costing us about $75-100 a month in gas just for me to commute. And also, if I'm commuting every day, I figure it's going to be one heck of an exercise program. Especially if I try not to use the electric assist on the way home from work as much, and just power my way up the hills. I plan to use it more on the way TO work in order to make the ride a little less demanding, so that I don't kill off my co-workers with my natural spring fresh odor.
In the past two and a half weeks, I've biked 46 plus miles. Woot! Not bad from someone who's not gotten ON a bike in two years.
Okay, done patting myself on the back, at least for tonight. The ibuprofin are calling my name.
I did find my bike computer, tho, and now I know that on madison's bike paths, I fly. 8.71 miles in 49 minutes, which works out to 10.6 miles an hour. So yay me, I r speedy. Of course, once I get into the 'bluffs', it slows waaaaaaay down. Traded a few more emails with electroportal today, that's definitely the electric assist package I'm looking at. I figure that I can use it to help get started from stopping at intersections, and help me through the bluffs, and once I'm on the bike paths, just use 'me' power, and it should pretty much pay for itself in savings on gas and wear and tear on the truck by this fall. It's currently costing us about $75-100 a month in gas just for me to commute. And also, if I'm commuting every day, I figure it's going to be one heck of an exercise program. Especially if I try not to use the electric assist on the way home from work as much, and just power my way up the hills. I plan to use it more on the way TO work in order to make the ride a little less demanding, so that I don't kill off my co-workers with my natural spring fresh odor.
In the past two and a half weeks, I've biked 46 plus miles. Woot! Not bad from someone who's not gotten ON a bike in two years.
Okay, done patting myself on the back, at least for tonight. The ibuprofin are calling my name.