Nearly Spring

Here in DC we are being tormented by a winter that just won’t let go. We have had one day over 60 degrees so far this year. March was colder than January. The wind has been blowing day in and day out. No mas.

I didn’t ride to work yesterday so that I could attend my daughter’s lacrosse game. She is the goalie. Watching your kid in goal is difficult. If she performs well she will come home with bruises and contusions all over. If she doesn’t the team probably loses.

It rained overnight, right up to the moment I left the house. It was in the low 40s or high 30s and I had a headwind. So I put on all my rain gear. Of course, it stopped raining.

Despite the wind, the ride in was pleasant. Two ospreys were messing around at and in the air above the Belle Haven bald eagle nest. I think they are taking over. Ospreys are pretty impressive, unless you have a bald eagle around. Bald eagles are rock stars. Ospreys sing folk tunes.

I have noticed this week that some of the geese are sitting in the grass. I am pretty sure they are mothers about to lay their eggs. Every year two geese set up house on a very narrow piece of grass where the waters of Dyke Marsh pass underneath the GW Parkway. There were two geese there the last few days. By next week we should be seeing fuzzy goslings along the Mount Vernon Trail.

I rode Little Nellie to the Friday Coffee Club. I passed by DC’s famous cherry trees. They are still not in bloom, but the big show should start in a day or two.

Coffee Club was crowded again. This week some Arlington bike commuters began a separate get together. I say “accept no substitutes!!”

Work was work-like.

By the time I left for home, spring had made an appearance. It was 60 degrees and I had a nice tailwind to end the workweek. I packed my rain gear and went with shorts and short fingered bicycling gloves. My fingertips were pleased to be liberated from long fingered gloves.

At the south end of Old Town the Mount Vernon Trail passes a small wooden area that has river overflow in it. I could hear spring peepers making their calls as I rode by. In a couple of days, the frogs near my house will be making quite a racket.

A Quick Trip to San Antonio

My daughter Lily and I headed to San Antonio this weekend. The primary purpose of the trip was to attend Trinity University’s accepted student’s day. We stayed for a couple more days to enjoy the warm weather. (More on that in a bit.)

We flew down out of National Airport on Air Tran. We had a connecting flight through Atlanta so we hoped for no delays. Air Tran was recently bought by Southwest. My hope is that Southwest assimilates Air Tran soon. The terminal at National had all the ambiance of the Back Bay bus depot in Boston in the 1970s. Totally disorganized and overcrowded.

Both Air Tran planes had absolutely no leg room. I’d have gladly paid an extra $20 per ticket not to have my knees smashed for 4 or 5 hours or having my back kicked by the brat sitting in the row behind me. Our return flight on basically the same aircraft on Southwest had plenty of leg room. The large man sitting next to me from Atlanta to San Antonio was a regular Southwest flyer who had inadvertently booked himself of our Air Tran flight. He flew curled up in a ball. He was pissed.

Once in San Antonio we took a cab to the Drury Plaza Hotel on the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. San Antonio has an astounding number of large hotels. Restaurants and watering holes line the sides of the Riverwalk, which is packed with people. We arrived at the hotel a little after 11 CDT. And crashed.

Up early in the morning, we ate a big complimentary breakfast at the hotel and taxied to Trinity to partake in a daylong event. We took a walking tour of campus, attended information sessions, met with faculty members from four departments, and took a demonstration version of a freshman humanities seminar. The whole event was very well organized and well worth the trip.

Every college (and we’ve probably seen 3 dozen in the last 5 years) has its pluses and minuses. And its oddities such as Trinity’s outdoor flight of stairs that is about two stories tall. They call it cardiac hill. Maybe it’s difficult in the heat of the summer, but it doesn’t hold a candle to any part of Lehigh’s campus or to College Hill in Providence which once held the X Games street luge competition.

To be fair, Trinity has a lot going for it. Most of the kids we interacted with are serious and articulate. The dorms are pretty darned nice. The folks from the Education program could not have been more impressive. And the Humanities seminar was not for the faint of brain.

After our day of higher education, we cabbed back to the hotel. The Drury Plaza is in a converted bank building. The lobby is a couple of stories tall with a beautiful large stained glass window and wall art from the depression that knocked me out. Some of the old bank vaults are on display in the basement. We stayed on the fifth floor which looked a bit like it could have been used in the old 1950s Superman show. Our room was plenty big enough.

We spent the night on the Riverwalk, taking in the obligatory boat tour and ending the night with surprisingly good gelatto.

We had Sunday to ourselves so we walked over to the Alamo. The modern downtown has been build up around the shrine. From watching movies of the famous siege, you’d think it was a big fort but it’s actually quite tiny. A few years ago on a business trip to Dallas, I toured Dealey Plaza. I had the same impression. Not everything is big in Texas. (After visiting Dealey Plaza, I wondered how the heck anybody could say that it was impossible for one man to have carried out the assassination. It looks much, much bigger on film.)

After the Alamo, we hoofed it south out of downtown. I tried to convince Lily to use bike share but she wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, I only saw a couple of bike share bikes in use during our three day stay. This strikes me as odd since San Antonio looks pool-table flat to me. After almost I mile we arrived at Rosario’s, a local Tex Mex eatery. The tables and chairs look like they were bought from a diner in the 1960s, but don’t judge this book by its cover. The food was out of this world. We had chicken tortilla soup,chicken fajitas, and fish tacos. Also, because one of our cabbies gave us a coupon, we also had a little appetizer that was two soft flour tortillas with cheese, beans, and a dab of salsa on top. Suffice it to say we waddled back to downtown with full bellies and smiles on our faces.

It was colder than we expected during our stay with strong winds and temperatures barely making it into the 60s by late afternoon. We opted to crash in the hotel room at night and watched The Descendants, One Day, and The Fighter on TV. Good movies all.

On Monday we slept in. We spent an hour at the modest San Fernando Cathedral. The remains of some of the Alamo’s defenders are interred in one of the Cathedral’s chapels. We admired 13 small ornate sculptures hung from the perimeters on the inside of the Cathedral. These are used for a ritual called the Stations of the Cross, which I remember from my altar boy days. A statue of the crucified Jesus in Mary’s arm was situated near a wall. The statue was painted or stained in some way, but the color had been worn off where the faithful had laid their hands on Jesus.

I always feel a bit uncomfortable touring Catholic churches such as this when there are people scattered among the pews praying. We didn’t linger.

After leaving the cathedral we headed back to Rosario’s for lunch. We had had a bland Italian meal on the Riverwalk on Sunday night and decided the mile walk away from the tourist traps was well worth it. This time I had Lisa’s Special which included cheese enchiladas and chicken fajitas. Lily tried the Enchiladas Mexicanas. Lily and I agreed that her meal was okay, but paled in comparison to the other dishes we had tried. Lily’s food would have been a stand out dish at just about any other Mexican restaurant I’ve been to. After only two trips, we had become Tex Mex food snobs!

We walked back to our hotel and waited for a cab. Our taxi to the airport took 15 minutes. Our flight home on Southwest was a direct one into BWI. Every seat on the plane was filled. We left late and arrived early. As we landed, we could see snow on the ground. It was near freezing outside. San Antonio didn’t seem cold anymore.

Pix of the trip can be found on my Flickr page.

Very Nearly Unhappy Hour

Whenever I go for a ride, I always check that my tires have air and that they are spinning freely. This morning and evening were no different. It looked like there was rain in the area so I rode Little Nellie to work. The rain stopped within five minutes. The ride was pleasant and uneventful.

The work day ended with my officemates and I going to a bar around the corner for happy hour. I had a couple of pints of (Shiner Bock and Fat Tire Ale). I didn’t get on the road until 5:40 or so.

I made it about halfway home before it got dark and I had to turn on my headlight. It has been a couple of weeks since I rode this long in the dark. The trail was swarming with ninjas. I managed to miss six of them before reaching Old Town.

The Mount Vernon Trail hits Pendelton Street at a T. To my left were a line of parked school buses with their headlights on. I rode just past the stop sign (first mistake) to get a look to my left around the buses. Then I looked straight. There were two cyclists with headlights turning from the street on my right onto the trail. They were passing directly in front of me. I veered to my right to avoid them. Then looked left again to make sure the coast was clear. Then I hit something. It was a flexipost (a sort of flimsy bollar) that had recently been place in the middle of the street. I stopped immediately and righted the post. Since I was in the middle of the street, I quickly re-mounted my bike and continued on my way. Everything seemed to work fine.

And it did. I got through Old Town in one piece and even managed to avoid my seventh ninja of the night once I was back on the trail.

Once at home, I opened my shed. I lifted the front end of the bike off the ground to hang it up. The wheel made an odd rattle. I looked down and saw that the quick release on my front wheel was not closed. The flexipost collision had pried it open. I don’t want to think what would have happened if the front wheel had come off while I was riding. This would be hard to do since the tire is too fat to clear the break pads, but surely a pothole or a good yank on the handlebars could have brought an unpleasant result.

So I am adding checking my quick releases to my pre-ride check list.

Great Caesar’s Heron

The ride in was pretty darn nice. The roads were still somewhat wet out so Little Nellie got the call again. Temps were in the 40s so I gave the holey sweater and my Marmot Precip jacket a rest. After yesterday’s soggy ride home, it was apparent that the waterproofing on my Precip jacket and pants is history. Time to look for a sale at REI for replacements. I have beat the crap out of these two pieces of clothing for the last 3 years. Good stuff.

I read in the Post that February and March are bald eagle breeding season around these parts. I have only once seen a pair of bald eagles this winter so I am not expecting a lot of eaglet action when spring arrives. There was no bald eagle at the Belle Haven nest today. In fact other that a stupifying number of geese there wasn’t much in the way of big-ish waterfowl at all. That is until I came upon a big, scruffy looking great blue heron on the river bank right next to the wooden bridge that takes the Mount Vernon Trail under the TR bridge. (Question: why is it so important that the Key and Memorial Bridges look classy but the TR Bridge looks like a rusty piece of crap? Show Teddy some love please.) This bird was impressive so I decided to stop and walk back with my camera. He was on to me. I must have had birdparazzi written all over my face. He started to walk into the underbrush away from me. He got to the edge of the river and took off about 2 feet above the water. By this point he was too far to get a decent picture but the sight of him in flight made my day. Herons combine awkward and graceful in a way that few other animals do.

Work was less than intense today. I left a few minutes early. I could have ridden the whole way home without any lights but in the interest of making sure I could be seen I turned them all on as usual. No problem with ninjas tonight. Just hoards of runners. Patriots Day is less than two months away!

During the day friend of the blog, Nancy Duley told me that a police officer was shot in Old Town Alexandria today, about 5 blocks from my commute route. The last I heard he was in critical condition. The assailant was chased and crashed his car on Fort Hunt Road about three miles from my house. He was taken into custody. My bike commute takes me through Old Town Alexandria twice each day.

Another friend of the blog, Kate C., is a police officer in DC. She will be riding her bike from Richmond to DC as part of the Police Unity Tour. This event raises money for the memorial to fallen law enforcement personnel. You can read more about it on her blog. Or you can skip straight to her fundraising page.

As for the ride home, it was a piece of cake. I left work a little early so I was in daylight all the way home. I turned on my lights just to been seen. The Mount Vernon Trail was filled with runners in their shorts. Some of them were moving pretty fast. Patriots Day is less than 2 months away!

I could never be a police officer. Just the thought of doing a night time traffic stop gives me the willies. Friend of the blog, Kate C., however, is a police officer in DC. In a few weeks, she will be riding from Richmond to DC as part of the Policy Unity tour. It raises monet for a memorial to fallen law enforcement personnel.

Seattle, You Can Have Your Weather Back

The day dawned cold and sunny. I had missed a magnificent sunrise. The weather report was for cold rain in the afternoon and evening so I rode Little Nellie. The ride in was nothing special. I did get to see a bald eagle at the Belle Haven nest, So that was something.

When I left work in the evening, it was sprinkling out but I was prepared for the worst. For the first half of the ride the wind was blowing me around but the rain was pretty much as no show. When I approached Old Town, the rain started coming down. Sideways off the river from the east. The drops weren’t big but there were billions of them. I was surprised that the weather wasn’t really bothering me. This may have been because there was nobody else on the trail. At all. Anywhere. Maybe they are on to something.

Off the Bike

I drove to work today in anticipation of an icy Mount Vernon Trail. The ice didn’t materialize, but I was thankful for the rest.

Each time I write one of these blog posts I realize that I left something out. Yesterday, I was passed for the second evening in a row by a man on an electric assist bike. I was cruising along with a tailwind on Big Nellie. I must have been going around 20 miles per hour when I saw him in my mirror. I slowed to 15 and he closed the 100 yard gap between us in no time. He had to be going at least 20 miles per hour. He was pedaling but I think the motor was doing the heavy lifting. I am just so impressed by these electric bikes. I can’t believe more people don’t use them.

Another thing I have been seeing a lot of lately is Canada geese. They must be migrating north. I’ve never seen so many. It’s like goosestock out there. I imagine that it will be a big problem if they stick around. It would be great to see lots and lost of goslings. Unfortunately, there would also be lots and lots of geese poo.

I spotted a bald eagle at the Belle Haven nest. It just doesn’t look as imposing from behind the wheel.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain for most of the day. Nothing says February like cold rain. February in DC is like April in Boston. When I lived in Boston, April would drive me mad. The sidewalks still were icy. The snow was melting and the T buses would splash all that snow and grime on you as they drove by. Once it all went away it was time to take exams. Why do so many college kids go to school up north?

The only redeeming thing about driving a car to work is car tunage. I listened to Mark Knopfler’s Sailing to Philadelphia and the BoDeans Indigo Dreams today. I put 30 miles on the car. The car is getting so little use it’s going to get rumatoid carthritis.

Did you know that today is National Marquerita Day?

Now you do.

Who decides such things anyway?

Lazy Saturdays Don’t Stop El Gran Errando!

Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent uses a Sigma bike computer. I bought the Sigma because it has a long cable wire, which is necessary for the long reach between the handlebar and the little front wheel. The particular version I have attaches to the handlebar mount using an o-ring. My 0-ring broke earlier this week causing me to use my spare o-ring. You might think it’s a bit anal to have a spare o-ring but iit took some trial and error to figured our what size to get (45). It’s a hassle I didn’t want to repeat. Besides o-rings weight next to nothing. (Of course, following this logic, I carry an appalling amount of crap on my bike rides.)

The hardware store is in the same shopping center as my pharmacy. It’s a 2 /12 mile round trip. I learned that blue jeans make for pretty comfortable cycling in 38 degree weather. I wouldn’t want to ride a century in them but for short trips like this, they are every bit as comfortable as biking clothes.

I nearly ran out of ground coffee this morning so I rode to the Safeway from the hardware store. The Safeway is about a block away in the same shopping center as the hardware store. Note that the bike parking at this Safeway is pathetic.

The ride home was a breeze. I spent the next ten minutes re-setting my odometer. It has 31,606 miles on it so I didn’t want to lose track of those miles. I neglected to right down the wheel size I was using so I looked it up on Sheldon Brown’s website. He’s awfully helpful for someone who died several years ago.

So that makes errrands number 9 and 10, in the Other type of store and Grocery store categories. There’s only a few days left. I have two rides to go. One has to be at night. I’ve done Work, Personal Care, Grocery, Lunch, Other store, and Bike store. I need to do one more category to get the requisitve seven, but since there is a wild card category I can pretty much ride anywhere to qualify.

Even if I don’t dot all the ‘i”s and cross all the “t”s in the Challenge, it’s been fun to keep track of how many errands I run on my bike. It’s pretty much the norm for me. You should try it.

Oops, let their be lights!

I neglected to mention that last night’s after dark, in the rain errrandonnee to the grocery store was lit by my Light and Motion Stella light. This baby does a great job. I’ve had this one for three years. It’sjust a single LED but it works on the darkness of the Mount Vernon Trail. The newer version is even brighter (I’m told). It charges reasonably quickly. (It does not use one of those fancy pants USB chargers.)
One thing I don’t like about the light is that the wire that connects the battery to the light doesn’t detach from the light. I don’t like detaching the light from my helmet twice a day so I end up with a rat tail. Lately I’ve been wrapping the wire around the blinky light that is attached to the rear of my helmet.
I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another Light and Motion product.

El Errando Grande Is Faked Out

Warm air is here. It’s April!!! Well, actually,no. Never mind.

As you can see, I got all excited about the warmish air forecasted for today. I didn’t bother with overboots and I used a vest and Smartwool arm warmers instead of my jacket. I was a tad underdressed, but I didn’t care.

Big Nellie didn’t either although she managed to delay our departure with a broken o-ring. Big Nellie has delusions that she’s a space shuttle. The o-ring in this case actually attaches the bike computer to the handlebar so it’s not a critical item. One just doesn’t want to have a droopy computer. It just isn’t done. Fortunately, I thought ahead and bought a spare that was underneath the dollar bill in my repair kit. (The dollar bill is for use as a tire boot not as a medium of exchange.)

Off I rode, a bit chilled but psyched about the day. On Union Street in Old Town Alexandria I passed Nancy Duley who was waving her arms like a deranged person. Hi, Nancy.

The Mount Vernon Trail was rather busy this day. Lots of other people decided to go ape and ride to work. One runner was boogying down the path in shorts. Nice legs.

At the beaver dam, a National Park Service Beaver Disrupter was hard at work knocking down the dam. The pond behind it was starting to spill over on the playing fields and the MVT.

The rest of the ride in was splendid. Nobody ran me over in Rosslyn which is always nice.

The ride home was light, as opposed to dark, not heavy. My ride home is always heavy. He ain’t heavy, he’s my panniers.

At the beaver dam, the NPSBD had achieved his goal; the pond had mostly drained. When the water in a pond recedes it leaves behind what scientists call muck. Muck smells like rotting plants. For once, I was happy it was not warm out. I can’t imagine how bad it would have smelled on a 90 degree day.

I reluctantly turned on my headlight shortly the muck. We’re only a few weeks away from ditching the lights for good. Yay!

Today was my 25th bike commute of the year. And my fifth errand. I rode 29.5 miles. I observed things with my eyes and nose. Vive El Errrando Grande!!!

Early to bed, Early to RIse,.., Ben Franklin Was an Idiot

I woke up at 4:45 a.m. so that I good drive my daughter to meet a bus that would whisk her away to the Big Apple. Her school chorus is spending the week singing all over the city. Good luck with that. The drop off was at her school in Woodley Park in DC. So instead of driving all the way back to Mount Vernon I went to the office. I arrived at work at 6 a.m.

Suffice it to say, I was a zombie by lunch time. I came home after semi-productive day – with the emphasis on semi. Tomorrow I will be back in the saddle for bike commute number 25 of 2013.

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