Today’s errand was my 18th bike commute of the season. Having taken the better part of three weeks off, I am finding my commute to be really hard. I am confident that I will get the hang of it soon and be back to mindless mindfull commuting.
On the way home I passed a Beatles song. Can you guess which one?
Maybe tomorrow I’ll make a dovetail joint.
Errand No. 8: Work
Miles: 30
Observation: I’d have prefered spotting the kind of girl who makes the News of the World
Today dawned cold-ish. The “ish” refers to the fact that it was not COLD just seasonably cold.
I left home after sunrise to get to a physical therapy appointment in Old Town. I suspected that there was some lingering ice on the Mount Vernon Trail so I rode Fort Hunt Road to Alexandria. I arrived at the PT place about 20 minutes early.
Here I am before the torture began:
Note the pre-torture trace of a smile.
After 90 minutes of flossing (that’s what they call manipulating the leg to free the entrapped nerve), foam rolling, core work, and other delights I was back on the bike.
The trail was ice free but for a ten yard stretch near the power plant. I walked this because I am an ice wuss.
When I got to the Intersection of Doom, I had to wait because a truck was 
being positioned in the middle of Lynn Street. A police officer was “helping” in a way that was mysterious to my eyes. There was confusion. I waited until I had safe passage. Then I passaged.
Work happened.
Then I left the office in shorts. The trail was very busy. There were many runners. Mostly female. Mostly wearing very little clothing. I didn’t mind. A week ago they were wearing anoraks.
Here’s the score card.
Errand No. 6: Personal Care – Physical Therapist
Miles: 6 1/2
Observation: My numb left foot is getting better incrementally. My patience is getting worse.
Errand No. 7: Work or Volunteer – Work
Miles: 23
Observation: What a joy it is to ride a bike in shorts.
I woke up at 5 am. Except 5 am is the new 6 am, this being the first morning of daylight savings time. It was dark outside. So much for saving daylight.
I waited around for a few hours trying to be productive and failing. Then I hit the road on The Mule. We headed north-ish to Old Town Alexandria to run some errands.
I took Fort Hunt Road, the secret alternative to the Mount Vernon Trail. FHR was covered in ice just two days ago but now it is covered in sand and salt. Pick your poison.
FHR takes you to US 1 at the betlway. This is a pretty hostile place for bicycles and pedestrians. Fortunately, there is a side trail that connects to Washington Street in Alexandria. So I took it. It was clear of ice and snow. Nice.
I rode into Old Town to make my first stop at the bank. It was six miles into the ride.
After the bank, I rode down King Street to the Comfort Shoe store at the corner of Lee and King. This store sells the orthotics that have saved my back. I bought a second pair so I no longer have to swap them between my hiking shoes and boots.
As I was unlocking my bike, I noticed that there was a bit of commotion across the street. Girls scouts were selling their cookies so I had to go and partake. I bought one box of Samoas. Then I immortalized the girls in an Errandonnee evidence photo.
Feeling zonked I tooled around Old Town looking for more Errrandonnee inspiration. A man was playing a banjo and singing at King and Union Streets. I could have chalked up another errand for Arts and Entertainment, but he wasn’t very entertaining.
I headed home the way I had come, because the Mount Vernon Trail is still an icy mess. Climbing up the hill on FHR I noticed that some cars had pulled over on the opposite side of the road. I learned why almost immediately. A man was tending to a dog on my side of the road. The dog was lying on its left side, its head in a drainage ditch on the side of the road. My guess is that it had been hit by a car. I would have stopped but there was not a whole lot that I could do short of feeding the dog a Samoa.
About a mile from home I stopped at the grocery store. The store didn’t have the kind of coffee I wanted so I went home with my first errand fail of the year.
Here’s the official tally:
Errandonee # 3: Bank
Category: Personal Business
Miles: 6 1/2
Observation: Depositing checks at an ATM is more better because you get a copy of the check. Technology rocks.
Errandonnee #4: Shoe Store
Category: Store
Miles: 1
Observation: I love the orthotics that I am using. They give me happy feet and a happy back.
Errandonee #5: Non Store Errand – Girls Scout Cookies
Miles: 100 feet
Observation:I am a sucker for Samoas. And an easy errand.
Last night I slept with Meryl Streep. My wife, daughter and I were watching DVDs. I made it through St. Vincent (excellent if depressing) and the first 15 minutes of August Osage County, then I was alone. The latter movie is populated by incredibly depressing characters, a bit like Thanksgiving at my parents house in 1991. Meryl Streep was really a depressing pill popper with cancer. The movie was an actors dream. Look at me ACT!!!! Watch me sleep. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning. Alone. On the couch.
After three more hours of sleep in my bed, I woke up to my new Saturday morning ritual of physical therapy, yoga, and meditation. Basically, I am coming to the conclusion that I should pick one because doing all three is a bore fest.
I waited for the sun to warm things up a bit. Road conditions in Mount Vernon were pretty sketchy yesterday so I decided to forgo riding into Old Town. What could I do down near my place? Snow was on the ground. There is an Errandonnee category called “You carried what on a bike?” I put two and two together and:
Off I rode on The Mule to Fort Hunt Park about three miles from home. I got there only to find that I couldn’t open my bike lock. Arg. I thought it was an old lock and it never occured to me that it was my newer lock which, of course, uses a different key.
I rode home and grabbed a cable lock and rode back to the park. By this point I had wasted about an hour and was hungry. I decided to give the snowshoeing a go anyway.
Joy. Love it. I found a path into the woods. I forded a wee creek. I went down a steep embankment. I clambered up a short hill. The temperature rose into the 40s. I made my way ba
ck to the bike ambling this way and that through the park.
I strapped the snowshoes to my bike and headed home. Realizing that I was now starving I headed to Sherwood Gourmet about three quarters of a mile from home for a sammich.
Along the way I made another discovery. All winter I have been riding in my old Lake mountain bike shoes and some fleece lined overboots. This combination is a pain to get on and off. Today, I used my hiking boots instead. I didn’t think they’d fit in my toe clips but they fit perfectly.
Errand No. 1: Saturday, March 7
Category: You Carried WHAT on Your Bike?
Miles: 11
Observation: Snowshoeing is addictive. Almost makes me sorry winter is going. Wait. That’s crazy talk.
Errand No. 2: Saturday, March 7
Category: Personal Care (I was hungry!!!!)
Miles: 1 1/2
Observation: I am officially a regular at Sherwood Gourmet. Gary’s Lunchbox sammich, kettle chips, tall Diet Pepsi.
For most bicyclists, winter is endured. Sure some of us adapt to the cold and the slippery conditions; others hibernate waiting for the first sign of spring. It seems silly to say this today because as I type this it’s snowing pretty hard here in the DMV. No worries because the first sign of spring is here. Today is the first day of the 2015 Errandonnee.
It’s pretty simple. Over the next 12 days, run 12 errands on your bike. Document them. And send the list in to Mary, Queen of Errands. If you complete the Errandonnee, you can get an Errandonee patch to proudly display.
I’m not much of a patch person, but the idea of the Errandonee is in my wheel house. I run errands on my bike all the time. So here are a few I will likely do:
Ride to work (twice)
Go to the bank
Ride to get lunch or coffee with friends (twice)
I have to come up with seven more. This may not be so easy since I have already used up a couple of errands (drug store, hardware store) in the last few days. I will figure something out.
The point is that now you have a little excuse to get out there on your bike. To ease out of winter and into spring.
Allez! Allez!
March, and I mean this with all sincerity, has sucked. As I write this, it has been raining for two straight days, except for the last half hour during which it has been sleeting like a bitch. Good riddance.
In addition to depicting pretty much exactly how I feel about March 2014, this is also a picture with a medical purpose. If you look closely at the nail, you will see it is deformed. Just behind the nail is some swelling. When this finger gets aggravated, that swelling blooms into a big painful cyst. (The cyst deformed the nail.) If I bump this finger when the cyst is inflamed against anything hard, it hurts a whole bunch. As it turns out, the cyst is somehow related to arthritis and a bone spur in the adjacent knuckle. So tomorrow morning I am having both the bone spur and the cyst removed. Later this week I’ll be riding in North Carolina with a splint on that finger. Let’s just say, it’s going to be interesting.
It is really important for me to get this taken care of. I’ve been dealing with it for several years now. A painful middle-finger cyst can impede the sharing of important information with my fellow road users, particularly those driving BMWs and Range Rovers. Once the surgery wound heals, my finger will be all set for the busy DC riding season.
I was expecting to get a local anesthetic for my surgery but it seems as though they are going to knock me out. I expect to be in a post-op fog tomorrow. This means that my bike riding for March is complete. The numbers are pretty lame. I rode 484 miles in March, 312 of this was on 11 bike commutes. As usual the Mule did the bulk of the work, 301 total miles with 213.5 miles from seven commutes. Little Nellie picked up the remaining five commutes and a total of 169.5 miles. Big Nellie was confined to the basement. I did one ride down there for what I guess was about 13.5 miles.
I completed the Errandonee Challenge. My long ride was a 40-mile errandonnee on a Saturday. I also did the Halv-vasa ride last weekend. I did several fun sessions of snow shoveling with my wovel. Finally, I started doing yoga again and actually did a head stand yesterday. I used the couch to spot myself. I didn’t stay vertical for long, maybe 15 seconds or so, but it was actually pretty comfortable.
For the year, I have ridden to work 27 times, which I was surprised to discover is only four times fewer than last year. I have racked up 1293.5 miles so far this year.
Errand #1: Drug Store
Date: March 7
Category: Personal Care and Health (#1)
Distance: 3 miles
Observation: It didn’t occur to me that picking up drugs on a bike called The Mule might be regarded as suspicious by law enforcement. I hope the DEA doesn’t come knocking at my door tonight!
Errand #2: Bank
Date: March 8
Category: Store Other Than a Grocery Store (#1)
Distance: 6 miles
Observation: Mobile banking the old school way.
Errand #3: Haute Dogs and Fries
Date: March 8
Category: Lunch (#1)
Distance: 1 mile
Observation: If you call hot dogs, Haute Dogs shouldn’t you call all in on the French and call them Hautes Chiens? Mais oui.
Errand #4: Used Book Store
Date: March 8
Category: Store Other Than a Grocery Store (#2)
Distance: 9 miles
Observation: If I lived close to Carpe Librum, it would make sense to just move in. What a find! Thanks, Rachel.
Errand #5: Car Dealer
Date: March 10
Category: Wild Card
Distance: 6 ½ miles
Observation: My dealer washes my car whenever he works on it. Wouldn’t it be cool if bike shops did the same with your bike?
Errand #6: My Office
Date: March 11
Category: Work (#1)
Distance: 30 miles
Observation: I was pretty pleased that the new fair weather commuters were all well behaved today. No one buzzed me too closely. Except for the two loonies, people were smiling.
Errand #7: My office
Date: March 12
Category: Work (#2)
Distance: 15 miles
Observation: Sunrises are a drug
Errand #8: Meeting at the Government Center
Date: March 13
Category: Community Meeting (#1)
Distance: 15 miles
Observation: Thanks to the people who spoke up about the bicycle lanes at the meeting. My guess is that there were about 10 people who spoke up for bicycle and pedestrian issues.
Errand #9: Bananas!
Date: March 13
Category: Grocery Store (#1)
Distance: 15 miles
Observation: I am shocked at how well my back and hip responded to today’s ride. Of course, it could be the case that I am so jacked up on Vitamin I that I can’t feel a thing. Or maybe I am getting better. I’ll know when I quit taking the Vitamin I in a couple of days.
Errand #10: Friday Coffee Club
Date: March 14
Category: Community Meeting (#1)
Distance: 15 miles
Observation: If the gods have a choice between having you collide with birds or a dump truck, pray for the birds. Otherwise they will make you wear a funny hat.
Errand #11: Tubes
Date: March 16
Category: Bike Shop (#1)
Distance: 4.5 miles
Observation: Support your local bike shop.
Errand #12: Gary’s Lunch Box
Date: March 16
Category: Lunch (#2)
Distance: 4 miles
Observation: Corvette drivers who pass cyclists within 2 feet will rot in hell.
Total distance: 124 miles
Thanks MG for getting us off our late winter butts and out on our bikes.
It was 70 degrees here yesterday. Tonight we are under a winter storm warning. The weather gods have been drinking.
I took off on The Mule today to get some tubes from my local bike shop. This would be the Spokes Etc. store at Belle View Shopping Center. They are a pretty good resource for bike commuters. They do small repairs while you wait. When I had only one bike, I abused this service. They never complained.
They give a discount if you buy three tubes so I bought 2 for The Mule and one for Little Nellie.
I rode back home and stopped off at Sherwood Gourmet on the way. They make a sammich called Gary’s Lunchbox that I am addicted to. When I got home I mainlined it.
After lunch, I went out to the shed to do some maintenance on my bikes. The rear tire on The Mule has had a slow leak for over a week. I can’t find the leak so it either has a bad valve or the rubber has become permeable. I pulled my old spare tube, the one that I had been carrying around for months, out of my saddle bag. It had an extra long valve that had come apart. It’s a good thing that I didn’t get a flat during my commutes or I’d have been stranded.
My tire is a Schwalbe Marathon which are notoriously hard to get on and off the rim. I think I have mastered the technique though. It went off and on without a fuss. The wheel didn’t want to go back on the bike however. After a few minutes of wrestling with the bike, I got it all straightened out. The Mule was nearly ready for action.
While at the bike shop, I asked the mechanic to check my chain for wear. He said it was worn and should be replaced. He also recommended replacing the cassette (the gears in the rear of the bike). I figure if the bike still shifts okay and I have to replace both chain and cassette anyway, I might as well keep the chain on the bike until the shifting deteriorates, then replace the chain and cassette.
I oiled the pulleys and cleaned and lubed the chains on both The Mule and Little Nellie. The chains were kind of gunked up from all the sand on the sides of the roads. When I was done, both chains spun over the gears like buttah.
Now I wait until my third and hopefully final wovel-fest. I am sick of shoveling snow.
On the medical front, I have had to stop taking Vitamin I in advance of finger surgery in a couple of weeks. The stiffness in my lower back came back as soon as the medicine wore off, as did the pain in my hips and left knee. Oddly enough, I am having no pain to speak of while riding my bike. It seems the yoga sessions I do after waking up are doing some good in this regard. I can’t remember when I have felt this comfortable riding a bike.
Errandonnee Summary
Errand # 11: Spokes Etc. at Belle View
Category: Bike Shop (#1)
Miles: 4 1/2
Observation: If you don’t patronize your local bike store, it won’t be there when you really need it. Show them some love.
Errand #12: Sherwood Gourmet
Category: Lunch
Miles: 4
Observation: About a half mile from the shop, I was buzzed by a corvette. The driver gave me about a foot of clearance as he passed me. I am pretty sure it was deliberate.
(I skipped over Thursday’s exciting adventure. Here it is.)
After Wednesday’s evening of advocacy, I was pretty revved up. I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight. Overnight temperatures were dropping and the winds were howling.
It was 27 degrees with a 20+ mile per hour head wind at 7:15 a.m with winds gusting over 40 miles per hour. The Mule’s back tire was low and my floor pump wouldn’t pump so Little Nellie put on a brave face and we headed out into the gale.
After a quarter mile of tailwind I turned into the wind. WHAM!!!
This is gonna be a long ride.
And it was.
Three times I was blasted by a cross wind that pushed Little Nellie sideway. I leaned in like Sheryl Stanberg on Red Bull. I had some protection from buildings and trees until I got north of the airport.
Whoa Nellie. Lets just say I am glad the trail is not closer to the river. After a big turn, I headed into the wind and slowed to 4 miles per hour. And I was giving it everything I had. Wow. It felt like a giant hand was on my chest.
I thought I’d never get to the office. Runners and cyclists coming from the opposite direction gave me encouragement and a laugh.
Don’t. Stop. Now.
This went on for 2 ½ miles. I was pedaling my ass off and getting nowhere.
I arrived late but knackered and chuffed. That was the hardest commute in a long time. And despite all the work, it was a blast. (Pun intended.)
The ride home benefited from a strong tailwind, thank god. It was practically effortless to go 18 miles per hour.
I stopped at the grocery store to buy some bananas and some Vitamin I with a sedative. I have been taking this at bedtime to help me sleep and calm my hip. It’s good stuff.
Errandonnee Summary
Category: Grocery Store
Miles: 15
Observation: I am shocked at how well my back and hip responded to today’s ride. Of course, it could be the case that I am so jacked up on Vitamin I that I can’t feel a thing. Or maybe I am getting better. I’ll know when I quit taking the Vitamin I in a couple of days.
My pump, having magically cured itself, was working once more. The tires on The Mule were fully inflated and I was off with a nice tailwind to commiserate with the caffeine addicts at Friday Coffee Club.
I left in the pitch dark which took some getting used to in light of the fact that I was still half asleep. The sunrise over the river was a thin line of purple. (You’ll have to close your eyes and imagine because I didn’t stop and take a picture.)
It was too early for the drop off line at St. Mary’s School of the Holy SUVs which meant I could ride through Old Town on Royal Street. I did Idaho stops at the stop signs. No one was harmed. I didn’t even get a rise out of the police who watched me from their car at Montgomery Street.
Clear of Old Town and back on the Mount Vernon Trail, I entered commuter trance mode. A dozen robins were cavorting and squabbling next to the trail. One robin seemed to attack another and they launched themselves into the air across the trail. Could have been zipless bird sex or just two drunken birds having it out. I was lucky to be looking down as they crossed my path and collided with my helmet. Feathers, birds, and my trance went every which way. Violent bird chaos is a strange way to wake up.
I arrived at Friday Coffee Club to see a crowded house. Nobody sang “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” The conversation was entertaining though. DC Councilmember and candidate for the Democratic nomination for mayor Tommy Wells was there along with two staffers. (Rumor has it he was trying to catch a deluge in paper cup.) I talked to Theresa his campaign finance director. (I’d make a joke here about inappropriate fund raising but the incumbent is in the middle of scandal and I’m afraid someone might think I was serious.) Michael showed up with a hot chocolate with whipped cream and a jumbo chocolate chip cookie. Breakfast of champions. Theresa looked dolefully at her half eaten bran muffin. TGIF. (Thank God It’s Fiber.)
@bobbishaftoe wore her amazing winter head gear. Despite the fact that my camera was not working properly I am posting the picture here for posterity. The folks at the nervous hospital say she likes French fried p’taters.
My ride to Rosslyn featured a near perfect ride across the TR Bridge. I was 3/4ths of the way across when I had to stop for a DC-bound bike commuter.
Turning onto Lynn Street at the Rosslyn Circle of Death I stopped even though I had a walk signal and the cross traffic had a red light. Sure enough, an prehistoric dump truck blew through the red light to make a right turn. If I hadn’t stopped that would have been the end of me.
Once at the office, I dismounted and kissed the ground.
After a day of economic research that couldn’t be beat, I headed for home into a 20 mile per hour headwind. I felt hungry and sleepy. Tree pollen levels are high so I suspect my allergies are picking up. Considering the fact that my knee, hips and back are once again on the fritz, I expect to have a wretched weekend. Try not to do the same.
Errandonnee #10 Summary
Category: Either coffee or community meeting, depending on which gets me all the glory
Miles: 15 (one way)
Observation: If the gods have a choice between having you collide with birds or a dump truck, pray for the birds.
One life, some bicycles. A million possibilities, zero clue!
Information and news from David Goodrich, author of A Hole in the Wind.
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