Numbers and Cupcakes, Too

Today marks the bike commute with the least amount of daylight. As someone who is vitamin D deficient, I say, “Enough already.” I could do without the cold weather too, but, alas, that promises to get worse before it gets better. Curious to find out how the other half lives, I checked the temperature in Buenos Aires at noon today. 93 degrees (Feels like 104). Suffer, Argentina.

I rode to Friday Coffee Club talking to myself the entire way. I am a chatty person. The folks with the white coats didn’t catch me. At Swings House of Caffeine, there was a decent sized crowd. Felkerino brought cupcakes and @BobbiShaftoe bought Christmas cookies. I do believe there is a conspiracy afoot to undo all my good eating habits of late. For the record, I had one cupcake.

Bob “Don’t Call Me Rachel” Cannon was disappointed that I was not wearing the earrings I won at the WABA Christmas party. For the record, I am not an earring kind of guy.

@arlingtonrider brought Mac with her. Mac has been bike commuting for two months and is very enthusiastic. She fit right in with the hapless gang of two wheeled loonies.

On the way to work I checked the odometer on Little Nellie.

I never, ever thought I’d ride this bike so much.

Yesterday, I weighed 203 at the doctor’s office. I suspect a vast right wing conspiracy. So I weighed myself nekkid at work. 200! Mendoza line. Basically my trick is to avoid eating crap. Seems to be working. The last time I was under 200 pounds my son was an infant. He now towers over me.

I can’t say I was looking forward to the ride home. I was tired. My back was achy. Once I got on the bike though it all worked out. It was such a lovely ride. The monuments were all lit up. The view never gets old. The car traffic was light so I didn’t have to fight the headlights all the way home.

Big Nellie Turns 37

Normally, I make a big deal about taking a picture of my bike odometer when it crosses another 1,000 mile threshold. I kind of dropped the ball this week. My mind was elsewhere. The two rides to work this week have been excellent therapy (as they always are). So here it is, 44 miles after the fact.

Little Nellie Turns 13

Little Nellie reached yet anothe milestone, 13,000 miles. My Bike Friday has been my main ride all summer and seems to be handling the task well. I can’t say as much for the saddle and the chain, however. The chain started to skip the other day, almost surely because it is stretched. By now, my cassette (the gears in back) is lilely ruined so I’ll keep the chain on until I replace the whole works this winter. The saddle, a Brooks Flyer, has the same problem as the Brooks Flyer on The Mule. Somehow I bend the adjustment bolt in the nose of the saddle and I can’t re-tension the leather. So I’ll send it out to Aaron’s Bike Shop in Seattle for a repair.

In a bit of a freak coincidence my odometer turned on the same day. And today was my 99th bike commute of the year. So everybody sing:

99 bike commutes on the year, 99 bike commutes. You change your bags and clean your chain, 100 bike commutes on the year.

Chico Escuela and Little Nellie Turns 12

June’s been very, very good to me.

I spent most of the spring dealing with recurring back pain. I went to a physiatrist (i.e., pain doctor) and he gave me medications. He also ordered x-rays and an MRI. I switched to riding Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent, full time. After a few weeks, and just before I was going to get a cortisone injection, the pain went away.

Rain and other circumstances led me to switch my riding to Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist. It has little tires that send a jolt from every bump straight to my lower back. Riding this bike was playing with fire.

At about this time I switch from regular pedals to Speedplay Frogs. My pedaling mechanics improved remarkably.

I kept riding Little Nellie and, lo and behold, my back didn’t hurt anymore. If been binge riding my wee bike now day in and day out for 600+ miles. Today, I rode to work with the wind at my back and Little Nellie hit 12,000 miles.

June’s been very, very good to me indeed.

Big Nellie Turns 32,000

I hadn’t planned on riding at all today but the weather was so nice, I couldn’t help myself. I took Big Nellie, my Tour East recumbent, down to Mount Vernon with a quick loop around Fort Hunt Park. In my travels I got a good bead on the Fort Hunt bald eagle nest. It’s easily the biggest one around.

On the way back home, I stopped to take a picture.