0 comment Friday, September 12, 2014 | admin
So, I've been wondering if now that Brendan will have limited post-worthy news, if this blog will slowly deteriorate... turns out it's not going to be a slow demise but one that seems to have already taken hold.
I will post, without fancy google maps and without the wit we all love Brendan for, but with just some notes about commuting in the rain.
Yesterday it took me an extra seven minutes to get ready for my bike commute. My bag (which is HUGE) was stuffed with binders and brown bag lunch (no room for dry clothes) so I had to make sure that I would make it through the day in whatever I wore on my commute. With the rain/snow/sleet/groppel that was dropping from the sky rapidly, in large doses, I realized this was not going to be an easy task. Here are the supplements to my normal attire that I donned yesterday pre-commute:
Gore-tex gloves, with my rainjacket tucked neatly into their cuffs.
Ski goggles, with my spectacles underneath (this may have been to a fault as they were covered in precipitation long before I got to school making it quite difficult to see oncoming traffic).
Rain pants, with full leg zips making for an easy removal once at school (and I felt a bit like an exotic dancer, without all the glamor).
Plastic baggies inside my bike shoes (this was the BEST addition as my feet were totally dry upon my arrival!)
A plastic bag tucked inside my coat pocked (which I was sure to zip up lest we allow snow to enter my dry layers through an open pocket) for covering my bike seat once at school.
Once at school it took me another five minutes to undress and I took up two chairs laying out all of my wet layers so that they might dry before my ride home a mere four hours later.
After about 1 hour of sitting in class watching mother nature pummel my bike with her wetness I decided to take a stand and bring my vehicle inside the classroom, set neatly directly behind the professor's podium. Best bike parking to date.
So, I guess the moral of the story is that rain or sun, sleet or hail, if you have the right equipment and the right mentality there's no need to ever give up on the bike commute...
I will post, without fancy google maps and without the wit we all love Brendan for, but with just some notes about commuting in the rain.
Yesterday it took me an extra seven minutes to get ready for my bike commute. My bag (which is HUGE) was stuffed with binders and brown bag lunch (no room for dry clothes) so I had to make sure that I would make it through the day in whatever I wore on my commute. With the rain/snow/sleet/groppel that was dropping from the sky rapidly, in large doses, I realized this was not going to be an easy task. Here are the supplements to my normal attire that I donned yesterday pre-commute:
Gore-tex gloves, with my rainjacket tucked neatly into their cuffs.
Ski goggles, with my spectacles underneath (this may have been to a fault as they were covered in precipitation long before I got to school making it quite difficult to see oncoming traffic).
Rain pants, with full leg zips making for an easy removal once at school (and I felt a bit like an exotic dancer, without all the glamor).
Plastic baggies inside my bike shoes (this was the BEST addition as my feet were totally dry upon my arrival!)
A plastic bag tucked inside my coat pocked (which I was sure to zip up lest we allow snow to enter my dry layers through an open pocket) for covering my bike seat once at school.
Once at school it took me another five minutes to undress and I took up two chairs laying out all of my wet layers so that they might dry before my ride home a mere four hours later.
After about 1 hour of sitting in class watching mother nature pummel my bike with her wetness I decided to take a stand and bring my vehicle inside the classroom, set neatly directly behind the professor's podium. Best bike parking to date.
So, I guess the moral of the story is that rain or sun, sleet or hail, if you have the right equipment and the right mentality there's no need to ever give up on the bike commute...
Labels: Brendan, Memories, Rain, Sunshine
0 comment Tuesday, September 9, 2014 | admin
Karen called me at work at about 5:40 to tell me the skies looked pretty dark to the West, and that I ought to think about heading out of work ASAP if I wanted to beat the storm. I consulted with the great interweb service, weather.com, which informed me that at 6:30, the region would be pummeled by thunderstorms, preceded by light rain. I got my stuff, computer included, and headed out the door, intent to beat the weather, and planning on finishing final emails of the day from home.
Wheeling out of the new bike cage (yes! my building put in a new Dero rack, and built a bike cage around it one day while my bike was parked there) the rain was light, as described by Weather.com, but that lasted all of a quarter block. The skies opened up and let loose. I commiserated with my fellow bike commuters on Connecticut (lots of us these days), and we agreed we had all made wise decisions, since it was only supposed to get worse in thirty minutes.
Hammered up the hill, storm worsening. Thunder peals and lightning flashes growing closer, starting at six "bananas" away, and nearing to three "bananas" away. I could feel water pouring off my bag and soaking my waistline, and simultaneously hoped the two pouches in between the exterior and my work MacBook would hold out another 10 minutes until I got home. I started tasting salt, and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I wasn't riding hard enough to sweat, they hadn't salted the roads since March, so that ruled out spray. Then it became clear, it was the built up salt from my helmets padding running down my face and into my mouth. This is why I don't share helmets, I could at least be sure it was my own former sweat.
I got home with the downpour slightly lessening. By the time I put the bike away, got the computer away from the wet bag, and took off my wet clothes for the illustrative picture below, the rain had lightened even more:
It's about as wet as I've gotten in quite a while, to the point where I could wring out socks and pantlegs.
All in all, I had a blast and enjoyed every second of my ride home. Not that I want this every day, but once in a while, it's great to get soaked unexpectedly.
Wheeling out of the new bike cage (yes! my building put in a new Dero rack, and built a bike cage around it one day while my bike was parked there) the rain was light, as described by Weather.com, but that lasted all of a quarter block. The skies opened up and let loose. I commiserated with my fellow bike commuters on Connecticut (lots of us these days), and we agreed we had all made wise decisions, since it was only supposed to get worse in thirty minutes.
Hammered up the hill, storm worsening. Thunder peals and lightning flashes growing closer, starting at six "bananas" away, and nearing to three "bananas" away. I could feel water pouring off my bag and soaking my waistline, and simultaneously hoped the two pouches in between the exterior and my work MacBook would hold out another 10 minutes until I got home. I started tasting salt, and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I wasn't riding hard enough to sweat, they hadn't salted the roads since March, so that ruled out spray. Then it became clear, it was the built up salt from my helmets padding running down my face and into my mouth. This is why I don't share helmets, I could at least be sure it was my own former sweat.
I got home with the downpour slightly lessening. By the time I put the bike away, got the computer away from the wet bag, and took off my wet clothes for the illustrative picture below, the rain had lightened even more:
It's about as wet as I've gotten in quite a while, to the point where I could wring out socks and pantlegs.
All in all, I had a blast and enjoyed every second of my ride home. Not that I want this every day, but once in a while, it's great to get soaked unexpectedly.
Labels: Rain
0 comment Tuesday, April 29, 2014 | admin
My brother was featured in his college paper, the Daily Nebraskan.
He also rides year-round. You should see the lacrosse gloves he wears in the middle of winter.
He also rides year-round. You should see the lacrosse gloves he wears in the middle of winter.