In Which The Computer Computes For No Reason

Wednesday at about 4:45 p.m., I'm walking across campus to begin my bike ride home on a cool, but no longer bone-chilling cold, day. Very pretty. But can it fight? (Sorry, I don't know why 'The Dirty Dozen' suddenly came by for a visit.)

I got out my bike Wednesday morning, pumped up the tyres (trying to go back to the British spelling as I stated I would in an earlier blog post) and oiled the chain.

Was there something about tire pressure or chain lube that my bike computer craved? It’s been somnolent since RAGBRAI, a ridiculous expensive bike watch that now is an hour off, since I don’t know how to change it for daylight savings time.

And yet, when I began to pedal south towards work, suddenly numbers flashed up on the little screen. It was, for unknown reasons, registering my speed and miles.

Well, the computer has sometimes woken up for just a few seconds, so I didn't think much of it. But as I passed the halfway mark on my journey, it was still registering numbers, as you can see.

I am headed up a slight incline and turning a corner—that speed is slow even for me, but I chose to take the photograph when I was going slowly so the danger to life and limb was reduced. My earlier post said biking is relatively safe—but not when you do crazy stuff like this, so if I crazy stuff, at least I can do it when Francis is rolling slowly. I topped 19 mph just minutes before headed down a hill before this slow stretch and rode about 11 to 12 mph on straight stretches of the commute.

Well, it’s warming up in Iowa and staying dry. Today I didn't even bother with the long underwear—it was well over 20 and not very windy in the morning, I would have been sweating if I hadn't cut a layer. The commute Wednesday night and this morning were both in dim light, although the light was failing at night but growing in the morning. I barely noticed that the computer, which has sprung to life so inexplicably, is back to wrong-time watch mode once again.

It worked for the whole 4.5-mile ride to work. And then died once again. Do I have to air and lube before every ride?

Because the sky, in both afternoon and morning, was spectacular—just enough high thin clouds to give the yellow and pink low sun something to work with.

It has turned gorgeous in Iowa—at least as gorgeous as it can be before the crocus bloom again—and it’s been a good mid week to be a biker once again.

In Which The Week So Far Is A Washout

Yeah, I wish I had taken this photo--clearly not today's Iowa  rain, which would not reflect many daisies. Photo from wikicommons, originally from audreyjm529 on Flickr or "Audrey from central Pennsylvania" as wikicommons describes her.

Rain, rain—well, don’t go away. We need you, although I would prefer you in March when the ground has no frost and you can actually do us more good. Today, it’s very odd to wake up to air in the 50s and thunderstorms in the sky. Not a good day for climate change deniers.

Anyway, so far it looks as if this week could be a total loss, from a biking point of view. I considered riding yesterday, but took the garbage out in the morning and discovered that Sunday’s ice had not totally melted and that sometimes what looks merely wet is very slick—not conditions I want to encounter on a bike.

Today is Tuesday, and thunderstorms are rumbling through. The eerie early spring is set to end is snow overnight tonight, and then the temperature will tumble. The tumbling temperatures alone are not that big of a problem—I have pretty good winter biking gear to wear—but they mean that any sloppy snow that is not quickly cleared will freeze and hang around.

Winter temperatures won’t keep me off a bike. Icy roads certainly will.

It remains to be seen how the interface between rain and snow works itself out, and how much snow we get and how long it takes to clear. But if we tally the days:  Monday, no go due to ice; Tuesday, no go due to thunderstorms; Wednesday likely no go due to 2 inches of snow—Thursday is probably a driving day, too, and Friday looks iffy (and I think snow comes back into the weather picture around then anyway).

Wah. Oh well, it’s Iowa, stuff falls from the sky. There will be good biking days ahead—just, probably, not this week.

Boy in the Hood: First Winter Ride

Me in my hood this morning.  It fits under the hew helmet. I put on warm gloves after snapping this photo.

The title of a movie made in 1991 confused me, because I was already old in 1991 and easily confused.  It was called “Boyz in the Hood,” and I wondered what nefarious acts were committed by people in parkas.  I had no idea that “hood” was a contraction for where Mr. Rogers spent his lovely days:  the neighborhood.

Well, while the “hoodie” is sometimes a hoodlum disguise, the hood, I think, is more nerdy than menacing.  Today, for the first time, as I rode through my ’hood, I wore my winter hood.

I was testing my new helmet with my winter regalia.

It passed with flying colors.  Not gang colors.  I just mean it passed.  No, not that “passed.”  I mean it was acceptable.  As a hood and not a ’hood or even hoodlum.

Back to our morning ride.  This was the day after a cold front roared through Iowa, dropping temperatures by 20 degrees and also dropping the first raindrops this arid desert has seen in many a moon.  I actually drove a car yesterday, something I rarely do, anticipating the rain and having an evening appointment at Coe College, and I was pleased as punch that the rain fell.

It made for a breezy, cool ride this morning—cold enough for me to try my winter outfit—my wind-breaking jacket, with the hood that can fit under my helmet, and gloves.

It wasn’t the complete winter outfit.  No need for long johns, yet.  I suppose it was just under 30 degrees as I rode in, and I did miss the fuzzy warm winter socks I would normally wear in colder months—about 1/3 of the way on my journey, my toes were colder than the nose of a Chicago hoodlum hanging out without his hood in the ’hood in January.

But, honestly, my head was getting a bit too warm.  I had a little sweat stored under that hood by the time I crested the Warde Hall hill to finish the morning commute.  And my feet were fine by the time I arrived—the heat generated by a big person moving a bike 4 ½ miles eventually took over.

It was a beautiful morning.   And I could not be happier about my hood fitting under the new bike helmet.  Well, I guess I could be a little happier.  Felicia Day could have been commuting to some Guild filming in northern Hiawatha, and she could have sung out as she rode her pink road bike past me (headed north, as I headed south), “hey, stranger, nice hood!”

So I could have been happier.  But not much happier.  It was a lovely day in the ’hood with my hood.

PS:  So how did I do, class?  Students are spending a lab time writing an opinion column.  I told them their upper limit was 650 words, but to aim for 500.  Me?  I did other work for 10 minutes and wrote this in 20.  And “20” was my 500^th word … pretty good for an old man in the hood!

A Fine New Helmet For A Fine Fall Ride

Me in new helmet.  I am surprised how cockeyed my glasses look, but doubt those who know me are surprised.

Audrey bought me a new helmet!

I had complained that the lights on my old one weren’t working well.  I can’t turn off the flashing red rear light on my old helmet, and when I turn on the headlight, it turns itself off after an indeterminate time—sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a few seconds.  Suddenly having that light switch off while I’m riding some dark section of a Cedar Rapids street is not fun.

Anyway, I had in mind getting just new helmet lights, but didn’t find any I wanted at my usual bike shop, Northtowne.  My sister Cate suggested trying Hall’s a downtown bike shop that she said may have more of a gadget selection.

Meanwhile, on a separate shopping outing to Wal-Mart, Audrey spotted what became my new helmet, with built-in lights, and bought it.

I’m of mixed mind.  On the one hand, I like having the lights separate because you don’t have to buy a new helmet should a light break.  On the other hand, helmets do not last forever, and as long as the light lasts for a decent interval, say two years, having to toss it when the light breaks is not a bad thing.

Well, we had a bit of a struggle with the new helmet this morning.  One of the small plastic tabs that they add when they factory-install the batteries did not want to come out and required a partial disassemble and reassemble, testing the outer limits of my modest mechanical skills.

Pumpkins at a HyVee Drug Store along the Cedar River Trail.

But, the new helmet was on my head for the morning ride.  It made me feel a little giddy, so I took the trail route, a bit of an indulgence, and shot some fall color photos.  I’ll put a few here and more on my other blog.

For now, I’ve got a new helmet and new lights in said helmet.  Not sure why this makes me happy—constricted brain blood flow?—but it does.

Sumac along the trail.

Not Quite A Century Week, But Some Good Rides

Jon with our bikes at frog statue at south end of Sac and Fox Trail.

 

Jon and I did our second RAGBRAI training ride of the week today—a three-hour ride that added almost 30 miles to my week's total—which gives me, with commutes, about 90 miles.

That’s probably a bit low—I want to start topping over 100 training miles a week next week—but still, a good week.

And today’s ride was pleasant enough.  Despite some threatening looking clouds early on, we stayed dry, and it got sunny as we went . And although the day turned very hot, we rode early enough that we weren't out in the worst of the heat.

A big, old turtle was blocking the trail at Cedar Lake--well, he wasn't quite big enough to block the whole trail, but I had to stop and snap his photos.  Did not get close enough for him to snap me.

We hopped on our bikes around 10 a.m. and headed for the Cedar River Trail.  When we got downtown, we left the trail and headed east along the Cedar River past the Cargill plant,along Otis Road until we came to the Prairie Park Fishery, a small lake with a bike-hike trail around it.  We did that trail, and then headed further east to the south end of the Sac and Fox.

There were two surprises on the Sac and Fox.  The trail is partly closed by a giant sewer project right now, so I was not expecting to reach the north end—but they have a bike detour marked, and, voila, before we knew it, we had reached the frog statue that marks the north end of the trail.

The detour included a very short stretch of Mount Vernon Road, and then this gravel road.  Jon didn't need me to lead along a road I'd never been on before, so got to bike at his own pace for a while.

The other surprise is that the trail was in slightly better shape than I expected.  We did find a few nasty soft spots, but not as many as I recall from last year.  I guess rain leads to water washing over the trail, leads to soft sandy spots, so no rain equals a firmer trail.

Jon couldn’t take my old-man pace and had to pass me going up the Cottage Grove Hill.  Which I rode up all the way—it is excellent RAGBRAI hill training, possibly the best training hill in Cedar Rapids.

Then, the ride home, which we reached by 1 p.m.

Our distance and speed were a bit lower today, partly due to the challenging Sac and Fox terrain, although I think a headwind kept our speed down a bit while we were headed to the trail anyway, but it was still a vigorous ride.

The only off note is that at some point—on the Sac and Fox, I think, but am not sure—I popped a spoke, which means my bike is in the ship for the first half of this week.  That will make reaching my training goal a bit more challenging.  I might borrow Jon’s bike, or, with luck, might get an old junk bike that Ben and Audrey harvested from an Ames dumpster in good enough shape to ride.

We’ll see.  At least we had quite a ride today!

Below, Jon and I (reverse that) and the Sac and Fox frog.

 

Musings on When Streets Meet--Dangerous Crossings

What are the easy or hard street crossings that I encounter in Cedar Rapids during my daily commute?

Most are fairly easy. Much of my commute is along a quite stretch of E Avenue, where the busiest and diciest place is Kenwood School, but parents dropping off second graders don't seem to be Indy drivers, and so far, although I have to slow down and stay alert, the busy mornings at Kenwood had not been a problem.

I encounter several 4-ways stops on my route, and, to be honest, do treat them as "California" stops--I slow way down, watch and listen, and proceed if no traffic is coming. If there is a car in the cross street, I simply try to follow "car" rules--come to a full stop and whoever was there first has the right of way.

Whether headed home or to work, the most exciting intersection is C and Blair's Ferry. The intersection does have button-activated crosswalk lights, which I use, but drivers, particularly those turning right while facing you, vary a lot in terms of whether they care that there is a biker with a walk light cycling through the intersection.

Still, while exciting, that intersection does have a light. Near Mount Mercy University, I pass through the 27th Street-Prairie Drive intersection, which was the site of a fatal accident last year. I often see students on cell phones waiting at the stop signs on Prairie, and they don't always look for bikes very well. I think that intersection would be a lot safer as a 4-way stop (and I think the intersection of 29th and Prairie needs a traffic light due to heavy traffic coming from MMU and proceeding along 29th). I try to be on guard and careful, but I've nearly been creamed at that corner a few times.

Besides those two corners, there is one that's dicey in the morning, but not so problematic on the way home. Travelling south to MMU in the a.m., I turn right when I get to 32nd Street, and 1 1/2 blocks later turn left from 32nd to Lindale Avenue.

That stretch of 32nd is both narrow and busy, which makes it exciting, and then I have to wait at the corner for a chance to quickly dart left down Lindale. I try to be careful, but I'm looking over my shoulder to see traffic headed west down 32nd, and the gaps in the morning are never large.

Beyond those three corners, my commute is not too bad. I've blogged before about the lights on F Avenue where I have to wait for cars to trigger them, and I supposed the F-Collins Road intersection might be work it's own blog post sometime (you have to really know the lights and anticipate changes--particularly if you have to "steal" the light from oncoming traffic exiting Rockwell Collins because you know your bike won't trigger the light ... well, another day).

Anyway, watch for a brief post on this blog tomorrow, I've decided to do a "commuter log" which will just sum up the days and hours ridden each week, which I intend to post on Fridays.

Happy biking!