I set my email to automatically feed me the mention of ‘dahon’ in a blog. Kinda like non-random acts of kindness

… (hereby refusing to attribute all kinds of snotty righteousness upon this kind of act, as Bike Snob does but it *is* funny )

Here’s a little rap encouraging people to “use a bike rack!” Another nudge towards mainstream (or, says the devil’s advocate, another dweeby establishment attempt at modernity and acceptance by youth). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoFFg0W9UME

Nature bats last in little ways, too.

NOte to self: whilst basking in personal pride for having taken the time to swab down the chain after driving through 32-degree rain/slush/slop, duly remember that *everything* got wet, so that when you decide to ride same bike 36 hours later at 20 degrees, cables will be froze-like. Wheels will simply refuse to turn.
Self: also note that if you decide that since you got the wheel rolling, you will simply apply enough effing friction to get where you need to go and melt any ice trapped in the workings, and you’re calmly informing your bicyle of this fact whilst getting it rolling in the street, that other riders may happen to ride by and greet you, perhaps speculating on the sanity of someone having a spiced conversation with a bicycle.
The bike did pick up speed but I’m going to try to get it where it can warm up and melt and drain. Perhaps mine own circuits can do the same… as well as the sinuses… Note to self: hold line while launching. Between Randolph and Elm, I heard a little toot behind me. Figured I’d been busted for being disgusting, but noticed that the taxi driver had rolled down his window at Elm… was he going to call me on it? ’twas only to apologize and say that he wasn’t trying to scare me, just didn’t want me swerving out in front of him (tho’ the occasional ice patches along the road were also grounds were holding other than a straight path).
very sunny out there (contrary to the forecast-with-caveats) … melt! melt! melt!

Chills and tears: “Please do not run me over” – that’s the essay Austin Miller wrote about a year ago. He’s been run over.

32 degrees
sloshing through the sleet and slime
better than the ice!

It’s 33. Hoping I didn’t lose this gamble riding the Xtra today, bcause whilst our good buddies at WILL said “after midnight” for the changeover, the Storm Warning says after 9 p.m. BUT I am hoping that WILL applies to here, and the Warning applies to a wider area. And besides, I can bug out early and besides, I can ride in wet snow, which it will be. And besides, right now there are only “sowers in the vicinity” (I mean showers, but sowers is kewl too ) as in, the geography is steering stuff around here as usual! Huzzah! Keep it up, geography! I want to get home rubber side down…

“Bike There” on Google Maps – a petition to get that included.

At first I thought, “well, who’s going to decide how to ‘bike there’?” and considered the whole bike route/ bike lane/ bike path debate, and that in the overwhelming majority of locales, there ain’t no established way to bike there. When I googled the map for a route from Loveland to here, even the ‘avoid the highways’ wasn’t going to have a bicycle in mind, just a “not interstate” formula. I certainly wouldn’t trust a computer generated map for where I put my dainty tyres
Then I figured that lots of places *do* have bike routes and that it can help the “make it mainstream!” movement an awful lot… and that even if (as I suspect) Google doesn’t want to open the huge can of worms that “bike there” could open legally, that it would be a great idea if a zillion people told google that they cared about getting there by bike.

Already thinking of riding *bakc* from Loveland instead. So, if we had one of those weird green XO computers could we crank it and use it in the wilds?

Okay, I’m at least going to pretend to be a randonneur… and plot a route from here to Loveland CO and find out just how badly I couldn’t afford such an adventure. What’s two weeks more from work? I can make many Camtasia files with the famous “how to do direct variation” tapes…

Ask for a YES vote on Senate Bill 2311 in
committee THIS WEDNESDAY. make a call to your state senator to keep the money for
bike trails and safe routes to schools. (YOu don’t need advanced social skills for this;) )
If you are not sure who your senator is use this locator
http://www.elections.state.il.us/DistrictLocator/AddressSearch.aspx
Your help is needed on our state bill to improve the state’s handling of
federal Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School dollars.
A big result from the bill will be more completed bike trails in
Illinois.

It’s public comment time on the recommendations for the Bicycle Master Plan. It’s the ‘recommendations’ that have the good stuff.

If you want to make a comment do it – they already know the public cares ’cause so many of us turned out for the earlier stuff, but reminding doesn’t hurt. NEitehr would having them hear the words “be sure to make this part of a “Complete Streets” plan. We should have ways for *everybody* to get where they need to go.

Decided to check out the Speed P8 ’cause it has that magic 8th speed. I don’t need 24… Bought a mattress next door…