http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16496-cheap-superefficient-led-lights-on-the-horizon.html

Here’s an interesting article about a breakthrough in LED lights – though it’s about using them for householdy stuff, not fun blinkies.  Hope it doesn’t change the market so that you can’t get ‘em as cheap for blinkies any more.

Yes, I went 35 hours and 50 minutes (more or less ) without getting on a bicycle.  When I lived in MD and worked in VA I took bus and subway every day to work; I had forgotten the camaraderie of  “early people.”  Instead of that tense elevator feeling, it’s “enough conversation to acknowledge your importance, but space because, you know, it’s morning.”  Driver was on a first-name basis with most and vice versa.  Drivers out and back were patient and friendly and all that good stuff.

It was still dark ’cause I took the 6:28 and I felt the draw of a bucolic, crystal morning dawn ride… but figured that would be blown to smithereens by the first crunchy, slimy patch on Green Street.  Indeed, riding it today was dicy-icy.  There are stretches between Lincoln and Wright where the right lane is nasty. I was early enough to be able to take the left lane … and I’m almost positive that, actually, Tuesday night I was riding over worse stuff with no problem.  It’s that comparison thing.  I have decided that Saturday I’ll find a parking lot, put on padding, and practice attacking snow and ice just like when we were kids and our folks took us out to learn to do snow and ice in the mall parking lots.  And if a hundred dollar bill falls into my lap, I’ll take it as a sign that I’m supposed to put Big Honking Studs on the Dahon.  Practice first, though!

feel the grip, not the slip

Snow is not ice.  So, there wasn’t the stop-inducing ruttage for my trip home.  There was, however, a fair amount of snow.  Mostly I could still see pavement – it hadn’t usually  accumulated enough so that a car didn’t clear it and show concrete or asphalt… but not always.   And the studs were awesome.  I could, you know, like ride the bike.  Pedal it and it moved.

I shall take the next opportunity to practice, though, attending to when I *feel* out of control vs. when I am.

I found that telling my self to “relax and feel the Force, Luke” actually helped.  After all,  like unto riding a horse, if ya yank the reins you mess things up.  And then I graduated to focusing on the “grippy” times vs. the “oops, slipping!” times because then I think I steered towards said grippiness.  And I successfully convinced myself to steer the bike where I wanted it to be several times when the urge was to believe I couldn’t do that and could only proceed straight ahead.

Oh, I’m taking the bus tomorrow   And on Anderson, I hopped onto the sidewalk to walk e’re before the bus came by, ’cause there really isn’t enough room for comfort.  Yesterday, the bus let me sprint for home and stayed behind me ’til Fairlawn… turnabout is fair play.  Okay, and I was fatigued – though that happened a lot later because I also got pretty good at shutting off the tension after it turned on (“relax and feel the Force ), which I reckon is one of those things professionals do.  What I can’t tell is whether I was doing adrenaline in the process. I’m not thinking much.

Tomorrow all that snow and the other couple inches which will fall will be packed down and ruttified.   Must figure out exactly where the CUMTD creatures *stop.*

bullet dodged :)

I went home instead of hanging around for Parkland Chorus last night.  Turns out to have been completely unnecessary – unless, of course, the fact that as I rode I mentally urged the snow to Stay South, Stay South is what kept it at bay .  The radar had lots of blue just barely to the south of here… it stayed there.  Not a trace of the stuff. So, One more Day on the Consecutive Commutes Despite Dastardliness.

We are forecast to get an inch today, so I reserve the right to take the bus home… there’s radar returns to the N and S… but perhaps we’ll get lucky again.

Much, much more traffic today than yesterday.  No idea why.

leap into the fray

I realy should have taken the folder in… I felt like I was signing a contract I couldn’t count on following through on.  Forecast “winter advisory” as of 6 p.m., inches of snow to come. More inches tomorrow.

I looked at studlies for the Dahon, because getting to church yesterday was downright fun.  (Going back less so, because I went by a stretch on Green where water had leaked, so there was real ice.)  The little critter plowed right through the quarter to half inch of the white stuff.  I couldn’t help but think that if there were studs on it, it would eat all that stuff and the ice, too.

Priced ‘em.  70+ for the ones with decent studs.  (for each one…)

Okay, I”m glad i got mine when they were only fifty bucks each.  . COuldn’t bring myself to order ‘em.  Mebbe *after* I do this little side job… use it as motivator.

Couldn’t get chainguard on… and even without it things were jus tbanging around.  So I took it down to the bike coop… and then realized that they were banging around because the nuts were totally loose.  Took three of us to figure it all out and “curse the Dutch” was added to the bike project general meeting agenda.  THanks, Tony

I even practiced hoisting it, tho’ I am not sure I will be game for that this p.m. when it is ugly. Mght just put the thing in my office… then I”ll take bus in… glad I don’t have to be in ’til 9. 

Maybe it won’t come

see you and lower you 2 degrees…

It’s another one of “those” nights – the temp drops below the forecast low… the low drops below that… we’ll see how low it goes.  It’s 6 out there now.    Hey, it’s *above* zero.  Still, I might just inflate teh aerobed in the warmest room of the house tonight.

The plane engine of the NY plane has signs of “hitting a soft body.”  Snork.  I told you it was the aliens, and they put that guy as pilot ’cause they knew they were coming.

“winter cycling” press

I like this article about “Frosty Cyclists” – not a lot of creative (mis)interpretation of our breed; simple reporting.   It’s about winter commuter cyclists in Ohio – the reporter found several different genres- the 50-something research scientist (“professor type”), the 24-year old who’s thinking green… the 41-year=old new dad who wants to be healthy enough to see his new daughter graduate…

Nobody else came to ride at the Darwin ride, so I just did the out and back.  Body really, really wants more riding.  It’s 12 degrees (okay, less by now)… was going to go to a concert and frankly, if it were 10 miles away instead of 2 I might ’cause I’d be warm (and would get the Real Ride in)… but there’s a list of Stuff to Get Done on the Weekend, ya know…

Got Gazelle’s chain on… the chain guard isn’t snapping into place and I can’t help but think it would be more willing if it weren’t so cold.  Might just turn the heat up for that… and/or take it down to the coop tomorrow for a hoist to the rack and second opinion.  Must remember to practice hoisting *it* so that if it snows I can get it on the bus racks, adn so I can develop BICEPS

nuisance frost

It was above freezing (according to the radio) when I left this a.m. – had been since noonish yesterday.  Temps going down, but even right now it’s 35.

A *thick* frost, however, had  been laid upon the streets, specifically White/Logan/Clark.  Where I turn on New Street, it was icy enough to make for skidding from cars and sliding with sneakers… I didn’t test to see how easily the Xtracycle slicks would slide out on a turn, but it was fine onthe straightaway.  I suppose concrete takes longer to warm up…

Darwin Ride tomorrow.  Must find something edible to bring

ILLINI CHILL in two weeks!  Must try to convince weather to be NICE.

pithy quote that won’t make sense later…

We hope that Barack Obama, against all odds, will land our crippled airplane safely on the water.

—Jean Thompson, Author and National Book Award finalist

inauguration poem

The official one   George Fox would approve.  Sidney Carter, even

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.  All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, “Take out your pencils. Begin.”

We encounter each other in words, Words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; Words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”

Others by “first do no harm,” or “take no more than you need.”

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp — praise song for walking forward in that light.

–Elizabeth Alexander, Inaugural Poet, January 20, 2009

still a chill

9 when I left – but it really is significantly warmer than 11 below.  The layers suffice; okay, I did do some “warmup” stuff and arm-circles to get centrifugal stuff going, but my hands never got cold and it took no time at all to need to peel the balaclava from my mouth.  I’m hoping that breathing in the cold air activates that capillary development and that before long 11 below will be like this… tho’ I’m hoping I don’t have to find out.  Oh, and lots of lotion on the legs.  It’s dessicating down there…

Seems video stuff is a bit slow right now   Hey, it’s warmer than this at The Mall.

Let’s go, world.  This Land Is Our Land.