Feb 6 rides

I woke up to discover we had the day off due to the storms that hit us early this morning. Tried to ride around 10 but the rain moved back into the area so I puttered around the house until 12:30. The radar showed a line of stroms off to the west and I estimated it would take about two hours to get here. I jumped on my bike and headed out to enjoy my free day. An hour into the ride the rain started falling - not bad but you knew it was there. No big deal I thought boy was I wrong. The skies opened up and the wind started howling, unfortunately I was stuck out in middle of nowhere and 15 miles from my house all I could do was keep riding and hope for the best. At one point the wind was so strong I was literally being pushed clear across the road. A short distance later a huge gust came up and I found myself literally hanging onto the edge of the road - a drainage ditch filled with cold, muddy water waiting to greet me. All I wanted was to get home and get warm. I did make it, drenched, cold, and miserable. The hot shower felt great and the cup of hot chocolate helped to warm me up as well. Of course the sun is now shining but the wind is still blowing at 35 mph. The upside was I covered just over 30 miles and even with the wind I ended up averaging 15.6 mph. What a ride!

Yikes... and we were all complaining because the sun never came out on our 72-degree day :p

Four of us drove up for the Wednesday morning breakfast ride. I think there were 20 riders in all, a much bigger group than I'm used to riding with, so it was fun. 37 flat, fast miles. The big boys left me for dead at the sign sprint, but then climbing the bridge I passed them like they were standing still - it's the only hill some of them get all year ;)

The folks on the weather channel kept saying "don't think it's over!" and warning folks going out to clean up that more was on the way.

I rode the big heavy Gazelle yesterday even tho' it's hard to get it over 10 mph (it's about 50 pounds and has studded tires), because I didn't trust the forecast to make it stay above freezing. The forecast was right - but 50 pounds of totally encased everything is the right bicycle to have when going through some serious pondages in the roads. I couldn't believe I was pedaling through it but momentum is marvelous!

I'm glad you finished hale and reasonably hearty, makbike!!! Now stay out of those ditches!!!


Oh... but today... shew boy. Welp, first, I finally got to the light right before the college at theyellow and had time to pick up a handful of "s hooks" that got spilled there a few days ago. My boss inquired about that 'cause she'd seen me 'picking up stuff off the road' - but she hadn't seen what I thought she was talking about. I thought she was talking about picking up the little plastic thingy that goes on the back wheel protector on my Gazelle that a driver had cut too close and knocked off...
The driver did stop and I made a point of leaning over to make it really, really obvious that I was getting his license plate - even though I had already memorized it ten minutes before when the same guy had passed unnecessarily close at the entrance to the college. THere's a two lane entrance and most folks, him included, make an almost immediate left turn. (Google doesn't have an aero shot of these boonies ) So it struck me as notable when this guy hugged close to me and *then* cut over to make his left... so I snagged his lice3nse and considered getting one of our LEague of Illinois Bicyclists "warning" fliers and filling it out and I was making up wording to add like "two of these warnings will mean your license information is added to the KNown Aggressive Drivers list" - and it would, it would be *my* personal known aggressive drivers list... and I pulled into my parking lot where because it was five *after* nine people were frantically groping for the parking spaces and there he is... and oops I was a digit off on that license, it was X85 not X75 7323... and I'm cruising through and he clips me!
So... after I've made that obvious mental snapshot, window rolls down, "you okay?" "Yes, I'm fine but you need to stop driving so closely to bicyclists! What were you trying to do?"
"What flew off?"
(I locate the plastic thing which I'm thinking prob'ly didn't fly off my bike... but it's the only debris right there and it turns out it did).
"I had already gotten your license plate out there coming in... I couldn't understand you driving so close to me when you were making a left turn anyway. I was thinking you didn't like bicyclists!"
"I'm just trying to get a parking spot. I"m sorry."
"I know how that is. Have yourself a reasonable day and don't drive so close to people!"

it reinforced the idea that I think what looks like overt hostility is "just" horrilbly dangerous disinterest in a cyclist's existence.... inattention.

(Then I described this to my office mate who at 9:15 had begun to get concerned... and I noted that he prob'ly assumes I'm a student... and she noted that he might get a big surprise if he mentioned in a class, say a Math class that he had hit a bicyclist, 'cause there might be five people rising up saying "You hit SIOUX ?!?!?!?" ... snork...)

But what I was *going* to say about this a.m.'s ride was that like last night I was wafting in acute doldrums (hey, they're my doldrums so even if that's an oxymoron I'm allowed) and... the sensation of the 35-degree rain starting to leak through the assorted places just leaked happiness into my being. Maybe great-grandma really *was* a penguin.

And I still might stick a warning on that car.