Monthly archive for May 2008

Some observations …

Published on May 21, 2008 in biking, observations and shenanigans. 7 Comments

… and a progress update: I passed the 50-mile mark today, woohoo! One of the nice things about riding a bike is noticing all of the things you’re totally oblivious to when you’re driving a car. Here are a few:

  • Other cyclists are really friendly, except the super serious people who ride professional racing bikes and wear spandex. They never say “hi” back because they’re too busy being serious. Maybe it’s just carrying over from their accounting jobs.
  • Pedestrians, on the other hand, aren’t friendly at all, with one exception — the guy who called out “Bye, beautiful!” as I rode past him.
  • Goslings are really cute and fluffy-looking, but their parents are pretty darn scary. I think my mph went up by 10 miles when the mama (or papa) goose came flapping and hissing at me when I rode past the goose family.
  • For all the talk about people in SUVs driving like they own the road, I’ve noticed they give me more space than the Prius drivers. They drive like they’re trying to murder me because they’re angry that I emit fewer greenhouse gases than they do.
  • Long, gradual hills are waaaay harder than short, steep hills. If you have warning for the short ones, you can get up enough speed to make it most of the way up and then pedal like crazy for a few seconds to get to the top. The long slopes just make you pedal and pedal and pedal, and they really lower your average mph.

That’s it for now. There are some really beautiful spots along my ride, so I’ll post some pics as soon as I get a bike bag that leaves my camera more accessible than it is in my backpack that I strap down onto my rack with bungie cords.

1,000 miles

Published on May 17, 2008 in biking and shenanigans. 5 Comments

After years of talking about it, I’ve finally started riding my bike to work. It’s only about five miles from my house, and I figured it would give me some exercise. Plus, I expect it to save me lots of pista because I won’t have to pay for parking or buy as much gas. OK, so I’ve only done it twice so far, and Meg picked me up from work the second time so we could go shopping together, but at least it’s a start. Continue reading ‘1,000 miles’

Slideshows

Published on May 13, 2008 in uncategorized. 0 Comments

It was brought to my attention yesterday that my slideshows weren’t working properly in some browsers. They’re fixed now, so go ahead and scroll down to check out my pics.

P-I battle of the bands

Published on May 3, 2008 in concerts and shenanigans. 0 Comments

I was a little disappointed with Force Majeure’s performance in the second annual P-I battle of the bands. We did OK, but there was no moment of shocked silence followed by delighted screams. I guess we probably qualify as one-hit wonders. I have to admit, I didn’t really think we could outdo our original performance of “Close to You.” Continue reading ‘P-I battle of the bands’