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2019! The “How was your commute?” thread!

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2019! The “How was your commute?” thread!

Old 07-15-19, 12:49 PM
  #1251  
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Originally Posted by mgw4jc
Looking at highs in the mid 90s all week. Yippee!
Beats a week of highs in the 100s, I suppose.

But I'd say "Yippee!" to that forecast in the same tone I use when I pay my cable bill. They call it WOW! I call it wow...
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Old 07-15-19, 01:03 PM
  #1252  
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Originally Posted by mgw4jc
Yes I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

looks pretty close to my forecast. maybe a touch warmer for you. @pdlamb i was thinking the same thing



5 day forecast
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Old 07-15-19, 01:45 PM
  #1253  
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This morning, parked right in front of the sign for my employer, there was a makeshift bike trailer (a boom and hitch attached to the lower half of a shopping cart), and a pile of homeless stuff. But no person or bike present. I thought about circling back to take an ironic photo, but thought better of it. No telling if the guy was in the bushes taking a wee/toke/injection, or busted, or escaped unscathed. If it's still there this evening I will circle back after all.

I'd post my local forecast but I'm sure to be upstaged by someone in Phoenix or Houston. We haven't had any real heat waves yet. We were camping on the coast this weekend where it was 70 in the day and 60 at night... ahhhh
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Old 07-15-19, 02:12 PM
  #1254  
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
.....I'd post my local forecast but I'm sure to be upstaged by someone in Phoenix or Houston. We haven't had any real heat waves yet. We were camping on the coast this weekend where it was 70 in the day and 60 at night... ahhhh
#jealous of the temps and camping vs working and the heat.
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Old 07-16-19, 05:26 AM
  #1255  
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A pleasant commute again this morning. My take a look mirror came off of my helmet. I need to get this fixed before my ride home this evening. It feels weird to not have the mirror.
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Old 07-16-19, 06:20 AM
  #1256  
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Encountered a section of closed road in one neighborhood going home yesterday. All the way across and for maybe 15 feet the asphalt was all torn up to the dirt underneath. I didn't noticed any warnings beforehand. I was able to easily hop on a sidewalk and keep going, but cars would have had a bit of distance to go back to another entrance and come around.

Easy ride in this morning with a side trip to the ATM. Got a bit sweaty around miles 10-12, but managed to slow it down a bit and cool down for the last few.
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Old 07-16-19, 09:28 AM
  #1257  
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Last night I rode down Liberty street and used the recently completed bridge to ride over the reworking interstate through town. It has been closed for few months. It really speeds up the ride home.

Instead of moving traffic around while they worked people voted to close it completely for 2 years. I personally think that it is working and better. They are ahead of schedule.

Left bridge is completed and the right bridge is the strollway/ bike path bridge i believe.


construction progress
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Old 07-16-19, 11:08 AM
  #1258  
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Originally Posted by RidingMatthew
They are ahead of schedule.
...said no one ever in relation to any City of Edmonton civic project. Bridges start a year behind schedule here.

Nice ride in, but a bit chilly again at 10C/50F. Wore long sleeves, but was pretty hot by the time I arrived at work. If we don't get some hot sunny weather soon, I think this will be the coldest, wettest summer in memory.
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Old 07-16-19, 01:46 PM
  #1259  
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There's no standard for instructions given to sternotomy patients. They tell us don't lift 5 lb, or 5 lb per hand, or 10 lb, or 8 lb. They tell us you can do normal activities after 3 months, or 16 weeks, or 6 months. But I've recently decided it wouldn't hurt any more than normal to fall down and I'm ready to ride a regular bike again. Tundra Man has already been back at it for a month and had his surgery a month after mine. But my surgeon told me, no bike riding for six months after my heart surgery due to fall risk, and that's why I bought the trike. I had planned to ride it through 7/26 which would be 5mo, and then put it up for sale... and riding it through August or it sold, whichever came first.

But now, my locally-shrinking employer has moved up my schedule. Our fence is coming down soon. That means I can't just leave the trike outside the back door without locking it. I don't care to leave it out in the sun at the bike rack, and it won't fit down the hallway into my cubicle. So it's back to regular bikes on that day. So I guess I'll put the trike up for sale now.
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Old 07-16-19, 03:53 PM
  #1260  
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
There's no standard for instructions given to sternotomy patients. They tell us don't lift 5 lb, or 5 lb per hand, or 10 lb, or 8 lb. They tell us you can do normal activities after 3 months, or 16 weeks, or 6 months. But I've recently decided it wouldn't hurt any more than normal to fall down and I'm ready to ride a regular bike again. Tundra Man has already been back at it for a month and had his surgery a month after mine. But my surgeon told me, no bike riding for six months after my heart surgery due to fall risk, and that's why I bought the trike. I had planned to ride it through 7/26 which would be 5mo, and then put it up for sale... and riding it through August or it sold, whichever came first.

But now, my locally-shrinking employer has moved up my schedule. Our fence is coming down soon. That means I can't just leave the trike outside the back door without locking it. I don't care to leave it out in the sun at the bike rack, and it won't fit down the hallway into my cubicle. So it's back to regular bikes on that day. So I guess I'll put the trike up for sale now.
If it brings you any reassurance, I hit the ground last Friday after bouncing off the front fender of a car, and my sternum survived intact.

So that's one anecdotal data point for you.
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Old 07-16-19, 07:25 PM
  #1261  
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Old 07-17-19, 06:19 AM
  #1262  
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Looks like there is a trend of posting pictures. I thought about taking one of the dead worm that somehow got kicked up and was dangling on the quick release lever of my front wheel. But it was a little too gross.

I also thought that I should have taken a picture of the turtle I helped cross the road this morning. He was in between the double yellow lines on a road I take. I stopped, put the bike down, and moved him to the side he was facing. He was just a bit bigger than a baseball. I see squashed ones every now and then, but hopefully this guy will be okay.

I saw a deer grazing down a side gravel driveway just a bit after that. Wildlife kind of day I guess.
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Old 07-17-19, 06:44 AM
  #1263  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 769:

Got up at 5:30 like usual to go out for my morning walk/run. Was preparing when I looked at the radar and saw a huge storm front moving in. It wasn't raining at the moment, but I guesstimated that if I went for a walk it would hit some time while I was out, and then I would have to ride to work through the brunt of the storm.

So I decided to head to the client's office early and hopefully beat the rain. I packed my running gear so I could fit my exercise in over lunch.

Well, it kind of worked. The storm arrived sooner than I had anticipated. It was starting to rain as I rolled out of the garage, and by the time I reached the client's office I was thoroughly drenched. About 10 minutes after I arrived, however, the skies completely unleashed so at least I beat the heavier part of the rain. We've gotten enough rain that once again they just issued a flash flood warning. I've lost count of how many of those we've had this year.

The nice thing about arriving at the client's office an hour before everyone else is there isn't anyone around to see me walk in looking like a wet dog, and I had plenty of time to dry off and change into nice clothes before being noticed. Although pretty much everyone here is now used to me coming in drenched, either with rain or sweat, so it wouldn't have raised any eyebrows.

As I was watching the big part of the storm through the office window it occurred to me that I forgot to turn off my lawn sprinklers this morning. Oops.
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Old 07-17-19, 06:55 AM
  #1264  
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Light rain when I got up this morning, but the radar looked like a gap was coming. The rain bike had a flat; do I take the "better" bike or fix the flat? Not much thought needed, but as I rolled out the hit-or-miss showers leading the front started hitting and missing. Probably 50% of my commute was light showers -- green on the weather radar, with yellow and orange coming! All in all, it was a nice ride -- my cycling cap bill was enough to keep the worst of the droplets off my glasses, the overcast kept things cool, and the free sweat let me push to complete the ride quickly.

@Tundra_Man, just think of your sprinkler water bill as helping to lower the reservoir level in advance of the flash flooding.
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Old 07-17-19, 09:54 AM
  #1265  
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Going on my 35th year commuting in Chicago

Going on my 35th year of commuting in Chicago.
Most of it on a 1987 Schwinn Voyageur which is still going strong.
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Old 07-17-19, 10:57 AM
  #1266  
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A bit warmer than yesterday (12C/54F), so I didn't bother with long sleeves. Sunny, breezy, nice ride.

Heading into the valley on a winding trail, something caught the corner of my eye. Glanced back to see a lycra-clad roadie following me and closing. At the bottom is a river crossing, then back up the other side. I'm pretty sure he followed me across the river, but when I glanced back halfway up the hill, he was gone. Thing is, there's no branch on that trail unless you want to head into mud, so he either turned around, stopped, or he's really slow on the uphill. I ain't as fast as I once was.
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Old 07-17-19, 11:15 AM
  #1267  
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humidity is back. I was absolutely dripping when i got home yesterday 95F and stifling humidity.
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Old 07-17-19, 02:44 PM
  #1268  
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At least the rain tends to cool it down. This isn't as bad as it looks - because not that much water - but I just don't like seeing the thunderstorm icons for every day.

The humidity though, like 90% every day, can be challenging.

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Old 07-17-19, 11:20 PM
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Very fast ride home which is strange because I wasn't feeling all that great, just wanted to push it
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Old 07-18-19, 05:47 AM
  #1270  
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First ride for this week. Humidity was up so was soaking wet when I got to the office so sat around in the AC for a little longer before jumping in the shower at our gym. Ride home tonight is going to be a hot one. I do have one person at my office who just started riding about three weeks ago and he rode this morning so its nice to see others starting to join in.
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Old 07-18-19, 06:30 AM
  #1271  
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Got a break from the heat on yesterday's ride home. It was still 93F, but it clouded up and a breeze was going to make it feel much better.

Left a little later than normal this morning, but made it to the office before 8am. Decent traffic.
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Old 07-18-19, 08:53 AM
  #1272  
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Weather was threatening, but this morning's ride stayed dry. Good for me, because two trips pushing hard to beat (or at least minimize) the rain yesterday has my legs talking back today.
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Old 07-18-19, 09:33 AM
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I've said before that I don't ride to work in the rain anymore, but I'm okay with riding home in the rain. Truth be told, I've tended to not ride to work if I even knew there was a high probability of rain for the ride home. It was more like, I'm okay riding home in an unexpected rain. Today, it will almost certainly be raining when I ride home, and in fact, there was a slight possibility of rain on the ride in, but I rode anyway. Very overcast and felt colder than the 13C showing on my thermometer. By the time I got to work, my bare, pasty white arms were almost as red as my t-shirt from the cold, damp air.
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Old 07-18-19, 10:05 AM
  #1274  
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The Hudson River, as viewed from Manhattan on Monday night. That's New Jersey on the other side. The river is about a mile and a half wide!

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Old 07-18-19, 10:43 AM
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Faster and faster
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