Riding home yesterday evening, I reached the towpath just as it was getting dark, I'd say the sun had set maybe 10-15 minutes earlier, and light was fading fast. Just as I turned onto the towpath I saw a critter swimming, not far but headed away from me, and it hadn't seen me yet. So I stopped and got out my phone to see if I could get a photo of it when I got closer. When I got closer, phone in hand, I saw that it was a small mammal, its back just out of the water. The whole animal was about a foot long, not counting its tail. I'd say it was black, but in the fading light just about everything was black and anyway, most animals look black when they're in the water. Before I could get close enough to get a photo, the beastie saw me, and disappeared with an impressive flick of its tail, making a splash almost a foot high. I waited, camera at the ready, but I did not see the little guy come up for air again. Sneaky.

So, needless to say, this isn't my photo... but I'm pretty sure it was a mink. I' saw a mink not far from there last year, so I know they're around.

http://www.johnsmyth.ie/blog/gallery...ck/mink-1a.jpg

70s in February
 

Been nice commuting this week, 60s-70s all week in southeast virginia, I'll take it! Haven't used the car since Monday

28F (warm!), gray, then it started to snow, about 8 hours earlier than it was supposed to.

So I guess today wouldn't be a good day to attempt to pedal a giant wing across La Manche, eh?

Mink, otter, maybe a fisher. Prob. too small to be a woodchuck. They must hibernate around here; we see a lot of them in the lakes/rivers/creeks around here, but only in fair weather.

"A terrestrial day-active animal, the woodchuck hibernates in snowy climes....."

Oh, the woodchucks are not hibernating. I saw one just the other day, and I have seen them at the canal. But I'm told they don't like to swim.

Otter is a good point. I think it was too small, but what do I know, light conditions were poor and I didn't get a good look. I've wondered about them, but not sure I've ever seen one (I think not). I don't think fishers come this far south.

We definitely have beavers in this part of the canal, I almost hit one last spring! I last saw the beaver in early December. Much much bigger, really another order of magnitude.

Whatever it was that I saw yesterday, I have to admit: I'm partial to mink! My wife has a stuffed one in her classroom, which was roadkill I found about 20 miles from where I saw the one yesterday.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2862/...ba11fecc_b.jpg

Oh - given the location - Montauk monster, maybe?

So I got yelled at last night by a guy... on a bike!

So I'm heading home from work around 8:30pm, and I'm on a street with no bike lane, but which is pretty quiet by NYC standards. There aren't any cars traveling in my direction, but up ahead I see two guys on bikes. They look like they are talking to one another, and riding pretty slowly, so I'm closing in on them at a decent clip. I'm not flying or anything, just moving along.

These guys are riding two abreast, with a bit of space between them, but again there isn't much traffic on this street, so whatever. I see there is enough space to just ride right by in the lefthand side of the lane (a few feet inside the double yellow line, where a car might have their driver side tires)... BUT, as soon as I get to the point where I have to move over to go around, the guy on the left decides it's a good time for him to practice his no hands riding, and he proceeds to swerve to the left almost immediately.

Now, I still have just enough time to either brake, or cross the double yellow into the oncoming traffic lane, and I do the latter because I see that no cars are coming. Still, as all of this is happening, I let our a solid "hey" to let them know I'm there (I don't have a bell, even though you are supposed to have a bell, but whatever)... So how does Mr. No Hands that just swerved directly into my path reply? He goes with a good old, "What the f--k is your problem?" I didn't feel like slowing down to explain to him what my problem was, so I just left it alone. NY isn't what it used to be...

It isn't?

In a really weird turn of events, a local news station caught wind of today being three years since the last time I drove to work, and called me up. They asked if they could interview and film me. They met me as I got off work at 6 PM tonight, and here's what aired during the 10 PM news: KSFY.COM: Sioux Falls Man Gives Up His Car For A Bike

Riding home in the snow last night (we have 8" now!) I decided to use x-walks to circumvent the traffic circle 2 blocks from home rather than ride it like I usually do. Pulled up to the 2nd x-walk, pushed the button for the signal, knocked myself off balance, could not unclip (shoe frozen to pedal?), put my arm out to block the fall, dislocated my shoulder! My shoulder popped back in while I was on the ground so I got up, crossed the street, rode the rest of the way home. Lesson: stay in the traffic circle!!! Actually, the traffic circle was gridlocked so I am sure I would have inspired road rage if I had gone through it passing the stuck cars, so there maybe was no good outcome here (other than not toppling...)

38F and misty. I wouldn't call it rainy, but it rained in the early hours and the drizzle was just hanging around. Just fine for riding really. Traffic seemed light today too, so that was nice. I just took it easy and enjoyed the time outside before sitting in the office most of the day.

33 degrees and spitting rain with a rare easterly wind, not bad overall. Rode all five days last week not sure what'll I do this week.

I took the car today. I'm still feeling a little rattled from last week's run-in with a car, and I'm waiting on some gear to come in the mail (100% reflective jacket, cycliq light/camera). I did get a new front light and moved my old one to my helmet. I also spent some time yesterday figuring out a new route to avoid my Least Favorite Road as much as possible. It'll necessitate a little riding on flat dirt, but hey, that's why I have a hybrid, right? I'm going to drive test it this afternoon and then hopefully ride Wednesday if all goes well.

After the unseasonably warm weather, it took me a while to get used to still-warm-for-February temps 20F colder. I was chilled for the first three miles, then sitting for nearly two minutes at the top of a hill got me warmed up and I ended up sweating the rest of the way in. Guess I didn't need to wash my jacket this weekend. :(

After last week's incident report, I charged the batteries for the camera on my rain bike and turned them on this morning. It made me a bit nervous for a while -- everything I do is on record! and then I settled down. If I ran a stop sign, it was because there was no traffic visible in all four directions.

I searched and searched this morning for my second waterproof sock this morning aka wasted 15 minutes on something that really ticked me off. It rained hard on my way in but my raincoat kept me dry and warm too. I was fogging up on the glasses but waterproof gloves, coat and socks made the ride doable. it was 32-33F and raining the whole way. NOT WHAT THE WEATHER APP SAID IT WOULD BE. yay its Monday and rainy

That's seriously cool! Great shout out to Target wicking shirts - they're the best!! Some weird commuting weather today. It snowed yesterday, then last night it rained and even though it was 33F this morning, snow + rain = ice. I laughed at a guy riding a fat tire bike as he was sliding all over the place. Not me - studly tires for the win!

Almost every time I chicken out and drive (the spare car, aka my car) home from work because of the weather forecast, I kick myself the next day. And then there are the days that are just miserable to be outside. Forecast for tonight is maybe a light shower, but tomorrow morning they're calling for a lot of rain. If it were spread out evenly, it would be only about 0.1" of rain during my 45 minute commute. Capt. Murphy's weather forecast goes something like, "If you drive the car, there might be a light mist in the morning. If you ride the bike, you'll have to deal with an inch of rain that's going to hit you two miles from the house."

What to do, what to do...

Call its bluff. If you don't mind dealing with the inch of rain every now and again, most of the time Murphy fails and it's no great challenge. IME.

Dude, that was awesome. Interesting that they went through the details of your attire, but pretty much ignored the details of your bike and equipment.

We filmed that, but they cut it out in the final edit. We actually shot about 15 minutes of interview.

I suppose from their perspective they were more interested in how I keep warm than the details about my bike. It was -4F when we were filming. The reporter guy complained the entire time when we were doing outside shots, even though we shot some footage downtown, then he drove in his heated car to my house while I rode home where we could shoot some more footage.

Ha, that's funny. I was actually wondering how many times they made you ride by the cameraman in order to get some of those on-the-bike shots.

i am going to drive... i mean i have a trainer set up at home i could ride that when I get home. got to take care of the body..

@pdlamb and @RidingMatthew - let's do this! Don't make us southerners look too soft now. :lol:

It was just a heavy drizzle for my commute, but no real rain on the way in. Low 40s. My clothes are quite damp, so I've hung them to hopefully air dry enough during the day.

@mgw4jc more power to ya I drove. Wearing glasses in this misting fog drives me crazy. I have a lunch meeting today and am planning to walk to it. It will probably be raining then.

I timed it sorta right, just a light shower on the way in. (Really right would be to goof off until this afternoon when the rain quits and go for a long ride!) Bare-legged since it was near 60F (range on weather apps 54-64F, who really knows?) and I didn't want to deal with soggy tights or leg warmers. I'm glad it wasn't colder. Cycling cap, once I pushed my helmet forward to keep the bill down, kept the top part of my glasses clear.

I think I'm going to come up with a work-related errand so I can take the long way home and charge my time; it's supposed to get back to seasonable 30 degrees tonight and I want to enjoy the mini-break.