Cycling...Bicycling

I just want to pedal my bike and live.

Flip You

"You don't ever post to your blog"

FLIP YOU!

Today, I have acquired a piece of art.

Riding randomly through Olympia, I passed an art gallery, the matter! gallery (www.matteroly.com). There were some really amazing robot metal sculptures that called out to me. I was compelled to go inside. I ended up bringing a small piece home on a free-trial basis, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be the first real piece of art that I will buy.

Planning

I've only recently (within the last few months) discovered the power of planning. I've never planned before and rarely even thought of what I'd like to be doing at any point in the future. I've always just been reacting to my immediate environment... got me through high schools and 10 years of "working".

But now I'm taking time to plan out my actions even as much as a week in advance and I've discovered that it is a powerful tool. The world should now fear me.

A day in the Life.

Yesterday,
Wanted to get my bike up to the shop in Tacoma where I bought it 4 years ago. Figured I'd leave early enough in the afternoon that I could take my time. And I decided to ride to downtown Oly and then take the bus to Tacoma - which is silly since it's in the opposite direction and I could catch the Express Bus in Lacey.

Long story short, I had a good time taking photos in Oly and didn't make it to the bike shop before 6. But I did find a nice Thai place down the street from it. So the whole trip wasn't entirely a complete waste of time.

Here's the one photo I shot in Tacoma:


Oly was awesome. The sun was out, the air was fresh, gulls played for my camera, it was like a mini-summer. By the time I got off the Bus in Tacoma, downtown was in mostly in shadow and it was bitterly cold. I thought I saw snow flying during the bus ride down I-5. The ride home from Lacey was extremely cold.

This morning, when I woke up, there was snow on the ground. No bike riding today.

Full moon ride with Pink Floyd and Freezing Conditions (with Droid track)

So I got my bike tuned up today just in time for a ride under the Full moon. By the time it was out of the shop, it was already dark and I had a few miles to ride to get home... and I hadn't anticipated riding in the dark, so I had no light. Fortunately the ride requires little sharing of pavement with motorized vehicles and the full moon provides more than adequate illumination.

I got home with little incident on a relatively smooth riding bike (though it does need a bit more work and I have to go easy on torque and prepare for loss of power train functionality. so far it has presented little more than annoyance.)

Next I had to take Molly for a walk because she saw that I was preparing for a serious ride and looked so sad at the prospect of being stuck indoors. So we had a nice walk which provided a relaxing leg stretch as intermission between cycling forays.

So after midnight I departed on a journey of undetermined duration and distance (my favorite kind). I ended up riding over 30 miles... probably closer to 35 in freezing conditions, but with clear pavement (♥ winter weather in the coastal Pacific Northwest) and nearly adequate insulation (I have stiff clipless shoes with zero insulation).

I recorded a partial track as permitted by my Droid's battery use while constantly fetching and recording GPS data... but I got a nice stretch of the first half of the ride.

and here it is...

and some stats since they can be hard to see in the embedded window...
Total Distance: 24.40 km (15.2 mi)
Total Time: 1:30:40
Moving Time: 1:30:38
Average Speed: 16.14 km/h (10.0 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 16.15 km/h (10.0 mi/h)
Max Speed: 25.37 km/h (15.8 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 20 m (64 ft)
Max Elevation: 133 m (438 ft)
Elevation Gain: 226 m (741 ft)
Max Grade: 9 %
Min Grade: -8 %
Recorded: Thu Feb 17 23:24:12 PST 2011
Activity type: - cycling

Now I'm extremely fatigued and desiring what I anticipate will be a very restful sleep.

4 years with a D40

I've had my Nikon D40 for nearly 4 years. I consider this to be my first real camera. And I've made many pictures with it. To show off a few of these, I've created a new album in Picasa. here are a few of them. click the link below any one to go to the album.

From 4 years with a D40

From 4 years with a D40

From 4 years with a D40