Smile!

Last night, I stood at a red light while pedestrians crossed in the usual flood in front of me. A long-haired tween and a heavily-tattooed father figure walked together holding Top Pot doughnut bags (this was the intersection at the famed doughnut bakery). She looked right at me, gave a knowing glance, and smiled! She made my day! 

I try to make eye contact and smile at as many people as I can on the street, but this is particularly hard to do. Often people refuse eye contact unless they want something. Getting someone to smile back at me is especially challenging, and more so when I am on a bike. It's sort of a mission of mine, to induce smiles on others, and so there is nothing better than to have someone do the same to me. Hooray young woman! It's hard not to smile when you have a doughnut on a sunny afternoon walk with your father, and I thank her for sharing her joy with me. 

Fremont Bridge Bike Count: 351 (normal time)

Red-light Jumpers

credit: http://www.croydoncyclist.co.uk/

As I pulled out of my apartment, a guy (hereafter dubbed “Antsy Yellowjacket”) zipped past me on his bike. He and I pedaled at about the same pace, but he ran every red light he could. When I see these folks, I always imagine myself casually catching up to them, proving how futile running red lights is (not to mention reckless). Sadly, this never happens, as someone who pedals at half my speed on a big wheel beach cruiser still wheels ahead out of sight when they run red lights. No matter how hard I try, these lawless pedalers have a clear speed advantage. But not today. Not today. Light timing ruled in my favor. I never lost sight of Antsy Yellowjacket. I caught up to him at every busy intersection, and we rode side-by-side when we parted ways at 5th & Bell. We rode over 7 miles together, and his pushing ahead got him nowhere. I will admit that red-light-runners have the best advantage downtown, as those intersections have slow-moving, easy to cross traffic. 
I got to work an hour earlier than normal today, which meant I needed badge access to the parking area. But today my badge didn’t work. There is a special exhibit in my building valued at about 21 million dollars, which means security of the building is button-tight. But for me, it only translates as annoying. I have 4 more early shifts to finish before the exhibit, and our tight security, leaves. I can still access the bike parking cage, it just takes 5 extra minutes and requires me to walk my bike around loops of tight corners. Wah. Also, the super fabulous amazing shower head that was just installed in our shower room got replaced with the same old, limp shower head it had originally. Double wah. Biking is hard work, I savor every advantage as a special treat and encouragement. 
I am still getting dreamy-eyed questions on these sunny days about my biking, “How was your ride? It’s soooo nice out!” Curmudgeon me still hasn’t recovered from the winter. Just the other day a guy on a 10-speed jumped off the sidewalk, over a curb into the bike lane, cutting me off and making me squeal my brakes. A patch on his back pack read, “FUCK YOU” in large print. These are the sorts of things sunny days bring.
My Fremont Bridge bike counts have been all over the place lately. I’ve had numbers from 180 (this morning, an hour earlier than usual) to 540 (the other day, super sunny, an hour later than usual). I am seeing about a 200-count variance between sunny days and rainy/windy/stormy ones. This is interesting, as the numbers were so steady for so many months.  

Back to those red-light runners. Bikeyface reports a similar problem:

Chilly Hilly 2016 Photos

Photo from: http://www.marathonfoto.com/

MarathonFoto released professional samples of photos of the Chilly Hilly ride. Similar to the one shown above, most of the photos insinuate that I am miserable. Perhaps I am about to make an intense and powerful turn?  I am not sure what exactly is going on in the above photo, but it is a definite lean of concentration there. Or maybe the photographer caught me mid-fart. Just kidding. I don't fart and ride, that would be dangerous.  

Photo from: http://www.marathonfoto.com/

Luckily, MarathonFoto also took photos of me looking like my normal pedaling self. Whew! Now, I must point out one obvious thing. Given the dominate and plentiful watermarks on these photos, MarathonFoto didn't want me to do anything with this photo beyond decide to purchase it. MarathonFoto surely doesn't want me to do what I just did, which is take a screen shot of the photo their photographers worked hard to capture and share it like my own without paying them.

I've been paying money for organized group athletic events for 17 years. It's kind of my thing (you may or may have noticed from reading this very blog). I have purchased professional ride photos from many rides, but passed over countless others. For the photographer reading this and wondering why I haven't purchased photos, there are a few reasons: 

1. Not enough money. There have been years that covering the cost of the ride itself required several months of saving, so tossing $10 for a photo was a luxury I couldn't afford. I could afford it now, and still didn't cave (sorry, Marathon) 
2. No use for the photo. Obviously I have a use for these photos, as I have just posted screenshots on my blog and am waxing philosophical on them this very moment. But, back when photos offered were print only, I simply didn't know what to do with them. Hang a photo of myself on the wall? Weird. Give it to my mom? Do you really think anybody in my life needs another photo of me in a bike helmet? I think not. 
3. Just not a good photo. Many come through blurry, poorly centered, boring, or capture me in a way I don't want to look at (see top photo above). But here's the sad thing, that second photo actually looks kinda cool. I thought about buying it. Why not, right? Well, Marathon's Watermark is right over my face and I have no way of knowing if my face looks "good". I ended up buying a photo from a ride 4 years ago that had some key parts covered up by watermarks. When I got the photo, I found that the watermarks covered up features that would have kept me from buying the photo. I guess the joke was on me. Not this time, I'm not taking the risk. Sorry, MarathonFoto. Maybe some other day. 

Getting ready for the Emerald City Bike Ride

I have a feeling that there will be something magnificent about the inaugural Emerald City Bike Ride. Assuming I ever get there. At the moment, my bike is clean and shiny, but my brake cables aren't behaving. Hopefully I will get them in line before tomorrow morning!

I am surrounded by the Emerald City these days, between the anticipation for the Emerald City Bike Ride and going to the Emerald City Athletic Club. I wonder what  L. Frank Baum would think if he knew so many real cities would adopt the name of his bright, lustrous, and utterly artificial city in Oz. I wonder why any city would so ready adopt a name the is synonymous with smoke and mirrors? 

Well, wish me luck on these brakes, because I won't stop until I get to the Emerald City!

Squirrel!

A squirrel crossed my path in a residential street this morning. It occurred to me that this seemed strange and shouldn’t. I regularly saw “wild” animals in all the other towns I’ve lived in, especially while biking. Squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, ducks and geese would be normal sights. In Seattle I see droves of pigeons every day, but nothing else. I hope to see more squirrels as the summer unfolds, he was a fun sight.
What I didn’t see was any other cyclists. I didn’t come across a single other rider for the first 5 miles of my ride. This is unheard of. My home sits on a major bike corridor, and the route I take to work is one of the heaviest traveled by bike in the state. Filled with a Twilight Zone sense of eeriness, I wondered if I missed some important news about pending doom. Apparently it was just a fluke as riders congested downtown like usual.
As I pedaled downtown, I hit a red light at Pine. This is also unusual. I have a long light at Bell, that I meet while red about 99% of the time. Since downtown lights run on timers, the wait at Bell puts me on the exact same lights routine every day. The only variation is the one I mentioned before- the light timer occasionally changes at 5th and Virginia. It was set the “right” way today, but then I had to stop at Pine. Weird. Also,  Pine was flooded with water for a block in every direction. Weird! It hadn’t rained in days, so all other roads were bone dry. Why was the road so wet that I made a wake as I passed? 
Then, I get to work and someone parked their bike in my spot. MY SPOT! I parked my bike in the exact same spot every day since June 2015! Every single day! I always go for that spot, but cannot during Bike Month because so many people ride that month that the cage would fill up before I could get to it. But why now? It was the only bike in the cage. It’s not really a big deal, but these fair weather riders should pay respect to those who have suffered through the long, dark winter! Pay some respect! The sun comes out, which is great, but now the roads, MY ROADS, are littered with swerving wide-eyed riders. And  taking MY PARKING SPOT! How dare they?!?!?! 

Fremont Bridge Bike Count: 395 (30 mins. later than usual)

Wettest winter in Seattle history

Source: http://www.seattleweatherblog.com/

I just heard word that recently meteorologists deemed this winter to be the wettest in all of Seattle’s history. This means I am justified in complaining, right? I mean, I like to focus on positive or at least constructive topics for this blog. I avoided whining about the dark and the rain. I get it, I live in Seattle, it’s rainy. If I don’t like it, I can leave. I know, I know. The thing is, I’ve worked a swing shift for the past 3 years; since I moved to Seattle. That meant that I rode one way of my commute in daylight year-round. Also, Seattle’s weather patterns somehow make the 11 am hour, my old commute hour, the driest time of the day. I knew switching to an 8 to 5 schedule meant I’d be riding in the dark both ways for 4 months straight. I knew it would be hard. But I didn’t know it was going to be 4 months straight of dark and wet. And this hasn’t been “northwest rain”, either. “Northwest rain” is a lovely rain; a kind of mist that fills the air and runs on the street, but doesn’t really get you wet or weigh you down. No, Seattle’s rain this year has been a “Rocky Mountain rain”. This is the rain that drenches everything it touches within a minute and then keeps going. This year of commuting hasn’t just been hard, it’s been really hard. But I did it, I persevered. It’s left me a little rougher around the edges, however. It will take me a while to recover this long winter of commuting, and I can’t honestly be certain I’ll do it again. If parking didn’t cost me $30 a day and the bus was at all reliable, I would have quit commuting long ago. Daylight savings hit me like a final blow. My commutes went from wet and black to wet and grey. It was like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, and every day it got brighter. Then daylight savings hit. I met my mornings in black darkness again. It’s been practically unbearable. I’d rather sleep in and miss work than have to commute in that. Now with this new data, I don’t feel like such a wimp after all! This is the wettest winter in all of Seattle history! My struggle is somehow suddenly justified! Never mind that it’s only a hair wetter than it was in 1999, I didn’t live here then so it doesn’t matter. 

"As of 1:56 p.m. yesterday (March 1), Seattle had received 38.22 inches of rain during that period of time (the water year that runs from Oct. 1 to March 1), just a hair over the 1998-1999 record of 38.19, but about 13 inches above average"           -Cliff Mass, University of Washington Professor of Atmospheric Sciences professor and KPLU radio personality

Sources: 

• http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-wettest-winter-in-seattle-history.html
• http://komonews.com/weather/scotts-weather-blog/congratulations-seattle-youve-made-it-through-the-wettest-winter-on-record
• http://q13fox.com/2016/02/19/wettest-winter-ever/
• http://seattle.curbed.com/2016/3/2/11144086/wettest-winter-in-seattle-history

Women and Men, Women and Men*

Out of curiosity, I decided to count all the men and women I saw biking this morning. When actually pressed to label a cyclist with a gender, I found it difficult to do. So many cyclists wear the same black plants, reflective jacket and helmet. Both men and women tend to have long, board-like body types. I noticed my own body shape change and straighten the more I started riding more than other activities. Tufts of hair or ponytails poking out from under the helmets did not confirm gender. I opted to only count those with determinate characteristics (beard, hourglass figure, etc.) This meant that I really only counted those who passed me. Several cyclists would catch up behind me at stoplights to later trail off who didn’t get counted. I didn’t feel like looking behind me and staring. I counted 26 men and 5 women. Tomorrow I think I’ll count pedestrians and/or bus stop lines. The more I paid attention, the more I felt like there were more men out there in general, and I’m curious to confirm that. 

And the light on 5th and Virginia is back to normal! For the past few months one light has been out of timing with all the others on 5th avenue. This is the only stretch of road, to my knowledge, in all of Seattle that is timed so that cars can drive through all the stoplights at the speed limit without having to stop. While I can’t keep up the 25 mph speed limit, without traffic I can make it .6 mi. all the way to Union. A car without traffic could get to Spring at .8 mi. After 7:30, I almost always have to stop at Pine for a bus, cab, or cars turning right, and then at every other block where cars turn right until I get to work. It’s been frustrating to have to stop at Virginia every day, because this is a flat stretch of road that I can blast through at about 20-22 mph, fast enough to not tick off the cars behind me. Of course, this stretch is often  full of green-light-texters, and timid-parkers who slow everyone down. The great thing about this stretch though is that all right-hand turns have a turn lane, so no one is slowed down by a turner (they have to wait until pedestrians clear the road, which is never). The light at Virginia regularly goes out of sync on Sundays, as it's been, but not usually during the week. I am not sure what the goal with that is. Perhaps, if I am lucky enough, a traffic engineer will read my blog and comment (hint, hint, you traffic engineer you!)

Fremont Bridge Bike Count: 263 (I was 155 yesterday, crossing it an hour before normal)

*Today's blog post inspired by TMBG

Move along, nothing to see here

I apologize for having not said much about this week's commutes. I know you are horribly disappointed. The truth is, I haven't had much to say. It rained a lot. It stormed a lot. The wind gusts knocked my socks off during another one of Seattle's "gale warning" days. Actually, I lied. My socks stayed put, too scared to move. The wind did blow the giant gas grill over at home, tearing the door screen and nearly shattering the glass. Chilly Hilly left me sore and tired. I have been in high hundreds to low two-hundreds on the bike counter. Perhaps next week's rides will have more nail-biting tales to offer. 

Wooleaters ride-ready

The Wooleaters bike group all got together to create out own woolen-sheep patches to proudly display when we go on group rides together. We got together, enjoyed some wine and cheese and crafted away. The felt we used was actually partially made of wool! Each person crafted a unique and creative sheep. Every sheep came out amazing! 

We will have our inaugural sheep-showing at Chilly Hilly this Sunday where all Wooleaters on the ride will wear our new logos. If you see us on the ride, give us a "Baaaaa!" as you pass by.

I also made some sheep cookies for the crafting fest, pictured below. They are actually Timmy, the young and mischievous lamb, from the "Shaun the Sheep" children's program. Yummy! Good energy-filled simple carbs!

EGGS-actly!

An EGGS-ample of my breakfast; eggs and veg links

I decided to bring eggs to work this week to have fancy eggs-poached-in-the-microwave breakfasts. Yesterday I nestled them on a spinach pillow inside my lunch bag. I worried about them breaking and oozing all over my lunch all the way to work. See, Seattle’s bike lanes are riddled with seams, cracks, man-hole covers, pour-over fixes, and potholes. As it turned out they arrived just fine. Color me EGG-static! 
EGG-cited to take in all my eggs for the rest of the week, I placed them in a plastic egg carrier used for camping. Because it’s for travel, right? I heard my eggs rattle with every bump, lump, and divot I ran over. LOUDLY. The sound was EGGS-treme! I tried my best to navigate the smoothest path possible. But still, all I could hear was clunk, clunk, rattle, rattle, rattle, shake. I am not EGGS-aggerating here. A few miles in, I stopped to EGGS-ercise and tentatively checked out my eggs. I was a little scared that they’d all be cracked, but took comfort in knowing that they probably wouldn’t keep rattling so much if they were broken. One poor little guy didn’t make it. It was EGGS-plosive. I removed the unharmed toughies and put them back upon a bed of spinach in my lunch bag. The remains of the EGGS-iled weakling sat perched still in the plastic carrier, out of contact from the others. Rhymes of humpty dumpty filled my head the rest of my  ride into work. All the kings horse and all the kings men…

Fremont Bridge Bike Count: 209

When school bus drivers get distracted

Enough daylight rose above the horizon at 7am for me to change the setting on my headlight. Which means that my bike computer won’t have interference and I can use it. Since I started climbing “the hill” at 7, I took this opportunity to track my speed for the first time in many, many dark months. I had a strong and powerful start, and didn’t drop below 10mph- which is the goal to stay at throughout the length of the hill. 
Yet, it was all for naught. Just at the first apex, the “false summit” as it were, just past the public bus bump-out, a school bus sat parked right over the bike lane with its “unlawful to pass” flashers on. Crushed, I pulled to a complete stop. Other cyclists behind me, piled up doing the same. Moments passed, cars started to pile up. None of us saw any children, and a lady next to me (I’ll call her 90’s neon jacket) commented that this shouldn’t even be a bus stop. Just then, the flashers changed to steady red lights and we passed on. 90’s neon noted that the driver was sitting in her seat texting. All that for texting! Moments later the school bus passed us, with the driver still texting as she passed. She pulled just ahead of us into a real loading zone, not on the bike lane, with her yellow lights flashing. She chose a much better place to sit. As we passed her, we saw her still chin-deep in her phone. Maybe I'll get to attack that hill tomorrow. 
Fremont Bridge Bike Count: 201

Sunny Hilly (Chilly Hilly training ride)

Today I joined the Wooleaters on the hilliest possible ride on the north end in preparation for the Chilly Hilly next weekend. I did not want to ride at all this morning. I nearly canceled, having worked late last night, not being in a good mood, being sick and tired of riding after so much commuting in the dark and rain, and having a stomach ache. All seemed like good reasons to bail, especially since it's been raining nothing but cats and dogs all week. But, I made it out. And the bike gods rewarded me and the crew with warm sunshine our whole ride. 

• 30.4 miles

• 2:37 ride time

• 11.6 av mph

• 33 mph max

• 72 average cadence

• 1992 feet climbed

• 394 feet max altitude

• 145 average pulse

• 176 max pulse

Waiting for all the riders

Nobody here but me

This how the employee bicycle cage looks in mid-February at work. It’s how it looks on most days in February….and January, and December. Granted, not all commuters use the cage, and not all work the same shift I do, but just wait until I post a picture of the cage in May! It will be full! May is Bike Month, and everybody comes out and rides. What is it about Bike Month that gets so many people pedaling? Why don’t they keep doing it? A big, organized competition comes with a lot of social pressure, so that must me it. Maybe someday I’ll really understand. 

5-Hand Friday

Drivers do this thing when they are turning from a lesser street to a major street; they steadily roll into the intersection while they look for traffic. I do the same thing. It really helps when the street has parallel parked cars or trees making it hard to see. However, drivers frequently also do this thing, where they look right at me just as the car is covering the bike lane, and don’t register me at all. When this happens, I give them “the hand.” I feel confident they will see me, and hope that the added movement of my hand will take my visibility to the next level- of actually being seen. I also use it in hopes the car notices that they have obstructed the bike lane, making me either brake and loose precious momentum, or swerve out into the car lane. Today I did this 5 times. How is it weeks can go by and I don’t need to use “the hand” at all, and suddenly I need to use it five times?

A woman downtown never saw me. She was turning left from the left on a one-way. I was in the left-hand lane as I would also be turning left at the intersection just ahead. She pulled out at full speed without once looking in my direction. I had to come to a full stop. I haven’t had to do that in a long time!

Fremont Bridge Bike Counter: 193

Indy 500 CDL (commuter ride report)

As I pedaled down a long straight-a-way, a semi pulling two trailers of gravel started to pass me as it decided to floor the gas. I looked at the yellow light ahead. It was clear that there was no way the semi would make it. I had already started coasting, knowing I wouldn’t make the light either. The semi was peeling down the left hand turn lane, and I thought it was pretty ballsy for a long truck with such a heavy load to take a left hand turn on a stale red light during rush hour. Some trucks take a whole light cycle just to make the turn. At the last second, the truck suddenly changed its mind and pounded the breaks. It made a loud stinking screeching noise and bowed out to the side, into the bike lane. It stopped in time. I was glad I decided to coast when I did or the truck would have bowed into me. This particular intersection gets a lot of bicycle traffic, so there is a designated green box for all the bikes turning left. The skidding semi covered the left hand turn box, the crosswalk, and the green way for bikes going straight. I had the option to either turn around and pedal to the end of the semi to wait for my left or sit in the car's right hand turn lane. Knowing the semi would take the whole green to turn, I opted to block off the cars wanting to go right. I sat there worried that a car wanting to turn right would come behind me and lay on his horn while I had to smell the overwhelming stench of the burnt smell brought on by the skidding semi. I was impressed how strongly it smelled! Luckily, no one came behind me until the light turned green. I signaled spastically (did the semi even see me? He could have swerved right on me while he was braking!) and pedaled out as quickly as I could so as not to be in the way of the truck’s wide turn. It all worked well. While the semi took the next stretch as quickly as humanly possible, we met again at the next light 500 feet later without alarm or craziness. I chuckled, the poor guy didn’t get ahead at all with all this. The rest of my ride continued without incident. 

Sunrise, sunset (commuter ride report)

It’s that magical time of year again, when I get to bike to and from work underneath the brilliant orange, red and purple that is the Seattle sunrise and sunset. How do I get to be so lucky that there is a sweet spot where I can see both in one day? I loved it when this happened in the fall, and hope this spring session treats me with clear skies so I can enjoy it while it lasts. What makes the Seattle skyline such a deep, dark purple? If there are any meteorologists out there, I am curious to know. I don’t remember seeing such dark purples anywhere else I’ve lived.

Fremont Bridge Bike Counter: 263 –Really! Look at that! Still over 100 more people than I’ve seen all winter!

Light, the light! (a commuter ride report)

Today I had the day off from work so I decided to ride my bike to the health club. As I pedaled home, something did not feel right at all. I pondered; was it my tires? No, they were well inflated. Was it because I rode without the load of breakfast, lunch, and a change of clothes in my panniers? No, that wasn't right. What made me feel so odd, so different? Why did the road and the cars all look so strange? Then, as I squinted in the overcast Seattle grey canopy- it hit me. This was the first day I've ridden my bike in the daylight in 4 full months! In fact, I have never ridden the route to my health club in the day light because I only joined a few months ago. No wonder everything looked so different! Hey, there's a lake over there! Looking forward to the oncoming spring and the return of the light!

Bike gadgets FTW

photo credit: http://www.monkeylectric.com

Last night a tall cyclist, I deemed him “fly white guy”, caught up to me at a traffic light. He commented on my colorful array of lights. I have 38 LED’s with my bike in 5 lights, so more than most. When I first starting riding I had nearly double that in LED’s, but I’ve upgraded in quality and lumens over the years so I am actually more visible with fewer lights. He still couldn’t figure out why my bike was strewn with cables and switches, so I showed him the air horn. I explained that it is useless any time you need it because you can‘t honk and brake at the same time. But then, as the light lingered red, I qualified that the horn was best for “green light texters”. He said that would be a good marketing slogan for PEMCO (local car insurance company); “Green light texter- you are not one of us.” I guess PEMCO’s current advertisements are based around a “We are a lot light you, you are one of us” campaign (great campaign for a local company). After that, we turned on separate roads only to meet up again at another light. We chatted again about the pros and cons of different side streets and then rode in silence for several blocks.

This morning “racing kit and backpack #53” (there are too many guys like this to tell them apart) gave me a thumbs-up as he passed me, hollering, “I like your lights! That’s awesome!” A few miles later “guitar case pannier” (how cool is that?!) passed me while hollering, “Great blue stars!” My monkey lights are in a star pattern at the moment. I’ve had them this way for months, and for some reason people are taking a notice now.

We are getting Rocky Mountain rains again. Except in the rocky mountains it only rains (or shall I say dumps) for 20 minutes or so, not the days on end we are seeing here. Potholes are springing up left and right on my route, and I wonder if the rain contributes to the road decay. Seattle certainly has a hard time keeping it’s roads in decent repair, it may be that the weather fights against it. This rain is uncharacteristic of the Northwest, however. Rains fall light here, we’ve grown to expect a constant dewy mist, the kind of thing that renders umbrellas useless. This rain breaks umbrellas!

Fremont Bridge Bike Counter: 143

Kali and the moon

photo credit: http://www.kalibhakti.com/

My morning got off to an unexpected start as my yoga instructor decided to channel the Hindu goddess Kali in class. She started out giving passionate, gory descriptions of a furious, fierce, blood-drinking woman wearing necklaces of skulls and a skirt of disembodied arms. The wakefulness and rapidity of the voice she used to describe the goddess didn’t fit with how I usually think of yoga; a quiet, meditative practice with candles and dark. All this everlasting hunger for blood and guts and digesting all the gory demons seemed more fitting for, perhaps, evening yoga. While most of my professional life included a large amount of blood and body fluids in some regard, I worried for any soft-stomached or vegetarian yogis who don’t often confront blood and flesh-tearing hunger stories. The ride into work followed the mythical morning. A misty, foggy nearly full (just 2 days after) moon illuminated the dark sky, making what is usually a black canopy around me a…brighter black canopy. My racing mind (and not so racing pedal feet) brought up visions of werewolves and all the hungry, hungry things we think up to scare each other with.

Fremont Bridge Bike Counter: 123

Business, business

photo credit: www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/02/24/will-ferrell-lego-movie-man-upstairs/5770727/

Unlike yesterday’s reflective ride, today’s ride was all business. First I spent a long time draining, washing, hanging, and adjusting fans on every bike accessory last night to ensure I would have dry everything this morning. The sheen of the water on the black roads and twilight and first light make it difficult to see. The road become one giant reflective path making everything on it indistinct. I perfected every hand signal, every turn, every pace, making myself as visible as possible. My eyes scanned the horizon above me in rapid, mouse-like rotation, ensuring nothing missed my awareness. The potholes, filled with water made black puddles like little black holes dappled across the mirror that was the road. A flock of school children crossing the road appeared to be mere shiny pixels on the road-mirror. Today was all business, business. I often times these days identify with the Will Ferrell character in The Lego Movie, making what once was fun into work. I especially feel that way these days, comparing the feel and nature of bike commuting to the recreational riding of years past.

Fremont Bridge Bike Counter: 167