"Back" in the swing of things…

Commuting is back in full swing and my back is doing much better. I can put in long slow miles without my it complaining too much now, which is a welcome change. Last month I got a commuter award that motivated me further to avoid taking slack days by just riding to the bus stop and as a result I’ve put in several hundred miles plus in the previous weeks of commuting. (Big for me especially with loaded panniers) Last week was the longest in a while with a total tally of 165 miles from Monday through Friday.

It's a major award! Not quite as a good as a leg lamp, but it will do.

Stashed a "greenway broom" along this wall near walmart to sweep off glass from above.

I need to remember to bring some spray paint to disguise the new public tool.

Somehow I’ve been dodging most but not all of the afternoon thunderstorms. (yesterday I got hammered in a severe thunderstorm shortly before getting home) For a few I’ve had to hunker down in park shelters, but for the most part I’ve been hitting the lulls in between well. The weather for morning commutes has been cool and damp followed by hot clammy afternoons, so motivating myself to ride in the mornings has been a lot easier.

Looking out the lab windows some days...

It feels safer to stay a little later and get some extra work done.

Torrential rains always generate interesting water hazards.

Fenders are good.

Condo construction is bad.

Complaints to the city that make them repave quickly...good.

Lots of debris on the way these past few weeks.

Strawberry and banana shakes await me at home in the evenings as I sit on the porch and watch the distant thunderstorms.
Got out for a little trail work here and there and now I’ve really got the hankering to get back on the mtn bike. I’ve got it all adjusted and set up, I just need a week or so of dry weather so I don’t go shredding up wet trails.

Finally got a weekend to take it a little easy, did some yard work and a nice long rec road riding with D, DH, and E out far west on Sunday. I now have an upgraded cycle computer, which lets me log some ride data. I'm most interested in the elevation profiles, but I'm sure I figure everything out in short order. Here's my first attempt at a data log from our nice easy little ride...

Our route.


Speed? Clearly something happened here...



Elevation profile seemed to work well.

Looking forward to fat tire riding in the very near future...

In other news the new "Earth Unfare" opened at the old Bi-Lo site. While I support a message of sustainability their example is laughable. The parking lot was full of people from the Sequoyah hills area who drove their suburbans anywhere from about 1-3 miles down to the store (probably alone). I observed a woman in an Escalade parked with its engine running to keep the A/C on, while talking on her cell phone as I took a picture of this...


This is a bin of water bottles for people on the greenway to entice them into the store where they can buy a $5 head of organic lettuce trucked here all the way from California in much smaller quantities than your typical veggie shipments. (Don't worry it was probably solar powered) Bottled water is perhaps the pinnacle symbol of modern day wastefulness and unsustainability in a community where public water supplies are perfectly good to drink from. However, they did have a recycle bin next to it so the bottles could be trucked away, reconstituted releasing a variety of "toxic compounds" and resold to another customer who has been brainwashed into believing everything public is going to give you cancer. Funny thing is there were 5 empty bottles on the ground and 2 in the recycle bin when I went by. I challenge anyone who says our public water is bad to go to Mexico and have a cool glass of water without getting a raging case of GI disturbance. Until people learn to reproduce responsibly, organic sustainability is a waste of time as our carrying capacity for the planet is already reaching critical levels with current food production.


At least the New Earth Fare is in the third creek watershed vicinity so if you need an extra organic, chemical free, spring fed water bottle just head on downstream to the TN river pollution booms at the end of the tainted tributaries and pick one up.

And this morning another frivolous adventure in excessive over activism...