Red-clad feet on a purple bike

Looking for me? Surprised that there are no new blog entries? I'm off on a week-long bike tour in Maine, and while I won't be posting new blog entries while I'm on the road, I will be updating a tour journal. Please join me there!

A glorious first day of summer

Somehow, I managed to stick with my plan to rest and managed to stay off of my bike today. It was a walking day though - a little less energy expended, but exercise nonetheless.

And it was a packing day too. I'm almost ready to take off for Maine with my bike and panniers. I'll be driving as far as Bangor on Thursday afternoon, then driving the few remaining miles to Ellsworth Friday morning. Then it will be time for me and my bike to hit the road.

Walking with my camera... I can't seem to stop taking pictures of all of the beautiful spring (into summer) flowers

Nice of this ladybug to pose for me, wasn't it?

Riding, then a planned pre-tour rest...

It was a beautiful evening for an after-work ride, and I hope that today's ride will satisfy me until I'm in Maine later this week. My sensible exercise plans for this week call for a ride today, followed by a short break. I'd like to be well-rested at the start of my tour, so I'm planning to just do some walking over the next couple of days. It's supposed to be a beautiful weather day tomorrow though, so I'll have to see if I can manage to stay off of my bike!

I was hoping for flowers amid these lily pads. There were buds but no blooms - I wonder, do they close at the end of the day? No matter, they were beautiful anyway.

This birthday announcement and celebration of blow-up toys caught my eye as I rode by, and my bike wanted to play too... She said that it's close enough to her birthday that she thought the display must be for her. I didn't want to disappoint her by telling her it's probably for a child living in the house.

A Canada Goose parade

Ah, the joys of spring with flocks of Canada Goose (or can they be called Canada Geese?)...

I took a back road "get me out of traffic" loop on my way to the office this morning, and all of a sudden traffic came to an absolute halt. At first I couldn't figure out what was happening, but then I saw them. A flock of Canada Geese - multiple sets of adults and their teenage offspring - decided that it was a good time to cross the road. I suppose most people would call this a big annoyance, their antics always bring a smile to my face. My only regret is that I didn't have a camera with me in the car!

What, no bike this morning? I had considered riding in today, and the weather supports a commute to work for the first time in a long while, but I'm trying to have a sort of a rest week before heading out to Maine at the end of the week. I plan to ride after work tonight, a ride that is half the length of my usual commute. And I will probably get in some walking for the next couple of days. It's time for a rest before the ride...

Gary and cool, but ending with sunshine

I didn't trust the weather on Friday enough to bike in to work, but I did leave early enough for a late afternoon ride. That was my intent when I left the office, but somehow I just didn't feel full of energy when I arrived home, so I decided to walk instead. It turns out that was the best decision I could have made. I got a good hours worth of fast walking in, stopping every so often to snap a picture. And 10 minutes after I got home, the skies absolutely opened up. It was hard to believe how hard the rain was falling, and it was even harder to believe it when I could look outside and see patches of blue in the very gray sky. If I had ridden, I would still have been out, and my bike & I would have been soaked. I was very glad I decided not to ride...

Saturday and Sunday were both gray and cool days, although after I got home from riding Sunday afternoon the clouds finally cleared, and the sun and blue sky appeared. My rides were slightly shorter than I had planned - in the 30-mile range instead of the 40-mile range - but I think that's OK. I feel like I'm ready for my upcoming wander in Maine. I may ride tomorrow, but I'm going to try take a couple of rest days in preparation for close to a week of riding days.

This is a glimpse of the sky Friday evening just 5 minutes before I finished my walk, and 15 minutes before that absolute deluge.

A wake-up surprise

I woke up this morning to find that my brain was trying to skip a day. For some reason, I thought it was Saturday. My first question was "why is my alarm going off at its early weekday time?". My second question came up when I checked the National Weather Service forecast for today. "Hey, why is it still showing the forecast for Friday? What's wrong with this picture?"

What was wrong with the picture was a not-so-obvious brain cramp. "No Denise, it's not Saturday. You have one more work day in the week, so you'd better get moving!"

I certainly hope that this weekday / workday that feels like an extra day goes by quickly...

My bike says... it's getting closer

Only one week to go before I head out with my bike for a wander in Maine...

The general vicinity for my tour? Ellsworth, Acadia National Park, and north. I've published the start of my journal. Right now it contains my thoughts (and plans) leading up to the tour.

I'm still busy sending wishes to the weather wizard for dry weather with relatively warm temperatures for my (close to a week) of wandering. I doubt that my wishes have anything to do with it, but I'm really hoping for temperatures in between the extreme heat of last week and the 40 degree drop in temperature to the 40s and low 50s in the last couple of days!

Walking in the mist

It's either been a bad weather week for biking or I've just been a total baby. I prefer to think it's the weather...

Let's see, 80 & 90 degree weather over the weekend and into Monday quickly degraded during the day on Tuesday as the temperature reached the 50s. What a change! I heard a weather forecaster Monday morning saying that by the middle of the week he expected people to be complaining that it's been cold since March, forget about that hot, hot weather we had last week. And no, it hasn't been cold since March, but it's truly cold now! It was in the high 40s when I got home from work today, and very gray. I had been contemplating taking a bike ride, but I quickly switched to walking mode. Luckily I have the right clothes for playing outside in this kind of weather!

To be honest, I had a really hard time getting myself out of the house, but I was glad once I started. I wasn't over-dressed, so the first few minutes were a bit chilly - but that's not too bad a sacrifice for a comfortable hour outside. It wasn't really raining, but the mist was so heavy it almost seemed like there were raindrops. And you could see the mist...

I was a bit wet when I got home, but not soaked through. I'd have to say it was a successful wander in the mist. I'm still hoping to get some biking in before the weekend, but I have a feeling that this is going to be a walking week!

Unbelievably bad drivers

Boston drivers definitely have a bad reputation. And some of the drivers deserve it, including the driver who passed me this morning. I was on a typical narrow New England road, and the light up ahead turned yellow. I was far enough from the intersection that it was time to stop; racing through that light wasn't the right thing to do.

And then... I have to admit I haven't seen this bad behavior before. The driver behind me was turning right, and he was obviously in a hurry. Right turn on red was allowed, but there wasn't enough room to the right of me to pull through (narrow road, remember?). So this idiot pulled to the left of me to turn right in front of me. He had no idea whether there was traffic coming from the left or if there was traffic from the left that was turning into the lane he had driven into in the wrong direction. Unbelievable. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic...

Hot and humid, but a bikeable weekend

My late June vacation is planned; now all I have to do is make sure I'm in good biking shape. I'll be heading to Maine for (almost) 6 days of cycling. The almost day is the day I'm scheduled to take a boat ride out to Machias Seal Island to visit the puffins that live there. Knowing me, I'll probably manage a short ride in the afternoon - after the puffin visit.

The weekend was hot, hot, hot, and humid too, but I still managed 3 good rides. I had hoped to ride to work on Friday, but the forecast called for afternoon thunderstorms so I chickened out. The forecast was a bit off. The gray morning sky gave way to sunshine, and I was able to get a ride in after work. Saturday and Sunday were both riding days, so I was able to finish the week with 162 miles under my wheels. Not bad at all!

I'm afraid that the upcoming week has a bit of an iffy forecast calling for rain and thunderstorms every day. I suspect that it's not going to be a great riding week, but I also think I could use a rest day or two.

Happily wandering down the road in sunlight on a hot, hot day!

Home before the storm

Talk about luck! Yesterday was a sunny day. There were some clouds in the sky, but overall I'd classify the day as belonging to the sun. And it was a commute to work by bike day too...

As I got closer to home, I noticed that the sky was getting darker. No problem though, I arrived home perfectly dry, put my bike in its non-moving home (OK, it lives in the garage!), and showered off the sweat. Hmmm... why is it so dark in here? It was about quarter after 7, which at this time of year is still pretty much daylight, but the sky had just turned totally black. I walked outside to the initial spattering of raindrops, and in spite of the black I could still see clouds and some very small patches of blue. Then, the sky lightened up a little, and the rain absolutely started pouring down.

Wild rain, amazing lightening, and loud cracks of thunder... I have to say it was very good to be home and under a roof!

1000 miles!

A goal reached, 1000 miles on my bike so far in 2005!

I've been keeping track of my bicycling mileage - all of my exercise, actually - for a number of years. And somehow, reaching the first 1000 miles in the year has become a good milestone and a good indication of my fitness for my bicycling endeavors. The first 1000 each year seems to go by slowly, while the rest seem to build quite nicely. That's probably because the early months of the year contain only short occasional rides, but it's turned into a sort of a challenge for me to reach that first 1000 at the same time (or earlier) than in previous years. You're right, that's not always possible in years that I am slowed by our wacky weather here in the northeast.

But I feel pretty good today. My first morning ride was with friends. We had planned a 20 to 25 mile ride, which I knew wouldn't quite get me to my goal. Our planned ride turned out to be 22 miles in heat and humidity. I needed another 19 to hit my 1000-mile goal, and I was determined not to wait until later in the week. After we finished our ride (my first ride) and stood around chatting for a while, everyone else headed home. I took a quick nourishment and sunscreen break, and then I headed out to get the remaining 19 miles under my wheels. Today was a good day to reach that initial 1000-mile goal!

Happy feet clad in red shoes, cycling down the road in the sunshine.

A good case of helmet head, in between my two Sunday rides. Two? I was too close to 1000 miles to stop after one!

It's about time!

...I rode my bike to work today, and now I feel like I'm really back in riding shape!

Wow, that really felt good. I've been trying to find the right day - really the right weather - to start commuting to work by bike again. I'm a fair weather commuter in that I require plenty of daylight, reasonable temperatures, and preferably dry conditions. It was just barely 50 degrees and foggy gray this morning, but the forecast is for sunshine and temperatures in the 70s by the end of the day. I had intended to leave the house by 6, but I didn't quite have my act together and my bike and I rode through the door at 6:30. A good ride, a quick shower at the Marriott across the street from my office, and I was ready for the day. And - a huge plus is that I get to ride home again this afternoon.

I had a good laugh with my colleagues when I got to the office - they suggested that I call someone before I leave the house on the mornings when I am biking in so that they know to get worried if I don't show up. No, we're not going there - but I am wearing my Road ID. That will help prevent anything bad from happening, won't it?

I'm happy...

Confirmation of my suspicions

May this year seemed to be a never-ending month. I feel like I spent the month complaining about the weather. At first I thought it was just me - and the other crazy cyclists I know who also wanted to be out on the road - but by the end of the month I was hearing complaints from (seemingly) everyone.

The National Weather Service just published a summary of the month's weather, and no, I wasn't imagining things. Here's some of what they had to say:

MAY 2005 WAS AN UNUSUALLY COOL AND GLOOMY MONTH FOR MUCH OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. MOST CLIMATOLOGICAL STATIONS RANKED MAY 2005 WITHIN THE TOP 5 COOLEST IN AT LEAST 100 YEARS OF OFFICIAL RECORDS. IN ADDITION THE BLUE HILLS OBSERVATORY IN MILTON MA ONLY RECORDED APPROXIMATELY 34 PERCENT SUNSHINE FOR MAY 2005...THE SECOND LEAST SUNNIEST MAY SINCE 1888.

MAY 2005 - COLDEST MAY SINCE 1967 IN BOSTON, 4TH COLDEST ON RECORD ...IN ADDITION THERE WERE ONLY THREE DAYS DURING THE MONTH WITH ABOVE AVERAGE DAILY MEAN TEMPERATURES.

TOTAL PRECIPITATION WAS 3.98 INCHES...JUST 0.74 INCH ABOVE NORMAL ...MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION OF 0.01 INCH OR GREATER OCCURRED DURING 19 OUT OF 31 DAYS OR SEVEN DAYS MORE THAN NORMAL. MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION WAS ALSO RECORDED ON EVERY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY/HOLIDAY DURING THE MONTH EXCEPT SATURDAY MAY 14TH.

No wonder it was such a depressing month. Here's hoping that June turns out to be a bit more spring-like.