There is no room for pretense on a bicycle,
there is just me and the road,
the wind and the sun,
or sometimes the stars,
here I cannot be other than what I am.

New digs, new route

New apartment means finding a new route to work. This morning's route ~5.7 miles, about 35 minutes...almost exactly half the old distance, but with a lot more stops. Its still faster than the T and the bus though!

New miles for 2011: 5.7 miles

if we continued adding on to the previous year end total from 2010:
Goal: 2,200 miles
Miles ridden to date: 2,077.7
Miles left to goal: 122.3
the totals won't add up as impressively as they did with the old commute, unless I make the journey farther afield...
...here there be dragons?

Home is where the bike is...

Charlie has been suffering from cabin fever, he's been stuck in the basement for almost an entire month because of all this snow. I haven't gotten him a bicycle plow yet so he's not exactly equipped for the blizzard ride...

Anyway as of sometime tomorrow Charlie will no longer be a resident of the city of Waltham (as delightfully post-apocalyptic as it may be...) he will instead be another snazzy cycle resident of Somerville. He's very excited about the move because no longer will he be a freak in the night in a town that doesn't know what the hell a bicycle is- he will be, at last, amongst his own kind, his people. Although I think the part of him that's a show-off will miss the notoriety. The commute will only be half the length it was before, but I've promised him that he'll still get to strut his stuff. (Can bicycles strut?)

Well next time will be broadcasting from a new home...here we go!

Its snowing...

Its snowing and I don't know if it will stick or not, but the goal remains! I hope it doesn't accumulate over the next few days, I would like to finish before New Year's, but I'd also like snow for Christmas, what is a girl to do?

So as a further effort to inform and amuse, here are a few of the extra curricular stats from this journey so far:

5: the number of times I have witnessed public urination-(3 by senior citizens)
3: the incidents of hypothermia -(1 was truly heat stroke but that is classified with hypothermia, so I read)
1: the times I was propositioned by a dude in an Escalade full of unsavory characters as I was biking down Comm Ave... after which I promptly did one of those annoying and life-saving cyclist things of going onto the sidewalk in the wrong direction to escape
2: number of falls
3: number of pants ruined by holes by either falling, getting caught on my pedals, etc
2: sets of tires
6: number of tubes (for my rear tire) I have popped in one way or another
13: total number of layers of clothing overall I have to wear when the temperature is below 30
4: number of times my bicycle has been hit on (as in someone I don't know said something suggestive about how mad sexy Charlie is)


Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 2,072
Miles left to goal: 128
Days left: +87 over

Past and passed two thousand...

After so long, finally past 2,000 miles?

Its 2,010 to be exact, and its the end of 2010....

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 2,010
Miles left to goal: 190
Days left: +81 over

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 1,985
Miles left to goal: 215
Days left: +80 over

I finished the 1904 Tour de France?

In different years the Tour de France is different lengths, about 500 miles ago I finished the 1904 Tour de France (the shortest), and if I continue past my goal I will at some point finish the 1924 Tour at 3,570 miles (the longest)...

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 1,935
Miles left to goal: 265
Days left: +73 over