What An Awesome Week!
This was a great commute week. Weather was great, start to finish. Mornings, while cool, were warm enough to forgo the jacket. Maybe it was the weather, but I made it a focus this week to find the great and kind things drivers did for me, not just focus on the assholes (there was only one!). I lost count, but somewhere north of 70 times this week did a vehicle go out of its way to do something kind for me. These were drivers that gave me a wide berth, stopped for me at both controlled and uncontrolled intersections, did not pass when there was oncoming traffic, or let me pull in front of them while turning left. Some people just simply smiled and waved. How awesome is that? Over 70 kind acts in 8 hours over the course of a week. This is way more fun than focusing on the bad behavior. My head is still on a swivel, and I assume the worst when riding with cars, but it is fantastic to see people will look out for you.
On Tuesday, I turned the corner onto Mission Ave, and to my (surprising) elation, the street and bike lane had been swept. In this moment, I wanted to nominate all street sweepers for community awards. No more dodging broken glass, gravel and sticks, just a smooth bike lane. Simple pleasures. Ahhh.
I Quit The News This Week
Well, that is not entirely correct. I quit the news podcasts.
I was noticing that exposing my mental health to an hour of negative stories in the morning greatly affected my mood and general outlook. I felt pressure to stay informed, and still do, but I read it only from trusted sources (no, this does not include CNN or FOX) and take it in small doses. I found myself asking this week if there was anything positive to talk about. I don’t hear about ventilators any more, what is happening with ventilators? A month ago it was humanity’s greatest embarrassment and our healthcare systems/governments greatest failure that we did not have enough ventilators. I went to the office and looked it up. You know what? We are now awash in ventilators. We have produced so many ventilators we are exporting them to other countries that are in need. Where is the news on this? Why can’t we celebrate our successes? I think this should be a source of great national pride, but yet we continue to focus on the negative. Sometimes we lose focus that while we have great problems, we are also amazing at solving them, and we are a nation of creative, hard working, caring people.
Sorry, came off the rails there a bit. All this to say I made excellent progress on goal number 3 for mental health. I am focusing on the good and the happy, and I am way better for it. I hope to continue this.
Bike Bling
I am very excited about some of the accessories I have been using for almost two weeks now.
First, I decorated my bike with some lights. There are literally hundreds of lights to choose from. Since I am riding to and from work right now in the daylight, I was only concerned about being seen instead of illuminating my path. I chose the Stix lights from Specialized. They are small, lightweight, easy to mount and move, provide many different light options including multiple steady and flashing settings, and are bright. You can mount them to the bike, helmet, backpack, anything! The Stix Switch 2- Pack is $55 and they can be both white or red lights. They do require frequent charging via a USB port. I put two USB ports near my bike charger, so after I ride home, I remove the lights from their mounts and plug them in along side the bike. In the morning, I simply unplug them, insert them into the mounts and turn them on. Up front I am running a steady white light, in the back I am running a rapidly flashing red light. I have been told by passers-by that it makes me very easy to see, even in direct sunlight.
I installed a rear fender to help keep the sand and direct water off my back. If you are going to ride in the rain, you are going to get wet. Fenders are not going to help you stay dry. However, the speed at which you soak is directly related to the precipitation falling from the sky, and the water coming off your tires. Fenders can help you slow the soak. More importantly, they can help keep you clean. It is amazing how much sand and dirt gets everywhere coming off your tires. I opted not to go with full fenders, just because I don’t like the look. I am riding a performance road bike, and I want it to look like it, as much as possible. I opted for a Portland Design Works Origami rear seatpost fender ($24.99). This is a lightweight plastic fender that has a seatpost mount. The mount is easy to add or remove, and the fender buttons to the mount, making it even easier to remove if I don’t need it. I opted to mount mine low on the seattube so it did not interfere with my dropper post or my seat bag. This caused it to flare up at the back, but I kinda like it. I have used it several times in the rain, and it does an excellent job of keeping the tire splash off my butt and back, but more importantly, it kept the dirt and sand off. I have been impressed.
I added two water bottle cages to the bike. The one on the front is the Specialized Zee Cage II with the optional tool attached. It is a small allen tool attached to the underside of the bottle cage. One less thing to carry in the bag! The rear is the regular Zee Cage II to hold my….
Battery Extender! I bought the battery extender for the Creo. It neatly fits in the seatpost mounted water bottle cage. This gives me 50% more battery to be able to explore and reduces my range anxiety. There are several longer routes that I am eager to try when I have some additional time, but I would not be able to ride it in Turbo mode and make the trip. I would have to dial back the power, which would be fine, but further extend the amount of time it takes to do the ride. This way, I can continue to use Turbo and explore the longer routes. I expect to get 35-40 miles of Turbo-induced fun with this new toy.
Goal Update!
From a health perspective, I talked quite a bit about my mental health above, so no more on that for now. I am finding I need to do lots more stretching to keep my lower back and hamstrings from locking up and causing me discomfort. Alternating yoga positions forward folds and monkey for a couple minutes while deep breathing usually gets me some flexibility back (still can barely touch my toes) and relieves any discomfort.
223 on the scale! 8 lbs down. Gotta get the sugar under control, I ran to the grocery store for a whole coconut cream pie yesterday. I did not eat the whole thing, but I will.
Like last week, 182.4 miles not driven, saving $15.54 in fuel. IRS savings of $104.88.