Scenic Route

The UPS man waved and shouted “Hi!” as I cycled by him on Goodman St today. It’s nice that he recognized me. He’s kinda cute too. Hmmm…

The phone company is still messing around at Park and Goodman. They’ve been tying up traffic there for weeks now. Today when I went over to One Hip Chic Optical to pick up my new sunglasses, traffic was backed up almost to East Ave. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. Stop.

I thought about bailing out to the sidewalk to pass thenm all, but then figured I needed practice in such traffic and this was a nice, safe place to do it. I stayed right in the middle of the lane because no-one was able to move any faster than I could. (Own the lane.)

Creeping to a stop, I downshifted again and freaked when fire trucks strated down the block behind me. I stopped. Then thought I could get into the parking lane to make room for everyone else. Backpedaled to start with my left, and blew the chain of the chainring. One never backpedals until a shift is complete.

I put the chain back on as the fire trucks and pulled back into traffic. Never lost my place. But I had to de-grease my fingers when I got to One Hip Chic. It’s cool because they’re all cyclists there. I’ll have to remember to carry a rag or wet wipes or something in case I arrive greasy at some place that’s less cool.

My new sunglasses look… um… well… hip. Photos next week maybe.

It was cloudy and threatening rain, so I didn’t really need to wear them when I left the shop, but I did anyway. I had the lenses made single-vision for my distance prescription only. It’s nice not having the lines and having things go out-of-focus as they come closer. Part of the reason I run over so much shit in the road is that that as I track it, I don’t point my head down and it suddenly pops out-of-focus in the middle and reading sections of my regular glasses.

And bonus, wearing them on the bike, I can just barely make out the cyclometer. Since I have to work a little to get it into focus, that should keep me from more attention to it than to the road.

I did manage to see that the cyclometer was indicating 12.1 mph this afternoon as I pedaled past one of these radar speed signs they put out in front Brighton High School every now and again. I had no problem focusing on the sign. In 3-foot high lighted yellow numerals it read: 12 mph. That’s close enough for me. I won’t be worrying about any further calibration.

Because of the threat of rain, I had the fenders on (only three minutes mounting time!) and rain gear in my backpack along with my grocery panniers. I was in full Fred mode. The bike looks… well… Dutch, when fully outfitted. Which is okay, I guess, since so many people commute by bike in the Netherlands. They must know what they’re doing. If my bike looks Dutch, then I must be on the right track for all-weather commuting. Still, it’s amazing how quickly the bike goes from sort of sporty to Fred with just the fenders and panniers.

It was my first outing with the grocery panniers. I’ve wanted to see how much I can fit in the Brain Bag first. There wasn’t anything I really needed today, which made it a good learning day. I threw the panniers into a cart and filled them as I went along.

I got a big sack of potatoes, a gallon of milk, a big package of TP, two big-pack packages of chicken, jars of spaghetti sauce, boxes of macaroni, Parmesian cheese, several boxes of granola bars and other stuff I can’t remember. It was more by both weight and volume than I’m comfortable carrying on the bus. It all fit in the panniers, except one box of granola bars I was afraid might bounce out, which went into the backpack.

Mounting the fully-laden panniers back on the bike was about as difficult as I expected. The absence of a kickstand means that I have to straddle the bike to hold it up as I mount the second bag on the rack. Then I have to dismount so I can reach the bungee on the bottom that keeps the whole affair from flying off the rack over potholes.

It worked well enough and with practice I’ll look less dorky doing it. After I get a feel for their capacity (by volume), maybe I’ll try leaving the panniers on the bike and loading them from the cart. Who knows? Maybe it will be easier.

Riding home with the pannier loaded nearly to capacity (by weight) didn’t change things very much. It was only when I stopped that I became aware of the added mass. The wind was gusting mostly in cross- and tail-winds, so this time at least, I wasn’t aware of any extra wind resistance either.

Unloading the panniers at home was about teh reverse of loading them at the store. The bike and the groceries together atre too much to carry up the fire escape, so I detached the panniers, set them on the sidewalk and carried the bike up first.

When I was shopping for them, I didn’t pay attention to the handles on the panniers. This set has handles only on the rack side. I don’t know if others have handles on both sides, so I have to carry both panniers in one hand (or carry them one at a time with both hands) so they don’t tip and spill everything out on the stairs. You live, you learn. Maybe I’ll just have my groceries bagged. That’ll work too.

Invitation

My sponsor was looking for an excuse to have a garden party next month. “Your birthday’s in June, isn’t it?”, he asked.

“And it’s my sober date too”, I replied.

So, he’s throwing a 49/6 party for me in the afternoon of Saturday June 17. “Invite anyone you like—I’ll leave that to you,” he told me. So here’s an open invitation. It’ll just be nibblin’s and light refreshments at the party since we’ll go the meeting at seven, then out to dinner after that.

Send me an email, (link in the right column) for the time and address. CBC is coming just for the day. I’m also inviting clients, co-workers from the library and friends from AA. I doubt my parents will be in town, but I’ll invite them too. There are limited out-of-town accomodations here at Mission Control, so RSVP early if you don’t want to sleep on the floor.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 6:40 pm EDT and is filed under Bike, Generic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.