Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Today is “Bike to Work Day” in central Maryland, so I did what I do pretty much every other day:  I biked to work.  Unfortunately there are no BtWD “rallies” anywhere near where I commute, so I didn’t register for the event, nor did I attend a rally.  My hope is that eventually, this will…

Next week is “Bike to Work Week” in Maryland, and the weather looks like a carbon copy of last year’s Bike to Work Week: rain as far as the eye can see.  With any luck, we’ll dry out by Friday, which is “Bike to Work Day.”  But unfortunately, it’s not the kind of weather that…

I found myself in an uncommon situation this morning.  Normally I ride for about an hour to work each morning, taking various routes, and ultimately arriving at work between 8:30am and 9:00am.  It works out great because I typically don’t have meetings before 10am, which allows plenty of time to cool off, freshen up, change…

I changed things up a bit for my ride home yesterday.  I typically mix my routes up on my commute to work in the morning, but for the ride home, I take the same route every day.  It’s relatively fast, traffic is not too bad, and it gets me home right around dinner time, so…

Another post-accident first for me today:  I rode Landing Road, which is where I wiped out back in February.  I have a rough idea where I crashed.  I was headed westbound (towards Ilchester Rd) just a bit shy of the entrance to Rockburn Branch Park.  There’s a downhill stretch in the area that curves to…

Yet another year going straight from Winter to Summer in Maryland.  The heat came on briefly in our house yesterday morning, and later today we may need to switch on the air conditioning. I’m back to the routine today, following a week in Cape Hatteras, which is pretty high up on my list of “places…

Lesson of the day (reiterated):  Just because there’s no green on the NWS radar, doesn’t mean it’s not raining.  This morning, instead of a steady rain, we had a persistent mist with a steady wind.  I’d take a downpour over the mist any day.  The mist is relentless, hits you everywhere (as opposed to just…

Today’s morning ride was a race against an oncoming mass of rain, and I didn’t quite make it.  I rode around 14 miles, and the first 10 or so were dry, but then the rain caught up with me.  When I set out, it was an exceptionally muggy 65° out, and by the time it…

I finally feel like I’m starting to get back into biking shape after my accident 8 weeks ago.  Today figures to be rain-free, so I trotted out my road bike.  That makes it the third bike I’ve ridden to work in as many days, which I believe is a first for me.  It won’t happen…

Today was one of those mornings when nothing went according to plan.  I was getting ready to ride to work, and I went to check on my bike, and the back tire was flat as a pancake.  The tire is brand spanking new, and I had taken a grand total of 1 ride on it,…