That was my ride to work last night. Not quite so dark though. And even though I arrived with soaking wet socks and slowly drying shorts I loved every moment of it. I’ll admit, I love Fall.
That just scares the hell out of me!
After the long gray winter, it is nice to see the sun once again. Yes, according to the Weather Widget on my desktop, it is a balmy 72 degrees outside. Part of me wants to go out for a ride to enjoy the weather, the other says, “Ahh, I don’t have to work until tomorrow, gonna’ enjoy being lazy.”
With spring though, the cyclists start coming out of the woodwork. They’re greasing up the chains, dusting off the bad habits, shaking the mothballs out of the Lycra and heading out. I’m all for it, some days. The other day though, epitomized the kind of cyclist that makes the average Joe Public see red. Hell, I’m a dedicated cyclist and bike commuter and they pissed me off.
After enjoying a nice brunch at a cafe downtown, the wife and I are walking back to our car. She turns to say something to me and as she does so there’s a “whoosh” of air as a cyclist zips past her, less than an arms breadth away. In the classic Portland hipster cyclist fashion, no helmet, rolled jeans, day-glo colored fixed gear, she blows the stop sign at the intersection, weaves through the moving traffic on the wrong side of street and continues on her way. Had my wife gestured wrong, slightly wobbled out of step she would have ended up a road jam underneath the turning wheels.
What makes me mad though is the blantant disregard she displayed towards everyone one but herself. I’ve been known to run stop signs (usually with a California stop) and go fast in crowded areas, but usually I’m looking out for those around me. She wasn’t. For a second as she skated through the intersection I thought she was going to end up as road kill. Cyclists have image issues in Portland already, mostly a mild form of “us vs. them”, but many regular folks plain hate cyclists due to actions of a small group of folks. Small groups of folks who act this way tend to sour the opinion of normal everyday folks, which is really the last thing we (normal cyclists) need.
Oh well, karma’s a bitch…
And for all you folks who stayed inside all winter, the real cyclists rode all winter, not just in the fair weather.
For a place with such relatively mild weather, we here in Oregon tend to complain a little too much about the weather. I mean really, it rarely snows, it rarely gets over 100 degrees, no tornadoes, no hurricanes, but let me tell you, when something happens it’s like the Apocalypse.
Last month, we had a snowstorm. Actually several snowstorms, that left at most 16″ of snow over the course of several days. Of course leave it to the news to label this phenomenon of the *cue dramatic music* Arctic Blast 2008. Yes, it was a mess. Icy roads, bitter cold with a biting wind and the town acted like we were transported to the Arctic Circle. What made things worse was the hysteria stoked by the news media and the inability of our local governments to effectively manage the roads and related infrastructure. I lived in Flagstaff for 3 years and had several times where we got over a foot of snow in less than 12 hours, but the town shut down only once and that was because we got 3 feet of snow in a 24 hour period. That really is near cause for hysteria. But the only people in hysterics were the tourists from the Valley of the Sun.
But it’s always the same. Whether it is “Fall Floods ‘07″, or “Heat Wave 2008″, “Arctic Blast” or the soon to come “Floods of 2009″ on the news media whips us into a frenzy. For days on end the local channels had nothing on but news, relating the same stories ad nauseam and bringing the dire reports of more nasty weather to come. All it takes a little change from the normal for them to start the dire warnings. One anchor in particular is never happy with the weather. When it rains a lot she complains about the lack of sun, but when it has been sunny for a long time she complains about the lack of rain. She always has a snarky comment about the weather.
But I love it. I was out in the weather on my bike nearly everyday of it. I rode to work all but 2 days of the storm that I did work. My co-workers looked at me in disbelief when I walked in head-to-toe in my foul weather gear. But really, it was just another day. No weather wimp here!
Like I’ve been saying the weather has stunk. Ice, snow, black ice, wind, the works. While compared to other spots, not quite so bad all things considered. However I’ve been out on my bike riding to work. Yes, I’m a little crazy.
The first night was nice. Traffic was really mild, it was slick and slushy and I arrived with soaked shoes and a little chilled, but overall good. The second night had less slush and ice, but it started snowing when I got into downtown. In the morning was very, very slick, lots of ice with a dusting of snow over the top of old ice. Not fun. The best thing though? I stayed vertical on all the rides. I can’t afford a broken bone right now, so this was a good thing.
Here’s me dressed to the nines to deal with the weather.
And with the trusty steed:
It’s like ice skating out there. I may look goofy, but I was warm and dry.
Last week as I was walking out the doors I noticed that the ground was wet. Finally it appeared Fall had come. Then I remembered: I hadn’t put the fenders back on my bike. After a cold and wet ride home, decorated by a dirty, gritty tail, I resolved to fix the bike. Today that happened.
What should have been a simple re-installation, turned out to be a re-installation task similar to reloading Windows. Simple fenders right? No. I took forever to fit them on again and tweak the bars so that they wouldn’t rub. Then there was the much-needed adjustments to brakes, drivetrain and wheels that come when you start looking at things. It is almost like a house, when you finish one thing, another pops up. I added more lights and reflective tape. Bought a helmet cover to keep the rain off my head and a cycling hat to keep the rain out of my eyes. I’m set now.
You see I’m not just a fair-weather cycle commuter. No, I roll year-round. In fact, I like riding at this time of the year. There is something “refreshing” about riding out in the rain. Somedays it’s cold, some wet, some wet and cold and some windy enough to sail on, but I love every moment of it. And it’s not just the physical side of it, but the fact that my gas bill for work is near zero. Sure I have to spend some extra time to commute and end up needing to change when I arrive, but in my mind it is worth it. Try it some time!
In other “news” I added Guitar Hero III to my game library. More to distract me from life! A falling Dow doesn’t matter when you can kick out the jams, or blow people away on-line! I’ll stop dorking out, soon, I swear.
On the way home I saw the price for gas at the local Arco (which also has the cheapest gas around) and it said $3.81. That was for regular. Premium was $3.99.
Now I realize that folks in Cali, and elsewhere are paying upwards of $4.25, but man, today was a day I’m really glad I rode the bus.
On another “yikes!” moment, I was charge and there were no codes, no RRTs and we didn’t ship a single one off the floor. I’m learning quickly not to say things like, “Hope we don’t have a code tonight.” Or the popular, “I hope it’s a quiet night” Or, “It can’t get any worse.” Both of which were said out loud last week, but not by me. If I had, sure enough, something would have gone down. In light of this, I have been dubbed with a new nickname at work, “Blackcloud Stinkyfinger”.
I hope it doesn’t stink stick.
Go, enjoy what’s left of the weekend!
Maybe…
Rivercity Bicycles here in Portland was sponsoring a contest to win a bike for correctly guessing when gas will hit $4/gallon. More people on bikes soon?
I’ve been on a little bit of a sour note of late, and thought I needed to share some fun.
Went and saw it on Saturday night and it was…awesome. Big, dumb, loud, brainless fun. But a great adaptation of the Ironman mythos.
And I’m very excited for these last 2:
There’s a new trailer out in the theaters that’s even better than this. I just hope the movie lives up to the hype and anticipation.
And some local flavor:
Why you should wear a helmet…
I am so damn tired about everyone and their uncle telling me I should go out and spend my rebate. “It will stimulate the economy!” is the refrain the journalists, and our commander-in-chief is telling us. Personally, I would have liked it better if they had never taken the money in the first place, but that is a whole other ballgame.
I believe the American way to spend it would be on porn, guns and alcohol. But I don’t have the time to defile myself in that manner. That and it isn’t for me. The alcohol? Yes. But I can live without the others. So I did some looking around, pulled out the calculator and opened a cold, frosty beverage and came up with some ways to spend your rebate.
So the rebate is based on a married family of 2 with no children, which is $1200. Since I live in Portland, OR, average prices are either local or via Internet. Some are anecdotal. Remember, this is for fun…
To set one up, here’s a patient: 56y/o male, CHF, Diabetes, HTN, s/p placement of stents X2 to the RCA. Med prices are based on 3 month supply ordered without insurance from drugstore.com.
Cost: $1468.99, or 122% of the rebate.
Breakdown:
Lisinopril 10 mg QD: 31.99
Lasix 40mg QD: 46.63
Lipitor 40mg QD: 335.97
Norvasc 5mg QD: 105.97
Metoprolol 50mg BID: 26.95
Plavix 75mg QD: 389.96
Novolog 1 bottle: 261.54
Lantus 1 bottle: 256.18
ASA 325mg QD: 12.99
Doesn’t even get 3 months worth of meds. Yes, I know, grandly exagerrated.
But what could be better than buying stock in the pharmaceutical industry? You could make a portfolio that looks like this:
6 of Merck $41.44/share
5 of Sanofi Aventis $78.35/share (converted from euros)
5 of Bayer Schering Pharma AG: $84.76/share (converted from euros)
7 of Pfizer $20.20/share
You’d be so money!
Or you could get 1 MRI (of the lower back), price before insurance.
80 GP Doctor visits, or 40 Specialist visits on my health plan.
171 Generic Prescriptions
66 Venipunctures, not to mention the cost of doing the labs.
You could get one of these:
A 2007 GT GTR Series 2 Road Bike from Performance for $1099 and still have a buck or two for cool gear.
Or you could get 2 of these:
Mongoose Sabrosa Single Speed Commuters, so you and the wife can ride to work and avoid blowing your rebate on 330 gallons of gas which is 25 fills of my car.
If you were really wild and crazy you could get 36% of a Gary Fisher Superfly, like this one:
Still you could buy a Trimet Monthly Pass for 15 months.
How about 8 dinners at Ruth Chris’s Steak House?
Better yet, 1.6 Ambulance rides due to either a heart attack from all the meat or from a cycling accident.
How about adding $260 for a birthday weekend in Las Vegas, including flights and 3 nights at Treasure Island? You’re already in the hole and haven’t begun to gamble!
Instead of paying someone to fly, buy 346 gallons of jet fuel, just over 2900 lbs., which is not even enough to get a 737 to taxi. That idea’s bunk.
How about a nice donation to the Joe Snow Memorial Fund?
Or give Nurse K a week off from triage.
Or help Ian (and others) support nursing students in Nigeria with Project N.
Or get something (like a mini jump kit) for EE, who’s expecting.
Or a cup of coffee and wifi for Kim.
Or a donation to Nurse Sean to help replace a sacrificial stethoscope.
Heck, I’d even take $15 to turn this into lostonthefloor.com…
Or we could spend it on something like 150 (not like I did the math or anything) six-packs of beer…
Most of all, have fun with it. And don’t buy anything from WalMart.
