Bicycling

Breakfast Place Too Good For It’s Own Britches

Be Careful or Your Face May Freeze Like ThatDonna and I went for a bike ride this morning with the intention of ending up at the New Moon for muffins and/or bagels. We missed timed our arrival so that we had twenty minutes to wait before we opened. Donna almost convinced the guy putting tables on the sidewalk to let us buy our two items to go and leave. Almost. We settled down to wait. People started to arrive. And more people. Then some more. Pretty soon there were over a dozen people waiting by the door for 9:00AM. I felt like I was waiting to buy the latest Harry Pooter Book.

I checked the time on my cyclecomputer and we still had 10 minutes to go. Impatient with the crowd, the annoying gnats circling me and the time left, I told Donna to forget it. We wanted to get home to see today’s mountain stage of the Tour, so we mounted back up on the tandem and started on our way. At the end of the first block towards home I noticed that the time was now just a couple minutes shy of nine. The siren’s call of a Cranberry Pecan Muffin was too great. We circled a couple more blocks and went back. I went inside to get our stuff while Donna waited outside. I was 6 or 7 in line. I crept forward at a glacial pace (probably seemed longer for Donna standing outside in a gnat cloud) and finally got to order. An Everything Bagel for her, the aforementioned Cranberry Pecan Muffin for me and to fortify ourselves for the 3 mile ride home I bought a cookie to share.

Meal Cost: $4.55
Tip Jar: 45¢
Spent Today: $5.00
Year to Date: $1554.16
Meals out, 89 of a possible 603.

Speaking of cookies, we made a double batch of Donna’s Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies this afternoon and I lost count after eating six…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 286

I Can See Still See In The Dark

I Can See Clearly NowToday was Donna and my annual eye exams. Good news is that neither of us have any issues nor have our eyes changed enough to warrant getting new glasses.

We went mid afternoon and some six hours later the drops they put in your eyes to dilate them has not not entirely worn off. I think I could take a book into a closet and read it with the light off. You know your pupils are open wide when the little WinXP screensaver (bouncing logo on black background) has a bright rainbow hued halo around it.

I remember a couple of years ago we went late afternoon and by the time we left the Eye Guy’s place it was dusk. The sun was down but the sky was still light. Most cars were driving with their lights on and both headlights and taillights were giving off these awesome starburst patterns. Even the traffic signals looked like they were being viewed through a starburst filter. Very cool effect, but it was difficult to concentrate on actually driving and not running into anything while looking at all the pretty lights.

We rode the tandem into work again today. I think we are going to try and make it a once a week event from now on. Because we are working our nine hour days this week, this morning’s ride start was way early and it was still dark out. We have a nice powerful light so that was not a real problem. As a matter of fact it was actually nice that time of day, there was almost zero traffic on the road and it was nice and cool (I wore a light jacket and Donna was in long sleeves.)

Right now I’m not sure what is worse, the FRS losing 6-0 to the Yanks in the sixth or having to listen to Chris Berman call the game and Bonnie Bernstein with the sideline commentary.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 171

There Is Never A Dull Moment…

Watching Baseball…when the FRS are playing baseball. The Sox had a 6 run lead through almost the entire game, somehow the Braves managed to get the tying run to the plate in the top of the 9th (must not have got the memo about Jonathan Papelbon being the most feared closer in the American League.) But he got Andruw Jones to strike out swinging (for the fifth time in the game) to end it. Season series so far: Boston 2 – Atlanta 1. There are three more games to be played in Atlanta in June to settle it for this season.

We started the morning with a nice tandem ride. I had finally measured the wheel circumference and set both cyclecomputers to the same figure, so Donna wouldn’t be riding further than me on these trips. Worked out pretty good, as mine read 14.0 miles at the end of the ride and hers said 13.98.

Lunch out with friends at Zaxby’s where we split a large Wings ‘n’ Things and an order of Carrots & Celery Sticks. One large Coke and one water to drink.

Meal Cost: $11.72
Tip: None
Spent Today: $11.72
Year to Date: $1147.30
Meals out 62 of a possible 420.

I uploaded five new photos to the Enchanted Ceiling site, something I hadn’t done in a while. It started yesterday when I thought I might sort out my sky photos. I had 14 posted EC and I had 34 posted in a gallery here. I have 37 in the directory on my hard drive and about more 40 in a staging directory. I uploaded the 14 to my other Flickr! account and then to make matters somewhat worse I picked the 5 from the staging directory and added them to the Enchanted Ceiling site ( 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 ), then the Flickr account, but not the gallery here. So did I help the organization or hurt it? Who knows.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 168

Fra Diavolo Friday

The BusSomethin’ always happens whenever we’re together…

We did ride the tandem to work today. It is always nice to take an early ride while its still cool and traffic is very light. The best thing about riding to work is when you get there, you are wide awake and raring to go while the rest of your co-workers are slug-like and trying to get their brains kick started with a cup of joe. It is almost as if they are moving in slo-mo.

Tonight we went out to dinner with two other couples. The company was great and the food was good, but we spent more than we wanted and it wasn’t just because we bought a round of lasagna sticks for a communal appetizer. It seemed like the value just wasn’t there compared to some of the other places we have eaten at. Caesar Salad, 1/2 rack of Ribs with broccoli & sweet potato fries, iced tea for him, while Donna had a Garden Salad, the Seafood Fra Diavolo (discovering that she really doesn’t like mussels) over linguine with water to drink.

Meal Cost: $43.68
Tip: $6.32
Spent Today: $50.00
Year to Date: $1,034.17

GnormAfter dinner, we jumped in our three Miatas and did a 60 mile loop drive around Clark’s Hill Lake. We ended up at the dam’s South Carolina side parking lot to catch the sunset. A big ol’ thunderhead off in the distance spoiled the “sun setting over the water” image we hoped to see, but did make for an interesting show anyway.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 156

Sunday Addendum

We had breakfast out at the Atlanta Bread Company before doing our weekly grocery shopping. Whole grain Bagel toasted w/ Cream Cheese for her and a toasted Apple Spice Bagel for him. Water to drink for both.

Meal Cost: $2.67
Tip: None
Spent Today: $2.67
Year to Date: $946.17

I’m thinking they didn’t charge for the cream cheese because that total sounds kind of cheap.

Donna made some of her famous Chocolate Chip Cookies for a meeting I have at work today. I of course had the sample them to make sure they were up to par. Ten cookies later I allowed that they were.

No way I could have worked off all the cookie calories consumed earlier, but a 14 mile tandem bike ride helped.

We stayed up way too late last night to watch “Living With Cancer” on the Discovery Channel. We both wanted to see it, but didn’t realize it was three hours long and didn’t go off until 11:00 PM. It was an interesting show, but most of it was not new to me. The first 45 minutes or so we covered the Lance Armstrong story (we were after all on the Discovery Channel) and who doesn’t know about him, a good portion of the second hour was on Leroy Sievers, who’s blog, My Cancer, I’ve been reading since he started it last year. The third hour was new, a live town meeting thing with an audience of cancer doctors, nurses, survivors and advocates. This was a little more interesting because it was unscripted. I’m sure they will rerun the show, and it is worth a look, but who knows when.

One Down, Maybe Three More To Go

Jerry the Condo King called me about a week ago to ask advice about buying a bicycle. Not for him, but for his mid-30’s daughter. She is mostly a runner, but has enjoyed borrowing his balloon tired bike and speeding around the bike paths on HHI. She mentioned graduating to a road bike and he said if you join the local bike club he’d buy her a bike. Little did he know. He check a local bike store and was flabergasted that an entry level hybrid/cross bike was $750. I suggested he check with the local Club and see if anyone had a used bike for sale. Once you get into it, it is like anything, you keep upgrading equipment until you can’t afford it any more, usually long eclipsing your competency level.

When I told Donna about Jerry’s call, she said, “What about my old road bike?” I didn’t even think about that. We both have fairly decent road bikes that were near top of the line about a dozen years ago that we don’t really ride anymore. I called Jerry back and asked how tall his daughter was. Five foot three. Bingo, Donna is 5′-2″, the bike would fit. I emailed him pictures and told him it she was interested, for $200 he could have it. Last Saturday he drove up from Hilton Head with two crisp Ben Franklins and drove home with a 1994 Bridgestone RB-1/7 with upgrade STI shifting. I tried to foist my road bike off on the daughter’s boyfriend, but he wasn’t biting. If you know anyone who might be interested in a 12 or 13 year-old Bianchi with full Ultegra 600 stuff and a cool dark purple/silver paint job let me know. I don’t know the frame size off the top of my head, but if you are 5′-9 to 6′-0 it should fit. $200 +shipping if you can’t drive here to get it.

We have two older (from the early 80s) bikes that we used to use as commuter bikes that we haven’t used for 5 or 6 years now. Each spring we think, maybe we’ll start back to riding to work and never do. Trouble is that they are so old (even though they have seen some upgrades over the years) that they are hardly worth much at all, but they are perfectly serviceable as commuters, but talk about a limited market. If I could get a hundred dollars a piece for them I can’t say as I’d be happy but it would be better than them hanging in my garage serving as spider homes.

We really have found a home on the tandem. Went for a little 11 mile ride this evening at dusk and it was very enjoyable. We are even concocting a plan on how to commute on the bike for two. I bought a front low rack for panniers and some extenders to retro fit an older rear rack off the internet last night from JANDD Mountaineering. When they get here we will be able to carry two sets of bags, one set each and then add a trunk bag for lunches.

Oh yeah, we had the breakfast of bicycle champions this morning too. Hardee’s Biscuit and Gravy for her and 2 Sausage and Egg Biscuit for me. We shared a water and order of Hash Rounds.

Meal Cost: $4.64
Tip: None
Spent Today: $4.64
Year to Date: $927.67

I posted another email joke forwarded from Mark (I think that needs an acronym – EJFFM), so if you like quasi-dirty humor, click on the Joke category for a look at it.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 137

Not So Busy Sunday

ConnecticutChanged the oil in the Emperor and rotated the tires. I did it a little early in preparation for our driving trip to the northeast starting next weekend. Then later in the day we changed our plans for the trip for the 8th and final time. We’re now flying into DC and renting a car. I say final because we are now locked in to some non-refundable airplane tickets. Two days in our nation’s capital, two days of who knows what, two days visiting my family in CT and two in NJ, before driving back to DC to get on a plane for SC.

I may get a second chance to sign the Ultimate Drive northern fleet’s signature vehicle that I forget about last Thursday in Columbia because they will be in Sterling, VA on Monday, April 8th. Its a mere 30 miles from where we are staying in DC.

We went for a tandem ride after I got done with the car. Cruised through some neighborhoods and hit a couple places to shove some bills into slots and then the Post Office to mail the rest. We ended up tallying over 15 miles, which is about 5 more than the last few rides and it felt pretty good. A few more weeks of 2 rides per and we’ll be ready to tackle a 25 mile loop. We have gone so far as thinking of adding some rack to the tandem so we can try to ride it to work some Fridays.

I re-upped for citizenship in the Red Sox Nation tonight. It was supposed to happen automatically, but they had the number on file of my comprised card that is no longer valid, so it didn’t happen. Tomorrow is opening day for the FRS in Kansas City, but the real season doesn’t start until Friday the 20th when the Bronx Bombers come to Fenway.

At approximately 9:40 PM my wife made the mistake of flipping through the channels and pausing long enough on USA for me to recognize what was showing – TDPM.

Will Turner: This is either madness… or brilliance.
Jack Sparrow: It’s remarkable how often those two traits coincide.

In other exciting news, with the 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath & Beyond that was in today’s paper, I got a new pillow for sleepy time. We bought a new one for Donna too.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 106