The Hustle and The Peril

Ah! Home from work, the groceries are away, wine stowed and coffee made (in the new suspiciously a lot like a percolator "espresso" pot my mom sent me--not that I am complaining!).

The snow is finally gone, and now we have fog. Fog like I have never seen before. Oh, fog and "ice-fog", which is what I woke up to this morning. The moment my wheels touched the street I realized I had made a mistake. The street was sheer ice, frozen condensation from the night before. I began to slow down with painstaking care, intending to halt 500 metres away, where morning rush-hour traffic was presumably hurtling by (presumably as I couldn't see it through the ice-fog). Anyway, I made it without bailing. I rode to work along Broadway (assuming that the high volume of traffic would have melted the ice), in the perilous "bike and bus lane", which is treated more like an extended super long right-turn lane by mainly grumpy motorists. Ordinarily I'd go along the 10th ave bike route, but I expected more ice, so no.

Riding on 10th is totally relaxing and nice; there are high, full trees and you pass by beautiful homes and a school, and it's traffic controlled, and there's China Creek skatepark, which in the summer is quite fun. Broadway is just about the hustle of getting to work. The hustle and the peril.

I went for an easy 50k on Saturday, which was very enjoyable, despite the GDMF fog. You can actually see the stuff like a thick fluffy wet cloud. I went to New West, bought a coffee, then turned around for home. I didn't bring a lock or backpack, which kept me out of the thrift shops (I'm trying to spend less, as well accumulate less junk/treasure). I was somewhat tired after, but that's to be expected, as the snow etc. has kept me off the bike for a while now (except for 10k to work and back each day (10k total.) Noticeably less power getting out of New West on the hill, but not such a bad base, all things considered. I do need to be more careful about diet and actually use my resistance trainer when I can't get out.