Heck there are some weeks where it seems that Cicely and I as well as Zoey now, spend more "quality" time in the car or on our way to and from things. I am sure that will not change "much" as she gets older, might even get worse - and I don't mean to say "worse" in a bad way, I mean it in more of a "it's going to be a challenge and change for us" sort of way. Watching my sister over the years she stays really busy with her boys.
Going to football games, lacrosse and basketball it keeps her busy. I do think it's awesome, although difficult, that she goes to all of their games, practices and everything in-between. It will mean a lot to them as well as they get older, if it has does not already, which knowing them, I am sure that it means a ton. Although as they grow priorities will change, they will be able to drive themselves and while the picture will be the same, the light on it will make it appear a little different.
Yea I know, me and my little phrases that probably make no sense to anyone but me and a handful of others. I am OK with that, why do you think we had to put the secret handshake into place?
Night Peddler
Last night we got home at a decent time, 6:30 'ish if I remember correctly and did the usual playing with Oggy, settled down from the long day and started preparing for the evening routines. Feeding Oggy, getting things ready for the next day and so on.
I kept looking outside, keeping an eye on the amount of daylight left in the day to gauge whether or not I would be able to get a bike ride in or not. As luck would have it, everything was done for the most part and I was good to go! I went into the bedroom closer to get my gear and could not find the jersey I was planning to wear and that's when it hit me - duh, it's hanging up drying after being washed from the ride in the rain on Saturday.
No big deal right, and why the hell am I writing about it? Great question and the follow-up answer is that even though my jersey, shorts and related are clean guess what has not been gone through yet? If you said "the bike" well then ding, ding, ding you are correct - shxt!
So out to the garage I went, old clothes on and ready to tackle project "clean and lube". Now compared to my race karts cleaning and prepping the bike is nothing although it has one common factor - time. To do it right it takes time and for the bike to be cleaned front to back, top to bottom, chain scrubbed, gears cleaned hell even the spokes it took me just over an hour to complete.
Happy with the results I cleaned up the dirty towels, lubed the chain and other important pivot points and hurried inside to put on my gear. First thing I noticed out the window was that it was almost dark. If I was fast getting ready and getting out on the road I would have 10 to 15 minutes of daylight left - not enough time, sucks!
But wait, I have my new bad-ass light that I was going to start putting on when I leave a little late on my rides. Should I just say "fuck it", put the light on and go? Yea, I think I should - and I did!
First off, while it's cooler at night it's not necessarily not as hot if that makes any sense what-so-ever? I think there was more humidity in the air or something but it was still more comfortable than the dry heat of mid-day rides. Next, there is a lot less traffic which is awesome. Less cars to deal with the better. Most people are really good about giving you some space and so on - but the fear is always in the back if my head when they are approaching me.
Now the new headlight. The thing is awesome to say the least. I had to make one adjustment because I had it aimed a little too high but otherwise it worked fantabulous! It has multiple settings from low to high brightness as well as flashing strobe type settings as well. I kept it on low most of the ride but switched over to high towards the end. I think that around 9:00 PM or so all of the street lights turn off in certain areas. It became much darker much quicker but a quick tap on the top of the light and my path was illuminated more.
In the end I think it was a successful first night right and the light was money well spent. I did also buy some ankle reflector straps and they help me to be seen as well. Anything to give me more piece of mind is worth the expense and for those we are talking a couple bucks.
Now there is a downside to all of this, OK one really big down-side a medium sized one and a small one. It's probably not what you think so I will simply list them out one by one.
1. Big: There are a lot, I mean a heck of a lot of bugs out at night. No, nothing like you would deal with in say Louisiana but enough. They are all suicidal / Kamikaze's as well - or they simply have poor night vision. I found very quickly that it's important to keep your head down and mouth closed no matter how hard you are breathing.
2. Medium: Sprinklers are on at this time of the night in the common areas of the neighborhoods. These common areas happen to be the grassy areas next to the road which would put them right next to the bike lane. Avoiding them is a must to stay dry and to not have to clean the bike again to avoid problems. Thankfully traffic is light so I was able to use the road instead of the bike lane in those cases. There were only a few I had to actually plow through the over-spray and small puddles - no biggie.
3. Small: The smallest but at the same time could be seen as the biggest "problem" is that it's extremely hard for me to make that final turn to head home. The weather is so nice at that time as I mentioned and the roads are so clear that I just want to keep on going for miles and miles. That has always been a problem for me even when driving a car or just being out and about. For some reason I have always been a night person. With the addition of the light on my road bike I am able to pretty much ride as long as I want.
So all said and done I think the ride was a total success. Even though I only went just over 11 miles it was a really good one. More than likely I will not go "too often" at night. At least now I have the option if the day gets away from me.
In the end I enjoyed the ride at night more than I thought although there are many more variables to be aware of. Also, your mind plays tricks on you. For example: when the bike headlight is hitting bushes, shrubs, posts and signs then throwing reflections, shapes and shadows from those items you don't always know if it's a shadow, a crazy person, a dog or what. Plus when you hear the coyotes howling it kind of adds to the experience.
Anyway, I think that about covers my night ride and that it was a fun experience. I look forward to the next one although going during the day will always be my preferred time because it feels safer even though with more people out and about it's probably not. I need to start going much earlier in the morning - leaving between 11 and 2 is not cutting it on weekends.
Better Half
So Cicely is still under the weather today and when asked said that she is not feeling any better today and that really sucks! Somehow I have managed to avoid this cold and I hope that it stays that way. Zoey is finally getting over it and seems to be in better spirits today as well although a little fussy this morning for some reason. My guess is that she is full of energy - she slept for a really long time last night.
Anyway, hoping that Cicely gets better soon and back to herself. She has a fashion show tomorrow so she has been up late sewing and prepping for it. It's the crazy one where they just show up at random places around town, do a walk-through fashion show and leave. They refer to it as the Fash Mob, I think that it is really cool and I know that she has an absolute blast doing it.
Cubed
So we announced our new manager yesterday in the leadership meeting. It's still under wraps until he has the chance to tell his team but otherwise it's official. I think that it's going to work out really good and he will be a good fit.
OK, Done
That is enough for today. I have been typing most of this on the iPhone so my thumbs are not happy at the moment. Some of it was Siri but it can be more difficult at times because I have to go back and make corrections.
Also it appears that my touchscreen is working nearly 100% so hopefully this means that I won't need to reinstall my iOS and I can sit back and wait for the new iPhone to come out. Then at that time swap over all of my crap. If the new phone is having issues that are reminiscent of what I am dealing with now, then I will consider the clean-wipe. According to the Genius, it will take the "bugs" with it when doing so but I disagree in that case and will have to take my chances.
Anyway, with that it's time for me to put the pencil down, focus and move forward with the day. Last thing I want to do is get behind - I have been doing so well so far this week! Have a great day!
Photo: Here is a shot of the new headlight. Yea, I had to mess with it's look in Aviary photo editor because it's fun to do so!
0 Comments::
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.