Bike To Work Day 2012 was yesterday...

Things I learned on the commute ride to my BART Station:

1. My haircut does NOT work well with a bike helmet.  Especially after I went to bed with it still damp. I've been wearing a baseball cap all day.  Must come up with a more bike friendly coiffure - that's still sassy.
2. It's still nice and cool at 6am.  If I could only be so lucky at 6pm.
3. Gnats love swarming round my head - had an unexpected second breakfast.  Blech.
4. Trail Maintenance cut the weeds recently.  The wind was blowing.  Very bad combination for someone with allergies.  Not looking forward to that on the ride home.  Ack.
5. Really need to get over my apprehension about wearing spandex compression shorts.  They really are the best thing to wear when riding.  I just hate feeling (and looking) like an overstuffed sausage.  And what if all the seams simultaneously burst?!?
6. My new bra passed the riding-the-bike-down-a-bumpy-trail-and-not-getting-black-eyes test.  Thank you Playtex.
7. Not too many Energizer Stations were open at 6:25am.  I decided to wait a few minutes while the nice ladies and gentlemen set up things at the trail crossroads for their 6:30am opening.  I wasn't the only biker there waiting so didn't feel so bad about it.  The yummies, bike bell/compass, latest trail maps, and other assorted goodies packed in the free tote were worth the 5 minutes I "rested".
8. Clif Bar has a bar aimed at kids - "Kidz Bar".  It's just as nasty as the ones for adults. The smiling REI reps at the BART station assured me they tasted better than the adult ones.  They don't.  Guess it's just me, I never have liked those energy bar things.
9. Even though I forgot my lip balm, the smiling REI reps did have some to give away.  They are forgiven for the Clif Bar thing.

Things I learned on the ride home:

1. Gnats have no time boundaries.  They swarm all day, every day.  Yes, there was also a snack on the way home. Gah.
2. People want to talk about my bike.  It took me 55 min to make a usually 30 min trip.  I had too much fun socializing.
3. Little girls under 5 LOVE. MY. BIKE.
4. The later in the day it gets, the more free stuff you can get.  Yes, Honey, I have a bag each for you and your Mum, and Spencer has lots of snacks and a mini bottle of Gatorade.  I loaded up on "Cuties", and 100 calorie snacks.
5. I have my best ideas while riding along.  Going to cut quite a bit of length off an old broomstick skirt I used to wear to dance class and see how it looks over the compression pants.  In my head it looks very cool and bohemian.  In reality, hmmm...  These things don't usually go very well for me, but I'm always willing to try!
6. It wasn't as hot as I thought it would be - but it was still quite toasty.
7. I need to ride more.  I miss riding my totally awesome bike.  I LOVE my bike.
8. Allergies suck.
9. Not enough of a good thing leads to too much of a good thing.  Someday I will find the happy medium where anti-chafing lotion is concerned.

I sure do hope I sleep well tonight.  I worked HARD, and I definitely need some sleep.  Haven't had a decent night since I ran off to Texas to be with Mom and Sis...

People for Bikes

In conjunction with "Bike to Work Day" today, I've added the People for Bikes pledge banner to the top of my blog.  They have just over 500,000 pledges.

Their goal is one million.

If you like bikes and want to have a voice in local issues concerning bikes and bike safety (paths, bike lanes, etc), future legislation and funding for bikes, click and pledge.  It's free.

Have a fun and safe ride today!

Happy Thursday! ***

***This post is being re-posted because Blogger LOST the original I wrote yesterday. Thank God I have things setup so that EVERY post is emailed to me because there is no way in Hell I could have redone this and been so damn clever a second time round. :)

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Good things today so far:

Bike to Work Day!

It's like my own personal Halloween. My costume is my biking getup (which needs it's own blog post) and I go from Energizing Station to Energizing Station holding open my bag and getting loads of free stuff dumped in... Haul this morning, large size of the official Bike to Work tote bag, tangerines, fig newtons, juice, various maps of trails in the Bay Area (very handy!), reflectors, lip balm, reflective ankle thingy to rein in your pants leg, a recyclable pen, a water bottle, Clif bars, and various coupons to local sports shops. Ooh, and this really cool magnetic blinky light which I still haven't figured out quite how it works. Ms Cow got herself a wee little box of raisins for being a brave bicycle passenger (the trail is rather bumpy lately). All that was only from 2 stations. They LOVE to shower you with stuff - the list of goodies I turned down is even longer.







I hurds it trew da grapesvyn... Kalifornya waisins, nomity nom nom nom...








Paperback Swap

I LOVE this site. I've mailed off lots of books to good homes and just ordered 5 more for myself. Another Terry Pratchett book (Tiffany Aching, bk 3) and the first four books of the Stephen King "Dark Tower" series. Can't wait to get them!


More Energy

This doesn't really need an explanation, does it? Biking two days in a row and I feel great. Really should have started doing this a lot sooner.

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Can't wait to see what the "Energizer Station" sponsors have on the ride home. I'm really hoping for a new dingy-ding bell. The East Bay Park folks were giving them out last year, so I hope to get another this year. The poor thing is all worn out. It dingity-dings on it's own now. Every time I hit a bump. Even a small bump. So I'm pretty much dingity-ding-dinging my way down the trail.

It's like it's saying:

"Look at the awesome outfit this woman is wearing! Here she comes wearing an awesome outfit! Look at her wearing that awesome outfit! She's riding a bike! And wearing an awesome outfit while she rides! Make way for the biking chick with the awesome outfit! You want an outfit like hers, you KNOW you do! Cos it's AWESOME!"

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Update!


I originally wanted to write this update last night, but Blogger has been having some issues, so here it is on Friday. It's also not going to be so clever and funny as it was last night - in my mind.


Final list of "treats" from Bike to Work Day gathered up along the way home: more maps (I'm pretty sure I've got a complete set for the East Bay now), a chocolate chip cookie for Spencer (and yes I did give it to him), Red Vines for Spencer, cheese sticks, various and sundry juice boxes and mini-Gatorade bottles, various and sundry chips and fruit snack bags, mandarin oranges (YUM), Clif bars, Fig Newtons, more raisins for Ms Cow, and lots of bags. About 4 more bags than I really wanted. They were begging us to take extras though, so I did and they will go this weekend to the charity thrift shop with the rest of my donations.


I was very careful this year to only take what Spence and I would use/eat - no need to be greedy. Do I REALLY need more pens when I have a drawerful at home? Didn't think so. There were quite a few snacks because, well, Spencer is 16, quite tall and has entered his "bottomless pit of a stomach with two hollow legs" stage. Any food brought home is DEFINITELY consumed. So no waste there. The extra bags go away tomorrow and the maps I will keep in my "map box".

At the last stop before leaving the trail, I decided now would be a good time to have a drink of some refreshing water since it was quite warm and hauling all those snacks was causing me to break out into a pretty good sweat. Well, being the graceful dove I am, I managed to dribble half the bottle down my shirt. It was actually quite refreshing since I was indeed rather toasty.

Indeed.

Not quite so refreshing was the small swarm of gnats I swallowed on the last leg of the trip.

Updated List: Minus one bottle of Gatorade used to wash out my mouth...

I really need to keep my mouth SHUT when I'm riding.