Signs of summer

From blog May 6th, 2005

We’ve come through a stretch of rainy weather and I’m back to riding to work regularly. It is still about 55 degrees when I leave in the morning… comfortable for biking, but definitely requiring a light jacket.

The odd thing is that in the last two days, I’ve seen the cottonwood fluff start to pile up on the trail like snow drifts. Isn’t that a summer thing? The clouds of gnats that sound like rain when they bounce off my helmet and jacket seem like a spring thing. I’ll be glad when their time is done. (Looking back on previous blog postings, I see that I was eating gnats through summer into October. Sigh.)

Last week I passed the 200 mile mark on my bike odometer. That feels pretty good. I’m beginning to realize how inefficient my bike is for commuting on roads. I don’t think I’ll be getting any faster at this point and still people on skinny-tired bikes go whizzing past me regularly at twice my speed.

I’m building character. Maybe at some point I’ll get to ride on a fast bike and it will feel like walking on the moon. Or maybe I’m just a lot slower than all the hard-core bikers around me.