it'snotfunny

snot

the flat tire

finally getting around to fixing last thursday's flat on the commuter bike. it turns out i picked up abouy a dime-sized shard of glass. cuh-razy. it's hard to see the glass through the snow.

blogger android app

well, not the most exciting post, but i've installed the blogger app and i'm going to give it a try instead of the post-by-e-mail method i've been using from my phone.

nice, this is really sweet, it lets you start an entry, take a photo, and return to editing the post.

hoo-yeah it's staying light later

it seems like just last week, my rides home were in complete darkness.

looks like i was the only one stupid enough to...

ride a bicycle into work today, soo... i'm guessing my bike'll be a little lonely at the rack today

i might have been the only one stupid enough to...

ride a bicycle into work today, soo... i'm guessing my bike'll be a little lonely at the rack today

pair programming from the bat cave

do i really want to go out there?

oh, what the heck, why not. i've ridden in -13 before.

you might not be able to handle this

chilly, but not bitter cold

the four horsemen of the coldpocalypse didn't show in full force today. it was cold enough for the mask, but it wasn't as bad as was forecast. 2f, no big deal.

cold moonshine

was riding home today just as the moon was rising.

a slog of a ride

sure leaves its mark on your bike.

winter repairs brrrr

my garage isn't heated, and the winter bike is entirely too messy to bring indoors, so i took advantage of the sun shining in through the garage window and wrenched on the bike today.

i had to switch to a different wheel because a spokenipple oulled right through an eyelet the other day (very likely the result of some hamfisted truing i did in november).

with that wheel toast, i had to pull my only 18t cog off the dead wheel for install on the other one.

i was the witness of a january miracle. the cog came off and i didn't leave any knuckle skin on the spokes! thankyou babyjeeebus for anti-seize!

clingon

much snow from today's ride is hanging from the bike.

packed (with snow)

the cold skyline in three parts

b and i were at the minneapolis institute of arts today. about 1/2 hour before sundown, we were right by a second-story window looking north at the skyline. i thought the city looked so sad and metallic in the diffused winter light. there was also a slight haze created by a fine mist of snowflakes, but that didn't show in the picture.

i was unsatisfied leaving the picture just as it was, so i first desaturated it in gimp. wow, it got colder, yet. us bank place looks like a thermos full of the coffee (or soup) this cold skyline needs to struggle its way toward springtime!

so, knowing it was my cold reality, i had to make it so unrealistic to keep it from clouding my mind. :-)

hard to believe

but we had to go indoors to iceskate on a december day in minnesota. it's 38f and raining, so even a chilled outdoor rink wouldn't be fun.

hoary morning

it was foggy here last night and, when we woke up, the sky was falling. i grabbed the camera to see if i could capture the shimmery atmosphere, but it really just looks like it's snowing. this is an attempt at shooting on manual with my fstop and iso pushed around to capture the light.

this, however, is what the camera did on its own when i set it to "intelligent auto." it did a better job of capturing the light, whereas my attempts to play with the manual settings weren't quite quick enough and overemphasized the movement of the sparkles.

here, though, i played a little with depth of field on a light fixture just outside our back door. kind of fun getting a tight focus up close, moving the lens slightly, and taking the shot before it refocuses.

my favorite stretch of st paul road

where is it? irvine ave just south of summit and western. i like this one going up or down.

riding the bus isn't sooo bad if...

this is what you're greeted by at your destination. surprising and nice to see rice park lit up in the morning.

the dirty little secret of the winter bicycle commute

some days, the commute is only made possible through sheer flexibility. that flexibility usually describes the other people in your life: the boss who lets you leave the office early or the family who doesn't mind you staying at the office late, all in the name of keeping your snowy ass out of traffic.

then, there's another kind of flexibility, multiple routes. you can't live in some bottlenecked exurb and always expect your one route to everything to be good enough to ride. you have to be able to change things up when a route isn't safe for whatever reason.

ultimately, you're going to need a backup plan. if you're lucky enough to be able to work from home periodically, your broadband connection will earn its keep. some of us technical folks still need to hit the office in bad weather, which is why my backup is a bus pass and a good pair of boots.

really, though, year-round cyclecommuting is an awesome lifestyle choice, but it requires more than just a bike and some fancy clothes.

salt

that's the kind of mark a hard-core winter commuting bike leaves.

hated by the drivetrain

if my chain were a person, it wouldn't want to be my friend after what i put it through, today.

a bright spot on a grim commute

huff and puff

take my breath away...
and smear it all over my chest
i guess

huff and puff

take my breath away...
and smear it all over my chest
i guess

at 5f you might need 1 of these to drink champagne

ohhhh. champagne is the color, not the function. here i was thinking it was like a grapefruit spoon ;-)

le mask

capturing wind

wind is a powerful thing. extremely low air temps let you know how a small amount of wind can have a profound effect on you and your surroundings. this first picture shows what appears to be the wind winning a battle with light. see how the blowing snow softens the edges of the shadows.

here's a classic example of the wind's sculpting power. as i dug through the snowdrifts (like this), today, i found that the wind had blown away all of the powdery snow and what was left were compact layers. it's interesting that this is formed not in large sculpting scoops but by the wind brushing away a few granules at a time.

how come property improvements always...

guarantee nobody ever freakin lands on my properties?

snotcicles

the traffic report from today's commute

hardly any traffic. well... hardly any here. i rode a little extra distance on the road with plenty of traffic so i could experience this serene path through the woods (worth every pedalstroke).