Blogger's Block

Definition: ~verb  The inability to obtain sufficiently entertaining information to post to a blog.

I'm not sure if it's the weather, or the lack there of, that has contributed to my blog block but lately I have had a hard time coming up with topics.  Maybe it's the fact that I haven't been riding my bike ALL the way to work lately that has been a problem. When I'm riding, I split the time between watching my rear view mirror and thinking about topics. Don't get me wrong, I have some topics that are floating around in my head but they haven't reached full maturation yet.

It's not like I have given up commuting. If you ask the cyclists I'm a failure since, unlike the 100+ miles a day Tour de Lance, I mean France riders or my patient's daughter who just completed a 400 mile 30 hr endurance ride,  I have been doing the riding the 5 miles to town and catching the bus senario! But to the bus riding crowd, I'm a nut case for the extra trouble of having a bike to deal with on the bus!

I have had some amusing things happen on the bus this week, and while you may not find them entertaining, I did and since this is my blog, I'm going to write about them.

Monday~ A guy was angry that the bus driver let any bikes be put INSIDE the bus, and while it didn't disrupt his seating, when he got off the bus in a huff, he put on the most entertaining jiggity jig on the sidewalk using every imaginable flipping off symbol known to man at the whole bus. I've never been on a bus where that many people were laughing at once!

Tuesday~ Had to remind the bus driver (at the top of my voice, which can be quite loud) that he is suppose to stop at the bus-stops when people pull the signal instead of cruising right by....I almost told him to stop his major flirting conversation about all the "art" he makes on the side and pay attention but I thought I might be pushing my luck!

Wednesday~ Oh, today was fun, fun, fun!  A guy sat next to me this morning who talked non-stop about music. Not just any music but Banjo music. I'm sorry to all you banjo lovers out there, but 5 minutes of that is about all I can take. I really never knew there was that much to talk about! It all sounds the same. I told him that and guess what? He agreed.

Still Wednesday~ First time EVER on the bus, after I pulled the stop cord I got up (holding on to the holding rails!) and the bus driver(different one from Monday) told me in his not nice bus driver voice to sit down and not be standing while he was driving! If I wasn't so shocked I would have laughed. In all the hundreds of times I have ridden a bus I have never been told by any driver to sit down. Exactly what does he think the rails are for, and what would happen when all the seats were full.....I was going to mention that to him...but his not nice voice convinced me I should probably save it for another day.  (don't worry, I'll bring it up!!)

So, there you have it....nothing earth shattering...just life on the bus. I think tomorrow I'll ride to work.

Thanks...but I'll pass!

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110629/NEWS/306299991/it-8217-s-not-easy-being-green-drivers-bicyclists-introduced-to

While I applaud the city of Pt. Angeles for trying to "Go Green" I have my 

concerns about these lanes. I for one am NOT going to pull

myself out in front of the cars to wait for the light.

We do not have 25 cyclists that are crowding for a safe position at the light!

This is the Olympic Peninsula! The population here is tipped towards the aged.

Frankly, most people here do not know how to deal with or handle cyclists. 

Granted...there are some obnoxious cyclists that give the rest of

us a bad name...but generally most cars don't see us or pay attention.

The "Green" lanes look nice with the new paving...

But I'll be sticking to the shoulder!

A Penny Saved...

The phrase "A penny saved is a penny earned" 

has been recorded in the original as 

George Herbert's Outlandish Proverbs, circa 1633. 

A penny spar'd is twice got.

Today was a penny milestone! A year ago I purchased a 

wireless odometer for my bicycle and today it turned over 1500 miles!

 I made a point of pulling over to the side and take a photo of the occasion!

So what have I saved in the last year....

hmmmmmm.

1500 miles =

My car gets 25 mpg so I would have purchased 60 gallons of gas @ $3.79=

$227.40 (shoot, not as much as I'd hoped!)

More importantly that's 1500 miles less on my car tires, engine, ect...

How about calories burned....

Well 1 hr of cycling at 10-11.9 mph = 136.36 hours spent

At my current weight that is 354 calories per hour for a whopping total of....

48,271.44 calories

WOW! That should make me feel better!

So if it takes 3500 burned calories to loose 1 lb. I technically should be stick thin!!

I should have lost 13.79 lbs.

Oh well....here's to more riding!

National Dump The Pump Day

What are you doing today??? As no surprise I am headed out on my bike!

I know I look half asleep....maybe cause its so early...no worries I'll be awake soon in the fresh air!
Happy Thursday everyone!


National Dump The Pump Day

Olfactory Overload

I knew when I decided to commit to public transportation that I would encounter problems.  The one that effects me the most severely occurred today. Smells....

There are various smells to be encountered on a public bus. In the early AM you smell coffee, shampoo, perfume (from the receptionist and hospital desk worker ladies) and even smoke from the die hard chain smokers.

The afternoon can be quite different.  Like any transit system you have a range of riders. The morning has the daily work commuters: County workers, hospital employees, students and such. The afternoon brings out the students again but usually the skills center students, the homeless, the disabled and then a roving group of generally obnoxious young adults.

The smells of the afternoon usually center on 2 things. Cigarettes and B.O.  Not quite sure if they are related but they sure seem to go together.  Today I was running late and managed to arrive at the bus with only a few minutes left to spare before departure. Like any other regular commuter I have my "preferred" seat locations. Today they were all taken and I was subjected to sit towards the back....not my favorite but neither is not being able to look out the window which makes me car/bus sick.

Some people have good excuses for the B.O. If your homeless you don't have many opportunities for cleaning up really well. I know that the YMCA in Pt. Angeles has times that it offers showers to the homeless but other then that it would be hard to stay clean. Most of them manage to stay fairly clean. Many of the handicap and elderly seem to have a more difficult time with cleanliness.  This is sad to me.  With stained clothing and greasy hair you know that they are not bathing on a regular basis.

The worst for me is the smoke. Its such an addicting habit that eats your money, health and looks its hard to understand the draw. To see and hear the obnoxious ones that complain about life, jobs and money while using colorful "F" filled language is perturbing to say the least.

Let's just say....today was a gum sort of day.

Following the Rules...

Many towns have bike lanes, and as the above video shows (in a slightly dramatic re-enactment) that the lanes do not always have the safety of cyclists in mind.  Many times I have noticed that you can't even see where the lanes begin and end do to fading paint. If I can't see it I'm sure that neither can a car!  While I do try to stay in bike lanes as much as possible, this guy is correct, sometimes to do so would provide more injury for myself then avoiding them.

Down with the Ferrari Fund!

Even as the price of oil is dropping there hasn't been much relief at the pump. I took these photos on my ride to work this week.

One of the amazing things about all this is that top oil executives continue to receive ginormous bonuses even as most Americans are reorganizing their traveling habits to accomodate the rising cost to fill up!

Two British Petroleum executives have been put on notice of investigation because of receiving bonuses of L100,000 or US $162,400.  The shareholders have a right to be disgusted and in an uproar!

So how can you fight back? Well, we know that these executives will probably continue to receive these bonuses but you can hurt them just a little if you follow a little advice that I read in the latest issue of Bicycling magazine.

If only 5% of the population would use an alternate form of transportation for the 2 mile radius from their home we would save 5.8 millions gallons of gas. Pish, posh my husband said, that's not even a drop in the bucket! Well, buck up folks! Can you imagine what 

could happen if it was MORE then 5%?

5.8 gallons of gas @ $4.00 gallon=$23.2 millions of dollars

Surely that would cut someone's bonus money!

So gear up folks! Ride to work, walk to the store, skate for fun! Let's cut 

someone's Ferrari fund!