Posted On Monday, June 30th, 2008 By David Veatch
After a long weekend involving lots and lots of fun with the rest of my team in Omaha, NE, and some far less fun work unclogging and replacing the downstairs toilet, I’m back and ready to really kick it up a notch this week. Over on my commute routes page, I’ve laid out the route I intend to take every day this week. ~35 miles home every day, today through Thursday, and nearly the same loop again on Friday. In the mornings I’m going to buck up and take my 15 mile route into work, going well out of my way out to Lackman before doubling back and heading back into Overland Park. It is going to be an exhausting week, but it’s designed to break me down. Next week I’ll be in full recovery mode with little to no exercise while my body repairs itself for the Triple Bypass, by which time I’ll be the stronger for the effort I pour out this week. I’ll probably be posting some pretty boring stuff this week. Dry accounts of how I’m feeling, how the rides went and the like. I want to be able to look back and see exactly where more »
Posted On Thursday, June 26th, 2008 By David Veatch
It’s been well documented that whenever two or more commuters meet on the road, it is necessary that they race. It’s unspoken, and rarely even acknowledged, but accepted without question. I hear that runners have the same rules. This morning was supposed to be a relaxing ride in. It was supposed to see me arrive at work relatively low on the sweat meter. In case you’re not paying attention, it didn’t end up that way. Russ and I hit the intersection of 91st and Lamar at the same time. I was heading east and turning right, while he was heading west and turning left. He hails from Brookside, and I from Shawnee. Honestly, this morning I was that guy that doesn’t stop to chat. I was that guy who just rides on with only a nod, anti-social and distant even though you’re going the same direction. I was feeling solitary and withdrawn due to some general life stresses that have been getting the best of me. I turned right and rode on, pulling a pretty good pace down the hill from 91st to 95th. He apparently kept up pretty well, because the light at 95th stopped us both. We introduced more »
Posted On Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 By David Veatch
This morning, our hero finds himself racing against manicured lawns everywhere. Turning east on 91st, he notices what appears to be a street cleaner in the distance. He up shifts and increases his tempo just a bit to try and catch up. Unfortunately, stop signs and passing traffic keep him at a distance. He makes quick work of the 69 Highway overpass, and enters the rolling hills of Elmhurst. More stop signs and traffic continue to keep him at bay, but he finally catches his quarry at 91st and Grant. Unfortunately, there are still two cars between himself and what turned out to be an industrial size riding lawnmower. One car, impatient with the slow and steady pace of the mower, guns it and passes, leaving just one car in between our hero and certain victory! The last obstacle guns her engine as well, but seeing oncoming traffic, stays put, forcing our spry pedalist to do the same. At about that time, a car comes up from behind and tries to squeeze him to the curb, but he puts a hand out and holds firm. The driver backs off, perhaps knowing what is at stake. At the stoplight at Antioch, more »
Posted On Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 By David Veatch
In a stunning upset last night, Deep Pockets, formerly in 6th place out of 10, defeats the 1st place team 8-Ball Junk-eez 3 and a half rounds to 1 and a half rounds. When asked how she felt about the outcome, one team member replied simply “Hell YEAH!!!” It is uncertain how last nights stellar showing on the part of Deep Pockets will change the overall rankings, but one thing can be certain: they are out of their slump. Defeating the first place team did a lot to bolster the flagging confidence of the team members. Over the course of the last three weeks, they went from splitting the rounds even, to suffering two 1 round nights in a row. Out of 12 rounds, they won 4.5. While last nights performance may not have improved their percentages enough to put them in one of the top three spots, winning the majority of the rounds against the first place team made the team members feel like they were already there. Of the four team members, two monopolized the 8-ball, each sinking it three times out of four for 37 points each. While the other two team members weren’t able to pot more »
Posted On Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 By David Veatch
I woke up a little late this morning. I drove in yesterday to drop the car off and bring clothes in for the week, and since driving in affords me a little more sleep, I gave it to myself. Unfortunately, I forgot to reclaim it this morning, and so I slept late. Not that it mattered. I woke up to thunder, lightening and rain. I’m not sure what I would have done had I a car at home, but without one, I started preparing the all-weather Kona for the ride in. It was pretty easy. I have mounts for the headlight and taillight on both bikes, so moving them over is literally two snaps. I have to move the frame/battery bag over, but that’s easy enough with four Velcro straps the only thing standing in the way. The panniers are already packed with the flat kit, and since my clothes were already at work, I didn’t have to worry about that. The rain cost me all of about 4 minutes. In reality, it cost me nothing, b/c (Recumbum may appreciate this) I waited until the lightening and thunder passed before heading out. The ride in was, as always, uneventful. There more »
Posted On Monday, June 23rd, 2008 By David Veatch
I don’t think I’m a fan of making extra trips to work in order to carry clothes back and forth, thus enabling me to ride an otherwise non-commute-ready bike. This week I’m going to try driving in on Monday, and driving home on Thursday. Why Thursday, I hear you asking… because on Friday, we’ll be in Omaha with the rest of my team for a team building pool party. It promises to be more than plenty fun! Until then, however, we have auditors in all week, so I’m letting you know now, before you get terribly worried, that I may not be posting much this week. It’ll be a busy and stressful one, and I’ll be engaging in stress-reducing activities in my free time that likely won’t involve a lot of keyboard pecking.
Posted On Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 By David Veatch
This weekend marks the second weekend in a row we’ve held a garage sale. I’m going to count it as a nearly complete success. Most of the large items we wanted to peddle away have been, and those that remain will very likely go on Craig’s List or eBay without too much trouble. It’s been a lot of work, but we’ve got hard cash in hand now and open garage space. Everybody wins!
Posted On Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 By David Veatch
Friday night I participated in my first June Moon ride. It was fantastic. I met Noah (who has some great, as always, pics from the ride up on his site) and Chris at their apartment complex, from where we made our way down to the Wendy’s parking lot at K10 and Woodland. There were 9 of us all told. I felt more than a little like a noob, there amongst the likes of CommuterDude, Noah and BadgerLand, all of whom have been commuting for far longer than I. But cyclists are, by and large, a very friendly bunch, and we all got on great. We hung out there for a while, showing off our bikes and drooling over other bikes. There were all manner of rides, from beater mountains, to beater roadies, to fully decked out commuters (yum!) and racing bikes. We took off at 21:00 sharp for parts unknown (at least to me). My trusty 705 recorded the ride, and you can see the results on motionbased.com. It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden in the dark, and though my light hadn’t been charged in a few days, there was plenty of light from the rest of the more »
Posted On Friday, June 20th, 2008 By David Veatch
Tonight I join the ranks of the June Full Moon Madness riders. We’re meeting up at Wendy’s on K10 at 21:00, where we’ll start our meandering out to DeSoto and back. All in all, from my house, it’ll total a bit over 51 miles, and should go until sometime around 12:30 or 01:00 Saturday morning. Starting at 8:00 to meet Noah on the way, that will make for many glorious relaxed after-dark hours in the saddle.
Posted On Friday, June 20th, 2008 By David Veatch
It’s official. I’ve taken pictures, and have offered the Giant up for sale. I’m not asking much, probably way too little in fact, but in resisting the urge to be a pack rat, and in the spirit of recent events, it’s time to clean house, even of those things near and dear to us. Not to sound like a sentimental dolt about a bicycle, but I’m going to wax sentimental and doltish about a bicycle for a bit, so bear with me. In this case, it’s the first bike I ever bought on my own with my own money. Ok, it was Mom and Dad’s money, but I was away at college out from under their immediate supervision. I made what I consider, in hindsight, a mature and responsible decision to purchase a bicycle for transportation and exercise, even opting for a lower end model, rather than the far flashier, but more expensive and alluring models. I could have bought posters, or booze, or food, or any number of other aesthetic, transient and ultimately useless things that college students away for the first time typically collect (note, I don’t include role-playing supplies, music, or computer games :). Instead, I chose more »