Memories From My Driving to Work Days

For some reason I've been paying attention to the way people, who are too cheap to buy an on campus parking sticker -- of which I used to be, park on the side streets. Seeing how people parallel park is just a riot. From the area around the sorority houses (their parking could be a whole different humorous post) to the area around campus.

This morning as I got closer to campus, there was a car that was parked that at first I was seriously worried that it was about to pull out in front of me. In other words, it wasn't parallel at all. One had "nose dived" into the parking spot with its rear end still partially out in the street. Then there is the "I am parked in the middle of the street because there is snow/ice on the curb" people. My ride in was filled with comedic parking delight this morning.

My favorite is the spacing of the cars. The people who leave about 3/4 of a car length in front of them. Not big enough to park anything, but it screws up two parking spots eventually due to space lost in front an behind.

I used to become so outraged with the stupidity of the way people parked. The number of times I had to park and extra block or two away due to stupid parking was truly annoying. I look back at those times and laugh. I know where I park now. About five steps outside the door. Glorious.

Parking is always a hot topic when walking around fixing computers in my area. Most have learned NOT to discuss it around me because of the standard answer they will receive for their griping: "Ride your bike". Most have an excuse why they don't bike, some legit, most not. In the immortal words of my friend Snakebite, "Excuses are like a-holes, everybody has one, and they all stink."

The Day (Off) From Hell

Ah Friday. My day off to work on the honey-do list, go for a bike ride, enjoy the day. No problems here. I was confident that this was going to be a relaxing day to do a little work, do a little riding, and kick back. Then I got out of bed. Which was my first mistake.



First order of business: Wake up at 6:30 and go 20-30 miles on the tandem with Laura. Out of bed and start preparations. While Laura was eating I got the tandem out of the garage. Flat rear. Darn. No cap on the tube. Mayyybe the kids (okay, Carson) was playing with it and let the air out. Pumped it back up and it seemed to hold. Went in got dressed to ride. Came back out and the tire was way down. Change of tube necessary. Changed. Now too late to go over twenty miles as Laura had to go to work, so we did a short run to the bridge of about 15 miles.

Second order of business: Get last two loads of laundry finished and on the clothes line. Check. This actually went fine. Until the quick moving rain moved through before they were dry. Oh well, I'll get them later. That did work (barely) as another storm was RAPIDLY moving in and I was racing against the clock to pull it all off the line.


Third order of business: Clean out and arrange the garage. Part of the issue here is that we are having a garage sale tomorrow and the garage has been lost to loads and loads of stuff for the sale. So, I moved it all out in hopes of arranging the garage. Once all the stuff was moved out, the aforementioned rain came through. Hurry up and get all the stuff BACK in the garage. Then I had to go into work for a bit (coming up in next section). When I got home from work took all of it BACK out of the garage and started to arrange a little. Then I had to take a break to work on a computer (also coming up). When I came upstairs from fixing that some more dark clouds were rolling in and the wind was picking up. I yelled at the kids to start getting the stuff in the garage fast and I was going to get the clothes off the line. I BARELY won that battle. I could literally SEE the rain less than a block away as I got back in the house.

Fourth order of business: Going to work on my day off because of a slight emergency that needed to be handled. No biggy, but who really wants to go to work on their day off.

Fifth order of business: Fixing a computer that was dropped off to me. Nothing big, just putting in and setting up a third hard drive into a computer. Just time consuming is all.

Sixth order of business: Laura and her Mom went to a viewing for a friend that passed away. While they were gone a lady that Laura works with stopped by to pick up a few bags of girls clothes for her granddaughters. Problem now exists: They are mixed in with the rummage sale stuff due to the frantic storm dodging. I did my best to find the bags and I thought I did. Turns out that I sent along at least a couple bags I shouldn't have and now Laura is busy hunting them down now that she's home. I can't win.

Then, to top everything off, the poor lady backed out of our driveway and straight into our van, causing mild damage that will have to be repaired. It was pretty much expected by this time. I wouldn't have expected anything else!

That pretty much finished me off. I was spent. What I was so confident was going to be a good day ended up being a day from hell. What I really need is a beer. Crap. I'm out. I don't have the energy to go get any. I'm going to bed. Tomorrow pretty much HAS to be better.

A Busy Week

As is usually the case this time of year, life has been busy and packed with things going on.

Sunday: Our awesome Cantata at church. Children's program after church. Laura and I rented a carpet cleaner late Saturday afternoon and shampooed carpets and cleared out the office in the basement and it's now the bedroom to Austin. The Brady family needs to purge some of it's belongings as we now have stuff stacked to quite unsafe levels!

Monday: Got to have lunch with a good friend that I haven't had the opportunity to see in quite some time due to the fact I don't get to Sioux Falls all that often, even though I live less than an hour away. Austin also had his first band concert that night. He rocked the tenor sax!

Tuesday: Carson had his Pre-School program. He stood quite stoic looking dapper as all get out. However, nerves got the best of him and he didn't sing a word of any song...until he got back in the van. Then we couldn't shut him up. Not that we would have as it was quite cute.

Wednesday: Met Mr. Bite for lunch since I was working in Sioux Falls. It's becoming a Wednesday tradition to conspire to make bicycles take over the world.

Thursday: Ma Brady came down to the chiropractor and Laura and I took her out to lunch.

Friday: I met with good friends (and Austin's Godparents) Doug and Sina for lunch in Sioux Falls since I was up there working anyway. Dulci & Russ, Nicholas & Nathan (sister-in-law, husband and nephews) made it back from Colorado for Christmas along with Grandma Laura.

Saturday: The "Brady" Christmas in Montrose at the World Famous Irish Pub. Some 30 people were there, so it was a great place to host that many people. It was a great time and always nice to get together with the whole family. There was much talk about cycling and bowling. We all have our geek-dom...my brother has a vice in bowling. He owns more bowling balls than I do bikes.

Sunday: Church along with Russ and Dulci renewing their vows. They have been married 15 years and decided one trip up the aisle wasn't enough.

Not that we are not normally busy, nor is this a complete list of what's been going on. On the contrary, it's just the highlights. I was just compiling in my own head why I feel like I've done nothing but chase my tail as of late. I may have to take off time after Christmas just to catch up on sleep!

I am looking forward to a relaxing (?) Christmas with family, but I'm also already looking forward to the calm once school starts up again!

Tagged

For the most part, I'm not into the whole "being tagged" thing on the internet. However, an old friend Geek Girl the Iron has tagged me twice and I need something to calm my mind for five minutes so here goes nothing.

Rules: Tell five things about yourself that others may not know. Since most of my "blogging friends" don't know me that well, here is a list of things you may or may not know about me.

1. Biking is a "new found" love over the past 10 years. I was actually more of a distance runner than anything. I ran many road races and two marathons with the last marathon being in October of 1990 (Twin Cities). I posted a 3:04 in Lincoln, NE and was on my way to around a 2:50 in Twin Cities when I got tripped up with my running mate and fell at the 21 mile mark. Still managed a 3:20, but was beat up, sore, and bummed out. Due to a back injury, distance running had to leave my life. However, obviously I've found something else to occupy my obsessive/compulsive nature.

2. I served in Desert Storm (aka Papa Bush's war). I served with the 730th Medical Company (Detachment 1) South Dakota National Guard out of Vermillion. Always thought I'd stay in to get retirement, but decided that playing babysitter to the world might not be all that fun so I got out.

3. I am a band geek. To this day I still play my saxophone and enjoy it immensely. My Dad played in an old timers band (waltz, polka, fox trots, etc) and I still pick up and play those songs from memory. I tend to play more by ear than by sheet music. I also (attempt) to play bass guitar for a praise and worship band at church.

4. I am a Lay Speaker for the Dakotas Conference of the United Methodist Church. That's right folks, Bikingbrady gives an occasional sermon. I definitely have much more appreciation for pastors giving their sermon now as I KNOW how much time it takes to prepare for a sermon. Anybody who knew me as a wild kid would find it hard to believe that I go to church, let alone fill the pulpit.

5. I hate large crowds. I can handle small gatherings or smaller groups within a large gathering, but I can't stand to be in a large crowd. Maybe it's all part of growing up in rural South Dakota, but when a crowd gets too big, I tend to want to leave.

I believe the rules are that I now get to "tag" five of you. You don't have to, and I'm sure some of you won't, but it might be interesting to see what some of you will say. SO...I'll tag Snakebite, Cycle SD, Ridden Words, My Chain Driven Life Through Alaska , Barry, and MnBicycleCommuter

Evan Almighty

If it isn't a blatant kid film, I'm way behind on movie watching. I finally caught Evan Almighty on DVD and it was only mildly entertaining, even for somebody who usually just shuts their brain off and enjoys what a movie has to offer. That being said, I'd only give the movie 3.5/4 stars out of 10. Worth a watch, nice feel good message about it, so not a total waste of time.

The beauty that makes me appreciate it more was in the extras on the DVD. They talk about the "Almighty Green Set". They set it up so as much wood as possible from the set would be donated to Habitat for Humanity at the end of the movie along with windows/etc. The director from the movie also offered to buy bicycles for the cast and crew for those who were willing to ride between the sets instead of drive, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the film. He figured that a few people would end up taking him up on his offer, but 400 ended up doing so....and he bought 400 bikes. I thought that was pretty darn cool! They also figured out their total carbon footprint from travel and everything for the film, and planted enough trees to make up for it, making this a "zero carbon footprint" movie.

While this doesn't really make up for a so-so movie, it makes the message within the movie (be better stewards of the earth) a stronger one. I'm impressed with the thought process of what went on behind the scenes of the movie. Wonder if we will see any other movies willing to do such attempts to make "green movies". Many in the movie industry talk the talk, now to see if they will truly walk the walk.

Happy 15,000+ TCR0

Sunday,as I was approaching Elk Point (the first time), the computer on my Giant TCR0 read 15,000 miles at or near where the arrow is pointing in the picture above. That is actually probably low as my computer has been cutting out a little more lately. Luckily I always have the Garmin as my backup trip mileage. Either the battery is going dead, which I'm surprised hasn't happened yet, or my computer figures that it's already screwed up because it's reading 15,000 miles.

I love my Cateye Astrale, but it may be time to move on when it dies. I no longer pay attention to cadence as I pretty much know the general ballpark that I'm pedaling, and with my Garmin, it really only serves as a backup device anyway. BUT, when you are obsessed with logging mileage, a backup is never a bad idea I guess.

While the Astrale may get retired, there is no thought of retiring the Giant TCR0 yet. It has served me quite well and hopefully will for awhile yet. 15,000 bike miles...I wonder how many that is in "cager" miles? Is it like dog years to people years? Has my bike rolled the equivalent of 105,000 car miles? more?

New Thoughts on Posting

While I will still post some ride information and keep you up to date with monthly totals, I don't think many are interested in reading about my Weekly Activity (unless something spectacular happens). I think what I will focus on more in my posts are things I see differently while biking versus driving, trips I make with the Grocery Getter including a new feature, "What has been hauled by the grocery getter this week".



As much as I love to ride my road bike for miles on end, I think the thing I'm proudest of are my in town commuting/errand miles. Vermillion is a relatively small town (a little over 10,000) and from where I live, literally nothing is over three miles away, and most things are less than 2 miles. So while I may not have near the commuting miles as some, I'm proud to say that I drive very very little in town. I take the Grocery Getter with me quite often now. As an example, here are some of the things it did in the last couple weeks for me:

* Hauled many computers and monitors from various places on campus due to a bunch of new faculty computers that came in and carried the old ones back to my office.
* Hauled a few smaller printers back that were replaced.
* A few trips to the grocery store for groceries. I have figured out that I can completely fill a small shopping cart at Hy-Vee along with a couple gallons of milk underneath and it will all fit in the Grocery Getter.
* Trips to Walmart for things
* Trips to the Dakota Dome with my backpack full of workout clothes inside
* Recyclables to the the recycling center/recycling trailers (no curbside pickup yet!)
* Hauled my wife's massage table to and from her office. I know, it's hard to get a mental image of this, so I'll work on taking a picture for you on this one!

You get the general picture. I use the Grocery Getter like most people use a car. I'm sure many people in town think I am the strangest thing ever with that cart on back. Do I care? Are you kidding? I could care less. Okay, I might feel bad if the kids get crap in school about their weird Dad, but many of the kids think that my obsessive bike riding is actually cool (The kid who delivers the local shopper newspaper LOVES my cart!).

From here on out, there will be biking stories, grocery getter updates, and monthly mileage updates along with the usual family happenings. Part of the purpose of my blog is to encourage people to drive less. Now I need to SHOW people how I do so much with my bike and without my car!

Blog It and They Will Come (Maybe)

So, I've been doing the "blogging thing" for almost 2 years now. Mind you, for the most part, my blog has been pretty boring unless you LOVE biking or my family. That is pretty much all I do besides work and various church activities. Nothing too exciting to most people, but exciting enough for me. I don't blog about work. I love my job, and I'm sure I could squeeze out some great "duh" stories working for ITS at the University, but I'm really good at leaving work behind once 5:00 hits.

Anyhow, I used to rarely post unless something moderately exciting happened. Great for me, but not so great for friends and family who always want to see what is going on in my life, which is why I started a blog in the first place, so I wouldn't have to email them all the time. NOW, I feel the need to blog even when I am not sure I want to or really have anything of importance to say. Why? Because...apparently...people actually want to know what is going on more often than once a week!

Bloggers are a strange breed. I never fathomed that I'd have regular visitors from Alaska, Washington, Arizona, Kentucky, Georgia, and Minnesota. I take hits from other states, but these people are the ones I seem to take hits from over and over. I think it's cool, and I've made some great friends through "blogging", but once in awhile I sit back and kind of chuckle as to why a posting such as this would actually draw a reader in (HEY..GET BACK HERE...I DIDN'T TELL YOU THAT YOU COULD LEAVE YET!).

Once I actually started blogging more often, the strangest thing happened: PEOPLE CAME BACK! Back in the day of one to four posts a month, I wasn't taking many hits at all. In August I took over 1200 unique hits to my blog due in most part to everybody's curiosity over the Gut Check. One of my friends pointed out that doesn't include RSS readers who keep up that way. It kind of boggled my poor little mind, but it was cool.

Here is my plea to y'all. Some of you lurk around and just read my blog. Now, I want you to post something. Tell me what makes you keep coming back. Tell me what you want to hear more of or less of. It doesn't mean I'll comply, I'm just curious.

Below are the stats for the last 20 months. Not too hard to figure out when I actually started to become a more faithful blogger, is it?!?!?!?!