Another ride to work

and home again too :-)

No National Ride to Work Breakfast today but I rode anyway. Good to leave the Suburb home though.

Today I went the "medium" route both ways. It frustrates me that I have to literally stop and wait until I get a break in traffic to make a dash past one house to get from the exit of a subdivision to the beginning of a bike path (where it meets the Monon Trail). No sidewalk, nothing, past that one house. Luckily, there is a stop light a quarter mile away and when it changes you get a break in the traffic. And you dash. Other than that there are a couple of other places where there are 100 yards where a bike path would be nice but the traffic isn't nearly so bad. Patience works. I'm generally not in THAT big of a hurry. I can wait thirty seconds or so for that break in traffic.

On the way home I had a pretty stiff headwind. On the way to work I was just pokey. It took me about 37 minutes each way (its about 8.5 miles - or 13.1 mph).

National Bike to Work Day

Well, it was a tad bit chilly this morning (with a breeze out of the northwest that is almost always a bad sign) but this being National Bike to Work day I had to ride today. I even stopped for my free bagel at Carmel's Central Park and got to talk to our esteemed mayor (cough, cough). Anyway, his office is making a big push to introduce new bike routes in Carmel. The only problem is that they have money to put up signs but nothing else. So the streets are still too narrow but Real Soon Now they will have a pretty sign designating them as an official bike way. I am not sure what that accomplishes but maybe a little public education will be a good thing. Anyway, it is six and a half miles to work the way I came this morning (I might take the long way home tonight - less traffic). A pretty easy ride. And it leaves the Suburban parked at home where it isn't burning four dollar a gallon gas.

Limbo

Hmmmm....an update.....but what about? There is exactly NO news from work, it has been raining every time I turn around to think about either biking or ballooning. I did stop at the shop this morning and spend a hundred bucks getting the serpentine belt replaced on the Suburban.

I guess the only "news" that I have is that I went with my dad (and Loretta) down to talk to Dr. Fehrenbacher about his surgery. I told the doctor that I remembered him as a much younger man. He did my mom's first bypass surgery 24 years ago. He laughed and said we were all a lot younger then.

Just stuck in limbo waiting for something to happen at work.

LOTS of turmoil

And it is amazing how much the "view" of the future hasn't really been cleared up all that much. My impression is that most people are pretty darn sceptical that any of our jobs have much future but on the other hand we haven't been laid off so here we sit. Hopefully meetings with my project leader this week will help clear up some of the murkiness but I am not all that hopeful. As somebody said earlier today 'we're all just hanging on by our fingernails'.

And to top it off we got a call late Saturday from my dad and he ended up in the hospital. Yesterday afternoon he had a heart catherization. Of course, the doctor pronounced his heart (with the exception of his aortic valve) is "disgustingly healthy". Bottom line, they scheduled him an appointment with a cardiovascular surgeon on May 14th. In all likelihood he will have surgery sometime soon thereafter to get that valve replaced. But other than the valve he is in very good health and therefore he has many less risk factors than most patients his age.

I am sure glad I don't have any stress in my life :-)