As craptastic as the ride into work was this morning, there was a glimmer of hope in the sun that was trying to crack through the clouds out over the lake. You could see it if you squinted away from the rain that showed up unannounced and really looked for it.

I'd have shot a pic, but a phone upgrade suddenly made me apprehensive about shoving a new phone into the black hole that is my bag before a ride. Hopefully I can get a case that gives me enough confidence to at least have a phone on me, but that might be it for the one-handed travel shots for now. That phone is fucking complicated.

Bears-Packers in less than 10 hours. No sweat, I can make it.

Current beer-scale: 7.8 and still floating after too many bbq beers Saturday. Had to ignore the beatdown Stanford layed on ND somehow.

I spent my entire ride in this morning drafting. A douche move, to be sure, but I wanted to cheat the headwind a little bit and there was actually someone out going faster than me so I latched on. I have no idea where everyone went for a few days this week, but they were back this morning.

Today puts me over 500 miles in just 9 weeks of having a job to ride to. Ten miles a day plus the occasional extra long ride really adds up quickly. Which is good, b/c I'm starting to feel kind of soft again.

Current beer-scale: 5.7 and climbing while dreading the ND/Stanford game

are you fucking kidding me?

Winning overtime on a fake field-goal touchdown? That's ballsy. Having a heartattack after the game? That kind of sucks, even though the thought of it makes me smile. A little.

Yeah, I'm a bad person. I'm okay with that. My dog likes me.

Current beer-scale: 6.66

I thought I had more time...

I was wrong.

The waves were back yesterday, pushing water onto the path and into my chain & gears. Fall is definitely here.
One sure fire sign that summer is over: the lifeguard chairs do down for the season. Heartbreaking.


But change isn't all bad--that just means my thirst is quenched with seasonal-appropriate brew. My current drink of choice for drowning fall-related sorrows?


Current beer-scale: 6.8

Last night was the first of back to back late nights at work, and I really do love night rides sometimes.My allergies are driving me to the point of insanity, but last night was just about perfect out. I pulled off my arm sleeves when I got stopped at Michigan ave and it felt great to go whipping through the darkness. The only drawback? All the bugs I inhaled riding with my mouth open. Not so pleasant this morning in the spitting rain but it's that time of year.

Tonite is bike-free, since the event I'm working is up in RoPo and driving gives me an excuse to take an hour to go home and hang out for a while before changing and heading back to work. At least driving will give me a chance to buy a good bit of beer on the way home.

Current beer-scale: 5.8

Maybe I should learn not to take some idiot's every single action as a personal affront. Or maybe I was just tired this morning and spoiling for a fight. Or maybe I was on edge after having to ride around every mouth-breathing cunt driving through the neighborhood on the way in. Or maybe I should just accept the fact that no matter how someone is getting to work, everyone is out for themselves and no one gives a shit about anyone else who happens to be sharing their space in the universe.

So yeah, I'm aggravated this morning. Couldn't sleep b/c allergies were hitting me in the sinuses all night. Had to go around some douche-baggery multiples times headed down Fullerton, especially at Lincoln and again at Clark with people not realizing they probably shouldn't be going through the intersection when they have a red light. Got cut off by someone too impatient to walk their bike under lakeshore drive, only to have to wait for them to carry their bike up the steps, and then have them cut me off again after I started west on Chicago on the street and they started on the sidewalk and cut down a driveway ramp. That last one nearly had me swinging at the guy as I passed him. For the third time.

Traffic's been really bad so far this week and I don't know why. But when it gets like this, it gets out of control b/c every asshole waiting in traffic decides they're not waiting for another light and goes through, causing any on-coming traffic to get pissed, which only fucks things up more. And not just car traffic either, as evidenced by the previously mentioned doofus. It all boils down to manners. No one has them, and everyone's in such a fucking hurry. So I go home and drink beer, so I can get up the next day and do it all again. Yippee.

Current beer-scale: 9.3

WORD.

Current beer-scale: 7.3

But will they cover the spread?

Ah, what a day what a day! NFL starts tonite, and there's Hi Life at home to have with beef nachos for dinner! That's setting up for some fun.

"Hello friends..."

Fall is unarguably here, now that I've pulled on the arm sleeves and and doubling up on allergy meds on a daily basis. ND-Michigan this weekend, with good tickets and a long day in car set up for Saturday. Not crazy about the possibility of spending 5+ hours in traffic, but I'm in too good a mood to worry about that now. What it boils down to--will the Saints cover the 6.5 tonite?

It's not bad riding weather.

The sun is out, the sky is blue, and I've got beer, nachos, and football to look forward to. I'm so happy, I could be Homer Simpson.

Current beer-scale: 6.5 & climbing!

Grind it out

It's easy to enjoy a ride in the rain when you're the only person out there, or at least the only person on a bike. It might be a little more tempting to slap some car windows when people can't seem to stay out of the bike lane though.

When I got into work this morning and was drying off, I was struck by a strong memory from college. For a couple of semesters, we had "dress up humpday" every Wednesday. It's pretty self-explanatory, but the idea was to dress up on Wednesday since it was the nipple of the week. There was a weekly newsletter and everything.

Tying my tie this morning, it struck me how much fun that was and made me wonder why it kind of fell off eventually. Everything does I guess, but I wish I could muster the same enthusiasm for my daily office attire that I had for weekly formal attire at college. It's all I can do to stop myself from breaking out the Blues Brothers "mission from god" tie.
Current beer-scale: 4.9 & climbing towards tomorrow night's college football games!