Because Bike Commuting in a Sauna Is Not Enough Fun

Well, today was a big milestone for your humble bike commuter. Today was my 100th bike commute of 2012. Now if you think about it, people who commute by car or subway don't bother to count the number of times they commute by each method. Basically, they are content to wallow in their daily misery. I, being a numbers wonk, prefer to quantify my daily habit.

Today's bike commute was extraordinary because not once but twice I was actually warned loudly when I was passed by high speed bike commuters.  Normally, they just buzz me within inches of my left shoulder but apparently in celebration of my bike commuting century (It just dawned on me that I hit my bike commuting metric century some time in June and didn't brag about it. Dang.) these two commuters actually gave me plenty of time to move to the right. 

Another odd ball aspect of my commute today was seeing a horse on the Mount Vernon Trail.  This normally only happens when a riot is about to break out or the former mayor and convicted racketeer of Providence Buddy Cianci is in town.  I was expecting to dodge some piles of processed hay but apparently this particular horse was not yet feeling his oats, as they say in equestrian circles.

My morning commute started out with a nice tail wind that inexplicably became a headwind within two miles of my office. I wanted to complain but there is really nobody to complain to. Curse you, weather gods! Just for good measure, the gods reversed the winds so that I had a nice stiff headwind all the way home.

I stopped on the way home to buy a bag of bird seed. I buy the kind that is coated in cayenne pepper. It's very expensive. For many years it seemed like a good deal because gold finches love it and the 50 squirrels living in the massive maple tree next store wouldn't touch the stuff.  Apparently we have some new TexMex squirrels next door (probably blown in on the derecho) because these little hombres love my bird seed. 

Last weekend I drove my lawn mower to college. After another couple of years of edjumacation, I expect he'll be the world's most learned Lawn Boy operator.  Of course, his departure means that I get to mow the lawn. This is complicated by the fact that I arrived home tonight totally soaked in sweat because the relative humidity was, as they say in Le Tour de France, hors categorie. I pulled out my Sears lawn mower which is literally held together with zip ties, and proceeded to bring in the crop.

I won't need to water my lawn this week. I sweat gallons while I was mowing.

The weather gods owe me a tailwind in the morning. If I don't get one, I'm putting EPO on my Cheerios.