The Maul

It's that time again. Locked up at Oak Park Mall, where you're likely to be mauled by rabid consumers, trampled by moms with strollers, or be subjected to the obdurate moping of emo kids. If you're lucky, you may only get run over by Paul Blart in one of the day-glow-yellow golf carts with doors Smart fortwo coupes.


After the usual first-friday meetings, the guy we'll call "Cog" took the Urbana for a spin. He has a farm a way outside of town, and is looking for a do-all bike for errands around the farm. One of his requirements is that it'll survive the apocalypse. He says "I want one." It was interesting to see a 60-year-old dude ram the bike straight into a curb to get back up onto the sidewalk. I love how the reflective sidewalls turned out in this otherwise horrible photograph.

Most difficult commute

-- or --
The Swobo Baxter only "kind of enjoys" this stuff.

Yesterday, I took the bus that drops me off at The Maul. Kind of a misake: Quivira was trashed. There was one and a half usable lanes, and cars were still treating it like two whole ones, even with me on the road. That meant I was getting buzzed. A LOT. And even taking what remained of the outside lane, people were still cutting too close for my comfort if it was dry out, much less with snow still adorning the roadway. I wasn't going to risk that again. The sidewalks were unusable, as well. Quivira's a no-go.

So I was betting on 87th street to at least have sidewalks that'd been smoothed over and trampled down by people. The sidewalks on 87th are generally ridable after a good snow-storm. The street itself was NOT going to be ridden on with the fresh snow we got today. Vehicular Psychlists and you Followers of Forrester: just shut up right freaking now, unless you tried riding 87th Street over I-35 today. Usually, I agree with you guys on the VC thing. Not today.

Having set my mind on 85th/87th, I decided to take the Antioch bus to get closer to home today. It was running a bit behind schedule, so I took some pics.






The reflective sidewalls still get me every time. I love that feature.


The bus ended up getting me to my usual stop at 85th about an hour behind schedule. That's okay. I have lights. 85th was fine. Snowpacked, but okay. So was Goddard. Then, I got to 87th. Packed with cars honking at one another, my decision to stay off the road itself was quickly reinforced. That's when the Baxter decided to not move. And who could blame it. The snow was knee deep in places, hip-deep in others, and right there at the BP Gas Station, it was almost enough to bury half the wheel.


So, I hiked. It was 2 miles of walking through all kinds of snow, plow boulders, and crap. All while hauling my backpack and pushing a bike through the stuff. When I got to the 87th street and I-35 overpass, I took a quick break. Just to catch my breath. Okay, maybe it was just a photo-op. But I laid there for a minute or two anyways, allowing my heart rate to settle down a bit.


When I got to the bank parking lot at 87th and Quivira, I was finally home free, on plowed residential thoroughfares and parking lots.


All told, my commute home took three hours, but a good chunk of that 3 hours was spent waiting for and riding on the bus. The last 3 miles (one on the bike, two on foot) took a little under an hour.

This was by far the most tedious commute to date, but I was mostly dressed for the occasion, and I got a good workout from the whole ordeal.

It is interesting that in 2 miles spent hiking through the snow along 87th street, there was not one single passerby who paid me any attention at all. No honks. No "are you alright?" No anything. Not that I needed or wanted any help (I could've summoned help easily had I felt life or limb to be in danger) but I really thought that mankind was just a bit more decent than that.

Consumer Zombies

Bus stop at the Maul.


While I love frobs and gizmos just as much as the next geek, the whole Black Friday Blitz thing is not my style at all. I'm going to attempt to get excited make things for Christmas. I can bake. I have hand tools. I am deft with the soldering iron. I'll figure something out.

Firestone

It looks like Demolition's about to begin at the abandoned Firestone Building by Oak Park 'Maul'.


I took the later bus this morning. I was up pretty late working on some pet projects, the results of which I'll share with you at the end of this post. This allowed me to watch the sun come up. That makes me happy.



This is The Blackintosh. It's a Mac SE/30 From 1989 or thereabouts. Yes that means it's about 20 years old. I took the photo about 10 years ago before I went to DefCon 7 in Las Vegas. I used an Apple QuickTake 100, which was cutting-edge at the time. I did 'photoshop' this (I used GIMP, actually) to remove some unsightly clutter from the left.

Why am I posting a photo of a 20 year old computer on my bike blog? Well, because I had to carry a ton of parts for it (more like 12 pounds) on my way to work today, and I'm heading to the CCCKC Cave after work to hopefully get this beast back up and running for a presentation on using old computers.

I've got a LOT of really old computers. I happen to have two fully-functioning Mac SE/30s like this. I painted this one for reasons unknown. While both of them boot, I've found that MacOS 7 isn't really conducive to getting anything done. When you throw something like Linux (in my case, NetBSD) on it, though, you end up with a cute, tiny machine that can do basic text-only things such as email, light-duty web surfing, word processing and other fun stuff.

A lot of midnight oil was burned into the wee hours of this morning in an attempt to get things working properly for the little Blackintosh. Here's hoping the presentation goes smoothly this evening...

Shakedown

Heartbreaking. This is the alley behind my office. This is someone's 'home'


I crashed the mainframe again! (okay, not really, but I abended an application)


This guy was just grossing me out. He was saggin' so bad that he was practically grinding bare ass on the bus seats. Juggalos are strange. On a side note, most people grow out of this phase by the time they're 18. This specimen (I'd guess age 23) is quite possibly the oldest Juggalo in the history of all of mankind. Yes, I am a hater. Bite me.


Ah, freedom is a bicycle.


I had yesterday off to take care of some legal issues and other errands. I didn't ride the bike all the way downtown this morning because it hadn't touched pavement since I put it together. I needed a shakedown run. That, and it was well below freezing and skinny tires don't go well with black ice. I knew how the roads were on the way to the Maul, but not all the way downtown.

Things are a little crazy between my family and geek obligations. I'm not sure when I'll start at the full commute again. I was dreaming that the 2.5 mile ride to the bus this morning would be swift and effortless, but the higher gearing and headwind gave me the reality check: I am indeed as out-of-shape as I feel. I'll get it back, though.

The Chain of Command

This morning, out of the blue, my chain started skipping. It felt like my rear derailleur was way out of adjustment, so I didn't think much of it. I was just riding to the bus stop at The Maul.

As I approached 95th street from Quivira, my left turn light lit up. Usually, I have to camp out at this intersection. This was A Good Thing, as I was running a bit behind schedule. I hammered it to make the light and the skipping got worse. Then I completely lost my power.

I figured the chain slid off the tall chainring, so I just coasted through the intersection which to my fortune was still green. I downshifted to the small ring, which usually brings the chain back into place, but it didn't. I looked down, and there was no chain (There was only Zuul)

I looked behind me and saw the bus approaching, too. Decision time:

1. Stop, walk back to where I dropped my chain, break out the chain tool and fix my bike then wait half an hour for the next bus?
2. Coast as far as I can (95th is a downhill to the Maul Parking Lot), walk the bike the last hundred yards or so, and catch the bus?

The chain has survived a winter of salt, grime, and abuse. I've kept it well lubricated, but you can only do so much. It's probably time for a replacement anyway.

As I write this, I'm on the Dreaded bus, heading home. The bus stops at a stansfer station for a good 15 minutes. This is why I can beat the bus home on my bicycle, when it's running properly.


I snapped these while walking to meet with an information security colleague of mine over lunch.

Blur

That's exactly what this week has been.

Tuesday, I went to the CCCKC Underground Lab to determine what the space needs.  Tuesday night and Wednesday, I worked in Google Sketchup to draw out a floor plan for what I see the space looking like to meet the group's needs. I like Sketchup. 

Last night, I went to the group meeting (Weekly, every Thursday) and presented my floor plan to them. If you're interested, I created a virtual walk-through with Sketchup Screen shots. This morning, Lorin said "It's basically a MAN-CAVE, right?"  Not quite.  A Hackerspace is simply a physical location where hackers, tinkerers, programmers, entrepreneurs and scientists can go to collaborate or work on their projects.  It's very similar to a bicycle co-op except with electronics, computers, robotics and security stuff.

To make things even better, the CCCKC Underground Lab is actually quite easy to access by bicycle, and it's pretty much right along my bicycle commute route. Dude, I mean it's in a freaking CAVE! How cool is that?!

Several members are also cyclists. We joked last night about installing a bike rack in the carpeted hallway outside our door, but in reality we'll probably just wheel our bikes into the meeting room when it's not being used for presentations.

Lunch yesterday. These heating instructions made me laugh.

Riding to Cosentino's (the new/only grocery store downtown) is a good 5x faster than walking there. I was out there and back in a flash. I think the Trek 820 next to my bike belongs to someone who works at Cosentino's. It's locked there every single day, but parked differently each time.

This morning: Felt like I got hit by a truck when I woke up, but enjoyed riding in short sleeves. Mid-40s this morning, and predicted by some to maybe get into the 70s this afternoon.  

Tonight: The first Friday meeting at The Maul with some of my friends.  Like I said, this week's been a blur. 

Random Tunage:

Katharine McPhee - Over It

K's Choice - Not an Addict

Darwinian Bicycle Security

When I got out of work, I was planning on heading to the L Bus, which makes a bee-line for The Maul when it leaves downtown. It wasn't there. I rushed over to the A Express bus stop. I was a few minutes late, but all the usual A-bus riders were standing around waiting. Ah, Holiday Schedule!

I bid the bus-waiting-folks farewell and took off for The Maul, despite not feeling too well -- still fighting some bronchitis. I rolled up to my usual parking spot, and found a Trek 800, completely unlocked, just sitting there. I pulled my front wheel off, used my heavy duty chain and cable lock to secure it to a natural gas pipe that goes from the sidewalk to the building (not visible in the photo really)

Basically, my bike was pretty much the most secure bike in town.


After the meeting, we all went to a local Thai spot. I rode with a friend, who brought me back after dinner. The Mall was almost an hour past closing time. Both bikes were still there. Strange.

19.2 miles for the day, and a throat that's a little more irritated than it was this morning.

Fenders? Really?

Via Yehuda Moon & The Kickstand Cyclery, my favorite webcomic next to xkcd.

It took me a while to warm up to the look of fenders on The Twelve, but functionally, they were immediately appreciated with the first ride I took after installing them (the pavement was wet, but it wasn't raining at the time).

I'm at work today, but a lot of people took the day off. Who can blame them? We were let out early on Wednesday, so it's like a four-and-a-half-day weekend for those who opted to burn a vacation day today.

I picked up some new earphones for tunage at work. The ones I was using were cheap and tinny. These are more comfy and drown out the cubicle gossip while running at a lower volume.



More fun at The Maul tonight. First Friday of the month: the usual meeting with my geek friends.

Random Tunage:
Nine Inch Nails - We're In This Together
White Zombie - More Human Than Human

White Christmas

Happy Christmas Eve Day! We did get a few inches of snow last night, and so long as it stays below freezing, we'll have a white Christmas after all. I was greeted this morning with the following:


The layer of ice on the road was covered with packed snow, so getting to the bus this morning was a breeze.


A big farm tractor with a 10-foot-wide blade on the front was clearing the parking lot at The Maul, revealing the layer of ice beneath. Fortunately, The Goat is surefooted and stable. I'm running the tires at about 30 and 35 PSI front and rear respectively. This helps them float on snow as well as allowing the full width of the tread get some purchase on ice. It sacrifices efficiency in most situations, but I've found it's actually easier to ride over deep snow with low pressure tires than otherwise. The traction benefits are a good trade-off, too.

I took this HDR while waiting for the bus.


Random Tunage:
Nine Inch Nails - Sunspots
µ-Ziq - The Fear

Having a case of the Mondays

Forgot to set my alarm. Woke up late.

Groggily checked bus schedule (I have it stored on my phone). Saw that the second bus would be at The Maul in 22 minutes. It takes me 10 minutes to ride there.

Got my clothes and lunch together, opting for only one pannier this morning. Threw everything on the bike and rushed out the door.

Arrived at The Maul, not quite in record time, before the time I thought I needed to be there.

The time I was expecting the bus to arrive comes and goes. I check the schedule again, and see that I was looking at the wrong location. So I stand in 31°F weather for 15 minutes longer than I need to, looking and feeling like an idiot. I could have made some breakfast for my wife and I in that 15 minutes!

Got to the office, only to find out that my access card was in the other pannier, at home.

Hey, at least I still made it to work at a reasonable time.

Here's something to kick off your (hopefully) short work week:

October Recap

(Photo: parking garage at the maul this morning)

First off, MY WIFE IS HOME! Wh00t! The next few days will probably give us a better idea how she's going to do in the long run. She got discharged at 2:00 today, and I had to grab my steed and go full gallop to get home as fast as I could. Side note: I'm a slow Clydesdale, so most roadies might consider my gallop to be more like a trot.

Now, for the good (more miles than I expected for october), the bad (a long ways to go), and the ugly (me).

I actually managed to slack off a lot this month with 18 of my one-way commutes being by bus. Back in January, I envisioned October to be one of those smooth-sailing months where 300 miles would be sufficient. The reality is that I logged about 500 miles, but still leave October 280 miles behind schedule.

I only got two recreation rides in (the Dark Side Ride and one Monday Night Ride), but made up for it with quite a few errands and rides to church.

Commuting: 387 Miles
Recreation: 52 Miles
Errands: 58 Miles

Mopeds, take-out and groceries

This was fun. I was riding home last night and I saw a chicken in the street. I've seen it before, but I thought I'd stop to get a photo. By the time I got stopped, the chicken had vanished somewhere.

By the time I got moving again, a guy on a moped passed me. I got back on the bike and found out the moped was barely going 20 MPH. A few other cars had passed, and I figured I'd try to catch up just to see if I could. By the time I started climbing the hill west of Roe, he was long gone.

About a mile later, just past Lamar, I encountered him again, idling on the sidewalk. It would die if he tried to throttle it, and he was trying to figure it out.


I offered to help, as I'm quite handy with almost anything mechanical. Upon inspection, I saw a lot of air in the fuel filter and bubbles coming from the fuel line into the filter. The fuel line was resting on part of the engine: A classic case of vapor lock, a condition where the fuel is heated in the fuel delivery system enough to boil, causing a bubble or bubbles that block the flow of fuel. He'll eventually have to move the fuel line, but the best thing to do is to let the whole thing cool down while tapping the line to get the bubbles out. He got back on the road in a few minutes.

It was 2600 night at The Maul again. Among other things, I demonstrated the Balancing Hack using my MacBook as collateral, ha ha. I've done this with almost every can of soda I've ever consumed. It always freaks people out.


After that, my friends and I ate some light snacks at Applebee's and I took something home for my wife (who's finally out of the hospital).


Oh, and this morning, I made a quick grocery run for the next few days' worth of food. We didn't have enough eggs for breakfast, so it was nice to have a short, chilly ride this morning. It made me feel like I earned my morning meal to a certain extent.


Bonus: Kitties watching the chipmunks gather stuff for the winter.


Of particular and interesting note: I never once left the 2-mile radius of my home for these trips. My commute might be longer than some would choose to use a bicycle for, but there are so many places that people choose to drive to around here that are quite accessible by bike. If you don't need to carry much (or anything at all), the bike makes a lot of sense.

Aww!

Progress on the new Barnes & Noble is coming along nicely. A big bookstore with a big selection is one of the few things that's missing from the 2-mile radius of my dwelling. This will be a welcome addition. Too bad it's gotta be at The Maul.


Lorin and I spotted this baby bat cowering (and quivering) between our bicycles this morning after coffee. It was just a little over an inch in length. I'd be quivering, too, if someone was holding something 20 times my size 3 inches away from my face.

I've never seen a bat up close before. Cute little creatures, but I know better than to provoke it.

I got a cute fortune with my meal last night. In keeping true to posting my various (mis?)fortunes, I give you another spoonful of "Awwww"


I saw three fixed gear riders today around the City Center Square building. Usually, I only see geary-bike commuters this far north in the morning. The Art Institute kids must have woken up early. No photos of them, I had the camera tucked away already.

With the exception of the rain yesterday, the weather's still great for riding in Kansas City. For those who care about bike racing, this weekend is the official start of KC Cyclocross season. Plenty of my pals from the Monday Night Ride are going to be racing.

Maybe one of these days I'll get a 'cross bike and join in the fun. I'm not much for bicycle or auto racing, but I like WRC and Cyclocross seems pretty close to the same thing on bikes. It looks like fun and a 'Cross bike would probably make a worthy year-round commuter even if I never raced it.

Random Tunage:
Madonna - Ray of Light
Hybrid - I'm Still Awake

A day off...

Well, pretty much everything is lined up for the convention later this week. I had everything ready to go for this morning, and had a lot of trouble sleeping last night thanks to a combination of the heat and a killer headache. I was planning on making the full ride to work today, then taking the bus home. It just wasn't in the cards. I took a sick day.

I did a lot of pedaling on Friday night, most of it after dark. I took the bus to get closer to home. With a heat index over 100 Degrees and only one water bottle with me, the whole trip home would have been miserable. I rode to The Maul to hang out with some friends before grabbing supper at the Chinese buffet. Once we were done eating, I parted ways with that group to go meet another batch of local nerds at Daily Dose. All in all, I rode more just navigating to my various social events than if I'd ridden all the way home and used my car for the night's festivities. Even after dark, the heat index stayed in the 90s until well into the night. I'd hardly call it a cool evening ride.

I've started to realize while experimenting on the roads that suburban bike commuting gives you a pretty keen sense of what residential roads go where, even if you've never used them before. In neighborhoods carved up with mile-after-mile of winding, maze-like cul-de-sacs, I can usually find a pretty direct path through without the help of a map, and usually without getting dead-ended anywhere. Friday night's after-dark jaunt through Johnson County's "Windham" subdivisions would prove to be no exception to this rule. Of course, part of my navigation skill could have come from my two years delivering pizza in Olathe, but I feel like I've learned a lot more about the lay of the land in the last 8,000 miles or so on a bike than I did covering 2,000 miles a month in the car.

I'll probably ride to work Tomorrow and Wednesday, but opt for the bus on the return trip. Wednesday night, I head to Vegas.

Exciting! Drama! On Your Left!

This was originally written on 7/31, but Blogger was on the fritz and wouldn't let me post it. Here it is, a few days late.

So, how's everyone doing? I've been keeping up on your blogs (for those who've commented here and have a blogger profile that links to such) so it sounds like everyone's doing quite well. Congrats to Jason for damn near doubling the amount of miles I got this month, all the while driving your car ZERO times in July. Crazy guy. That's an awesome achievement.

I've had a pretty exciting day.

I went ahead and took the bus to work, like I have been for a while. 5.5 miles every day. Blah. But you know what? I feasted upon beans, rice, pasta, and cheaptastic food for the last week. I spent a mere pittance on survival. And today was pay day. I got the plane ticket for the convention I am going to. My wife and I still need to survive till next payday, and the budget will be kind of tight, but we're in the clear for the most part.

This afternoon, the bug bit me. I had to ride all the way home. The temperatures were in the 80s, which seems pretty cool given some recent hot days. The wind wasn't bad. The air was calling to me to ride. I caught up with Karen by the brewery. She got back from RAGBRAI and has been riding solo the past few days while I take the bus. My cameraphone takes some pretty trippy motion pics:





I got home and the legs were still itching for some miles. I couldn't hold back. No, I had to do the Brookside Ride. I got there plenty early and tested out the PDA I'm planning on using at the convention. It works fine.


It was kind of funny, a stretch of road buried in Mission Hills was torn up for resurfacing. A lot of the riders took it pretty slow, Some of us (like me, with 32mm tires) just kept rolling right along. For me, that meant something in the neighborhood of 12-15 MPH -- I'm NOT fast. All the people who didn't bother slowing down went very wide around the slower folks, who were pretty much sticking near the right gutter. When we got to the first re-group, one lady began scolding every last one of those (me, too) who passed her without an "on your left!" Sorry, I don't think warning is needed when you're passing with a 10-foot berth and at a speed differential of 5 MPH.

I laughed. One of the roadies took it pretty personally, and it almost came to fisticuffs. Eff-Bombs a-plenty, finger pointing and beating of chests. I kept laughing. I almost apologized to the lady after getting scolded, but as I was riding over to her, all hell broke loose and I really didn't feel like getting in her crosshairs. "If you can't follow the ettiquite, don't come on this ride!"

I'll tell you what. If proper ettiquite for the ride is all about picking fights and calling people names, perhaps I *wont* go on that ride. Way to lead by example, curmudgeonly lady. My new troll, "Weston" is going to comment on this, as it's a great example of how I belittle people who are not me. Watch the comments. If you haven't seen his work, it's second to...well, okay. It's snarky, full of misinformation and easy to dismiss, but still good for a chuckle.

I somehow got tangled up between two group rides. On Thursday, the Brookside ride and the Blue Moose ride both cruise a lot of the same roads. The Blue Moose crowd is usually made of riders much faster than I -- or most of the Brooksiders for that matter. I ended up following some Blue Moose stragglers (the slow ones that I could keep up with) back to their start point. That's fine with me, because Prairie Village is closer to home than Brookside. I chatted with JCBC's president (who leads that ride) for a while, then went along my merry way.

Somewhere just past 85th street on Santa Fe Drive, a 1990's Blue Ford Explorer decided to ride my ass while laying on the horn. I chortled merrily without looking back, and pointed to the desolate left lane, where no one was driving. The klaxon remained engaged. After about a whole minute of constant horn, the motorist pulled alongside me, driving between the lanes. Horn is still wailing. I finally paid him a courtesy glance to see what in the world could be so important as to warrant nearly two minutes of honking. The man, was pointing to something. me? No. Well, kind of. I kept my line and began formulating this very part of my blog post in my mind, JUST for Weston.

Oh yes, much loathing of another person who is conveniently NOT me was happening again. It's an epidemic, I swear. Then, I started to get crowded between the SUV and the curb. This had gone from an entertaining but annoying motorist to a dangerous and malevolent one. Once stopped, I was called all sorts of names and understood the word "sidewalk" through a very thick accent that I can't place. "Do you have a driver's licence? Did you read the state handbook? I am supposed to use the road." I said calmly, pretty much at the same time as he continues to scream obscenities at me, now honking intermittently. The light turned green. I laughed. He kept ranting.

Eventually, a few people behind us honked, and he took off, cutting over as if to get in my way. I wasn't going anywhere until he'd gotten past me. Big surprise: he went straight for the liquor store, and I was already on the phone with 911. One Overland Park Police station basically shares a parking lot with that strip mall. I was informed to come to the station since talking to an officer directly would be easier. Before I rode there, I got a good snapshot of his vehicle. I wish I would have thought to stop and show that it was parked at the liquor store.



Anyhow, one police report filed. He'll get a visit from someone tomorrow. If he's stupid enough to admit he harassed me, he'll get cited for road rage. Either way, he'll be briefed first-hand on Kansas laws by an officer, and that's all I really want. It WOULD be epic if this guy said "Yes, that moron was on the road, I kept honking..." to the officer. I'll keep an eye on the case number. :)

No harm done at all, and I was ready to hop up on the curb if I had to. I just don't feel like being victimized anymore. One broken face is enough. Rather than flex my vocal cords or retaliate, I'll just keep letting the boys in blue do their jobs.

I wrapped up today with a little more than 50 miles. And I feel a lot better. I'll probably ride to and from work tomorrow, since it's the first friday of the month. That means it's 2600 time at "The Maul" - We gotta get our geek on!

Candid Photography - Lots of bike commuters!

Today's photos are pretty raw and craptastic. Took quite a few from the hip or with a lot of zoom (and thus increased f/ and slower shutter speeds).
I was up really, really late last night. Crazy late. I probably would have had the legs for the full bike commute today but I was tired and feeling quite lazy. I slept in a bit and rode to the bus in my work clothes with the exception of my clipless shoes since my dress shoes are at the office. Just call me Fred.


This dumpster-destined Roadmaster bike was joined by a NEXT Power Climber last night, of nearly identical design to my first bike as a bike commuter. The Power Climber is gone this morning. This Roadmaster had absolutely nothing of use on it. I would have parted it out, otherwise. I just left it for someone else to mess with. It's repairable but it'd cost more than buying a brand new one unless somebody had brakes, cables, shifters, a new FD and a chain laying around.


The crazy bus ride. Here's a ridiculous story. This bus is pretty much packed to capacity although it's not standing room only. TheJO is actually sending around a second bus to follow this one for its entire route. If this one gets to standing room only, the standers can board the second bus.


Pardon my rant, but WHAT IN THE HELL?! First and foremost, almost half of the riders of this bus board at its last stop in Johnson County: Oak Pork Maul. This bus is never, EVER full before it gets to The Maul. Ever. Further, what is the matter with having to stand up for twenty minutes? 30% of the riders get off the bus at its first downtown stop, leaving ample seating room 20-25 minutes after boarding at The Maul. I have three suggestions:

1. Just send one bus. If people have to stand, call the waaaaambulance while playing Wintermärchen (a.k.a. Hearts And Flowers) on the world's smallest violin.
2. Send one bus straight downtown from the stop before Oak Pork Maul. Send a separate one specifically for the riders at Oak Pork Maul. At least you're not wasting twice the fuel following one bus with the other for the entire route.
3. Send the second bus straight to Oak Pork Maul and have it on standby if needed, while running the earlier part of the route with just one bus.

Come on, people. How hard is this?I took candid shots of only perhaps a third of the bizarre urban bike commuting creatures I saw while imbibing my caffeinated yumminess. This one was walking his bike while talking to a woman when he stopped to roll a cigarette.


A few seconds later, he was lit up and walking some more. Positively fascinating.


This one, in full office attire, was also walking his bike.


There is a fourth bike commuter in my building now. I saw him unloading an old Trek road bike from the back of a minivan, then locking up to the fence I used to lock to when I first started riding. He must not know there's a bike rack over where the motorcycles park. I've heard about this bike before from other cow-orkers but this morning is the first time I've seen it. I'm guessing he gets a ride with someone who works downtown but has a different homeward schedule, then rides home -- wherever that might be. I didn't get a chance to talk to him.

Tons of bikes on the buses, and a great many cyclists out riding on Main Street this morning sporting trunk bags, panniers, messenger bags, backpacks, and almost every kind of non-bike-specific clothing imaginable. People are either getting very smart or very, very desperate. I'll let you decide, but I think I know which one is prevailing.
Random Tunage:
Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles
Robert Miles - Children